Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

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(aired 1985–1986) was a televised anime, one of Gundam series and a sequel to the original Mobile Suit Gundam.

The show was written and directed by Tomino Yoshiyuki, with character designs by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, while the series' mechanical designs were split amongst Kunio Okawara, Mamoru Nagano, and Kazumi Fujita.

At its first airing, the show was poorly received by many casual TV watchers, including Tomino's wife. These viewers found it depressing and confusing, and as a result, the series was not nearly as popular as the original. Out of all the Gundam shows that he worked on, Tomino has stated that Zeta and Victory Gundam were the series that he really hated to work on. Due to such concerns, Tomino later made the sequel Gundam ZZ into a much lighter affair, to the point that it alienated many of Zeta's fans.

Today Zeta Gundam is considered by many fans to be one of the better Gundam installments, if not the most representative, as it depicts Tomino's ideas in a harsh and realistic manner.

In 2004, after more than a year of delays, Bandai released a limited edition Zeta Gundam box set with both dubbed English and original Japanese audio tracks. Due to music rights issues outside the company's control, the opening and closing sequences were altered, and the English subtitles were criticized as having translation errors. The set included pencil sharpener collectibles and a 48-page booklet and poster.

Distinctive features

Several features of Zeta Gundam depart from the original series:

• The first Gundam series was initially about the personal lives of the main characters. Viewers gradually learned about the political landscape where the story took place. From the first episode, Zeta Gundam displays a major conflict between political and ideological factions.
• The Earth Federation, and especially its elite Titans forces, emerges as the evil side, contrary to its previous role in Mobile Suit Gundam. The Federation has become weak and corrupt, under control of the Titans' leaders. Consequently, alliances and affiliations shift: Amuro Ray, Bright Noa, Hayato Kobayashi, and Char Aznable now fight on the same side against the Titans and the Earth Federation.
• Char Aznable has a unique role as mentor to the new protagonist and lead character Kamille Bidan, effectively becoming the second lead character. This mentor-protege relationship plays a great role in shaping Kamille from an angst-ridden teenager to a true soldier.
• The war develops into a three-way conflict between AEUG/Karaba, Titans, and later Axis Zeon.
• There is an extremely high number of casualties on all sides, including main characters.
• This is the first animated Gundam production to feature more than one Gundam mobile suit. There are four Gundams throughout this series: The Gundam Mark II, Psycho Gundam, Psycho Gundam Mark II, and the Z-Gundam itself. Although the title mobile suit does not appear until about halfway through the series, the lead character uses the Mark II until his suit is complete.
• This show is the first of two Gundam animated television shows that has received a direct television sequel (Gundam ZZ). The other is 2002's Mobile Suit Gundam SEED which produced the 2004 sequel Gundam SEED Destiny.
• A large majority of the mobile suits in this series, including the title mobile suit itself, are transformable into jet-like vehicles (such as the Zeta Gundam's "wave rider" mode and the Psycho Gundam's "mobile fortress" mode), unlike any of the suits from the original.

Synopsis

Zeta Gundam takes place in UC 0087, seven years after the end of the One-Year War. After the events of Operation Stardust, which is told in Gundam 0083, the Earth Federation establishes an elite division called the Titans to hunt down the remaining pockets of Zeon resistance. The Titans become overzealous in their mission, and start to use brutal methods to reach their goals. In the end Titans become nothing more than ruthless tyrants with an ambition to rule the Earth Sphere. Two resistance groups, the AEUG (Anti-Earth Union Group/Anti-Earth United Government) and their earthbound counterparts, the Karaba (led by Mobile Suit Gundam's Hayato Kobayashi); form to unite the various existing small forces in the struggle against Titans. Their members consist of renegade soldiers of the Earth Federation Space Forces, former soldiers of Principality of Zeon, and militia from space colonies, which causes the former enemies of the original series' One Year War to fight together against the Titans and the Federation. Most notable is Bright Noa, who returns as captain of the assault space carrier Argama, the flagship of AEUG space fleet. Char Aznable and Kamille Bidan are both ace pilots aboard Argama. Furthermore, Char become a mentor to Kamille. The series also sees the partnership and cooperation between Kamille and Amuro, and Amuro and Char. Behind the frontline, the resistance group AEUG and Karaba are supported by many companies on Earth and in Space, lead by Anaheim Electronics, a Moon-based giant manufacturing company. Besides financial support, Anaheim Electronics also provides logistics and technical supports for AEUG, including spaceships, mobile suits, and munitions.

The series begins when a thinly-disguised Char Aznable, now a member of AEUG under the alias "Quattro Bajeena", raids a Titan military base in the occupied colony Green Noah to acquire intelligence on the Federation's new Mobile Suit prototype, the black Gundam Mark-II. Kamille Bidan, a hot-headed Newtype dissident, is caught up in the raid and helps AEUG steal the Mark-II. Eventually, he joins the AEUG, initially as the Mark-II pilot, then as the pilot of the new Z-Gundam mobile suit (made by Anaheim Electronics and based on Kamille's own design). Hayato Kobayashi and Amuro Ray meet up with them shortly after the AEUG descends on earth to attack the Jaburo base but won't return to space. Both will stay on earth with Karaba while Hayato's son, Katz, will go to space with Quattro.

Things are complicated further as Paptimus Scirocco, an Earth-born Italian industrialist now based out of Jupiter serving as a "contract killer"/Mobile Suit developer to the Titans (who, unbeknownst to his government handlers, is an extremely powerful Newtype) executes his own designs. He takes over the organization as part of his bid to dominate the entire universe and enslave all Earthnoids and Spacenoids. The war between Titans and AEUG will soon escalate as Haman Karn, now leader of Axis Zeon, remnants of the Zeon empire, join the war as well, leading to a three-way battle. In the beginning, it is not clear which side the Axis Zeon is, as Haman's cunning plan is to play AEUG/Karaba and Titans/Federation against each other and take advantage of the damage from the clash between them.

Compilation movies: A New Translation

In celebration of Gundam's 25th anniversary (and also the 20th anniversary of Zeta Gundam), the 50 episode series was compiled into a new movie trilogy. According to Tomino, the movie series was created to fix some of the problems he identified in the Zeta TV series and to bring the twenty-year old series into a twenty-first century context for the new generation now experiencing the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED series. The first of these, "Heirs to the Stars," opened on May 28, 2005, followed by "Lovers" on October 29, 2005, and "Love is the Pulse of the Stars" on March 6, 2006. The movies were a surprising hit, and went on to make almost 2 billion yen in box office revenue in total.

The compilations digitally remastered the TV series of Zeta Gundam with new footage. 33% of the first film was remastered footage, as well as around 70% of the second. Plot details such as the Argama's visit to the colony of 30 Bunch were changed to allow the film to flow more smoothly, unlike Tomino's previous Gundam film compilations.

Like the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy, the majority of the original cast of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam reprised their roles for these theatrical versions - with the exception of Yukana Nogami replacing Saeko Shimazu as Four Murasame, Yuu Asakawa replacing Kayoko Fujii as Rosamia Badam and Satomi Arai replacing Miyuki Matsuoka as Fa Yuiry. The first change caused a great deal of polemic among fans due to the rumors about Nogami apparently not playing fair to get the role of Four.

One of the largest changes created by the movies is the ending, which changes the Universal Century timeline considerably by removing the Axis Zeon from the Earth Sphere. This results in the displacement of the original sequel to Zeta, Gundam ZZ.

The trilogy performed exceptionally well in the Japanese box office, far more so than previous efforts by a Gundam series as well as many high profile animated films such as Steamboy. This success is even more remarkable considering the film is shown in a more limited number of theatres than usual. Heirs to the Stars, the New Translation's first film, came in 3rd place at the box office on its opening week and Lovers, the second film received similar success. One possibility for this startling success is the recent wave of nostalgia, which desires a return to the story-telling style of older anime. However, a good deal of New Translation's viewing demographic are of a younger generation, ranging from the late teens to early twenties. Even more surprising is the rather high amount of female viewers, reaching thirty percent of the overall viewing audience. Although the core demographic is twenty to thirty-two year old males still, many see this as a reminder of just how well crafted the original Gundam series were. Tomino himself, who had been wrought with a recent string of financially failed series, posted a personal thank you to fans and casual moviegoers alike on A New Translation's official website.

Trivia

During the film, Kamille Bidan, the pilot of Gundam Mk-II and Zeta, demonstrated Char's "Red Comet flying kick" several times, even though he never used this trick in the Zeta TV series.

Openings, Endings and Insert Songs

TV Series

Openings:

• Zeta - Toki wo Koete (Z・刻をこえて; Zeta - Transcending Times) by Mami Ayukawa (Eps. 1-24)
• Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete (水の星へ愛をこめて; From an Aqueous Star with Love) by Hiroko Moriguchi (Eps. 25-50)

Ending:

• Hoshizora no Believe (星空のBelieve; Believe in the Starry Sky) by Mami Ayukawa

Insert Song:

• Gin'iro no Dress (銀色のドレス; Silver Dress) by Hiroko Moriguchi (Ep. 20)

US DVD Songs:

• Zeta no Kodou ~ Zeta Gundam (Ζの鼓動～Ζガンダム; Zeta's Pulse~Zeta Gundam) by Shigeaki Saegusa (Opening)
• Green Noa no Shounen ~ Arata na Sekai (グリーン・ノアの少年～新たな世界; Boy from Green Noa ~ A New World) by Shigeaki Saegusa (Ending)

Compilation Movies

Heirs To The Stars:

• Metamorphoze by Gackt (Opening)
• Kimi ga Matteiru Kara (君が待っているから; Because you're Waiting) by Gackt (Ending)

Lovers:

• Mind Forest by Gackt from his "Crescent" Album (Ending)

Love is the Pulse of the Stars:

• Love Letter" by Gackt (Opening)
• Dybbuk by Gackt (Ending)

See also

Preceded by (in production order): Mobile Suit Gundam

Preceded by (in timeline order):

Followed by: (in production and timeline): Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ

Variation models: Z Gundam Mobile Suit Variations (Z-MSV)

External links

• http://www.mahq.net
• [Official Zeta Gundam: A New Translation site]

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