Trivia / Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

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• Acting for Two:
  • Jurota Kosugi, in his anime debut, voices both Henken Bekkener and the narrator.
  • Mayumi Sho voices both Haro and Kikka Kobayashi.
  • Kayoko Fujii voices Rosamin Badam, Maniti Mandena and Fa's mother.
  • Yoshiko Sakakibara voices both Mouar Pharaoh and Haman Karn.
• B-Team Sequel: Shigeaki Saegusa took over for Takeo Watanabe as the show's composer.
• Creator Backlash: Tomino disliked how dark it got which apparently led to the changes in the compilation movies.
• Follow the Leader: The emphasis on Transforming Mecha makes sense when you consider what came out between the original series and Zeta—specifically, Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Transformers (along with its predecessor lines Diaclone and Microman). This posed a problem with the model kits for years as some of the mecha designs were nearly impossible to translate to toy form. Zeta's transformation was a particular problem since it involves the abdomen scrunching together and the arms folding in, a feat that was unable to be pulled off reliably until the Master Grade Zeta 2.0 released in 2004. If anything, the Zeta designs forced model technology to advance rapidly.
• Milestone Celebration: 2004's Zeta Gundam movie trilogy was released to celebrate both the 20th anniversary of the show, and the 25th anniversary of the Gundam franchise.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In the Japanese version:
    • Jurota Kosugi replaces Ichirō Nagai as the narrator.
    • Despite Fuyumi Shiraishi coming back to voice Mirai Yashima, she has been replaced as Katz Kobayashi by Keiichi Nanba. Makes sense due to Katz being 15 years old in Zeta Gundam.
    • Mayumi Sho replaces You Inoue as Kikka Kobayashi and Haro.
    • Kyoko Tongu voices Letz Kobayashi instead of Rumiko Ukai, who returns to play Fraw Kobayashi.
    • Masaru Ikeda voiced Jamitov Hymen during the first half of the show, but was replaced in the second half by Tomomichi Nishimura, who has kept the role ever since.
    • Many of the female characters had their voice cast replaced for A New Translation. For example, Four Murasame, voiced in the TV series by Saeko Shimazu, is now played by Yukana.
  • In the English dub, a voice actors' strike happening at the time meant that none of the returning characters from the original Mobile Suit Gundam had their original voices. For example, Amuro Ray, voiced in the original series by Brad Swaile, is now voiced by Matthew Erickson. While Amuro, Char, and Noa at least had a similar-sounding replacement, the same cannot be said of Kai or Hayato, who's new actors had a completely different pitch and lower octaves from Richard Ian Cox or Richard Cansino.
• Posthumous Credit: You Inoue's voice work for Sayla Mass was reused for A New Translation via archive audio. She died of lung cancer in 2003.
• Older Than They Think: Much of the current anime community doesn't know that Zeta Gundam was the original codifier for the "rebellion" subgenre of Real Robot mecha, a full 20 years before Code Geass clung its way to fame through meme culture.
• Reality Subtext: The problems with replicating Zeta Gundam's transforming gimmick in the toy models for a long time were reflected as a problem to replicate In-Universe without headaches to maintenance or cost, with the majority of its mass-produced lineage ether dropping it or simplifying it, as well as having variants that also have simpler transformations such as the Waveshooter varient, made due to the transformable HG Zeta Gunpla's plastic at the time being unable to replicate rotating the wing binders.
• Role Reprise:
  • Returning from Mobile Suit Gundam are Tōru Furuya as Amuro Ray, Keiko Han as Lalah Sune, Toshio Furukawa as Kai Shiden, Hirotaka Suzuoki as Bright Noa, Kiyonobu Suzuki as Hayato Kobayashi, Rumiko Ukai as Fraw Kobayashi, Fuyumi Shiraishi as Mirai Yashima, and Shūichi Ikeda as Char Aznable.
  • Via archive audio, the late You Inoue reprises her role as Sayla Mass in A New Translation.
• Romance on the Set: Beltorchika Irma's voice actress Maria Kawamura was dating Zeta's mecha designer Mamoru Nagano at the time of production. They married five years after the series ended.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The original opening and ending themes couldn't be used for foreign versions because composer Neil Sedaka retains a copyright for them.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, Gates was supposed to die together with Rosamia. And then he was going to survive and reappear in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. He never appears in ZZ Gundam but his final fate is left ambiguous.
  • Mamoru Nagano was originally going to have a much larger role in the creation of the series, but due to a falling out with Tomino only a few of his mecha designs, most notably the Hyaku Shiki, ended up getting used. Nagano's version of Zeta would have included:
    • A different design for the title mech resembling a Gundamized version of his Heavy Metal L-Gaim mark II or Junchoon from The Five Star Stories.
    • Axis Zeon having a much wider range of mobile suits besides the Gaza-C and Qubeley, including a gigantic mobile fortress known as the Nahatgall, created as a counter to the Titans' Psycho Gundam, that later became the basis of the Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack novels' Nightingale, as well as the Rick Dias and Galbaldy Beta being Zeon MS rather than AEUG and Federation, respectively.
    • Haman Karn having a completely different character design with white hair and a flamboyant red and white costume similar to FSS's Mirage Knights.
    • The Hambrabi (which was originally known as the Methuss) being an AEUG MS designed as an artillery spotter for the Zeta's Hyper Mega Launcher. This gets a nod in Gundam Vs. Zeta when Four pilots it alongside Camille in an alternate timeline where Camille joins the Titans.
  • In an abandoned draft of Char's Counterattack, Jerid Messa was meant to survive and become Amuro's wingman...then ZZ Gundam came in the way.
  • Speaking of Jerid, there were plans at one point during Zeta's production to have him turned into a cyborg by Haman.
  • Emma Sheen was supposedly slated to return in ZZ Gundam as well.
• You Sound Familiar:
  • Dr. Hasan is voiced by Masaharu Sato, who voiced minor characters Marigan and Twanning in Mobile Suit Gundam.
  • Daisuke Gōri, who previously played Dozle Zabi in Gundam, voices Bask Om in Zeta Gundam.

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