Kidou Senshi Gundam ZZ

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.

"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.

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.

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

Gundam ZZ is one of the more infamous titles within the Gundam franchise, and for good reason. Following the dark and intense storyline delivered from Zeta Gundam that delivered some shocking developments with remnants of the Zeon Empire taking root and Kamille's comatose state, ZZ attempts to go for more light-hearted and kid-friendly storytelling in its focus on Judau Ashta, a young junk collector recruited by Bright Noa to be a Gundam pilot for the Argama due to Kamille's comatose state. The light-hearted mood for ZZ is felt in much of its first half as slapstick comedy and lack of intense violence are a regular ... sight for much of ZZ's first half. While the comedy can have its moments at times, it clashes poorly with the dark mood and war themes established from the first two Gundam TV titles.

From what I gathered of the series history, series director Yoshiyuki Tomino attempted to give the series a more lighter mood and would have eventually had Char Aznable make an appearance as a major enemy threat. But when he got the okay to do production for Char's Counterattack, Tomino changed plans and restored Gundam's normal mood and themes to ZZ's storyline as the show went into its second half. This led the series to take a major improvement in quality as Neo-Zeon leader and main villain Haman Karn became more active in the show's plot and major dramatic events take place from the escalating conflict between members of the Argama and the Neo-Zeons that include the franchise's penchant for killing off major characters. Both sides in the conflict get their fleshing out to show that members among the factions have their redeemable traits and tragic character elements that result from fighting in war with characters such as Haman and Ple. The second half still suffers somewhat with some points where ZZ's comical mood from the first half of the series rears its ugly head and the usual Newtype gimmickry that leads to convenient plot developments when lead characters like Judau seem to be nearly down for the count.

Visually, Gundam ZZ is an improvement over Zeta Gundam as it sports more cleaner lining and details with its mecha and spaceship designs. A number of the character designs, particularly those with Judau's group and some Neo-Zeon members, were made in mind to fit popular 80s trends of the time period such as clothing and hair styles, but look ridiculously outdated to modern audiences. The battle choreography for ZZ is creative and diverse for the most part as characters deploy different types of mecha for varying battle tactics and capacities, and some technologies get deployed to aid in battle strategies such as the dummy asteroids and funnels used by Newtype-powered mecha.

Still for some of the positives offered by ZZ, the series still suffers greatly from the tonal shift that its first half offered up with its lighter mood and slapstick comedy clashing badly with the more serious mood, themes, and story developments established from earlier Gundam titles. While still a necessary watch as the series continues events from Zeta Gundam and has developments that contribute to Char's later actions from Char's Counterattack, I would be hard-pressed to watch it more than once.

This show is a tale of two halves . The first half started off god awfully slow, there was a lot of cheesy comedy and pretty much no threat of death or any good narratives . I don't think first half was bad per say, but just really generic for the most part .

Show gets a hell of a lot better near the mid point of the series, during the Earth arc . I really enjoyed pretty much all the Earth episodes, it really seemed to reflect the brutality of war quite well and we get some interesting stories about how different people are effected ... by the war. It almost feels like a totally different series than the rest of the anime .

When the crew left earth , and the show started gravitating towards its conclusion, it was still decent but not the same level quality of the earth episodes by any means. The fights were pretty well done, but I found most of the events that happened were just predictable and couldn't get that invested into the last battles because I wasn't that interested in the characters to begin with .

The main cast of the show, the kids from Shangri-la, were sub-par for the most part. I didn't find a single one of them to be particularly interesting. They do quite a bit of arguing in general and walk into their fair share of traps and bad choices, but then again they are mostly middle school aged teenagers so I can't be that hard on them I guess. If I had to pick one I liked the most it would have been Roux, since she kicks more ass than all the other kids and usually was the voice of reason when not arguing with Elle. I will say that the one thing I liked about the main character of ZZ Judau is that he is much less whiny and not anywhere near as angsty as either of the first two gundam protagonists Amuro or Kamile. Judau is a lot more carefree but I think he is also a more simple and less interesting character as well.

I thought the artwork and animation were okay for this show, nothing special. The two opening songs I thought were really good and catchy tunes .

Double Zeta really is missing that "oomph" factor that that the two previous series had , I think it was missing really good interesting or charismatic characters, and missing outside of the Earth episodes much of a gripping plot to really keep you invested .

Something I particularly didn't like towards the end of the series is all the newtype ghosts and too many characters have newtype abilities , it kind of ruins the novelty of newtypes when so many characters are all able to sense telepathic messages.

There is even an important reveal made near the end of the anime that made me question what really was the significance of ZZ Gundam in the overall time line of the Universal Century . I don't want to say what the reveal was in fear of spoilers but damn it pissed me off .

---Preface:

When you come into a show expecting the worst, the best it can do is surprise you. ZZ definitely surprised me, but not in a good way. I very rarely write reviews, and i only do so if i believe that there is something to be said, and there is a lot to be said about ZZ. Firstly, it is not as bad as people make it out to be. It's still an okay Anime, it has it's moments that make it worth watching. However, it is incredibly flawed. Secondly, i believe it is worth a watch if you intend to continue watching the rest ... of the Gundam UC timeline. You can not substitute it with a summary or a set of bullet points. However, if you do not intend to intend to watch the entirety of UC then i recommend you skip ZZ.

I will first list the flaws i found in this show, then i will list the things i liked, i will try and avoid spoilers to the best of my ability.

---Flaws:

1-Shift in tone:
The drastic shift in tone between Zeta and ZZ, and between the first half of ZZ and the second half of ZZ. This is the main complaint most people have with this show, and it must be mentioned. Zeta maintained a consistently depressing theme from start to finish, and it's incredibly jarring to jump from Zeta to ZZ and feel like you're watching a comedy/action show. This is especially apparent when you remember that the events of ZZ take place immediately after the events of Zeta, and as such, it makes the actions of certain characters almost inexcusable. Furthermore, the subsequent shift in tone around episode 20-ish is again very jarring. You start getting used to the lighthearted atmosphere and then you're suddenly back to watching an actual Gundam Anime. This back and forth is inexcusable, and i honestly barely made it through to the "good part".

2-Confusion:
The show is confused. It doesn't know what it wants to be. Even after the show goes into "serious" mode, it still has these out of place lighthearted moments. Do you know how awkward it feels to watch characters go from mourning to giggling within 3 minutes of their friend dying? Also, you'll have these random slapstick moments in the middle of serious life or death fights. It's as if the creators are trying to say "hey guys, we're still fun! it's not all doom and gloom!". It ruins the atmosphere.

3-Death:
The way this show handles death is simply awful. I will try not to spoil, but a certain important character dies and there was absolutely no reaction from any members of the cast. One character reacted (briefly) and then life went on. That's not how you kill off a character. Also, when the characters do react to death, it's almost always in this dismissive "man up! move on NOW!" manner. There was a specific scene where an INCREDIBLY important character was presumed dead and instead of giving the grieving protagonist time to mourn, the side characters were berating him for being sad. It's just painfully annoying to watch. Admittedly, this was a flaw with other Gundam shows, but it felt particularly egregious in this show.

4-Cop outs and trying to salvage the show:
(SOFT SPOILER) Halfway through the show an important main character dies. Then, about 10 episodes later, they're suddenly alive again. This was INCREDIBLY cheap, and it was probably the worst part of this show. You either kill them or you don't, you can't have it both ways. The way they reintroduced the allegedly "dead" character was also so awful. They literally just show a frame of them at the end of an episode. "Hey guys, they're not actually dead! haha! just kidding!".

5-Perpetual blue balling:
You know how a story arc has to have rising tension and then a climax with a payoff? This show gets the rising tension and climax part, but no payoff. They make it seem like things will happen, then things do happen, but nothing comes out of it. It's difficult to get into this without going into spoilers territory. However, i'll try and not get into too much detail. (SPOILERS) A character gets kidnapped, then they remain kidnapped for a long time. Every episode, that character almost gets rescued but it never happens. Then that character dies, then gets magically un-killed. That single series of events destroyed any sense of tension i had in the show. (END OF SPOILERS)

6-Uninteresting side characters:
This goes opposite of most Gundam shows. Usually, in UC Gundam, the main character starts out insufferable and the side characters and antagonists are what carry the show. This is not the case in ZZ. I honestly believe that the main character is the saving grace of this show, while the side characters simply drag it down. The way they handle returning characters from the previous show is especially awful, and in some cases retro-actively made the previous shows worse. Also, the new characters introduced were very forgettable. They're all fairly interchangeable and one-dimensional, especially when compared to side characters from any of the previous shows (Reccoa, Fa, Bright, Char, Paptimus, Jerid and Emma from Zeta. Kai, Hayato, Sayla, Bright, Char, Lalah, and Mirai from MSG.).

---Positives (but not really?):

1-Judau Ashta:
I really like the protagonist. He's not as much of an angst-ridden child as Kamille (Zeta) and Amuro (MSG) were at the start of their shows. He's likable for the most part. However, the events that happen around him and the way he reacts to them is still kinda bad.

2-Returning characters:
The best part of this show is when they shift focus (momentarily) to characters from the old shows. That's honestly kinda sad.


---Actual positives:

1-Fantastic animation and sound design:
There were some scenes and frames that were genuinely breathtaking, and the music is fantastic. The new music is great, and the old music is used sparingly enough that it never gets boring, but is simply a welcome change. Sadly, some episodes looked kinda awful, but those were few and far between. It looked great when it mattered.


----Conclusion:

If you plan on watching the rest of the UC timeline, then it is a must watch. However, if (for some reason) you're wondering if this show in particular is worth watching as a stand alone, then i do not recommend it. Personally, on my first watch through i was not able to make it past episode 5. I had just finished Zeta and was (understandably) not in the mood for lighthearted fun and gags. I took a long break, about 2-3 months, then when i came back to re-watch it i managed to power through it in a few days. As such, try and space it out from Zeta. Give yourself a few days/weeks between Zeta and ZZ. If you really want to watch it, don't immediately jump in after finishing Zeta.

Beginning this series and even through the halfway point I could of just gave it a 6 because I started this series July 1st, 2019 and it took me all the way till March 28th, 2020 to finish 47 episodes. Guess you could say I wasn't feeling too invested into it, but I'm happy I stuck around and finished it.

Story - 7 (Pretty good, not as good as previous series.) Axis vs AEUG.

Characters - 6 (Bright is a shell of his former self unfortunately. Some characters return that really made me happy.) You don't feel as much of a connection with the ... characters in this series as compared to Zeta and 0079 Gundam. You do warm up too them though later on!

Sound/Music - 8 (Standard and Solid music yet again along with good sound effects for its time.

Art - It is very similar to Zeta and looks good for its time! Earth looks very good, pretty locales / etc.

The way deaths are handled could of been alot better, some stupid arcs and lots of filler to be found.

First 20 episodes are comedy based and plot doesn't really "begin" until then.

Characters mature over time, start off as immature and they become a great team, kind of reminiscent of White Base maybe? I guess that's all opinion. They eventually make a good team and Bright allows them to make their own decisions.

While this Gundam is heavily criticized for being too comedy based and takes too long to get too the story, it will always live in the shadow of it's predecessors. This is the weakest of Trilogy without a doubt, but there's still good moments too be had. Lots of solid enjoyable moments whether they be from a comedy perspective or war/battle. The ending made me happy aswell, actually had a good ending.


I think this series gets trashed a little too much and isn't given the best of chances due too it's long comedic introduction and lack of solid characters/beginning plot or great villains as it's predecessors. BUT I do think this series was worth the watch. It makes me really appreciate how timeless this series is (specifically 0079 Gundam and Zeta.) Give it a watch! Then again, I can't promise you will love it or even like it. 6/10

ZZ, or Double Zeta, is (in)famous for being rather humorus and light-weighted, especially compared to bleak Zeta.

Spoilers for Zeta below etc.
For some context, the series went though many changes during production. Initially, it was meant to be Zeta's second season (to be honest, it sounds like a much better option); keep in mind that Kamille wasn't in comatose until ZZ, in the Zeta ending he seemed to have his memories erased instead.
One thing that didn't make it into the final cut was return of Char Aznable, whom we seen in both openings and who was supposed to play much bigger role. Then, however, ... the movie - Char's Countterack - was greenlighted and he was reduced to once being mentioned near the end of ZZ.

About the actual show itself.
For me, the first few episodes were kinda a pain a to go through; there wasn't any actual story, just main characters trying to steal the Zeta Gundam, until Bright makes them into Argama's crew since he doesn't have any pilots (Fa got nerfed and can't pilot at all for some reasons).
After that, the actual plot begins, however it was only after about dozen of episodes that I actually started to enjoy the show. Suddenly the tone changed with episodes 20-21, and ZZ was actually getting better and better up to EP36.

After that, however, while the rather serious tone remains, ZZ became rather messy. It felt that some arcs were out of nowhere, and some of the cast started acting out of character.

For last ten episodes, there are arcs that feel unnecessary and prolonged; the finale itself is an "okay, I guess". Again, some characters act ooc, some are totally changed, etc.

While some characters lost their lives, their deaths were mostly silly and instead of getting sad, I was getting confused by how they even died.


As for the cast themselves, the new one initially wasn't really likeable. Actually, I was rooting for the antagonist, the Neo Zeon commander, as he was more sympathetic. Of course, Judau, the protagonist, grows up and has some development, but it felt rather forced, with his character changing seemingly between episodes.
There's no actual growth for the rest of the cast either; Beecha and Elle get some lines at the end of the show to make them look like they developted, and Roux doesn't really need to change at all. Some other characters, like Iino and Mondo are just there. I don't really get where they were going with Chara and Mashymre, but in the end they felt underutilised/unnecessary as well.

Of course, there are also characters that shine, like fan-favourite Puru(s), or the antagonist, Haman Karn.

Animation is still good, especially if you consider the show's age; however, there are lots of reused animations (especially of mechas' transformations, looking at you Gundam ZZ), it feels like Zeta had higher production value.

I liked music in ZZ, it is worth mentioning that there was a lot of soundtracks from Zeta too; however, there's this one song with high-pitched sound that's way too loud and will probably catch you off-guard.


Is the Gundam ZZ worth watching? It's not as bad as some people say, but it's definitely a weaker entry of Universal Century; however, there's still a lot of important stuff going on, and if you plan to watch the whole UC, it's better to not to skip the show. While Sunrise isn't really too fond of ZZ, with Zeta New Translation contradicting it, events and characters in it are still reflected up to Unicorn.
While a not-the-best Gundam anime, it's still good anime overall.

to me all of the other aspects of the series are irrelevant in the face of his atrocious plot, the first half of the show has comedy as its main focus and if i were to rate based alone on that i would give an 8 out of 10, but from that point onwards, with exception of a few episodes, the plot is shit, its a unending stream of plot convenience after plot convenience to hand victory to the imbecile main character, with his constants speeches that can be summarized in "war bad", that fucker is so generic that it hurst, also theres a great ... number of moments that doesnt make any sense, that make look the characters as some king of mentally deficient individuals, example:

BEGIN SPOLERS
the main character, this fucker could have killed haman multiple times at tigerbaum also when glemy finally launches his assaults to core 3, but no, he did not because reasons, and the fact that somehow leina survived but how is never explained, and the fact that on the very same episode she supposedly dies, glemy comes dome of his mobile suit to ask the gundam team what happened and then he just leaves, wasting a golden opportunity to kill his enemies, and also the fact that when they use roux as human shield they just destroy glemys mobile suit wasting a golden opportunity to kill him because yes, and next is the fucking trope of female cyber newtypes that are mentally unstable and fall for the mc, they did it in zeta and now again in zz, and next the fucking newtype bullshit, now is literally some magic bullshit that turns the mc invencible, everything that was wrong with zeta is here in zz multiplied by ten, the only good thing is that at the ending they had the decency to destroy gundam zz, and the scene of fa and kamille together, plus the fucker leaving for jupiter for at least 5 years, also, Glemy, Mashymre and Chara Soon, ill always remember you as the best characters of this shit show

END SPOILERS

besides that, the animation is fine, i like the character design, they also changed the characters outfits to be consistent with the setting, when in the desert they use different outfits than when in a space colony, i really liked the second ending song, but besides that i think you are betters just reading a summary of this garbage show a moving forward to the next series in the universal century timeline: Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack

I'm one of those people who dislike ZZ Gundam. Whilst I understand the reason why the series went for a more light-hearted tone, it's the way it was written, it could have worked but it does not. Other than the main character, who has more charisma and likeability than Kamille, all the new characters are either OK or are so unlikeable that you don't care about them. The majority of the series just didn't click with me and the only thing going for it was the Gundam fights, which are good but not great when compared to Zeta's fights. A massive highlight goes to Haman ... Karn, for as weak as the series is, she's a great villain, and pretty scary in a lot of ways.

In terms of characters I didn't like, Mashymre Cello's a SIMP, Glemy Toto's a SIMP but admittedly gets better, Chara Soon is annoying but later events with her is super bleak, Shinta and Qum from Zeta are surprisingly likeable in this series, seeing the stuff they've seen in Zeta probably made them more mature and don't make me want to hit my head on the wall.

For those who say that the series gets better, yeah, it gets a little better when the series is almost over. A certain event in Dublin reeks of desperation to show that it's going to be darker now but it far too little too late. The ZZ Gundam Mobile Suit is not my favourite main Gundam in the series, it looks like it was made to be a toy right from the get go, it reminds me of the Megazord from Power Rangers. ZZ Gundam has some good moments, I won't lie, but I don't like the tonal shift and I don't think it was done well, it could have slowly shifted into that tone instead of the whiplash that ruined any chance of me enjoying it through to the end. But if you like it, then all the more power to you. As for me, I probably like my Gundam series where war is personal and messed up but with some humanity woven well.

ZZ gundam is a sequel/spinoff of zeta gundam. Originally it was supposed to resolve Kamille, Haman, and the Char/Amuro conflict. Midway through production CCA was greenlit and the plot was restructured, the result is a generally disconcerted and unfocussed narrative with some high-highs and terrible lows. The SoL is not executed masterfully but watching the Gundam team slowly (SLOWLY) mature and come together is nice. If you are a gundam fan you will probably be fine with this. Honestly what happens is inconsequential and you could honestly skip this and go right to Char's Counterattack. Fa deserved better, Kamille deserved better, Haman deserved better, and ... Bright deserved to see his family.


Anime Ja Nai.