Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway

 Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (機動戦士ガンダム ハサウェイ) is a theatrical adaptation of the first part of the Hathaway Flash novel series written by Tomino Yushiyuki.  The movie initially premiered in 2021.

    In the Universal Century, year 0105, the Earth Federation has a pretty solid grasp on humanity, after a few decades of constant conflict with the different groups of space colonists looking for independence if not outright dominance.  Though things aren't exactly peaceful for the Federation politicians.  They have been targeted by a newly formed terrorist group called and lead by Mafty Navue Erin.  Hathaway Noa finds himself on a flight to Earth that becomes targeted by the terrorists.  Seeing an opportunity to take action, coordinated with a young military officer, they end up taking out the terrorists and allowing the plane to and safely, with few casualties.  This event brings him to the attention of a strange woman named Gigi.  The young officer, Kenneth, is appreciative of the help from Hathaway and extends the support of his new post in his layover.  Kenneth has been assigned to take over control of a special unit hunting Mafty.  Hathaway finds himself stranded in the city of Davao, awaiting the Federation to conclude their investigation of the incident.  Gigi convinces the authorities to allow them to bunk together in a luxury hotel while they both await their approval to continue their travels.  She to Hong Kong, he to a distant island for studies.

    In reality, Hathaway is Mafty and he found himself aboard the plane in an act of hubris.  Many of its other passengers are his organizations current targets and he wanted to see them before they were assassinated.  Gigi has a keen sense and realizes that the unassuming young man is the most wanted terrorist on the planet.  Before the government can dig too deep into him with in their possession he connects with members of his organization to smuggle him out of the city.  The operation does a good job of causing a distraction but at the last moment he delays his escape, concerned for Gigi's safety and once again finds himself in the hands of the government.  When he finally makes his statement he heads off to regroup with his team...only to have Kenneth suss out his identity and try to stop him from acquiring a new weapon in his war on the Federation.

 

    This story is based on a novel series written by Tomino at the beginning of the 90's.  Without reading that material it is hard to sat what has been altered.  This movie, out of all of the Gundam I have watched, is the least Gundam of anything that exists.  It is a refreshing new entry into the almost half a century old franchise and gives me hope for its future.   The CG is well done and the action sequences are the best we have ever seen in Gundam.  Apparently this is the first project in which the animation team worked with experts to try and determine how a mobile suit would behave on Earth.  End result...spectacular.  My biggest complaint with Gundam in general is that it hasn't done enough to remove the influences of the super sentai/giant robot hero stories that came before it.  This movie does a pretty good job of that and reminded me more of Armored Core than Gundam...I am absolutely here for that!

    This also feels like a really good way for people to get into the franchise as casual viewers.  In reality it doesn't really require knowledge of the past UC series'.  It also helps that this first entry is a trim 90 minutes of action that plays out more like a Hollywood film than anything Tomino has ever slapped his name on.  But without having read the source material its hard to tell how much of this presentation existed in it and how much is an attempt to breathe modernization and perhaps Americanization into the product.  It works, at least in my mind.  I have a general disdain for a lot of the traditional aspects of Gundam in general and this movie removes most of those.  Sadly we still have the stupid rival love triangle garbage.  And most of the stories in the UC end up going hard on the Newtype magical god bullshit near the end of their story...so only time will tell is Hathaway fails me as well.  But the first episode, couldn't ask for anything better.  It's so satisfying.

The movie is available in sub and dub on Netflix.