My Review of "Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack"

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack a movie that came out in 1988. It came out a number of years after the Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space. Luckily this does follow the storyline of the original trilogy however it's a lot different this time around.

It starts off around 13 years after the famous one year war. That's basically the war that the original trilogy movies were based off of. Char is now a great leader whereas Amuro is a lieutenant still of the Earth Federation. Although it's been so many years after the great war, Char and Amuro have remained mortal enemies all this time.

I actually started to wonder how neither of them have died yet after fighting so often. This movie also feels like us as viewers have missed a lot of what has been going on. One of the storylines is that Bright is still commanding a ship however he grew a family with Mirai. Their child Hathaway is in the mix but he's merely a small character in this movie.

To rival Hathaway there's a new character by the name of Quess. I don't feel very comfortable about this character story arch at all. She's a teenager and yet it seems like ferociously boy hungry. She's not into the usual anime boys that you'd expect she's looking for powerful men that are idolized like Amuro or Char. It was a little awkward and I don't know if these storylines really fly in today's politically correct climate.

That's one of the big downfalls of this movie though. They play up a lot of the romantic interest storylines rather than the political nature of the original trilogy. They do go into some of the politics but it's a little more subdued than the original.

Some clarifications came through this movie though. The ideology of the new types is greater explained. It's said that people of earth only use a portion of their brain and those born in outer space are able to use more of their brain. Hence they used this concept to surgically enhance an earth pilot to become a new type. I found that part a bit interesting and I really wished that they would focus more on these concepts than on the romantic portion of the movie.

I understand why decided to go the romantic triangle route though. Basically in the last movie, the character Lalah was a pivotal character in the series. Although Char never truly admitted it, she was his one true love and the fact that she fell for Amuro made him hate Amuro even more. It's a weak plot because Amuro and Lalah basically knew each other for basically a week. So all this romance mumbo jumbo really didn't jive with me.

Visually this movie is top notch. The animations definitely look like anime movie quality. I believe the original trilogy was basically cut scenes from the original television series and it showed. The battle sequences are fast and bombastic however there are moments when I got lost. I wasn't too sure who was fighting for which side.

Overall, I was still able to enjoy the movie because it's based off the original trilogy but this movie felt like there was a lot missing. There's no real backstory of what everyone's been doing up until then. These new characters don't really have any use other than to act as plot devices to keep the movie going. I have to give this movie a 6 out of 10. Unfortunately after watching this movie I kind of have a bad taste in my mouth for the series. I don't know if I'm going to continue with the series if this is how it's going to go.