Zeta - Heirs to the Stars recap
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Basic Plot - Heirs to the Stars covers the first 14 episodes of the TV series.
Gryps 2 & Green Noah 1 - Char infiltrates Gryps 2 and encounters the Mk-II. Meanwhile Kamille is already under arrest at Green Noah 1. Jerid crashes the 3rd Mk-II unit. All 3 Rick Diases (Char, Apolly, and Roberto) infiltrate Green Noah 1 to steal the Mk-IIs. Kamille helps out.
Near Gryps 2 - Emma (in a Mk-II) along with Franklin Bidan (in a Hizack) bring the personal letter from Bask. Kamille finds out his mom is held hostage and takes off. Jerid shoots the capsule killing Kamille's mom. There's a duel between Kamille and Jerid. Meanwhile, Franklin steals Char's Rick Dias. A fight involving Kamille, Franklin, and Lila takes place with Franklin dying. After the Titans retreat, Emma defects to AEUG.
Around Earth orbit - Char, Reccoa, and Emma try to comfort Kamille after losing both of his parents. Emma asks Kamille if he knows about Char Aznable (*note* different from TV series where Char himself asks if Camille knows about him). Later, Reccoa shows Emma what happened during the Colony 30 Incident and its aftermath. Reccoa goes to Jaburo.
AEUG's fleet is receiving supplies from the Moon to prepare for the Jaburo attack. Here, they receive the Flying Armor, Hyaku Shiki, and the Mega Bazooka Launcher. Haro somehow was in this resupply as well. During this, the Argama receives an SOS signal from the Temptation, which is under attack by Scirocco's Messala. Kamille and Char rescue the Temptation and its crew/passengers. Bright officially joins AEUG and commands the Argama. Blex and Henken go back to the Moon. Kamille is reunited with Fa.
Above Jaburo & Re-entry - AEUG launches their MS force and the Titans launch theirs (Lila, Jerid, and Kackricon). Scirocco attacks AEUG's rear. Emma/Kamille fight Scirocco with Emma's Rick Dias losing its arm. Kamille engages Lila with Lila KIA. Kacricon dies during re-entry. Jerid reaches Jaburo without knowing whether Lila died or not.
Jaburo - AEUG notices Jaburo is empty. The Titans moved their headquarters to space and placed nukes deep below Jaburo as a trap. Kai and Reccoa are held prisoner but rescued by Kamille. AEUG escapes Jaburo with the Audhumla and Sudori. During this, Amuro meets Fraw, Katz, Letz, and Kikka at his mansion.
To Hickory - Hayato meets with Char and informs him that splitting the force up would be a good idea after the Titans annexed the Augusta NT lab. Before going to the Sudori, Kai talks with Hayato telling him Quattro is Char, asking him if he is going to fight alongside Char. Kamille overhears their conversation and starts to wonder if Quattro is Char. The Sudori heads to New Kennedy to take the remaining pilots back to space (Roberto, Apolly, and Reccoa). The Audhumla heads to Hickory where Amuro and Katz are suppose to meet them after they hijack a shuttle. Nonstop action with Kamille/Char vs Rosamia (Gaplant) followed by Kamille/Char vs Buran (Asshimar) until Amuro rams the shuttle into the Asshimar. The movie ends as Amuro and Char see each other with Kamille saying "He's not Quattro Bajeena! And that person is...Amuro Ray! Rival of Char Aznable during the One Year War!"
Animation - Telling apart what was new and old was easy. The old animation came from 12 different TV episodes. In some of the sequences, they went back and forth where you can obviously tell the difference. At times, those scenes felt weird as characters looked different. The new mecha animation sequences were superb, especially the last part of the movie (last 10+ min) where 95+% was new. As for the new character animation, it was better than what I expected. If the movie was 100% new animation, then we might not be talking about if Onda's styling fits Kitazume's at all.
Seiyuu (VA) - Most of the original seiyuu from the TV series reprised their same role in the movie. Several characters like Fa, Hayato, Lila, Rosamia, and Robert got new voices. For the most part, the new voices did not bother as they sounded familiar to the original. However, the new voice of Hayato by Nobuyuki Hiyama (Shiro Amada from 08th Team and Muruta Azuraeru from SEED) bothered me. Images of Shiro or Azuraeru would come up every time he spoke a dialog.
Music/SFX/BGM - The movie uses the same BGM from the TV series. As for the SFX, it uses updated traditional anime sounds (not like the MSG Trilogy DVD version), which was a big plus. Both of Gackt's songs (played at OP and ED credits) were ok. ¶ 10:57 PM -
Z Gundam credit card
Following in the footsteps of their other character-based credit cards featuring Star Wars, Star Trek, Macross, and MS Gundam, GE is taking applications starting in June for a new card for Zeta Gundam's 20th anniversary. ¶ 8:19 PM -
uesday, May 31, 2005
Zeta movie 1 hits it big
Various box office sites in Japan (Eiga.com, Kogyo Tsushinsha, Goo Movies) are stating that Heirs To The Stars ranked #3 this weekend. This kind of ranking is respectable enough for an anime theatrical release in Japan but what makes the case of Zeta truly exceptional is that it managed to do it showing on only 83 screens nationwide. Typically, Japanese films will screen in anywhere from 150-300 theaters. In the case of big Hollywood films, 500+ theaters. Zeta raked in just under 161 million yen, nearly as much money as the #2 film, Million Dollar Baby, which had the benefits of publicity from its success at this year's Oscars, local visits from its stars promoting the movie, and being shown in 264 theaters. Eiga.com estimates that it has the momentum to exceed 1 billion yen by the end of its run, a figure approaching the box office gross of Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters In Space (a hit anime film in its day).
Apparently, the unexpected turnout for the Zeta movie is breaking records in theaters nationwide. Goo Movies reports that audiences were made up of the "core Gundam fan", males in the 20-34 demographic, as well as ages 35-49. Females in their teens and in the 20-34 demographic also turned up though the gender ratio is being given as 70% male, 30% female.
While no Miyazaki-sized hit, this can certainly be seen as some kind of vindication for director Yoshiyuki Tomino, whose last few works haven't been known for their commercial success. Heirs To The Stars made more money in its first weekend than some other high-profile anime films from the past year did in theirs, including Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence (141 million yen, 278 theaters, #5 for the weekend), Appleseed (65 million yen, 112 theaters, #6), and Steamboy (158 million yen, 261 theaters, #4). And, indeed, the official Zeta movies site now carries a thank-you message from Tomino.
In retrospect, the smartest move may have been associating the film with J-rock star Gackt as his tireless publicity efforts over the last few weeks seem to have garnered the most attention from the mainstream press there.
The Top 10 in Japan for the weekend of May 28-29:
1) Negotiator Masayoshi Mashita
2) Million Dollar Baby
3) Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam -Heirs To The Stars-
4) Kingdom Of Heaven
5) Memorial Of Flame (aka Ladder 49)
6) The Interpreter
7) Shall We Dance?
Closer
9) Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events
10) The Mask 2 (aka Son Of The Mask) ¶ 1:17 PM
Clear HGUC Gundam Mk II sold out
Sunrise stuck up a notice on their site saying that the limited edition, clear version of the HGUC Gundam MK II available at theaters showing the Zeta movie is sold out. They're already fetching several times their list price on Yahoo! Japan Auctions. ¶ 7:45 AM
from gunota -
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Z breaks records
Bandai Visual says that Heirs To The Stars broke daily box office records in 6 theaters this past weekend: Cine Libre Ikebukuro (which has a notice on its website telling moviegoers to confirm how busy the theater is before going to see the film), Shinjuku Joy Cinema, Cine Libre Umeda, Osaka's Paradise Square, Cine Libre Kobe, and Cine Libre Hakata. Sotsu Agency's website also put up a news post about the long lines for the limited merchandise and sold-out theaters. ¶ 8:00 PM
From Gunota -
Zeta #5
The box office sales for the June 3-4th shows Zeta I movie ranked #5 during its 2nd weekend. Some theatres have decided to extend Zeta's showing (from 2 weeks to a month) or move it to a bigger theatre after a strong start. ¶ 7:29 AM
from aeug.blog -
more
Z Gundam week 2 box office figures
Info from 2ch's Box Office Watch thread says that Heirs To The Stars has pulled in 394 million yen total in 9 days. Once again, looking at the comparitive theater count for all the movies during Zeta's opening weekend (scroll down to May 28-29), the film is doing very well despite not being in anywhere near as many theaters as the other films in the top 10. ¶ 8:55 AM -
Saturday, June 11, 2005
The future's so bright...
Something amusing on the new Animage On-Line website: Commemorating the release of the first Zeta movie, Quattro Bajeena sunglasses from Kamuro. Going for 29,000 yen, the shades are designed by none other than the venerable Yutaka Izubuchi and supervised (as well as, uh, modelled) by Yoshiyuki Tomino himself. The photos shown are of a prototype and the actual item may differ. ¶ 3:05 AM
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compare with anime
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Monday, June 13, 2005
Zeta week 3 box office
Heirs To The Stars ranked #7 this past weekend, now having made 553 million yen to date (about 50% of its predicted final box office tally). ¶ 9:33 PM
from gunota -
Zeta week 4 box office
Zeta manages to hang in the top 10 at #8 in its fourth weekend as Batman Begins and The Ring 2 open in Japan. ¶ 8:21 AM
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
from gunota -
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Zeta Bible
Released by Kodansha as a complete documentary of the Zeta I - Heirs to the Stars, the book had some interesting info regarding the Zeta movies including a copy of Tomino memo (movie concept notes) dating November 2002. The book also contains interviews with Tomino, Gackt, and staffs of the movie.
Zeta Gundam the Movie (concept)
- 3-part 85 minute long movie or 2-part 120-150 minute long movie.
Part 1 : 星を継ぐ者 (Heirs to the Stars)
Part 2 : 恋人たち (Lovers)
Part 3 : 三つ巴 (Three Ways, Triskelion, etc we'll leave the imagination up to you)
*Title for part 3 is not official. This was the tentative title listed in the Tomino memo).
Based on interviews with Naoyuki Onda, Morifumi Naka, and Kenichi Matsumura (producer), Zeta II will have more new animations (over 500 cuts which amounts to 40% of the movie), will cover episode 15-32, and will be fast paced.
¶ 10:52 PM
from gunota -
Monday, June 27, 2005
Zeta week 5 box office
Heirs To The Stars just manages to hang in the top 10.
¶ 8:54 AM
from gunota