Image via Official Gundam website
© 創通・サンライズ
Bandai Namco Filmworks announced on Tuesday that it will screen Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe (Kidō Senshi Gundam: Senkō no Hathaway – Circe no Majo), the second film of the Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (Kidō Senshi Gundam: Senkō no Hathaway) anime project, in U.S. theaters on May 15.
The film has earned a cumulative total of 2,303,090,620 yen (about US$14.61 million), as of March 1. The new box office total makes the second Gundam Hathaway film the #4 Gundam film at the Japanese box office, after 2024’s Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM with 5,301,101,120 yen (about US$34 million at the time, including Special Edition screenings), 2025’s Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-, and 1982’s Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space with 2.3 billion yen (about US$14.88 million in current conversion).
The film opened in Japan on January 30 and ranked at #1 after its first weekend. The film sold 511,500 tickets and earned 849,068,760 yen (about US$5.43 million) in its first three days. It was delayed from a planned 2025 release.
Bandai Namco Filmworks describes the second film’s story:
In this latest installment, the film continues to follow Hathaway as he struggles between his unresolved feelings for Gigi and his mission aligned with MAFTY, Kenneth preparing for the suppression of MAFTY, and Gigi herself, whose presence will alter the course of both men’s destinies in an intense space opera of drama, combat, and emotional complexity. The film arrives in theaters across Japan this winter and the United States at a date to be confirmed.
The main cast and most of the staff returned from the first film, but Yuichi Kuboki joined Takako Suzuki as a color key artist. Yoshinori Sayama (Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, Mobile Suit Gundam UC) is credited for display designs after contributing to the first film. Yoshihisa Ōyama is the new film’s compositing director of photography, and Manabu Kamitōno directed the visual effects.
American R&B artist SZA’s 2022 song “Snooze” serves as the opening theme song for the film. SennaRin will perform the insert song “ENDROLL” with Yōhei Kawakami of Alexandros.
The film project is a trilogy, and the second part had a working title of Kidō Senshi Gundam: Senkō no Hathaway: San of Bright. The film’s producer Ogata elaborated that the Japanese katakana characters “San” (サン) can be read as “sun” or “son.” (The film’s main character Hathaway Noa is the son of the character Bright Noa.) Ogata stated the second part would have some differences from Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original novel series.
The first film opened in Japan in June 2021, after previously being delayed three times. The movie was originally slated to open in Japan in July 2020, but was delayed due to COVID-19. The film was delayed in April 2021 from May 7 to May 21, and was then delayed again due to the extended state of emergency declared in Japan.
The first Hathaway film sold 259,074 tickets for 523,943,800 yen (about US$4.77 million) in its first three days at the box office. It ranked at #3 (in terms of tickets sold) in its opening weekend. It eventually became the first Gundam film since 1988’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack to top the 1 billion yen mark. The film has earned a cumulative total of 2,209,628,200 yen (about US$19.57 million) in the Japanese box office as of October 10, 2021. (The Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- anime film has since surpassed its total.)
Netflix U.S. began exclusively streaming the first film in July 2021.
The film has a four-episode re-cut television broadcast version on Nippon TV’s AnichU programming block, which premiered on January 5.
Source: Press release
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
