Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories, Vol. 3 & 4 (1991)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Akinori Endo, Fuyushi Gobu, Asahide Okuma, and Ryôsuke Takahashi
Directed by Takashi Imanishi, Atsuko Kase
Art Direction by Jun'ichi Higashi
Character Designer Toshihiro Kawamoto
Mechanical Designer Mika Akitaka

Features:

• Mobile Suit Encyclopedia
  
• Trailers
  
• Clean opening and closing
  

Rating: 13+

Anamorphic: N/A

My advice: Pass unless you're a die-hard Gundam fan.

Four years after the close of the One Year War, tensions are heating up again for the Earth Federation. And once again, it will fall to a young man in a giant robot suit to lead the charge against the forces of evil. Kuo Uraki is a young pilot in the Earth Federation, entrusted with one of the precious (and rare) Gundam mobile suits. But unlike his precursor Amuro Ray, his mobile suit is no longer one of a kind--and the bad guys are packing their own Gundam.

These two volumes cover a trip to the infamous battleground of Solomon, where the One Year War reached its culmination just a few years back. Losing Gundam Unit 1 in battle with Gato’s Unit 2 Gundam, Kuo is entrusted with Gundam Unit 3, the last available mobile suit of its kind in the area. But the forces of Zeon aren’t about to let the Albion out of the region without a fight, and no sooner has the new suit been secured than they launch their assault. The result is a running battle as the crew of the Albion fight for their lives against the rebels at Solomon, in a conflict that echoes the final stages of the One Year War.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 picks up a few years after the close of the original series. The technology has come along a bit, the tensions still run high with Zeon, and for some reason, it’s another inexperienced raw recruit who will turn out to be the Greatest Mobile Suit Pilot Ever^TM. If this sounds a lot like the original series to you, you’re right. If you’re wondering what the point is of another series exactly like the first, you’re not alone. This series is a lot more of the same, only without the decent writing and plot development (at least in these volumes). Essentially, you get more space battles and less plot and character development.

The animation is a notch above the previous shows in the Gundam universe, which makes the increased number of battle sequences at least nice to watch. With the improved look, it’s a shame that the show doesn’t seem to have much to say through this collection of episodes. Of all the series in the franchise, the writing in 0083 seems the weakest. This may improve as the series develops, but it remains to be seen. In other shows, the lulls have always come after the viewer was drawn in early.

The DVD presentation is good, with excellent audio and video. The voice acting is decent, if unremarkable. The extras are pretty slim, with the Mobile Suit Encyclopedia being the major attraction. It would be nice to see a comprehensive MSG timeline somewhere on these discs--in fact, it would make a better “standard feature” than the encyclopedia. A map would also be nice, for those of us that haven’t the faintest idea how all these colonies, federations, and alliances fit together in our solar system.

As an entry in the Gundam world, this one really doesn’t cut the mustard. As an anime title, it has more to offer than most robot-suit dramas, but so much less than other Gundam shows that it doesn’t make sense to pick 0083 when you could pick one of the others. Ultimately, it's just not as compelling as the original, and--despite its upgraded animation--not worth it to any but the Gundam completists.