by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $15.99
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Tomoyo Kurosawa, Yui Ishikawa, Shimba Tsuchiya
Intro:
… absolutely delivers …
On the cusp of its 46th anniversary, the ubiquitous giant robot franchise Gundam has handed the keys to the kingdom to one of its most influential fanbases: Gainax. While the studio itself may have dissolved as of June of last year, many of its veteran animators and writers have come together under the stewardship of producer/co-writer Hideaki Anno, to give a different perspective on the original real robot story. And in so many ways, it’s something that only Gainax vets could deliver.
The first-third of this theatrical release (which condenses the first few episodes of the titular series) shows the genesis point of this new vision, taking things all the way back to the 1979 original series… and sharply diverging. Putting the main character bridles into the hands of iconic rival Char, the production does a solid job of marrying the older production values (the soundtrack, the character designs, the pacing) with more modern sensibilities (the animation quality, the character pathos, the mood). Alongside a technicolour blast of abstract visuals to reiterate things, yes, this is a proper Gundam series helmed by the people behind Neon Genesis Evangelion; weird is to be expected.
From there, we get a quick summation of what has changed as a result of Char being in the right place at the right time, with the pivotal One Year War turning out quite different… and yet the main impact remains familiar. Alongside Anno, who’s spent the last few years deconstructing Japanese sci-fi staples with the Shin films, co-writer Yoji Enokido of FLCL fame and Evangelion’s go-to cinematic director Kazuya Tsurumaki do a great job of further grounding the world of GQuuuuuuX. Their adherence to tangibly modern reality with public transport and smartphones on the space colony Side 6 is reminiscent of the clash between the mundane and the ridiculous that made FLCL work so well, and in its focus on underground robot fights, it highlights the trickle-down effect of military technology that past Gundam stories like 0080: War In The Pocket have used to essentially deconstruct themselves as war-borne spectacle.
But outside of invitations for fan theorising and an in-built excuse to sell more RX Gunpla models (no judging; that red paint job is nice), what is being introduced here also delivers as just plain fun action. Underneath his trademark existential angsting and psychological baggage, Anno knows how to deliver on the joys of mobile hunks of metal blasting and slicing each other. Both in the introductory war-time skirmishes and the high-speed throwdowns in the mecha fight club, Sunrise and Anno’s Studio Khara keep their attention squarely on the throttle with the animation. Seeing Amate take to the starry void for her first fight is genuinely thrilling, to the point of overriding any niggles with the (albeit expected) truncated pacing because even when operating at this clip, it works.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- promises mainline Gundam hooked up to a Gainax battery and absolutely delivers. Knowing the talent involved, things are likely to get much more explosive and bloody confusing a bit further along, but for now, this is a great introduction for a creative team-up that’s been brewing in the otaku unconscious ever since Evangelion first aired. The action is spectacular, there’s plenty of intriguing hooks for the series going forward (Shuji being introduced by sniffing young girls is… a choice), and for long-time fans, the possibilities opened up by the divergent timeline offer something that other alternate takes like SEED couldn’t even scratch at. Still early days, but man oh man, are they looking hopeful.
