Kidou Senshi Gundam: Senkou no Hathaway

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway is a film with a lot of ideas behind it, but not necessarily the right amount of focus or staff talent to bring those ideas to fruition. This is perhaps the messiest that the Universal Century has ever looked, with the Federation growing more and more corrupt and violent by the day and our protagonist being part of a terrorist group that seems mostly unconcerned with civilian casualties in their efforts to entirely vacate Earth of human habitation for the purpose of its natural renewal. Yet, at the same time, it doesn’t seem to have much to say about its political conflict other than its sheer messiness, aside from Hathaway’s more nuanced conversation with a cab driver that doesn’t tie into any planning that happens afterwards. Even more than that, Hathaway’s strange and alluring relationship with Gigi, whose dichotomous personality straddling young naivete and a Newtype-esque wisdom beyond her years, becomes a much more interesting narrative drive in terms of how Hathaway is swayed one way or the other in his objectives. “Dichotomous” is also a good way to describe the film’s visual presentation. During scenes of regular dialogue, everyday life, and hand-to-hand combat, it can be stunningly gorgeous. Deep, rich colors pervade the character designs and scenery, with luscious and highly-detailed backgrounds bringing Davao to life, as do the strong character animation and designs. Occasionally there are some notable composition issues, but not consistently. On the other hand, this film might have some of the least appealing mech combat I’ve seen from a Gundam anime, or at least I think it might because I couldn’t see it. Both of the major mech fights take place at night, with most of the screen blanketed in heavy black tones that make it damn near impossible to see what’s actually happening and make me reminisce on the days when darkness in anime was represented with dark purple rather than black so as to lend to more legibility. Perhaps it’s colored this way to try covering up all the obvious CG, which somehow looks even worse than the CG in Unicorn from a decade earlier. Regardless, the muddiness of both the aesthetics and the story leave me not quite satisfied, yet still somewhat interested in where it’ll go from here.

Tomino was done with the original Gundam. After turn A Gundam, he turned away. His new goal now is to do something different. That would be his current five part movie series that I plan to get too today. With those, he hopes to be able to deliver a new message to the new and younger generations. Of course, because of a lot of missing information on websites that claim to archive and document anime, such as this one and My Anime List, hardly anyone knows that he is still directing possibly the last of his work today, seeing as though he isn't getting any younger. As a result, this adaptation had nothing to do with him besides that he wrote the original novels. Because these have been around for a while and before it, it is as if Gundam Unicorn never happened, despite these are in the same timeline. Consequently, this could be seen as an alternative sequel to Char's Counterattack. How will they connect this to Unicorn? I have no idea if they will even try. Hathaway's Flash is only a movie, the first of three, and yet does good to set up the next phase of the war. The Federation never recovered from corruption. In fact, it seems to be even more decadent and corrupt. As a result, so called terrorist organizations have risen up once again to assassinate them in order to send a message and to force them to treat all of humanity with respect. At the center of the main organization is Mafty. He is looked upon as yet another coming of Char. The main protagonist is Hathaway Noa. He is the son of Bright who may have annoyed many far back in Char's Counterattack. I did not like his character there as he felt like another annoying Katz type. With this movie, his character gets somewhat redeemed. He has a plan, and yet it is so sloppy and confusing in his ways that I would have to wait until the next two movies to say anything else. This movie is a huge improvement, production wise, compared to the disaster before that was Gundam Narrative. It still has issues, as a lot of questionable CGI is used here, and lots of dark scenes that may have been used shamelessly to cover up the fact there were a lot of limitations here. There are some comical scenes where characters are far away and drawn terribly, and quick and stale CGI crowds that I couldn't help but notice. Story wise, it was a huge improvement for Tomino to set up and actually write a good new continuation where Newtype magic is almost nonexistent. Instead, there is actual focus on character building and showing a more dramatic continuation of the story. The battles here don't bring to the table near what Gundam Unicorn did. By the end, it didn't feel as it moved much at all for the plot. In it's defense, the next two movies should get the more major events going as this is the set up. Sawano is here again to compose more great music, and for the most part the characters are much more likeable this time. Gigi is obviously a Newtype and implied to be right from the start with her strange but telling behavior. Though there are some chaotic scenes, the portrayal of death is poor compared to the early Gundam shows. Though it isn't what I'd like to highlight in an entry, there is some beautiful background art. There is one specific sunset shown over the city I think anyone who sees this can remember right away. Besides Hathaway, there are no other characters here for those who have watched earlier Gundam to enjoy. Of course, the politics and context from those earlier works must be watched in order to better understand what is happening here. Overall, newer Gundam shows have been a mixed bag. Perhaps it was better to just end it all in Char's Counterattack.

to be perfectly honest this is my second gundam series as i am watching the original '79 series, so i'll be quick and honest here story 10 the movie is amazing, the build up, the exposition, the realism (minus ofc the gundam and some science stuff) art 10 this is the smoothest animation of the combined cgi and hand-drawn i've ever seen, the fight between Xi and Penelope is ofc the highlight of this movie, but what i want to tell is the "flashback" scene, it just perfect sound 10 its Hiroyuki Sawano, there's no arguing, the sfx is also one of my favorite, the laser beam sounds meaty unlike the typical "pew-pew" sound that is usually used by alot of sci-fi movie character 9 character wise, there's some that make me kinda confused as i am new to the series, so take this with a bit of salt. the point where Hathaway become Mafty, it is not a good vs evil BS anymore it's a very thoroughly thought move, logical even enjoyment 10 being a sucker for anything mecha, i'd say this is one of better ones than over the tens that i have watched so overall this is not for gundam beginner but a welcomed introduction to give you a little lick of the gundam series

Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash (2021) The latest part of the Gundam series is an excellent one at that. Especially when you can relate the main character all the way back to the first Gundam film and see the connection to the stories origin was amazing. That might involve going on the fandom to see though. Well worth it, I must say though. The art is excellent and great to look at. The sound is awesome and well done. The characters are great and fun to watch interactions and also when they realise who each other is seeing those scenes was awesome. I must say obviously it is part of a wider set of films coming down to bear so this was quite heavy on drama and scene-setting. Be prepared for more talking than I'd of liked about things not all that important at times. 9/10. Cannot wait for the next part.

I'm a fan of the original Gundam series and I haven't been watching most of the recent Gundam stuff. I watched this movie because my Japanese boss mentioned it. Overall: A somewhat boring, mildly enjoyable average movie. It's a very typical story. Government, rebels, rebel leader who pretends not to be the rebel leader, beautiful spoiled girl, all that jazz. I didn't find anything captivating in the plot, the characters don't do anything out of the ordinary. The ones that pilot the robots, pilot the robots. The pretty girl is pretty and teases one man to make another one jealous. The rebel leader is aloof and always thinking about rebel leader stuff. The background characters are disposable and irrelevant. I feel like there's nothing I can discuss with my friends about this movie. Things happened, and that's all. I can't say "Woah, did you see the crazy plot twist when X and Y?" or "I wasn't expecting them to do Z!" but no, everything is just one normal scene after another. You watch the movie, the movie ends, you go "heh" and then move unto another thing. If you have nothing else to watch, on a Saturday evening, give it a go.

A solid enough Gundam film, that is, as a work in its own right, hampered by its nature as the first in a trilogy. From a production standpoint, there's little to complain about. The artwork and animation is exactly as sharp and high-quality as you expect from Sunrise. I always particularly like the very specific style of character design that gets used in all modern Universal Century Gundam stories, and this gives plenty of that. And, of course, the mecha designs and animation are top-notch, as should be expected. The characters are interesting and are, for the most part, established well enough. Even as someone who hasn't seen much UC Gundam (though knows the important details and characters, including at least knowing who Bright Noa is), I was able to pick up the details I might have missed quite easily, and settle into the film quite quickly, from that point of view. Where I did struggle, a little, was the story. Simply that it didn't feel like there was much of one. Now, as I said, this is the first film in a trilogy, and part of me feels a little mean making this criticism because of that. But, at the end of the day, I still believe that the films in a trilogy need to be able to stand on their own as well, especially the first part; after all, if the audience don't find enough story to keep them engaged, what's going to make them come back for more? It feels that this largely doesn't. It starts a lot of story, introduces a lot of ideas, sends a lot of characters starting on journeys that I'm sure will be interesting as the rest of the trilogy comes out, but unfortunately doesn't really have any resolution. It feels more like the first episode in a series than a film series, and as someone who's very interested in the difference between film and TV, especially in how their storytelling is structured, it did mean that I left this film feeling a little unsatisfied, simply because there wasn't enough of a story to really cling onto. Like I said, I do feel like that's a slightly mean standard to hold it to. As the first 'episode' it was very good, and I'm at least pretty likely to watch the next part whenever it comes out. But I also can't rate it that highly as a film, because it just didn't have that much. Enjoyable, yes, but still a little unsatisfying, nice as it always is to see a new Gundam work.

This movie was well worth the wait after numerous delays. This is the first in the trilogy of movies based on the novels written by Yoshiyuki Tomino. I love this movie, but I wouldn’t recommend this to people who are new to the Gundam series, or specifically if you’re new to the Universal Century timeline (Original Series). If you really want to watch Hathaway I highly recommend you to watch Char’s Counterattack movie first before going in. You’d get more context of who the characters are and what lead Hathaway down his path. But overall the animation and cinematography in this movie is phenomenal, and the characters themselves feel really human. The Mobile Suit battles were AMAZING! My only gripe with the film was the last fight scene between the Xi and Penelope was a little too short. But overall I can’t wait to see what’s next in the other two movies.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash Review Story (8/10) Very Good More Specifically (8.50/10) Very Good The story for Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway in a nutshell quite easy to grasp. And it is presented in a way that if you don't have prior knowledge of main Universal Century Timeline for Gundam, you could still very quickly grasp what is currently going on. For a story that is to be a three part trilogy I went into this movie knowing that this will be mostly the setup movie and indeed it was. This is definitely the movie to lay all the groundwork and in that regards, firstly I wasn't disappointed and secondly for a setup movie the pacing I actually thought was very well done. Nothing to me felt like it inherently could have been taken out (maybe the "caught naked" troupe but even that showcases a side of Hathaway that the viewer is able to see which I will get into him later). Overall as a first part of a trilogy movie this one is a very good start. Art and Animation (8/10) Very Good More Specifically (8.75/10) Very Good+ The art style in this movie I was a very big fan of. The later Universal Century adapted series (basically everything that has been animated in UC after Unicorn) have this distinct and sophisticated look to it and I love it. (Makes it feel all the more superior to those damn crusty AUs! I'm just kidding... not really). The certain in-betweens did stand out as a tad sloppy though from a hand drawn standpoint. And at the very end when Hathaway was walking outside, the art style and animation had this very odd cg/cell shaded animated look to it that I wasn't a fan of, it looked borderline jarring and stood out to me like a sore thumb. And although they don't look bad, I will never prefer CG mobile suits to hand drawn. Overall though it was very good done. Sound (8/10) Very Good The sound in this movie was very good. Nothing to really to heavily brag about here, the music was also very good and I watched this in Enlglish Dub. Everyone sounded fitting to their role and the voice acting behind every character and scene was very well done. Characters (7/10) Good More Specifically (7.50/10) Good *Minor Spoilers* The characters in Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash were good enough. -Most people that had any knowledge going into this movie I assume were curious to how our main character Hathaway Noa would act. Because this guy is the only returning character in this movie from past entries. In regards to Hathaway Noa and his depiction in this movie he came off are as a very hard to read young fellow. It is revealed very early on that the terrorist known as Mafty is Hathaway himself and for a terrorist that is well known and sounds like he knows what he's doing, Hathaway comes off as someone to me who is still extremely vague in regards to his decisions in every day life choices and more. It's complex at best "i guess" and convoluted for him at worst both sides depending on how you look at him in regards to a specific angle isn't wrong. He's just a tad too inconsistent to what we've heard about Mafty from the world around him. He showcases very early on that in a combat situation he can take out multiple armed terrorist with ease. So it showcases that he definitely hasn't been sitting on his hands this entire time since Char's Counterattack but this uncertainty he showcases when he hears about Mafty from others whether it's Gigi, Kenneth or even some goofy ass taxi driver makes it seem like he's not solidified with his stance or resolve in regards to what he wants to actually accomplish. This isn't necessarily a bad thing especially if you know how Hathaway (or Simpaway as some people would call him) acted in Char's Counterattack, it's just a character flaw at best that I see he still retains from the person we knew him to be. If there was something that I'd have to question about his character which I hope is explored upon more is his skills in a mobile suit. As far as I'm aware he only was in one once back in Char's Counterattack and for a very small amount of time, unless of course when he was with his group he was flying around in mobile suits getting better and better but this is all we can assume at this time. So unless I'm missing something (which I hope I am) it's hard for me to grasped how he was able to outdo another mobile suit pilot (and hell not just any damn mobile suit pilot, an upcoming ace pilot in at this time with a state of the art Gundam superior to his own that he just hopped into a few minutes ago) within such a short period of time. The fight was cool but it was hard for me to let that question go fully unanswered even for this first movie. - Kenneth was one of the other characters they spent a decent amount of time on. And he seemed like he is setup to be the intellectual rival for Hathaway. He seemed interesting and his boldness towards Gigi was entertaining. I am not entirely sure how much potential he has moving forward though he could easily hit the back burner by the time the 3rd movie comes around but we'll see as of right now he seems alright. -Gigi was the third character that got the most screen time. I found it very odd how quickly she was able to come to the conclusion that Hathaway was Mafty himself. Sure she explained herself how she came to this conclusion, but it still came off as offputting to me, not sure how I felt about the believability and the execution behind it all. She is probably the character who is the sore thumb in this movie to be honest. She is all over the place and her purpose in the movie felt more so like a "token female character needed" instead of having a more valid reason of existing outside of "this is the girl who's going to be eye candy and poke at Hathaway's feelings thus making him think of the time he was Simpaway". Nonetheless she was still some what of an entertaining character to watch do whatever she do. I just hope she has a more integral role in later movies other than the "good luck charm for Kenneth," because her goofing around will get old if she's still doing it by the third movie. -The last character is Lane Aim, he didn't get too much screen time and we only briefly see him before the climax of the movie. Like I stated in Hathaway's character portion, I don't understand how he was so easily out maneuvered while having more experience in his Gundam and also being in a Gundam that from a specs standpoint is considered superior. It honestly just made him feel anti-climatic when it came to his purpose in this story which it looks like it was supposed to be someone who is suppose to be the piloting rival to Hathaway but currently right now he has disappointed me from both a characterization standpoint and a piloting skills standpoint. All that does though is leave a lot of room for growth in both of those sections in the future movies so hopefully that is the case. Enjoyment (8/10) Very Good More Specifically (8.50/10) Very Good I enjoyed my time fairly with this movie, it made me feel like I was back home watching something in the good ole Universal Century (THE BEST UNIVERSE). I enjoyed all the setup and I'm glad that this movie did end off with some good ole Gundam vs Gundam action as well because they easily could have left that out. But from a director standpoint they probably thought it would not be smart to not show some Gundam action of some sort in a Gundam movie of any kind, which I'm glad it made it in even if it was at the very end. Overall (8/10) Very Good More Specifically (8.25/10) Very Good Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash is a very good Gundam movie and a very good start to a trilogy movie. I am glad to say you can indeed hop into this movie without prior knowledge. Even if you have prior knowledge it outside of knowing who Hathaway used to be, who he's related to and a few flashbacks you aren't going to feel super rewarded having prior UC knowledge from this film and that's not necessarily bad if it meant not…

technically the 500th anime i have completed. engrossing story and characters (reminded me of death note). semi stand alone so i wasn't confused. disliked how we never get to see how Mafty was founded but hopefully they will cover that in the sequel. really good animation with decent cg but you could tell they were running out of budget at the end of the movie. good voice acting as well. Ono, Kensho as the mc Noa puts on a conniving performance reminding me of his role of Canute (from vinland saga). There is a minor role played by Tsuda, Kenjirou one of my Favourite Japanese voice actors, Suwabe, Junichi (famous for playing grimjow from bleach and sukuna from jkk) plays the rival (remember when i said this was like death note) and Ueda, Reina does a great job at the manipulating love intrest.

Ecoterrorist manifestos and destroying hotels of politicians that haven't done enough already makes me love this setting more than Zeta's more generic war against an anti-environmentalist government or CCA's plan to simply destroy the earth. Not saying there's not so so much more to those two series, but still. The destruction caused by the terrorism/mobile suit battles and the spyware at every corner feels very real. Tomino's 1989 Light novel adapted by people living in the 21st century that can actually imagine a future contemporary to our present. I'm glad the UC year 0105 gets to have ipads and massive skyscrapers. Nothing much to say here since this is obviously incomplete. Hate that I can't read the light novels that continue this.

MSG Hathaway's Flash is a nice extension to the UC timeline core. I recommend watching prequel UC timeline work before watching this. It willl help establish the world/universe and characters this movie is based off of. Here is a list of OVAs and compilation movies that would help summarize background context: The setup is similar to previous UC MSG's. In general, there's a tense cycle between the Earth Federation and those who want independence from their control, which used to be the Principality of Zeon, and is now a resistance organization named Mafty. Neither faction is good or evil. Earth Federation is forcibly sending people into space and polluting earth. Mafty is resisting using extreme acts of terrorism by assassinating Earth Federation cabinet members/ministers. There are scenes in the movie that show, very clearly, how brutal it is for the people caught up in between. The hard work Sunrise put into the art and CGI animation makes this movie look absolutely stunning, on the level of Ufotable work like Fate and Demon Slayer. I've seen other anime on Netflix where the CGI is overused and makes the characters move like robots to the point where it just looks really unnatural. I'm glad it did not turn out like the latter. The way the camera pans, zooms, shakes during some of the battle scenes is incredible. The transitions between scene to scene is also incredible. All this mixed in with the sound effects, the music of Hiroyuki Sawano and others, and the voice acting sums up into an incredible piece of work. As for the characters, I definitely felt an attachment to Hathaway Noa based on what I've seen out of Char's Counterattack. Back in Char's Counterattack, I remember him getting slapped by his father Bright Noa while the legendary Amuro Ray is standing there thinking "yup, he did the same to me when I was younger". But now, in this movie, it feels like Hathaway has gone through a rite of passage and grown into the protagonist role very well. Most fascinating is Hathaway's internal conflict with regards to him acknowledging humanity's overpopulation problem and how his approach to the problem is not ideal. However, he feels rushed into taking action before it's too late. Kenneth Sleg fits the antagonist role as a sort of Char-like character, Lane Aim reminds Hathaway of his younger self, and Gigi Andalucia reminds Hathaway of someone named Quess Paraya (Hathaway's Newtype love interest in Char's Counterattack). Gigi is interesting in that she acts as a foil to sort of serve as Hathaway's morality "check"; essentially saying that Mafty needs to be more than terrorists. All of which are good pieces to the story and character building. As a professional who works in the technical industry, the realism in the world of Gundam UC does not bother me. I find it plenty enjoyable. I do not watch fictional anime expecting an absolute alignment to real world science/physics. The fiction in this movie is nothing new compared to previous Gundam UC fictional elements. In my opinion, the degree of realism to fiction that MSG Hathaway introduces is well-balanced and well-established throughout the movie. Overall it works well in tandem with the rest of the movie's elements. We have Newtypes who have psychic abilities, which supposedly is a side effect of humanity's spacenoid evolution. This superimposes onto the story really well to aid with one of the major Gundam UC plot points: humanity needs to understand each other better. And we have big mechas and spaceships developed by Anaheim Electronics that battle each other with no problem entering/exiting earth's atmosphere. When in doubt, just say it's b.c. of the Minovsky particle density. Fantastic movie! Can't wait for the next one.

----- BEFORE HATHAWAY... Please, try to watch at least CHAR´S COUNTERATTACK. If you are new in the Gundam Universe, I recommend you, first watch all 3 recap movies, then Char's Counterattack, and immediately go for HATHAWAY. I love the Hathaway´s Flash story, and I am beyond happy for this adaptation, seeing Mafty in action. The art is beautiful top tier. Pablo Uchida did a beautiful job, and I am not talking only about the movie, Uchida, did a brilliant job in the whole Hathaway´s flash project with the posters and promotional material. He deserves all the credits and more. PS: It is true that in some parts of the film, the animation looks a little bit plain/flat, but in general, a beautiful movie to watch. The sound=amazing. The plot and the dialogues left something of emptiness in my heart. But I hope, in the upcoming parts they can put all the pieces together.

Long story short, another decent, yet by the numbers Gundam side story set in the main, Universal Century timeline, in the year UC 0105, 12 years after "Char's Counter Attack" or 9 years after "Gundam Unicorn". I will say this now however, if you are not an existing Gundam fan who's familiar with the early UC Gundam series (0079, zeta, ZZ, CCA), I do not recommend this to you. At minimum, you will need to be familiar with the events of the movie "Char's Counter Attack", in which this film's protagonist, Hathaway Noa, was first introduced. Animation quality is pretty top notch but probably a slight cut below what was seen in Gundam Unicorn. In addition, if you were hoping for some over the top mobile suit action, unfortunately this one only has a few scenes and a few new mobile suits, and just personally speaking, not a fan of how excessively bulky the titular gundams of this one look. As for story and characters, it is honestly another rather basic/by the numbers gundam war drama story, and with the usual underlying anti-war message though, so I cannot really rate this above an 8/10. If it weren't for the great visuals and animation, I would probably drop this down to a 7.

This movie does an amazing job with the cinematography, very deliberately choosing specific angles, in-camera focus, and lighting to draw watchers’ attentions. Maybe it’s just that this is a movie and therefore has more budget and time put into it, but much as other entries have looked pretty great before (Unicorn, The Origin, and IBO in particular), this is the first modern incarnation of the series to do more than just make a bunch of exceptional fight scenes with some pretty good general animation. I’ve had my issues with the human-centric work done on the recent Godzilla films, for example, but this is a very different beast. It’s war, and though other series have done a great job setting the stakes as high as they can, it depersonalizes the experience to the point that it’s hard to care about anyone on the ground. We get the occasional scenes like pre-colony drop in The Origin and the ending of Pocket that stand out in this regard, and still I think this does better. The scale and weight of battles feels far more present here. I love that we get to see so much of this from a ground level instead of focusing on the cockpit or some grand battle. Fighting over a city has consequences, and the helplessness of the characters on the ground is excellently portrayed. All that being said, I can’t praise this movie too much. The animation is a combination of 2D and CGI, which is usually fine (even great in many instances), but has some jank to the latter. The actual mobile suit fights are not nearly as good as those in many of the other Gundam series – they just feel a lot stiffer here, and since there aren’t many suits fighting, the brutality that we’ve seen from previous series just isn’t here. That’s not necessarily a big problem – the deaths of nameless, faceless pilots always rang a little hollow, even if it made for some pretty incredible fight scenes. In fact, this movie seems to make it a point to step away from the usual Universal Century BS, involving Newtypes only in a minor capacity and largely stepping away from the broader world and, therefore, context. It’s there, but with a whole lot less homework involved. Still, I felt this was a little lackluster. I do come to Gundam with certain expectations, and this just didn’t have the oomph that we see from other entries, with all the fights ending bloodlessly and only a hint at greater dangers. It’s intriguing to see where the story took the various plot threads from Unicorn and other prior entries, but this feels like such a minor piece in that puzzle, setup to something much larger. I look forward to the next two entries, which I believe will up the ante significantly.

An interesting yet uneven start to a promising trilogy. Gundam: Hathaway enters the scene with pedigree and quickly delivers, wasting no time at all before immersing us into its conceits, characters, and setting. Gorgeously animated and vividly intentional, the showstopper remains the mid-movie climax, featuring a riveting mecha battle from the chaotic, desperate perspective of a fleeing civilian. However, Hathaway also struggles to justify a lot of its narrative indulgences, particularly its focus on military logistics and a presently tangential love triangle. These may all become clearer as the trilogy progresses, but the first installment doesn't pay very much forward.

I like the Gundam franchise, but I’m not really a hardcore FAN or someone who knows everything about the universe. Let’s just say I like giant robots, the characters’ personalities, and the battles. A lot of the time, Sunrise delivers that really well with Gundam. But... I’ve watched Gundam SEED/Destiny/Stargazer, Gundam 00, Gundam Wing, Gundam Build, Gundam Unicorn, The Witch from Mercury, Gundam 0083, and that’s pretty much where my experience ends. What all of these had in common was the strong mix of politics and Gundam battles. But this movie... it’s not bad, but it barely feels like Gundam to me. If you replaced the Gundams with cars or a couple of Bankais, you probably wouldn’t even notice the difference.

I feel very confused by this production and I can't say if I like it or not, just that I'm extremely dissapointed. It's not a bad movie and I'm sure that some Gundam loyal fans can like it, but it's not what lots of us where expecting after the incredible directions the franchise was following after The Origin movie series. Story (6/10): Just a boring mecha plot that approaches to easily draw attention to a global audience. Everything was going too fast but at the same time nothing was happening. The presentation of the film with the robbery on the plane seemed incredible to me, but during the rest of the sequences nothing happened and it seemed that the story never stabilized, continuously changing its tone and objectives. I can't understand why they have had to force so much a love triangle and irrelevant characters that have no relation to the protagonist, it all feels very artificial. There were many more scenes showing decorations from the hotel than from the Gundam itself. It is very obvius that the producers wanted to take advantage of the big names that worked on the project rather than developping the film with a fixed objective. Characters (6/10): Hathaway Noa was a character that we were looking forward to be given a good development from the franchise since a long ago. This new version is faithful from the one we saw in the 80s but it does not generate enough interest to carry a whole saga, it's just the typical mecha protagonist that who wants to follow his ideals to death. The rest of the main cast (specially Gigi and Kenneth) are way to quirky and cliché and they are not nothing different from the typical cast of the mecha animes that are being released the last years. Animation (9/10): The animation was by far the strongest point of the production. The background designs were extremely detailed and it's been so long since I've seen such detailed storyboards with that quantity of movement. I'm not usually very optimistic about how anime production is evolving, but it is necessary to appreciate the great care and the very high standards of the visuals of any Gundam premiere. BSO (7/10): I never thought I would feel so indifferent to a soundtrack composed by Hiroyuki Sawano. We are too used to this type of tracks in the franchise and in this film there's not any particularly remarkable. I am convinced that in the sequel his pieces will look much more. In conclusion, it is a movie made only to be a visual spectacle and an easy entry for modern anime fans to the world of Gundam. It is a good option if you want to try the franchise without much commitment since it does not require much prior information. As a fan of Gundam and mainly of the Union Century Timeline in their first works, this new version generates zero interest in me.