Project Otaku Powerlevelling: Part 16

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Movie II: Lovers

The second part of the Zeta: A New Translation trilogy, Lovers, is generally a less distracting film than the original. With original footage down to around 50%, you find yourself pulled out of the film less often than the first, which is good, because the middle of Zeta likely contains it's strongest parts.

Focusing on the AEUG's time on Earth after their Jaburo operation, this film is full of great battles, as the Earth's Federation is most powerful here, and excellent character moments. Slowly they drag Kamille out of the trauma-ridden events of the first movie, as he's introduced to war hero Amuro Ray, and potential love interest Four Murasame.

Actually, it never occured to me until I watched Lovers how surprisingly film-like the time on Earth was to begin with. While often time movie versions of series cut so much they don't compare to their counterparts, Lovers, with the very specific goals it had to accomplish (introduce Kamille and Quattro to Karaba, have Kamille meet Four, working towards the goal to make it back into space)...the fact that the movie is shorter worked to it's benefit, cutting out everything extraneous and ending up with a film that's stronger than it's television version, which often had illogical story jumps and puzzling character decisions that are never explained.

After I finished this, I was pretty hyped to see the third film, with it containing even more new footage, and the infamous "new" ending that was the selling point of the new films in the first place.