Gundam: G no Reconguista Movie IV - Gekitou ni Sakebu Ai

In the first part of the movie, I was really enjoying all the characters and watching them do various things like jogging and stuff like that. There were all these little details that brought them to life, like the shower scene, them floating in space, cooking scene and that one side character dozing off during work, it all added a layer of realism and immersion. Also, it was great to see Venus Globe again, of course.

The fight scenes? The were absolutely fire. I rewatched Bell and Luin's fight scene at the end like five times, both of the characters just went nuts and I loved ... how the animation could portray their raw emotions.

And let’s not forget Luin and Many hugging at the end. It seriously gave me Kamille and Fa vibes from Zeta Gundam. Beautiful stuff.

And the cringe continues. Just like the last movie we once again see our protagonist crying over the fact he fell 'in love' with his sister.

And just like before, we still have a really underdeveloped supporting cast, with too many factions and characters to keep even trying and care about them as a viewer. I was hoping the G-IT Laboratory and Towasanga characters would get development this time around, but that was wishful thinking. We still know very little and do not care about half of the cast, and they keep introducing more characters even at this late point in the series.

The stupid fight ... by the Ocean Ring is also unchanged. All parties are required to avoid gunfire and using weapons near its exterior, as it could endanger hundreds of thousands of lives. Despite this, a character does and causes a hole in the colony which could wipe out all the inhabitants. He then decides he did a bad thing and sacrifices himself to fix the hole, the hole that HE MADE, he is the one who put everyone in danger in the first place. Who is this man? And who are his companions? I have no idea because they get 0 development or backstory.

However, it is not all doom and gloom, the latter half of this movie is entirely original. A big change from the series which gives us a much more cohesive and interesting battle than what was going on at this point in the anime series. The action itself still isn't anything special and is plagued by the camera-shake effect but it is still the largest-scale battle in the series and slightly memorable.

Unfortunately, it ends abruptly as the G-self is given a new weapon that just Thanos snaps everything it touches and disintegrates them with his new weapon called 'photon torpedoes.' So just like usual, the battle had no stakes because the protagonist's mobile suit was too overpowered.

That being said, this moment gives us the best scene in the series. We watch Bellri our 'hero' just wipe from existence an entire force by himself and he gets to see all the remains of the mobile suits and hear the echoes of all the people he has killed and have a breakdown. This is the only part of Reconguista that had emotional weight to it and it sucks that we didn't get more moments like this.

We also get a new and improved fight between Bellri and 'Captain Mask.' The beam saber usage is visually appealing and this is by far the best fight in Reconguista as a whole. We also get slightly more time dedicated to Manny, but both herself and her love interest are still lacking in development.

The last third of this film is new and different and for the better. This is the only film so far to be a major improvement on the original. That being said, it is still Reconguista and not on par with any other UC Gundam series outside of the other famous low points (IGLOO, Victory, ZZ etc).