Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Part 6 Episodes 26-30

The Titans and their leader, Jamitov, have been granted full authority over the Earth Federation military.  With two back to back failures in battles on the Moon, the Titans now seek swift retribution against an increasingly overpowered and outmanned AEUG.  Kamille finds himself in his more intense battle yet with his nemesis, Jerid, while Char returns to space with a heavy burden on his shoulders.  Meanwhile, AEUG spy Reccoa infiltrates the Jupitris and comes face to face with Paptimus Scirocco, who’s charms may be able to turn even the AEUG’s most loyal soldiers against them.

After some of the bigger bombshells we saw during the halfway mark of Zeta Gundam, you’d expect there’d be more immediate ramnifications.  While this set definitely had some shining moments, much of it was an unusual slow burn.  I say “unusual” because the pacing of this series has been incredible.  When a couple of episodes could have been fused together though, there might be something wrong…not terribly wrong but still, it sucks pointing out holes in this shows otherwise amazing armor.

Considering the Titans now have the full might of the Earth Federation military in their corner, you’d think theyd jump on ripping the Argama and Raddish a new one immedietley after losing two key operations on the Moon.  Well, they did eventually and man, they stepped up their game.  Determined to send a message to the people, the Titans higher ups (and Jerid) sought to make an example of a colony that stood with the AEUG by using a poison gas attack.  Thankfully this was prevented but the Titans are pretty miffed to return to these monstrous tactics.  They followed this up with an attack that left the Argama in pretty hot water.  If it wasn’t for Kamille’s Newtype instincts and Emma’s improved skill, they might’ve succeeded.  It was a good recovery for this set which took its sweet time getting to these two back to back battles. 

Like I said, the battle within the derelict Zeon vessel and the retrieval of Char from Earth could have been merged into one episode.  In both, there were only two major events of note: the first was the death of long time AEUG nemesis Jamacian, who was lured to his death by a crazy Titans pilot named Yazan for his many failures; the second was Bright getting a message from his family courtesy of Char.  Bright’s been through a lot in a conflict that’s arguably become more taxing than the One Year War itself.  Seeing him cry listening to his kids talk about their lives on Earth with their mother felt special and a well deserved pat on the back for the guy.  But other than that, both episodes dragged and that’s something I feel this show couldn’t really afford to do after such an intense midseason event.  Even worse, Char might be back in space but his screentime has been woefully undercut for a while now.  He’s mostly been relegated to back room meetings and the occasional appearance here and there.  I think he’s set to be more centered next time with the return of the Axis Zeons.  But come on, it’s Char.  If you’ve got him, use him guys.

I was pretty surprised to see many of Zeta Gundam’s problem characters finally get some proper attention in this set of episodes.  Fa was very much her selfish, bad pilot self for several episodes.  However, she’s found a role to help her grow as a person: acting as a guardian for a pair of kids Char brought back with him from Earth (where did they come from and how did I miss that?  No idea).  Still, Fa displayed some real gusto going full on Mommy on the two kids and prioritizing their safety in the middle of a battle.  Now she’s starting to remind me of Emma and even Kamille cant bring himself to complain much (he was, however, interested in Fa in nothing but a towel).  Then there’s Jerid.  Once again, Kamille has struck down someone close to him.  Unlike Lyla, who’s romantic feelings for Jerid kind of came out of nowhere, we spent a lot of time with Jerid and his partner Mouar.  She’s acted like a voice of reason for the hot head and legitimately won his heart.  Losing her is a huge blow to Jerid, not just considering that’s three friends of his Kamille has killed.  I never expected to feel anything for Jerid besides an occasional chuckle.  But if it wasn’t on between him and Kamille before, it definitely is now.

One last thing to touch on, Reccoa’s infiltration of the Jupitris and her encounter with Scirocco.  First, the Jupitris looks freaking amazing: like a merging of the Discovery One and the Lienov from 2001: A Space Odyssey and it’s sequel 2010.  You could feel the size and scale of it and it was daunting, an impressive feat to pull off with 80s animation.  As for Reccoa meeting Scirocco, it was…weird.  I never knew Reccoa was having doubts about her duties considering she blames herself for not warning the AEUG about Jaburo.  But her brief meeting with the purple haired Jupiter elite left an impact.  She even seemingly forgot to draw Scirocco in a series of post mission sketches.  I’d say it’s some kind of weird Newtype mental block…but I think this show is gonna have Reccoa going down a darker path soon and it might’ve just begun here.

So besides some pacing issues at the beginning, this set of Zeta Gundam episodes featured more events and battles that will heavily impact everyone going forward.  Next time, Zeon returns in the form of a character I’ve been looking forward to seeing ever since I decided to do a back to back, two part review of Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ.  Let’s go meet the new neighbors tomorrow right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.