© Sotsu, Fracture of day
Cell Swimsuit Gundam GQuuuuuuX involves us with an unparalleled pedigree. The director, FLCL‘s Kazuya Tsurumaki, is the protégé of Neon Genesis Evangelion director Hideaki Anno. The mecha dressmaker is Ikuto Yamashita, who designed the iconic Eva objects. In assorted phrases, this collaboration pairs up one of the ideal names in mecha anime of all time. It change into my most anticipated spring anime, in particular after I watched its titular movie. However even previous to I left the theater, I had some concerns for this display’s reception amongst more moderen fans.
After I watched the movie this March, there were most involving three nerds within the theater: me, my husband, and a lady around our age who told us she’d been a Gundam fan for years. When the film began and transported us comely support to 0079, I realized that present fans were precisely who this film change into for. Its alternate actuality premise, which gives a prolonged “what if” scenario of the 1979 considerable antagonists winning the warfare instead, is greater surprising while you earn got approved the opposite as canon for decades. The considerable third of the film mirrors the display’s 2d episode: slack, gratuitous, and mired in Gundam deep cuts. The previous Fracture of day flagship, Cell Swimsuit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, change into a colossal hit on myth of it change into an ultimate springboard for heed spanking unusual fans, whereby prior Gundam knowledge change into rewarded with Easter eggs however no longer required. So what is going on on with the about-face here? Why invent a factual third of this movie fan provider for present fans?
I obtained my answer within the credit score of episode 2, which lists Anno as the creator credited with the script as neatly as the principle name credited for the storyboards. As ANN beforehand reported, Anno most involving has a supporting characteristic within the making of Cell Swimsuit Gundam GQuuuuuuX. His real contribution is episode 2, an imaginative backstory that posits what might maybe maybe perhaps also earn occurred if approved Gundam antagonist Char obtained his fingers on the protagonist’s mobile swimsuit. Amuro, the protagonist of 1979’s Cell Swimsuit Gundam, is nowhere to be stumbled on. So Char jumps into the unoccupied titular Gundam and straight begins figuring it out. Armed with this sort of worthy weapon, or no longer it’s no shock that he is in a express to flip the tide of the One Year Warfare (the central warfare of the principle Gundam display). There’s no motive to leer Char end aim apply with his unusual toy, to the level that the ideal portion of the flashback, the “Zeknova incident,” is told in preference to shown. However if here is Anno’s considerable contribution, by shock all of it makes sense. In the event you might maybe maybe perhaps maybe even be as notorious and esteemed, your fanfiction can trail primetime. Anno has been brooding about this “Crimson Gundam” idea for ages. For more background on his involvement in Gundam, Zimmerit has some unparalleled reporting on the topic.
Cell Swimsuit Gundam GQuuuuuuX made a wise decision to shift this backstory to episode 2. Machu’s myth, which requires zero barrier to entry, is more compelling to more folks. From the song to the pacing to the cozy, glossy surfaces of all the pieces from mecha to characters’ hair, it didn’t take noteworthy to suck me true into a brand unusual protagonist’s myth—despite the proven truth that it leaves a ton unanswered. When Machu leaps comely into one mobile swimsuit after one other, does she earn a death wish? It must be A-OK on myth of she’s clearly the Chosen One, however I ponder if she had any ride with mecha previous to she tried piloting one. No topic sharing her acquainted purple hair, Machu is no longer Suletta. She might maybe maybe perhaps also furthermore be impulsive, mouthy, and sarcastic. She makes a grand foil to anxious courier Nyaan, and I’m ready for seeing their chemistry maintain in future episodes. The mecha designs, with all their insectoid appeal (natural kinds! Segmented our bodies! Compound eyes!), are unlike one thing else I’ve considered in a Gundam display to the level the place I’m very unfamiliar to search out out how Bandai is planning to flip them into model kits.
Aloof, I will be succesful of not take into accout how unfamiliar it might maybe maybe perhaps feel to transfer from that slick, futuristic premiere episode into episode 2 with out having considered the movie first. “The Crimson Gundam” is a exact bask in letter to the Cell Swimsuit Gundam. The art vogue, soundtrack, and even the interstitial are true now copped from 1979. The unusual names flying around (Kycilia, Garma, Gihren, M’quve) are all characters from the principle Gundam display. Curiously, Challia Bull most involving presentations up in a single episode of the principle display, getting a long way less video display time than any of those assorted names—most involving to become a number one man in Cell Swimsuit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, and curiously he went on a smash diet as neatly. Striking aside the choice to shelve Machu’s myth for per week and invent this prolonged prologue the total 2d episode, I’m also questioning the earn to flip the movie into the principle a number of (three, I’m guessing) episodes of the display. With Mercury, which I will be succesful of not aid evaluating this to since or no longer it’s the most in vogue previous Gundam display, the movie served as a prologue. However with GQuuuuuuX, the movie is portion of the display, and that’s the place it suffers. Episode 2 gets deep into the weeds, and then explains away the ideal portion—Char’s “Zeknova” incident that causes his disappearance. In the movie, this change into a monumental emotional 2d that served to gas Challia’s motivation within the expose; here, the narrator merely tells us what occurred.
Credit score the place or no longer it’s due: this anime has lots of vogue, and I develop no longer earn any doubt or no longer it might maybe maybe perhaps invent me fall in bask in with sardonic, spunky Machu. However I distinct hope that the gratuitous 2d episode doesn’t relief present fans at the expense of alienating more moderen fans. Don’t alarm, newbies, if here is one thing else admire the movie, Machu and Nyaan are coming comely support next week.
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Cell Swimsuit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is within the intervening time streaming on Amazon High Video on Tuesdays.
Lauren writes about model kits at Gunpla 101. She spends her days instructing her two dinky Newtypes to bring peace to the pickle colonies.
