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Gundam ZZ Ep. 18: Haman’s Black Shadow

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Summary

The Mindra docks at Axis, and Glemy goes to the habitation block Moussa to meet with Haman. He takes an elevator down to her palace and apologizes for allowing the Endra to be destroyed, but she says it is no big deal. He notices that the port seems very busy, and Haman says it is because she is preparing for the invasion of Earth. She plans to go down to Earth personally to boost the morale of the troops. She also tells Glemy that she’s giving him the Psycho Gundam Mk-II for the Newtype corps that he is building. She asks him if he will come down to Earth with her, and he agrees. In the port, Judau hides his Neo Core Fighter in a fake meteorite and goes to Moussa. Ple takes a bath and senses Judau’s presence. She runs out of the bath and past Glemy and Leina. Glemy tells Leina that she should ignore Ple and not act like her. Beecha and Mondo are forced to do manual labor, and they decide that life was better on the Argama. Mondo wonders how they can go back, and Beecha says if they rescue Leina they’ll be forgiven. They jump onto the back of Gottn’s car and head into Moussa. As Judau walks through the streets, Ple approaches him and calls him her brother. She jumps on his back, and Beecha and Mondo drive by and are knocked into an apple stand. Judau takes Ple to have a chocolate sundae, and Glemy takes Leina to a Ralph Lauren to buy a dress. She runs away and accidentally runs into Beecha and Mondo. Ple asks Judau to kiss her, and he says he’s busy looking for his sister. Ple offers to help if he eats more ice cream. Beecha, Mondo and Leina steal a car and are chased by Glemy. They drive by Judau, and he thinks they are gangsters. Beecha drives by a trailer truck with the Bawoo on it and decides to steal it.

The three get into the Bawoo and knock away a mechanic who tries to stop them. As the Bawoo gets up, Glemy arrives and tells Leina to come down, or he will use corporal punishment. Beecha steps on Glemy’s car and destroys it. He then sees Gottn’s car and starts firing the vulcans at it. Leina tells him it’s wrong to target people with mobile suits, and Beecha and Mondo say it’s fair because they were mistreated. Beecha begins to chase Gottn’s car through the streets of Moussa. Elsewhere, Ple takes Judau to the palace and takes off her clothes to have a bath. Haman sunbathes and senses Judau’s presence, but at first she mistakes him for Char Aznable. Judau decides not to wait and begins to explore the corridors on his own. Several soldiers spot him, and he runs away. He jumps out of a window and lands in Haman’s balcony. He senses something strange as he gets up and finds her pointing a gun at him. She asks him who he is, and when he plays dumb she shoots near his foot. Beecha chases Gottn’s car towards the palace and jumps into the air to catch up. One of the Bawoo’s control sticks breaks, and it crashes in front of the palace. Judau uses the distraction to escape and tells Haman that he’s from the Argama. Judau runs by the crashed Bawoo, and Mondo, Beecha and Leina are all unconscious inside. Judau steals a car next to Glemy and heads back for the port. He almost gets sucked into space looking for the meteorite, but he manages to get into the Neo Core Fighter. Ple flies by with her Qubeley Mk-II and tells Judau that Leina was in the Bawoo. She grabs him, but he manages to break free. Ple is shot at, and two fake meteorites explode to reveal Iino and Milly in the Core Top and Core Base. Ple deploys her funnels to attack them, and Judau asks her not to fight. He docks with the other components to form the ZZ Gundam and uses his double beam rifle to blow up Ple’s funnels. Ple says she hates Judau and cries as she returns to Axis. Judau takes off for Axis again and asks Iino to tell the Argama.

Commentary

Well, quite a bit happened in this episode. We finally get to see the interior of Moussa, which was never shown in Zeta Gundam. This is also the first time we get to see Haman in the series outside of Mashymre’s flashbacks. Judau also meets Ple, and she’d odd to say the least. Since she’s only 10, I wonder if her Newtype powers were awakened very early, or if she was artificially enhanced. Judau also meets Haman and senses an image of evil, much like Amuro did in the original series when he encountered Dozle Zabi. It’s also interesting to point out two things that Haman mentions. First is the invasion of Earth, which means the hopefully the story will finally get started. Second is the Psycho Gundam Mk II, which was severely damaged by Kamille at the end of Zeta Gundam. I guess when you see such a powerful weapon floating around you pick it up and use it. The question is, who will use it?

Overall Rating
3.5/5

Gundam ZZ Info

Director:
Yoshiyuki Tomino

Writer(s):
Yumiko Suzuki
Minoru Onoya
Hidemi Kamata
Meigo Endo
Ken Terasawa

Mechanical Designer(s):
Mika Akitaka
Makoto Kobayashi
Hideo Okamoto
Yutaka Izubuchi
Hajime Katoki
Yoshinori Sayama
Masahiko Asano
Mamoru Nagano

Character Designer:
Hiroyuki Kitazume

Musical Composer:
Shigeaki Saegusa

Format:
47 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 03.01.1986 – 01.31.1987

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