Gundam Hathaway, Circe
“Netflix Release & Watch Order”
Netflix has confirmed via its official anime trailer drop that “Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe” streams starting August 31, with a title page already live on the platform (Netflix; Netflix Anime YouTube trailer). It’s the second installment in the planned Hathaway’s Flash trilogy, directed by Shukou Murase for Sunrise, and it’s arriving roughly seven months after its Japanese theatrical bow and three-plus months after limited U.S. theatrical screenings. If that timeline sounds like a bootleg trade route from the VHS era, that’s roughly the vibe—theaters, then a long wait, then finally the couch.
Watch Order — And Can You Jump In Cold?
Short answer: you can, but reviewers are already flagging this as a rough entry point. CGMagazine called it “too dense for newcomers,” and Scrmbl noted it’s “primarily aimed at those deep in the historical weeds of the Universal Century.” Hathaway carries baggage from decades of Universal Century storytelling, so here’s the realistic minimum before you start watching:
- Essential: Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988)—this is where Hathaway Noa first shows up as a kid and where Amuro Ray and Char Aznable exit the story. Everything Hathaway does reacts to that ending.
- Essential: Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (2021, Part 1)—it is already streaming on Netflix. It sets up Mafty, Kenneth Sleg, Gigi Andalucia, and Hathaway’s double life.
- Then: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe (2026, Part 2) — it picks up right where Part 1 left off.
Optional but recommended for full weight: the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam, which built the Amuro/Char rivalry that haunts Hathaway’s hallucinations in this film. Skip those, and you’ll still follow the plot mechanics—Mafty vs. the Federation, a conference under threat, and a love triangle wrapped in Newtype mysticism—but the emotional gut-punches will land softer.
Murase returns to direct, working from Yasuyuki Muto’s script, which adapts Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original Hathaway’s Flash novels. Character design duties are split between Pablo Uchida, Naoyuki Onda, and Shigeki Kuhara, building off Haruhiko Mikimoto’s original designs. Meanwhile, mecha work comes from franchise veterans Hajime Katoki and Kimitoshi Yamane. Hiroyuki Sawano, yes, the Attack on Titan guy, handles the score. The returning main cast includes Kensho Ono as Hathaway, Reina Ueda as Gigi, and Junichi Suwabe as Kenneth Sleg.
Double Lives and Doomed Romance
Twelve years after Char’s Rebellion, Hathaway Noa—son of White Base captain Bright Noa—secretly leads Mafty, a resistance cell assassinating corrupt Earth Federation officials. Part 2 picks up his fraying double life as Mafty closes in on an assassination plot at the Adelaide Conference. At the same time, Gigi’s precognitive “Newtype” abilities pull her between Hathaway and the federation officer hunting him. It’s less mecha spectacle and more slow-burn political thriller with a doomed romance bolted on—a workplace grind by way of terrorist cell, if you squint.
Guns N’ Roses, SZA, and Near-Future Noir
This is the part that’ll actually get your attention: the opening theme is Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” and the closing theme is SZA’s “Snooze.” That’s a genuinely strange, era-spanning needle-drop combo for a franchise that usually leans on J-rock. Sawano’s score does the heavy lifting elsewhere, and the animation keeps the first film’s grounded, near-future-noir look rather than chasing flashier modern mecha trends.
Why Should I Care?
The film outgrossed its 2021 predecessor in Japan within a month, clearing 2.24 billion yen against the first film’s 2.23 billion yen total, and pulled a 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes stateside. A solid showing for a niche continuity-heavy sequel in a market drowning in isekai. It also lands amid Netflix doubling down on Gundam broadly—the streamer is separately producing a live-action Gundam film with Sydney Sweeney and Noah Centineo.
For Gen X fans who lived through Char’s Counterattack on grainy VHS dubs, watching Hathaway’s messy, morally compromised legacy finally pay off on a mainstream streamer feels almost surreal. This isn’t a nostalgia victory lap; it’s a dense political drama that assumes you did the reading. Do the homework first; it’s worth it.
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