Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (aired 1985–1986) was a televised anime, one of Gundam series and a sequel to the original Mobile Suit Gundam. It takes place in UC 0087, seven years after the end of the One-Year War. After the events of Gundam 0083, the Federation military established an elite division called the Titans to hunt down the remaining pockets of Zeon resistance, but the Titans used brutal methods to reach their goals. Two resistance groups, the AEUG (Anti-Earth Union Group) and their earthbound counterparts, the Karaba (led by Mobile Suit Gundam's Hayato Kobayashi), were formed. The series begins when a thinly-disguised Char Aznable, now a member of AEUG under the alias "Quattro Bagina", raids a Titan military base in the occupied colony Green Noah in Side 7 to acquire intelligence on the Federation's new Mobile Suit prototype, the black Gundam Mark-II. Kamille Bidan, a hot-headed Newtype dissident, is caught up in the raid and helps AEUG steal the Mark-II. Eventually, he joins the AEUG, initially as the Mark-II pilot, then as the pilot of the new Z-Gundam mobile suit (made by the AEUG and based on Kamille's own design).

Related Topics:
1985 - 1986 - Televised - Anime - Gundam - Sequel - Mobile Suit Gundam - One-Year War - Gundam 0083 - Zeon - Hayato Kobayashi - Char Aznable - Mobile Suit - Kamille Bidan - Z-Gundam

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The show was written and directed by Tomino Yoshiyuki, with character designs by Yasuhiko Yoshikazu, while the series' mechanical designs were split amongst Okawara Kunio, Nagano Mamoru, and Fujita Kazumi.

Related Topics:
Tomino Yoshiyuki - Yasuhiko Yoshikazu - Okawara Kunio - Nagano Mamoru - Fujita Kazumi

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A bona fide hit among many Gundam fans, the show was however poorly received by many casual TV watchers, who found it found it depressing and confusing, with Tomino's wife being one of them. As such, the series never becomes nearly as popular in Japan as the original. Amidst such concerns, Tomino later made the sequel Gundam ZZ into a much lighter affair, to the point that it alienated many of Zeta's fans.

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In celebration of Gundam's 25th anniversary (and also the 20th anniversary of Zeta Gundam), this series is being compiled into a new movie trilogy. According to Tomino, this movie will be created to fix some of the problems he identified in the Zeta TV series and to bring the twenty-year old series into a twenty-first century context. The first of these opened on May 28, 2005.

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Bandai also released in the US a limited edition Zeta Gundam box set in 2004 that incudes several collectibles (pencil sharpeners with the likenesses of several mobile suits on them as well as a 48-page booklet and poster) along with the full series, with both dubbed English and original Japanese audio tracks. Unfortunately, Bandai had neglected to mention that the music in the opening and closing sequences had been altered for the American release, a move which made many purists upset, along with the redubbing of the returning characters from the English dub of Mobile Suit Gundam by new actors. There is confirmation that nearly a year later, Bandai will release individual volumes of Zeta Gundam with the release date for the first volume being October 25th, 2005.

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