The latest work in the popular anime series "Gundam" is "Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuX (Zeke Axe)". When the theatrical version of "Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuX -Beginning-" was released on January 17th ahead of the TV anime broadcast, the term "Green Uncle" became a hot topic on social media. What is "Green Uncle"?
◇Born to avoid spoilers!
The early cinema version was released on January 17th with some spoilers concealed. In fact, familiar characters from the first Gundam series, Mobile Suit Gundam (First Gundam), which aired from 1979 to 1980, such as "Red Comet" Char Aznable and Sharia Bull, appear in the film, but on social media, fans have been writing about their thoughts on the film without revealing spoilers. The "green uncle" refers to Sharia Bull. To avoid spoilers that Sharia Bull will be appearing, Sharia Bull came to be called "green uncle" after his green hair, beard, and the color of his military uniform.
Sharia Bull is a character who appears only in episode 39 of the First Gundam TV anime, "Newtype, Sharia Bull," and does not appear in the movie trilogy. Sharia Bull, a "man returning from Jupiter" from the Principality of Zeon, fights against Amuro Ray's Gundam as a Newtype in his mobile armor Brown Bro.
Episode 39 also includes memorable lines from Char: "Newtypes are not omnipotent," and "They may be a sad deformity of humanity created by war." This is also an episode that makes you think about what a Newtype is.
Director Kazuya Tsurumaki and series composer and scriptwriter Yoji Enokido of "GQuuuuuuX" explained how Sharia Bull came to appear in the film during a stage greeting at the advance screening.
Enokido revealed, "We've been talking about Gundam for over 20 years now, when we were working on FLCL(which Director Tsurumaki worked on). Around that time, we were talking about how it would be interesting to remake it with Sharia Bull as the main character." Director Tsurumaki commented, "Director Higuchi Shinji also seems to have talked about Sharia Bull somewhere, so perhaps there was a similar feeling in that community. Sharia Bull only appears in one episode (of the TV anime series), but perhaps there was a desire to delve deeper into him."
◇The novel version and "THE ORIGIN" are different!
The popularity of the "Green Uncle" has caused a bit of a boom, with Bandai releasing an acrylic stand of First Gundam's Sharia Bull and T-shirts of Brown Bro.
The reprinting of the novel version of First Gundam written by Director Yoshiyuki Tomino has also been a hot topic. The novel version depicts the exploits of Sharia Bull in a different way from the anime, and it seems to have attracted attention once again.
Sharia Bull also appears in the manga "Mobile Suit Gundam THE ORIGIN" by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, who is known for his character design of First Gundam, but his impression is different from that of the anime and novel. What's interesting about Sharia Bull is that his impression changes between episode 39 of First Gundam and the novel version, "THE ORIGIN".
