The latest entry in the Gundam franchise, GQuuuuuuX, is built around one of the most fascinating premises a mainline Gundam show has had in years. To get there, we’re asked to cast our minds back over 45 years to the original 1979 anime—and in doing so, we’re also asked to consider a pretty hilarious idea.
The vast majority of Gundam GQuuuuuuX—as covered in its prequel/compilation movie GQuuuuuuX Beginning, out in American theaters today for a limited run—is predicated around the fact that the show is in fact set in an alternate version of Gundam‘s “Universal Century” timeline. The primary timeline of the original Gundam and its direct successor series, among others in the franchise, GQuuuuuuX‘s version of events asks us to consider another outcome. What if the antagonistic forces of the original series, the secessionist space colony Zeon, actually managed to win the war against Earth?
GQuuuuuuX‘s inflection point to show this new timeline takes audiences right back to the very first episode of the 1979 anime. Beginning opens with an almost shot for shot, beat for beat recreation of the original opening moments of Gundam itself: after a brief explanation of the outbreak of the “One Year War” between Zeon and the Earth Federation, we follow three Zeon mobile suits as they infiltrate the Side 7 colony, looking to gain intel that the Federation has been developing a new prototype mobile suit there.
But things immediately differ there: we’re told that one of the pilots who was meant to go on the mission is having their Zaku repaired after sustaining damage in a prior mission, leaving Zeon ace pilot Char Aznable to take his place. It’s this that changes everything for GQuuuuuuX‘s timeline: Char identifies the prototype mobile suit, the Gundam, makes a bold move to exit his own Zaku and steal it during the chaos of Zeon’s arrival in Side 7, and the rest from there, as they say, is alternate history.
It’s fascinating to watch unfold in Beginning if you’re a Gundam fan, seeing how the opening half that retells the original Gundam differs from this change, and what things echo throughout both. But if you are a diehard fan of the 1979 classic already, then you probably know who was meant to go on this mission instead of Char, and why it fails in the original series as young Amuro Ray finds himself as the one who gets in the Gundam’s cockpit to fight off the Zeon attackers. A man who is only ever known as Gene.
In the very first episode of the original Gundam, Gene is kind of a massive asshole. Despite being on a stealth recon mission, he’s loud and brash, high on not only his own supply, but that of his senior officer, Char Aznable, at this point in the conflict a decorated war hero. Bored with simply sitting in his ginormous weapon of war in a colony that, for the most part, just happens to be an ordinary residential facility, Gene immediately grows impatient, moves out of position, and defies orders and a threat of court martial, and starts indiscriminately firing at the Federation facilities and residential areas alike.
It is this single action, GQuuuuuuX argues, that makes all of Gundam as we know it happen. Without Gene blowing the recon mission—without him yearning to chase the glory Char has had—Amuro never gets in the Gundam, never kills Gene and the other Zeon soldiers attacking the colony, never escapes on the White Base and kicking off a new turnaround in the war for the Earth Federation. Mobile Suit Gundam happens because one egotistical jerk pulls a trigger, envious of the glory achieved by those above him. Of Char, specifically.
And that is what makes this both absolutely hilarious, but also completely fascinating at the same time. Because in the original show Char isn’t really the dashing war hero that Gene desperately wished to emulate. He’s a top pilot, yes, but he’s far from the image of a warrior boldly dashing into fights head on: he schemes, he plots, he revels in deception and subterfuge. The war hero is a mask that Char wears as readily as his legendary helmet, always thinking two steps ahead as he plots his own agenda against Zeon’s ruling Zabi family. Char doesn’t care about the war effort: he cares about betraying and destroying the Zabis, and he’ll use the opportunity of becoming their military poster child to do exactly that.
It’s still the same in GQuuuuuuX‘s vision for the character, too. Even with getting access to the Gundam, Char is still playing the war for his own game, plotting his vendetta against the Zabis all the time he is using the Gundam to win the war for them. Hell, even the way he decides to take the Gundam isn’t in the heroically combative manner Gene might have assumed of him: he spots a chance while the Gundam’s inoperative, stages a distraction, and sneakily leaps out of his own suit to run over and take it off the back of a transport vehicle. That is who Char is, regardless of whether or not it’s the man we first met in the 1979 anime, or the version of him we now get to see in GQuuuuuuX‘s alternate timeline. What Gene believes in, in presumably both timelines, is predicated on a lie.
All of this is made upon Char’s layers of intrigue and deception being believed by those around him–whether it’s him successfully managing to eradicate most of the Zabis at the cost of losing the war in the original show, or this new vision of reality we now have in GQuuuuuuX. It’s what makes Beginning such a delectable treat to watch unfold as a long-time fan of the series. It’s made with a clear love and respect for what the original show did as pioneer for the mecha genre in anime, and a keen understanding of what made it so compelling four-and-a-half decades ago in the first place. A respect that’s both enough for it to make such an absurdly fannish gesture in the first place, but also still have it be more than just simple emulation and homage to what came before it.
If that’s something that GQuuuuuuX can keep at its core as the story progresses into the TV anime at large, Gundam fans will be in for one hell of a treat.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
