This week I went to see the second film in the Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway series, titled The Sorcery of Nymph Circe. Like the first film (Netflix link), it continues the story of Hathaway Noa’s struggle against the corrupt Federation government, which controls Earth’s politics and dominates the Spacenoids living in orbital colonies. Read my (spoiler-free) thoughts on the film in this blog post!
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The Story of Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe
The first Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway film follows Hathaway Noa, son of famed One Year War hero Bright Noa. It’s 15 years after the events of Char’s Counterattack, when Char tried to force humanity to emigrate to space by dropping a giant asteroid onto Earth. Hathaway secretly leads a terrorist organization called MAFTY that’s working to bring down the Federation. During a hijacking incident en route to Davao, he meets the mysterious Gigi Andalucia and the Federation officer Kenneth Sleg. The first film, and the new one, are basically a subtle dance between Hathaway, Gigi, and Kenneth as Hathaway continues his rebellion while hiding his identity as the masterind behind it all.
When the third film is released, the trilogy will represent the crowning achievement of series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. He started out as an animator, working on some of the most iconic animated series from Astro Boy to Brave Raideen and Heidi, Girl of the Alps. He even directed Marine Boy, one of my favorite anime series at age 4! This man has been a part of my life for the past 50 years, though I didn’t know it back then.
The Creation of the Gundam Franchise
When he got hired as an artist for Space Battleship Yamato, he made some changes to the storyboards he was working on, adding his own flair to the project. He got in trouble for this and was forced to correct his work. This made him angry enough to start planning a space opera series that could eclipse the success of that series. “I had only one goal in creating Gundam. I wanted to destroy Yamato!”
Gundam wasn’t just a hit sci-fi anime. It revolutionized the kinds of stories fans expected from anime, ushering in the “Real Robot” era and proving that anime could tackle mature themes like war, politics, and moral ambiguity with the depth of serious science fiction. As anime became popular around the world, the Gundam series became Japan’s most famous ambassador.
What Makes a Good Gundam Film?
Let’s break down the elements of a good Gundam story!
Gundam Mecha Battles (Duh)
Obviously, fans want to experience amazing Gundam battles, seeing the combat unfold through the eyes of the main character. I’m happy to report that there was plenty of mecha action in The Sorcery of Nymph Circe. I watched the film in IMAX, so the quality of the visuals and sound were just amazing.
Visiting Famous Locations (but There Are No Countries)
One of the hallmarks of Universal Century Gundam is that all nations have been abolished, replaced by the unified world government of the Earth Federation. Characters may visit Davao, Darwin, or New Hong Kong, but the national entities of the Philippines, Australia, and China no longer exist in this world. There are no superpowers like the United States or the Soviet Union…and it feels as though they never existed in this universe at all.
Then there are the weird Gundam names. All the characters have invented names like Amuro Ray, Kamille Bidan, and Mineva Lao Zabi. Since there are no names originating from the Bible, does that mean mankind’s history is totally different in this timeline? Or has humanity completely “moved on” from its cultural past as it colonized space?
Constantly Name-Dropping Familar Characters
Which Gundam series took your “Gundam virginity”? For me it was Zeta Gundam, the second major release in the series, and that has consistently affected how I view Gundam overall. The show struck me as the perfect sequel: telling a new story based around new characters, but with just enough screen time given to beloved characters from the last series.
In Gundam Hathaway films, we get the same: new characters (except for Hathaway), with occasional call-outs to characters from the past, including Amuro Ray and Quess Paraya.
The Escape of “Space Politics”
One reason losing yourself in a good Gundam story is so enjoyable is that it unfolds in a universe separate from our own. The political struggles — Spacenoid independence, authoritarian overreach by the Federation, the dangers of waging war in a world where space colonies are regularly dropped on cities — are totally separate from the struggles we have to face every day.
That Newtype Girl Who Destabilizes the Hero
In general, people don’t watch Gundam for the waifus. The franchise certainly features some memorable female characters — political mastermind Haman Karn, the tragic Four Murasame, the emotionally volatile Quess Paraya — but compelling romantic storytelling has never really been Tomino’s thing.
Instead, Gundam often follows a recurring emotional structure: the protagonist begins with a grounded woman in his orbit, only for an attractive, destabilizing Newtype girl to enter the story and overturn his emotional world. The former represents normalcy and survival, while the latter pulls the hero out of his comfort zone and makes him question everything. In the Hathaway films, this role is filled by Gigi Andalucia, and she’s definitely the most exotic and interesting Gundam character to come along in a long time. (Image source link.)
Lots of “Gundam Gear Porn”
I’m a fan of YouTuber Paul Chato, who critiques modern film and television through the lens of his experience as a comedy writer and media executive. One point he returns to often is that recent iterations of Star Trek have lost their affection for “gear porn” — those loving, granular descriptions of the technology that made the universe feel real to fans. Dilithium crystal lattices. Inertial dampeners. Matter–antimatter reaction assemblies. Jefferies tubes. All that glorious sci-fi techno-babble.
Happily, modern Gundam isn’t repeating this mistake, and the new Gundam Hathaway film features more than enough nitty-gritty details about Gundam mechanics, Minovsky particles and so on.
What’s a “Nymph Circe”?
Circe was a powerful enchantress from Greek mythology, who shows up in the Odyssey. In English her name is pronounced like SUR-see. But since Japan always uses the original versions of names (for example, for names in the Bible), they use the Greek pronunciation, which is KEER-key.
This difference all but guarantees there’ll be drama among fans. Should they be saying Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of SUR-see, or KEER-key? Kind of like Gundam GQuuuuuuX, which no one knows how to pronounce correctly.
Thanks for reading this blog post celebrating the new Gundam Hathaway film. Will you go to see it whenever it gets picked up for international release or (more likely) streaming on Netflix? What has your journey as a Gundam fan been like? Tell us in the comments below!
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