The upcoming and bafflingly titled Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX has been announced as a co-production between Studio Khara and Sunrise.
The name “GQuuuuuuX”, pronounced “g-quax”, is the name of the titular mobile suit piloted by a lady called Machu as part of something known as Clan Battles.
Set in what looks to be a classic Gundam space colony, this new series takes a similar approach to Witch from Mercury with high school kids seemingly battling it out through mobile suit battles.
What’s interesting is that Studio Khara is involved, as they are known for the recent and excellent Rebuild of Evangelion movies.
Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, of FLCL and Diebuster fame, I’m expecting some very ostentatious and kinetic mobile suit battles with lovely animation throughout (something the new trailer below helps to illustrate).
The mecha design is being penned by Ikuto Yamashita, who also did the designs for Evangelion and Yukikaze. In fact, Yamashita has a long history of trying to do various designs for Gundam over the years, so I am glad that he is finally getting his chance to shine on a new Gundam show.
The Evangelion connection doesn’t stop there either, as Hideaki Anno is also co-writing the anime’s scripts, which will definitely be interesting.
However, the name GQuuuuuuX is entirely odd and not all that helpful if Bandai Namco wants to actively promote something like this outside of Japan.
After all, in katakana, the name doesn’t look or sound that weird, but in English it’s just overly awkward.
Released early next year, GQuuuuuuX already has model kits and a very nice Metal Robot Damashii toy planned (shown above).
I just hope that the series manages to get past its odd name once it gets released internationally.
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