Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
| Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Original Manga | N/A |
| Director/Artist | Yoshiyuki Tomino |
| Format | Anime (TV) |
| Made By | Sunrise |
| Episode Length | 30 Minutes |
| # of Eps/Volumes | 50 |
Contents
Genre
Mecha, Space Opera, Action, Political Drama
Sum it up in a Sentence
The chronological sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam, this series showcased the political struggle between the A.E.U.G. vs. Titans of the EFF vs. Axis (Neo-Zeon).
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. Zeta also features the first and only appearance of popular character Quattro Bajeena in the Gundam universe.
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.
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Other Universal Century series/OVAs:
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.
Zorak
This series is one of those "classics" of mecha. It was created during Tomino's long (self claimed) stage of severe depression. And by god, does it show. It's not an "emo-tears" anime exactly, but there is as usual a degree of angst in many of the characters, and the one thing the show is undeniably not lacking in is a high death count. It has one of the highest on-screen death counts (often times of main characters) of any of the Gundam series (its beaten by V Gundam, I believe however). It's a complex and interesting military drama that traces the effects of the One Year War and the reprecussions it causes, and the inherent corruption present in both the spacenoids and the eartenoids (and thus humanity in general). It's interesting in that it helps set the tone for the final confrontation between Char and Amuro later on, despite the fact that neither are the main character in this series. We do get to see a different aspect of Char in this then we saw in Mobile Suit Gundam, and we get a glimpse of the true feelings and goals of those who honestly follow Zeon Zum Diekum. Kamille is an interesting character with depth to him, and is well suited to be the protagonist of this series. If you like mecha anime, war anime, or Gundam, you might want to give this series a try.
TenementFunster
Zorak types too much. All you need to know about Zeta is that it is the best Gundam series and you should watch the Mobile Suit Gundam compilation movies first (and maybe the 0083 OVA if you are hardcore) to get the most out of your Zeta Experience. Zeta uses characters from the previous series in rewarding, compelling ways and combines them with new characters who are interesting in their own right.
jonjonaug
Zeta Gundam is a fairly great show, but I can't help but feel it could've been better in a few very easy to fix ways. The "Titans plan to destroy Zeta of the week" episodes wear thin quickly while some characters and arcs overstay their welcome just a bit. Some of the villains can get rather hilariously super-villainous at points as well.
Overall though, these complaints are minor. Zeta Gundam is a great anime with a strong central plot, compelling main characters, and great animation for an early 80s TV anime. TenementFunster is right when he says you should watch the MSG movie trilogy first.
Cappy
Zeta Gundam is the best Gundam series I've watched. However, if your main concern is interesting battles then this probably isn't for you, because the fights in this series suck. There are a few characters that I don't feel are justified in their annoying-ness and unfortunately one of them is a main character. Seeing characters show up from Mobile Suit Gundam was nice, so I definitely agree that you should watch the MSG movies before watching this series.
Dumb Opinions, From Idiots
TannhauserGate
I'm here from the other Gundam camp, the "Zeta isn't the best Gundam" one. Zeta is actually full of a lot of holes and forehead-smacking stupidity. Char Aznable from the first Gundam walks around for half the series randomly asking people if they've ever heard of Char Aznable. He does this because he's taken an alias as Four Vagina and everyone around him is too dumb to look through his disguise (seriously, his code name is "Quattro Bajeena"- Four Vagina). Add some really terrible bits for flavor, like the cameo of Katz from Gundam being the most annoying character ever drawn. In fact, many of the characters are intensely unlikable. Kamille spends a good portion of the series whining that his parents gave him a girl's name (Camilla), and he actually uses "Camilla/Kamille is a man's name!" as a battlecry. It just doesn't work for me. Or the horrible Engrish, like a warning sign printed with "DANGAR"? Ugh. You have to look past a lot of flaws to get involved in the story of Zeta, and I just couldn't do it, so I huffed a zillion cocks instead.
Kweh
I guess it was good.
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)
