Anno working with other key members of the Evangelion and FLCL staff on a brand-new Gundam series full of teenage girl angst and robot team battles.

When there’s a new Gundam series coming out, it’s pretty much a given that Sunrise, also known as Bandai Namco Filmworks, is going to be the studio animating it. Predictably, the announcement for the newest Gundam anime TV series opens with the Bandai Namco logo, followed immediately by Sunrise’s.

What comes next, though, isn’t something anyone was expecting: the logo for Khara, the animation studio founded and run by Hideaki Anno, the creator of Evangelion.

Anno has been a busy guy since putting a presumably permanent period on the Evangelion franchise with 2021’s Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, making Shin Ultraman in 2022 and Shin Kamen Rider in 2023. He also recently revealed that he’s helming a new Space Battleship Yamato anime project. He’s still got the time and energy to be part of Japan’s biggest mecha franchise of all, though, as he’s listed as a writer for the upcoming Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX anime TV series, whose reveal/preview video can be seen above.

▼ The GQuuuuuuX part of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is transcribed phonetically in Japanese as “Jiikuakusu,” and is most likely meant to be pronounced in English similarly to “gee quacks.”

Anno isn’t the only Khara luminary involved with GQuuuuuuX, either. In fact, a number of key roles are being filled by Khara staff, who also worked together at Gainax, Evangelion’s original corporate parent on Eva, FLCL, and Gunbuster 2: Diebuster. Directing GQuuuuuuX will be Kazuya Tsurumaki (director of the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, the 2000 FLCL OVA series, Gunbuster 2, and certain episodes of the Evangleion TV series and its compilation movies). Yoji Enokido (writer of the second, third, and fourth Rebuild movies, FLCL, Gunbuster 2, and select episodes of Evangelion and Sailor Moon S and SuperS) is also listed as a writer for GQuuuuuuX, with his name preceding Anno’s in the dual credit. Finally, the mecha designer for the new Gundam series is Ikuto Yamashita, who also handled the Evangelion mecha designs.

▼ GQuuuuuuX is also the name of the new series’ hero Gundam.

The producers describe the story with:

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.

GQuuuuuuX will be the second consecutive Gundam TV anime with a teenage girl as its protagonist, following Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. It’s also the second Gundam TV series in a row to eschew the regular military, rebel force, and mercenary band scenarios that make up the bulk of the franchise’s narratives, and considering the past work of the GQuuuuuuX directing and writing crew, it’s not a shock to see the preview video adopting a moody, contemplative atmosphere of youthful unease and identity crisis.

There will, though, of course also be model kits, with one already being previewed.

No premiere date has been announced yet for Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, but a “theatrical version using re-edited episodes,” to be titled Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- is scheduled for release in Japanese theaters on January 17, so it’s probably a safe bet that the series will begin airing on Japanese TV sometime in 2025.

Source: Gundam official website
Top image: YouTube/GundamInfo
Insert images: Gundam official website (1, 2), YouTube/GundamInfo
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