Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, the newest entry in the long-running mecha series, took us back to the events of the 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam anime, but with many twists and turns that massively change how the original timeline unfolds. But due to its intentionally playful nature, there’s been a lot of debate on the “canonicity” of the GQuuuuuuX story among Gundam fans alike.
As it’s been running for almost 50 years now, the timeline(s) of the Gundam series are not that easy to wrap your head around, especially if you’re new to the franchise. While the biggest portion of the series takes place in the Universal Century timeline, other Gundam anime are set across parallel independent timelines like the Cosmic Era, Future Century and After Colony.
Though most installments are quite explicit about what timeline they take place in, Gundam GQuuuuuuX went on to shake up the events of the Universal Century alternate-universe-style, making it somewhat difficult for fans to figure out where (and if) it fits in the larger context of the series. And with recent new titles like Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury being their own standalone thing, some fans theorized that this could be the case with GQuuuuuuX as well. However, the Gundam official website suggests that’s not the case.
The site logs every Gundam anime in chronological order and conveniently separates the animated franchise into four distinct series: the Universal Century series, the Alternative series, SD Gundam series, and the Gundam Build series. Notably, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX was sorted into the Universal Century series, not the Alternative one. Though many fans are saying that – well yeah, it would make sense for it to be a part of the Universal Century series – this is the first time that the “canonicity” of Gundam GQuuuuuuX was officially addressed by Bandai Namco Filmworks. And while the question of how GQuuuuuuX would fit into the whole timeline puzzle is still partially unanswered, you can sleep peacefully knowing that it is canonically a part of the Universal Century series.
Interestingly, many point out that Gundam Reconguista in G has also been listed as a part of the Universal Century series, despite it technically taking place in the Regild Century. This is probably due to it being part of the same continuity, similarly to Turn A Gundam which connects all of the other timelines with the Universal Century timeline (thus also being categorized as a part of the Universal Century series).
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