The one thing that zeta delivered in spades was the quintessential 80s character and mecha design which kept me hooked no matter how crappy some of the other elements were. Going from the 0079 mech design and animation to this is something that I deeply appreciate.
Starting with the opening credits and boy, do I get a fucking boner whenever I remember the visuals of those credits. We have even more sleek character And mecha design, in both openings they kept it Same for the most part as if it was that good..And they were absolutely correct. The songs for both the openings were pretty great as well, OP 1
was cheerful and upbeat and it was accompanied by the grown up versions of the heroes of the One year war looking defiant and confident at the viewer. The second opening however provides a stark contrast when it comes to the song choice. It had this sad nostalgic feel to it which had Camille's lover '4' mimic Lalah's psychedelic sequence back in ms gundam 0079, in the foreground. Thereby giving away a massive spoiler in advance. But that didn't hinder my experience in the slightest.
Now we come to the plot. If 79 was a cycle as far as pacing is concerned, then zeta would be a ferrari. It is a fast paced character driven drama with an abundance of political intrigue. We zip from a space colony to Granada, then to Jaburo, Earth And back to space while tons of character interactions And battles take place in the foreground.
Another major distinction that can be drawn between zeta And 79 are the several political factions that are involved in this power struggle. In 79 we just had the Zabis And the EFF, in zeta we had the EFF, Titans (which is a growing power that seems to be on the side of the EFF initially.), The AEUG which is against the EFF And by extension, the titans. It came into being when people started noticing the decay And corruption in the EFF, Paptimus scirocco who is on the side of the Titans but is an ambitious political leader and last but not the least, the Zabis. The power struggle is One of the parts of the show that is somewhat satisfactory/well done.
The character interactions can get a bit grating at times due to the unlikable nature of some characters which might have been a result of poor writing. Also, I do Not know what to make of the absolute clowning of Bright noa lmfao. If you are a huge fan of the 79 heroes then maybe this isn't for you. On a more positive note, the allegiance to the "good" side/ a good cause have been turned on its head in this part. In 79, the EFF were the good guys while the Zabis along with Char were the bad guys. In this part however , the EFF were the antagonists And the titans only amplified that fact. The AEUG, with Char Aznable among their top ranks, were the good guys. Char however gives himself the Name "Quatro Bajeena" along with some Clark Kent tier way of hiding his previous identity which doesn't seem to be hidden from the top brass at the AEUG. His development over the 50 episodes was nice tho. Speaking of old characters, More than a few of them showed up in the series. Amuro Ray stayed on earth And fought against his inner voice that told him that he was no longer needed in space And he had done his part, And tbh that isn't necessarily a wrong idea that he feeds himself. However, due to increasing hostilities, his presence was required And he succeeded in that internal conflict. Kai And hayato have now grown up to be people of some influence. Katz along with letz And kikka are now adopted by hayato And fraw bow, who are also expecting a child of their own. Katz joins up with Camille and Char to fight the Titans. A few episodes later Camille encounters One character who influences him greatly for the rest of the show, 4. A new type of 'newtype' that have been artificially made into newtypes. These beings are called cyber newtypes
Due to the radical experimentation conducted on these individuals, the balance of their mental state fluctuates very frequently. And later on in the series, a few other such characters are introduced who at times devolve into this childlike state. Now back to the aforementioned psychedelic sequence, 4 sacrifices herself to protect Camille from his nemesis, Lt. Jerrid Messina. When it comes to the significance of this event, it was an essential repeat of Lalah sacrificing herself for Char in his battle against amuro. And the presence of both char And amuro at the scene of Camille mourning 4 only amplified the importance of the scene by leaps And bounds And of course how can I forget the instrumental version of the second opening playing while all this took place...that was just the cherry on the top. Jerrid Messina is One nemesis that was similar to Char in 79 in the sense that he took only L's. But unlike char, Jerrid had a few female compatriots along the way who also sacrificed themselves to protect him. The death of Hilda didn't hit me hard Or At all tbh because she barely had any screen time. Lila on the other hand had More screentime And her growing fondness for jerrid made it somewhat saddening? I guess. And while we are on the topic of female sacrifices, Sarah being under the influence of scirocco to the very end was somewhat irksome but understandable, simultaneously.... The amount of wamen killing themselves for the sake of growth of certain characters reminded me of 'fridging' Or woman in refrigerator, a similar phenomena in western comic books where a female character close to the protagonist dies because of the association with that character, while its Not a 1:1 comparison but it is certainly similar . I dont necessarily care about that aspect a lot, but One can only ask themself the question that is this a result of poor writing in many instances? Food for thought.
The cruelty only increased in this instalment of gundam. But It did Not feel as impactful when compared to that of the Og gundam. The fast paced nature of the show did Not help this aspect in any way. From gassing colonies to blasting a laser through another colony, we had a lot of casualties but Not enough time to realise the gravity of the situation. There was only one scene which actually seemed haunting And had the potential to be much More than it actually was but was again, just rushed a bit. The scene in question is Rosamia holding a dead child in her arms, who had just been recently gassed.
Ah yeah Rosamia, Gundam And its retarded habit of introducing new characters that are important to the plot/protagonist right at the very end, seems to be a feature And Not a bug. That And the plot armour which was excessive in some parts of the show was a bit irritating. But I gotta say, the whole 'newtype' thing had just been explained away with a simple 'change in physiology due to living in space' And the other aspects of being a newtype I.e tapping into a dimension where they could communicate with each other And their fallen comrades was also Not explained in a proper way, I look forward to some semblance of an explanation in the next instalment of gundam
Camille's growth had stopped Midway because it seemed that it had peaked. But there were More than a few internal conflicts that he had to go through as More time went by. The number of L's the AEUG took in the second half was surprising to say the least. And char stepping up And taking the initiative to lead the AEUG was a treat to witness.
In conclusion, Zeta had a few lows And an almost similar amount of highs, but were the number of highs And their quality sufficient for me to say that I had a decent time overall? I'd say yes.
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