Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
VortexOfLight
An interesting yet uneven start to a promising trilogy.
Gundam: Hathaway enters the scene with pedigree and quickly delivers, wasting no time at all before immersing us into its conceits, characters, and setting. Gorgeously animated and vividly intentional, the showstopper remains the mid-movie climax, featuring a riveting mecha battle from the chaotic, desperate perspective of a fleeing civilian. However, Hathaway also struggles to justify a lot of its narrative indulgences, particularly its focus on military logistics and a presently tangential love triangle. These may all become clearer as the trilogy progresses, but the first installment doesn't pay very much forward.
Read at the sourceAlessiah
I like the Gundam franchise, but I’m not really a hardcore FAN or someone who knows everything about the universe.
Let’s just say I like giant robots, the characters’ personalities, and the battles.
A lot of the time, Sunrise delivers that really well with Gundam.
But...
I’ve watched Gundam SEED/Destiny/Stargazer, Gundam 00, Gundam Wing, Gundam Build, Gundam Unicorn, The Witch from Mercury, Gundam 0083, and that’s pretty much where my experience ends.
What all of these had in common was the strong mix of politics and Gundam battles.
But this movie... it’s not bad, but it barely feels like Gundam to me. If you replaced the Gundams with cars or a couple of Bankais, you probably wouldn’t even notice the difference.
Read at the sourceemberreviews
Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway is a film with a lot of ideas behind it, but not necessarily the right amount of focus or staff talent to bring those ideas to fruition. This is perhaps the messiest that the Universal Century has ever looked, with the Federation growing more and more corrupt and violent by the day and our protagonist being part of a terrorist group that seems mostly unconcerned with civilian casualties in their efforts to entirely vacate Earth of human habitation for the purpose of its natural renewal. Yet, at the same time, it doesn’t seem to have much to say about its political conflict other than its sheer messiness, aside from Hathaway’s more nuanced conversation with a cab driver that doesn’t tie into any planning that happens afterwards. Even more than that, Hathaway’s st…
Read at the sourceJemnite
Hathaway's Flash is simultaneously a true joy for any UC enthusiast while being nigh impenetrable for people with it as their first Gundam experience. This is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The culmination of all of the early UC narratives, it serves as both a continuation of the dialogue raised in Gundam Unicorn as well as a dismal rebuttal- proving that the corrupt nature of institutions can not be changed with dreams alone.
Cinematically Hathaway's Flash is a true joy to watch. The animators have done brilliantly, the entire sequence of action scenes in Davao City are some of the best animated and choreographed scenes to date. It carries on with the modernization of Gundam aesthetics that has been plodding forward with the advancement of real life technologies, y…
Read at the sourcek-0da
I mean it's alright. Watching Hathaway compared from CCA to now was interesting. seeing his demeanor switch after experiencing char and amuros divorce movie was nice. hathaway is the best part of the movie, but unfortunately that's not saying a lot. the action is ok. most of it takes place in the pitch black night so i cant see shit. the choreo isnt too memorable either. this movie just felt like a whole bunch of set up to the sequels. cant say it was terrible, but DO NOT let it be your first foray into gundam. also, had a hard time grasping what made gigi tic, but ill chock that up to my own stupidity. I would like to see where this story goes next, if that means anything.
Read at the sourcewhiteflame55
This movie does an amazing job with the cinematography, very deliberately choosing specific angles, in-camera focus, and lighting to draw watchers’ attentions. Maybe it’s just that this is a movie and therefore has more budget and time put into it, but much as other entries have looked pretty great before (Unicorn, The Origin, and IBO in particular), this is the first modern incarnation of the series to do more than just make a bunch of exceptional fight scenes with some pretty good general animation. I’ve had my issues with the human-centric work done on the recent Godzilla films, for example, but this is a very different beast. It’s war, and though other series have done a great job setting the stakes as high as they can, it depersonalizes the experience to the point that it’s hard to ca…
Read at the sourceEldencheese
technically the 500th anime i have completed. engrossing story and characters (reminded me of death note). semi stand alone so i wasn't confused. disliked how we never get to see how Mafty was founded but hopefully they will cover that in the sequel. really good animation with decent cg but you could tell they were running out of budget at the end of the movie. good voice acting as well. Ono, Kensho as the mc Noa puts on a conniving performance reminding me of his role of Canute (from vinland saga). There is a minor role played by Tsuda, Kenjirou one of my Favourite Japanese voice actors, Suwabe, Junichi (famous for playing grimjow from bleach and sukuna from jkk) plays the rival (remember when i said this was like death note) and Ueda, Reina does a great job at the manipulating love intre…
Read at the sourceaynondoe
Ecoterrorist manifestos and destroying hotels of politicians that haven't done enough already makes me love this setting more than Zeta's more generic war against an anti-environmentalist government or CCA's plan to simply destroy the earth. Not saying there's not so so much more to those two series, but still.
The destruction caused by the terrorism/mobile suit battles and the spyware at every corner feels very real. Tomino's 1989 Light novel adapted by people living in the 21st century that can actually imagine a future contemporary to our present. I'm glad the UC year 0105 gets to have ipads and massive skyscrapers.
Nothing much to say here since this is obviously incomplete. Hate that I can't read the light novels that continue this.
Read at the sourceChykla
This is a setup movie.
NOTE: If you have never seen any Gundam media, this movie is still enjoyable for the action and story. If this got you into Gundam then I recommend going back to watch the 0079 compilation movie and its continuity up until Char's Counter Attack before rewatching Hathaway's Flash
This is a very late review. I've watched this movie countless times over the past year even getting my friends into 0079 Gundam and having them watch everything from Zeta, to ZZ, to CCA, everything in between just so they can experience Hathaway's Flash in its full entirety. (I did try to make them read Beltorchika's Children CCA and to note that Hathaway is based off of the novel/manga version and not the movie CCA)
This movie, in my very honest and harsh opinion, cannot be enjoyed unless…
Read at the sourceSpirit_Chaser
Tomino was done with the original Gundam. After turn A Gundam, he turned away. His new goal now is to do something different. That would be his current five part movie series that I plan to get too today. With those, he hopes to be able to deliver a new message to the new and younger generations. Of course, because of a lot of missing information on websites that claim to archive and document anime, such as this one and My Anime List, hardly anyone knows that he is still directing possibly the last of his work today, seeing as though he isn't getting any younger. As a result, this adaptation had nothing to do with him besides that he wrote the original novels. Because these have been around for a while and before it, it is as if Gundam Unicorn never happened, despite these are in the same…
Read at the sourceNur_Here
to be perfectly honest this is my second gundam series as i am watching the original '79 series, so i'll be quick and honest here
story 10
the movie is amazing, the build up, the exposition, the realism (minus ofc the gundam and some science stuff)
art 10
this is the smoothest animation of the combined cgi and hand-drawn i've ever seen, the fight between Xi and Penelope is ofc the highlight of this movie, but what i want to tell is the "flashback" scene, it just perfect
sound 10
its Hiroyuki Sawano, there's no arguing, the sfx is also one of my favorite, the laser beam sounds meaty unlike the typical "pew-pew" sound that is usually used by alot of sci-fi movie
character 9
character wise, there's some that make me kinda confused as i am new to the series, so take this with a bit of salt…
Read at the sourcerobert788
Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash (2021)
The latest part of the Gundam series is an excellent one at that. Especially when you can relate the main character all the way back to the first Gundam film and see the connection to the stories origin was amazing. That might involve going on the fandom to see though. Well worth it, I must say though.
The art is excellent and great to look at.
The sound is awesome and well done.
The characters are great and fun to watch interactions and also when they realise who each other is seeing those scenes was awesome.
I must say obviously it is part of a wider set of films coming down to bear so this was quite heavy on drama and scene-setting. Be prepared for more talking than I'd of liked about things not all that important at times.
9/10. Ca…
Read at the sourceTykylo
(Spoilers for CCA, F91, Unicorn, and Hathaway)
You know that feeling when your favorite franchise gets a continuation of its main story, and despite enjoying the new narrative on its own merits, you feel as though its flaws hold it back, and in general get the vibe that all of it is unnecessary as shit?
A couple franchises are like this for me. For Star Wars it's the Sequel Trilogy, specifically the two movies that came after The Force Awakens, for Halo it's everything that came after Halo 4, and for Dragon Pilot: Hisone to Masotan, there is...literally nothing. Seriously. there's no second season or even an OVA or movie, like COME ON IT WASNT EVEN THAT BAD THE CHARACTERS WERE AWESOME THEY DESERVE AT LEAST A SLICE OF LIFE SERIES.
And in the case of Universal Century Gundam, I have noth…
Read at the sourcesolstice333
MSG Hathaway's Flash is a nice extension to the UC timeline core. I recommend watching prequel UC timeline work before watching this. It willl help establish the world/universe and characters this movie is based off of. Here is a list of OVAs and compilation movies that would help summarize background context:
The setup is similar to previous UC MSG's. In general, there's a tense cycle between the Earth Federation and those who want independence from their control, which used to be the Principality of Zeon, and is now a resistance organization named Mafty. Neither faction is good or evil. Earth Federation is forcibly sending people into space and polluting earth. Mafty is resisting using extreme acts of terrorism by assassinating Earth Federation cabinet members/ministers. There are scene…
Read at the sourcekodokunayuki
I feel very confused by this production and I can't say if I like it or not, just that I'm extremely dissapointed. It's not a bad movie and I'm sure that some Gundam loyal fans can like it, but it's not what lots of us where expecting after the incredible directions the franchise was following after The Origin movie series.
Story (6/10): Just a boring mecha plot that approaches to easily draw attention to a global audience. Everything was going too fast but at the same time nothing was happening. The presentation of the film with the robbery on the plane seemed incredible to me, but during the rest of the sequences nothing happened and it seemed that the story never stabilized, continuously changing its tone and objectives. I can't understand why they have had to force so much a love tria…
Read at the sourceClauxsanchex
----- BEFORE HATHAWAY... Please, try to watch at least CHAR´S COUNTERATTACK.
If you are new in the Gundam Universe, I recommend you, first watch all 3 recap movies, then Char's Counterattack, and immediately go for HATHAWAY.
I love the Hathaway´s Flash story, and I am beyond happy for this adaptation, seeing Mafty in action.
The art is beautiful top tier.
Pablo Uchida did a beautiful job, and I am not talking only about the movie, Uchida, did a brilliant job in the whole Hathaway´s flash project with the posters and promotional material. He deserves all the credits and more.
PS: It is true that in some parts of the film, the animation looks a little bit plain/flat, but in general, a beautiful movie to watch.
The sound=amazing.
The plot and the dialogues left something of emptiness i…
Read at the sourceGabranth
Loved this movie so much. Right up there next to Unicorn in terms of quality and content. As a long time Gundam fan, I've actually rewatched this movie more than any other Gundam movie. I just wanted to rewatch all the awesome scenes and catch the little things I missed. Everything from the characters, story, music, sound effects, voice acting, animation is top tier. The voice actors did a stellar job, especially Reina Ueda doing the flirty wildcard girl Gigi. I was really intrigued by Hathaway and Gigi and how their ideals could change the course of the world. Where Gigi is a wildcard that can affect Hathaway's plans positively or negatively. The movie was good enough make me desperate to learn more about them.
If you want non-stop mech action, this isn't for you (go watch Gundam Wing).…
Read at the sourcevaliantslakr
Long story short, another decent, yet by the numbers Gundam side story set in the main, Universal Century timeline, in the year UC 0105, 12 years after "Char's Counter Attack" or 9 years after "Gundam Unicorn".
I will say this now however, if you are not an existing Gundam fan who's familiar with the early UC Gundam series (0079, zeta, ZZ, CCA), I do not recommend this to you. At minimum, you will need to be familiar with the events of the movie "Char's Counter Attack", in which this film's protagonist, Hathaway Noa, was first introduced.
Animation quality is pretty top notch but probably a slight cut below what was seen in Gundam Unicorn. In addition, if you were hoping for some over the top mobile suit action, unfortunately this one only has a few scenes and a few new mobile suits, an…
Read at the sourceI_Dunno65
My problems with the movies are that girl and the fact that Hathaway would never have been perceived as a “horn dog” in the novel, (which I person I talked to considered Hathaway to be) and that’s what the movie is missing, it has this
$€xual tension but not enough tension coming from danger and the precarious situation he’s in
Then the novel had extra unanimated scenes, inner monologues, and scene narration that provided important context and engagement that explained future and current decisions made by Hathaway, the contents of those scenes were not well represented in the movie at all, leading to this over saturation of what seems like and can only really be explained by Hathaway not being very mature, being a horn dog, and falling for a adult/more skilled version of quess and then su…
Read at the sourcelethargilistic
Mmmm, it's a no from me. The soundtrack is OK (even if the theme music is terrible). I enjoyed the world-building they did to fill in some things between this and "Char's Counterattack." (I have not seen "Victory Gundam".) There were also a few enjoyable, chaotic moments that marked the story as a Tomino joint. But, other than that?
...What else is there other than that? Not much.
The most obvious (I hesitate to say) "change" is the art style, which is modern and follows in the footsteps of "Gundam Unicorn" and "Narrative". I seriously don't think it should have. This should have been more of a throwback to the style of the original Gundam movies, or at least "Char's Counterattack" because the original purpose of this story was to end all of that. That world-building I praised doesn't ev…
Read at the source
