Hannah

Hathaway is the first of what will supposedly by a trilogy of films set in the Universal Century, and starring a (relatively minor) character from Char's Counterattack. Hathaway Noa is the son of Bright Noa, who was a mainstay of the old 80s Gundam shows. Hathaway is all grown up now, and is at the center of a new conflict between the Earth Federation and a terrorist organization called Mafty. The terrorists are the good guys, I think.

Not gonna talk much more about the plot, because it's 90 minutes and has some cool twists and turns. So let's talk in broad strokes. Hathaway is hardcore. It's brutal. It's the hardest I've seen a Gundam project go on visceral violence. That said, it's not excessive, don't expect it to be some kind of gore fest. It just feels like there are realistic consequences for the action. My favorite element of this, is when a mobile suit fight occurs in a dense, populated area. Buildings are being smashed, people are being terrorized, and for maybe the first time in Gundam history (an assumption on my part, I haven't seen everything) mobile suits feel properly scary. We witness massive war machines trying to kill each other from the perspective of unarmed civilians on the ground. It's fucking wild.

On the technical side, the movie is very pretty. The animation is film quality, as one would hope. The action is well choreographed. It's fast, but distinct actions are clear, you can always tell what's going on. My only real complaint is that they went CG for the mobile suits. I understand this drastically cuts down on production costs, and probably gets the movie out much sooner... but it always feels disappointing. Everything else is gorgeously hand drawn, and the mechs look like video game models. Also, the gundams specifically have weird, overly busy designs. The other mobile suits look good, but someone just didn't know where to stop with the gundams.

Anyway, it's a real good movie, and you should watch it. If you're unfamiliar with the rest of the Universal Century timeline, that's... probably fine. There's some references to previous events, but you'll understand the core plot. I give it a NEWTYPES AREN'T REAL out of ten.