To celebrate the success of the Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway’s Flash film, earlier today Gundam producer Naohiro Ogata began a “Q & A” on Twitter using the official Hathaway’s Flash account to field questions from fans about the movie. The topics ranged from Maria Kawamura, design choices, cut trailer footage, clarifying scenes, to adding auxiliary mecha.
One fan in particular @zakuzaku0083 asked the producer, “Will there be Gigi-chan’s ecchi ecchi scenes in your next installment?”. “Ecchi ecchi” refers to lewd, erotic or soft core pornographic content. Ogata enthusiastically answered “There will be! Look forward to it!”.
Reina Ueda portrays the alluring, yet perceptive and mysterious Gigi Andalucia in Hathaway’s Flash. Shown to be free-spirited, she has a large financial backing and is the object of many men’s interest.
The Producer finished the “Q & A” session by answering @GundamOtakuman asking “When do you plan to release the second film in the trilogy? I’m looking forward to it.”, Ogata responded, “Thank you very much. Part 2 is now in production, so please be patient. Here’s Director Murase at a mechanical meeting for the second part. With his permission.” and humorously posted the director wearing the Hauzen Flight 356 pumpkin-head hijacker mask from the film.
After three COVID-19 related delays, Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway’s Flash released June 11, 2021 and enjoyed an 190 million yen opening day, marking a 337% increase from Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative’s debut in 2018. The momentum continued Saturday and Sunday earning an additional 330,656,900 yen, totaling 523,943,800 yen in box office revenue with 1,537,939 yen per screen and 259,074 attendees, ranking first in the Japanese weekend box office against fierce competition like Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Timeand Warner Bros. Pictures’s Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning.
With a great start, the staff behind Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway Flash confidently projects the film will surpass Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space as the highest grossing in the Gundam franchise, exceeding 2.3 billion yen.
Hathaway’s Flash in its first week sold a total of 53,674 Blu-ray copies at 215 theaters, including 34,222 copies for the limited edition and 19,452 copies for the regular edition. The Blu-ray sales have far surpassed the 6,772 copies of Mobile Suit Gundam The ORIGIN: VI Rise of the Red Comet in 2018 and the 19,998 copies of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn episode 7 Over the Rainbow in 2014.
Last Thursday June 10, 2021, streaming giant Netflix announced they were exclusively releasing the Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway film internationally July 1, 2021, during their “Geeked Week” event. The official Gundam portal website Gundam Info confirmed the film will have eight dubbed language options and thirty subtitled language options, releasing to 190 countries worldwide.
First in a trilogy of anime films helmed by 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.
Story
The year is U.C. 0105. Twelve years have passed since the end of the second Neo Zeon War (Char’s Rebellion). Even after “the Axis Shock,” which seemed to indicate the future of humanity and the Universal Century, the world is still in a chaotic situation where intermittent military conflicts continue to break out. The Earth Federation government is more corrupt than ever, and its leadership has not only accelerated Earth’s pollution, but also implemented an inhuman “Man Hunting” policy in which civilians are forcibly exiled to outer space.
The anti-Federation government organization “Mafty,” led by someone called “Mafty Navue Erin,” has taken a stand against the corruption of the Earth Sphere. Mafty carries out fierce acts of terrorism, assassinating high officials of the Federation government one after another, but it gains a certain level of support from the populace who are growing more opposed to the Federation government.
The person who calls himself “Mafty” and leads this organization is Hathaway Noa, the son of Bright Noa, an officer of the Earth Federation Forces who once participated in the One Year War. Hathaway himself joined the forces trying to stop Char’s Rebellion. With firsthand knowledge of the ideals and ideologies of Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, he has become a warrior following in their footsteps, and plans to clear a path forward through armed resistance. His destiny, however, is drastically altered as he encounters the Federation Forces officer Kenneth Sleg and a mysterious young beauty named Gigi Andalucia.
Cast
- Kensho Ono as Hathaway Noa
- Junichi Suwabe as Kenneth Sleg
- Reina Ueda as Gigi Andalucia
- Soma Saito as Lane Aim
- Toru Furuya as Amuro Ray
- Maria Kawamura as Quess Paraya
- Nozomu Sasaki as Gass H. Huguest
- Kenjiro Tsuda as Gawman Nobile
- Yuki Ishikawa as Emeralda Zubin
- Fukushi Ochiai as Raymond Cain
- Shunsuke Takeuchi as Iram Masam
- Misato Matsuoka as Mihessia Hence
- Chiharu Sawashiro as Kenji Mitsuda
- Atsumi Tanezaki as Mace Flower
- Koichi Yamadera as Hundley Yeoksan
Ergo Proxy and Genocidal Organ’s Shukou Murase is directing the film project, with scripts by Yasuyuki Mutou. Pablo Uchida, Shigeki Kuhara, and Naoyuki Onda serve as the character designers for the films. Hiroyuki Sawano returns from Mobile Suit Gundam entries Unicorn and Narrative as music composer, with rock-band [Alexandros] performing its theme song “Senkou”. The films’ mechanical design team consists of Hajime Katoki, Kimitoshi Yamane, Nobuhiko Genba, and Seiichi Nakatani.
I’m a Fan!!! I build gunpla kits and collect Jollibee Funko. I was so psyched to see the Jollibee food chain in the movie 🤣🤣 A mesh of my two fave things!
Unlike CCA where I wished they didn’t depart that much from Belochtika`s Child, this one I actually wish they do. The original Hathaway’s Flash novel ending is a bit… depressing.