Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow has always been my least favorite of the compilation movie trilogy, and rewatching it after seeing the TV series has only reinforced that position. The fatal flaw lies in the runtime; it is the shortest of the three films despite having the most material to cover, adapting a whopping 15 episodes (a number achieved by cutting 2 episodes entirely). As such, the issues with pacing, skimming through character arcs, and omitting character moments from Gundam I are amplified. The biggest victim of the film's compression is the character of Ryu. In the TV series, the audience and cast grow to feel an attachment to the character as a reliable and likable member of the White Base. His death halfway into the show hits hard due to the time the audience has come to know him, and the grief over his death among the cast is felt for several episodes after. In the compilations, he gets little screentime before his death and the impact of his death is lost, especially since it gets shifted to after another prominent character's death. Just about every character arc and plot line from the source material suffers from having things cut out, but this one in particular bears mentioning.
There are a few changes that work in the film's favor, however. The earlier establishment of Newtypes shifts the dynamics of the war, with the growing possibility of Newtypes being real and among the White Base weighing heavily on the Federation. This compilation movie also replaces the toy company-mandated G-Fighter and its maligned combined forms with the Core Booster, which feels more in line with the aesthetics and tone of Gundam than its TV counterpart. As with the previous compilation, the reanimated scenes give the film a visual upgrade. The film also contributes the eponymous insert song* "Soldiers of Sorrow", a rocking anthem of the toll war takes on people that is synonymous with the franchise for good reason.
At its core, Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow is still the original Gundam 0079 with the basic narrative, characters, and action that made it an enduring classic. But this compilation film feels heavily compromised, and compared to the previous compilation film, there's fewer improvements to compensate for the cuts to the original.
Notes:
*Or rather, an insert song in the original mix. In 2000, the compilations received a surround sound mix including rerecorded dialogue, altered sound effects, and most noticeably, moved the song "Soldiers of Sorrow" to the end credits instead of playing during the climax. This 2000 mix was used for the American DVD and Blu-Ray releases, while the streaming versions licensed by Netflix and certain home video releases outside North America (such as the recent 4K release by All the Anime in the UK) use the original mix.
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