Kidou Senshi Gundam 0080: Pocket no Naka no Sensou

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left" -Bertrand Russell

Sometimes, the best war stories are not told from the perspective of the people who fight, but from those who don't. Without offering any sort of resistance in most cases, civilians are defenseless against the cruelties which are present at these times. This way, some horrific stories remain hidden without record and linger profusely in the wounded hearts of many. Gundam is a series that usually relies heavily on action to show off the designs of the mechs, which are the main selling point of the franchise. By this method, a ... lesser emphasis is placed on what is happening in the background of the stories, separate from the pilots who control them. War in the pocket diverts from the norm and instead focuses on Side 6, a neutral colony in space consisting of peaceful civilians. One of these people is Alfred, a 10 year old boy who is still full of dreams and hasn't yet understood the gruesome reality around him. What follows is a coming of age story about overcoming loss and the pointlessness of warfare.

Story: 9

Right from the get-go, we can see that schoolchildren are highly uneducated about the war surrounding them; most of which are not even aware that two opposing sides exist. The demeanor of the children is reminiscent of those isolated in an authoritarian state, where people are blind to what is happening across the borders. Mirroring this, the children are in awe of the battles, eagerly waiting for the next one to occur within their site. While this may seem unrealistic- and it is- we have got to remember that these kids have not yet understood death nor destruction. Likewise, a greater importance is placed on arbitrary ordeals, such as ignoring that one irritating girl in class or proving whether a military badge that they found was real. It all agglutinates into mass irrationality.

The show likes to play with contrasts. There is a reoccurring scene in the beginning of each odd episode, showing the daily routine of citizens in the morning. If you play close enough attention, there are small changes which show the progression of disaster, foreshadowing the climax of the story. These include different items placed in shopping windows, detailed alterations in nuances proving discomfort and abrupt happenings at the end of the entire sequence. Similarly, irony is used to an almost sarcastic degree. When Alfred returns home at the start of the series, he encounters his mother, who provides him with demands such as to complete his homework. After agreeing with every word of hers, she tells him that "You're just full of the right answers today". He then proceeds to repeat "Yes, mom" to every little action in his room, such as while playing a video game. However, while playing, he goes against what the game tells him to do, still repeating the words. He ends up shooting down his own school, home and town. This is sign of boisterous nature and one that characterises his innocence, unaware that this is exactly what could occur at any time in reality.

The train of mendacity is finally altered with the fated encounter of Bernand, a Zeon (enemy) soldier who has crashed into a forest after a battle within the colony. Alfred ran towards the falling Zaku (enemy mech) without being fazed, as he is still unaware that there are two sides in a war. This confrontation is highly symbolic, portrayed by the falling light from Bernand onto Alfred, hinting on potential salvation in the future. It is by this concurrence that a mutual understanding is shared between these people, where a gap in age and social standing allows for a contrast in power to be present. Bernand takes advantage of his situation and thereby uses cunning techniques to obtain intel from Alfred, in any way that he can. Given by Alfred's clueless nature, he agrees to help Bernand collect information almost as a game. Here on, a friendship is built upon misunderstandings and lies. The way the story is structured is genius, where a realistic situation allows for the maturity of an unassuming child.

The title alone is enough to induce brainstorming. A picture is shown at the midsection of each episode, where the title-drop is present. Here, Alfred's pocket is exposed, stuffed with several toys. The thing is, these toys mimic weapons of war. Hinting on the reoccurring themes of contrast and irony, a missile, gun and knife are all miraculously fit into a tight pocket, reflecting on the tight budget of nations during times of war. All these items are essentials for fighting in modern times and are drawn in a pastel-like style, once again illustrating immaturity. Alfred is drawn with a wide smile indicating youthfulness. I don't think that they could have used more suitable imagery that the ones presented here.

Yet another example of excellent planning, is the pacing. This is carefully adjusted to display an adolescent view of the world. What is shown on the screen is always extreme: whether that is tragedy or staleness, the feelings are always palpable. There are clear cuts in the show, which are never jarring and serve to depict the ambiguous state of the setting. Moreover, the setting of the colony itself is allegorical. A capsule surrounded by nothingness: space. The warfare which develops directly outside of the colony produce flashes of light, imitating those emitted by stars, a symbol of false hope. Politics are mostly set aside, which simulate the thinking of children.

People do not fall into hysteria after being shot, but instead silently subdue into a state of panic and fall unconscious rather quickly. This is what would happen in a real world scenario, one that is often overlooked from fiction. However, there are a few times where realism is lessened to make way for bombastic moments. An example of this is when Alfred sees the damages of a battle in his home town. He quickly ignores these (which are of immense scale) and moves on. A child should be more affected by this, which is hardly a complaint judging by the irrationality of the story itself.

Characters: 8.5

Be that as it may, but War in the Pocket is an almost purely character driven tale. Thankfully, all of the primary characters are suitably complex and intricate. The chemistry between Alfred and Bernand is organic, multi-layered and intriguing. Almost like a father-and-son, their conversations are backed by their divergence in age, coupled with simple language and natural gestures. Both characters are pragmatic and mordant especially when exchanging words alone.

Alfred is an astute and well-mannered boy, who uses his intelligence to persuade people with ease. His disposition is matched by his age and so are his actions. He regrets nothing and always moves forward. Unlike a lot of characters his age, he is not unnecessarily immature and he can think for himself. I found myself in awe of how well written his characterisation actually is. His development as a person is key to the kind of tale this is (coming of age). He doesn't become a man after a single tragedy nor does he have a sudden revelation; but the amount of progress and evolution that his character undergoes is akin to that of a series tenfold its length. I can say with safety that he is my favourite youngster in anime. Once the series is over, his past self is but a shadow of his present.

Bernand is a character ridden with many compound emotions. He holds few grudges and shows little animosity, which is a rare trait, especially for a soldier in enemy grounds. Always trying to be the voice of reason, he acts as a source of admiration for Alfred. We know little about him or his past, but what is apparent is his lack of confidence. Never standing out among his peers, he tends to exaggerate or distort his achievements; one such being the number of kills that he has committed. Stating to Alfred that he is one kill away from being awarded an 'ace' title (five kills), he later reveals that he has not yet committed a single execution. This proves that Bernand is not infallible and more - so portends an event which will later test this virtue.

The two improve themselves by learning from each other, while working towards a single goal, each for their own reasons. These reasons later intersect and demonstrate that their initial objectives were shallow and selfish. From this, their growth as characters and (more importantly) as people flourish.

Finally, Chris (shortened from Christina) serves as a distinction in position and as an agreement in charisma. She is like an intermediate between Alfred and Bernand, yet is the catalyst for their problems. She shows sides of vulnerability as well as courage, while being especially honest. She never makes assumptions of people, nor questions their actions and so she tries to focus on facts to provide advice. War in the pocket makes excellent use of her character, where her wisdom is given an almost satirical filter as she is oblivious of her own actions.

Unfortunately, a lot of the side characters are ignored or put aside which is quite apparent. I would have liked to have seen more of the family and schoolchildren, as well as other Zeon soldiers which are mentioned throughout the run-time. Once again, this is a relatively minor distaste, as the focus of the main characters is apparent and is given priority. Besides - they do more of a good enough job to carry the show by themselves.

Art and Animation: 7.5

War in the Pocket is aesthetically pleasing. While a lot of shows airing at the time had numerous animation errors or inconsistencies, these are far and few between here. There are only a few moments of repeated animation and even these are not noticeable. When a battle does occur, it always looks above par. Even the shot of the colony from space featuring CGI is not jarring in any way (and this is from 1989!). Scenes flow nicely due partly from correct framework as well as sufficient number of frames.

All of the characters' designs look great, thanks to the efforts of Haruhiko Mikimoto who famously undertook the designs of Macross. The facial expressions are articulate and vivid, while they never look off-model. What is particularly characteristic of their designs are their eyebrows, which become absent soon after moving up their faces. This gives greater emphasis to the key features of the face which exemplify emotions better.

There are few times however where any cinematography is used. This leaves for a slightly bland experience in terms of artistic abruptness and the show looks slightly uninspired. I also can't help but compare it to other OVA's of its time and being that this was to commemorate Gundam's tenth anniversary, I expected something more exceptional.

Sound: 8.5

Listening to the numerous soundtracks that War in the Pocket offers, I couldn't help but think of marching children. Very few OSTs have ever made me visualise and personify music into something so fitting. Never feeling repetitive nor outstaying its welcome, the composition and its placement always feels just right. The instruments used are not repeated; instead a significant array of organs are used for many different purposes. The songs also never overpower the scenes which they are used in. Rather, they empower them.

I admired the opening and ending songs. I don't usually pay much attention to these as they are mostly used for advertising a certain company or group, but War in the Pocket is not your average show. The opening features a panning shot of a wall and the graffiti covering it. At first, there are detailed drawings showing obscure imagery of war, displaying many colours. In an instant, this changes to monochrome illustrations from who presumably is a child. Chalk is used to hint at this and what would normally be a harmless act is juxtaposed by what it means. The music used is nostalgic while ironic, stating things like "I want to slip away from this artificial world and make myself free" and "I can keep on running until I finally reach the sky". Being that the sky is artificial and that it houses numerous deadly battles, this shows the hopeless wishes of the young artists themselves.

The ending song is very similar in lyrical and artistic composition. If close enough attention is payed, an abundant of different outcomes can be made from its meanings. However, the beat shifts from every sentence spoken, in perfect harmony. From this, a different image is shown, which relates perfectly to what is spoken. The colour layout is fascinating for very specific reasons, but one must watch the entire show to find out what that means.

My only gripe is with the voice-acting quality. While there is plenty emotion here, it is outdated to a degree. That means a dip in quality from what we would get from modern shows. Even with this, the actors did a fantastic job in displaying all the right nuances at the right times and this includes Alfred. Voice-acting for children were notorious in these times but it does not show here.

Enjoyment: 9

War in the Pocket is an experience like no other. It never forces emotions out of the viewer, but instead embellishes them. I cried multiple times throughout the story, but not from melodrama. The show produces catharsis without unnecessary tension, which is a very difficult thing to achieve. From start to finish, from comedy to tragedy I was never left behind. War in the Pocket makes use of your most simple, primordial feelings - and like this - nurtures you with care. I will never forget what I witnessed from this.

Conclusion: 9/10

As a small member of the huge gundam metaseries, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is often overlooked. This is a real shame, as 0080 is one of the most touching war stories to be found in the anime medium.

The story of 0080 is distinct from other gundam series in that it features a civilian child's point of view on war. It is the story of Alfred Izuruha's journey of disillusionment as he grows out of his starry-eyed romance for war and the military, ultimately realizing the devastation and meaninglessness of it all. Though the risk of spoilers prevent me from elaborating further, ... it must be noted that the story goes beyond merely reminding the viewer of the obvious, such as "lives are lost during times of war". Al's personal growth is a heart-wrenching and emotional ride as he learns firsthand about the true faces of war from Bernie and the few days the two share together within the time frame of the series. Though virtually every gundam series share the anti-war theme, 0080 is the most effective amongst all of them in relaying the simple message: war is bad. As unimpressive as that sounds, 0080's achieves this without being preachy or cheesy (two very common pitfalls in war anime), while evoking strong emotions from the viewer.

The limited cast of 0080 is fairly ordinary, but very befitting of the story's needs. As hinted above, Al is a great character simply because of his unique and integral role in the story, though he may come off as too bratty and annoying for his own good in the beginning. Like most other gundam series, the two sides of the conflict are not portrayed as black and white. Zeeks such and Bernie and Feddies such as Christina are just ordinary people following orders from the institution of war -- the only true "bad guy". This allows the moral and lessons of the story to bear more weight than a typical "good guys vs. bad guys" scenario.

Since 0080 aired in 1989, the aesthetics of the OVA does seem aged. However, the animation, especially during the action scenes, are still sights to behold to this very day. Though 0080 is skimpy on mecha action, the few scenes that does appear throughout the series are very well done, some of which even rank among the most memorable mobile suit battles to be animated.

All in all, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is recommended to anyone interested in a great story about the tragedy of war, especially fans of the gundam franchise. With a moving story, excellent hand-drawn art, and great characters, it is hard to go wrong with this small but radiant gem in the prolific gundam universe.

Many months ago I decided I was gonna make it my goal to watch through every single universal century gundam and many of it's spin offs. Out of all the grand scale battles and magical newtype powers spread across the many entries of the universal franchise, I found a little ova by the name of war in the pocket. This short 6 episode ova stood out from the fellow gundam installments as well as many of its contemporaries in the genre even to this day. Set within the one year war from the original gundam series war in the pocket focused heavily on telling the ... war from the eyes of a civilian child as well as a rookie grunt on the antagonist army of the zeon from the original series. The series favors a slow build to focus on characters rather than action. Even in the rare moments of action the show is able to convey the combat as more weighted and bulky which ultimate results in a more realistic feeling combat than how most mecha feel. The action scenes are few and far between but are accurately placed where they would impact the most. The result is a polarizing experience with some of the most emotional punches not in just the gundam franchise but the entirety of anime. And its able to pull all this off in what is barely a run a time over a movie.

To get one thing out of the way, war in the pocket is entirely stand alone and requires no knowledge of the original series it takes place in. If you know a gundam is a mech and that there is a war then you know all you need to know to get into this ova. The immediate thing one is going to notice when going into war in the pocket is that its pacing is on the slow side. It take the slow build with a pay off formula and masterfully pulls it off. Everything that happens in the ova's first half leads to a impacting pay off for its faster and hard hitting 2nd half. The way it handles its transition from the slow and light hearted first half to the impending tragedy looming over head is nothing short of masterfully executed as it will truly make you grow attached to these characters and the world around them so that you will actually feel something in the coming events as the characters do. The use of its scarce action scenes is also nothing short of perfectly executed as they are few and far between but all of them contain impact when they finally happen in addition to be wonderfully choreographed and animated feeling as brutal as the story is trying show war is. When a action scene shows up you dont think "Oh man a cool action scene" but rather you experience some really tragic events shown through harsh and heavy imagery that are anything but glorified.

War in the pocket is almost entirely character driven, it focuses on a single event and the characters reacting to it rather than trying to expand on the conflict of the original series. The main focus is on our elementary school child protagonist Alfred and his relationship with a zeon grunt named Bernie. The relationship feels real as do the characters themselves. They are not only relateable but also dynamic as they go through more believable character development over the course of these 6 episodes than entire series are capable of providing. Alfred our main protagonist delivers a different viewing experience than any story i can think of as it focusing on showing how a child his age views something like war, we see this in many stories but usually with side characters but never have I seen it done through the eyes of the central protagonist. At the start of the series he idolizes war and conflict as do kids in real life sadly do, and as the series goes on he begins to learn more and more about just what harsh consequences war pertains not only to those fighting in it but also the civilians caught in the cross fire. Its got a very harsh but sadly true message about how people see this awful event of war in real life and is able to convey just how harsh it truly is. Its able to do this while still making the characters not just likable but lovable. you will care about these 2 as the series goes on and you actually feel something when they do.

Though the series being heavily character driven can also be a turn off for some, if you longing for a more plot driven story-line then war in the pocket will be a disappointment. There is a bigger picture going on but rather than exploring that larger event it instead to shows just how people out of the loop of this larger conflict react to it. It shouldn't be a problem to most but it is understandable why some may walk out wishing the story may had focused on a larger scale rather than the smaller singular event they do focus on. People may also be turned off by the main character alfred since he is a kid, and as a results hes very naive and gullible, hes a realistic portrayal of how a kid acts but its also understandable that hes not the ideal character entertainment wise to be following for a story to some even if i personally could not imagine a protagonist any other way for a story such as this. The undeniably biggest flaw with war in the pocket comes in the way of its just straight up bad ost. Its not just that the songs are really bland but they kill a ton of the atmosphere and tone by being way too happy sounding. It works for the first half but during the latter events of the story it simply is out of place and even at a few moments can detract from some powerful scenes. Most notable is the very last scene of the ova which is nothing short of powerful....buuuut I cant help but feel it could had been more powerful if a song that sounds straight out of a cheery slice of life wasn't playing very loudly throughout its final moments and the ensuing credits. its not enough to ruin such a powerful story in my opinion but iIlong for something more fitting especially when the audio of the sound effects is top notch.

War in the pocket is one of the most polarizing and impacting stories I have had the privileged of sitting through, it doesn't revolutionize a genre but what it instead does is tell a powerful story that had more impact on me both while watching and well after its had finished playing than entire 50 episode series were capable of providing. The conflicts, character, and relationships all feel real, the slow build to a pay off is perfectly done, and the entire series just continues to stay lingering in my mind many months after I have finished it. Its depressing that a story this stand out and impacting has been lost to obscurity despite how well it has aged and impacting it may be. If you ever have the time i urge you to check out war in the pocket, while i doubt its for everyone, this isn't a story that should be lost in obscurity like it has and is more than worth your time.

This series was only 6 episodes long but packed more character development in it than most 50+ episode Mobile Suit Gundam series. The protagonist, Al, is likeable, and is a kid that most people can quickly and easily identify with. He finds school boring, is good at some subjects, is failing at others and is afraid of his mother "grounding" him for his bad grades. His father is never around and he hungers for male companionship, which he gets from a new friend, Bernard Wiseman.

The friendship between Bernard, a rookie pilot, and Al, the school kid, grows despite the difficulties of the political situation in ... their supposedly "neutral" colony. The usual misunderstandings arise, and one can't help but be amazed and amused at Al's ingenious methods of problem solving. It is a relationship where both parties learn from each other. Al's courage leads to Bernie having an ephiphany, and the closing sequence is one of the best I've seen in all MSG series.

If you like a good story which will make you root for certain characters, and will make you reflect at the end, then please watch Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket.

It brings a whole new chapter to the official first series in which we were to believe that side 6 was always officially neutral, but this series says other wise. Though none of the other series characters are present, it is noted, that you have to be a “freak” to truly pilot the Gundam NT-1 Alex. This series does an excellent job portraying the series about how naïve kids can be. Al is aware of how dangerous things can be, but he puts the excitement factor first without thinking of the potential consequences of what may happen. You also really feel the bond Al and ... Bernie develop. Bernie has a general understanding of kids, but after awhile, he then sees some use for him in his missions as well and always looks out for him. Bernie has that thing with Al because he is still trying to get accepted by his new teammates because he’s replacing who the team thought was an excellent soldier and is only a rookie.

Chris is an important character to the story, but she really doesn’t have much development. She’s important, but not important in my mind to say that she’s a main character, but a significant supporting character. And she and Bernie are oblivious to the fact that they are of course truly enemy soldiers. But the story is really tragic on the potential realities of war. Even though the Federation was portrayed to have the higher moral ground, the Cyclops team portrayed Zeon in a different light. They were portrayed as being tight, and being very dedicated. They weren’t being overall bad people, but just doing their job. I would further explain more, but this is a series you have to see to know what I’m saying.

The character design is pretty good. Nothing too much to complain about, but really represents the circular style of the 1980s and isn’t drawn as angular as you see in most animes today. The traditional Zeon and Federation uniforms are still portrayed in this series as well and they look more like basic cloth than 1970s spandex, which shows how transcending the clothing style is this timeline in Gundam.

The mech design is pretty cool. It’s more bulky and detailed. There are more traditional artillery features to the Zakus and the Gundam as exhibited and show much more articulation. The battles are only exclusive inside Side 6 so you’re not getting the traditional in space battles technically in this one which was a semi-bummer for me because I would have loved to see how agile the ALEX is in those conditions. But due to the nature of this anime, the battles give a more representation of war realistically because of the collateral damage factor involved in this. Not saying that’s a good thing realistic wise, but a good thing in conveying the intended message in this anime. Plus, the battles rely more on guerilla tactics that you see in 08th MS Team rather than evolved reflexes because you don’t have those kinds of characters in this saga.

Personally, I think the English dub and the original Japanese track are equally good. The voice of Solid Snake, David Hayter who I think is credited as Sean Barker plays the role of Bernie and you wouldn’t really recognize it’s him. But I personally prefer his original Japanese voice actor Tsujitani Kouji, who also played Seabook in F91, Miroku in Inuyasha, Ryu in Street Fighter II V, and Ryuuji in Skullman. Also, I can’t deny the presence of one of my favorites of all time, Hayashibara Megumi as Chris. Hearing her name alone should tell you something. Wendee Lee, she’s ok.

The theme songs Itsuka Sora ni Todoite and Tooi Kioku, both sung by Shiina Megumi are very good songs that suit the atmosphere of the anime that does have a camp feel to it, but the style of music isn’t really my style. Not really saying it’s a bad thing, but it’s just something I’d skip personally. But the background music is also excellent in its own right and knows how to suit the mood.

Sadly, this was the ONLY Gundam series to be in Anime Insider’s Top 50 anime list. 0080 is a great series and a top favorite of mine, but I don’t think this is the best Gundam. But overall, you have to appreciate it for its themes and messages. I say you may need some previous Gundam viewing to understand this 100%, but because it focuses on a different kind of cast and has a different kind of approach, then you can still watch and will probably enjoy it. I felt this series further defines and develops realistic mech anime in relation to that. If you want action, then you got action in this series though that’s not the focus. If you want a series that focuses more on story, character, and character relationship building and development, then you’ve come to the right series.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is the first OVA to enter the vast Gundam franchise. After seeing the three lengthy first Gundam series, I was expecting a short six episode OVA to not quite live up to the standard set by those series. While, yes, it doesn't fully match such titles as Mobile Suit Gundam or Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, it's still a wonderful tale that without a doubt deserves its place in the Gundam metaseries.

The story is definitely the outstanding quality in War in the Pocket. You wouldn't quite expect this, since it's all jammed into just six episodes, but Tomino ... Yoshiyuki and his gang, of course, pulled it off. Impressively too. It's a little different than the others because this time we get to watch the war from the viewpoint of a typical 10 year old boy, Alfred. He's fascinated by the war and all things Mobile Suit. He takes a particular liking to the Principality of Zeon though, which again, like in many Gundam installments, more touches upon the idea that neither side in the war is truly wrong. Al befriends a beginner Zaku pilot, Bernie, but also had a relation with Christina, the pilot of one of the Federation's new Gundams. Well obviously I'm not going to spoil anything, but with this setup you can already tell this is going to be a touching story about the devastation and misfortune war inevitably brings about. What really makes the idea hit home is, again, the fact that we're watching it all from such a young, ordinary child's eyes. Reading about it probably doesn't make it sound all that impressive, but it's something you have to witness and experience for yourself to truly get the gist of.

Being from 1989, the art and animation quality might be a little below what your average modern viewing is, but I'll tell you for sure, it's topnotch stuff for its time. It really doesn't get better than this for the time frame we're looking at, as expected of a Gundam series, always a pioneer of quality in animation. The sound isn't such a strong point for the OVA, but it does the job.

War in the Pocket has a rather small cast, which actually worked out perfectly for the character department. Having too many characters and attempting to develop them all, or even worse not developing them at all, in just six episodes would've been a bad idea. Here we've got three central characters: Alfred, our 10 year old war enthusiast, Bernie, the Zeon amateur, and Christina, the Federation's new female pilot of their Gundam Alex. She doesn't receive much development, but she carries out her role just fine. Bernie doesn't receive as much development as Al either, but we witness a little change and growth in him as he becomes a stronger soldier with the help of his new friend. Al is the real masterpiece though. Just a 10 year old child, by the end he gains a whole new understanding and outlook on war and life, and just how fragile it is. He matures a great deal as his character develops, and that's what really assists the story in being so nicely handled.

Enjoyment on this one would depend on the person, depending on what you look for in a series, particular a series such as Gundam. If you're looking for the intensely epic giant robot battles, look elsewhere in the wide Gundam universe. This one's for the appreciation of the magnificently told story. Don't get me wrong, as in every Gundam title, you get some action. But that is far from the strong point, or focus really, in War in the Pocket. The story is vividly detailed with friendship, companionship, and unity, as well as tragedy, misfortune, and destruction, and that's where the enjoyment factor lies.

Watching every other Gundam installment isn't necessary for viewing Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, but I'd suggest having some background in the franchise, and particularly the Universal Century. Overall, War in the Pocket, being a simple six episode OVA, proves that Gundam isn't all about powerhouse, futuristic mechanisms and laser beams, but also that it's about war and the, put in simplest terms, cruelty that comes along with it.

Let's get some Christmas themed anime all up in this review place!

First impressions were bad, primarily because it set up exactly the same way every single other friggen Gundam series seems to do. We’re on a space colony and here’s this kid who loves giant robots but ohsnap robots attack! The kid finds a giant robot with no pilot in it. It’s around about there that this show differentiates itself because the kid in question is about 8 years old. Even when the pilot of the downed robot picks himself up and points a gun at him, the kid is still jumping about with unbridled ... enthusiasm, wanting to have a look at the Zeon gun and asking to have a go in the cockpit.

The primary theme of War in the Pocket is…well, it’s Gundam so it’s WAR IS BAD. But being a bit more specific, it’s about the childish wonder and dreams of war and the military versus the grim reality of what it actually entails. It’s not just about war being full of death and destruction and all that, but also how the glamour isn’t really there and the frailty of what appears like magnificent war machines being exposed. The story is primarily about Bernie, a rookie pilot from Zeon, and his relationship with Al, the enthusiastic kid I mentioned earlier. It’s a familiar story about the failure of an adult lying to a child to gain his respect and be hero worshipped, but when forced to face by the reality of the situation he draws strength from the belief of the kid who believes in him and becomes the hero he pretended he was.

Calling Bernie a failure isn’t really correct. It’s more that he’s hopelessly out of his depth. He boasts to Alfred that he’s an ace pilot who has shot down loads of Federation mechas, but in reality he’s some nobody whose only battle experience is being instantly shot down. Yet he’s placed on a veteran commando team who give him tasks simply to keep him out of their way. If anything looks like its going wrong in the plan, it’s always his fault. I don’t mean that ironically either, the show is very deliberate about how it will be little things that he says or does that causes their plans to go wrong.

That’s something in general that impressed me about War in the Pocket. It’s very deliberately put together. There’s nothing there that doesn’t need to be there, and all the scriptwriting is incredibly tight. Something I wanted to throw myself down on the floor in praise in was how it allowed character’s personalities to play out without ever having to point them out. The commando crew are all men of habit. Things like how their captain would put cigarettes in his mouth but never light one, or how one of them would make a habit of filling up his hip flask and hanging it up in his robot. It’s a sign at how long they’ve been doing this, while in comparison poor old Bernie has no traditions like that. It’s a small thing, but these traits build up.

Bernie is the king of this, and easily the best character of the show. His growth from bragging but inexperienced rookie to role model for Alfred is fantastic, particularly again in the way the show never feels to point all this out to us. His relationship with the female Federation pilot Chris was pretty great in how it was clear they had feelings, but both seemed to know that they were ultimately on two different sides of this war and would never be together. The hopeless romantic in me clung to the belief that this would be power of love overcoming their opposing sides of this conflict.

Which is what makes that ending the biggest kick in the gut.The BIGGEST kick in the gut, to the point that I was gripping the side of my face going “oh god no don’t do this noo”. Let me make this clear that I mean this in a good way. The painful fragility on this war machine Bernie and Alfred had poured their soul into rebuilding. The way it wraps back into the pointlessness of the conflict, particularly with who was piloting the Gundam, gives the show a much better narrative arc to something like Grave of the Fireflies, where the depression just feels relentless and done deliberately to hit you. In War in the Pocket, it’s ultimately the only direction that would have given the show the proper conclusion to what it was building up.

It’s there that you also realise how deliberately the whole thing is put together. It’s not that it ‘gets better’ or anything. War in the Pocket is always good, but the further you get into it, the more you realise how everything ties together. It’s the mark of fine storytelling. I will say though that I do think it missed a trick by not playing Bernie’s video as the very last thing. I get why they wanted to have the shot of the kids saying “don’t mind, there will be another war soon” as the last thing because of how it ties into Alfred’s loss of innocence. I guess this is a selfish desire, but the doomed relationship between Bernie and Chris felt like the perfect symbol of the pointlessness of the conflict. With Bernie’s final words in that video asking Al to hi to Chris for him, it fucking hit me like a sledgehammer.

War in the Pocket is without doubt the best Gundam I’ve seen by a considerable distance, and with the possible exception of FLCL, the best short OVA series I’ve ever seen.

In the hellfires of the battlefield, people are predestined to die. The tragedy of this reality doesn’t impact the dead, or usually even the survivors, but instead, the families of those who lost their lives. Seeing war firsthand can be as traumatizing as losing someone in it. In fiction, we often take for granted the sheer levels of brutality on display in shows like this, as we relish in the spectacle of the fights and the possible charm of the combatants, at least until one we care about dies. Gundam has nearly always embodied this as a franchise, but nowhere has the franchise been more ... poignant in regards to this than in 0080, where the effects are at its most tangible.

Putting this into perspective, there have since been anime that showcase scenes of soldiers scrambling in terror in vain attempts at survival, soul-crushing amputations and deaths, and the most heart-breaking rendition of the infamous colony drop from the One-Year War. For 0080 to be more emotionally resonant than this is a testament to this show’s quality, as two decades later it stands the test of time. There are a myriad of reasons as to why, but the most important is that it feels so real. Its characters are so lifelike that you can’t help but get attached. It makes a far greater case for getting attached to each of the people involved in 6 episodes than most other installments do in 4 or 8 times that amount.

It is very apparent that the those involved -particularly screenplay writer Hiroyuki Yamaga- truly understand people. Only with such understanding can such realistic portrayals be crafted. Most immediately, Alfred Izuruha, the protagonist of this harrowing tale, stands out as a wonderfully real depiction of a child in his elementary school days. Him and the other kids bickering about things only children would constantly tease and fight over, and succumbing to propaganda as they demonize one side and apotheosize the other. Just like a myriad of other children, he gets into trouble about homework and test scores, and he plays video games whenever he sees fit. My, what simpler times, but a child has to grow up someday. An integral part of growth is having to see the world for its darkest aspects. What more horrifying way to do that than to become part of an operation and witness the carnage firsthand? Seeing him change and mature due to interactions with those around him in this war is heart-wrenching, especially towards the end after a painful reminder that even with his growth, he is still a child, and therefore, will react like one in the face of lies and destruction.

The people he interacts with are exactly as stated: people. Bernard -Bernie, if you will- stands out especially as the most complicated person of the lot. A beleaguered Zeon rookie stuck playing the role of a brother to Alfred as they are swept up in an operation of war. Seeing the two bond as brothers -as false as the relationship is- is nothing short of heartwarming. The relationship the two have with nextdoor neighbor, Federation member, and sweetheart Christina is as classically real as it gets, most especially on Bernie’s end. This makes the reality of the situation all the more soul-rending, as the dramatic irony obliterates us as we brace for the impact of whenever these three cross pass...only for it to go in a more more poignant and real way than anticipated. The finale for these three is honestly beautiful, mournful as well, but above all else, it is peaceful.

The other Zeon soldiers the two boys are tied to are entertaining as well. We get to know little about them, but each have a moment in the spotlight, such as Ramirez’s concern for those who he outranks, to Steiner sitting on a bench with a friend, discussing the finality and futility of their situation. We feel more for the deaths of some of these men than we do for several of the caricatures that infest a myriad of lesser installments. The profound effect they have on Alfred is the most beautiful part about these endearing soldiers in this tragedy of war. The brutal manner their operation plays out is bone-chilling, and the aftereffects are soul-crushing in magnificent ways.

There are of course, oversights and conveniences for the sake of creating or escaping drama, as rare as they are. However, they detract little from the beauty and craft at work, both in writing and creating these people, and displaying the carnage in beautifully dreadful detail. The music that plays compliments the situations, and the ending theme deals the final blow to the fragile heart in its final rendition. The devastation feels so real...and yet, it feels so wonderful.

War in the Pocket is ok. I'll try not to spoil anything beyond the first episode, but I will say that the first half is somewhat boring. The second half is really where this series takes off, so if you're unsure halfway, push past it.

I decided to write this review because most of them are glowing and rate this short series highly, and I don't feel like there was an outsider's view (by outsider, I mean that I have never seen anything Gundam related before; I've seen various other mecha shows, but Gundam isn't one I'm familiar with). That being said, I ... don't believe I needed to know the background, but I do feel that knowing the background beforehand might have improved my opinion of the show.

The story of War in the Pocket is one we see from time to time, but it's more rare than not: The child's perspective. Children in war are typically nothing more than observers, as they are too small or weak to fight and too inexperienced to help in most other ways, so stories such as these are usually stories of innocence lost, and this is no exception. The protagonist is 10 year old Al, child of a separated family on a neutral colony ship who enjoys the concept of war (as many kids do), the big army machines, badges, guns, explosions, and everything "fun" that comes with an idealized, remote view of war. Some small bit of combat is brought to his colony, and Al happens to meet and befriend an enemy pilot. The premise is promising and the characters are somewhat well written - which makes it so much more disappointing when the backdrop of realism this show pretends to have falls short.

Unfortunately, something just didn't quite click for me with War in the Pocket. In the first episode, there's a small battle, and Al happily chases after an injured mech, which lands in a park. The disconnect between what should happen and what does happen in this early episode is never resolved, and for me it cheapened the story: No one ever comes to collect the enemy mech. No recovery teams haul it away, no engineering team clears it from the city, no search teams are sent after the pilot, the area is not cordoned off - the people in charge of the colony and the military just leave a semi-damaged mech where the public can get to it. This problem extends to characters as well. Military machinery is fun to look at from afar, but when you get close (even if it's just idling) reality sets in very quickly, as military hardware is large, loud, tough, and intimidating if you aren't accustomed to being around it on a regular basis...but Al seems to be completely immune to it. If you take a child to the gun range it won't take long for things to set in: shockwaves of air from every round fired hit your body, the noises from each shot pierce your eardrums, and it goes from being a game to being very real very quickly. These are things that most other stories about children in war seem to get right, but for War in the Pocket, it's a big whiff. Al doesn't get the dose of shock and reality that should change things for him, so the story - now toothless - falls flat.

The art is dated, but not painfully so. The sound is poor to average at best, good ol 80s. The characters are fairly well written, but don't react to situations realistically when it matters (specifically Al). The story was ok, but wasn't thought out quite enough. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I was never drawn in and ended up kinda forcing myself to watch the rest with the excuse "it's pretty short, so I can knock it out."

If you're a fan of Gundam I'd recommend you watch this as it should provide a different view than what you're used to, but if you aren't involved in the Gundam franchise at all, skip it. This is nothing special.

Overview:

Finally, I conclude my trilogy of great, underrated anime gems. War in the Pocket is a Gundam anime, but you don't actually need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Gundam franchise or the One Year War to enjoy it. It works perfectly well as a stand alone feature, while also being highly enjoyable to longtime Gundam fans. Basically, it's the perfect Gundam series!

Plot and characters:

Hundreds of years in the future, war has broken out between a militaristic space colony called Zeon and the rest of Humanity. This war was depicted in the original 1979 Gundam series and is called the One Year War. Gundam ... 0080: War in the Pocket, takes place during a minor theater of this war and focuses on everyday soldiers.

The 1979 series was about a guy born with special powers called "New Type", who must pilot a super robot to singlehandedly save Humanity from Space Nazis that killed 1/3 of the entire human population in the opening 1 week of the war. It's one of the most important and influential anime ever made, but it wasn't exactly trying to super realistic or grounded. The anti-war element of the original series of course seems a bit tacked on, because we know it was created to sell model kits to young boys.

War in the Pocket manages to elevate Gundam into a much more mature and thought provoking series, while also still somehow feeling like a Gundam anime. I mentioned in my review of Patlabor 2 that despite being an amazing movie, I didn't feel like it really fit comfortably within its own franchise. I never had that problem with War in the Pocket. It had to walk a very fine line to pull this off, but it actually managed to do it!

The story takes place on a neutral space colony called Side 6. A young boy named Alfred is obsessed with mobile suits, guns, soldiers, and all the stuff most boys love at his age. The horrible reality of war hasn't set in for him yet. He just thinks its really cool and idolizes the ace pilots on both sides. I don't think it's that controversial to state that Pocket likely took some inspiration from Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun", which had come out just 2 years earlier. The story is essentially like Empire of the Sun combined with the classic young adult novel "Summer of my German Soldier". Some Zeon pilots crash land on side 6 and are looking for a top secret prototype suit that the Federation is building there. Side 6 is supposed to be neutral, but the Federation is breaking the rules and thereby putting the people of Side 6 in grave danger. One thing Pocket does really well is create a sense of nuance. There is obviously good and bad on both sides and no side is entirely innocent. Zeon are still in the wrong, as you'll find out later in the film, but it isn't nearly as black and white.

One of the Zeon pilots is a young man named Bernie. He isn't a diehard follower of the Zabi Family that wants to kill Earthlings for being inferior to humans born in space. He's just an ordinary guy caught up in this terrible conflict. Alfred discovers that Bernie is a Zeon soldier, but thinks that's the coolest thing in the world. A lot of time is spent building up the relationship between these two and we really get the feeling that Bernie sees Alfred like a little brother. Bernie also starts to develop romantic feelings for Alfred's neighbor Christina, who unbeknownst to him is a pilot for the Federation. I don't want to spoil what happens, but I will say this is a SAD ending! War is not about main characters and side characters. It's not fair or just or caring. In the 1979 series, we know that Amuro is invincible. He's going to kill all the bad guys and win the war. Pocket tries to show a much more realistic portrayal of war and does an amazing job.

Art:

The art by studio Sunrise has aged amazingly well and the mobile suit battles are an absolute joy to behold. This movie has some spectacle and action, but never loses track of its message. I personally love the visual aesthetic of 80s anime and this is one of the better examples I can think of.

Overall:

I'm an American who was born in 1988. My introduction to Gundam was watching Gundam Wing and G-Gundam on Cartoon Network around the year 2000. I grew up seeing the Gundam franchise as a big, stupid action series about giant robots fighting each other. I still LOVED Gundam. My brother and I went down to the local comic shop and bought all the Gundam models we could get our hands on. Especially anything Wing or G-Gundam. Still, if you were to tell me 2 years ago that one of the best anti-war anime of all time was a fucking Gundam series, I would just laugh in your face. Then last year I saw War in the Pocket and 8th Mobile Suit Team. While 8th is great, the latter half is a little rough. Meanwhile, Pocket has one of the most beautifully tragic and cruelly ironic endings I've seen in anime. War in the Pocket is more than just the best Gundam anime, it's among the best anime I've seen period. If you haven't seen this one yet, please go out and watch it. Even if you hate Gundam as a franchise, you still owe it to yourself to watch this!

Hey there everyone. Yes, it's another Gundam review by yours truly. This time I'd like to introduce you to another of my favorite Gundam spin offs, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War In the Pocket. Unlike many of the Gundam seires that you'd usually see that takes place after the Original Gundam or in another Gundam Universe, Gundam 0080 takes place during the end of the Original Mobile Suit Gundam series. This fan fic version of the great One Year War explains the story of the people the live within the colonies. Though the show was only six episodes long, it was worth watching.

The story begins ... like this, the War between Zeon and Federation is about to come to an end and things don't look good for Zeon. A team of Zeon pilots, The Cyclops team, was sent out by Solomon force to steal a supposedly new proto-type Gundam model. They were able to find it but lost the Gundam when it escaped to space. They quickly chase after it and discover it's hidden within a civilian space colony of Side 6.

In the story Side 6 wrote a treaty saying that they were not to be involved in the war. The Earth Federation took advantage of that and were able to hide the Gundam NT-1. But that didn't stop the Cyclops team. They attacked the colony and were able to sneak pasted through security without notice. But one thing went wrong.....

A young boy named Alfred meets one of the Cyclops team members, Bernard Wiseman, and became friends with the Zeon team. How can these Zeon soldiers complete their mission with this child following them? Time ticks as Solomon forces say they'll bomb the colony if the Gundam isn't taken care of......


All in all, this is another addition to the Universal Century. If you want to know more of the Gundam world, then this is your anime, just be sure you've seen the Original.

War in the Pocket is a stellar example of how revolutionizing a time-tested mecha franchise can bring about positive results. Preferring to avoid genre tropes such as angsty teenage pilots and testosterone-fueled robot brawls, this six-episode OVA chronicles a mature tale akin to celebrated war dramas. It’s the first Gundam series not directed by the legendary Yoshiyuki Tomino, but by no means does that make it inferior. In fact, War in the Pocket is easily the best entry in the saga until today.

While most Gundam stories revolve around a brash teenage pilot, War in the Pocket opts for something completely different by having an eleven-year-old—a ... civilian—as its lead character. At first, Al hardly seems to be a good choice for a Gundam protagonist. Here we have a schoolboy who loves playing war games with his buddies and nothing else. Lacking the combat prowess and flair of the franchise's previous heroes, Al appears to be a dismissible individual in the beginning. With conflicts between the Federation and the Zeon occurring everywhere and Al not fighting in even a single battle, the story seems to be doomed to an uninteresting direction.

But when Zeon forces raid his homeland on a secret mission, Al’s daring personality begins to shine as he observes the skirmishes unfazed. Instead of highlighting the mecha battles, the story remains focused on Al as he navigates through the wreckages of his city and observes the bloody corpses strewn across the streets. Because Al is still an innocent child, however, he does not realize the severity of the situation, and so proceeds to investigate the aftermath of the invasion while skirting dangerously close to the conflict. Ironically, by having a child like Al as a narrator, we are able to survey the destruction even better than through the perspective of a soldier directly involved in the war.

War in the Pocket dives into its action quickly, but it’s not until Al’s fated meeting with Bernie that the ball starts rolling. After Al encounters the downed Zeon pilot, a fleeting moment of tension occurs before his bravery once again comes into play. Ignoring the gun pointed at him, Al surprises Bernie with a declaration to join his squad. This scene seems comically exaggerated at first, but it makes sense when you realize the lengths Al would go to partake in the war. From Al’s juvenile outlook, Bernie is not an enemy, but an opportunity to lead him to a new path.

Bernie is a likable character and most likely the fan favorite. Although a member of the elite Zeon team that invaded Al’s homeland, his inexperience and tendency to panic clearly identifies him as a rookie. Think of him as a foil to Al. Since everyone else in his squad are gruff, battle-seasoned men, he is merely viewed as a tag-along brat who simply wants recognition. Bernie’s relationship with his comrades only worsens after allowing Al to become an informant for their squad, which is rather humorous considering that Al is the son of a late Federation official.

Not everything is bad for our unlucky Zeon pilot, however, as Bernie finds unforeseen love in the form of Christie, a Federation soldier and Al’s longtime neighbor. Making this situation even more fascinating is that neither are aware of the other’s allegiance, introducing a twist to the usual “star-crossed lovers” scenario. United by love rather than ideology, Bernie and Christie share moments that serve as respites in the middle of all the violence. If not for their military expertise, Bernie and Christie could pass as a regular teenage couple. Despite taking a backseat in the second half for more pressing matters, the romance in War in the Pocket is genuinely heartfelt. The blossoming relationship between the two echoes War in the Pocket’s strongest anti-war message, where politics and beliefs are what mainly separate us as human beings.

Ultimately, War in the Pocket is a story about Al and Bernie as they improve themselves by learning from each other. As the Zeon team's secret mission reaches its climax, Al realizes that war is nothing alike to the games he plays with his friends. His decision to join Bernie and his crew as an informant allows him to comprehend the bloodshed and aftermath of the war. Likewise, Bernie attempts to become more confident and serious in his duties by following the example of the fearless Al. Even Bernie’s squadmates, who initially dismissed him and Al as a couple of nuisances, eventually acknowledge their bravery. In just six episodes, Al and Bernie are meticulously fleshed out and become better individuals.

It should be fairly obvious at this point that War in the Pocket prides in the growth of its cast more than anything else. Therefore, mecha fans might be displeased to learn that the show packs fewer action sequences compared to other entries in the franchise. Although War in the Pocket is not completely devoid of giant robot battles, most of them occur in the final two episodes during the climax of the story. Even so, these battles are beautifully animated and are no less fun to watch than that in other Gundam titles. But since War in the Pocket is narrated from Al’s viewpoint, these battles seem like random acts of violence instead of clashes of ideals. However, this works in the show’s favor since it reinforces the anti-war themes that it tries to convey.

Even War in the Pocket’s dazzling visuals plays into its narrative. The watercolor backgrounds and the bright, somewhat grungy color scheme give the show an innocent feel, almost as if everything we see is based on Al’s perspective. In contrast, the bloody corpses and destruction of the mobile suits are rendered more realistically. Although the show was produced in 1989, it’s hard to disagree that War in the Pocket is one of the best-looking Gundam titles to date.

War is hell, and it’s a message that War in the Pocket repeatedly declares throughout its six-episode run. Marrying mecha elements with a profound humanistic story, this fantastic addition to the Gundam saga is sure to please both fans and newcomers of the genre. More than two decades have passed since its inception, but it remains the strongest title in the franchise.

[Enjoyment: 8]
Pretty awesome coz a mecha-hating person like me can still enjoy the anime. I binged a majority of this anime coz it was interesting and I wanna know what's next.

[Art: 9]
If compared to other animes from 1989, the animation is pretty crisp and refreshing. But there were Dragon Ball Z and Ranma coming out on that year too and I think they're almost as good, so I gave 9 for great but not 10 for masterpiece.

[Sound: 7]
Memorable OP, Subpar ED, but I love the futuristic/disco(?)-like OST. I appreciate that the kids sound like kids. Other VAs seem to be okay, but I don't notice ... anything groundbreaking.

[Story: 8]
Great story about war and conflict in the eye of an innocent, exuberant child. Filled with emotions, seamless story-telling, exciting without being extra. I just wished the whole thing is presented as a 2 hour-long movie ([27 min total - 5 min for OP & ED - 1 min recap] x 5 = ~120 min) so it will pack more punch. The plot is already seamless so I don't see the need to chop them into 6 different episodes.

[Characters: 8]
Very very good character relations (esp Al & Barnie). Al acts like a child that he is, but still packs so much emotion & wit. The story made me care about characters enough to feel for them.

[Average: 8] Solid 8

Quite Probably the Best War Drama That Anime has to Offer(LR);
'0080 - War In The Pocket' is an 1989-1990 Gundam Ova series commissioned to commemorate the passing of Gundam's 10th anniversary. Aside from an interesting background, such as being the first non Yoshiyuki Tomino project or being the only one of the 3 "90's" Ova series that doesn't have a troubled production (some would suggest it to be the only "90's" product that went smoothly in general), 0080 in it's own right is maybe the most interesting Gundam entry to date, from it's meta-level criticism of the real robot genre's audience, to it's incredibly uncompromised ... and effective anti-war story and astounding production values - This is one entry in the Gundam franchise that truly qualifies as 'Art'. Let's start with the spoiler free items first.


Character and Story - 80's story isn't that dissimilar to your usual Gundam stylings, which is something many including myself seemed to of been caught unawares by. I put off 80 because of it's reputation as some art house war film from a child's view and it's supposed 'star-crossed-lovers on opposite sides' story but quite bluntly I regret this greatly. If 80 does fit those two concepts than it does so to a degree higher then almost anything else. 0080 is a story about War from the perspective of a child but not the mentality of one. There is nuanced combatants on both sides, the horrors of destruction shown clearly and the human toll of such conflicts made clear. It's a story that at times may seem predictable on a surface layer but always plays it expertly, it easily straddles the cringe-factor-line that can be so easily crossed with child protagonists and succeeds succinctly in it's goals to tell a story about a small corner of this brutal war. The pacing never fails it and while some may find it's long stretches of quiet to be mis-placed in a mecha show, they are quite clearly very deliberate and when the property does part take in combat scenes they hit all the harder for that elongated peace.

Characters are another strength of the anime, it cleverly keeps the relevant cast pretty small to avoid miss-management of the short run time and in usual Gundam fashion makes excellent use of distinguishing traits for quick characterisation (what I often think of as the Gundam equivalent of the 'Dere' architypes), lesser characters will be given the likes of a distinct accent or abrasive personality to economise on time while the main duo of Bernie and Al are given plenty of moments to shine and are some of the most fleshed out players in the whole Gundam grand narrative. It would encroach on spoiler territory to go any much further but it suffices to say that the characters of 0080 feel real, with unspoken lives of their own, veteran soldiers, rookies and hapless civilians are all present in a nuanced manor, while the likes of the New-Type space wizards are left as no more then a rumour, it's a cast of characters made for the non-Gundam fan.


Music and Animation - The Ost often takes on an ethereal quality, there's something distant about it's use of wind instruments on a backing of light techno synth. Elements of it could be considered of it's time but there's most certainly something melancholic about it, in much the same way many children's nursery rhymes seem oddly off putting when listened to as an adults, 0080's Ost strikes me as disconcerting in it's playfulness. It's an almost unique soundtrack that reminds me alot of the Ost that would later be used in 'Mystery Dungeon Explores of Time'. I have seen some complain that the more serious scenes are often backed by an almost light hearted song but this is by no means a mistake, instead it's quite apparently a method of furthering that cognitive dissonance the show retains, while there are more generic bops for combat with-in the Ost(which even in itself could be seen as a sort of video game track that a child migth imagine being behind a big battlefield), the reason the lighter tracks are often favoured is that aforementioned childish perspective. As mecha fans we jeer and whoop at the sight of an epic battle, get hyped when two pre-established strong fighters take to the stage, it's that fallacy which 0080's compositions play into so wonderfully.

It's worth also quickly noting that in 80's case the dub is supior. For one thing it's 12 years younger so it's basic quality out does even the reconditioned version of the sub but more importantly 0080 has a pretty multicultural cast which un-surprisingly the Japanese doesn't really try to address. The members of Cyclops team all have distinct Western European, South American and Russian accents in the dub which matches up with their appearances and lends extra credence to their characterisations - in the original there all just regular Japanese voice actors (hearing Mikhail and Garcia with normal Japanese VA's is so distracting when they're clearly not of the same descent as everyone else in their mannerism's alone, there's an edginess to how Garcia in particular speaks in the dub, while Mikhail is just goffy as he*l in the sub with out his accent which in the dub gives him a sort of Admiral Dozel un-hingedness. What would you even call this sort of mis-casting - Counter racism?). The funniest moment for this is when Bernie, pretending to be a federation solider - supposedly puts on an Australian accent (indictive of both his inexperience and nervousness) in the dub this is wonderfully communicated but in the sub the voice actor really doesn't sound any different to usual, which both ruins the joke and the greater implications of it. Al, the child protagonist, may be something of an exception here as the now fairly distinguished voice actor Daisuke Namikawa does a great job but so too does his English VA Brianne Siddall, so while Daisuke is good, he ain't worth it alone. Over all the sub is by no means bad but the dub is the one with the greater effort put in.

The show is directing and captured in a fascinating fashion. One could be forgiven for thinking the art-style somewhat out there but as every episode's introduction makes clear, what we're seeing is a child's drawing. That's in no way to suggest the art is bad, not at all, the animation of 80 is some of the most fluid and attention to detail that I've seen. The fight scene's in episode 4 and 6 are both easily contenders for some of the finest of the whole franchise - No it's rather to say that the softer lines of the friendlier characters and colourful tones of the city are an expression of Al's young world view, an indicator of the beauty and wonder around every corner for a curious kid like him.
This works even further during combat, where the more traditional Gundam style comes back in, creating a real contrast between the everyday and the conflict than migth otherwise be the case. All told the animation is without any flaws of merit and the Ost not far behind.
For a great example of this simply watch the very first fight of the show; Where-in we see Cyclops team face the Artic base in gloriously animated fashion, quick cuts give a rattling sense of pace, while all the mechs are highly detailed with each hit holding extreme weight and force behind them. It's a pleasure to watch both as damn good animation but also as a visceral display of professional brutality.


Spoiler Free Conclusion - '0080 War in the Pocket' is a feature length masterclass in mecha animation. From it's diegetic Ost and stylistic choices, to the weight the dynamic direction gives to it's battles, alongside a true anti-war story and compelling characters, it's an anime that truly prospers with-in it's genre. Even if you aren't a big mecha fan or dislike Gundam, I would suggest 80 is one of the few must watch Gundam series's for both fans and detractors alike.
It only requires you to have seen the original 79'(or it's recaps) and even without one could easily get almost everything this has to offer with no given Gundam knowledge. It's one of a few anime that I believe honestly succeeded in never feeling like a product but instead always feeling like a work of art and for that alone it's a triumph.


Spoilers Ahoy - The Glory of True Subtlety;
So getting further into spoiler territory I should first mention that this is something of a continuation to my full Gundam-Early-UC review that I recently wrote, which can be found under the Mal blog tab and goes into much further detail on some of what we are discussing here. I'll be putting in a few of my extracts from that but if you'd like to read it in full, here's the link - https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=867380 . With that said let's first discuss some of the reasons I love 80 so much as well as it's steadfastness in what makes Gundam work in the first place.

Subtlety is a tricky thing, in my other Gundam works I've spoken on how much of Tomino's work can be So subtle that one can almost infer practically anything from some of his characters and plots (Jerid Messa and Char Aznable spring to mind), 0080 handles this far differently. Littered with clever foreshadowing and narrative furthering devices, it's something I really wished I'd watched when I first got into Gundam over half a decade ago, simply so I could of already rewatched it a couple of times by now, as I'm sure each rewatch will reveal more hidden gems. Let's chat of a couple.

We have the likes of the mech designs themselves ---- "This is most prevalent in War in the Pocket where we see only two new suits both of which make logical in-universe sense, the Alex Gundam in particular is great. It starts in that grey outer armour giving it an intimidating appearance, almost like that of the 'bad guys' machine or super secret weapon but once it's outer armour falls to reveal it's true colour scheme is far more akin to a regular Gundam, it really helps to hammer home for Al and the audience that "We're the bad guys!?". Additionally the Kampher while primarily fitting in well with Zeon's late war strategy of 'just try anything however specific or experimental' is an initially cool design with a great build up, that makes you want to see it in combat...until you do and then suddenly you really wish you hadn't and you no longer desire a Gunpla of it, which is just plain ingenious".
----We'll talk more on that last point shortly but it bears mentioning there are other Mobile Suits present in 80 however all of these are variations on pre-existing suits and while I've seen that plenty kits have been made from them I believe their intention is fairly pure. After all it would be straight up bizarre if say the GM's present at Artic base were their original bright red in the middle of a blizzard swept installation. Similarly the custom Gelgoogs of the speical force division are really just a nice recolouring with a neat logo, that to me at-least fit in perfectly and never seem to distract one with thoughts of toy commercials.

Further we have my favourite piece of foreshadowing in all Gundam, the end credits. The final shot for all 6 episodes is a simple photograph still of Al and all his friends holding up a 'Happy New Year' banner. When what this meant clicked for me I was genuinely shocked at my own idiocy for not grasping it the very first time I saw it. To anyone who's forgotten, the One Year War end's on New Years day ergo the banner tells you right from the first episode that the nuclear missile plot is going to fail, it's relevance goes too further hammer home the crushing reality that Bernie both in a sense dies for nothing and also exactly what it is he dies for. Just a couple more days and he could of gone home, the nukes would of never come but equally Al and all his friend smiling, the children happy on New Years Day? That's what he fights for in the end, not for the lofty ideals and politics of Dikun or Geinren Zabi, not for the sake of the war or honour and pride - but simply to protect the people of some stupid little colony in the middle of nowhere. It's just such a brilliantly simple still.

Then you have the likes of Garcia going to visit the KFC coronel to get info on the Gundam's location, not only is this done with no fanfare but it plays greatly into the idea of this being real. Al and Bernie's secret infiltration mission gets them reprimanded because that's not how real soldiers work, war isn't fun or exciting in that sense, rather Cyclops team just ask their local informant, like any real military unit would. There's also the way Captain Von Helsing(great name) shows clear contempt towards the idea of nuking a civilian area, acting as an early indicator of how he'll eventually surrender his fleet to the federation to avoid committing an atrocity. Or the dozen smaller one's like how causally Al's Dad hands him a letter for Al's mother acting as the earliest indication of their frayed relationship, Captain Steiner trying to attain passports which you later realise was with the hopes he migth find an opportunity to evacuate his team in it's entirety, or how the crime scene for the Kampher shows no body, only a bloodied chair, which harkens to Bernie's similar demises. Maybe the most apparent symbolism being the eye catch card in the middle of each episode displaying Al's trouser pocket stuffed with toys based on war weaponry. All in all there's a great selection of just well written visuals and detailed foreshadowing and the like that keeps almost every moment being economic in a natural, genuine way. Speaking of let's get back to the point on battling-


What the One Year War Really Looked Like - For all that we'll soon speak on the show's brilliant ability to critic the inheriting fascination we all have with war/battle, it can only do that by firstly being a dazzling display of said conflict. The fact is in order for 'War in the Pocket' to work as well as it does it must first look the part. When the Kampher gets blown to shreds the animation Has To be able to keep up, to show the whole machine lurching violently like a beast in pain, as the director cuts to to images of Mikhail's vibrating flask - and boy does it ever keep up.

Aside from the larger set-pieces we have some smaller engagements with the purpose of breaking up the more slice-of-life-esk parts. Of these we have a clever scene where we get to see the first person perspective of the Alex Gundam fighting a space battle simulation. Aside from delivering some interesting exposition about Chris (namely her being a great test pilot but not a New-Type and a nice reference to the crew of the WhiteBase), along with being almost a proto-version of a similar scene in Gundam Thunderbolt -- This short 'battle' helps to draw further parallels between the video games we see Al and other children play to the reality of what those games are parroting which ties an extra element of the battles into the themes. There's also a compulsory colony attack scene, however in this case we get some interesting deviations in that Al isn't a chosen one style Gundam Pilot, in fact it's a battle of purely grunt suits with just graphically updated version of the Federation GM's and Zaku 2s at play. This in itself creates a nice difference in that we get to witness the destruction these basic machines wrought but without the enviable colony destruction that the intervention of a Gundam would usually bring, meaning for the rest of the anime's run we get to see wrecked building being restored and the like giving an almost unique impression of a post colony attack location.

On a quick aside, I've seen some people draw issue with Al's character, in particular saying his lack of fear around Bernie's Zaku is unrealistic. Let's be clear here, as far as we know after 40 years of Gundam, Mobile Suits of this sort aren't actually that loud, the idea that they'd rumble and grumble like a Second World War tank despite being in the far future and powered by a miniaturised form of nuclear fission is not only highly presumptuous but more importantly untrue.
Sure we do see the odd suit make noise but generally no character ever shows discomfort, just being a pilot wouldn't make you immune to deafness and on top of that Bernie's Zaku wasn't even on anymore it had stalled, so all told it seems fairly likely that if Al wasn't scared of the machines to begin with, then being near an immobile one wouldn't make much odds. Finally to those who say it's stupid that the Zaku is never removed, try paying more attention.
We're told very clearly the Zaku's weapons and ammunition were all confiscated, add to that it's immobility, the attitude of the Grey Phantom's Captain and the lack of resources available to the local government in this time of crises and it all seems fairly reasonable that there was no one around who could move it, lest would even want to with all that's going on. Whatever the case these seem like fairly minor issues and far from ruin anything.


Now lets talk on the real meat of the battles, numbering three in total each one makes for some of the most memorable Gundam combat to date - If it's been awhile you can watch each of them plus the shorter colony infiltration flight (which included the custom Gelgoog I mentioned earlier) on YouTube, those being the attack on Artic base, The failed assault to destroy the Alex Gundam and finally the greatest Zaku fight in history.
Each of these three fights is distinct in it's own way with all 3 making amazing use of the surrounding to create a dynamic feel. More impressively is the damage the mechs take, this would be repeated again in MSG F91 and was present to a degree in ZZ especially and fittingly with the Physco Gundam, but I think this is one of it's best displays. Seeing the GM's own hand spin out of it's grasp before blasting itself, or the likes of the aforementioned Kampher's destruction where we see parts of it flying off before it finally gives up the ghost.
Even in it's final moments of the last battle my eyes are always drawn to Bernie's Zaku 2's severed arm, which you can see wires and various connections hanging from loosely or the Alex Gundams interior with it's ripped open cockpit obscuring part of the camera and Chris's view.
This gives the fights not just literal weight and animation prowess but also a sense of reality. Further this extends into the boots on the ground battles. Personnel combat is relatively rare in Gundam but almost always great (think back to Ramba Ral's assault on the WhiteBase or Char Vs Amuro at Au-Bu-a-Qu) but maybe nowhere more so then here. The speed at which it unfolds is astoundingly brilliant. One moment your watching Al trying to play spy with the relatively amiable Doctor Lunland(who is also much better in dub then sub), the next it cuts to some poor federation solider being gutted, it's brutal and face paced, before you know it the covers been blown and you haven't even finished wondering to yourself how they'll talk they're way out of this mess when suddenly Garcia just starts absolutely cutting men down with the chilling accuracy of a pro, a second later the Captains been hit, a further second your friendly big brother Bernie is gunning fools down with a friggin shotgun. And make no mistake, there's no plot armour here, as the Captain is out for the rest of this fight, no Shiro Yamada's on Cyclops team, instead we watch three members of the group die in a matter of moments in what is a surprisingly heart-breaking sequence.
A apart of what I love here is we shouldn't care, they don't suddenly add in that the Captain has a wife and kids or anything of that nature, no these guys are objectively horrible murderers who'll do anything there ordered no matter the civilian cost but you can't help but care, can't help but want it to go differently as Garcia smiles and blows himself to Kingdom come, all while Mikhail actively out preforms the Alex but ultimately gets screwed by it's sheer performance in what is one of the best demonstrations of a Gundam's overwhelming power since the original 79'.
Your watching people who would probably of killed Al once the mission was done, just to cover their tracks and despite it all your genuinely heartbroken as each member dies one by one.

Non of the fights are particularly long but aside from being visual stunning they work because they stay in your mind, because you genuinely feel bad for the nameless causalities. Bernie dies in some regard for nothing. Now to be clear I'd of had no issue with him dieing but saving the colony in the process but his death for no such cause is a masterstroke, turning an already great concept of a story about the faceless forgotten hero's, into one of a Shakespearian tragedy about the complete pointless futility of war - Which works doubly well with-in the universe of Gundam because this is a world where one man or women can change the course of history - Regularly in fact - And just having a machine like the Alex can change an entire battle's flow (The Kampher literally blows up a half dozen other suits with easy but can't actually pierce the Alex due to it's weak firepower and lack of beam weaponry) but in the case of Bernie or even a speical forces team of aces like Cyclops, their if anything more helpless to hold back history then someone in our world. As thought destiny itself fights against them as wonderfully illustrated by the fact that Chris actually survives the final fight, because of course she does, New-Type or not - She's the Gundam pilot, the Zeon aren't allowed to win, there the 'Bad Guys' regardless of the context of what they're fighting for at any given time.


And just what a final battle that/it is, I already mentioned the brilliant animation with it's attention to detail and then we have the direction. Careful effort is taken to do two things, quick almost viscous cuts into the mech's cockpits to reveal the pilots lurching about and taking very real, life threatening injuries from the minorest of outside force and transitions to Al as he desperately tries to stop it all.
I love so much how this doesn't go the way you think it will.
I rolled my eyes when I saw Al running for Bernie, I though to myself "here we go, at the last minute he'll save 'em both, the power of children to change the next generation or friendship or something", how I wish I'd been right.
No instead Al never makes it, the closet being his seeing that Chris had been the Gundam's pilot all along, creating a tragic irony that only he and he alone will ever know. We watch the kid get blown about by the same explosions as the Gundam, blinded by the same smokescreen, fooled/mis-directed by the same balloons and roll down a hillside in almost sync with the machines - All of which were traps he helped set up. Talk about a next level audience surget (and in so many ways more then just this one)
It's all just such an amazing subversion of what your expecting it to be and it culminates in one of the greatest Gundam images of all time as we, alongside and from the same angle as Al, watch the two glorious Mobile Suits tear one another apart.
.....And then Bernice fu*kin dies. no final words or goodbye, just died......
Your left there just like Al staring at the screen, hoping it'll be a ploy but the only thing you get is two Federation mooks casually discussing how the Zeon pilot was turned to 'mincemeat', it's such a war film sort of line and it hits so damn hard as the ultimate Gundam anti-war message lands home.
It wasn't a game, the fun montage with the intro song behind it didn't give Bernie invulnerability, the fight migth of been one of the best animated and directed things you've ever seen but Bernie's still dead, that won't change no matter how much Gundam memorabilia you buy.

It's through this that both visually and (as we will finally address very shortly,) thematically that War in the Pocket is the true prodigy of Original Gundam 79'. To me this is exactly what the One year War looked like, we all know the original show is most certainly of it's time, longer then it needs to be yet cut short in it's prime. Directing and memorable imagery is what gives the fights of 79 their iconic staying power but in 0080 we get that plus a budget. To me this is what it always looked like when the Gouf was cut in two or when the Rx-78 guns down the first ever Zaku 2 with just it's head mounted machine guns in episode 1, except now it's realised with that same level of directing brilliance and the necessary time and money to take what was already a clearly caring team of talented individuals and put them and others to use on fully realising this world. Aside from F91 I don't really think we've ever seen Gundam to this quality, where the fights hammer home the point this well since, except in maybe the likes of Iron Blooded Orphans.
In truth the fights of 0080 aren't magnificent because of how brilliantly made they are but rather that brilliance is used to perfectly extenuate the true consequences of war more vividly then had ever been the case before or maybe even after. It's time to fully address that last most important of Gundam related points-



An Adherence To All That Can Make Gundam Great - As I listed in my other work I believe the core tenants that any entry has to be built upon are as follows;--
"Let's start where all Gundam's should and address the core themes of Gundam, similar to say most Ghibli films the topics range from the destruction/pollution of planet Earth(1), The Anti-War Trio {The disenfranchising nature of war(2), The human cost/morality of war(3) and The idea that they're are 'good' people on both sides of every-conflict(4)} and finally more common themes of Adolescence/growing into a man(5) (Gundam is unfortunately almost always more Male orientated, still waiting for a true female Gundam lead) which connects with the whole idea of the New-Type or us as a species coming to understand one another and end all conflict (Atleast for a time, aka the gap between CCA and F91 that Unicorn and Hathaway's Flash have f*cked the messaging and themes of :D )."--

Of the many shows I think 80 gets this immaculately right, the destruction a mobile suit or just war in general can cause to a city is always prevalent even if the earth itself is never a focus. The way the war slowly creeps into Al's physic until he finally realises the truth of things is a master's demonstration of that disenfranchising nature as well as that message of adolescence(which Bernie also fills). It goes without saying just how prevalent the human cost is and maybe the show's biggest achievement is being one of the very best examples of how to humanise the enemy;--

"It's one of the reasons why I love War in the Pocket so much, as I feel it gets this across the most clearly. Cyclops team are down right malevolent psychopaths with some serious social issues. They're a specific speical Ops team who would happily blow up a whole colony while laughing evilly no doubt. We see they're more then ready and do kill a number of innocent men, women and children, yet when Garcia shows kindness to Bernie through the vale of being a rank above him, it feels genuine. The connection the whole team has to Al is bourn from a utilitarian usefulness the boy presents and yet I think by the end of the show, while they'd probably shoot him if ordered to, they kind of care about him if only as their little mascot and they definitely have a bizarre comradery among each other and towards Bernie, with the Captain clearly crying with honest passion after the death of Andy(in episode 1's Artic-Base fight scene).
That's the mass murdering morally bankrupt lunatics we're talking about."--
As I stressed in my previous essay, the reason all this matters for 0080 is like all Gundam it is in large part a theme driven story, not so much a character or plot driven one but rather those themes are what really matters, which conversely has always been the point. MSG 79' isn't about Amuro or the actions of the RX-78-2/3 but rather what that means, what it means for him to take lives, what it does to his mind and how the people around him threat him for it etc.

Themes can be a tricky thing for a casual audience to grapple with, this isn't an insult or anything but rather that when we as anime fans watch anime, we far to often just want entertainment. This is by no means a bad thing, resting our minds with causal or light-hearted media is a healthy thing, it's why I indulge with the likes of the isekai and harem genres so often - However an issue I see with society at large as of late is an urge to only engage in entertainment.
I know people who think all reading is 'boring', I frequently see Mal forms saying the likes of Akira or Evangellion seemed 'Messy' 'conceited' or 'contrived'. It's not that any of these people are 'dumb' but rather we've been somewhat encouraged in the last couple decades to not engage any further, we want our media like our food - fast.
It's for this reason in large part that I think so many either pass on or 'don't understand' War in the Pocket, it requires work.
Sure it's still just a great piece of entertainment in it's own right but in order to get the most from it you need to pay attention, to listen to what it wants to say, Not What You Want to hear.

'Art', by which here I mean works of expression made not so much for the sole purpose of monetisation or entertainment but rather for the communication of ideas that can often be so very hard to talk about with mere words - Is work. You don't watch art passively because when you do, you can come out confused or impartial.
It is fine to watch a Moe show to rest your mind but equally you should be dedicating some of your time to feeding the part of your mind that needs more, that wants to understand more and apricate more. Why all this matters when discussing 80 is because it in itself is akin to a theme of the show, in something of a meta-twist a common read of the property is one of it being in active conversation with the very fans of Gundam and that's a read with quite some merit.

Al is for all intensive purposes us, he's the Gundam fan. he prefers the design of the Zaku, he cares little for the real ramifications of the ideologies each side of the war represents, he fawns over memorabilia like the war insignia's - he's a child, like us. The point isn't that us as grown adults are immature but instead that everyone is until they can see it.
In 'The Lord of The Flies' a large central conflict revolves around the idea of keeping a fire lit, which being that a group of teens and children are all that's on a deserted island is rather integral to their survival and possible rescue - However being children they act as one would imagine about responsibility to which 'Ralph' (our lead character) exacerbates that 'if you were drowning you'd accept a life boi, so why then can't the children understand the value of keeping a signal fire lit when you deserted on a desert island?'
The point the story seems to be making is not that the other children are stupid (indeed most of them are far better hunter gatherers then Ralph is), or don't want rescue but that they simply want to have fun.
The immediate value of playing hunter, hunting the islands wild boar or paddling in the oceans is just more alluring. In a sense they literally aren't aware of the value of the fire, despite on some level clearly knowing it's importance. They just want to watch the giant robots fight without accepting the point of those fatalities.

It's this that I believe 'War in the Pocket' is trying to communicate, we are all children. Even when Al sees soldiers and civilians dieing horribly, he tries to play it cool, hesitating only momentarily in front of a collapsed building and only briefly trying to broach the subject with Bernie "-People die really easily don't they...".
It is only when he can no longer evade it, when Bernie essentially dies in an irrelevant battle, that Al can see it, that he breaks, crying in the school yard as the only kid who gets it, the only kid really hearing the headmaster's half-hearted speech(which in itself is one of the finest scenes in media, acting as one of the greatest payoff moments I've personally ever witnessed).
How many times in your daily life have you been listening to the news and heard your country or another has 'condemned' the actions of such and such a state, or a small speech from some prevalent speaker on the current affairs of some war in a far off place. How often have you stopped to really listen, to really consider the toll that report represents?
Al is such a fascinating character because not only is he the one who finally gets it, but it's only after on the surface his life gets better;
'Big Sis' stand-in Chris survives, his Dad and Mom get back together, none of his school friends or family are hurt - He's not a solider, his colony is relatively neutral and the war is over anyway to boot.
Al is us, he has no understanding of the things he cheers at not because he's malicious or dim-wittingly stupid but rather because he simply doesn't see it, he isn't aware of it and so that hard-wired, in-built drive towards violence that we all have, is all that matters.

The Zaku's are cooler then the GMs.


In all this we have Gundam 0080 trying and by my money, succeeding to reinstate what the franchise began as and had lost. The original Gundam is a story that actively discourages the 'Super Robot' genre (or what at the time was just the mecha genre), saying that glorifying machines of mass destruction in the form of Mobile Suits or Mechs in general, is never good.
That encouraging the idea your enemies are just Kaiju and aliens from far away and nothing like us is terrible, and that ultimately war really friggin sucks.
War-in-the-Pocket does that same thing but for the Gundam fandom or the burgeoning real robot genre in general (keeping in mind that it's director is the same as Macross'es).
It's an important lessen that Gundam was originally meant to teach but forgot how to, weather it be the black and white villains of Zeta Gundam, or the giant space-rivalry-spectacle of Char's Counterattack, even if those works have layers and nuances of their own, they are far, far to easy to consume as just 'Cool gaint robots having big laser battles' and nothing more.
That is what 0080 tries to remedy - And what a bold way to go about celebrating your ten year anniversary.


Conclusion;
Just talking about 0080 proves to me to be quite difficult as whenever you discuss true art that is as thematically dense as this, you end up feeling like your own words and inadequacies can't do it justice, that the broud swaths of discussion do a disservice to something almost untaggable, to try and sum it up I suppose the following would be poignant and yet to me feels so hollow and maybe that is the point;
'While it may be short, 'War in the Pocket' to me acts as one of the finest War stories anime has for it's brutal honesty, not just about the horrors of war but also how cool it is.
It never tries to deny the fact that Al liking war isn't normal for a kid, nor does it ever try to preface that we don't all actively ignore what's far away and with good cause.
You cannot cry for every fallen soul, BUT you can acknowledge and do your part in your delay life, to be more aware of that truth not some personal reality but of the harsh facts of the shared world we live in.
War in the Pocket is therefore the most successful Gundam I've ever seen, it single-handedly portrait's the core themes to a tee, while acutely saying something even more then that, all while being produced to a point of making the absolute utmost of it's increased OVA budget - And for me that's something really special and deserving of the highest of praise.'


I hope you enjoyed reading this, if so please press the 'helpful' button (turn phones to desktop mode) and feel free to see my further thought via my Blog on UC Gundam as a whole, without any further ado-
Thanks for reading.

War in the Pocket is a concise story that excellently captures the tragedy of war, especially through the eyes of a child. Unlike the more traditional Gundam fare that takes the perspective of soldiers, or at least a protagonist that is thrust into combat, War in the Pocket follows characters with significantly less agency. As a short story set near the conclusion of the One Year War, it tells a much more intimate story focusing much more on its characters than the action. In fact, it would be possible to take out a vast majority of the Gundam elements and the action scenes and still ... have it be a compelling and moving war story. No small feat or praise for its writer and director.

War in the Pocket contrast the child-like wonder at all things military with the stark reality of how cruel warfare can be. This is done by having one of the primary point of view characters being Alfred, a young boy. Alfred is written as a highly intelligent child, able to manipulate situations when he needs to and think critically about problems he is presented with. Yet this never comes off as someone with an adult's intelligence or perspective being shoehorned into a young character. Like many young boys, he is fascinated with military hardware and playing soldier without truly grasping its implications or the danger that comes with it. He has little understanding of why the war is being fought or any ideological loyalty to any side. Like any kid playing soldier, he simply wants to be involved in the action and do what he perceives as cool or meaningful. His enthusiasm and naivety make him both incredibly believable as a character and highly relatable. Who among us did not think the same way at his age or have seen that reflected in others. War in the Pocket precisely captures how someone his age thinks and acts, endearing Alfred to the viewers. What is so sobering about his character is when he finally comes to see the horrors of war and how he reacts and changes. It is an experience he can never return from, made all the more hard-hitting when it is contrasted with how his friends still view war as childish fantasies.

Similarly, Bernie is the archetypical young soldier, not quite a full adult yet who is still looking to prove himself. In a way, he is an older, more mature reflection of Alfred. Like Alfred's desire to be accepted by his friends and later the authority figures he finds in the soldiers, Bernie wants to be recognised as a competent full-fledged member of the military. While he has a much clearer understanding of the war, he has still yet to see it in its full brutality. Though better equipped than Alfred to handle the stress and anguish that comes with his role in the conflict, he is not immune to its effects. Unlike a paragon character that would embody the ideal soldier, he gets scared and is shaken by the combat he goes through. His character arc of eventually rising to meet them makes War in the Pocket so moving as a character drama but also so tragic. He gives a much more human perspective to a soldier at war. Like most people, he is ultimately motivated by his personal connection rather than any abstract ideals like heroism or loyalty to the Zeon cause. This is contrasted heavily against Chris, who is both a far more accomplished and able solider in subversion of initial expectations. His growth never outmatches her as a soldier. Still, his character is far more compelling since, unlike Chris, he has to face very personal elements of war while she still ends it with some emotional distance intact as a pilot. In any other show, the scenario of Bernie growing into an older brother figure for Alfred and his budding relationship with Chris would be a classic tale of boy-meets-girl. Tragically, war is not merely a backdrop to this story and is an integral theme it addresses.

With its excellently written protagonists, War in the Pocket is a profoundly moving story about how ordinary people react to war. Alfred is a child that is involved way in over his head, and Bernie is a low-ranking pilot, both of them have little agency to shape events. Events outside of their control are thrust upon them, and how they react is the core focus of the narrative. It is tragic how little of an effect they have on the eventual outcome of events, but that is also the show's point. It makes the viewer empathise with them as trying to stand against an impossible current and emphasises the intimate nature of War in the Pocket. The politics and grandstanding of the One Year War are left almost entirely by the wayside as we take the perspective of people forced to bear the consequences of that. Any greater context we get to the events on the Side 6 colony are just snippets into the brutality of both sides. The Federation effectively uses the civilians of the colony as camouflage for their military operations, bringing them into harm's way. And Zeon engages in indiscriminate attacks to neutralise that military presence. In a cerebral sense, Side 6 is a legitimate military target. But that lack of discussion of acknowledgement serves to underscore that it does not matter to the people directly involved.

In this, War in the Pocket addresses a significant point of tension, or even contradiction, in Gundam and other media about war. Military hardware, giant mechs in particular, are cool. They are entertaining to watch, and the spectacle of combat is exhilarating. Yet the context for this is almost always a war. The consequences of which are always severe and bloody. The action and battles are always starkly contrasted by the almost picturesque or mudane scenes of life in Side 6. Or they are more soberingly followed up with the characters confronting the aftermath of the action. While there is a decent amount of mobile suit combat, it is hardly the central attraction of War in the Pocket. The scenes of conflict are used sparingly at only critical moments in the plot, ensuring that they do not detract from the show's themes or tone. The music is quintessential eighties pop that would be almost better suited to a serial about high school drama, only heightening the contrast. It all serves to reinforce how tragic the events are and how scarring war can be when it is brought upon an unsuspecting populace. War in the Pocket's conclusion is then made so much more tragic, not just in its climactic conflict but also in how the show closes with those not directly affected by war finding it so much easier to move on or make light of it. It leaves a gnawing sadness at how impactful the events are for our characters, but how in the larger scheme of things, it scarcely matters, even to those closest to them.

Overall, War in the Pocket is not just an excellent Gundam story, but a general war story. It captures a child's perspective so viscerally that it is almost impossible not to feel for Alfred as he tries to prove himself to the soldiers and as the effects of war reach him. There is not a moment wasted in this short series that can be effectively watched as a 2-hour movie. It is well worth the time for any viewer with no large context needed from other Gundam media. War in the Pocket is deserving of that 10 out of 10, for how it can tell such a profound, personal and tragic story while being so concise. It is something other shows never achieve or take far longer to reach, a sign of how well War in the Pocket is constructed.

Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, is a small ova series which takes place during the final weeks of the One Year War. You follow the perspective of Alfred Izuruha an eleven year old child living in one of the neutral colonies on Side 6. I won't write anymore on the series because then it'll go into spoiler territory. Anyways, I wholeheartedly recommend this series to any anime or gundam fan. The story doesn't require much previous knowledge of the OG gundam show although, it does help if you watched the OG Gundam movie trilogy to fully grasp the story. The animation for the show ... is top-notch for its time and even for today's standard. The show has plenty of action though that is not the main focus of the show. Instead the main focus is on the character's and wars effect on civilians. If you're new to the Gundam franchise this is a good starting place and for any avid gundam fan it's worth the watch.

Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is only a six episode ova, and there isn't a lot of content for me to write about, so it will be a rather short review, of what I liked and didn't like.

Story: (7)
The story centers around the main character Al who befriends a Zaku special forces pilot and the actions of the group. The story itself is pretty simple and there isn't a lot of twists, but it's well told through the development of characters and events that occur.

Art: (9)
This is my favorite animation style. The Zakus, Goggs, GM Mobile Suits, and Alex Gundam all look ... fantastic. The action is spot on as well. A few of the characters have bland facial animations and big eyes, but that is only a minor nitpick. Overall the art design is great.

Sound: (4)
My only major complaint about the show is the music. They chose a happy, care free, 80's style synth pop to go with the main character, seeing as he's an 11 year old boy, and honestly it was terrible. They even used in action scenes! There needed to be some ominous music playing during these scenes, and all we got was this crappy music that dulled out the sounds of rockets, machine guns, explosions, etc. It really ruined part of the experience of watching the show, in my opinion.

Characters: (8)
I generally liked the majority of the characters. Al, the main protagonist, is an 11 year old kid. There is nothing wrong with his character per say, but I feel like they could have left him out all together, and solely focus on the the other characters. Chris, Al's neighbor works with the Federation, and although we don't see much of her, her character is well rounded and doesn't have any problems. With what we are given in the short amount of time, the Zeon Special Forces Unit seems pretty cool, but I wish they could focus a bit more on them. That being said, it would change the vibe of the whole show, so I understand why they didn't. Bernard, is a likable enough character and has a lot of development. I wouldn't mind him being the main character honestly.

Overall: (7; Good)
Honestly, I would feel more comfortable giving it a 6, but it is a good watch. It's short, it has some cool actions scenes, good character development, and a decent enough story. What really ruined my experience was the soundtrack, it was just borderline awful and didn't fit with half the scenes they used it in. It's worth a watch, and if you like Gundam, you'll most likely enjoy this.

Rarely do I end up feeling so strongly about something I've watched, but War in the Pocket manages to really endear you to the characters while also pummeling into you the sheer nihilistic agony that is the reality of armed conflict and how pointless the sacrifices made for it truly are in a harrowing look at individuals faced with situations in which they simply cannot win against due to forces larger than them at play.
This series will demand it's attention and force you to become introspective about some rather sensitive subjects happening in the real world which most would feel comfortable enough to not ever ... think about, and that is precisely why I recommend it.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket is if nothing else very different from any other gundam show I have watched. It is about how a young boy named Alfred and the nuetral space colony he lives on get dragged into a war situation , but this OVA is more about the characters than it is about the poltics or action.
I think I enjoyed War in the Pocket mostly because I believe this is the first UC gundam that just follows either normal people or grunt soldiers for the most part. There is much less of a focus on crazy newtype powers ... that were dominating previous UC gundam shows, or overly dramatic political plotlines .
Its quite interesting that we get to see part of the One Year War conflict through the eyes of a child in a neutral colony. Alfred was cute but difficult to watch through a lot of the OVA because you could tell how blissfully ignorant he was of the horrors of war until he actually experienced them for himself.
Through Alfred's interractions with the his school friends, his parents, the special forces squad of Zeon soldiers, a rookie Zeon pilot Bernard, and a beautiful Federation test pilot who looks over Alfred in Christina, this OVA was really great at showing the human side of all the characters. Most UC gundam shows make Zeon soldiers look like stereotypical space nazis but War in the Pocket makes many of the Zeon special forces team to be sympathetic especially Bernard in particular. You can see Bernard progress his relationship with Alfred very gradually and naturally and you get a very good sense of the bond they share. Its a great dynamic between them.
Alfred's bond with Christina is a little less explored but is still potrayed very well. You can see how much she cares about Al even through the first two episodes little hints that show she is watching over him were a nice touch. I also like the fact that she has her own explained beliefs and how she manages to be a really good mecha pilot without being a newtype.
The OVA is also great at gradually progressing through a shift in overall tone of the series from the first episodes being very happy go lucky and just gradually you are exposed to harsh realties of war through Al's perspective.
As good as the character interractions were, I still think the few action scenes were really well done. I liked how War in the Pocket actually make mobile suits seem more like the gigantic lumbering machines that they are. A lot of it is just the viewer approaching mobile suits from a child's (Alfred's) perspective. I thought it was interesting that he seems to view them more like cool toys early in the anime, but as time goes on and especially nearing and at the climax of the show, Alfred actually seems to realize just how awe inspiring and incredibly scary these war machines that bring death so easily actually are.
As much glowing praise as I have heaped onto War in the Pocket, its most certainly not without its flaws. Through the first few episodes I thought Al was really hard to watch him making horrible descisions against common sense even for a boy his age time and again , I thought in reality he could have easily got himself killed on numerous occasions. Also, with only 6 episodes there's not really an incredible plot to grip you . A criticism a lot of people have that I don't personally, is that the OVA starts really slowly and only gets good about halfway through. My opinion is that that slowness was used to good purpose in gradually settling you into Al's colony and seeing him maintain and build bonds with people. If they rushed that then the later events wouldn't be as meaningful in my opinon. I guess you could also say that many other gundam shows have more engrossing mobile suit battles, which I agree with but that was never the focus of this OVA to begin with.
All in all this is a great show. It tells a touching story about war in a much less in-your-face manner that many other mecha or gundam shows do. It even left me with some meaningful messages. One : you really don't know how cruel war is until you experience it firsthand. Two : for the most part, the soldiers on either side of many conflicts can be eerily simular to one another and are often nowhere near evil dehumanized "enemy" that their government brainwashes them to believe they are. Three : WitP shows you how fragile human life is in modern wars where we use weapons that can very easily snuff it out in a matter of seconds.
As an important note for War in the Pocket : you don't even need to watch the previous UC gundams to understand or enjoy War in the Pocket, but I think you'll enjoy it more if you watch 0079 at least to understand the conflict between Zeon and the Federation better. The other UC shows that aired before War in the Pocket are all chronologically after WitP so you don't need to watch those unless you're an avid gundam or mecha fan like myself.

War In The Pocket is a good Gundam for anyone with not a lot of time to get into all the 50 episode shows. I thought I would start with the short side stories to get myself into Gundam, though I did watch 0079 first to make sure I had background knowledge of the franchise. For a 1989 show it holds up very well, I suggest if you're going to watch it get a hold of the 1080p version to get the best experience.

I really like the relationship between Bernie, Chris and Al. This story feels so realistic I would believe it if they said ... it was based on a true story. Bernie and Al are like brothers while Chris is like a big sister to Al and could have been a lover for Bernie. I wish Bernie and Chris would have had a romantic relationship I feel like if the show was longer that's what would have happened. I think it would have been more of an emotional ending if there relationships went a little deeper but since it's 6 episode it didn't go very deep. Still a good story.