Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Frousties
Char's Counterattack is a pretty alright movie only saved by its pretty good animation and sound design.
The movie in itself feels like a parody of itself; Char's back as an antagonist again, bringing Zeon with him again, Amuro is once again our protagonist in a barely relevant new Gundam, and everyone experiences bad and not developed romances while 80% of the runtime is nothing but action scenes.
The movie really didn't need to be two hours long either, as not much of substance happens. If you enjoy Gundam for its characters this is not the place for you, as it introduces many new characters, proceed to develop none of them, only to kill half of those for shock value.
It could've gotten the point across in half the runtime without much loss
Char's Counterattack is also completely dis…
Read at the sourcerallyntando
A noticeable improvement over the TV series in terms of Mech and combat animations, but a significant step down in clarity of character motivation, and overall dialogue. The recurring characters all feel slightly 'off' from their original versions, and the new added characters (Quess) border on possibly the worst/most annoying I've seen. Awesome to see all that mech action in this "vintage" style though.
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Animation = good mech combat, some subpar moments outside of the mechs such as the horse/jeep chase
Style = classic old Gundam, looks great. I appreciate that they managed to keep a mostly consistent style to the old TV series.
Music = good, but I wish they reused more of the best tracks from the TV shows
Characters = strange and bad, as mentioned above the newly added characters…
Read at the sourceYes_that
For any other series but Gundam, an ending this inconclusive would have frustrated me. The plot focuses on a rivalry that we've seen nothing of for the last 60 episodes, to the detriment (especially in screentime) of nearly every other character the show has introduced over its previous installments. The animation, voice acting, etc were all phenomenal as usual, but the movie felt rushed, almost unfinished, and my immediate feeling after it ended was disappointment, because this ending wasn't what I imagined at all. Somehow though, I didn't hate it, and I couldn't figure out why.
As with all things, it just took time. Change comes slow, after all. The more I analyzed the film, the more I loved it, but I also understood more and more why people are confused or dissatisfied with it, becaus…
Read at the sourcebboy_X
This is the direct sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ despite having nothing to do with that series. Instead the story focuses on (coolest of the cool) Char on a mission to remove humans off of Earth with his favorite frenemy Amuro Ray, who's trying to put an end to Char’s mission of eradicating life off of Earth. When watching this film, I watched it the day after I finished ZZ, so the change back into a more serious tone was just as jarring as when I started ZZ. And not just that, but we’re thrown back in the classic, tried and true rivalry between our nobel hero Amuro and dashing, and badass Char Aznable. No Judau, no Kamille, and no Saylla though we get Captain. Bright, his son Hathaway, his annoying friend Quess and even a bit of Mirai. In general, this a great cinematic Mobile Suit Gund…
Read at the sourceJazzimus
Well, after months of watching UC gundam (im going through UC in chronologcal order), I finally reached this movie. And to say I was excited was an understatement. I was mostly going in blind but had some rough idea about what was about to happen.
(i've marked the SPOILER sections in this review)
This movie was truly an ethereal experience worth the wait, for someone who loves film and Gundam both.
Production wise, its a late 80s Sunrise film, ofcourse it looks and sounds beautiful. The way different colors of the warships, mobile suits and their lasers/missiles contrast with the cold blue/black isolation of space leaves a striking image. The portrayal of colonies brought the same wonder to me when I first saw them in Origin / 0079. All of this looks even better in motion.
During my firs…
Read at the sourceaynondoe
"There is a responsibility for us creators to create practical logical common-sense material to upload that’s socially responsible. If I could add one more thing, when I say 'common-sense' it could be taken to mean the opposite stance to populism." -- Tomino Yoshiyuki in an NYC convention
If I could summarize the message of ZETA and ZZ especially, it would be Tomino's plea to the kids watching his show that's something of the lines of "Adults convince each other to do evil things like destroy our planet and massacare each other. You, the new generation, counter this with thinking with your heart" (which I personally both don't believe is antithetical to populism, and is a deeply flawed message for Tomino to give and encourages ignoring the times when mass violence as a means to an end has…
Read at the sourceRetro_Waifu
Gundam CCA is a classic, ground-breaking, medium-defining film that changed the entire anime industry after its original release, inspiring an insane amount of anime spanning a variety of differing genres. It can NOT be fully grasped or understood with one simple viewing, and "MUST" be watched more than twice (nay 5 at bare minimum). I only thought it was good the first time until I re-watched it. (That ending seemed anti-climatic during the first viewing but after the 2nd or 3rd watch it felt invigorating & thought provoking.) This classic film is one of the densest, fastest paced anime movies ever made.
But in general cca moves too fast or feels too rushed because of this most viewers tend to have a very hard time keeping up with it's pacing. Not to mention the strong lack of any form o…
Read at the sourceSpirit_Chaser
After the original, Zeta, and ZZ, Char's Counterattack concludes Amuro and Char's stories. It's not so much as a proper conclusion to this timeline in Gundam history as it is just a movie about Char and Amuro. I didn't know that and thus feel biased because the story just seems to end here for everyone with this film, at least until the fan fiction that is Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. This was a missed opportunity to wrap up the story for nearly the entire cast. I wasn't sure how to feel in the end. Maybe I made my expectations too high, as I was waiting for a conclusion for at least most of the characters. Instead, the end is unknown.
Story wise, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ might as well never had existed except in Bright's mind. Char left his character development back in Zeta and forgot about…
Read at the sourceyoyowhatup
In light of the RUSSIAN INVASION of Ukraine, I have found renewed appreciation for this work.
Story:
The policy of appeasement the Feds took against Char is disturbingly similar to Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler, and Macron/Merkel/every other western leader’s policy of appeasement against Putin. They were completely deceived by a genocidal dictator when they shouldn’t have been:
Char: “I will lay down my arms peacefully and be your friends if you sell me this giant asteroid and give me this patch of giant land”
Feds: “Okay sure thing! Now we can have peace, friendly fascist dictator!”
Char: “Yes! We will have peace my friends! (who I will totally not screw over)”
2 seconds later…
Feds: “Oh no! That genocidal dictator is gonna use that big asteroid to kill us all!”
Me: “Huh… Now whe…
Read at the sourceNoahboy
Char's Counterattack offers a unique experience that can't be fully appreciated upon just the first viewing. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's far too overwhelming for a first-time viewer to follow.
When I first saw the film, my main problem was with its lack of context on events combined with its breakneck pace. Upon my most recent viewing I didn't have to worry about the lack of context because I already knew what happens, this made the it not too overwhelming and actually quite enjoyable. It's never boring, almost the entire film feels like a climax to an entire Gundam series which is an awesome feeling to nail down over the course of an entire film.
It's hard to talk about any aspect of this film without also mentioning how fast everything is, the action is one of those aspects, and…
Read at the sourcealgoPotaku
Very good movie, very entertaining at all times. And we see the closing of several characters, I like the small differences and nods to the other movies, gundam series. The animation is very good as always, it has that engaging dialogue. Where life itself poses you and above all you always see because the character thinks that way. I like it because in this film they clarify things from the first seasons, it's like very good and things changed, there are incredible revelations. We can see again the character of char in action pulling the political and military strings to enter another war but the characters are very well developed. The importance it has for the Char saga is incredible and seeing it from so close is epic. I highly recommend this movie if you like Mechas.
En español:
Muy…
Read at the sourceTykylo
(Minor spoilers for Zeta, CCA, Unicorn and Hathaway)
Deranged Lolicon Loses Everything and Gets Lost in Space for Five Years, Radicalizes Some Refugees, Gets Funding from a Corporation Playing Both Sides for Profit, and Attempts GENOCIDE: The Movie.
Welcome to Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, the big finale to the Universal Century saga that is a much better version of The Rise of Skywalker, but then got its legacy shat on 30 years later through the combined efforts of Unicorn and Hathaway.
Almost everything about CCA is a masterpiece. The political intrigue; the epic and satisfying conclusion to Amuro and Char's rivalry; Char embracing his demons after losing everything, including all hope for the people of Earth, at the end of Zeta; the sound design; the animation; the acti…
Read at the sourceMarsZ11
Overall I liked CCA quite a bit but there are some pretty big flaws with some of the characters and their impact on the story.
PROS: The animation and fight scenes are incredible, and there are a lot of them. Sunrise knew what the fans wanted and the last 30 minutes were just god tier fight scenes with amazing animation, especially compared to the 3 series beforehand. In terms of story, you're thrown into the middle of things which I know some people did not like, but I actually really enjoyed. There's no wasting time on narrating in detail what happened. Instead you quickly find out through dialogue that feels natural.
CONS: The biggest flaw for me are the new characters especially Gyunei, Quess and Hathaway. I thought pretty much all their scenes were dumb and the only time Quess fel…
Read at the sourceAtlos
(TLDR at the bottom, thanks for reading.)
If I had to sum up char's counterattack in three words it would be “potential for humanity” because what this film is a celebration of what can be achieved when humanity works as one.
Char's counterattack faces quite the challenge, it has to sum up the conflict of ideals between the federation and Zeon, but on a more personal note it has to sum up the conflict between Amuro and Char. All this while taking the themes of understanding and the cycle of war explored though the use of newtypes.
And it only has 2 hours to do this, all while being an enjoyable film.
Luckily, it achieves this.
I've touched on this idea before but to reiterate while newtypes may seem like space magic it can all be summed up in one word “understanding” what gundam is sa…
Read at the sourcepunishedsneed
Char's Counterattack is a masterpiece. It's one of the best mecha anime movies ever made, up there with Ideon: Be Invoked and EoE. People who disagree with me on this do so because they were expecting an anime series - like an OVA or a show - instead of a MOVIE, which was always the intent of CCA. CCA was written as a FILM, and it shows. It tells the audience everything they need to know without exposition dumps, for example. It focuses on short, concise dialogue and showing instead of telling.
I can't get into the characters or the story, since we're supposed to avoid writing spoilers in our reviews here on MAL, but I will say this. Second to wanting some kind of series instead of a movie, CCA detractors are often obsessed with the idea that Char's character is assassinated in this movie…
Read at the sourcePinkOni
The finale to the OG UC timeline: Char's Counterattack. Not only should this movie have been an OVA in my opinion... it also doesn't really serve as any sort of proper conclusion.
---Story---
I watched this movie after watching ZZ (not necessary but the direct predecessor to Zeta so I figured I would watch it anyhow). Man... I thought the transition from Zeta to ZZ was rough. I was wrong. This movie dumps you right into the fray with Char indeed counterattacking. The movie does't care to explain where Char has been, what kind of affiliations he has, how he dealt with the whole Haman situation, or why the hell the man is now so hell bent on dropping not only an asteroid but AXIS ITSELF on Earth. The first 20 minutes of the movie are pretty jarring just because you're trying to figure out…
Read at the sourceWilkaoo
The existence of this film saddens and infuriates me.
It is an absolute waste of potential. Gundam CC should at least be a 24 episode anime instead of this ridiculously hurried movie that made me have headaches in its 1st act, while the rest upset me because of the lack of development that we, the viewers, had from the events. Gundam CC is the conclusion of everything we saw before and MORE, MUCH MORE that we didn't see, I was disappointed.
As I need to write a little more to post the review, I say that this film is worthy of being called "Gundam Speedrun any%". That's all.
Read at the sourceruffledrow
I was hyped for Char's Counterattack after being disappointed with ZZ, but sadly, it fell flat. Now there is some good stuff about this flick, the animation is bloody superb, leading to some great Gundam fights in the process, especially towards the end. The use of CGI in terms of the colonies in a few scenes really haven't aged well, they just look distracting. The music is fantastic, one of my favourite soundtracks in anything Gundam so far, with Beyond the Time being a favourite ED.
It's just that everything else in this movie absolutely sucks. What did they do to Char? Why the 180? They try to explain it but it's as if Tomino forgot Zeta Gundam was a thing for most of it and Char isn't as likeable or as understandable as he was in the previous series, he's basically Scirocco from Zet…
Read at the sourceManthors
[Edit] This marks the end of the original UC plot. Thus, I recommend you to see MS Gundam and Zeta (do not see ZZ, for more, see my review) before you see Char's Counterattack (CCA). I`ve given a lot of thought before I wrote this review because I had mixed feelings with this OVA, despite liking it. See my thoughts below and take your own conclusions.
Story: After the monumental disgrace that is ZZ Gundam, you are treated with a fine Gundam story with CCA. The shows come back full force in this OVA, with political intrigue, character development, a little dark tone to the background and the definitive end of the original UC arc. Overall I think that the story is satisfactory. By now you are familiar with the main protagonists such as Char, Amuro, and Bright - hence finally seem them in ac…
Read at the sourceedarel-triparte
TL;DR: A well animated very bad written movie that doesn't deserve to exist.
Now, let's see where we are, shall we?
We've seen Gundam 0079, an interesting show that suffered due to budget constraints and a comittee that did not understand what kind of show Tomino and his team wanted to make. However, things changed for good. After the succesful run of the compilation movies everyone and their mom went crazy for Gundam, so Tomino pretty much had a way bigger budget and a green light to do with the next show as he pleased.
So, he made Zeta Gundam, an amazing anime with impactful stories and characters, truly one of the best shows in all of Gundam history. He used both the original and new characters to develop meaningful emotions and grow his cast with a not common complexity in anime.
...T…
Read at the source
