What is XP?Get rewarded for being a good fan.Every review, rating, list and vote earns XP. Stack it up to climb 100 levels across Lifehaki.Start earning
In Universal Century 0097, one year following the historic Laplace Incident, the secret Universal Century Charter has done little to establish interplanetary peace. Fearing the reality-warping psychic energies demonstrated by full psycho-frame machines, the Earth Federation and Neo Zeon secretly mothballed their Unicorn Gundam units. However, the golden RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 03 Phenex, which vanished during experimental tests two years earlier, reappears near Earth. Earth Federation pilot Jona Basta is deployed aboard the Narrative Gundam in Operation Phoenix Hunt, seeking to capture the golden machine and reunite with the consciousness of his lost childhood companion Rita Bernal.
⚠ Background — may contain spoilers
Sunrise animated this gripping ninety-minute science-fiction mecha feature film, released in Japanese theaters by Shochiku in November 2018. Directed by Toshikazu Yoshizawa and written by acclaimed novelist Harutoshi Fukui, the project adapted Fukui's novel *Phoenix Hunting*, serving as an official canon sequel to *Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn*. Featuring mechanical designs by Hajime Katoki and a thunderous orchestral soundtrack composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, the film bridged Universal Century history into *Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway*. The movie earned enthusiastic acclaim from Gundam enthusiasts for its spectacular space battles and poignant Newtype metaphysics.
This Universal Century timeline film works well as a complement to Gundam Unicorn, but struggles to stand out as its own story. Kim Morrissy has the details in our full review.
