English Dub Review: Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX “Alphacide”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Machu and Nyaan face off in their Gundams, Shuji returns from the other side, and another Zeknova brings unexpected faces to the battle.

OUR TAKE

Uh…what…the hell is happening? Well, I mean I know what’s happening going by the plot, but general confusion about what’s going on seems to just be the overall theme between characters in this episode, especially Machu and Nyaan who are just plain flummoxed about what they’re fighting about and what their fighting may lead to. And yeah, to the surprise of pretty much no one, Shirozou was actually Char Aznable this entire time. When he got back from wherever the initial Zeknova took him five years ago is not explained, but we do learn that he does indeed know Shuji, though the two don’t seem to be fully aligned with each other. Char’s goals for returning is apparently to remove Lalah, the one stuck in the Mobile Armor being used in the Solar Ray, from this timeline since she’s not supposed to be here. Shuji, meanwhile, is revealed to be from wherever Char ended up, and wants to protect this Lalah for some reason, while Lalah wants to protect Char because the two of them were close in the original series, and presumably wherever she came from. And then there’s Machu and Nyaan with their love triangle involving Shuji and things just get even more complicated, and even MORE so when Lalah triggers yet another Zeknova, this time not pulling things out, but bringing in none other than…the original RX-78-2 Gundam in all its glory.

If I can say nothing else good about this episode, it’s that I am most definitely engaged in seeing how this wraps up next week. Unfortunately, the fact that it IS wrapping up next week is kind of the big problem connecting to everything, including the good parts. There have been FAR too many instances across these eleven episodes where it felt like some plans had to be reshuffled or truncated or heavily modified, with the result being that numerous characters, INCLUDING Machu, feel so bare bones in their motivations and understanding of things happening around them. You may have forgotten, but the episode where Nyaan fully joined Zeon and became Kycillia’s agent was TWO WEEKS AGO. Likewise, Machu met this universe’s Lalah only THREE weeks ago, which really makes her reasoning to protect her because she’s apparently important to Shuji feel VERY paper thin. And now we have ONE episode to sufficiently resolve all of that, Char’s plans, Shuji’s plans, Kycillia’s plans, and now whatever the hell is going to happen now that original recipe Gundam is here, beam saber in hand. I have some guesses about who’s piloting it, but while Amuro is the first come to mind, he hasn’t been in this series AT ALL, so it seems unlikely. So, while it’s not impossible for it to stick the landing this way, it is a long shot. With all of that out of the way, we will see you next week for the finale of GQuuuuuuX!