Li Zhang's Anime Blog

Mitsuko Kase, Takashi Imanishi, Sunrise, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory (1991), “Copyrighted Image”

Gundam 0083 takes place in between the original Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam. The series starts with the Albion, a ship based on the White Base. The Albion carries two prototype mobile suits, the RX-78 GP01 Gundam Zephyranthes and the GP02A Gundam Physalis, to the Torrington Base in Australia for ground testing. Kouki Uraki, our main character, wants to pilot one of the Gundams. However, before he got any confirmation, Zeon remnant forces led by ace pilot Anavel Gato steals the GP02A, which has a nuclear weapon loaded on to it. He is then permitted to use the Zephyranthes to go after Gato and retrieve the GP02A.

Story and Characters:

The main two characters are Kou Uraki and Nina Purpleton, and of course the Gundam rivalry this time is between Kou and Gato. The story never quite caught my attention, actually. I don’t have too much to say about it. This is a 12-episode OVA, so it’s quite short. I found that the rivalry between Kou and Gato wasn’t as believable or powerful as the one between Amuro and Char. The romance between Kou and Nina was not that good, but not as bad as 08th MS Team, I think. Overall, the characters were not the strong points of the show.

Animation:

The animation, however, is the strong point of the show. The animation is fluid and well-detailed. Of course, being an OVA the show probably had a high budget. The mecha designs deserve special mention. The main Gundams are designs done by Shoji Kawamori, the mecha designer for Macross. This was the only time he has done work for Gundam, but he really should do more. The main Gundams, specifically the Gundam GP01Fb Full Burnern has become one of my favorite Gundam designs. The GM and other MS designs, done by Katoki Hajime, has really made me like the GM. I’ll admit, while I’m a huge fan of Zeon suits, I quite dislike the GMs from the Federation. However, Katoki Hajime’s design for the GM Custom and GM Cannon made me like at least one GM from UC. The other GM designs I like are the GM Sniper K9 from Build Fighters and the Powered GM Cardigan from Build Fighters Try, although the design was originally based on the Powered GM in this series.

Conclusion:

Overall, I didn’t remember that much about this series even though it was short, which is why I didn’t write anything about the music because I don’t remember. The show’s selling point was definitely the animation, and I would recommend this to someone who is interested in Gundam. However, in terms of storytelling, it would disappoint them, so I recommend telling them beforehand that the show’s story isn’t good. Otherwise, it’s a pretty decent Gundam series. Sorry I had not much to say for this series, but it really didn’t offer much for me.