‘Wow cool robot’.
You’ve seen the memes, we all have. A drawing of a figure looking at a Gundam and admiring it, while the thing shoots a message over his head that reads ‘war is bad’. It’s worth a chuckle, but it’s also correct. Despite Gundam’s strong anti war themes, it will forever be held down by its own presentation. Basically every series has the message that war is an awful thing that ruins lives, but at the same time each series counters that with cool designs and flashy action packed battles as well as a whole load of merchandise. It’s a cynical view, but it’s the truth. It’s impossible to deny just how groundbreaking the original 1979 series was, but even that was hampered by sponsors breathing down Tomino’s neck and pushing him to include new mecha designs for the sole purpose of selling more toys. Regardless of what each series has to say, there’s always the hanging weight of merchandising and coolness above it. I think that’s part of the reason as to why 0080: War in the Pocket is so affective, besides being an excellent drama in of itself. While basically every Gundam series features grandiose battles and suit designs, countered with the occasional burst of drama, 0080 takes a step back and focuses on the human side of things instead. Don’t get me wrong, there are fights here, each of them featuring fancy new designs and excellent animation, but here they hold a different weight. A far more bitter and upsetting one.
Let’s start from the top. 0080 was released in 1989 to commemorate the franchise’s 10th anniversary. It was the first OVA released in the series and also the first officially animated side story. It was also the first Gundam related project to receive a wide release that wasn’t directed by series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino.
The plot is relatively simple. Alfred Izuhara is a young schoolboy who lives on the neutral colony of Side 6 in the closing stages of the OYW. Like most kids his age, his interests include war, mobile suits and video games. He and the rest of his classmates gush about new models and how cool they are, as well as pick sides as to which side has the best MS. He’s a naive boy who lives a quiet life with his mother, skipping doing his homework and wanting to play video games instead. That changes when a Zeon squadron infiltrates the colony and attack the Federation defence force stationed there. After the conflict stops, Alfred discovers a downed Zeon Zaku in the forest and meets its pilot: Bernie Wiseman, a young and charming soldier who has been drafted into the conflict. The two strike up a friendship and form a brotherly bond, all while Bernie’s team attempt to secretly construct a new suit to take out a supposed Federation prototype hidden on the colony. At the same time, Bernie becomes friendly with Al’s next door neighbour Christina McKenzie, unaware that she is the test pilot for the Federation’s secret model. Unfortunately, the ties that bind these three together are soaked in blood, as things quickly go south and cumulate in a devastating finale that will never leave you.
Given the short length of the series and its focus primarily on drama instead of combat, the cast we are introduced too are all excellently written and performed. Alfred in particular is a shining example and his slow realisation of just how hellish war can be is fantastically demonstrated to us. Al is the most important character in the story, not just because of his development but also because of what he represents. He’s us! He’s the Gundam fan! He loves action and flashy mobile suits, models and the like. He’s a surrogate for the audience, sheltered from the trauma and pain that war brings and more focused on how cool everything looks. In a way, he’s a fully fleshed out character and an condemnation of idealism and turning a blind eye. Bernie is an incredibly likeable newbie character. On top of being very charming and enjoyable to watch, his fish out of water status within his unit and his own low self esteem make him a particularly involved character and one you can easily root for. In particular, his relationships with Alfred and Christina are very well depicted and developed, despite the brief runtime of the OVA. His older brother status for Al is definitely one of the highs of the show and the friendship the two strike up despite being light years apart is touching and realistic. At first, Bernie wants nothing to do with him, and for a while briefly uses Al to get him parts to fix his Zaku, before genuinely warming to him and becoming friends with the boy. Christina serves the big sister role for Al, her cheery and optimistic personality providing a sense of ease and warmth in the story, and her relationship with Bernie too being well handled and believable.
Elsewhere we have Bernie’s squadron, a group for hard edged veterans who clearly don’t like Bernie at first, endlessly picking on him for his newbie status and giving him the cold shoulder as he is filling in for a former comrade who was killed at the beginning of the series. While they’re all undoubtedly a group of hardasses, they’re still likeable characters (in particular squad leader Steiner Hardy). For one, their banter with each other is realistic and well crafted and really makes the audience feel like they’ve known each other for a long time and have been through thick and thin together. Our lead villain is Lieutenant Commander KILLING, and with a name like that, you can easily deduce how much of an irredeemable piece of shit he is. A hardcore Gihren ideologist, he deliberately sets Bernie’s squadron to fail as an excuse to nuke Side 6. He’s such a massive cunt that he may even be worse than Gihren himself if that’s even possible.
Animation wise, the show is gorgeous. Likely as a result of a much higher budget, each scene is meticulously crafted and full of little details that make everything feel more alive, in particular the mechanical designs and their interiors. Character designs are simple and appealing and the show never goes off model and stays consistently very strong throughout its run time. The battle in the Federation base in Episode 4 in particular is incredibly animated and shot, giving the scene a very visceral and intense feel to it. Musically, the show also hits a home run. While the instrumental tracks to play during the series are all strong (particularly Bernie’s Theme), it’s the opening and ending themes that deserve the most attention. On the surface, they’re simple cheesy pop ballads. The opening in particular ‘Itsuka Sora ni Todoite’ sounds like it would fit more on an easy listening CD than a mecha anime opening, but as the series progresses, its inclusion becomes more and more appropriate, with its sweetly melody and soothing vocals providing a rather ironic and bitter contrast to the increasingly bleaker content of the show. By the final episode, it almost feels like a sick joke, deliberately used by the director to make you feel as shitty and emotionally crippled as possible. The ending theme ‘Tooi Kioku’ isn’t exactly subtle with its message, particular given that it plays over images of children during wartime during the credits, but the meditative and slow pace of the song helps it stand as a kind of melancholic reminder of how naive children can be, and how war can affect them.
All in all, 0080 isn’t just a fantastic entry into the Gundam franchise, but a fantastic piece of animation in of itself. It might even be the best piece of Gundam media ever released, it’s that good. I highly encourage you to seek this one out, even if you aren’t familiar with Gundam or aren’t a fan of mecha anime in general. War in the Pocket is first and foremost a war drama, one that holds no punches in its message and one powerful enough to move even the most cynical of viewers with its likeable cast of characters, excellent animation and music and heartwrenching finale. It also serves a criticism of how war is portrayed in media and Gundam as a whole. Don’t get me wrong, the irony that this series also got model kits that sold boatloads isn’t lost on me, but like Tomino did with the original series, you have to make sacrifices to tell your story. It’s also just standalone enough that you can enjoy it without understanding the bigger picture (though some finer details will obviously be lost on the uninitiated). War in the Pocket is something everyone should see, not just mecha fans or even anime fans in general. It’s a beautiful, painful reminder of the horrors of war and how they can affect us, and it stands as one of the finest pieces of animation of the 20th century.
10/10
