Forum - View topicREVIEW: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Blu-Ray
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louis6578
 Posts: 1861 |
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The biggest disappointment is that the OP and ED license still isn't solved. Seriously Sunrise? Isn't this your show!? I understand Bandai, but why can't you fix this?
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Angel'sArcanum
 Posts: 303 Location: Toronto, Ontario |
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For me, I actually watched the first episode of Zeta Gundam several years ago, but never got around to the rest, so my impression of him from episode 1 was him being a total badass for punching Jerid in the face so boldly (and Jerid is one of the most annoying characters of the franchise really). However, once I finally got around to seeing the other 49 episodes, I didn't take too kindly to Kamille, his angst was all over the place - apathetic where he should be in grief and enraged where he needn't be. As for the Titans, I thought it was kind of understandable since they operated on the vindictive eradication of the Zeons and were structurally just a very oppressive group to begin with. I thought Scirocco was at least interesting with his sense of charisma and ambition, and if you want to count spoiler[Reccoa as a Titan, she was my favourite character of the series - her whole character arc of deciding between siding with a group promoting peace but with people who don't reciprocate her romantic yearning (AEUG and Char) vs a group that would have a ruthless authoritative control but (what she thought would) have a future filled with personal love for her (Titans and Scirocco) was so brutally honest and interesting (and also very depressing with all the manipulation.] So yeah, I think the Titans were meant to be a very classical evil group given their backgrounds, and following the aftermath of 0079 it just feels like that would be the natural evolution. |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1817 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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Because the songs were written by Neil Sedaka, the license for a North American release is too high (millions of dollars). Sunrise originally only licensed the Asian rights, which is why the Animax Asia broadcast had the OP/ED songs. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 381 Location: PA / USA |
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Interesting you bring Quess up. I remember the first time I saw Char's Counterattack, Quess annoyed the crap out of me. Going back and watching the movie in recent years, it's startling to notice as an adult that she was actually somewhat relatable in the end, given her situation. Zeta has always been one of my favorite anime series ever. Ya, there are pacing issues in spots, awkward dialogue/situations now & then, and the ZZ series after it left something to be desired........but the thing is, I'd probably say the same of the Lord of the Rings movies in spots - Frodo whining all the time + those movies are just long. My favorite dub I've seen for the Zeta cast is on Dynasty Gundam 2. If you want to hear the cast that probably should have been in charge of dubbing the BluRay, check out scenes from there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-bIyq9JkoYU#t=692 DWG2's Jaburo Mission; Char's voice always melts my soul. Last edited by LinkTSwordmaster on Mon Feb 08, 2016 4:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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louis6578
Posts: 1861 |
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This, this, this. As well as for G Gundam, they should have just gotten Ocean (or hell, Bang Zoom) to redub it. I don't mind the other Gundams since the 0079 and Char's Counterattack dubs have their fans, but nobody likes Blue Water Studios. That's not an overstatement. I've never met a fan of Blue Water Studios' dubbing work. At best, "it's okay, but the sub is far superior." At worst, "it's an assault upon the ears." Honestly, I think I'd rather this release have been sub-only than to have it contain the Blue Water dub. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
Posts: 381 Location: PA / USA |
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Agreed. I think of all the Gundam dubs, DWG2 on PS3/XB360 probably had the better, more consistent list of voice actors out of any of the other games or DVD/BluRay releases.
Additionally, their abridged version of the ZZ Gundam storyline is a great way to skip watching the shoddy parts of the anime if you are gearing up to watch the Char's Counterattack movie or UC Gundam afterwards. |
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Jarmyn
Posts: 44 Location: Indianapolis/Indiana |
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Yeah, I am very much of the second camp when comes to Zeta Gundam which I personally find to be the most overrated in the franchise. My problems with it are: 1. The after mentioned Kamille is unlikable and not in an interesting way. (Yes, he does improve over the course of the series, but given that he starts the series by sucker punching a Space Gestapo officer for thinking his name is girly and then steals a giant robot in order to terrorize people with it before running off to join an anti-government rebel group, a significant improvement from "dangerous lunatic" still leaves him at "largely unlikable", at least for me.) And the rest of the cast on the AEUG side isn't much better. (See Reccoa and Katz) 2. The Titans are some of the most boring, one-dimensional evil villains ever. They don't have a cause they really believe in beyond "We are the Titans, obey us or die" (They aren't even really enforcers of the Earth Federation's status quo as they treat other Federation officers and people from Earth with the same sneering contempt they do space colonists and mentioned in passing by Scirocco, that the Titan leaders are planning to overthrow the EF government once they are done crushing the AEUG. spoiler[Plus the whole joining up with Zeon remnants in the second half of the show]) They don't really have a overall plan to take over Earth and Space beyond commiting atrocities and make people fear them. They are almost Snidely Whiplash-like in their tendency to nuke, gas and blast first and ask questions later, if at all. Later Gundam series may have also had total black hats as antagonists but they at least were entertaining to watch and sometimes even had a point. The Titans had neither things. 3. The war between the AEUG and Titans really doesn't feel like an intense battle for the fate of the Earth Sphere. A key issue here is again that the Titans don't really have a plan. The original series could get away with a mostly reactive Zeon because it was clear the conflict was at a stalemate, and the White Base was the perturbative element ; this doesn't fly in a story where the villains are introduced as much more proactive, what with just now trying to take over the world. Yes, I realize AEUG are supposed to be proactive too, what with being an underground rebellion ; but whatever plans they initially had early in the series don't survive for very long, and they're stuck in reactive survival mode from Jaburo onwards. This could be fine if we got a sense of the Titans progressively increasing their pressure (similar to how the White Base was growing more and more desperate in the first half of the original series), but that's clearly not what happened until the very end of the show. 4. The politics and philosophies in Zeta aren't that cerebral and complex as the fandom makes them out to be. They basically are "Adults ruin everything for the new generation", "Polluting the Earth is bad ", The obvious "War is bad" and "New Age mysticism and Scifi ideas from 1960s and 70s that are Newtypes". 5. The amount of sexism involved with all the female members of the cast. (More on that later once the second half is reviewed here.) 6. It has an unbearable level of self-seriousness in its drama that makes it both po-faced and ridiculous at the same time. (see the constant slapping) It's sequal, ZZ at least knew when it was being silly while Zeta tended to be completely unaware. 7.spoiler[ The ending has nothing to say really beyond despair that the world will never get better and the hopes of future generations will forever be crushed. ] In the end, I will never really agree with Zeta's admirers and will continue to view certain other Gundam series they consider to be massively inferior to it as actually being better done then it. Last edited by Jarmyn on Tue Feb 09, 2016 12:05 am; edited 1 time in total |
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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I definitely in the 'b' category as well. All the points you mention exemplify Tomino's bizarre writing quirks in his dialogue and characterization that kinda turned me off the first time I watched Zeta. That said, I did like show overall. The story was interesting and the animation still holds up. I acutally think it's one of the best looking mecha shows from the 80's. I'm reading through the Gundam Origin manga right now, and I definitely feel like rewatching Zeta afterwards.
This made me laugh. Same here, I always thought of Jerid as one of the most annoying and useless bad guys in anime. |
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Bamble
Posts: 130 |
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I'd really like some confirmation on this point as well before committing to purchasing anything. This post over at the AoD forums seems emphatic that the subs used on the new set are the corrected ones. |
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WeirDiE_InC
 Posts: 414 Location: The GVRD |
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In other words, the dialogue sucks. |
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fuuma_monou
Posts: 1817 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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"Camille* is a man's name!" *(I prefer to spell his name "Camille Vidan", rather than the official "Kamille Bidan", even though I never watched the fansubs.) |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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My experience of Zeta was that it started out well enough (with a conscious increase of hard sci-fi elements over the first series) but that it made less and less sense as it went along and made very little sense at the end.
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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The two OP songs are really great in Japanese, though merely a week or two ago I was listening to an 80's idol compilation and one of the OPs was on there. Seeing its an old idol song and knowing how Japanese companies tend t be with old music rights...
Lamentable. But since this release will get more people into Zeta, and it being my favorite, I'm sure we can encourage them to find the original versions of the OPs on Youtube. I'd recommend, if you haven't already. They're both pretty unique in the genre of OP themes. Kamile is also my favorite lead in Gundam. I could trace his logic and his growing maturity throughout the story. Like that for everyone. Everyone felt real. Even the war, which had real consequences. |
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MrBonk
Posts: 192 |
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Zeta's OST weaker than 0079? Get out of here man!
Zeta has a brilliant soundtrack and the song used to replace the original OP.is still incredibly memorable and catchy. And it actually has something to do with the show other than being a piece of topical music attached to the show. (But how they managed to have them make this song specifically for the show but not have Sunrise retain any and all rights to it is beyond asinine. How is it different than typical contract work for hire? Everything in those circumstances almost always belongs to the employer. Sunrise in this case) It wasn't originally intended to be the OP, but it works brilliantly so. And you can still find import CDs of that original song if you want it. Honestly it still works without it just fine. I do LOVE the fudge outta the 2nd OP though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBuQkm9FCho Also the dub is just fine. Kamille's voice Deep? What? You think that is deep? I don't even. |
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fuuma_monou
Posts: 1817 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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The lyrics were written for the show (by Tomino, I think, under his songwriting pen name), but the tunes were re-purposed from existing Neil Sedaka songs. |
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