Believe in a Sign of Zeta
Because I’ve been quiet for a while, I thought I would throw this out there. Anyone in the know would know that Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam has recieved a remastered release. I have seen arguments about whether they’ve just messed with the contrast, but I think that’s a tremendously pointless thing to complain about. Even if they’ve only messed with the contrast, this release is noticeably more attractive. The above is the rip of the first OP, which has some of the best engrish ever put to vocalisation. Zeta - Toki wo Koete is one of those classic types of OPs which, even if I don’t really like them musically, deserve kudos simply because of utterly perfect they are. An example would be the original opening of Mazinger Z. While I would never actually listen to it as a song, it is entirely suitable to the anime itself. Maybe this is because it happens to feature all of the Mazinger’s signature attacks in the lyrics (including ROCKET PUNCH and, yes, BREAST FIRE). Honestly, about the only way that the Zeta OP could be more 80’s is if they had the sound effects in there … which the original, televised release did.
I remember once having a conversation with Washi about how modern anime tends to feature OP songs which tend to not have a whole lot to do with the anime itself. On reflection this was foolish of us, as we were commenting on Macross Frontier’s first OP, Triangler, the lyrics of which are explicitly referencing the show’s central love triangle. However, this is just thematically appropriate, as opposed to something like 2×2=Shinobuden (The Nonsense Kunoichi Fiction!) where the theme is about learning to be a ninja, which while technically the show’s premise, is about as far away from the actual show as possible.
But I digress. Just enjoy some eighties OP goodness in delicious 720p via not so delicious YouTube.
I rememer seeing this for the first time and being blown away. I think I moved from the final episode of MSG to the first of Zeta on the same day, so the jump in animation style and quality was very impressive. I guess it would’ve been the R1 release OP with the orchestral music, though.
Interesting point about including sound effects. I’d noticed that before (it’s very noticeable in the Dougram OP, I think) but I didn’t know it was a particularly 80s thing.
To be honest, I don’t really know it’s an eighties thing, but more than a few OPs from around that era seem to have it. SDF Macross had them, for example, as did Mazinger Z. I think Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory has sound effects in the OP as well, and that was released in 1991. It’s certainly not something that you see these days.
God damn I love 5 colour shading. I get so sick of just 3 colour shading.