There have been some pretty huge anime film releases since the COVID crisis made going to a movie theatre a challenge. The Demon Slayer movie, which broke all ticket sales records despite the challenges of getting fans to visit a theater in 2020. The (outstanding, stupendous, wonderful!) conclusion to Violet Evergarden, which arrives on Blu-ray next month. The final Evangelion film. And then there’s the movie I’ve been waiting years for, Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash, which was delayed several times but was finally released in movie theatres in Japan this week… and on Netflix, too, for viewers around the world. Here’s why I think Gundam Hathaway is the best Gundam we’ve seen in years… or maybe ever!
The Story of Gundam Hathaway
The year is U.C. 105, 12 years after Char’s Rebellion, when Char Aznable attempts to make the Earth uninhabitable by dropping the asteroid Axis into the planet, forcing humans to embrace their destiny in space. Hathaway Noa is the son of the great Federation war hero Bright Noa, who played a role in Char’s Counterattack. In the intervening years, the Federation has become even more of a fascist state than it already was, causing Hathaway to turn against his own government, forming the anti-Federation terrorist organization Mafty. As the story unfolds, we learn more about Hathaway’s new rebellion against the Federation, which is summed up as, “The idealism of Char, and the passion and energy of Amuro: he is the heir to both of their wills.”
The first Gundam Hathaway film was frankly outstanding, with gorgeous production values and a story that ticked all the boxes for a modern Gundam fan. I was enthralled with the animation quality, the complexity of the story, and of course the entertaining Gundam battles. The battle set in Davos, which was experienced from the point of view of the characters on the ground rather than the pilots inside the mecha, was especially exciting to see. It was also great to see the character designs were based on Haruhiko Mikimoto’s work for the novels.
One of the challenges of Mobile Suit Gundam — specifically the Universal Century timeline that the original series is based on — is that it’s been going on for so long that it might be daunting for new fans to get into because of its long history. If you’re interested in sampling Gundam Hathaway but don’t know every detail of the U.C. universe, don’t worry about it: it’s perfectly reasonable to “surf” the story without sweating the details. It’s basically how I enjoy any new Fate or Monogatari work, since both of these franchises have become so complex I’d need to get a college degree to properly understand the stories.
What We Want from a Quality Gundam Work
There are certain core elements every good Mobile Suit Gundam work will be sure to feature, including:
- The story must follow an angsty young man who fans can self-insert into.
- It must have an enigmatic female who can bring out feelings of love and confusion in our hero. In Gundam Hathaway, the heroine is the beautiful Gigi Andalucia.
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- The story is required to obsessively move from Earth up into space and back again, so that we can enjoy the drama of our characters leaving the Earth in rockets then experiencing reentry into the atmosphere. I assume the Apollo missions left a deep impression on Yoshiyuki Tomino at the time, which is why these themes show up in his work so often.
- During scenes set in space, care must be taken to show what that would be like, with hair floating in zero gravity and the characters dealing with their environment in various ways.
- At some point during a battle, cockpits must be opened to allow combatants to face each other pilot-to-pilot, or for characters to transfer from one mecha to another.
- Char Aznable and Amuro Ray must get name-dropped as much as possible.
- At some point, characters must ride horses even though this is happening in outer space, because horses are awesome.
The other important element in any good Gundam work is the importance of the political background, and how the characters and the organizations they’re affiliated with interact with each other in that context. Because Gundam, like Star Trek, tries to tell thoughtful and realistic stories about the potential future of humans in space, unlike Macross or Star Wars, which are more “fun” and less serious.
My Life as a Mobile Suit Gundam Fan
I became an anime fan back in the early 80s, long before the idea of subtitled or dubbed anime was a far-off dream. So if I wanted to watch my beloved Z Gundam, I would need to learn Japanese, which helped motivate me to study.
Over the decades, I’ve loved being a Gundam fan, enjoying most of the series that came out every year. When my son was born, we watched the show together, thrilling to the competition between Char and Amuro, delighting at the drama when Lalah Sune came between them and is killed. We built Gundam models together, and many fun times were had.
Which Gundam series took your “Gundam virginity”? Here’s a blog post for you!
The Importance of Gundam in the History of Fandom
When Sunrise began the boldest project ever attempted, 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam, about a war between humans living in space trying to free themselves from the political control of the Federation, they didn’t know they were launching one of the longest-running sci-fi franchises in history. Gundam would go on to become as important as other great works as Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who, and would become an ambassador representing Japan’s pop culture to the world. The series is so popular that fans refuse to let poor Yoshiyuki Tomino ever rest, and we’re constantly demanding more U.C. Gundam stories.
Thanks for reading this blog post giving me thoughts on the first Gundam Hathaway film, and the general importance of Gundam to anime fandom overall. Check out the film on Netflix and tell us what you thought of it, either below or on Twitter!
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