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fostersffff · 3 years

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The Big Gundam Watch, Part 2.2: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Episodes 26-50

I’m ultimately very glad I broke this series’s review up into two parts, because I think if I had done it all in one go I would’ve wound up downplaying or just straight-up erasing a lot of the issues I had with the first half If you’re interested in that, check it out here! Otherwise, let’s get into the back half of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam!

THE STUFF I LIKED:

The stuff I spent so much time griping about in the first installment of this- about how the nature of the conflict doesn’t really compliment the way Kamille acts- stops being relevant, because Kamille stops bitching. Or rather, now when he bitches, it’s better motivated than “not trusting the AEUG”. Like, Kamille getting mad at Bright telling him to not spread the news about Reccoa joining up with the Titans is ridiculous, but at least he has a good reason to be upset to start.

Although, speaking of the AEUG’s squeaky clean good guy status, I was surprised to see them seize and actually use the Colony Laser. Or, rather, I was surprised no one in the AEUG was opposed to the measure. I imagine the Colony Laser will wind up being a plot point in ZZ one way or another so we’ll see then.

Reccoa’s arc was a real fucking roller coaster, and I was originally very confident everything about her was going in the bad section. But, in the end I found her to be one of those antagonists you love to hate, rather than just being miserable every time she was on screen. The overwhelming shamelessness of “no ideology, only cock” is kind of awe inspiring, and the fact that no one was trying to minimize the gravity of what she was doing kept her from being a drag.

I love Haman Karn. Similar to Scirocco, she feels like the archvillain the original series never got to have, except even more directly this time because she’s actually in control of Zeon. Everything from “doing incredibly close fly-bys with her mobile suits to potential allies to assert dominance” to “calling Char a Zabicuck in front of Mineva and the entire court knowing he can’t do anything” is just like... man, what a fuckin’ great heel. Plus, the Qubeley is my favorite Zeon mobile suit to date.

Speaking of mech designs, the back half is loaded with some real cool ones! I still have an issue with the way that design sensibilities are still kinda muddled- all of the Titans’s new mobile suits and armors like the Hambrabi, Baund Doc, and Palace Athene all look like Zeon mobile suits, except for the Psycho Gundams, but the Gaza-C grunt suits that Axis use look like they had the same designer as the Rick Dias because of the eye- but taken individually, all of those designs are amazing. I even went ahead and bought the gunpla kits for the Qubeley, Baund Doc, and Psycho Gundam.

Notably missing from my praise of cool mobile suits is the Zeta Gundam. Admittedly, it’s a really slick looking mobile suit, but I prefer Gundams to be really angular; it’s why I prefer the Shining Gundam to the Burning Gundam. So at the moment, Zeta is probably my least favorite Gundam design, except for maybe the Psycho Mk-II

I rolled my eyes over the “FOUR COULD BE MY LALAH!” line in the first half, but perhaps hypocritically, I love that Katz has an almost beat-for-beat reenactment of Lalah’s death with Sarah. Overall, I think this sequence is a much better “we’re doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again” scene than Four’s death, because watching it happen to someone who was a personal witness to what Lalah’s death did to Amuro makes it hit way harder. Not that I thought Four’s death was badly executed, and in fact, it’s probably a stronger reinforcement of the message to have them both suffer this kind of loss, but if there has to be a “winner” Lalah surrogate, Sarah’s the better one.

In all this time, I somehow managed to never find out exactly what happens to Kamille, and Jesus Christ that’s bleak. From a writing perspective, I appreciate the sheer boldness of “most of the core cast dies violently and the main character has his soul broken, which is expressed as degenerative brain damage”.

Actually, speaking of that; I mentioned how much I liked the little bit of characterization they were able to give Four’s handler Namicar in the first part of this via incidental actions, and one of the most stunning instances of that in the series is in the penultimate episode, when Kamille momentarily lifts the visor on his suit while he’s out in space. Right before it happened I was wondering “why is he making the motion to lift his visor”, and he completely sidesteps it when Emma asks him what the fuck he was thinking. I interpreted it as Kamille subconsciously attempting to commit suicide, considering how emotionally devastating the last couple encounters have been for him, and it makes me wonder if his state at the end of the series is meant to be solely the result of Scirocco’s NEWTYPE SOUL BREAKER, or if that was just the straw that broke the camel’s back after he was already losing his grip.

I cannot believe Fa lived. Good for her though, she really needed a win, even if it’s a Pyrrhic win.

THE STUFF I LIKED LESS:

Once again, the subtitles are a problem. No specific examples this time, but considering the series’s well-deserved pedigree, I really think it deserves… A New Translation.

Gonna use that brilliant segue to say that I looked up the differences in the compilation movies and it’s crazy to see how much it has in common with the Final Fantasy VII Remake. Even GACKT shows up!

So, there was only ever one ending theme for this series, but for some reason they eventually switch to a slightly different ending animation that’s functionally identical to the first one, except Fa is animated less smoothly and the colors are weird. I guess this isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s distracting.

The main question I found myself asking in this second half, besides “is Reccoa seriously doing this”, was “wait, why did Char take Shinta and Qum into space, and why are they still on the ship?” Much like Kikka, Katz, and Letz in the original series, I don’t really mind Shinta and Qum all that much, but the orphans had a good reason for being on White Base for so long, and by the time they were able to leave, both they and the crew had gotten attached to each other. Time and again, Shinta and Qum prove to be tremendous liabilities, and I get the feeling the only reason they were there was because some executive at Sunrise and/or Bandai was like “hey where’s the kids so kids will have kids to relate to”.

They don’t focus on it for long, thankfully, but the handful of episodes where they go hard with Henken’s crush on Emma are excruciating. It’s one thing when he’s attempting to awkwardly flirt during a briefing, it’s another when he lays on hands and goes “I’M WORRIED ABOUT YOUR WOMB, EMMA!”

Cyber-Newtypes are never satisfactorily explained, especially because the exchange Kamille has with Namicar at Kilimanjaro complicates things by creating a further distinction between “Cyber-Newtypes” and “artificial Newtypes”. Even switching to the English dub didn’t help on this one much, and I’m reluctant to start deep wiki diving until I at least finish Char’s Counterattack.

When Fa has that conversation with Rosamia about her memories being false, are we supposed to understand it’s because Fa had an epiphany looking at the photos inside the house on Axis? Because if so, it’s not conveyed very well, and if not, it’s really impressive that she manages to hit the nail on the head with zero evidence.

It feels like there’s an episode missing between Scirocco Rises and A Descent into the Maelstrom. Partially because the way things happen feels a little mixed up: first they go to seize the Colony Laser, then suddenly Axis is in danger of colliding with Grenada, then they have to head back to the Colony Laser for the final confrontation with the Titans. But also because everyone seems to suddenly develop an intense blood hatred for Haman, instead of just treating her like an enemy during A Descent into the Maelstrom. Like, why is Katz now blaming Haman for Sarah’s death instead of Scirocco, outside of “he’s grieving and everyone who’s an enemy is responsible”. Kamille is also at a 10/10 on the murderous intent scale when he starts fighting Haman, which is weird because having him engage her normally would have made him going into a frenzy after she violently rejects their mutual understanding more impactful.

I don’t hate the penultimate episode reveal that the Zeta Gundam can manifest the power of dead Newtypes to enhance itself to what is essentially a super mode, but maybe that particular power could have manifested earlier in smaller ways to give Kamille the edge during certain encounters. Some kind of… sign of Zeta?

In summary: please, more exposition and better subtitles in future Gundam installments. Fingers crossed that since the blu-ray of ZZ is the first and only official release of that series in the West and that it came out in 2016, the subtitles will at least be better.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS:

Can’t take my eyes off Fa’s crimson vinyl high-waisted pantsuit complete with 80′s shoulderpads cropped blazer and bolo tie, but Emma’s sleeveless blazer (that also has 80′s shoulderpads) over long-sleeve dress and whatever the fuck Kamille is wearing are also terrific.

Another shout-out to Sarah’s beret, trenchoat, push-up sports bra, and multiple pearl necklaces fit when she goes to bomb a city. Fashion, baby!

Zeta Gundam’s dub was done by Blue Water Studios, which is the same studio that did the dub for G Gundam. I knew that there would be overlap in the casts, but I was nearly bowled over when I flipped on the dub for a scene with Jamitov and found out he had the same voice actor as G Gundam’s Stalker, doing the exact same voice, to the point that I was ready for him to just go “LET’S GET THINGS STARTED!”

I hooted at Sayla’s cameo during Char’s speech. I was under the impression she just wasn’t in the show in any capacity, so even just a cameo was really nice to see.

I kept waiting for Yazan to say “I’M GONNA VIOLATE YOU!” and it never came up! Of course, him grabbing that other pilot’s dick and telling him he should be hard going into combat gets the same characterization across.

Kamille very obviously perving on Fa during that one scene where she’s bathing the kids feels sorta out of character, but up to that point in the series it was the most humanizing thing I had seen Kamille do, so it’s a wash.

Probably too much to ask that there’s not a scene of children running out of the bathroom butt-ass naked with their caretaker running out behind them also butt-ass naked in ZZ considering that we’re 2/2 on that gag so far, huh?

Had a laugh back during Mobile Suit Gundam over Kycilia chiding Ghiren for being too trusting when she herself gets very obviously betrayed, and had a similar laugh when Scirocco laments how much the final battle is being driven by emotion before turning to fucking Reccoa Londe and saying “you will be the one to change people so that they’re driven by logic and reason.”

This series has done a good job of getting me even more excited for Char’s Counterattack. Every single person in the series spends so much time hyping up Char as the best possible leader for humanity, so I’m really curious to see if and how the movie has those characters reckon with what Char winds up doing once he gets into political power, especially Amuro.

In context, Char saying he’s never betrayed anyone is true to Char because in his mind he was never loyal to the Zabis or any regime that would claim to be the successor to Zabi Zeon, but it’s still really fucking funny to watch the guy who taunted Garma as he was about to die and mockingly saluted Kycillia before blowing her to pieces say that with a deadly straight face.

I have seen so many people clowning on Char for having a weird mother/sister/lover vision of his relationship with Lalah, so why doesn’t Kamille get clowned on in the exact same way for how he explains his explicitly romantic relationship with Four to Rosamia as a sisterly one?

Just for fun: here’s the raw notes I started taking once Reccoa neglected to tell Bright how she met Scirocco:

Thankfully, her bond with Yazan is abandoned almost immediately in favor of reinforcing how charismatic Scirocco is, but woof.

IN CONCLUSION:

Zeta certainly has been A Ride. It roused much more emotion out of me than the original series did, but it wasn’t always positive, at least for the first half. Even though I’d say it’s better in most ways than its predecessor, I don’t know if I could recommend Zeta as easily as I felt I could recommend Mobile Suit Gundam. The original series was conceived and still functions perfectly as a standalone series, while Zeta relies really heavily on the foundation Mobile Suit Gundam built while not very clearly explaining the new elements it introduces. But, if you’re going to be watching through the Universal Century, you’ll walk away happy having watched this. Well, “happy”’s really not the right word, but definitely satisfied with a damn good anime.

Next up: Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ! I hear this one’s not anime...

#Gundam #Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam #Zeta Gundam #The Big Gundam Watch #anime #blu-ray #long post

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