Prepare for a lot of screencaps. Zeta is simply too stupidly funny to pass this up. I sat through those infernal fifty episodes; I’m going to do this. And believe me when I say the screenshots describe it a lot better than I can.
My ‘Gundam run’ isn’t over. Not until I get all of it out of my face. It’s become personal now.
People once told me Zeta Gundam was a space opera series highlighting the horrors of galactic warfare and the tempest of emotions that is the unwitting boy protagonist.
Those people are lying.
Maybe some of you dear readers haven’t figured it out yet. As such, I shall summarize to you the entirety of Zeta Gundam with nothing but this next sequence of screencaps.
I speculate that Jerid is even more invincible than Kamille. He gets jump-kicked in the face and it doesn’t even leave a mark.
His flawless camouflage is why he survived in the jungle for so long. And yes, he’s using a whip.
The man in the purple suit, he’s the real protagonist.
This will bring you to them.
This gun here? Just a decoration. The real gun’s over here, buddy boy!
Now if only he blew up without being able to finish that sentence.
I will prove it by punching you in the face
That’s gotta hurt.
Bright’s so badass,
He breaks up arguments by beating up BOTH sides.
This was Bright’s solution to matters before they invented ‘the brig’ halfway through the series.
Fa isn’t even part of the battles. The enemies just kick her away at the beginning of the fight so they can focus on the real opponents every time.
It’s danger, for MEN
Char does about a twenty-hit combo here.
The last thing Kamille said before hitting him was “I’ve searched for you, lieutenant.” Guess Kamille has his own kinds of urges too.
Slapping? Bullcrap! All sexes shall be treated equally!
Congratulations, you’ve just watched Zeta Gundam.
Okay, that may pass off as being too harsh – it’s not. Zeta doesn’t change after its first two episodes. It was a nonsensical futuristic warfare parody with insane characters, and evolves into a ridiculous future warfare fantasy with even batsh*ttier villains and ‘heroes’. Yes, there really are no heroes in Zeta Gundam; Kamille would just as readily rush into battle screaming “I’ma kill yuuu!”.
Kamille say:
Kamille do:
Those dumbasses.
Great idea Einstein.
Sure, at first it’s very entertaining to watch – but one can’t tirelessly watch blokes punch each other in and out of their mobile suits forever. You’ll actually find yourself putting up with it for a long time; but still, not for fifty whole episodes.
OF COURSE!
Gotta love Scirocco.
Zeta was simply too much – too much teenage angst, too many meaningless robot battles, too many ridiculous characters, too many abruptly starting and stopping plotlines. Just as chocolate fudge brownies become unbearably sweet after one consumes too many, Zeta’s infinite stream of sporadic pointless mobile suit raids and brutish fist-exchanges become stale quickly.
HOLY SHIIIIII-
What.
One would think, ‘it’s fifty episodes long, shouldn’t there be at least one profound, thematically correct scene in the entire series?’. Well, there probably was, somewhere along the way, but it was utterly drowned out by all the stupidity in every other scene that enveloped it.
So do your liver a favor, Kamille.
I’ll never understand them freaking physics.
It’s an old series – that I try to keep in mind. It’s a product of 1985; I’ve forgiven it to some degree for lacking the dramatizations that we find excellent today. Maybe in that day, eons ago, people thought characters dying in each other’s arms was the most touching, brilliant device ever (I highly doubt it).
Duh, the ingredient for mobile suit fuel is OBVIOUSLY human souls.
Still, I don’t think Zeta Gundam can be entirely forgiven on simply that premise. Some things are simply common sense that the developers get wrong. For example, why have the suits grapple with each other at every given chance? Battles start with suits boosting straight into one another and locking opponents in bear-hugs. Why? Is that the viable mobile suit strategy of the future?
I’ll say it before I shoot, you know
I speculate two things: one, it prolonged the lives of side characters (Not as if anyone in Zeta actually dies when they’re shot at), so they wouldn’t have to create new ones and clog up the series with too many extras – though they’ve already done that. If this first reason is the case, it’s a sin of storytelling at its finest.
The guy wears bright red kneesocks. I don’t think his problems stop at mothercon.
My second speculation is that the team lacked the budget to animate them fighting – so to give characters conversing time, they had them grapple one another. If that’s the case, well, too bad. Have less freaking mobile suit battles so you can animate sparser, better ones. I’m glad the budget wasn’t big enough for you to make it a sixty episode series.
Singling out the grappling is nitpicking, but it’s only a matter of common sense.
Kamille do
Kamille say (possibly tsundere)
OMGAWD SOMEBODY TEACH THESE PEOPLE HOW TO EAT ICE CREAM
Characters are the meat of a series, and unsurprisingly the meat here is a little spoiled. One will find it very hard to like the characters, which are all in all too whiny to sympathize with. I can’t think of more than three characters right now that don’t hold the mentality of ‘I have my own problems, so leave me alone’.
A series quickly goes downhill if you can’t like the characters. Zeta becomes a series of ‘characters you don’t like doing stupid things you don’t care about’ – I don’t imagine many finding that enjoyable.
Kamille does three things. Sleep,
Fight,
Wussy out. This one line summarizes Kamille of Zeta Gundam.
Many say Zeta was ‘darker’ than its predecessor, because everybody dies. The latter’s a fact, but I wouldn’t say it contributes to the former. Rather, I could almost say it’s lighter, because that’s how my chest felt every time an annoyingass character was disposed of. Instead of succumbing to the drama of it all, one is more likely to cheer and pump fists when somebody dies.
Well lady, that IS what a soldier is.
Especially Katsu. God he was annoying.
What I felt throughout the entire series.
He actually dies by crashing into the ruins of a ship. Lame.
But even in death he wouldn’t get out of my hair.
It doesn’t even mean anything anyways; dead important characters linger behind as ‘spirits’ that empower Kamille and make the Zeta Gundam impervious to attacks through the power of love and friendship.
Bullsh*t. I’m not going to let it slide just because it was the new thing to do at the time. The Newtype powers in Zeta were the most convenient plot point since the transfer student. By being a Newtype it enabled characters to automatically pilot like aces, tell where lost characters are, mindrape one another and make their robots invulnerable.
“It surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the universe together…”
Tis’ only a flesh wound.
Sure, the insanity of the things they do can be interesting, but it’s not going to be interesting all the way through fifty episodes. Most often you’ll be waiting for whatever they’re doing to end so they can get to the actual plot.
Or you’ll be waiting for Haman-sama, like I was.
I’m still trying to figure out the physics behind Haman-sama’s hair.
Haman Karn makes the series – which I find very sad, because she only manages to turn an atrocious narrative into a slightly bearable mess. She’s absolutely the best idea development came up with. A shrewd, analytical and cruel tactician, yet impulsive and headstrong when she needs to be (while whipping Kamille).
A totalitarian forum of women with a loli supreme leader? Sign me up!
A masochist’s wet dream.
The true matriarch of Neo-Zeon, she kept the audience interested every time she appeared onscreen with some quip about how she was fifty steps ahead of everybody and how they’d never know what hit ‘em.
She was the first and only person to notice.
And I’m the queen of England.
And guess what? She’s hardly ever onscreen. I waited until episode thirty-two to see her a single time, and she appears very sparingly afterwards. If there existed an MRI attached to me at the time that converted brainwaves to words, it would display ‘Haman-sama! Aww… *forty minutes later* Haman-sama! Awww… *sixty minutes later* Ham- Aww…’
Gawd I hate Char. He should just call himself BAJINA for the rest of his life.
Why, the Qubeley’s almost shaped like…
Yes, their lifeline, the only character worth watching is one they hardly bothered to feature. Self-destruction is common among poor developers. Yes, I know she plays a larger role in Double Zeta. I also happen to know however the universal piece of knowledge that she ultimately loses to Judau and I am not watching a brat do in my favorite Gundam character of all time with the power of friendship.
Jerid is the Team Rocket of Zeta Gundam. He appears every episode saying “Hahah, I’ve found you, Kamille” and gets foiled a very slightly different way each time.
Kamille throws him over his shoulder and off a cliff. I’m sure we’ll see him again soo-
Oh there he is. Guess he didn’t need the crutch after all.
What Kamille fights in is simply not a war; even the last few episodes, the supposedly climactic battle between the Titans and AEUG, revolved around four main characters – Haman-sama, Scirocco, Kamille and Quattro BAJINA/Char. Kamille hardly fought anybody else. The episodic skirmishes only involve a handful of less than ten suits, and the fired colony laser in the end destroyed an off-screen army you never cared about.
In the future, we use nets in galactic warfare!
Don’t even ask me how they got to this scene.
The verdict? Well, if you like seeing characters you don’t like doing stupid things you don’t care about for fifty whole episodes, Zeta Gundam will be the best series you’ve ever watched in your life. Plot points and extra characters come and go, near every member of the mothership Argama throws their livelihood complaints at you for fifty twenty-three minute intervals, and giant robots grapple each other and do nothing for the remainder of the time.
What Bright says when he’s not setting people straight. Seriously, you’d think they’d be using all the covering fire they had, granted that they didn’t want to die.
If they had instead released a special edition DVD with nothing but every scene containing Haman-sama back to back, then I’d rate it A+ and hoard it, but otherwise, I wouldn’t touch Zeta Gundam with a mile long beam saber. Or at least, grab a blood-transfusion pack. You’ll be vomiting a lot of it, after all.
This guy actually gets slapped out.
I only hope ZZ Gundam will correct on the former’s mistakes.
You know what, I’ll just be quiet now.
Ningyo
Postscript: This is my first post to ever attract so much heat that somebody actually wrote the review for me. For the real, point driven review of Zeta Gundam, refer to the comments, specifically Sadesan’s.
Related posts:
January 28th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
LOl omg, kamille, that fag……-sigh- that game totally annoyed me, they’re stronger than freedom and strike freedom, WTF.
Anyways, well I guess you can’t completely blame the crappy plotline or graphics or stupid scenes of this anime. It’s old, probably one of the beginning few generation animations to be produced. Even though every character looks like they have an extra chromosome 21 plus all their similar poofy haircut, at least the gundams look like what they are.
You can clearly see those dark black outlines in every single gundam and character, and then their blurry background -_-, almost like a cut and paste show
January 28th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
lol nice post man. I actually read it all this time and found it pretty funny.
Liked the last two screens btw xD
I thought Zeta was suppose to be good o_O
January 28th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
I was planning on skipping the post because it’s about Gundam, but it was really funny. A terrible anime deserves no less mockery. I think by the end of the post, I hate the characters as much you do.
Sorry you had to sit through 50 episodes of such utter crap.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
WooW! It must take a lot of times to do all those screen captures!!!! What courage!
The advantage is that i don’t need to watch the episode… LoooL By making them scroll at hight speed, we believe you’re watching an anime :)
It’s the kind of shows i don’t like and marked generations by it’s bad side.
January 29th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Hahaha. LMAO! This is one of the funniest post I’ve ever read.
I stand corrected (from my previous comment on Hidamari); This is hate.
“make the Zeta Gundam impervious to attacks through the power of love and friendship.”
…
“Bullsh*t”
HahAHA… So wonderfully executed.
*Throws a random punch at random people. Cause everyone does it in Zeta!
Know what, I’m gonna bookmark this. And read this again whenever I need a pick-me-upper. Lol!
January 30th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Ah… anime of yore… it’s somewhat refreshing to see how less realistic and forgiving anime back then used to be. What was considered acceptable back then in an infantile media are just ridiculous antics under today’s critical eye.
It’s weird to see anime take such a complete different turn on what is considered humor, and what it takes seriously. The same can be said in the video game industry as well.
January 30th, 2010 at 3:04 am
@mat
They were? You mean in Gundam Musou 2/Dynasty Warriors Gundam? Or in the PSP game?
Yes, I do suppose I analyzed Zeta a bit too much as the contemporary anime fan. Back then its themes were definitely effective enough for Zeta to garner the fame it did.
It still stands though that I didn’t like it, because of my being ‘spoiled’ by modern anime. I guess I’m pushing at the whole ‘people liked it, but I don’t’ idea.
I do give it’s age some credit; for example, I never complained about the art or animation. I don’t think the character outlines are too prominent, but that’s a good observation you made there with how hairstyles appear to be puffy and full of body. The realization gave me a good chuckle.
@Chank
Glad you liked it.
Zeta was hilarious in the beginning, with how the protagonist was downright crazy, but the insane antics of the series dies down after a while. You can only capture an audience with what they consider to be slapstick comedy for so long. Afterwards, it’s all up to an immersive plot, which Zeta doesn’t offer.
@Yi
Glad to entertain. Your comment here is a surprise :p
Oh, no worries, no Ningyo was harmed in the viewing of this series. Don’t forget, you’re talking to the resident masochist here.
@Lylibellule
Ahaha, I wouldn’t call it courage; though most of Zeta was painstakingly boring to sit through, the screencaps made me laugh back then too.
Well, Zeta was liked back then for doing the ‘angsty teen protagonist’ well by the standards back then. Anime dramatizing has evolved a lot since then; it’s true that what we love in anime wasn’t in Zeta because it hadn’t been ‘invented’ at the time. Still, that doesn’t mean I have to be kind to it ;)
Thanks for commenting despite it being a topic probably irrelevant to your interests :D
@blur
Aw, thanks blur.
Zeta still hasn’t received the full-brunt of Ningyo rage yet; I cut it slack because it’s old. I guess you can denote full Ningyo rage with profuse amounts of swearing. Which I try to avoid normally, but y’know, when one is angry they just start flowing out.
Blurfist!
@radiant
You’ve spotlit a very important point I should cover – that applying today’s narrative criticisms on something so old and unevolved is counter-productive. That is how unrefined pioneer anime were; there’s no point attacking it for not making the sense we expect of anime today. Still, as the contemporary anifan I can’t avoid my contemporary bias; human perception is essentially tunnel vision, after all. I’d like to write a post about it, the evolution of anime and the condemnation of the dramatizing old series lack, but I’ve too little knowledge of older series to be creditable. Maybe when I go through more of them.
The moment you mention video games and their evolution of narrative devices I think of the old Final Fantasy games’ stories. They definitely were more primitive/simple back then, but that had its own sort of charm as well; short and sweet. However, if you’re talking about those one screen half-paragraph long ending epilogues found back in the Super Nintendo days, then I much prefer my Kingdom Hearts.
January 30th, 2010 at 3:54 am
seeing from the screenshots, it looks like an old anime
January 30th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Damn i’m late :/ Unforgivably late.
When i see this i’m happy being too young when this was released and even if i wasn’t i would probably hate it anyway.
Very few mecha-wars stuff interested me so far.
I know for sure you’re a masochist now because watching fifty episodes of punching, dumb fights, dumb dialogs is clearly something not everyone would do. And definitely i wouldn’t or it has to be so stupid you can’t stop laughing in front of such lameness.
Maybe i should create a totalitarian sect with me as the loli leader so you can sign up to me :D
January 30th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
@didtav
That it does. And that it is.
@Katsura-chan
Nonsense. You’re fashionably on time. There’s no such thing as being unforgivably late for Baden Baden Lily – I welcome everybody at all times.
I too am very glad I was born in this age of rapidly evolving entertainment. I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed the 8-bit era much.
Did you like Code Geass? That’s a ‘mecha’ series that one can enjoy even if one’s not into mecha.
Ehehehe, Zeta was funny once in a while. It was mostly just the mazo-urge to sit through it until I could see what Haman-sama would do. I guess it is one of the more masochist-y things I’ve done.
DO THAT. I’d join in a second and strive to be right-hand man.
January 31st, 2010 at 5:26 am
I loved Code Geass, at least the first season but an event in the second prevent me from finishing it.
I can’t remember which episode but CC become amnesic … i stopped there immediately because i hate when a character is hit by amnesia.
Don’t know why really but never continued watching….
ah ah ok let’s create the Katsura-chan loli sect :p As the first member and right-hand man you can choose my first outfit :D
February 1st, 2010 at 4:01 pm
lol it’s definitely counterproductive to look at old anime with today’s critical eye. There’s no point.
But then again, it’s almost unavoidable to look at old anime with the purity of that era. We indefinitely would be looking through filtered glasses. Even if one has never seen a single anime, modern cultural influences affect our judgment and criticisms.
So instead, I’ve opted (and it seems you have too) to explore it from a much more lighthearted viewpoint, and enjoy the “ridiculousness” of it all through today’s modern cultural influences.
I would very much like to see an article by you about this subject matter!
February 15th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
It seems I’ve forgotten to reply to the last comments here! My apologies.
@Katsura-chan
Yes, amnesia really is a done-to-death trope. For some reason it doesn’t really bother me though; probably because I acknowledge it as a good way of presenting the character’s experiences to the audience slowly, piece by piece, so in that accord it’s a sound narrative device.
Try finishing it when you have the time; for what it did, Code Geass managed to end it’s story very well. At least I wasn’t complaining.
I’ve put much thought into it, and have drawn the awesomest outfit! Too bad my scanner is really bad at scanning pencil >.>
@radiant
Right. Since you made this comment long ago and since then we’ve already had much conversation about culturally filtered glasses and one’s own culture influencing one’s viewpoint on other cultures, I won’t elaborate too far now.
Lightheartedness really is a great way to approach things one can’t quite connect with – it at least probably ensures that one won’t overreact and offend somebody. It keeps oneself happy too.
And thanks. I guess I have inadvertently written that article now!
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Maybe you should go back to watching Gundam Shit Destiny.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:56 am
@567
I don’t recall ever saying I liked that, either.
February 27th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Im at episode 8 and it already begins to become pretty plain and boring, although I enjoyed it at max for the first episodes. I like the style of animation a lot, typical 80′s, but like you said, all those mecha fights with no meaning and all the angst that Kamille has, buh. I cant relate to him as I related to the heroes from Gundam 00. He has no purpose. And omg, is that a boy name?
I was looking for a classic Gundam anime, so I guess I will watch the original one now. Zeta, what a cold soup.
March 13th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Z Gundam isn’t as good as people say, but I’ll be damned if moetards refer to the metaseries as a whole as terrible. Even though it’s filled with tropes and lolTomino moments it still has more substance than a very very very large majority of shows released today. A bunch of out of context fansubs and people smacking each other isn’t a very valid opinion and just seems like a failed attempt to attack a popular series.
March 13th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
The actual review raises quite a few good points. But I’d like to comment on the comments. Holy crap you people are retarded. You all exemplify the absolute worst in modern anime fandom, eating up whatever new garbage Japan produces while at the same time having no knowledge or appreciation of what has come before.
“Zeta was liked back then for doing the ‘angsty teen protagonist’ well by the standards back then. Anime dramatizing has evolved a lot since then”
No, it hasn’t. I’m not defending Zeta because you can’t really defend its stupidity. But you’re delusional if you think modern mecha protagonists aren’t just as bad.
“You’ve spotlit a very important point I should cover – that applying today’s narrative criticisms on something so old and unevolved is counter-productive.”
Really? Legend of the Galactic Heroes called. Says it’s having a great time, chilling out in 1988. Not that any of you will have ever heard of LoGH, let alone seen it. “110 episodes of that old stuff? Ewwwwwwwww, lets go watch some more Code Geass guys!”
Anyone who thinks that because something is old it’s inferior has clearly never seen SDF Macross, or Yu Yu Hakusho or Record of Lodoss War.
And I’m not taking a stance that modern anime is bad, not at all. Moribito, Monster, Twelve Kingdoms, Dennou Coil, Noein. The list goes on. Of course, I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that few of you have seen any of those either. But this completely absurd concept that because something was made in the 80′s it’s of low quality and should only be viewed through age filters and handled with kid gloves because it couldn’t possibly live up to GLORIOUS MODERN STANDARDS is born entirely of pure ignorance.
Also, anime has been around since the 60′s, Zeta was made in 1985. It didn’t come from a young anime industry or whatever like you people seem to think. How about doing some research? Lots of anime from the 70′s and 80′s worth seeking out.
/tl;dr because I have no faith in any of you people.
March 14th, 2010 at 1:24 am
@Andrei
It seems your experience was very much like mine ^^; I feel you on the cold soup. Something that sounded good, but then I found unrewarding.
@Reinhard
Refer to my response to noodle; your comment coincides, and yours just happened to be shorter. Note that I’m not addressing you as well in my entire response, so I’ll have to ask you to please only mind the statements that apply to you.
To you I’ll say this though: There’s no such thing as an invalid opinion, only invalid arguments. People seem to be misunderstanding the critical nature of this post. I wasn’t trying to write an almighty argument against Zeta Gundam – I tried to maintain lightheartedness, and was really just cracking jokes. There clearly shouldn’t be any mention of Kuso Miso if I were making a proper critique, nor entire sequences of character punch-outs.
@noodle
A commenter calling everyone here retarded garbage eaters would seem very much like a troll, but I don’t believe you’re here to do that, noodle. After all, why present a lengthy argument otherwise, right? Since if you’re not trolling, you seem to be vehemently trying to debase our tastes and pitching your series of old, perhaps there exist heroes out there that would go out of their way to correct those they consider ‘ignorant’ or ‘delusional’. Kudos.
I wasn’t trying to defend Zeta’s stupidity at all. I hated it, remember? Anime dramatizing has evolved a lot since then. How did you somehow convince yourself that such a dynamic medium never changed? Also, ‘evolved’ doesn’t mean it changed for the unquestionably better, which is what you seem to assume it means. In this context, it would mean ‘to change into a different adaptive state’, which it has. I happen to hate Shinn Asuka with a passion. Much more than my jovial dislike for Kamille.
Everyone looks at things of another era through tinted-glasses – the most objectively I can look at Zeta Gundam is simply to say its themes and execution captured many who found it a very good, even the best, Mobile Suit series ever. The fact that I didn’t like it stands. Should I take off my tinted-glasses and put on yours?
Rather, I don’t see where the strength in your argument lies, so I’m unsure as of which point I should reply to. You’re firing at me a slew of series names, telling me anyone who doesn’t love them or acknowledge their superiority over our garbage “clearly” doesn’t have any scope of the past, but I don’t see any reasons you’ve provided at all. Being a green fan that hasn’t even seen my second decade of life, you obviously mentioned many series I haven’t watched before – but then, isn’t there all the more to provide some factual information why they’re far superior? Does you knowing many old series that you claim are awesome reinforce your argument?
Again, unless you’re trolling, you’ll want to genuinely present logical arguments to let us retarded garbage eaters see your truth. People tell me Bleach is the greatest manga to ever be conceived all the time. Are you omnipotent, and all-seeing, sir? Probably not; why then should I take your opinions as truth, for the same reason I’d take what those Bleach-fans tell me?
Of course, I’m not discounting that the series you mentioned were actually very good. Even then though, what would you like to do with them? Make us stop watching our ‘garbage’ and view your favorite series with reverence?
I hated K-ON!, and such nonsense as SEED Destiny or Koihime Musou. I loved Stardust Memory, Go Nagai’s Mazinger and Getter Robo, and G-Gundam. I don’t remember ever mentioning some exalted modern standard.
Dr. Tezuka Osamu inspired a great leap forward in the 60’s, but Japanese animation existed long before then. In fact, the first ever voiced anime, Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka, was completed in 1932 by Masaoka Kenzou. It certainly grew from a young industry, if at some point anime was completely unvoiced. How about doing some research? Here, I’ve cited my source for you. If you have any discrepancies you wish to voice, you now know who to take it up with.
Sharp, Jasper (2004-09-23). “Pioneers of Japanese Animation”. Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema. http://www.midnighteye.com/features/pioneers-of-anime.shtml. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
Oh, and for the record, you can keep your faith; we don’t really want it.
March 14th, 2010 at 11:05 am
That was funny!!
But I’ll have to disagree with you… I really liked Zeta Gundam. Camille isn’t best main character ever, but it was far better than the ones from lots of series that I’ve watched. And i prefer “angsy teen protagonist!” than “crybaby asshole protagonist” that you can see in lots of series nowadays.
The part of the physical violence… Well, you simply like it or not, that’s it. And I liked it (in fact, some series nowadays need more punches and less tears).
When talking about the “Newtypeh4x”, you should learn some things about the Zeta Gundam. What enhances so much Camille’s Newtype abilities is the Bio-sensor.
Maybe it wasn’t the best series ever, even in the Gundam universe, but it was really good, in my opinion.
And btw, the names are Quattro Bajeena and Katz Kobayashi (bad subs are bad).
PD: It’s really funny too that most of the people who commented this havent seen Zeta Gundam…
March 14th, 2010 at 11:14 am
Oh, and… what the hell where you excepcting from it? Zeta Gundam is a MECHA anime. You’ll see MS in every battle, the same way you’ll see VFs in Macross, Knightmare Frames in Code Geass, or Gunmen in TTGL, and lots of other kinds os mechs in lots of other kinds of animes and mangas.
March 14th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
@Harver
You’re right; it’s simply like it or not, and I disliked it. It’s fine to disagree with me. I didn’t set out to convert people who liked this show, as many seem to think I was doing so.
I know those are their real names. Katz I learned afterwards reading sites, and I already knew it was Bajeena from the multitude of games he’s in – but if I’m going for satirical writing, why wouldn’t I use the much more satirical BAJINA? It’s not even pronounced the same way – I know what I’m doing.
Why would the Bio-Sensor excuse a breach in verisimilitude? That’s simply giving a name to it. It’s an unexplained piece of technology that conveniently bridges the gap between mechanics and Newtype powers – to me it sounds more like a hastily produced contrivance to maintain realism than an actual technical explanation.
The importance here is not the appearance of the mecha, but what they were doing. I have no problem with the MSV-006’s appearance. I find problems with what it does. Do your Variable Fighters, Knightmare Frames and Gunmen explain why the Mobile Suits in Zeta are always grappling one another?
To answer your question though, I wasn’t expecting anything but Haman Karn from it at all.
March 14th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Well, first of all, I supposed that all of this wasn’t a serious critique. That’s why I said that it was funny. The comment about the names was directed towards the people who read this but haven’t seen the series, more than to you, but since you used those images… i just had to write it, sorry.
The Bio-sensor thing… I could tell some more things about it, but is bothersome and, well, more than verisimilitude with our reality, it’s an explanation within UC reality. I doubt that in our world, people would develop psychic powers after living during 80 years in space, don’t you think so? If within it’s universe makes more sense, that’s enough for me (and after reading some explanations, it made enough sense)
About all the MS-wrestling… I’ll accept your point, it was a little unnecessary even for me.
And if you wanted to see more of Haman… Definitely, watch ZZ (series that i loved, but a lot of people dislike) if you haven’t done it yet, and read Char’s Deleted Affair, if you haven’t already heard about it (the only problem is that it isn’t totally translated).
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:09 pm
As a humor piece, this isn’t bad.
As a legitimate review, I’m taken aback by its stupidity.
I hope it was intended purely as the former.
What bothers me more than your intent however, is that people who haven’t seen Zeta will read this and dismiss it summarily as a result. Then again, if this is the result of the average moemoe anime watcher of our generation summarizing Zeta…perhaps it’s better they don’t watch it.
March 23rd, 2010 at 2:38 am
@Sho
Read the above comments.
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:45 am
Upon reading the article I was somewhat concerned that your critique of the series was somewhat unbalanced but after having read your responses in the comments thread I can now see that your objectives were essentially satirical and lighthearted.
That being said, while indeed I can see that you are not trying to convert those who like the series over to your way of thinking you are certainly not giving the series fair representation to those who have not watched it.
Your assertion that Zeta is for those who enjoy seeing stupid people, doing stupid things and then dying in stupid ways also comes across as somewhat disparaging to those who enjoyed the series.
The screenshots you have used, while I appreciate the witty nature of some of them (it really does look like a-), are misleading to those who don’t know much about the series. I have to admit that, while I understand this isn’t your intent, this method of review is very similar to some of the trollish activity used by posters to keep people from watching OO: Get some screencaps of the series, hopefully with the worst quality subtitles and make snarky comments as if these handful of still frames are representative of the series as a whole.
I’m not calling you a troll because I can see from the nature of your responses that you are not, but I do feel that you may be unfairly biasing those people whom would rather take someone elses word for gospel rather than watch something for themselves and form their own opinion. You aren’t responsible for the actions of others of course and expressing your opinion about something is a God given cathartic right but I do feel you should take responsibility for the fodder you give people in debate who don’t really have an opinion of their own.
Now don’t get me wrong, I will agree that Zeta isn’t perfect. I’ve never felt that any anime let alone a Gundam title ever has been and the commonly held fan view that Zeta is the finest Gundam title ever doesn’t really hold much clout with me.
Personally Axis-Zeon seemed introduced a little too late in the series for me. I didn’t buy into how the Titans were almost uniformly two-dimensional bad guys in red and black. I have always hated the near invulnerability of Gundams, especially when coupled with frankly unfair Newtype hackery. I’m also with you on Kamille being a hard lead to like… or even tolerate (I think even in official Sunrise canon he is stated to be ‘unstable’). Even though I understand Gundam is a toy advert funded by Bandai I was also annoyed by ‘pointless’ MS fights every ep. I will even go so far as to state that the mental workings and interpersonal dialogues of a Tomino character are hard for many people to get on board with:
“Nyer Souls weighed down by gravity waaaaHhh” (a mind rape was never so deserved).
All of that, YES all of that aside I enjoyed the end of the series, I think you can’t call yourself a fan of the Gundam franchise without watching it. The argument that the themes and execution of the series are inferior to modern titles strikes me as utter nonsense. Now I’m not going to rant about the quality of storytelling in the series because I respect your right to your opinion. I merely wish to express that from my point of view there were things in Zeta that made it pleasurable to watch and I have rarely seen since.
1. The interplay between various factions all hostile to each other
2. Consequences of War=People die when they are killed (notable exception accepted)
3. I’m tired of happy endings, usually because I like the villains more
That’s my reactions to the series pretty much flawed but fun. You don’t like it, I’d hope you watch it first before you decide that.
March 24th, 2010 at 3:59 am
@Sadesan
Thank you for approaching this as a fan yet not setting out for my head. Glad to see a fan share some sentiments I had for certain themes.
I never intended for my words to be gospel and at least hope that most readers take this as an attempt at humor. The post is titled ‘Kamille the Barbarian’ – I’d hoped that would tell people what light to read it in.
Unfortunately these were the subs that I viewed it with, so perhaps that crippled my experience as well. You’re right, my verdict may have come a bit strong, and I can see how the screencaps can be misleading. Luckily your comment is down here, and provides readers a good scope of the other side of the coin. I’ll leave a plug at the end of the post directing people to it.
April 29th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
[...] Kamille the Barbarian – On the one and only. [...]
April 30th, 2010 at 6:37 am
Once again, you make many very valid observations. Watching through the 50 episodes was rough for me too at points. I keep on thinking that the serious would prove itself worthy of all the fan celebration at some point, and thus I crawled onward. In the end, I found Zeta gundam bearable and could see why people liked the series, despite the various faults you point out here. I think it’s because I just have a bigger tolerance limit.
There is one thing that differs significantly between you and I, though, and that is our receptions of Kamille. Sure, he’s sometimes overly dramatic and senseless, but all his contradictions indicate (for me at least) a serious inner struggle to reconcile the reality of an adult’s war. Your screencaps of his stance on killing people is a great example: killing does not come naturally to a man, let alone a boy. Just like rapists who convince themselves that “bad girls should be raped” or “she was into it mid-way”, Kamille was struggling to accept the fact that he kills people by the dozen every time he heads out. There’s also progression in his character as he does become more mature about the situation as the war drags on, but I can easily forgive him for having a few freak-outs here and there during times of great anguish (e.g: Four and to a lesser extent, Rosamy) or times of great outrage (e.g: Sirroco, Jerid being an idiot, or Yazan). After all, he is only human.
Of course, the same can’t be said for Katz. God DAMNNIT, how many episodes were dedicated to him shitting all over the place and the rest of the crew chasing after him with rolls of toilet paper? The lack of great antagonists also really disappointed me in Zeta. Gone were the heavy hitters like Ramba Ral, Char, and Dozle Zabi, and instead we get Jerid’s “I’LL GET YOU NEXT TIME GUNDAM”, Sirroco’s confusing and disengaging philosophy, and Yazan being… well, Yazan. The only antagonist that seem to carry some promise doesn’t appear until the very end of the series and has barely any screen time to boot, as you mentioned. As I said, I don’t think Zeta’s is TERRIBLE overall, but other than the expanded sci-fi universe, I don’t think it brings much new to the table that the original MSG and movies did not.
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:03 am
[...] blog, BadenBadenLily by Ningyo. The dude who can win just by screen-shots alone. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying he does JUST screenshots. In fact, his blog has [...]
May 18th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
This one was ok all the people dieing got old though. Mobile Suite Gundam did a better job of killing off main characters then this one did imo.