Random Thoughts about 0083: Stardust Memory and F91

I have thoughts on Gundam works that I don't care enough about to spend hours taking notes or writing detailed essays on or editing extensively. So I will catalog my thoughts that aren't deep or complex enough for a full write-up in the interim.

"There's no winner of this fight..."

Thoughts on 0083: Stardust Memory

I really liked Stardust Memory, even though I got confused near the end. This mostly happened because I couldn't remember a lot of the important political characters' names. I would probably have to watch it again to really be able to fully analyze it, but I have some stray impressions and elements I found notable.

• The first opening's lyrics I think really capture the spirit of the post war Zeon remnants, especially Gato and the Delaz fleet. The sense of loss and not being able to move on from the war I found very compelling in the Zeon narrative.
• I liked that the Delaz fleet had the narrative of "Zeon traitors" being the ones that signed the peace deal with the Federation. It's a subtle but important parallel to the stab-in-the-back legend held by some Germans after the first World War.
• I don't usually find claims of plot holes very convincing or compelling or interesting, but even I can't get past the fact that Nina didn't recognize Gato stealing the Unit 02 Gundam when he becomes so important to her later on. I'm not sure there's a way to reconcile her behavior before and after she started showing signs of caring about Gato that isn't dumb.
• I like how Kou starts to get really unhinged by the end, he pushes himself to the limit and acts just according to revenge. I thought he was really going to shoot Nina and Gato. I thought it was really earnestly realized emotion, and I thought his feeling of loss and impotence and rage mirrored on a small scale the feeling that Gato (and the rest of Zeon) express about the One Year War. Him and Gato both stopped caring about thoughtfully planning out and executing their plans, and both just unleashed their anger on Cima and each other and their opposing sides.
• I was really surprised at how much 0083 let each side lose. I was not expecting the Unit 01 and Unit 02 to be destroyed, especially as early as they were. The destruction of important military equipment per time ratio might be the highest of any Gundam work I've seen so far.
• I liked the balance that 0083 had between being a side story and being a prequel to Zeta Gundam. It brought the prequel elements fairly subtly or right at the end, as opposed to a common prequel approach of framing things that are relevant later in Extremely Important center stage focus. The lead ups to Zeta Gundam don't detract from the story at hand, and watching Zeta Gundam is not necessary to understand or be invested in the actual story. For that reason, I think that 0083: Stardust Memory ought to be classified as a side story and not as a prequel to Zeta Gundam.
• My favorite transitional elements between 0079 and Zeta Gundam are the ships still having wooden ship wheels, and that the first two Gundams have restrictive cockpits, but the third has the 360 degree view cameras.

At least the cover art is nice

Thoughts on Gundam: F91

I didn't like F91 very much, and I lost interest about halfway through and kind of stopped paying attention. Still, there were some elements that I thought were really cool. This will be a shorter list though.

• I'm very partial to the Den'an Crossbone Vanguard mobile suits. They remind me of the Enclave power armors from Fallout 3, and I think they're some of the best animated machines in the movie.
• The moment in the initial colony attack where a shell casing hits a lady in the head and kills her I think is one of the best moments in the movie. One thing I like about Gundam as a series and Yoshiyuki Tomino as a director are these moments of odd and awkward mundane comedy in the middle of war, and that the comedy of the moments is completely passed over. Mundane moments make the conflict feel much more real than people getting sucked into the vacuum of space or the anger of civilians. Dumb moments and coincidences happen during serious events all the time throughout history. I rank that up with Amuro's greatest heroic act happening while he's hanging off the back of the chair in his cockpit as one of the most characteristically mundanely silly Gundam moments.
• I thought having attacks on the colony later in the movie coming up through the ground to be an interesting touch. Usually attacks on the colonies come from the "sky", and damage to the ground happens from combat happening on the inner surface of the colony. This was the best moment of a few in F91 that illustrate how fragile life and safety are on a colony.