There may be surprisingly few people who can accurately explain the differences between the White Base and Pegasus. Many must have wondered, “What exactly is Pegasus?” Pegasus is actually the first ship of its class, specially designed for mobile suit operations, and is considered to be the predecessor, or “older brother,” of White Base.

Although its appearance and capabilities are very similar, Pegasus never appeared in the original TV series and became known as a “phantom ship” only mentioned in setting materials. In Gundam canon, the first Pegasus-class assault landing ship is Pegasus, and the second is White Base.

But in the world of "GQuuuuuuX," the original Pegasus docks at Side 7 and is sunk along with Captain Paolo (Paolo Cassius, voiced by Hiroshi Naka) due to Char’s attack. The ship is subsequently captured and refurbished by Zeon, who begin using it under the name “Sodon.”

While "GQuuuuuuX" was initially received as an “IF” (what-if) world as of episode 2, as the story progresses, it is gradually revealed to actually be taking place in a parallel universe. For example, in episode 11, Shūji Itō (voiced by Shimba Tsuchiya) says, “I came from the other side,” which slowly brings this narrative structure to the forefront.

With this in mind, rewatching episode 2 reveals that the “Trojan Horse” that appeared wasn’t just a lookalike White Base, but the presence of Pegasus itself signifies a world with a different history. In that sense, this scene might be seen as the gateway to a “shifted Universal Century.”

"Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX" is the latest entry in the long-running "Mobile Suit Gundam" series that began in 1979. The story follows Amate Yuzuriha (voiced by Tomoyo Kurosawa), an ordinary high school girl living peacefully in a space colony, whose life is thrown into chaos after she meets the mysterious girl Nyaan (voiced by Yui Ishikawa) and is drawn into the illegal mobile suit dueling competition known as “Clan Battle.” Co-produced by acclaimed studio Khara (responsible for the new "Evangelion" films) and Sunrise, the series garnered attention with its theatrical advance release in January this year, which became a major hit with box office revenue of approximately 3.4 billion yen. It has also been decided that the film will return to theaters nationwide at 368 locations starting June 20.

(C)SOTSU·SUNRISE

English