Gundam : Char’s Counterattack

This film oddly starts as you might expect it to end, with Amuro and Char battling each other as Earth faces yet another catastrophe. Char’s brand spanking new monster of a suit ,the Sazabi, is introduced right from the off whilst the Neo-Gundam’s abilities are only hinted at as something is spared for the climax. The immediate gratification of some Mobile Suit space-war action is more than welcome, if a little confusing at first. The introductions of several new characters, between the explosions, are handled well especially considering the time restraints not present in the more familiar (Gundam) medium of a TV series.

Things soon settle down as the more political end of the Gundam spectrum comes into play and we are filled in on the reasons and outcomes of the preceding battle. This period offers up the usual notions of man’s evolution, ineffective corrupt governments and the shades of grey between ideologies in the expected sombre manner. True philosophies seem to be coming to a head in the Gundam universe for the first time since the end of the original (0079) series and, indeed, this film could be seen as somewhat of a climax to the previous series in the timeline.

The second hour is very satisfyingly dedicated to a large scale battle in space. This is where you begin to notice the graphical improvements over the previous Zeta series (the images of the colonies are easily the best depictions of them seem in the canon to date –well 1988)

The expected climax with the Neo-Gundam is perhaps slightly disappointing, and certainly the character death toll is nothing like that of a TV series, but all in all it delivers everything a Gundam fan would be looking for – advancement of the over-arching narrative, interesting new suits blowing each other up and plenty of melodrama.