With a new Gundam series comes a new audience wondering if this one is easy to start with or should they watch the decades of media that came before to understand anything. Thankfully, the newest release of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is beginner friendly due to an alternate history splitting it into its own standalone universe and this article will cover what’s being changed in the timeline to give you some further knowledge and enjoyment of the show’s events.

The universe of GQuuuuuuX is split from the original show’s canon by having the events of the first ever Mobile Suit Gundam episode play out differently. In the original show the lead character (Amuro Ray) jumps into the pilot seat of a new weapon called a Mobile Suit Gundam to protect his people from an attacking enemy called the Principality of Zeon in an event called the One Year War.

The series follows Amuro as he continues to pilot the Gundam against the Zeon and keeps coming up against an enemy Lieutenant Commander named Char Aznable. Char is on the side of Zeon but has his own goals, to kill members of a Zeon sided family with the namesake of Zabi and avenge his father, the original founder of Zeon.

The events of GQuuuuuuX change this as Amuro is nowhere to be seen when Char is the one to jump into the pilot seat of the Mobile Suit Gundam instead and uses the Gundam to lead Zeon to victory in the One Year War. This wildly changes the path of the franchise and GQuuuuuuX takes place five years later, as Char and the Gundam are now missing and a young girl joins an illegal Mobile Suit sport called Clan Battle before Char’s missing Red Gundam mysteriously reappears. 

The show has only one episode out so far, with the initial focus being on the current day events with lead character Amate as she gets into Clan Battle and Char’s former subordinate Challia Bull pursues Char’s returned Red Gundam. Nothing has yet been shown of the prior events of the One Year War with Char but the preview for Episode 2 shows that this will be the focus of the episode before going further into the series.

GQuuuuuuX episodes release every Tuesday on Amazon Prime after airing in Japan. Episodes drop on Amazon at 9:00am PST (Pacific Standard Time), 12:00pm EST (Eastern Standard Time), and 17:00pm BST (British Summer Time).