Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア) is a 1988 Japanese anime science fiction film directed and written by Yoshiyuki Tomino. It is set in the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam franchise. Featuring the talents of Shūichi Ikeda, Toru Furuya, Hirotaka Suzuoki, Maria Kawamura, Nozomu Sasaki, Kōichi Yamadera, among others, it focuses on Char Aznable's attempt of genocide on the planet Earth by pushing the asteroid called Axis into a collision with the planet. As a result, Char's rival from the Earth Federation Amuro Ray tries to defeat him in combat and avoid a slaughter in the process.

In addition to being the first original Gundam theatrical release, Char's Counterattack was also the first Gundam production to make use of computer graphics during a five-second shot of the Sweetwater colony rotating in space, being made at Toyo Links. It was based on Tomino's original novel, High-Streamer, but several parts were altered due to issues with Sunrise in regards to the handling of Amuro Ray. Char's Counterattack was released in America on DVD on August 20, 2002, and was broadcast on January 4, 2003, on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block.

Upon release, the film made a gross of ¥1.16 billion in Japan. The film was praised for its production values and the rivalry between the two leads even though some critics found it recycled from the television series. Director Yoshiyuki Tomino also expressed doubts about the film he directed in retrospective. Nevertheless, Tomino wrote another novel known as Beltorchika's Children which focuses more on Amuro's personal life and was adapted into a manga series.

Plot
In UC 0093, Char Aznable has returned to prominence at the head of Neo Zeon and is leading the rebuilt Neo Zeon army in battle against the Earth Federation. He believes that the only way humanity will ever become truly free is if they throw off the chains of gravity and abandon their mother planet to become a New Type of mankind. As the film opens, Char's forces are attempting to drop the asteroid Fifth Luna on Earth to trigger a nuclear winter. A special task force called Londo Bell, which includes One Year War veterans Amuro Ray and Bright Noa, engages Neo Zeon in a battle to prevent the catastrophe. Char and Amuro have been bitter rivals since the One Year War in 0079, where they fought on opposite sides and often clashed with each other. Amuro is piloting the RGZ-91 Refined Gundam Zeta (Re-GZ), which is a mass-production variant of the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam. Char engages him with the MSN-04 Sazabi, which is equipped with a psycho-frame that amplifies Newtype psionic abilities, making it vastly superior to the Re-GZ. Despite Amuro's superior Newtype abilities and piloting skills, the Re-GZ proves to be no match for the Sazabi, and Amuro is forced to withdraw as the asteroid successfully enters Earth's orbit on a collision course with Lhasa, Tibet.

On Earth, Federation Vice Minister Adenauer Paraya and his rebellious teenage daughter Quess are trying to evacuate on the next available shuttle. Bright Noa's wife, Mirai, and their two children are scheduled to board the next evacuation shuttle, but the Prime Minister uses his government position to claim their seats for himself and his daughter. Needing only two of the three seats and realizing that he's potentially condemning the family to death, he allows Mirai to select one of her children to take the third seat. Mirai chooses her son, Hathaway Noa. The shuttle narrowly escapes the crashing asteroid, then rendezvous with the Londo Bell's command ship, the Ra Cailum, commanded by Bright Noa, Hathaway's father. The Ra Cailum is traveling to the Anaheim Electronics factory on the moon to collect Amuro's new mobile suit, the RX-93 ν Gundam (pronounced 'nu gundam'), a custom suit developed specifically for him which features a psycho-frame system similar to the one used by Char on the Sazabi. Amuro's close friend, engineer Chien Agi, has been overseeing the project. She delivers the ν Gundam, but warns Amuro that she doesn't know how Anaheim Electronics acquired the psycho-frame technology or what effect it will have on Amuro. She accompanies the ν Gundam aboard the Ra Cailum so she can fine-tune its performance if necessary. Bright is reunited with his son Hathaway, who has developed a crush on the Vice Minister's daughter, Quess. Adenauer instructs Bright to deliver him to the Londo Bell's headquarters at Londenion for an important meeting. While on board, Quess becomes smitten with Amuro, who senses her Newtype potential, but ignores the spoiled child.

On the Londenion colony, the Vice Minister's mission is revealed to be a secret meeting with Char and other Neo Zeon leaders to sign a formal peace treaty. In exchange for disarming their fleet, the Neo Zeon will be given control of the former mining asteroid, Axis. While relaxing in the colony with Quess and Hathaway, Amuro recognizes Char and attacks him. As they struggle, Amuro gains the upper hand and draws a gun on Char. Quess feeling a strong connection to the charismatic Char, knocks the gun out of Amuro's hand and use it to stop the fight. The two are then rescued by an artificial Newtype named Gyunei Guss, piloting an unarmed Zaku. Quess leaves with Char, much to Hathaway's distress. Sensing her potential, Char begins manipulating Quess to gain her trust. Neo Zeon scientists quickly confirm his suspicions: Quess is a powerful, latent Newtype and a naturally gifted mobile suit pilot. Char then reveals that the treaty with the Federation is merely a ruse to gain control of the massive asteroid and the codes to its nuclear propulsion thrusters and to get the Federation to lower its guard. He knows that the Earth is already at the tipping point, and if an asteroid the size of Axis hits the planet, all life on the surface will finally be extinguished. To ensure that the Earth is rendered useless, he places a stockpile of nuclear missiles on one of his cruisers and anchors it at the front of Axis. He then orders Axis' engines to power up and sets its trajectory for a collision with Earth. As soon as the asteroid starts to move, the Neo Zeon forces ambush the Federation fleet at the supposed disarmament ceremony. Quess Paraya takes part in the ambush, piloting an MSN-03 Jagd Doga, a mass-production model designed for Newtypes. She opens fire on a Federation cruiser, not knowing that her father is aboard. Quess feels him die with her empathic Newtype abilities but does not understand what she's feeling or why. The overwhelming surge of emotion makes her fragile mental state even more unstable until she is forcibly removed from the battle by Gyunei Guss. She breaks away from him, however, and flies off to look for Char.

With the Federation fleet destroyed and the Londo Bell fleet left without reinforcements close enough to help, Bright Noa orders his fleet to depart, but tells his son Hathaway to remain aboard the station where he will be safe. Hathaway disobeys his father, renting an unarmed mobile suit designed for salvaging equipment in space, and uses it to stow away aboard the Ra Cailum. Char's forces outmatch the Londo Bell fleet, but they bravely re-engage the Neo Zeon fleet in a desperate attempt to stop, divert, or destroy Axis. Bright Noa orders his mobile suits to engage the enemy and keep them from interfering as he bombards Axis with waves of missiles, attempting to hide nuclear missiles amongst the conventional warheads. The tactic fails, however, as the Neo Zeon pilots led by Gyunei destroy the oncoming waves of missiles. With his supply of nuclear weapons expended and no other options remaining, Bright Noa orders his remaining mobile suits to enter Axis in an attempt to detonate the asteroid's nuclear reactors and destroy it from within.

Quess locates Char, who is piloting the Sazabi, and ejects from her Jagd Doga without a spacesuit, forcing Char to open his cockpit and pull her inside. She demands to know what his feelings for her are, and Char takes advantage of her unstable emotional state to manipulate her into piloting the prototype NZ-333 α-Azieru mobile armor. A furious battle between Londo Bell and Neo Zeon erupts. Quess descends into violence and madness as she pilots the α-Azieru and destroys several Londo Bell mobile suits. Hathaway steals a RGM-89 Jegan mobile suit and finds her in the middle of the battle. He tries to convince Quess to stop fighting and come back with him, but Quess is too far gone. She turns her weapons on Hathaway, but before she can fire, Chan Agi, piloting a damaged Re-GZ, kills Quess to protect Hathaway from the girl's insane attack. Horrified and enraged at seeing Quess die right before his eyes, Hathaway opens fire on the Re-GZ, killing Chan.

Amuro and Char duel each other in their psycho-frame mobile suits, and Char reveals that he was the one who gave the psycho-frame technology to Anaheim Electronics so it could be added to the ν Gundam. When Amuro demands to know why, Char tells him that he wants them to have a fair fight to settle their grievances once and for all. Amuro and the Ra Cailum penetrate the Neo Zeon defenses and reach Axis, where Amuro notices the anchored Neo Zeon cruiser containing nuclear missiles. Realizing Char's intentions, he opens fire on the cruiser, destroying both it and its nuclear cargo. The front of Axis is wreathed in nuclear fire, but it isn't enough to stop the asteroid. Desperate now, Amuro lands on the surface of Axis and enters the asteroid on foot, looking for the nuclear reactors to sabotage. Char sees the abandoned ν Gundam and leaves the Sazabi to follow Amuro into Axis. The Ra Cailum dispatches unarmed salvage mobile suits to enter the asteroid as well, and the combat engineers successfully plant explosives on the reactor. Char and Amuro try to kill each other until Amuro receives word that the charges have been set and that all personnel need to evacuate Axis. Amuro returns to the ν Gundam, and Char returns to the Sazabi, and they re-engage each other in battle. The charges detonate, and the resulting nuclear explosion tears Axis into two parts. Char realizes that the Londo Bell forces were only partially successful: the back half of Axis will miss Earth, but the front half will still impact the surface, and that will be more than enough to eradicate all life on Earth. Knowing that Londo Bell has come up short and that he has finally won, Char returns his attention to settling the score with his old rival. They air all of their grudges as they fight, focusing in particular upon the tragic death of their beloved Newtype, Lalah Sune, who was killed by Amuro during the One Year War when she sacrificed herself to stop him from killing Char. Amuro, sick of Char's delusional rationalizations and self-serving narrative, defeats his long-time rival in their final duel, overpowering the Sazabi and forcing Char to be ejected from the wreckage. Amuro disables the escape pod's thrusters, then grabs the pod and smashes it into the front of Axis, lodging it into the rock. If the Asteroid is going to hit Earth, then Char will have a front-row seat. Amuro, unwilling to give up, vainly attempts to push Axis out of Earth's orbit using the power of the ν Gundam. His feelings of desperation and his refusal to give up hope, amplified by the psycho-frame technology, reach the hearts of all of the remaining pilots, who respond by joining him in the attempt to divert Axis. Newly arrived Federation reinforcements join Londo Bell and Neo Zeon pilots, but their efforts are in vain as one-by-one the inferior mobile suits are burned up in the atmosphere until only the ν Gundam remains. However, the collective will of all of humanity is focused and amplified through the ν Gundam's psycho-frame, and that energy is enough to pull both halves of Axis away from Earth. As Amuro and Char argue over the latter's use of Quess as a machine for his own ends, Char declares to Amuro that Lalah Sune was a "woman who could have been a mother to him" as the overflowing psycho-energy engulfs both rivals and the v Gundam before vanishing into space. In the aftermath, Hathaway and the people of Earth watch the resulting aurora.

Production and development
After the production of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the movie was planned in response to fan desire for a conclusion to the rivalry between Amuro Ray and Char Aznable. The film was originally planned to be released in January 1988.

The movie was directed and written by Yoshiyuki Tomino. The first draft of the script was over two hours long and featured Beltorchika Irma, Amuro's partner from Zeta Gundam, now married to him. Concerns were raised over whether it was appropriate for a robot anime to have a married main character. In subsequent drafts, Beltorchika was removed and her role was filled by two new characters, Chan Agi and Quess Paraya. The character Mineva Lao Zabi, who had appeared in Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ, was also omitted as her presence would have made the story overly complicated. The original draft of the story was adapted by Tomino into a novelization in 1988 entitled Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack - Beltorchika's Children (機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア―ベルトーチカ・チルドレン). Notably, this novelization featured a new revision of the v Gundam design later dubbed the Hi-v Gundam (read "Hi-Nu" Gundam), and replaced Char's Sazabi with a new Mobile Suit named the Nightingale. The novelization itself lead to a trilogy of novels by Tomino entitled Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash released between 1989 and 1990.

Tomino began storyboarding in April, one month behind schedule, and the final cut was completed on September 6.

Animation
CG animation was used to depict the Space Colony Side 1's Londenion and Side 5's Sweetwater., due to the structures' intricate detail and rotation. CG designer Hideki Nakano spent three months on the one-and-a-half minute scene to make sure that the immenses size of the colony would be properly conveyed in theaters.

Original Mobile Suit Gundam character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko decided not to participate in the project, and the job was instead given to Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ designer Hiroyuki Kitazume. During the design process, he didn't have enough time to talk with Director Tomino, so it was decided that Director Tomino would select rough sketches of characters drawn by Kitazume. Tomino didn't give any specific instructions about the design, but said, "I want you to avoid becoming a manga in order to draw a human drama.", Kitazume tried to create a design that could show human facial expressions, but even during the design, Director Tomino said that the length of the neck of the character as a whole should be designed with Western actors in mind, not Japanese, "The jaw line is below the shoulders."

Mechanical Design's design work includes Yutaka Izubuchi, Yoshinori Sayama, Masahisa Suzuki, and Kazunobu Nakazawa. The design of the mobile suit was competed in a competition similar to Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ. In this work, gimmicks such as transformation and combination were not added to the MS, and the size itself was increased The flow of heavy armament that continued until the previous work has stopped, and simple humanoid aircraft are the center. Masahisa Suzuki and others submitted numerous rough designs for the main characters. ν Gundam, Re-GZ, Jegan, and other Earth Federation Forces mobile suits. Yutaka Izubuchi designed the Neo Zeon mobile suits. Director Tomino had two requests regarding the main character's ν Gundam: "I want to put a cape on the Gundam" and "I don't want the Gundam itself to transform or combine."

Initially, it was decided that Mamoru Nagano would be appointed as the main mechanical designer for this work. Director Tomino said, "It's not a TV series, so I'll entrust all the designs to you." He was in charge of almost all designs in the play, such as enemy and ally MS and ships, cockpits, MS control systems, and Psycommu helmets. It was considered under the condition that the mecha that appeared in the previous work (First Gundam, Z, ZZ) would not be used at all, but the design line proposed in response to Director Tomino's request. The Gundam was also progressing with a design line that overturned the so-called Gundam common sense was not liked by the client, and he himself clashed with the staff around him, so he had to drop out halfway through the previous work Gundam ZZ. For that reason, all the designs were redone at the stage of trial drawing to see if it would be reflected in the actual drawing, and although the concept was the same, Nagano's design itself did not appear in the work at all. In later years, Nagano said that he had quit the Gundam series three times in a row, including this one, saying, "There are so many things I don't want to remember."

The design of the mobile suit was quickly put into a competition format, and producer Shigeru Watanabe of Bandai Visual and Kenji Uchida of Sunrise (animation production brand Sunrise) called out to me. In addition to the aforementioned designers, Hidetoshi Omori, Hideaki Anno, Makoto Kobayashi and many other people participated. The designers drew many roughs without any particular restrictions, and as a result, it was decided that Yutaka Izubuchi would lead the design Most mechanics other than the MS were outsourced to Gainax. Gainax took over as a company, and the actual design was handled by Hideaki Anno for Neo Zeon and Shoichi Masuo for the Federation Forces., Cleanup was done by Seimi Tanaka. In addition, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto also participated in the design of the normal suit Anno also participated in the νGundam design competition, and submitted a Gundam that was almost identical to the cleanup manuscript of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the animation director of the first Gundam. proposed to reduce the amount of lines in MS. The work was almost completed around June 1987, and Hideaki Anno later interviewed and initially proceeded with the design to return to the taste of the first Gundam, but director Tomino decided to return to "Zeta Gundam" and "Gundam ZZ". He felt that the image of the design was evolving through the process, and revealed that he had a hard time resolving the gap himself. There were a number of requests, such as "to clearly show where the building is," and "to design with people living in mind at all times." Describes his impression of participating as a designer.

Yutaka Izubuchi, who joined from the middle of the production, had little time to work on this work, and although he could not do much adventure related to design, since the time of Aura Battler Dunbine, he has been a substitute hitter when he was in trouble. After prefaced that there was also a habit of being appointed, "We were able to provide material that felt different from the TV series," "We suppressed the expression method of the TV series and expressed it with an orthodox taste," and "The movements of the mobile suits were recreated in the days of the first Gundam. Aiming for a simple and beautiful design that can be endured.”. In addition, when we adopted the elements of special effects heroes in some designs, Director Tomino liked it, and it was reflected in the normal suits of Char Aznable and Quess Paraya.

Yoshinori Sayama, who was only scheduled to participate in the mobile suit design cleanup, ended up being in charge of some mecha designs as well, but there was a rough sketch drawn by Yutaka Izubuchi, so that was the base. I was able to respond to the order for the supplementary mechanism. And after revealing that "the biggest harvest was being able to work with Mr. Izubuchi," he said that he learned the tricks of the design work and was a great reference. On the other hand, unlike the TV series, there are no restrictions, and at first I was confused by the design for the theater where there was NG in the Gundam-like design, and I had to design it by assimilating the world view of Gundam myself. On the other hand, Director Tomino demanded a versatile design that matches the place of use and demands. However, it was also a work that made me think about "what is the way to draw in terms of setting?" and made me realize that it is necessary to think about settings from the standpoint of animators who work on site.

Regarding the brightness of the stage, director Tomino said,`"The story is dark, so make it brighter." The setting used in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, "The computer is making outer space look brighter," is also used in this work, and only the outer space projected from the cockpit is brightly projected. As for the space colony, avoiding future-oriented designs, it was designed as an artificial city with an atmosphere that would not cause frustration even if people lived a normal life. Specifically, Sweet Water is based on the old streets of New York that Ikeda visited for location scouting. Regarding this colony, Director Tomino also gave several instructions to make the mirror part white, but Ikeda insisted that "it looks like a mirror because it reflects the sun's light." Since Director Tomino accepted this, the colony's mirror in this work was set to reflect like a mirror. Also, at that time, it was customary for the art team to design the interior of the mecha, and Ikeda drew up the interior design of the Federation and Neo Zeon battleships. Regarding the battle bridge, Director Tomino told Ikeda that the actual battleship bridge is divided into navigation and combat, and it was set in this work.

Ikeda was asked by Director Tomino to create a profound feeling for this work, but he was concerned that setting the outer space displayed on the monitor bright would create a light impression, so he worked hard to create a contradictory setting of "bright and profound". Made up. Regarding the layout balance due to the difference in the frame size peculiar to the theatrical version (this work is Vista size), since the frame of the TV version has a lot of space, adjustments were made so that it would not be noisy.

Character designer
In response to Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's non-participation, Hiroyuki Kitazume, who also serves as character designer, and Hidetoshi Omori worked together as animation directors at first, but due to their lack of experience, the progress of the work quickly stalled, and production began. For four months from the start, not even one cut was raised, so new Nobuyoshi Inano, Mikio Odagawa, Takatsuna Senba, Shinichiro Minami, Yamada Kisaraka joined, and it became a situation where seven animation directors jointly named. Director Yoshiyuki Tomino, citing the fact that there was no animation director comparable to Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, explained that If the first four months were going well, the degree of perfection would have been higher. He said that he was guilty of not being able to see through the situation, and said, "I'm sorry for putting pressure on young people." 2400 shots were cut at the storyboard stage, but were reduced to 2100 shots at the time of completion.

Hiroyuki Kitazume, who was one of the animation directors, was in charge of animation supervision and layout checking for the key animation team he was in charge of, as well as retakes for the parts ordered from overseas subcontractors, but he himself did not draw a single key animation and was in charge of the work. Most of the time was spent on layout checks. During a meeting with Director Tomino, at the beginning there was only one layout for each scene, and it was pointed out that " can't understand the flow of the play with this," As a result of repeating a series of processes of submitting a rough drawing and sending it back with an order from Director Tomino, it took a lot of time, and Kitazume decided to do all the layout checks by himself.

Hidetoshi Omori, who was also one of the animation directors, was initially involved in the production as mechanical animation director, but was actually in charge of animation checks for natural phenomena such as weapon effects and vernier injection. Director Tomino's strong intentions are reflected in everything, Regarding the beam saber, it is not the conventional when the particles collide with each other due to interference, the particle with the weaker output generates a spherical effect. Specifically, the particles of the beam saber are made to shine with transmitted light, and a complicated expression method is used to blow a brush over it. Also, regarding the depiction of the rifle's beam, instead of light like a laser, I tried to depict fine particles with mass that pierce the target. In order to prevent this from happening, I made notes on drawing explosions and made them known to animators. In order to give an even greater sense of speed, the muzzle casts a shadow instead of a reflection when the beam is fired As for the funnel, Omori is in charge of all cuts, "It's the element that gives the most sense of speed and makes the scene interesting." As a monthly new type, P45, in order to create a sense of dynamism, in addition to depictions that move faster than mobile suit, α-Azieru's large funnel and ν Gundam's fin funnels and other vernier mechanisms have different movements and rotations.

In this work, Tomino directed the production of Oomoto, assisted by Toshifumi Kawase and Shinji Takamatsu. Specifically, Tomino presents a rough outline of the play as a storyboard, and after the director checks the original drawing that was drawn based on that, Kawase, the assistant director, makes fine color adjustments and adjusts the length of the dialogue. Takamatsu checked the shooting for each cut that combined the image and the background. Kawase, who was working on a theatrical work for the first time, was perplexed that the number of cels would take more than he expected. It didn't work at all, and it was Takamatsu's second theatrical work following Dirty Pair, but due to the adverse effects of getting used to the pace of the TV series, the picture with the movie version. Struggling with differences in production, animators also tended to draw close-up key animations with the feeling of the TV version, and there were many retakes of the pull size.

Music
Shigeaki Saegusa, who has pitched three consecutive titles since "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam", said, "It's difficult to create an easy-to-understand melody in the world of Gundam, where right and wrong are not clearly defined." While stating the difficulty, in this work, I dared to try to make an easy-to-understand melody that I had avoided until now, and Char Aznable was a defender of Richard Wagner in the late romantic school, Ludwig II. The music was produced with the image of Char's Counterattack.

Ending:
 * "Beyond the Time ~Möbius no sora wo koete~" (Beyond the Time ～メビウスの宇宙を越えて～)
 * Lyrics: Mitsuko Komuro
 * Composition Arrangement: Tetsuya Komuro
 * Artist: TM Network (Tetsuya Komuro, Takashi Utsunomiya and Naoto Kine)

The recording was done during the tour "Kiss Japan TM Network Tour '87-'88" that was going on at the time, and was completed in September 1987, immediately after the tour ended. was released to. Komuro created a backtrack from the vague theme of "the dream of all mankind = something with a cosmic expanse", the lyricist Mitsuko Komuro watched the anime version of Gundam video given to him by a person involved, saying, "Humans repeat sins" and "Freedom and In the end, humans fight for "someone they personally love" rather than the just cause of "peace".

The single peaked at No. 4 on Oricon's singles chart. It was nominated for the Gold Award at the 30th Japan Record Awards. In 2018, the song was ranked No. 4 on NHK's.

Casting
For the voice actors who will be in charge of the new characters in this work, the director Yoshiyuki Tomino actually listened to the audition tapes of more than 80 people and selected them. Together, for three days from January 22 to 24, 1988, recording was held at the 101AR studio of Tokyo Television Center in Hamamatsucho, Nihonbashi., but in reality, due to budget and guarantees, 3 days restraint is the limit, and voice actors perform similar performances.

Yoshiyuki Tomino said, "The range of voice actors has narrowed, and I realized that we have to create a world where we can work with actors with different characteristics." Also, for the voice actors on the day of dubbing, there was strong acting guidance for Maria Kawamura, who played the role of Quess Palaya, and Nozomu Sasaki, who played the role of Hathaway Noah. Toru Furuya, who played the role of Amuro Ray, Shuichi Ikeda, who played the role of Char Aznable, and Hirotaka Suzuoki, who played the role of Bright Noah.

Shuichi Ikeda, who plays Char Aznable, approached the recording with the feeling that this work was the culmination of the nine years of the Gundam series, and interpreted that Char died as the end of the story. Also, in a later interview, Ikeda said about his own play at the time of recording, "There was a momentum to finish everything because it was the last time.

Toru Furuya, who plays the role of Amuro Ray, is close to his own age (35 years old) at the time of recording (29 years old), so he tried to act like an adult with a sense of responsibility. Since Amuro had not yet appeared, it was unclear how his mental state in Zeta Gundam led to his resurrection in this work. It is said that until the recording of the scene involving Agi (the scene where Chan holds her knees in front of Amuro's room and waits while floating), he was dragging the youthful part of "Zeta Gundam". Furuya talks about Beltorchika Irma, Amuro's partner who ended up not appearing, and although she was a necessary existence for Amuro in the days of "Zeta Gundam", she was not an ideal partner and instead that Chan Agi is Amuro's ideal partner. In a later interview, he said that he interpreted it as a close existence, and that such feelings subconsciously appeared in the play.

Mitsuki Yayoi, who plays the role of Chan Agi, was troubled by the onomatopoeic expressions peculiar to voice actors in addition to being her second theatrical animation voice role following "Royal Space Force Honneamise no Tsubasa", and had to do retakes it many times. Tōru Furuya, who played Amuro, went to support and helped with her recordings.

Release
At the Japanese box office, the film sold 1.3million tickets and grossed ¥1.16 billion.

The film made its American debut on August 20, 2002, on DVD and was later re-released during Sunrise's release of its One Year War properties (specifically Mobile Suit Gundam, 08th MS Team, 0080, and 0083).

As part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the Gundam franchise, Char's Counterattack played in select theaters in the U.S. on December 5, 2019.

Home media
Bandai released a DVD of the film on August 20, 2002. The product was a maroon slipcase edition embossed with the gold Neo Zeon logo. The DVD was later reissued as part of the Anime Legends line in 2006. Due to the closure of Bandai Entertainment, the film has been out of print for sometime. On October 11, 2014, at their 2014 New York Comic Con panel, Sunrise announced they will be releasing all of the Gundam franchise, including Gundam SEED: Special Edition in North America though distribution from Right Stuf Inc., beginning in Spring 2015.

By 2008, the film had sold 300,000 units on DVD.

Critical response
Allen Divers from Anime News Network found Amuro and Char's final duel the most important part from Char's Counterattack, the lack of resolution of their rivalry made the film unfulfilling. In reviewing the same film, THEM Anime Reviews' Carlo Ross saw that while Amuro was overshadowed by Char, he is still a "earnest, well-meaning, and heroic character in his own right." On the other hand, J. Doyle Wallis criticized their rivalry in the film considering it a "rehash" of the events of the television series. In a later review, Anime News Network panned the handling of Quess being nearly an audience surrogate as most of her screetime is less entertaining than the one involving the protagonists and makes Char far more unlikable in the process for using a child soldier. Anime UK News did not find the film entertaining but instead sad for ending Amuro and Char's long stories despite being one of the most famous franchises ever with Bright's sub-plot coming across as unimportant in the process. FandomPost found Char's villain traits out-of-character as a result of how heroic he became in Zeta Gundam and, like other writers, criticized the handling of Quess.

Animerica enjoyed the continuous rivalry of the two leads, as they are quite iconic within the anime fandom despite having abandoned such rivalry in favor of a friendship during Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. They also praised the production for giving Yutaka Izubuchi the "honor" of creating Amuro's RX-93 ν Gundam as well as the outsourcing to the Gainax studio for providing several new types of mechas and ships. By 2017, Anime News Network found that the animation of the film was highly appealing, especially with the handling of its Blu-ray release even if there are sometimes marks that show the difficulties the animators went through with creating the film. The Fandom Post found the animation as the film's biggest strength due to the focus on the key animation.

Paste listed the movie as the 31st best anime film of all time, labeling it as the best Gundam movie. The writer praised the animation and fight sequences, most notably the ones from Amuro and Char but lamented viewers would be disappointed by the ending as the long rivalry between the two leads feel anticlimactic despite its famous history.

While initially describing Amuro as a relatable character to general view of otaku, Journal of Anime and Manga Studies said the one from Char's Counterattack instead comes across as a war hero while still being popular. In Char's Counterattack, it is not until Amuro re engineers the RX-93 with the psycho frame system that he is able to battle Char on equal footing. This handling of Gundams was compared to that of Formula 1 drivers and their own race cars, a connection that still holds for the film. The macro-action of Char's Counterattack briefly pauses whenever pilots are forced to dock mid-battle in order to attend to repairs and refueling. Such specific attention to the details of the mobile suits in the movie simultaneously be re-created in the model kits that would be released after the film's debut. As one of the final installments from the Universal Century timeline created by Tomino, the impact of the narrative would result in several anime writers creating new characters that would attempt to recreate Amuro's legacy alongside fans.

In an interview immediately after the film was released, director Yoshiyuki Tomino answered, "I don't really know" about the fact that Amuro's partner, Beltorchika, didn't appear, and whether the settlement between Amuro and Char was good or bad, and summarized the screening time within 2 hours. I didn't hide that it was the limit at the end of the story. In later years, when interviewed during the production of ∀ Gundam, he replied that he "has no recollection of making it as a movie". In addition, he was disgusted by the sight of Sunrise's management and investors such as Bandai looking at this work as content that could be sold in half a year. Even the words of Bandai president [Makoto Yamashina], who expressed his impressions after the preview, made him feel "very lonely."

Game
Bandai produced a Char's Counterattack 3D fighting game for the PlayStation in 1998 as part of the Big Bang Project for Gundam's 20th anniversary. The game featured scenes from the film that were remade with updated animation and CGI. The game also has stages featuring Amuro and Char's classic encounters in the original Mobile Suit Gundam series.

Toys/Models
A line of Gunpla models based on the film's mobile suits was released, along with a Hobby Japan special. The model line had 1/144 kits of the Re-GZ, the Jegan, the Geara Doga, the Sazabi, Gyunei Guss and Quess Paraya's Jagd Dogas, and the ν Gundam (with and without Fin Funnel), a 1/550 α-Azieru, and a 1/100 ν Gundam. Bandai would re-release them plus the Hi-ν Gundam and a heavy weapons version of the ν Gundam, years later as part of the HGUC and Master Grade lines, the latter being featured in Bandai's Gundam Weapons line of mooks. Many of them are also available as part of the B-Club resin line. In 2011, a model kit manufacturer in China, MCModel, produced 1/144 scale kits of the ν Gundam and Hi-ν Gundam called "Gundooms" that are reportedly much more detailed than the same kits from Bandai based on their origins as retooled versions of resin conversion kits. Another company, Regulation Center, later followed suit with a 1/100 Nightingale kit. Bandai's special museum contained a 1/100 prototype of the Nightingale; the company went public at the 2014 Shizuoka Hobby Show with the announcement of a new RE/100 category of scale models, with the Nightingale as the first release in September 2014.

Veteran mechanical designer Hajime Katoki redesigned the MG version of the Sazabi, resulting in a slightly blockier appearance more suitable for modeling. Due to the substantial size and heft, it is one of the most expensive 1/100th-scale Master Grade kits yet manufactured, trumped only by the enormous Perfect Zeong kit, released in 2004. The ν Gundam, Hi-ν Gundam, and Sazabi would be released as part of Katoki's Ver. Ka line of redesigned Gunpla model kits, their most noticeable design cues being splitting panels designed to show off the psycoframe in the v Gundam, and the internal frame structure in the Sazabi.

The ν Gundam and Sazabi were the first offerings in Bandai's "Formania" line of extensively detailed machine busts in September 2010.

Some of the film's units were also released as action figures, with the RX-93 and the Sazabi produced in various forms, the latest of which being under the Robot Spirits line. Bandai, in particular, produced an online-exclusive RX-93 equipment set featuring a second set of Fin-Funnels and a Fin-Funnel equipment set that includes effect parts to recreate the ν-Gundam's beam pyramid. A version of the ν-Gundam produced for the Taiwanese market has a special psycho-frame effect where parts of the body are molded in crystal green. Bandai released the Hi-ν in early 2014 and is slated to release the unit as part of the Metal Robot Spirits line, a version of regular Robot Spirits figures using diecast metal parts.

Manga
Two manga adaptations of the film were released, one by Toshiya Murakami in April and May 1988, and another by Kōichi Tokita from October 1998 to February 1999. A manga adaptation of Beltorchika's Children, illustrated by Sabishi Uroaki and Takayuki Yanase was published in Gundam Ace from June 2014 to March 2018 issues and compiled into seven volumes.

Denpa licensed the Beltorchika's Children manga in North America.