I think one of the things that upset me most early on with Zeta was that I conceptualized the AEUG as more of an environmental terrorist organization (adulatory) rather than a military outfit capable of going head to head with the state in conflicts. I was really excited to see Gundam explore the politics of that. It seems like that's what Hathaway is essentially going to be so I'm excited for more of it to be released!
- they/ them
I really love messy, imperfect storytelling. I love the raw and unrefined emotions found in Anno's work along with his constantly revising his art in the moment (how many ends to evangelion have we seen, how many times did the rebuilds change course). And as much as I have a love hate relationship with Tomino's UC Gundam I really appreciate seeing how he chooses to communicate ideas that don't appear to be fully formed in his own head, so often the point of his work is a question rather than a statement and that rules. It's always far more engaging and interesting to me than a story that's told with clockwork precision.
Anyway what I mean to say is big robots are cool.
Okay okay so I did end up finishing Zeta. I broke down and watched the third Zeta movie to wrap it up. Up to that point I had been watching the television series which had become a bit of a slog for me.
Hot take(?) on a 40 year old show. I feel like Tomino of this era should not have been given 50 episodes to play with. I don't feel like there's enough in Zeta to justify it and the movie feels like vindication as it was much more enjoyable for me!
There's only so many times I can watch Yazan and company pin the Zeta and almost destroy it just before someone comes in for the rescue.
The misogyny in Zeta is also WILD. Zeta is deeply interested in women and femininity and while this curiosity is absolutely all over Gundam in general it's just especially ripe here. We go from what feels like fairly standard (also bad) misogyny of the era in 0079 to the most bizarrely written characters I've maybe ever seen? All I can say is I'm glad Reccoa died in Zeta so she can't suffer any additional indignity in ZZ.
I don't know if and when I'll pick up ZZ but I'm still watching Turn A slowly but surely and it's definitely been a nice palette cleanser. I also jumped to Char's Counter Attack because I couldn't help myself and I have some thoughts on that too but I'll save them for another day.
