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[Spoilers] Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX - Episode 4 Discussion
So from the last 2 eps it seems that GQuuuuuuX is going for the overarching story rather than making deep personal connections. Either that or it's front heavy on setting the scene over showing how everyone interacts and connects. We literally know nothing about the Pomeranians, Shuji, or even Nyaan despite how heavily she's advertised in the ending and she just kinda hangs with Machu and Shuji randomly. Though seems like next ep we'll get some development on the Nyaan front, everything so far ties back to Char and what happened in the war.
I did like this ep overall it showed that sometimes the scars you have never fade and the things that it can make you do. Machu did admire Shiiko since compared to her own mother she seemed much more understanding and free. Though that came back around to bite her at the end of the match, and once again served to open Machu's eyes and again realize she knows nothing about Shuji.
One thing on a more personal level that annoys me which is purely just me is that they've won 4 battles at the time of this ep and surely Machu must be getting a share of the prize money so why hasn't she fixed her phone screen?! It bothers me greatly.
I am so confused. What they were even going for. I feel like the pacing is extremely fast and even the attempts at getting some message across or character moments fall flat because, like, we just barely met them?
This is truly a series written by Youji Enokido, who tends to use a lot naturalist writing. Opposite to the name, naturalism is a kind of writing that uses the characters for the goals or to signify something more than them being depicted as real persons. The Witch was the bigger example of this style, she appeared and died to transmit a message, that's why there was no need for more from her and going for a "she is a legend of sorts" worked for it despite leaving the audience quite isolated, another Enokido trait. You won't understand anything until the series wants to.
Is that good or bad? That's up to anyone, personally I think it is a weird take for a Gundam, but if they really can't do anymore 50 episodes, I guess it is a way to do it that could work if the mystery gets you.
Next episode Nyaan will MAYBE be something more than yuribait, exciting.
PD: OP, I think Machu doesn't fix the phone because she wants Nyaan to fix it, we know how obstintate she is when something gets into her head.
Honestly I'm not against this kind of writing style as at least in my eyes it's easier to follow than WFM. I get we still know almost nothing about alot of the chars, but at least the show really just focuses on Machu and her experiences so far, with the occasional mystery thrown in by Challia Bull.
However it's unlike WFM which had a new character or two debut every ep with their own story and angle added into the plot. There were so many sides to the story they just to let dangle and not follow up because they had to, A) Get to the Gundam fighting, B) Used too much time telling the new character's story or C) Had to really fixate on a story point that there was no room for anything else.
Also yeah I can see her wanting to make Nyaan pay for it but it still annoys me... I just hate broken/cracked screens. I do wonder what she is using that prize money for though, same with Shuji. Machu mentioned it but how is he always broke? I am looking forward to next ep to actually get more insight into Nyaan.
Interesting to see Mosk Han back. I wonder which other characters might come back.
Machu felt more than a little side-lined here. I understand that this episode was more about the one-year war and therefore Shuji and the witch were more focused on but it still feels a little bad. The very short flashbacks were also a little awkward, I feel that this one of the many shows that would've really benefited from having a longer run time. Not even some 50 episode epic like the older gundam shows, but just having four to five extra episodes compared to the standard 12 would suffice.
12 eps are the first cour most likely, I highly doubt this so long awaited project will be only a single cour.
This came closer to having a coherent vision of this post-One Year War World and I really think it would work better if we spent more time just inhabiting it and less time having "thing we recognise" shoved in our face. The next episode looks like it will have more of that, hopefully. Also the action is very floaty which is kind of annoying, I know it's kind of inherent to space battles but at the same time they don't have to be space battles in the first place.
Veteran Pilot: "I'm considered a legend"
Random Newtype: "Nah, I'd win"The battle felt disjointed and seemed to focus more on the movement and silly dodging instead of the fighting. The strange direction it takes at times doesn't make it truly feel like a Gundam show. TWFM had the same issue, it's a show with a Gundam, not a show about a Gundam.
i kind of like how floaty the fights are. thats one thing i didnt like how space fights looked in the original gundam, they were just normal fights but in space.
plus i really loved the person with a grudge, obviously someone who was so connected to the one year war would be bitter about its end. especially when your husband dies and your son goes missing.
but as always, love the newtype connection scenes. im still suspecting that char is inside the red gundam.
With 4 episodes in it starts to be a bit of a problem that we barely know a thing about the main cast. What are really their motivations, who they really are? Nyaan got pushed to the sidelines, Shuji is just "mysterious" and Machu... we still have no clue why would she want to engage in life & death fights.
We actually know Machu's motivation, this episode showed it quite clear. She wants to be "free" and the battles are a form of freedom since it is an outlaw thing, Machu wants to break from the normality that her mom? wants to impose on her. The thing from this show is that the characters won't state what they want directly to the camera, the actions and scenes will speak for them.
As I said in my post, an Enokido show. Not apt for everyone sadly.
They don't have to do an exposition dump, but their actions don't speak for themselves. It's all very shallow atm, sorry. Being "free" is just too broad and from what we have been shown it's not like she has problems at school or with her mom tbh.
That's up to you, I think the episode showed it quite clear what Freedom means for Machu.
Machu is quite clear, since her character is easily portrayed through how she reflects herself in Shuuji and Nyaan. Tho Shuuji and Nyaan are still a complete mystery.
Machu is quite your average rebellious teen who does not conform to status quo, so she finds fascination in a weirdo like Shuuji who seeks to go to Earth just because random weird guts, and empathizes with Nyaan due natura as a refugee striving to survive in this system. Machu just wants to be herself and do what she finds interesting, not to do what society expects her to.
i really hope we get more character building next episode. the main cast is cute and likeable on a surface level (imo) but considering next episode is ep 5 of a likely 12 ep anime it would be nice to know like... what nyaan's whole Deal is. shuji is obviously the mysterious guy but machu is looking for freedom and nyaan is.... a broke refugee? they seem too shallow for a show like this.
I felt nothing for this episode but I think they were trying to make you feel something.
The thing is, although the narrative is not really confusing, the final product is all over the place cause they can't make long running anime anymore when they really needed some space for these characters to breathe.
This episode was... solid, but I feel like they didn't give time to get attached to anything. The only reason I cared about the Witch at all is because I thought she may have been Mirai, but that's not something this series can claim credit for. Machu got attached to her in the context of her being an adult who isn't "by the books" like her mum... but the same could be said about the Pomerannians' leader, so eh, doesn't really work for me. Plus, them winning 4 battles offscreen is kinda rushed. I'm glad we at least got a goal for the main characters (even if "get to Earth" is incredibly generic), and some mystery with it with the Red Gundam wanting to go there. I also like the Zabi civil war being a thing, though since they took out Char betraying Kycilia in the TV version (was in the movie), it's weird that they say Char is a wanted criminal like it's nothing.
I'm guessing Char's leftover consciousness in the Red Gundam is trying to find Sayla, who's "the rose", since she's the last person he saw before dying and all. I already figured Lalah Sune was who Char was talking to when the Zeknova event happened, and this basically all but confirms it. Though he didn't seem to know who she was, so I assume The Origin isn't being taken as canon and they didn't have a preexisting relationship before the One Year War, so the writers are just taking the original series as canon without any ancillary material. Given the timeline of events, I assume that means, in their minds, Char didn't meet Lalah since he was busy with Challia (adding to the gay vibes, which I love), so she died some other way and ended up doing the 'kira-kira' stuff. Also gives him another reason to be focused on Sayla -- outside of Lalah, she's the only person he's ever really cared about, and since the Lalah stuff isn't here, it's just Sayla. Was wondering if she was the Witch's MAV (she was in a Light Guncannon when she fought Char and we don't know if she survived), and I'm not sure if the Witch's MAV is meant to be male or if that's just a translation thing assuming stuff. Or who knows, maybe Lalah is alive and 'the rose', and Char has this boner that overcomes death for a woman he has only met in the 'kira-kira'. Which would kinda be fitting for him too. Maybe they'll randomly bring up his oedipal complex, which would be hilarious.
As someone who's been relentlessly shitting on this show for the last 3 episodes, ill admit it. This was a really enjoyable episode. But I still dont feel like this is a good direction for gundam as a series, I didnt have this problem with G-witch since it did its own entirely different thing. It was just a good mecha with gundam name plastered over it for assurance. But this isnt the same case, this is very clearly aimed towards the existing audience, a take on the classic UC saga which is held in high regard by pretty much the entire community, the fact that theyre taking such an idealistic and asspull approach at an incredibly well written political space opera is just...... disappointing?
Not saying that this dosent "feel" like a gundam considering how scattered the series has become with the newer titles, but this sure as hell dosent feel like an UC gundam
Witch from Mercury might be an atypical instalment but it's avowedly about the same things that Gundam has always been about, it's just looking at them from a slightly different perspective. All the foundational ideas from Tomino's initial UC run, about conflict between Earth and space, of divisions between the haves and have-nots, of what happens when people decide that the propagation of war is acceptable, of the corrosive effects of violence, of the potential of humans to become more than they are, are so clearly still there. I don't understand why it always gets stuck with the "not Gundam" accusations in a franchise that contains such a wide range of perspectives on war and violence and being human.
I do agree that GquuuuuuX feels nothing like UC Gundam, and it doesn't feel clear on why they decided to force it to be attached when every unique fibre it has is pulling away from it. It's not written like Tomino's Gundam, the look and feel of the technology is completely different, and the approach to animation is wildly different, which means whenever something distinctly UC appears it means I'm very aware that I am being shown it deliberately instead of it being some natural part of the world. It's kind of getting in its own way, there's not enough space between the fights and nostalgia pandering to fit in the substantial ideas that are, for me, what makes Gundam distinctive. I may be proven wrong and it might all come together later but at the moment I feel like it would have been perfectly possible to make a series about a new interpretation of the newtype condition and what happens to civilians after a conflict like the One Year War and make it a lot more natural and coherent by just having it be set in a wholly original continuity.
Enjoyed the episode, but this show is definitely moving too fast and jumping past events while not actually giving characters more backstory.
And c'mon, introducing a cute MILF like that and then just offing her same episode is cruel! So much fanart potential wasted
(memes aside, we really hadn't seen enough of her to feel sad so was a bit of a wasted tragic death)Also what is it with mobile suits just randomly exploding lol, like I haven't seen much gundam but they all jst seem to poof into nothing - like The Witch just had a small hole in it
Sadly I think the most damning thing they've done to Gundam in the last 2 mainlines is only giving them 12 ep seasons. It really is a disservice to the shows. Spinoffs like build fighters/divers can work with 12 ep seasons as you don't need to dig too deep into kids make gunpla then go fight with them. But in a mainline there is alot of things they really need to have more eps so they can properly flesh out the characters.
As for the exploding, it's the nuclear reactor. Mobile suits in the UC, most if not all are nuclear powered and when you have a runaway nuclear reaction due to reactor breach...
probably my fave ep yet! i felt like the story with shiino was a very tight package and delivered on the kind of mood i expect from a gundam show. seeing shuji outright kill her made by blood run cold, so there'll probably be some interesting depth there to explore.
Honestly after the first 3 episodes setting things up I was really hoping we would get a closer look at the characters. Really dont think the show had any reason to introduce and kill off a new character when nyaan who is all over the op and ed has had maybe 5 minutes of screen time total?
'the witch' got more screen time in this singular ep than nyaan has in 3 (not including ep2)
This was so violent...
