10 years ago, the director and writer behind anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day took her shot at a Gundam entry with Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans. Between Tatsuyuki Nagai's underrated skill as an action director (A Certain Magical Railgun) and the queen of anime melodrama, Mari Okada (Maquia - When the Promised Flower Blooms), the result was a bittersweet, raw tale of rebellion where child soldiers reached further than their status ordained. A decade has passed since their organization, Tekkadan, met its end at the hands of Gjallahorn, but for its 10th anniversary, Sunrise had one more story to tell: a group of kids inspired by their victory in Season 1 set on their own journey for obtaining freedom. There was a catch, though: this wasn't a new story. It's a story locked inside a mobile game that died a year ago.

If you haven't heard already, this film is essentially a remastered compilation of several video game cutscenes included with the spin-off app Iron-Blooded Orphans G. Retold through the journal entries of one of its heroines, Coronal Xhosa tells the tale of Gundam pilot Wistario Afam and his entry into the Urðr Hunt. Smugglers and mercenaries across the galaxy are given rings and a secretary to guide them to relics from the ancient Calamity War, and whoever reaches each data point gets an audience with the treasure hunt's organizer, Lord N, and a prize of 100 billion. Since his home colony on Venus is a dumping ground for criminals, Wistario uses that money to buy the rights to his home and make it a recognized entity, just as the boys on Mars did with Tekkadan.

If you're familiar with the campaign of Fate/Grand Order or Nikke: Goddess of Victory, that premise and story structure should sound very familiar. You have your base to build, a helpful advisor who gives you a tutorial, and spots on the map you have to tap to either dig for materials or fight other players. All the cutscenes or dialogue segments are built around getting you from one battle to the next, occasionally taking breaks to interact with your crew. So how do they make that work as a movie? The short answer: They don't. While Xhosa's narration at least makes for a coherent recap, it's of an anime season that never existed. Characters come and go minutes after they're introduced, plot points are told rather than shown, and battles amount to nothing more than their opening and finishing moves. Even with what seem like additional clips, the result is a video game story with all the gameplay removed.

This is really a shame, because surprisingly, this story had potential even as a full feature film. The idea of Tekkadan's rise inspiring other pilots across the stars to take charge of their own destiny was a good way to keep the spirit of the original without forcing them into the main story. Focusing on space pirates and archaeologists also allowed them to explore facets of the Iron-Blooded Orphans lore that the original left behind. Since they're mainly exploring former battlegrounds, half the enemies are comparable to rogue AI dragons guarding their treasure. One particular battle with a Sentient Mobile Armor offered a glimpse of what the Calamity War that birthed it was like. It was less a battle of men in metal suits and more like monsters going at each other's throats. Even the way it implemented cameos wasn't that intrusive. The only major player to really get involved is the masked McGillis “Montag” Fareed, who lends a helping hand to Wistario when one of his crew members reveals a major secret that puts everyone at risk.

However, this is where its status as a cancelled video game ultimately cripples the experience. See, the titular Urðr Hunt is not finished in this story: Wistario abandoned it halfway for the sake of his friends (or, in this case, his possible crush). One of the two girls in Wistario's life, a stowaway named Cature, turns out to be a prisoner to destiny in a different way. I won't spoil exactly what her circumstances are in case you want to see for yourself, but I will say that the rest of the story hinges on this relationship being strong enough for Wistario to set aside his dream. But remember when I said they cut out all the gameplay in this video game adaptation? Imagine a visual novel reaching the end route after all the flag-raising events were removed. They just don't have enough on-screen interaction to really sell this relationship. Even the scrapped series-turned-movie Mobile Suit Gundam F91 had more weight put into its emotional space hug than this.

This slapdash approach also affected the action as well. Iron-Blooded Orphans always stood out in Gundam for its heavy emphasis on melee fights. Instead of beam sabers or laser rifles, it favored bashing mechs with metal clubs or tearing them apart limb from limb. So I was excited when it opened with the new Gundam Hajiroboshi slicing an enemy mobile suit's arm with a retractable crab claw. But outside of the final fight with a massive mobile armor, every fight is edited with the expectation that you were supposed to have played the rest in between the cutscenes. The same can be said of Masaru Yokoyama's score, mainly consisting of recycled tracks from the main series.

I think the biggest indicator of this movie's wasted potential was when watching the bonus OVA with Tekkadan right after. Even 10 years later, this crew truly does feel like family. They joke about Orga having his butthole exposed from worn-down pants, but then reward his efforts as leader with the suit we see him wear in Season 2. Mikazuki calls it his new weapon, which inspires him to take his battle-damaged Barbatos in for repairs. The underground match they have at the start has more thought-out choreography than the dozens of battles in the movie. There's even a short before the movie starts (which I'm guessing is theater-exclusive) where Kudelia introduces the war orphans to their first cinema experience.

Moments like that are what this movie is missing, and the sad thing is, it didn't need to. If Sunrise committed to at least reanimating the moments when the player took part in this story, this would actually be a decent side story. It reminded me a lot of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Astray, where people on the outskirts of the larger war stumble onto something bigger than they are. But that's not the story we got: it's waiting in a sequel that will never see the light of day. By the end of this movie, no one has claimed the prize or yet achieved their stated goal. If the real treasure is the friends we made along the way, how come we barely got to know them?