Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack 4/5
Plot
This two hour film is the finale for Char and Amuro’s 14 year conflict. Set in UC 0093, Char has come to hate the elite of earth. Reforming Neo Zeon he plans to drop an asteroid on the planet to create a nuclear winter. Thus forcing humanity to leave and live in space. Amuro once again becomes a pilot and joins the federation task force Londo Bell to stop this. The film launches straight into a great big space battle 4 minutes or so after beginning. It would have been nice to show just how Char went from being very calm and reserved in Zeta Gundam to having this great hate for the people of earth. Afterall dropping an asteroid is no small feat. But this isnt truly necessary. It’s possible to understand why given the actions of the federation politicians in this film and in previous series. They care nothing for the colonies only wanting to save their own skin. Neo Zeon even uses this to their advantage. But a brief explanation of the setting would have been preferable at the beginning. To understand what was going on in the battle, although this was pretty much explained in time.
Characters
Many of the cast from previous series are back, Char and Amuro of course. But also Captain Bright, his wife and children, even Astonaige from zeta. Some new ones to but being new they are not very well developed. They do their job but its hard to care about them much. One of the new additions is Quess Paraya. An annoying young Newtype girl who first tries to latch on to Amuro then char. A spoiled brat who tries to grab the attention whenever possible of the two main characters. She seems to think it’s all one big game. Well there are always sily young people in every gundam. Captain Bright is the commanding officer here of the Londo Bell task force. One who always manages to stay calm under pressure and keeps order on his ship. Although in this film he doesnt need to hand out his usual discipline.
Now the man every one wants to see, Char. Gone are the masks and sunglasses. He hides his face no longer. He is still wearing alot of red though, and is back in a nice red mobile suit. As mentioned previously it would have been nice to see just how he changed since it was quite drastic. Once again he inspires those around him and in the colonies with great speeches. He hates the people of earth so much and refers to them as parasites and vermin at one point. The nuclear winter aside Char also wishes to face Amuro in battle one last time. The fate of Lalah Sune still weighs heavily on the minds of both men.
Amuro has also changed alot since the first series. He has grown up from being a scared young boy trying to survive each battle. Into a determined man who will do everything he can protect the earth. He stands up for what he believes in. Although he knew through first hand experience how the earth federation operates and their corruption he will still not allow Char to to be victorious. All those Bright Slaps no doubt did him some good.
Animation
The version I watched was a 720p Bluray re release. So as you could expect it was very clean and high resolution. It all looks pretty good for its age. The space battles looked brilliant and all the ships and mobile suits had a high level of detail. The fast paced battles were of a large scale featuring many mobile suits, lots of missiles and lots of nice colourful explosions. The neo zeon mobile suits were of course the coolest looking ones although the Nu Gundam wasnt bad looking for a fedderation mobile suit. The hobby Hizack which made a brief appearance is probably what a zaku would look like if it was the hero of the original series.
Sound
The original voice actors are back for their roles. Char as usual has a great voice which really shows during his speeches. The music helped set the mood and worked well. I did have a brief look at the english dub which was ok mostly. I wouldnt choose it over the original. Quess had a very annoying high voice like young girls in older english dubs tend to. It really just makes her seem even more out of place. Im sure Ive heard one or two of those sound effects in star wars.
Conclusion
This was a great film. It concluded Char and Amuro’s story well. Although I would have liked to have seen more, the events that led up to the opening battles. But also appearances from some of the other characters in the previous series too. But all this would have stretched the film out too long. That said it could have made for a nice short OVA. But as it is, Char’s Counterattack is a great action packed conclusion to the battle between these two men.
