The third series in Gundam history is definitely when it fell off of a cliff, thankfully redeemed by the movie “Char’s Counterattack”, released later. Double Zeta gets off to a poor start, then manages to pick up a bit before falling again, though thankfully never as low as it was to begin with. I commend Tomino for trying something different, but… yeah. Different isn’t always good! Anyway, let’s take an overall look at ZZ then!
Double Zeta reaches its conclusion, and what an odd ride it’s been. After an extremely light-hearted first two quarters and a really downbeat third one, the fourth quarter of the show seemingly tries to balance the two, but doesn’t really succeed. Still, seeing Neo Zeon implode from within was at least fun to watch! So let’s take a look at how the series ends, shall we?
Gundam ZZ finally succumbs to Gundam creator Tomino’s more bleak outlook (at the time) and the fun begins to turn into tragedy. While this quarter of ZZ isn’t devoid of humour, it’s certainly far more in line with Zeta than its first half, and possibly even pushes the “grim reality of war” button more than that did… So let’s take a look!
The second quarter of ZZ pulls back on the slapstick comedy a bit, but is still more often than not for laughs. It focuses on Judau’s sister Leina being kidnapped and replaces gag character Mashmyre with a gag character of equal stupidity in Chara Soon, as well as new Cyber-Newtype “Elpeo Ple”. It’s an odd cast, but the show can still be fun in parts, and rather dull or cringey in others. Let’s have a look and see how much of it is actually good!
It’s time to take that tentative step into the world of Gundam ZZ (pronounced “Double Zeta”, for the record!), a show wildly inconsistent in its tone, though sadly for this first chunk of episodes, the tone is actually consistent…ly bad. I don’t mind a more light-hearted approach, but I do mind it when it’s not done very well! So let’s resume our look at the Universal Century timeline of Gundam by taking at look at ZZ’s first eleven episodes…
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