Kidou Senshi Gundam: Senkou no Hathaway

Thanks to the sacrifices of war heroes like Amuro Ray, the Universal Century's 105th year sees an era of hard-won but short-lived peace. The Earth Federation keeps a militaristic hold on the planet and its surrounding space colonies. Although Char Aznable's rebellion against the neglectful Federation met its ultimate failure, his revolutionary philosophy of true freedom for all human beings lives on.

Despite being the son of a famous Federation commander, Hathaway Noa embodies both the undying loyalty of soldier Amuro Ray and the militant passion of rebel leader Char Aznable. Haunted by memories of Char's Rebellion, Hathaway leads a dissident faction of his own known as Mafty. He adopts the alias "Mafty Navue Erin" and commits acts of violence in revolt against the growing tyranny of the Federation.

After thwarting the hostile takeover of a plane by a terrorist group fraudulently claiming to be Mafty, Hathaway's secret identity is discovered by a young woman named Gigi Andalucia. Hathaway befriends both Gigi and Federation colonel Kenneth Sleg, but his double life endangers them as the armed conflict between Mafty and the Federation comes to a head.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Noa, Hathaway Main

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Andalucia, Gigi Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Sleg, Kenneth Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Ray, Amuro Supporting

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Aim, Lane Supporting

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Paraya, Quess Supporting

Kawamura, Maria Japanese

Nobile, Gawman Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Flower, Mace Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Yeoksan, Hundley Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Mitsuda, Kenji Supporting

Sawashiro, Chiharu Japanese

Kikukawa, Hiroyuki Producer

Murase, Shukou Director, Storyboard

Kimura, Eriko Sound Director

Kasamatsu, Kouji Sound Director

Reviews

Feb 4, 2025

Jemnite

Recommended

Hathaway's Flash is simultaneously a true joy for any UC enthusiast while being nigh impenetrable for people with it as their first Gundam experience. This is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The culmination of all of the early UC narratives, it serves as both a continuation of the dialogue raised in Gundam Unicorn as well as a dismal rebuttal- proving that the corrupt nature of institutions can not be changed with dreams alone.

Cinematically Hathaway's Flash is a true joy to watch. The animators have done brilliantly, the entire sequence of action scenes in Davao City are some of the best animated and ... choreographed scenes to date. It carries on with the modernization of Gundam aesthetics that has been plodding forward with the advancement of real life technologies, you'll see a toe of cockpit shots and modern looking heads-up displays like Unicorn had. If you were coming into it for the classic mecha fight feel you'll be disappointed but if you're a fan of modern military aesthetics this is probably the best looking Gundam animation yet. By this time in the universal century, basically every MS is rocking a 360 panoramic cockpit and with Xi and Penelope's Minovsky Flight Unit most of the combat in this film is jet-fighter esque aerial dogfights rather than melee duals on the ground, even with the majority of film taking place planetbound.

Narrative;y Hathway's Flash does not hold your hand at all. It assumes that you've watched Char's Counterattack and is a straight up continuation of the plotlines in that story, carried forward around 20 years by trauma and an inability to move on. It wastes no time in getting the viewer acclimated, which is both a strength and a weakness because for Gundam fans there's no cruft or wasted airtime but for people just getting into it certain scenes never get any setup because the setup was already in CCA. The film follows the standard structure of opening, rising tensions, climax, resolution with a setup for the sequel films and is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the novel's plotline with slightly adjustments as to make the film a relatively self containing plotline. It's a much more grounded approach compared to the fantastical wizard-like newtype centric fiction of Gundam Unicorn, fitting as it takes mostly on gravity-bound earth. While it shares much with Unicorn aesthetically, tonally it is the opposite. Newtypes cannot change the world, corruption cannot be fought except with the application of violence (via terrorism), and the only dreams are nightmares brought by ptsd and war trauma. There is no psychoframe to change the world, only freedom fighters and terrorists melting down cities with their beam weaponry.

All in all Hathaway's Flash is a great film experience, definitely worth watching for the cinematic experience if nothing else. 9/10. Looking forward to more.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Jemnite (11)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 16, 2024

k-0da

Mixed Feelings

I mean it's alright. Watching Hathaway compared from CCA to now was interesting. seeing his demeanor switch after experiencing char and amuros divorce movie was nice. hathaway is the best part of the movie, but unfortunately that's not saying a lot. the action is ok. most of it takes place in the pitch black night so i cant see shit. the choreo isnt too memorable either. this movie just felt like a whole bunch of set up to the sequels. cant say it was terrible, but DO NOT let it be your first foray into gundam. also, had a hard time grasping what made gigi ... tic, but ill chock that up to my own stupidity. I would like to see where this story goes next, if that means anything.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by k-0da (28)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 27, 2021

Tykylo

Not Recommended

(Spoilers for CCA, F91, Unicorn, and Hathaway)

You know that feeling when your favorite franchise gets a continuation of its main story, and despite enjoying the new narrative on its own merits, you feel as though its flaws hold it back, and in general get the vibe that all of it is unnecessary as shit?

A couple franchises are like this for me. For Star Wars it's the Sequel Trilogy, specifically the two movies that came after The Force Awakens, for Halo it's everything that came after Halo 4, and for Dragon Pilot: Hisone to Masotan, there is...literally nothing. Seriously. there's no second season or even an ... OVA or movie, like COME ON IT WASNT EVEN THAT BAD THE CHARACTERS WERE AWESOME THEY DESERVE AT LEAST A SLICE OF LIFE SERIES.

And in the case of Universal Century Gundam, I have nothing but raw, burning hatred for literally almost everything that came after Char's Counterattack that was released between 2010 and 2020.

To be fair, I haven't watched Unicorn, but I read the plot synopsis and it goes like this: Char comes back in a stitched-together Newtype clone body, he fights the Federation because what else is he going to do with his time, and then Amuro's ghost appears and politely asks the reborn Char to stop his rampage, to which Char replies "Oh...okay."

It's not the worst thing I've ever experienced, but my main issue is...why? Why does Char's story need to be continued? It was resolved perfectly fine in CCA. Another issue is that (and this is a pretty obvious reason) Unicorn kinda shits all over Amuro's sacrifice to show humanity the light of the human heart, to overcome Char's evil and darkness, by just...having Char show up again. After he and Amuro have been dead for three years.

Now onto the main topic of this review, Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway. ....dear God..

I will give the movie this: for better or worse, it completely ignores Unicorn's existence, though I would argue that its own take on the post-Axis Shock period is far, far worse. The Axis Shock in Char's Counterattack was meant to symbolize humanity uniting to save the Earth from their own destructive arrogance. Both the Federation and Zeon were at fault, and both overcame their differences and rivalries to help save the cradle of humanity. This even gets explored in Gundam F91, where Earth's entire former population has completely migrated to the Sides for 30 years to let the planet heal from years of war and pollution.

Hathaway decides to completely shit all over those themes of unity, then throws them out of the window in favor of generic "edgy" Hollywood movie themes, where the Federation hasn't learned a damn thing from the past three Zeon Wars and continues to pollute the Earth and abuse its population. The ecchi is also really cringy and essentially symbolizes all the issues I have with modern anime in general.

I don't even want to talk about what they did to mah boi Hathaway Noa. He went from a scared but idealistic and brave kid in CCA to a complete psychopath who allows his forces to target civilians, and he and Char are portrayed as the good guys...?! What in the actual goddamn fuck.

The side characters are kind of just...there.

The female characters are hot.
That's about it. They don't get much else aside from that.

Okay so maybe I was wrong, modern UC Gundam is nothing like the Sequel Trilogy or the new Halo games. Aside from Advent of the Red Comet and Thunderbolt I legitimately hate everything about what they've done to Universal Century, and I've lost all hope for that franchise unless Sunrise can get their heads out of their asses.

To conclude, Hathaway is not even trying to be UC Gundam, or even a good anime movie. It's trying to be a by-the-numbers, bog standard, Hollywood movie, and good Lord does it show. With Double Zeta I could at least laugh at how stupid it got. In Hathaway there is just...nothing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Tykylo (8)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

🎧Anime with Thai dubs🇹🇭2｜🎧อนิเมะที่มีพากย์ไทย🇹🇭๒

by Adrena

50 Entries · 6 Restacks

2020s Mecha

by Fortress_Maximus

43 Entries · 18 Restacks

Anime Mecha Movies

by SHIZA_KAISER

29 Entries · 3 Restacks

'Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash' Unveils Additional Cast Members

The official website for the theatrical anime adaptation of Yoshiyuki Tomino and Haruhiko Mikimoto's Kidou Senshi Gundam: Senkou no Hathaway (Mobile Suit Gunda...read more

Feb 16, 2021 10:54 AM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (13 comments)

PV Collection for Jan 18 - 24

Here is a collection of promotional videos (PV), television ads (CM), and trailers for the last week. This thread excludes videos that have already been featured in ...read more

Jan 24, 2021 8:20 PM by Snow | Discuss (7 comments)

	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) EasyGo-er - Jun 13, 2021	81 replies	by Catalano »» Apr 13, 1:23 AM
	UC is over? LegionOne - Apr 28, 2023	15 replies	by Fail_Man_X »» May 14, 2024 12:49 PM
	Hathaway, Thunderbolt, and Narrative to get TV editions (Winter 2023 season) The_Sum_of_Zero - Jan 15, 2023	2 replies	by Champloo_Remix »» Aug 8, 2023 10:03 AM
	What to watch before this? Spektrum9 - Jun 10, 2021	48 replies	by DivineLion »» Jul 15, 2023 12:54 PM
	Did I ruin anything Reshiram_IX - Jan 15, 2023	2 replies	by Reshiram_IX »» Jan 16, 2023 11:12 AM