Anime Legends: Stardust Memory (Gundam 0083)

After I heard about Bandai calling it quits on publishing anime in North America, I decided it was high time to make a push to watch a slew of Bandai-published series I had not bothered watching yet, while I could still find them.

I promise you, these aren’t going to all be Gundam series.

Stardust Memory bridges the gap between Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, or so I heard. Translation: The series I saw bridges the gap between series I’ve seen bits and pieces of and series I’ve never seen at all.

Here we see two Earth Federation grunts, protagonist Ensign Kou Uraki and second-banana Chuck Keith. We also see two Gundams. Your assumption, however, is wrong.

The story begins with an alternate flashback to the climactic battle in the original Gundam series to introduce characters who presumably were always involved in the war to serve as 0083‘s antagonists. Although the Earth Federation succeeded against their space-faring fellow humans of the Principality of Zeon, they failed to crush the Zeon military, allowing remnants to retreat and bide their time.

Flash forward to the present, where we are introduced to a group of new recruits in the Earth Federation’s mobile suit (giant robot) corps engaging in training exercises through the ruins of one of many of the space colonies Zeon had crashed into Earth during the old war.

We’re introduced (in particular) to our fated hero, greenhorn Kou Uraki, his bespectacled friend Chuck Keith, and their superior officer, Lt. South Burning. Not long after the training, the Federation ship Albion arrives at their base with a secretive cargo. Naturally, the young aspiring mobile suit pilots can’t help but see what the fuss is.

The cargo, of course, are brand new variations of the Federations best war machine, the titular Gundam. The experimental advanced models, RX-78 GP01 (an improved revision of the original RX-78) and RX-78 GP02 (a heavily armed and armored model whose oversized bazooka can fire a nuclear warhead!) don’t just capture the imagination of our heroes.

Gato, a superior Zeon solider who we met in the prologue, learned about the secretive transport and prepared a sneak attack on the base and the Albion. While the leader of the Gundam’s engineering support team, Nina Purpleton, is ushering Koh and Chuck out of the hanger, Gato infiltrates the base, slips into the GP02 and fights his way out — taking the nuclear payload with him.

Gato’s move made, his small group of Zeon forces attack the base in earnest, inflicting severe damage before a costly defense can be mounted. Knowing that the GP02 can’t be stopped by just any mobile suit, Kou steals the GP01 to confront Gato.

The results are mixed. While Kou is no match for a grizzled war veteran, the Gundam is stout enough to take a beating. Gato is in turns amused by the young pilot, occasionally providing advice on how to fight, but is also annoyed by the delay Kou provides in Gato completing the Gundamjack.

Koh, Nina, Chuck, Lt. Burning and the crew of the Albion pursue the stolen Gundam, engaging in fight after fight with hidden Zeon forces on Earth, ultimately following Gato into space with each new fight escalating the conflict further.

… and further!

While Koh is allowed to continue piloting the Gundam, he is no fated hero. He makes rash decisions that lead to realistic consequences. He does learn as he goes on, but his drive to prove himself and capture Gato has a tendency of leading him into more trouble.

The political aspect of the series is very appealing, and makes it fell like a real-life war; Gato’s theft of GP02 and its nuclear payload was not simply to acquire the weapons, but to present them as evidence that the Federation was proliferating new weapons of war. This appears to reunite the remnants of Zeon against the Earth Federation.

I say “appears” because few of the people and groups in this war drama have straightforward motivations, with many keeping a skeleton in the closet or trying to play what they know of the situation for personal gain. Even the Earth Federation and its supporters are not blameless though the entire incident. This is no story of moral absolutes.

Perhaps the best episode of the series, epitomizing the theme that both sides of the conflict are to blame, and both sides have good people, is the sixth. In any other anime, the grounded plot would be little more than a filler episode. But here, it’s a heartfelt story about honor amongst enemies. Although better robot battles can be found in other episodes, this is easily the thematic high point of the 13-episode series.

One part of the narrative I am a touch bothered by the relationship between our Gundam pilot and the mobile suits’ wrangler from war machine manufacturer Anaheim Electronics. Kou and Nina start out antagonistically, with Kou far more interested in the Gundam (and making rash decisions in using it) than its overprotective manager (and the effort it takes to fix his mistakes). An office romance begins as pilot and engineer must work closely through the series of battles, but things go a touch amiss. Nina, a strong, intelligent and accomplished woman who has no problem giving Kou the tongue-lashing of his life every time the GP01 comes back with a dent on its its fender, should have no problem actively promoting a relationship that she wants to blossom.

Instead, she waits for Kou to make the first move. And when the young, romantically inexperienced pilot finally tries stammer his way through asking for a date, she runs off crying, telling him to “be a man.” It’s pretty ugly to watch a strong character become 110% submissive as soon as romance enters the picture in this day and age, and I don’t think the day and age when this show was made (1991) was all that different in this respect.

Frankly, the relationship between Koh and Nina’s sidekicks looks far more interesting, but nearly all of those developments, sadly, happen off-screen.