Chiikawa, the beloved creation of illustrator and manga artist Nagano, exploded onto the scene in 2020 and quickly swept across the globe. Its unique charm only grew with the release of its TV anime, making it a universally adored phenomenon.
Today (April 17), creator Nagano shared their hilarious experience of diving into the Gundam universe by watching the theatrical prequel, "Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX-Beginning-," the latest installment in the "Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX" anime series. Their manga depicting the adventure had netizens gushing over how adorable the artist is, even becoming a trending topic on X!
▼ The manga instantly became a trending keyword on X after its release.
Nagano's comic shows them heading to the cinema, mentioning how they decided to finally jump into Gundam and picked this movie as their entry point.
They revealed that their Gundam knowledge mostly came from SD Gundam, leading to some "fun facts" like:
- Qubeley wears lipstick.
- Zaku is Zaku Tofu.
- Haro (that round robot!) talks! And so on...
Having been a Pokémon fan previously, they admitted to knowing almost nothing about Gundam, but found Zaku Tofu pretty cute.
But once the movie started, they suddenly spotted a familiar face: "Char Aznable"! "Wait, this isn't right," they thought. "This must be 'old Gundam'! I bought the wrong ticket! I must've gotten a re-run!"
At first, they even wondered if they'd "jumped straight into a movie for hardcore fans"... but as they kept watching... "That guy's eyes... they tell a story!" In the end, they found themselves really getting into it and even shared a few characters that caught their attention.
Fans absolutely loved Nagano-sensei's unique take on Char, joking that they could almost hear Hachiwari's voice coming from the speech bubble. LOL.
It was also a rare treat to see Nagano draw female characters in the comic, with many loving their rendition of the "Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX" cast.
However, fans were quite surprised that Nagano's entire understanding of Gundam came from SD Gundam. They pointed out that the actual characters aren't nearly as laid-back, leading to some serious "temperature shock" for the artist! LOL.
Many fans were shocked that Nagano's entry into Gundam was through this particular movie. Their comic, capturing the impact and feelings of watching the film, was both adorable and hilarious. Who knows, maybe a Gundam collaboration is in the cards someday?! XD