Today marks the release of Kidou Senshi Gundam GQuuuuuuX’s sixth episode, and I’m currently left feeling just a tad bit confused after my watching of it.
Solid episode through and through. An obvious focus on reintroducing Bask Om, cyber newtypes, and further reestablishing the factions in this off-shoot of the Universal Century. I like this sort of stuff plenty, and the show often takes any given opportunity to flaunt actual originality had in the world building or mechanical design that I like just as much, but these characters need more room to breathe and develop.
Except for Nyaan. She had plenty of room to breathe and had an apt focus in this episode, as she similarly did inside the GQuuuuuX last episode. She’s beginning to grow on me in the same way Machu has. Both of these girls fill this show with life, and their relationship is obviously developing into a core focus in that regard.
I’m left scratching my head in regards to Challia Bull and his rather strong sway in the plot. Not that he as a character shouldn’t retain said sway in this setting, but the fashion in which he’s so easily commandeered the story is rather striking. Not only was he able to effectively shatter the integrity of the Pomeranians as a clan battle team by way of a single conversation had with leader Annqi, but he also shows up out of literal nowhere to save Xavier’s life in a chance encouter; exactly what kind of newtype are we working with here? I understand newtypes do usually function in miraculous ways, but this is quite a bit more coming out quite a bit more quickly than I anticipated. I’m currently in no position to argue this show’s pacing is bad or the writing is acting against itself, but I could see it becoming a problem if things are being done arbitrarily.
All things considered, I’ll be giving the benefit of the doubt to GQuuuuuuX for the time being, as I really have been enjoying myself a lot thus far. While it has the potential to be the best series out of this anime season, I have a feeling my heart truly lies in the other currently airing show I’ll discuss in my next post: Shin Samurai-den Yaiba!
Yaiba has quickly attained the reputation of being a throwback to more ostensibly vintage battle shonen shows, while repping some of the cleanest animation out of the respective genre this season (perhaps the decade). While there’s certainly a point to be made that the manga itself, and the broader aesthetic Shin Samurai-den Yaiba pulls from is very old-school, I believe this series is much more of a modern send-up of these things, samurai anime, and the overall style of Yaiba’s original creator, Gosho Aoyama.
The first three episodes, as per modern shonen law, establish the status quo with the ease and finesse of a master. This is a major reason why the show has so quickly built a core following; it’s all so simple to start, but it’s doing these kinda tropey things in the absolute best way possible.
Yaiba himself is a loose canon, and I can understand some viewers finding him more annoying than charming, but that is indeed the point. I’ve found his journey from starting a rambunctious boy into an unruly swordsman to be rather compelling, but again, it’s the presentation that counts in an anime, and someone wouldn’t be wrong to find the constant childish shenanigans grating. Although, despite not being the funniest battle shonen out there, the overall jovial tone is extremely enticing. Even the villains we come to meet carry a particularly “Saturday-morning-cartoon” type of energy. Even Yaiba’s ultimate foil in Onimaru can come across kind of silly. He certainly commands the presence he ought to, but the show is framing everything around the pretense of a clandestine final battle we’ve yet to see, making that tone mentioned prior sincerely highlight the contrast between protagonist Yaiba and the actually dire situations he’s being put into.
The two episode time travel arc has made this subtext all too clear to me now. Yaiba, and to an extent all swordsmen we’ve met thus far, evidently stand to represent the old chivalry of Japanese samurai. That might sound rather obvious, but as someone who has taken time to read Musashi’s book of the five rings before watching this, I wonder if there are some layers that aren’t immediately clear to most. Miyamoto Musashi himself is not only a supporter of Yaiba’s, but indeed a very real person in this story’s history, rather than an arbitrary character added for the sake of historical member berries. His real world teachings are utterly symbolic of the character arc we are actively seeing Yaiba go through.
In particular, the Book of Nothing (a.k.a the Book of Voidi), which acts as the last segment of Musashi’s Book of The Five Rings, greatly summarizes a deep pathos latent to the man’s beliefs. While he clearly explains his more practical beliefs in the prior sections of the text, the Book of Nothing describes the flow of one’s decision making on a base level; the very energy you carry and input is what you will receive as feedback and output. To quote the Stephen F. Kaufman translation from Tuttle: “YOU are the Spirit of the Thing Itself!”
Again, despite how clear this might come across with even a brief explanation, I feel the average viewer could have their appreciation grow with a somewhat deeper understanding. Both Yaiba and Onimaru represent two different trajectories we’re witnessing steadily inch towards collision. Needless to say, I’m all for it!
