A dream collaboration with Khara creating a new Gundam series! We have all seen how Hideaki Anno works to revive and retell the stories of iconic franchises in Godzilla, Ultraman, Kamen Rider and now the mecha giant, Gundam. Although he is only one of the screenwriters and storyboard artists, with FLCL director Kazuya Tsurumaki taking the directorial role, it does not mean that it is less compelling or losing Anno san's trademark from the series. Just like the Shin Japan Heroes Universe series, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX takes the essence of the original Mobile Suit Gundam (1979-1980) series and tells a different and yet familiar story. In fact, the first arc of the film, titled -Beginning-, is a prologue that makes all the reference to the original series, recreating iconic scenes from "One Year War" and reusing the 1979 series' original soundtrack score, while it makes use of modern animation technique blending 2D and 3D models beautifully and creating stunning mecha fighting visuals.
For the film itself, it is a good balance of old and new with the prologue's tribute to original series and the second part's introduction to new characters and mecha. The redesign of old mechas would take some time to adjust to, and they are obviously heavily influenced by Evangelion and more specifically Evangelion: Anima spin-off. For the new mecha Gundam GQuuuuuuX, it is beautifully designed with a slim body.
Like Evangelion 1.0 and 2.0, Gundam GQuuuuuuX would divert into a different story direction after this prologue segment. Again, in usual Khara fashion, the second half of the story would raise more questions than offer any answers. We will have to wait for the rest of the anime series to come out and then we can decide if this risk is worth taking.