Mobile Suit Gundam as a franchise is perhaps most generally recognized for its titular mechanical warriors, their designs as iconic as they’ve turn out to be toyetic within the a long time for the reason that authentic present started its rocky highway to worldwide renown. But the newest cinematic entry within the franchise, premiering on Netflix this month, seeks to downplay its titular mecha to ask some huge questions on Gundam’s wider world.

The animated function, Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway, is directed by Shūkō Murase and written by Yasuyuki Muto. It’s the primary in a deliberate trilogy of films set within the 12 months U.C. 0105—the “Universal Century” timeline that performs host to a majority of the Gundam franchise’s works, together with the unique 1979 animated sequence—and 12 years after the occasions of the beloved animated film Char’s Counterattack. In a world the place the globalized Earth Federation is not actively at battle with its interstellar colonies, the film follows the titular Hathaway Noa (Kensho Ono), a former Federation cellular go well with pilot and the son of well-known commander Bright Noa as he returns to Earth on a brand new mission.

No longer a Federation soldier however as an alternative disillusioned with its more and more totalitarian insurance policies in opposition to “spacenoid” residents (people who’ve turn out to be accustomed to, or had been born, dwelling in area colonies), Hathaway has taken on the id Mafty Navue Erin as the top of the self-titled dissident group Mafty, in search of to violently silence Federation ministers and advocate for the colonies’ proper to self-govern. But when confronted on his journey by a mysterious younger girl named Gigi Andalucia (Reina Ueda), and introduced head to head with the Federation commander tasked with looking Mafty down, Kenneth Sleg (Junichi Suwabe), Hathaway is pressured to re-examine his personal previous traumas in addition to his present ideological beliefs as Mafty’s actions in opposition to the Federation proceed to escalate.

It is that wider astropolitical image that makes Hathaway an enchanting factor to witness over its roughly 90-minute runtime, extra so than any explicit moments of mecha motion it might comprise. If something, it deliberately downplays a few of its larger motion setpieces to place its worldbuilding on the forefront. Outside of the opening scene, the place terrorists claiming to be a part of Mafty assault the ship Hathaway and outstanding Federation ministers are traveling to Earth on, motion performs second fiddle to quieter scenes of dialog and interrogation. Hathaway is a gorgeously animated movie, however its motion is just not the main focus of that element. There are solely actually two main conflicts within the movie: an eventual Gundam vs. Gundam duel between Hathaway and Federation forces on the movie’s climax, and a breakout spotlight scene depicting an on-the-ground Mobile Suit assault that cleverly subverts our typical perspective of Gundam’s motion to provide it the texture of one thing extra out of a catastrophe film than a sci-fi mecha motion movie, accentuating its critiques of the powers at play in its world.

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If big robots usually are not Hathaway’s main curiosity—outdoors of reminding us simply how petrifying big mechanized troopers actually are—its focus, then, is on the quieter moments and particulars of Gundam’s “Universal Century” setting. Taking place in an essential interval of that established timeline, Hathaway’s return to Earth asks him to navigate what humanity’s crucible, and the individuals in command of it, have turn out to be in peacetime since his traumatic experiences in Char’s Counterattack. The satan is in its particulars, contrasting lovely, lavish pictures of tropical locales with the encroaching, technologically superior cityscapes internet hosting the Federation’s elite members—Hathaway strolling amongst them in “disguise” as his father’s son, slightly than as Mafty’s chief. But it twists the thematic knife additional nonetheless, contrasting these decadent cityscapes with the rundown, crowded streets the place the traditional, put-upon individuals of the Federation rise and grind in techniques of capital— scraping by to keep up their statuses as Earth-living residents whereas Federation “Manhunter” squads stalk the streets for dissident exercise, militaristically policing who stays on Earth and who’s forcefully emigrated to the colonies.

This is way from the primary time Gundam has engaged with the concept the “heroes” of its authentic sequence, the Earth Federation, are something however heroic. The authentic present forged a uncertain eye over its intentions loads of occasions, and successor sequence like Zeta Gundam and Gundam Unicorn extra explicitly tackled the evil the Federation was able to. But bringing it again to the forefront in Hathaway, over the potential spectacle of the mechanized motion the franchise is beloved for, is a powerfully promising concept that this primary a part of the trilogy delivers on. It’s a transfer that feels truthful in a world rocked by local weather crises, rising totalitarian and fascist governments, and actual questions over what our evolving society, and the individuals who maintain energy in it, are doing to the planet. That it’s also an adaptation of considered one of Gundam’s most well-known non-anime works—the 1989 trilogy of novels Hathaway’s Flash, penned by Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino—seems like even additional grim commentary. The themes Tomino was writing about over 30 years in the past nonetheless really feel ripped-from-the-headlines as well timed and resonant for as we speak.

What doesn’t fairly work in Hathaway’s favor because it engages with these critiques is how little it does to onboard newcomers to the franchise—who, say, occurred upon a title card of an enormous robotic thanks to a splashy Netflix deal to carry the movie outdoors of Japan after a 12 months of pandemic-induced delays. It’s a peculiar launch state of affairs that might by no means have been predicted and is not fully honest to the movie itself. But whereas Netflix did its finest to supply the choice for audiences to get some preparation for Hathaway’s launch—the streamer acquired rights to the movie compilation trilogy of the unique Mobile Suit Gundam, in addition to Char’s Counterattack, in mid-June—a lot of what makes Hathaway fascinating, each the film and its titular characters, is constructed on prior expertise with the franchise that the movie itself coasts by on.

We’re by no means given the setup as to why it’s fascinating that the Earth Federation has turn out to be so overtly totalitarian, nor are we given the the reason why Hathaway’s ethical crises all through the film are drawn from his previous, fleeting relationship with Quess Paraya in Char’s Counterattack—and the way he begins to imprint that relationship onto Gigi on this film as she pokes and prods at his resolution to turn out to be the top of a violent terrorist group like Mafty. These are issues that, because the viewers is primarily meant to be Gundam followers invested within the Universal Century setting, are simply meant to be framing the movie inherently. But in making that alternative, it serves to undercut moments Hathaway needs to hit hardest with out offering even a bit of context—too busy patting itself on the again for a throwaway flashback shot evoking a well-known scene from Char’s Counterattack, for instance, slightly than making its place within the wider Gundam world extra specific to anybody however its most invested followers.

But for these already invested in that world, Hathaway serves as an enchanting primer for future exploration. Gundam as an entity, because it sprawls out throughout completely different mediums and continuities, has turn out to be more and more reflective of its roots as of late—whether or not by the nostalgic embrace of cellular go well with merchandise, or by re-litigating the setup of its world in diversifications like The Origin and different early-UC tasks like Thunderbolt. To get a movie that honors these roots then, not simply in a trustworthy adaptation of an older, highly-regarded work in Tomino’s novels (which have nonetheless but to be formally translated into English), however in re-visiting critiques of its worldview and worldbuilding that the franchise has performed with from nearly its very starting, is way more fascinating than the idle exploration of acquainted imagery and designs. Hathaway’s evocation of a few of Gundam’s most fascinating themes offers way more to chew on than a splashy mecha struggle with designs we’re conversant in from a long time of anime, manga, and mannequin kits—even when it sacrifices a bit of accessibility to a wider viewers to start participating with it.

It’s clear that Hathaway is extra about setup than it’s payoff. There’s nonetheless way more for Murase and Muto to discover as they dive deeper, not simply into Hathaway’s character, however the world round him, within the remaining two entries, at any time when they might come. But whereas this primary entry within the sequence may not seize the flash that Gundam followers on the lookout for an all-out mecha royale might want, it units the stage to re-examine among the franchise’s most enduring themes in a compelling new gentle.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway is now streaming on Netflix.

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