An interesting sequel

zanghi_james

When I first learned of ZZ Gundam, the second official sequel to the original Gundam Anime, I discovered from reading reviews that it was quite infamous as it has a very upbeat and comedic tone in comparison to Zeta Gundam and the original Gundam series. I had just finished Zeta Gundam and was blown away by the heavy amount of death and darkness in the final battle of that series, and starting up ZZ Gundam almost immediately put a bad taste in my mouth.

This show picks up literally five to ten hours after the events of Zeta Gundam. Char/Quattro/Casval is missing in action, presumed dead; Kamille's essentially a lobotomized shell of himself; and the only remaining survivors are Fa Yuiry, Bright Noa, two children, and the remnants of the crew of the Argama; plus, Haman Karn is still alive and has full command of the Neo Zeon military. Not only that, but Karn is planning an invasion of the beleaguered Earth, and it seems that both the Federation and A.E.U.G. are not enough to stop her conquest. The Argama heads to a colony known as Shangri-La to repair, but are being pursued by a Neo Zeon ship. With Kamille down for the count, who will become the next Gundam Pilot?

Of the three main hero characters of the original UC anime, I like Judau Ashta the best. He is a bit pig-headed and a moron, but he's nowhere near as whiny like Amuro at the beginning of 0079 or as jerky as Kamille in Zeta. He kind of reminds me of Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing. Now, I knew about Judau and some of his allies before watching this show from one of the Gundam Dynasty Warrior games, but that game omitted a lot of key storylines and characters from the actual tale. The other characters of the show are interesting, though this is their really only appearance in the Universal Century timeline (Including Char's Counterattack) so I didn't get too attached.

Now, as most people have said, the first half of ZZ Gundam is pretty hard to swallow. There are some story-arcs that are important to the second half, but most of it is your typical 'monster of the week' event. Also, the characters are incredibly comedic and ridiculous, most notably the Neo Zeon officers like Gottn, Mashymere, Glemy, and Chara. Mashymere Cello is literally one of the worst villains ever, actually, and acts like Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon meets James of Team Rocket from Pokemon.

However, once the second half starts and you see the lengths the Neo Zeon is willing to go to in order to accomplish their goals of conquest, ZZ Gundam picks up. The Mobile Suits and Mobile Armor designs are pretty wild and there are some great action scenes, too. The scenes with Judau's friends piloting various Gundams evoked memories of the final story-arc of Gundam Wing when the five pilots are taking on the White Fang's armies.

What turned me off to the series for the most part was that it has no dub in English. It's just in Japanese with English Subtitles. Now, I know a lot of people prefer subbed to dubbed, but I don't. So I found it really hard to focus on the action because I was reading the subtitles all the time. Also, the first half of the series has a bad theme song for the opening and ending.

CONS:
Terrible villains.Over the top Comedy momentsBad theme songs for opening and ending for the first half of the show.

PROS:
Cool Mecha DesignsLikable characters for the good guysSome fun and later serious story-arcs

May the Force Be With You!

score 6/10

zanghi_james 13 May 2020

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5734573/