Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX – Beginning: Cool Robots, Too Bad About the Story

By John Kirk

Rating: C

Hey, I’m one for science-fiction, battling giant robots, and adventures in space. I’m totally on board with the premise of this film.

But, where’s the storytelling?

To be up front, it was advised that there are spoilers to this story included in this review.

If you want to make a coherent story that’s acceptable to a mainstream English-speaking audience, then there are some structural rules that have to be obeyed. You know, like introducing the protagonist of the story from the very beginning? Or, hey, just a shot in the dark, but what about balancing the story so that the backstory doesn’t take up more than 60% of the film’s run-time?

Maybe I’m being picky, but therein lies my objection to Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX – Beginning - aside from the overuse of the letter “u.”

I’ve been a long-time viewer of animation, including when Japanese animation began to make its presence known in North America in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I’ve seen all the greats that this industry has had to offer and I’ve seen the worst. Without going into the specifics though, the one thing that always gets in my craw of producing anime for the North American market (or, as it was known in the 80’s: Japanimation) was the script.

Let’s look at the premise of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX – Beginning. Here’s the official synopsis:

“Amate Yuzuriha is a high-school student living peacefully in a space colony floating in outer space. When she meets a war refugee named Nyaan, Amate is drawn into the illegal mobile suit dueling sport known as Clan Battle. Under the entry name "Machu," she throws herself into fierce battle day after day, piloting the GQuuuuuuX. Then an unidentified Gundam mobile suit pursued by both the space force and the police appears before her, along with its pilot, a boy named Shuji. Now their world is about to enter a new era.”

First of all, that’s a great premise, but the problem with this synopsis is that it pretty much describes the action that happens in about 30+ plus minutes of this hour and a half plus run-time film. It’s completely inaccurate.

Here’s where the spoilers warning should probably commence. Why? Because the length of the backstory means that there have to be spoilers included.

The first hour of the film describes the military action that happened before the peaceful space-colony that Amate lives in. It’s a war between the splinter factions of Earth colonies that settled in space when population on the planet became a problem. We have two forces: the Federation and the Zeons. Those factions declare war and their struggle involves the use of mobile battle suits.

There’s more to this. Here’s your primer on Japanese piloted robots. You see, there are grades to mobile battle suits. These are essentially giant robots that are piloted by military specialists. In this film, we are introduced to robot suits that are described as Zaku. These are a lesser grade of piloted giant robots. Gundams are a higher grade of piloted robotic giants because they can be piloted with a mental link rather than just a mechanical interface. Well, at least in this film. But anyone who has watched Japanese Gundam films knows that the Gundams are a more sophisticated version and more is expected of them from a story perspective.

Here’s the real synopsis: there is a major battle between the splinter factions of the colonies that spread out from Earth, namely the Zeon Principality and the Federation. Both use robotic technology. When a reconnaissance force of the Zeons discovers a leftover advanced Gundam on a backwoods Federation outpost, it changes the course of their war.

With about 45 minutes of the story describing how the commanding pilot of a mere Zeon Zaku discovers this advanced Gundam just lying there for anyone to take, and with willing suspension of disbelief aside, its advanced capabilities promote this pilot to a legendary status. This is wonderful … but remembering the official synopsis, why does it take that amount of time to even meet the hero, an innocuous high school student? Why do the film creators spend so much time discussing the history of the war and not the illegal underworld of clan battles of robotic suits that have risen up after the time of the armistice.

Yeah … it’s really difficult to review this film without giving some stuff away. However, hence the official dispensation to state that there might be spoilers.

But the problem with this film is the structure. In my 40 years of watching Japanese anime, it’s a prominent cultural issue in that Japanese storytelling doesn’t mesh with the accepted Western model. Not to say that it hasn’t found ground. I remember reading Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa and feeling incredibly moved. Its art styling was revolutionary but its success was based in the fact that chronologically arranged the incidents before the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, to fit within the personal narrative of a family who lived in that time. I personally regard that work as the high point of Japanese comic creation.

I remember that the animated Transformers animated shows in the latter 1980’s were incredibly successful because of their adherence to a North American storytelling model, as well as their incredible detail. Even though they were based on toys, there was acceptable storytelling that registered with a juvenile and upper teen audience. Why? Because of structure. A story has to have a solid beginning, middle and an end.

The attraction of Japanese films is their incredible attenuation to sci-fi visual detail. When the audience sees a visual depiction of a giant robot, they see the hydraulic pistons, the armour plating, and the electronic detailing in the computer programming on visual consoles. It’s unbelievably cool. Any sci-fi nerd would drool at this.

But it’s the structure of the storytelling that matters to an audience. This film is a prime example that I can use when describing Japanese anime to a North American audience: incredible sci-fi visualization, poor storytelling. It’s a cultural norm that doesn’t translate well and this has never been properly taken in to account, at least in my opinion.

Why do we care about Amate? We don’t. We don’t get enough time to appreciate who she is. The predominance of the storytelling in this film is about the background of the Zakus and how superior the Gundams are. We see a majority of robot combat and a minority of character development. Sadly, this has been the modus operandi for the majority of the Japanese animation films and television productions that I’ve seen including the legendary greats like Robotech, Battleship Yamato and even Evangelion. I’ve seen enough, and their success has been because of the incredible sci-fi animation and detail.

But, fighting giant robots - even though they are so freakin’ cool - aren’t enough to make a great film, and I know after forty years, this won’t change.

What’s sad? I love Gundams.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX – Beginning. Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki. Voice Cast: Tomoyo Kurosawa, Yui Ishikawa, Shimba Tsuchiya. In theatres across Canada starting Friday, February 28th.