Char’s Red Gundam In ‘GQuuuuuuX’ Has Some Curious History Behind It

With Gundam GQuuuuuuX released in Japan, we now know that Char has a new red Gundam, but it’s not actually that new at all.

The main premise of Gundam GQuuuuuuX is a “what if” scenario in which Char Aznable finds the original RX-78-2 Gundam instead of Amuro Ray.

This sets up the story for the main characters to come along later and unearth this unusual mobile suit for themselves.

However, this “what if” premise was already explored in a 1998 Sega Saturn turn-based strategy game called Gihren’s Greed.

Named after the rather evil Gihren Zabi from the original Mobile Suit Gundam, the game featured a multitude of different scenarios for characters from the series and explored how those scenarios played out.

One of those was Char finding the RX-78-2 Gundam and painting it red, as per his other mobile suits. Called Casval’s Gundam, as that was Char’s real name, it has gone on to be a fan favorite in the decades since.

While multiple games have been released in the Gihren’s Greed series, none of them really ever came Westward. We did have a few fan translation attempts, but around the time these games existed, the Western fandom for Gundam was very small.

So it’s interesting to see GQuuuuuuX use this premise again, although this time with Ikuto Yamashita’s mecha designs rather than those by Kunio Okawara.

Naturally, Gundam fans in Japan have picked up on this connection and have been talking about it at length online. What with many of them being fans of the Gihren’s Greed games, they were surprised to see this kind of thing happen in a new Gundam anime.

Sega Saturn game influences aside, Gundam GQuuuuuuX will come Westward theatrically this February courtesy of GKIDS.

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