[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ] - 1 to 19
There's just something about a Tomino series that makes it compelling. I can't quite explain why I'm still watching a series which has the following problems:
- Frequent bouts of tonal whiplash.
- No apparent story arc despite being of a serialised nature.
- A script where women are only characterised in the following ways: bitchy, clingy, headstrong or crazy. Did I mention the little girl stuff? Of course, I imagine that by the end of the show they'll all be "victims".
- No clear characterisation for any of the cast (and no, 'rebellious' doesn't count). Nearly any character can do anything at any point for any reason - usually to inject some 'drama' into the proceedings to help create a 'plot'. One of the few characters with any kind of core to him was treated entirely as a joke.
- Everyone in the show is incredibly stupid all the time for no apparent reason.
- The editing lacks any sense of time or place. Whenever we're faced with a location we have no idea where one space connects to another, or how. It doesn't even feel like time exists.
But you keep watching because literally anything could happen next and it will probably involve a cool fight scene. In that sense, it's pure entertainment but based on recent developments I feel the hand of 'serious' Tomino returning which is always a bad sign. The thing that makes the first set of episodes so entertaining is that Tomino doesn't even try for stakes or drama, it's just for fun. As soon as that goes away it's going to be a real drag.
It's sort of fascinating for me to watch other people watch ZZ Gundam and react more positively to the zany, manic first half than the second, more serious half. Because the zany, crazy stuff is the stuff the Cult of Zeta so heavily derides.
In the interest of killing your hopes now, the show will stop being silly and start being TominoSerious at about episode 26, with women screaming in sorrow over their husband's graves and protagonists crying their eyes out over dead loved ones being the regular Zeta Norm.
You've already seen Unicorn so I will also just go ahead and tell you now that yes, several young women are going to be victimized. Specifically ones related to a certain someone from Unicorn. The one who isn't is sort of a coin standing on its edge scenario, but I'll save that discussion for after you've finished the show.
MadP has put it to me that he thinks there isn't much in the way of character development in the show. I disagree, but I think I will wait for you and Narag to finish the show before I write out in any detail why. I do agree that some characters don't have as well fleshed out as they ought, but I think that's true of Tomino's work in general. He's not very solid on that point. The progression of Char from Zeta to CCA is so sloppily done I still have no idea why people like it, for instance.
That said, I do think Judau and Haman stand out by the show's end as being strongly written (by Tomino standards) and having a fair amount of chemistry and development. Judau in particular I like because he differs so much from Amuro and Kamille. He's a cheeky, upbeat, hotblooded guy who only gets down once or twice the whole show. "Unflappable" is sort of an operative word I use to describe him.
I think you're right to discount "rebellious" as a character trait because its sort of a trait the entire cast shares. Its a part of the show's strange atmosphere. At times ZZ Gundam feels more like an American 80s movie, you know? Like,
Goonies in Space or something. And that atmosphere can be either enjoyable or grating depending on one's tastes.
I do think you've hit on something that I noticed during my second run of Zeta that's actually a major appeal of UC Gundam, though (and which ought to have been more obvious from the get-go.) The battles in UC Gundam are a lot of fun to watch. Whether they're the land based struggle of the Gundam vs the Gouf, or the space battles of the Zeta and ZZ against the Qubeley, there's a lot of fun to be had there, and I think that that is one of the entire franchise's greatest strengths. Its sort of a constant that has continued throughout.
Like, the cool thing about Gundam is how it manages to combine both the starfighter and jedi knight aspects of Star Wars battles for some really memorable fights. I think everyone who is even a casual fan of Gundam can name at least one fight from a series that they remember as being really good.