The Next Gundam Show Is Coming From the Creators Behind Neon Genesis Evangelion

Witch From Mercury only wrapped last year, but the age of a new Gundam show is already upon us. In a surprise move last night at Bandai revealed the latest entry in the revered mecha anime series–and the unprecedented roster of talent behind it.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux–pronounced something akin to “G-Kwux”, according to advertisements for the series’ accompanying model kits–will be the sixteenth official primary entry in the wider Gundam franchise, and marks one of the first times Sunrise has handed the reigns over to an outside studio to develop a primary Gundam show. However, it’s not the first time that Khara (Hideaki Anno’s animation house that spun out of his time at Gainax, and the team behind the Evangelion Rebuild film tetraology) has worked on Gundam, previously providing support on animation for Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.

Little is known about the series, other than it follows three young residents of a space colony–Yuzuriha Amate, who goes by the nickname Machu, a mysterious young woman known only as Nyaan, and a boy named Shuji–as they use the discovery of the titular mobile suit to participate in a series of underground mecha duels known as ‘Clan Battles’. While it’s currently unknown whether or not GQuuuuuux will be set in its own alternative timeline or at some point during Gundam‘s main continuity, the Universal Century, the series does at least have some designs that evoke the latter, including the structure of the space colony its set in, and the appearance of a mono-eyed suit highly reminiscent of the classic Gundam Zaku.

But beyond its intriguing premise and aesthetic, what makes GQuuuuuux such a fascinating prospect is the sheer breadth of talent on the series. Anno will co-write the series alongside Yoji Enokido, who has worked on Evangelion, Sailor Moon, FLCL, and Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Ikuto Yamashita, the revered mecha designer on Evangelion who also recently worked on Atlus’ smash hit JRPG Metaphor: ReFantazio, will similarly provide mechanical design here. It’s also directed by Anno’s protégé at Khara, Kazyua Tsurumaki, who directed multiple episodes of Evangelion as the series’ assistant director, FLCL, Diebuster, and the Evangelion rebuild films. If that wasn’t enough, the character design aesthetic will be familiar to Pokémon fans as well–they’re by Take, the character designer who has provided human designs for Nintendo’s beloved RPG series since Pokémon Sun and Moon.

While it’s sad that Bandai is moving on so quickly from the success of Witch From Mercury, an entirely new Gundam series is always exciting–and one with this level of talent involved, suggesting an extremely high level of confidence in whatever perspective GQuuuuuux will bring to the franchise. It won’t be that much longer before we see more of the show, too: a theatrical cut of multiple early episodes from the series will release in theaters in Japan (and be available internationally at a later date) as GQuuuuuux – Beginning – starting from January 17, with the series itself airing at some point after that.

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