Maybe this is a hidden secret or maybe it isn’t, but I said it. Even if the time frame and their formats are different, Gundam Unicorn and Gundam Double Zeta are very, very similar to each other. The good version of Gundam Unicorn is a 7 part ova series which each episode is an hour long and the last one is 90 minutes from the 2010’s while Gundam Double Zeta is a TV series that is 47 episodes long and from the late 80’s. That doesn’t change the fact that Gundam Unicorn either follows a lot of similar ideas from Gundam Double Zeta OR is a sequel to some of the plots and ideas from Gundam Double Zeta. It’s not just a continuity thing. It has to be on purpose.
From character beats to plot elements, the skeleton of Gundam Double Zeta is all over Gundam Unicorn in good way. I will not say that you have to watch Double Zeta to understand Unicorn. It just means that if you have watched Double Zeta, then a lot more things will connect with you. That’s it. It is possible, with some confusion, to watch each of these on their own. Double Zeta even recaps Zeta enough to provide some contexts in their stories here. So anyway, here are six of so many things that make the two shows very similar other then the obvious of Universal Century and such.
Let’s have some fun. Just beware of spoilers
The Nahel Argama
Yes, an obvious thing. The Nahel Argama is the ship the Gundam Team stole from the AEUG in the later part of Double Zeta Gundam and it’s still operating 10 years later. At first, I thought the Nahel Argama in Unicorn was an easter egg, but it stuck around and was the lonely ship that saved the world of the Universal Century in Unicorn just like it did in Double Zeta Gundam. The Hyper Mega Particle Canon was used in very complex situations in both and both always held gundams on them. While the crew was much more explored and understood in Double Zeta, we still spent enough time in Unicorn to know the Nahel Argama crew as well as it was isolated from the Earth Federation due to the caption’s decisions.
Ple Cyber Newtypes
Ple and Ple 2 are cyber new types built from the ground up in Double Zeta Gundam. There were conflicts between each of them when the first Ple joined the Gundam Team for their many misadventures and Ple 2 for fighting against her own twin. In Double Zeta, they were younger girls. Gundam Unicorn has Ple 12 or Mrs. Marida. A grown up member of this branch of cyber new types who serves her master until she is given freedom and her own point of view. This is the real point where you can see that Unicorn is a sequel to Double Zeta because no other piece of Gundam media in the UC has a ple 12.
Teenagers Save The Day
So yes, the Gundam Team are the ones who defeat Neo Zeon and save the day in Double Zeta Gundam. Judau, Elle, Roux, Lino, Beecha, and Mondo to the rescue to do what they need to do to save the world here. They challenge the many systems and ask why they are around and are just generally good people even if they have their own sorts of problems. The same could be said for Gundam Unicorn. Mostly Mineva Zabi and Banagher Links who ask why their own systems exists and strive to change them, but there is also Micott, Takuya, and Riddhe Marcenes who do the same things. This time, it’s slightly more effective. Gundam usually has teenage protagonists, but I don’t feel like theya re in the same way as these two.
A Trip Around the Universal Century
Double Zeta takes in a lot of places from the colony they lived in called Shangrila to the lost colony of Moon Moon to the moon colony to the deserts of africa to dublin and to space again. Each setting had their own ways of living amd moving around for their own reasons. Gundam Unicorn is the same because they are following the places behind Laplaces box for a little trip around the Universal Century because of the mystery box. I mean, the Laplace box is the thing that is driving the anime itself and a lot of the situations are similar like both Banagher staying in the desert for a long time like the Gundam team.
A Customizable Super Robot
The Double Zeta is a slightly more realistic super robot with the laser beam that comes from the top of its head and the gattai sequence. The Gundam Unicorn is also a bit of a super robot that goes from its Unicorn shape to the glowing Gundam Unit. Two units that are very powerful and don’t really fit the worlds they are in. The Unicorn can take the funnels of their enemies and use them against their new type pilot and, as I’ve said, the Double Zeta Gundam has its almost invincible laser beam that can destroy everything. Both units are also absurdly tall for a Gundam unit as well. In the final battle, both the Unicorn and Double Zeta are outfitted with as much weapons as possible and end up just losing them too, so you know, there is another situation in their comparisons.
Empathy and Understanding
This is the biggest comparison between the two shows. Banagher and Judau are not clones of each other at all, but the one thing they both are is passionate people who do not want to kill if they have to. Both would rather talk it out instead of firing a weapon in anger at their enemy. They want to understand what their enemies are doing and for them to hopefully see if they can move in a better direction. The biggest similarities were the two women bound by their pasts and their parents in an attempt at revenge. In Unicorn, that was the mobile armor that was destroying a city. In Double Zeta, that’s the woman in the desert riding an older Zeon unit and desperately wants to defeat a Gundam. Those are not the only situations these have happened in, but that’s the easiest comparison that I can make between the two in that moment.
Conclusion
Once again, that’s it. Thanks for stopping by and maybe staring at me with disbelief for some connections between these two series or don’t. No matter who has said it before or doesn’t want to say it here, Double Zeta and Unicorn are very similar. Some are world things, some are things that both shows are just going for. Some differences are obvious, but others are that the teenagers in Unicorn have a lot more power in what they do and say while the Double Zeta Gundam pilots have only what they came from.
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