In order to get what I do and extremely dislike about Zeta Gundam, it’s equally important to start with what I do love about the original Gundam.

It’s uncompromising, yet shaky depiction of war, the effect war has on Amuro Ray and how he is treated because of it, the ambitious mobile suit designs, Sayla’s entire character and, among other positives I could note, the sudden arrival of Newtypes into the mix. But for every right Tomino exhibits on the MSG show, a lot of what he’s doing has a wrong to go along with it.

Most of the cast are underdeveloped as characters, character interactions that feel genuine are few and sparse and the way female characters are treated (outside of Sayla) highlights a lot of 70’s/80’s misogyny on a downright disturbing level. (Hell, Mirai gets violently slapped by a man who she barely even knows and the very next episode, she’s kissing him and turned on). Basically, the original Mobile Suit Gundam isn’t without its dark spots. But I think the good balanced out the bad to where you could ignore it for a time.

Zeta, unfortunately, holds none of that balance and instead leans into MSG’s worst impulses, rather than away. While it does have stronger visuals, drastically better scoring and fights that get increasingly more dynamic and explosive, it stumbles with everything else.

Let’s take character development and interactions for one:

Kamille, the main character of this series, loses both his mother and father to the ills of war. After being confronted by Jerid, the man that directly killed his mother, Kamille’s response is…perplexing. He proclaims that he already forgives him for killing his mom and is instead mad at war and military institutions that put him into that position in the first place. The problem isn’t that Kamille comes to this (totally right) conclusion, but that it comes so early in his character arc that it is both uncharacteristic of an “always ready to deck someone in the face” kid who has spit at abusive authority figures at every turn. It removes suspense from his overall growth trajectory and, instead of making the Jerid v Kamille fights into bitter grudge mecha matches, just makes Jerid seem like a whiny brat in the face of a teenager that’s better than him at everything.

These characters have interesting enough motivations, but the execution of their growth and their interactions as a whole are more half-baked than anything in MSG. You have Katz (the young screwup that never obeys even the most logical of orders), Emma Sheen (who starts out well, but ultimately has nothing to do), Reccoa Londe (who we’ll…get into later) and Fa Yuiry (who everyone around her tries to set into a forced motherly position). Other than Amuro and Char, both notably from the former series, there really isn’t a character with an arc that feels well-earned or well done. It makes the interactions these characters tend to have, mostly fueled by awkwardly written romance, hurt that much more.

The second aspect where Zeta falters so much in comparison to the original is how it respects (or doesn’t) its female cast in the long run. While the original show had Sayla as a counterbalance to how badly done Fraw Bow was and how wishy-washy Mirai could be, there is no such solace here. Now every woman is either relegated to the status of housewife (Fraw/Mirai), the love interest/childhood friend and nothing more (Fa Yuiry) or sacrificed and fridged for the furtherance of a man’s arc and character moments (any female character surrounding Jerid, Kamille and Katz come directly to mind). Not to mention the two biggest of my faults of the female Gundam cast to date – Emma Sheen and Reccoa Londe.

Both represent a bundle of potential that could have been reached had their characters been written with any true ounce of care. Emma is a former Titan that is forced to come to terms with how monstrous and inhumane the group’s actions are and Reccoa is a former member of the AEUG that prioritizes the need to feel pleasure and “what it means to be a woman” over moralistic check points. Unfortunately, they are not given much of a mile to get there and the character beats aren’t built up in any convincing manner. Emma is, I guess, less offensive by some degree and definitely doesn’t fit too much into the tropes for female characters that the early franchise of Gundam seemed to have settled on…But it still feels like they completely missed the mark with her. She defects from the Titans, sees what the Titans have done by going to a defunct space colony where an awful gas was deployed and…that’s it. No interesting character moments to speak of, outside of her final battle with Reccoa. Speaking of…

Reccoa runs to the Titans because she doesn’t get enough romantic attention from Char but finds that attention and comfort in the man who slapped her silly the first time he saw her and ultimately forces her to commit genocide via gas attack on a space colony of thousands (possibly millions). This man, Paptimus Scirocco, is defined by Reccoa as “the first one to actually treat her like a woman!” Note, again, the fact that he hits her on their first encounter. Not only is the turn soaked in misogyny and put all of Reccoa’s goals and reason for being and doing anything on the axis of two men, but it completely takes a steamy dump on what is established from her previously. Reccoa knows (and even told Emma Sheen) about the horrors the Titans have committed, including genocide. So why she would not only be surprised that they would make her commit it to prove loyalty, but also ally herself with a man that commits such genocide on a daily basis like Reccoa? There are many more aspects I could write on and on about with regards to how women are treated (how Katz is excused and treated vs how Fa is), but I’d say that Reccoa’s arc and its sheer mismanagement is all you need to spell it out for you.

Moving on to a third point where I think Zeta Gundam misses the mark almost entirely is its depiction of war. In the original series, I don’t think there’s an antagonist on the Zeon side of the One Year War that ever comes across as “cartoonishly evil”. In fact, I wouldn’t say the bulk of the characters that served Zeon came across as evil or even “wrong”. Tomino makes it a deliberate point to name every single character that we see pilot the Zakus and other mobile suits on the side opposite the Earth Federation. He has a Zeon soldier help a woman and her son on their way to their hometown. He shows the love some soldiers have for not only their comrades, but also their families and loved ones. It’s not exactly overt and beat over your head, but it’s nuanced in a way that you can’t help but admire. Whether it’s the Federation Force of Earth or the Principality of Zeon, the true villain is war and what it forces good people on both sides to do.

This same nuance, unfortunately, cannot be applied to how Zeta mostly approaches the issue. There is one moment I can remember and point out, but for the most part – the Titans are as evil and cartoonish as they come. Don’t get me wrong – it’s great that Tomino is going so far as showing technical members of the Earth Federation breaking war crimes and treaties that they themselves constructed and agreed to. Gas attacks, nonchalant conversations about slamming space colonies into the Earth, plans to bomb cities and parks full of children…it’s all great stuff to explore through the lens of the work. But it just stops there. We barely get a show of Titans that openly disapprove of what they’re doing or take a second to pause about their actions. We don’t get acquainted with every Bill and Jack and Martha that pilots a mech this time around. Some may take the stance that that’s a better approach, but I’d disagree from a full fundamental aspect.

Humanizing at least some of the Titans would take the subject matter even further than its presented. Rather than getting a Jerid that laughs when he realizes that he’s killed an innocent boy’s mother, cheers for gas attacks and in general commits to being a stereotypical mustache twirler, wouldn’t it be nice to delve into the entire depth of the situation? Examine why Jerid has such a lust for power and the means to dominate? But unfortunately – it’s the mustache twirler we are left with. For lack of a better metaphor, Zeta’s perspective on war is like putting quality gas in a run-down rust-bucket of a car.

Do all of those issues sound bad or at the very least, middling? Great! Because the final episode of the series is all of it mashed into 22-24 minutes! From Katz disobeying orders for the 10th or so time and immediately dying for it like some sort of sympathy play to Jerid dying to Kamille in lack-luster, mustache twirler fashion to Reccoa making the statement that men only use women as tools while fighting for a man that surely sees her as the same? Characters that had no real character or development to speak of give their lives in the final battle for no real reason? And it all culminates in a scene where all the dead characters come back to help Kamille fight and kill Scirocco (because, that’s a thing, I guess?), even Reccoa, who apparently realizes how wrong she was off screen in the afterlife? Welcome to Zeta Gundam, baby!

I’d be lying if I said it was all bad, though. After all, I’m still giving it a 6.8/10! And I think it’s a hard-fought score, because when Zeta Gundam wants to, it can be absolutely brilliant! Amuro’s reluctance to join yet another war after spending 8 years living in solitude, tormented by the previous one? Char’s speech about war and the Titans polluting the Earth even more so? That same speech inspiring more impressionable Titans to take a stand against the others? Kamille’s matter of fact reaction to the death of his “sister” and subsequent mental breakdown at the end of the final battle? Peak fiction and peak Gundam! With all that it does wrong, sometimes it hits just the right note with just the right melodrama to become truly compelling! Which, at the very least, has me excited to go on to ZZ and Char’s Counterattack. For all my misgivings about Zeta, it’s finer points remind me what I love about the first series, IBO and what is surely to come…