Kidou Senshi Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

It is the year 0083 of the Universal Century. The rebellious Principality of Zeon has been defeated in the One Year War by the Earth Federation. However, a faction of Zeon remnants led by Aguille Delaz fled from the final battle, hiding themselves away. After three long years, they attempt to rise up once more, sending Delaz's ace pilot, Anavel Gato, to infiltrate a Federation research base to steal one of two secretly developed prototype Gundams along with its deadly nuclear warhead.

Threatened by the rogue Gundam suit and seeking to retain peace, the Earth Federation mobilizes the newly developed Albion carrier to recover the stolen unit. Manned by the remaining test pilots, with rookie pilot Kou Uraki piloting the remaining prototype Gundam, the Albion and her crew are determined to stop Gato, retake the stolen Gundam, and prevent the Zeon remnants from starting another war.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Gato, Anavel Main

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Uraki, Kou Main

Horikawa, Ryo Japanese

Purpleton, Nina Main

Sakuma, Rei Japanese

Karn, Haman Supporting

Sakakibara, Yoshiko Japanese

Garahau, Cima Supporting

Mashiba, Mari Japanese

Boscht, Mora Supporting

Ikura, Kazue Japanese

Keith, Chuck Supporting

Yamada, Yoshiharu Japanese

Monsha, Bernard Supporting

Chafurin Japanese

Burning, South Supporting

Sugawara, Masashi Japanese

Om, Bask Supporting

Gouri, Daisuke Japanese

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Yatate, Hajime Producer

Ueda, Masuo Producer

Takanashi, Minoru Producer

Reviews

Oct 1, 2024

_Lazaroth_

Recommended

(LAZAROTH REVIEW - MEDIUM LENGTH - SPOILER FREE)

"MSG: Stardust Memory" is an anime that sets up the events for "MSG: Zeta" and it follows a unit as they attempt to recover a stolen Gundam and discover and prevent its use in a mysterious "Operation: Stardust". Disclaimer: I am watching Gundam chronologically, so I am unsure if this is an adequate set up for that storyline, so I am not going to be addressing that aspect. But I feel like it's a good set up as I am excited for things to come!


Story/Characters/Action:

This anime has themes that connect directly to the original Gundam anime from 1979, ... such as guilt from failure, the pressure to succeed, mirroring Amuro Ray not just in those themes, but quite literally as well. The main character of this anime, Kou, dives into a Gundam without a second's hesitation in order to protect the people, and is then tasked with piloting it in future. There's also the similarity of him being assigned to a Federation "Pegasus class" Spaceship, that looks near identical to the "White base" ship from the original anime, they even say that it is an upgraded version of that lost ship. Furthermore, the Federation do not support them as much as they should, much like they did in the Original anime as well.

The characters are a treat to watch, each has their own flaws and strengths and they bounce off each other very well. If the anime had been a little longer, I think these characters could have blossomed into exceptionally great characters like the original anime did, but they still knocked it out of the park with these entertaining and varied personas.

The anime highlights the consequences of Hubris, by underestimating your enemy, you could be knocked out with a hit that you never saw coming, much like how David beats Goliath. It's an fairly unexplored theme in Gundam (as of chronological order) and I appreciated the fact that it was explored here. It has absolutely devastating consequences that subverted my expectations. I think the overall story could've been executed better, but it still fulfils its role as being a set up anime for the Zeta storyline.

Comedy is usually quite subtle that doesn't take away from the seriousness of the anime.

Action scenes are animated BEAUTIFULLY and have a fair amount of interesting fight scenes and scenarios, particularly near the end when a Mobile suit capable of destroying a small planet with its vast amount of different weapons appears. There's an action scene near the beginning where Mobile suits have to battle within a foggy environment with hostile terrain, and there's a nice shot where you can only see the clashing Energy swords through the mist.



Animation/Music/Art:

This animation is AWESOME! It looks utterly fantastic, I don't think 2D Gundam has looked this good prior to Thunderbolt's anime before. It's absolutely stunning, the sheer effort put into almost every action scene blows me away, the pink plumes of smoke after every explosion look amazing, and the anime has an incredible sense of speed with mobile suits zipping around everywhere.

The art is gorgeous as well, with an enamouring shading style and great character designs that I can't praise enough. It's an JOY to look at. The 90's vibes it gives off (due to being a 90's anime...) are incredible and somehow nostalgic, despite me never getting into anime until the very early 2010's (though I grew up with 1997's Pokemon, but that has a different vibe). The mobile suits' designs are also epic, I loved every second they were on screen. They just OOZE creativity.

This anime's animation is pure eye candy, particularly for an early 90's anime.

Music is good, albeit mostly unmemorable.



Overall:

"MSG: Stardust Memory" is a visually stunning show with amazing characters and designs, exceptional art, and pretty good fight scenes that are animated beautifully. The plot is a bit stretched, however I think the ramifications of the plot have set up the next anime greatly, as I am very excited to see what's next! I recommend it, it does exactly what it set out to do, set up Zeta's storyline.


Bonus:

I've been watching the Gundam franchise in chronological order, which some are against doing, but I think it's been brilliant so far. I lose out on some retrospective for an near seamless ongoing story, rather than jumping back and forth between different wars and periods in the Gundam franchise, which I dislike doing. I'm only about HALFWAY done with the UC Gundam timeline, let alone the other timelines and miscellaneous Gundam media. I *might* stop watching Gundam after the UC timeline, not because I'm not enjoying my time, but because I don't want to get burned out on Gundam. It would also give time for more Gundam entries into the other timeline's universe, and I'll go back to it at a later date, similar to what I did when I watched "The Walking Dead". I only watched the main show (11 seasons) about a year ago, and I am leaving all the spin-off seasons for a later date (which is MORE than the main TV series' seasons combined as well...) to avoid burnout, which I'll pick up sometime in 2025 as most of the spinoffs will end then. I'm doing the same thing for other media, like how I only read the first saga of "Yu-Gi-Oh!" featuring Yugi, but I never continued to the other YGO sagas. Mainly because they are only loosely connected and aren't exactly direct sequels. But doing this, whenever I feel like I want to experience YGO again, I just load up a YGO anime or manga. I TYPICALLY prefer binging everything a media has to offer, so I'd watch all the movies and TV shows of "Breaking bad"'s universe BACK TO BACK for example, before moving on to the next piece of media. But for media that don't have direct sequels or have sequels that are set in their own entirely separate universe, or have different timelines with no relation to other entries within the same franchise (such as Gundam), then I can safely stop consuming a franchise or part of a franchise and leave it for a later date.

These bonus sections are just more info about me and my experiences, they aren't required for the review, hence the "bonus". It's mostly just for me to remember where I am at mentally, and where I'm at in the watch/read order.


Animation: 8.9/10
Plot: 7.3/10
Action: 8.0/10
Characters: 9.4/10
Music: 7.5/10
Ending: 8.0/10

Overall: 8.0/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 19, 2023

Eldencheese

Mixed Feelings

the fights were alright and animated well enough and the episodic episodes fit the show.
most of the episodes follow the depressed npc mc screwing up getting to a gundam then either fixing it and making it worse. And then the side characters who throw him a pity party and are slowly drained from their personalities they had at the start of the show because of him.
The ending was anticlimactic and was even more boring than the show as a whole which is not to undersell how boring this show is.
BUT
my main point on why this is not a negative but a mixed feeling review ... is because "magic" the first ed is amazing and a great listen even if you don't watch this show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Nov 9, 2021

RoronoaZoloft

Not Recommended

Gundam 0083 is the absolute pinnacle of cel-shaded animation, rivaled only by Gunbuster. It also has a great 80s-era soundtrack, certainly one of the better ones among Gundam series.

The only problem is it uses that animation & soundtrack to tell one of the most dogshit Gundam stories I've ever seen.

One half of the show is every character making the worst, most nonsensical decisions possible. Like the equivalent of your mortal enemy dropping their gun and you picking it up and handing it to them and saying you're sorry that happened to them.

The other half is every male character being over-the-top horny (but not enough ... to be funny) for the blonde white lady character, and the other female characters acting like giddy middle schoolers about it. There is no perceptible depth to anyone in the show, and no real reason to care about any of them. I mostly just want to yell at them for being complete dipshits all the time. The one exception is Mora Borscht, who has a terrible name but is an absolute queen and the only character with any personality.

It's really unfortunate, not only because of the animation & sound, but also because it has Hajime Katoki's mecha designs, which are some of the coolest in all of Gundam. I'm rewatching it right now and even though I hate it, I'm continuing to the end just to see Neue Ziel in action.

If you're a Gundam freak or a completionist, then you'll have to watch this. But if you aren't compelled by an obsession or other mental disorder to watch every UC Gundam, skip this one. Or maybe just watch the first and last episodes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory Episode 1 Discussion Beatnik - Dec 17, 2008	45 replies	by Beatnik »» Oct 12, 2:51 PM
	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Veethorn - Mar 1, 2010	66 replies	by JoexySun »» Jul 2, 7:58 PM
	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory Episode 11 Discussion Beatnik - Dec 25, 2008	33 replies	by Yes_that »» May 5, 6:28 PM
	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory Episode 5 Discussion Veethorn - Dec 29, 2009	33 replies	by Yes_that »» Apr 4, 7:34 AM
	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory Episode 7 Discussion Veethorn - Dec 29, 2009	38 replies	by PrawnGuard »» Feb 21, 12:43 AM

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