My opinion on this is law.
I both love it and hate it.
There are some really strange things in here, just in terms of coherence and pacing, something feels off. Lots of new characters that dont really go anywhere, and some questionable cameos from obscure returning characters that somehow got priority over much more beloved legacy characters.
Feels more like a sequel to the original tv series while ignoring Zeta and ZZ, but still makes more sense if you watch those. It's a culmination of years of story, while also kind of being a narrow payoff, for only a handful of characters. Idk, its hard to explain, but it's a really important piece of the UC timeline while almost feeling seperate from a lot of it at times.
There are some irritations that I had with the movie the first few times i saw it, but multiple watch throughs really smooths those things out for the most part. Certain characters act in ways that don't really make sense in isolation with what information the movie gives you, so there's some external speculation or conjecture required i feel to really make CCA fit nicely between ZZ and Unicorn.
Ultimately any gripes i have with the movie are washed away by the main event and climax of the film, and the banger credits song that plays. The animation is excellent and looks mighty crisp on the Blu Ray, and its cool to watch 16:9 Gundam for the first time. Its hype as shit, and has some great MS designs. IMO one of the greatest conflicts/battles in Anime, and if Gundam were mainstream, one of the most iconic. (For western audiences I mean, its already iconic in the mother land)
I firmly believe you love it, hate it, or do both at the same time.
