Zeta Gundam

[SGI]

http://gundamofficial.com/worlds/uc/zeta/images/splash.jpg
Well it's getting closer now to the release of the best sci-fi/mecha anime released to date. According to Anime News Network....


posted on 2004-02-16 17:16:13
source: Anime on DVD
Anime on DVD has information that suggests that Zeta Gundam will be released as a boxed set on September 7th and that details regarding the highly anticipated Gundam Seed will be announced later this week.


It seems to me that they intend to release both Zeta and Seed will most likely have very very close release dates so as to apeal to both ends of the market. While April is the confirmed date for the CN broadcasting, DVD releases for Seed are settled at 2004.

But I swear i am going to pre-order Zeta as soon as humanly possible... Just so i can flog off my bootlegs.

[Belisarius]

It seems to me that Zeta and Seed should appeal to precisely the same audience, since Zeta's UC, and Seed is very UC-like. (As a matter of fact, the initial plot of Seed is nearly identical to that of 0079, right down to <s>Char</s> Raul Cruz commanding the forces that assault <s>Side 7</s> Heliopolis, and the <s>Federation</s> Alliance's top mobile suit being piloted by a civilian <s>Newtype</s> Coordinator. (I can keep this up pretty much forever...)

EDIT: Kira's not as much of a self-absorbed whiner as Amuro, though. Mind you, Cruz is nowhere near as ace as Char, and the ZAFT are really just cheap knockoff Zeons.

[Forfer]

Lol i see. So what your saying is that they are almost identical to each other. Would that mean that they are in a way cheating us.

[Belisarius]

Nope. There's no such thing as an original story anymore, only variations on a theme. It was all done back when the height of military technology was the bronze spear.

Seed's characters aren't as good as 0079's, but the animation is fresher and cleaner, and even with the names changing with every fansubbing group in Seed, at least it's more comprehensible than the 0079 HK sub. Plus, there are enough differences to make Seed worth watching. They knew that there's no way Cruz would be as good as Char, so they relegated him to a lesser role. Most of the pursuit of the Archangel focused on Asuran and Isaac, two characters who don't have analogues in 0079 (to my knowledge, I'm still only early on in 0079), and there's not really analogues for characters like Matilda Ajan, Kai Shiden (Well, maybe Frey, but Kai's not as annoying as Frey), Sleggar Law, Cagali, etc.

I think they intentionally made it similar to 0079 to appeal to the UC crowd, while ensuring that it's different enough to make it worthwhile to watch both.