A potentially interesting series bogged down by poor pacing and an unhealthy obsession with what the series used to be long after it and its creator have evolved past that point. Beyond its impressive visuals it’s a completely hollow story because it fundamentally does not understand what Yoshiyuki Tomino was saying through Gundam 1979 and becomes distracted by its iconography mistaking it for the originals meaning. The original Gundam was ultimately a story about the passing of the torch to the next generation, the failings of the past generation having to be resolved by those that were not responsible for it, it was a story about people learning to let go of their grievances and move on.

This was reinforced in Tomino’s sequels such as Zeta Gundam where the federation falls to the same trappings as Zeon, turning into a ruthless dictatorship that ultimately is brought down by those it wronged at great cost to those who would come after, then Double Zeta Gundam where Neo Zeon repeats the mistakes of the past and ultimately crumbles from within, to Char’s Counterattack where both Amuro and Char are forced to confront their pain and finally let go of the pain they caused each other through Lalah’s death at the cost of their life, this cycle is repeated in these works until Turn A Gundam where humanity can finally move on from its past of war and death to start anew.

However, even though the series both was able to evolve stylistically and in its message, it was also held back by its own success, the series being entrapped by its own identity as it constantly chased after the same success the earlier entires once had in a time when interest began to wane during the height of the Gundam AU’s that sought to recreate the spark of the original to various levels of success by people who grew up with the series Tomino created, including Tsurumaki and Hideaki Anno. But like many others they became entrapped by what Gundam used to be as they remembered it, not what it became or why it was the way it was written.

This is showcased in how Gquuuuux treats the death of Lalah in the original, the original intention was not to be some universe altering unavoidable event that was fated to happen, it was an avoidable tragedy caused by Amuro and Char being unable to set aside their grievances, it was proof that humanity was not going to be saved by some godly figure in the new types, that they were still ultimately as flawed and capable of evil as the oldtypes and is why they faded from history, the new types never truly existed, they were simply people.

However, Tsurumaki posits that this was always fated to happen, that Lalah is some divine sacrificial figure that must always be fated to die no matter how many universes she escapes to, that Char’s death is an inevitability simply for the fact he is the Red Comet, rival to Amuro Ray, the white devil and protagonist of mobile suit gundam 1979. It ultimately misses the point that these things occurred because humans are inherently flawed and will hurt each other and those they care about, intentionally or not. It believes Char loses not due to his character flaws but simply because he is the iconic villain of the series who loses to the hero.

This shallow approach extends to every other aspect, the new characters introduced are pushed to the wayside in favor of basking in the past. Little care is put into the relationship between Machu, Nyaan, and Shuji. You have no sense of what Shuji thinks of either of them beyond saying he likes both of them, you have no sense of what Nyaan’s violence while piloting the Gundam represents because the show has no time to explore her beliefs or backstory, Machu is willing to abandon everything she knows and run away to earth for something as vague as Shuji being her mav an idea which ultimately ends up dropped by the time she leaves the colony.

You feel almost no sense of connection between them and the love triangle feels incredibly rushed and forced because the show is so busy reminding you of past events that they have no time to build anything new. There is no understanding to what the cyber new types represent besides being evil newtypes who show up to pilot the psycho gundam, the same events with Kycilia overthrowing her brother are repeated without asking why this is inevitable in a world where Zeon wins the One Year War. The Black Tri Stars show up simply to be killed, wasting an entire episode that could be used to develop these new characters for no purpose beyond nostalgia for these minor villains from the original series. It’s both sad and ironic that the best episode of the series involving Shiiko is the only one to not revolve around past events from Gundam 0079 and is about a completely new character who finds themselves in a world that did not turn out the way it should have. It’s incredibly embarrassing that the show ends with Sayla taking control of Zeon despite only appearing once in the one year war flashback and did not even have a single line of dialogue.

Very little care is put into the Clan Battle concept, it inevitably feels like a waste of half of the season when ultimately it’s only used as an excuse to fit in more mecha battles in a world where the war is over. It was an incredibly interesting concept for a series again squandered because of the obsession with the events of Gundam 1979, a story about a street level mecha gang fighting against an oppressive system and getting wrapped into a conspiracy by the end of it that they are forced to prevent is an incredibly interesting idea that is botched and feels completely forgotten about as soon as the second half of the show starts.

I repeat all of these problems because there is likely two good shows buried deep in Gundam Gquuuuux and are ultimately wasted. A story about an alternate universe Char unraveling this conspiracy involving Lalah and the victory of Zeon and exploring why the original series needed to happen the way that it did and why this universe is wrong through its themes and a street level mech gang show involving Machu fighting against rival gangs and an oppressive regime in a run down colony.

But ultimately neither end up realizing their potential because there was no interest in exploring these ideas, this show was simply an excuse for another director to play with the creations of another without understanding them, the dedication to the designs, the sound effects, the music does not matter if you didn’t understand the meaning behind them.