Ranked #230

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

Important: Forgive my english please. As a french person it's not very easy for me.

Zeta wasn't my first introduction to gundam as a tv serie, but when I sat down and watched the first episode, I already have the feeling that this serie was gonna be great. Boy, I was right!! Zeta Gundam kicks out seven years after the original story (I will not go far in the plot). A group under the Federation control, Titans, are created to hunt down Zeon remnants. They opressed the spacenoids and a rebel group rise to deliver the spacenoids from the opression. The AEUG was born.

Story: Although the story seems not necessarily interesting on paper, it surely the greatest story of the gundam serie. I respected Yoshiyuki Tomino for all his great work on the Gundam franchise. This story doesn't waste any episodes and the plot always moves. In the middle of the serie, they introduced a new group and although it changed the Grysp conflict, the final battle is still AEUG vs Titans not like an other show when it's evil organisation of the week (Gundam Wing).
So for the story, a solid 10/10

Art: It's 80's japanese art, so you like it or not. But Zeta broke the "gouffy" mechanical design that was the original gundam serie. A lot of mobile suit are awesome looking (Zeta Gundam, Gundam MK.II, Gabthley, Baund Doc, Byalant, Gaplant, Palace Athene, The O, Barzam, Marasai, Hambrabi and even the freaking Psyco Gundam MK.II).
Art: 9/10

Sound: The music has not necessarily the greatest sound system, but God the music is awesome!! There are some track that I have on my Ipod ( Into the gravity well, A crash!, Resonance and Fleet battle). Really an awesome soundtrack.
Sound: 10/10

Character: A large cast of characters that you hate (Katz) and love (Emma). The characters are more adults looking that the previous serie. I like almost every single character in the show, even if they are real bastards like Scirocco and Yazan. Haman Karn will be my favorite female character in the anime history. Emma was really likeable and a skill pilot in the same time. Kamille as a lead character was freakin' good. He had the good part of Amuro and not his bad part like "I don't want to pilot the Gundam anymore" and he had even enough of guts to punch Char twice if I remember correctly. Katz... watch the show and you will understand why I hate him.
Character: 10/10

Enjoyment: Wow!!! When you get into the story, you cannot stop watching it. Every episode is a rollercoaster ride and it's not the same rollercoaster each episode. Sometime the show is depressing (not like victory gundam although) and dark, but hey, for the best fortunately.
Enjoyment 9/10

Overall: You shall watch this show. There is no reason not to watch it except if... no there is no reason at all! It's not an obligation, but I recommanded to watch the first show to understand the situation a little bit. If you don't want to watch the first serie, it's not a major problem, but don't expect to understand everything. That's it for me, see you next time.
Overall: 10/10

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Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is a show that did many things excellently and had the potential to be not just the best show in the Gundam metaseries but one of the pinnacles of anime in the 1980s. Zeta introduces many memorable and well fleshed-out original characters. Unfortunately, as the cast for the show began to bloat, many major and minor characters got lost in the shuffle and had their sub-plots resolve poorly. The handling of these characters and the plot particularly towards the end of the series are what keep this otherwise great anime from being one of the all-time classics.

Set some eight years after the end of Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam tells the story of a new conflict between the Earth and space with a new cast of characters. However, nearly everyone who survived the end of the original MSG makes an appearance in Zeta Gundam, with varying degrees of importance. Having seen the original show definitely helps a viewer understand those return characters better and why we should care about them. However, I believe it is also possible to see Zeta without having seen the original series and still be able to appreciate it.

Our main character is Kamille Biden, a rebellious and short-fused teenager who winds up joining a group of rebels looking to overthrow the government. Kamille is very sensitive about people saying he has a girl's name, so don't make fun of him for it. Kamille has to be one of the best main stars of a Gundam series, because he isn't just some generic leading man with a strong sense of justice, like we see in many series. His anger issues put him in many socially awkward situations, yet he still can care deeply about people around him. He fulfills a wish that many of us have, to take authority figures who are being jackasses and punch them in the face. He does it many times, and even if Kamille is something of a brat by acting that way, you can't help but applaud him. Over the course of the series, Kamille goes through many personal conflicts which make him grow as a person. He must decide what to fight for, how to save people close to him, and what it means to be a grown up. One of the running themes of Zeta is how war forces children into adults, and how if a soldier doesn't act like an adult, everyone is put in danger. I don't really do Kamille justice with my description, but he is a great, emotional character, much more relatable than Amuro who was kind of an all-around jerk.

Other characters besides Kamille get deep personal analysis over the course of the series. It's impossible not to get emotionally invested in many of these characters and their personal stories, which is why it's disappointing that many of them disappear without and proper resolution. Without giving away too much, there is one character who gets enough screen time in the first half of the series to almost qualify as a co-main character. A lot of time is spent on his personal growth and the relationships with the people around him and how they shape his personality and his motivation as a soldier. He also repeatedly states his grand goal in life, and if he did achieve that goal, it would have changed the entire outcome of the show in a major way. However, in the second half of the show, he barely appears and doesn't grow anymore as a character at all. Eventually, he makes his last appearance in the second to last episode, but all in all he ended up accomplishing nothing. Because he never did anything, he served almost no purpose in the show. All of the time spent building up his character was for nothing. It never went anywhere, and his primary goal was ignored entirely. (That paragraph was hard to write without giving spoilers)

Other characters also end up making a strong mark but then disappear for 20 or so episodes because the large cast has to battle for screentime. This not only made it hard to properly pace the sub-plots around these characters, but it made the show struggle to find its focus at times.

The art, at times, looks very stylish for an 80s anime. The OP in particular looks particularly stunning when compared to the original MSG. Some of the characters look better than others. The designs of the mobile suits set a new benchmark, one that other series have since met or exceeded, but they definitely look great for the mid-80s. I would say that towards the second half of the season, some of the pencilwork got a bit sloppy looking. I don't usually look out for that kind of stuff, but the decline in art quality at times was enough for me to notice it anyway.

Overall, the story of the Gryps conflict and the tremendous characters involved in it make this a show that any fans of dramatic anime should be able to appreciate. From just the first few episodes, Kamille is thrown into an emotional and tragic rollercoaster, and from that point you will be hooked. Along the way, you will be surprised and provoked by the actions taken by well-written characters like Reccoa Londe, Four Murasame, Char Aznable, Sarah Zabiarov, and others. Zeta is not just a show that is worthy of being part of the Gundam legacy; it heightens the reputation of Gundam as a serious war storytelling anime metaseries with its very existence. Just the plot and story are enough to make it a great show, but the mishandling of certain characters and an ending that is a slap in the face forces the finished product down a couple of notches. read more