Spoilers for Chars Counterattack A harrowing tale of love betrayal grudges death and faith an epic battle to save the world and a final battle to settle one of fictions greatest rivalries and conclude an epic saga that has spanned an entire decade. This is final chapter This is Mobile Suit Gundam: Chars Counterattack Much like Chars plans themselves this movie didnt quite pan out as intended. Instead of the gripping and somber finale to an iconic rivalry the film is more of an exhibition of how stupid people can be and how a lack of foresight can damage a saga film and finale. The epic conclusion to this legendary and awkwardly managed saga somehow doesnt utilize the sagas canon very well resulting in a misfire as tragic as its characters fates. Lets find out how shall we? 0093 Universal Century Calendar. A plan has been initiated to drop Axis onto Earth by none other than Char himself. Why Char is doing this is beyond me thanks to the fact that not only was he never remotely like this but there was no progression from any Gundam series to this point. Either way this has gotten the Earth Federation panicking especially since whenever they try treaties he backstabs the hell out of them and blows whatever forces are near him to kingdom come. None take it worse than Amuro Ray the ultimate rival of Char and thus the rivalry begins again. Sounds like an interesting premise dont it? If you made it so that Chars plan is in line with his typical actions and how he is as a person since they arent this would be totally kickass. That said youd also have to give a good justification for why he went back to being an awful person considering how he was in Zeta Gundam. On top of that youd need to justify why these two would butt heads again and the films attempts at this arent very compelling. Already this film fundamentally fails. Speaking of reasons this film fundamentally fails we get the introduction of 3 characters: Gyunei Hathaway and Quess. Ill talk about how fucking retarded these pieces of shit are later but lets just say that their stupidity and actions are very...intrusive to put it kindly. Two of them are the subject of bad heel turns and all of them have terrible romantic aspiration subplots that start up for no legitimate reason and the amount of time spent on them simply bogs down the movie. Theyre not the only ones with romance subplots however since not only has Astionage gotten himself a girlfriend named Kayra and Amuro and Chan have banter before sharing a kiss in the middle of the movie. Both go nowhere but I have to ask: did something happen between Amuro and Beltorika? They arent in ZZ and we never see that they split in either this or Zeta Gundam so what happened between them that Amuro is now single and ready to kiss a girl? This movie doesnt say anything making this subplot rather badly written in terms of implications. For Astionage and Kayra he wants to cook her a pasta but in battle she dies causing her to mourn over her corpse about the pasta he earned to make for her. Honestly it wouldve been more impactful if we see him making pasta before the news got to him. Regardless lets move on. Even with all that there arent many plot holes or many other inconsistencies in the film but then we get the Axis drop and Amuros attempt to stop it...along with a team of mobile suits from the Federations 88th fleet outta nowhere just to try and make a deus ex machina which initially seems to fail but then out of nowhere Amuros Nu Gundam starts shooting our green particles after a morality sparring match with Char and this is enough to get Axis off course and deflect it entirely with the fate of our two rivals left unknown and then the movie abruptly ends after this deus ex machina. I dont need to explain how bad this writing is right? I mean it doesnt kill the movie hell the plot wasnt all that great to begin with thanks to bad character subplots and decisions but this was just the final nail in the coffin. At least it would be but the final nail actually turned out to be how this film doesnt have any stable chronology with the previous installments as nothing built up to this. To be fair given how not much left over from Zeta properly carried over to ZZ its no surprise the same happened here. What is surprising is that where ZZ resorted to retcons this one is disconnected from ZZ almost entirely. The only thing connecting them together is a throwaway line about the failures of the main antagonist from ZZ who made her debut in the final stretch of Zeta Gundam. As if this film needed more reasons why it just doesnt work on a basic level. For the returning case luckily Noa and Amuro are basically kept intact even despite how agitated they are in this crazy new crisis. Char meanwhile...lets say that his biggest flaw is the extremes of this new plan since this is basically the product of progression that we never got to see since he was never remotely thinking of this kind of action in Zeta or the original Gundam so what happened that made him truly hate humanity so much? Aside from that and how decidedly uncharismatic he is now given his main antagonist status hes kept intact as well. We never cared about Astionage and Mirai is barely even present throughout this movie. Now to what really tanked here: the new characters. Lets start with one of the most hated characters in Gundam history Quess Aside from being an emotionally manipulative bitch she for no reason tries to stake claim for both Amuro and Char and hated people close to them for getting in her way and really shows what a spoiled brat she is. The fact that she becomes to willing to kill anyone and everyone makes it worse since shes already a flipflop character an inconsistent pancake that just flips and flops all the time because shes a selfish and manipulative whore that has nothing else concrete about her Gyunei initially to want to study her as a way of improving himself as a Cyber Newtype but then out of nowhere he falls head over heels for her and is ready to do whatever it takes to destroy Char to win her over. Why he would fall for a 13yearold when he is seemingly a lot older is beyond me by it just happens abruptly without any reason as to why. The jackass doesnt even get to die properly because we never actually see him die outside of his mech getting blown up. Youd think for such a notable character for the film theyd at least show him in the process of dying. Im aware that Hathaway isnt actually exclusive to CCA but like Katz we only get to see him do things and have a personality that affects a narrative in his somewhat grownup appearance which is here in this case. For the most part he seems like a decent kid even though he falls for Quess. However late into the movie he loves her so much for no real reason other than they went on a date we dont even see him having a crush on her beforehand that after Chan kills her to save his life he outright blasts her to death. Is the main message of the movie supposed to be that love makes you stupid? If so there are better ways and settings to show that message without having such badly written as intrusive characters on display and all of these guys have ample screen time and relevance to major scenes in the movie just to make matters worse. Anyone else in this film is onedimensional and basically worthless to the narrative other than Nanai who is only really notable to me for delivering a deliciously satisfying slap to that bitch Quess that Im not gonna waste any more time dissecting this overall pretty terrible cast of characters. Studio Sunrise and Studio Hirabi to make this film and if nothing else the film looks gorgeous. The action and mech animation shows off the best of what the 80s were capable of with such crisp and smooth animation and detail with every bit of action and movement making the battles brilliant to look at. The Nu Gundam and the Sazabi have particularly great mobile suit designs and all of the other new mechs look pretty neat too. The almost angel dustlike sparks coming from every shot fired from a blaster rifle and every explosion make this film just majestic to bask in when it comes to seeing the fight scenes and the character animations and designs look great as ever. The only gripe I have is in one of the colonies having egregiously dated CGI that also fucks over its frame rate. I never knew that was possible in the 80s and it was a disconcerting experience to be sure though it hardly takes anything away from the glorious visuals of the film. Honestly the visuals are so good that some viewers might just be able to brush the writing aside and enjoy it as an action spectacle. Thats all this film is good for honestly. Sadly almost none of the tracks in this film are memorable which is a real disappointment especially considering how good Zetas soundtrack was. There is only one track from one of the earlier scenes that sounds pretty good and I wish there were more pieces here that sounded actually cinematic and memorable. None of it is bad music but nothing sticks not even the ED. Its not the worst soundtrack in this timeline but not one of the better ones. The dub is also rather meh barring Brad Swailes great returning performance as Amuro and Michael Kopsa as Char Aznable who despite a few weak moments sounds pretty good and has a really booming political speech at the midway point. Everyone else is rather soso some being worse than others but even then the dub never sounds overall bad but these two basically saved the dub from absolute mediocrity. Like with some of the worst anime Gundam installments out there good mech action isnt enough to make a good Gundam series. If an action show or movie wants to have a story as its focus the story it tries to tell actually has to make sense and the drama has to work without being an intrusion on the product and our enjoyment of it. Unfortunately Chars Counterattack fails at all of this so you either enjoy it as a spectacle or you get a headache out of frustration. Despite trying to cap off one of the most monumental sagas and rivalries in the industry the film cant justify its own existence. The more Studio Sunrise uses this films events as a lynchpin for dodgy future titles the more headacheinducing these failures become. Theres a reason I say this timeline dies with the end of Zeta Gundam.