Zoids Zero Anime Review

Reader Review

• Reviewer: Animonster
• Review Date: 2003-09-29 (updated 2010-04-08)
• 1 stars out of 5 (?)

The first season of Zoids had its flaws, and it wasn't great, but this Zoids makes its characterization look like Sugar: A Little Snow Faerie and its story look like AKIRA. It's organized around a tournament, a feat which no show yet other than G Gundam has managed to do with any sort of quality to its name. And neither has this show.

The storyline was pretty much made up as they went along. For a while, all that happens is that the Blitz team fights the next big, bad enemy in each episode. Then the Backdraft group appears and they do the same thing. Then they win the "final," which just sort of pops up out of nowhere in the middle of the show. There's also a lot of Beyblade/Medabots style "Me and the Liger Zero are buddies!" talk, which is coming to the point where it just makes me sick to my stomach. We don't care about the power of friendship and teamwork! Give us a moral we can relate to, like not killing or overcoming difficulty, or maybe even something original! That's great if you want to be friends with a hunk of metal! Now go do it somewhere else!

The characterization is even worse than Zoids, because the archetypes aren't well-done at all. Yes, we've seen gung-ho kids who are friends with their weapons. Yes, we've seen violent and ill-tempered girls. Yes, we've seen dark and tortured anti-heroes. Yes, we've seen losers! Now stop shoving it in our faces! Just go away! Noooo!!!

Since that was what stuck out to me as the worst part of the show, I'm going to do some more ranting about the idiotic morals. How many of you out there have ever actually felt that kind of connection to anything? (Another person, a pet, a toy, an anime, ANYTHING?!?). If you said NONE, you WON! The teamwork and partnership morals, even when well-done like in Digimon, are very hard to relate to because there aren't any connections like that in real life. I'm a hypocrite for saying this, but teamwork and partnership are over-romanticized in anime (actually, I think in Japanese culture period) as some sort of noble trait akin to sacrificing yourself for another or saving hapless kids and old ladies from thugs. So you say "Go here" and they do it--SO WHAT?! You shove a gun to someone's head and say "Go here" and they do it--does that make them your friend and partner? So you've got a big machine and you push the joystick forward and it goes forward. In what way does that make you "friends?" Another is the decency and sportsmanship moral. A fight is a fight. It doesn't involve decency or sportsmanship. A fight and a combat sport are two different things, and combat sports don't involve shooting at each other. If you want to have a battle, just go have a war. If you want decency and sportsmanship, get into boxing! So the Backdraft group doesn't "obey the rules." No, that's not very nice--but LIVE WITH IT!

But sorry to go so far off track. To round things off, I'll say that the animation is exactly the same as Zoids Season One. The character designs are more boring, and who the hell's idea was it to give Lina a pair of tent poles hanging off her back? The zoid designs are exactly the same as Season One. The enemy of the week episodes in the beginning are actually all enemies that were already in Season One, and they didn't even bother changing the names and colors and giving it a few more guns. The fights are also even more boring than Season One, because they involve running in circles around the bad guys and getting shot at, then using a ripoff of Domon Kasshu's Shining Finger with claws.

If you see Zoids Season Two on TV, don't watch it, because you'll be sorry you did. Unless you're under the age of ten. Then you'll love it forever. Until you're no longer under the age of ten.

There is also a corresponding review of season 1

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