Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (1988)
In UC 0093, the Federation has recovered from its defeat and has created a new anti-colonial special forces unit to deal with rebel forces: Londo Bell. Elsewhere in space, Char Aznable reappears out of self-imposed hiding with a declaration that he now commands his own Neo-Zeon movement, and intends to force the emigration of Earth's inhabitants to space by bringing about an apocalypse.
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Perfect cast and a good story
Just perfect...
A Disappointing Continuation
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Char's Counterattack is soaked in melancholy, potent and elegant. It's large use of conversation and character development in between its action may turn off some, but it has enormous payoff when the third act rises. The score is just perfect and the animation fantastically crafted. Film's like this can rise or fall on their main cast yet not only are the lead protagonist Amuro Ray and his adversary Char Aznable throughly fleshed out but the movie is flooded with a vibrant supporting cast that you care about. The fact that its part of a larger canon will discourage a larger audience I'm sure, but even if a virgin viewer doesn't understand all the movie's subtleties its well worth the trip to experience.
The movie itself is great. It's based on the novel, Beltorchika's Children, with several major differences. I would've liked to have seen it more accurate to the novel. The biggest difference is that in the novel, Amuro's girlfriend was Beltorchika (the same girl from Zeta Gundam), and she was pregnant with Amuro's child. Unlike Chan, Beltorchika survived the novel. Bandai did not want Amuro having kids, especially out of wedlock, and they did not want Amuro married, because the fan-girls wouldn't like it. Aside from that, Amuro's Hi-Nu Gundam was also cut out, to save time. I don't know much about the rest of the differences, but I would still say this is a very good movie.The American release, however, is trash. There's no swearing at all, things are translated wrong ("ikimasu" does not translate to "let's do it!"), and "Sieg Zeon" is translated "Hail Zeon" in both the subs and the dub. With a cataclysmic war resulting in over a billion deaths in the original series and many many more in series following, it's nice to know Bandai will be there to save the day, making sure that nobody gets hurt, or at least in the American version. Blah.
The movie adaptation of "Char's Counterattack: Beltorchika's Children", follows the novel almost to the letter. There are only a few minor differences in both versions created by Yoshiyuki Tomino. 1-Amuro Ray is engaged to Beltorchika Irma (Chien Agi in the movie) who also appears in Z Gundam. 2-Some names differ from the movie: Gyunei Guss (Glab Gas in novel), Nanai Miguel (Mesuta Mesua in novel). 3-The origin of the psycoframe is different in the novel as from the movie. The rest of the movie is pretty much exactly like the novel. In the novel Amuro's girlfriend Beltorchika is expecting a baby and the baby plays an important part in the story. In the movie it's the psycoframe Chien Agi uses that is an important part of the story. There are more things explained clearly in the book and are missed in the movie.
This is without a doubt the best Gundam ever.I have seen some of the original series but I did not see Zeta Gundam since it was never released in North America(which makes me wonder how people write reviews about it) I think the story could not have worked without Quess. It could have worked without Rezin Schneider, Kayra and Astonage. This is the best movie I ever saw. See it, if the romance annoys you at least you'll like the animation.