My expectations with GQuuuuuuX based on what I heard were that it didn’t do its own thing and leaned entirely on 0079 fanservice because that was the main complaint I heard everyone saying. Since the main premise was an alternate timeline, I figured people were taking that into account. After watching it, I see what people mean, but I don’t think it’s as bad as people have made it sound.

For the most part, GQuuuuuuX felt original. I was expecting it to be “same event from 0079, but Zeon wins” on repeat (which would’ve been fine by me by the way). But it only really felt like that for the beginning — the plot is entirely different because it doesn’t focus on the war. At least the first half of GQuuuuuuX is a magnified view of the main characters going about their lives…which is an understatement because it’s them learning to pilot mechs and making mech-based fight money. I enjoyed this part! It’s different from what I’m used to in Gundam (AKA war).

I’m assuming people started taking umbrage when the writers used a very heavy hand to inject 0079 in the plot. I won’t go into how because of spoilers. But I will say that this is where GQuuuuuuX started getting messy. I think what they were doing was interesting and I was invested, but at the same time what it does DID feel somewhat trite at this point in 2025.

But my main complaint is that the plot suddenly accelerates — and it was too fast for me. New characters, plot progressions, and concepts were introduced at a breakneck pace. While I was still trying to internalize and wrap my head around one thing, I had to stop doing that to pay attention to another thing being explained at that same moment.

It was like GQuuuuuuX was torn between wanting to make a story about the lives of the main characters and make something crazily mind-bending. So it decided to do both, but also only had 12 episodes to do it and accidentally spent too much of its time budget on the former. I don’t think it’s as big of a mess as I’m making it out to be, but it doesn’t do GQuuuuuuX any favors. The worst part about the 12-episode crunch is that there are characters that had whole stories that were rushed out the door as quickly as they came in.

Regardless, I still liked the main characters (old and new) a lot and the situations they were put in. The actual GQuuuuuuX mech takes the very cool and very interesting angle of acting on its own by psychically linking to the pilot and reading what they want. It’s a very good bridge between the Gundam itself being awesome and its Newtype pilot doing interesting psychic stuff. Machu and Nyaan being immature (especially with their petty crushes on Shuji) helped sell that these are children piloting these death machines…which sounds weird to be psyched about when I say it out loud, but this IS Gundam. This also extends to there being more of a focus on adults trying to manipulate them.

I have to say that this anime’s obsessions with telling things out of order is annoying. I’m never a fan of it as a device to hide things from the viewer, but it felt like GQuuuuuuX wasn’t even doing it in service of that. It’s bizarre how pointless it all felt, especially because the “movie” of “the first three episodes” actually tells the story in chronological order.

GQuuuuuuX’s notable faults mostly lie with being somewhat clumsy with telling the story it wants to tell. But that story is a fun and weird one! It’s not just a retread of 0079/Zeta like people made it sound.