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Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Limited Edition Box Set -Sunrise/Bandai (1985)
Summary: Personal feelings have no place on a battlefield filled with giant robots and their laser guns. My Thoughts: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam was originally supposed to be aired on Cartoon Network, but plans changed and the newer, yet not as good Gundam Seed was aired instead. I had wondered why Zeta wasn’t aired because I heard that it’s the best Gundam series ever made. After watching it, however, I can see why. The reasoning was behind the series’ darker, joyless approach to the Gundam storyline as opposed to other internal decisions at Cartoon Network. The story just isn’t about big robots dueling in the cosmos, but the lives, love, and feelings of the characters involved in the conflict. The cost of war is very high and Zeta shows this as many of the characters’ loved ones die and many of the main characters themselves are killed off during the series. As of now, the only way to see Zeta is to purchase this limited edition box set. This is unfortunate because Zeta is far superior to Seed and finding one of these sets can be difficult if you don’t want to do the eBay thing. Zeta is set seven years after the first Gundam series and is, essentially, the fifth official chapter in the Universal Century storyline. For those of you unfamiliar with Gundam shows, the Universal Century is the real story of the Gundam universe. Other shows, such as Wing, Seed, G-Gundam, and the God-awful SD Gundam occur in alternate universes. Here’s a link to provide some clarity with all that. The Principality of Zeon is long gone, but sympathizers and a few remnants still fight for Zeon’s resurrection. The Titans, an elite group of soldiers under the Earth Federation, are the big bad-asses of space and are responsible for sequestering these uprisings. The Titans, however, are the real ones in control of the Earth Federation and, like any corrupt military group, want to extend their power and try to do so by any means necessary, even if it means taking the lives of the innocent. A group called the AEUG, the Anti-Earth Union Group, formed from former Earth Federation members that became dissident with the Earth government. They oppose the Titans and their brutal tactics of controlling the colonies. Zeta is primarily about a guy named Kamille. He is an impatient, hot headed young man that hates his girly name. What made me like Kamille’s character occurred right in the beginning of Zeta when he gets into a fist fight with a few Titan members because of his wussy name. He gets arrested and is interrogated for possibly being a spy. An assault by the AEUG provides him the opportunity to escape and he steals one of the Titan’s brand new Gundams, not to take it home, but because he wanted to step on and smoosh one of the Titan officers that beat him up. There isn’t any type of revenge better than smashing a guy with a giant robot foot. During that initial battle Kamille helps the AEUG steal the second new Gundam. He doesn’t value the life he has and doesn’t blink when he decides to leave it behind as he joins with the AEUG. Obviously, Kamille already has some issues, but a few episodes in he watches his mother get murdered in front of his eyes and is forced to kill his own father. Unfortunately, Kamille falls into the same trap as many central Gundam pilots do, as he gets to be a whiny little bitch at times. At least he’s nowhere near as annoying as the always complaining Amuro from the first series, and the many kids in Seed. Char Aznable, the bad-ass that piloted the pink mobile suits in the first series, has infiltrated the Federation with the name Quattro Bajeena and is one of the founders of the AEUG. He doesn’t pilot any pretty pink robots here. He starts with a red suit but then gets a new sleek gold mobile suit called the Hyaku Shiki. It’s just a matter of time before people figure out who he really is. Other characters from the first Gundam series return including the big Federation hero, Amuro Ray, who is no longer whining about life. Since the Federation feels that Newtypes are dangerous, the Earth government has confined him in his luxury mansion. However, Amuro escapes and joins another resistance group called Karaba. Hayato, the former Guntank pilot, became the leader of Karaba and had adopted Katz, one of the orphans in the original series. Katz, who is now fifteen, joins the AEUG and becomes the series’ main whiny, bitchy pilot.
Commander Bright, the Captain of the legendary Federation ship White base, also joins the AEUG. It’s interesting that many of the Federation heroes are now fighting against the Earth. What’s more surprising is that Amuro and Char are now fighting on the same side. The tides of war have obviously changed. As with every Gundam series there are those perceived as good and those as bad. In the first Gundam series the Earth Federation was good while Zeon was bad. In Gundam 0080 we saw the story of a Zeon pilot and his “special friendship” with a young boy, which let us sympathize a little with the Zeon side of the war. Here, in Zeta, since the AEUG have the new white assault ship the Argama, the AEUG are seen as good. The Titans are obviously bad since they like to beat the crap out of everybody. Aside from the AEUG, Titans, and Karaba there is another side to the war, the Axis. Axis is the main force responsible for overseeing the resurrection of Zeon and fights alongside and against the AEUG and Titans. Of course, there are also characters with agendas of their own in each organization. I thought it was odd that many of the mobile suits, on every side, resembled Zeon suits. Eventually you find out that former Zeon engineers joined the Federation and some eventually moved on to Karaba. The brand new mobile suits have very original designs and a couple look almost organic. There are many new suits that don’t make their appearance until the second half of the 50 episode series. There are a few that don’t even show up until the last four to six episodes. You also don’t get to see the title Gundam, the Zeta, in action until episode 21, since it’s still being finished during those first twenty episodes. The Gundam Mk. 2, the other main Gundam in Zeta, looks like any other Gundam, but the Zeta Gundam looks very cool. It has a faceplate that doesn’t resemble the typical Gundam look, plus it transforms into a fighter. If you’ve seen Gundam Wing then you’ll have a good idea of what the fighter mode looks like, as they are very similar. In fact, most of the new mobile suits transform. The mid-eighties must have been the era of transforming robot ideas. There is another Gundam that makes its debut in Zeta, the Psyco Gundam. The Psyco is twice the size of a normal mobile suit. Because of its enormous size it is very slow, but it also has enough firepower to level a city or two. The Psyco pilots are Cyber-Newtypes, pilots that have been genetically altered to have the abilities of Newtypes. Confused about what the hell a Newtype is? To put it simply, Newtypes are people that develop extra abilities when out in space, where they are free from the pull of Earth’s gravity. The mobile suits also do something I haven’t really seen that much in other Gundam series; they run out of ammo. They are forced to use their beam sabers and get into close combat because of the lack of ammo, not just because beam sabers are fun to swing around. Like most Gundam series there are plenty of giant robot duels, big space battles, acts of deception and betrayal, and melodramatic dialogue. Zeta also features the deaths of millions of innocent people. Main characters also die, but I won’t tell you who does here. That is something to be said in a…
******Spoiler Alert****** As I said, I was hoping that Katz would die just because he was an annoying little bitch, but I figured he wouldn’t since he was really young for a pilot. I figured that he couldn’t die so he could appear more mature in the next series. I was surprised when he actually was killed. Maybe this is a big reason Cartoon Network decided not to air Zeta. The death of a fifteen-year-old kid may not be something that would settle well with young Gundam fans, unless the series was shown on Adult Swim. I’m not sure how a feel about Kamille’s fate. In the final battle he receives the powers of fallen friends (don't ask) and all the killing, the loss of loved ones becomes too much for him that his mind just snaps. If the series continued any further I’m sure it would have shown him in a mental institution. ******End Spoiler******
As a Gundam series, Zeta is one of the best. Not only that, but now I know who the hell all these other characters are in my Gundam Battle Assault 2 game. Now that Zeta has made it stateside maybe ZZ (that’s Double Zeta to you), the sequel series, will make it here soon. The 50 episode series is presented with English and Japanese language tracks and is in glorious Dolby stereo sound. Extras: There are no extras on the DVDs. The extras in this set is all the stuff included in the mondo box. This includes a DVD art box, a viewer’s guide, nine mobile suit mini figurines, and a poster. The Viewer’s Guide is the best of the extras. This is a 48-page booklet with in-depth descriptions of characters, mobile suits, ships, places, and all about the each organization and their motives. There are a few bits of info included that are only vaguely mentioned in the series itself. The book also contains a glossary of weapon terminology that describes the mechanics and usage of all the weapons. The mini mobile suits are pretty cool and are very detailed. I don’t see why they also needed to be pencil sharpeners. Maybe it’s to inspire kids to be future Gundam designers. I’d be happy with just the DVDs and the book, but the figures are neat. The poster is just that. Whoopty-doo. All these extra goodies are nice, but they're not necessary. I would liked to have seen some actual DVD extras like interviews, or concept art, or trailers, or just something. Score: Series: 8.5 Box Extras: 7.0 Edition: 6.5 If you are a fan of the Gundam mythos you shouldn’t hesitate to pick this set up. -Shawn
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