Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (1988)

Amuro Ray and Char Aznable settle their rivalry once and for all during the Second Neo Zeon War.

Director:

Yoshiyuki Tomino

Writer:

Yoshiyuki Tomino

Stars:

Tôru Furuya, Shûichi Ikeda, Hirotaka Suzuoki

Cast

Credited cast:
Tôru Furuya	...	Amuro Ray (voice)
Shûichi Ikeda	...	Char Aznable (voice)
Hirotaka Suzuoki	...	Bright Noah (voice)
Maria Kawamura	...	Quess Paraya (voice)
Nozomu Sasaki	...	Hathaway Noah (voice)
Kôichi Yamadera	...	Gyunei Guss (voice)
Mitsuki Yayoi	...	Chan Agi (voice)
Yoshiko Sakakibara	...	Nanai Miguel (voice)
Fuyumi Shiraishi	...	Mirai Yashima Noah (voice)
Shingo Hiromori	...	Astonage Medos (voice)
Shinobu Adachi	...	Kayra Suu (voice)
Kazue Ikura	...	Rezun Schneider (voice)
Keiko Han	...	Lala Sun (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alaina Burnett	...	Cheimin Noah (voice)
Louis Chirillo	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Storyline

Amuro and Char, two best mobile suit (robotic weapons) pilots who fought together against Titans after the Jion's independency war, must face each other in a fateful duel where the Neo-Jion, led by Char, attempts to drop a gigantic meteor and its nuclear weapons to Earth in order to cause Nuclear Winter to wipe out the Earth inhabitants.

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Plot Keywords:

outer space | nuclear winter | meteor | fictional war | spacecraft | 

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Taglines:

Witness the greatest rivalry in Gundam history.

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

12 March 1988 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sotsu Agency, Sunrise

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The bright, multicolored Hi-Zack Mobile Suit that makes its appearance inside the colony is called a 'Hobby Hi-Zack' This is a civilian use version of the RMS-106 Hi-Zack used by the Earth Federation and Titans during Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. During Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the Neo-Zeon faction also operated ones acquired during their alliance with the Titans and after capturing Earth Federation bases. The one seen in CCA was sold after being stripped of combat equipment and programming and sold to the public. Essentially, it was a surplus sale unit that hobbyists can modify and operate.

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Quotes

Char Aznable: Lalah Sune was a young woman who may very well have become a mother to me, you took her away her life, so don't you dare judge me!
Amuro Ray: Lalah... Lalah?
[psychoframe overloads]

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Connections

Followed by Kidô senshi Gandamu Yunikôn: Yunikôn no hi (2010)

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Soundtracks

Beyond the Time (Mebiusu no Sora wo Koete)
(Beyond the Time --Beyond the Möbius Universe--)
Performed by TM NETWORK
Music and arrangement by Tetsuya Komuro
Lyrics by Mitsuko Komuro

User Reviews

Gundam concludes with bang

You have asked wondered "who will survive" and you have "seen the tears of time". Now, the final chapter of an anime legend, the Universal Century Gundam saga, comes to its mind blowing conclusion.

Char's Counterattack is the culmination of years worth of Gundam storyline, in particular, the rivalry between Amuro Ray and Char Aznable that was established in the 1979 Gundam series but was never really followed through in the sequels.

The numerous factions from Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam have been done away with and we are back in familiar territory now;Char Aznable leads the Neo Zeon movement and Amuro Ray is part of the Londo Bell task-force sent to quell this uprising.

As a stand alone Gundam movie, Char's counterattack does not do much for the newer audience. It expects that the viewer is already familiar with Gundam lore and the established rivalry between Amuro and Char as it immediately throws you into the thick of the story and the heat of the action. A couple of new characters like Quess Paraya and Hathaway Noa are introduced but they come across as uninteresting and seem like throw-away characters whose only purpose is to fill up screen time when we are not focusing on Char or Amuro. There is a very uncomfortable attempt at creating a shaky love triangle story but the execution of that plot thread was not as good as it could have been.

Poor attempt at romance aside, Char's counterattack features a number of other themes that the viewers can easily relate to. There is a coming-of-age theme in how Hathaway Noa desires to step out of his father's shadow and discover his own identity, and there is a good deal of wartime rhetoric thrown about by Char. That being said, only once Amuro and Char take center stage does the movie finally find its footing and delivers an engagingly entertaining experience. They are the perfect opposites, each representing widely differing views on war and the idealistic pursuit of peace.

How far is one willing to go to end a war? Can peace be attained only through bloodshed? Are people only a means to an end when one is so obsessed with pursuing an ideal? Questions like these pop up during the course of the narrative which challenges the viewer to think and question.

Some fans have complained about the lack of character development of many of the cast, but i can only say this: Char's Counterattack should not be viewed as a stand alone movie. It is not a movie to develop the characters but a movie to bring about a RESOLUTION to the characters that have been developed over the course of the previous Gundam series. That is why i definitely recommend re-watching at least the original Gundam 0079 TV series or compilation movies before watching this movie. Re-watching "Zeta Gundam" would also add to a better understanding of Char's character development over the years.

Jam packed with epic action sequences thanks to a higher budget and more experienced staff, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack is the exciting concluding chapter in the grand sweeping tale of Amuro Ray and Char Aznable.