"Gundam Zeta" versus "Gundam Zeta: A New Translation", or is this a remaster or ruining a masterpiece?

My article I originally planned to publish today was getting too big and taking too long, but thankfully next Saturday's article is shorter, so I finished the rough draft in an hour and decided to publish it today instead.


Let me give you a list of things I love most in the world in order of most loved to least loved.

1. My family
2. Gundam Zeta
3. My friends
4. Music
5. The Gundam franchise it-self

If you couldn't already tell by the headline I am going to be talking about thing number 2, more specifically it's remaster. So let me get started with some background on what I'll be talking about and the single highest grossing anime and sci-fi series in Japan, which continues to make billions of dollars in model kit sales annually. 

edit from 2024: This was a poorly researched article I wrote to meet a deadline while sleep deprived. This article is not very accurate. Take everything here with a grain of salt, as most of this is a rant piece.

                                               

Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta was written as the sequel to the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. The original series aired in 1979 and was a flop on release because it was the first mecha anime to really be driven by it's strong characters and the gripping stories surrounding them, so it was cancelled after only a few episodes, only getting put back on air when the toys became a huge hit. Gundam Zeta was made 6 years after the original series in 1985. Tomino was pressured to make it by production company Sunrise. Tomino wanted to write the show with a cast of mostly teenage characters with hopes of attracting younger viewers, but while writing he came down with crippling depression, which would plague him for the next several years. Tomino grew to dread writing the series, as he thought everything should have ended with the original series and he started loathing the series and blaming it for so many of the hardships and mental issues he faced at the time. He started taking his frustration out on the show itself, and more specifically it's characters. He refused to grant any of it's characters happiness and intentionally wrote the show to make them squirm, suffer and face trauma because it was the only way he felt like he could exercise his depression. (and this was all a decade before Evangellion) The show became an immense hit, with the show being nominated by the Animage Grand Prix awards for favorite series by fan votes. The character of Four Murasame won best female character by fan votes, and her final episode in the series "Forever Four" won best episode of the year by fan votes. However the viewers started calling Tomino "Kill em All Tomino" because of how high the body count in the show was and how dark it was. Tomino continued writing new Gundam media, but started getting more restrictions from sunrise. He had written an entire series planned to be the fourth Gundam series at that point, but he was forced to make it a movie, so he had to cram the entire first quarter of the show into a movie and scrap the rest. (which he later turned into a series of manga and novels) He would later leave Sunrise after making an actual 4th Gundam series due to mental health issues becoming too serious and he was tired of working under restrictions. Toy company Ban-Dai would then buy Sunrise so they could have control over the Gundam series. Their series Gundam Seed would come out in the early 2000s and repopularize Gundam to a peak in popularity it hadn't seen since Zeta and it's sequel show ZZ. So for it's 25th anniversary and the then soon coming 20th anniversary of Zeta, Sunrise and Tomino collaborated on a trilogy of compilation films compiling Zeta's episodes, with roughly 10-20 percent of the stuff in these being newly animated, adding new scenes as well as completely changing existing scenes. This was because Tomino wanted to change things to fix what he thought were issues with the show or things he regretted doing because he was in a very negative headspace when writing it. In addition to this SOME (I need to clarify that it was only some) of the footage used for the movie was digitally touched up and remastered to look cleaner, more modern and more vibrant. The films came out and were met with a mixed reception and for good reason.

So first I'm going to talk about the good of the remaster and then talk about the bad after. I will not spoil anything of importance in Gundam Zeta, but I will spoil many of the changes made in A New Translation because I don't think you should ever watch this overall the original. 

So let's start with the good. The remastered and touched up stuff looks great, Zeta has never looked better. The newly animated stuff is gorgeous, and fits in really well while also looking great. The rights to the show's theme music (the specific recordings used in the opening and credits) are out of Ban-Dai's copyright control beyond their inclusion in the original version of the series, meaning they couldn't be used here. So in exchange the theme music for each film features a new composition by Japan's biggest selling male solo artist and sex symbol: Gackt, who himself is a lifelong Gundam fan and has opened concerts with a chant uttered by the fascist regime from the original series. All of Gackt's soundtrack contributions are absolute bangers, with "Metamorphoze" and "Love Letter" beyond their soundtrack inclusion being some of his most recognizable and beloved songs, while "Metamorphoze" is also remembered as one of the most iconic Gundam themes to have been made since Ban-Dai took over the series. The new scenes added to in to the films are mostly great, and nice inclusions.

I do not want to be negative, but it is a very bad sign when half of the paragraph of all the things I could think of praising this trilogy was all about Gackt and his banger soundtrack he put together for this project. That's because there is a lot of oopsies here, and too many for me to actually talk about. Gundam Zeta is a 50 episode series, with each film compiling about 15 episodes of the series each, meaning there is a total of 5 episodes worth of stuff with zero representation, but it gets worse. I'll start small. Only some of the animation was remastered, so whenever you see unremastered animation it just looks out of place and bad in comparison. The editing is also a downgrade compared to the editing in the original series. The definitive way to watch the very first original Gundam series is the compilation films, despite them cutting out plot points and characters like M'Quve. It is a very proper and well done shortening of the entire series. These films do the same thing in cutting characters, plot points, arcs, etc, all in the name of making a more concise story for film. However this doesn't work the same way becaus Zeta is a faster paced show than the original series. Unlike that show nearly every episode of Zeta served a greator purpose towards the narrative, building the world or developing it's characters, even the rare few episodes that seemed like filler. The original series had episodes like this, my favorite being the one where the main character Amuro needs to manually find and defuse a series of sticky bombs planted on the Gundam by enemy grunts in under an hour and he earns the enemy's respect by the end, wich is an example of a good filler episode. However there are many episodes there that just pad out the series like the one where they go looking for salt. There is more much more fat to trim with that series than in Zeta. They also chose to leave in some things that make no sense to leave in because they serve no purpose without some of the things they cut. Let me list some examples.


One example is the character Rosamia Badam. She appeared in a dogfight with the main characters when they reached earth, but she ejected her seat when she lost. She is later seen in a hanger docking bay showing us she was saved. We see her later in the series where she is given a character arc that is left seemingly unfinished until she shows up near the end of the series. In A New Translation we see her eject after losing the dogfight, and then we never see her again. What was the point in wasting time including this part if you are going to cut all of the scenes that establish her as an actual character and where she does stuff of importance? The ending of Zeta is very powerful as we see all the characters who's lives were positively changed by the main character Kamille Bidan assist in one final moment during the final battle. Lila Milla Rira was a Lieutenant in the Federation who's entire outlook was changed by Kamille and her beliefs changed by him in her final moments. She was a mentor to Kamille's rival Jerrid Messa and her death early on in the series was a primary motivation for Jerrid. It left Jerrid hating Kamille and began this cycle of blaming him for all of his comrades dying. Jerrid throws away his dream of leading the military branch he is in, and instead to kill Kamille, all the while ignorant of the fact that he killed people close to Kamille first. His burning hatred for him which defined his character in the second half of the series and motivated him, all started with Lila's death. In a new translation Lila dies quite a bit later timeline wise and without ever having interacted in person with Kamille, making her appear in spirit to help Kamille in the end stupid when they never interacted face to face or anything like that. On top of that it messes up Jerrid's arc and progression, making him seem like a violent man baby with no real character or personality beyond his inability to take accountability for his actions. One of the main characters feels neglected by the other characters, and throughout the series we see this happen more and more as it progresses until eventually they join the series main antagonist, a seducer named Paptimus Cirroco, and then during the final battle they are forced to face the main characters in a very powerful moment where they are faced with the consequences of their actions. This whole thing feels underdone and stupid in A New Translation because we barely see this development much. The character of Katz Koboyahsi (previously a minor character in the original Gundam series from 1979) is given an arc throughout the series and we see him progress and grow as a character, and this growth is even what allows him to redeem one of the antagonists. However his arc and interactions with said antagonist he redeems are focused on much less, removing the impact of his redeeming them. Yazan Gabel is a legendary pilot and one of the most dangerous villains seen in Zeta, even going on to being one of the two primary antagonists in the first several episodes of the sequel series ZZ, making him even more important. However his role in A New Translation is much smaller so we don't see him do much. However he is the one to betray and kill another main antagonist instead of a different character who did it in the original series, and they didn't really give him much reason or motive to do so, making it just a questionable thing to do at best. Zeta introduced what many consider the best Gundam villain behind the obvious best Char Aznable, that being Haman Karn. She is a secondary villain given a good bit of focus in the series who manipulates and does anything to try and do what she thinks will be the best outcome. One of the most cunning, smart and cutthroat of all the villains in the entire franchise. She serves as the main villain of the sequel series Gundam ZZ where she is developed into a very awesome character and proves herself as a villain and compelling antagonist. However A New Translation was given a happy ending that wraps things up nicely. Zeta ended with our heroes having all suffered immeasurable losses and at their lowest point yet, which we follow up on in the sequel series ZZ. A New Translation was given a happier ending with Kamille's story finshed and wrapped up in a nice little bow, which basically removes the possibility of the events of Gundam ZZ happening, which is cool but one teensy little problem. WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO HAMAN. FOR ALL WE KNOW SHE IS ACTIVELY GATHERING HER RESERVE FORCES AT AXIS TO KILL EVERYONE IN A SECOND WAVE BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T TAKE ANYTHING CLOSE TO HER FULL FORCES WITH HER TO THE FINAL BATTLE. Gundam ZZ just straight up doesn't happen and the ending is treated as happy despite the very real and likely possibility that they are fucked and that Haman is going to kill them with superior numbers by the next day.

I wanted to get that all of my chest in one paragraph because my next one is going to be very passionate, and that is how they changed Four's arc.

Anybody who knows me knows that I have a pretty intense obsession with Four (she is my profile photo on literally everything including Blogspot and I dye my hair the same color as her's) and she is doubtlessly my favorite character in all of fiction. Four is a character I love because her story and how she got to where she is resemble mine in many ways, only if I had gone down a bit of a different path. The novel explaining her story leading up to the events of Zeta only show this further. Four is an antagonist who has nobody. No family, no friends, nobody to love her, and she doesn't even have any memories, let alone a name. The villainous organization Titans broke her mind to give her an immense power, that being those of a powerful newtype. They want to exploit the power of newtypes for their own gain in the Gryps war, and because they are funded by the government and Four has nobody to care about her it's just seen as okay by the military personal who are around her. Four is so dehumanized that they named her Four because she forgot her own name among all her other memories in the horrific experiments done to her and nobody could be bothered to keep a record of any of this, more so just focusing on how they can turn this orphaned girl into a weapon. The point of Four is that she is not only a character for Kamille to care about who is on the other side of the war, but an example of how horrible the Titans are that they did this to a poor child and raised her as nothing more than a weapon, not even seeing her as a human being, but an investment. Kamille and Four meet without knowing they are enemies, and Kamille is the first person Four met who treated her like a person. She betrays orders to save him and then she is shot by her commanding officer for disobeying orders, and we don't see her again until we get the conclusion to her arc upon Kamille's return to earth. There Jerrid's own hatred for Kamille leads to the reckless loss of life on all sides and even Kamille starts hating Jerrid too. All the while Kamille and Four accept their love for each-other and Kamille promises to set her free from the hell she is living. Four and Kamille are the first newtypes to share an understanding with each-other on a cosmic level, which is a big thing because that would become a big part of the series for the next couple instalments after Zeta including Lalah Sune doing connecting Char and Amuro in a later piece of media in the franchise. We also learn other things like the damage to Four's brain from the experiments is so severe she needs medicine to hold back crippling seizures she regularly faces. Four's arc was one of the strongest parts of the series as indicated by the fact that her final episode was an award winning episode. So how did they go about adapting Four's critically acclaimed story arc? Well for starters Kamille's return to earth to take part in the raid on a major Titans base was cut completely, so all the events there where he reunites with Four don't happen. She tells Kamille to go where he needs to and to leave her (not too different from the show) but is instead shot in the head and killed by her commanding officer, and we never see her again. Basically they condensed her arc heavily, but to compensate they expanded upon her original meeting and interactions with Kamille in Hongkong. They handled condensing it better than every other arc here, but it's impact on the greater story and it's significance and meaning are severely weakened compared to before. It hurts me a bit to see so much of it missing and chopped up, but at least it wasn't completely ruined. However doing this dampens the impact and legacy of one of Gundam's strongest and most compelling female characters, and it seriously removes a major moment of Kamille's growth, including the very things that lead him to his own happy ending later in the original Gundam timeline. While it's not totally ruined, changing this drastically still hurts other aspects of the larger story in many ways and it's just bad for doing so.

A New Translation is a great companion piece to Zeta and expands on things in new and interesting ways we didn't see in the original, as well as offering new perspectives and takes on things, but overall it's a mess that does a disservice to the original series and it's story. It leaves more questions than it answers and removes so many emotional moments and stories from the original series in an attempt to make it more light hearted and accessible. They cut too much of importance and the trilogy is paced poorly, with the many sections where you see unremastered animation being really jarring and distracting at points. If you like Zeta than check this out, but do not watch this over the original, whatever you do or you will probably end up hating the objective peak of the Gundam series.