Dragon Ball Z: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! (OVA Special 2008)

This week we take a look at a short Dragonball Z OVA produced in 2008 to celebrate 40 years of Weekly Shonen Jump, this OVA takes a more comical approach than what we're used to in terms of Dragonball Z Movie's and Specials and revolves around Goku and his friends. Set two years after the defeat of Kid Buu the Z fighters meet for a party arranged by Mr Satan to celebrate the grand opening of his new hotel, which was gifted to him for taming Buu. During this time of peace we see that Goku and his family have become Radish farmers and Goku has been itching for a fight, which is great because luckily for him two new fighters are on their way.

As the party continues we suddenly see the arrival of a spaceship and meet a new Saiyan who actually turns out to be Vegeta's brother, originally deemed too much of a low class warrior to be royalty and sent away to a planet much like Goku was. Tarble acts much like Goku in that he is kind and gentle, which is not something we've seen from many other Saiyans until the recent release of the Dragonball Minus chapter which shows us Goku's mother and explains that there were such things as gentle Saiyans.

We soon find out that Tarble was seeking Vegeta out to help him defeat a threat in the from of two of Freeza's old henchmen Abo and Kado. These two are a sort of tag team who have now reached a power level closer to Freeza's, who both Vegeta and Goku know they will have no trouble with, so they decide to let Goten and Trunks take them out. After a short battle both teams fuse in order to finsh the battle off however Gotenks loses for reasons unknown to me, meaning it's up to Goku who makes short work of them.

Like the majority of villains within the series, Abo and Cado are then invited to join the party, which is something that also happens with Beerus in Battle Of Gods. This is particularly interesting as the setting is also very similar to the setting of that movie. Perhaps Toriyama, who was not involved with this OVA other than the basic concept, used this setting for inspiration during his work on Battle of gods, it could be argued that he also used the idea of the remnants of Freeza's army still being around as inspiration for the soon to be released movie Revival of F.

I generally enjoyed this OVA as it finally gave us something new for the series after so long outside of the video games, I felt that excitement of coming home from school just to watch a new episode all over again when this was released, it really did give me a huge feeling of nostalgia, so I am perhaps biased in this review in that I cannot really find a fault with it however I can see some aspects which certain fans may have had a problem with.

What I really enjoyed about the short and found interesting was that the Animation style seems to follow the colour palette and style of the original Manga rather than the series itself, this is particularly clear in the way the backgrounds are presented. Perhaps this is because the special is specifically in relation to weekly Shonen Jumps anniversary or perhaps it was just a new take they were trying as there had not been any 'canon' Dragonball related features for a number of years at that point.

Regardless of the reasoning the animation presented throughout the short was a treat to any Dragonball fan at the time, I am generally not a fan of more modern Anime's style in that they all seem rather bland with little to no shading save for a select few such as Jojos bizzarre adventure, but this short really does seem to make use of a new modern style of animating in a great way and from what I've seen of the new movie it really does seem like this is the bridging gap between the series and the style used within Battle of Gods.

It was also great just to see characters like Launch, again if only for a moment as it seemed like Toriyama forgot about her and a lot of the older Z fighters after the Saiyan saga, which is understandable as characters like Yamcha and co could notreally compete with the likes of a Super Saiyan. As I originally watched the show as a child this though never really bothered me as I did not know the history of those characters, but after re-watching the original Dragonball you can see how important these characters used to be.

To have these characters seemingly relegated to a supporting cast was really disheartening to see after the Saiyan saga, I even appreciated filler episodes where they would train with King Kai and fight the Ginyu force. It is a shame that Tien is absent in this short even when appearing on its promotional poster as unfortunately his Japanese voice actor had recently passed away, regardless however it is quite enjoyable just to see that even though a lot of these characters do not have too much relevance to the story, they are not forgotten in this short as well as Battle of Gods

I think what I really enjoyed about this short was that it had this original Dragonball tone to it in that it was a bit of fun and did not take itself  too seriously, with many comedic moments and even fan calls outs like Goku saying in hindsight compared to all they've been through Freeza was not much of an opponent. I know a lot of fans had quite a few problems with the tone taken in this short, especially with elements like Vegeta's as of then unheard of Brother Tarble, who is a weak excuse for a Saiyan of royal blood and was exiled.

I think a lot of fans got in to this series with Z and really found it to be more of a serious show overall, which is fair to say with the constant battles going on within the show and the stronger and stronger enemies, with little bits of comedy interspersed when possible. People tend to forget that if you look back to the original Dragonball the series had huge amounts of comedic elements right from the get go with Pilaf's gang, Oolong and Goku's general Hick attitude, it was much like Toriyama's previous work Dr Slump in that it heavily relied on these values.

I feel the introduction of a character like Tarble really uses those elements in that yeah its really stupid and maybe messes with what you perceive as 'canon', but that's what Dragonball was like, it can introduce characters whenever it feels like, they can be as strong or weak as you like and they can even be entwined in a characters past, but it does not matter, it does not take away what makes the series special in anyway, it just adds to it.

Perhaps I say this because it was my first Anime and I watched it from when I was about 8 year old, it really did shape a lot of stuff for me and I think no matter what they add to the story over the years, I'll continue to eat it up I even like to check back with that Dragonball Heroes arcade game just to see all the crazy what if characters they come up with like adult Gotenks and stuff (which is animated if you want to check it out on youtube). There always seems to be this idea that any change to something you used to watch as a child is 'Ruining your childhood', but I think you've got to keep an open mind in some respects, especially in the case of this series.

I think the use of the original Z Opening song was a great addition, as well as it visually mirroring the original opening but in a more updated fashion with the inclusion of Vegeta, Trunk and co it was really charming to see, not only for myself who has been a Dragon ball fan since it originally aired in the UK, but also for those fans who began watching during its original run in Japan, truly this special had the correct tone in celebrating Weekly Shonen Jumps 40th anniversary by taking one of its most popular series and using that as a way to boost the nostalgia factor of the celebration for many.

Although the Ending uses a new song, 'Orange Hero' by Jealkb it makes use of nostalgic imagery by showing a short montage of Kid Goku, his meeting with Chichi and then the expansion of his family over the course of Z which just brought a smile to my face to see how far Goku had come over the course of the original series as well as Z. The song is also really catchy which always helps, although I don't believe there was ever a full version released.

Overall this short is a nice fun little look at what life has been like for the Z fighters and a great little nostalgia booster if you have notwatched the series in a long time. Id say it's a really great thing to watch before you see Battle Of Gods which Im going to do shortly. It almost makes you want to have a whole new series, but perhaps with the new movies being released this will be the extension we were hoping for, I believe a bunch of movies would probably fair better than an entire new series any way, but who am I kidding if they were to release a new series id watch it all and i'm sure a lot of you would too!.

As always thanks for reading this, sorry it was a little shorter this week, at least it wasnt Gundam related right!?

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War In The Pocket (OVA 1989)

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.

Mobile Suit Gundam, The 08th MS Team (OVA: 1996)

Mobile Suit Gundam the 08th MS team is an OVA series produced between 1996 and 1999 by Sunrise which falls in to the Universal Century time line of the Gundam franchise, this time line spans a multitude of series leading from the original 'Mobile Suit Gundam' to in many ways the latest series 'G no Reconguista', rather than getting in to the specifics of this time line however we shall primarily focus on this OVA.

This series is set during the 'One Year War' depicted in the original series between the Earth Federation and the opposing Principality of Zeon, however what this series focused on was not your typical young boy finds a super weapon trope that is apparently in the majority of Mecha related Anime, but it chose to follow the 'average' solider during this war and the struggles that came with it, there are no plot armoured protagonist Mobile Suits in this series, but a general ground combat suit designed to look like the original Gundam in order to strike fear in to the enemy.

At the time this was quite new for the franchise as it never seemed to focus much on the grunt units or the behind the scenes aspects save for side story mangas and audio dramas that may have been released during a series run, and it is fair to say now with examples such as 'Gundam Unicorn' that
lower or grunt units to get their time to shine a lot more often perhaps thanks to this series showing off that fans really can appreciate units other than the power houses they are used to seeing. (And of course showing Bandai that people such as myself will buy as many grunt suit models as they need).

This series consisted of 12 episodes released between 3 years and remains to this day a popular choice amongst Gundam fans as a series not only to recommend but also revisit, however how does this series fair now, lets take a look in to this deeper. The 08th MS Team had always been one of my favourite series within the Gundam franchise, perhaps due to the fact it was one of the first I had watched after getting in to the series a number of years after 'Gundam Wing' aired on UK television, or perhaps because the tone of if is rather different from the other series I had watched, regardless I decided to re-watch this OVA series recently to see if it still held up in my mind, unfortunately it did not, but why is it that my opinion of the piece could change?

Good points:

With most OVA's it is expected that the animation quality will be top notch for it;s time, and this series does not disappoint in that department, although now it is not anything to be in awe of the animation quality presented is quite charming and does set the tone for the series with the darker colours representing the grittiness of the battles ahead and the type of terrains they will be fighting on. The animators also make it a point to show the weathering effects on the machines rather than having them typically looking brand spanking new every battle, we see clear indications of rust, dirt and battle wearing on more or less all of the suits in some for or another, something we generally do not see in other series, movies or OVAS surrounding this franchise.

The battles themselves are also a great factor in this series, with the MS being a lot slower, clunky and ill equipped compared to what we see in more modern series, these units had to rely primarily on shell ammunition rather than the beam weapons we're used to in Gundam, team work, planning and above all tactics, as we see in one episode where the gang are camped out in camouflage in the Dessert (hiding a robot can be tough!), or when they team use their support vehicle to listen in to the radio chatter of the enemy and spring an ambush on them, sadly this kind of combat is absent from the latter half of the series which we will get to other than one particular battle where we see how and ace of the enemy does things.

My personal favourite part of the entire OVA is that of the fight between the 08th Team and Norris Packard's Gouf Custom (Seriously youtube this shit), In which it is an entire grunt unit against a single and powerful Ace unit, although the team had planned for such an assault they did not account for Norris' own tactics in which he would rappel from building to building, hide behind debris and know exatly where to hit the enemy in order to take out vital parts of their machine such as the main camera, I personally thought he should have won the battle and left the team limping however with him being the enemy and up against the main character this wasnt very likely.

A particularly great moment in this battle is when the Gouf Custom leaps upon a tank unit and impales it with its sword, splattering the oil housed within the unit all over the facial area of the attacker almost as if it were a hunter catching its prey.

Honestly I have not actually watched the Japanese release of this series and have always gone to the English Dub, now I don't want to argue which is better overall but generally the dub for this series is very good, I have no complaints with any of the performances and in fact thing the VA for Norris in particular was pretty great. While the OST is nothing to write home about overall both the Opening and Ending themes for the series are great and something I always seem to be humming, the Opening in particular is pretty great at giving you an idea of what you're in for visually too, so be sure to check that out.

Bad Points:

One slight flaw I found with the series was that it never truly goes in to why each character joined the war and what their motivations were save for a few off hand remarks or in the case of Shiro a very short flashback to the gassing of a colony (Also depicted in Gundam 0083 Ova) that he may or may not of lived on and his horror at what the Zeons had done. We only get this flashback after the Director change and again it only seems to be Shiros we see, perhaps the original director wanted to keep their reasons hidden as they were just 'cogs in the machine' or maybe it was just another case of Federation = Good, Zeon = Bad that we've seen in most of the Universal Century time line. Personally I could have done with some look in to the past of the major characters in a little more detail as Shiros motivation to stop Zeon did make some sense, however this goes out of the window with the Romance sub plot.

I think what one of the major problems surrounding this OVA series was its focus on Romance as a sort of sub plot that eventually with the change of Directors halfway through would take center stage, this romance between the protagonist Shiro and a Zeon solider Aina was the typical 'Romeo and Juliet' story we're all familiar with in which two members from opposite and often fueding sides come together in one way or another and falling in love. In this case it is a member of the Federation and a member of the opposing Zeon who have been fighting a war as depicted in the original 1979 Gundam Series.

This romance begins rather suddenly when the two are locked in a small skirmish during the first episode in which Aina is testing the abilities of a new MS, as these two become locked in battle they eventually both wind up without MS and alone in the remains of a battleship, thinking they may die before rescue eventually comes from them, they put their differences as soliders aside and begin to help each other until they are saved, eventually they get to know each other and Aina leaves Shiro with a watch to remember her by. Shiro is pretty smitten with her but believes they will never meet again.

It is only closer to the director change that these two do meet again but this time with Aina testing a Mobile armour, which in Gundam terms is a giant Mobile suit capable of mass destruction. The team again have a few skirmishes with Aina and she begins to realise that it has always been Shiro and his troops that have been standing in her and her brothers way during the war, but this does not change the way she feels. Only closer to the end of the series with the climatic battle between the team and the Ace unit pioleted by Norris, Ainas close friend and at times father figure that the two begin to get a bit over the top with their feelings.

One examples being that Shiro begins to scream he loves Aina and will marry her whilst beat the tar out of the enemy unit with the lopped of arm of his own MS, and with Norris' death Aina goes full depression mode and decides all the federation need to be wiped out, until of course her brother does the same thing and she then decides its wrong because she knows Shiro is an alright guy during the final battle. Eventually these two become M.I.A after the last battle and it is only during the end of the final (and mostly filler) episode that we see these two have been living in a shack and are expecting a child, which is actually the best ending any couple have had in Gundam. It's fair to say their relationship had it's oddities.

A lot of these decisions can be linked to the change in director from Takeyuki Kanda (Eps 1 - 6) to Umanosuke Iida (Eps. 7-12), although this was not something that was an executive decision by Sunrise as unfortunatly Kanda passed away during production. At this point the show became focused more on the Romance sub plot, moving away from characters who were not Shiro and Aina and also attempting to make the show slightly more 'flashy' in terms of Mobile suit combat, which was not necessarily a bad decision as it did bring one of the greatest battles in the franchise with the 08th team being pitted against a single ACE unit, but it is rather clear when watching the OVA when the directors were changed.

Overall I think this series does still hold up and is a great place to begin if someone is looking for a well animated and short introduction to the Gundam series and more specifically the Universal Century time line, as it does introduce you to the key elements of the Feds Vs Zeon Campaign albeit from a perhaps more misinformed perspective of the ground troops who never saw the major battles set in space during the original series. It also goes well with another OVA series set around the same war but from a civilian perspective (Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989). I would say that to me however the series ended with episode 11, as episode 12 just feels like filler with some of the side characters searching for Shiro and finding him right at the end with a now pregnant Aina, but you guys may enjoy that episode.

The series really does show you that War in these circumstances does have its effect on the characters, it shows you how important team work can be in these situations and it shows you a lot of tactics used as well as the downsides of Mobile suit Combat such as having to use spare units parts for your own MS and having to routinely clean the machine do it doesnt get clogged, it's something I wish other series would take note of, how many times do you hear about what maintenance needs to be done of the titular robot, how often do you even see the mechanic team doing anything?

There is a lot mecha series could take from this OVA both in terms of what they could focus on and what they could avoid but again this series does still stand on its own and is a relatively short series at 12, 30 min episodes for anyone regardless of their knowledge to enjoy, I would strongly recommend you check this out if you are curious about Gundam or just want to see a new spin on Mech anime.

Thanks for giving this a read, it's a little rough around the edges but hopefully you'll give me some pointers and come back for more if I ever get around to it

Perhaps next time I'll review 'War In The Pocket'.