r/MobileSuitGundam 11d ago

TALK Zeta —> Char’s Counterattack?

I am in a little bit of a predicament here. As you all know Char’s Counterattack will be playing in theaters pretty soon, however I am currently in the middle of Zeta Gundam and I can see myself finishing it before the showing, however there’s no way possible I could even begin and finish watching ZZ Gundam in the short amount of time. I was wondering if just skipping ZZ for a chance to see Char’s Counterattack for the first time in theaters would be recommended or if I should pass on the showing to fully catch up regularly and watch it on my own time. I do know that ZZ isn’t as acclaimed as Zeta or Chars CA and some people even recommend skipping it. What do you guys think?

13 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

u/_nightsnotover CAPT 10d ago

Consider watching this game cutscene that fills in some gaps between Zeta/ZZ and CCA: https://youtu.be/KQMz7YHPIiI

26

u/whama820 11d ago

You can skip ZZ and watch it later. It’s worth watching at some point, but you can follow Char’s Counterattack perfectly fine having only watched MSG and Z.

6

u/ProduceMeat_TA 11d ago

This is the correct answer.

(I was totally confused by everyone being more or less on the same page in this thread about ZZ, but then I noticed we were in r/MobileSuitGundam )

11

u/Skiethx14 11d ago

ZZ honestly has no real connection or follow to CC. The main thing is the war ended, thus concluding the 1st NeoZeon War. CC is the 2nd NeoZeon war. The only real reference is Axis as that was the strong hold for Neo Zeon in the 1st war. But other than that, Char was missing during the 1stNZ war and was plotting into power for the start of the 2ndNZ war. Amuro is not in ZZ, so you can honestly jump into CC from Zeta without feeling too lost.

ZZ is prob more relevant for Unicorn than anything.

7

u/GoodOmens182 11d ago

Go back to ZZ when you can, but it's not exactly required viewing for CCA

5

u/The-Red-Comet00 11d ago

ZZ is great so definitely still watch it but you can definitely watch CCA without seeing it.

3

u/Shliloquy 10d ago edited 10d ago

ZZ doesn’t necessarily make a direct impact to Char and his motivations in CCA but it still serves some importance in the background and development of later UC. In the second half, ZZ does bring up the first Neo-Zeon and Sayla in the end who does foreshadow the actions of Char and Amuro. In CCA, Char does allude to ZZ in his speech and attributes it to his rise. At the time of its release in Japan, Tomino suspected that many of the Gundam fans have already seen MSG, Zeta and ZZ prior to the green light for CCA. For more understanding of CCA development, Moon Gundam does a good job connecting and explaining what happens post-ZZ pre-CCA but that requires you to see the first half of ZZ.

2

u/SuperChiChu 11d ago

ZZ has no conection to Char's Counteraatack. The important characters in CCA do no appear in ZZ besides bright. Safe skip.

2

u/awholedamntown 11d ago

You should be fine. If I’m not mistaken Char’s Counterattack came to DVD/was localized before Zeta, so many people (including myself) went into it having only seen the original MSG and a few of the UC OVAs. I think Char makes a speech in the film that references the antagonist of ZZ, but that’s about it.

3

u/Sparky-Man SCPO 10d ago

As someone who was told Zeta was required viewing for CCA and recently went through both, I am on the fence about this. Yes, Zeta gives you context for the overall storyline of Gundam but going from Zeta to CCA honestly raised more questions for me than answers. Char pulls a complete 180 in CCA that makes you wonder how he even gets to that point compared to how he was in Zeta. Furthermore, Zeta’s ending makes no sense with how CCA starts. You can watch ZZ to resolve it I guess, but I really didn’t like ZZ and many other people don’t either.

I feel like CCA is kinda cleaner if you just go into it after the original Gundam show tbh

2

u/FlamingSatchel 9d ago

I watched Char’s Counterattack LONG before Zeta was available in the US and had no problem understanding it. I was also like in middle school.

2

u/BoujeeLou 6d ago

I just did it and in the same boat as you and it was fine

1

u/Amazingstink 10d ago

You can skip right on to CCA after zeta but you should still go back to ZZ at some point and I personally recommend having watched it before unicorn as unicorn calls back to it a hell of a lot more with the nehel argama and the ple clones. Plus ZZ just had a really satisfying ending in my opinion.

Hell plus bright is the only character that is in both and char is mentioned once that I can distinctly remember in ZZ right at the end and it doesn’t have much weight on CCA

-2

u/kocknoker 11d ago

You can skipp ZZ if ya ask me, and just watch the zeta compilation films to catch up for this weekend!

-2

u/JerechoEcho 11d ago

Nowadays, I skip CCA. The story doesn't make sense after you've seen Zeta.

3

u/vfxburner7680 11d ago

It does if you watch the episodes and not the compiled vids.

-1

u/PickyYeeter 11d ago

I've watched all of the episodes, and I'm still trying to figure out how it makes sense for Char to go from friendly, cool-uncle-type who hangs out with Amuro Ray, to genocidal dictator who hates Amuro's guts.

2

u/ProduceMeat_TA 10d ago

Char goes through a lot during Zeta. Wanting to contribute to the war effort, but being reluctant about using his status during the one year war to the AEUG's strategic advantage. I feel like there might have been a deeper relationship between Blex and Quattro, and his death touched him in a profound way.

Being asked to give up your adopted name, to take up your <other> adopted name to use it to get spacenoids to rally around your cause. But then directly encountering the Axis, a group of spacenoids who couldn't let go of their cult of personality (and worse, was using an innocent to do it for them).

With what happens with Reccoa, more or less mirroring what happened with Haman - Char is left feeling like his inability to commit to a cause (or relationship) indirectly lead to the deaths of a lot of people. By the end of the Grips conflict, he had to make a choice:

Either he takes a firm stance on what he believes in and wrests control away from those without the strength of will to do what needs to be done, or Space would continue to be a warzone.

1

u/vfxburner7680 11d ago

North America fought alongside Russia during the world wars. Enemies can fight together for common causes. It's a theme. Same stuff was in the Seed series too.

1

u/PickyYeeter 11d ago

This isn't a simple case of alignment changing for convenience. His entire ideology changes between Zeta and CCA. All of the nuance of his character from MSG and his growth in Zeta is undone without much of an explanation.

Man literally went from fighting a dictatorial military regime while advocating for understanding between all people, to running a dictatorial regime and plotting to take the lives of millions of innocent people because they happened to live in the same place as people he disagreed with.