Episode 131 High Res (Patreon)

Last night I saw Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: Beginning in theaters in IMAX and shucks howdy it was awesome! I love seeing Char on the big screen!

Also I'm gonna call it GQuacks from here on because that's roughly how you pronounce.

So for those unaware, GQuacks is the new Gundam series that's produced and partially written by Hideaki Anno of Evangelion fame. But in the director's chair is Kazuya Tsurumaki, the director of FLCL. If you liked the original FLCL anime you'll like the look of GQuacks. It's also an alternate history show where instead of Amuro Ray finding the Gundam Char does and steals it for Zeon. This winds up changing how the war plays out and ultimately Zeon maanges to defeat the Earth Federation.

What's REALLY cool about Beginning though was the first chunk of the movie retells the One Year War in with the visuals going with Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's original designs, which is really nice looking in modern animation. But once the One Year War ends and it jumps five years into the future the style changes to that of Take's (zaregoto/katanagatari covers, conceptual character designer Pokemon TV circa Sun and Moon through Horizons), which works incredibly well with Tsurumaki's directorial style. It is absolutely stunning to look at and worth going to theaters to see it while you can.

The mobile suit designs they lean way heavier into the Evangelion style of giant robots, which is cool but honestly I prefer older, bulkier mobile suit designs. But that's just me.

As for the story it's still early on, being just a compilation of what's going to be the first few episodes of the GQuacks, but what was shown has gotten me interested in checking out the series in full once that starts to release in April. I like the idea of underground "clan battles" with clans fighting against one another with civilian (or stolen) mobile suits in quick five minute duels before the mobile suit cops show up to break it up and try to arrest the fighters.

Anyway, go check it out in theaters if you're reading this and it's still in theaters! I know my local theater is showing it tomorrow night, so maybe it's still showing near you!