Zeta Gundam Volume 6

Note: From here on out, all Volumes of Zeta Gundam are brand new to me, so there will be no comparisons to my previous time with the show.

Like its Chapter 3 counterpart, Volume 6 lacks any degree of focus. Unlike Vol 5, however, it makes up for it by making something important happen in every episode.  There might not be a common narrative arc, but it doesn't really matter when all five episodes are distinct in my mind.

To clarify, some of these episodes offer no indication of their importance until the very end.  A good example is the disc's opener, which is a fairly standard episode until Captain Jamaicon of the Titans is vaporized.  Other eps are more blatant, such as the disc's finale, which makes it perfectly clear in its preview that Mouar is going to die.  There was always something interesting going on in Volume 6, which made it refreshingly addictive to watch.

I also found these episodes to be balanced. They had action, strategy, and solid character interactions.  At this point in the show, the stakes are high enough that even fairly green pilots like Katz and Fa understand that they can no longer be so flippant and disobedient.  The entire cast is starting to get into a groove, and it is refreshing to see angst replace with the occasional spout of comedy relief.

Still, I find this to be a bittersweet change of events.  The body count in Volume 6 is significant, at least for the Titans, and I get the feeling that the AEUG is going to lose some crew soon so as to even the odds  I know they're the bad guys, but Titans pilots have a shelf life of 3-5 episodes (in terms of appearance count), which makes it tough for them to come into their own.  From a character development standpoint, it simply isn't fair.

Overall, the second half of Zeta Gundam has gotten off to a fantastic start, and I'm excited to go full steam ahead with the rest of it.

Sing a Mean Tune Kid...

An Amazon gift card came my way recently, and I used it to pick up some terribly unexciting, arguably unecessary items.  The first was the anime FLCL on Blu Ray.  FLCL is a favorite of mine - or was a favorite, based on what I remember of it - but I have long feared that a re-viewing will cause my impresion of the show to sour.  Meanwhile, there are quite a few shows out there which I haven't seen at all, which would have provided, at the very least, a better content/cost ratio.  I suppose I just wanted to fill an what I thought to be an important blank in my small collection, rather than try and chase what's hot(ter) and new.

The same logic convinced me to spend the remainder of the card on the album Chicago III.  I listened to the record a few time in the past, but didn't find it terribly exciting.  It was hardly my most wanted CD, but I have been listening to a lot of Chicago lately, and remembered that I only needed Chicago III to complete my collection of the band's first seven records (I decided that VII would be my cutoff point).  So rather than chase something newer and potentially more interesting, I decided to fill in a gap.  Listening to it now, via a well mastered CD on a nicer sound system, I'm already enjoying it far more than I ever did.  Hopefully FLCL will fare this well.

PS - Zeta Gundam Volume 6 review up tomorrow.

Frustration

When I began posting my Zeta Gundam recaps, I was all excited. I felt like I was on a roll, and that I would be able to get them out in a (fairly) timely manner.  Unfortunately, I have been all out of sorts lately, which caused me to -

a) not set the Volume 3 recap to auto post, despite my memory of doing so
b) leave the Volume 4 draft sitting on my netbook for days on end, because I mistook it for the Volume 5 recap, and so figured that it could wait a little longer to be posted.

As a result, over a week went by between Volumes 2 and 3, and I ended up doing Vol. 5 at midnight so I could get it done before I plowed too far through 6.  What a clusterf*ck.

In any case, I'm all caught up now, and Volume 6 should be up soon.

Zeta Gundam Volume 5

My first time through Volume 5 left me hopelessly lost. The show jumps back to outer space after two completely Earth-centric volumes, and it doesn't make the transition smoothly. As it turns out, not much happened in space while Kamille and pals were fighting on the surface, but it tries to carry on as if we haven't been away from the vast majority of the cast for ten whole episodes.  In order to have a complete grasp of everyone and everything, you have to recall some fairly minor details from back in Volume 2.  I suggest having that disc (or the Internet) handy in case you need a refresher.

The other problem with Volume 5 is that it has no central narrative arc.  Coincidence or not, each of the previous Volumes felt like a unified set of episodes, all focusing on the same concepts and characters.  Volume 5 starts off trying to establish Paptimus Scirocco as a legitimate antagonist, but around halfway through it switches its focus to the rest of the Titans, including new pilot Yazan Gable (who we'll see far more off in the next disc).

As for the AEUG, Fa Yuiry makes her return, and wastes no time trying to become a pilot herself.  Between her and Katz Kobayashi, we have plenty of candidates to replace Kamille as the annoying kid who disobeys orders and flies off with a Mobile Suit.  Speaking of Mobile Suits, the Zeta Gundam arrives, giving Kamille a craft which is capable of going toe to toe with the Titans' numerous Mobile Armors.  As a result of Zeta's arrival, we also see Emma Sheen taking a more prominent role as a top pilot, taking permanent ownership of the Gundam Mk 2.

Overall, Volume 5 is not centered around any one character or concept.  Everyone gets some time in the spotlight, and some large scale battles are pitched in quick succession.  Specifically, the last three episodes involve a moon assault, a counterattack, and a mission to prevent the Titans from dropping a colony on the lunar cities.  This is an incredibly thrilling Volume, but you have to keep track of everything in order to really enjoy it.  I'm glad I was finally able to do so, and I look forward to the next half of the show, which I will be seeing for the first time.

Zeta Gundam Volme 4

My rewatch of Zeta Gundam has so far improved my opinion of the first three volumes tremendously.  On the other hand, Volume 4 was only barely more enjoyable than it was the first time around. Back then, I had so much trouble getting through these episodes that I put the show on ice for a few weeks. 

I'm not comfortable enough as an anime fan to label a block of episodes as "filler", but that is exactly what this volume feels like.  Right off the bat, Quattro returns to outer space, meaning the show has used the "leave a couple of AEUG members behind on Earth, but don't worry, they'll get their chance later" twist twice within the span of just a few episodes.

On a similar note, the show abandons Titan officer Rosamia out of nowhere, replacing her with another pilot, Four Murasame. Four, like Rosamia, is a teenage girl and a Cyber Newtype, charged with piloting an experimental mobile suit, the Psycho Gundam.  In all fairness, both women are different characters who serve different purposes in driving along the story, but at first glance they're both characterized as both emotionally unstable and cocky (dareisay bratty) during battle.  Simply put, when Volume 4 starts off, it gives you the impression that it has no real aim or purpose, as it insists on using the same plot devices all over again. 

Supporting this feeling of aimlessness is the setting for Volume 4.  The Karaba resistance group stops and parks in New Hong Kong City for supplies.  It ends up staying there until it is kicked out at the end of the Volume (I should also note that the supplies are provided by a local businesswoman who Kamille describes as "a female Wong Lee" due to her behavior.  I agree with him on that, and it could be argued to be another bit of conceptual recycling).  This downtime leaves the cast with little to do, so we end up with a lot of scenes in which Amuro's new squeeze Beltochika pesters both him and Kamille, all of which leave her looking bitchy and immature.  It is hard to look forward to future episodes when you know such a poorly evolving character will be getting the spotlight throughout the disc.

On the other hand, Four Murasame becomes much more favorable over the course of the five episodes.  While she demonstrates the disrespect for authority typical of teenagers, her past is sympathetic enough, and her interactions with Kamille are fundamental in helping him grow up into a more mature, responsible character.  Unfortunately, while these scenes moments are good for character development, they can be painful to watch.  Gundam dialogue aspires to be serviceable at best, so all the slow, conversation heavy moments in this Volume play out awkwardly.  You walk away understanding the intent, but you never feel engaged in it.

Despite the generally slow feeling of the Volume, there are still battles to be seen, most of which fail to reach their potential.  The Psycho Gundam in particular causes a ton of damage to New Hong Kong, but the show never depicts the true toll it has on the citizens of the city.  After the Psycho Gundam obliterates a whole section of town, the following episode shows the cast gallivanting around the harbor as if a major loss of property or lives never occurred not that long ago.  I also noticed that the Earth based Titans forces are crawling with nameless pilots.  You don't really care about a fight when the enemy is depicted as nothing more than a mobile suit.

I feel like Volume 4 is important to the overall story of Zeta Gundam, but damn if I don't find it hard to get through.

Zeta Gundam Volume 3

Only few hours after I wrote my Disc 2 summary, I noticed that the Zeta Gundam DVD labels not only identify each disc's volume, but also a "chapter" designation.  Vol. 1 and 2 are both part of Chapter 1, while Vol 3. begins Chapter 2.  This classification inadvertently lines up with what I said previously about how Disc 2 was the end of show's setup phase. Disc 3 definitely feels like a new "chapter" in the story, one which takes place in a new setting and introduces many new characters.


This batch of episodes begins with the AEUG dropping into Earth, in order to attack the Federation's Jaburo base.  The second episode episode (ep. twelve, for those counting) does a lot to establish what Zeta Gundam is all about, and what has changed in the Universal Century since Gundam 79.  For example, while Jaburo was once the Federation's primary stronghold, in Zeta is has been almost entirely abandoned, used by the Titans as nothing more than a supply depot.  Watching mobile suits battle in the empty shell of a base, while straggling soldiers struggle to escape, gives a strong sense of just how bad a shape the Federation is in.

The next episode has most of the AEUG forces escaping back to outer space, though the intervention of Earth based Titan forces prevents Kamille and Quattro from joining them.  This leads to the meat of the Chapter, in which the two pilots work with the Earth based Karaba resistance group to avoid the Titans and get out to space via other means.

The implications of this split are twofold.  First, it means that Emma, Bright, and the other AEUG staff are out of the picture for a while. Secondly, it means the show has to fill in those gaps with a new Earth based set of characters, including several returning faces from Gundam 79.  Fraw Bow, Katz, Kai (actually, he was in the last Disc) and even Amuro show up to lend a hand, some more than others. I was positively giddy to see them again, and all grown up at that. Unfortunately, however, Amuro is not much of a factor.  For now, he's traded with Kamille to take on the role of angsty pilot who refuses to cooperate.  Amuro eventually gets him game face back on, but you won't see it here.

On the side of the Titans, we see a new batch of pilots, including a "cyber Newtype" named Rosamia Badam.  Rosamia is one of many pilots given superior physical traits and Newtype-esque mental abilities via experimentation, though we quickly see the tradeoff of such enhancements when Rosamia establishes that she's batshit crazy.  At this point, she is almost a source of comedic relief, though at no point in the disc do her and her Titans comrades launch an assault at full combat strength.  With some powerful mobile armors at their disposal, they have the potential to bring some pain.

Overall, this disc is a slow burn.  The Jaburo assault is spread out over two episodes, while the other three serve mostly to reacquaint us with Amuro and the other returning characters. It isn't really "setup" like in the last two discs, but the show is also not yet firing on all cylinders.

PS - RIP Roberto.  Up until now, characters died only an episode or two after their debut.  Roberto was a fixture from the very start, and his death marks the first time a "veteran" cast member has been axed.

Sex and the City, again

I think I can see now where some of the stereotypes about Sex and the City culminated.  Seasons 5 and 6 (at least the episodes I saw from them) are rotten.  I don't know what the reason was, but starting with Season 5, Sarah Jessica Parker and the show writers saw fit to rip anything interesting out of her character. As narrator and protagonist, Carrie was far less financially able than her counterparts, and quite a bit flawed emotionally.  As a result, she struggled, quite often at that, in such a way that many viewers, I believe, found relatable, even within the show's fairly fictional portrayal of New York.  These traits are wiped away in Season 5.  Out of nowhere, Carrie says good bye to relationships.  She wears increasingly funky outfits, with a new hairdo between scenes which look to take place within the same 24 hours. Her newspaper column leads to a book deal.

For whatever silly reason, she's invited to be a fashion model for Dolce & Gabanna, and an incident in which she slips in falls is supposed to cancel out the fact that she eventually gets to pose and preen for all to see.

Oh, and after watching so much of this show, the idea that she marries Mr. Big is asinine.  It goes against anything and everything natural and logical.

Starting from season 5, Carrie is a precious angel, and it gives her and her friends cart blanche to act ridiculous in ways which they never did before (or, in ways which they'd later regret).  The show is turning away from being about smart, capable, but ultimately human women, to being about a bunch of superficial infants.  And I here the movies are even worse.

What the hell happened?  Is this what people wanted to see?  I just don't get it.

Beer

I think it is safe to say that I am no longer a beer snob.

I started to become one back in college. I think it was, in part, a reaction to all the stupendously terrible beer which college coeds found acceptable.  It was also fueled by a bit misguided herd mentality. I  spent a lot of time on the Internet back then, and I saw plenty of Europeans who mocked Americans for drinking Budweiser.  They were joined by "enlightened" Americans drinking imports and craft beer.  I decided that I wanted to be accepted by these people, and so my taste in beer had to be impeccable.

I don't regret my turn at being a wannabe beer snob. I learned a lot about the drink, including countless varieties I once never knew about. And if you sat me down with a very good craft beer today, I'd still enjoy it.  But some time within the last year, I decided that I just didn't care anymore.

Take, for instance, those Internet Europeans.  Once I got a lot more knowledgeable about my new favorite drink, I went back and looked at what superior brews they were fans of.  Turns out they enjoyed some fairly trashy imports. This was an important general purpose lesson, about how you shouldn't give even half a shit about anyone on the Internet, but I digress.  More important than unmasking the Eurotrash was the revelation that becoming a beer snob is a never ending battle.  Every so often, you find a beer which is completely new to you, and looks absolutely awesome.  You try it, and you think it is pretty good, so you head over to the reviews to see what others have to say.  Beeradvocate.com and the like are flooded with mediocre grades.  According to them, what you thought to be a hidden gem was just another average product that pales in comparison to *insert name of local craft brew which you cannot get a hold of here*.  Psychologically, this was always a downer.  I thought I had developed the eye, the taste, but apparently I still had a long way to go . According to these folks, almost nothing out there was worthwhile.

This leads me to my last point.  The success of craft breweries is, ultimately, a great thing, but some of them seem to exist for no other purpose other than to fuck with us.  Some of them are straightforward, brewing a couple of stable ales and lagers, with a seasonal or experimental drink every so often.  Others can't get enough of experimentation, to the point where it defines them.  Some use simple labeling and pledged to quality.  Others try much to hard to look cool and quirky, using art design reminiscent of an O.K. Soda can and using way too much playful ad copy for a drink which is illegal for minors.  Buying from craft brewers feels like a crapshoot at times.  You may end up with simple, well made beer, or you may end up with something that tastes weird for the sake of it.  I'm particularly frustrated with what I feel is an irresponsible usage of hops among craft brewers.  Hops can add all sorts of wonderful flavors to a beer, but in my experience they have to be handled with care.  If you just use a wreckless amount of them (which some beer labels have bragged about), you may end up with a drink that feels like a punch in the face more than anything.

There's a problem with saying anything like this.  Most beer snobs (and the brewers, if they responded) would quickly tell me, or anyone else with a similar complaint, that we don't actually appreciate the flavor of hops.  This isn't at true, of course, but it doesn't matter.  If you question whether a microbrew is doing the right thing, you can easily get scorned.

In writing this post, I actually remember when I decided to stop giving a fuck.  It was last summer, right before moving out of my old abode in Baltimore. I picked up a variety twelve pack of Magic Hat summer beers. They had a new IPA inside which was phenomenal.  It was very hoppy, but went down easily.  It felt such perfectly balanced.  My internal monologue went something like this:

You've wasted many a six pack on IPAs which taste like shit.  After finding something this good, why are you so desperate to experiment?  You know what you like these days, and who the hell cares what others think, when it is clear that they're talking out of their ass half the time?  Stick with what you like, and be happy with it.

And that's what I do these days.  I stick to what I like, and I don't care what anyone else thinks about my choice in suds.  So far it hasn't let me down.

Zeta Gundam Volume 2

Disc 2 has the AEUG preparing to launch a major offensive, while the Titans try to uncover and upend their plans.  While certainly action packed, these episodes are more important for their relationship building. We see Kamille interact quite a bit with the AEUG crew, and while his reactions are often corrosive and angsty, you can tell that he now sees them as comrades, and to some extent, his surrogate family.  His concern for them results in some reckless actions, but ultimately he ends up keeping some of his new friends alive, and his performance on the field proves his worth as a full time pilot.

This time around, as I payed closer attention to the fights, I started to notice just how early Kamille demonstrates Newtype abilities.  Simply put, he is able to react and anticipate so quickly that he is able to go toe to toe with veteran pilots despite his lack of flight time.  I also began to understand why he jumped to save Reccoa and Emma Sheen - he was able to sense their danger from far away (which I guess makes Newtypes kind of like Jedi).

On the Titans side, these episodes did a lot to improve my opinion of Jerrid Messa.At this point,  Jerrid is still a bigmouth and a shitty pilot, but he demonstrates that he is willing to put his ego aside in order to become the leader he aspires to be.  His interactions with Federation pilot Lila are akin to Obi Wan and Luke with added sexual tension.  She teaches him quite a lot in a short period of time, and her death helps push Jerrid over the edge. By the end of the disc, he's starting to look like an actual pilot, rather than an adversary you hope to see shot down as soon as possible.  At this point, the core cast of Titans is nowhere near solidified, but that's because they have to fuck up a bunch on this disc, in order to justify bringing in some heavy hitters that will present the AEUG with a serious challenge. The pieces are put into place here, and Disc 3 will see the real beginning of what will be known as the Gryps conflict.

Oh, and Bright Noa joins the AEUG, immediately taking command of their flagship simply by being Bright fucking Noa.  The sooner the better I say.

Zeta Gundam Volume 1

The first five episodes of Zeta Gundam are mostly setup, introducing most of the main characters before the story's main conflict begins in earnest.  During my original viewing, I struggled greatly to understand the show's teen protagonist, Kamille Bidan.  Everything he said or did was annoying and/or baffling.  It often felt that he got certain breaks or opportunities simply by being the hero of the story.

Rewatching these episodes, my opinion has improved.  Kamille is still a bit annoying, but I can understand (most of) his behavior.  The trick was in remembering that there are many reasons why adolescents act foolishly.  In addition to being hot headed, they like to act without thinking, and without understanding the consequences of their actions. They believe they know more than the adults in their life, and will rebel against authority in order to establish themselves as an individual.  They also tend to be ignorant of a certain selection of current events.  Together, all of these traits gave explanation to Kamille's stupidity, which is clearly meant to be seen as stupidity, in order to show us how much he has to grow.


I also got a better sense of the Titans, why they're hated and how they're able to act like such thugs. I don't think the Universal Century shows do a great job of emphasizing the state of the planet, but it is important to remember that the One Year War wiped out about half of the human population, that the Earth is all sorts of fucked up, and that those pesky Minovsky particles make communications all screwy.  The Earthsphere is in awful shape, and it would be plausible for the planetside government to be too busy to keep close attention to what is happening in space.  It is also believable that they lack strong leadership with so many people being dead.  We tend to think of governments as being all knowing entities, but this is perhaps due to modern technology more than anything.  Rome once ruled only a fraction of Earth, and yet Ceasar was able to use his army to come home and take control.  In regards to Zeta, the Titans are still a bit convenient as an enemy, but they aren't unbelievable.

By the end of this disc, the AEUG have pretty much successfully escaped with the Gundam prototypes, and Kamille's parents are dead, which locks in his fate whether he knows it or not.  I found myself genuinely sympathizing with the boy this time. As he states in the fifth episode, his might have fought bitterly with his parents, but they were still his family, and now they're gone.  I thought this highlighted a very important point about teenagers - their supposed disdain for their parents is mostly smoke and mirrors. And even when they do have  good reason to be mad at their folks, deep down inside they would rather things be better.  Kamille's anger at his parents is no doubt genuine, but their death leaves him with absolutely nothing, including the hope for having a better relationship with them in the future.  He's thrust himself into a world of shit, and it won't get any easier.

Zeta Gundam

Having recently finished rewatching 08th MS Team, I decided it was time to go back and give Zeta Gundam a proper viewing. I bought the first half of Zeta on DVD about three years ago, and gobbled it up quickly.  I watched one episode a night before going to sleep, on my old, dying CRT television (for that authentic, 1985 feel).  In retrospect, this was a bad idea.  The TV's sound system was dying, meaning I often couldn't hear dialogue properly, and my PS2 had troubles reading the discs, causing me to fumble with the playback frequently.

Worst of all, however, was the fact that I was a newly diagnosed Narcoleptic trying to watch a television before turning in for the night. It wasn't obvious at the time, but I wasn't giving the show anywhere near my full attention.  As a result, I often missed the names of new characters, and couldn't recall when they first appeared. I had trouble understanding why operations were being launched , and my mental timeline of how past events played out was all out of order.  Zeta, like many Gundam shows, can be confusing, and my sleepy mental state made it worse.  While I recalled some of the episodes being thrilling, on a whole my opinion of the show was quite low.

Perhaps this is why it took me until the tail end of 2010 to obtain the second half, and only then because I found it for half price during the liquidation of the local Suncoast.  Volume 2 has sat on my shelf ever since, and is the only anime DVD up there that I haven't yet watched.  With both 08th MS Team and Gundam 79 recently rekindling my interest in the franchise, I decided it was time to give Zeta a second chance, with a proper viewing from the very beginning (while being very much awake).

So far, the plan is working.  I am encountering dialogue that I don't remember hearing before, and combined with the extra Gundam knowledge I obtained over the years, it is helping dispel most of my confusion.  And while the script is still awkward (in that way that all Gundam shows tend to be), I can come up with explanations and interpretations whenever someone says or does something jarring (when I first began watching, I literally paused the show at times just to stop and think).  Zeta Gundam is starting to really feel like a good piece of space opera, with a coherent plot and some semblance of character development.  It feels like a drastically different, and much better, show than what plays out in my old memories.

I am also finding the animation to be much more impressive, though I'm not sure if this is due to a better TV, or because I can keep my eyes open.  I get the impression that the animators skimped when drawing certain scenes, in order to devote more attention to the battles.  That isn't to say that every fight scene is perfectly fluid, but on a hole they are more detailed and kinetic than I expected something circa 1985 to be.

Overall, I'm hooked for real, and the best part is that I still have a whole new half to get into for the first time.