The Albion heads into space, where a powerful new enemy
awaits them. Desperate to prove himself,
Uraki challenges the Cima Fleet, now allied with the Delaz Fleet, and loses
horribly, dealing catastrophic damage to his Gundam. Shaken, Uraki finds solace in not only Nina,
but a washed up Zeon veteran who may or may not be trying to find his way back
into Delaz’s good graces by challenging the Gundam on his own. All the while, new alliances are made and new
mystery’s begin to unfold. What is the
purpose of Operation Stardust and how does it involve the Gundam Unit 02?
A thought occurs to me.
And I’m kind of glad I’m reviewing this now so this reference is a bit
more meaningful. Kou Uraki is the
Netflix Iron Fist of Gundam, and that’s far from a compliment. Kou is a brat in a 20 year olds body who
thinks hes the best, has one of the greatest powers in the universe (the
Gundam) and brags about how awesome a pilot he thinks he is. While the latter is debatable (he can make a
Gundam move, God knows how), the other two are not. All Kou does is whine, and whine, and whine
his way through every situation, hoping it will come out for the best. What’s
worse, even when the Gundam Unit 01 is torn up in battle, I doubt he’s learned
his lesson. Kou’s character has been on
a set course and it will not deviate right up until the end, I garuntee it.
While Kou and the rest of the Federation cast, especially
Nina, continue to grate the mind, the Zeon’s continue to shine brightly in
Gundam 0083. One of the newest additions
is Cima Garahau and her fleet. Cima
reminds me of Khyron from Macross. She’s
a total wild card who does things her way despite having a rep for burning more
villages than she should (in a manner of speaking). It intrigues me that Delaz would trust her
but he seems confident he can keep her in line.
I like that Gato wants to believe in this man and every choice he
makes. Even in a short scene, you
understand the bond built between these two men over the last three years. But Gato knows Cima is trouble just like the
viewer and it’s only a matter of time when she does something to derail Delaz’s
plans. It’s also noteworthy that Delaz’s
epic speech to the world is very much in the same vein as Ghirren Zabi’s iconic
speech from Mobile Suit Gundam, Admiral Cohen even calls him “The Ghost of
Ghirren Zabi”. Wheras Ghirren was more
inspiring yet tyrannical, Delaz is more straightforward and heartfelt. He’s not in it for the power, like Ghirren
was, he’s in it for his people.
Lastly on the Zeon front is Kelly, a one armed bad ass
who ends up befriending Kou when he lands on the moon. I’m just gonna say it now: happy montages of
guys fixing a Zeon Mobile Suit will always be the kiss of death for a
character. I saw shades of Bernie and Al
fixing the damaged Zaku in Gundam 0080 in this scene and knew someone was going
to get killed. Of course it cant be Kou
(cause life’s just not fair that way), so it sucks to see Kelly go. All he wanted was a chance to fight alongside
Gato again. Once more, the motivations
of the Zeon cast are a whole lot deeper and meaningful than anything the Albion
crew has going on.
While Kou may have bested Kelly, I attribute the win to
the kick ass new upgrade the Gundam Unit 01 got this week. Now THIS is what it always should have looked
like. This is a Gundam that looks as
iconic as the original or the Zeta or the Wing Zero and man can it move (even
with Uraki at the helm). The move to
space benefited from better animation all around. The action is sharp and intense. As much as I wasn’t a fan of the Unit 01’s
original look, it was still rough to see Cima blow it almost to pieces. Even some of the still frames, like the
ending with the Gundam kneeling on the moon while Kou hugs Nina, look pretty
damn impressive. This really is one of
the better looking Gundam shows out there, that’s for sure.
Oh and one more thing: How does Nina know Gato but didn’t
recognize him on Earth when he stole Unit 02 and why haven’t we seen any
indication during the chase that she has some knowledge of who he is? Her office of sexy coworkers even pointed out
that Nina had a love interest who she seemed to trade in for being a
workaholic. Plus Kelly knew Nina
too. If this is going where I think this
is going then…yeah not even a shot of Nina in just a T-shirt on the bed will
save her from the verbal freak out I’m gonna have when it comes to it.
The good guys still suck, the bad guys are intriguing and
the animation continues to impress. As
we reach the halfway point of this series, one can only hope the overall
quality improves. Right now, as an
action Anime, Gundam 0083 delivers. On
the characters side, well it’s embarraing to admit that teen Amuro from the
original 0079 series would probably kick Kou’s ass in battle (Newtype power or
otherwise). Right now, Gato (who was
criminally left out of much of this week), seems more the hero of the story
than anyone else. Again, why isn’t this
series told entirely from the Zeon side?
I’m sure I’ll ask that again next week as well as Gundam
Month Mark II carries on.
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