Zaku III - Tumblr Posts
Alright, given that I haven’t rewatched Gundam Narrative yet, let’s talk about something I did watch this week.
*Spoilers ahead*
Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight Axis: Red Blur, an 26 minute ova which adds new scenes to the original Twilight Axis, making it actually coherent in the process. The plot of Gundam Twilight Axis concerns three main characters:
Mehmet Merca - Earth Federation special forces commander, who’s been tasked to investigate the remains of the Axis Asteroid base to recover any evidence of psycho-frame or other newtype weaponry. IE the wreckage of the Sazabi. Despite what you may think, he’s actually a very nice and reasonable guy.
Arlette Almage - Formerly Char’s personal mobile suit mechanic throughout the One Year War and Char’s Counterattack (Second Neo Zeon War), though she did not join him in the AEUG. Also a Newtype from the Flanagan Institute (though apparently not a patch on Lahlah, the star pupil of the Flanagan Institute). Char personally handpicked her from Zeon’s Flanagan Institute when she was a young girl, so she views him as something approaching a father figure (honestly it’s a little unclear). This translates to her wanting to know what happened to him, which is the reason she helps Mehmet Merca to help navigate Axis.
Danton Hyleg - Formerly Char’s personal test pilot. Happily retired with Arlette, and is mostly along to support her. As he’s significantly older than her (at least ten years), he has a more realistic view of Char, outright telling him around the time of CCA it would’ve been better if he hadn’t come back to them. A very good pilot, but unable to actually pull the trigger and kill someone.
Overall, I’d say it’s pretty good, it does just enough with the time it’s got for you to be invested in these characters, and it’s got some good action scenes. It can’t disguise the fact that it’s got a very low budget (there’s a lot of scenes where you can’t see people’s faces, so they don’t have to animate lip movements), but it knows where to prioritise. I do like how even though it’s technically a set up for a later antagonist, it keeps focus on the actual characters first. Twilight Axis was originally a light novel and was adapted into an OVA and Manga. I have read a translation of the Light Novel and found it very good, since it fleshes out a lot of stuff missing from the OVA (IE Birnam’s motivations), to the point where I could honestly consider twilight axis a very good advert for it. The Manga adaptation, which I haven’t read, also looks very good. I’m given to understand that Arlette and Danton also cameo in MSV-R: the Return of Johnny Ridden, which is neat. The reason I’m pairing it with Narrative is that I view them both in similar lights - after unicorn showed off how utterly ridiculous psycho-frames can be in the right hands, we’re left with the question of what happens between now and F91 onwards for it never to be used or spoken of again. Both Narrative and Twilight Axis deal with the fallout of Psycho-frame mobile suits such that we can understand why it was sealed away and not further developed. Or, as I like to think of them, they’re curatorial works, made to answer some lingering questions.
However, I have two main non-ms design criticisms of the story - The First, and most forgivable, is that we’re not really given any information on the enemy pilots, the Fermo Brothers. I’m more forgiving of this because I think the manga fleshed them out more, and you don’t really need that much information. The Second criticism is both petty and bothersome to me, because it’s entirely likely it’s borne from my own assumptions. The Flanagan Institute, where Char headhunts Arlette, is shown to be performing inhumane experiments on children, with one of the bosses explicitly mentioning “disposal”. What bothers me about this is that to my knowledge this is basically the only piece of evidence that ever shows the Flanagan Institute to be abusive. Why does that matter? Because central to Zeon’s stated philosophy is that of the newtype, a new type of human adapted for space with the ability to sense, communicate and emphasise with others over long distances. The Federations’ refusal to recognise the newtype is synonymous to their refusal to recognise the autonomy of the colonies. The Federation refuses to recognise the capacity of mankind to evolve past it’s need for the Earth, since (as many characters are fond of saying) their souls are still bound down by gravity. So the revelation that the Flanagan institute, Zeon’s shining beacon of Newtype advancement, needed to resort to the mass death of children for its newtypes just completely undermines that. We know newtypes can naturally awaken in combat, but nowhere is it suggested that they *need* to, with both Challia Bull and Paptimus Scirocco basically just showing up, with no indication of harrowing battles beforehand. Furthermore, it also completely undercuts another notable organisation in Gundam, the Titans, who actually do resort to the kind of inhumane practices shown here. Why? Because they view Newtypes as nothing more than weapons, further demonstrating their utter contempt for spacenoids, having twisted one of the central facets of spacenoid independence into just another tool of oppression, with all the dehumanisation that implies. But if they’re just following off Zeon’s playbook for the “production” of newtypes, then it implies that newtypes aren’t actually a development for humanity at all, simply a reaction to large-scale trauma. I know Victory and other later UC shows went back on the Newtype philosophy a bit, but they (Zeon) knew from essentially day one that it wasn’t it? It just throws into question why a lot of the success stories of the Flanagan institute would even stay with Zeon, if that’s how they were treated (and it turns newtypes into the whole “super soldiers through trauma” thing, which…. I see a lot in fiction, and I bothers me a little that this is the route they decided to go for).
But enough quibbling about a whole 14 seconds of animation, what do I think of the mobile suit designs? These are arranged favourite to least favourite (though to be honest I’m not particularly crazy about most of the offerings here), and do not include the R-Jarja (I’ll cover it if I ever talk about Neo Zeon/Axis Zeon or the Gyan). Given that most of these suits are variations, I’ll typically discuss my feelings on their original counterparts as well. I’m using the Novel Artwork, since I generally prefer it (and image limits), but this applies to both versions of the designs.
First up, the AMX-011S Zaku III Custom. Straight-up my favourite mobile suit here (though that doesn’t mean a whole lot….) I like the Zaku III because it’s chunky, well armed and proof that even Neo Zeon is not immune to nostalgia. True, it gets outclassed during the First Neo Zeon War by all the 4th-Gen mobile suits running around, but it’s still a very solid design. I like how the Zaku II-to-Hizack-to-Zaku III-to Geara Doga-to-Geara Zulu line plays out too, with each one having slightly different characteristics. I have a very mixed views on Char’s custom mobile suits - which I like, because I enjoy judging the suits mostly on their own merits, rather than on who’s piloting them (key word being “mostly”). That said, occasionally one of Char’s suits can end up being a really baller design, which I just adore. Sadly, the Zaku III Custom shown here is not one such design, though I do like the idea of Char Piloting a Zaku III for whatever reason, hence it’s inclusion here. It’s actually quite nice, since it’s a relic of Char that the two characters attach value to, a momento of their time together, that nonetheless must be left behind on Axis. Just like Char.
Note: GB02’s decision to spit out a Byarlant Isolde at me is essentially the reason for this entire post, since I was forced to actually formulate an opinion on the blasted thing, having been utterly apathetic towards it until now.
The Original Byarlant is a suit I’ve gone back-and-forth on over time, disliking to tolerating to (generally) liking. It’s got a very unique silhouette to it, and I like how it essentially ended up a high-mobility suit with so much of its body devoted to thrust, and you can believe it’s high mobility, since it’s so many thrusters that can move and swivel to precisely direct the suit where it needs to go. The head’s pretty gorgeous and I like how inhuman it is, along with the Byarlants hands and feet. It’s got a very minimalist armament - just two beam sabers and beam guns (strong beam guns, mind), but I find this only adds to its sleek feel. It looks like someone wanted a war machine that was also a race car. The colours are both villainous, appropriate for a Titans machine, and eye-catching, with the yellow drawing your eye to the face, and the red highlighting either thrusters or limbs, again emphasising it’s mobility. I do like how the feet look both delicate and weighty at the same time - they’re both designed for high speed and yet don’t look like they’d struggle to hold up the suit itself.
The Byarlant Isolde takes several features from the later Byarlant Custom - chiefly the shoulder thrusters and back fuel tanks, creating the sense that Birnam was able to get their hands on some new parts, but not enough to fully upgrade the Byarlant. I will say that I absolutely adore the new colour scheme - I didn’t expect to like a lilac and white mobile suit this much, but somehow the Isolde makes it all work. I should note that the Byarlant is similarly outdated to the rest of the mobile suits present, however, The Titans and Neo Zeon didn’t have that much of a tech gap, chiefly since Neo Zeon declared war basically right after the Titans defeat. They undoubtedly had an edge in Newtype weaponry and heavily armed mobile suits, but from a practical standpoint, a high performance suit from the latter days of the Gryps War is probably going to stand a better chance than a Grunt unit from the Neo Zeon war. The Byarlant was always a fast suit, so this makes even more sense. This is why it slightly baffles me that the Tristan is considered Birnam’s best unit, but I’ll talk more about that later. Though I do like the original Byarlant’s head, I find the Isolde’s Gundam-style head to be growing on me. It’s likely a more advanced head than the original Byarlant, and likely better suited for its environment of a dense asteroid base (in UC, Monoeyes tend to be better at range, whereas Twin-eyes are better in close quarters (it’s to do with target tracking at differing ranges), though it’s not a large enough difference for it to get called out). It was likely also chosen for the lingering psychological effects it may have on any former Zeon or Neo-Zeon personnel they might run into while investigating axis - appropriate, since the Titans also dabbled in that. I will say that the new head gives the Isolde and absolutely wonderful silhouette - the sunken red-on-white eyes make it look very imposing and it reminds me of some of the head designs from Gundam Sentinel (the geometric nature of its V-fin also helps with the intimidation factor in my opinion, though I’m not really certain why).
The Ahava Azieru is a weird one. I know basically nothing about the design or it’s origin, and even it’s general form is unclear. It’s a mobile armour that I can only assume is patterned after the Neue Ziel, but when I first read the novel, I assumed it was some sort of prototype to the Alpha Azieru, so I’ve no idea what it could be a derivative of. It’s very well armed, and it seems to have at least some common design features of Late-UC Mobile Armours. I do like how it can essentially afford to sit back and throw beams at its opponents, but it seems remarkably slow for a MA (though that could be down to the pilot). It seems to have the design of a dragon, with its large winglike shields and funnel tail, which is an odd decision, since it’s ally, the R-Jarja is mentioned multiple times as being a “Knight”, an enemy of a dragon. Yet Arlette uses it to communicate with the enemy pilot, so they don’t come into conflict? It’s an odd thing. I do very much love the head (perhaps I have a thing for inhuman head designs in Gundam, though it’s awkward to see in relation to the rest of it).
The Jegan (Birnam Type). It’s a purple Jegan with a custom visor and rifle, used by Birnam. While it’s nice that it’s giving us a preview of what the Crossbone Vanguard’s suits will eventually look like (it’s rifle resembles a shot lancer somewhat), it honestly doesn’t do anything. It could have been replaced with any other grunt suit and it would have been the same (I’ve gone off the Jegan’s design a touch as of late, so forgive me if I’ve little to say on this one).
Finally, the Gundam AN-01 “Tristan” (typically just called the Tristan) and Kurwenal. Since the Kurwenal is an add-on to the Tristan, I figured I’d cover them together. This is also because although the Kurwenal is my least favourite design, I have more to say on the Tristan itself. I find the Kurwenal to just be boring honestly. It’s a bunch of missiles and Newtype tech bolted to the Tristan, relying on overwhelming firepower as opposed to anything else. I don’t like it’s colour scheme or it’s form at all, it feels too much like a toy with its blue and red colours and blocky psycommu claws. While it’s 5-tube beam pods make for a good visual, I can’t really appreciate them because they’re just a box that shoots scattering beams. There’s no design or artistry to them like there is with funnels, those agile and adaptable little attack drones. Lastly, when it gets broken up the Tristan just sits there. I’m not saying I expected it to leap out and continue the fight, it just looked so very goofy that I couldn’t take it seriously as a weapon. Onto the actual Tristan then. The novel art does help it a little but……. It’s just so boring. It’s the NT-1 Alex repaired with parts that make it look more like the MK-II. Performance-wise, the Byarlant Isolde was probably better-performing than it. It looks very generic, especially when compared to other Gundam-type mobile suits. Part of it might be that it exists at a time when 4th-Gen MS are all the range, while it’s only a 2nd gen at best. But the way it’s presented as Birnam’s big trump card is just silly when it’s roughly two wars out of date. It almost got taken out immediately by the Zaku III custom and only survived because the pilot couldn’t pull the trigger. I guess it’s supposed to represent the Gundam’s legacy in the same way that the Zaku represents Char’s legacy? But it’s basically the only Gundam that neither Char or Amuro had anything to do with, so that line of thinking falls a bit flat. It’s just overall dull.
Oddly so, even, because despite it changing very little, I find that I prefer its predecessor, the Gundam NT-1 “Alex” considerably. Part of it might be the older style of design, the well-defined place that the Alex has - it’s a nice piece of Late-OYW design, being cutting-edge and (spec-wise) able to give pretty much anything of the same time period a run for it’s money in the right hands. It feels like something between the RX-78 and the Gundam Development Project (Gp01, etc) and I like how elegant it feels, without losing any of that all-important weight. It feels like a space-specialist Gundam, counterbalancing the Gundam Ground Types from 08th MS team, with its extra ambac thrusters, compact and powerful backpack and general blue colourscheme. It’s well-used, since it shows the Federation moving to capitalise on their strengths and how desperate Zeon is at that stage of the war to stop things getting any worse. It also further demonstrates the massive power disparity between a Gundam and many of Zeon’s mobile suits, only being destroyed through great sacrifice and luck. That might just be it, the Tristan has too many recycled elements for me to look at it as it’s own thing, and it’s missing all those finer details from the Alex, so it just looks lesser by comparison. It’s little more than a charismatic grunt, compared to the absolute terrifying monster that was the Alex.
Gundam Design Lineages - Universal Century
Because I’m probably going to do a few of these.
This is a follow-up to an ask by @wordsandrobots , with the original post here:
But honestly this one works pretty well just on its own.
Gundam as a series tends to have mobile suits share several features, and it plays around with the concept of lineages and development in that field. Seeing how I haven’t made much progress on finishing my thoughts on 00’s design lines yet, I thought I’d be nice to take a nice sidebar and talk about the Universal Century.
The Universal Century is the original series and the one with the most instalments. As such, it is absolutely thick with design lineages to trip over and discuss.
However, I really don’t see a lineage between the actual Gundam’s themselves. With the sole exception of the original Gundam and the Gundam Mk-II, they all feel rather unconnected - at least directly. The Original RX-78 line was constructed basically out of whole cloth during the one year war - the general concept of mobile suits was considered but there was little influence from pre-existing designs because there weren’t any. The post-war Gundam development project was a group of units with very different design goals, grouped together under the name “Gundam” because that’s what Federation high-performance suits were called, really. Yes, they would be used against Zeon remnant groups but the Gp02 and Gp03 especially were fully divorced from prior Gundam iterations (I guess there’s the focus on close quarters combat and quick strikes that connects the other three, but again that feels more regarding mobile suits in general than Gundams specifically to me). The Gundam Mk-II was a direct upgrade to the original built at the beginning of the Gryps Conflict using modern technology, and thus shares direct lineage, but from there it all goes a bit sideways. The “next” iteration, the Zeta Gundam, was developed by Anaheim Electronics under their Project Zeta line. Project Zeta could probably be its own post, but it was essentially brand-new in terms of mobile suit design, incorporating cutting-edge technologies and some data from Axis. Yes, the Gundam Mk-II was one of the suits that were used in the Zeta Gundam development, but so was the Rick Dias and Methuss, so I don’t tend to look at it as a Gundam development line all that much. The Gundam Mk-III also clearly incorporated design features from the Zeta Project (specifically both the Zeta and Delta Gundam’s) in addition to the Mk-II, so there’s no direct link there. The Gundam Mk-IV is stated to be based off the Mk-III, and I’d be inclined to consider it took influence from other Project Zeta units as well, considering both lines would have been incorporating remote weaponry around this time (such as the S Gundam, seen in Gundam Sentinel). The ZZ Gundam appears to have been developed in response to other Fourth-Generation Mobile Suits, and is also part of the Project Zeta line. The Nu Gundam is, surprise-surprise, also part of the Project Zeta line, but I tend to look at it more as an expression of Amuro’s development rather than the Gundam itself. Project Zeta is essentially a bunch of Gundam plans all running at once, so while they cross-pollinate each other, I don’t view them as a lineage as such. The Unicorns, F91 and Alex I generally look at as their own things - The Unicorns are this odd development of the Nu and the Sazabi through the Sinanju, but their status as the absolute zenith of Newtype-use mobile suits again separates them from Gundam’s specifically. The F91 is a development of the F90, which is essentially just, a Gundam. Like, a new one. Lastly the Alex, while absolutely lovely, falls into the trap of being built in the One Year War, and thus I’m inclined to lump it in with all the other OYW-era Gundams and Gundam-a-likes. Variants, not successors.
So, now that we’ve established I don’t really see the various Gundam’s as a design lineage, what do I think of when I think design lineages in Universal Century? Why, nothing less than the other side of the coin, from Federation elites to Zeon grunts, ladies, gentlemen and beyond, let’s talk about Zaku’s:
The Zaku I - The Zaku I was the first mobile suit assigned for use in combat, and was developed in UC 0095, four years before the outbreak of the One Year War. It’s production would eventually be replaced by the Zaku II in UC 0077-0078 (depending on if you class the Zaku II A Type or C Type it’s replacement), as the Zaku II had overall better performance, and was easier to work with due to a improved internal design. The Zaku I’s lower performance would see it mostly relegated to second-line duties during the bulk of the One Year War, but it was infamously used during the One Week Battle and Operation British, where it would be armed with Atomic Bazooka’s and G3 Gas Grenades. The Zaku I did see some frontline use however - Ramba Ral, Erik Blanke and Norris Packard would all make Ace status in these suits, and it wasn’t unknown for commanders to request it instead of Zaku II’s, since it was more likely to be available. It also was able to use pretty much any weapon that the Zaku II could, leading to a comparatively low loss in performance. Interestingly, two variants of this unit - the British Invasion “Green Devil” and First Refined Type 185th Airborne Paratrooper use, both used during Operation British and the Earth Drop Operation, respectively; would incorporate Zaku II parts, implying that the Zaku I could be upgraded to a level close to the Zaku II with little difficulty, similar to how the Earth Federation would later upgrade its aging GM’s into GM II’s.
Design-wise, I think the Zaku I’s just lovely. A little soldier guy. I like how simple and clean the body is, and the head’s just so well-defined and characterful - it just looks surprised. The darker tones and thinner design sell that this is the precursor to the Zaku II - I especially like the “bridge” in the centre of the visor - putting multiple at the side to give a clearer front view is the obvious choice, so having the Zaku I not have that is just very nice. Its weaponry is pretty great - its machine gun and bazooka are obvious precursors to ones used by the Zaku II, and it incorporating an actual shield to compensate for it not being integrated is also lovely.
The Zaku II - what even is there to say about this one? It’s justifiably iconic and for good reason. The Zaku II C Type entered service sometime in U.C. 0078, and was used in the early stages of the One Year War. After the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, it would be quickly replaced with the visually-identical F Type, which lacked the heavy radiation shielding around the cockpit and was consequently much more agile. However, the F Type would itself be largely replaced with the also externally identical J Type for Earth operations (often known as the Zaku Ground Type), which had internals better suited to combat under gravity. In case it’s not obvious, I really like the many, many Zaku variants. It’s just lovely to see so many spins on such a classic design. I like the simplicity of it, I like the weapon variety, I like how expressive it is, I like how it’s in basically everything because it’s just so “Zeon”.
The Hi-Zack. I know there’s a bunch of units between the Zaku II and Hi-Zack, but they’re all either Zaku II variants (and therefore good) or from Advance of Zeta (which I don’t really care about). So I’m just gonna talk about the basic Hi-Zack. It’s probably my least favourite of the suits I’m gonna talk about here, but that’s more to do with the rest of the line being really good. The Hi-Zack was used by the Earth federation and Titans during the gryps conflict, and was one of the three “main” mobile suits for both organisations during the war. It was noted for being vastly superior to the old Zaku, however due to a weak generator, it could only mount one beam weapon at a time (so beam saber or beam rifle, not both). This would eventually be remedied in the later Hi-Zack custom, but by then the titans were seeking a new main mobile suit, so it was only produced in limited numbers. Design-wise, the Hi-Zack’s an odd duck for me. I’m not particularly fond of the design itself, but I like a lot of the details surrounding it. It’s quite a nice microcosm of early Gryps War-era design - the chest in particular is this blend of federation and Zeon elements and I like how chunky the feet are. There’s just so much good detail here, but it doesn’t feel overdone and it looks great in animation. I’m just not really much of a fan of the design itself - it just looks too much like a Zaku +1 to me. Or the Zaku pushed through a Zeta-style design filter, with its wing binders and two-colour forearms. I also think it’s just lacking in the weapon department - the fact it can only mount a beam rifle or beam saber just does it no favours, and there’s nothing to really differentiate it from the pack, as it were. Pretty much all of its weaponry is used by other mobile suits, so there’s nothing that feels like it’s unique to the Hi-Zack. Well, one exception- I do quite like its machine gun, but I think that’s just because it’s essentially a Zaku machine gun with a fancy sight. I would also like to call out that I like how it’s got two colour schemes - one for the Titans and one for the Federation, and it looks absolutely gorgeous in the Zeta Gundam: A New Translation movies (seriously, it’s just so pretty).
The Zaku III - The Zaku III is Axis Zeon’s proper upgrade rollout for the Zaku Line, designed to be versatile and easily equipped for different missions. To this end, it had a variety of optional parts produced, leading to the Zaku III Custom, which was really just the Zaku III with various options parts added to boost performance. It was in competition to become Axis next mainline mobile suit - a competition it lost to the vastly more powerful Döven Wolf. As such, it would only be produced in limited numbers.
The regular Zaku III is a pretty big break away from the Zaku design lineage - which honestly is pretty nice. It’s built to essentially be full of beam weapons, and it has some good handheld ones (like three different kinds of beam rifles, one of which has a bayonet). I like the head and the gray colour scheme really makes it stand out. It’s got some nice bulk, so it feels like it’s derived from the Rick Dom a little as well. It’s just very nice overall, it hearkens back to the principality in form while being full of the firepower that is Axis Zeon’s functional hallmark.
A little bit of a cheat now - I really want to talk about the Zaku III Late Type. The Zaku III late type appears in the Manga Under the Gundam: Double Fake (and also Gundam F90: Fastest Formula) Honestly, there’s a lot of great designs in there, but I want to talk about this one because until the introduction of the Zaku IV (shown below), this was the link between the Zaku III and Geara Doga, so I figured it’d be nice to talk about. It retains the skirt-integrated beam cannons of the original Zaku III, as well as its beam sabers. It was also able to mount an optional bazooka. It also mounts a ballistic machinegun in contrast to the original’s beam rifle - it’s stated to be an improved version of the original Zaku III, and one typical way of improving a mobile suit is thinning out integrated beam weapons to ease the load on the reactor, so it having less beam weapons would make sense. It’s also possible that its operators anticipated fighting in colonies, where beam weapons would be overall detrimental, leading to a reduction in their use. The point I’m unclear on is if it retains the “mouth” beam cannon of the original - it’s never shown with it, but some iterations of the design are specifically noted as having removed it, implying it’s still present on this model.
Design-wise, honestly gorgeous. I love the blue colouration and the slant to the armour, while the body and form sell it as an improvement over the original Zaku III due to its more angular nature and the addition of smaller details to break up the armour. I like how the shoulders are slightly slimmed-down since it makes it feel sleeker, and there’s so many details here that are just prototypical of what we’ll see on the Geara Doga. 10/10, only note is I wish I knew how it’s armaments played out.
Note: Apparently the units seen in the Fastest Formula manga are the CR types, as opposed to the Under the Gundam: Double Take units C type designation, but honestly this could just be a stylistic thing, so I bundled the units together (there’s some nice art from Fastest Formula that’s a lot closer to how Zaku III’s are depicted in Unicorn).
The Zaku IV - Boy, it sure is lovely when Gbo2 decides to play ball and actually spits out two of the units I want to talk about. The Zaku IV is an odd one. Because, yes, precursor to the Geara Doga and part of the Zaku Lineage and all that, but also it’s designer is Ippei Gyoubu, who designed the Man Rodi, the Zaku-analogue from Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans. So it’s got just as much influence from the Man Rodi as it does the Zaku, which is just lovely. The Zaku IV was predominantly used by Zeon Remnant forces in the period between the first Neo Zeon War and Char’s Counterattack. It was armed with a long-barrelled sniper beam rifle, two rapid-fire beam cannons mounted on the head (allowing for a greater angle of fire than the original Zaku III), a pair of small beam machineguns holstered on the backpack and a pair of beam knuckle dusters stored on the waist when not in use. It does also have a large heat hawk as optional equipment.
I really like how heavily armed it is - it feels like a genuine advance on the Zaku III. It strips out a lot of the internal weaponry and hews a lot closer to the design of the Zaku II, but I like how advanced it feels. There’s echoes of 4th-Gen design hallmarks here - the Zaku IV even has an optional add-on, the Princess Booster, containing funnels. I really love how chunky the legs are - they’re an obvious follow-on to the Zaku III, but they remind me of the Dom as well - or more specifically the Rick Dom, so it’s blending together Zeon suits as opposed to just being about the Zaku. Weapon-wise…. The beam knuckle dusters are just adorable honestly, they don’t replace the heat hawk, but they’re just so neat. Them being beam weapons is pretty great too, since it’s a technical upgrade, but visually they still look so very Zeonic. I love the inclusion of the larger beam rifle and beam guns - it really sells the idea of this being a ranged specialist Zaku, and it also make it feel like the heavy weapon specialist of the design tree. The beam machineguns - I don’t hate them, but they just don’t have the design charm of the original MMP Machine Gun for me. I like the colour scheme too - a two-tone of green, with red and light gray for details, breaking up this blocky aesthetic with sharp touches that are framed by the rest of the design. I also love all the design features that feel like evolutions of the Man Rodi - the arms, the hands. Even the odd leg proportions feel like they’re referencing that design, since it basically just had thrusters instead of feet. It’s just this wonderful blend of the Man Rodi and the old Zaku II. I also love how greebled it is (though that essentially counts for all of Ippei Gyoubu’s designs).
The Geara Doga - okay, so the Geara Doga is (probably) my favourite grunt suit design, and is most definitely in the running for one of my favourite mobile suit designs period, so I will obviously be completely biased here. There’s just so much character to it in my opinion - obviously it’s still got that ever-expressive monoeye, but a small detail I like is how the yellows draws your eye to the thruster bells - it emphasised the mobility because it’s got them in so many places. The commander types (the ones with antennas) even resemble mini-sazabi’s, so there’s this lovely of throughline of design with the rest of Char’s forces. Armament-wise, it can be armed with one of two types of Beam Machine Gun (one of which has a built-in grenade launcher), has a beam sword/axe for melee, incorporates a shock-anchor and has a shield on which up to four sturm faust’s may be mounted. It’s a very tight loadout, focused on versatility and any other roles can be taken by one of the Geara Doga’s variant units (various environmental specialists, plus Newtype test units, melee specialists, and even a good old fashioned Kai unit. Honestly I could probably do an entire post just on them alone) . I also love how angled the helmet is and I think the leg detailing’s just lovely. It’s got bulk, but it doesn’t feel sluggish, which is a lovely midpoint.
In-universe, the Geara Doga’s were manufactured by Anaheim Electronics for use by Newborn Neo Zeon (headed by Char Aznable). Emphasis was placed on reliability and ease of production and repair - it’s not particularly cutting-edge, but it’s so well-balanced it doesn’t really need to be. This also allows Anaheim to use it as a basis when constructing their next commissioned mobile suit, the Messer.
And, Lastly, the Geara Zulu. I’ve got conflicting opinions on this one, which I can divide into three main points:
I do love the design - I’ll admit a preference for the Guards Type, since that takes more influence from the Geara Doga, but the standard Geara Zulu is still very nice. It feels like a modern interpretation of the Zaku II - the form’s very much the same, with its slim physique and resembling a human soldier. I think it’s got good weapon variety and I do love the modern stylings on the legs. It’s detailed, but not so much that it doesn’t look good when there’s multiple of it, which is a quality you want in a grunt suit. It retains a lot of the Zaku’s strengths as well - it’s instantly recognisable and the monoeye means that it’s very expressive. The sleeves filigree is present, but it’s not excessive, so it’s clearly signified as a foot soldier as opposed to anything more complex. It has a handful of variants - the aforementioned guards type, the Aquatic Zee Zulu and Angelo’s various units, which are all pretty nice.
It is facist as all heck. Which yeah, obviously it’s a Zeon suit, but it just takes it so much further than any real previous design. It’s a look I’m not really comfortable with for obvious reasons, but I’m just rather lost as to why it looks like this. Original Zeon was this blend of WWI and WWII Germany through a sort of late-70’s Japanese sci-fi/tokusatsu lens, where the fact that there’s real, fairly human people piloting these things is the big difference (or at least that’s how I’ve always looked at it). The Geara Zulu might work if The Sleeves were presented as this sinister remnant of evils past, a cautionary tale of the spectres of old conflicts hiding in our society, but they’re just kinda not. Honestly I find the Neo Zeon presented in Unicorn to be one of the softest takes on Zeon in the franchise - they’re all largely humanised, they’re completely outmatched by the Earth Federation whenever they meet in open combat and even their attack on Torrington (which has numerous civilian casualties) is still presented as this rather desperate thing, where the tide turns on them when the Federation is able to bring actual modern ms to bear. I suppose it could be to mislead the viewer? So we expect Neo Zeon to be this sinister force and when they turn out to have rational goals it’s a surprise? But Gundam’s has the whole gray-on-gray morality going for a while so I can’t imagine that’d be it. It could be that the Mecha Designers and Story Writers didn’t communicate much, but again that feels unlikely. Also, (and this is less of a problem with the Geara Zulu and more with Unicorn’s Design ethos as a whole) I’m not really a fan of its beam rifle being based off the real-life StG-44 Assault rifle used by Germany in WWII. Like, yeah gundam’s had real-world influences before, and I can understand leaning towards the military aficionado demographic (both in messaging and finance), but it just feels so odd. “Watch this show about the horrors of war, with realistic designs from the military-industrial complex!”. Again, the Geara Zulu isn’t the only unit in Unicorn that does this (and I don’t even think it’s the worst offender), but it is a criticism I have of the design. But because of these issues, the Geara Zulu can’t really escape feeling like mixed messaging at best.
So, that’s the my opinions on the Geara Zulu in a nutshell: I really like the design - I’m just not too fond of some of the implications. I would still recommend Unicorn however - I think it says and does a lot of good things, even if I have several aesthetic criticisms.
In-universe, the Geara Zulu was a commission design by Anaheim Electronics on behalf of the Sleeves, who lacked the capacity for mobile suit manufacture of their own. It’s seen as a solid, sensible and reliable upgrade to the Geara Doga, hence it being the organisation’s mainline unit.
Closing
And that’s all of what I would consider the main units in the Zaku lineage (plus a few extra’s for my own satisfaction). It’s nice seeing how the different designs are iterated on, and how they reflect the technological developments and practical needs of the organisations utilising them (and I suppose out-of-universe design philosophies). I particularly like how the Zaku III and IV encapsulate fourth-generation design ethos, and how the Geara Doga and Geara Zulu represent the need practical capabilities coming off that high of Newtype tech during the Neo Zeon War. (I did consider doing the RF Zaku at the end, but honestly I don’t have an awful lot to say on it).
Feel free to mention any of your favourites!