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[Spoilers] Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX - Episode 5 Discussion
While I do enjoy watching Gundam shows, I was kind of hoping the main team would take a loss, especially from the Black Star vets (I loved Doms in the OG series). I always seem to cheer for the underdogs in Gundam series. It would be nice for the leads to get a serving of humble pie. In my opinion, the Psycho system is making these kids a bit unhindged from common morality. As opposed to the majority of UC Gundam shows, there's no war going on to justify their actions.
I do agree a loss could be good however at the same time it'd also be hard seeing as they have no way of repairing either the Red Gundam or the GQuuuuuuX as far as I'm aware. Maybe a patch job but not if the head or limbs get cut off. I mean from the start of the series the Red Gundam has already lost it's Psycommu Funnels somewhere as well as it's giant flail got destroyed last match.
Also to be fair they are kids fighting in illegal underground fighting competitions with live weaponry in mobile suits, with the very real chance of injury or death but keep going back to it. They'd already have to be a little unhinged from the start can't blame it all on the Omega Psycommu.
While we didn't get to see anything that much deeper about Nyaan from a history standpoint at least we can see a bit more of her motivation come out and her awakening as a newtype. Seems she and Machu both associate the feeling with freedom but how they interpret that is down to how they grew up. Machu being sheltered but longing for freedom so her fighting is more reserved, as opposed to Nyaan being oppressed and wanting to break free from that oppression and will go all out using anything to win.
Still it'll be interesting to see how Machu processes this "betrayal" as she sees it as she had wanted to keep the newtype link with Shuji to herself. Even though Nyaan only did it out of kindness to protect the dream of going down to earth. From the preview looks like we'll get a bit more Nyaan side of the story next week so we'll see how it pans out.
Stuff I didn't expect from GQu⁶x
- to be so heterosexual
- to be about embracing ultra violence
Yea surprising to see them build what appears to be a love triangle after the first 4 eps and that ending but I just realized in the ending nyaan has shuji's robot with her while machu has her round one, now I'm sorta worried for shuji if nyaan is gonna end up "inheriting" his robot
Dang, I didn't even make that connection. I guess we will see but I'll be paying attention to that robot parallel.
Definitely some... weird vibes in this episode. Like with the focus on sexual tension stuff / undressing and than Nyaan unhinged bloodlust? Both kinda coming out of nowhere.
Omega Psycomm broken OP, you can be a total noob and own the war veterans.To be fair we still don't know pretty much anything about Nyaan. She formed friends with Machu and Shuji, she does illicit package deliveries and she's a refugee, thats all we know. We know nothing about her past before side 6 or even her current living situation.
Considering she did make the statement "It's been a long time since I was back out in space", whether that was her coming to side 6 in a shuttle as a refugee or if she's actually fought in space before. But yeah being able to move the mech like your own body over people who actually need to use all the levers, pedals, buttons and switches would definitely give you an edge. However to use Omega Psycommu you have to be a newtype, it's an advanced OP system for an select few. Also Nyaan being marketed so hard in promotion and in the ending credits, it was good odds she'd awaken as one too at some point.
Yeah, that's a point I brought up after last week's episode - we are already so far in the show and still barely know anything about the characters, they are still rather shallow, so I blame the writers doing a bad job.
Also I agree with the comments saying that they should loose - the victories are coming too easily.
The Omega Psycommu making that you don't need piloting skills doesn't mean that just about anybody knows how to fight using giant robots. Ace pilots shouldn't be defeated so easily.I do agree they are going too fast but I also find it hard to fault them when the traditional 25 ep seasons are cut down to 12 eps. At the very least I feel like they are doing better than WFM, that was so weirdly paced with some parts feeling way too fast and others way too slow multiple times in the same season. At least with GQuuuuuuX it's just plain fast and they are keeping it that way so far.
The way I interpret it each episode reveals a different aspect of Machu's personality and I'm kinda ok with that. Shuji being a mystery still I can understand as the Red Gundam is a major plot point, but I do wish we knew more about Nyaan, and the Pomeranians already.
The thing is that's the studio decision on how many episodes there will be and they should create a story that fits that length - they are not tied to some source material (like a manga).
I much prefer the pacing WfM had - season one was excellent, but then S2 had a problem with way to many sub-plots and not enough time. So far GQuuuuuuuuX is one or two ranks worse than WfM for me.I'd argue technically it's budget and they don't do big budget seasons anymore. But I understand what you mean that they should try write to 12 ep seasons if thats what they are going with. Though I feel like striking a good balance between lore, meaningful character development/interaction and combat is pretty hard to do in 12 eps even if you chose to write for it. Also I have to disagree with WFM S1, the pacing was totally off not as bad as S2 but still pretty bad.
Every ep they threw a ton of new chars you like some of them should have been important like Earth house, and some random like Shaddiq's girls, but besides Earth house's head, pom pom girl and the blue hair streak girl you get no interaction between them. Meanwhile you're trying to follow whats happened with the multiple Elan's, Gule's fall from grace, watching Suletta get ignored by Miorine, and watching Bell apologize for the next thing she's sorry she did. The only person who seemed to have something close to a stable plot line was Prospera.
That's wrong, studios, in specific script writers, do not know at first how many episodes the producers could get for them since that takes into consideration outside elements like program schedule and TV slots. We have many stories about shows which were trimmed because the studio got less time that the one they wanted so they had to deal with what they had. This isn't something new exactly.
omega psycommu being a win button is annoying and lazy. wondering though if nyaan's sudden bloodlust was a misguided rage at everyone who has mistreated her (especially because of the focus early on in the ep of her refugee status). something like that. will be interesting to see if they focus on anything about her going straight for the jugular in a fight thats not supposed to be inherently lethal.
I loved the episode, the animation was on point. Some weirdos might say there was fanservice, but whatever — I was kind of expecting the protagonists to suffer their first defeat. And honestly, what better fanservice than giving a win to the Kuroi Sankyōdai, even if it's just for one episode?
Also, it's worth noting how quickly the clan battles escalated — from violent but non-lethal fights to straight-up bloodbaths. I guess it’s expected when you play with fire, but still… I don’t really like how casually the protagonists treat killing someone, especially considering they’re supposed to be teenagers.
But anyway, maybe I’m overthinking it. The anime is awesome, and I really hope it keeps up this quality.
I don't think you're overthinking it, I got some of that vibe as well.
It's interesting how Nyaan seems to have possibly been some child soldier before becoming a refugee because her dialogue made it seem like she was familiar with piloting? For a second I thought she was the mysterious zeknova child but if its her first time seeing kira-kira then she was probably just a normal child soldier who was able to unlock extra violence this fight with psycommu.
And the fallout of Machu feeling threatened by Nyaan and Shuji getting closer is gonna be interesting! She got literally forced to sit this one out but I wanna see Machu have to address her feelings on both of her complicated violent friends next week. And its Kycilia in the flesh next week too!Man I love gundam
This was okay, but yeah, I kinda want the team to actually lose at least once. Just feels like they are winning way too easily, especially here, when the Black Tri-Stars (Bi-Stars?) are meant to be these ace pilots, and they get beaten by a first timer thanks to the GQ just being OP. Again. (With some lip-service to them not having all three, but we hardly see the impact of that during the battle itself until the very end.) It was nice to see Nyaan get something to do, at least, but the "GQ is OP and they win that way" is already getting old. But I do like that there are fractures forming in the team; with the limited episode count, it's good to get the ball rolling on that. Especially since the "get to Earth" goal seems to just be there so they have any goal and it won't be what the story is actually about. Seeing Machu's more typical teen desire for freedom contrasted with what Nyaan wants because she's faced discrimination and actually had a hard life feels like it could lead to some good stuff. This episode does do a good job of emphasising just how much of a standard teen Machu is -- she wants freedom because angst, she gets petty over boys, and she hasn't experienced war because her home wasn't a battlefield. It feels like it could lead to some real growth once the real plot gets started, whatever that may be (maybe the war comes here once Kycillia is (almost?) assassinated).
Also, man was it weird when they focused on Machu's boobs like that. She looks like she's 13... at least when all three were on top of the Red Gundam, it was a hormonal teen thing and in-universe female gaze on Shuji to emphasise that. But hey, anime's gonna anime, I guess.
i can see why one would want to see the main characters lose a kuraba match but also. also! did that endig really feel like a w to yall? like yeah they won the match but if you look at character stakes this was not a happy ending. there is conflict it just didn’t come from them losing (which as someone else pointed out above would be very bad since they hardly have a way to repair the gundams)
if anything the one win in this episode was machu ending up having an alibi, though i wonder how much that will actually hold.
i thought the reveal that shuji was sick was pretty funny. he is so untethered from reality and i like how they keep finding ways to make that complicate things and not just have him be the cryptic weirdo who is unbeatable in his gundam that he talks to. like yeah he also happens to fully not notice himself being sick.
(nyaan calling him shu-chan is cute btw! she likes cute names, i wonder if she picked hers herself)
another thing i loved was the note about machu going to an ojousama school. it makes perfect sense in retrospect but i hadn’t quite realized it before and it really gave me a better understanding of her character.
i liked this ep!
i feel like a loss is coming up. but i dont think i really care that much. its kind of fun to watch.
Interesting how the show seems to want to tackle such a nowadays theme as the radicalization of youth who get hands to supposed self-empowering means and those end destroying them and all their surroundings. Lately Gundam seems to want to talk about actual world issues, and that's not a bad thing at all.
Let's so how this ends. Maybe I will get the good version of Melodies of Oblivion for once.
the GQ winning because its Just Good again is a little boring, but at least there were some pretty good moments with nyaan. unless im misjudging super bad, it doesnt really feel like the kids taking peoples' lives is being underplayed that much. nyaan's awakening felt less like a "cool girlypop freedom" scene and more of a misguided rage that felt good To Her. the shot of her face was scary!!!
i wonder if reality will come crashing down on the protags soon. it sorta seems like it, with machu wanting to insert herself as a wall between nyaan and shuji.
Animation and style is stil cool and the fights entertaining, but man it's all just so lightweight.
We still know nothing about the characters, asides from Nyaan being an angry girl now, and it's going to get real boring fast if every single episode is just 'here's some confident older dudes getting pwned (/actually killed) by some kids aha what a twist'
