Kidou Senshi Gundam III: Meguriai Sora-hen

The One Year War comes to a close, as the Zeon forces now retreat back into space. Amuro learns much more of his Newtype abilities and tries to use them the best way he can. He's pushed to his limit as he encounters the infamous Char Aznable once again. He also falls in love with a mysterious woman named Lalah Sune, who knows the full potential of the Newtype abilities.

The greatest battle is about to begin, as many loved ones fall to the power of war. Can the Earth Federation defeat the Principality of Zeon? Or will they fail? Can Char prove that he's the better Newtype than Amuro? They all will be answered now...

(Source: Otakufreakmk2)

Aznable, Char Main

Ikeda, Shuuichi Japanese

Ray, Amuro Main

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Noa, Bright Supporting

Suzuoki, Hirotaka Japanese

Haro Supporting

Takagi, Sanae Japanese

Mass, Sayla Supporting

Inoue, You Japanese

Zabi, Mineva Lao Supporting

Shiden, Kai Supporting

Furukawa, Toshio Japanese

Sune, Lalah Supporting

Han, Keiko Japanese

Zabi, Gihren Supporting

Ginga, Banjou Japanese

Zabi, Kycilia Supporting

Koyama, Mami Japanese

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Yatate, Hajime Producer

Ueda, Masuo Producer

Tomino, Yoshiyuki Director, Script, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics, Original Creator

Reviews

Dec 13, 2024

spacenewtype

Recommended

While I found the first two MSG compilation movies nearly unwatchable for their pacing and cutting of the heart of the show I love so very much, Encounters in Space offers some appreciated extra bits for the ending of the story, well worth experiencing even as a series diehard.

The touched up animations, frames, and new scenes to either expand on pre-existing scenes or compensate for cut elements elsewhere are all great, and particularly with the Zeon scenes you get the sense a lot of them would have been in the show if it was not cut short.

The recent watch I did of this ... movie followed right after I had just finished rewatching the series. I was interested, 'could this movie work as an improved final arc from the show'? The last episodes of MSG are a whirlwind of excitement but you can see cracks in the paint here and there.

While there are improvements to most of the action scenes, we see the grunt suits of each faction putting up more of a fight, I still feel there are too many narrative compromises for the overall character journeys for pretty much all characters other than Char; he maintained nearly all his scenes and even got some extras from the show. I will say this is undoubtedly the best of the three compilations and can function as an actual movie, whereas the other two did not feel so. There are some absolutely gorgeous moments for sure, but most of these moments are also from the show only having what would appear to the casual viewer as minor touchups or music differences.

This being said, I cannot say anyone should skip the Series version, or even skip just the last 10 episodes or so in favor of this film, it is still well worth experiencing as a cherry on top of the OG MSG cake, but it's still missing many of the spices and flavours that made the original characters so endearing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 13, 2023

Evolvez_yt

Mixed Feelings

Now I watched all of the first Gundam as episodes and not as movies, so I decided to make this review on the final movie to make it easier. Definition of a Mid anime. To put it simply, you're sitting to watch a 43 episode history docu of “Space WWII.” It has its moments of being interesting and also has a good way of how war can affect a person. Amuro (MC) is 15 when the show starts, just a kid who likes to tinker. Then he turns into a battle-hardened warrior with a 400/0/0 KDA. The side characters thankfully don’t suffer from what I ... like to call the “MHA problem.” Although there are a ton of side characters, most don’t really matter since they don't affect the plot too much, so forgetting them isn't the biggest crime. However, the major problem this anime has is that you really can start anywhere (Remember I didn't watch it as movies.) You could basically skip to any episode, although not getting all the context, could simply keep going since the show just either skips it or tells it again. Overall, MID.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 26, 2021

ktulu007

Not Recommended

Funny

I've looked at the first two films based off of the original Gundam series. And now we're on the finale, Encounters in Space. So far, they haven't been good. They've been pretty trite and overly predictable. I'd like to see them end on a high note, but I don't expect it given what we've seen thus far.

Story:

So, when we left off our heroes were leaving Earth in White Base with the Zeon forces in hot pursuit and attacking the Jaburo headquarters behind them. Sayla also had a quick encounter with her missing brother who happens to be Char of the Zeon forces. Holidays ... will definitely be awkward for their family.

In this film, we open with White Base having returned to space and engaging in battles with Zeon forces there. The conflict is coming to a head and both sides are in an increasingly desperate state. The Zeon have a new super weapon and White Base is the lynch pin in the Federation attack against it.

Let's start with the biggest issues with the film. The most obvious being that, like the previous films, its way too predictable. Any major character who's going to die has an obvious death flag. The narrative itself has no unexpected twists. In addition to that, the bad romance writing gets particularly egregious here. There's a weird love pentagon thing going with Mirai, Bright and two other dudes who weren't in the prior films and only have minor roles in this one. So, it's kind of pointless and doesn't contribute anything except some contrived romance melodrama. Because that's what we need to add intrigue to this story about intergalactic war. Speaking of pointless nonsense, Amuro's father shows up in this for no good reason. Amuro just kind of speaks to him briefly, realises he's suffering from some kind of brain damage and then acts like the whole thing never happened.

You may recall that when I reviewed the first film I mentioned that it tried to make both sides sympathetic but failed because the Zeon are basically portrayed as space Nazis. Well, this film exacerbates that perception by outright comparing Gihren, leader of Zeon's forces, to Adolf Hitler. So, the comparison is deliberate and they're still trying to show the Zeon as somewhat sympathetic... Suddenly, it makes a lot of sense that the original creator of Gundam, Tomino Yoshiyuki, also directed, created and scripted both Brain Powerd and Garzey no Tsubasa.

The most interesting element is still Char's whole arc although it's kind of a letdown with how it ultimately concludes.

Characters:

The big problem with the characters as a whole is still that they're duller than a plastic spoon. Amuro is also really getting on my nerves at this point. There's a part of the film where he encounters someone on the opposing side who says it's weird that he's fighting without any actual reason. He doesn't deny the fact that he has no reason for fighting but still thinks it's petty that she's fighting out of a sense of gratitude and loyalty towards someone else. And while watching that exchange all I could think was "at least she has some motivation." Seriously, this guy just admitted to not having any real reason to fight and he thinks she's the one being petty in that situation? Fuck off.

Art:

So, we have art and mecha designs that haven't really aged very well. If I'm being honest, the only mech designs in this I kind of like are Ball and Big Zam and it's not because they're good designs. It's because they're stupid in a way that kind of makes me laugh. Ball is literally a tiny ball-shaped mech. Big Zam is a massive saucer with no manoeuvrability attached to a pair of huge legs for no apparent reason. Seriously, what purpose do the legs serve? All the weapons seem to be in the saucer section. Is it supposed to be so that it can kick or step on other mechs and call them scum?

Sound:

The acting is fine, even with Amuro's whininess. Inoue You and Ikeda Shuuichi have the strongest performances. The music is and has been the most consistently quality element in these films.

Ho-yay:

There's none. No one is Trowaing anyone else's Quatre.

Areas of Improvement:

1. You can't make your antagonists sympathetic while also making a clear comparison to them and Nazis.

2. Amuro needs stronger motivation. He comes across as someone who's letting themselves get dragged along into a conflict that they have no strong feelings about.

3. If you suck at writing romance, just don't have romance. Trust me, the fans will ship characters they think mesh well regardless and you certainly don't need romantic drama to add intrigue to a story about an intergalactic war involving mecha. You just need better writing for the intergalactic war involving mecha.

Final Thoughts:

This is not a strong ending. Not only are all the problems with these films still present, but they're actually accentuated with pointless scenes and a bunch of poorly executed romance. And because of that, I'm not giving this part of the trilogy an average rating. I'm giving it a 3/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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