History YMMV / MobileSuitGundamZZ

** While the anime version of [[TeensAreMonsters Glemmy Toto]] had enough redeeming traits to keep him off this list, the same cannot be said for his manga counterpart, who is bad news from his first appearance to his last. Coldly manipulating Puru, an unstable ChildSoldier, into doing his killing for him, Glemmy keeps a small army of brainwashed clones of her as backup for when she inevitably dies on him. He burns down a village to draw out Judau Ashta, has a defecting Puru killed by her EvilTwin Puru-2, and eventually betrays Haman Khan, triggering a devastating EnemyCivilWar in the process, as he aims to make himself the dictatorial ruler of both Earth and the colonies, unleashing his entire clone army in the process. Idolising the franchise's original monster, Gihren Zabi, [[ApocalypseHitler whose DNA may run in his veins]], Glemmy promises to be every bit as brutal a tyrant as he was, and betrays no concern at all for the dozens of little girls who are dying to make his dream a reality.

* GrowingTheBeard: Most fans tend to say it's when the show was retooled and CerebusSyndrome kicked in at around episode 21. The show becomes much more serious and plot orientated as the whole of Axis takes the stage rather than a few scattered agents. The humorous tone is downplayed but not wholly jettisoned which works to combat the excessive darkness that Zeta could fall victim to. The pacing picks up considerably in this time.
* HilariousInHindsight: There's an online quiz out there that lets you construct your wolfkin name by matching your first and last name to two wolf-related words. Due to the word Moon appearing in both lists, it's possible to be named ''Moon Moon'', which has even led to MemeticMutation.
** Speaking of the Moon Moon, a race of people who live on the moon and prefer peace when possible, and the protagonist crossdressing at one point? [[Anime/TurnAGundam Sounds familiar.]]

** Ple. From the very beginning it's established that Ple is dangerous; her mixture of selfishness and instability cause a lot of trouble for the heroes. In spite of that, Ple is still a child and one that's been raised in a deeply unhealthy environment that encourages her behavior in order to better mold her into a weapon. In spite of all of this, it's clear she's trying to be a better person.
** Ple Two. You can't blame her for all the bad things she did. Thanks to Glemy, who never treating her as human.
* MagnificentBitch: [[AntiVillain Haman Khan]], Axis' warlord and the RegentForLife of Neo-Zeon, came closer to conquering the Earth Sphere than any of the despots before or after her. Intervening in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]'''s Gryps Conflict on the side of Paptimus Scirocco's Titans, Haman helped turn the battle between the AEUG and the Titans into a full scale civil war within the Earth Federation, from which she emerged as the one true winner following Scirocco's death and the obliteration of the Titans and most of the AEUG. Invading the Earth before the Federation could recover from the war, Haman occupied huge swathes of the planet, and used the Dublin ColonyDrop to terrorize Federation officials into surrendering to her, all while employing sheer force of personality to mask her myriad personal issues and hold the backstabbing house of cards that was Axis-Zeon together. Betrayed at the zenith of her power by Glemmy Toto, and faced with internal rebellion by his supporters, Haman quickly moved to quell the descent, meeting Glemmy in open battle. Confronted by series' protagonist Judau Ashta, Haman was persuaded that humanity did not, in fact, need her jackboot on its throat to [[WellIntentionedExtremist stop them from killing each other]]. Coming to grips with [[MisanthropeSupreme what she had become]], Haman [[DrivenToSuicide killed herself]] in the name of giving the world a better future.
* {{Moe}}: Ple and her clones.
* MoralEventHorizon: The Dublin Colony Drop serves as one for most of those involved: Haman Khan (who orders its implementation), Mashmyre Cello (who aims it), Rakan Dakharan (who guns down the civilians attempting to flee it), ''and'' the Federation officials (who leave their own citizens behind to die in it.)

* SpecialEffectFailure: When [[spoiler: Rasara Moon]] dies, she's ''supposed'' to be crushed by falling debris beforehand, but due to an animation error, the debris lands a few feet away from her, making it look like she just fell on Mondo and died for no reason.
* StrangledByTheRedString: Judau and Haman, continuing that proud Gundam tradition of "newtypes magically and abruptly falling in love." Haman goes from "who is this guy" to "must seduce him" between their first and second meetings out of nowhere. For that matter, Judau's final pairing with Roux can also seem a bit forced.
* {{Squick}}: For many fans, especially newer Gundam fans discovering the series, Judau's relationship with Haman is this. Haman is at least twenty during the events of ''ZZ'', but Judau is only fourteen.

* ContestedSequel: Zeta was a ToughActToFollow and to this day, ZZ has always been a contested series. The lighter tone put many fans off while others were happy for some levity after the DownerEnding of the previous series. Judau is often seen either as a great protagonist who contrasts well with the previous two (and continues to make appearances late into the UC timeline) while others found him over-powered and unlikable. The shifting of gears around the halfway point is commonly cited as where the series [[GrowingTheBeard grew the beard]] with the plot and characters becoming stronger, the tone evening out, and the antagonists finally showing real direct competence; while detractors felt that the show took too long to come together and even at its best it was still a step down from Zeta. Then there's a number of fans who felt ZZ was strong all the way through and that people come down too hard on the first half, which is a welcome period of [[BreatherEpisode comedy and lightheartedness]] after the end of ''Zeta'' and the rest of the Universal Century.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Elpeo Ple, who is also one of the first lolicon characters in anime history.

** Also, Elpeo Ple's been ripping the ''Gundam'' fanbase in half ever since her debut. Because of the nature of much of her plotline and the [[https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Elpeo_Ple#Gallery nature of a lot of her promotional art]] and whatnot, not only was she a huge draw for "lolicon" fans right from the off, but she is often suspected of being one of the first characters in ''Gundam'' (and in mainstream Japanese animation as a whole) to be '''''deliberately targeted''''' at such a potential audience. To say she is "divisive" as a result is like saying Judau is only "slightly" skipping school; her place in the show, in the franchise, and in wider culture has been the subject of {{Flame War}}s going all the way back to the [=1980s=]. (For Tomino's part, he instead [[https://gunbusternovels.files.wordpress.com/2024/01/cca-fan-book-tomino-interview-3.pdf describes her as being ''opposed'' to lolicon fans]], along with Quess from CCA.)

* {{Asspull}}: Sayla's involvement in the series often gets this response due to lack of foreshadowing or explanation to her actions. It is heavily suggested that her appearance was meant to foreshadow a role in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'', but as her VA was unavailable for the film, this didn't materialize.

** Also, Elpeo Ple's been ripping the ''Gundam'' fanbase in half ever since her debut. Because of the nature of much of her plotline and the [[https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Elpeo_Ple#Gallery nature of a lot of her promotional art]] and whatnot, not only was she a huge draw for "lolicon" fans right from the off, but she is often suspected of being one of the first characters in ''Gundam'' (and in mainstream Japanese animation as a whole) to be '''''deliberately targeted''''' at such a potential audience. To say she is "divisive" as a result is like saying Judau is only "slightly" skipping school; her place in the show, in the franchise, and in wider culture has been the subject of {{Flame War}}s going all the way back to the [=1980s=].

* EvilIsSexy: Haman Karn and Chara Soon, though with contrasting styles.

* ComedyGhetto: The main reason for why this series is such a ContestedSequel is because some really didn't like the first half's more comedic tone after ''Zeta'' followed TrueArtIsAngsty and had an outright DownerEnding.

* VillainDecay: Yazan. After being the resident CompleteMonster of ''Zeta'' and miraculously surviving the final battle thereof, he's subjected to repeated embarrassment at the hands of the ''ZZ'' cast before being forced to leap from a flying mobile suit. With a ''poncho'' for a parachute. It doesn't kill him, but it's still his last appearance in the series, outside a few blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos. You could almost feel sorry for him... almost.
** Fanon tries to explain this away as a combination of oxygen deprivation (after being shot out of his suit at the end of Zeta) and hunger (being forced to live like a bum for a majority of his appearance). That might make his situation AFateWorseThanDeath.
*** As of ''The Return of Johnny Ridden'', he's gone back to being a bloodthirsty AcePilot.

** 2020, when the show ''finally'' hit streaming and with a particularly heavy ''Gundam'' push getting into swing with things like ''EXVS MBON'', ''Battle Operation 2'' and the like generating more exposure and interest, led to [[https://twitter.com/tireduniboi/status/1323782691897171969?s=20 a lot of Anglophones in particular]] [[https://twitter.com/Legem207/status/1325332845091434501?s=20 re-evaluating the show]] and appreciating it a lot more compared to when the show wasn't as widely available in English. The times likely contributed, as well — while in the 80s, the tone whiplash between ''Zeta'' and ''ZZ'' might've felt more out of place, in the middle of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic the oppressive COVID epidemic]] a lot of viewers appreciated ''ZZ'[='s=] slapstick and willingness to not take itself so seriously a great deal more.

* ContestedSequel: Zeta was a ToughActToFollow and to this day, ZZ has always been a contested series. The lighter tone put many fans off while others were happy for some levity after the DownerEnding of the previous series. Judau is often seen either as a great protagonist who contrasts well with the previous two (and continues to make appearances late into the UC timeline) while others found him over-powered and unlikable. The shifting of gears around the halfway point is commonly cited as where the series [[GrowingTheBeard grew the beard]] with the plot and characters becoming stronger, the tone evening out, and the antagonists finally showing real direct competence; while detractors felt that the show took too long to come together and even at its best it was still a step down from Zeta. Then there's a number of fans who felt ZZ was strong all the way through and that people come down too hard on the first half.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Fans who were less than happy with ''ZZ'' eagerly latched onto the CompilationMovie version of ''Zeta Gundam'', whose ending was incompatible with ''ZZ'', as proof that it had been kicked out of canon. [[WordOfGod Tomino himself said]] this wasn't the case, and the ''Zeta'' movies were merely another take on the events. This was supported by ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn Gundam Unicorn]]'', which features not only several ''ZZ'' mobile suits, but a character closely tied to that series as well.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Beecha and Mondo. Some found their antics amusing, while others were rubbed the wrong way by their ChronicBackstabbingDisorder in the early portion of the series, especially because it was often PlayedForLaughs. This is a side effect of the first half of the show being LighterAndSofter than the predecessors. As explained below, viewers' tolerance for the antics of the duo was really determined by how much they liked the early tone of the series.

** 2020, when the show ''finally'' hit streaming and with a particularly heavy ''Gundam'' push getting into swing with things like ''EXVS MBON'', ''Battle Operation 2'' and the like generating more exposure and interest, led to [[https://twitter.com/tireduniboi/status/1323782691897171969?s=20 a lot of Anglophones in particular]] [[https://twitter.com/Legem207/status/1325332845091434501?s=20 re-evaluating the show]] and appreciating it a lot more compared to when the show wasn't as widely available in English. The times likely contributed, as well — while in the 80s, the tone whiplash between Zeta and ZZ might've felt more out of place, in the middle of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic the oppressive COVID epidemic]] a lot of viewers appreciated ZZ's slapstick and willingness to not take itself so seriously a great deal more.

* StrangledByTheRedString: Judau and Haman, continuing that proud Gundam tradition of "newtypes magically and abruptly falling in love." Haman goes from "who is this guy" to "must seduce him" between their first and second meetings out of nowhere. For that matter, Judau's final paring with Roux can also seem a bit forced.

** 2020, when the show ''finally'' hit streaming and with a particularly heavy ''Gundam'' push getting into swing with things like ''EXVS MBON'', ''Battle Operation 2'' and the like generating more exposure and interest, led to [[https://twitter.com/tireduniboi/status/1323782691897171969?s=20 a lot of Anglophones in particular]] [[https://twitter.com/Legem207/status/1325332845091434501?s=20 re-evaluating the show]] [[https://twitter.com/CosmicLass/status/1325925358558797825?s=20 and appreciating it a lot more]] compared to when the show wasn't as widely available in English. The times likely contributed, as well — while in the 80s, the tone whiplash between Zeta and ZZ might've felt more out of place, in the middle of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic the oppressive COVID epidemic]] a lot of viewers [[https://twitter.com/CosmicLass/status/1325925627082403840?s=20 appreciated ZZ's slapstick]] [[https://twitter.com/DDD_DIOsett/status/1325453776241778688?s=20 and willingness to not take itself so seriously]] a great deal more.

* WhatAnIdiot: In early episodes Judau does not follow orders of repairing the Zeta Gundam just because he doesn't like being ordered. Guess what nearly happens the next time he fights?

** Also, what happens when [[spoiler: Haman shoots Leina]]. Judau, normally a HotBlooded kid, completely '''snaps''' in the mother of all [[TranquilFury tranquil furies]], with anger and power strong enough to ''cause Haman to FreakOut and literally cry in fear'' and be felt by Newtypes who were ''far'' away from the place. (The visualization was a demonic phantom emerging out of him. [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam The last time this happened]], it was [[AFatherToHisMen Dozle Zabi]] [[YouShallNotPass doing it]].) '''That is how massively pissed off he was''', and it's scary to see. This scene is probably why some consider Judeau to be the Newtype with the strongest raw power.