Final Thoughts on Zeta Gundam
Pros:
Comparing Zeta Gundam to Ideon I can definitely say Tomino’s directing has improved. There’s still some weird plot progression and odd characterization, but the story flows much smoother. Thankfully the show manages to stay interesting with just a few weak episodes here and there.
The animation for the show stays mostly consistent, with the final few episodes looking awesome. The final four-way fight between Kamille, Char, Scirocco, and Haman is one of the best animated and epic final fights in mecha. The mecha designs themselves are pretty cool (the Palace Athene is so badass), but there are the usual wtf models (Baund Doc anyone?). The music is pretty good with some real stand out tracks that sadly don’t play that much.
Zeta definitely has a diverse set of characters. Kamille quickly differentiates himself from being an Amuro clone and develops into a very unique character. His suicidal and cynical attitude towards the end is particularly noticeable. Bright of course is awesome no matter what. Char is mostly the same but you can see his evolution to his CCA self by the end. There’s so many great female characters - Emma, Reccoa, Four, Mour, Sarah- with only Fa and Rosammia really being annoying. Fa takes the cake for being both the worst pilot in the show and the loudest. Not a good combination. Scirocco is a suitable enough villain, but he’s really more the Gihren of the show. He’s one hell of a player though.
Cons:
Sorry, but in no way can the Gryps War compare to the One Year War. While the emotion in the show is very intense it’s hard to tell that there’s really a war going on. The Argama is chased by the same two ships for the whole show, and very rarely does the AEUG fleet come together for any major battle. The show doesn’t even make clear how large the AEUG or Titans are. The Titans can’t be that much of a threat if they’re all killed by a single laser blast in the last episode. I also didn’t like how the final battle was set up, with the Argama suddenly being summoned to defend the Colony Laser without any build up to the battle.
Throughout the show various characters disappear and reappear way too randomly to really be developed evenly. Rosammia disappears at the middle of the show only to suddenly show up at the end to be another cyber-newtype foe for Kamille. Scirocco disappears so much you wonder how exactly the guy becomes head of the Titans and there’s no real dramatic tension between him and Kamille, as they literally meet face to face only in the last episode! Jerid is built up much better as a rival and enemy for Kamille, but his death is way too anti-climatic. He’s killed as soon as he appears.
The ending to Zeta Gundam is sadly kind of a non-ending. The Titans are defeated, somehow, but Axis is still out there. The final scene is Fa carrying a critically injured Kamille to the Argama with no denouement at all. With the immediate sequel of ZZ Gundam, however, these aren’t really too big issues, but it would of been nice if Zeta could of ended on its own terms.
Everything considered I can understand why so many people find Zeta Gundam great, but it just doesn’t strike that high for me. Tomino thankfully did a much better job here but there’s still that weirdness that stops me from taking the show completely seriously and really get absorbed into its narrative. Still, I have to admire his vision as he once again uses gundam to show the true brutality of war in such an intriguing way as not other gundam I’ve seen has tried. Now it’s on to ZZ Gundam and just hope it doesn’t piss all over that vision.
