Reviews

One thing I will say I really disliked right off the bat was the Nina Kou romance, especially so when it turned into a love triangle at the end. Tomino had nothing to do with this OVA, but the "You can't call that betrayal when a woman does it. Women are quick to change their stance on things. So to a man, it looks like betrayal. [...] They give up on their men. Why do they abandon them’? It’s a sort of basic self-instinct, I think. 'Women can’t survive without depending on someone.'" quote kept ringing painfully in my ear whenever she was around. When she left the ship when Kou didn't take her to the movies and only came back when he said he loved her. Or caring about her love triangle far more than the colony drop on either her home on earth. Even if, again, this wasn't written by Tomino, it is a writer emulating the worst parts of the women Tomino writes. A woman whose whole political/life philosophy and raison d'etre being the man he is attracted to at any moment is just boring. It's the same gripe Ii had with Reccoa and Sarah and Quess and others.

That being said, there are a lot of things that I like about this OVA that made me give it an 8. This is also the most "pro-antagonist" of any Gundam I've seen so far. I've seen Gundam fans say that Gundam is a franchise where there aren't any good or bad sides, it's just everyone fighting for their own ideals. While I see where they're coming from, and Tomino has said on record that he makes sure to have all sides in the war have a point, I do have to disagree with the way that is framed. In Tomino's interviews and the way they always portray the antagonist side as poison gassing and nuking civilians or needing to brainwash children for their ends, it is obvious in a lot more ways than one that he sees the side that needs to be rooted for by the children is always the protagonists side. With this one, I liked how Gato was both Kou's reason to kill and also almost a mentor to him. Showing how skilled he could be with the Gundam if he tried while lecturing Kou about what it means to be a soldier, which to an extent Kou ended up taking to heart as the series progresses. It also has the Zeon higher ups as well as the individual soldiers being the only ones that fight for the big picture, while every federation soldier is more content to fight just because they're following orders or for the sake of their friends. Zeon is still the side that murders civilian lives the most, but it does feel overshadowed by the one or two scenes of civilian spacenoids supporting them, and that this is the Gundam that seems to have the least care for civilian deaths. Like when Kou found out the deaths were unavoidable, his only thought was wondering if him and his teammates fought for nothing.

To list some more things I liked in short sentences: It was nice seeing a jock-type rival to the main character that, in contrast to Jerid in Zeta Gundam, was on the same side as him and was a barrier he had to get above at the very start. I liked how unsure and easily picked on Kou was at the start. Besides Bern and maybe Amuro, he feels like the character who develops the most in Gundam. Also Haman and Bask's cameos were short but were so well done.