520https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/fit600x600/cms/news.2/135533/016.jpg Gundam movies are hitormiss and from my experience hearing people talk about them and from quickly looking a the average scores of some of them theyre generally pretty miss in the audiences eyes. A large component of making Gundam as memorable as it is are its strong likable characters and their development throughout the shows they appear in. Movies due to their shorter runtimes cannot achieve the same level of characterization as shows with 50 episodes the plot and characters seem either rushed or barebones in comparison. Gundam NT or Gundam Narrative however seemed aware of this and it would appear that the story as the title good name for a movie stupid name for a Gundam suggests would place a focus on...well narrative. Narratives story would apparently span the known universal century thus far following the Miracle Children a trio of apparent Newtypes who foresaw and warned a town about the colony drop in Australia in UC 0079. In the present day two of the miracle children Michele Luio and Jona Basta work with the organization Luio and Co. of which Michele is the current leader in order to apprehend the recently reappeared Phenex Gundam. According to Michele the company wishes to use the Gundam in order to try and unlock the powers of immortality thus finally addressing the newtype spirits that have appeared throughout Gundam while Jona Basta is only interested in reuniting with his friend and third Miracle Child Rita Bernal. 420https://nerdbot.com/wpcontent/uploads/2019/01/GundamNT1.jpeg So with this in mind how is Narrative Gundam? Does it break the curse of Gundam movies? It...good. I enjoyed it but it was nothing phenomenal. I think it did well enough given the circumstances but perhaps youre inclined to take my opinion with a grain of salt given that I liked Chars Counterattack. I dont see this movie as anything spectacular but its not awful either. Its just good. The animation is beautiful but this is to be expected with a movie budget. The suits are beautiful and slick in their movements and both characters and mobile suits alike are never offmodel. The battles arent too grand in scale but theyre still an entertaining spectacle so if mecha action or simply the mecha themselves are what you came for Narrative wont leave you hanging. The only gripe I have in the animation/art department is that there are brief flashback scenes of events from from Zeta and Chars Counterattack which use the original animation from those works. Given the huge budget Im unsure what was stopping Sunrise from simply reanimating them. As is these parts come across as jarring. The music is also topnotch. The technoinspired music fits in with the mecha action though the bombastic score similar to what was heard in Unicorn returns as well with returning letimotifs to boot. 520https://i.yt.com/vi/ivH0QCKVrtQ/maxresdefault.jpg As for the story its okay. I appreciated seeing snippets of the trios lives throughout the UC. I also enjoyed seeing how Luio and Co. reacted to the Psyco Gundams rampage through Neo Hong Kong in Zeta Gundam. It was a way to see the events of the shows Ive experienced from a new perspective granted it helps that Zeta is one of my favorite anime period. I wish the anime did a better job of blending these two aspects however. We do see how events effect the kids directly but Id like to see more of it. And we only really see three or so flashbacks of the three kids together we just see more and more of the flashbacks each time. I would prefer it if instead of their story being built by showing more of the same scenes we see more scenes of them growing up spanning more events in Gundam than simply the first two shows. However this brings us back to the problem of movies their relatively short run time. Im sure a similar idea was tossed around during the script writing phase but it had to be tossed out since moreso than a show a movie is a precarious balancing act. And unfortunately Narratives main villain Zoltan Akkanen plummets from the rope. If him being a failed Char Clone isnt bad enough for it being a bit of retread from the previous UC antagonist his backstory isnt given the same amount of care as the protagonists. We mainly are told snippets of his backstory instead of shown it and as a result he comes off as uncompelling. His motivations are murky at best. He wants to kill people because...hes insane because...hes a cyber newtype. Its really a damn shame because the story would be elevated if his backstory was shown in the same manner as the protagonists since Id be a lot more sympathetic towards him. Not to mention his role as a lab rat parallels nicely with the The Miracle Childrens stories but without this being delved into its such a lost opportunity. Theres of course newtype shenanigans which quite frankly Im tired of. Its getting more and more ridiculous and the ridiculous being used in an interesting way the implications of newtype souls being explored is ultimately brushed off. Not helping is I just find the evolution of humanity by going to space somewhat alienating as a theme. At this point given the continued poor characterization of old types i.e. normal humans as well as the fact that early every Gundam protagonist is a newtype Im getting kind of tired of the whole thing. 520https://i0.wp.com/news.qooapp.com/en/wpcontent/uploads/sites/3/2018/04/18042304591994.jpg For what its worth however while the way the story is presented isnt perfect it was still quite powerful. This was one of the saddest Gundam entries Ive seen and seeing how dismal the characters lives have been through the years really contributes to this. The ending is bittersweet and it says something that something only an hour and a half long could be this moving. Overall while NT leaves something to be desired it was effective enough in action mecha design the Phenex and Silver Bullet Suppressor are so awesome and story that I cant be too mad at it. This is a decentenough sequel to my first Gundam. Thanks to Narrative Im excited to see Sunrises UC NexT 0100 Project because its high time late UC material gets some more love. 7.4/10 C 520https://media.comicbook.com/2019/02/gundamnarrative11595941280x0.jpeg