Kidou Senshi Gundam: Senkou no Hathaway

Thanks to the sacrifices of war heroes like Amuro Ray, the Universal Century's 105th year sees an era of hard-won but short-lived peace. The Earth Federation keeps a militaristic hold on the planet and its surrounding space colonies. Although Char Aznable's rebellion against the neglectful Federation met its ultimate failure, his revolutionary philosophy of true freedom for all human beings lives on.

Despite being the son of a famous Federation commander, Hathaway Noa embodies both the undying loyalty of soldier Amuro Ray and the militant passion of rebel leader Char Aznable. Haunted by memories of Char's Rebellion, Hathaway leads a dissident faction of his own known as Mafty. He adopts the alias "Mafty Navue Erin" and commits acts of violence in revolt against the growing tyranny of the Federation.

After thwarting the hostile takeover of a plane by a terrorist group fraudulently claiming to be Mafty, Hathaway's secret identity is discovered by a young woman named Gigi Andalucia. Hathaway befriends both Gigi and Federation colonel Kenneth Sleg, but his double life endangers them as the armed conflict between Mafty and the Federation comes to a head.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Noa, Hathaway Main

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Andalucia, Gigi Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Sleg, Kenneth Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Ray, Amuro Supporting

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Aim, Lane Supporting

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Paraya, Quess Supporting

Kawamura, Maria Japanese

Nobile, Gawman Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Flower, Mace Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Yeoksan, Hundley Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Mitsuda, Kenji Supporting

Sawashiro, Chiharu Japanese

Kikukawa, Hiroyuki Producer

Murase, Shukou Director, Storyboard

Kimura, Eriko Sound Director

Kasamatsu, Kouji Sound Director

Reviews

Jun 12, 2021

yoyowhatup

Recommended

A PERECT Gundam Movie
Edit: and also probably the most realistic one

Now I don’t give out 10/10s very often. The only times I have are with the original Legend of the Galactic Heroes, original Gundam, Attack on Titan Season 3 part 2, and only a few other times.

I generally rate Gundam series very harshly, for example I have only given a 10/10 to the original Gundam, and even rated Z 9/10. I gave UC a 7/10 and things like NT, 00, SEED something between 5 to 6 out of 10 because although they were sometimes enjoyable, they were disappointing and somewhat boring on some level.

But I ... have decided to give Hathaway’s Flash (yes the Japanese title is “Hathaway’s Flash” and not “Hathaway”) a 10/10 for the first time since the original Gundam. (Please note I’m not a boomer who worships the original Gundam just because it’s the original. I’m in my early 20s and I judge all Gundam series pretty objectively according to the standards of their era)

Story:
The story is about a group of anti-government eco-terrorists called “Mafty” who want to purge the bloated Earth Federation government to “force every human into space to save the earth’s environment”. Mafty wants to rid the world of corrupt politicians. Considering the fact that this novel was written 30 years ago, it’s amazing how the topics this work deals with are more relevant than ever. However, what’s great about this anime is how it’s not good vs evil. Mafty is correct in that it wants equality, wants to preserve the earth’s environment for the future of humanity, and wants to purge corrupt brutal government officials, but they are terrorists who bomb hotels with innocent civilians (although they are aware of this and do apologize every so often). So is Mafty evil and the Earth Federation good? No. The Earth Federation is an oppressive bloated regime which does not care about the earth’s environment and allows its own officials and politicians to live on earth while sending the poor back to space. They use brutal man-hunters to kill or forcefully evict those who won’t obey them. Additionally, during the battle of Davao, we see that the federation are far more less caring about the citizens of Davao. They carelessly fire many missiles at Mafty mobile suits, which sets many parts of the city of Davao ablaze. Mafty only bombed the hotels and sure they killed civilians, but it is clearly portrayed that the Feds are far far worst. Neither Mafty nor the Earth Federation are perfect. They are both flawed and both have done good things and bad things. The fact that there is no clear cut villain or hero is what makes this anime so realistic. In Gundam, the Gundam mobile suit ( giant robot ) is the symbol of justice and good and hope. The fact that both factions have Gundam (Mafty has the Xi Gundam and the Feds have the Odysseus Gundam aka Penelope), shows that both sides have their own sense of justice and that neither side is the clear “hero”. Great storytelling.

Art:
The art is fantastic. Way better than UC or NT which I saw in the theatre a few years ago. This is sunrise at its best. The city of Davao is beautiful and it really feels like the Philippines ( I lived there for 5 years so I can confirm). I generally think this movie is on par with weathering with you and demon slayer in terms of art. This movie transcends Gundam and mech anime. The mobile suits are really clean. CG is used for the Penelope sometimes but it is very clean and I had no problems with it. MAPPA better learn from Sunrise. The characters move around like realistic human actors and not 2D big-eyed anime cartoon characters.
The most beautiful part of the movie was the Battle of Davao. the fight at the middle of the film, not the end. The night battles and destruction of Davao were beautiful. I still can’t forget the Messer landing in the middle of a coconut forest.

Sound:
Amazing. There is a Disco scene that transfers straight to a war scene and it was amazing. You gotta see it. It’s hard to explain with words. The sound of mobile suits and their weapons was amazing. Far better than NT. This is some of the best sound design I have ever heard in film. In terms of sound, this is up there with GuP das finale part 3. You have got to see this in theatres.

Character:
The protagonist, Hathaway is Greta Thunberg with giant robot weapons to use against corrupt politicians. However Hathaway is less vocal than her and far more calm. Additionally, Hathaway recognizes his ideology is not perfect. We see this when he goes around in the city of Davao and when a taxi driver tells him about how he is disappointed Mafty doesn’t attack man-hunters (who are a more pressing concern to ordinary people than any corrupt minister opt federation big-wig) and how people like him can only think so much about the future as he is preoccupied with the present. Mafty and Hathaway are portrayed as flawed activists who have grand ambitions and are genuinely trying to change the world for the better, but such grand plans are not necessary gonna help ordinary people such as those seen in Davao who just wanna go about their daily lives of fishing in the sea or driving taxis to make a living. If anything Mafty is going to ruin their day to day lives as they are planning to forcefully make all humans relocate to space.
Gigi is just Quess 2.0
Colonel Keins is the opposite of Hathaway. He is a commoner and seems grateful the federation has given him a good life for his service in the Federation military. He tries to hunt down Mafty no matter what, even using torture and hostages.
Neither Hathaway or Keins, neither Mafty or the Feds are completely right. Just like in the real world, there are no clear cut heroes and villains. This is why this movie is great.

Enjoyment/Overall 10/10
This is a perfect Gundam movie
I’m sick of anime and Hollywood movies that try to label a certain faction as evil villains. Hollywood always does this with Someone whether it be Orcs or space aliens invading earth or Germans or terrorists or whatever while they glorify the US or middle earth humans or a super soldier or superhero or whatever. Gundam has been doing this with Zeon or Titans or Gjallarhorn or Ribbons while glorifying the Gundam pilots and earth federation or Gundam meisters or tekkadan or whatever.
I was sick of this toxic trend of good vs evil.
Hathaway’s flash is on par with LotGH on how it refuses to romanticize or glorify one side.
This and the beautiful music and animation and scene composition are why Hathaway’s flash is a perfect Gundam movie
My favorite parts were
1. The battle of Davao
2. The day time scenes of Davao right before the night battle
3. Penelope vs Xi gundam

Additional edits:
I would like to mention that Hathaway’s Flash gets rid of the occultic supernatural elements in previous UC gundams. The UC series has recently been plagued by supernatural Mary Sue characters and Mary Sue gundams. This movie has none of that. Ever since series such as Zeta and Char’s counterattack, there has been non-stop supernatural elements in the universal century timeline. The chief abuser being Unicorn and Narrative most recently. In Hathaway’s flash there are no Mary Sue characters or mobile suits. It is a gritty war story. Also, although the Xi and Odysseus Gundams are powerful, they do not have bullshit supernatural superpowers like the Nu Gundam and
Unicorn gundams.Hathaway is not an overpowered Mary Sue Camille or Banagher, and neither are his enemies. I’m glad there is less supernatural Mary Sue bullshit in this movie

Concerns:
I’m certain part 3 will be even better than this movie because of the source material they are adapting, but I am concerned for part 2 because part 2 does not have a big fight scene. There is no Xi vs Penelope. I hope they improve on the original novels because part 2 is the weakest of the trilogy



New Edit: “Hathaway is the most scientifically realistic Gundam anime.”

REALISM: 9.5/10 (for a Gundam Film)

This movie scores a 9.5/10 in terms of realism in a Gundam anime.

I believe that this movie is also the most scientifically accurate Gundam movie. In Gundam anime, we have bullshit physics such as mobile suits in space stopping in the middle of space to shoot its guns without decelerating. Bullshit physics is everywhere in sci-fi shows including Gundam. Also, we have massive heavy space ships like the white base or the Ra Cailum being able to enter the earth’s atmosphere and being able to float despite it not having any thrusters on the bottom of the ship to allow it to float (because gravity makes heavy objects fall), or Minovsky Drives (Minovsky Drives were invented just before Hathaway’s Flash so it does not make sense for the White Base and Ra Cailum and other older UC ships to be able to float). Obviously it’s not just Gundam that have committed these crimes and things like the Star Destroyer from Rogue One are also guilty of this kind of bullshit physics.
Well thankfully in this movie, there are no bullshit space battleships entering the earth’s atmosphere and floating. In that sense, this movie is far more accurate than any other Gundam anime UC or other. Hathaway solves many of the problems with science and physics that all Gundam anime have been suffering from by setting the entire story on Earth and none of it in space. (FYI, Mr. Tomino has said that the cylindrical space colony model does not work in real life (he is right), which makes even the original Gundam unrealistic. Luckily no cylindrical sphere colony appears in Hathaway because its not set in space).

Hathaway’s Flash solves 95% of the science/physics-related problems that the Gundam franchise has had by setting the whole damn story on Earth. The only unrealistic elements about Hathaway are the giant humanoid mobile suits, Minovsky Particle technology(including Minovsky Flight) and the New-type (esper) element. (It is heavy implied Gigi is some sort of esper or New-Type as they are called in Gundam).

Additionally, since there are no space combat scenes, there is no need to justify the fact that there is sound in space despite there not being any air. Yes I know. The recent justification for Gundam weapon sound effects in space is that “the mobile suit’s camera captured footage from outside of the suit and adds sound effects instantaneously for the pilot”. But come on, we all know that this is just an excuse and besides, it does not explain the exterior shots still having sound effects. Gundam Hathaway’s battles all take place on earth so there is no need for bullshit sound effects in space combat because there aren’t any space combat scenes.

Also, I was getting tired of shows like 00 and SEED where mobile suits are able to hover in mid air even where there is gravity, and can stop to fire its guns without having large forward thrusters or having to decelerate with them, despite traveling at Mach speed. Gundam Hathaway has a bullshit technology called “Minovsky Flight” but at least they explain it. Also, the fight scenes between Messers and Gustav Karls are realistic air-to-air mobile suit fights because they have no Minovsky flight capabilities and have to fight in free-fall. Unlike bullshit SEED or 00 fights (not shitting on the story or characters of these anime, just shitting on the bullshit physics in these shows)

Another realistic part of the anime is that there is only 1 mass produced suit per faction. Mafty only has the Messer (although they have 3 variations of it: the F1, F2 and the commander type), while the Federation only has the Gustav Karl (yes they also have the Jegan Hunter-type but that’s only in the anime and they are not combat suits, they are auxiliary suits. They are jegan type A s that are the older models which fought in CCA but are now being replaced by the C and D types so they have been handed to the Hunters.). This is realistic because in real life, there is “economies of scale” which incentivizes militaries to standardize their equipment. Tomino was allowed to do this because there were no toy company heads telling him to add more and more mobile suits to sell toys. Tomino made this novel for himself and this was the only Gundam story that he had complete creative control over.
Of course, I’m guessing they will add more mobile suits in Part 2 to sell Premium Bandai Model kits. They’ll probably add a few Re-Zels or a THE-O or something for the Xi Gundam to fight in part 2 of the anime but oh well, whatever...

Conclusion: Gundam Hathaway is the most scientifically realistic Gundam anime to date, minus of course the Mobile Suits, New Types and Minovsky particles which are necessary.

When writing Hathaway’s Flash 30 years ago, for Tomino, this was the one Gundam story where he did not get any bullshit interference from the anime studio higher ups or the toy manufacturers and that this was the one Gundam story where he was truly able to create what he wanted to make, not having to worry about budget, time schedule, making the story draw out longer to take up TV slots, introducing a ridiculous amount of mobile suits to sell more and more toys (hence why there is only 1 mass produced suit per faction in Hathaway) and etc... He never expected this book to get an anime adaptation and never planned to make an adaptation himself. The result is a masterpiece that can rival the original Gundam

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 13, 2021

punishedsneed

Mixed Feelings

Hathaway's Flash is meant to be a sequel to Char's Counterattack, the greatest mecha movie ever made (tied with Ideon's Be Invoked and End of Evangelion, in my opinion) so one would expect the movie to try and be like CCA.

Maybe it's trying. I don't know. The music sounds very same-y, it lacks the kind of character that CCA's soundtrack has.

The character redesigns don't feel like they belong in the Universal Century. The action - operator gunplay like you're watching John Wick - also feels out of place.

The CGI works sometimes but other times, not at all.

Is this movie BAD? No - it's leagues above ... Genocidal Organ, the other movie I've seen by this director. The dialogue here is usually sparse and enjoyable. You can thank Tomino's novel for that, though. The overall plot, the way things play out, is interesting.

But the execution? It feels like Gundam wrapped in 2020 checklists. It wants to be a film, not an anime film - but CCA achieved this all the way back in the day. It didn't need to sacrifice the expressive nature of anime to accomplish that, though.

I'm very iffy about this movie. It ends without a conclusion, as they want to make a trilogy. Well, I hope the next two are better.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 11, 2021

lethargilistic

Not Recommended

Mmmm, it's a no from me. The soundtrack is OK (even if the theme music is terrible). I enjoyed the world-building they did to fill in some things between this and "Char's Counterattack." (I have not seen "Victory Gundam".) There were also a few enjoyable, chaotic moments that marked the story as a Tomino joint. But, other than that?

...What else is there other than that? Not much.

The most obvious (I hesitate to say) "change" is the art style, which is modern and follows in the footsteps of "Gundam Unicorn" and "Narrative". I seriously don't think it should have. This should have been more of a ... throwback to the style of the original Gundam movies, or at least "Char's Counterattack" because the original purpose of this story was to end all of that. That world-building I praised doesn't even mention those other stories. Which, now that I think about it, is especially weird in Unicorn's case, because of what was in the Box. But I digress.

I never had any trouble following the action in those other modern Gundam shows. But, in this one, they're so fucking focused on showing the action from 360-view cockpits, at night, often in first-person that it became an impenetrable mess of beams and UIs. I cannot fathom the reason. This series has been running for like 50 years at this point. They should know how to depict battles between mobile suits, and this was pitiful.

Also pitiful? The one Newtype flash in this whole movie happens at the beginning and there's nothing interesting about it at all. Think "woman stands up and yells." Having come off of watching "Gundam III" the other day, with its oceans and spectral imagery, that was a huge disappointment.

On top of that, the story plays silly, coy games with the three main protagonists that don't make any sense. Hathaway is Mafty; anyone with even a passing familiarity with the novel's existence knows this. Yet this movie goes through the motions of Hathaway trying to keep it a secret while on the shuttle and with the Federation. Towards the very end, he reveals that there was actually literally no reason for him to have even been on this shuttle; he just wanted to see the people who would be killed one more time. Total, insane vanity that was never set up and isn't even CLEAR by the end. Then there's Gigi and the Federation officer, who don't really do anything of significance. Hathaway is attracted to Gigi and his desire to save her overcomes his desire to see his plan(?) come to fruition—the plan being a terrorist attack to kill those officers and distract the federation while he, Mafty, returns to Mafty the organization after his voluntary jaunt to see those officers' faces before they die. And the Federation officer just exists to want to fuck Gigi and figure out Hathaway's secret identity because Hathaway compromised himself by being on that flight.

I mean, what the fuck? Maybe it works better in the novel, but I can't imagine a description of Hathaway's pointless presence here being any good. I can only imagine he and his compatriots are given more of a backstory after he joins them at the conclusion of the part of the story in this one. And the movie absolutely should have done that the other way around. Why should I care about Mafty's position (which I am predisposed to do) or the Federation's opposition if I don't know what lead Hathaway to do this? Or what he did to inspire this many people to join him?

And, ugh, it's so frustrating to get to the end of this movie and suddenly a bunch of people with actual character designs show up. As if they actually matter. Only for the movie to abruptly end.

This isn't a "wait for the rest of the trilogy" sort of misfire. It's a "we have no idea what we're doing, and if this wasn't tied to the Gundam Fandom then we wouldn't get the chance to finish the trilogy" mistake.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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