Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

Zeta Gundam (Zeta) is considered by many to be superior to the original, Mobile Suit Gundam (MSG) as well as being Tomino’s masterpiece. I decided to watch Zeta right after being disappointed by MSG. In particular, I was interested to see if Zeta would be as dark and realistic as many fans say. Like my previous MSG review I will judge Zeta by today’s narrative standards as well as ignoring art and sound in the overall grade. First off let me talk about the technical aspects. Animation wise it is definitely one of the better animated series of the 1980’s. Iwas pleasantly surprised by the quality for a mid 80’s anime. Music used is more universal than that of MSG as they used many orchestra pieces, thus giving it an ‘era-less’ feel. However, the music is way too over done and in your face. Yes, we know this is supposed to be a sad scene, you don’t have to rub it in my face. With better animation, there should be some nice fast paced mecha action right? Well, they weren’t, many of the battles were very deliberate and slow. This confuses me to no end as to how the fight scenes were as slow and boring as MSG which aired 6 years before. As for the story, Zeta suffers from the same problems as MSG. The episodes in Zeta are extremely standalone, build up, climax, and resolution all happen in one episode. So don’t expect cliffhangers and expect extremely disjointed episodes. Even in the 2nd to last episode there wasn’t any cliffhanger. The only thing keeping me going was the will to finish. In addition, I disliked how the new antagonists, the Titians, were depicted as too “black” or evil. Unlike, in MSG both sides are given screen time and both sides were extremely sympatric. Now on to the characters, this is where Zeta loses most of its points. Kamille is what happens with you take all the bad parts of Amuro and amplify it several times over. If you thought that Shin from Gundam SEED Destiny was bad, then be glad you haven’t met Kamille. Kamille does whatever he wants with no concern for the greater good of the ship and people on the ship. Sure he’s a teenager, but someone that’s compromised the crew and ship so many times should never be in the cockpit of a Gundam, no matter how good of a pilot he may be. Not only is it him but, just about everyone seems to throw temper tantrums (except for Char and Amuro). The worst one would have to Katz, I swear I have never screamed at my monitor so much. In addition, the number of friends/lovers on opposing sides was way too high and becomes too hard to accept. Like with the whinny brats they over did it in this respects too. Zeta is filled with too much angst and not enough story or development to support it all. A real person has flaws, wants and desires, that is what makes us human. Zeta overdoes it in this regards by making them too selfish and flawed thus, makes the characters unrealistic and unlikable. I was literally screaming in joy near the end of the series when certain characters started to get killed off. However, I’ll have to give it to Zeta for not reverting to Char and Amuro as main characters as Gundam SEED Destiny did. My last complaint, concerns the ending….what the hell was that!? I really can’t say much else without spoiling but it left me quite confused and dumfounded. I though they were going to continue the story in Gundam ZZ however, I heard it was very light in tone and inferior to Zeta Gundam. Zeta Gundam suffers from the same problem as MSG in terms of episode continuity and pacing. The build up, climax and resolution all happen in one episode. It does feature some of the best animation of the 1980’s and very universal music albeit too overt. The characters in Zeta are filled with too much angst and there isn’t enough story or development to support it all. What makes it worst is that the characters are illogical and painful to watch.

Even though this is a direct sequel to the first Gundam series, it primarily relies on a new cast of characters while other major characters like Amuro are now secondary and has a very small but significant appearance as well as Kai Shiden and Hayato Kobayashi. Despite this, little to no previous experience of the first Gundam series isn’t required to really follow the story though it is highly recommended to mostly understand Char or Quattro or whatever you want to call him. This series has a reputation amongst Gundam fans as being dark and gritty, and I can’t deny that. But I believe thatwhatever is presented should not be found offensive since there is meaning to what happens in this series and helps progress it, but I don’t think that this quality alone should define the series. Camille in comparison to Amuro in the first series is more idealistic and wants to fight because he hates the Titans and somewhat out of spite of his home life, while with Amuro, he just felt forced into the situation. And I think this series was what also helped make Char more appealing to the hardcore Gundam fan base because of the use of his character and I think his role really reflects what people think of him in real life as well. The Titans, the main antagonists are despicable and truly people you can hate. In a lot of animes, there are time you can sympathize and relate to their main villains, while in this anime, you really can’t for the most part though there are some notable exemptions like Four Murasame. Of course being a 1986 release, the quality of the animation won’t really be that appealing in a modern sense. Rather than pointing out the obvious, there are really little to no flaws with the design and execution of the battles. Granted the color schemes of some of the robots are very flash in a 1980s sense, but I felt with the recent release of the trilogy, it shows that the quality of the design is still timeless like how recent game releases based on the first Gundam still demonstrates this quality in relation to that series. The costumes aren’t as spandex looking like in the first one and are more loose and realistic to military code, and the frames of the majority of the new mobile suits presented are sleek, retro, articulate, and tight. The designs of the mobile suits also perfectly reflect the nature of the battles being fast paced and agile which is very true with Char’s Hyaku-Shiki, a mobile suit that really compliments his piloting skills. My only exposure to the dub to this day despite owning the DVDs is playing the English version of Gundam vs Zeta Gundam for the PlayStation 2. The dub was intolerable and none of the actors from the first season reprise their roles who I thought were good. That’s all I have to say the dub. The Japanese track as most anime elitists and fans would naturally of course say is much superior. Sorry to sound like that, but I just think that’s how it is. Characters from the first Gundam series who come back reprise their roles such as Ikeda Shuuichi as Char, Hirotaka Suzuoka as Captain Bright, and Furuya Tooru as Amuro. But for the new characters, there are some excellent additions. Narutards to casual fans and new fans of Naruto will probably enjoy the charismatic and captivating performances of Inoue Kazuhiko the voice of Kakashi as Jerrid and Ohtsuka Houchu the voice of Jiraiya as Yazan. Inoue still retains a youthful voice, but in comparison to his role of Kakashi he is more emotional and naïve. Ohtsuka’s voice is still recognizable but as Yazan he is very sadistic. And last, I’ll address the voice of Camille, Tobita Nobuo, also the voice of Tomo from Fushigi Yuugi, Domon from Flame of Recca, and Uribatake from Nadesico, is very multi-talented in his own right. Even though he is more adult in those roles, in this one, he is convincing as a confused and enraged teenager in relation to his situations. Moving on, the music is very energetic and captivating in a 1980s sense. It captures a lot of its atmosphere of romance, war, and hope. I especially feel this with the 2nd opening theme, Mizu no hoshi he ai wo komete. The ending theme hoshi no zora believe is very campy cutsey but I think it’s used to wind the audience down after seeing something crazy in the series. I don’t know, but I like it. The movie trilogy relies of Gackt for their soundtrack. The songs are good, but I’m not a huge fan of Gackt personally. The background music is very intense and appropriate to the gritty atmosphere of the series, which you’ll have to hear to believe, or play the Gundam vs Zeta Gundam game itself which is also appropriately used. As you can dispute on a certain number of Gundam series, fans will not only argue that this is the best Gundam series, but one of the best animes ever which is something I can personally agree with. I strongly suggest you watch the TV series over the movie trilogy which I personally found disappointing which is another discussion for another time. But anyway, I think the story is very captivating and comedy and romance is used when appropriate. You can really truly feel the characters. The designs and battle sequences are high octane and the music is just incredible.

If the original Gundam depicted a bloody war on an unprecedented scale, then Zeta Gundam shows the profound human breakdown that followed. Set eight years after the first series, the post-war reconstruction is shown to have badly failed. The Federation, once a system the heroes fought for, has been corrupted by a military unit fanatically devoted to Earth supremacy. Arguably the central theme of the Gundam franchise is the struggle between Earth and the space colonies that orbit it. Zeta takes this concept very far. As newtypes (theoretical evolutions of mankind, meant for space) have evolved and research on them has advanced, a growing dividehas formed between them and normal people. This jealous paranoia turns the ruling Earth bureaucracy against its colonies, before they grow too powerful. Kamille Bidan perfectly illustrates the rebellious, space-faring sentiment. His passion, continually whipping from bitter disappointment to righteous elation and back, transcends reason. Though his emotional depth includes a reserved quietness and easy-going nature, it is the extremes that contain the core of his being. Unlike Amuro, who fought to survive and protect what little he could, Kamille uses his Gundam as a means to many ends. It’s a weapon to strike down enemies of the Anti-Earth Union, and an ever-evolving representation of his powers as a Newtype. By extension, the Gundam is a symbol of the new humanity that touches upon the pulse of the stars, ready to travel the cosmos. No raw power can connect without direction, the resistance finding theirs in an unwilling Char Aznable. Bright Noah and Hayato also return, this time older and more able to command. Amuro fights as well, in a crucial way, but his lingering guilt and stress limit participation. Most of the focus is put on new blood. One of Zeta’s biggest flaws is how cheaply it treats characters. Some change sides at the drop of a hat, for trivial reasons, while others are killed unceremoniously. More alarming is that multiple girls are killed, resurrected, then swiftly killed again. There’s an in-universe justification, but I find the second deaths to be too quick, predictable, and all too lacking emotional resonance. Similarly, the plot is treated with surprisingly little respect. Every single episode is guaranteed to have an arbitrary skirmish between AEUG and the Earth Federation. Typically this is the result of haphazard, overused actions like gundam high-jacking. The battles never have clear strategic meaning. Tactical command is non-existent in the face of random, dueling mobile suits. At worst, this can make the show feel like an excuse for formulaic drama coupled with obvious mecha toy advertisement. I have to say that the show does a good job getting me excited about gundam. The cockpits close, the gears shift, the marching beats begins, and as the badass suit rises, we hear the bold announcement: “Kamille Bidan, Zeta Gundam... launching!” These takeoffs have an addictive quality. I don’t know when it was that they began standing out. I just know that, after enough exposure, I liked them a lot. Moments like these are not created by the writing. For me, they’re captured by the audio. The soundtrack always suits the moment. When the aged animation forces long, occasionally ugly shots, music goes a long way to preserve the right feeling. Equally impressive is the Japanese voice cast, in particular Nobuo Tobita (Kamille) and Shuuichi Ikeda (Char). Char is very mysterious, so it is all the more cool that Ikeda can retain that while giving a very charismatic performance with huge amounts of screen-time. Kamille’s voice is probably one of the best for any seiyuu, ever. His character whiplashes from mood to opposite mood in the blink of an eye; this can go wrong in several ways, whether the actor cannot capture just how extreme each mood is, or is unable to create a believable transition. Nobuo Tobita wins. I am a little guilty about liking Zeta Gundam as much as I do. It isn’t very well constructed, has old art, and feels like the creators made up everything as they went along. Considering many fans hype it as a masterpiece I should have been disappointed. But I wasn’t. As bad as it is in some respects, once things start moving the series succeeds tremendously. There is a complex, multi-faceted cast that averts boring anime characterizations. The mobile suits are highly detailed, coupled with unique, yet diverse character designs. The music is epic and powerful. Perhaps best of all, Zeta demonstrates a wonderfully tragic spiral away from sanity.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is one of the more acclaimed series in the Gundam franchise. Yet, confusingly enough, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is also a poorly written cacophony of endlessly repeating plot mechanics and contradictory characters that does a severe injustice to it's predecessors quality and general nuance in depicting very serious themes. The series starts and ends with its first contradiction, Kamille Bidan. An angsty newtype teenager hailed as the second coming of Amuro Ray, Kamille begins his journey by assaulting soldiers, hijacking a gundam, destroying buildings, and getting his loved ones killed as he joins Char and his compatriots in their rebellion against violenceand tyranny. Kamille then embarks upon a cyclical quest of meeting random girls, falling in love with them after 2 minutes of dialogue, getting betrayed and then inadvertently causing mass civilian casualties because of his inability to pull the trigger. There are at least 10 instances in which a prisoner casually escapes the Argama, the main characters' ship, in a stolen mobile suit and then proceeds to attack the very ship it just launched from. This happens, over and over again, because of Kamille and the rest of the crews' overly trusting nature. In a war drama full of heavy handed dialogue about the brutality and evil of warfare, our characters' appear confoundingly incapable of accepting that not everyone is a good person. The second main character is one of anime's most iconic and recognizable men, Char Aznable, the red comet of Zeon. However, in Zeta, Char is once again living under an alias as Lieutenant Quattro Bajeena of the AEUG. Disappointingly, this is a much less intriguing version the character from 0079. Char has in a way devolved into a shell of his former self, but in turn becomes a much more morally righteous and cautious leader. He begins to trust others as he fights with the AEUG, but only to a finite extent. Char's character is much too complex to explore in depth in a single series review, so I will avoid that sort of analysis and just leave it this: Char is very conflicted in Zeta and has no idea what he really wants, but as usual, Char keeps his conflicts internal and never shares these with other characters. This ultimately amounts to a very boring character who reacts very predictably in every situation so as not to give away his emotions or desires. The rest of the cast varies in quality. Fa acts irrationally and comes off as, largely, just annoying and nonsensical for large sections of the anime, but does become more tolerable by the end. Emma is a good and decent character but takes a backseat in the second half as the series suffers from character overload. Bright is Bright. His presence in this show as a static, carbon copy of his MSG0079 character is damning evidence of the utter lack of creativity in Zeta. Amuro is also a shell of himself at the onset, but then progressively begins to capture his old prowess before the plot irrationally starts ignoring him. In general, the recycling of older characters, with the exception of Char who is very clearly a main character and a centerpiece of the story, does largely nothing but take away from the original characters' opportunities to meaningfully assert themselves in the story. Beltorchika is painstakingly annoying and her shotgun romance with Amuro is inorganically forced and poorly written. Reccoa is dumb, she isn't a bad character in herself, but she is profoundly dumb and makes poor decisions. The core story could have been significantly better without her. The same applies to Katz, but to a lesser extent. The cyber newtypes are also all dumb and poorly written. They depict no legitimately human personalities but Kamille is fooled by them nonetheless. Generally speaking, my critiques of these characters being "dumb" and/or repeatedly making dumb or bad decisions isn't inherently a criticism of their characters, as we all know flawless characters are quite boring and make for boring stories, but there is a very marked lack of intelligence across the entire cast and it is evident in every silly choice they make. I do not think a complete vacuum of rational thought is fully appropriate for a story this serious and laden, albeit poorly, with grave themes and ideas. Scirocco and Bask are very generic evildoers, but they are mostly sufficient villains for Zeta's rinse and repeat story-line. Haman Karn is the most interesting villain, but her appearances are too little and too late to significantly impact the story as a whole. Jerid is probably the best character in the show, but is awkwardly underutilized in the latter stages; another casualty of the overwrought character overload. Jerid, for better or worse, actually changes as the series goes on, whilst the rest of the cast stubbornly continue to run around their own shortcomings rather than face them head on. The plot itself shows potential at various stages along the way, but can never really escape from the overbearing weight of the characters' endless cat and mouse reactions and self-contradictions. It tries to be complex and mature but mostly fails at this as the politics and ethics are very black and white, unlike in the original. At one point, there are 6 different warring armies -- Char's AEUG, Karaba, the Titans, Scirocco's rogue Titan faction, a dissenting Federation, and Haman Karn's Axis. This seemed very unnecessary in a simple good vs evil story, which is all Zeta really ends up being, despite Char and Kamilles' occasional vague remarks about morality and existentialism. And to be clear, when I'm saying Zeta is simply a good vs evil story, I mean so in the pure Gundam sense of """good""" vs evil, with every possible quote unquote, as the "good" side is always clouded and morally deficient. Zeta does not differ from this core Gundam meta in any meaningful regard, for better or worse. Perhaps my biggest issue with Zeta is thematic execution. Too often, the characters' are caught up in a killing dilemma, where they must choose between killing someone they know personally, or letting this person they know escape and possibly commit harm or even outright atrocities. This happens to virtually every character, regardless of side, and manifests in almost every single episode. This is the crux of the rinse and repeat storytelling I've complained about, but more distressing than the repetitiveness and lack of creativity, is the execution of this plot mechanic itself as it relates to the moral gravity every Gundam series attempts to hone in on. The characters' seem incapable of processing this recurring dilemma in a forward thinking way, as they instead view it as killing someone they know personally, or letting this person they know escape, without thought of the larger consequences. This decision making ignores the masses of common people so critical to Gundam's core theme, the human cost of war. Chemical gas attacks on civilian colonies are framed as less tragic than named character deaths in Zeta. There is a recurring disregard for the well-being of the masses who suffer in the wake of the characters' immaturity and lack of fortitude. At one point, near the end of the series, a ship captain abandons his mission to protect the woman he loves, who is losing in a mobile suit battle. The ship is destroyed as he attempts to shield her mobile suit from harm. Simultaneously, another named character dies in a nearby mobile suit battle. The woman in the mobile suit cries for the deaths of the ship captain and her allied mobile suit pilot. When the rest of the characters' learn of this, they also collectively sob for these two named deaths. There are two problems here. 1 -- The ship captain sacrificed his ship and all its' crew, a very large number of people, to save one woman because of his emotions. This is wrong. 2 -- The rest of the characters' only mourned the tragic deaths of these two named characters, and made no mention of the crew as a whole. This is also wrong, and sadly, this is not an isolated example. Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam consistently prioritizes redundant character drama over its message. Zeta also lags its predecessor in terms of action execution. In 0079, battles were won tactically. Amuro had to make split second decisions on how to block, dodge, and then shoot down his enemy. In Zeta, the battles are simply power versus power, with no meaningful tactics or subterfuge. Kamille also fails to show any progression as a fighter. I don't know if this was intentional or an inadvertent effect of Zeta's usage of battles as backdrops for "can I pull the trigger?" scenarios more than actual depictions of wartime combat. For its time, the animation is clearly impressive and it makes the battles look quite decent, but it doesn't mask the sheer lack of substance. In the end, Zeta is a silly, self-important action-drama that fails to properly convey Gundam's core themes and ultimately insults the originals intelligence. The action is mindless, the characters don't make sense, and the writing is lazy and directionally confused. TLDR: Zeta is unnecessarily edgy garbage.