Personally, it’s my favorite.
I love GQuuuuuuX, and I like The Witch from Mercury, but I always thought both of them didn’t grab their whole potential. Also, Hathaway wins points for me for having an adult protagonist, not a teenager.
I'm a huge fan of the novels and I know they'll probably change around a bit just to keep the ppl who read the novels on their toes but I pray they don't fuck it up
For me, the Witch from Mercury prologue is the best thing we've gotten in the last few years. Don't get wrong, I really liked Hathaway, particularly the characters and the air of intrigue around all of them. But the CGI action scenes were a little stiff and I feel like it's hard to judge Hathaway until we get the full trilogy.
And the duel between the Penelope and the Xi is almost unwatchable due to how dimly shot it is. Two of the coolest UC Gundam designs, and you can barely see them.
The night fight worked with the Messer because you still had lighting from the city, and it was slow enough and close enough to keep track.
That wasn't so for the Xi intro fight over the ocean. Hell, in some shots, you have to keep repeating just to identify which triangular flying Gundam was the camera's focus at that time.
I will say that the subsurface ocean detonations of the missle-bits looked fantastic, though. Not enough to save the entire sequence, but damn were they striking.
Honestly it looks better the way it was meant to be viewed: on an HDR screen with HDR format. UHD Blu-ray was worth it, but it is indeed frustrating that content gets gated like that for the sake of artistic expression (literally, an example of “Clair Obscur” in practice!)
Still kinda mad the 4K of Trailblazer is still so coveted and hard to get. Not even sure if the one going around for $300 has English subs on it. Ugh.
You get flashes here and there, but not enough to put them together into a coherent mental image unless you look up what it looks like.
I honestly think that Japanese directors are still groping in the dark on how to do traditional 2D flyby shots using highly detailed 3D models. You can see it in Gquuuxxxx, where the camera pans along a Mobile Suit and you struggle to identify what part of the MS you are seeing.
It feels like theyre trying to do too much with the 3D models Instead of just mimicking 2D animation techniques with 3D models. I noticed a lot of Japanese animators dropping the ball when it comes to lighting and contrast on 3D models. I noticed recent shows that use 3D models stop using techniques like poses or holding shots to help give the viewer a better picture of the model as a whole.
Almost as if Hathaway as a work is deliberately designed to be an unconventional counter-Gundam story in that what we expect of a Gundam story isn't given to us unless there's a reason for it within the context of the story.
It's for the reason I love Hathaway that I genuinely loathe the Cucuruz Doan's Island movie, it's so fucking desperate to placate to the audience so it can remind people of 0079 but ironically wipes away everything that was memorable about the original episode (mobile suit martial arts, the fact that Doan actually killed those kids' parents, the goofy proportions) and injects some stupid bullshit about nukes being inside the island to artificially raise the stakes, oh, and let's not forget how it isn't even Doan that deals with the Zakus in the end but Amuro because apparently the Gundam is heroic now even though the point of having a war setting was to convey that the people the protagonist killed were people that had lives, it's as if the movie makers completely forgot Lalah's narrative function altogether.
Meanwhile Hathaway the movie adapts volume 1 to an almost razor-like precision and injects subtleties of facial expression and inflection to better reflect the myriad of lines that have double-meanings or subtleties with actual inferences that the viewer has to actually process for longer than a second to actually understand. Couple that with a fantastic score, unbelievable background art, fluid and beautiful character designs, masterful battle sequences that until now hadn't made me consider the scale of the machines since F91, and you have a bona-fide classic.
I kinda loved that they didn't do almost any of the traditional mecha fanservice shots. I fully understand it's not for everyone, but I appreciated the commitment to the artistic vision.
There were a few shots in particular where you could see the Xi's design, the main one being the beam saber clash with Penelope. You also get a good look of it during the missile firing scene, and you can see the back of the MS just before Penelope fires at it.
Easy to not get a good look on a first watch I guess, but it was enough for me personally. Granted, the Xi Gundam has been around a long time and I already had a good general idea of what it looked like and did, so it was easier to absorb the newer details like the updated face.
I definitely think they didn't keep newer fans in mind when they made the movie, as it felt very tailored towards people who either already knew about Hathaway's Flash or more hardcore mecha fans.
A lot tried to make CGI action scenes in low light shots and while some succeed, the general consensus would be that most couldn't see what's going on. Then they would go to do the next action scenes in the morning.
Godzilla the first movie at night and while vs Kong is still at night but later fights would at the morning. Pacific Rim got night city battle as well underwater, but then the sequel would have mostly morning fights.
Seems like it really isn't a good idea to make your CGI action scenes shot at night with extremely low light, even if it is realistic.
IMO the battle of Hong Kong in Pacific Rim is one of the best night fights in modern times.
It's filled with bright neon colors which reflect on the surface of the jeger beautifully and all the action is easy to see and understand.
The Xi vs Penelope fight is just really hard to watch because not only it's in low light but both MS have really intricate and detailed designs.
Put the RX-78-2 and the Zaku II in the same scene and it becomes instantly more watchable.
I guess a lot is down to the dim lighting being used to hide shortcuts in the CGI work. If you can't see stuff in the scene, you can get away with reduced texturing and less complex animation.
Didn't have any of those issues and thought it was pretty amazingly made. You watching on a monitor/TV with really bad colours or something? Wouldn't put it anywhere remotely close to "unwatchable".
I watched on an OLED with great colours and had no issues discerning what was going on or seeing anything. That still makes it a valid complaint for standard viewing experiences really, but I very much appreciate that they did something different that not everyone could actually appreciate.
I mostly judge if I like a Gundam series or not based on a 50/50. 50% of how cool the gundams is/are and 50% of the rest (story, art/animation, music/ost, etc..).
And personally, Hathaway would have been better than WfM if it wasn't for the Gundams design. Might be a hot take, and everyone is free to down vote me for it, but the designs are mid at best. The only cool thing about it is the Funnel Missiles imo. The rest is just "eh" to me.
And that's why, imo, the whole WfM series is overall the best within the last few years. Sure, the last bit of it might need a little bit more work to smooth it out, but overall, it's the best series in recent years. Especially the Gundam designs.
Not to mention there really isn’t much action in Hathaway to begin with. I was really into until I realized most of it is just them running through the city, give me more robots plz
The action is paced out pretty well, it’s just not constant (and, it’s dark, on a standard screen it’s not an entirely fun watch) and Hathaway is super character driven. For the 2nd installment it’s worse lol: they had to invent action for the chapters because there’s literally none in the section of the story in the Manga/Novel from what was reported previously.
Bro there is action like there is a well drawn gunfight in the airplane in the beginning of the film and it was awesome. Reminds me of those tom clancy games or call of duty games when I see that film.
Let me say it has to be the most mature gundam series in the decade and im not joking from causal conversation from a taxi driver to the character designs it is made for older gundam fans instead of newcomers like gwitch or gquuuux. hathway noa is a anti hero at best and seems like it targets shades of grey instead of good or evil he has good intentions but his methods are not good like performing terrorism on earth federation officials isnt shown in a good light despite the feddies being super corrupt.
i dont understand the idea that GQ is for newcomers since it relies so heavily on UC lore. like it doesnt establish any characters in its brief runtime, you gotta already know who the guys are from other series
I never understood that either because it is so heavily reliant on homages, jokes and finally references to fully understand the appeal of it. The whole thing is a reaction to fan fictions and how they can change a story even entire characters look at char being a heroic knight instead of a really bitter vengeful man he is in the source material. Lalah created the story to see char live a happy life but due to that eventful battle and almost everytime char dies and only twice he lived in gquuuux the gundam didnt appear and in the og lalah sacrifices her life to save him. To get the perfect result she wanted she destroyed multiple worlds as a result and was about to destroy the gquuux world as well until the final battle she thanked machu for saving char. Which is a result for people doing fan fictions and you can call it a fan fic and machu is an oc after all.
When I said GQuuuuux in my previous post I meant newcomers who are introduced through gundam thanks to those entries I mentioned. Yes GQuuuux to get the full enjoyment of it you have to watch gundam 0079 or first gundam to get the charm of it. Also for some people I heard enjoyed it more when they watched it again and caught stuff that they missed out on. Oh boy for the GQuuuux og cast most of them are barely even developed even some that arent even used like Camoli oh boy what a waste and machu became a side character in her own anime despite being the main lead. Shuji was barely even developed and felt like a plot device than a character even the gundam had more character than him okay (that was a joke). Man GQuuuux needs some manga spinoffs, a light novel series or even recap movies to go into detail and fix stuff from the anime into a more coherent story.
yeah i know what youre saying. its bonkers how many people watched gqux as a first gundam because its honestly terrible for that. needs AT LEAST 79 and zeta to enjoy/understand. i dont think the new characteds were bad but there was no fucking time to develop anyone and tell a story. id love to see more of that world, but they need to let it BREATHE
I honestly feel like the majority of people who didn't like it/understand it are probably newer/younger Gundam fans and that's ok, Gundam is big enough and diverse enough that it doesn't bother me as a Gundam fan if others didn't like it.
Like you said, I feel like this was more for the older fans and people who read and appreciated the novels.
Honestly, I love Noas story, he's definitely supposed to be a terrorist through and through.
In almost every Gundam series both sides are bad, it's just made so one side looks less bad than the other and it's always been that way.
I genuinely loved that they took Brights son and instead of making him into an amazing combat ace fighting in a Gundam for EFF or a genius level commander on a EFF ship, the stuff that he went through when he was younger had turned him into a bitter, idealistic, borderline jihadi terrorist that wants to punish the EFF and any one that stands in his ways.
I guess I just liked what I thought at the time(reading the novels) that Noa turned out the way he did instead of making another Amuro clone.
So they made him into light yagami and he despises the federation as a result from the almost drowining episode in zeta gundam that armuro saved to the events of chars counterattack made him into a really bitter and angry man who wants to see the federation burn. Anyways I love gundam as well buddy and im really passionate about it along with Capcom's megaman series.
It's not that he hates the Federation, it's that he believes the original intentions behind the formation of the Federation have become corrupted. Could it be fixed with enough time and public good will? Yes, but the planet doesn't have that amount of time.
Hathaway chooses to be a Joan of Arc who believes, at least on an abstract academic level, that civil disobedience and belief in "the good guys changing politics from within" only to give the populace incremental compromises are insufficient to enact the change necessary to prevent a total ecological collapse. Thus Hathaway uses the avatar of Mafty as a means of catalyzing a change in public opinion by vindictive "justice" and eventually gain momentum as a true opponent against the Federation, in which the Federation's opponent is the people themselves.
This theory is brought into question in the cab scene when Hathaway is hit with 50ccs of truth, in which he, someone who has never truly wanted for life's basic necessities ever, is illuminated of that the vast majority of the Federation's populace is trapped in a system of financial oppression by constantly staying on the brink of financial ruin. Be it by design or a "happy accident", the truth remains that this constant state of anxiety and desperation may have rendered the populace inert and immovable to even the idea of change for the better, let alone capable of becoming agents of change. It's not so much the populace doesn't want change but that all the oxygen in the room is entirely taken up by doing what it takes to survive in a world that has pushed all but the most fortunate to the precipice of ruin.
On a personal level Hathaway isn't a fanatic to Mafty's ideal as he is the idea of the sacrifices made during Char's Rebellion actually meaning anything. His soul can only truly rest when he believes that Quess' death meant anything, and believes that the endpoint of Mafty's goals- the exodus of all humanity to space to allow the rehabilitation of Earth's ecosystem- is the state at which that can happen.
Which is to say that he's doing it more for himself than for any reason of revenge or altruism.
Yes. If you are a UC Gundam fan, you’ve been waiting a very long time for a Hathaway adaptation, or really any continuation of the mainline UC timeline.
Even aside from that, Hathaway is about as seinen as it gets, and has a cinematic and beautiful quality that continues on from the fantastic Origin and Unicorn run of great UC Gundam manga and Light novel adaptations.
This is from someone who really dislikes any Shonen-style Gundam series, and typically dislikes the modern non-UC stuff.
I will say, I've really enjoyed WFM, Gquuux, and hathaway in similar measure, I think Gquuux had the best visuals and action out of all of them, but the weakest story, WFM I can't help but love, it's got some issues but on rewatches I like it more and more, and hathaway is kinda inbetween, the animation is awesome, the music is the best of all of them, but It's also unfinished, and the fight scenes in the first film really leave me wanting more
That is a really good statement there but gwitch isnt a slouch in the animation and visual department either but felt gwitch felt melodramtic as hell to the point it make seed look freaking tame. Hathway felt like its for older grown up gundam fans and the story and development time doesnt help matters.
For me it's Witch from Mercury. It hits on every level, aesthetic, sound design, music, animation. Other than some pacing issues towards the end the story is so compelling and it holds up to rewatching very well.
GQuX was fun but was more of an interesting remix than anything. Love the weird redesigns and the UC fan service definitely works on me, but it doesn't feel like a complete work to me. It has way worse pacing issues than WfM did lol. Love to see Char of course lol
Hathaway... I like it but I dunno. I think the art style / animation is weirdly good and bad at the same time. The story... It is incomplete and it feels that way. I don't like the mobile suit designs much so they don't do a lot for me. I prefer both the animation styles and mobile suit design from GQuX and WfM over it.
I agree with every point you said. WfM certainly has flaws but neither GQ or Hathaway had me feeling anywhere near as emotionally invested in the story as WfM did. GQ was just messy overall and quite disappointing. Hathaway I liked, but the MS design (except the Messer) was meh and I felt more intrigued by the story than emotionally invested in it.
As far as the entries from the last few years go...
Hathaway was incomplete, so it's hard to gauge. I enjoyed it as a movie, but it's only Act 1 so it's just hard to really have a sense for it. It had some great visuals, but the "major" combat engagement was underwhelming because it was so dark and lots of fly-bys (it's been a minute, I need to rewatch it before part 2). As for the designs, I find the Penelope and.. the other one to be pretty forgettable, considering I have no mental image of what they look like as I'm writing this.
Witch from Mercury I think stands the strongest, partly because it's self-contained, but also it was very unique in aesthetic, visuals, sound design, etc. It definitely had pacing issues, it just ramped super hard on the last few episodes, but I enjoyed it.
On the flip side, I really didn't care for GQuuuuuuX, on any level. It just felt like a confused mess in every aspect. It's the first time in a long time that getting through a Gundam-entry has felt like a slog. I can't think of any singular moments from the series that stuck with me, aside from the final episode, but that's mostly just "... What?" I respect that they were trying something different with the designs (and I love Evangelion), but everything about GQuuuuuuX felt like that meme of the really fucked up fork with all the tines bent in random directions... "Just because you're unique doesn't mean you're useful."
For me def witch from mercury,i just love it with the characters,music,animation and art,although hataheay's music and sound design is also VERY good too
To be fair, Gundam animation has been getting better, the Unicorn series of movies already had very high quality even with today's standards, so I guess it also does make sense that Hathaway's animation were and will continue to be equally good if not better.
Since everyones answers are going to be personal I'd say it's impossible to say one show or movie is WAY better than the rest.
My personal opinion, I LOVE the movie, one of if not the best in the last decade besides Origin.
I'm a huge Hathaway Noa fan and loved the novels so I guess part of why I think the movie is so good is bc I already read the novels and enjoyed them. But I thought the pacing was good, the visuals were amazing as we're the voice acting and overall score.
That's cool, and I'm glad you really liked Hathaway, and I hope you enjoy the sequel.
But from the way you phrased the topic, it sounded like you wanted people's opinion on modern Gundams. I figured, since I have seen two of the shows, one of which was my introduction to Gundam and mecha in general, and have also seen some of the older UC stuff, my opinion was salient, even if I haven't seen everything yet.
If, on the other hand, you just wanted people to celebrate the upcoming Hathaway sequel with you, that's all well and good, but you probably should have phrased the topic differently then.
Gquuux has pacing issues. Fun little story but another example of Anno jumping immediately to abstractism and making the plot rushed and incoherent. Does not help that Nyaan and Machu go from interesting to basically stupid in the span of 3 episodes. And Machu basically getting infatuated with every man she encounters. Cool Gundam designs but in true Anno fashion half the stuff remains unexplained.
Witch from Mercury was a complete story. Had interesting premise, good pace and some genuinely disturbing moments. Plus the whole "establish a business" element was very nice addition. Final battle, Calibarn Gundam and some of the cast (like Chuchu) make it a standout for me.
Hathaway has the scale and being part of the UC. I had read the novels before the movie came out. Impressed with the way they penned the story in movie format. Terrorism scene on the ship was very well done. Penelope vs XI needed a bit more lighting to make out the models. The score is phenomenal. The running in the city was terrifying. It was an amazing movie that sets up a larger plot but it is only a pt1 so it needs the other 2 parts.
Tossup but I would go with Witch from Mercury mainly because it was a new story, new concept, coherent and s fun watch while complete. Waiting for the next 2 parts to see how they adapt Hathaway.
I think, overall, The Witch from Mercury takes it for me. I enjoyed the novels, but Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway was just all right. Visually and cinematography-wise, it's nigh unparalleled, however.
I think the movie will enhance the experience of the novel.
The difference between GQuuuuuuX, The Witch from Mercury, and Hathaway is that Hathaway has achieved its full potential in terms of story and characters. That’s why I think it resonates with me better than the other two. Hathaway has a complete story
Hahahahaha, I mean it as his story, yes, obviously.
Not as a Gundam story. Let’s be honest, Gundam in general, or UC, is a little weak in this point.
But I think Gundam Hathaway is a very well wrapped story as a conclusion for Hathaway’s story and the old UC, so I think it’s still good in this part. Gundam hathaway is more about him as character not the UC
I think the movie will enhance the experience of the novel.
I seriously doubt it, especially when it comes to the last two volumes which rely quite a bit on narration, they won't translate well and will need changes to fit the medium.
I'm sure they'll turn out good, but I can't see the movie trilogy enhancing the experience of the novel, at least not in a way where the source material is supplanted.
I think there's a little bit that's lost in translation in the first movie, in my opinion, but not nearly as much as I'd wager will be lost with the next two movies.
The novels have a ton of insight into characters and the politics of the Universal Century at large packed into narration, for one, and it'd make for some really awkward and stilted dialogue, I'd be impressed if they managed to pull it off to a degree that leaves nothing to be desired.
For the first movie there was a lot in the first volume that was either already dialogue or that could be more easily presented visually, but I don't think the same will still hold going forward.
It's just the way it goes when you're bringing a story to a different medium, I think it's impossible to do it without losing or changing something, so it's always best to look at it as... I don't know, complementary, maybe, but never as a replacement. The novel will always be worth reading, in my opinion.
I think WFM was a more cohesive and complete story, but that's acceptable since Hathaway is just the first installation in this new story.
I can't deny the production quality and art style, though, because it's phenomenal. I'm excited to see what's next for our boy mafty, and I think the Penelope is a great and terrifying suit.
To be honest, I found it boring. I know that it's only the first part of three, but I'm sure glad I've watched the rest of UC or I wouldn't have had a clue why I should care about anyone or anything in the movie. As it is, I already had a dislike of Hathaway since CCA and this hasn't improved him in my view.
I genuinely enjoyed GQuX. Haven't gotten around to WfM yet
Im finding more people actually enjoying gquuux despite its problems which makes me happy I actually liked gquuuux more than wfm or gwitch. Thats my opinon anyways hathway is okay though.
GQuuuuuuX was an experiment and it was great fun for anyone who let themself enjoy it and has been a victim of far too much undue criticism. Not perfect, but a solid Gundam series
GQuuuux has narrative problems and I’m more upset that it ended so soon I wanted to be invested in that alternative uc timeline I wanted to see a zeta/zz like sequel with twist and turns a gquuux haman karn.
It was two years before zeta but I bet kamile or fa is gonna be in the sequel though. I wanted to see more altertive suit designs and more bonkers newtype powers.
Oh boy zz and zeta have that in spades but it was gquuuux that opened my eyes. and the funny thing is newtype is a person who gets passed their biases for the betterment of mankind and it isnt space espers which bandai led you to believe.
I actually really enjoyed Gquuuux as well for that reason. I’ll give it its passing and overall narrative issues (should’ve been way longer of a series IMO). Zeta had always been my favorite but the adjacent UC timeline is something I wish we’d see more of
Christ no. The movie was damn near incomprehensible and makes zero effort to explain to the audience what Hathaway wants and why you should or shouldn't root for him.
GQuuuuuX may rely a lot on UC knowledge to get the most out of it, but a novice could still go in and find some measure of enjoyment in just following the character.
Hathaway never gives you a reason to give a shit about what any of these people are doing.
or gwitch and I dont like gwitch and i find the leads something to cheer for but gquuuux takes the cake for most enjoyable gundam entry in recent years fight me haters.
I think WfM and Gquuuuuux are better media overall. WfM is an easy entry point for fans who haven’t watched any Gundam series in their lives. Gquuuuuux, on the other hand, is a big fan service project for longtime UC fans.
The production quality of Hathaway imo is the best among them. However it took too long to produce, so the story lost momentum. On top of that, fans still have to watch previous UC series to fully understand the plot.
Gwitch is a good point for gundam but dont have to watch 20 year old entries to get into it. GQuuux felt like a fan festival for UC fanboys though thats why I enjoyed GQuuuux lol. Hathway got it the worst because you have to watch zeta gundam and then char's counterattack to understand his character arc.
Honestly I disagree. WFM felt a bit too divorce from what I expect of gundam and I wasnt a fan of the rwo leads. Gqux was way too rushed and I dint feel it developed the characters well.
I had problems should dived into hathway mind more and why he was against the earth federation. They did tackle it with the taxi driver but it shows his actions are reckless with normal people or himself.
It’s still witch from mercury for me. That show was groundbreaking for having a female protagonist, and lgbtq protagonist, and a somewhat peaceful “final battle” where the main character actually chooses the peaceful option instead of killing everyone.
Qqux was ass in my opinion, but that’s mainly because I hated the love triangle crap and I don’t like the uc universe in general.
Its incomplete so I can't judge it. Once all three(?) Movies are out I can make an assessment. But G-Witch is better than the first part of the Hathaway trilogy, IMO.
Good rankings. I'd go (in order): WfM, Seed Freedom, Hathaway, Cucuruz, Requiem, Build Metaverse. Have not seen Urdr Hunt yet but heard some very mixed reviews.
to me, hathaway was kinda boring for a movie. gqx was kinda all over the place. wfm was amazing, but i didn't like the ending (i don't even remember it haha).
Seed FREEDOM was absolutley the highlight of recent gundam for me. It felt like it tied up everything from Seed & Seed Destiny very well. Overall definitely the most fun watch for me out of most of the recent stuff.
Overall I think I liked WfM the most but can't deny Seed Freedom was probably the most fun I've had watching Gundam in a while, maybe since the original Build Fighters series. Also top tier MS designs like the Black Knights, Murasame Kai, Gelgoog Menace etc.
Yeah, not the best written story by any means, but certainly the most fun I've ever had watching anything Gundam-related, especially as someone who grew up with SEED in my childhood. The last 30 minutes or so is basically Gundam pornography.
Witch takes the win for me. There's not enough of just Hathaway 1 for me to really judge; I'd rather wait until its all done. Even if I evaluate it on its own, Hathaway's mecha action is inferior to Witch's. (Too dark like with most CGI stuff and too rushed)
GQX was just bad for me and no arguments can make me change my mind on this. (But I do like some of the mecha designs. The Hambrabi and Gyan were very cool)
Oooh, I think I emotionally resonated with SEED Freedom more since I was in high school watching the fansubs as that show came out. I don't think anything that's come out has been like bad bad, I like them all in their own way.
Now if we're saying ALL of Gundam media? G Gen Eternal is my favorite.
Personally, Witch from Mercury is the best thing in recent Gundam. The story is captivating, the characters are charismatic, and the plot gets darker as it progresses until it reaches an unexpectedly positive ending. The pacing falters a bit towards the end, but I still think it's incredible overall.
I like Hathaway I really do I watched it thought it was neat went on to read beltochikas children because I was told story of Gundam Hathaway was connected to it went on to rewatch the movie found it a whole lot more enjoyable to think Hathaway isn’t an annoying brat who crashed out after watching the girl he just met die I’m putting Hathaway in one of my top three favorite Gundam movies but man is that first movie really shy when showing mobile suit fighting is always mainly at dark and while it has some amazing shots the main focus was on Hathaway and gigi, than came the Xi vs Penelope fight it was nice top 10 Gundam fights for sure but it was really dark and really short like except for that one scene with the beam saber clash after that it’s just missile barrage beam fire missile barrage Vulcan Fire and that’s it I know that Gundam is a political drama and all that but man let’s be honest where also here for giant robots duking it out maybe let’s wait for the trilogy to fully come out before we call something the best Gundam media
Not sure about the greatest, but the music was awesome. Reminded me of Interstellar. Overall, some scenes and character designs were visually stunning.
I think WFM, not necessarily because the anime is amazing but because it is friendly to those who want to test the water before jumping to both the anime and gunpla
WFM is my first gundam anime but i didn't really enjoy it, but what I did enjoy is their kits. Like holy shit the design is so good the anime didn't do it justice
I like wfm the most with obvious caveat it was my first series.
Hathaway is good and it went up in my mind over the three times I rewatched it but to me it really relies on "this could lead somewhere cool", I can't say it grabs it's full potential when its part 1 of a story I don't know the end with. Gigi could be super interesting character or her whole mystery could lead somewhere stupid and it could change my mind on the whole movie entirely it feels like so I have to judge the whole trilogy when it comes out.
I'm pretty sure the whole story together is good, but part 1 was fucking boring as standalone. It may be the fifth best gundam media of the past 5 years. I at least rank higher than RFV.
I like their art direction. And I love that they stuck their guns on how they want the fights to look like in the dark. It’s dark, and so I want to watch it over and over again
The Soundtrack was amazing and I loved the story. Maybe it's because it's part one but I felt it was a tad boring sometimes. But overall I really liked it.
I wasn't a huge fan of the Mobile Suit designs in it though honestly. The Penelope is also super sick, with the exception of the giant slab that hangs over it's head. It almost ruined the Mobile Suit design for me. And the Gundam Hathaway pilots (I don't remember what it was called, forgive me) is genuinely one of my least favorite Mobile Suits looks wise.
I may need to give the first part a rewatch; it really didn't do much for me on my first viewing. It's hard going in hating Hathaway himself since first seeing CCA decades ago and already loathing the main Gundam designs.
Cucuruz Doan's Island was only three years ago, and we just had G-Qux which was rushed and flawed but a lot of fun.
Alas G-Witch was only okay but felt like it had some bad pacing while Freedom had some stupid ideas and that dub that is a thing that exists.
It's either SEED Freedom anime, SEED Freedom LN, Thunderbolt Manga, GQuuuuuuX, Extreme VS. MaxiBoost ON (I forget that we didn't get this until 2020) or G Generation Eternal for me. Wait does the TCG count? Cuz that's great too. Honestly we have ate these last few years as Gundam fans, something for everyone 🔥
Too much Hathaway, not enough Mobile Suit Gundam. It looks great, and has an intriguing story, but I don't think it's a wild statement to say that I am here for the giant mech battles.
It’s mostly by virtue of being surrounded by like. Near nothing. It’s surrounded by mostly niche sub 12 episode things, which no matter how fun those are, do not match up to a ground up film with some rather established source material. Witch ends up as the only “full” series in that time, and it’s rushed production shows. If you seperate it into halves, it also is just two niche 12 episode projects.
The current status of the industry, and Bandai being how it is. The deck is rather stacked in its favor
Well, yeah. Like you said, Witch is good, and GQux is fine if insubstantial. But Hathaway is actually about something and written by the franchise’s creator before he fell off the rails. There’s no comparison.
I heavily have to disagree with you because IBO kept making tekkadan stupid mistakes instead of adapting due to its producer wanting to work with Mcgillus and Gaeilo yes there is an interview where he said this. Also I didnt like the ending of IBO and felt over dramatic as hell thats just me.
It is, because its directly adapting material from the 90s. Modern anime productions would rather die than crank out a halfway decent script, so all the best stuff is taken directly from decades prior.
Hathway isnt for everyone due to understanding the previous entries to understand his character and the movie is really slow for a gundam project. GQuuuux on the other hand is fast paced have character designs that pop out and standout like a modern pokemon game. The mobile suits look they are from an obscure experimental gundam manga, the pacing is so fast paced that it forgot critical details of its story and used alot of the time for homages. Despite all of that I really enjoyed my time with gquuuux and I deeply enjoyed machu and nyaan's company imagine if they had better development and the story was better paced and written imagine the possibilities.
Hard to get too excited as it's only a piecemeal and the second one has been long time coming and who knows when part 3 will be out. I'll make judgement once it's all out. A series with one connected storyline can lose relevance if sequels take too long to come out and people forget what happened in previous volumes and not everyone can bother to rewatch.
Hathaway is easily up there as an all time bit of Gundam and will most likely age incredibly well provided the rest of the trilogy sticks the landing.
I would say I feel similarly about tje other recent works being... fun if not really great entries of Gundam. Personally I forgot IBO and Thunderbolt are already 10+-ish years old or else I'd have said that they are good peers with Hathaway.
While the execution and adaptation was great, it barely showed anything interesting except for introductions. It definitely built up the hype but it has been dwindling down since it has been 5 years+ from the last release. But if we're simply basing it on the production value and quality, the Gquux trailer is probably the best and the Machuesday memes.
We're still doing this? It's really not that hard to go look up when each novel was released, so blame Fukui for setting his fanfiction between CCA and HF, if you want to blame somebody.
I enjoyed hathway and gquuuux more than gwitch I have to say. I did like the prologue though and its setting but everything else nah disappointed almost didnt gave gquuuux a chance because i was so bummed on gwitch.
Is there really enough out of Hathaway to claim it's the best? Part 1 was good but it's also very obviously a part 1.
Everybody wants to be Hathaway so they think it's the best, lol.
Disclaimer: I also like it a lot but 0083 is peak sry
I agree, i think once the whole trilogy is out it will be a great complete package
Yes
Just don't be mad when they full deviate from the book and movie 3 is just 2 hours of Quess flashbacks.
If done right tho, yeesh
Don't do it to me :'(
I'm a huge fan of the novels and I know they'll probably change around a bit just to keep the ppl who read the novels on their toes but I pray they don't fuck it up
Imagine it ends completely differently
OK, don't worry I will not be mad
For me, the Witch from Mercury prologue is the best thing we've gotten in the last few years. Don't get wrong, I really liked Hathaway, particularly the characters and the air of intrigue around all of them. But the CGI action scenes were a little stiff and I feel like it's hard to judge Hathaway until we get the full trilogy.
And the duel between the Penelope and the Xi is almost unwatchable due to how dimly shot it is. Two of the coolest UC Gundam designs, and you can barely see them.
The night fight worked with the Messer because you still had lighting from the city, and it was slow enough and close enough to keep track.
That wasn't so for the Xi intro fight over the ocean. Hell, in some shots, you have to keep repeating just to identify which triangular flying Gundam was the camera's focus at that time.
I will say that the subsurface ocean detonations of the missle-bits looked fantastic, though. Not enough to save the entire sequence, but damn were they striking.
Honestly it looks better the way it was meant to be viewed: on an HDR screen with HDR format. UHD Blu-ray was worth it, but it is indeed frustrating that content gets gated like that for the sake of artistic expression (literally, an example of “Clair Obscur” in practice!)
Still kinda mad the 4K of Trailblazer is still so coveted and hard to get. Not even sure if the one going around for $300 has English subs on it. Ugh.
Me when the best gundam of the last 5 years ends up being Claire Obscur Expedition 33
I kept waiting for the Xi to be "revealed" with some bright light but it just doesn't happen
You get flashes here and there, but not enough to put them together into a coherent mental image unless you look up what it looks like.
I honestly think that Japanese directors are still groping in the dark on how to do traditional 2D flyby shots using highly detailed 3D models. You can see it in Gquuuxxxx, where the camera pans along a Mobile Suit and you struggle to identify what part of the MS you are seeing.
It feels like theyre trying to do too much with the 3D models Instead of just mimicking 2D animation techniques with 3D models. I noticed a lot of Japanese animators dropping the ball when it comes to lighting and contrast on 3D models. I noticed recent shows that use 3D models stop using techniques like poses or holding shots to help give the viewer a better picture of the model as a whole.
Almost as if Hathaway as a work is deliberately designed to be an unconventional counter-Gundam story in that what we expect of a Gundam story isn't given to us unless there's a reason for it within the context of the story.
It's for the reason I love Hathaway that I genuinely loathe the Cucuruz Doan's Island movie, it's so fucking desperate to placate to the audience so it can remind people of 0079 but ironically wipes away everything that was memorable about the original episode (mobile suit martial arts, the fact that Doan actually killed those kids' parents, the goofy proportions) and injects some stupid bullshit about nukes being inside the island to artificially raise the stakes, oh, and let's not forget how it isn't even Doan that deals with the Zakus in the end but Amuro because apparently the Gundam is heroic now even though the point of having a war setting was to convey that the people the protagonist killed were people that had lives, it's as if the movie makers completely forgot Lalah's narrative function altogether.
Meanwhile Hathaway the movie adapts volume 1 to an almost razor-like precision and injects subtleties of facial expression and inflection to better reflect the myriad of lines that have double-meanings or subtleties with actual inferences that the viewer has to actually process for longer than a second to actually understand. Couple that with a fantastic score, unbelievable background art, fluid and beautiful character designs, masterful battle sequences that until now hadn't made me consider the scale of the machines since F91, and you have a bona-fide classic.
10/10. A perfect Gundam movie.
I kinda loved that they didn't do almost any of the traditional mecha fanservice shots. I fully understand it's not for everyone, but I appreciated the commitment to the artistic vision.
But you never really see the thing at all. I don't need Gurren Lagann style glamor shots. I just want to know what the machine looks like.
There were a few shots in particular where you could see the Xi's design, the main one being the beam saber clash with Penelope. You also get a good look of it during the missile firing scene, and you can see the back of the MS just before Penelope fires at it.
But those aren't good looks unless you pause the movie. They're flashes, there and then gone again.
Hathaway’s Flashes
Easy to not get a good look on a first watch I guess, but it was enough for me personally. Granted, the Xi Gundam has been around a long time and I already had a good general idea of what it looked like and did, so it was easier to absorb the newer details like the updated face.
I definitely think they didn't keep newer fans in mind when they made the movie, as it felt very tailored towards people who either already knew about Hathaway's Flash or more hardcore mecha fans.
Come on man this can't be the coolest
A lot tried to make CGI action scenes in low light shots and while some succeed, the general consensus would be that most couldn't see what's going on. Then they would go to do the next action scenes in the morning.
Godzilla the first movie at night and while vs Kong is still at night but later fights would at the morning. Pacific Rim got night city battle as well underwater, but then the sequel would have mostly morning fights.
Seems like it really isn't a good idea to make your CGI action scenes shot at night with extremely low light, even if it is realistic.
IMO the battle of Hong Kong in Pacific Rim is one of the best night fights in modern times. It's filled with bright neon colors which reflect on the surface of the jeger beautifully and all the action is easy to see and understand.
The Xi vs Penelope fight is just really hard to watch because not only it's in low light but both MS have really intricate and detailed designs. Put the RX-78-2 and the Zaku II in the same scene and it becomes instantly more watchable.
I guess a lot is down to the dim lighting being used to hide shortcuts in the CGI work. If you can't see stuff in the scene, you can get away with reduced texturing and less complex animation.
Didn't have any of those issues and thought it was pretty amazingly made. You watching on a monitor/TV with really bad colours or something? Wouldn't put it anywhere remotely close to "unwatchable".
No, completely standard HD TV at the time it was released. I literally spelled out why I thought it was unwatchable.
I watched on an OLED with great colours and had no issues discerning what was going on or seeing anything. That still makes it a valid complaint for standard viewing experiences really, but I very much appreciate that they did something different that not everyone could actually appreciate.
That should have been an extra on the Blu-ray, not the general audience release.
Yeah the Hathaway film is a bit rough because it’s very very obviously the first of 3
WFM Prologue was incredibly good. Still gives me the feels.
Happy birthday to youuuu.....
I mostly judge if I like a Gundam series or not based on a 50/50. 50% of how cool the gundams is/are and 50% of the rest (story, art/animation, music/ost, etc..).
And personally, Hathaway would have been better than WfM if it wasn't for the Gundams design. Might be a hot take, and everyone is free to down vote me for it, but the designs are mid at best. The only cool thing about it is the Funnel Missiles imo. The rest is just "eh" to me.
And that's why, imo, the whole WfM series is overall the best within the last few years. Sure, the last bit of it might need a little bit more work to smooth it out, but overall, it's the best series in recent years. Especially the Gundam designs.
Not to mention there really isn’t much action in Hathaway to begin with. I was really into until I realized most of it is just them running through the city, give me more robots plz
The action is paced out pretty well, it’s just not constant (and, it’s dark, on a standard screen it’s not an entirely fun watch) and Hathaway is super character driven. For the 2nd installment it’s worse lol: they had to invent action for the chapters because there’s literally none in the section of the story in the Manga/Novel from what was reported previously.
Bro there is action like there is a well drawn gunfight in the airplane in the beginning of the film and it was awesome. Reminds me of those tom clancy games or call of duty games when I see that film.
Did we watch the same movie?
Let me say it has to be the most mature gundam series in the decade and im not joking from causal conversation from a taxi driver to the character designs it is made for older gundam fans instead of newcomers like gwitch or gquuuux. hathway noa is a anti hero at best and seems like it targets shades of grey instead of good or evil he has good intentions but his methods are not good like performing terrorism on earth federation officials isnt shown in a good light despite the feddies being super corrupt.
i dont understand the idea that GQ is for newcomers since it relies so heavily on UC lore. like it doesnt establish any characters in its brief runtime, you gotta already know who the guys are from other series
I never understood that either because it is so heavily reliant on homages, jokes and finally references to fully understand the appeal of it. The whole thing is a reaction to fan fictions and how they can change a story even entire characters look at char being a heroic knight instead of a really bitter vengeful man he is in the source material. Lalah created the story to see char live a happy life but due to that eventful battle and almost everytime char dies and only twice he lived in gquuuux the gundam didnt appear and in the og lalah sacrifices her life to save him. To get the perfect result she wanted she destroyed multiple worlds as a result and was about to destroy the gquuux world as well until the final battle she thanked machu for saving char. Which is a result for people doing fan fictions and you can call it a fan fic and machu is an oc after all.
When I said GQuuuuux in my previous post I meant newcomers who are introduced through gundam thanks to those entries I mentioned. Yes GQuuuux to get the full enjoyment of it you have to watch gundam 0079 or first gundam to get the charm of it. Also for some people I heard enjoyed it more when they watched it again and caught stuff that they missed out on. Oh boy for the GQuuuux og cast most of them are barely even developed even some that arent even used like Camoli oh boy what a waste and machu became a side character in her own anime despite being the main lead. Shuji was barely even developed and felt like a plot device than a character even the gundam had more character than him okay (that was a joke). Man GQuuuux needs some manga spinoffs, a light novel series or even recap movies to go into detail and fix stuff from the anime into a more coherent story.
yeah i know what youre saying. its bonkers how many people watched gqux as a first gundam because its honestly terrible for that. needs AT LEAST 79 and zeta to enjoy/understand. i dont think the new characteds were bad but there was no fucking time to develop anyone and tell a story. id love to see more of that world, but they need to let it BREATHE
I honestly feel like the majority of people who didn't like it/understand it are probably newer/younger Gundam fans and that's ok, Gundam is big enough and diverse enough that it doesn't bother me as a Gundam fan if others didn't like it.
Like you said, I feel like this was more for the older fans and people who read and appreciated the novels.
Honestly, I love Noas story, he's definitely supposed to be a terrorist through and through.
In almost every Gundam series both sides are bad, it's just made so one side looks less bad than the other and it's always been that way.
I genuinely loved that they took Brights son and instead of making him into an amazing combat ace fighting in a Gundam for EFF or a genius level commander on a EFF ship, the stuff that he went through when he was younger had turned him into a bitter, idealistic, borderline jihadi terrorist that wants to punish the EFF and any one that stands in his ways.
I guess I just liked what I thought at the time(reading the novels) that Noa turned out the way he did instead of making another Amuro clone.
Sorry for the wall of text, genuinely love Gundam
So they made him into light yagami and he despises the federation as a result from the almost drowining episode in zeta gundam that armuro saved to the events of chars counterattack made him into a really bitter and angry man who wants to see the federation burn. Anyways I love gundam as well buddy and im really passionate about it along with Capcom's megaman series.
It's not that he hates the Federation, it's that he believes the original intentions behind the formation of the Federation have become corrupted. Could it be fixed with enough time and public good will? Yes, but the planet doesn't have that amount of time.
Hathaway chooses to be a Joan of Arc who believes, at least on an abstract academic level, that civil disobedience and belief in "the good guys changing politics from within" only to give the populace incremental compromises are insufficient to enact the change necessary to prevent a total ecological collapse. Thus Hathaway uses the avatar of Mafty as a means of catalyzing a change in public opinion by vindictive "justice" and eventually gain momentum as a true opponent against the Federation, in which the Federation's opponent is the people themselves.
This theory is brought into question in the cab scene when Hathaway is hit with 50ccs of truth, in which he, someone who has never truly wanted for life's basic necessities ever, is illuminated of that the vast majority of the Federation's populace is trapped in a system of financial oppression by constantly staying on the brink of financial ruin. Be it by design or a "happy accident", the truth remains that this constant state of anxiety and desperation may have rendered the populace inert and immovable to even the idea of change for the better, let alone capable of becoming agents of change. It's not so much the populace doesn't want change but that all the oxygen in the room is entirely taken up by doing what it takes to survive in a world that has pushed all but the most fortunate to the precipice of ruin.
On a personal level Hathaway isn't a fanatic to Mafty's ideal as he is the idea of the sacrifices made during Char's Rebellion actually meaning anything. His soul can only truly rest when he believes that Quess' death meant anything, and believes that the endpoint of Mafty's goals- the exodus of all humanity to space to allow the rehabilitation of Earth's ecosystem- is the state at which that can happen.
Which is to say that he's doing it more for himself than for any reason of revenge or altruism.
Yes. If you are a UC Gundam fan, you’ve been waiting a very long time for a Hathaway adaptation, or really any continuation of the mainline UC timeline.
Even aside from that, Hathaway is about as seinen as it gets, and has a cinematic and beautiful quality that continues on from the fantastic Origin and Unicorn run of great UC Gundam manga and Light novel adaptations.
This is from someone who really dislikes any Shonen-style Gundam series, and typically dislikes the modern non-UC stuff.
Yup like gquuux hathways requires people to know the uc before you watch it. Yes hathway felt like tom clancy more than your typical gundam story.
It’s also a fantastic adaptation of the books (so far). If you can’t wait another few years for the final film, definitely read the novels!
I gotta agree with you on all of the same points. Also shows a glimpse of what the civilians on earth think with the cab driver scene.
I will say, I've really enjoyed WFM, Gquuux, and hathaway in similar measure, I think Gquuux had the best visuals and action out of all of them, but the weakest story, WFM I can't help but love, it's got some issues but on rewatches I like it more and more, and hathaway is kinda inbetween, the animation is awesome, the music is the best of all of them, but It's also unfinished, and the fight scenes in the first film really leave me wanting more
That is a really good statement there but gwitch isnt a slouch in the animation and visual department either but felt gwitch felt melodramtic as hell to the point it make seed look freaking tame. Hathway felt like its for older grown up gundam fans and the story and development time doesnt help matters.
Subjective, my opinion is no.
That's fair
For me it's Witch from Mercury. It hits on every level, aesthetic, sound design, music, animation. Other than some pacing issues towards the end the story is so compelling and it holds up to rewatching very well.
GQuX was fun but was more of an interesting remix than anything. Love the weird redesigns and the UC fan service definitely works on me, but it doesn't feel like a complete work to me. It has way worse pacing issues than WfM did lol. Love to see Char of course lol
Hathaway... I like it but I dunno. I think the art style / animation is weirdly good and bad at the same time. The story... It is incomplete and it feels that way. I don't like the mobile suit designs much so they don't do a lot for me. I prefer both the animation styles and mobile suit design from GQuX and WfM over it.
I agree with every point you said. WfM certainly has flaws but neither GQ or Hathaway had me feeling anywhere near as emotionally invested in the story as WfM did. GQ was just messy overall and quite disappointing. Hathaway I liked, but the MS design (except the Messer) was meh and I felt more intrigued by the story than emotionally invested in it.
Exactly how i feel about all of them
God I wish G-Witch had been given more time.
As far as the entries from the last few years go...
Hathaway was incomplete, so it's hard to gauge. I enjoyed it as a movie, but it's only Act 1 so it's just hard to really have a sense for it. It had some great visuals, but the "major" combat engagement was underwhelming because it was so dark and lots of fly-bys (it's been a minute, I need to rewatch it before part 2). As for the designs, I find the Penelope and.. the other one to be pretty forgettable, considering I have no mental image of what they look like as I'm writing this.
Witch from Mercury I think stands the strongest, partly because it's self-contained, but also it was very unique in aesthetic, visuals, sound design, etc. It definitely had pacing issues, it just ramped super hard on the last few episodes, but I enjoyed it.
On the flip side, I really didn't care for GQuuuuuuX, on any level. It just felt like a confused mess in every aspect. It's the first time in a long time that getting through a Gundam-entry has felt like a slog. I can't think of any singular moments from the series that stuck with me, aside from the final episode, but that's mostly just "... What?" I respect that they were trying something different with the designs (and I love Evangelion), but everything about GQuuuuuuX felt like that meme of the really fucked up fork with all the tines bent in random directions... "Just because you're unique doesn't mean you're useful."
No, that would be Witch.
I personally loved it
For me def witch from mercury,i just love it with the characters,music,animation and art,although hataheay's music and sound design is also VERY good too
Nah, WFM is for me.
To be fair, Gundam animation has been getting better, the Unicorn series of movies already had very high quality even with today's standards, so I guess it also does make sense that Hathaway's animation were and will continue to be equally good if not better.
They are getting better with cgi though with gquuuux and hathway films.
Since everyones answers are going to be personal I'd say it's impossible to say one show or movie is WAY better than the rest.
My personal opinion, I LOVE the movie, one of if not the best in the last decade besides Origin.
I'm a huge Hathaway Noa fan and loved the novels so I guess part of why I think the movie is so good is bc I already read the novels and enjoyed them. But I thought the pacing was good, the visuals were amazing as we're the voice acting and overall score.
Can't wait for part 2 in a few months.
For me it is. Everything about that movie clicked with me.
I thinking rating anything by its perceived 'potential' is pointlessly subjective.
As for Hathaway, I haven't seen it yet so I can't make a proper judgment, but its Gundam suits aren't particularly appealing to me.
Between GQuuuuuuX and G-Witch, I liked G-Witch a lot better.
I mean, at least I watched all three of them.
That's cool, and I'm glad you really liked Hathaway, and I hope you enjoy the sequel.
But from the way you phrased the topic, it sounded like you wanted people's opinion on modern Gundams. I figured, since I have seen two of the shows, one of which was my introduction to Gundam and mecha in general, and have also seen some of the older UC stuff, my opinion was salient, even if I haven't seen everything yet.
If, on the other hand, you just wanted people to celebrate the upcoming Hathaway sequel with you, that's all well and good, but you probably should have phrased the topic differently then.
Gquuux has pacing issues. Fun little story but another example of Anno jumping immediately to abstractism and making the plot rushed and incoherent. Does not help that Nyaan and Machu go from interesting to basically stupid in the span of 3 episodes. And Machu basically getting infatuated with every man she encounters. Cool Gundam designs but in true Anno fashion half the stuff remains unexplained.
Witch from Mercury was a complete story. Had interesting premise, good pace and some genuinely disturbing moments. Plus the whole "establish a business" element was very nice addition. Final battle, Calibarn Gundam and some of the cast (like Chuchu) make it a standout for me.
Hathaway has the scale and being part of the UC. I had read the novels before the movie came out. Impressed with the way they penned the story in movie format. Terrorism scene on the ship was very well done. Penelope vs XI needed a bit more lighting to make out the models. The score is phenomenal. The running in the city was terrifying. It was an amazing movie that sets up a larger plot but it is only a pt1 so it needs the other 2 parts.
Tossup but I would go with Witch from Mercury mainly because it was a new story, new concept, coherent and s fun watch while complete. Waiting for the next 2 parts to see how they adapt Hathaway.
yes. easily
As a person who liked gquuuux I have to agree hathway is the most mature gundam story in five years.
I think, overall, The Witch from Mercury takes it for me. I enjoyed the novels, but Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway was just all right. Visually and cinematography-wise, it's nigh unparalleled, however.
I think the movie will enhance the experience of the novel. The difference between GQuuuuuuX, The Witch from Mercury, and Hathaway is that Hathaway has achieved its full potential in terms of story and characters. That’s why I think it resonates with me better than the other two. Hathaway has a complete story
>Hathaway has a complete story
That's an... interesting take. Absolutely nothing got resolved.
Hahahahaha, I mean it as his story, yes, obviously. Not as a Gundam story. Let’s be honest, Gundam in general, or UC, is a little weak in this point. But I think Gundam Hathaway is a very well wrapped story as a conclusion for Hathaway’s story and the old UC, so I think it’s still good in this part. Gundam hathaway is more about him as character not the UC
The person above was talking about the anime, not the novel which only a handful of people have read. Conflating the anime and novel is both confusing and probably misleading given that the producers have confirmed there will be "changes" between the two. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-09-02/gundam-hathaway-anime-staff-teases-2nd-part-working-title-changes-from-original-novel/.176939
I seriously doubt it, especially when it comes to the last two volumes which rely quite a bit on narration, they won't translate well and will need changes to fit the medium.
I'm sure they'll turn out good, but I can't see the movie trilogy enhancing the experience of the novel, at least not in a way where the source material is supplanted.
Even the first movie?
I think there's a little bit that's lost in translation in the first movie, in my opinion, but not nearly as much as I'd wager will be lost with the next two movies.
The novels have a ton of insight into characters and the politics of the Universal Century at large packed into narration, for one, and it'd make for some really awkward and stilted dialogue, I'd be impressed if they managed to pull it off to a degree that leaves nothing to be desired.
For the first movie there was a lot in the first volume that was either already dialogue or that could be more easily presented visually, but I don't think the same will still hold going forward.
It's just the way it goes when you're bringing a story to a different medium, I think it's impossible to do it without losing or changing something, so it's always best to look at it as... I don't know, complementary, maybe, but never as a replacement. The novel will always be worth reading, in my opinion.
I think WFM was a more cohesive and complete story, but that's acceptable since Hathaway is just the first installation in this new story.
I can't deny the production quality and art style, though, because it's phenomenal. I'm excited to see what's next for our boy mafty, and I think the Penelope is a great and terrifying suit.
To be honest, I found it boring. I know that it's only the first part of three, but I'm sure glad I've watched the rest of UC or I wouldn't have had a clue why I should care about anyone or anything in the movie. As it is, I already had a dislike of Hathaway since CCA and this hasn't improved him in my view.
I genuinely enjoyed GQuX. Haven't gotten around to WfM yet
Im finding more people actually enjoying gquuux despite its problems which makes me happy I actually liked gquuuux more than wfm or gwitch. Thats my opinon anyways hathway is okay though.
GQuuuuuuX was an experiment and it was great fun for anyone who let themself enjoy it and has been a victim of far too much undue criticism. Not perfect, but a solid Gundam series
GQuuuux has narrative problems and I’m more upset that it ended so soon I wanted to be invested in that alternative uc timeline I wanted to see a zeta/zz like sequel with twist and turns a gquuux haman karn.
I'm with you there. In particular, since it's set right around the same time as Zeta, I was wondering where Kamille was
It was two years before zeta but I bet kamile or fa is gonna be in the sequel though. I wanted to see more altertive suit designs and more bonkers newtype powers.
I chuckled to myself every time they said "Zeknova" and I thought "Axis shock"
Newtype powers have always been hella dumb too me, but boy do I have a fun ass time watching newtype bs unfold before my eyes
Oh boy zz and zeta have that in spades but it was gquuuux that opened my eyes. and the funny thing is newtype is a person who gets passed their biases for the betterment of mankind and it isnt space espers which bandai led you to believe.
I actually really enjoyed Gquuuux as well for that reason. I’ll give it its passing and overall narrative issues (should’ve been way longer of a series IMO). Zeta had always been my favorite but the adjacent UC timeline is something I wish we’d see more of
I simply don't have much of an opinion on it as it very much felt like just the opening of a story that hasn't finished yet.
And given how long the wait for the second film has been, I think I'm going to wait for the series to be finished before continuing it.
Christ no. The movie was damn near incomprehensible and makes zero effort to explain to the audience what Hathaway wants and why you should or shouldn't root for him.
GQuuuuuX may rely a lot on UC knowledge to get the most out of it, but a novice could still go in and find some measure of enjoyment in just following the character.
Hathaway never gives you a reason to give a shit about what any of these people are doing.
or gwitch and I dont like gwitch and i find the leads something to cheer for but gquuuux takes the cake for most enjoyable gundam entry in recent years fight me haters.
I think WfM and Gquuuuuux are better media overall. WfM is an easy entry point for fans who haven’t watched any Gundam series in their lives. Gquuuuuux, on the other hand, is a big fan service project for longtime UC fans.
The production quality of Hathaway imo is the best among them. However it took too long to produce, so the story lost momentum. On top of that, fans still have to watch previous UC series to fully understand the plot.
Gwitch is a good point for gundam but dont have to watch 20 year old entries to get into it. GQuuux felt like a fan festival for UC fanboys though thats why I enjoyed GQuuuux lol. Hathway got it the worst because you have to watch zeta gundam and then char's counterattack to understand his character arc.
Honestly I disagree. WFM felt a bit too divorce from what I expect of gundam and I wasnt a fan of the rwo leads. Gqux was way too rushed and I dint feel it developed the characters well.
Respectfully… I didn’t enjoy it.
Too many scenes waiting in hotel lobbies and eating food.
When the mecha finally fight it’s to dark rushed and you can’t see anything.
The original CCA is a far greater work of animation and storytelling.
Of course that’s just my opinion. But you did ask for it in the title of the post.
Fun thing is … there’s many entry points to Gundam and people can find their favorites.
Cheers 🥂
I had problems should dived into hathway mind more and why he was against the earth federation. They did tackle it with the taxi driver but it shows his actions are reckless with normal people or himself.
It’s still witch from mercury for me. That show was groundbreaking for having a female protagonist, and lgbtq protagonist, and a somewhat peaceful “final battle” where the main character actually chooses the peaceful option instead of killing everyone.
Qqux was ass in my opinion, but that’s mainly because I hated the love triangle crap and I don’t like the uc universe in general.
I respect ye opinion gng
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Im gonna say no solely on the fact that is part 1 of a 3 part story. Like it's good, but I can't really judge it till it's done.
Also this is ultimately a very subjective question. For me personally it was Witch from Mercury.
Its incomplete so I can't judge it. Once all three(?) Movies are out I can make an assessment. But G-Witch is better than the first part of the Hathaway trilogy, IMO.
Good rankings. I'd go (in order): WfM, Seed Freedom, Hathaway, Cucuruz, Requiem, Build Metaverse. Have not seen Urdr Hunt yet but heard some very mixed reviews.
It’s not the best gundam the year it came out
to me, hathaway was kinda boring for a movie. gqx was kinda all over the place. wfm was amazing, but i didn't like the ending (i don't even remember it haha).
No I’d give it to Witch. Aside from the street battle, which was a 10/10 sequence, not that much stood out to me from Hathaway.
Yes. Best soundtrack. Beautiful style. It can be watched as a standalone espionage film.
Seed Freedom was the one for me. Getting the next part of CE timeline that i have been waiting for since 2004 was a blessing
To each their own.
I thought it was all right. I prefer Witch from Mercury personally.
Seed FREEDOM was absolutley the highlight of recent gundam for me. It felt like it tied up everything from Seed & Seed Destiny very well. Overall definitely the most fun watch for me out of most of the recent stuff.
Overall I think I liked WfM the most but can't deny Seed Freedom was probably the most fun I've had watching Gundam in a while, maybe since the original Build Fighters series. Also top tier MS designs like the Black Knights, Murasame Kai, Gelgoog Menace etc.
Yeah, not the best written story by any means, but certainly the most fun I've ever had watching anything Gundam-related, especially as someone who grew up with SEED in my childhood. The last 30 minutes or so is basically Gundam pornography.
Same.
Yes, it’s also probably the best Gundam related thing ever.
CCA still the goat
Witch takes the win for me. There's not enough of just Hathaway 1 for me to really judge; I'd rather wait until its all done. Even if I evaluate it on its own, Hathaway's mecha action is inferior to Witch's. (Too dark like with most CGI stuff and too rushed)
GQX was just bad for me and no arguments can make me change my mind on this. (But I do like some of the mecha designs. The Hambrabi and Gyan were very cool)
Feel like gqux was really 2 seasons/concepts shoved into 1.
First 6 episodes were about the dueling league
And the last 6 were completely different.
Probably would have felt wayyy more natural of a shift if it had the classic 50 episodes treatment like anime of yore. Imo.
I’m enjoying Moon and Flannegan Boone’s mangas a whole lot, but am not certain when they began
Oooh, I think I emotionally resonated with SEED Freedom more since I was in high school watching the fansubs as that show came out. I don't think anything that's come out has been like bad bad, I like them all in their own way.
Now if we're saying ALL of Gundam media? G Gen Eternal is my favorite.
>I love GQuuuuuuX, and I like The Witch from Mercury, but I always thought both of them didn’t grab their whole potential
*AHEM*
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Seed freedom was meh for me but the mobile suits are cool tho.
Personally, Witch from Mercury is the best thing in recent Gundam. The story is captivating, the characters are charismatic, and the plot gets darker as it progresses until it reaches an unexpectedly positive ending. The pacing falters a bit towards the end, but I still think it's incredible overall.
Didn’t realize it was a trilogy so was really disappointed and confused watching it.
Bandai, give me MG Penelope and Xi and my soul is yours
I like Hathaway I really do I watched it thought it was neat went on to read beltochikas children because I was told story of Gundam Hathaway was connected to it went on to rewatch the movie found it a whole lot more enjoyable to think Hathaway isn’t an annoying brat who crashed out after watching the girl he just met die I’m putting Hathaway in one of my top three favorite Gundam movies but man is that first movie really shy when showing mobile suit fighting is always mainly at dark and while it has some amazing shots the main focus was on Hathaway and gigi, than came the Xi vs Penelope fight it was nice top 10 Gundam fights for sure but it was really dark and really short like except for that one scene with the beam saber clash after that it’s just missile barrage beam fire missile barrage Vulcan Fire and that’s it I know that Gundam is a political drama and all that but man let’s be honest where also here for giant robots duking it out maybe let’s wait for the trilogy to fully come out before we call something the best Gundam media
I still think the scene where Gigi and Noa run through the city during the attack was one of the most powerful scenes I've seen in any gundam media.
For me it's the best Gundam media in general. Both visually and thematically stunning
Not sure about the greatest, but the music was awesome. Reminded me of Interstellar. Overall, some scenes and character designs were visually stunning.
Flanagan Boone manga is my vote
I think WFM, not necessarily because the anime is amazing but because it is friendly to those who want to test the water before jumping to both the anime and gunpla
WFM is my first gundam anime but i didn't really enjoy it, but what I did enjoy is their kits. Like holy shit the design is so good the anime didn't do it justice
Until the trilogy is done, I'm going to say no
It was my first Gundam anime ever, it's still my long-time favorite along with XI Gundam itself
No, the first movie is good but I don't think anyone other than a hardcore Gundam fan can enjoy it.
(I did hear the movie did well though so who knows).
I do believe the full trilogy can great though.
Edit: I just realised that nothing really tops it since 2020. So it might be 😅
I like wfm the most with obvious caveat it was my first series.
Hathaway is good and it went up in my mind over the three times I rewatched it but to me it really relies on "this could lead somewhere cool", I can't say it grabs it's full potential when its part 1 of a story I don't know the end with. Gigi could be super interesting character or her whole mystery could lead somewhere stupid and it could change my mind on the whole movie entirely it feels like so I have to judge the whole trilogy when it comes out.
I'm pretty sure the whole story together is good, but part 1 was fucking boring as standalone. It may be the fifth best gundam media of the past 5 years. I at least rank higher than RFV.
No. It s just one movie with the same plot as CCA and F91 with the crazy woman as love interest.
I like their art direction. And I love that they stuck their guns on how they want the fights to look like in the dark. It’s dark, and so I want to watch it over and over again
Easily yes in my opinion
My friend is obsessed with this guy lol he says he reminds her of Char; sad and pathetic but handsome.
Not handsome
Yes
The Soundtrack was amazing and I loved the story. Maybe it's because it's part one but I felt it was a tad boring sometimes. But overall I really liked it. I wasn't a huge fan of the Mobile Suit designs in it though honestly. The Penelope is also super sick, with the exception of the giant slab that hangs over it's head. It almost ruined the Mobile Suit design for me. And the Gundam Hathaway pilots (I don't remember what it was called, forgive me) is genuinely one of my least favorite Mobile Suits looks wise.
I’m a SEED fan so I can’t honestly say that Hathaway was the best Gundam we had in five years, but it’s definitely up there.
Understandable
I may need to give the first part a rewatch; it really didn't do much for me on my first viewing. It's hard going in hating Hathaway himself since first seeing CCA decades ago and already loathing the main Gundam designs.
Cucuruz Doan's Island was only three years ago, and we just had G-Qux which was rushed and flawed but a lot of fun.
Alas G-Witch was only okay but felt like it had some bad pacing while Freedom had some stupid ideas and that dub that is a thing that exists.
It's either SEED Freedom anime, SEED Freedom LN, Thunderbolt Manga, GQuuuuuuX, Extreme VS. MaxiBoost ON (I forget that we didn't get this until 2020) or G Generation Eternal for me. Wait does the TCG count? Cuz that's great too. Honestly we have ate these last few years as Gundam fans, something for everyone 🔥
Definitely the best looking. But not better than WfM. Hathaway is waaay better than whatever GQx was though.
WFM is one of the disappointing entries even more so than ibo season 2.
Too much Hathaway, not enough Mobile Suit Gundam. It looks great, and has an intriguing story, but I don't think it's a wild statement to say that I am here for the giant mech battles.
It’s mostly by virtue of being surrounded by like. Near nothing. It’s surrounded by mostly niche sub 12 episode things, which no matter how fun those are, do not match up to a ground up film with some rather established source material. Witch ends up as the only “full” series in that time, and it’s rushed production shows. If you seperate it into halves, it also is just two niche 12 episode projects.
The current status of the industry, and Bandai being how it is. The deck is rather stacked in its favor
Well, yeah. Like you said, Witch is good, and GQux is fine if insubstantial. But Hathaway is actually about something and written by the franchise’s creator before he fell off the rails. There’s no comparison.
Honestly just for having dark af fight scenes, I'd put it below WfM.
Idk, the suit designs were a huge miss for me
For me its the best since Zeta and if it weren't for Zeta, it would be the best overall
That movie was so boring and incomplete
yes by big margin
it exceeds unicorn and ibo as well personally.
I’d say so but I haven’t watched much outside of the UC. Hathaway is great tho
war in the pocket was great along with stardust memory and 08th ms team ignore the fanboys though.
As an old, yes.
Yes
media? Yes.
hands down yes
Yes. Without a doubt. But the story is 36 years old so it’s not strictly a Gundam from last five years
Obviously, I mean it as a movie. If it were as a novel, I would say in the last 36 years.
Not only the past 5 years, it might hands down be the best Gundam media of all time or at least the past decade or two.
It feels more mature/adult and like a bond movie as opposed to anime trope-y
It’s kinda why IBO was so good, especially towards the end when everything started going to shit.
I heavily have to disagree with you because IBO kept making tekkadan stupid mistakes instead of adapting due to its producer wanting to work with Mcgillus and Gaeilo yes there is an interview where he said this. Also I didnt like the ending of IBO and felt over dramatic as hell thats just me.
Yes
It is, because its directly adapting material from the 90s. Modern anime productions would rather die than crank out a halfway decent script, so all the best stuff is taken directly from decades prior.
Yes
Man, it’s kinda sad that 2 years later this sub is STILL infested with Witch Slop shills 💰and bots 🤖
Hathaway, Wing, G, Zeta…so many others are Shakespearean compared to witch slop
That hard to accept that to a ton of people, it’s their favorite series? Go back into the cesspits you haters drag yourselves out of.
Yes, but then the competition is like miserably weak, so it's not as big of a deal.
Nah, gquux is more entertaining to be honest, Hathaway is just too centered in their own self that it almost paint everyone else than the mc as idiots
Hathway isnt for everyone due to understanding the previous entries to understand his character and the movie is really slow for a gundam project. GQuuuux on the other hand is fast paced have character designs that pop out and standout like a modern pokemon game. The mobile suits look they are from an obscure experimental gundam manga, the pacing is so fast paced that it forgot critical details of its story and used alot of the time for homages. Despite all of that I really enjoyed my time with gquuuux and I deeply enjoyed machu and nyaan's company imagine if they had better development and the story was better paced and written imagine the possibilities.
Yeah
I think Seed Freedom was the best. But thats because CE is the best timeline imo, it has Cross Ange after all.
So iam biased.
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Official art
I got it, it’s from the official soundtrack :) tysm
Hard to get too excited as it's only a piecemeal and the second one has been long time coming and who knows when part 3 will be out. I'll make judgement once it's all out. A series with one connected storyline can lose relevance if sequels take too long to come out and people forget what happened in previous volumes and not everyone can bother to rewatch.
Fav tv series is still IBO for me and movie series would be Thunderbolt🙏
Hathaway is easily up there as an all time bit of Gundam and will most likely age incredibly well provided the rest of the trilogy sticks the landing.
I would say I feel similarly about tje other recent works being... fun if not really great entries of Gundam. Personally I forgot IBO and Thunderbolt are already 10+-ish years old or else I'd have said that they are good peers with Hathaway.
I love all Gundam equally... Except for Twilight Axis and Destiny. The SD Gundam shows have nice music, but I don't really watch them much.
Yes easily. Unless Thunderbolt camr out in the last 5 years then it'll have some competition.
While the execution and adaptation was great, it barely showed anything interesting except for introductions. It definitely built up the hype but it has been dwindling down since it has been 5 years+ from the last release. But if we're simply basing it on the production value and quality, the Gquux trailer is probably the best and the Machuesday memes.
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Nah, Gquacks definitely slapped
Yes
More like best in the last ten. Since IBO it's all been half-baked, and even IBO suffered from being seriously half baked in S2.
It's an island of quality amidst an ocean of offensively mediocre shit.
Last 10 honest to god
Hathaway erases Unicorn and dooms the UC to an inescapable heat death by the time of Victory.
Beautifully animated, with gorgeous designs and the kind of interpersonal struggles and inner conflicts Gundam is known for.
But I can't forgive that.
We're still doing this? It's really not that hard to go look up when each novel was released, so blame Fukui for setting his fanfiction between CCA and HF, if you want to blame somebody.
Toss up between this and GQuuX
I enjoyed hathway and gquuuux more than gwitch I have to say. I did like the prologue though and its setting but everything else nah disappointed almost didnt gave gquuuux a chance because i was so bummed on gwitch.