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Where to begin with Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ? If you know anything about Gundam - indeed if you're checking this page - you have probably heard of the infamous ZZ before. You might be wondering whether it truly is as bad as people say it is and are reading this review to find out. Let me tell you right off the bat that ZZ is exactly as bad as it sounds. It's a frustrating and miserable experience watching ZZ coming off (what seems to be) the series high point of Zeta.

The oft-cited comedy is not just tonally inconsistent, it's unfunny. It's bad enough that the ... serious themes of Zeta are reduced to a joke but they could at least try to make the joke funny. The early episodes of ZZ (and many of the later ones for that matter) feel like a fever dream even mere days/weeks after watching them and so much of the run time is wasted on so many pointless detours that the bits that are good and feel like they will actually matter later often flash past in an instant to get back to the dragging low points. It's almost to the point where I'd feel comfortable recommending you skip ZZ except that so many important things happen over the course of it. I won't go into them here in detail but suffice to say that the next piece of the franchise (Char's Counter Attack) almost certainly won't make any sense unless you watch it - or at least read a detailed summary of the events.

A much repeated sentiment in the area of ZZ analysis is that the show "gets good" after approximately episode 20. This is true but there's an important caveat that has apparently been left out of the 'group consensus' - It gets bad again after episode 36. It's almost like watching ZZ is going through a hurricane; you make it through the initial destruction and think that the disaster has passed however you have really only entered the unfortunately all too brief eye of the storm and waiting for you on the side is more of that same despair. Mercifully, ZZ never quite reaches the same lows after that potentially Zeta quality middle section but it's still a huge let down to return to many of the same frustrating characters that barely seem to have grown as the series evidently has.

Speaking of the characters it's very difficult to like any of them. By the end I sort of found myself attached to a few of them but I almost want to attribute that to Stockholm syndrome more than anything else. The main cast takes ages to develop if they do at all and there are so many teenagers running around at many points that even stable characters we already know seem to take a nose dive out of maturity (I'm looking at you, Bright).

What can we say in terms of the good here? Well it looks pretty good most of the time. Zeta did as well of course so ZZ isn't doing anything special here but at least it's not simultaneously as visually frustrating as it is intellectually. I can only imagine that if - for example - ZZ had come in 0079s place (with the questionable 70s animation and sound design and all that comes with that) the series never would have gotten off the ground to become the behemoth it now is.

All this is to say that unless you're a completionist you can probably do without ZZ in your life. It's ultimately just not really worth it. If you do think you want to watch ZZ:

1. Be prepared for it to be really bad right from ignition and stay that way for a good 20 episodes.
2. Be aware that the good does not stick around forever and that the ending leaves much to be desired.
3. I'd highly advise that you try and locate a list of episodes that are skippable and then do so.