MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM ZZ:
FIRST AIRING: March 1986
OVERVIEW: The three way war between the AEUG, Axis Zeon, and the Titans is over...but the cost was deadly. The EF is in tatters after the civil war, the Argama barely survived, Kamille is comatose, Fa is ready to leave with him, and all the other pilots are dead or got their ass kicked by Haman like Char did. Who the fuck even knows where Amuro is. Bright, despite being a young man at this point, is too old for this shit. The newly named Neo Zeon is now in a position to cause trouble for earth and its colonies with Haman leading the charge...when somebody makes an awful, horrible mistake. They kidnap Judau Ashta's little sister. Judau and his friends are junk dealers who want to steal the Zeta and sell it for parts you see, but he's forced into dealing with Neo Zeon after a blond pedophile not named Char Aznable ends up kidnapping his sister. ZZ is wacky for the first half. The Gundam team lead by Judau fights off increasingly bumbling forces from Neo Zeon all while trying to get his sister back. The first half of the series is Gundam The Big Lebowski. The second half is the start of the Federation being absolutely spineless and useless as it spins the dark tale of Dublin getting a colony dropped on it and the Gundam Team taking out Haman once and for all.
MECHA: Horrible. ZZ is an ugly suit. Zeon just has a bunch of super chunky, brightly colored, slightly different Zaku looking things. Queen Mansa at least looks okay and there's a whole bunch of extra Qubeley's running around.
MAIN CAST: Besides Judau and a couple of returning characters this is mainly not a great crew of people. The rest of the gundam team are pretty annoying. A completely fried Bright who just lets Judau do whatever he pleases is a weird change of pace. Haman should just give up on being evil and try living a normal life. Elpeo Ple gives us another enhanced newtype, this time instead of a quiet girl with no emotions you get a rowdy girl who is in love with the main character. Glemmy is here because Char was too busy filming Char's Counterattack, which is why he turns ultra serious in the last half. Glemmy sucks and is a horrible human being.
BRIGHT SPOT: Judau. I'm pretty damn sure this is the only time the main character will ever win this award. He is a singular treat. He's the strongest newtype in the series besides maybe Shakti and her mom, who have miraculous powers. But he's also a really shitty pilot. He just wants to get rich/get his sister back. I swear all the little sister stuff in anime dates back to ZZ, including having another character who is jealous of not being said little sister. Anyways who cares about all that, Judau is a riot. He's voiced by the same VA who does Franky/Bon Clay.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT: Hmm, probably not unless you are a giant Gundam fan. It's not as iconic as MSG. It's not really that important to the series as a whole like Zeta is. It doesn't really look or sound as nice as Zeta does... but it does have heart. The show is genuinely funny during the first half at various points, and it's just weirdly amusing to see Bright this burnt out. The final act has some great battle stuff and becomes deadly serious again, which is completely off tone from the first 60% of the series.
WOULD I HANG OUT WITH THE MAIN CHARACTER?: Yes but he'd leave right away to go save his sister.