Zeta Gundam Anime Review

Has been a while since i reviewed a gundam series. After watching the gundam movie trilogy, i started watching zeta gundam. I originally wanted to watch the new translation movies, since those presumably had better graphics and had no filler. Luckily i found out that the new translation movies had a different ending from the series which will force ZZ gundam and Char's counterattack out of the UC timeline. So i thought i should just stick with the 50 episodes anime instead. And that turns out to be a right choice.

In the first episode, protanganist kamille bidan got into trouble with the titans because the they made fun of his name. Titans, is an elite group in the earth federation forces, similar to gundam 00's A-Laws. This marks the beginning of kamille's feud with Jerid, who is one of the titans that bullied kamille.

When Quattro Bajeena infiltrates the colony to hijack the new gundam mk ii units, kamille took the chance and stole one of the units for himself. Fueled by his hatred for the titans, kamille piloted unit 3, and forced out the pilot of unit 2.

Like a boss, kamille took the opportunity to get back to those police officers who beat him up.
Kamille joined the AEUG and fought along side with Quattro, who is of course Char with his new sunglasses.
Some screenshots of the series *Spoiler* :

Amuro makes a comeback, and defeats a MS with a transport carrier.

Amuro is more mature now, compared to his whinny self in the one year war.

Amuro in rick dias.

Kamille in MK II, AEUG colours.

Kamille beating Jerid.

Psycho gundam destroyed.

Palace Athene with The O.

Haman Karn. Best Antagonist in the series.

MK II vs Palace Athene, Reccoa vs Emma.

Emma Sheen KIA.

Zeta gundam vs The O.

Hyaku Shiki's last resort.

The legendary Waverider Crush, killing Paptimus Scirocco.

Characters:
The characters in the series are very mostly very awesome. Even Jerid who starts off as a pesky Titan, had much character development and he became a better pilot and enemy for the Argama. Captain Bright returns as the captain of Argama, and Char returns with a new alias and motive. Amuro and Char both served as mentors for Kamille, though Amuro had considerably less screen time compared to Char.
Only problem i have with characters are Reccoa and Katz. Ensign Reccoa defected over to Paptimus Scirocco's side after Char neglected her. She seems to have some emotional problems, which is fine, but surely she could have just talked things out.
Another character which i found annoying was Katz Kobayashi. He repeatedly ignored Captain's Bright orders and sorties on his own. Also he dodges one of the famous Bright Slap.

In the final battle, Katz sorties in the G-defenser and was extremely cocky when he manage to dodge a few beams and slashes.

 He then promptly proceeds to ram into an asteriod and the G-defenser was heavily damaged. At this point of time i had no more complains about katz, since he got what he deserves.

Yazan, one of the more badass titans, could no longer tolerate such idiocy and destroys the G-defenser along with Katz. Bandai recognises this and when Mg Mk ii was made into the Ver2.0, the G-defenser was left out.

 In Mobile Suit Gundam's one year war, Katz and the two other orphans had managed to stop the Zeon's plans to blow up the mobile suits. In Zeta gundam he grew up to be a mentally retarded  teenager with emotional problems. He probably thought he was in SEED mode before he crashed. He will probably be one of the ace pilots if he lived in cosmic era though, since gundam seed grants all young and emotional teenagers SEED mode.

Plot:
I loved the plot and the twist ending. Without spoiling the ending, i would say that the ending was very unexpected, though in the last 10 episodes there was a bloodfest with many main/side characters dying.
This series is probably one of Tominno's best series and befitting his Kill Them All reputation.
One main problem i had with the plot is that Argama seems to have some security issues, especially when Katz can persistently sortie without permission.

Conclusion:
The Goods:
1.The gundam designs are sexy. Mk ii, zeta, hyaku shiki, qubeley, the O, palace athene, methuss all look good.
2. Plot is well written.
3. Mecha action is even better than gundam wing which is a much newer series. There is no or very little reused footage like gundam wing which had 3 grunts always getting destroyed in the same exact manner.
Graphics are very nice, considering the age of the anime.
4. Soundtracks are very good and fitting the series as well.

The Bads:
1.  Ensign Reccoa's defect seems unnecessary no matter how i look at it.
2. Argama's poor security.

Verdict: 9.9/10 A classic and a treat to watch. I will probably watch the new translation movies as well, for good measure.

                                 A Sign of Zeta