Gundam GQuuuuuuX’s Finish Credit Are Already Fueling the Flames of Sapphic Hypothesis

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. But it surely’s the vitality within the wake of that that makes the arrival of Gundam GQuuuuuuX so fascinating, as a result of now the chances of that transport hyperfixation being in followers’ favor are larger than ever.

The primary episode of GQuuuuuuX premiered around the globe final evening, and whereas all of its materials was already coated by the compilation movie Beginning when it launched a number of 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 house collectively, dwelling a quiet life fairly not like those we’re launched to within the episode. There’s singing, there’s dancing, there’s pizza events, and the ladies are seen crashing out collectively aspect by aspect. It’s very candy, nevertheless it’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 just isn’t all the time totally true to the textual content of the present itself (though it’s definitely honest 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 inside the present). Irrespective of the intentions or the interpretations of the sequence, GQuuuuuuX‘s ending may simply be a cute what-if state of affairs that doesn’t pan out within the present.

However that’s to not say that GQuuuuuuX itself isn’t a minimum of projecting numerous queer vibes to some individuals, 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 fascinating when Machu tags together with Nyaan to drop off a smuggled piece of package that may in the end 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 may even be a Mav—in GQuuuuuuX‘s worldbuilding, the time period for a duo in Cell 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 occasions within the collection with a degree of closeness that goes past easy wingman although, making Machu’s use of it (past her intrigue at probably becoming a member of in on underground mecha fights) fascinating. Challia’s relationship to Char—who went lacking alongside the original Gundam on the finish of the warfare, 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 relatively, his Mav,” to counsel a bond even nearer than that.

Anybody who’s seen Starting will even know that one other character describes Challia as nonetheless being within the “thrall” of the Crimson Comet, Char’s nickname from the warfare. And all that’s even earlier than stepping into the truth that collection author Yoji Enokido (who has written on, amongst different issues, the likes of Revolutionary Lady Utena, Evangelion, and FLCL, all collection with various ranges of express and implicit queer intimacy) has said in press interviews that, regardless of it being a army time period, it’s additionally one he may see as getting used to seek advice from the bond between buddies 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 may pair off any variety of its characters, or the hints and particulars followers hoping for a Sulemio repeat might be nothing extra than simply that: hints. It might admittedly be very humorous for Gundam to do back-to-back feminine protagonists who occur to be queer, a landmark first for the collection in Witch From Mercury made much more notable by it occurring instantly once more from one other, unconnected artistic workforce, however we’ve merely not seen sufficient of the present but to know if that’s going to be the case.

That truth gained’t cease shippers from hoping anyway. And if it doesn’t? Nicely, that’s the enjoyment of fandom transport, isn’t it—they’ll be capable of create loads of work imagining in any other case regardless.

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

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every part you should find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.