Mobile Suit SD Gundam's Counterattack Theatrical Short

This is certainly a real oddity. I originally came across this anime while looking at a Japanese website called "Special Vehicle Section 2 - Maintenance's Computer Room". On the page, the author talked about a movie called "Mobile Suit SD Gundam's Counterattack". This is a short film which the first part (called "The Storm-Calling School Festival") is a parody of the "Universal Century" Gundam series such as "Zeta Gundam" and "Char's Counterattack" movie, done in the 'Super-Deformed' style as "Minipato" was. There were a number of short movies and direct to video episodes made with SD Gundam characters. Most of these were released in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

Interestingly the second part of the film (titled "The Tale of the SD Warring States: The Chapter of the Violent Final Sky Castle"), which is part of the "SD Sengokuden" SD Gundam franchise, and is set in the fictional country of Ark, where SD Gundams and SD Zakus and Rick Doms face off each other in a bizarre ancient Japan-like world with samurai, ninjas and shoguns. In this part, SD Ingrams (led by an SD Alphonse and Ota's Unit 2 Ingram) make cameo appearances, first guarding a group of captured Mobile Suits, then participating in an all out battle, with a group of them carrying a ladder in order to storm a castle. At the conclusion of the battle, two of them can be seen briefly as the dust settles. There are also a couple of very quick minor cameos from the SD Ingrams, but I was unable to capture any decent screencaps off my laserdisc copy of the film. Most of the time they're hidden in the background, making it extremely hard to get any clear images of them. The inclusion of the Ingrams in this film is pretty unusual as the "SD Gundam" series usually focuses solely on Gundam robots. Though the reason for the inclusion is pretty simple; this movie played on the same bill with "Patlabor the movie" in Japanese cinemas.

Below is a small selection of images of scenes where the SD Ingrams appear.

This movie is not available in English anywhere commercially, but it has been fansubbed. Because I only like to support official releases, I won't be providing any links to download this movie. Hopefully Bandai Entertainment in the US will release this film. They have previously stated they will be releasing every Gundam series, but It is unknown if the SD Gundam specials will be released as well. Judging by the current state of the US anime industry and the failure of some Gundam series, an English language release of this series is highly unlikely.

This movie was released on VHS (rental only), Laserdisc and in a DVD box set in Japan by Bandai Visual/Emotion. These releases are in Japanese language only and are not dubbed in English nor do they contain English subtitles. These releases are only available in Japan, and therefore will only work on NTSC compatible VHS, Laserdisc and DVD players (if you don't live in Japan, the US or Canada, check your VCR, LD or DVD player's instruction manual to see if it will play them). Please see the Japanese Specials and Oddities Releases Video List for a complete listing of all releases, formats and product specifications for this movie.

<< AXIA Commercial | Anime Main Page | Patlabor Music Clips >>