Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuX Part 1 Episodes 1-3

Universal Century 0085.  Five years have passed since the One Year War ended in victory for the Principality of Zeon.  In the neutral space colony of Side 6, Amate “Machu” Yuzuriha dreams of seeing the oceans of Earth with her own eyes.  The road to her wish coming true begins when she comes into possession of a prototype Zeon Gundam unit, the GQuuuuuX and begins to partake in Mobile Suit Clan Battles.  Fighting by her side is Suji, a mysterious and ethereal young man piloting a Gundam of his own, one colored red and once belonging to the infamous Zeon ace, Char Aznable.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE FROM THE GUNDAM ANIME CORNER!!!!  

And do I have a special gift for you.  Starting today and for the next couple of days to close out 2025, we’ll be looking at the latest chapter of the Mobile Suit Gundam saga, MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM GQUUUUUX.  Originally I was planning to launch this one next year to possibly kick off the Blog’s 13^th Season.  But then I figured, with the Slayers Event running a bit short and I always want to have at least one special review for Christmas Day, this felt like a good compromise.  Plus I get to review brand new Gundam the same year it came out?  Feels like a no brainer.  Anyway enough of that long winded Happy Holidays intro.  Let’s suit up and get to the review proper.
 
The announcement of a new Gundam project of any kind is going to get plenty of attention.  41 years in, it’s still one of the most popular Mecha Anime franchises of all time and still going relatively strong after the last couple of years with The Witch from Mercury and SEED Freedom.  But Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuX has a whole other level of expectation behind it.  I base this soley on the fact that this is a joint collaboration between Studio Sunrise and Studio Khara, aka the studio behind the Rebuild of Evangelion series.  Yep, the forces behind TWO of Anime’s biggest Mecha legends unite to unleash a whole new breed of Gundam upon the world.  We’re in for an interesting ride with this one but right now, how’s does the initial launch go?
 

T5W#541-Top 5 Thoughts on the Street Fighter (2026) Reveal Trailer

2026 is shaping up to be a big year for Video Game Adaptations on the big screen.  April sees Mario and friends take to the stars in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and May will finally see the stupidly delayed sequel Mortal Kombat II tear up the screen (Bring on Kitana and Karl Urban as Johnny Cage).  Later in the year though, another recognizable franchise is getting another shot at the silver screen: Street Fighter.  Like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter has had similar ups and downs with it’s two previous movies: the flawed but incredibly campy and fun 1994 film and the so-bad-no-one-even-talks-about it…like ever The Legend of Chun Li.  The Game Awards a couple weeks back revealed the first look the new movie and…wow, both head scratchingly wow and HOLY FRAK wow.  Is this the Live Action Street Fighter movie we’ve all been waiting for?  We’ve still got less than a year to wait but on today’s Top 5 Wednesday, I’m sharing my Top 5 Thoughts on the Street Fighter (2026) Reveal Trailer. 

 

Slayers Premium

Lina Inverse and her partner, Gourry Gabriev have come to the town of Acassi to sample it’s famous Octopus dishes.  Sadly, much like with any adventure, they’ve arrived at the worst time.  The townspeople are falling victim to a curse where they can only speak the language of the Octopus, and Gourry has just been cursed too.  Together with Zelgadis, Amelia and Xellos, it’s up to Lina to find a cure and stop the oncoming invasion of Octupus seeking revenge against the people of Acassi.  But they picked the wrong time.  No one disturbs Lina Inverse’s meal and lives to tell the tale.

Slayers Premium marks a major milestone for the Slayers Film Series as it’s the only entry not a prequel to the TV Series like the others.  And yet the notion that Lina is heading into chaos with her usual group of misfits doesn’t make the experience any more meaningful because Slayers Premium isnt so much a movie as it is a run of the mill episode of the TV Series and even then, it’s just an ok one at best.  It’s not long enough to be boring like the Slayers Excellent OVA but too short to be anything special.  In fact, that’s probably the best word to describe Slayers Premium, it’s a TV Special and if this was meant to relaunch interest in the franchise after Slayers Try ended in 1997 (Premium came out in 2001), well I can see why they waited a few more years to give us Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R.
 

Slayers Excellent

There has never been a menace, monster or force of Evil Lina Inverse hasn’t been able to handle…until now.  When a busty and scantily dressed Sorceress called Naga the Serpent appears and declares herself Lina’s greatest rival, Lina’s world is turned upside down forever.  Now she cant seem to escape this walking time bomb whose laugh hails her appearance.  And Lina’s got all manner of jobs and missions driving her crazy as well.  How the heck did Lina and Naga survive their first encounter?  This is where the Legend begins.

Slayers Excellent marks our final feature with Lina and Naga as the main stars and it does set itself up with quite the hook: the very first meeting of our two sexy Sorceress frenemies.  However, while their first encounter goes exactly as you might imagine for these two danger magnets, the rest of Slayers Excellent falls far short of the bar set by their previous feature films and the Slayers Special OVA.  I dare even say this might be the most dull and bored I’ve been watching anything Slayers.  Honestly, it’s so much of a letdown that even Lina and Naga cant salvage a lot of it, mostly because the OVA wont even let them try.
 

Slayers Special

It seems to be a guarantee that no matter where they go, trouble is never far behind for Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent.  Even if said trouble involves mirror doppelgangers, over protective mothers and Lina’s worst nightmare: an army of Naga clones, where there’s money to be made, the Slayers will be there.  Bring on the danger and bring on the adventure.

Having spent most of the last few weeks hanging out with Lina and Naga in more adventures, I think Slayers Special, released stateside as Slayers: The Book of Spells (not sure why), is further evidence there could have been a Slayers Season Zero (SLAYERS ZERO!!!) dedicated to just the two of them.  It looks fantastic, has some great jokes and makes it clear to me that not only am I not tired of Lina and Naga’s escapades…I kind of don’t miss the OG Slayers crew either (yikes that is a scary notion).  However, as I said, Slayers Special presents a good case for a TV Season and that includes the good and the bad. There’s a lot to like but one story in particular gets annoying fast and the other tales are going to depend on your tolerance for the main duo, especially Naga.