REVIEW ‘Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX’ Episode 4 — “The Witch’s War”

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX Episode 4, “The Witch’s War,” sparks some great combat in Clan Battle amidst Amate Yuzuriha’s (Tomoyo Kurosawa) and Shuji Ito’s (Shimba Tsuchiya) winning streak. A new contender, known as “The Witch” (Manami Hanawa), hopes to take the duo down, but for personal reasons. Commander Challia Bull (Shinji Kawada), Xavier Olivette (Seiichiro Yamashita), and his Zeon crew continue to observe the Clan Battle to learn more about the pilots of the Red and White Gundams.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX Episode 4’s story takes a significant turn when the super unicum or ace pilot Shiiko Sugai, aka The Witch, visits Kaneban Co., Ltd., asking for more information on the Red Gundam and its pilot. Based on Annqi (Mariya Ise) and Challia’s exposition, Shiiko shot down over 100 enemies during the One Year War. Shiiko has a score to settle with the Red Gundam because the Red Gundam killed Shiiko’s Mav. Seeing Shiiko, who clings to mobile suit combat even at the cost of abandoning her husband and child, Amate witnesses the depth of human obsession.

As for Amate, Shuji, and Nyaan’s (Yui Ishikawa) main plot, Shuji reveals he wants to take the Red Gundam to Earth. Shuji explains to Amate that before the Clan Battle, the Red Gundam had told Shuji that it was looking for a rose. Neither Amate nor the audience knows what Shuji’s talking about, which leaves a plot thread hanging by the end of the episode. 

There’s depth to the storytelling and action set pieces in Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX Episode 4. Even though Shiiko is quickly introduced in this episode, there’s enough meat in her backstory for the viewer to care about her motivations. Shiiko’s goal is simple: taking down the Red Gundam. That goal fuels Shiiko to do anything to defeat the Red Gundam, even at the cost of death.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX Episode 4 delivers eye-popping animation. 

Seeing Shiiko’s face light up at the start of the Clan Battle shows how much she’s a war veteran who has become addicted to fighting—especially when her opponent is her enemy, the Red Gundam. The more Shiiko presses her methodical attacks, the more euphoric and unhinged she becomes. This may be a sign that Shiiko’s mental health isn’t the best, as she’s addicted to fighting from the byproduct of fighting the war. Even though her backstory isn’t fully fleshed out, her fight-or-flight response has been switched to keep fighting.

Despite Shiiko’s outstanding efforts to outwit and outplay Amate and Shuji, they’re too spiritual for Shiiko to handle. This is a pivotal moment because if Shuji hadn’t spiritually calmed Shiiko’s vengeful mentality, Shiiko’s combat prowess would’ve won her the fight. Also, if Char Aznable had been Red Gundam’s pilot, Shiiko might have won the fight.

No matter how often the Gundam pilots, whether Amate, Shuji, or Shiiko, visit what Amate calls the “kira-kira” (sparkly) world, it never gets old. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX Episode 4 displays every color of the rainbow on-screen. The way Shuji takes Shiiko to the kira-kira world is animated beautifully. First, Shuji mentally pings Shiiko, visually shown through the Gundam spidey-sense flash across the screen. Shuji is given an angelic depiction because the animation halts him in a white flash. Shuji explains how the Red Gundam is not going down without a fight.

Using the Gundam telepathic method with this animation style delivers eye-popping overstimulation. When Shiiko sees Shuji in the kira-kira world, the colors appear to blossom, like flowers opening up in the springtime. From a storytelling perspective, the kira-kira world represents a place of tranquility. At least, that’s how Shuji projects the kira-kira world to others and how Amate sees the ethereal world.

Shiiko discovers the beauty of the kira-kira through Shuji. 

To a certain extent, Shuji has the special ability to bring other pilots and Newtypes (those with the special Gundam sense) to the kira-kira world.  In doing so, Shuji presents Shiiko with the beauty of the colorful Gundam world. By the end of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX Episode 4, Shiiko understands Shuji’s good soul as the Red Gundam pilot.

Knowing Shuji is the pilot and knowing she lost the battle with the Red Gundam appears to give Shiiko a sense of relief and satisfaction. Shiiko’s smile implies she doesn’t need to keep trying to kill the Red Gundam anymore, and she can live on peacefully. Shiiko’s full-circle moment is heightened by her cute character design, too. The character designer Take deserves praise for Shiiko’s character design, cranked the cuteness meter to the maximum with Shiiko’s child-like figure and dull eyes.

The strength of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is its methods of giving context to characters through other dialogues while the main action is happening. The best example is when Annqui is watching the Clan Battle; she explains to her Kaneban crew all about Shiiko’s combat style, hinting that Annqui knows a lot about Shiiko and the One Year War.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX Episode 4 is one of the strongest episodes yet with heavy action and vital character-building. From the way Shiiko’s backstory is told to the depiction of the kira-kira world, this episode exhibits many excellent technical and narrative beats. By the end of the episode, we see Shiiko’s tragic story come to a satisfying full-circle resolution—despite her brief appearance. The ongoing mystery behind the Red Gundam’s “La-La Sound” promises greater stories yet to unfold.

Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX Episode 4 is streaming on Prime Video.

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