Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack

Kyouma-D-Luffy★ 4

Char's Counterattack should not exist. This movie was a slap in the face to those who enjoyed Zeta Gundam and Char Aznable. I'm shocked to see many users here giving this movie such a high score when it really doesn't deserve it. Spoilers ahead, You've been warned. Let's start off with the plot, with no reason given nor hints during the entirety of Zeta Gundam and it's sequel ZZ (which Char never appeared in), we see that Char Aznable, the man who gave that great speech to ward off the titans from Earth, is now the leader of Neo-Zeon. Char's goal is to wipe all lifeon Earth by dropping an asteroid on it. Yes, the same Char who refused to join with Haman Karn in Zeta who also had a similar ambition (dropping colonies in ZZ) is now trying to kill all of Earth's inhabitants. Why and how did this happen? We saw that Char got over the death of Lalah in Zeta, yet here he is in this film complaining to Amuro that Lalah could've been his mother. It's almost like that "MARTHA" meme from Batman v Superman. Does this movie at least take the time to explain why he's doing this? Barely. His motive for doing all this is to get back at Amuro for killing Lalah, when he actually teamed up with him during Zeta without even a hint of a grudge against him. Again this all doesn't make any sense. Do you see a pattern in this review? It's like Yoshiyuki Tomino and his writers wanted to undo Zeta Gundam's story when it's actually one of the best stories from the U.C. Another gripe I had with this film was the characters, there was barely enough time to get to see characters like Amuro and Char. Instead screen time is given to characters like Quess and Hathaway, and let me just say, if you thought Reccoa was a bitch, wait till you see Quess. Within the first 20 minutes of the film, you'll come to wish Bright came out early to slap the shit outta her. I was actually cheering for Chen when she killed Quess but that turned into disappointment with Hathaway acting even worse than Kamille or Amuro's tantrums by killing Chen. I almost felt bad for her but then I realized it was Chen's fault that one of the key crew members from the Argama, Astonaige dies due to her recklessness. A pointless death that wasn't given any mourning or impact. Just a quick boom, he's dead. Just like how Tomino cared for Zeta when he wrote this movie. I wanted to see some of the characters like Astonaige and Bright react to Char's sudden change of character, but instead we're given a sappy side love triangle/square between Quess, Gyunei, Hathaway and Char. What for? At least 3 of these characters end up dead anyway. Another thing that I would've love to see are characters like Sayla and Kamille show up. Remember that crappy ending with the Newtype Psychic wave that covered the Earth? I would've loved to see Kamille and Sayla sense and feel that wave. What did we get instead? An old grandma and some animals reacting to this wave. Not even a cameo from those two. I guess Kamille and Sayla missed out on this shitfest. I think the movie would've been slightly better if we had them show up in some way to remind viewers that those characters still exist. I would've loved to see Kamille and Sayla just try and ask why Char is doing all this exactly like I was when I saw this movie. The ending was a WTF moment too, did Amuro and Char die? Did they just disappear out of thin air? The last thing we hear from Amuro is a "aughh". We didn't even see the cockpit explode or the asteroid explode either. It just moves away from the Earth. I guess I'll have to watch Unicorn to find out. I'm getting a lot of mixed messages on this ending. I read some background information on this film and found that Tomino actually based this film on a novel he did. So basically this movie was all just a cash grab to get his novel to sell but most of the stuff he writes turn outs to be the exact opposite of what actually happens in the anime so I guess this time we didn't get so lucky. (He originally wanted Amuro dead in the original series and in Zeta, he wanted Kamille to commit suicide after killing Scirocco.) I think we should be glad that someone is forcing him to change these endings around but I guess since he was allowed the reigns to do as he pleases in this film, we got such a sad and pathetic sequel. Trust me, I wanted to like this film, this was hyped up among the Gundam fandom for being the thrilling conclusion between Amuro and Char's rivalry, but instead I left disappointed. This was as much as a negative whiplash to me as Tenchi Muyo's OVA 3 was. Both this film and Tenchi OVA 4 required reading outside source material that never left outside of Japan, leaving viewers like me just confused on this whole film. This film probably would've been a lot better if it was another TV series instead of a movie, that way we might understand these new characters better. For now, this movie really blows. 4/10

jmoriarty84★ 8

Well, I personally felt that this movie was conclusive, but felt more like a conclusion or some extension to the original series, and not really that well connected to Zeta and Double Zeta. Then again, this was the intention but I felt this movie could have used some of the main characters from that series or give us an update on Camille, Fa, and Judau, though there are other materials out there exclusive to Japan on what happened to them. Since the movie really has no direct connection to Zeta or Double Zeta, I don’t feel it’s really required that you watch those series, butI recommended you watch the Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy to understand the foundation of the rivalry between Char and Amuro. Resuming characters that play a significant part are of course Captain Bright, his son Hathaway, Bright’s wife’s former fiancé Cameron also plays a part as well. New additions for this movie are Nanai Miguel, Char’s right hand woman and Quess Paraya, the daughter of a Federation politician who has teenage issues and has erratic newtype abilities. The movie is reasonably paced and the characters all have their use. Granted the new characters do stand out, I just don’t think they were worth sacrificing some other characters over. In addition to this movie going back to its roots with the Char and Amuro rivalry, the style and design of the mobile suits, specifically the Nu Gundam, Nu being N-U gives that impression as well. The current Gundam’s style goes back to its roots with the more blocky design rather than the aerodynamic frames that were present in Zeta and isn’t really as heavy packed as the Double Zeta. A notable difference is that it breaks the tradition of the red, white, and blue color scheme to a black and white one. With the Nu Gundam comes a new kind of material that is meant to go with the newtype abilities called the Psycho Frame and the addition of funnels also gives Amuro the chance to use those abilities at their fullest potential as well. The suit Char has this time is the Sazabi, also reverting back to his iconic red scheme. The Sazabi is more cylinder like and kind of goes back to the bulkier and bloated design of the Zakus. The battles are more intense than ever with the heavy fire power and the potential of nuclear weapons being deployed by the Neo Zeon. There is more of a risk factor to the fights that make it more realistic and reasonably paced, but yet exciting. The character designs for the most part are still in tradition and faithful to the original, but presented in a new quality of resolution that really compliment the updated costume designs. Char’s design is quite unique. He’s more muscular looking and he’s more dignified, but yet still recognizable. Well, the roles of Amuro, Char, and Bright are still respectively reprised by their respective seiyuus throughout the lifespan of the franchise and still pull off their roles as if they never aged a day. Anything I had to say about their roles in previous installments can be said here as well. For the dub, this came out before Zeta got licensed in America so some of the roles are reprised by the dub actors from the TV series as well such as Brad Swaile is still Amuro. I personally thought the dub was excellent in its own right. The music is constantly intense. Not really as militaristic as Gundam soundtracks, but enough to pull you into the battlefield of space. The ending theme Beyond the Time also truly reflects the nature of the ending of the movie. I wouldn’t call the movie fan service, but is truly meant for fans of Gundam because it’s really what I may call the symbolic ending to the original Gundam series. I wasn’t really that disappointed with Char’s character, but I think they could have built things up much better. But I guess I have to find other material that is either in manga or game form to get what I’m looking for. For what it’s worth, I do feel delighted this movie does pay homage to the original Gundam in its own right, but I felt they could have done some other things with it to make it more complete and balanced with the other series, but I guess they really wanted to make this movie distinctive with the newer cast.