Project Otaku Powerlevelling: Part 17

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam III: Love is the Pulse of the Stars

Upon finishing the first film, I had to find out what was up with the timewarp Tomino was putting viewers through, so after some digging I discovered the films would have more new footage as they progressed, with Love is the Pulse of the Stars having 70% new footage.

This makes sense, given much of the final parts of Zeta are reworked to tie things up in 100 minutes. The arrival of the Neo-Zeon forces to save the AEUG, the subsequent double-betrayal by the both of them, and the gigantic space war that ends the Gryps Conflict, all occur one after another in rapid succession.

It feels slightly rushed, but only slightly, and overall not much was lost. Of course, Zeta is from Tomino's Kill 'Em All days, so most of the characters drop like flies in this film, but there's still a major difference in how the main character's own story is ended.

Rather than the complete WTF the original ending gives you ("Comets go zoom!"), this time Kamille manages to both succeed and go on to live (hopefully) a decent life. Normally people argue that "happy endings" are cliched, and ring somewhat false, but that's not what happens here. The original story of Zeta Gundam is 50 episodes where the main character is continually risking his life for a group he's not technically apart of, in situations where he nearly dies, or those around him are dying, and he finally defeats the last villain...but is still screwed, for no other reason than the main writer was depressed. Love is the Pulse of the Stars corrects this, with no loss of emotional impact whatsoever. I can't complain about that.