Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986) through Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991)
I've seen so much more Gundam and I keep avoiding making a post. I'm deep in Gundam now and have finished the Char saga or whatever people call it, gotten a few non-Tomino works and am even a bit into the next series.
ZZ- it's a really jarring follow-up to Zeta. It apparently aired right after. It feels bad but I can't really fault it- how do you follow up Zeta? Seemed appropriate to go in a different direction.
The first half or so was pretty difficult to get through- there's things I could complain about but overall I'm not sure what wasn't working for me. I'm a big fan of Judau and how different he is from Amuro or Kamille- instead of a child of weapon manufacturer parents he's a kid growing up in poverty. I really liked how much of the start took place on the colony- we hadn't gotten to see too much of colony life before and it was great to start it there. I like Judau's friend group and how there's plenty of inner conflict between them and their overall dynamic never really changes- why would it? They've been friends for years before this. The zany Zeon leaders never really feel great but I do think the show does stuff with that later on so it's not for nothing.
Ple's introduction is where the show starts to really pick up and soon becomes an easy watch through the rest. She just sort of shows up out of nowhere near the end of an episode as this shadowy pilot of a new model of one of the big final mechs from Zeta- great introduction and such a contrast between the other Zeon leaders we've seen so far. Then the next episode you see that she's an immature girl who is the youngest pilot we've seen yet. Bright finally has competition for deploying child soldiers but this time it's a lot worse.
There's a pretty abrupt shift right around the midway point where the situation changes in a way that doesn't feel natural- this is probably around the time Tomino got approval for Char's Counterattack and shifted plans. It's weird though, because it feels like there was going to be a big tone shift but instead it just sort of glosses over some big events to keep things steady- and somehow this makes the show feel smoother to watch. It's weird overall and you end up with things like Ple feeling disposable even to the good guys. I thought the part in the penultimate episode where Char is discussed like "we don't know what he's up to but it's surely some vile shit. I'd rather he be dead."- it's so funny.
Haman is the big bad of the series and it's nice for her to get a focus but I think her best moment was in the first episode we see her and Judau sees a demon while looking at her- it's so cool. Unfortunately while I don't think they completely fumbled with her they could have done a lot better.
I hated Glemy the whole way through. Totally insufferable and evil dude that's not even fun to watch in any capacity.
Overall I loved ZZ and honestly can't wait to watch it again in the future.
For Char's Counterattack- it's incredible. I need to watch it again and possibly a few more times after that. I don't think I have anything too interesting to say about it but it's such a great watch after the first three series. This isn't a knock on it or anything but one thing that I was hung up on was just how you're just put right into the conflict to start with- the right move for a movie- I just felt like a little more building up to the situation would have been interesting, feels like a gap between the end of ZZ and Char's Counterattack. I wouldn't want anything to revisit that or anything, and it'll be fine the next time I watch without that in mind.
War in the Pocket is excellent as well. It's cool to see Gundam work without Tomino. I've seen it recommended as a first entry before and while I don't think it's bad at all for that (but really just start with the og please) it does feel like it has a different enough vibes that I don't think I'd personally recommend that.
F91 is great. It puts us in a post-Char world but it feels kinda miserable- we're going through the same kind of conflicts again that it makes Char feel a little bit more justified for what he did in Char's Counterattack. Even though we're in what feels like a retread of previous conflicts there's at least enough of being put in different scenarios where it still feels fresh. I liked the contrast between Cecily's father and Seabook's mother- Cecily's father giving up his sense of self for the sake of his goals and Seabook's mother avoiding thinking about the consequences of building weapons for war to try and keep her sense of self. The final sequence of the movie is great too.
Stardust Memory sucks!!!! It's funny how the non-Tomino stuff so far has been looking backwards while Tomino has always been looking forward. This attempts to fill in the gap between the end of the original series and Zeta and ends with this whole 'deleting records' business to explain away any questions why nothing in here has come up before- pretty funny. It basically takes out the whole impact of war on children aspect that's been present in every other Gundam work just focusing on a military conflict from military people's perspective. I think you could tell an interesting story with that in mind but they sure don't here. There's a few bits that I think are cool about it. I liked when Kou fumbles asking Nina out. Haman is there for about 5 seconds. The Unit 03 is pretty awesome. I also watched the compilation movie to see if it was any 'better' and while there are some worth cuts I think it also cuts a lot of the more interesting bits too so I don't really know.
There's way more Gundam to go. I'm currently 12 episodes into Victory, maybe I'll write about that one a lot sooner!