Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway’s Flash Returns to Theaters in Large-Scale Format

Anime production studio Sunrise has announced in commemoration of the Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway’s Flash home video release on November 26, the film will be screened to eighty-four large-format theaters nationwide in Japan such as “Dolby Cinema”, “4DX” and “MX4D” for one day only on Thursday, December 2.

As an admission bonus, attendees will receive the “Mafty Halloween” A5 illustration sheet designed by character animation director Iwao Teraoka, which became a hot topic on social media

First in a trilogy of anime films helmed by director Shukou Murase, Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway’s Flash or Hathaway is the official sequel to the 1988 Mobile Suit Gundam Char’s Counterattack movie. The project was announced in November 2018 to celebrate the Gundam 40th anniversary, adapting the Yoshiyuki Tomino-penned novel series of the same name. The novels were originally released from 1989 to 1990, as a follow-up to Tomino’s Char’s Counterattack: Beltorchika’s Children novel, published by Kadokawa’s Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint.

Opening to Japanese theaters June 11 the Hathaway film has earned record box office sales with 2.2 billion yen in revenue, with over 1.07 million tickets sold, becoming the second highest grossing Gundam film. Hathaway sits behind the 1982 Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space as the highest earning film in the Gundam franchise, sitting at 2.3 billion yen in box office revenue.

Streaming giant Netflix is exclusively releasing the Hathaway film internationally. The film is dubbed with eight language options and thirty subtitled language options, available to 190 countries worldwide.

As of June 2021, producer Naohiro Ogata confirmed the second installment was in production, tentatively titled, Sun of Bright (also read as “Son”). Producer Ogata addressed there would be changes from the novel’s 2nd volume as Yoshiyuki Tomino previously expressed his reservations to Ogata about adapting it. The story is said expand on rival Gundam pilot Lane Aim’s role in the film series and show more of Gigi Andalucia’s perspective.