This week I decided to take a look back at an older entry in the Gundam franchise which I have not watched for at least 7 years or so, this series was quite special to me as it was the first one set in the overarching Universal Century time line that I watched and thus introduced me to the conflict we see time and again between the Earth Federation and Zeon, while this series is set towards the end of the Original, it is not required to have watched the original series before this as it is pretty self contained.
War in the Pocket was the first OVA produced in the Gundam franchise made to commemorate the franchises 10 year anniversary (Which has only just recently reached it's 35th) and also the first
Universal Century piece not directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino. With this came a desire to move away from the norms of the franchise which tended to focus on pilots who were classed as 'Newtypes', eg: the believed next step in human evolution who had adapted to the move to space with a heightened mental awareness, which in Mobile suit combat terms made them a much better pilot as we see in the original series with Amuro Ray being a young boy who slowly becomes an Ace pilot thanks to being a Newtype. This move away from the idea of Newtypes was in order to focus on the more civilian and general solider aspects of the war as well as a way to entice new viewers to the franchise.
The story follows the experiences of a young boy, Al set during the One Year War and how the war was brought to his small colony after The Principality of Zeon finds a prototype Gundam is being tested by the Earth Federation in secret at their base. As the story progresses we see that Al is more entwined to the war than he realises, with his friendship with Zeon grunt pilot Bernie being used against him without him realising as he begins to help them spy on the location and manufacturing of the gundam, therefore giving them an edge in combating it. With Al being just a child he soon begins to realise that all he has done to help his friend could end up with Zeon gaining an edge in the war and Bernie being Killed in Action.
The OVA was directed solely by Fumihiko Takayama, who at the time had only worked as a director on a few episodes of a number of Anime such as Macross. Takayama was partnered with character and art designer for the OVA, Haruhiko Mikimoto who is perhaps most famous for his work on Macross and Gunbuster as he used a distinctive style for his characters perhaps most noticeable in the way he drew their eyes.With these two names linked to the OVA it was set up to be a success, but with it being the first non Tomino work of the franchise it could be a risky move. However this series remains popular with a number of fans as it was a short series that introduced them to a very self contained story within the franchise, this is also true for Western fans as it eventually aired on Toonami after the success of Gundam Wing.
The main focus of this OVA is on three characters, Al, Christina and Bernie who represent the civilian side, the Earth Federation and Zeon respectively, while these are our three main characters it is Al who is given the most screen time as he is connected to both of the latter characters in some form and primarily acts as our eyes throughout the entire event. Al is an 11 year old school boy who is interested in the war and mobile suits in general, perhaps this interest stems from the fact that his father is always away from home as he works for the Earth Federation in some form, although we never really get detail on what his job actually is we know it is to do with either the test of mobile suits or then transportation of them.
With this interest in mobile suits, Al eventually witnesses a small battle in his colony and follows a struck down Zeon suit to the forest where he eventually strikes a unlikely friendship with Bernie by threatening to call the police if he doesnt let him see his gun and other items, while this meeting is only short over time these two begin to cross paths again, eventually ending with Al finding their hideout and offering to join them in locating the secret mobile suit being developed on to colony.
While Bernie generally does enjoy Al's company during this time he is aware that his team is only using his innocence against him and this naturally leads to a number of issues over the course of the OVA.
Christina is an Earth Federation test pilot for the Gundam 'Alex' who we are introduced to as an old babysitter and neighbour of Al's, Christina is kind of the innocent, girl next door type until we see what she can really do when she's testing out the Gundam. Chris seems to act as the voice of reason in some instances for Al, such as explaining to him that in war it's not wrong to fight to protect the ones you love even if it means harming another, which ultimately give Al the motivation he needs to find Bernie and make sure his colony remains safe overall.
While Chris a part of the main cast she is only seen a handful of times, but this is not to say she is underused, I believe by having her mostly viewed as a civilian by Al and Bernie it provides that air of mystery about her. While we as the viewer eventually do find out that she is a test pilot for the federation it is still difficult to get past her good natured and caring appearance that we see her in whenever she is with Al, which is not to say her being a MS pilot makes her seem more gritty or tougher but because we rarely see her on screen in this way it is hard to make an overall judgement on her character as a whole.
Lastly we have Bernie who is a character we do not really get to see until the final scene of the first episode as his Zaku crash lands after a battle we hear off screen from the children's perspectives. Bernie is a rookie pilot for the Principality of Zeon who was sent out in his first real MS battle, only to be shot down pretty quickly, while his Zaku is out of commission he meets Al and wants nothing to do with him as he has to get back to his mission, shortly after we see these two cross paths again and see them working together.
Bernie starts out as a character who finds Al nothing more than a hindrance, to himself and to his mission. However his commanding officer finds a use for him and puts Bernie on a babysitting duty, over the time they spend together Bernie slowly comes to see Al as a little brother, who he really does care for. As we reach the end of the OVA we find out that Bernie is the only hope to save the colony from a Nuclear attack, and while he finds this a very questionable act by his own side he knows he must defeat the Gundam in order to save not only Al, but the entire population of the colony.
Interestingly about this character is that it may be one of the earliest attempts within the franchise to show that all members of Zeon are not necessarily evil as they are portrayed to be in a lot of the media surrounding this franchise, Bernie acts as the portrayal of a solider who much like a member of the federation is just fighting for what he believes in, and while he may not be the most experienced pilot he will do what he can to stop the federation from winning, ultimately ending in his unfortunate death.
This OVA is generally well received and has many aspects that work well for it, perhaps the most useful being the length, of course with this being an Original Video Animation it is expected that it will be a tad shorter than the typical 50 episode main series, but with 0080 the director chose to make this a very concise entry in the franchise, with 6 episodes at around 30 minutes each, while in the present this may not seem too odd, with an example like Gundam Unicorn clocking in at 7 episodes more recently, it is generally expected now that an OVA series will have it's episodes clocking in at 45-60 minutes long.
I believe by having this concise frame the story actually works a lot better, not only for being a good entry level show to watch but also for the story itself, there is no need for any filler scenes and the pacing works really well, while you may feel in this case they could rush a lot of aspects and perhaps this may be the opinions of many, but I feel as thought it kept the important battles fresh by not having the characters knowing who each other were and therefore no need for them to have a 5 minute or so chat breaking up the action. This was an event that took place over just a couple of weeks there is absolutely no need for it to be dragged out, especially when there is not much Mecha combat to break it up.
In terms of voice acting and the soundtrack both work really well, I personally watched the English Dub this time around so I will only comment on that, as far as English releases go this worked very well, perhaps because it was only a few characters that we were focusing on, but the main characters were voiced particularly well, with Al being one of those rare examples of childs English dub voice not being annoying.
Wendee Lee who is perhaps most known for voicing Faye Valentine in the fantastic dub of Cowboy Bebop voiced Christina and naturally did an excellent job, of course we know today that Lee has a huge number of VA credits to her name and with earlier examples such as these it is not hard to see why, she perfectly puts across her soft voice in Christina and really puts the image of her across and the kind and caring girl next door.
Lastly we have Bernie who is voiced by David Hayter who most known for voicing Solid and Naked Snake in the Metal Gear Franchise until recently. While we're used to a rough and gravely voice from Hayter when he voices Snake, when he voices Bernie it couldnt be more different, with Bernie we get a voice similar to Hayters normal voice but taken slightly higher, this perfectly puts across that the character is a rookie and not used to the harshness of War, almost as if he is a fresh out of college guy who has just entered the 'real world', Hayter does well to put across the feeling that while Bernie is with the traditionally 'evil' Zeon, he's a pretty nice guy.
In terms of the soundtrack I have no real complaints, both the Opening and Ending themes work really well with the series, being softer songs that give a more sombre tone rather than your typical 80s J-pop. The imagery used within the Ending works particularly well with a number of stils depicting children during the war, from them playing on the wreckage of machinery to a child crying.
Like most OVA's the Animation is quite good, especially in terms of character designs however while the animation is great it is not as good as some examples of work by the same art designer in 1984's Macross: Do You Remember Love, which to be fair was a theatre released Movie and not just an OVA so more than likely had a much larger budget.
Much like the 08th MS Team this story does have a focus on a Romeo and Juliet trope, however unlike the former there is no good ending and it is nowhere near as intense in this series. it is portrayed more as a crush between two people and both of them are not aware of the others status of the enemy, although there is this element to the story it is merely touched upon as the two never really seem to be close to one another in the small time frame the OVA is set between, however we do get that hint that they do both like each other.
I believe that rather than shoehorning in a romance sub plot and merely touching upon the subject it actually gives this series some good marks, it helps to show that overall War can take people away from one another and also hinder the chances of people even getting to know each other. This rather depressing message fits with the tone of the overall show in that War is an awful thing. Many fans, myself included feel that not having Bernie and Chris together really is one of the bigger depressing factors of the show, as they never really got that chance. Perhaps their story would have ended up similarly to that of Shiro and Aina from the 08th MS Team had they found out who each other really was.
Now while this OVA in my opinion does do a number of things right and really is up there as one of the better animated features in the franchise there are a few smaller aspects that many people may not enjoy or perhaps have a problem with.
Although it isnt something that bothers me personally, one reason that a lot of fans of the franchise may not find this OVA to be too great is because of the lack of fight scenes, although the battles they do show are very well animated and include great units like the shotgun wielding Kampfer, the fights are generally second fiddle to the story and relativity short, other than the battle between the Gundam and the Kampfer and the final battle between Bernie and Chris, none of the other units skirmishes are particularly memorable.
In order to move the story along there are a few questionable notes such as the Zeon special forces team instantly guessing that the space port was housing a newtype use Gundam, which we later find out is the case and was intended for the use of Amuro Ray the protagonist of the original series. I find this quite strange for the character to instantly leap to this idea because at that point in the war not many people knew about the Gundam other than hearsay and to instantly think there were more in development specifically for a newtype like Amuro was a little odd.
I feel the final acts of the show are rather irrational on Zeons part as the commander of the fleet in that area decides that because he believes the squad he sent to destroy the Gundam has been K.I.A, the only way to stop it being acquired by White Base and Amuro, would be to Nuke the entire colony. I understand that a lot of times Zeon has to be portrayed as this Nazi like evil and that if Amuro did receive the Alex Gundam then the war would probably be over even sooner, I feel like this decision is a little crazy even for a bunch of guys who later on drop a whole colony on Australia and then on Dublin... but only because its not that difficult to send in another squad, you already knew where the unit was housed man just send in another squad, you don't need to nuke anything.
Overall, A great piece we can take from this is a civilian child's look at the war and how it may or may not effect them, as we see in th first episode most of the kids find the War to be cool in that giant robots are fighting on Earth and in space, we even see them being more on the side of Zeon originally because at the time they were the only ones to have 'cool mobile suits'. As time progresses and the war is brought to their doorstep on the colony they thought was safe we really begin to see how effected their lives have become. In a way that is a sort of commentary on wars even today in that a lot of people may not think much of a war going on in some part of the world until something happens on their own doorstep.
Of course in the case of Al we clearly see these effects take hold more as he is our point of reference for the ordeal, it is fair to say he experiences are quite a bit more important than those of a regular civilian during the war as of course he was close to two soldiers from opposing sides. More so on the side of Zeon as he uses some pretty sneaky tactics to get himself further entwined with Bernie and his team by pretending to be Bernies younger brother, as he's just a child it seems he just wants to be a part of the war effort because he thinks it's cool, ultimately this would lead to the Zeon gaining more information and the team using him.
It is only during Episode 4 when his friends begin to tease him for liking Zeon Mobile Suits and after he is caught in a battle at the federation base that results in the death of 200+ including children, that he begins to question if those he has admired are truly the 'good guys' in this war or just as bad as the other side. This focus on the clouding of a childs mind is always at the forefront of this OVA, without exploiting his honesty and admiration for Mobile Suits it's fair to say perhaps the Zeon squad may not have got as far as they did in this event, although the decision by Zeon to Nuke the colony because of the Gundams whereabouts may have happened regardless.
In the end Bernie leaves Al an important message, he leaves Al all the evidence of Zeons exploits and plans to destroy the colony, he states he has to fight, not because he hates the Federation, but because he is a solider, 'whatever happens dont go hating the Gundam or the Feddies, they're just people doing what they believe is right'. The real tragedy of this is that the Nuke launch was prevented way before Bernie planned his attack on the Gundam, meaning he never really had to fight or die. When Al realises this we see the true effect of the war on him as he looks on in disbelief at his two friends unknowingly fight each other to the death.
With this tragic ending to the series in the last scene we see Al in front of his now destroyed school taking in all that has happened to him during this event, and although we see Chris survived the battle and is safe we know that many including Bernie were not so lucky during the One Year War, Al begins to cry at this thought showing that now he truly understands the tragedy of war and that it isnt as 'cool' as his peers seem to think it is, in stark contrast to his two friends who just tell him, 'Dont worry there will be other wars with plenty other cool mobile suits for us to look at'. Which in the Universal Century time line couldn't be more true.
In the end this story is a depressing tale of what the 'One Year War' had become and how smaller parties became effected, although it was made back in 89 it still remains a popular choice for a lot of fans with many watching it around Christmas as thats when it is set, I feel that overall this is an entry in the franchise that has not lost its spark or message, it remains a great entry in to the UC time line for those who don't want anything to heavy and even stands on it's own as a very self contained entry. It is definitely a series I would recommend to anyone wanting to get in to the franchise overall or even Mecha based Anime in general as it has great animation, memorable characters and a neatly concise story.
Although it can be pretty depressing I feel as though it works in this setting and while that may not be for everyone, if you can handle a little bit of sadness in your Anime I am sure you'd find this OVA to be really entertaining in its own way! If the thought of Chris and Bernie not being together is too much though, At least In Gundam Valhalla (Gundam Build Fighters), We know they can all be together.... right?
Thanks for giving this a read!, next time it won't actually be something Gundam related!, If you want any further recomendations on Mecha Anime hit me up on Twitter @ScatmanBegins.
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