Char's Counterattack was released in America on DVD on August 20, 2002, and was broadcast on January 4, 2003, on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block.

A special task force called Londo Bell, which includes One Year War veterans Amuro Ray and Bright Noa, engages Neo Zeon in a battle to prevent the catastrophe.

Bright Noa's wife, Mirai, and their two children are scheduled to board the next evacuation shuttle, but the Prime Minister uses his government position to claim their seats for himself and his daughter.

On the Londenion colony, the Vice Minister's mission is revealed to be a secret meeting with Char and other Neo Zeon leaders to sign a formal peace treaty.

Neo Zeon scientists quickly confirm his suspicions: Quess is a powerful, latent Newtype and a naturally gifted mobile suit pilot.

Hathaway disobeys his father, renting an unarmed mobile suit designed for salvaging equipment in space, and uses it to stow away aboard the Ra Cailum.

She demands to know what his feelings for her are, and Char takes advantage of her unstable emotional state to manipulate her into piloting the prototype NZ-333 α-Azieru mobile armor.

The Ra Cailum dispatches unarmed salvage mobile suits to enter the asteroid as well, and the combat engineers successfully plant explosives on the reactor.

His feelings of desperation and his refusal to give up hope, amplified by the psycho-frame technology, reach the hearts of all of the remaining pilots, who respond by joining him in the attempt to divert Axis.

Newly arrived Federation reinforcements join Londo Bell and Neo Zeon pilots, but their efforts are in vain as one-by-one the inferior mobile suits are burned up in the atmosphere until only the ν Gundam remains.

After the production of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the movie was planned in response to fan desire for a conclusion to the rivalry between Amuro Ray and Char Aznable.

[4] The original draft of the story was adapted by Tomino into a novelization in 1988 entitled Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack - Beltorchika's Children (機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア―ベルトーチカ・チルドレン, Kidō Senshi Gandamu: Gyakushū no Sha Berutoruchika Chirudoren).

[8] CG designer Hideki Nakano spent three months on the one-and-a-half minute scene to make sure that the immense size of the colony would be properly conveyed in theaters.

[21] It was considered under the condition that the mecha that appeared in the previous work (First Gundam, Z, ZZ) would not be used at all, but the design line proposed in response to Director Tomino's request.

Gainax took over as a company, and the actual design was handled by Hideaki Anno for Neo Zeon and Shoichi Masuo for the Federation Forces.,[27] Cleanup was done by Seimi Tanaka.

[31] In addition, when we adopted the elements of special effects heroes in some designs, Director Tomino liked it, and it was reflected in the normal suits of Char Aznable and Quess Paraya.

For four months from the start, not even one cut was raised, so new Nobuyoshi Inano, Mikio Odagawa, Takatsuna Senba [jp], Shinichiro Minami, Yamada Kisaraka joined, and it became a situation where seven animation directors jointly named.

[42][43] Specifically, the particles of the beam saber are made to shine with transmitted light, and a complicated expression method is used to blow a brush over it.

While stating the difficulty, in this work, I dared to try to make an easy-to-understand melody that I had avoided until now, and Char Aznable was a defender of Richard Wagner in the late romantic school, Ludwig II.

[56][57] For the voice actors who will be in charge of the new characters in this work, the director Yoshiyuki Tomino actually listened to the audition tapes of more than 80 people and selected them.

[67] The film made its American debut on August 20, 2002, on DVD and was later re-released during Sunrise's release of its One Year War properties (specifically Mobile Suit Gundam, 08th MS Team, 0080, and 0083).

[73] In a later review, Anime News Network panned the handling of Quess being nearly an audience surrogate as most of her screetime is less entertaining than the one involving the protagonists and makes Char far more unlikable in the process for using a child soldier.

[74] Anime UK News did not find the film entertaining but instead sad for ending Amuro and Char's long stories despite being one of the most famous franchises ever with Bright's sub-plot coming across as unimportant in the process.

[75] FandomPost found Char's villain traits out-of-character as a result of how heroic he became in Zeta Gundam and, like other writers, criticized the handling of Quess.

They also praised the production for giving Yutaka Izubuchi the "honor" of creating Amuro's RX-93 ν Gundam as well as the outsourcing to the Gainax studio for providing several new types of mechas and ships.

The writer praised the animation and fight sequences, most notably the ones from Amuro and Char but lamented viewers would be disappointed by the ending as the long rivalry between the two leads feel anticlimactic despite its famous history.

[78] While initially describing Amuro as a relatable character to general view of otaku, Journal of Anime and Manga Studies said the one from Char's Counterattack instead comes across as a war hero while still being popular.

"[81] Bandai produced a Char's Counterattack 3D fighting game for the PlayStation in 1998 as part of the Big Bang Project for Gundam's 20th anniversary.

[83] Veteran mechanical designer Hajime Katoki redesigned the MG version of the Sazabi, resulting in a slightly blockier appearance more suitable for modeling.

A manga adaptation of Beltorchika's Children, illustrated by Sabishi Uroaki and Takayuki Yanase was published in Gundam Ace from June 2014 to March 2018 issues and compiled into seven volumes.