WHY ZETA IS BEST

TONY T. - Writer, 3rd Year, Economics and Data Science

Writing about a 10/10 for article 10x10.

The original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam isn’t all that great. There’s some inklings of a great idea, and it’s clear why the series was so important so as to essentially create the subcategory of “Real Robot” mecha anime series, but it’s held up by the need to simultaneously appeal to children with toy manufacturer-friendly designs and storylines. Mixed within a story of war, moral relativism, and changing alliances are elements like the monster of the week story structure, a holdover of the series’ roots in more traditional kid friendly series in the vein of what Western viewers might associate with Saturday mornings.

In a sense, the original series is a transitional series picking up where director Tomino Yoshiyuki left off in 1977 with Muteki Choujin Zambot 3. That series, a “Super Robot” series with darker elements aligned with war stories like the mental anguish of the soldiers themselves and the overall condemnation of large scale military conflicts seemingly counter to the very point of merchandise-heavy robot series, logically would be followed by a series like the original Gundam. In many regards, then, the recut film trilogy version of the 1979 Gundam series far surpasses the tonally inconsistent television series as it does away with certain elements incongruent with its war narrative. Not to say that all media needs to be doom and gloom, but war narratives need to utilize levity in a very careful manner, which the original television cut of Mobile Suit Gundam clearly does not. By doing away with those unengaging elements, the film trilogy’s only real shortcomings come from the circumstances of their creation, with occasional pacing that feels odd. One can easily see the films’ seams, as certain scenes which ended episodes in the television cut are spliced somewhat ungracefully with the beginnings of the next episode. Particularly, the first two films feel far more like compilations of episodes than solid movies, though the third film somewhat avoids due to the higher quantity of original material. Still, these problems were inevitable given how the film trilogy was indeed a recut of the television series.

If Zambot started the shift towards war stories, with the 1979 television cut of Gundam furthering it, then the film trilogy almost completes this progression, save for its pacing issues. The series which serves as the epitome of Tomino’s intended path for the anime mecha war story, then, is the 1985 followup television series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. While other entries like ∀ Gundam may have more conventionally graceful narratives, Zeta remains my absolute favorite for epitomizing the sort of television series Tomino spent nearly a decade moving towards. Arguably, when one considers the conventional serious war story told with robots in Japanese animation, it is Zeta that really serves as a good blueprint, more so than the original.

One immediate difference from 1979 to Zeta is the presence of more factions within its war story, which does wonders in complicating the main narrative in a manner that truly enhances its discussion of militaristic conflict. It far more effectively pushes the morally gray subtext which the original series hinted towards, albeit unsuccessfully given how one side was clearly a German National Socialist analog, completed with similar iconography and even direct quotation. In comparison Zeta is extremely interesting with how it completely shifts the original series’ dynamic, with the protagonist Kamille Bidan being mentored not by previous protagonist Amuro Ray, but by Amuro’s rival and eventual main Universal Century final villain Char Aznable, under his Quattro Bajeena guise. Atop having his personal failings and inexperience being far more realized, Kamille Bidan is a fascinating protagonist existing within a world where most sides have fundamental failings. Arguably, Zeta becomes even more interesting with understanding of where the series eventually goes with Char’s character arc given how his later shift into megalomaniacal acts like dropping asteroids on Earth are implied to be informed in part by Zeta. While that has little bearing on an assessment of Zeta, it does illustrate how effective the series is at presenting its conflicts as the multifaceted, complex political situations they largely should be. The series’ finale is uniquely dour for a series in the franchise, ending with most of the main cast being presumed dead in a conflict. In that regard, it fits remarkably well with the fundamental thesis of Mobile Suit Gundam as a wider media entity - that war is a disruptive mess that destabilizes civilizational progress, yet it is an inevitability due to an inherent human tendency to conflict with others.

Zeta still faces several pacing problems, alongside a few particularly awful portions of its story which are rather egregiously bad. In spite of these problems which, for me, only effected a few episodes, it remains my favorite Gundam series and one of my favorite anime as a whole due to how it presents its ideas, along with how it exists seemingly as the culmination of Tomino’s artistic career up until that point in time. Beyond that, its production values are remarkably impressive with fantastic music choices and a remarkably vivid color palette that really accentuates both the more lighthearted earlier portions and the darker second half. Zeta is a series whose strengths aren’t exactly evident at first glance, but really stand out in context. Avoid Zeta’s own film recut trilogy, but Zeta is, for my two cents, the best traditional Gundam entry, narrowly over ∀’s more unique approach.