If you were expecting ZZ to be a straight sequel to Zeta, you've been mislead. Many people don't get over that initial subversion, and write this series off, or even call it skippable. But if you push past your (honestly, very understandable) surprise that following the intense and depressing final episode of Zeta the Argama and its crew get into slapstick adventures with street rats, the mood shifts back to something more expected. This is still Tomino Gundam, so to say Gundam took a "kid-friendly" turn with this series is entirely false.

The visual aspects remain mostly unchanged from Zeta, Yasuhiko returns for the new character designs, and mechanics are again handled by a jumble of mecha designers, most notably Kunio Okawara. Both look amazing as usual, and particularly among the new characters the costume design is very colourful and shows the youth of UC Gundam in casual wear for once instead of normal suits and military uniforms. Now that the Titans are gone, their brand of strange and complex mobile suits are gone, giving rise to more functional designs, with barely any transforming mobile suits, save for a few like the Gaza D, which is only really an upgraded Gaza C from Zeta. Among the new designs are standouts like the Queen Mansa (or Quin Mantha) the GM III and Zaku III, and the Capule. It's around this time that the UC Mobile suit look is solidified, each one seems to have these chunky proportions, huge chests and weapons all over. The ZZ Gundam is a brilliant design as well, and pays homage to super robot tropes like combining, and having a big laser right on the forehead, it gives major Getter-1 vibes, down to the beam sabers being on the shoulders like the Getter tomahawk.

Animation-wise, the same general level of quality that Zeta had is replicated here. The stock animation used for the ZZ combination is incredible, one of the only cases where I really missed seeing it if it was ever omitted. There is far more comedy in this series, mostly due to the new cast members, so during more interpersonal moments there tends to be a lot of abstraction and characters are often drawn off-model to sell a joke, which I'll accept as a stylistic choice, considering the mobile suit combat (ignoring the early episodes with the Zeta gundam) is very clean and often times better than Zeta. The cast take the story to some strange venues for mobile suit battles too, and the background artists really make it work.

Saegusa returns for the soundtrack, and while some Zeta tracks are reused, the new tracks made for this series are remarkably upbeat, and expand on the groovy synth sound present in Zeta.

As I've alluded to a few times already, the story of ZZ is overall lighter and genuinely pretty funny. Unlike I've heard from many people, the story doesn't start silly and wacky and kid-friendly, and then become darker, it's more that it has a brief tone shift at Shangri-la, and the story is a mix of Gundam hell and tension-breaking moments. In my opinion, this is just what happens when the majority of the cast is very young kids, the comedy just seeps in. I do agree that the comedy doesn't completely add the the wider messages of the story, but I don't think most of it was unrealistic or anything like that. That conversation aside, ZZ provides us with some of the coolest moments in UC gundam, for example the first onscreen colony drop followed by the amazing battle with the damaged Psycho gundam mk.II, the pan up of the exposed machinery on the Psycho gundam is legendary. Some other highlights are the attempted rescue of Leina, which includes the scene of Judeau protecting his sister and actually making Haman fear for her life, and the heartbreaking scene Ple not understanding Judeau's grief at Leina's (apparent) death. The short arc in Africa was also a great bit of real-world conflict represented in Gundam, and despite the sharp tonal shift, the arc in Tigerbaum was very fun and being a big fan of amphibious MS, I was ecstatic. Excluding the Titans, ZZ is the one of the first explicit displays of the corruption of the EFSF, and general themes of the class divide, colonialism and imperialism, and exploitation of the poor, young and weak are present throughout, strongest during the colony drop on Dublin.

The main cast of new characters, the kids from Shangri-la, Roux and Ple are all unique, and I'm happy that there is a focus on their dynamic, and eventual teamwork over the course of the series. This is the first time there is a real "Gundam Team" and they do genuinely evolve to fill the shoes of the far more competent pilots who used their machines before them. Judeau is a refreshing protagonist, whose energy and willpower give stakes to situations, considering what sets him apart from Amuro and Kamille is that he has clear and genuine goals. The other kids are all interesting in their own right, Beecha stands out as a sort of antihero, who eventually makes up his mind and goes on to lead everyone as the captain of the Nahel Argama in Bright's stead. Ple is a very tragic (and uncomfortable) character who adds instability to the group dynamic, and brings with her the usual pain of a cyber-newtype. The villains are extremely colourful this time around, with Mashymre and Chara being near complete caricatures, but become very serious and sympathetic villains in the end, as particularly Mashymre is forced to become Haman's black knight. The main villains of ZZ, Haman and Glemy, reach peaks of Gundam villainy. Glemy is a foolish, fickle, lovesick, uptight monster who demands the viewer to hate him, and unlike many villains of his nature, he is unaware of how truly evil he is, even when he sends out a dozen clones of the same tortured 11 year old girl out to die for him. Haman's arc sees her unpenetrable cold facade be eroded by Judeau, as she comes to recognise his incredible power. Haman and Judeau come face-to-face multiple times in the series, and when it comes time to their final duel, it's clear he has worn her down to the point of near defeat before they'd ever clashed in mobile suits, and the duel is amazing. Worth mentioning is the return of many major characters, like Bright, Fa and Kamille, who are mostly stagnant to allow the others room to distinguish themselves, however Kamille, now mostly unable to fight, shows his strength as a newtype, and the true end to his character arc was very sweet.

In retrospective, ZZ is an incredibly dense series, and warrants a lot more attention that it has received. If you consider yourself a UC Gundam fan and you have not given ZZ a chance, I would beg you to try and push past your doubts and keep an open mind, you'll find 47 episodes of the universal century expanded and just as dynamic as ever. And if you're a fan of Unicorn, you'd know that Marida is the best part of that series, so do her legacy a service and watch ZZ.