This movie is the culmination of the 14-year-old rivalry between Char Aznable and Amuro Ray, but it may be difficult to stay focused on this point, seeing as much of this movie is told from the perspective of a character who isn't even as old as the feud itself, Quess Paraya.

Thirteen-year-old Quess is a flighty, mercurial, and precocious teen who attempts to seduce both Char and Amuro. Her position as an obvious viewer avatar, somebody who's as interested in the feud at the center of Char's Counterattack as we are, is almost insulting. As Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino closes the curtains on the most iconic, longest-running rivalry in the Universal Century, this unusual narrative choice throws the movie off-center more than necessary. So the plot may be a little weird, but the Blu-ray's stunning new visuals make this 1988 cult classic worth trying to puzzle out one more time.

Twenty-eight years after its initial theatrical release in 1988, Char's Counterattack is still a visual treat. At the time, the movie was the first Gundam production to incorporate computer graphics into its repertoire, with a 5-second clip of the Sweetwater colony rotating in space. Today, the 2016 Blu-ray release preserves the original aspect ratio (1.85:1 in 1080p) while adding a ton of detail I've never been able to see clearly before. In the scene when Char's dressed like Hugh Hefner in his velour robe, I never noticed that there was a pattern on the easy chair. I can now read the writing on Gundam control screens. I also never noticed the detail of the false eyes on top of Cyber Newtype Gyunei's Jagd Doga. I've watched Char's Counterattack plenty since it's been re-released on DVD multiple times over the years, but there's so much new detail in high definition that it's almost like watching this movie for the first time.

One of the most notable idiosyncrasies of this Blu-ray is the ability to see artifacts clearly meant to be hidden. In several scenes, but starkly visible at 1:30:55, you can see ghostly mobile suits. My guess is that they wanted to reuse a mobile suit animation for a later scene, but needed to remove a background suit for it to fit the storyboard. Sometimes you can also see shadows behind characters, indicating that there are multiple layers of cels over the background of even simple shots. I'm not pointing this out as a negative, but a positive side effect of the Blu-ray release. With this heightened attention to detail, you can really see the process the animators went through to create Char's Counterattack.

Generally, the art and animation have aged well. It's especially breathtaking to see two of the Gundam multiverse's most iconic mobile suits—Char's Sazabi and Amuro's Nu Gundam—clash with one another in high-def. The soundtrack hasn't changed at all, but it is fittingly bombastic for the culmination of a major storyline, with string instruments swelling to an orchestral peak during pivotal moments.

But at center stage stands Quess, who makes the story weaker. She's a Mary Sue, the best Newtype to ever Newtype, talented in an effortless way. She's childish and malleable—looking to make sense out of the confusing adults in her life, she turns to Char instead. I don't really dislike her, but I dislike the way she brings out Char's supervillain side—how he's willing to take advantage of her schoolgirl crush on him to risk her life for his ideals in battle. Char has long used his looks to take advantage of people, but now that he's 33 and she's 13, this makes him not only morally reprehensible, but just plain uncomfortable too. In other words, while Quess's motives may be bad, she at least has the excuse of youth. Other characters who behave badly don't fare so well, Char included.

Teenage Quess attempting to seduce both Amuro and Char acts in parallel to the ghost who hovers powerfully over each of their interactions in this movie: Lalah sune. Fourteen years ago, that teenage Newtype enamored both Amuro and Char, leading to her own death that neither of them has ever gotten over. That bit of Gundam knowledge certainly makes these interactions richer, but now that our protagonists are adults and Quess is a teen (a very young teen at that), the comparison gets lost in translation. Quess doesn't make it easy either. Jerkish qualities clearly run in her family in a way that makes it hard to even feel bad about the Shakespearean fate she and her father share.

Regardless, this all leads up to an extremely tense final battle between Amuro and Char. They fight in their mobile suits, then outside of them (and Amuro's MacGyver-style combat is awesome), and finally, in my favorite kind of Tomino battle: a descent-to-Earth showdown. These are real nail-biters because you're not just fighting against your opponent; you're fighting time and gravity because if you fall too far, your mobile suit will explode. Considering this is “Kill 'em All” Tomino's project, nobody has protective plot armor. This conclusion ends just as fiercely as Amuro and Char's rivalry began in the first place.

Its ending is satisfactorily conclusive, but I wouldn't call it happy. If only Quess had stuck around with Hathaway, longtime character Bright's son and the other youthful perspective in Char's Counterattack. This is classic Tomino—exploring both the adults' machinations and the kids who get caught up in them. Although the way it's told is a little odd, Char's Counterattack is an iconic Tomino original, and the revived visuals make it worth a second watch.