Universal Century 0087.
The Titans have been defeated but at a bitter cost to the AEUG. The dust has barely settled when Haman Kahn,
regent of Zeon, declares the arrival of Neo Zeon and begins her own war against
the Earth Sphere. With the Federation and
AEUG exhausted from war, neither is in a position to stop Haman’s attacks. A glimmer of hope appears in the form of a
bratty junk yard scavenger named Judau Ashta.
After saving the Argama from the vengeance of an old foe, Judau becomes
the new pilot of the Zeta Gundam. He and
his friends are the only thing the AEUG has to stand against Haman Kahn as a
new battle begins.
Is five episodes too soon to say that I hate a show
already, much less one from the Gundam franchise? Cause that’s kind of how I feel as I sit down
to begin the second half of Gundam Month Mark V-THE GAUNTLET Part II. Im going into Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ well
aware of its pedigree and legacy as a series.
It’s the direct follow up to Zeta Gundam and…well it’s not well looked upon
and now I see why and I really, really wish I didn’t. I know this show is supposed to get much
better down the line and who knows, maybe it’ll salvage something out of
this. As it stands here and now, all I
can ask is: Mr. Tomino, What the actual HELL were you thinking picking up the
story like this post Zeta?
Since the series begins with a brief recap of Zeta, I’ll just remind everyone
where things stand: The war with the Titans is over, with the AEUG coming out
the victors but only barely. Char
Aznable is missing, many of the AEUG’s core members and pilots are dead, and Kamille
Bidan is in a catatonic state due to Paptimus Scirocco frying his brain. Oh and Haman Kahn is now free of any real
obstacles to start her own war with the Earth Federation. Zeta Gundam didn’t end with much of a victory
and it was stranger to end it with what more or less amounts to a “To be
continued…” So, with all that doom and
gloom surrounding the Earth Sphere right now, how does ZZ decide to start
things?
It starts off in the most embarrassingly offensive way
possible. By that I mean, ZZ’s beginning
takes all the pain, suffering and powerful imagery of the Zeta finale and
trades it for slapstick comedy, a crew of annoying teenagers and a slew of
villains who are so wacky that they deserve the embarrasement of getting their
asses kicked by a child who can barely pilot a Mobile Suit. I get that Zeta was a very dark series
dealing with damaged people fighting an apocalyptic war in the stars and I
understand some need to lighten things up a bit. THIS!!! This is not the way to do that.
For starters, if Kamille was the more moodier and
aggressive version of Amuro Ray, Judau is the far lesser of both characters in
all respects. He’s not moody, he’s
arrogant. He’s not special at piloting,
he sucks. He boasts about how he’ll
steal the Zeta Gundam…and returns it after helping the Argama three separate
times in a row. Judau and his friends
only have an inkling of knowledge as to what’s been going on in space during
Zeta but theyre more concerned with selling damaged Mobile Suit tech for cash
to make it rich. It could have been
beneficial to explore the angle of war orphans stuck on a colony while a bigger
war is one before theyre drawn into another one. But these kids aren’t tragic figures…theyre
just a bunch of screaming idiots. In
what’s probably one of the worst scenes of the premiere, Argama pilot Saegusa
is tragically killed while Judau and his friends are helping former Titans
pilot Yazan steal the Zeta. This guy was
a minor character but we still checked in with him and his was one of Bright’s
go to guys on the Argama. He survived
the chaos of the Gryps Conflict…and he dies a pointless death in ZZ’s
premiere. There’s barely anytime for
Judau and his friends to even consider, “Holy crap, our antics just got a guy
killed. Are we bad people?” Nope, it just gets more insulting from there,
believe it or not.
The Axis Zeons (theyre not calling themselves Neo Zeon
just yet) aren’t much better off. The
main villains of the premiere are the aforementioned Yazan, reduced from
ruthless killer who took out Emma Sheen in the Zeta finale, and Mashymre, a
would be Knight who’s obsessed with a rose given to him by Haman Kahn
herself. Haman only appears in vague
flashbacks in Mashymre’s head. Hey, I’m
all for seeing Haman lying on a bed in a sexy manner in her signature
outfit…BUT THAT’S NOT HAMAN KAHN!!!
Haman wouldn’t be speaking to anyone so positively about anything. Haman is a ruthless mastermind who
manipulated her way through the Gryps Conflict by getting the Titans and AEUG
to almost destroy each other for her benefit.
She’s not some dream like Zelda queen who offers quests. Haman gives orders and expects them to be
done right. My only hope is Mashymre
returns after multiple failures and is gunned down by his dream woman for his
silly objectifications.
Mashymre and his goons are just plain silly and the fight
scenes with Judau and the Zeta are just as out of place after Zeta showed some
intense combat all across the board. Now
you’ve got kids using battle tactics straight out of the Battle of Endor from
Return of the Jedi to trip up enemy Mobile Suits and shake up the enemy
cockpits so badly, theyre literally seeing double. If it wasn’t already clear,
Judau sucks as a pilot, only barely being able to pilot the Zeta. And yet he keeps coming back to steal the
damn thing, only to save the Argama and return it with the promise that he’ll
steal it again tomorrow. ZZ’s premiere
isn’t just dumb, it’s repetitive. By the
end of the fifth episode, Judau is feeling pretty good about himself for no reason
and no plot has developed. By this time
in Zeta, Kamille had lost his home, both of his parents and become the pilot of
the Gundam Mark II along with Emma aboard the Argama. ZZ is wasting time it cant afford to if it
wants to maintain the pacing of Zeta…but by now that’s well far behind it.
Was there ANYTHING good about the beginning of ZZ? It’s minimal but it’s there. It’s good to see the Argama crew and Bright
Noa is still the man in charge. I do
have to question why he thinks Judau has potential when the kid is such a
disappointment in a Gundam. But, I do
trust Bright Noa more than anyone. If he
thinks he can make a man out of Judau and his buddies, I say go for it…and be
prepared for a ton of red hands from all the slapping to be done. There’s also a brief but kind of terrifying
scene where Judau encounters Kamille in an ambulance with Fa. The second Kamille glimpses Judau, I got
shivers. It’s still tough to see the
hero of Zeta Gundam in such a state, especially after seeing what could have
been in Zeta Gundam: A New Translation.
I’d like to think that whatever shared Newtype experience he and Judau
shared would change the future Gundam pilot a bit, wake him up to what’s really
going on…but I don’t think that’s gonna kick in for a while, if at all. Also, it is good to see Fa continuing to take
an active role in things since she is the only surviving Mobile Suit pilot the
Argama has at the moment.
How can a series stumble so greatly that it was probably
derailing the franchise when it thought it was doing a good job? That’s my initial sum up of Mobile Suit
Gundam ZZ and it’s going to have to work its ass off to show me it’s a
worthy(ish) follow up to Zeta Gundam.
But with a terrible batch of new characters (that goes for both the
heroes and the villains) and an emphasis on humor rather than the dour tone of
its predecessor…ZZ has its work cut out for it.
Oh man, the last time I ranted about a Gundam this bad was Gundam Seed
Destiny and that didn’t start getting truly terrible until around the 10
episode mark. I cant believe I currently
found a Gundam series worse than Seed Destiny.
Well, guess there’s a reason I called this THE GAUNTLET Part II…please
pray for me. More tomorrow, see ya then.
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