A screening of the anime "Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX" was held on April Getsuku at Shinjuku Piccadilly (Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo), with director Kazuya Tsurumaki, series composition and scriptwriter Yoji Enokido, and voice actor Shinya Tsuchiya, who plays Shuji Ito, in attendance. Approximately one year after the start of the TV anime broadcast, Director Tsurumaki and Mr. Enokido revealed some behind-the-scenes stories about the climax, "Zekunova," and Shuji that they "can only talk about now."
◇The climax is like a movie
The series aired from April to June 2025. Because too much information was kept under wraps, social media was flooded with surprised reactions to the unpredictable plot. On this day, episodes 8 through 12 of the TV anime were screened, and the climactic developments became a hot topic.
Enokido revealed, "The overall flow was decided from the beginning. The development of the last three episodes was decided by the series composition, and since there was originally no 9th episode, we did 3 episodes instead of 4. (The theatrical versions of the same series) 'Char's Counterattack' and 'F91' are fast-paced, but the TV series is much slower. I wanted to try doing the pace of a movie on TV. I was planning to make a movie in the end. However, the director's pace is faster than mine." Director Tsurumaki responded, "I prefer a faster pace than a movie," and Tsuchiya said, "For the voice recording of the final episode, the challenge was how to get into the right mood in a short amount of time. I'm not a Newtype yet, so I put in a lot of effort and was prepared to change my emotions. It was a unique experience."
◇Zex Nova and Axis Shock are different things.
There was also a unique setting for "GQuuuuuuX" called "Zekunova." According to Enokido, "It was decided in Director Tsurumaki's mind from the beginning," and Director Tsurumaki explained, "I didn't think it would be used frequently. Char pilots a Gundam. It was a sci-fi setting to make that work. I thought it would only appear once, and then again at the end. The fact that it appeared midway through was just how it turned out during production."
Director Tsurumaki stated that this is different from the "Axis Shock" in "Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack," and said, "I thought it wasn't good for supernatural phenomena to occur in Gundam, but since there was the Axis Shock, I thought it might be acceptable."
◇Who is Shuji?
Tsuchiya, who plays Shuji, asked a question that got to the heart of the matter: "Who exactly is Shuji?" Director Tsurumaki said that Shuji is "a character like a fairy from Gundam," but he kept the details to himself.
Director Tsurumaki also said, "I intentionally didn't explain things in detail to Tsuchiya, and Tsuchiya also came up with a directing plan that it would be better if she didn't hear anything. I was grateful for that. When I listened to the audition tapes to decide on the voice actors, I knew Tsuchiya was the right choice right away. I thought that if I explained things to her, she might change her mind."
"Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX" garnered attention for being the first collaboration between Sunrise, known for the "Gundam" series, and Khara, known for the "Evangelion" series. Prior to the broadcast of the TV anime series, a theatrical prequel, "Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-," which restructured some episodes, began screening on January 17, 2025. The TV anime aired from April to June of the same year.
The screening that day was held to commemorate the release of the theatrical pre-release version of "Beginning" on "4K ULTRA HD Blu-ray + Blu-ray & DVD" on May 27th. Director Tsurumaki appealed to the audience, saying, "'Beginning' has a different structure from the TV version, and it has its own unique merits. I hope you will also check out 'Beginning'."
