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2 of 13 people found this review helpful
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50 of 50 episodes seen
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Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is the sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam and is a show that was recommended to me as the best of the series, apparently, it surpassed the original. Well, it did, but surpassing the original isn’t exactly an endeavor since the quality of the show basically went from Average to Fine, hardly a masterpiece.
My Age Rating: 8: Violence of course, but very light.
The story basically revolves around the Titans (no they’re not a sports team) who are an organisation that are in charge of managing space after the war and dealing with the remnants of Zeon, but of course they hide a more sinister purpose and so the AEUG are a group of rebels fighting against them to stop their crimes and their evil plans. As the show goes on a lot of factions are going to join in and a lot of events are going to happen. The events that sometime occur have a tendency to feel forced or abrupt and for the purpose of advancing the plot in whatever direction the director wishes without so much as precedents or background supporting it. Likewise, some major events don’t necessarily have major impact and can be rendered trivial by the next five minutes of the same episode even when it was building up for around 5 – 8 episodes. The pacing is horrible, most of the show is a stand still story until the last quarter where everything moves so fast it’s almost laughable; this caused many events to be overlook or badly developed and is the reason why in between episodes it may feel like you missed an entire episode, but you didn’t, they really just decided to make major changes without explanation or any on screen mentions. But, at the very least, it is entertaining for the last 10 or so episodes.
The characters! Where to start? First off, when people die in this series, even though it’s a serious and somewhat realistic war anime, they become omnipotent ghosts who are at peace and can speak with anyone they wish; yeah, that’s why everyone is afraid of dying and war is horrible, because when you die it’s nirvana. Anyway, on with the characters:
Kamille: The main character; he starts out as a reckless, tempered and stupid teenager but through constant abuse…..sorry, I meant “corrections”, he becomes a docile slave…..my bad again, I meant responsible young man. If you get a kick out seeing adults abuse teenagers then you’ll love this show as Tomino basically thinks adults are smarter, better and should beat the crap out of kids until they agree to get drafted, obey without protest and die for them.
Quatro: Even though he’s one of my favorite characters in the show I won’t comment on him for reasons that will become apparent when you watch the series, but basically, it’s impossible to properly comment on him as he’s one big spoiler. Though lets face it, you'd have to be a moron not to figure out who he is in the first episode of the show.
Reccoa: You may think she’s a strong female character but you’ll realise how erroneous that impression is later on. She’s interesting enough but not in any way my favorite.
Haman: Favorite female of the series; she’s vicious, war-hungry, ambitious and a real snake but she sure cranked up the entertainment value of the series when she appeared.
Scirocco: One of the rare intelligent and collected man in the series. He was a large part of the series’ appeal to me and his plans as well as his personality made him a good character.
The remaining are a bunch of average, borderline non-interesting characters followed with some of the cast of the original series. Strangely enough, the series became good to me when Haman and Scirocco became solid parts of the show (near the end) so like the original all it needed was better pace and actual well developed characters.
The voice acting was fine, they were several instances of weak performances but the writing of the dialogue and the makeup of those scenes were horrible so the voice actors can’t be held accountable for not giving a good performance if they don’t have anything to work with.
The action was better, unlike its previous installment it wasn’t forced or shoved on the screen for the sake of it and was pretty well timed. It also dropped the repetitiveness that plagued the first season.
The ending, because I just have to speak about it:
SPOILER-So Kamille as a mecha (made by science not magic) who can harvest the souls of the dead and use the energy to fight because he’s Anakin Skywalker or something and the force is with him. Nothing better than a supernatural, rushed and morally heavy ending, it doesn’t take a huge bite out of the seriousness and realism the show tried to portray at all.-SPOILER
Zeta Gundam is a show for those who enjoyed the first series and really like 80s anime, otherwise stay clear of it. I enjoyed it myself through most of my complaints, may that only be for the last quarter of the show and two or three characters, but I don’t think it’s worth sitting through 50 episodes.
My Age Rating: 8: Violence of course, but very light.
The story basically revolves around the Titans (no they’re not a sports team) who are an organisation that are in charge of managing space after the war and dealing with the remnants of Zeon, but of course they hide a more sinister purpose and so the AEUG are a group of rebels fighting against them to stop their crimes and their evil plans. As the show goes on a lot of factions are going to join in and a lot of events are going to happen. The events that sometime occur have a tendency to feel forced or abrupt and for the purpose of advancing the plot in whatever direction the director wishes without so much as precedents or background supporting it. Likewise, some major events don’t necessarily have major impact and can be rendered trivial by the next five minutes of the same episode even when it was building up for around 5 – 8 episodes. The pacing is horrible, most of the show is a stand still story until the last quarter where everything moves so fast it’s almost laughable; this caused many events to be overlook or badly developed and is the reason why in between episodes it may feel like you missed an entire episode, but you didn’t, they really just decided to make major changes without explanation or any on screen mentions. But, at the very least, it is entertaining for the last 10 or so episodes.
The characters! Where to start? First off, when people die in this series, even though it’s a serious and somewhat realistic war anime, they become omnipotent ghosts who are at peace and can speak with anyone they wish; yeah, that’s why everyone is afraid of dying and war is horrible, because when you die it’s nirvana. Anyway, on with the characters:
Kamille: The main character; he starts out as a reckless, tempered and stupid teenager but through constant abuse…..sorry, I meant “corrections”, he becomes a docile slave…..my bad again, I meant responsible young man. If you get a kick out seeing adults abuse teenagers then you’ll love this show as Tomino basically thinks adults are smarter, better and should beat the crap out of kids until they agree to get drafted, obey without protest and die for them.
Quatro: Even though he’s one of my favorite characters in the show I won’t comment on him for reasons that will become apparent when you watch the series, but basically, it’s impossible to properly comment on him as he’s one big spoiler. Though lets face it, you'd have to be a moron not to figure out who he is in the first episode of the show.
Reccoa: You may think she’s a strong female character but you’ll realise how erroneous that impression is later on. She’s interesting enough but not in any way my favorite.
Haman: Favorite female of the series; she’s vicious, war-hungry, ambitious and a real snake but she sure cranked up the entertainment value of the series when she appeared.
Scirocco: One of the rare intelligent and collected man in the series. He was a large part of the series’ appeal to me and his plans as well as his personality made him a good character.
The remaining are a bunch of average, borderline non-interesting characters followed with some of the cast of the original series. Strangely enough, the series became good to me when Haman and Scirocco became solid parts of the show (near the end) so like the original all it needed was better pace and actual well developed characters.
The voice acting was fine, they were several instances of weak performances but the writing of the dialogue and the makeup of those scenes were horrible so the voice actors can’t be held accountable for not giving a good performance if they don’t have anything to work with.
The action was better, unlike its previous installment it wasn’t forced or shoved on the screen for the sake of it and was pretty well timed. It also dropped the repetitiveness that plagued the first season.
The ending, because I just have to speak about it:
SPOILER-So Kamille as a mecha (made by science not magic) who can harvest the souls of the dead and use the energy to fight because he’s Anakin Skywalker or something and the force is with him. Nothing better than a supernatural, rushed and morally heavy ending, it doesn’t take a huge bite out of the seriousness and realism the show tried to portray at all.-SPOILER
Zeta Gundam is a show for those who enjoyed the first series and really like 80s anime, otherwise stay clear of it. I enjoyed it myself through most of my complaints, may that only be for the last quarter of the show and two or three characters, but I don’t think it’s worth sitting through 50 episodes.
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