Mobile Suit Z Gundam: A New Translation - A New Translation Indeed!

 
    Mobile Suit Z Gundam is easily one of my favorite Gundam series. When the series originally aired in 1985 in Japan, viewers and fans of the original Mobile Suit Gundam were treated to a much darker sequel- a lot had happened in the seven in-series years. A despotic organization known as the Titans is poised to overtake the old Earth Federation Space Forces in their overzealous ambition to control space to prevent another One Year War from occurring. There's another party known as the Anti-Earth Union Group who assembled to fight the oppression of the Titans. And at the center of it all is youngster Kamille Bidan, our protagonist.  It's an incredibly epic story, and many Gundam fans favorite. But the series is dated. That's where A New Translation comes in.
    A New Translation is comprised of three compilation films, much like what they did for Mobile Suit Gundam. The first, Heirs to the Stars, covers the beginning chapters of Zeta up through a little after the Assault on Jaburo arc. Lovers, the second movie, covers the Hong Kong arc through the introduction of the Axis Neo-Zeon. Love is the Pulse of the Stars concludes the epic with an entirely new ending that leaves things a bit more hopeful for fans of this particular series, but leaves the rest of the Universal Century in question.
   The first minor jarring issue one might have with A New Translation is the inclusion of redrawn scenes interspersed with newly animated footage. It can be a little disorienting seeing remastered animation from '85 mashed up with new animation done in 2005. After a while, it becomes second nature and viewing it is enjoyable.
   As compilation movies, they have to fit 50 episodes worth of story into these three films. Sometimes, it works brilliantly- most filler has been left by the wayside, or included in shorter expository bits. Other times, it's baffling, as some storylines are completely removed. However, I thought what they did with these movies was excellent. By episode 26 of the series, I felt so fatigued by what was going on. The Zeta Gundam, the mobile suit the series was named for, hadn't even debuted yet. Things were going impossibly slow. In A New Translation, however, I was excited by the breakneck pacing. Exciting things were happening every minute, and even the heavy-handed politic presented in the latter half of the series was intriguing.
   The ending however destroys the entire canon of the Universal Century. Without spoiling too much for those who haven't viewed Z Gundam before, a certain event at the very ending does not occur, and without that ending, it's impossible for the follow-up series ZZ Gundam to happen. Without ZZ Gundam, Char's Counterattack doesn't happen, and so Unicorn doesn't happen, and so on. It is a much happier ending than the original, but at the cost of so much.
   That doesn't mean that these movies are awful and should be avoided, though. In fact, I recommend them whole-heartedly. But major word of advice: Z Gundam is a sequel in every sense of the word. If you want to get the most out of it, watch the Mobile Suit Gundam compilation films, or, if you're really gutsy and have time on your hands, watch the original series. It's more fun when the cameos in Z start happening when you know who the heck these people are.

4.5/5