“Looks like they’re making Shin Gundam” read an otaku group chat notification, rudely interrupting my morning Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket pack pull. I’ve never pulled up my browser that fast in my life. There, the text “khara x SUNRISE” met my eyes, and in return, a fully soyed-out face met my browser; Indeed they’re making Shin Gundam, operating under the name Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, and yes, Hideaki Anno’s involved. All doubly surprising, since he’s already working on Shin Space Battleship Yamato (not actually called that) though it’s not the first time he’s dipped his hand in multiple caverns of his childhood toy chest to do film-making simultaneously.
This Gundam isn’t really his baby either, you know his name would be front and center on all the promotion if it was. Who does parent GQuuuuuuX though portends the chance for the best AU Gundam since Mobile Fighter G Gundam.
…or Turn A Gundam if you count that as AU.
Hideaki Anno: Contributing Writer and Storyboard Artist
Hideaki Anno directed an Ultraman fan film with his college buddies that looked pretty good. 39 years later, Anno would sculpt the official Shin Ultraman with his pal, tokusatsu god Shinji Higuchi. 23 years before that, he’d hang around with the effects grandmaster Higuchi on the set of his Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris filming all sorts of behind the scenes footage, editing it down into his one documentary, GAMERA1999.
Earlier that same year, he was kicked out of the director’s chair on the seminal, desperately needing-a-US-Blu-Ray-Release His and Her Circumstances for pissing off the original manga author too much.
His “protege” Kazuya Tsurumaki had to pick up the slack.
Kazuya Tsurumaki: Director
The last time we saw Kazuya Tsurumaki in the big boy’s director chair was 2017’s The Dragon Dentist. You can sometimes buy the Sentai Filmworks Blu Ray of the two episode television special about brushing dragon teeth and fighting dragon cavities for five dollars, but it’s worth at least ten.
Kazuya Tsurumaki made FLCL, a series so individual it's unfathomable the world has not lined up for him to direct more anime. Between Fooly Cooly and The Dragon’s Dentist, his only major directorial credit was Gunbuster 2, though he spent time co-directing the Rebuild of Evangelion Quadrilogy.
Him fully helming this project excites us more than some cursory involvement from his predecessor, as do the other staffing choices!
Character Designer: Take
What? None of you checked out World’s End Club on Apple Arcade? Not even when it came to Steam & Switch? You couldn’t be blamed for skipping Zaregoto, no official English release for the anime, but you’ve at least seen Katanagatari right? The 12 episode eye-popper about a human sword and his stylish feudal era Japan companion fighting 12 equally stylish ninjas for supremacy? It desperately needs a license rescue.
Take’s style owes a debt to 2000's superflat, Fujio F. Fujiko, and the larger world of pop art. The Gundam GQuuuuuuX’s character designer puts it all together in such a sophisticated way it’s instantly recognized once first seen! Congrats to the artist on one of their highest profile ventures yet, maybe only next to Pokémon.
Take may be new to working with the khara crowd but the other major artist announced sure isn’t~
Mechanical Designer: Ikuto Yamashita
Ikuto Yamashita, mechanical illustration and animation veteran, is having a bang up year! Providing a fair deal of concept art & design to Metaphor: ReFantazio put his modern, lush design work in front of fresh eyes for all to see. Of course when you’re the designer of one of the two most famous anime robots of all, the Evangelion less a robot more a giant weird man with armor nailed to him, an invitation to design a variation of the other most famous anime robot likely manifests to you.
Yamashita including vibrant orange and sporty humanoid limbs sleekly distinguishes GQuuuuuuX from the many Gundams which came before it.
Having stuck with khara’s circle from all the way back to Gunbuster up until and including Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0, it could only be Ikuto Yamashita this time around; great since the head script writer’s also a trusted member of this circle.
Series Composition: Yoji Enokido
While he’s spent most of the last decade helming Bungo Stray Dogs, Yoji Enokido historically handled series composition and scripts for a whole colony drop's worth of mecha anime; Star Driver, RahXephon, Captain Earth, and Gunbuster 2, all in addition to contributing to three of the five Evangelion movies and four of the 26 Neon Genesis episodes. That’s all in addition to writing directly with Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX director Tsurumaki on FLCL and The Dragon Dentist, as well as the aforementioned Gunbuster sequel. Enokido knows his way around robots, he knows his way around the khara team, and he wrote Revolutionary Girl Utena; we’re in good hands.
Conclusion: Unskippable, You Must Watch
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX follows in the footsteps of Iron Blooded Orphans, being an AU series produced by a known collaborative team outside of the Gundam ecosystem. This particular team boasts the treasured imaginators of Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL, a track record that affords them endless purchase in the hype and goodwill departments. I certainly cannot guarantee you that GQuuuuuuX will be any good, I can barely guarantee you that I won’t make any jokes about it’s name, but I haven’t yet.
What I do know is whenever any of these names work on a project, it deserves your willingness and time; When we get a five headed Ghidorah (perhaps we call him Shin Ghidorah) of uniquely inspired artists all putting their heads together to make literally anything it all, it demands your willingness and time.
Editorial Note: Liberties Taken
This article expected the reader to understand a Shin Gundam would imply a Hideaki Anno directed Gundam, as he added the prefix “Shin” to his Godzilla, Ultraman, and Kamen Rider movies, in addition to his last Evangelion movie. Similarly, we assumed the reader knows who Hideaki Anno, the manic otaku genius creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, thus neglected to mention that particular factoid previously. Apologies.
