Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory

I got a burning heart~~~ and some plot analysis

Another Gundam series that i managed to finish watching it. I had been familiar with Stardust memory stuff since i played the series scenario in G Generation but after i watched the OVA series i understand why some people said this series is horrible while others love this one. In Summary Stardust Memory had awesome battle animations and potential to be great series if only the last episode does not wreck everything upside down. But in the end it serves its role well as transition between OYW and Zeta Gundam.

Stardust Memory tells about story about a Regular MS pilot Kou Uraki who got caught into conflict with the Remnants of a Zeon factions called Delarz fleet which begins with the Gundam GP02 Physallis being stolen from his base. Kou piloting the GP02's counterpart GP01 along with the crew of new Earth Federation Battleship; Albion are immediately order to retrieve the stolen unit back immediately as GP02 possess Nuclear Warhead which pose a huge threat. Eventually at certain point the Albion team unknowingly caught in greater conspiracy which involve the Earth Federation and their eventual change.

What makes this series interesting for me is the subtle conspiracy that happen in this series. The incident of GP02 being stolen by Zeon Remnants and probably the destruction of the battleship fleet in Solomon were deliberately allowed by some higher ups of Earth Federation all along for their purpose. Just like a company method of creating a product by making problem first and then offer a solution in form of product. In the 0083 context the problem is the potential threats by the Zeon Remnants which are shown by the GP02 incident and the Colony drop known as the Operation Stardust that actually succeed. As a result the Higher ups offer a solution of reforming Earth Federation so that they can abuse more power in excuse to prevent any similar incident to happen by forming organisation which are known as Titans and it is actually a bad choice as it is shown in Zeta Gundam. Some of those Higher ups themselves are none other than Jamitov and Bask Om who are the leaders of the Titans faction.

However there are some wildcards that Jamitov and Bask didn't take account for; The Dendrobium unit being taken and unexpected additional firepower from Delars Fleet which is Neue Ziel that cause the prevention of operation Stardust failed. If the Delarz fleet didn't have Neue Ziel probably they won't stand a chance to succeed the Stardust operation as they severely lack of firepower. If Dendrobium was not taken, even if the Neue Ziel shows up, the Cima faction which defect from Delarz fleet probably would have been able to stall Neue Ziel if not destroying it until the preparation to destroy the colony is complete.

What i really regret from this series is that Kou's character development is totally ruined in the final episode and how it does it is even worse. While he is not very skilled pilot in particular unlike Amuro, he had good potential to be an Ace pilot as he learn to be a good pilot. However his character development went straight downhill where he goes on rampage as he is betrayed by her girlfriend and Cima become one of the poor victim. Probably it has something to do to prevent Kou to be influential enough as if he is an ace pilot, he should have shown up in Zeta era either in Titans or Aeug. But due to the change of director in the mid of series, probably the execution to make Kou into less significant doesn't work too well.

Some other thing that i regret is that some good characters such as Lt South Burning died in meaningless death. I also find some of the character doesn't have their background being explored further which should have explained their motives behind their actions. Luckily we had Gihren's greed for this particular problem.

Nonetheless this series still deserve to bear the title of gundam series as the production quality is still good overall. The greatest regreat that i have from this series is that the main characters are not that well written but at least it doesn't affect the main plot too much. I would say 0083 had couple of great mecha designs and even i like some of them. If you want to further explore 0083 probably i would recommend Gihren's Greed for the story while Gundam Battle Universe/Chronicle for gameplay though playing the Delarz fleet is annoying since Dendrobium is freaking annoying in that game.