Recently spent some time to relive the 1985 Tomino by Yuki's classic "Mobile Suit Z Gundam" again, the first time I watched it was nearly 10 years ago, when there was only a general understanding of the Gundam series, the relationship between many forces and characters has not been clarified, so I can only say an outline after watching it. Nowadays, I have been doing anime self-media for 6 years, and the animation of the Gundam series has a closer understanding, and this time I can finally "understand" what "Z Gundam" is saying.
Requires a fairly "threshold" animation
Although Michie uses a very significant musical style to distinguish between enemy and enemy forces, I still feel that even with the experience of the original Gundam, Z Gundam still has some viewing thresholds, especially in the early stages. When there are many MS, when there is space in the universe, an MS suddenly appears, and you have not yet distinguished which hostile force is, and you really can't tell where this MS is. Why did the hostile forces just send out a wave of MS, and then there would be another wave of MS of hostile forces, these two groups of people are like two completely different factions of forces... I think I need to understand the difference in forces and then go back to see it.
But as the plot progresses, I think the audience can always distinguish between several different forces. But I have to say that to understand "Z Gundam", it takes some patience, it is really not easy to understand the background to eat thoroughly, the amount of information is large, and there is not much plot commentary, and today's animation style is indeed very different.
The ideological barrier between different people
Personally, I think that "Mobile Suit Z Gundam" revolves around the understanding of people all the time in narrating the story, war, but only on a more macro level to discuss. At a relatively microscopic level, "Z Gundam" is not only arranged for the growth of young people, but the conflict between the ideas of "children" and "adults". Because the play also arranged a Chaya by Camus's side, the two people's thinking often sparked, and even became a physical conflict, which shows that 2 people of different generations, even if the goal is the same, it is difficult to fully understand each other's ambitions, and there is a gap.
The play arranged the appearance of the male protagonist of the previous generation, Amro ray, also has a similar intention, Amro spent 7 years to gradually come out of the shadow of Lara's death and war. But after meeting Camus, the two may think and act similarly, but they will still burst into sparks.
There is an impressive part of the play, that is, Captain Bright, as an "elder", often has to "correct" his subordinates, because young warriors such as Camus and Kaz often act arbitrarily because of their personal righteousness, so to "correct" them is an iron fist attack. But this "revision" may initially represent discipline in the military, but in the later period, Bright has few correction subordinates, and may also want to represent the previous generation gradually beginning to understand the ideas of the younger generation.
The gradually intricate power struggle actually depends on Xia Ya's performance
After reading it, I found a very interesting fact. The best power showdown in Z Gundam is that it has become more complicated since Harman appeared and upset the balance between the two, because Harman is not a fuel-saving lamp at all, and wants to carry Titans with him, but also does not want to completely destroy Ogu (Shaya), where Shaya becomes a very critical character.
Because the emergence of Haman and Axis's power can completely influence the war situation between Titans and Ogu in the later period, but Haman leans toward Ogu and helps Ogu to severely damage the colonial satellite laser cannon at the most critical time, that is, Xia Ya bowed to her.
The first time Ogu and Haman negotiated, it was because Shaya did not control the relationship and then had a direct conflict with Haman, the negotiation completely failed, and the second time Xia Ya tried to bow his head, and finally Haman did not renege on his word at the most critical time, betrayed Titans, and also greatly weakened Titans's power, plus later used Axis to accelerate the destruction of Titans. After the showdown with Chaya, Haman still fantasizes about how good it would be for Shaya to be able to return to him and rebuild Jean.
It can be seen that after the two people's will deviates, even if they deliberately bow their heads and use each other, they will not agree with each other's will, which is also closely related to the theme that it is impossible for people to understand each other.
Towards the collapse of Camus
Throughout the entire Z Gundam, it is Camus who has grown up in tragedy. Witnessing the death of his parents in the war, meeting people he considers to be "good", falling in love with them, trying to save them, and constantly trying to convince them, but there is no return. Feng, Miss Rekea, Rosalie, Sarah, once these women have decided on their own intentions, they have no choice but to conquer by force. That's the saddest part.
In the later stages, Garden Li asked what NT could do? Camus suddenly showed a strange smile and said, "If you want to say anything, it is to kill people", at this time it can be seen that after experiencing one failure after another, and finally having to kill the other party, Camus's spirit has reached its limit.
So in the end, this ending of the TV version of "Z Gundam" is very convincing, and it can also be described as a rather dark and tragic process.
With the tragic atmosphere of "Z Gundam", the pessimism that "even if humans evolve the ability of NT, they still can't understand each other" has been rendered to the extreme, which can be said to be a very "depressing" animation. This kind of sadness is not simply to send a bento to a character to render the atmosphere and finish, but on a deeper level, let you feel the despair of the protagonists.
Xia Ya said to Camus, "Don't care about these things", but Camus continued to show a more strange smile, "I don't care (killing), I don't care (killing), how to become NT", really laughed and said a chilling line, at this time, Xia Ya also became a serious expression, into meditation, it may not be difficult to understand, why Xia Ya will make more extreme actions in "Counterattack Xia Ya" later.
The TV version of Z Gundam does open up a pessimistic value of the cosmic century, but struggles in despair, hoping that young people can find hope of survival in the struggle... At least Tomino used the ending of "Counterattack Xiaya" to illustrate such a truth...
Yet look at the end of Hasavi... emmmmm。 Again, desperate.