The latest Gundam film, Hathaway the Sorcery of Nymph Circe may have an unusual name. The title alone sounds more like a phrase from a fable like Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare than a futuristic mecha anime. However viewers of the first Hathaway film on Netflix will remember the generally wistful tone of Hathaway Noa, Gigi Andalucia, and Kenneth Sleg’s love triangle.
The original Mobile Suit Gundam established a basic newtype concept. Newtypes are seen as a potential human evolutionary adaptation to space’s unique environment. With enhanced psychic powers allowing better combating abilities, newtypes are pivotal in influencing the One Year War between Zeon spacenoids and the Earth Federation. Later conflicts of Universal Century from the Gryps Conflict of Zeta and ZZ Gundam to Char’s Counterattack included newtype conflicts between Char Aznable, Haman Karn, Kamille Bidan, Judau Ashta, and Amuro Ray, in which even more colonies dropped on Earth.
Audiences of Hathaway 2 will briefly see Bright appear in both a flashback to the “even my father never hit me” moment where he slaps Amuro in 0079. Bright and Mirai are old and approaching retirement in one present scene as well. Bright himself had turned against the Federation joining Anti Earth Union Group (AEUG) in Zeta Gundam. Due to his general cynicism toward the Federation, and love of newtypes such as his wife Mirai, Bright was too conscientious to back the Federation’s Titans as they became tyrannical. Instead, Bright formed a coalition with former rivals including Char Aznable of Zeon. After the fall of the Titans, AEUG veterans Amuro Ray and Bright Noa formed a new military division called Londo Bell to stop Char from dropping Axis on Earth. Bright’s son Hathaway fell for the newtype girl Quess during a time when she joined Char as he was radicalizing against Earth.
Hathaway, as son of the important Federation military officer Bright Noa of White Base fame, is filled with a sense of ennui over the experiences of past space wars. During the Axis Shock incident where Quess Paraya, Amuro Ray, Chan Agi, and Char Aznable died in Char’s Counterattack, Hathaway was traumatized by the deaths of people important to him. Especially traumatized by the death of Quess, Hathaway is seeking a new muse, which he finds in Gigi.
After Char’s attempt to force humanity into space by dropping the Zeon Axis asteroid space fortress on Earth, a variety of replacements for Zeon came into being on Earth. Rebel Earth factions such as AEUG and Karaba seem to have folded in the time since the fall of the Titans Gryps conflict. The new resistance to Earth during Hathaway comes in the form of Mafty. Confusingly, there are two separate militant factions of Mafty. Their conflict ideologically is not particularly well defined. While this infighting may seem muddled, a conflict over power and women among radically schismatic angsty young men isn’t exactly unprecedented in the world of guerilla warfare. Viewers of classic Sunrise anime from Fang of the Sun Dougram to Zeta Gundam will remember the ceaseless factionalism, often driven more by personal charisma of a leader than substantive differences.
While Gigi is torn between the two Mafty bosses, the Federation has been using the Manhunters to deport troublemakers on Earth from the colonies back into space. The conflict is a bit oblique, and far from the ideological zeal of spacenoid potential that characterized the early Zeon movement of the 0070s and 0080s. Hathaway has to deal with self doubt over Mafty’s path of terrorism against the Federation.
In typical Gundam form, women are presented as a motivating factor for men to fight. Even if Mafty leaders have lost the confidence that the common man is even benefitting from their insurgency, the idea of creating a new future for earth and space with a psychic goddess is too tempting to resist. As Gigi seduces men from faction to faction of Mafty, her psychic connection of newtype strivers’ souls is able to provide enhanced combat abilities. Gigi’s ability to drive men to fight to the death for her is reminiscent of how Amuro in the original Gundam novels was inspired to fight for his lover Sayla, who begged him to kill her brother Char after a moment of intimacy. Another example would be the morale boost Amuro received from his girlfriend Beltorchika in Zeta Gundam and Beltorchika’s Children. In Seed timeline, characters like Kira and Athrun are clearly motivated to protect women in relationships. Gigi straddles the line between an angel on the shoulder type like Lacus and a manipulative two timing diva like Flay Allster. Even though she doesn’t really do anything but lounge around hotel rooms and catfight and flirt, she is able to wrap the future of Earth around her finger.
The idea of the sins of the father also plays a role in Hathaway’s angst. Can Hathaway assassinate Federation officials when his own father is in the Federation? Unfortunately for those looking for a clear cut hero, Hathaway is too ambiguous and navel gazing to truly shape the destiny of earth. Fans of later UC Gundam timeline series such as Unicorn, F-91, Crossbone, and Victory will know that Mafty was a flash in the pan, not to be as decisive in Earth history as Zeon. Efforts to force a mass exodus from space promise an automatic evolution to an environment that human flaws constantly expose to existential threats. While Earth has been able to survive colony drops, the colonies that were gassed by Titans, dropped by Gihren and Haman, were destroyed beyond repair. From a thousand yard view, Hathaway and Kenneth’s war over Mafty leadership hardly seems important. Even as late as the Zanscare invasion in Victory centuries later, humans continue to live on Earth. Even a half century after reaching the moon in the real world, men have more of a preference for the original evolved habitat of humanity, quickly giving up manned moon missions to focus on the problems of our actual sustainable environment. Given the tendency of the Spacenoid colonies to succumb to dictatorships that sacrifice their own civilizations to harm Earth, the Federation’s corruption may be preferable to the self contradictory acts of terrorists aiming to save Earth by rendering it incapable of inhabitation.
When we consider all the factions fighting in Hathaway fundamentally share the goal of getting people off Earth and end up failing because of a woman, the films may risk feeling fatalistic. If we think of other Celestial Madonna characters like Mantis from Avengers, just as often they are an instrument of tragedy and conflict as much as an avatar of human evolution and a fertility goddess. As we head into the third film of the series, it’s hard to avoid thinking of Gigi as a Cassandra, Helen of Troy, or Esther: a beautiful woman with an ominous destiny. Hathaway himself seems to be on a tragic hero’s journey, and will no doubt come up against his father in the final film of the trilogy. While it may be another five years gap like between Hathaway and its sequel, longterm fans of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s vision will be happy to see Hathaway’s Flash finally receiving a full adaptation.
The Mecha battles are a bit slow and dark. The pacing is a bit slow. Unless you’re a hardcore UC fan who has seen all the prior shows and movies, you are likely to be bored and confused. For those steeped in the themes and politics of Gundam, you are likely to find a lot of interest. The animation quality is generally realistic, sometimes to a fault. Awkward movements are a big issue with walk cycles. CGI is frequently used, often in a jarring and unnatural way. Unfortunately the five year production period created uncanny valley type motion for the action at times. On the other hand, there are impressive naturalistic backgrounds such as the ocean and well drawn.
For hardcore Gundam fans, this is an important chapter in the story of Hathaway. Like GQuuuuuux last year, my theater was nearly entirely empty, with only 4 viewers in my screening on Friday night opening weekend in a large Phoenix area mall. Perhaps putting the film into theaters after the prior film was direct to Netflix was a mistake financially, or the film should’ve been confined to a single event night to avoid having to do so many low attendance screenings. At least those who appreciate the history of UC will get to appreciate it on the big screen, but it certainly was a fairly minimal presentation. Unlike Gundam Seed Freedom, which was presented as an event with cast and director interviews before the film, Hathaway is a relatively low key production with no special features before the showing. After the end theme by Guns n Roses, Sweet Child o’ Mine, an additional scene does air. Hathaway 2 is well worth seeing for Gundam completionists, but new audiences will likely be falling asleep until heavy metal suddenly wakes them up.
Did you see any of the Gundam theatrical showings from NT to Hathaway 2? Leave a comment on the Toonzone forums!
