Hogan Reviews

I should have been thrilled when I heard a new Universal Century set Gundam series was being made but it soon became obvious it was a CG show, which rarely hits with me, and then as more and more trailers came out it seemed less and less like Gundam and more like generic “hoo-rar” American army stuff with UC era mobile suits in it, the often super realistic CG only serving to make things even less appealing as it crossed over to the uncanny valley. At six episodes it didn’t over-stay its welcome at least, but I’m glad the recently revealed new Gundam show “G-Quuuuux” or however you write that insane title shows this extremely Westernised take on Gundam isn’t a new direction… Let’s take a look!

The series focuses on Captain Iria Solari, the leader of “Red Wolf Squadron” of Zeon, so the clear villains of the story are the “heroes” of this one, which is fine, the soldiers on the frontlines often don’t share the same views as those on top, and seeing the new Gundam of the piece being presented as a looming villain was good fun at least. She has some sort of Newtype abilities in that she can often see danger a few seconds before it happens and that’s pretty much her whole character. Her squad also includes the inexperienced but eager Lt. Kneeland LeSean, who is the biggest perpetrator of the generic US army bollocks attitude, and there are others but they’re all wiped out at the end of the first episode by the new RX-78 (G)E Gundam EX. The two of them escape their destroyed custom Zakus and soon meet up with other surviving Zeon forces, who for the record are being kicked out of Earth territory they took by force previously in the war, so still definitely the bad guys here despite how they’re presented…

Our “hero”, by which I mean invader who supports a clear Nazi-like regime by taking land from innocent people. … Hooray!

Among the other survivors includes tank driver Ander Heaton, infantryman Hailey Arhun and a medic from a neutral company called Dr. Ony Kasuga. They take refuge in a Zeon-controlled junkyard where we hear via generic fireside chat that Iria’s husband was killed in an airstrike a few months back and that she has a son back home she fights for (again, attacking and taking territory from an enemy her side started attacking in the first place, but hey…) and just like that she has another premonition and asks old friend and engineer Alfee to build two functioning Zaku suits out of spare parts for her and LeSean as the Gundam, as well as a mass-produced GM, soon arrive. The two manage to take down the GM and the Gundam leaves with the GM Pilot, showing whoever pilots it has a good heart, rather than it being a soulless monster as it first seemed.

Iria is ordered by her superiors to capture a GM in one piece as it could mean the difference in the war now the enemy side has mobile suits of their own, so Iria and a few others go into a Federation base in disguise to steal one, during which our protagonist meets a young boy who is mysteriously walking around the military base despite his age. Iria and Alfee manage to steal two GMs but on the way out the base they’re confronted by the Gundam and everything looks bleak…

That’s no Zaku boy! …. Oh wait, yes it is. Sorry.

I did enjoy seeing the classic One Year War suits in realistic CG, but that was about the only highlight. It’s otherwise full of really generic military talk, a really light touching on the usual Gundam themes of the horrors of warfare, and none of the characters have any real depth and all look weird due to the hype realistic style. It did not impress, let’s put it that way…

Overall Thoughts:

The “Evil” Gundam EX joins its fellow “if they produced this many Gundams why was the original Gundam so special?” Gundams added via OVAs and specials after the original series aired…

Although not live action “Requiem For Vengeance” can join with most of Netflix’s non-One Piece live action adaptations of anime properties in feeling like whoever was in charge of writing it looked at the colourful visuals, interesting characters and fun plot and decided it wasn’t “cool” or “gritty” enough so sucked all the fun out of everything and replaced it with mid-2000s “bad ass show for teens” instead. Generic characters and weird CG artstyle that just didn’t appeal drop this so far down in my estimation. I don’t know what this show was, but it wasn’t Gundam!

As their GMs are disabled and the Gundam goes in for the kill LeSean arrives and sacrifices himself with his makeshift Zaku so Iria can escape, though in the chaos Iria finds out that the little boy the same age as her son is the pilot of the Gundam, much to her shock and anger. A short while later Iria wakes at the spaceport in Odessa (classic Gundam location, that was fun to see in this weird artstyle, if you can call it that) and soon pilots her makeshift Zaku to keep the Gundam EX away from her allies launching into space. The still nameless pilot connects with Iria mentally in the classic Newtype way and figures out she’s a mum with a son like him so actually saves Iria from falling to her death, but in doing so is killed and his suit destroyed.

It’s Hailey! … yeah, didn’t really have any screenshots of the final episode. Still, look at that facial detail, or something…?

Iria survives but unable to go to space she heads to Zeon’s Africa base to continue the fight against the Earth Federation, though admitted that their new mass produced suits will make things a lot tougher going forward.