The 8th MS team is the best UC OVA in my opinion but 0083 had a real chance of sitting on that throne if only the director hadn't switched half way through, the second half of the show (as enjoyable as it is) is told clumsily, the plot twists come across weakly and you can't help but feel something integral is missing from the show. The first half episodes 1-7 are perfect and deserve a 10 rating on their own.
The Characters are all fairly typical but they work well together, gato the nightmare of solomon especially, who I find to be cooler than char (just my own opinion). Nina and Ensign Uragi have a bumpy romance. As far as development goes Uragi is the only one who really changes but then in a 13 ep series its difficult to focus on developing the whole cast.
The story is well told until episode 7 and afterwards bad directing aside the plot is multilayered, I won't say anything else because I don't want to spoil anything for anybody. I would reccomend this to any fan of UC gundam, not as an introductory series though.
I love the art, we all know modern mecha can't compare to the classics, the handdrawn backgrounds bring the whole show to life. I want to give this show a 9 but for reasons I've already stated its getting an 8 =[.
