Kidou Senshi Gundam ZZ

This is a direct sequel to Zeta, but not only as that, I think of them as one big series itself despite the opposite nature of the first half ZZ that no reviewer should over look when reviewing this anime. Apparently some of the audience, executives of Sunrise and Bandai, and Tomino’s wife thought that Zeta was way too dark and gritty which is something many fans thought was what made that series distinguishing. Plus Tomino even felt bad about the nature of Zeta and thinks anime should make people happy. Then again, he was going through a depression. While with the first half of ... Double Zeta, he makes it very campy and childish. It’s pretty bad to the point where it has driven fans away from the show. Granted it is annoying, sorry to bring this as a spoiler, but it eventually goes back to the dark and gritty nature of Zeta, which I thought was enough to redeem itself. Thankfully this transition gives opportunities where the characters will develop and they become likeable. But I think you should understand Tomino’s mentality and approach to things to truly appreciate the story and characters.

The contrast of this anime is a little brighter and the designs are more neon in a very 1980s manner. Especially the hair styles and costume designs. It’s just more childish to truly make it more cartoony in comparison to Zeta and thus being more kid friendly. And of course some of the battles in the beginning are more comedic and ridiculous and untradtitional of what you can say is Gundam, though not as cheesy or over the top as G Gundam of course. But it’s nice to see that the Zeta Gundam, and other suits from Zeta are still in use and present, but they don’t have the same charisma which is a bizarre way to describe it as they did in the first season. But I do think the Double Zeta is pretty nifty and it’s bulkiness and style brings another kind of likeable distinction mostly because it’s different. But the battles eventually go back to the quality it had in Zeta and what most hardcore Gundam fans would like.

Some of the music is also of course more campy and childish though it still retains some of the background music from Zeta Gundam. The first opening theme, Anime Janai is very ookie and geeky, but despite that, I naturally have to agree that it did compliment the nature of the series at that time, but still went well with the presented imagery. But the 2nd opening theme, Silent Voice where the series gets better is more traditionally of something you’d rather hear in anime. It’s very high spirited and intense and energetic.

The seiyuu cast is still top notch. Yao Kazuki, the voice of Jedau sounded a little old for a 14 year old and the childish nature of his character. He was also the voice of Iketani of Initial D, Takeda from History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi, and Fei Long in Street Fighter II V. It’s hard to take him seriously in a more comedic role and as an early teenager. And I enjoyed the voice of Sakakibara Yoshiko as Harman. She had a passion and charisma to her character as well as this intimidation to her voice. So I got nothing much to complain in the voice acting department.

Just like One Piece, this series takes a while to get into and get into a certain pace to truly appreciate it. I don’t think the initial episodes despite how insulting it was after going through Zeta should not refrain you from watching the whole series since it does redeem itself. I was only able to survive and enjoy the series because I gave it that chance. Afterall, this isn’t Gundam SEED Destiny, which is what I personally found as the worst Gundam series of all time and got progressively worse. Anyway, I say this is something more for the likes of dedicated Gundam fans, and not necessarily for casual anime fans. Just give this series a chance.

Mobile Suit Gundam Double Zeta.

It gets a lot of bad press. "Worst Gundam Ever" is a common phrase when ZZ comes up in conversation. However. I'm going to go and stand out on a lonely, creaking limb and say I liked it. Say I liked it better than Zeta. Now let me tell you why...

The Characters:
The main difference between Zeta and ZZ is that a majority of the main characters are teenagers. Judau Ashta - the protaganist and pilot of Gundam Double Zeta - isn't interested in piloting or fighting at all in the beginning. When the badly damaged Argama lands at ... their colony, he and his friends are simply interested in the Gundam for its scrap value, as they have been left to fend for themselves while their parents have presumably gone off to (or died in) the war. His younger sister Leina worries about him sacrificing his education to earn money and doesn't like him hanging around with the somewhat inscrupulous Beecha and Mondo. Along with feisty girl Elle and unassuming Ino, Judau and his friends get caught up in the activities of the Argama during their attempts to rob it, and form the core of the series from beginning to end. While it's hard to warm to them all at first, you can't help but feel happy for Beecha as after doubts about the war and attempted defection, he finds his calling as a Captain rather than a Mobile Suit pilot, or get caught up in their personal battles when grief causes Mondo to have no thoughts except revenge.

The idea of the Cyber-Newtype is carried on from Zeta in the guise of Elpeo Puru. A young girl similar to Four Murasume and Rosamia Badam, Puru can go from child-like over dependance on Judau to ace pilot bent on destroying him. My main problem with the cyber-newtypes in Zeta was that firstly I felt that having Four, Rosamia and Sarah was overkill, and that they could have been combined into one memorable character. Secondly I never really felt very much for them (which also made it hard to empathise with why Kamille did) as they never got much screen time. Puru however spends a lot of time with the main characters during the middle of the series which gives her character a chance to develop much more than Four or Rosamia did.

Haman Karn is back again as the main antagonist of the series, along with the new characters Glemy Toto, Mashymyre Cello and Chara Soon. Mashymyre is the first foe Judau and friends face - initially almost a comic relief character, a chivalrous villain who refuses to play by anything other than the rules for the sake of his hopeless infatuation with Haman. Indeed, this is really the only thing which saves the untrained (and inept) Judau from death in the early episodes. Later we see a different side to Mashymyre when he is the architect of a colony drop on Dublin. Chara follows a similar (but more sympathetic) path - possesed of particularly overt sexuality she is always a source of humour, but there is also the feeling that something is not quite right in her mind - a personality split which makes it equally likely she will behave in a fun-loving or cruel manner. Glemy Toto, Judau's main nemesis, we see first as he too naively enters his first Mobile Suit battle, and watch as power gradually comes to corrupt him utterly. Sadly he never gets the kind of character development or sympathetic scenes that Jerrod Mesa got in Zeta, which makes him a weaker character as we never really learn what (if anything) drives him to make the decisions he does.

The Story:
I enjoyed Zeta Gundam, but I often found myself picking holes. The most pervasive problem I had was the short lived and duplicated storylines. For example; Someone develops feelings for an enemy. Someone is kidnapped. One episode later they escape. Wait, they've been captured again. Kamille meets Four. She's gone. Here she is again... etc. With ZZ some of the same ideas are there, but they are slowed down to a speed which actually allows for some character development. Leina is kidnapped by Glemy and is gone for 10-15 episodes, and Puru joins the Argama and stays for a good 20. Chara and Mashymyre dissappear completly to be returned towards the end only when they are relevant, they aren't kept around needlessly or killed off and replaced with yet another generic villain.

As with all Gundam series, ZZ has it's tragic moments. But it picks them carefully and neither milks them for pathos nor glosses over the characters' emotions making them seem cold. People suffer, some moreso than others and some cope with loss better than others. The ::slap:: "get over it, this is war!" attitude to emotion seems to have gone - indeed Captain Bright even says at one point, when berated for the fact that the main characters still behave like kids; "I gave up trying to make them anything else." Which seems to be as much a lesson that the writers of ZZ have learned as he has.

I can understand why people react badly to ZZ at first. The first few episodes on the Shangri-La colony have a lot of humour in them - they don't take themselves seriously and even gently parody ideas from previous Gundam series. Quite a contrast to the dark final episodes of Zeta, but Tomino has said that it was his intention to cheer the audience up, as he felt that more of the same would depress them. And that's perhaps it, the fact that Double Zeta feels more hopeful than it's predecessor, not afraid to have a little fun along with the war and the tragedy, has endeared it to me.

*spoilers for both Zeta Gundam and especially ZZ*

Prologue

When people think of the phrase “worst Gundam anime”, there are usually a few choices that tend to stick out in fans’ minds, including the likes of Gundam SEED Destiny and as of now, Twilight Axis. Among such lists, you might sometimes see Gundam ZZ being thrown around, and it’s very understandable as to both why one would give it such a label and as to why one would defend it as something that becomes good over time. Regardless, most fans who see it tend to agree that the first 20 or so episodes of ZZ are terrible, ... hindering what they consider to be an otherwise fine enough installment.

Gundam ZZ is a case of “too little too late”. While the latter half on its own is a decently serviceable installment in terms of quality, with a few surprisingly good moments, the former half is probably the worst I’ve seen of the franchise to date. It is genuinely terrible, insufferable even. It would take a lot for me to find the series remotely tolerable after 22 episodes of intense suffering on my end thanks to absolutely abysmal characterization, franchise betrayals, and many more grievances that utterly destroy this first half, and while the second half is fine enough, “fine enough” doesn’t cut it when trying to salvage an otherwise 1/10 series, especially when after episode 36, the second half stops being “fine enough” and goes back to being horrible, as if turning over a new leaf was a ruse. This is Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the black sheep of Early Universal Century and the bastard successor to Zeta Gundam. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Part 1: Brutal downgrades of old characters and what ZZ does to Zeta

It's easy for some to look at the show and say “the second half makes the show decent though the first half is bad”, and that only really works if the first half isn't insanely horrific and if the second half is really, really good. Neither is the case, and the first half of this show is either a doubt the absolute worst this franchise has to offer, even now when comparing it to Twilight Axis and SEED Destiny. The thing is, at least those don't go out of their way to piss all over their predecessors.

Say what you will about Zeta Gundam, you cannot deny the growth some of the characters had over time. That makes it all the more infuriating when important characters such as Fa Yuiry and Yazan Gable get nerfed ridiculously, losing to and all around being completely outclassed complete newbies like Judau Ashta early into the show. Fa became a competent pilot at the end of Zeta Gundam and Yazan was one of the scariest, more formidable forces of that show too. To see them become bad pilots is aggravating and beyond nonsensical.

Hell, the very second episode starts off with a middle finger as well. Note that I said second episode since episode one is a weird recap of 0079 and Zeta with Char Aznable doing some Mobile Suit quiz for some reason. It has apparently been two weeks since the end of Zeta and the beginning of ZZ if what I was told was correct. Knowing that: how is Yazan still alive? To be honest, they didn't exactly make any fanfare of his supposed death in Zeta but there was no way he could've survived the attack he was faced with that destroyed his Hambrabi. Here he is, passed out in his escape pod, seemingly not having eaten any food or drank any water, which is impossible for a human to survive. Also, within this time, the Argama seriously couldn't find a single hospital or colony at all for Kamille to rest in? Oh, and instead of being reduced to a childlike state without memories of the series like at the finale of Zeta, he now can't talk and is barely even conscious enough to transfer his newtype powers to Judau. Way to be inconsistent right out the bat!

Haman Karn was the most charismatic, commanding, intriguing, and intimidating character introduced in Zeta Gundam towards the later part of its run. She was as evil as she was cool and sexy. Here she does retain a lot of that, but she is far more vulnerable, particularly around Judau. Episode 27, in particular, made it much harder to take the character seriously as a badass threat. They do try again towards the final 7 episodes, and it does work, but even still, she won’t be as much of a powerhouse on screen after episode 27. She doesn't have it the worst in terms of downgrades, however, and we already discussed Fa. The only major character left to discuss in terms of that is Captain Bright, but I'll save him for when I discuss the new characters, especially since the one responsible for his downgrade is only notable for that.

The downgrades aren't just in terms of the returning characters either: the visuals animation and especially the music took a hit as well. ZZ has far less of the impeccable shading often present in Zeta Gundam, though for a long (for the time) anime beginning weeks after another long one by the same studio, it still holds up well minus a few egregious errors like one particular clip with the Hyaku Shiki in episode 23. There is unfortunately some more reused footage than Zeta, which has very little, but most of it is for the transformation of the ZZ and whenever a Qubeley (or anything directly part of the Qubeley line) launches its funnels. The character designs are also slightly inferior, especially thanks to a certain character I’ll cover. Even still, it's clear that the production values here are a bit lower than previously, as understandable as it is, especially when the new mobile suits introduced on the whole still look very good, especially the one introduced in episode 37.

The music however cannot be forgiven. In terms of the old tracks, they are rarely used effectively since 80% of the time, they do not remotely fit the scenes in ZZ, unlike in Zeta where they complimented nearly every action scene. The new OST is pretty mediocre on its own with fewer scenarios that could hope to compliment them in this show. Even worse is later down the line when those new tracks stop fitting most of the scenes present in the show altogether whereas some of the worked constantly in the first half of the show, as bad and repetitive as those tracks are. The OST is just as repetitive as before but now nothing works so it just becomes much harder to tolerate the repetition. If there is one improvement, however, it would be the OPs (“Anime Ja Nai: Yume wo Wasureta Furui Chikyuujin yo (アニメじゃない-夢を忘れた古い地球人よ-)" by Masato Arai” and #2: "Silent Voice (サイレント・ヴォイス)" by Jun Hiroe) and EDs ("Jidai ga Naiteiru (時代が泣いている)" by Masato Arai and "Issenmannen Ginga (一千万年銀河)" by Jun Hiroe) with the OPs being decent if going on for too many episodes, and the EDs being just meh. That isn't remotely enough to make up for the brutally lackluster, ill-fitting, and repetitive OST.

Part 2: Irritability of the humor, stupidity, and cast of the first 24 episodes

Excluding the admittedly odd recap first episode, the series starts off...not half bad, actually. Episode 2 is a decent enough episode minus the bullshit I mentioned earlier. The humor that would characterize the rest of this anime was controlled and not horribly in our face just yet, especially when there was major consequence involved. Killing off even one of the minor Zeta characters (Saegusa) so early was risky though. We meet the new guys, and there is one hilarious reaction joke regarding Captain Bright connecting the dots about Judau. Episode 3 doesn’t start off half bad either, especially since the humor was still pretty funny. Then, something happened. Mashymre appeared. Then we get the bad attempts of humor that dwarf the series, repetitive as hell humor on top for that, and the fact that it becomes basically a Saturday morning cartoon. This is Universal Century Gundam. I get that Tomino wanted to make sure this installment at least started lighter than the constantly heavy and unhappy Zeta, but its like they went to the other extreme. It’s mainly due to the horrible new cast, which I’ll get to.

The sappy drama that occurs occasionally regarding Fa, or the MoonMoon people is just pathetic as well. To be fair, episodes 18 and 19, where Ple (or Puru) is introduced, are decent episodes with better action and less stupidity but episodes 20-22 ruined that. There are so many individual moments in the first 24 episodes that are so wrong that I’d need to compile a list of them, not including the bits I mentioned earlier, assuming I was able to track down everything I’ve said over those episodes, such as retarded character decisions in episode 11 and 12, not using mobile suits that are perfectly functional and available for them (MK.II in episode 13), not shooting or attacking enemies that are in front of them because the writers want to keep their protagonists alive (episodes 16, 27, and 38 but there it was shooting an ally that was shooting an enemy), Shinta and Qum announcing their plan in front of a bitch they don’t want to know heard their plans (episode 18), and so, so much more. Plus, the entirety of the MoonMoon arc and Cecilia arc (the first time the show tries to go back to the darker, more melodramatic tone of Zeta) is stupid. Oh yeah, this show has story arcs, and they're rather hit or miss.

The new cast is absolutely abysmal, and this will take quite a while to get through. The od cast got fucked and these new guys are among the worst new casts in the franchise. Let’s start to the top for this first half only, with Judau Ashta. He starts out completely insufferable. Imagine Kamille Bidan but unjustifiable and more than willing to attack even those who aren’t being assholes or otherwise very harsh to him (even resorting to attacking Fa when she slaps him for being a cunt to his sister in episode 6). He and his friends are total shitbags to each other, though around the time he stupidly gets Leena kidnapped by Glemy and soon after, meeting Ple, he actually becomes remotely tolerable and responsible. Still, the damage is insane, too much to be easily rectified. Beecha and Mondo start off as just the worst. They’re cowardly, traitorous sellouts willing to actually kill Judau over some cash, and they’re just supposed to be seen as troublemaker friends and not complete and utter scum. Needless to say, I hated them the most out of the entire group. Lino is basically this powerless, wimpy character and faint voice of reason, so he’s basically just kinda there. Roux is the most tolerable (and attractive) of the bunch but is basically the lancer of the group...full of lancers...huh. Elle is kinda a bad character who really is just the amalgamation of many of literally every other member of the group’s traits so of course she sucks. Lastly, there’s Leina, Judau’s little sister who is basically a damsel in distress and a nag. Of course she sucks...

The antagonists don't fare much better, especially in the first half. We start off with Mashymre, who is a complete pathetic tool and cartoon of a character. It’s not a stretch to say that in the first half especially, he is a one-dimensional Saturday morning villain who is all about chivalry for his lady, in the most repetitive gags in the franchise. It was funny seeing Judau call him pretentious though and I did grow to empathize him for one reason I’ll get to. Glemy doesn’t start off that much better, just being kind of a typical nobleman character meant to teach Leina “some manners” and become a pathetic loser around Roux. There’s this fucking fatass named Guzin who is both a Saturday morning villain and an obnoxious scumbag, and that combo works horribly and I wish he was dead. We never see the fucker after the crew leaves Shangri-la anyway, and it’s pathetic that Yazan had to work with him; how far the man has fallen…

Here we go. Rev up that harsh DOOM 2016 music and put it on full blast because here’s where I get truly violent! Remember when I said I empathize with Mashymre? Well, he said a line about wishing death upon this character. CHARA SUNE!! FUCK CHARA SUNE!!!! This bitch, this whore, this harlot...his Jem and the Holograms reject BIMBO…deserves all of my hate! Never have I met a character so insufferable and brutally inconsistent in my life, and she is definitely a contender for the worst character in Gundam history! She has no concrete personality beyond being an insufferable cunt whose sex appeal is flaunted to obnoxious degrees. I get why that is but not only does it never make any sense (apparently some cyber newtype bs and I’ll get to why all of that falls apart soon enough) but she flip-flops constantly with no real catalyst for it beyond Judau towards the end. The worst has to be her insufferable and wince-worthy behavior when piloting a mobile suit and I am glad she disappeared for a good 20 episodes after episode 21 because I could not stand her for any second she was on screen. Fuck you, Chara Sune, for single-handedly making most of the 2nd quarter of the show impossible to bear! I’m glad she's dead! Plus, her voice was horrific and the acting was equally terrible; who hired her seiyuu and who was their seiyuu?

The only other character left is Emary and her only character trait for a large majority of this series is being super lovestruck over Captain Bright, who has a wife and kid, and he gets really awkward around her. This is all she serves in the narrative for most of the run of the show and it looks bad on such a good and prominent character like Bright. What happened to Bright, man? Not only this but he is decidedly less harsh and strict with the new guys than he was with Amuro or Kamille, despite them being way worse than those two, and it hasn't been long since he had been with Kamille. Another way of being less dark and heavy? Fuck off, ZZ, you take that back after 19 episodes anyway.

Part 3: Quarter 3 and what it improved/did right

There is much debate as to where the show started getting consistently better. May say episode 19, some go 23, but to be perfectly honest, I’d say 28 was when the show started getting consistently good episodes. This means that while the third quarter is decent, it takes a good way into that quarter for consistently improved quality. For the sake of semantics, I’ll start at the episode where the Argama crew first land on Earth: episode 23, which is roughly the halfway mark.

23-27 is sort of a mixed bag. 23 and 24 are decent episodes and show that these cretins can be a functional and tolerable unit, especially episode 23. 25-27 is why I don't cite 23 as the changing period and instead cite 28. 25 is a decent skirmish with a few slip-ups but 26 makes 25 look stupid since while in 25, the crew engage in their first desert battle against veteran soldiers of the one-year war and win without too much trouble, one girl in a Gelgoog in 26 gets the crew’s balls rocked. 27 is where I couldn't take Haman nearly as seriously anymore when Judau pulls some crazy newtype bs out of his ass and Haman pusses out of shooting him (she had a lot of opportunities too since she came with intent on shooting him). 28 was the first good episode since 23 since Leina “dies” (I'll touch on that bullshit later); not only do I not like her but it was a real interesting and dramatic moment for the cast at large, even if they do not progress much as characters beyond a few patched up melodrama bits and Judau becoming more responsible.

The Blue Corps and Dublin arcs are actually good. Around this time, even a few episodes earlier, ZZ became a conventionally enjoyable series, though not exceptional. The stories make actual sense for most part until episode 36, characters such as Kamille and Hayato return and are still engaging, and we actually see characters grow and see the main team actually have some semblance of teamwork, which some people pride this group on (despite them almost never having any remote semblance of teamwork or camaraderie at all throughout the show). They also develop Glemy’s darker more manipulative and ambitious side and even capitalized on his lovestruck loser side for better comedy, as well as using it against him. The action scenes were cooler too. What these arcs, in particular, did especially good is getting us to have a reason to care. We care about the Blue Corps and how Glemy gets sucked into the incident, as well as Kamille, Hayato, their situations, and the colony drop, off of which were some of the highlights of the Dubin arc, which, barring the final part of that 3 episode arc, was the best part of the show. If the show were more like this, it would be a decent, maybe even good show, since 9 of these 15 episodes were actually good. All of the antagonists I hated were gone for these sets of episodes and Glemy became a formidable and interesting villain, exploring more of the whole Ple stuff introduced short after Ple’s introduction in episode 18, even if little makes sense (I’ll address all of the newtype and cyber newtype stuff that would become the biggest problem of the second half when I get to part 5, as that is where it’s at its worst). Killing Hayato after he ends up knowing what happened to Katz was an unfortunate move though.

Ple is one of the only decent characters of the show and while we see her in the first half and get to know that despite being this unfortunate cyber newtype, she’s just a kid at heart, it’s here where she becomes more prominent, though more annoying in the leary part of this quarter. Even many of the protagonists get sick of her shit, though it’s not so easy to stay mad at her when she still has competence and is a kid, especially after Lina’s “death”, where she has his arc about trying to fill the void Leina left after trying to usurp Leina for so long. Shame it doesn’t get a proper conclusion and everything this show had going for it that was established with these episodes gets fucked, especially since Ple dies in a bullshit way after Ple-Two becomes a thing and Mashymre comes back (admittedly cooler than before but still a bad, one-dimensional character) in episodes 36 and 37.

Part 4: Before I knew it, the first half of quarter 4 betrayed me

Leina lives...and the emotional impact of episode 28 dies. Just...why? How? Oh, and now she’s a newtype even more powerful than Kamille since she can communicate from...somewhere on Earth whilst the crew she is communicating with is in space. Oh, and for some unknown reason, they made Beecha captain instead of Judau, the one man with more leadership qualities than the rest of the group. It's interesting that Beecha thinks that something is wrong with Judau in either a mental or emotional way and they probably would've been interesting if that were the case now that there is no one left to fill Judau’s “Leina” void even remotely, now that Puru is dead.

For some reason, Mashymre has a new crew with Illya and other people and they battle Judau and co.of course but the dumbest thing in episode 38 happens just like in 37 with the Leina stuff. This one Zeon guy has disobeyed an order but is still completing the objective and is not even a second away from shooting the bridge of the Nahel Argama, and his superior, Illya, kills him. It's obviously a retarded way by the writer(s) to keep the protagonists alive but believe me; it gets worse. Episodes 36-38 have has some dumb shit happen, some of which were especially bad but they weren't enough to make me rescind every positive thing I've ever said about the third quarter of ZZ, until I get to the Rasara arc. The Rasara arc (episodes 39-41) is hands down the worst piece of Gundam fiction I have ever encountered! Each episode in this arc is worse than the last and it feels like some of the worst of what the already abominable first half of this show provided, and barring what it does to Mondo, this arc is completely pointless. It's meaningless and all it adds to Mondo is sadness that only really has any relevance to anyone in episode 45, but I'll get to the laughable final 5 episodes later. For now, how about we rip this arc apart for betraying me so!

Somehow, Haman disguises herself and is now in a refugee ship that her forces attack in an attempt to lure the Nahel Argama. How did they know they were coming? Don't say “Haman can sense Judau” since that's an automatic two-way street for the both of them and Judau can't sense Haman, even when he is touching her and she gives off her newtype vibes and speaks to him! This is episode 39 and it's pretty bad, but it's definitely the best episode in this arc. Oh, did I forget to mention that the MoonMoon tribe from the god-awful MoonMoon arc just randomly pop into the arc and stay with the crew for the remainder of it? Why?! No one liked the MoonMoon arc! Even worse, Sarasa of that arc notices Haman and bites her as having an evil suspicious aura, re no one questions/interrogates her! How stupid are these people?! Then episode 40 rolls around and we get introduced to the absolute worst character in the second half of ZZ: Stampa Halloi! He is just the worst: some fugly fatass generic dog of a man, and barring being a complete fucking coward, this is his only character trait! He is worse than Gemon! He is Chara Sune levels of bad! Thank fuck he’s only here for two episodes, and hopefully, he died when Mondo stabbed his mobile suit! We also get introduced to some troublemaking punks that end up being a parallel to the protagonists in their own introduction, but nothing is done with it; they don't even stay once the arc is over, and once everyone meets Stamps and fight his goons, and Judau finally recognizes Haman from her voice, how do they escape? I'm serious. How? Because fuck it, that's why!

Then episode 41 begins, and it is...unspeakable. Anyone who has made it this far knows that Mondo loves Rasara, so what is the right thing to do? Kill her off of course! I mean, there are interesting ways to do that to make him grow, but here’s where things get fucky: she was getting a bit weak at the beginning, and when Stampa is chasing Mondo in a mobile suit, he dived down, and she dived down on top of him to protect him from harm; she somehow died almost immediately afterwards. Sure, rubble falls down around then, but none of that hits either of them! And then her body looks like it has taken a beating on the front, for no reason! As bizarre and stupid as Puru’s death was, at least it had a catalyst! This? No! Not one thing that could lead to her death here. It's not like she was fatally ill or anything, so how the fuck did she die?! Then an action scene begins and for anyone who could ever enter, their beam weapons were covered up entirely and not allowed to be pulled out, and it keeps that tradition during the fight scene...until Illya and Beecha use their beam sabers, contradicting all of that. Thankfully Mondo finally stabbed Stampa’s mobile suit, possibly killing him...only for it to not explode. Fuck it, I'm done, this arc is over! It was an exercise in punishment, suffering, and the utmost betrayal, and every second of it was as bad, if not worse than every single insipid episode that came before! This arc and this show can rot in hell, and anything and everything good about the previous episodes has been utterly obliterated!

Part 5: Glemy’s revolt, the mishandling of the newtype concept, and the glorious retardation of the final 6 episodes

The final 6 episodes of ZZ are an exhibition of glory, both in terms of how epic they were and how monumentally imbecilic they were. These episodes are gloriously bad due to the brutally terrible foundation for these episodes and the fact that there are integral parts, scenes, and explanations missing here, mainly for two specific things that utterly decapitate these episodes: Newtypes and Glemy’s revolt. Let’s do Glemy’s revolt first since there are fewer things to talk about as to why this fails massively.

We do in fact see that Glemy had ambitions of usurping Haman to rule Neo Zeon. Problem is: we don't see how his rebellion starts. We don't see how he is able to convince a myriad of soldiers under his belt or otherwise, to go along with him instead of Haman. Given that this is the impetus for the conflict of the final 5 episodes, in particular, ignoring something so important to this part of the plot is quite a bad move. Hell, they could’ve skipped the Rasara arc entirely to focus on expanding on this much-needed origin of rebellion, especially since there are only minor inklings of potential for this revolt prior to Glemy’s next appearance which is to effectively begin it. This intertwines with the next thing that kills the rest of this show. It’s finally time for the climax of this review; it’s high time I talk about: the Newtype shenanigans.

Where do I begin? There is so, so much to cover here. How about starting with Chara, just to get the dead bitch out of the way. Oh yeah, she dies retardedly in the final episode while shouting her name triumphantly. Apparently, there is something wrong about her and how she is a cyber newtype to the point where this is used to explain all of her inconsistent behaviors throughout her appearance in episodes 10-21 and the final 6 episodes. Obviously, it doesn’t fly since she has no concrete personality this cyber newtype stuff is supposed to deal with barring her being a demanding bitch...which she is no matter what unless she’s smothering Judau in her bosom. A similar treatment is given to Mashymre after his departure around episode 12 and I don’t know why. We don’t see how he keeps getting roided, and we only ever see one newtype facility and that was for the purus that I’ll cover after this. Zeta bothered to show some of that shit, why not ZZ? He even has this happened between episodes of this section of the show offscreen. This is important and compromising information that we are missing out of. He overloads and commits the coolest act in this entire show and the most epic suicide in all of anime, if not all of fiction. The only thing I know to remotely rival this is the famous scene from Independence Day with the guy that crashed into the mothership. It's ineffective, sure, but he does it with such gusto the tits cool regardless, and literally, everyone takes notice.

Speaking of Ples, before I dive into this particular shitsow, how about I say that Ple-Two is a decent enough character who goes through the typical “choose between brainwashing and freedom side while your head hurts” plot. Also, she is literally fucking impossible, her and the Ple army. Did they simply create Ple clones or something? We don't know. How come Haman knew nothing about any of this? No spies or mandatory reports? Somehow Ple (and eventually Judau) can channel newtype energy so powerful as to deflect beams entirely, and that literally makes no conceivable sense ever, and fuck episode 36 for including such retardation. Ple-Two controlling her mechs with her mind makes sense; RC control of them with her mind (aka doing it outside of the mech, like remote control with her mind) is a stretch, especially for giant mechs and those other shooting funnels being controlled all at once.

In general, they keep adding new, absolutely stupid bs to the newtype business and even among that, it's wildly inconsistent at times. Also, somehow Judau does the same bullshit Kamille did at the end of his series which was always baffling and stupid because the final few episodes of Zeta were also retarded but this is next level shit. The last two episodes are especially riddled with stupidity however and make for a laughable bad finale. They also add forced romantic stuff between Beecha and Elle (who had no inkling of it and when Beecha said he was trying to be nice to her, everyone in the audience should call bullshit when they were all jackasses, especially him, Luke when he and Mondo tried to actively get Judau killed in the first half) for no real reason other than trying to make us feel happy and go “what a long way these guys have come” (though the second time they try that tactic, this time with the final episode with Judau and then saying one more goodbye before he faces off Haman was good). We don't how how Leina survived that incident in episode 28 of a mobile suit crashing and exploding into her shack where she was resting, setting the whole thing on fire (Sunrise…) but apparently now she’s with Seila Mass...who just happens to be on Earth somewhere and we don't even know where. Also, Ple-Two dies in the final episode (or at least passes or and is never seen again but come on, that's most likely death) and no one gives a fuck. Haman dies in a retarded way as well, and Glemy’s death scene makes no sense either both in terms of the Gundam that killed him and the fact that after Ple-Two rejected him to go with Judau, she jumps to save him as he disintegrates and his Mobile Armor blows up and she dies soon after (why?). Oh, and nothing is resolved about this war other than the two tyrants dying but that's apparently good enough for this anime...bleh!

Epilogue

So that was Mobile Suit ZZ. A broken, stupid, largely insufferable mess of a series that took far too long to only temporarily become remotely decent, all the while downgrading everything positive about Zeta such as the visuals to some extent and especially the music. What a chaotic shitshow. The only reasons this isn't the worst in the franchise are that Twilight Axis exists now, almost ⅕ of this series was good and some parts weren't all that terrible, but when over half of your series, especially in the first half, is a 0/10, then there really is little hope for salvation, since it not only compounds every issue Zeta (an infinitely better anime) had but had its own heap of issues to fill a space colony.

To be honest, I see little reason to watch this unless you really want to complete every Gundam anime out there, as it's among the worst-written of them all. This is also the longest anime I've completed that I personally detest. As bad as SEED Destiny and 00 Second Season are, I don't outright hate them like I do with this one. It is one of two in this franchise I actively despise thus far; ZZ is truly the most loathsome this franchise has ever been. Now, with all that said, I bid you adieu.

Here is the short part:

To me there will be 3 types of people who will watch ZZ.

1.Those who enjoyed the angst of Zeta
2. Those who didn't (Me)
3.Those who have never watched a UC Gundam series before

To the 1's I say: This may not be the series for you as it is very lighthearted and sometimes campy from the beginning and doesn't really lose touch of these roots as it grows from it.

... Tot he 2's: I sympathize with you, and say that you will most likely enjoy the fresh characters and their passion in what they do.

To the 3's I say: Why are you starting here? Go watch the original Gundam or at the very least Zeta. Please.

The long of it:

So as you may or may not already know, this series is the 3rd in the Universal Century (UC) Timeline. With the ending of Zeta very... grim, we reach a more light a and fun series with our protagonists.

According to some this first part of the series is hard to get through, to others it is a very good up turn from the Zeta. To me I think this is a great addition to UC timeline.

All throughout the Gundam franchise, angst has been hanging over the heads of all the characters, death of loved ones, betrayals, doubts of living through the next battle. And while this does help add depth to characters, this in retrospect however means that to tell a good story no one can be properly happy.

ZZ topples this idea with spirited fun and characters with good growth and change throughout the series. And while some characters don't grow they still are enjoyable to watch as they exhibit the humanity that people can show throughout war without having to regress into some sort of puddle of angst and sorrow for however long.

In terms of technical stuff, the art is what you'l expect and is well done; Sound is well placed and used; And the story is a very interesting one to say at the very least with characters that can be very tragic.

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the third installment to the Gundam franchise, gets a considerably poor reputation among the Gundam community. I've even read that some fans accuse Tomino Yoshiyuki, the director of the Gundam metaseries's first group of series including ZZ, of intentionally trying to ruin the franchise. That's pretty harsh, but I don't think it's truthfully quite as bad as it's believed to be.

The plot takes place directly after Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and stars a group of teenagers who are junk collectors, the main character being another Newtype by the name of Judau Ashta. Now here's where things get a little different story-wise. ... The first half or so of the series is very lighthearted and comedy filled, contrasting greatly to its predecessor Zeta's intense drama. Then the story later takes on a more serious persona, which causes some little inconsistencies. There have been a lot of shows that integrate comedy with seriousness very well, and Tomino claims that he did wish to cheer up audiences, but the comedy-seriousness shift wasn't all that great here, causing the show to suffer some points.
The deaths, which are a part of every Gundam series of course, weren't really handled very well in the series either. The overall tragedy and impact of the events was just missing a tad, which is definitely a disappointment because those moments deserve some good emphasis.

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ aired very shortly after Zeta finished, and thus the art is just of the same caliber. It's pretty good animation for the time, which is to be expected of a Gundam title. The sound department, however, falls a bit short of Zeta's outstanding musical quality. Not to say that it is bad, but it does not touch Zeta's work here. But, I will add on a positive note, that the first opening theme, "Anime Ja Nai", is a very memorable song. Also, elaborating on that point, the contrasting theme songs display exactly the difference between the two halves of ZZ. The former, "Anime Ja Nai", is close to a kid's tune, whereas the latter, "Silent Voice", exhibits a more somber mood.

Due to the whimsical first half, the characters aren't quite as developed as they probably could have been. Some of the main crew aren't really too appealing as characters, but there are some significant persons that deserve mention; Chara Soon being the first one to immediately come to mind. Several characters from the past series make appearances as well, but most of the said appearances are just cameos, with the exception of everybody's favorite captain Bright Noa and the Axis leader Haman Karn.

The enjoyment factor is a little hard to judge, again because of the split tones of the show. The comedy half is enjoyable, but in my opinion the serious half is much better. That is of course just a matter of opinion though that will vary from person to person, depending on if you find the first half a nice change of pace, or if you condemn it for not living up to the previous stories.

Overall, I think Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ gets cut down a tad too much because it simply doesn't match up to the standards and strong qualities set by Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. However, it is still definitely worth the watch for any Gundam fan, and you could certainly turn out loving it if you're the right person.

One of the things that gives Gundam ZZ a bad rap is the way it is so jarringly different in mood from its direct prequel, Zeta Gundam. Zeta Gundam is a great, brooding anime and a testament to how anime could tell a serious space drama. Bracing myself for what I knew would likely be a more upbeat anime, I gave ZZ a chance to impress me with an open mind.

The collection of characters in ZZ, particularly the new group of protagonists, aren't terribly deep and aren't incredibly original, but they do have a kind of chemistry together that can carry the show during the ... low points. Judau Ashta is our hero, a typical rash teenage boy pilot that we have seen a hundred times and will see a thousand more. Haman Karn returns from Zeta as the main antagonist, now seemingly more powerful and determined than ever. One of the surprising bright sides of ZZ is the unique chemistry that develops between Judau and Haman. Half the time, Haman is trying to kill Judau, and the other half she is trying to seduce him. While the series as a whole lacks enough tense moments, Haman and Judau seem to supply a few fireworks when they are in close proximity.

Not all of the characters are nearly as tolerable, unfortunately. The first ten or so episodes heavily feature an antagonist named Mashymere Cello. His entire schtick of comedy through romantic fantasies of Haman gets old at a rapid pace. I was relieved when the focus shifted away from him. If you have seen Zeta Gundam, you might have been annoyed as I was with the bratty kid Katz. Gundam ZZ introduces a major character named Elpeo Puru who is lightyears more spoiled and intolerable than Katz could've ever dreamed to become. Puru is supposed to be one of the good guys, too. We're supposed to like her, but it's almost impossible. Mashymere and Puru stand out as two of the worst characters, but rest assured they aren't the only people bringing this series down. Nearly the entire cast shares some quality that is a boon to viewers' interests, whether they are boring, poorly developed, shallow, unoriginal, or just plain unlikable.

The story of ZZ definitely lacks the scope and intrigue of other Gundam titles. Haman's troops chase Judau around space. Then they fight on Earth. Then they fight in space again. Then they have a final battle. There are some sub-plots surrounding the fate of Judau's sister Leina, and a planned coup d'etat by one of Haman's underlings, which offer interesting tidbits. However, far too many of the episodes are complete throw-away stories, as the main plot isn't complex enough to fill a 47 episode series alone. Sometimes, a series makes the best of stand-alone episodes. Cowboy Bebop did this excellently. Gundam ZZ isn't crafty enough to pull it off.

One last thing, as shallow as it might be, that I could not get over is the influence of the 80s on fashion for every character in the show. An Axis commander named Chara Soon looks like she wandered right out of a glam rock concert. Roux Louka has a spacesuit with a terrible Rainbow Bright-inspired star pattern on it. Judau's friend Elle dresses like a Madonna groupie, and Judau himself dresses like Michael Jackson. Except for our old friend Captain Bright, I don't think there's a single character who doesn't dress tacky on a regular basis. While this might not be a big deal to some, it was a little distracting.

I admit that while starting out rough, Gundam ZZ does find legs and become watchable towards the latter half of the show. However, the first half of the show is really not much more than an unfunny comedy, which is bad enough for any anime but even worse when you're using the holy brand name of one of the most respected serious anime metaseries, Gundam. Also, even when ZZ does hit its stride, it only remains "okay" even at its highest moments.

Does Gundam ZZ deserve a spot on some "Shames of anime" list? I don't think so. However, is it an above average series? I would say no. Other shows have better characters, more interesting filler episodes, and don't fail at comedy. Still, it is a believable continuation of the Universal Century storyline, so they could have screwed up worse.

The "Worst Gundam Ever" tag didn't scare me from watching this series as part of my completionist mentality. After all I had managed to eventually finish Zeta Gundam - so how bad could this be? I guess the tag wasn't exaggerated. Now, while the other reviewers may have liked this, I have to beg to agree to disagree. Read on for a "keeping it real" review.

Story wise, ZZ follows the generic gundam story line. Young hero, happens to "fall" into piloting the "latest and greatest" suit. Gets conscripted into fighting for adults whether willingly or unwillingly. Grows up, finds his own reasons to fight/not fight ... which usually includes a love interest somewhere. Goes to space, comes back to earth, goes back to space and there is the inevitable big battle to end it all.

However, despite having a good backstory with Zeta Gundam, ZZ fails to use the story framework to entertain the watcher.

Judau is annoying. I know he started as a scavenger but after someone is kind enough to let you pilot their latest and greatest suit you and your friends should not be "biting the hand that feeds" by trying to turn in your rescuer's ship to the enemy for salvage. That ungrateful brat. Although I didn't particularly care for Camille B'dan (from Zeta Gundam) because he was a whiny cry baby, let's just say by episode 10 I was PRAYING that he would come back and kick some sense into Judau.

So, if I didn't like the protagonist why did I continue to watch this series? Well I'm not a quitter, I honestly thought it would get better. But it didn't. The rest of Judau's friends were totally unlikeable too. Do they not know the meaning of the word "LOYALTY"?? The villians were terribly whiny cry babies too. And weak. Not really villianous, more like Silly. Victory Gundam had more characters but they did it right, I've honestly not seen another Gundam series with so many annoying characters.

To top it all off, the plot was horrible and got worse. Judau cross dressing in the harem episode was surely the low point. The animation is dated with lots of re-use. Sound is average. And despite Gundam being known for good music they couldn't even manage to squeeze in JUST ONE good song into the series, that's not asking for much, right???

So there's nothing there to really elevete or redeem this mess of an anime. I really wanted to like this and I gave it my best shot but let's just say by the time the anime ended I was relieved that it was over. If you don't have a lot of time to spare I would recommend watching some other Gundam Series and skipping this one.

Hello, everyone, this is Shawn aka KurataLordStage and this time we will be taking a look at one of the most notorious Gundam shows from the franchise Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ.
Spoilers ahead of this show takes place directly after Zeta.


Story.
It is the year Universal Century 0088 the Titans have been defeated and Kamile Bidan mind was lost in the process turning him into a living vegetable because of this the Neo Zeon raise in power and gain control. The Arguma crew land on Shangri where they meet Judau Ashta a teenager who is taking care of his sister by dismantling mobile suit and selling ... them for scrap for his buddies. As soon as the Neo Zeons attack the Arguma recruits Judau to pilot the latest mobile suit weapon the Double Zeta Gundam.

Am just going say it right now the story of ZZ Gundam is hot garbage. I know that your all thinking but the show fixes itself in the second half, the finale was great and it returned Zeta roots. No. ZZ Gundam was always bad and the show did not improve all that much in second half.
Before I tear apart the story of ZZ Gundam am going to tell you good about the story of ZZ Gundam

What I liked ZZ Gundam story.
I actually thought the themes of growing up to be decently handed. It didn't become a preachy piece of shit and the show did a decent job at showcasing this because as much I hate most of the new characters they actually grow up as the show progresses.

What I dislike from ZZ Gundam story.
Everything else really due to the show being such a horrendous written show in almost every way possible.

The first half of ZZ Gundam aka the 2 worst of Gundam content-wise.
Many Gundam fans say that Seed Destiny second half is the worst thing from the franchise. I have to play an unpopular opinion on that because ZZ Gundam is easily the second worst thing I have even from the Gundam franchise only losing to Victory Gundam second half. I will get to the show soon because I have a lot of things to say to you.
Back on topic. I was aware of ZZ Gundam goofy reputation because I been told by my friends and at first I didn't mind it the show has a different tone compared to Zeta. Then I watched it and now I just want to Bright Slap Tomino for directing this garbage.
The comedic tone of ZZ Gundam is absolutely horrendous in every level.
Not only it not appropriate for a Gundam show which keeps in mind it takes right after Zeta ended but it actually butchered the writing and pacing of the show. The comedy was cringe-worthy as we see characters and mechas put in retarded solutions like for example one of my favorite Gundam Zeta has was been reduced into a boxer thanks to Juadu. Who thought that was a good idea to write that.
As for the episodes, the only episodes that I liked were the ones that featured Ple in it because she was honestly one of the only redeeming things about this shit show. Everything other episodes including episode 1 were horrendous to watch. Some of these episodes are just so horrendous they feel skippable because they are just that bad like the moon moon story arc which was the 2 episode arc which had no point existing.
The second half is a bit better but not by much.
The writing has slightly improved as the show has more stakes but it didn't fix everything that was wrong with the show.
Overall the story of ZZ Gundam is hot garbage.
The second half may be a slight improvement but the show cannot fix the travesty that is the first half.
2/10

Characters.
Since the story of ZZ Gundam was absolutely horrendous how are the characters? Are they any better?
NO! in fact, some of these characters are worse than the story itself.
Judau is just a shitty Gundam protagonist. Imagine Kamile Bidan but without the charm and growth of this character. He's an insufferable brat who is an asshole to people including his own sister. For example of his stupidity is where in one episode he aggressively tries to attack Fa after she slaps him for being a dick to his own sister. For whose asking Yes he does grow up in the second half and it he kinda matures as a character. The problem is that we the audience don't feel any sympathy or connection to this character because he was just an insufferable douchbag in the first half. Now I like flawed characters because they actually have time to grow up and change as human beings.
Judau is a perfect example to not write a flawed character and because of he just becomes just another one dimensional Saturday morning cartoon character. By the way, you will be seeing these words Saturday Morning Cartoon characters a lot during this selection of this review. Anyway, screw this character let's talk about Juadu's friends.
They are all unlikeable, poorly written and they just felt like Saturday morning cartoon characters. Just horrible.
Lenia is not a fucking character whatsoever She a plot device that only the plot going not to mention she's a fucking damsel in distress and a nag. How beautiful.
Bright Noa. What did they do to you?
You went from a proud and valiant leader in 0079 and Zeta and now in ZZ he devolved into a newtype babysitter.
He is so less strick when you compare to him to 0079 and Zeta. What a wonderful way to ruin one of the main iconic characters from the franchise Tomino.
The only good new character in ZZ is Ple. Unlike almost all of the characters in ZZ which are basically One Dimensional Satudary Morning Cartoons characters Ple actually has a personality and actually left like an actual character despite being a cyber newtype kid. She was honestly the only characters that I enjoyed from start to finish. It's such a shame that Ple is in this piece of shit show instead of Char Counterattack or even the prequel show Zeta.

The villains in ZZ are pathetic.
Before I start to roast these quotations "villains" let's talk about Haman Karn.
She still a good character as still a badass and threating villain and she didn't get butchered unlike a lot of the previous characters. However, I question Haman's obsession with Judau. It was a bit out of character for Haman to have an obsession with Juadu an enemy. In the end of the day she still the best character in the whole entire show. I just wish she was in Char Counterattack instead of this shit show. She was clearly too good to be in this show.
Now for the new villains. They are all horrendous.
The first Saturday morning cartoon villain character list is Mashymre.
He is a one-dimensional character, acts like a fool and he only exists to bring the most repetitive gags from the Gundam franchise where he always chivalry for his lady.
Next, for the Saturday morning cartoon villain character list is that fat fucker Guzin who is an obnoxious scumbag. That all can say about him.
Glemy is also not a good villain and he mostly exists to teach Leina in quotations "some manners" and become a pathetic loser around Roux. Least your not a Saturday morning cartoon character which is a blessing.
Chara Soon is a horrendous excuse for a villain. she has no concrete personality beyond being an insufferable bitch whenever she on screen. Also, the voice acting form this character. was ear bleeding? The only decent thing I can about this character that she, not a stupid Saturday morning cartoon villain. Other than that she a fucking mess.
Overall like with the story the characters are hot garbage.
2/10

Visuals.
Visually ZZ Gundam is almost identical to Zeta Gundam.
The characters designs still have that 80s charm that I liked and the backgrounds scenery is still good.
As for the mecha designs, I thought they were okay.
The double Zeta itself looks cool but I feel it draws the line between real robot to super robot.
The rest of the mechs range from good, mediocre to uninspiring.
Overall the visuals of ZZ is still pretty good for what it is.
7/10

Sound.
The music ZZ Gundam is pretty good overall.
Most of the songs in Zeta make a return here but there are some new songs that fit the light-hearted tone of the series. Some of my favorite tracks in ZZ Gundam include Arghama, Shangri La, Masshima Cello and Judau in Space (Track).
Anime ja nai is a catchy song that fits comedic first half of the series while the second opening theme Silent voice fits the more serious second half of the series.
The voicing, for the most part, is pretty good and most of the seiyuus did a good job for voicing each character minus Chara who sounds like dogshit.
Overall the soundtrack is still good as ever. The opening and ending themes were good and the voice acting minus Chara was pretty good.
7/10


Final Thoughts.
Train-wreck is the best way to describe this series.
The first half was full of a lot of comedic garbage that felt like a poorly made Saturday morning cartoons Most of the characters sucked that behaved like Saturday morning cartoons and the show is a poorly written mess.
The only good things from ZZ Gundam were the themes, Ple, visuals, and the music.
ZZ Gundam is one of the worst Gundam shows that I have the pleasure of watching from start to finish.
Is this worst than the Build Fighters Try, Wing and Seed Destiny?
Yes because least those shows were fun to laugh at. ZZ Gundam is a fucking failure of a squeal.
ZZ Gundam is one of the worst anime squeals I have ever watched in anime.

I don't recommend this show to anyone unless you are a big Gundam freak such as myself.

Final Score 2/10

Anyway this was Shawn aka KurataLordStage and I will see you guys next time.

"It's finally time", I thought to myself as I leaned back and cracked my soft computer fingers. I dipped my feet into UC Gundam and tried some AU, and in the spirit of what started as familiarizing myself with some of Super Robot Wars's most prominently featured series I decided to partake in the inevitability that is watching the notorious Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. To know anything about ZZ Gundam at all is to know the reasons why it's so hated. Are they true? If you came here for my response, then the answer is yes and you can probably imagine most of the review ... that follows. But I'll mirror the complaints that have forever followed ZZ Gundam regardless, because they always need to be acknowledged and never repeated. If you're a ZZ Gundam fan faint of heart, you may want to turn away. Also, please forgive me if any facts regarding the show's production are false, it was difficult to find concrete information.

Let it be known that I'm not the biggest fan of Zeta Gundam to begin with. It's a pretty good show but if I viewed it as the apex of the Gundam franchise there wouldn't have been much left for me to look forward to (thankfully, there was). For all the things it did quite well, it drunkenly stepped through them. You've got your down-to-earth real robot series drama but with some occasionally inconsistent characterization and a regularly frustratingly childish cast. Some great Mobile Suit battles but far too many taking up screentime with some borderline monster-of-the-week Mobile Suits. You've got a genuine space epic... but damn, would it have suffered any from being done faster? Zeta Gundam is very quirkily flawed yet is still a very fulfilling tale. Going into Zeta Gundam's sequel, you'll be pleased to quickly realize that all of these problems not only persist, but have been multiplied with some added new problems on top for flavor. Brace yourself, the legend begins here.

Although many of his works are heralded as stone-cold classics, Yoshiyuki Tomino himself is seen far less favorably. I'm going to cut to the chase and say that most people view him as a little bit crazy. If there's a good thing to say about him, it's that he at very least writes what he feels: the man is known for his mood swings that form the tone of the series he writes. He's gone from straight-up comedies (most innocuously Xabungle) and very serious melodramas (the most serious of which have earned him the loving nickname "Kill 'Em All Tomino"). After ending his latest depressive state with Zeta Gundam, Tomino immediately began work on its more manic follow-up, the misnomered Double Zeta Gundam, and tries to do both.

It's important we realize just what a bad idea the tone of ZZ Gundam was. This isn't a brand new Gundam series released with a significant gap between the others to help foster its own individuality; this is one of the very few direct sequel series. ZZ Gundam starts right where Zeta Gundam ended, and aired a week after Zeta Gundam's final episode. In a sense, this already ships ZZ Gundam as a second half to Zeta Gundam rather than its own series. It's perfectly reasonable why fans were alienated so much by episodes 51+ of "Zeta Gundam". The dumping or misuse of previous popular cast members as if they never existed and replacing them with incompetent children, stopping and then slowly murdering all momentum and intrigue built by the last series, and most importantly changing the tone to something entirely unrecognizable to no reward should be enough to make anyone think that Tomino is not simply creating a new Gundam series, but renouncing the previous series out of spite and contempt for it and its fans. A series many people loved and treated with seemingly more respect than the person who created it.

It's unfortunate to both fans and detractors alike but also entirely fair (and only possible) to judge ZZ Gundam on the footholds of Zeta Gundam, because that's exactly what it prompts us to do. This is Zeta Gundam part two. The main situations the plot revolve around that vie for the viewer's interest are first planted in Zeta Gundam, so to fully enjoy all aspects of ZZ Gundam one has to have seen and have been interested in Zeta Gundam to begin with. But that's a genuine catch 22 as the writing of both series contradict each other and the person who can say they enjoyed the entirety of both equally has to be the rarest sort of Gundam fan. Ignoring Zeta Gundam while watching and judging ZZ Gundam is just not possible, because though the writing is different, the scenario is Zeta Gundam, the music is Zeta Gundam, the animation is Zeta Gundam, and the first Gundam is Zeta Gundam. To care about half of ZZ Gundam, you need to have cared about Zeta Gundam.

To finally say something positive, the set-up of ZZ Gundam is actually pretty good on paper. The Argama is weary after Zeta Gundam's final battle and goes to rest up at the rundown space colony known as Shangri-La. Due to some contrived happenstance a group of ordinary junk dealers wind up as part of the Argama's dwindling crew. Needless to say, AEUG standards are slipping fast. But seriously, I rather like the idea of a ragtag cast composed of regular people in poverty with little education or Mobile Suit training. It's neat to watch these guys basically picked up off the street have to get their crap together and learn to be real soldiers. Or at least it would be if not for two things: One, that doesn't really happen, and two, they're direct replacements for a much more capable crew also comprised of some civilians not much more experienced than the ZZ crew. Again, comparisons are unavoidable. I also have trouble buying their acceptance by the Argama in the first place. Bright is noticeably mellowing out in what can be construed as character development, but he straddles the line between patient and naive, and naive is a negative aspect that you'd normally never attribute to Bright. More on that later.

After Kamille fucks off forever because Tomino doesn't care about him or you, the inept Judau Ashta takes his place as the protagonist. Judau's really not that bad compared to some other ZZ characters. As a matter of fact, he's one of the few new members that gets that character development I mentioned above, and his skill with a Mobile Suit increases at a noticeable and much more believable rate than that of Kamille's. If he wasn't such a routinely stupid jerk you might even root for him. But he is a stupid jerk. He regularly defies orders for no good reason and comes up with his own idiotic plans that should never succeed but do only because he's the main character. The best example I can give is when he and his genius friends come up with the plan to tie bombs to Judau and his Gundam and have him fly onto battleships threatening to blow himself up if the battleships don't do what he asks. This is real. On top of his adamant nature that could make Kamille look like the calmly collected Char, he also goes on even more of the same endless prattling about "adults ruining everything" that crosses the line from pubescent frustration into the cries of a 5 year old told they have to clean their room. Possibly the worst part is that if you've ever read enough interviews with Tomino you'd be inclined to think that he totally believes all this nonsense about "soulless adults" and "kid power!" that if I recall was a big theme in the Spongebob Squarepants movie.

Rounding off the moron squad are Judau's also impoverished friends. Elle Vianno is by far the most valuable. She's a competent Mobile Suit pilot, completely reasonable, affectionate, charmingly friendly, and is one of the few main characters that never makes an ass of themself throughout the entirety of ZZ Gundam. In other words, she's a miraculous fluke and the best of the new characters, and the only reason she turned out so well must be because the writers simply forgot to make her terrible like everyone else. Beecha and Mondo are the troublesome shitheads that can't leave their former life behind and immediately resolve to try and sell out the Argama and get their lifetime friends murdered for nothing other than money (never mind Neo Zeon having no reason to pay them when they have power), and no one in the series gives a single fuck about this and lets them come crawling back later free of charge with very little said in the way of "why the fuck did you just try and get your best friends killed?". Remember all those unlikable characters in Zeta Gundam? Now imagine none of them ever getting their comeuppance and you have the frustration of those moments in Zeta Gundam stretched out indefinitely. Oh yeah, some guy named Iino is here too but I always forget his passive self exists until he's center screen. As said earlier, Bright Noa is the most significant returning character but is all of a sudden not reprimanding his asshole crew at all whenever they screw up (every episode) and just lets them do whatever stupid life-endangering activities they want (even when its his and the lives of others on the line). I guess he's just... getting so very tired... I know some people will want me to talk about Roux, Puru, Mashymere, Haman, etc. but I'm wearing myself out just by covering the initial protagonists. I will, however, acknowledge Chara Soon, a female pilot who has an orgasm whenever she pilots a Mobile Suit and embodies the stupidity of ZZ Gundam more than any other character (a huge accomplishment), and Haman, a villain that gets props for having much more to do with the central conflict than Scirocco but isn't any more interesting.

Of course, the characters all being screw-ups is directly related to ZZ Gundam's legendary tonal shift from Zeta Gundam, focusing more on comedy than drama. I mean, Zeta Gundam could get pretty melodramatic at some points and easing up on that could even do the serious moments some good by comparison, but ZZ Gundam's tonal shift offers absolutely nothing to it. At its best it's simply dry, boring slapstick, and at its worst it's clashing with the serious stuff and makes you want to murder the cast. The Neo-Zeon officer is explaining his plan to murder the heroes to the viewer, oh no! Oh look, as he was walking away he got his hand stuck in the door by accident. Well, all right then. And don't get me started on the hundreds of times in ZZ Gundam where a character is simply walking and for literally no reason just trips and falls on their ass. That's it. We're expected to roll over laughing because a character tripped or walked into a wall by accident or -charmingly- screwed up the Argama's plans thus risking the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians who don't deserve it. It's the laziest slapstick "humor" you could come up with, and it leads us to laughing at the characters and not with them. If the characters demanded the slightest ounce of respect to begin with this would be a much bigger problem, though.

And therein lies the issue with a tone that's trying to pull in two opposite directions. ZZ Gundam's universe was already detailed to us in 0079 and Zeta as being very realistic, and the empathizable life-like characters were a big reason why the franchise became a hit, redefined the sci-fi genre in anime, and are why we care about anything that happens in the story. We see people on both sides of the war getting hurt and this matters to us because we know many didn't deserve it and were made victims of circumstance, as war is. ZZ Gundam sets us in the same realistic universe where death to innocent people is a very real and serious thing, then asks us to not mind and instead love it when our heroes put the lives of thousands, technically millions due to the scope of the war, at risk when they selfishly act on very poorly thought-out ideas because they're just a bunch of lil goofball kids and also adults suck. It doesn't work. The offscreen civilians and the former legacy of previous Gundam casts do not deserve to be jeopardized for the undeserved plot armor victories of the incompetent ZZ Gundam cast. You can't imply nothing's important in one scene then immediately demand something is one second later. ZZ Gundam has little to no control over its audience's emotions and violates basic writing sense for zero benefit. Its more light-hearted tone couldn't have been executed much worse and does nothing other than drag the series down because it's never even funny when it tries to be.

Wait, it gets better? Dang, I guess you're right. In true ZZ Gundam fashion relating to the above, ZZ Gundam undergoes yet another tonal shift completely out of nowhere around the halfway point of the series. All of a sudden the indefensibly stupid actions of our heroes nearly cease and the comedy that remains is being executed out of the way of the more serious stretches, even if it still isn't funny. We're not reaching Zeta Gundam levels of angst or anything (again, not necessarily a bad thing), but what matters is that our characters are suddenly reestablished as mortal human beings with things at stake that we can understand and relate to. Although as if they're rising like a really subtle and lazy phoenix, nothing can repair the fact that we still view the groundwork laid in the first half of the series as the heart of these characters and that any real change to their attitudes is surface level because so much happens so suddenly without much of a transition in character. It doesn't feel like the cast grew up (because they always defended their actions and resisted criticism), it just feels like they're being written in a different way. Beecha and Mondo don't come back to the Argama because they realize they're hurting their friends, they come back because the Neo Zeon soldiers worked them too hard. Well, an improvement is an improvement.

Regardless, the second half of ZZ Gundam still meanders with glacial pacing and endless diversions and sub-plots from the main storyline all the way up until the final three episodes. I'm not kidding when I say "major" characters are written out for nearly twenty episodes and then are brought back with a literal plot device used to make them into competent characters. Even when ZZ Gundam tries to be serious it's so lazily done that caring about anything is just as impossible as it was before. Instead of spending several episodes fighting grunts in a desert or something, they could have had the sub-plots have to do with the main characters or the side characters they have suddenly returned when the series is almost completely over and give everything a more natural transition. Demanding anything from a show where the writing is so incompetent is pointless, and I don't think I would've thought less of ZZ Gundam than I do now if it just stayed stupid the entire way through. In a way, it does. Even the finale of the series goes out with a whimper instead of a bang, and the showdown feels suddenly forced rather than built up to, as if the cast were just screwing around the whole time then just happened to find themselves in the final battle.

I've ragged on ZZ Gundam pretty damn hard here, but that's because I feel like it's important to reveal the conceptual principles that doomed the series from the very beginning and how baffling many of the choices made regarding the series are. If any single person realizes these mistakes and goes on to become a writer and avoids them themselves, then that's a success. At least ZZ Gundam is fairly far from being unwatchable. It's tolerable most of the time, albeit boring, but it's pretty screwed up that one of the nicest things I can say about it is "it could've been worse". Is ZZ Gundam a failure? I don't see how it couldn't be. It fails as both a follow-up to Zeta Gundam and a stand-alone series. It's true that the series gets so much more of a bad rap for being compared to Zeta Gundam, but that's because it should. Even if you isolate it from its base (something you'd have to consciously force) the things that make ZZ Gundam unique just aren't good. The slapstick gags and idiot characters are not fresh or funny. The drama is not very affecting as it revolves around characters we're unintentionally set up to dislike. Even the Mobile Suit designs feel played out after Zeta Gundam's similar Mobile Suits, and many are repeated. The most satisfying aspects of the story are the ones that relate to what was started before ZZ Gundam in better series. It's not the worst thing ever. It's not a hidden gem. It's not unfairly judged. It's Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam.

The Gundam franchise continued to gain massive popularity due to the release of zeta Gundam. Its depiction of its heroes as flawed individuals who tried to reconcile their selfish desire with their sense of duty was a potent combination. In order to capitalize on his new found success, Tomino made ZZ Gundam which takes place right after the finale of Zeta Gundam. However, this entry into the franchise has to be the weakest one yet.

Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam follows a group of misfits on a junkyard colony called Shangri-la. The Argama, the battleship which housed Kamille Bidan and Bright Noa from Zeta Gundam, dock the ... ship there to get repairs. However, they brought remnants of the war onto this colony and it disrupts the lives of our protagonists. And there is the ever looming threat of Neo-Zeon led by Haman Karn and her plans to conquest the galaxy.

The first you immediately notice is the glaring change in tone from Zeta Gundam. While Zeta Gundam had a very dense and dark tone, especially toward the end of the show, ZZ Gundam is much more light-hearted than its predecessor. This is much to the detriment of the show. The change of tone, in the beginning, is refreshing but its novelty quickly wears thin as the show progresses. You expect things to become more serious as we learn about the major threat that Haman poses to the galaxy but that tonal shift never truly comes. There are moments where the show becomes serious but quickly returns to that light-hearted tone.

Another thing you may notice is the focus on comedy. Tomino decided he wanted to be a comedian and dedicated every 5 minutes to some slapstick humor. This ends up in a lot of hit or miss jokes, and the jokes mostly miss. The problem with the humor in this show is it is largely the same jokes being repeated without different execution. And the humor revolves around its characters and their personality flaws but if you do not like the characters, which I didn’t, the jokes become very grating as time goes on.

Since this is a show directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, you can expect some character deaths. But the death scenes in the show were so poorly done as well as the scenes leading up to the deaths themselves, you will think ‘what the hell was he thinking?’ There is no emotional buildup to the deaths which makes the scenes themselves lack any impact. And spoilers, the characters you want to die end up living for the whole show. This left a very bad taste in my mouth as Tomino usually knows who to kill off in his anime.

The art for this show remains high quality and very consistent. There are few moments where the animation falters and designs lack detail but those moments are few and between. There are also a lot of reused scenes but they are mostly the transformation scenes with the occasional scene from the Zeta Gundam opening being reused.

Now let us talk characters. Tomino is known for making its cast relatively unlikable to the average viewer. They come off as reckless, hostile and sometimes idiotic. But these traits fall in line with their prior characterization and make a larger point about how immaturity has no place in actual combat. Also, their actions also came with consequences which add a layer of believability to the world and weight to their decisions. Forget about all of that in Double Zeta Gundam. The characters in this show are extremely unlikable, but they are written in such a way that we are supposed to like them. The show focuses on their comical hijinks more often than not and the humor is largely centered on their character. But these characters are so unlikable it becomes infuriating to watch them. And worst of all, with all their selfish decisions, almost everything goes their way. They never have to suffer for their selfish deeds and are often rewarded for it. This throws out everything that made Zeta Gundam so successful. This is especially true of Mondo and Beecha, my two most hated characters in the Gundam series thus far. These characters are spoiled and they never learn anything meaningful throughout the show. The gravity of their circumstances never causes them to have a major realization of life or themselves or their sense of duty. The majority of the cast treats everything so flippantly that you will undoubtedly be angered by almost everything they do.

Another issue is the villains do not seem like believable threats for the most part. For the majority of the show, the villains come off as comical almost like Scooby Doo villains. You can practically hear them saying, “And I would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for those darn kids!” every time their plans are foiled. But what the show does to Haman Karn is very upsetting. She still maintains the elegance, beauty, and intelligence that she had in Zeta Gundam. But the show makes it seem like surrounds herself with idiots on purpose which contradicts her planning nature. But still, she remains the best character in this show.

Next is Judau Ashta, the pilot of the Double Zeta Gundam and the character that is most focused on in the show. All of those traits present in most of the main cast are present in him but to a lesser degree to where he becomes tolerable. One of the major issues I had was the bastardization of Bright Noa. What was a once a proud and valiant leader during the pivotal battles of the Gundam franchise, was now an impotent babysitter. The kids that he has to take care of are constantly ignoring him and humiliating him to a point where it becomes sad to watch.

Is Mobile Suit Double Zeta Gundam Worth a watch? I would say no. It does not add anything substantial to the lore of the universe nor does it have any interesting characters. Watching 47 episodes becomes a test of one’s patience. The best thing for you to do if you are that interested is to read the plot summary on Wikipedia so you know what happens. Tomino, you done messed up now.

It is deeply horrible. The plot is a mess, the characters are a mess. Don't even bother trying to watch this like I did. Just read the wikia pages for Haman Karn and Judau Ashta, and that should pretty much give you the knowledge to not get confused with the U.C. Timeline Lore. I don't give it a lower rating just because it's competent at a technical level. But everything else is pitiful, dreadful. Pathetic.
Really, don't even try. The first 7 episodes have to be the worst episodes I've seen in my entire life. Funny how there are many OVA's and stuff that tell amazing ... stories with that short runtime. It's 47 episodes of horrible material. Just think about it, with the 18 HOURS you'll waste watching this you could:
-Watch 2 24 episode shows.
-Watch 4 12 episode shows.
-WATCH 9 DIFFERENT 2 HOUR MOVIES.
-Watch paint dry...I dunno, I think anything is better than this horrible piece of malfunction.
And if you're a masoquist and you still want to watch this, first of all, pls no. Second: at least ease your pain watching only the following episodes:
2
7-13
16-23
27-28
32-38
42-47
God have mercy on you soul.

The so called "Worse Gundam Series Ever" was actually not that bad. Though the comical first half was shit I'll grant it that. It's probably why it gets so harshly bashed. But once you survive that, it gets back into Gundam form like you'd find in the original series and Zeta Gundam. However you still can't forgive its bad opening episodes of the Shangri-La arc. Especially if you're coming off of watching Zeta Gundam. You still get a great cast of characters, but they just take more time to evolve, much like the story did.

But its in no way superior To Zeta Gundam.

3rd TV Series of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise
3rd UC series.
Review from my POV (w/my personal biases)
Spoiler-ish

Pros:
+ A Continuation of my favorite "Century"
+ A SOMEWHAT redeeming 2nd half of the show.
+ The assembly of Gundam Team
+ People often skip this show, but watching this enhances your experience when watching Unicorn. cause about 1/3 of the stuff the OVA references are from ZZ (like Watching Marvel's Avengers w/o watching the movies leading up to it)
...
Cons:(alot)
- The tone of the 1st half makes it almost unwatchable
- Bright is being pushed around by kids, (it's like they're Bright slapping him!)
- No substantial Antagonist.
- Not even Haman Karn. (I liked her in Zeta, yet they also reduce her screen time to almost nothing, which also cripples her character development)
- Tacky mobile suit designs IMO
- "Oni-chan Oni-chan Oni-chan Oni-chan Oni-chan Oni-chan Oni-chan....."
- Deaths that are either unnecessary or rushed.
- Camille is still a vegetable.

Final Note:
This TV series may have it's moments, but they're too far and few in between this overall mediocre-poor show. I don't really know if i can recommend this to anyone besides the die hard fans or completion-ists.

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the third Gundam series is made as a direct sequel to Zeta Gundam. It follows closely after the end of Zeta Gundam. Many say that this is the worst UC Gundam (not the worst Gundam) ever made. Well I that's what I think as well, though that doesn't mean that this show is bad.

Story: 7
What made people hate this episode is certainly the humorous story and the many filler episodes. That's what I think as well. Even so, I think that the core of the story quite good. The core story actually have some good conflicts, politics, corrupt government, conspiracy etc. ... Too bad that the filler and comedy episodes are just too many. Like, if this was made to be 15 episodes or so, it would be much better, since the core story only happens at around that number of episodes. The rest is just filler and comedy episodes, that didn't really feel like it contributes anything to the story nor to character development. I still give a 7 (good) since if I only took account the core story, it's actually a good continuation of Zeta.

Art: 7
Maybe it's just me but it seems the art is a bit lower than Zeta. Kinda like the animation quality is abit lower. Protagonist mecha is mostly the same as Zeta with ZZ and Mega Rider as addition, both unit doesn't really strike my fancy. On the other hand, enemy mechas are more interesting, units like Qubeley, Zaku III, Quin Mantha, in my opinion is pretty cool. A matter of preferences though. Character design is still not a problem, although some of the sidekicks designs are a not that good.

Sound: 7
There's only two soundtracks that sticks to my head: the battle theme and 'Anime Ja Nai!' Well yes it's old, even at first I thought 'What the hell is this song?!' But like the 'Tobe! Gandamu' somehow it kinda sticks in the end. Othe soundtracks are just average. Sound effects is still the same as previous ones, not much changes here.

Character: 6
I think this is where this series kinda fails the most for me. Most of the protagonists are annoying. They don't have qualities that a protagonists in a war story should have. Even Bright is disappointing, he is not as strict as he was before. Maybe that's why the characters didn't grow much from being an annoying character. Most good characters are from the antagonists side, like Haman Karn, Ple2, and even Glemy Toto and Mashmyre Cero, the two had an awful introduction but at the end they become formidable enemies. Still, most of the characters are kinda annoying, like Chara Soon, Moon Moon sisters, etc.

Enjoyment: 6
The points above kinda kills the enjoyment for this series. While watching this. all I thought was 'When will something happen?' Really, the filler is just to much. Even the fillers in the original Gundam is still more enjoyable. Though I quite enjoy it when the plot did get a move. Mecha battles aren't quite as interesting as Zeta, though sometimes good battles does happen.

Overall: 6
Hmmm, when I gave this score, somehow it seems like this is bad. Actually, 6 is fair, which means it's not bad, it's still above average. With the many flaws it had, it still has a good point, namely the core of the story plot which serve as an excellent continuation of Zeta. That alone made it worth to watch. I thought of dropping this series at first, but I persevered, and after I finished it, I'm glad I didn't dropped it, since I got to see a good story (when I only take into account the core of the story), which wraps Zeta nicely, and sets up a good base for Unicorn's story.

I basically enjoy watching the gundam series, so no matter how bad it is, I still can enjoy it. The plot and art suits me very well, as well the mobile suits. But the porblem is when I was encountering Mondo and Beecha, its driving me nuts. I just had to stop right here and then to comment that those pricks ruins all the moment in this series.

UPDATE: 2/7/24 AFTER BECOMING A COMEDY/SHOUNEN PATRICIAN MY OPINION OF THIS GUNDAM INSTALLMENT PUTS IT NECK AND NECK WITH ZETA AS MY FAV GUNDAM. That being said I have otherwise kept this review the exact same as when I originally wrote it, which was long before I posted it to MAL, and the rating of 10 I originally gave it, remains! Enjoy~

Saying I was left aghast after the ending of Zeta is an understatement. I thought what a tragic, and non-glamorous way to depict war. Murdering the innocent, using the lives of family as blackmail, backstabbing, making brash decisions in the heat of the moment. ... It was like watching a car crash in front of you, and you just couldn’t turn the other cheek. Zeta was unpredictable, heartbreaking, and over before you knew it. I still hold my initial viewing in very high regard. Once I had reached the end of the final episode, I was crushed. Knowing that Kamille was left in a vegetative state, I could only postulate what the sequel would be like. Would Char use some newtype ability to help Kamille snap out of his dilemma? Would Kamille die off screen? Would all war in the universe cease after the Gryps Conflict? How would Tomino follow such an emotionally heavy finale? Well, clearly with a sequel with casual viewers and slapstick comedy in mind. Upon my initial viewing, I could not believe what I was watching, this had to be a joke right? And right I was, ZZ was a joke, a big joke that the series prides itself on. How does this light-hearted romp of a serious series carry the torch of its predecessor?

In short, we follow a teenager named Judau Ashta and his group of ragtag junkers who sell mechanical scrap for money. Judau does this to put his little sister Leina through school, since their parents are no longer in the picture. One day, Yazan (former titan) persuades Judau and Co. to steal the Zeta Gundam, but it doesn’t take Judau long to realize that Yazan is no good. This leads to a battle between Judau and Yazan, where Bright Noa see’s Judau’s newtype potential (not long after Judau made contact with Kamille by accident when stealing a vehicle with Yazan that carried both Fa and Kamille in it) and begins to try and recruit him. Judau refuses to be a part of Bright’s fleet until his sister convinces him otherwise. From here we follow Judau and the rest of Bright’s daycare center as they battle Haman Karn who's trying to reclaim the Zeon’s former glory by conquering the galaxy.

As I said earlier, this is much lighter in tone compared to both 0079 and Zeta. I cannot express my shock when Mondo, Beecha, and Lino fight off Cpt. Bright with oranges in episode one. Or the amount of slapstick humor that ensues in the first ten or so episodes where we follow Judau fighting off the world’s coolest simp, Mashymre. Yet despite its comedic tone, I still found myself looking forward to the next episode. In fact, upon a rewatch I found myself unironically laughing at some of the more subtle jokes throughout the series that I missed on my initial viewing. Judau ignoring Bright’s handshake and any interaction he had with puru come to mind. Actually, I found myself being able to draw more parallels between this and zeta the more I watched. It’s nowhere near as frantic as Zeta sure (or has as many children being slapped), but it’s not trying to and that’s not a bad thing. The only hindrance in it being more comedically driven (even past the second half which people often say is when it gets “serious” but I disagree, despite a few instances of civilians being massacred, but I digress) is that this paves the way for arcs that are pure-filler. That being said, I didn’t hate the moon moon arc. And I felt a legitimate sense of intrigue and compassion towards the civilians and soldiers in the arc that takes place in Africa.

It’s not often that a series like Mobile Suit Gundam takes time away from the main forces duking it out to focus on those indirectly/forced to be involved in the war, much like the people of Dakar and Africa. And even if I must admit that some of these arcs dragged on a bit longer than necessary, I always looked forward to the interactions between my favorite characters as well as the bombastic battles that are flashier than ever. And I can assure you that each episode was chock full of them. As juvenile as it may seem, if the way a mobile suit directly reflects that of the emotions of the person piloting it, then I’m hooked. Even better if there’s stakes at play. The battles hold much more emotional weight with each passing episode.

As I said, a large part of my enjoyment of ZZ aside from, “ooooh, big robots!”’ Comes from its characters, their intrinsic development, and or their interactions with each other. The best character arcs for me had to be: Judau’s, Beecha, Kamille, and Mondo’s. And the best character interactions involved: Bright, Puru, Chara, Mashymre, Judau. There were characters like Emary, Ino, Elle, Glemy, Roux, and others that weren’t fleshed out enough for me to care about them. Even with Mashymre, and Chara being largely gag characters still ranked as highlights of the series. Something about the dedication they have for their cause, plus their naive perspective on the majority of the situations they find themselves in, made them very amusing. Watching Kamille develop and staggeringly reclaim what he lost with the aid of Fa is harrowing and grand to watch. As is Judau’s development, who’s lampooned as a Gary Stu at times. I wouldn’t go that far, as I felt that each Gundam protagonist has an innate trait that they either conquer or grow out of. Amuro is loyal almost to a fault, Kamille is insecure and hyper-impulsive, and Judau is stubborn. Judau going from ragtag junker to a soldier that Haman tries to seduce, is satisfying to watch. Even the times when he’s in an emotional lull, he’s never thrown off his path for long. I’m sure this was intentional as even in emotionally heavy moments, there’s a character or event that tries to alleviate the tension.

And that’s what this series was trying to do, present a story that’s still an MSG tale, but not one that doesn’t allow itself to have some fun every once in a while. Speaking of fun, we’re introduced to a multitude of new mechs with fun and unique designs. From the water mechs in Dakar, to Stampa’s Gundam garden. Even if the show may like to stay in one place for too long at times, much like the new mech designs, it too has a diverse array of locations shown throughout the show. Speaking of music, talk about a great soundtrack. The tracks that play during the show aren't too memorable, especially when compared to Zeta, but the OP/ED for both halves of the series are stellar and do a great job of communicating the vibe the show is going for.

Much like previous installments, ZZ hits its stride in its character interactions and relationship developments along with its larger than life mecha fights. And this show is jam packed with that. And while I was already enjoying the show prior to Puru’s inclusion, I garnered an even bigger level of appreciation for this installment once she came on screen. Her initially awkward relationship with Judau is a highlight of this series for me. And while not every joke lands, in fact I’d say they hit a little less than half the time, I still manage to respect and appreciate that ZZ managed to tell a great and harrowing Gundam tale despite the comedic shift in tone. There’s still plenty of moments where characters act super off-kilter and impulsive like in Zeta, and it’s these moments that remind me that the occasional crazy spice in the story is just what was needed. And though the jokes can be a bit much at times, especially early on when I felt they were taking time away from moments that could’ve been used to either flesh out a character or the plot, it never reached a point where it didn’t feel like Gundam.

Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam isn’t interested in carrying the torch that Zeta handed it, as it’d rather turn that torch into an ice-cream cone to see if its titular MC could eat it in one bite. Though the show has its share of slogs, unfunny jokes, janky-animation, and making Bright a bit much of a push-over at times. It more than makes up for it with its visual flair, legitimately funny moments, character arcs, and larger than life mech battles and stakes. I kept the review spoiler free as I think this an installment worthy of your watch time, as even if you don’t laugh at all the jokes I can guarantee that you’ll be emotionally invested in at least one situation the show presents. Whether that be a gleeful or sorrowful emotion, depends on the viewer and their stance on the series.

If a series combining comedy with the traditional gundam themes of the horrors of war sounds weird, that's because it is - but that's okay! The main issue I believe people have with this show is the tonal whiplash between it and Zeta, which is especially present in the beginning. The unseriousness of Zeta gradually grew into an amazing war drama, and the similarly silly ZZ feels jarring in comparison, even if it follows a similar trajectory. The character writing and worldbuilding present in Zeta and 0079 are still here as well, you just have to look harder than usual for them. The difficulty in ... parsing them in Zeta came from how understated and subtle they were, but the difficulty here is because the show keeps sticking out its tongue and making funny faces at you to distract you from them. While these conflicting sides of the show are divisive, anyone who tells you to skip ZZ in the timeline is crazy.

The greatest failure of ZZ is the failure to commit to either comedy or seriousness, in the attempt to appeal to everyone. For those who disliked the melodrama of Zeta, the comedy is refreshing, but for people looking for drama, there isn't enough of it. This lack of commitment to its two sides splits the fandom into groups believing Gundam should be one or the other, and leaving only a small camp who fully accept the oddball hybrid nature of the show for what it is. ZZ is not bad, it's just different, and I've realized I prefer the approach of Zeta.

With that said, ZZ is a part of Zeta. It wouldn't be amiss to compare Judau to someone like Luffy, whose optimism and resilience serve to distract the viewer from the horrors of the universe around them; after Zeta, ZZ is a necessary bit of levity and hope in the maelstrom. The jokes land pretty frequently, animation and fight choreography have noticeably improved, and the goofy cast is endearing. More importantly though, it completes the story of Zeta, and on a larger scale, ZZ is an essential part of the thematic development of UC gundam as a whole. When gundam is good, really good, it sets my brain on fire, and I can't stop thinking about it for days. If Zeta was the make-or-break of my involvement with gundam, ZZ had to solidify my love for the series, and it did it beautifully.

Where to begin with Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ? If you know anything about Gundam - indeed if you're checking this page - you have probably heard of the infamous ZZ before. You might be wondering whether it truly is as bad as people say it is and are reading this review to find out. Let me tell you right off the bat that ZZ is exactly as bad as it sounds. It's a frustrating and miserable experience watching ZZ coming off (what seems to be) the series high point of Zeta.

The oft-cited comedy is not just tonally inconsistent, it's unfunny. It's bad enough that the ... serious themes of Zeta are reduced to a joke but they could at least try to make the joke funny. The early episodes of ZZ (and many of the later ones for that matter) feel like a fever dream even mere days/weeks after watching them and so much of the run time is wasted on so many pointless detours that the bits that are good and feel like they will actually matter later often flash past in an instant to get back to the dragging low points. It's almost to the point where I'd feel comfortable recommending you skip ZZ except that so many important things happen over the course of it. I won't go into them here in detail but suffice to say that the next piece of the franchise (Char's Counter Attack) almost certainly won't make any sense unless you watch it - or at least read a detailed summary of the events.

A much repeated sentiment in the area of ZZ analysis is that the show "gets good" after approximately episode 20. This is true but there's an important caveat that has apparently been left out of the 'group consensus' - It gets bad again after episode 36. It's almost like watching ZZ is going through a hurricane; you make it through the initial destruction and think that the disaster has passed however you have really only entered the unfortunately all too brief eye of the storm and waiting for you on the side is more of that same despair. Mercifully, ZZ never quite reaches the same lows after that potentially Zeta quality middle section but it's still a huge let down to return to many of the same frustrating characters that barely seem to have grown as the series evidently has.

Speaking of the characters it's very difficult to like any of them. By the end I sort of found myself attached to a few of them but I almost want to attribute that to Stockholm syndrome more than anything else. The main cast takes ages to develop if they do at all and there are so many teenagers running around at many points that even stable characters we already know seem to take a nose dive out of maturity (I'm looking at you, Bright).

What can we say in terms of the good here? Well it looks pretty good most of the time. Zeta did as well of course so ZZ isn't doing anything special here but at least it's not simultaneously as visually frustrating as it is intellectually. I can only imagine that if - for example - ZZ had come in 0079s place (with the questionable 70s animation and sound design and all that comes with that) the series never would have gotten off the ground to become the behemoth it now is.

All this is to say that unless you're a completionist you can probably do without ZZ in your life. It's ultimately just not really worth it. If you do think you want to watch ZZ:

1. Be prepared for it to be really bad right from ignition and stay that way for a good 20 episodes.
2. Be aware that the good does not stick around forever and that the ending leaves much to be desired.
3. I'd highly advise that you try and locate a list of episodes that are skippable and then do so.

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the third Mobile Suit Gundam show in the franchise, has a reputation of being polarizing. Mainly, it was a departure from the dark melodrama that its predecessor (and my favorite show in the franchise), Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, had introduced. The show takes a kid-friendly approach in its first half, which I found to be unbearable. However, the dark drama that Zeta packed is still here and it's thrilling. There's a lot to talk about ZZ, so let's get started.

Story- The story immediately takes place after Zeta Gundam. The Titans have been defeated and the Axis Zeon threat arises. The ... Argama and its crew are in bad shape after the battle so they drop by a nearby colony, Shangra-La, for repairs. The story follows junk collectors, Judau Ashta, and his friends. Together, they plan on boarding the Aragama and capture the Zeta Gundam in hopes of selling it to make a living. I found the first few episodes to be unbearably campy since it's targeted at children. However, during the second half, things get very climactic and interesting. Without spoiling much of the plot, ZZ get's better later during it's run.

Characters- Most of Zeta Gundam's cast make a return. Captain Bright, Kamille, Fa, and even Axis leader Haman make a return. Similar to Amuro and Kamille, Judau may start as a jerk at first, but gets well-developed as the show progresses. He's a good pilot with noble intentions and I took a linking to him in the end. We also get to learn more about Haman Karn and her objectives. As for Judau's pack of friends, they're alright. I liked Rou, Puru, Lino, and Elle. While some of them such as Mondo and Beecha tend to be extremely annoying at first, they were OK in the end.

Presentation- Much of the presentation remains intact compared to Zeta. The visuals are the same, however, I noticed that they take a dip in quality here and there. In terms of mobile suits, the Mk. II, Zeta, and Hyaku-Shiki make a return and they're still looking good. However, it's the ZZ Gundam that steals the show with it's sheer power and awesome look. The audio is subbed, but the voice cast does a great job of portraying the characters. The soundtrack is just as neat as Zeta's. Tracks such as "Anime Ja Nai" fits the kid-oriented tone of the fist half while "Silent Voice" fits the more serious tone of the second half.

Overall- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ is a polarizing show that takes time to get used to. The comedic fist half falls flat, but the second is more dark and developed, which I found to be awesome. I was tolerant of it during the first 20 episodes and by the time the show reached its end, I ended up liking it. Nevertheless, if you can get past some of it's shortcomings, you'll end-up having a good time.

To sum this up in a phase we all know.. "WTF" Sunrise. Yeah I get it Zeta was kinda of dark but it's better than the first one and Gundam is a story about War and violence it's suppose to be a little dark...

To Compare Zeta with ZZ:
Zeta is a frowny face
ZZ is a cheesy smile

If you like being slapped in the face in the end this is the Anime for you!

If you watch Zeta then went directly into ZZ be prepared. The first like 20 some episodes we completely like a happy fun time show, it kind of reminded me of galaxy ... express a few times for it's weird little stops that made no logical sense in the Gundam U.C. The next like 15 episodes were a little better as it move more in the direction of normal gundam u.c. It really kind of picks up after they get a new ship but it is still like WTF.... They tried to implement romance in the story line as well however it is kind of like wow really at the end... And you know how they don't show the epilogue well in this one they do but epilogue is like ok why is he doing that?

Definitely a low point for Sunrise