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.
