Mecha anime in the United States has a long and delightful history dating back well before Gundam came on the scene to redefine everything related to giant robots. “Hathaway”, at first, seems tailor-made for fans of the genre.
A bit of background is needed to properly understand this film. The movie is based on a series of novels written by Gundam supremo Yoshiyuki Tomino from 1989-1990. Unfortunately, it sticks far too close to the source material which is a shame as it’s many of those story elements that drag everything else down.
Not everything is bad. From beginning to end the animation is smooth and characterful. Director Shuko Murase has a real flare for detail developed over his decades in the industry. Here he expertly blends digital animation and CGI in a manner that is tasteful and not distracting.
Thank God the team at Sunrise nailed the visual aspect of things because that is about all the movie has in its favor. Narrative issues plague the script, beginning with just how high the bar of entry is for newcomers. Unfamiliar with the One Year War, the Gyps Conflict, and Char’s Counterattack? You’ll have plenty of homework to do before you start streaming “Hathaway”.
Even with the necessary background information, “Hathaway” struggles to tell a compelling and cohesive story. The movie starts on an elite shuttle ferrying passengers to Earth. On board is a mysterious girl named Gigi Andalucia, Kenneth Sleg; an officer taking up a new commander on earth to hunt down a notorious masked terrorist named ‘Mafty’; and Hathaway Noa, son of Bright Noa from the original MS Gundam, a military veteran, and the masked terrorist Sleg wants to capture.
Those opening scenes practically sizzle with intrigue. But by the end our characters are basically where they were at the beginning: Sleg is just as determined to hunt down Mafty, Noa is determined to continue his acts of violence, and Andalucia is traveling on her own.
Even worse is the lack of character work done to make their motives sensible. There must be an interesting story behind Noa turning against the government his father serves loyally and the army his friends served way back when. Too bad his motivations aren’t really explained.
We are given one scene where he reflects on wanting his comrades killed in “Char’s Counterattack” to not have died in vain. But why then, is Noa turning on the army they served, adopting Char’s spacenoid ideology, and even dressing up like him to deliver speeches? It doesn’t add up.
Whilst we are given some incredible depictions of mobile suits these ultimately lead to a strange case of tonal dissonance. In a battle in Davao, Mobile Suits are depicted as monstrous engines of destruction. The fear civilians show in the face of these metallic kaiju is equal parts tragic and relatable. Noa himself is shocked. But at the end of the movie he doubles down on those acts of violence while optimistic music plays in the background. The Earth Federation he claims is bad is nowhere near as bad as he is.
As intriguing as Noa can be, his character is weighed down by a serious case of Islamophobia. His terrorist moniker is explicitly stated to be Arabic in origin, a clear reference to the real-life term ‘mufti’. Muftis, you see, are usually the highest officially appointed imams in a Muslim country. They are typically highly respected scholars of religion and jurisprudence. Not terrorists.
Worse still is that this man, aping a Muslim name, decides to attack Davao. In the Philippines, Davao was long at the forefront of a war between the government and ethnic Muslim separatists. Such things make the movie feel tasteless.
This is far from the only time Tomino has done this but it isn’t entirely his fault. Sunrise Studios, the owners of the Gundam IP, had about 30 years to recognize what was wrong with those novels.
Gundam is what it is thanks to good storytelling, deep characters, and a desire to innovate. Its why characters like Shiro Amada, Relena Peacecraft, and Anavel Gato continue to thrill viewers today. Instead of channeling the creativity that has kept the franchise relevant, “Hathaway” takes the worst parts of Gundam’s past in the name of cheap nostalgia. Fans and the IP deserved better.
Written by Ismael David Mujahid, Executive Editor
(Featured Images from Key Visual)
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