The Greatest Machine Ever Made - The Rise and Fall of the Zaku

A video of the rise and fall of the Zaku during the One Year War. Video made in a World War 2 documentary style featuring clips of the Zaku in vintage format.

[@yui.3218]

As a massive Zaku fan you u have no idea how fast i clicked when i saw the noti of this video LMFAO.

[@PikaPower131313]

dude the saddest thing about Gundam for me is that the Zaku was a flop. It’s my favourite thing from the series! I wish we had more Zaku action

[@traphimawari7760]

It wasn't a complete flop, it gets better over time with its future variants and zeonic grunt suits it becomes based after, not to mention its one of the few mobile suits to survive even the correct century timeline and that is a testament to its rigidity and reliability

[@traphimawari7760]

I'd say the worst flop for the zaku was when Titans adopted it as the hizack, that mobile suit was absolute trash and only slightly better than the GM II

[@DrForrester87]

Hardly a flop. The Zaku did everything it was it was meant to do. It was the premiere mobile weapon on Earth and in Space and though hardly invincible had almost brought the Federation government to the point of surrender. Unfortunately, it was forced by Zeon's limited resources, manufacturing, and logistics, to remain in service longer than it ought to have. Even then, the F2 and FZ were comparable to the standard GM and even later model GMs (to an extent) proving that while they were no longer cutting edge they were still not a foe to take lightly. What's more, the Zaku would see combat all the way into the late UC-0090s, long after it had been surpassed by much more advanced machines. It would go on to inspire the designs of not only it's own direct successors, the Zaku III and IV, but of other mobile suits as well. A storied legacy for a fine machine without which, there wouldn't be the combat mobile suits of later years.

[@2233forlolz]

dude every time a mono eyes looks at the general direction of a GM the GM exploded.

[@taliawtf6944]

I say this as a total Zeon fan girl, the war would have turned out the same way even if the feddies had not developed their own MS. The war was lost for Zeon the moment they allowed Revil to escape and when they pushed to prolong the war. Their resources simply did not make a long war possible as they only had 1/32 of the resources the Earth federation had on tap. If they had just forced the feddies to sign a treaty they could have bought time to get the new colonies in order to add to the resource pool and polish the zaku while denying the feddies ample test data for their own MS keeping an edge. It's horrible all around as the original swell of Zeon support was for colonial freedom and self governance but was co op'd by a corrupt family who couldn't see past their own delusions damning the dream of freedom for their people forever. Why I love Gundam it's so tragically realistic in it's politics and portrayal of how conflict is just horrible on the whole for all sides of it.

[@skymabile2855]

Especially more tragic is that the philosophy of Zeon got twisted from some Captain Planet space socialism to glorified space Nazism and future Neo-Zeon movements never read from Machiavelli's playbook, less their nation's founder/namesake enough to swap Gihren's colony-dropping fetish for a more Star Wars-ish, Rebel Alliance PR campaign. That's why I see the Federation as the real physical "bad guys" to Zeon's tragic Shakespearan hero. Not helped that the Gundam series creator intended Zeon as an Imperial Japan stand-in for the nation to beat itself up for its WW2 atrocities. The Zakus are like Oni (Shrek's Japanese cousins) geared up for the Somme trenches to Gundam's glamorus Samurai slaying Japan's metaphorical post-war demons.

[@TokyoFilthy]

man i love mono eye/zeon suits, the best type truly

[@lostShadowLord]

The Battle at Luam while a victory for Zeon ultimately lead to Zeon defeat in the one year war in part due to the material loses and lost of veteran pilots.

[@kindlingking]

The issue with Zaku is that Fed-Zeon war only laster a year. In reality it would've been at least 3-5 years with barely 1/10th of the amount of mobile suits developed. Hell, it's likely that Zaku upgrades like Goufs or Gelgoogs would've been slightly upgraded and used up until Char's Neo Zeon at least. Instead we have a new superduper prototype or variant literally every other week of the war, there's just no way anything will get enough time to really solidify itself as good weapon.

[@PraetorianPat]

This was so sick the way it was presented like a real doc. Gave me PoPo Medic vibes like that channel. Very well done.

[@skymabile2855]

The One year War is basically WW2 in Space following mostly the Pacific Theatre route to Zeon's Axis Powers. And the Zaku and it's successor Mobile Suits are analogous to the tanks and Aircraft of the Axis. The Zaku in particular=German Panzer 1 and 2 and the Japanese Mitsubishi fighter. Overall I can rest at ease knowing my fave mass-production Mobile Suit, the Zaku II wasn't a fundamentally crappy Mech next to the Federation's GM, just handicapped by Zeon's resource shortage.

[@jayhoffmayer8581]

Do more videos like this please

[@mokka1115]

Dark Skies video format?

[@criticalsmile]

You mean Dark Docs ?

[@rafaeldiaz2147]

Both

[@kerosoldier]

Hey, your sound quality drops a minute in.

[@rektigt7673]

i think its probably the music is copyrighted so youtube just try to muted the music which resulted in the sound quality drop

[@mandaloretheangry9043]

sieg zeon

[@user-RetardedMonke]

SIEG ZEON!

[@vaccinatedanti-vaxxer]

If the us miliary build Mobil suits, it would likely look like a zaku. Practicality, simplicity, utilitarian. No need to make the robots have human like faces.

[@user-RetardedMonke]

they’d probably also move the cockpit to the head, but who knows, they cloud if they wish keep the cockpit in the torso for better protection and have the head equipped with a camera.

[@srichael2713]

​@@user-RetardedMonke Truth be told I don't like head cockpits. It's just asking for a decap strike.

[@Anytyme06]

How tf was Earth Federation at a disadvantage against Zeon?! How could they let this happen?

[@Uwhwvwgwh]

Watch

[@user-RetardedMonke]

w- why did you include origin lore-

[@AstinCrow]

Because Origin lore pre-OYW can fit pretty seemlessly.

[@user-RetardedMonke]

so… we are going to forget that the earth federation never even thought about making a singhlar mobile suit before the OYW? Don’t forget the MS-05 Zaku I wasn’t even on the drawing board before U.C. 0073-0074, NOR was was MS-06C Zaku II wasn’t even made until around the start of the OYW.

[@user-RetardedMonke]

What would be more fitting would be Thunderbolt lore, as you could totally see the mobile suits, even though very much different from the original mobile suits, as just designed specifically for use by both the Living Dead Division, the Zeon faction, and the Moore Brotherhood, the Earth Federation faction, and for use in the Thunderbolt sector.

[@AstinCrow]

@@user-RetardedMonke All of which aren't important plot points to the actual stories of the OYW. The story of the OYW is just about an unprepared and dismissive Federation being tackled by a cunning Zeon that developed a hubris it couldn't overcome when it mattered. And besides, Bandai says it's canon so what can you do.

[@user-RetardedMonke]

just sayin’. Origin doesn’t fit in the Universal Century timeline that good.

[@frankjaeger2565]

01:12 are you mixing Origin (anime) canon with standard UC canon? That scene occoured in Origin, it has nothing to do with the original series

[@alexknudsen2759]

Origin > 0079

[@frankjaeger2565]

@@alexknudsen2759 just no....

[@traphimawari7760]

Gundam origin does have some correlation to the original gundam show, granted not everything was canon like how in gundam origin's manga M'quve died a hero for zeon on Earth meanwhile on the original show he died a prideful zeon pilot as he battled the gundam in the Texas colony, a lot of things were changed in gundam origin, nonetheless its actually the most canon gundam adaptation since its actually completely made by Tomino Yoshiyuki with everything he had in mind when he wanted to do the show that sunrise didn't allow him to back in the day

[@traphimawari7760]

So yeah gundam Origins is actually better since it fleshed out and explained a lot of things that weren't explored in the original 1979 show because sunrise would limit what Tomino could put on the actual show, gundam origin is what the gundam 1979 could have been and should have been if it weren't for sunrise telling Tomino he can't do this and that

[@frankjaeger2565]

@@traphimawari7760 I have no idea how anyone could actually belive what you're saying. How in the world is Origin "completely made by Tomino" when Yasuhiko is both the author of the original manga and the general director of the ova (and of Cucuruz Island)? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Also, it's not like Tomino has never remade the original story, he was able to remake it both with the movie trilogy (where he had much more freedom compared to the series) and especially in the novels, which are nothing like Origin. And no, Tomino didn't really care that much about the "politics" behind the One year war, that wasn't the point of the original Gundam...

[@appletherapy]

I'm sad Zaku 1 made Amuro made them shit