Kidou Senshi Gundam: Senkou no Hathaway

A PERECT Gundam Movie Edit: and also probably the most realistic one Now I don’t give out 10/10s very often. The only times I have are with the original Legend of the Galactic Heroes, original Gundam, Attack on Titan Season 3 part 2, and only a few other times. I generally rate Gundam series very harshly, for example I have only given a 10/10 to the original Gundam, and even rated Z 9/10. I gave UC a 7/10 and things like NT, 00, SEED something between 5 to 6 out of 10 because although they were sometimes enjoyable, they were disappointing and somewhat boring on some level. But I have decided to give Hathaway’s Flash (yes the Japanese title is “Hathaway’s Flash” and not “Hathaway”) a 10/10 for the first time since the original Gundam. (Please note I’m not a boomer who worships the original Gundam just because it’s the original. I’m in my early 20s and I judge all Gundam series pretty objectively according to the standards of their era) Story: The story is about a group of anti-government eco-terrorists called “Mafty” who want to purge the bloated Earth Federation government to “force every human into space to save the earth’s environment”. Mafty wants to rid the world of corrupt politicians. Considering the fact that this novel was written 30 years ago, it’s amazing how the topics this work deals with are more relevant than ever. However, what’s great about this anime is how it’s not good vs evil. Mafty is correct in that it wants equality, wants to preserve the earth’s environment for the future of humanity, and wants to purge corrupt brutal government officials, but they are terrorists who bomb hotels with innocent civilians (although they are aware of this and do apologize every so often). So is Mafty evil and the Earth Federation good? No. The Earth Federation is an oppressive bloated regime which does not care about the earth’s environment and allows its own officials and politicians to live on earth while sending the poor back to space. They use brutal man-hunters to kill or forcefully evict those who won’t obey them. Additionally, during the battle of Davao, we see that the federation are far more less caring about the citizens of Davao. They carelessly fire many missiles at Mafty mobile suits, which sets many parts of the city of Davao ablaze. Mafty only bombed the hotels and sure they killed civilians, but it is clearly portrayed that the Feds are far far worst. Neither Mafty nor the Earth Federation are perfect. They are both flawed and both have done good things and bad things. The fact that there is no clear cut villain or hero is what makes this anime so realistic. In Gundam, the Gundam mobile suit ( giant robot ) is the symbol of justice and good and hope. The fact that both factions have Gundam (Mafty has the Xi Gundam and the Feds have the Odysseus Gundam aka Penelope), shows that both sides have their own sense of justice and that neither side is the clear “hero”. Great storytelling. Art: The art is fantastic. Way better than UC or NT which I saw in the theatre a few years ago. This is sunrise at its best. The city of Davao is beautiful and it really feels like the Philippines ( I lived there for 5 years so I can confirm). I generally think this movie is on par with weathering with you and demon slayer in terms of art. This movie transcends Gundam and mech anime. The mobile suits are really clean. CG is used for the Penelope sometimes but it is very clean and I had no problems with it. MAPPA better learn from Sunrise. The characters move around like realistic human actors and not 2D big-eyed anime cartoon characters. The most beautiful part of the movie was the Battle of Davao. the fight at the middle of the film, not the end. The night battles and destruction of Davao were beautiful. I still can’t forget the Messer landing in the middle of a coconut forest. Sound: Amazing. There is a Disco scene that transfers straight to a war scene and it was amazing. You gotta see it. It’s hard to explain with words. The sound of mobile suits and their weapons was amazing. Far better than NT. This is some of the best sound design I have ever heard in film. In terms of sound, this is up there with GuP das finale part 3. You have got to see this in theatres. Character: The protagonist, Hathaway is Greta Thunberg with giant robot weapons to use against corrupt politicians. However Hathaway is less vocal than her and far more calm. Additionally, Hathaway recognizes his ideology is not perfect. We see this when he goes around in the city of Davao and when a taxi driver tells him about how he is disappointed Mafty doesn’t attack man-hunters (who are a more pressing concern to ordinary people than any corrupt minister opt federation big-wig) and how people like him can only think so much about the future as he is preoccupied with the present. Mafty and Hathaway are portrayed as flawed activists who have grand ambitions and are genuinely trying to change the world for the better, but such grand plans are not necessary gonna help ordinary people such as those seen in Davao who just wanna go about their daily lives of fishing in the sea or driving taxis to make a living. If anything Mafty is going to ruin their day to day lives as they are planning to forcefully make all humans relocate to space. Gigi is just Quess 2.0 Colonel Keins is the opposite of Hathaway. He is a commoner and seems grateful the federation has given him a good life for his service in the Federation military. He tries to hunt down Mafty no matter what, even using torture and hostages. Neither Hathaway or Keins, neither Mafty or the Feds are completely right. Just like in the real world, there are no clear cut heroes and villains. This is why this movie is great. Enjoyment/Overall 10/10 This is a perfect Gundam movie I’m sick of anime and Hollywood movies that try to label a certain faction as evil villains. Hollywood always does this with Someone whether it be Orcs or space aliens invading earth or Germans or terrorists or whatever while they glorify the US or middle earth humans or a super soldier or superhero or whatever. Gundam has been doing this with Zeon or Titans or Gjallarhorn or Ribbons while glorifying the Gundam pilots and earth federation or Gundam meisters or tekkadan or whatever. I was sick of this toxic trend of good vs evil. Hathaway’s flash is on par with LotGH on how it refuses to romanticize or glorify one side. This and the beautiful music and animation and scene composition are why Hathaway’s flash is a perfect Gundam movie My favorite parts were 1. The battle of Davao 2. The day time scenes of Davao right before the night battle 3. Penelope vs Xi gundam Additional edits: I would like to mention that Hathaway’s Flash gets rid of the occultic supernatural elements in previous UC gundams. The UC series has recently been plagued by supernatural Mary Sue characters and Mary Sue gundams. This movie has none of that. Ever since series such as Zeta and Char’s counterattack, there has been non-stop supernatural elements in the universal century timeline. The chief abuser being Unicorn and Narrative most recently. In Hathaway’s flash there are no Mary Sue characters or mobile suits. It is a gritty war story. Also, although the Xi and Odysseus Gundams are powerful, they do not have bullshit supernatural superpowers like the Nu Gundam and Unicorn gundams.Hathaway is not an overpowered Mary Sue Camille or Banagher, and neither are his enemies. I’m glad there is less supernatural Mary Sue bullshit in this movie Concerns: I’m certain part 3 will be even better than this movie because of the source material they are adapting, but I am concerned for part 2 because part 2 does not have a big fight scene. There is no Xi vs Penelope. I hope they improve on the original novels because part 2 is the weakest of the trilogy New Edit: “Hathaway is the most scientifically realistic Gundam anime.” REALISM: 9.5/10 (for a Gundam Film) This movie scores a 9.5/10 in terms…

(Spoilers for CCA, F91, Unicorn, and Hathaway) You know that feeling when your favorite franchise gets a continuation of its main story, and despite enjoying the new narrative on its own merits, you feel as though its flaws hold it back, and in general get the vibe that all of it is unnecessary as shit? A couple franchises are like this for me. For Star Wars it's the Sequel Trilogy, specifically the two movies that came after The Force Awakens, for Halo it's everything that came after Halo 4, and for Dragon Pilot: Hisone to Masotan, there is...literally nothing. Seriously. there's no second season or even an OVA or movie, like COME ON IT WASNT EVEN THAT BAD THE CHARACTERS WERE AWESOME THEY DESERVE AT LEAST A SLICE OF LIFE SERIES. And in the case of Universal Century Gundam, I have nothing but raw, burning hatred for literally almost everything that came after Char's Counterattack that was released between 2010 and 2020. To be fair, I haven't watched Unicorn, but I read the plot synopsis and it goes like this: Char comes back in a stitched-together Newtype clone body, he fights the Federation because what else is he going to do with his time, and then Amuro's ghost appears and politely asks the reborn Char to stop his rampage, to which Char replies "Oh...okay." It's not the worst thing I've ever experienced, but my main issue is...why? Why does Char's story need to be continued? It was resolved perfectly fine in CCA. Another issue is that (and this is a pretty obvious reason) Unicorn kinda shits all over Amuro's sacrifice to show humanity the light of the human heart, to overcome Char's evil and darkness, by just...having Char show up again. After he and Amuro have been dead for three years. Now onto the main topic of this review, Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway. ....dear God.. I will give the movie this: for better or worse, it completely ignores Unicorn's existence, though I would argue that its own take on the post-Axis Shock period is far, far worse. The Axis Shock in Char's Counterattack was meant to symbolize humanity uniting to save the Earth from their own destructive arrogance. Both the Federation and Zeon were at fault, and both overcame their differences and rivalries to help save the cradle of humanity. This even gets explored in Gundam F91, where Earth's entire former population has completely migrated to the Sides for 30 years to let the planet heal from years of war and pollution. Hathaway decides to completely shit all over those themes of unity, then throws them out of the window in favor of generic "edgy" Hollywood movie themes, where the Federation hasn't learned a damn thing from the past three Zeon Wars and continues to pollute the Earth and abuse its population. The ecchi is also really cringy and essentially symbolizes all the issues I have with modern anime in general. I don't even want to talk about what they did to mah boi Hathaway Noa. He went from a scared but idealistic and brave kid in CCA to a complete psychopath who allows his forces to target civilians, and he and Char are portrayed as the good guys...?! What in the actual goddamn fuck. The side characters are kind of just...there. The female characters are hot. That's about it. They don't get much else aside from that. Okay so maybe I was wrong, modern UC Gundam is nothing like the Sequel Trilogy or the new Halo games. Aside from Advent of the Red Comet and Thunderbolt I legitimately hate everything about what they've done to Universal Century, and I've lost all hope for that franchise unless Sunrise can get their heads out of their asses. To conclude, Hathaway is not even trying to be UC Gundam, or even a good anime movie. It's trying to be a by-the-numbers, bog standard, Hollywood movie, and good Lord does it show. With Double Zeta I could at least laugh at how stupid it got. In Hathaway there is just...nothing.

Hathaway's Flash is meant to be a sequel to Char's Counterattack, the greatest mecha movie ever made (tied with Ideon's Be Invoked and End of Evangelion, in my opinion) so one would expect the movie to try and be like CCA. Maybe it's trying. I don't know. The music sounds very same-y, it lacks the kind of character that CCA's soundtrack has. The character redesigns don't feel like they belong in the Universal Century. The action - operator gunplay like you're watching John Wick - also feels out of place. The CGI works sometimes but other times, not at all. Is this movie BAD? No - it's leagues above Genocidal Organ, the other movie I've seen by this director. The dialogue here is usually sparse and enjoyable. You can thank Tomino's novel for that, though. The overall plot, the way things play out, is interesting. But the execution? It feels like Gundam wrapped in 2020 checklists. It wants to be a film, not an anime film - but CCA achieved this all the way back in the day. It didn't need to sacrifice the expressive nature of anime to accomplish that, though. I'm very iffy about this movie. It ends without a conclusion, as they want to make a trilogy. Well, I hope the next two are better.

I watch this movie yesterday and went bed thinking about it, and yes this is a pretty good Gundam movie. Art. 9 What can you say about the art or cinematography on a film with this kind of budget on modern times?, they all just look stunning. but art in himself doesn't make a movie a good movie for that you need a good Story (9) and characters. (8) A story by Tomino Yoshiyuki make just 32 years ago, This story depict a bleak future in where the Earth Federation is more corrupt than ever making life on earth a hell for any one that speak up against the government, but because of this is that Mafty appears a terroris organisation that targets and kill high rank federation officers led by a man named Mafty Navue Erin, and that is the premise of this story, is not like the past gundam storys where 2 major powers clash but that does make him lest epic. i don't want to spoil anything so i dont know what i can say of characters, i just whant to say that they are not perfect, they have small errors (objectively) but they are nor bad at all. If you have not read the novels and you love a good story this movie is perfect for you. and what is a good story without Sound and music. 10 Music composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, i believe that when you hear a piece created by sawano you immediately say: That is from shingeki no kyojin or frome Nanatsu no Taizai or frome Gundam Unicorn, etc. what i'm trying to say is that he make music that make you remember that fight or that emotional moment and each piece of music is unique of that show and for this movie he make the same, you will remember that fight, that moment accompanied by that superb pieces, So yes the music is Superb. Sound effects (at least in the theater) is amazing, you can feel the clash of those 2 in your bones. Before seeing it i was worried that I already know the outcome of the story and could not enjoy it, but i was wrong, this movie his pacing the art the music make me feel like if have never read it. I was really immersed in the moment and my enjoyment was great. So is a overall 9 It has its mistakes, like everything else, but I don't really care because when a movie has so much good you can forgive the bad. Some good news for western fans the movie will be live on netflix July 1, i just hope is not only NA .

Hathaway Flash is one of the best movie in 2021. No doubt about it. The story is amazing, it is tightly paced so it won't bore anyone who watched this. There wasn't any point in the movie where it drags or it was too fast, everything was just naturally paced. The characters are interesting to say the least. If Gundam has taught me one thing, it's that either all females are thots or all males are manwhore. The main character, Hathaway Noa, is probably one of the best mc in Gundam. He's a passive character, but he's also not afraid to be the active character. Just an all-around character which is just interesting to see in Gundam. Though, the other characters are pretty underdeveloped YET, so I won't rate the character category higher than this just yet. The animation is probably one of the best animation I've seen, even comparable to Ufotable and KyoAni. Sasuga Sunrise. It's just so crisp and fluid. Sure, it may not be as beautiful as Ufotable and KyoAni's works, but the sheer amount of fluidity of this movie is enough for me to put the animation category at a perfect score. The music is amazing. Sawano really just comes and slap me with his boner-worthy OST. The music themes though aren't really as good as I hope for. It's decent, but not really as iconic as other music that Sawano did like Re: I Am, narrative, or Cage. Overall, just a solid start for a banger of a movie trilogy. I don't really need to say something other than to watch this if you're a fan of Gundam. (7.8/10)

As a lover of Gundam Unicorn, Char's Origin, and the Universal Century, I had very high expectations for this movie before it came out. I was so excited to watch it, but was quite disappointed while watching it. Now don't get me wrong, the art was stunning and colorful and the short sections of fight music were catchy, but I still feel it was lacking. The plot was slow and confusing - it took me most of the movie to determine whether or not Mafty was a Char lookalike (who we never see), an organization, or the main character. The first half of the movie was basically Hathaway being grumpy and complaining about humans destroying the Earth to anybody who would listen. The first big fight scene happened after half of the movie had already passed and it was at night, in the dark. I could barely see what was happening well enough to make sense of it. The main character wasn't even involved in the fight, unless you count running away. It wasn't until the very end of the movie, with about 15 minutes left, that Hathaway even fought in the gundam. The fight ended very quickly and I didn't really enjoy it. I spent pretty much the whole movie bored and hoping for more. I really hope the next two Hathaway movies are more exciting.

Mmmm, it's a no from me. The soundtrack is OK (even if the theme music is terrible). I enjoyed the world-building they did to fill in some things between this and "Char's Counterattack." (I have not seen "Victory Gundam".) There were also a few enjoyable, chaotic moments that marked the story as a Tomino joint. But, other than that? ...What else is there other than that? Not much. The most obvious (I hesitate to say) "change" is the art style, which is modern and follows in the footsteps of "Gundam Unicorn" and "Narrative". I seriously don't think it should have. This should have been more of a throwback to the style of the original Gundam movies, or at least "Char's Counterattack" because the original purpose of this story was to end all of that. That world-building I praised doesn't even mention those other stories. Which, now that I think about it, is especially weird in Unicorn's case, because of what was in the Box. But I digress. I never had any trouble following the action in those other modern Gundam shows. But, in this one, they're so fucking focused on showing the action from 360-view cockpits, at night, often in first-person that it became an impenetrable mess of beams and UIs. I cannot fathom the reason. This series has been running for like 50 years at this point. They should know how to depict battles between mobile suits, and this was pitiful. Also pitiful? The one Newtype flash in this whole movie happens at the beginning and there's nothing interesting about it at all. Think "woman stands up and yells." Having come off of watching "Gundam III" the other day, with its oceans and spectral imagery, that was a huge disappointment. On top of that, the story plays silly, coy games with the three main protagonists that don't make any sense. Hathaway is Mafty; anyone with even a passing familiarity with the novel's existence knows this. Yet this movie goes through the motions of Hathaway trying to keep it a secret while on the shuttle and with the Federation. Towards the very end, he reveals that there was actually literally no reason for him to have even been on this shuttle; he just wanted to see the people who would be killed one more time. Total, insane vanity that was never set up and isn't even CLEAR by the end. Then there's Gigi and the Federation officer, who don't really do anything of significance. Hathaway is attracted to Gigi and his desire to save her overcomes his desire to see his plan(?) come to fruition—the plan being a terrorist attack to kill those officers and distract the federation while he, Mafty, returns to Mafty the organization after his voluntary jaunt to see those officers' faces before they die. And the Federation officer just exists to want to fuck Gigi and figure out Hathaway's secret identity because Hathaway compromised himself by being on that flight. I mean, what the fuck? Maybe it works better in the novel, but I can't imagine a description of Hathaway's pointless presence here being any good. I can only imagine he and his compatriots are given more of a backstory after he joins them at the conclusion of the part of the story in this one. And the movie absolutely should have done that the other way around. Why should I care about Mafty's position (which I am predisposed to do) or the Federation's opposition if I don't know what lead Hathaway to do this? Or what he did to inspire this many people to join him? And, ugh, it's so frustrating to get to the end of this movie and suddenly a bunch of people with actual character designs show up. As if they actually matter. Only for the movie to abruptly end. This isn't a "wait for the rest of the trilogy" sort of misfire. It's a "we have no idea what we're doing, and if this wasn't tied to the Gundam Fandom then we wouldn't get the chance to finish the trilogy" mistake.

In spite of my preconceptions about the film, I'm looking optimistically towards the following films. With good characterizations and a solid setup on differing viewpoints of the world, the directing of the movie seems solid. Minor things in the script were a bit weird if you look at it from a series standpoint, however it's a relief seeing seemingly good execution and presentation after the release of Gundam NT and Re:Rise. Hathaway definitely feels like a feature film. From the visual budget to the names attached. But it's limited in that capacity to be able to fully adapt the novel. I personally have only read a couple chapters; so there I cannot make any comments. Individually however, it seems to lay the base down for the following films to expand upon. Viewpoints from each side about the main faction appear and to that point, it's greatly exposited. Characterization is also developed well, with each showing who they are through what they say and their viewpoints. It's unfortunate that most of the side characters didn't have as well of a treatment as the main characters though, when their background might be important. It balances on a tightrope of it being a drama and a thriller. Through some scenes you can understand the reality of the situation of mobile suit battles. At the same time, there are moments that glorify it through beautiful effects that look too similar to fireworks. It seems to present a good contrast of opinions related to Mafty, but at the same time fails to showcase the perspective or the humanity of some of the darker sides of the Federation to the same great lengths. Depending on how the series continues the manhunters may be set to become solidly black against the moral grey of Mafty. What I'd like at that point would some depth to it. Visually it's even better than Narrative in terms of character scenes. Mobile suit battles and it's CG in general can negatively contrast the art that it's placed in. Comparatively to Unicorn, the CG looks amateurish. With the music, it goes for a modern "atmospheric" vibe half of the time where you're supposed to let it immerse you into the setting without remarking on it's individual merit. In some moments I felt that it accomplished that job, however in mobile suit scenes specifically it felt far too epic and didn't fit the mood. I don't like Hiroyuki Sawano's works, so there might be some bias. But this opinion isn't carried over in some of his other works like Promare. Very good sound design however. I enjoyed how there were characters in the movie that felt like they had personality. They didn't seem to just be puppets controlled by the narrative, although sometimes it leaned too far into precognition to the point of convenience. How they handled newtypes is way better than previous films like NT and Unicorn; It felt like a return to form in that sense. Scene progression felt moderately natural, and a character’s insight felt as if it was coming from them instead of a narration to the audience. It did dip too much into being a thriller. And, I think Hathaway's personality and ideals should be investigated further; Gigi as-well, as a character she seems too much of a Quess clone. Hopefully the director can output the next two movies with a similar level of quality.

I was a little underwhelmed by this one, but that may have been down to an incorrect assumption on my part. I know that there are two more movies coming after this, but I was expecting each to be more self-contained. Instead this isn't the first story in a trilogy; it's the first act of one story that will be told across three movies. Consequently, this first chapter doesn't cover much ground, and the plot feels quite loose and insubstantial as a result, lacking the dramatic heft that you would expect from a theatrical release, and so doesn't work well on its own. I suspect my score for the trilogy as a whole might end up being one notch higher than for just this part, once I can see it all in context. As for characters, they're a mixed bag. I hated Hathaway in Char's Counterattack, but he has grown out of the self-absorbed, whiny adolescent he was then, and become a more sober and contemplative character. Sadly he spends most of the movie tethered to Gigi. She isn't quite as insufferable as Quess from CCA, but is cut from the same cloth, and is what most dates a story that otherwise holds up well, three decades after Tomino wrote it. What's almost beyond reproach is the audio-visual presentation. Shukou Murase brings quality direction to the table, with the mood of the opening shuttle scene and the chaos of the mid-point city battle being particular highlights. Hiroyuki Sawano turns in another great score, and it's backed up by some of the most striking sound design I've ever heard in an anime. The only flaw is that the muted night-time palette used in the action scenes, combined with the convoluted silhouettes of the mobile suits, makes it hard to tell which side you're looking at a lot of the time. Maybe it's an intentional fog-of-war thing, or maybe it's just Netflix's shoddy, heavily posterised encode letting down something that was meant to be watched in a darkened cinema. I'll be interested to see how it looks on blu-ray, assuming Anime Limited can snatch it from Netflix's clutches at some point.

*THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW* As this franchise settled itself, us Gundam fans have had to come to terms with the fact that Universal Century Timeline anime can more often than not be lackluster in audiovisual presentation, which makes them fail to reach their full potential except for a few cases. Hathaway's Flash is one of the blessed children that achieved excellence. Tomino is a visionary with near unparalelled thematic depth and ambitiously deep concepts, but the actual execution of such ideas properly has often been held back by the plot structure limitations set by Sunrise and Tomino's own flaws, such as his bad storyboarding and trademark stilted dialogue. Sometimes we get amazing looking and sounding Gundam UC shows like NT but without Tomino's vision they end up lacking substance and soul sometimes. In contrast, Hathaway's Flash is based on a Tomino novel but it is also adapted by people who are more competent with regards to direction and structure. All of Tomino's messages and ideas can be evidenced in the bleak and almost dystopian world that Hathaway's Flash confronts us with, but everything is brought to life in such an expressive way that I couldn't believe it. The animation, direction, cinematography, pacing and music were absolutely exceptional. Both Sawano and Murase did a fantastic job, and the attention to detail was so good to see. The dialogue is still very much "tominoesque" at moments but it's definitely not as noticeable and jarring as in other installments. All in all I just have no significant complaints, and my only frustration is that we have to wait for the next two movies since this one was baiscally all build up. This is certainly not as great as the legends like Zeta or CCA, but it's certainly up there with the greats and gives me hope that this franchise can go in a promising new direction.

My problems with the movies are that girl and the fact that Hathaway would never have been perceived as a “horn dog” in the novel, (which I person I talked to considered Hathaway to be) and that’s what the movie is missing, it has this $€xual tension but not enough tension coming from danger and the precarious situation he’s in Then the novel had extra unanimated scenes, inner monologues, and scene narration that provided important context and engagement that explained future and current decisions made by Hathaway, the contents of those scenes were not well represented in the movie at all, leading to this over saturation of what seems like and can only really be explained by Hathaway not being very mature, being a horn dog, and falling for a adult/more skilled version of quess and then suddenly and conveniently closing himself off from her only to rinse and repeat few hours later Not to mention my peeves with the style, the scene/camera angles, the lighting, the sound design, the scene design, choreography, and timing, that all contributed to my dissatisfaction in the movie, including that the movie is something that can’t really be enjoyed as much if you’re a newbie, and the fact that I had to pause the movie to think about what I heard or what just happened (To those who question my rating, I have vowed to never rate something 10/10 unless it’s near absolutely perfect, so my rating is more of a 7/10 not 6/10 in the traditional sense, and yes- I copied and pasted my own comment from YouTube and modified it for this review)

This is probably the best Gundam movie ever made at the moment, but that doesn't really say much as Gundam tends to have a lot of difficulty when it comes to movie outings. CCA nd Narrative were pretty ok, Endless Waltz looks good but doesn't make much sense story-wise, F91 was rushed to hell and back, and Awakening of the Trailblazer was again, just pretty ok. So taking an unbiased look and viewing this movie as a standalone work or movie in its own right, how is it? Again, it's pretty fricken great! To start off with, I think special attention must be paid to the art and sound design. The art itself just looks wonderful and is really a sight to behold. The colors really pop, the background design is so photorealistic that it looks like you're actually in Davao, the character designs look like a great update to the older UC style, there are a lot of little touches here and there like the Fed's uniforms being short sleeved because they're in a tropical area or the clothing distinction between the common citizens and Earth's ruling class. All of it's really top notch stuff. There's also the sound design, which just sounds fantastic thanks to Sunrise's 40+ years of mech experience (And earlier work on Unicorn). While the music is of course great, that's the norm for Gundam, there are again a lot of little touches that make you feel really emersed in the world: Cars honking their horns on the streets, the pulsating sound of the mech's engines, the sounds of animals in the biopark, the high energy sounds of the beam weapons going off. This aren't things that the production staff needed to add but they did so anyway and it just makes it feel more alive. If you can see this in the theaters you should go just for that. But along with great art and sound design, it also has an interesting story and characters. Hathaway Noa imo, has always gotten an unfair amount of hate handed his way when he really hasn't done anything too different compared to Amuro, Kamille, Judau, etc... Well, if you hated Hathaway due to his appearance in CCA, you don't have to worry because they're almost completely different characters now. Hathaway in HF is an adult, he's smart, calculating, reserved, purposefully understated, but still has a bit of that brash impulsiveness and strong idealism that he had in CCA. Then you also have Kenneth and Gigi, who are also interesting and unique new characters. Kenneth himself takes on a bit after Sleggar Law, a high ranking member of the military whose heart's in the right place, but who also can't help himself when a pretty lady is nearby (Yet fails at every chance he gets). Gigi otoh, takes on the role of the Gundam magical girl trope, yet unlike most others, actually takes a pretty proactive role in the story, much closer to how Lalah was in 0079. The story itself is also good but probably not what a lot of people would expect. Much like the 1st novel in the trilogy, this movie is more of a character study of Hathaway that delves into his current personality and mental state. As such, there's actually very little action (That's being saved for the next 2 movies), and it's mostly just talking between said interesting characters and worldbuilding to help you catch up on what's been happening since CCA and Unicorn. This however isn't a problem as most of the characters are interesting enough while wandering around an absolutely gorgeous city, that it just makes time feel like it flies by. I'd even say some character interactions were more interesting than the actual action of the movie, which itself was very well done. However, I think attention has to be paid to the dialogue. This was originally a novel written by the granddaddy of Gundam himself, Yoshiyuki Tomino, who has certain issues when it comes to writing dialogue. He likes to have characters have random mood swings and emotional outbursts, have random characters out of nowhere scream about how other characters feel, weird thinking out loud moments, etc... (This is something you have to get used to watching older Gundam works) So, being an adaptation, does it also have this issue? Mostly no. I say mostly because a lot of the dialogue has been rewritten to sound more (For lack of a better word), normal, but it still has its moments here and there. (Like Gigi's outbursts on the plane and in the hotel, one of Hathaway's comrades in the market, and Hathaway's random introspection during the final battle, being the most notable bits) However, overall it sounds much more natural and subdued compared to Tomino's usual writing style. Overall, this was a fantastic movie and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. If you like darker, more complex, and ideologically grayer war stories, this is definitely a movie you need to check out. And again, if you can see this in theaters, DO IT, you won't be disappointed.

Hathaway's Flash is simultaneously a true joy for any UC enthusiast while being nigh impenetrable for people with it as their first Gundam experience. This is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The culmination of all of the early UC narratives, it serves as both a continuation of the dialogue raised in Gundam Unicorn as well as a dismal rebuttal- proving that the corrupt nature of institutions can not be changed with dreams alone. Cinematically Hathaway's Flash is a true joy to watch. The animators have done brilliantly, the entire sequence of action scenes in Davao City are some of the best animated and choreographed scenes to date. It carries on with the modernization of Gundam aesthetics that has been plodding forward with the advancement of real life technologies, you'll see a toe of cockpit shots and modern looking heads-up displays like Unicorn had. If you were coming into it for the classic mecha fight feel you'll be disappointed but if you're a fan of modern military aesthetics this is probably the best looking Gundam animation yet. By this time in the universal century, basically every MS is rocking a 360 panoramic cockpit and with Xi and Penelope's Minovsky Flight Unit most of the combat in this film is jet-fighter esque aerial dogfights rather than melee duals on the ground, even with the majority of film taking place planetbound. Narrative;y Hathway's Flash does not hold your hand at all. It assumes that you've watched Char's Counterattack and is a straight up continuation of the plotlines in that story, carried forward around 20 years by trauma and an inability to move on. It wastes no time in getting the viewer acclimated, which is both a strength and a weakness because for Gundam fans there's no cruft or wasted airtime but for people just getting into it certain scenes never get any setup because the setup was already in CCA. The film follows the standard structure of opening, rising tensions, climax, resolution with a setup for the sequel films and is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the novel's plotline with slightly adjustments as to make the film a relatively self containing plotline. It's a much more grounded approach compared to the fantastical wizard-like newtype centric fiction of Gundam Unicorn, fitting as it takes mostly on gravity-bound earth. While it shares much with Unicorn aesthetically, tonally it is the opposite. Newtypes cannot change the world, corruption cannot be fought except with the application of violence (via terrorism), and the only dreams are nightmares brought by ptsd and war trauma. There is no psychoframe to change the world, only freedom fighters and terrorists melting down cities with their beam weaponry. All in all Hathaway's Flash is a great film experience, definitely worth watching for the cinematic experience if nothing else. 9/10. Looking forward to more.

Definitely worth the hype for me, I loved every bit of it and Shukou Murase's direction was just the cherry on top, tho the movie had a lot of talking so I still believe that Tomino himself would've nailed it too. One thing I believe to be a clear problem was the lightning during the mobile suit scenes, it was indeed dark (tho not for people with good screens and in cinema). As for the animation, it was one of the best I've seen in this medium. Gotta give it to Sunrise for mastering the animation of human expressions and emotions which makes the scenes and even small conversations full of life. And as for the mobile suit actions; there weren't much to them, like there was no proper Gundam-styled fight that you see in other Gundam titles and most of the screentime was used in building Hathaway's character and other people around him such as Gigi and Kenneth which was kinda fresh change of pace and enjoyable in itself. I liked the first MS scene, the one with Gigi and Hathaway running around, it felt so realistic with lightning effects and terror's presence. It was just the first of the trilogy, with more to come so defo hyped for them.

10/10 - Not only a great Gundam movie, but a great film in general. Gundam Hathaway does so many things well. VISUALS/ANIMATION (9/10) Visually, it is extremely appealing and I thought the animators did very well...including the usage of CGI. I know some people have griped about how dark the movie was, but I didn't seem to have that issue. There were a few moments that looked mildly awkward, but I did not think those moments detracted from the movie's quality enough for me to dock points there all too much. There is so much attention to detail throughout the entire movie. Backgrounds look fantastic. Character designs are great. The combat looked phenomenal. SOUND (10/10) The sound design in this movie is the best I've ever heard in an anime and some of the best I've heard in media in general. Such a great job giving everything its own individual sound that really made you feel like you were there. This was probably my favorite aspect of the film. MUSIC (10/10) You could slap Sawano on anything and I'd be happy...but Sawano and Gundam are just a match made in heaven. While there's nothing truly innovative about what he did with Hathaway's OST, it really blended well with everything and I don't think I could've asked for it to be better. CHARACTERS (9/10) I really enjoy the characters so far. Hathaway's character seems very interesting. Side characters all have personalities that are enjoyable. I know some people weren't all too high on Gigi, but I have a feeling she will be much more than just eye-candy later on. I thought all of the dialogue between characters was really well done...and I typically don't enjoy a ton of anime dialogue since conversations and reactions always seem to be just a bit odd. Also as previously noted, I really enjoyed all the character designs. STORY (9/10) With this being a trilogy and this first movie being a setup for the other two, I don't want to knock some of the vagueness of the story. I think that for what this movie was supposed to do, it did it very well. Obviously you'll want knowledge from the predecessors of this, but all in all, things felt very coherent to me and it all made sense. I'm really looking forward to the two follow-up movies and have extremely high hopes for Gundam if this is the level of quality we can come to expect. Highly recommend!

First, for the cinematography aspect, the Gundam Hathaway anime movie which will become a trilogy feels very inspired by Christopher Nolan's film in the remaining 1/4 of its duration and for 3/4 of the film it feels like a combination of a Gundam-style James Bond film & something like Hideo Kojima or Ergo Proxy. . Actually, the problem is that in the story about the relevance of Gigi to the main character, the motivation is not clear, but Gigi Andalucia are a typical trope that is mushrooming in the anime industry, the female trope model "Genki-girl" is a kind of cool girl who usually sticks with the MC. Gundam Xi & Penelope's design is closed because the fight is mostly night operation, although I don't really like Penelope's design because it's a bit impractical and THICC CHONKY is like Chicken. And what I want to point out is the last Gundam that shows really collateral damage like a Gundam 0080 war film War in Pocket. And that's where the strongest aspect of Gundam Hathaway is, collateral damage and film escape art because the tension of civilians is trapped between the Gundam and Zaku Messer battles with beam radiation and Missfire scattered throughout the city. Overall Goodluck for Gundam Franchise 🚀🚀🚀 I hope this trilogy can be concluded well later.

I mean it's alright. Watching Hathaway compared from CCA to now was interesting. seeing his demeanor switch after experiencing char and amuros divorce movie was nice. hathaway is the best part of the movie, but unfortunately that's not saying a lot. the action is ok. most of it takes place in the pitch black night so i cant see shit. the choreo isnt too memorable either. this movie just felt like a whole bunch of set up to the sequels. cant say it was terrible, but DO NOT let it be your first foray into gundam. also, had a hard time grasping what made gigi tic, but ill chock that up to my own stupidity. I would like to see where this story goes next, if that means anything.

This is a setup movie. NOTE: If you have never seen any Gundam media, this movie is still enjoyable for the action and story. If this got you into Gundam then I recommend going back to watch the 0079 compilation movie and its continuity up until Char's Counter Attack before rewatching Hathaway's Flash This is a very late review. I've watched this movie countless times over the past year even getting my friends into 0079 Gundam and having them watch everything from Zeta, to ZZ, to CCA, everything in between just so they can experience Hathaway's Flash in its full entirety. (I did try to make them read Beltorchika's Children CCA and to note that Hathaway is based off of the novel/manga version and not the movie CCA) This movie, in my very honest and harsh opinion, cannot be enjoyed unless you read the Beltorchika's Children CCA. This opinion may be proven untrue since we are unsure if this movie is following BC or Movie CCA. Having watch only the previous UC installments especially CCA movie is a stretch as well since, if the movie is truly being adapted 1 to 1 from the novel, Quess' death is very different from the CCA movie. (I will not spoil anything to come in the future movies or anything that happened in the novels) Moving on from my small rant, I want to applaud the staff for their dedication towards this movie. The film crew went over to the Philippines to take reference pictures and have the places seem as accurate as they can be. (Even our Jollibae is as jolly as it can be.) This adaptation is something that fans have been asking for years, decades. Having read the original trilogy with the help of some friends and google translate I was definitely one of those fans awaiting for Hathaway's Flash to be animated and man it was worth the long wait. This movie is very, pretty. Everything from the landscaping and the MS design is very pretty. It is sharp and eye catching. The XI Gundam, design differ a little from its source, is still as menacing as I imagined it to be. OST is by Hiroyuki Sawano. I've preached to my friends that Sawano is the greatest thing to ever happen to Mecha animes and it has been proven many times with Unicorn, 86, and so forth. Sound design of Gundam is always top notch it is something that they have perfected since the 80s. Characters are very likeable. If you've seen the CCA movie, most of you, or could be all of you, might already hate Hathaway because of how he was portrayed in the movie. I do not blame you, but this Hathaway is very different. Gigi and Kenneth also shined individually and the Mafty crew have some great personalities. Overall, and I cannot stress this enough, this movie is most enjoyable after you read Beltorchika's Children. Watching this with knowledge from CCA is just fine, but it will definitely put a different light towards Hathaway as a character. In addition I also recommend reading The Man Who Could Not Ride the Rainbow. It is a nice small detail about Bright Noa and how he is as a father figure towards Hathaway.

Loved this movie so much. Right up there next to Unicorn in terms of quality and content. As a long time Gundam fan, I've actually rewatched this movie more than any other Gundam movie. I just wanted to rewatch all the awesome scenes and catch the little things I missed. Everything from the characters, story, music, sound effects, voice acting, animation is top tier. The voice actors did a stellar job, especially Reina Ueda doing the flirty wildcard girl Gigi. I was really intrigued by Hathaway and Gigi and how their ideals could change the course of the world. Where Gigi is a wildcard that can affect Hathaway's plans positively or negatively. The movie was good enough make me desperate to learn more about them. If you want non-stop mech action, this isn't for you (go watch Gundam Wing). But if you want some deep intrigue and drama, building up to intense battles, this is perfect. The city battle was so amazing that it should get award - the fear of mobile suits battling in a populated area. UC lately is great with their realism, quality, and attention to detail. I'm glad the sales were incredibly good to show that this movie's quality paid off. I could tell the staff tried to make this movie as good as they possibly could. 10/10 would watch again and again.

An insipid cash grab fluff piece made to sell model kits with no innate moral integrity. If you go into this expecting a true follow up to Char's Counterattack, you'll find yourself sorely disappointed. The first in a planned trilogy, it stretches the plot of its respective novel paper thin and chews its scenery in a garishly overproduced fashion. Every single plot point of this film is set up in anticipation of its follow ups; it feels like if you took a rolling pin to a flashy 24 minute episode and rolled it out to feature length. The character art is gorgeous, sometimes excessively so, and the backgrounds as well. However, the mobile suits are all CGI, and a decent amount of the SFX are as well (during the climactic fight, there were some smoke clouds so poorly rendered I couldn't believe my eyes). It doesn't help that their designs are overcomplicated and toyetic in the first place, but even though the CGI is well-integrated, it's still extremely noticeable. Gundam is one of the last franchise bastions of hand-drawn mech and so the opportunistic switch to CGI is a major disappointment. The sound design is overblown and bombastic, with a score that seems more Hollywood than Gundam. The two insert songs are also not very good, though I have strong opinions on music so your mileage may vary on that count. I'm a fan of insert songs, as well, but they both seemed out of place. The character writing is standard Tomino flat, a style I normally enjoy, but the rough edges of characters like Gigi and Kenneth feel sanded over. All eroticism is shoveled into one scene and then the character relationships are left to idly wander with no resolution (ostensibly so they can be resolved in the next film- as I stated earlier, I believe stretching the novel into a trilogy was a bad choice and this is a major part of why). Gigi never feels Newtype crazy in that way that girls like Four Murasame or Elpeo Ple do, Kenneth's stated machismo is a squeaky clean cotton white restricted to one or two off lines and then later mistreatment of a prisoner that cuts off as soon as force is used. Hathaway is presented as a dark and broody hero and all of his moral complication is simply implied rather than directly stated, which makes him feel stale. I did not enjoy this movie; I found it intellectually dishonest at best. It glorifies war and terrorism in the name of selling branded merch without any consideration- it is effused with a love of the idea of "Gundam" without understanding its own text or what Gundam's original incarnation is meant to represent.