Gundam turns Char's Counterattack into a race to Earth
A new Gundam short puts Sazabi and the ν Gundam in a race to Earth, and it only shows on the wall behind the life-size statue in Fukuoka.
The life-size ν Gundam standing outside LaLaport Fukuoka has a new story to tell, and it is the one where Char and Amuro finally settle things with a race. Mobile Suit Gundam: A Friend from the Lights is a new wall-projection animation for the statue, and Sunrise begins screening it on Saturday 19 September.
What the story does with Char's Counterattack
The official site's synopsis is Char's Counterattack cut down to a fable. Sazabi is trying to drop Axis on Earth, the ν Gundam is trying to stop it, and neither will give ground. Into that deadlock steps a Psycho-Frame entity called Tēro, who suggests settling the whole thing with a race to Earth instead. The statue's operators describe the result as a special animation arranged so that children and adults can enjoy it together, which is a polite way of saying the most famous downer ending in the franchise has been given a friendlier face.
Who made it
The director is Mankyu, whose credits include Sumikko Gurashi: Tobidasu Ehon to Himitsu no Ko and PUI PUI Molcar the Movie: MOLMAX. Original character design is by Kanahei, the illustrator behind the Kanahei's Small Animals series, and the rounded, wide-eyed versions of the ν Gundam and Sazabi in the promotional art are unmistakably hers. Between the two of them, this is a production assembled by people who make gentle things for small audiences, pointed at a 24.8-metre statue.
When you can actually see it
The new film runs as the first of the statue's three nightly programmes, at 19:00 and 20:30, behind the 1/1-scale RX-93ff ν Gundam in the outdoor Forest Park space at Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Fukuoka. It is followed by Gundam: ALC Encounter at 19:30 and RX-93ff ν GUNDAM from SIDE-F later in the evening. The daytime slots, hourly from 10:00, are the statue's movement programme and carry no video at all.
Our opinion
There is something quietly funny about taking the film where Amuro and Char wipe each other out and turning it into an all-ages short in which they settle it over a race, and the instinct is a good one. The Fukuoka statue has always been the friendliest Gundam in Japan - it exists to be photographed by families on a shopping trip - so handing its nightly show to the studio that made Molcar fits the building better than another grim reprisal of the movie would. The catch is availability. A story this charming that only exists on one wall in Kyushu, with no stream, no disc and no overseas screening announced, is a lovely thing most Gundam fans will never see, and Sunrise has form for leaving its statue films in Fukuoka.