YMMV / Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ

• Americans Hate Tingle: ZZ is infamous as a Contested Sequel in the West to a fandom who experienced older Gundam after-the-fact, but in Japan, in which it began airing immediately after Zeta (emphasizing them as two halves of the same story) and was only the third main/animated Gundam work in history at the time, ZZ is much more fondly regarded and treated by other Gundam creators like a core component of classic Tomino Gundam. This is why it's very common for Gundam spin-off material in the UC to follow up on plot points and characters from ZZ, despite those bits being largely overshadowed in Western fandom.
• Ass Pull: Leina is left injured and alone in a cabin that gets destroyed in a mobile suit battle. Although they Never Found the Body, nobody but the protagonists knew she was even there, so her death was actually much more plausible than most cases of that trope, especially in a series where Anyone Can Die. Eventually, though, it is suggested she was saved by Sayla, a character who hasn't had an active plot role nor any voice lines since the original series, and only had one brief silent appearance in Zeta. No explanation is given as to how Sayla accomplished this or why she was even nearby in the first place.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Beecha and Mondo. Some found their antics amusing, while others were rubbed the wrong way by their Chronic Backstabbing Disorder in the early portion of the series, especially because it was often Played for Laughs. This is a side effect of the first half of the show being Lighter and Softer 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.
  • 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 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 Wars going all the way back to the 1980s. (For Tomino's part, he instead describes her as being opposed to lolicon fans, along with Quess from CCA.)
• Bizarro Episode: "Prelude ZZ", the very first episode, has no particular plot and consists of a long stream-of-consciousness recap and foreshadowing mixed in with occasional acid trips and mobile suit quizzes.
• Character Perception Evolution: Protagionist Judau Ashta was initially seen as a step down from Kamille Bidan, the protagionist of Zeta Gundam. This is due to the more polarizing reception of Gundam ZZ compared with the more acclaimed Zeta Gundam along with the perception that Judau was excessively overpowered and not as developed of a character as Kamille. However, with the positive reevaluation of Gundam ZZ as time passed, combined with greater exposure of fans to Judau through various spin-off games like the Super Robot Wars crossover series, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, and spin-off manga like the Crossbone Gundam side stories, the character has been positively reevaluated and is now seen as a worthy protagonist in his own right.
• Comedy Ghetto: The main reason for why this series is such a Contested Sequel is because some really didn't like the first half's more comedic tone after Zeta was much darker and had an outright Downer Ending.
• Complete Monster: While Lighter and Softer than earlier works, ZZ still has this duo:
  • Rakan Dahkaran is an Axis-Zeon Ace Pilot with a tenuous grasp of personal loyalty. Cold-blooded and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, Rakan has no qualms about harming civilians. This is best demonstrated in Episode 35, where he impassively guns down hospital ships and evacuation craft fleeing the Dublin Colony Drop, and destroys roads and bridges in order to make sure that nobody escapes the blast radius. He kills longtime Gundam veteran Hayato Kobayashi when the latter tries to stop him, and, following his defection from Haman Khan's forces, willingly kills many of his old comrades, including Mashmyre Cello and Royal Guardsman Lance, before being stopped by Judau. Axis's go-to guy for the dirtiest of jobs, Rakan proves that in the end, his only loyalty is to himself.
  • While the anime version of Glemy 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 Child Soldier, into doing his killing for him, Glemy 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 Evil Twin Puru Two, and eventually betrays Haman Karn, triggering a devastating Enemy Civil War 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, whose DNA may run in his veins, Glemy 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.
• Contested Sequel: Zeta was a Tough Act to Follow 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 Downer Ending 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 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 deliberately contrasts its tone with the end of Zeta to show the vastly different perspective of the new protagonists.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Haman's fans are divided between those who Love to Hate her and those who want to turn her into a hero, marry her, or both. She's already a highly sympathetic character, but there are those who take that too far and forget the part where she's a mass-murdering Misanthrope Supreme dictator. With the Gundam video games, this has translated into cases of Adaptational Heroism.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Elpeo Ple, a Genki Girl cyber newtype who becomes one of the central characters as the show progresses and is part of a series of clones, allowing versions of her to return in future works and Fan Fic despite Ple's own death.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Fans who were less than happy with ZZ eagerly latched onto the Compilation Movie version of Zeta Gundam, whose ending was incompatible with ZZ, as proof that it had been kicked out of canon. Tomino himself said this wasn't the case, and the plot changes were simply meant to make the Zeta movies feel self-contained. This was supported by Gundam Unicorn, which features not only several ZZ mobile suits, but a character closely tied to that series as well.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Chara Soon's gaudy outfit when she returns as a Cyber Newtype. A cleavage-bearing single-piece jump suit with massive holes cut along the stomach and legs. Coupled with the cape and her ketchup/mustard hair she looks bizarre even amongst the skimpier Neo Zeon Commander uniforms.
• Growing the Beard: Most fans tend to say it's when Cerebus Syndrome 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. Alternatively, even earlier as soon as the ship leaves Shangri-La, which brings the characters back into the recognizable Gundam plot format.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: 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 underwent Memetic Mutation.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • 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, and even when on their side she does troublingly cruel things. 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.
  • Ple Two. Unlike Ple, she's outright antagonistic and amoral, but the way Glemy treats her is even worse.
• Magnificent Bitch: Haman Karn, Axis' warlord and the Regent for Life of Neo-Zeon, came closer to conquering the Earth Sphere than any of the despots before or after her. Intervening in 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 Colony Drop 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.
• Moe: Ple and her clones.
• Moral Event Horizon: The Dublin Colony Drop serves as one for most of those involved: Haman Karn (who orders its implementation), Mashymre 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.)
• Nightmare Fuel: Ple and Kamille go utterly batshit when Dublin is destroyed via Colony Drop. The split-second image of Ple, who was not in the best mental health to begin with, spasming in terror is one of the most unnerving images in the entire franchise. At least for some people.
  • Also, what happens when Haman shoots Leina. Judau, normally a Hot-Blooded kid, completely snaps in the mother of all tranquil furies, with anger and power strong enough to cause Haman to Freak Out 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. The last time this happened, it was Dozle Zabi doing it.) That is how massively pissed off he was, and it's scary to see. This scene is probably why some consider Judau to be the Newtype with the strongest raw power.
• Retroactive Recognition: Gundam fans who started with later shows and worked their way backwards might find themselves asking "Why does Dorothy have purple hair?"
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Even those who are fine with the comedic first half tend to admit that the first few episodes don't really have the cast make much progress. It's once the Argama leaves Shangri-La that things start moving, and even moreso once the series reaches the halfway point.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Judau's first meeting with the much-despised Wong Lee ends with the former kneeing the latter in the gut.
• Vindicated by History:
  • In the 2010s, ZZ started to get some love, namely in Gundam Build Fighters Try, a Ple clone in Unicorn, an entire Gundam Evolve short about what Judau's up to sometime after ZZ, and Judau shows up as a Cool Old Guy in various spinoff mangas.
  • 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 a lot of Anglophones in particular 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 the oppressive COVID epidemic a lot of viewers appreciated ZZ's slapstick and willingness to not take itself so seriously a great deal more.
• The Woobie: Elpeo Ple. Sure, she is a selfish girl, has Grey-and-Gray Morality and shows her enviousness toward Leina. However, Ple actually wants a person who truly cares for and loves her as family. Also, she is extremely loving and very protective toward Judau, like her own big brother. All of these are things that she never got in her life, since she only raised to be a cyber-newtype AND SHE'S FREAKING 10 YEARS OLD.

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