Bright has one of the saddest trajectories in the UC. He is forced at 19 to take responsibility for a large amount of civilian life in a roll well beyond his experience/station. Then he constantly gets caught by responsibility and duty. Neglecting his family for the greater good. To add insult to injury he doesn't even get special treatment to protect his family, and he has to outlive pretty much everyone he has fought with.
Bright gets a lot of flakk for being an absent-at-best father figure, but when you consider what he's been through, he's not entirely to blame for his behaviour, and I don't think it's fair to call him a bad father. The man not only survived through a war that killed over half of the world's population, he was an important part in putting an end to that conflict.
And while it could be argued that he and the White Base weren't directly integral in bringing an end to the OYW (Zeon likely was doomed to failure in some form after General Revill managed to rally the Federation after his escape), he would become increasingly essential in preventing or ending potentially genocidal conflicts afterwords (if Bright isn't able to rally Londo Bell in UC0093, his family just straight up dies, along with billions of others).
Sure, Bright's definitely the workaholic type, and I'd bet that his fatherly qualities towards his subordinates is at least partly borne out of his own sense of guilt for his inability to be there for his own son. However, there's definitely a rational argument to be made, whether in Bright's internal dialogue or even in general, that in spite of the time that it took away from him being with his family, Bright's military duty was the best thing he could have done as a father to even preserve a world for his son to live in (or even just prevent his direct death in a colony drop).
I don't exactly see him ever retiring to go home and be a family man even under the best of circumstances, but that doesn't make him wrong for being the man he was in the world he actually did live in. No matter what he would end up choosing, he would be screwed.
I think Unicorn does a really good and really important job in framing Bright's view on duty and fatherhood, and frames his action as being in service of his role as a father, and not self glorifying. It ultimately ends up being short-lived, because we all know what happens to him, but he's not exactly wrong.
EDIT: I'll add that Unicorn gets both a lot more glaze and scorn than it deserves for different things, but its treatment of Bright and the overall theming of the impact and duty parents have towards their children (and specifically fathers), and the way that can be interpreted, is top notch.
Saw this posted on some of the Japanese Gundam social media accounts. Links lead to this Japanese blog post which has an embedded YT video that's not available in my country. I'm gonna guess it's just this video though.
He was born as the eldest son of Bright Noa and Mirai Yashima, who met fatefully in the 1979 broadcast of Mobile Suit Gundam, and first appeared in 1985's Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
He then experienced an event that greatly changed his values in 1988's Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, and the story continues in 2021's Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash.
Chapter 1 depicts Hathaway's encounter with Gigi Andalusia, and in the latest film, Hathaway's Flash: Circe's Witch, this encounter greatly changes Hathaway's fate.
Why does he fight? What is he trying to protect? And is his choice justice, or sin?
Born in the turbulent Universal Century and surviving a turbulent era, your name is...
The latest Gundam film, "Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash: Circe's Witch," will be released nationwide on Friday, January 30, 2026.
"Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash" Chapter 1 Theme Song: "Flash" [Alexandros]
Narration: Ken Narita (Bright's current seiyuu)
Him walking up in the boat animation is as bad as latest season of one punch man and this is getting a theatrical release lmao wtf are these companies doing man
It requires actually filming an actor and then animating over the footage. That costs money. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean they were half assing it.
Notice how there’s next to no footage of him with his dad,
Bright has one of the saddest trajectories in the UC. He is forced at 19 to take responsibility for a large amount of civilian life in a roll well beyond his experience/station. Then he constantly gets caught by responsibility and duty. Neglecting his family for the greater good. To add insult to injury he doesn't even get special treatment to protect his family, and he has to outlive pretty much everyone he has fought with.
https://preview.redd.it/cthymi03wz8g1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=928021cbcfb713b593395930e152f4026fda7b0f
Bright gets a lot of flakk for being an absent-at-best father figure, but when you consider what he's been through, he's not entirely to blame for his behaviour, and I don't think it's fair to call him a bad father. The man not only survived through a war that killed over half of the world's population, he was an important part in putting an end to that conflict.
And while it could be argued that he and the White Base weren't directly integral in bringing an end to the OYW (Zeon likely was doomed to failure in some form after General Revill managed to rally the Federation after his escape), he would become increasingly essential in preventing or ending potentially genocidal conflicts afterwords (if Bright isn't able to rally Londo Bell in UC0093, his family just straight up dies, along with billions of others).
Sure, Bright's definitely the workaholic type, and I'd bet that his fatherly qualities towards his subordinates is at least partly borne out of his own sense of guilt for his inability to be there for his own son. However, there's definitely a rational argument to be made, whether in Bright's internal dialogue or even in general, that in spite of the time that it took away from him being with his family, Bright's military duty was the best thing he could have done as a father to even preserve a world for his son to live in (or even just prevent his direct death in a colony drop). I don't exactly see him ever retiring to go home and be a family man even under the best of circumstances, but that doesn't make him wrong for being the man he was in the world he actually did live in. No matter what he would end up choosing, he would be screwed. I think Unicorn does a really good and really important job in framing Bright's view on duty and fatherhood, and frames his action as being in service of his role as a father, and not self glorifying. It ultimately ends up being short-lived, because we all know what happens to him, but he's not exactly wrong.
EDIT: I'll add that Unicorn gets both a lot more glaze and scorn than it deserves for different things, but its treatment of Bright and the overall theming of the impact and duty parents have towards their children (and specifically fathers), and the way that can be interpreted, is top notch.
Maybe a good ol bright slap could've altered the course of history
yeah, on Bright
man this has to be the lamest continuing joke in all of Gundam
Saw this posted on some of the Japanese Gundam social media accounts. Links lead to this Japanese blog post which has an embedded YT video that's not available in my country. I'm gonna guess it's just this video though.
From the YouTube video description:
Hmm. they still haven't confirm if this Hathaway killed Chan.
Love the music. Love Alexandros!
Yea, top tier banger of a song and that's what I concluded prior to discovering that it's from Gundam lmao
If Kelia Dace’s hair was slightly longer she’d be a lady Amuro and I feel crazy for noticing
Hathaway still in those deep feels about Quess. I do wish he had learned to let her go… considering they weren’t even that close
She literally died to save him.
Him walking up in the boat animation is as bad as latest season of one punch man and this is getting a theatrical release lmao wtf are these companies doing man
It's supposed to be like that, called rotoscope animation
Though not my cup of tea too
It looks terrible how can anyone be OK with that? It must be saving companies money for them to keep doing it.
It requires actually filming an actor and then animating over the footage. That costs money. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean they were half assing it.
You're allowed to think it looks weird (I do too) but it's factually way, waaaaay more effort and money than something like OPM S3.
I'm with you. Hathaway looks bad in comparison to all the other recent shows and movies.
I think it looks great
Bad ? One punch man fans wish they had that animation
Total Gigi Death.
All my homies hate Gigi.