GUNDAM GQUUUUUUX: A Series with Untapped Potential
I completed Season 1 of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX earlier this week. The first half of the season was extremely promising, and that’s the reason why I was so disappointed when I finished the final episode. In my judgment the plot lost much of its magic in the second half.
The first half revolved around a love triangle between three young mobile suit pilots named Machu, Shuji, and Nyaan. These three had teamed up to compete in an illegal gladiatorial competition on the space satellite Side 6, and in the process they explored tensions of love and friendship that sometimes push them together, and sometimes pull them apart. These tensions are the highlight of the show, and they gradually transform Machu and Nyaan from friends who look out for each other into rivals who compete for Shuji’s love. That rivalry culminates in a betrayal in Episode 7, when Nyaan abandons Machu in order to claim Shuji for herself. She tries to flee to earth with Shuji, while leaving Machu alone on Side 6.
This betrayal is the single most important development in the love triangle between the three tritagonists of Gundam GQuuuuuuX. But I found it to be rushed and dramatically underwhelming. Nyaan’s motivations for betraying Machu are undeveloped and shallow, which is a shame, because Nyaan’s character has a lot of potential, but the show is simply unwilling to give her story the attention and detail that she deserves.
Nyaan’s betrayal of Machu is really the moment when Gundam GQuuuuuuX changes from a great story into a merely serviceable one. This is because it shifts its narrative focus away from character development, and turns instead toward a cosmic mystery plot that involves a portal to a parallel universe and the threat of apocalyptic annihilation. But I think that shift in focus was a mistake. It is complicated and rushed, and perhaps more importantly, it has no meaningful connection to the triangular relationship between Machu, Nyaan, and Shuji. For most of Episodes 7–12, these characters seem more like bystanders in a larger drama that has nothing to do with them, which is why that drama was largely uninteresting to me. What I really wanted out of Episodes 7–12 was a story about how Nyaan and Machu resolve their rivalry over Shuji.
