I still listen to Zeta Gundam OSTs when I have work to do. It got such a beautiful and chill musics which is quite ironic considering the mood of the show.

https://x.com/sfs_w1p/status/2113610355947815030?s=20

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I honestly wish I hadn't waited this long to watch it. As of now, this is probably my favorite AU Gundam series. I didn't know too much about it going in, other than that it is apparently retelling 0079 in a way, and I do see the parallels.

I got locked in pretty fast, the pacing is riveting right away, and the characters are really strong. I always enjoy stories where the characters clashing are easy to empathize with and watching their growth play out. Yes, most Gundam stories have this, but I really liked the way they did it here. I enjoyed all theindividual arcs of the side characters. Even the "annoying" characters like Flay were sympathetic. It was honestly hard to watch her tragedy play out, even though her ending felt inevitable. The only thing I wish was explored more were the three drug-altered Natural pilots, it felt like they were just unceremoniously killed off without being given much in the way of emotional conflict for the main characters to grapple with, or making much of an impact on the plot. They could have been replaced with anything else and it would have been the same. I'd have liked to see them explored more.

Seeing the classic grunt suits and White Base redesigned and put back out was really cool. If you've read the other two reviews I posted, you may have caught on to the fact that I usually love grunt suits.

The soundtrack here was pretty forgettable, unfortunately. I honestly already don't remember anything about it, and I only finished the series a couple of days ago.

Overall I'd recommend this series to anyone new to Gundam who isn't sure what to watch, it's a great standalone series.

Next up, SEED Destiny. I'm almost finished with it and boy do I have THOUGHTS.

PS.

I watched the HD Remaster. I understand a few things were tweaked from the original release. If anyone wants to elaborate on the changes and whether they think that impacted anything, I'd be interested in discussing it.

I know its been like 11 months but am I the only one who missed? All the of my main sites doesnt have this movie

I just started the series for the first time, im a huge gundam fan but never got around to watching Zeta or ZZ. Im 5 episodes in and its getting better, but holy crap are the first few weird. Kamille is such an obnoxious little kid, why is no one watching him after hes stolen a mobile suit like 4 times in 2 episodes?! The characters make some baffling decisions and are a bit unlikable. I was rooting for Kamilles shitty dad to die, and he did, so thats good 😆

Also, f*ck the Titans, how dare they best up my boy Bright. He didnt survive the OYW and Char to get beaten up by some bitches with attitudes...

Firstly, they had tens of thousands of mobile suits and the Leo was highly adaptable. Secondly, there already had specially designed suits in large numbers. Their weaknesses were outside of space stations they didn't really have space navy and most of their pilots lacked combat experience.

Really putting the Kamen Rider Zi-O comparisons here. I also really made it easy for me to mix-and-match them because I designed each part individually. Honestly, quite the feat for myself, NGL.

Unfortunately Destiny was kind of a letdown after SEED, which I loved, probably to the surprise of no one here. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen, far from it, but it was a frustrating watch because of all the missed opportunities.

I hadn't heard good things, so while I went in open minded, I tried to keep my expectations in check, and that probably helped the viewing experience.

I tend to be skeptical of any direct sequel to a show or movie that wraps itself up nicely in the first installment, so I'll start by acknowledging that. When things resolve well, it's hard to bring in new conflict for the main characters without it feeling like a cheap excuse to pull them back in. However, the story premise could have worked fine!

Nitpicks will exist with most anime, but for the most part, if the story and characters are strong, you tend to kind of forget about the minor flaws. However, if this isn't happening, you start to see flaws everywhere, and things pile up.

I'm not going to try to give a full accounting of every issue, but I'll list some of the major ones still sticking with me now as I sit down to write this.

I think the biggest one was Shin's lack of development. It felt like he was growing a bit after the start, and I was looking forward to watching him slowly learn to see past his anger and learn to forgive and move on (A HUGE theme in the first series). Instead it seemed like he regressed more and more after the first half of the series. It's understandable given the circumstances. It's a very human reaction to the things that were happening to him. Someone joining the military out of a sense of anger and staying close minded is a SUPER common thing even in real life. I'd never call Shin's emotional development unrealistic. However, this does not make for an enjoyable protagonist. If they wanted this to be his arc, they should have just made Kira and Athrun the main characters from the beginning and just had Shin be a side character like Meyrin or Neo. Dragging out the first half of the series just for Shin to have a bunch of experiences that he learned nothing from and went nowhere was insanely frustrating.

The best example of this was the first encounter with the Destroy, piloted by Stella (Shout-out to my boi Big Zam, I know it had to be an inspiration here). Shin hesitates to stop the machine, forcing Kira to blow up the cannons to prevent more carnage. Shin is understandably upset. All this makes sense, but everything that comes after does not. Shin previously said he believed he did the right thing. He smugly told Athrun that Neo promised Stella would not be in battle anymore (Obviously this is naive as hell but he's a kid so whatever). Once Stella dies though, does Shin doubt himself even for one moment? No. Does he think about the thousands of innocents killed, a situation he says he wants to prevent and he's now at least partially responsible for? No. Does he blame Neo, the man who lied to him and told him Stella wouldn't fight again? No. He only blames Kira.

The frustrating thing is, it was still totally possible to write this particular character moment in a way that ultimately leads to the same outcome. He could have doubted himself, felt some anger towards himself, then buried his doubts as a coping mechanism. Or better yet, have someone like Rey manipulate him into focusing his anger on someone else instead of himself. But in this and too many other instances in this show, it feels like the script writers took shortcuts and just jumped straight to "Thing happened, now Shin angy" without showing how he was getting there, and it ultimately just leads to Shin coming off as stupid and incapable of self-reflection. This goes on for most of the series until he magically sees the error of his ways right at the ending, once again, with no real self-reflection other than Stella saying she's ok. I feel like Rey's about-face was more satisfying than Shin's and that was barely anything.

It's a shame because ultimately, I liked the overall story. The theme of Destiny, repeated over and over again by characters stating "it can't be helped" resonated through the whole series. The idea that events were getting dragged on in an inevitable fashion even while most people involved didn't even want them to happen is compelling. But it was just let down by the poor characterization and I feel like they spent too much time on things that didn't lead anywhere and it led to the story feeling rushed by the end (This is Gundam after all, rushed endings is what we do here).

I don't want to go endlessly into other issues I had, because this post is long enough already (Although I'll happily vent in the comments) so let's talk about a few other things I liked:

The grunt suits. Seeing the triumphant return of Zeon was soooo cool to me. It's funny because when I watched 0079 I kind of thought most of the Zeon suits were kind of corny, but something about using them here really hit some nostalgia triggers in my brain, great stuff (Also can someone please tell me if those three DOM pilots were a cameo or something? I feel like the show expected me to already know who they were, and they weren't really relevant to the story in any way). As for the Gundams, unfortunately it was super hard to tell them apart when they were fighting.

The overall plot. Yes I have issues with the characters and how things were executed. But the actual story was interesting, and I still found myself looking forward to the next episode to find out what happens next. I certainly wouldn't call it boring.

The animation. Great stuff. I watched the HD version. I'm curious what changes were made to the original?

Overall I might even watch this again sometime, but it could have been so much more.

Next up I'm going to start 00, so I'll be back in a few days once that's done lol.

Makin Gundam cookies!

Though the quote is from Gundam X and the image is from Victory Gundam, the quote is still relatable.

Fun fact: Uso's dad is voiced by Ken'yu Horuichi, who previously voiced Mashmyre in ZZ, then Jamil three years after Victory's conclusion.