Gundam GQuuuuuuX’s Finish Credit A...

The Gundam franchise’s historical past with queerness is longer within the meta textual content than it has been within the textual content of the franchise itself. Shippers have been matching up same-gender characters with one another for generations earlier than Witch From Mercury‘s first episode climaxed with its feminine deuteragonists getting engaged, kicking off a relationship that even Gundam‘s owners couldn’t deny was greater than merely open to some degree of interpretation. Nevertheless it’s the vitality within the wake of that that makes the arrival of Gundam GQuuuuuuX so attention-grabbing, as a result of now the chances of that delivery hyperfixation being in followers’ favor are larger than ever.

The primary episode of GQuuuuuuX premiered all over the world final night time, and whereas all of its materials was already lined by the compilation movie Beginning when it launched just a few months in the past, the TV launch did add one factor specifically: the present’s finish titles sequence. Set to VTuber Hoshimachi Suisei’s monitor “I don’t care,” the ending sees protagonists Machu and Nyaan sharing a comfortable, cluttered condo collectively, residing a quiet life fairly in contrast to those we’re launched to within the episode. There’s singing, there’s dancing, there’s pizza events, and the women are seen crashing out collectively facet by facet. It’s very candy, but it surely’s despatched any followers hoping a for a repeat of Suletta and Miorine’s relationship in Witch From Mercury into hypothesis overdrive.

After all, no quantity of hypothesis over shared ankle bracelets and disco-filled home bliss can change the truth that, on the finish of the day, an anime ending isn’t at all times fully true to the textual content of the present itself (though it’s actually truthful to say in Witch From Mercury‘s case, each of its opening and ending sequences did play up Suletta and Miorine’s romance even earlier than it was clearly established throughout the present). Irrespective of the intentions or the interpretations of the sequence, GQuuuuuuX‘s ending would possibly simply be a cute what-if situation that doesn’t pan out within the present.

However that’s to not say that GQuuuuuuX itself isn’t a minimum of projecting plenty of queer vibes to some folks, in each Machu and Nyaan’s early encounters and even different potential pairings on the present. There’s an electrical chemistry between the duo of their early encounters, one made all of the extra attention-grabbing when Machu tags together with Nyaan to drop off a smuggled piece of package that can finally see the previous wind up piloting the present’s new Gundam. At first, a tagalong is precisely what Machu describes herself as, however then she pointedly notes she might even be a Mav—in GQuuuuuuX‘s worldbuilding, the time period for a duo in Cellular Go well with fight techniques, pioneered during a prior war by the Zeon ace Char Aznable and his companion, Challia Bull.

“Mav” is used a number of instances within the sequence with a degree of closeness that goes past easy wingman although, making Machu’s use of it (past her intrigue at doubtlessly becoming a member of in on underground mecha fights) attention-grabbing. Challia’s relationship to Char—who went lacking alongside the original Gundam on the finish of the struggle, sparking a search that Challia has been conducting for 5 years since its finish—is described at one level to him by a personality early on within the episode as Char being “his good friend, or quite, his Mav,” to counsel a bond even nearer than that.

Anybody who’s seen Starting may even know that one other character describes Challia as nonetheless being within the “thrall” of the Crimson Comet, Char’s nickname from the struggle. And all that’s even earlier than moving into the truth that sequence author Yoji Enokido (who has written on, amongst different issues, the likes of Revolutionary Woman Utena, Evangelion, and FLCL, all sequence with various ranges of express and implicit queer intimacy) has said in press interviews that, regardless of it being a navy time period, it’s additionally one he might see as getting used to check with the bond between associates or romantic companions.

After all, all this stays open to interpretation (and never in the way Bandai wanted Suletta and Miorine’s marriage to be, for now a minimum of). GQuuuuuuX might pair off any variety of its characters, or the hints and particulars followers hoping for a Sulemio repeat may very well be nothing extra than simply that: hints. It will admittedly be very humorous for Gundam to do back-to-back feminine protagonists who occur to be queer, a landmark first for the sequence in Witch From Mercury made much more notable by it taking place instantly once more from one other, unconnected inventive group, however we’ve merely not seen sufficient of the present but to know if that’s going to be the case.

That reality gained’t cease shippers from hoping anyway. And if it doesn’t? Properly, that’s the enjoyment of fandom delivery, isn’t it—they’ll have the ability to create loads of work imagining in any other case regardless.

Cellular Go well with Gundam GQuuuuuuX is now streaming on Prime Video.

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