Zeta Gundam Review

A

afoia

Adventurer
So i finished Zeta gundam and although being so highly acclaimed amoungst mecha and gundam fans i felt the show was... ok.
So i thought id give a brief opinion on the show just to let others know what they're in for and where to go in the gundam universe if they ever wanted to start watching gundam, and after watching the first 3 0079 films which are amazing in their own right Zeta was a continuation in the story and it fits neatly along side the first gundam well and re-introduces characters seen in the first season and OVAs.
Zeta itself is your standard 50 ep long mecha show, lots of fights, conflict and political issues, but dont let any of this put you off because it has some interesting sub plots throughout and relationships between the main characters and the apposing faction. One thing i will say is as far as i can tell the Dubs were ok as i had a quick flick to it half way through an ep and the dubs matched up well to the large cast, However as i'm a 100% sub-a-holic i noticed that they based the subs off the american dub script and OH how this annoyed me. On many particular "off the cuff" conversations that kamile and other characters had were often americanized, and i swear at some point i saw the sub say y'all...

So over all if your interested in starting a gundam series my best bet is to start with the 0079 films and then zeta gundam and work your way up from there. The series has some great action and being gundam theirs a fair amount of casulties along the way, personally i found the series to drag on a bit and be a little confusing at times but thats gundam really... And to finish up its not the BEST gundam series (im still holding out with Turn A!) but its a good show (that beats seed and wing by a LOOONG mile) that really delves into each characters progression and deals with many emotional issues right to the end.[/img]
 
Nice review :p Oh and your forget to add better the Seed Destiny in that list :lol: Of course its sad that the R1s subs were just taken from the dub script. Although its likely that's the last old gundam series to come out in the west now
 
I just started Turn A, Upon your recommendation so ive got all the subs to watch at some point. Shame theirs no R1 boxset But gathering from the first few fansub'd eps its looks really different to any other gundam series!
 
Cool Hopefully i'll be going through it this weekend, though i'll also be starting Code Geass as well. It is a different series from the rest and not just in style. Hope you like it :p
 
BlackWolf said:
Nice review :p Oh and your forget to add better the Seed Destiny in that list :lol: Of course its sad that the R1s subs were just taken from the dub script. Although its likely that's the last old gundam series to come out in the west now
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come on now, i think even Wing was better than Destiny :D
 
Nice review thund3r. As you know, I'm on to ZZ now - hope you'll let me write a review for that one (and I'm sure it will be a controversial one) :wink:

Although I had nothing agaist the Zeta storyline, my biggest problem was that I never warmed to many of the characters. They mostly seemed very impulsive and a bit childish. Kamille got better as the series went on (especially during Rosamy / Rosamia's storyline) but I couldn't help thinking he was particularly cold in the beginning - he hardly seemed bothered by his parents deaths. I suppose it was showing the effect of war on children and young people, and how much it screwed them up - Though I though the cyber-newtype idea, and Four and Rosamia themselves, illustrated this the best.

I also didn't realise auntil I watched that one of Evangelion's major points was borrowed from Zeta (The idea that dead loved ones can protect a pilot from attack) Which I think has lowered my opinion of Eva slightly, as I had thought this was an original idea.
 
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ayase said:
Nice review thund3r. As you know, I'm on to ZZ now - hope you'll let me write a review for that one (and I'm sure it will be a controversial one) :wink:

Although I had nothing agaist the Zeta storyline, my biggest problem was that I never warmed to many of the characters. They mostly seemed very impulsive and a bit childish. Kamille got better as the series went on (especially during Rosamy / Rosamia's storyline) but I couldn't help thinking he was particularly cold in the beginning - he hardly seemed bothered by his parents deaths. I suppose it was showing the effect of war on children and young people, and how much it screwed them up - Though I though the cyber-newtype idea, and Four and Rosamia themselves, illustrated this the best.

I also didn't realise auntil I watched that one of Evangelion's major points was borrowed from Zeta (The idea that dead loved ones can protect a pilot from attack) Which I think has lowered my opinion of Eva slightly, as I had thought this was an original idea.
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Strange i never made that connection until you put it like that. :p Oh don't worry Ryo Chan, Seed Destiny is at the very bottom of the gundam list :lol:
 
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thund3r said:
However as i'm a 100% sub-a-holic i noticed that they based the subs off the american dub script and OH how this annoyed me.
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Which version do you have? The full 50 episode set, the 5x 10 Episode editions or the 2x 25 Episode Anime Legends editions? The 5 volume version specifically contained new subs after complaints about the first edition's dub-titles. I'm not sure what's on the Anime Legends version.

As far as I go with Zeta Gundam, some will know that it's probably my favorite anime series. In saying so, I make no claim however, that it's a particularly well-rounded show. It's not even an excellent show. It has MANY negative points, it's just that some of them are actually rather charming in their way (like how Cpt Quattro looks completely awesome, in a roundabout 80's, blonde men in sunglasses and leggings kind of way). I think the basic difference of this show over any Gundam, was simply that I cared what was happening and who it was happening too, whereas you just kind of sit back and watch the flashy effects in most of the other shows. I think whilst you lack sympathy for the characters, you find that their coldness is simply interesting and most grow towards becoming more emotionally stable and easier to identify with (and a few go completely the other way). It's a lot less ham fisted than earlier and later attempts in Gundam to remind you that 'it's emotion time', which usually involve the entire crew wailing after a character death, or Kira Yamato wasting the Archangel's water supply with his sweet tears of quasi-messianic joy.

It helps that they were making a sequel to a show that:

a) Wasn't actually that good in the first place (go on, tell me I'm wrong :p )
b) Was several years old but still had a following, forcing the show to mature with its viewers.

On the former count, I think the fact that I watched 0079 (the series) before Zeta had some kind of major contrastive effect on my appreciation of the sequel. It was easy to overlook the show's occasionally silly plot turns, or occasionally weak emotional impact Has anyone in the last 30 years ever cared that Kamille's parents have died? Kamille seems to care least of all, and perhaps that's the point when I was being reminded that watching a show can be fun, and not a 'tick off the episode number' exercise in getting through something painful.
ayase said:
I also didn't realise auntil I watched that one of Evangelion's major points was borrowed from Zeta (The idea that dead loved ones can protect a pilot from attack) Which I think has lowered my opinion of Eva slightly, as I had thought this was an original idea.
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Zeta may have had it before Evangelion, but I've a vague recollection that it's reminiscent of Ideon at least. At the very least, Evangelion took the idea of young pilots having a particularly potent link to their mysterious mecha.
 
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kupoartist said:
thund3r said:
However as i'm a 100% sub-a-holic i noticed that they based the subs off the american dub script and OH how this annoyed me.
Click to expand...
Which version do you have? The full 50 episode set, the 5x 10 Episode editions or the 2x 25 Episode Anime Legends editions? The 5 volume version specifically contained new subs after complaints about the first edition's dub-titles. I'm not sure what's on the Anime Legends version.

As far as I go with Zeta Gundam, some will know that it's probably my favorite anime series. In saying so, I make no claim however, that it's a particularly well-rounded show. It's not even an excellent show. It has MANY negative points, it's just that some of them are actually rather charming in their way (like how Cpt Quattro looks completely awesome, in a roundabout 80's, blonde men in sunglasses and leggings kind of way). I think the basic difference of this show over any Gundam, was simply that I cared what was happening and who it was happening too, whereas you just kind of sit back and watch the flashy effects in most of the other shows. I think whilst you lack sympathy for the characters, you find that their coldness is simply interesting and most grow towards becoming more emotionally stable and easier to identify with (and a few go completely the other way). It's a lot less ham fisted than earlier and later attempts in Gundam to remind you that 'it's emotion time', which usually involve the entire crew wailing after a character death, or Kira Yamato wasting the Archangel's water supply with his sweet tears of quasi-messianic joy.

It helps that they were making a sequel to a show that:

a) Wasn't actually that good in the first place (go on, tell me I'm wrong :p )
b) Was several years old but still had a following, forcing the show to mature with its viewers.

On the former count, I think the fact that I watched 0079 (the series) before Zeta had some kind of major contrastive effect on my appreciation of the sequel. It was easy to overlook the show's occasionally silly plot turns, or occasionally weak emotional impact Has anyone in the last 30 years ever cared that Kamille's parents have died? Kamille seems to care least of all, and perhaps that's the point when I was being reminded that watching a show can be fun, and not a 'tick off the episode number' exercise in getting through something painful.
ayase said:
I also didn't realise auntil I watched that one of Evangelion's major points was borrowed from Zeta (The idea that dead loved ones can protect a pilot from attack) Which I think has lowered my opinion of Eva slightly, as I had thought this was an original idea.
Click to expand...
Zeta may have had it before Evangelion, but I've a vague recollection that it's reminiscent of Ideon at least. At the very least, Evangelion took the idea of young pilots having a particularly potent link to their mysterious mecha.
Click to expand...

I managed to grab hold of some fansubs so at some point i'll hunt down the later dvds with the correct subs, just incase i fancy watching it again. As for the borred plot links I think the fact that kamile didnt give two hoots about his parents death and more about the enemy's cyper-newtypes is due to the fact that the show (like eva) takes on a mothering role and that you see accross eva and other films like Aliens. Its a very common narrative in science fiction and really helps develop the main character and characters around him/her help neture them. But in this case it makes kamile care too much about some of the mature characters and himself worry about the youger ones such as Katz and Fa.
 
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