The Second Neo-Zeon Movement

In UC0093, Zeon Daikun's son, Casval Rem Deikun (aka Char Aznable, the Red Comet) created a second Neo-Zeon. This movement was founded under the goal of moving all of humanity into space so the Earth could be a sanctuary. Char's plans involved colliding the huge asteroid, named Axis, onto the Earth, thus making it uninhabitable, but his plan was foiled by the Federation's Londo Bell taskforce, headed by Bright Noa, and his old adversary from the One Year War, Amuro Ray. Char's loss of the Second Neo-Zeon War effectively ended the Zeon/Neo Zeon movement.

In UC0100, The Republic of Zeon officially rejoined the Earth Federation.

Trivia

Early official romanizations were rendered "Zion." Early fansubbers often used the alternate romanization "Jion", derived from the pronunciation of the Japanese name, "ジオン". Frederick Schodt chose to use "Zeon" when he translated the Gundam novels into English, and this later became the official romanization. In the Cartoon Network run and English localization of Mobile Suit Gundam, the Zeons were also derisively referred to as "Zeeks", originally taken from one of the many Gundam side stories written by Kazuhisa Kondo and added by translator Neil Nadelman, to reflect the tendency to nickname war enemies, i.e. Yankees(Civil War), Commies(Cold War), Charlie(Vietnam). The Zeons uses similar nicknames for the Earth Federal Forces, such as "Feddies", which were used in fansubs prior to Gundam's official release.

The Zeon-German connection

In early Bandai plastic Gundam model kits, "Principality of Zeon" was titled "Zion Dukedom", as an attempt to model Zeon after Nazi Germans. In some cases, "Herzogtum" (German for "dukedom") was used. In the first Gundam series, Teutonic themed mobile suits included Dom (German for cathedral or minster). In Gundam 0080, there was a mobile suit named Kämpfer (German for fighter). In Gundam 0083, a mobile suit named Neue Ziel (German for new goal) was introduced. In Char's Counterattack, German theme continued with mobile suit named Jagd Doga (Jagd is 'hunt' in German).

Starting from Gundam F-91, the Nazi German themes were no longer introduced. However, in G Gundam, there was a German mobile suit named Gundam Spiegel, but the series itself was represented in such a way that it doesn't heavily emphasized on Germans.

When Bandai re-issued new Gundam plastic model kits in 1999, "Zion Dukedom" was renamed to "Principality of Zeon". In the official Sunrise-approved name list, it was explained that the "kokoku" is used to describe the real-world principalities of Andorra, Monaco, et cetera. However, it may have more to do with the later attempt of Bandai trying to market the original Mobile Suit Gundam series in North America. In particular, naming Zion as an evil Germanic entity could have lead to uproar and boycott by Jewish community.

External Links

Gion/Zion/Zeon/Jion message thread (http://gundam.aeug.org/archives/1999/09/0725.html)