The next Hathaway movie adaptation has arrived and to my surprise it’s kept quite close to the novel in that it’s far more character focused than action focused, leading to something of a divide in the Gundam fanbase as to whether or not it’s good, whether there’s “too much talking” or other such stuff. To me, personally? I liked it, but then I knew what I was (most likely) getting from these things given Tomino’s source novels, and all the introspective scenes will really pay off in the finale… whenever that ends up materialising! Anyway, let’s take a look…
At the end of the first film (that seems like an eternity ago now…) Hathaway Noa, now going by the name Mafty due to being the face of the terrorist organisation of the same name attacking the corrupt Earth Federation, is on his way to Oenbelli to help some freedom fighters. Sadly by the time he arrives a battle has already taken place (as we saw in the opening of the film via a really well done first person camera view) and the area is devastated, though eventually they do find some allies left and successfully hold a meeting between themselves and the freedom fighters, agreeing to help each other attack an Earth Federation conference in Adelaide. While this was all going on we had more than a few conversations on board Mafty’s boat, including Hathaway’s relationship with his girlfriend Kelia collapsing as his previous obsession over Quess has started to be superseded by his new obsession over Gigi from the previous film. I also have to point out that some scenes were at night and had a darkness filter on so effective that I could barely see what was going on. I wondered if it was my TV but looking at the trailer for the film on YouTube on my PC that briefly featured one of the scenes and no, it’s just really, REALLY dark. Bizarre. Luckily they were mostly just people talking so I didn’t miss anything…
Always weird to see the Mobile Suits through the eyes of someone on the ground. Weird and terrifying!
As all this is going on we also follow Gigi, who is hanging out with Earth Federation higher up Kenneth and the still-overconfident-and-bratty Lane Aim, whose Penelope Gundam is currently down for the count (aww, I love that thing…) As Kenneth heads to Australia Gigi goes along with him and moves into a flat that she spends about 7 – 10 minutes trying to redecorate to her liking and treating the staff like crap, which I believe was supposed to get across that she finds her current life boring and is searching for colour and excitement but it definitely could’ve been trimmed down by a fair amount. She is also playing both sides, feeding information to Mafty (and specifically Hathaway) telling them that when the Federation announced they were switching the location away from Adelaide for their conference they were actually lying, and then later in the film giving away Mafty’s base location outside of the city to the Federation. She still has precognition “powers” as well, able to sense oncoming danger, giving her a reputation among the Feddies that she doesn’t really like (and explaining the Circe part of the film’s title…)
Oh look it’s… um… *Squint*…. Them.
Although briefly we do see Bright Noa and Mirai having a chat about how Bright is trying to retire but is constantly being pulled back into Federation life, this time he’s being sent to Adelaide to help Kenneth with the conference, with Mirai saying at least he might be able to meet up with their son Hathaway who’s studying nearby… Ahem, yeah… Anyway, always nice to catch up with Bright, he’s the one character that appears in pretty much all UC properties pre-F91 (which is too far in the future for him to be alive, so… yeah) Speaking of Kenneth, he and his team are redirected after being attacked by Mafty’s new allies (they only survived due to Gigi’s powers) and they soon head to Mafty’s base at Ayers Rock as mentioned due to Gigi’s tip, though she may have ulterior motives for directing the Earth Federation in Hathaway’s direction…
As I said it was a good film, a lot of character focus and a more realistic portrayal of some downtrodden people trying to come together to fight against a massive corrupt force. As Tomino said recently despite being 30 years old this story is sadly just as relevant now as was when he wrote it… possibly more relevant, really. Animation is great, a lot of the action is seen through Hathaway’s cockpit with computer lock-on effects like you see in jets and the like, often with little to no noise other than the beeps and explosions. The big final confrontation happens at sunset, which means once again a lot of the action is kind of hard to see, though not as bad the finale of the first film I do wonder why the Hathaway team really don’t like showing the Xi Gundam clearly while it’s fighting…
Overall Thoughts:
The Xi Gundam takes off in one of the few shots that shows how beautiful the film can look in actual daylight.
“Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe” featured lots of introspection, some interesting dialogue, some uninteresting dialogue (or dialogue in rooms so dark you can’t see anything) and just a little bit of Mobile Suit action thrown in, because why not? I understand if it wasn’t your thing but it really does paint Hathaway as a tragic and interesting character, which is remarkable given how unlikeable he was in Char’s Counterattack. I’m hopeful they can pull off the third and final book now they’ve laid all the groundwork, so I’m really looking forward to it.
Lane Aim takes part in the Mafty assault in an experimental suit called the Alyzeus, a suit that resembles Amuro’s Nu Gundam, triggering some PTSD with Hathway as they fight. We see a bunch of Char’s Counterattack moments through the eyes of young Hathaway, including Quess being killed by Chan and Hathaway’s subsequent killing of Chan, meaning as suspected this is a direct continuation of the UC anime timeline and not a direct adaptation of the books, which followed on the from the Char’s Counterattack novels that diverged greatly from the films, including Hathaway accidently shooting down Quess, not Chan. Thankfully, as I always said, being a young teen and seeing the one you love killed and then killing someone you liked in a fit of rage is just as likely to give Hathaway PTSD as just killing Quess, so the story still works! Hathaway even gets some mental one-on-one chat time with Amuro, where he comes across like Char, thinking what they’re doing is for the greater good and that he is a charismatic tool that can bring about change. It’s clear dream Amuro is disappointed that the cycle keeps repeating even after his and Char’s sacrifice…
*Diddly-dee dee-dee-dee, diddly-dee dee-dee-dee*
Back in reality Hathaway bests Lane once more but before he’s killed Gigi offers herself up as a hostage, soon joining Hathaway in his cockpit with a kiss showing that she only directed Kenneth and his team here so she could rejoin with Hathaway. This leads to the end credits, which features “Sweet Child o’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses playing, which while odd for an anime, let alone one with such a serious tone, I don’t really get why people are freaking out about it to the extent they are, but hey-ho. We also see Kenneth arriving in Adelaide and overseeing a new type of defence system, which is a “if you know, you know” type of deal to lead into the third and final film.