Name(s): Kidou Senshi Zeta Gundam / Kidou Senshi Z Gundam / Mobile Suit Z Gundam / 機動戦士Ζガンダム
Format: TV series (50 episodes)
Studio(s): Sunrise
Related: Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986)

It’s rare to find a series I rate highly but am glad as hell it’s over. Zeta Gundam was an exhausting watch, albeit rewarding. Still, I prefer the original MSG movie trilogy.

My biggest complaints with Zeta Gundam are:

1. The subs I used. Apparently these are the best ones, from the most recent official releases. But they reek of subs that have been translated far too literally, every line sounding overly formal and stuffy. It was nothing at all how real people talk and at worst made it difficult to discern character personalities in their speech or what they were trying to say in the more vague, philosophical moments.

2. The characters. While I didn’t regularly dislike anyone other than Katz and the kids, nearly every character was capable of doing something that pissed me off at least once an episode. Nobody does what they’re told, everyone acts selfishly often for reasons that aren’t satisfyingly justified, and seeing these two behaviors often rewarded in the show (such as a disobedient pilot coming to someone’s rescue) makes me angry.

3. The length and narrative of the show. I think Zeta Gundam could be 10 episodes shorter without losing anything in the overall plot or being worse. Lots of slow shots with nothing of interest happening fill up episode length. The formula of every episode having a battle made some aspects of the show too predictable and made the narrative come off as episodic rather than overarching. Each episode is going somewhere it needs to go, but it’s stretched out and takes too long for my tastes.

Another issue is that new plot ideas are often introduced and resolved within the same episode or within the next few episodes, not giving them enough time to fester and build interest up for the viewer to allow a good emotional reaction from the resolution. For example, one episode suddenly introduces a new character and then 2-3 episodes later they’re taken away. The rest of the cast reacts extremely to this, but since I, the viewer, barely knew them I can’t relate to or understand the sentiment nearly as much and it just feels strange.

Unfortunately these highly specific and significant annoyances will take up most of the review, because for what Zeta Gundam is, it’s still a pretty good drama that left me satisfied, generally interested in what was going on, and got several emotional responses out of me. To try and balance this out, I’ll explain some things I did like:

1. The rivalry between Kamille and Jerid. Jerid was hands down the best antagonist in Zeta Gundam and one of the best characters overall. It’s ridiculous how it started, but both had plenty of justification to fight each other by the time the series ended. I enjoyed seeing Jerid grow just as much as I did Kamille, and he was easy to sympathize with as someone who wasn’t evil but deflected responsibility. I liked him so much that I felt bad for him in his most emotional scenes.

2. The animation quality. Framerate was great, and the action sequences were easy to follow and entertaining.

3. Giving a follow-up to the characters of MSG without having them take over the story from the new characters.

4. Not adhering to the most predictable outcomes. Just goes to show, things rarely go as you plan them.