Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky

Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダムサンダーボルト DECEMBER SKY

Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jun 25, 2016

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: NYAV Post

Studios: Sunrise

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Military, Sci-Fi, Space, Drama, Mecha

Duration: 1 hr. 9 min.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 7.94¹ (scored by 5,792 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score. Please note that 'Not yet aired' titles are excluded.

Ranked: #652²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #4076

Members: 11,426

Favorites: 72

7.94

Ranked #652Popularity #4076Members 11,426

MovieSunrise

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Synopsis

Federation troops and Zeon forces carry out a fierce battle in the Thunderbolt Sector in what was once Side 4 "Moore." The Thunderbolt Sector is a shoal zone composed of the debris of destroyed space colonies, named for the electrical discharges from the metal debris. MS pilot Io Flemming is among the Federation soldiers who are dispatched to the area, where Zeon sniper Daryl Lorenz awaits them on the battlefield.

(Source: Gundam Wikia)

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Background

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky was the first anime to ever be released on 4K UHD (Ultra High Definition) Blu-ray. The 4K UHD Blu-ray was released by Bandai Visual in Japan on December 22, 2016.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt
Alternative version:	Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
Sequel:	Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower

More characters
Characters & Voice Actors

Fleming, Io

Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi
Japanese

Lorenz, Daryl

Main

Kimura, Ryouhei
Japanese

Sexton, J. J.

Supporting

Tsuchida, Hiroshi
Japanese

Peer, Claudia

Supporting

Yukinari, Toa
Japanese

Mitchum, Karla

Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka
Japanese

Ness, Fisher

Supporting

Graham

Supporting

Sakuya, Shunsuke
Japanese

Kaka, Cornelius

Supporting

Hirakawa, Daisuke
Japanese

Burroughs

Supporting

Sasaki, Mutsumi
Japanese

Staff

Matsuo, Kou

Director, Script

Sinterniklaas, Michael

ADR Director

Matsuda, Haruka

Background Art

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More reviewsReviews

Jul 19, 2016

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

qrdel (All reviews)

44 people found this review helpful

Man oh man, has it been ages since I watched a Gundam show... Sure, there was this Iron-Blooded orphans thing, but Gundam as entitled - that has been escaping my radar for years now. Why, you may ask? It's quite simple. For a hardcore fan Gundams ended around Turn A and the only reasonable approach to the topic were either the Unicorn or (loosely) 00.

Thundebolt then caught me completely off-guard. Having no time for animes these days I got the glimpse of the upcoming OVA through some promo I was never hoping to watch, It didn't say much though, only showing some really neat looking battle scenes. I am a mecha fan, even putting aside the fact that I stopped watching anime some time ago, so it was only natural that I would be interested in a battle sequence that actually resemebles just that - a battle sequence. From there I was only secinds away from being completely blasted into oblivion by the first OVA episode. The animation, the music, the pacing, interesting characters and refreshing approach at the topic on OYW - all of that packed into merely a 20-minute-worth of screening.
Then, I couldn't watch the other 3 eps because of chores and kind of forgot about it until recently, when I found out that it acutally got a re-release in a form of a movie: December Sky. And what a movie it is!
A spectacle is more appropriate - because technically and visually it blows away even the Unicorn OVAs and TV series! From ground up the visuals and audio are all pitch perfect. Finally one can enjoy eye-candy partially drawn battle sequences when there's very little actual CGI involved. Sure, there is still some, but not very offputting and someone who's not accustomed to the sight won't even catch it. That's very good, espeically in the era of mecha animes being nearly 100% done over CGI. Good job SUNRISE.
Then there's the music, the score and voiceover - all top notch, as expected of a high budget SUNRISE theatrical release. Seiyuus in both Japanese and English versions do their jobs well, although I would still prefer to hear the original voiceover for the fact of a better lipsinc. Japanese seiyuu also tend to pour more emotion into their characters than their English counterparts.

Plotwise it is a traditional good vs evil story, however the twist is here that in war there's no black and white but rather shades of grey and lots of ambiguity. The world in Thunderbolt is also much grittier than in previous installments and I believe that was the idea behind the project - to show, that wars in Gundam UC universe are comprised off not only genius pilots and giant robots but also, and probably most often off personal tragedies of minor characters that apear behing the curtains. In that aspect the story hits jackpot. It so reminds of another project like that caught me by surprise - 0080 War in the pocket. Albeit having an entirely different cast and approach to the topic of wars it still is, in a way, a reminisent of that amazing installment. Not often a 80 minute film will engage you so much into it's world and keep you at the edge of your seat until you hurt yourself. Amazing.

Overall, I recommend it mostly to Gundam fans for apparent reasons, but also it should find some audience around your average Joe's looking for a visually stunning mecha battle spectacle. For Gundam series to have a good story as an add-on is rarity these days, so enjoy it while it lasts.

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Jun 25, 2017

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

CodeBlazeFate (All reviews)

16 people found this review helpful

Given that this movie is a modified version of the ONA with one new scene added in, and the fact that I've already tackled the original OVA, I think it's only fitting that I modify said review and add to it, not out of disrespect for this movie, since I would never disrespect something so great, but because I feel like talking about Gundam Thunderbolt again since it's so damn good, and if I did, I would largely come up with the same review at best and something inferior at worst. So, enjoy.

*SPOILERS FOR MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM THUNDERBOLT*

Thunderbolt is definitely an interesting installment within the read more

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Apr 7, 2019

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

Grenge (All reviews)

4 people found this review helpful

Gundam Unicorn represents the plight of people in the U.C. timeline at their best. Thunderbolt represents the plight of people in the U.C. at their worst. Unicorn portrayed war as a tragedy, but not in any capacity did it capture its true essence for what it really is: a horrifying calamity that sweeps myriad lives in its wake and cares not for name, face, nationality, or best intentions. Tomino has written Gundam shows where people often switch allegiances on the fly. A Tomino show this is not: the people here are committed and locked in their allegiances; no character has a chance to switch sides, no character wants to switch sides. The forces, both of which we see, are under a soul-crushing weight, like ants in a torrential downpour, being thrown and battered by their own circumstances, including one scene where they're given their orders to defend a sector to the death, to the shock of only one person. The higher-ups acknowledge the "heroicism" of their acts, but the film, in its brilliance, has a tone portraying their acts of war as anything but. It's carnage, it's malevolent, it's unsympathetic, it's macabre. Melodically, the film's music carries with it no melancholy to describe the visions of death it portrays. The battlefield is instead personified through music through Charlie Parker-style jazz: chaotic, improvised, and without solid structure- a sound decision, cemented further by one of the jazz-loving protagonists who feels the unpredictability of the battlefield like he feels improvised jazz.

Thunderbolt is a story of humans utterly ensnared within cruel times, of overblown military budgets and desperation, of those once passive to the times swept into frenzied fever. The spread and escalation of war is a result of the failure of leadership at the highest levels, and Thunderbolt captures failures of leadership at a small scale. Atrocities beget atrocities, unfolding into each respective side's umpteenth measure to snuff the other out, in a tense climax to the action with depictions of bodies upon bodies. Except unlike in SEED, both sides are treated as neither hero nor villain, but as small pawns in a deadly game of chess, the larger scale or outcome of which isn't even depicted or known. Innocence is lost. The soul dies, and the shells of what were once men become beasts that crave only the hunt. What to the protagonists were quests to quell the nightmare of war obliterated their humanity, for now they are the nightmare.

The truth is you, the reader, too, are an insignificant subject of a societal system, the direction of which is far beyond your control. Should civility break down and give you the choice of whether to hide from the fire, or to become that which lights it, will you be the one getting torched, or are you the one holding the torch?

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Dec 20, 2018

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

rebornyama (All reviews)

1 people found this review helpful

Art is outstanding, understandly so since this is a fairly recent release.

Story wise, I'll give it an okay. They are certain plot lines that are extremely interesting included in the movie, but unfortunately they aren't really that well developed. Too many things get crammed in and they didn't really do a good job of trying to get you up to snuff on what in the world is going on at the beginning of the movie.

The sound mixing feels a bit all over the place. Not sure if they intended it to be that way... but I know that I'm not really a big read more

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	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky Discussion Stark700 - Jul 3, 2016	21 replies	by Brandon2149 »» Jan 3, 10:52 AM
	First minutes on gundam.info Rei_III - Jun 12, 2016	3 replies	by deg »» Jun 13, 2016 1:01 AM

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky

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Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky

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