Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
A sequel set eight years after the original Gundam conflict.
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is a 1985 Japanese anime television series, the second installment in the Gundam franchise and a sequel to the 1979 series Mobile Suit Gundam. Created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it is set in the Universal Century timeline eight years after the original series and follows a new conflict between the Titans and the Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG). The series is often regarded as one of the best in the franchise, praised for its dark themes and characters.
- type
- Anime television series
- release_year
- 1985
- director
- Yoshiyuki Tomino
- character_designer
- Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
- mechanical_designers
- Kunio Okawara, Mamoru Nagano, Kazumi Fujita
- network
- Nagoya Broadcasting Network and its sister ANN stations
- episodes
- 50 (original run)
Lore & Background
The plot is set in Universal Century 0087, eight years after Mobile Suit Gundam and four years after Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. It follows the AEUG, a rebel group fighting the Titans, a corrupt Earth Federation task force. The story is told through Kamille Bidan, a teenage civilian who steals a Gundam Mk-II and joins the AEUG after his mother is killed by a Titans officer. Key characters from the original series return, including Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, the latter under the alias Quattro Bajeena.
Reader's Guide
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is significant as the direct sequel that expanded the Gundam franchise's Universal Century timeline, introducing darker themes and complex political conflicts. Its production involved multiple mechanical designers and a delayed debut of the titular Zeta Gundam due to its complex design. The series was later compiled into a film trilogy, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation (2005–2006), which made many changes to the original storyline and was considered a success in Japan. Director Tomino had mixed feelings about the series, feeling he should have ended the story with the first TV series, but acknowledged that Zeta made the franchise more popular.
Did You Know?
- The series was originally announced in November 1984 after planning began in February 1984.
- The Zeta Gundam's appearance on the show was delayed until the third cour due to its complicated design and deformation mechanism.
- The Gundam Mk-II was designed as a distinct mobile suit in its own right, not merely a placeholder, and it appears well before the Zeta Gundam debuts in episode 22.
- For the first time in a Sunrise work, a mechanical animation director was appointed and credited in the program.
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