The plot is set in the futuristic "Universal Century" timeline and takes place eight years after the events of the original series.

[6] Set in the year Universal Century (UC) 0087, eight years after the events of Mobile Suit Gundam (0079), and four years after the events of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (0083 to 0084) the series follows a rebel group called the Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG) as they try to defeat the Titans, an elite task force of the Earth Federation designed to hunt down Zeon remnants but which ruthlessly kills anyone demanding equal rights for the space citizens in cold blood.

The story of Zeta Gundam is told through the viewpoint of Kamille Bidan, a civilian teenager and amateur mobile suit pilot whose parents are engineers working for the Earth Federation and the Titans.

While traveling to the Green Noa colony to meet his parents, Kamille is insulted by and strikes a Titans officer named Jerid Messa.

Following an AEUG attack led by Quattro Bajeena on the colony to capture a trio of Gundam Mk-II mobile suits undergoing field tests, Kamille takes the opportunity to steal Messa's Mk-II to repel the attack and follows Quattro back to the AEUG mothership Argama.

The Titans, under the order of Bask Om, take Kamille's parents in an attempt to force the return of the stolen Gundam Mk-IIs.

As the war escalates, Kamille encounters people from all sides of the conflict, including brainwashed Titans, artificial Newtypes, and the leaders of Anaheim Electronics, who are secretly funding the AEUG.

Quattro reveals himself to be Char Aznable and presents evidence of the Titans' tyranny including using G3 nerve gas on a defenseless colony.

The series concludes with both the AEUG and Earth Federation, after suffering considerable losses over the course of the war, facing the full force of Axis Zeon, leading into Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ.

[7] In the "Zeta Gundam" proposal, there is an idea that goes beyond the Newtype, "Gather Stime," which allows you to gain mental identity with others.

[7] Around the beginning of June, a story line close to its current form began to come together, and since then, it has been refined repeatedly [7] based on it.

[11] In order to train the younger generation, which was one of Director Tomino's requests to "break Gundam's shell" and one of the challenges, the staff ended up with [Yasuhiko Yoshikazu], the character who was responsible for the world view of the previous work.

[7] For the first time in a Sunrise work, a mechanical animation director was appointed, and Yunhisa Uchida was adopted and credited in the program.

Work began in September 1984, and based on the plot and memo sentences delivered by director Yoshiyuki Tomino, the design was given priority to the image.

The songs used for the three films that came out of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam were all performed by Gackt, and were compiled and released on his tribute album 0079-0088.

In 2004, after almost 2 years of delays and failed television and merchandising deals, Bandai released a limited edition Zeta Gundam boxset with dubbed English and original Japanese audio tracks.

[15] A manga adaptation of the series by Kazuhisa Kondo was released by Kodansha in Comic BomBom from March 1985 to February 1986 issues, and compiled into three volumes.

Likewise, the fate of some characters in the television version was entirely changed, notably Kamille's — in the original, his final battle renders him into a vegetative state, while he remains physically and mentally fit by the end of the film trilogy.

Shigeaki Saegusa's musical score from the TV series was reused for the films, with the addition of new songs by Japanese singer-songwriter Gackt.

A music video for the first film's opening theme "Metamorphoze" featured Gackt singing inside a mobile suit cockpit during battle.

Yō Inoue, who died in 2003 - was posthumously credited, as an archived recording of her voice was used for a cameo appearance of Sayla Mass in the third film.

This change sparked controversy among fans, who suspected that Yukana used her relationship with sound director Sadayoshi Fujino to land her role.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is praised by fans of the Universal Century sect of the franchise, with many lauding it for its bleak tone, character development, and its complicated expression of war.

Beveridge writes in the review for the first set, "It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost ten years since I last saw this series as you realize just how much anime you consume.

Barder praised the series' more realistic approach to war and its striking designs for the many different robots, though did find the transforming mechas out of place in Zeta's more grounded reality.

But Orsini still praised the second half for its mecha designs and strong emotional payoffs, ultimately giving the subtitle version of the series a 'B'.

[5] WatchMojo listed Zeta Gundam as the third-best anime of the pre-90s, only below the original Dragon Ball show and the 1988 version of Legend of the Galactic Heroes.