Review: MSG 0083

My revisiting of 0083 was one I was simultaneously looking forward to and dreading. There seems to be a lot of hate for this series all over the internet and I have a fondness for it since it was my first introduction to the Universal Century thanks to Toonami. My verdict upon re-viewing 0083: It's better than I remember.

Plot
In a lot of ways 0083 sticks to the basic plot of many of the Gundam long form series. A rookie pilot, Kou Uraki, is put in an impossible situation against an enemy ace pilot, Anavel Gato. Gato is part of the Delaz fleet, a group of former Zeon soldiers who fled the battle of A Bao Que in an effort to preserve the ideals of Zeon. Gato works with a few other Delaz fleet soldiers and steals a new prototype Gundam, the GP-02, which is armed with a nuclear warhead. The result is that Kou, his mentor South Burning, his friend Keith and a team of GM pilots are assigned to the assault carrier Albion and pursue Gato in an attempt to prevent Operation Stardust and to retrieve the GP-02.

The biggest difference between 0083 and the longer series is that Kou Uraki is a test pilot rather than a random teenager. That alone elevates the events to a more realistic point. It also makes Kou's survival in the face of Anavel Gato's attacks more believable since being a test pilot requires a high level of skill. Newtypes are non-existent in 0083, also adding to the realism.

The story at the heart of 0083 is the story of a desperate battle waged by the remnants of Zeon, Kou's journey from teenager to manhood and, in the background, the rise of both the Titans and Axis. While the story itself is interesting and I love both Gato and Uraki, this series really shines if you've already seen Zeta.

Animation
0083, without a doubt, is the most beautiful Gundam series produced yet. The battles are visceral and fast-paced, the mobile suits move fluidly and overall the show looks great. There's not much more to say than this show has to be seen to be believed.

Overall
0083 is one of my favorite Gundam series. The drama is intense, the characters are likeable and actually grow through the series and the combat is amazing. As much as I love 0083, it doesn't match up to 0080 for showing the horrors of war. We see a fair amount of horrific deaths but none have the weight of Bernie's demise. The MS combat is a bit too cool for the anti-war sentiment of Gundam at its core.

Despite that, 0083 is a great show. As I stated, I love these characters and their growth is very interesting to me. Kou experiences a lot of highs and lows through the series. At some points, he's a hero; at other times, he struggles to break even. And that's what makes me love this show. I don't recall any other protagonist having to struggle so hard and, in the end, still come up short.

Spoilers
I don't think Kou goes back to Nina. The end of that show leaves it open-ended, but the fact that Kou doesn't run to her tells me a lot.

Revisiting Gundam: Crossfire (PS3)

Like many gamers, I bought Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire shortly after getting my PS3, played it and then sold it. I was quite disappointed with it, especially after playing Gundam games on the PSP and Gamecube. I moved on and didn't give it any further thought. Then one day, while visiting Amazon, I read a review that claimed Crossfire was misunderstood and was actually a spiritual successor to Rise from the Ashes on Dreamcast. This caught my attention and I rebought Crossfire at the really nice price of $11.

Before Crossfire arrived, I plugged my Dreamcast into my HDTV and set out to give Rise from the Ashes a long-awaited revisiting. While the game looked great via the VGA input, the controls were impossible and the game was not fun to try to get back into. I had flashbacks of the week I spent back in the day mastering the controls. Nope. Not doing that again. As luck would have it, Crossfire arrived the next day and proved that reviewer right.

I started a new EFF campaign and was shocked at how similar Crossfire is to Rise from the Ashes. The mobile suits have the same feeling of weight and size but the PS3 controller works much better than the Dreamcast controller ever could. Allied pilots are little more than names and stats but can be commanded in a general fashion. This makes the game play faster than Rise. In Rise, I found myself constantly  pausing the game to adjust tactics and give commands. Crossfire is much more of an action game.

Crossfire also has a ton of mobile suits for use, including just about every GM variation possible. It beats Rise hands down in playable units. Each suit can be modified to increase its attack power, weapon technology and defense. Sometimes, modifying a suit is better than buying a new one.

Despite these good points, I have to point out the bad. The frame rate is abysmal. There's no excuse for that and it can dip rather low during high intensity battles. The ally AI is not that good. I've found that if you order them to rally to you before they engage the enemy, there's a better chance they'll follow the order. Once the enemy is engaged, orders are pretty much ignored.

There are tons of great Gundam games out there. My favorite is Mobile Suit Gundam Battlefield Record UC 0081 but it falls more into the hyper stylized mecha game than the realistic sim Rise and Crossfire aspire to. Crossfire is built for a very specific audience - players who want to experience a more realistic approximation of what mobile suit performance would be in the One Year War. If that sounds appealing, you'll like Crossfire.

And Crossfire is better than any of the Gundam Dynasty Warriors games out there.

War in the Pocket review

Considering that Gundam is, at its core, an anti-war parable, no series embodies this ideal as successfully as Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket.

Gundam 0080 takes place in December 0079. War in the Pocket tells the story of Al, a young boy who lives on a neutral colony in Side 6. Al and his friends are all obsessed with mobile suits and the One Year War. One day after school, the boys are lucky enough to see a mobile suit battle in the skies of their colony. Al chases a downed Zaku and meets its pilot Bernard Wiseman.

Bernie and Al become friends and are the central characters in the series. Bernie leaves the colony to report to Zeon command that there is a Federation base on the colony and is reassigned to a special forces unit known as the Cyclops team and redeployed to Side 6. By chance, Al sees Bernie and uses the police to track him down. The Cyclops team decides to use Al for information gathering and Bernie is placed in charge of watching over him. This leads to Bernie meeting Al's neighbor and friend Christina McKenzie, a Federation test pilot. Bernie and Chris are interested in each other and the stage is set for the most tragic series in all of UC Gundam thus far.

0080 does a lot to endear the cast to the viewer and the result is a series of events that are heartbreaking and mesmerizing all at once. Decisions are made and actions are taken that completely ruin lives and, by the end, the message left with the viewer is that war is completely destructive and has no positive points. That, in a nutshell, is the point of Gundam.

Zaku Mega Blocks review

About a month back, I finally found a Mega Blocks Zaku at a reasonable price and, based on the smaller Zeta Gundam they've released and my love for the MS-06, I decided to give it a shot.

The massive instruction manual provides instructions for the MS-06 and MS-06-R1 High Mobility type. The difference is primarily in leg construction, adding nozzles and such on the sides. There's also 2 variations on the backpack. I decided to go with the second variation which is more complex and looks nicer. The booklet pictures a third Zaku leg configuration but there are no instructions for building it. The same is true for the Zaku machine gun variation used in War in the Pocket. Instructions for a punching shield are also included.

The Mega Blocks Zaku is an impressive piece once it's assembled. Its height is just about 13". The amount of detail in the kit is astounding, especially the backpack which is made up of gray and drab green pieces.

08th MS Team wrap up

In the end, the 08th MS Team is nothing short of amazing. The series started off with several character-driven episodes, each highlighting a member of the team while slowly advancing the plot. With episodes 6 and 7 the stage is set for the series to really take off, which it does in splendid fashion.

While not as gritty as one would expect given the "MS battles in Vietnam" tagline, this series definitely has its moments. Many characters lose friends and family, swear revenge and try to survive. If what you want is a regular soldier's view of the One Year War, this series provides that. It also introduces some of my favorite characters in all of Gundam. An optimistic soldier who has more guts than skill? Brilliant. A musician who can listen to sounds to find enemy positions; very cool. A dedicated war horse who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals; perfect.

The epilogue
If there's one thing people seem to dislike about the 08th MS Team, it has to be the epilogue. I loved it. It provides closure in a very non-Gundam manner. Sanders, Karen and Eledore have been sent on to other units, while Kiki and Michel, now retired, search for proof that Shiro survived. I love that he was able to change the lives of the team and the people he encountered to such a degree. During the course of the search, we learn that B.B. got married and that Michel is now an alcoholic. Kiki is trying to help him move on but he isn't interested in doing so.

The story of the abandoned Zeon kids is interesting to me. These kids were on a Musai that was shot down but they were launched in the Komusai escape pod and told to carry out their mission. These kids have no memories and are completely lost. They are also the last people to see Shiro and Aina. It seems that the couple spent some time with these kids and taught them some basic survival skills as well as some humanity. In the end, the kids point Kiki and Michel in the direction Aina and Shiro were moving in.

After a bit more travel, Kiki and Michel find the cabin in the woods that is now the home of Shiro and Aina. Aina is pregnant and Shiro, missing a leg, smiles at his friends. Michel runs over to greet them and Kiki returns Shiro's smile.

The first time I saw this ending, I was hit pretty hard by how sad it is. It's great that Shiro and Aina survived and that they're together. That's a very happy ending, especially for a Gundam series. The sadness I felt was for Kiki. I'm sure she's relived to see Shiro again but the knowledge that he is forever out of her reach is quite sad.

Newtypes
One thing that really struck me during this viewing of the series was that, despite the term never being uttered, Shiro and Aina really seem like Newtypes. Despite their hatred for the opposing side, both managed to understand each other and connect on a deep level. Interacting with Aina even forced Shiro to reconsider his hatred towards Zeon despite their gassing his colony. If these two could look beyond themselves and communicate in such a manner, are they not the true embodiment of the Newtype idea?

08th MS Team episodes 6 and 7

Honestly, every episode of the 08th MS Team is good. That being said, episodes 6 and 7 are amazing. The main story arc starts to build in these episodes and there are many character defining moments.

Episode 6
The 08th MS Team finds what it believes to be the training grounds for the Apsalus. Tha majority of this episode is the team waiting in the desert for Apsalus. Eledore is absent as he's in the hospital from wounds sustained in the previous episode; Michel is manning the hover truck but is very distracted. The team is joined by Kiki, who is trying to express her feelings for Shiro by helping him out in any way she can.

In a rather touching scene, Kiki steals Michel's letter and runs off with it. He chases her and she starts to tease him by reading parts of the letter which she learns is not a love letter but a break up letter. As she realizes this, Kiki slows down and then hands the letter to Michel, who has collapsed to the ground. The two talk about the letter. Michel fears that B.B. is too far away to understand his feelings. Kiki responds that people can be too far away even if they're next to each other. This scene is so raw in a sense; it's both beautiful and intensely sad.

Five days into the stakeout, Shiro and Michel have a confrontation over Michel's state of mind. Sanders breaks them up and tells Michel to take over in his MS. Kiki and Shiro have an exchange and Karen watches, smiling. This scene shows Kiki's strength and Karen's seeming approval of it.

Finally, the Apsalus shows up. The team's plan almost works but the Apsalus gets the drop on Michel's mobile suit and Shiro slams his Gundam into the Apsalus to save Michel. The Apsalus takes off vertically, with Shiro's Gundam clinging to it. The pilot of the Apsalus asks Shiro if he wants to die. Shiro recognizes the pilot's voice.

Episode 7
The Apsalus and Gundam are flying over a mountain range. Shiro wants to let Aina know he's the pilot so that she doesn't kill him. He gets through to her and the two try to land the Apsalus and Gundam on a mountain. As the Apsalus tries to slow down, Shiro declares his love for Aina just as he uses the Gundam's propulsion system to stop the Apsalus from falling over the cliff. His Gundam does fall off of the ledge. Aina lowers herself to the ground and finds Shiro, who is injured and frostbitten. While unconscious, Shiro dreams of Zeon soldiers gassing his colony at Side 2. He wakes up and attacks Aina. She calms him and he regains his senses.

Norris tells Ginias he's heading out to retrieve Aina and Ginias doesn't respond. He can longer fight off the insanity and is off his meds. Norris glares at Ginias. On his way to his plane, Norris is informed that Odessa has fallen.

Aina and Shiro work to defrost his hands and end up using the Gundam's beam saber to create a hot spring. The two enjoy a bath. Unlike the Kiki episode earlier in the show, Aina's body is hidden.

As luck would have it, Zeon and Federation rescue ships arrive at the same time and engage in battle. Shiro screams at the ships to stop and is almost shot by strafing fire. Aina knocks him out of the way and asks him if he's trying to die. He asks her if their relationship has any chance considering the war. As he asks the question, a Gunperry nears the crashed Apsalus and opens up to lower a Ground GM to investigate. Aina uses her wrist wacth to detonate the Apsalus, killing the nearby Federation pilots. As Shiro stares in disbelief, Aina puts on her helmet and is lifted away by a Zeon rescue plane.

This episode is extremely powerful. The audience finally hears the reasoning behind both Shiro and Aina's involvement in the war and learns about the depth of their feelings. While the show has been very good, this is where it really gets going.

08th MS Team Disc 1 review

As much as I love Mobile Suit Gundam, the side stories of the One Year War are what really won me over to Gundam and the Universal Century. Case in point: The 08th MS Team.

In the review of MSG, I noted the warmth and beauty of the animation and art. The 08th MS Team, on the other hand, has the slick look of 90s OVA art and animation. Both are beautiful, just different in approach. I prefer the designs of the mobile suits in the 08th MS Team, overall, partially because the series has some of my favorite redesigns of classic mobile suits. The Ground GMs and Ground Gundams are amazingly designed and beautifully animated. It's nice to see chest flares in a Federation suit. The Zeon mobile designs are even stronger. As cool as the classic Zaku is, the 08th take on that design is both more organic and terrifying. And as for Norris Packard's Gouf, wow, just wow. That is my favorite Zeon suit design, hands down.

Speaking of Norris, let's talk characters.