Mobile Suit Gundam: Chars Counterattack

Plot summary

Set in March UC 0093, the film features the return of main antagonist Char Aznable, who has emerged after five years in hiding to lead the Neo-Zeon once more in the fight for supremacy over the Earth Federation. Still determined to make humankind fully colonize in space, he mobilizes the Neo-Zeon to drop the asteroid 5th Luna on the Federation headquarters in Lhasa, Tibet. Under the guise of surrendering all Neo-Zeon military forces, he plans to drop the Axis asteroid base on Earth as well.

However, the Federation has assigned its own anti-insurgent task force, the Londo Bell, to take him down. Among the Londo Bell's members are One Year War veterans Bright Noa and Amuro Ray, whom Char wants to kill in revenge for the death of Lalah Sune. A major battle around Axis breaks out as the Londo Bell struggle to stop Char before the asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere. A Londo Bell demolitions team blows up Axis from the inside but one half is still on course to strike Earth, In the midst of the battle, Amuro catches Char and tries to push Axis from reentry, with Federation and Neo Zeon mobile suits coming to help. As the group tries to carry out the impossible, Amuro's RX-93 Nu Gundam resonates and creates a psyco-wave around the asteroid, pushing it away from Earth while shoving all the other mobile suits from the area. Both Federation and Neo-Zeon forces look on as Axis veers off from reentry. Both Amuro and Char are presumed dead by their respective factions.

Production and development

Yoshiyuki Tomino adapted Char's Counterattack from the novel Hi-Streamer, and later wrote Beltorchika's Children as an alternate version. Tomino had planned previously to feature Char's return in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, however when he got the green light to do Char's Counterattack, he dropped the planned appearance. Tomino does not recall his plans to bring back Char in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. The novels' differences from the movie include Amuro and Char piloting advanced versions of the ν-Gundam and the Sazabi: the Hi-ν-Gundam and the MSN-04-II Nightingale, Z Gundam character Beltorchika Irma being pregnant with Amuro's child, Hathaway accidentally killing Quess instead of Chan, and the confirmed deaths of Amuro and Char.

Staff

Theme music

Ending:

Release

The film made its American debut on August 20, 2002 on DVD and was later re-released during Sunrise's release of its One Year War properties (specifically Mobile Suit Gundam, 08th MS Team, 0080, and 0083).

Home media

Bandai released a limited-edition DVD of the movie in 2001. The product was a maroon slipcase edition embossed with the gold Neo Zeon logo. The DVD was later reissued as part of the Anime Legends line in 2006. Due to the closure of Bandai Entertainment, the movie has been out of print for sometime. On October 11, 2014 at their 2014 New York Comic-Con panel, Sunrise announced they will be releasing all of the Gundam franchise, including Gundam SEED: Special Edition in North America though distribution from Right Stuf Inc., beginning in Spring 2015.

Game

Bandai produced a Char's Counterattack 3D fighting game for the PlayStation in 1998 as part of the Big Bang Project for Gundam's 20th anniversary. The game featured scenes from the film that were remade with updated animation and CGI. The game also has stages featuring Amuro and Char's classic encounters in the original Mobile Suit Gundam series.

Toys/Models

A line of Gunpla models based on the movie's mobile suits was released, along with a Hobby Japan special. The model line had 1/144 kits of the Jegan, the Geara Doga, the Sazabi, Gyunei Guss and Quess Paraya's Jagd Dogas, and the ν-Gundam (with or without Fin Funnel), a 1/550 α-Azieru, and a 1/100 ν-Gundam. Bandai would re-release them plus the Hi-ν-Gundam and a heavy weapons version of the ν-Gundam, years later as part of the HGUC and Master Grade lines, the latter being featured in Bandai's Gundam Weapons line of mooks (modelling books). Many of them are also available as part of the B-Club resin line. In 2011, a model kit manufacturer in China, MCModel, produced 1/144 scale kits of the ν-Gundam and Hi-ν-Gundam called "Gundooms" that are reportedly much more detailed than the same kits from Bandai based on their origins as retooled versions of resin conversion kits. Another company, Regulation Center, later followed suit with a 1/100 Nightingale kit. Bandai's special museum contained a 1/100 prototype of the Nightingale; the company went public at the 2014 Shizuoka Hobby Show with the announcement of a new RE/100 category of scale models, with the Nightingale as the first release in September 2014.

Veteran mechanical designer Hajime Katoki redesigned the MG version of the Sazabi, resulting in a slightly blockier appearance more suitable for modeling. Due to the substantial size and heft, it is one of the most expensive 1/100th-scale Master Grade kits yet manufactured, trumped only by the enormous Perfect Zeong kit, released in 2004. The ν-Gundam, Hi-ν-Gundam, and Sazabi would be released as part of Katoki's VerKA line of redesigned Gunpla model kits, their most noticeable design cues being splitting panels designed to show off the psycoframe in the Nu Gundam, and the internal frame structure in the Sazabi.

The ν-Gundam and Sazabi were the first offerings in Bandai's "Formania" line of extensively detailed machine busts in September 2010.

Some of the movie's units were also released as action figures, with the RX-93 and the Sazabi produced in various forms, the latest of which being under the Robot Spirits line. Bandai, in particular, produced an online-exclusive RX-93 equipment set featuring a second set of Fin-Funnels and a Fin-Funnel equipment set that includes effect parts to recreate the ν-Gundam's beam pyramid. A version of the ν-Gundam produced for the Taiwanese market has a special psycho-frame effect where parts of the body are molded in crystal green. Bandai released the Hi-ν in early 2014 and is slated to release the unit as part of the Metal Robot Spirits line, a version of regular Robot Spirits figures with diecast metal parts.