Media I've Consumed: Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counterattack (First Watch)

I did try to do a recap but it lead to my trying to give a rundown of the Universal Century up to that point which was just going to really bloat this so I'm not even going to try. CCA is assumes the viewer has at least seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam and would be very difficult to watch as your first introduction to Gundam. It's like jumping into The Lord of the Rings on Return of the King, you can kinda figure out what's happening but it's a lesser experience.

But on that note CCA also seems to barely acknowledge any of the shows beyond the original. Other than Amuro and Bright mentioning that "Char fought with us against the Earth Federation" as a reference to Zeta, it's almost entirely just a sequel to the original. Also, for as much as this movie cares Double Zeta may as well have not happened. Most of our characters are either from the original or entirely new to this movie. I'm counting Hathaway as a new character because I don't even remember him speaking in Zeta. I have mixed feelings on this because I really like Double Zeta, but also that show and this movie were in development at the same time, so I get it.

The movie is drop dead gorgeous though. Just absolute peak traditional animation the mobile suit fights are a spectacle but you can always tell what's going on. Characters are amazingly animated and it never feels like they're just standing still talking, they're always doing something.

Char is by far the most interesting character in this movie. He's changed a lot in the four years since he disappeared at the end of Zeta. He went from a heroic figure trying to help the next generation of newtypes and desperate to avoid being in any position of power. To recreating Neo Zeon and using everyone around him as tools to use as a means to an end. I think Char as Quattro Bajeena in Zeta is Char as who he wants to be. Char does not want to have to bear the weight of the legacy of his father, he doesn't want to lead he wants to be a mobile suit pilots he wants to help the next generation of Newtypes so they don't end up like him.

I think the end of the Gryps War led him to believe that he cannot be who he wants to be and it broke him. I think back to the scene near the end of Zeta where Char is trying to console Kamille by telling him to not let it get to him and Kamille responds "It doesn't actually bother me. If it did I wouldn't be an effective Newtype would I?" and it cuts to Char with a pained expression on his face.

I'm of the opinion that the whole Second Neo Zeon War is Char Aznable committing the world's most deranged suicide. I think whether consciously or unconsciously Char never planned to survive the Axis Drop. He says he gave Amuro the psycommu technology so that when he beat him it wouldn't be because Amuro had a worse mobile suit. I think in actuality he did it because he wanted Amuro to kill him. Amuro was the only person who could understand what Char was going through especially when it comes to Lalah. I think for Char he wanted to die, but the only person he wanted to, no not even that. The only person he would allow to kill him was Amuro Ray. The one pilot who not only truly outclassed him but understood the loss they both experienced during the One Year War.

I had a dream last night, about this movie. That isn't something that usually happens to me, I rarely have dreams and when I do I struggle to remember them soon after I wake up but I still remember this dream. I dreamed that after the Axis Drop was stopped Char and Amuro disappeared together and lived with each other in a quiet part of the solar system. I think this reinforces to me that sometimes it's good to take a break and sit on things instead of rushing headlong into the next thing. I think if I had watched this movie straight after Double Zeta, I wouldn't have liked it very much. I wouldn't have had time to think more about Char as a character and his actions in Zeta. I certainly wouldn't have been rewatching the original MSG with my cousin and his friends (Blog on that soon), and I certainly wouldn't have had that dream. Thinking about Amuro telling Char that he has the patience to wait for humanity to improve I'm reminded of a quote from a Rhystic Studies video "The world is old, it rewards those who take time to grow".