History Trivia / MobileSuitZetaGundam

* FanNickname: The O suddenly is "[[SpongebobSquarepants Patrick]]" after ''SDGundamOnline'' was released.

** Zeta seems to be a veritable lightning rod for backstage drama. There's also the infamous recasting of Four in the compilation movies, allegedly due to a CastingCouch arrangement between Creator/{{Yukana}} and the director, as well as Rosamia's much reduced role as a result of the casting director having been married to her original voice actress and then divorcing, resulting in her being replaced by a less experienced actress.

** Gates Capa was originally intended to survive and return in ''ZZ Gundam''. He never did, but his final fate is left ambiguous.

* HeyItsThatGuy / HilariousInHindsight: Bit character Gates Capa (voiced by Creator/KazukiYao) was complicit in brainwashing [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity Cyber-Newtype]] [[PsychopathicManchild Rosamia Badam]] into believing that the former is her older brother. He would later voice the protagonist Judau Ashta of the sequel, ''[[MobileSuitGundamZZ ZZ]]'' and much of his motivation in the series is actually becoming a genuine older brother.

** Axis Zeon having a much wider range of mobile suits besides the Gaza-C and Qubeley, including a gigantic mobile fortress known as the Nahatgall, created as a counter to the Titans' Psycho Gundam, that later became the basis of the ''CharsCounterattack'' novels' Nightingale, as well as the Rick Dias and Galbaldy Beta being Zeon MS rather than AEUG and Titans, respectively.

** In an abandoned draft of [[CharsCounterAttack Char's Counterattack]], Jerid Messa was meant to survive and become Amuro's wingman...then ''ZZ Gundam'' came in the way.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Mamoru Nagano was originally going to have a much larger role in the creation of the series, but due to a falling out with Tomino only a few of his mecha designs, most notably the Hyaku Shiki, ended up getting used. Nagano's version of Zeta would have included:
** A different design for the title mech resembling a Gundamized version of his HeavyMetalLGaim mark II or Junchoon from ''TheFiveStarStories''.

* ShrugOfGod: During the Gundam 30th Anniversary Expo of 2009, Creator/NobuoTobita revealed how Director [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Yoshiyuki]] "KillEmAll" [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Tomino]] warned them since ''Zeta Gundam'' is an [[AnimeFirst original]], no matter how cool their characters was designed, if he felt any of them voice actors showed "[[WeakWilled signs of weakness]] in performance" during production, he would ''gleefully'' '''kill them off''' ''anytime he wants.'' Which unsurprisingly scared the bones out of Tobita himself, and mentioned he really felt like a true ActionSurvivor once the whole production was over with his role making it out alive in one piece.

* ShrugOfGod: During the Gundam 30th Anniversary Expo of 2009, Creator/NobuoTobita revealed how Director [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Yoshiyuki]] "KillEmAll" [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Tomino]] warned them since ''Zeta Gundam'' is an [[AnimeFirst original]], no matter how cool that character was designed, if he felt any of them voice actors showed "[[WeakWilled signs of weakness]] in performance" during production, he would ''gleefully'' '''kill them off''' ''anytime he wants.'' Which unsurprisingly scared the bones out of Tobita himself, and mentioned he really felt like a true ActionSurvivor once the whole production was over with his role making it out alive in one piece.

* ShrugOfGod: During the Gundam 30th Anniversary Expo of 2009, Creator/NobuoTobita revealed how Director [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Yoshiyuki]] "KillEmAll" [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Tomino]] warned them since ''Zeta Gundam'' is an [[AnimeFirst original]], confirming the RealitySubtext entry above, a lot of the character designs actually ''was'' [[InkSuitActor based on the appearance of the voice actors themselves]]; and if he felt any of them voice actors showed "[[WeakWilled signs of weakness]] (in performance)" during production, he would ''gleefully'' '''kill them off''' ''anytime he wants.'' Which unsurprisingly scared the bones out of Tobita himself, and mentioned he really felt like a true ActionSurvivor once the whole production was over with his role making it out alive in one piece.

* ShrugOfGod: During the Gundam 30th Anniversary Expo of 2009, Creator/NobuoTobita revealed how Director [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Yoshiyuki]] "KillEmAll" [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Tomino]] warned them since ''Zeta Gundam'' is an [[AnimeFirst original]], confirming the RealitySubtext entry above, a lot of the character designs actually ''was'' [[InkSuitActor based on the appearance of the voice actors themselves]]; and if he felt any of them voice actors showed "signs of weakness (in performance)" during production, he would ''gleefully'' '''kill them off''' ''anytime he wants.'' Which unsurprisingly scared the bones out of Tobita himself, and mentioned he really felt like a true ActionSurvivor once the whole production was over with his role making it out alive in one piece.

* ShrugOfGod: During the Gundam 30th Anniversary Expo of 2009, Creator/NobuoTobita revealed how Director [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Yoshiyuki]] "KillEmAll" [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Tomino]] warned them since ''Zeta Gundam'' is an [[AnimeFirst original]], alot of the character designs were actually [[InkSuitActor based on the appearance of the voice actors themselves]]; and if he felt any of them voice actors showed "signs of weakness (in performance)" during production, he would ''gleefully'' '''kill them off''' ''anytime he wants.'' Which unsurprisingly scared the bones out of Tobita himself, and mentioned he really felt like a true ActionSurvivor once the whole production was over with his role making it out alive in one piece.

** The Hambrabi (which was originally known as the Methuss) being an AEUG MS designed as an artillery spotter for the Zeta's Hyper Mega Launcher. This gets a nod in ''[[GundamVsSeries Gundam Vs. Zeta]]'' when Four pilots it alongside Camille in an alternate timeline where Camille joins the Titans.

* HeyItsThatGuy / {{Japandering}}: A rare musical version -- the popular opening theme, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BqbDO2iS_U Zeta - Toki wo Koete]]'' was written by '60s pop maven Music/NeilSedaka. According to TheOtherWiki, he actually did write the theme, adapting it from the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bipWWEq26RU "Better Days are Coming"]] off of his 1972 album ''Solitaire''. He also did likewise for the second opening theme (from which he drew upon an unreleased song of his) and the ending theme (from "Bad and Beautiful" from 1976's ''Stepping Out''). This is the reason that they were excised from the US release -- Sedaka owns the rights to the songs outside Japan and for whatever reason his clearance was not obtained, [[BadExportForYou prompting generic orchestral music as a replacement]]. ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN1Zi841NHA The replacement theme]])

* RealitySubtext: According to backstage rumor, Reccoa and Scirocco were at least partly based on voice actress MariaKawamura and character and mecha designer extraordinaire MamoruNagano, who were the other two thirds of a LoveTriangle Tomino was involved in during production. They got married, actually, and still are.

* HeyItsThatGuy / {{Japandering}}: A rare musical version -- the popular opening theme, ''Zeta - Toki wo Koete'' was written by '60s pop maven Neil Sedaka. According to TheOtherWiki, he actually did write the theme, adapting it from the song "Better Days are Coming" off of his 1972 album ''Solitare''. He also did likewise for the second opening theme (from which he drew upon an unreleased song of his) and the ending theme (from "Bad and Beautiful" from 1976's ''Stepping Out''). This is the reason that they were excised from the US release -- Sedaka owns the rights to the songs outside Japan and for whatever reason his clearance was not obtained, [[BadExportForYou prompting generic orchestral music as a replacement]].

** Zeta seems to be a veritable lightning rod for backstage drama. There's also the infamous recasting of Four in the compilation movies, allegedly due to a CastingCouch arrangement between Creator/{{Yukana}} and the director, as well as Rosamia's much reduced role as a result of the casting director having been married to her original seiyuu and then divorcing, resulting in her being replaced by a less experienced actress.

* RealitySubtext: According to backstage rumor, Reccoa and Scirocco were at least partly based on seiyuu MariaKawamura and character and mecha designer extraordinaire MamoruNagano, who were the other two thirds of a LoveTriangle Tomino was involved in during production. They got married, actually, and still are.

** Many of the female characters had their seiyuu replaced for the Compilation Films.

** The Hambrabi (which was originally known as the Methuss) being an AEUG MS designed as an artillery spotter for the Zeta's Hyper Mega Launcher. This gets a nod in ''[[GundamVsSeries Gundam Vs. Zeta]]'' when Four pilots it alongside Camille in an alternate timeline where Camille joins the Titans.

** Creator/NobuoTobita (Kamille) and BinShimada (Scirocco) reunites together again... in the Japanese dub of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' as Milhouse and Krusty The Clown respectively. Except that, in ''The Simpsons'', Kamille ''is one of the biggest fans of Scirocco'' instead of his biggest ''enemy''.

** NobuoTobita (Kamille) and BinShimada (Scirocco) reunites together again... in the Japanese dub of ''TheSimpsons'' as Milhouse and Krusty The Clown respectively. Except that, in TheSimpsons, Kamille ''is one of the biggest fans of Scirocco'' instead of his biggest ''enemy''.

* HeyItsThatGuy / HilariousInHindsight: Bit character Gates Capa (voiced by KazukiYao) was complicit in brainwashing [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity Cyber-Newtype]] [[PsychopathicManchild Rosamia Badam]] into believing that the former is her older brother. He would later voice the protagonist Judau Ashta of the sequel, ''[[MobileSuitGundamZZ ZZ]]'' and much of his motivation in the series is actually becoming a genuine older brother.

** The Hambrabi (which was originally known as the Methuss) being an AEUG MS designed as an artillery spotter for the Zeta's Hyper Mega Launcher. This gets a nod in ''[[GundamVersusSeries Gundam Vs. Zeta]]'' when Four Pilots it alongside Camille in an alternate timeline where Camille joins the Titans.

* HeyItsThatGuy / HilariousInHindsight: Bit character Gates Capa (voiced by KazukiYao) was complicit in brainwashing [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity Cyber-Newtype]] [[PsychopathicManchild Rosamia Badam]] into believing that the former is her older brother. He would later voice the protagonist Judau Ashta of the sequel, ''[[MobileSuitGundamZZ ZZ]]'' and much of his motivation in the series is actually becoming a genuine older brother.

* HeyItsThatGuy/HilariousInHindsight: Bit character Gates Capa (voiced by KazukiYao) was complicit in brainwashing [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity Cyber-Newtype]] [[PsychopathicManchild Rosamia Badam]] into believing that the former is her older brother. He would later voice the protagonist Judau Ashta of the sequel, ''[[MobileSuitGundamZZ ZZ]]'' and much of his motivation in the series is actually becoming a genuine older brother.