There's few phrases more loaded than "Studio Khara is working on this project". While I don't think it's fair that the entire studio is often chalked up to the efforts of Hideaki Anno, its creative vision is pretty uniform- you can smell Khara's influence a mile way.

Yet, it's that Studio Khara touch that makes GQuuuuuux Beginning such a delight. Acting as a recap movie for an anime that isn't even out yet, Beginning tells the introduction to the next big Gundam jaunt, a collaborative venture between Sunrise and the aforementioned Studio Khara.

This Is (Not) Rebuild Of Gundam

If you're expecting Evangelion with a Gundam skin, you're probably better walking away. GQuuuuuux Beginning is not some introspective piece about finding your place in the world and also there's giant robots. Well, not in the way you'd be expecting, anyways.

Instead, what it is is Khara playing to their other strength: absolute love letters to their favorite genres. The visual language of mobile suits dancing across the screen is very evocative of the older Gundam series. Everything feels like 0079 not because it's trying to be a shot-for-shot remake, but because the artists at work understand what 0079 was going for at the time and is building on it with modern tools.

In a world of modern lip service and "did you see the thing"-ism, it's really nice to see GQuuuuuux Beginning be so sincere in its admiration for the mecha genre. Its ideas are new, but they also feel academically backed- it feels like fanfiction in the best sense, in that it was worked on with the sole mission of making a worthy entry for one of the largest mecha franchises.

That being said, it does share one thing in common with Studio Khara's Rebuild of Evangelion movies, and that's a certain difficulty in recommending it to newcomers. It's not so much that you wouldn't understand the movie without being a UC loremaster, but the front end in particular explores a lot of really interesting questions, and I'm almost curious what the experience must be for someone who doesn't know that they're being asked at all.

I Will (Not) Spoil GQuuuuuux Beginning

If you're wondering why I haven't gotten to the plot, it's because it's one of those things that really should be experienced with as little information as possible. Briefly, GQuuuuuux Beginning follows Machu, a young girl thrust into a world of underground mech fighting. It's here that the movie really hits its limits as a compilation piece- due to everything that happens, there's not much to say about the characters.

But that's also kind of the point- GQuuuuuux Beginning is ultimately a sample platter for the full anime that releases this April. It sets up a lot of really interesting moving pieces. But at the same time, it only sets them up- there's so many questions I'm left asking by the end of the film that it's almost to its detriment that I'm denied some kind of satisfaction.

Without getting into spoilers, it's the older characters that really strike me as fascinating here- Gundam has always done a good job of having characters who can do the most interesting thing in an episode despite being in only one scene, and that same air of intimidation and intrigue is well and alive here.

Mix that with some good Studio Khara intrigue- the kind where you have to ask yourself if you know what rules are at play, and you've got a hell of a first impression for the next big Gundam series.

Final Score: 8/10

GQuuuuuux Beginning is screening now in Malaysia via TGV Cinemas