Difference between revisions of "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam"

Revision as of 07:10, 19 January 2007

Genre

Mecha, Space Opera, Action, Political Drama

Summary

Part of the Universal Century of Gundam. AEUG VS Titans VS Axis.

Description

Zeta Gundam (often called Z-Gundam) takes place years after the end of the One-Year War (covered in the original MSGundam.) In the years following the war, the Earth Federation assembled a new division of the military called the Titans, whose job is to squelch any resistance to the Federation. However, the Titans' tactics are as bad and sometimes even worse than the Zeon, and even Federation heroes like Bright Noa (who captained the White Base battleship in MSGundam) are bullied around by the Titans soldiers, who outrank the typical brown-shirted Feddie.

Eventually the Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG) was founded in Von Braun (on the moon) to stop the Titans' brutality.

Movie

Recently a trilogy of movies have been released with many re-animated sequences. Like other gundam movie compilations, it compresses a 50 episode show into three films, but unlike other compilations it also rewrites the conclusion of the show in a way that destroys continuity in Universal Century. Caps-filled arguments have broken out online as to which ending is accurate, but neither side has been able to make a big enough font to convince everyone that they're right.

But all critics can agree that it's nicer to pretend that the lousy Gundam-ZZ never happened.

If You Liked This, You Might Like...

• Other Universal Century series/OVAs
• Macross

Personal Opinions

Craptacular!

No, you don't have to have watched every episode of MS Gundam to like this show. If you know who Amuro and Char are before you start watching, it would certainly help.

The number of grudges going on at any particular time during Zeta Gundam is what makes it more tremendous than a lot of robot war shows. The Earth Federation seems well-suited to the role of playing the villain organization for once, and the politics are all over the place, too. Instead of the usual Gundam storyline (two sides fighting each other until a third wildcard faction enters the fray, splits one side and determines the other side as victor) there's so much treachery and double-crossing that the war compelling. The characters are just developed enough to make you hope they come home alive (or burn in hell) and the technology is a critical evolution in Universal Century, introducing transforming Mobile Suits and, more importantly, the psycommu system that would become critical later on.

Links

http://www.gundamofficial.com/worlds/uc/zeta/index.html - Official Site
http://mahq.net/animation/gundam/zeta/zgtoc.htm - MAHQ's episode recaps (SPOILERS)