Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory Part 4-Episodes 11-13

UC0083.  The race is on to stop a colony from falling on the Federations headquarters in Jaburo.  Despite being ordered not to pursue by corrupt Federation forces, the Albion spearheads the Delaz Fleet, with Uraki and the Gundam Unit 03 at the front of the assault.  Through a labyrinth of lies, betrayals and revelations, Uraki heads towards one final showdown with Gato…with Nina caught in the crossfire.  And as Stardust reaches it’s climax, a darker direction for history lies on the horizon.  This is the event that changes the Universal Century forever.

 

Pros: The action and animation are stellar, Gato’s final blaze of glory, setups for Zeta Gundam

Cons: Kou and Nina-especially Nina, too many last minute twists and turns, hopeful epilogue isn’t hopeful

 

Before we begin the end of Gundam 0083, I need to talk about Macross for a moment.  Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, one of the biggest giant robot hits of the 80’s and the basis for the first season of Robotech here in the US, is known for more than just it’s space age adventure and incredible battles.  It’s well known for the infamous love triangle between pilot Hikaru Ichigo, Macross second in command Misa Hayase and singer Lynn Minmei.  Macross did an incredible job building this element up and paid it off so well at the end that it is still regarded as one of greatest romances in Anime.  It’s such a well done story, it has become common place in the Macross saga to have a love triangle: Macross Plus had Isamu, Gould and Myung and Macross Frontier had Altoh, Sheryl and Ranka (Not sure about Macross 7 or Macross Delta though im sure Delta probably has one).  The love triangle was integral to Plus and Frontier.  It wasn’t sprung up at the last moment and it was written in such a way that it was natural and felt just as important as the rest of the onscreen conflicts.  It’s romance done right.

 

Ok…that’s done…now it’s time to rant.

 

Gundam 0083’s biggest problem with the second half of this series is the sudden revelation that, wait for it, Nina was involved with Gato prior to the series.  And now, all of a sudden, she is determined to keep Kou from killing him and vice versa.  She is so desperate, she steals a core fighter in the middle of a battle, flies (crappily btw) to the falling colony and tries to talk a (very uninterested) Gato out of dropping it onto Earth.  Which then leads to Kou showing up, wounding Gato, only to have Nina point a gun at him and escort Gato to safety…the scream that Kou gives is reminiscent of my own and can only be summed up with a legendary line delivery by Ed Helms in The Hangover movies, “WHAT THE F*** IS GOING ON???!!!” 

 

Seriously, when did Gundam 0083 ever feel the need to force more conflict between Kou and Gato more than what was already going on?  And even Gato wasn’t even really interested in anything beyond completing Operation Stardust, Kou was just an afterthought to him, and rightfully so.  Kou was just so determined for Sempai to notice him that he even defies orders to defend the Albion cause Gato is all that matters and Gato WILL KNOW HIS NAME!!!...and yet Gato doesn’t even kill Kou, he lets him go cause he realizes, just like we have, that Kou isn’t worth it.  We’ll get to Gato’s awesome demise in a moment.  Anyway, forcing this needless wedge between Kou and Nina was it for me.  I didn’t care about Nina for a lot of this series but this twist in the plot just makes me flat out hate her.  Nice body and good fashion sense…but dum is mud and mud is dum and they have a sibling named Nina Purpleton.  Her character arc was all over the place, torn between caring for nothing else but her Gundams, then falling for Kou and forgetting she was in love with Gato once upon a time, to remembering she loved Gato and suddenly wants to save his life.  This isn’t just bad writing, it’s Gundam F91 bad writing.  I have plenty of bad things to say about Uraki but at least he gets some cool moments in.  Nina is the worst thing about Gundam 0083 and she really, REALLY comes close to distracting me from what’s actually a really awesome looking finale.

 

The writing wasn’t bad in just Nina’s area.  The sudden turn of Cima against Delaz was…well come on.  Even Delaz finally admits he was blind to Cima’s duplicity when clearly, she was going to do something stupid towards the end.  Her team up with the Federation is so out of left field and just serves as an excuse to throw things into further chaos.  This does, however, give Delaz a pretty cool death in that he stands his ground and asks Gato to carry on.  He gets a headshot, Gato screams and takes out his anger Delaz’s ship, it’s a good start to the final battle.  I did kind of wish Cima had gotten killed by Gato.  However, her death at the hands of the BFG on Kou’s Gundam Unit 03 was just so cool.

 

Speaking of, Kou and Gato both got new mechs for the final battle.  Kou got the aforementioned Gundam Unit 03 and, well it’s strange to even call it a Gundam.  It’s more of a Gundam Tank than a Mobile Suit.  The main unit is housed in a Mobile Armor like platform with rocket up the wazoo, long arms with beam sabers and rifles and enough ammo to fight a small war, which I guess this is.  The Unit 03 itself reminds me of the F91 and it’s not a bad design, it’s drawn really well.  It just relies too much on that bulkiness, which doesn’t really suit a Gundam to me.  Gundam Seed would later use this same kind of model in its own series and I think it might’ve done it better. Gato’s Neue Zeil is more impressive.  Even though it was weird watching the sizable hulk basically smash itself against Kou’s Gundam, it’s ability to take out battleships in one blow was great and, if things had gone differently, Gato could have used it to kill Kou…and is it wrong I wish that was the outcome?  Fun fact: Cima’s Mobile Suit at the end, that she got secretly from the Moon, was actually supposed to be Gundam Unit 04 but was incomplete and just given a Zeon esque finish, it’s pretty neat.  All of this is made possible by the best animation in the series.  The battles are beyond epic.  This is the first Gundam to follow Char’s Counterattack’s example of how to do large scale combat in Gundam.  The mechs are drawn really well and many of those still frames, especially the close ups of Unit 03, are worth a purchase if you can find animation cells of them anywhere.  You almost want to forget the shows faults when it looks this damn good.

 

Then there’s the end.  Kou and Gato fought, Nina cried when she had no right too, the colony fell not on Jaburo but on North America (not sure why) and Gato led one last desperate charge against the Federation.  This was one of the best but saddest moments to watch.  All series, I respected the hell out of Gato and even applauded when he not only gave Kou, but also Nina, the time of day cause, well they weren’t important (and they never were to anyone).  It’s actually good that Kou didn’t get to finish Gato because the final charge was the real way to send him out.  And all the while, I kept saying “He should have made it”.  Gato was one of the best characters in the Universal Century.  No, I’ll say he was one of the best characters in all of Gundam.  I could not have asked for a better end to his character.

 

And really that should have been where they ended it.  Somber but it was always going to be for everyone, Federation and Zeon alike.  No we got a brief epilogue that sets the stage for Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.  The Titans are officially announced with Zeta villains Basque Oum and Jamitov at the helm (both actually appear briefly, Basque himself partakes in the final battle).  It’s strange to see the Albion’s crew folded in with who are pretty much the bad guys in Zeta Gundam.  I cant see Synaps and his bridge crew joining up (maybe they defect to the AEUG).  The Albion pilots though?  Mancha flat out tortured a Zeon prisoner at one point so I can see him being on board with being a Titan.  His teammates…well they didn’t have much in terms of brains anyway so they probably went to.  But wait, there’s more.  Kou ends up back on Earth and the final shot is of him running into Nina at a new testing base…God I almost wish I could see the argument that followed.  But no, chances are he let bygones be bygones and just went to be with her again…screw you Kou Uraki…screw you.

 

It was rough watching Gundam 0083 sometimes.  Coming off an OVA as strong as Gundam 0080, which managed to give us great animation, a solid, heart tugging story, likeable characters and a strong message for the kids in just six episodes, I expected better.  When it came to the animation, 0083 blew 0080 out of the water.  God this is a gorgeous show, 90’s Anime at it’s best and a solid template for other Studio Sunrise shows to come, like The Vision of Escaflowne.  The music was good, the action very well done.  The writing and characters suffer from poor character motivations, a lot of whining and no real reason to like the good guys at all, especially Kou and Nina.  Gato and the Zeons steal a lot of the show with the deeper depth of their characters and their general likeability, though some like Cima lacked depth and just came off as one notes to get killed off at the end.  I still like this OVA for everything it does right.  The things it does wrong are way to evident and cannot be ignored.  Nina cant make up her mind what the hell she’s supposed to do on this show and Kou is all about “SEMPAI NOTICE ME!!!”…while Gato pretty much replied with, “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME YOU F****** NUTJOB”.  It’s not a bad thing we haven’t seen these characters again throughout the Universal Century.  Seeing them again would only drag down whatever other story they’d appear in.  Though I would love just a short scene of Gato and Char running into each other, what an epic that would be (hey The Origin, you’ve got two more episodes coming right?  Make it happen please).

 

So in the end, the final score I give Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory is a…

 

7/10

 

PS
I should take a moment to note how amazing the end theme for the second half of the series is.  “Evergreen” is one of the most epicly soothing end themes in any Anime and it has a special place in my heart.  At my first Otakon in 2010, I saw some of the second half of 0083 in a screening hall and hearing the theme echo in a large room during one of the biggest experiences of my life…well a theme like that stays with you forever.  The other two opening themes and one other ending theme are fine but Evergreen…that’s my theme.

 

And that concludes Gundam Month Mark II.  Check back in next week as we begin summer with some sexy women in some sexy looking mecha.  Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 starts next Monday.  See ya then.