Impressions of Gundam 0083

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Gyra Solune
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Impressions of Gundam 0083

So, I've been working my way through UC Gundam, cause, you know, it's UC. 0079, while a bit dated in most places, was something I did enjoy watching, mostly because it didn't rush itself and did strangely well at making a faction normally presented as cackling evil villains as more humanized and somewhat sympathetic. The 08th MS Team, Last Resort aside, was a nice way of presenting the UC universe that still originally fell into Super Robot territory at times as something more grounded and realistic (and then the Apsalus shows up, but that's no matter because it was so awesome). I ate 0080 right up, a nice, personal story that really is a slice of life drama happening to revolve around mecha, and the two or three fight scenes were exceptionally well animated and interesting.

...and then I really, really struggle to get through Stardust Memory.

I dunno what it is, really. I think my issue with it is this: I found Gundam to be at its best when it makes use of very tactical, quick-witted fighting (like how Kira pulled some SWEET stuff in the Strike prior to resurrecting as the Jesus Yamato we all know and love), or when it's focused on personal matters that tie into the nature of war (again, why I loved 0080 to pieces). 0083...really doesn't do any of that. It feels kind of...generic, in a sense. Plot is happening, battles are being fought, but I sorta...don't care. Kou makes tofu seem like a glorious ecstasy of exuberant flavor, and Nina exists solely because Koufu will have a love interest, because love interests have to happen. Gato is...alright, but nothing memorable. Everybody else...I barely remember their names. The personal interaction isn't very satisfying to me, the plot feels a teensy bit contrived and like random stuff is strung together with the excuse of "it's a distraction", and the fight scenes...eh. What about them? Shooting stuff, lightsaber-dueling with Gato, new Gundam that looks exactly the same as the previous one gains a backpack that might as well be called "Shoot MORE Stuff". I just...don't really get the point of it all, why I should be concerned with what happens to the world or the characters, or why the show exists at all.

...some damn fine OP themes though.
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HellCat
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

For me, it's mainly the fact it's a story I don't think needed to be told. After the OYW, I can easily see the Federation after restructuring deciding a group like the Titans made sense. Did we need a convoluted story of denied Gundams, Zeon remnants, colony drops and a HORRIBLE love triangle to explain their existance?
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kayone73
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

HellCat wrote:For me, it's mainly the fact it's a story I don't think needed to be told. After the OYW, I can easily see the Federation after restructuring deciding a group like the Titans made sense. Did we need a convoluted story of denied Gundams, Zeon remnants, colony drops and a HORRIBLE love triangle to explain their existance?
At the time 0083 was released, it was a fantastic story that fans needed, especially to take a break from the endless Tomino Newtype dominated UC stories. Your opinion I'm guessing is looking back from the present day where we have a lot more various Gundam works available to us.
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HellCat
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

kayone73 wrote:
HellCat wrote:For me, it's mainly the fact it's a story I don't think needed to be told. After the OYW, I can easily see the Federation after restructuring deciding a group like the Titans made sense. Did we need a convoluted story of denied Gundams, Zeon remnants, colony drops and a HORRIBLE love triangle to explain their existance?
At the time 0083 was released, it was a fantastic story that fans needed, especially to take a break from the endless Tomino Newtype dominated UC stories. Your opinion I'm guessing is looking back from the present day where we have a lot more various Gundam works available to us.
No, not really. Both 0080 and 08th MS Team lack Newtypes and I only have minor issues with those (0080 in particular I think is a perfect example of how to do a Gundam sidestory without needlessly wrecking existing continuity). As far as I'm concerned 0083 isn't needed for the role it tries to play and pretty much everything in it could arguably already be found in existing stories. Both Zeta and ZZ dealt with the Zeon remnants for instance. If it had tried to actually fit in more and not offered such annoying characters I'd have a completely different opinion.
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

I actually enjoyed 0083, both the series and the compilation movie, more than I did with the original trilogy (0079, Zeta, and ZZ). *dodges bricks* I mean for pete sake, it was the first gundam series to have an genuinely antagonistic gundam in it.
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

Why...does there need to be an antagonistic Gundam? I mean, the GP02 is cool and all, but I don't think it makes up for what I find to be cookie-cutter characters that are at best dull and at worst irritating; nor, for that matter, for a poorly-told story that already didn't need to be told.

Still, I guess it has some nice mech designs/fights. I've always found it to be pretty mediocre (and needlessly glorifying of Zeon).
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

So... the Psyco Gundams don't count as antagonistic? :P

As for 0083 itself, I always enjoyed the fights and music, which I thought were well done. The plot itself is alright up until the Naval Review (Dumb nuke physics, aside), but then it goes down hill with the crappy love triangle, uber mobile armors I've never cared for, and the colony drop that I don't want to think about anymore :roll:. Characters are meh at best and none are really memorable. Basically, I view it like a mediocre action movie: enjoy the flashy shooting and music, and try not to think about the rest of it :mrgreen:.
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

DuelGundam2099 wrote:I mean for pete sake, it was the first gundam series to have an genuinely antagonistic gundam in it.
Psyco Gundam says hi, then blows up your house for forgetting he existed.

I've actually never gotten around to watching all of the episodes of 0083; I've only ever seen the first few episodes and the last few episodes. However, what I have seen of it I've always thought was very well done. It's true that the plot did get kinda wonky towards the end with that weird revelation that Nina had dated Gato in the past and still might have had feelings for him.

On the other hand, the show gave us the GP-Gundam series and the Neue Ziel, so any and all of its transgressions are automatically forgiven.
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

So... the Psyco Gundams don't count as antagonistic?
Psyco Gundam says hi, then blows up your house for forgetting he existed.
Well, that has to be one of the biggest lapses in judgment I've had in a long time. :lol: When I was typing that post I was thinking "regular one on one and not overtly gigantic".
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ydawg314
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

ms design wise: I loved all the zeon ms ...but... why were the gms teal?
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

ydawg314 wrote:ms design wise: I loved all the zeon ms ...but... why were the gms teal?
Not exactly breaking new ground there...
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ydawg314
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

.........WELL
I stand corrected*

now I got something post in Stuff You Can't Believe You Just Figured Out :mrgreen:
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

I love the animation in 0083, don't know why it just looks so amazing!!! Yep the love triangle was dumb but I enjoyed watching the Delaz Fleet fight the Federation and you can see that the more radical parts of the federation take over in the end
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

My main problem with 0083 stemmed from its main characters. Nina was just horribly, horribly annoying for about 80% of her early screentime. She got a little less annoying after a while, and then they rammed that totally-out-of-left-field love triangle in there and she got about 10x more annoying.

Gato...I really just don't see why this guy's so popular. He's a cliché! He's practically a walking Zeon propaganda poster. Little to no personality to speak of even if he got one of the most hilarious lines in the franchise. Yeah, he's a damn fine pilot. So was that fat guy in the Zaku during the Earth arc, and he was IMO more interesting.

And Kou...I still don't know about him. At certain times, he's a pretty likable character. At other times - and more and more frequently as the series nears its end - he's nearly as irritating as Nina.

That said, the mecha were pretty kickass, especially the GP-01/GP-01Fb. The GP-03 was pretty sweet too, though I personally preferred the -01. Gerbera Tetra was pretty sweet too.
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

Gato's sole purpose is to be a talented Zeon pilot who flies around the battlefield whilst exuding an inordinately vast amount of unadulterated concentrated manliness.

And that is just fine by me.
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kayone73
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

HellCat wrote:
kayone73 wrote:
HellCat wrote:For me, it's mainly the fact it's a story I don't think needed to be told. After the OYW, I can easily see the Federation after restructuring deciding a group like the Titans made sense. Did we need a convoluted story of denied Gundams, Zeon remnants, colony drops and a HORRIBLE love triangle to explain their existance?
At the time 0083 was released, it was a fantastic story that fans needed, especially to take a break from the endless Tomino Newtype dominated UC stories. Your opinion I'm guessing is looking back from the present day where we have a lot more various Gundam works available to us.
No, not really. Both 0080 and 08th MS Team lack Newtypes and I only have minor issues with those (0080 in particular I think is a perfect example of how to do a Gundam sidestory without needlessly wrecking existing continuity). As far as I'm concerned 0083 isn't needed for the role it tries to play and pretty much everything in it could arguably already be found in existing stories. Both Zeta and ZZ dealt with the Zeon remnants for instance. If it had tried to actually fit in more and not offered such annoying characters I'd have a completely different opinion.
You're being quite a downer on the series and I still don't agree w your opinion.
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HellCat
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

Well that's fair enough, no one's saying you have to. I'm not going out of my way to beat it up, it's my genuine opinion that it doesn't fit together well. Like I said I can watch something like 0080 and enjoy it because it's a standalone story and it can fit quite snugly into the main story. The Federation tries to build a mildly upgraded Gundam for Amuro, Zeon tries to destroy it and the true drama is a rookie pilot and a young boy who is naive about war. A nice little story that could plausibly have happened.
In contrast 0083 starts well but then falls into wild conspiracy theories, colony drops, hateful characters and MS technology everyone conveniently forgets happened. It's the same trap too many Gundam sidestories fall into, where the staff forget this is supposed to be happening alongside/in between established events and instead opt to make a 'main attraction'.
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Fritz Ashlyn
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

HellCat wrote:As far as I'm concerned 0083 isn't needed for the role it tries to play and pretty much everything in it could arguably already be found in existing stories. Both Zeta and ZZ dealt with the Zeon remnants for instance. If it had tried to actually fit in more and not offered such annoying characters I'd have a completely different opinion.
I think this is an interesting viewpoint, because I sort of agree in a way. 0083 is an entertaining entry in the Gundam universe but at times it feels like so much of it is unnecessary, and the things it tries to do tend to be ham-fisted and over the top.

Based on everything else we know now, there are Zeon remnants causing trouble on Earth and in space until decades after the OYW. The creation of the Titans could have been portrayed as a natural and organic political and military response to this that turns into the monster we see in Zeta because of evil men like Jamitov and Bask, and the old "best plans of mice and men..." tragedy. Instead we get Zeon zealots, who we already know are dangerous nutjob diehards looking to martyr themselves for a dead dictator, and to balance them out we get the tired portrayal of the Federation as blockheaded, backwards, foot-dragging, corrupt, nefarious, vain, and useless. A story about two sides full of stubborn radicals can be interesting, but the decision to explain the existence of the Titans as two groups shouting "I'M EVIL!" "NO, I'M MORE EVIL!" at each other is unfortunate.

Now, the Federation has repeatedly shown itself to be slow to react to crises and prone to corruption and horrible decisions in several shows, but this loathsome, evil view of the Federation in 0083 is part of the problem that leads some fans to consider them as bad as Zeon. Or even worse, thinking of Zeon as being in the right.

One of the other personal reasons I have for not liking 0083 as much as I would otherwise is that the MS and ship designs are neat, but ignore what could have been a cool evolutionary step between OYW tech and what we saw in Zeta. We go from the limitations seen in MSG to "could probably easily hang with a lot of mobile suits in 0088" three years later.
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

Fritz Ashlyn wrote:One of the other personal reasons I have for not liking 0083 as much as I would otherwise is that the MS and ship designs are neat, but ignore what could have been a cool evolutionary step between OYW tech and what we saw in Zeta. We go from the limitations seen in MSG to "could probably easily hang with a lot of mobile suits in 0088" three years later.
Yeah, I feel pretty much the same way. Part of it is just the better quality animation (Both being several years after Zeta and being an OVA rather than full length TV series), but that would just explain things like GMs and Zakus, it doesn't make the GP03 or Neue Ziel seem any less overpowered compared to what we see in Zeta, ZZ, CCA, or even F91 or Victory to some extents.

And really, that just puts them in the same retcon boat as the colony drop on North America, which we see pretty much untouched in Zeta. Yes, I know, colony drops are shown inconsistently in different Gundam shows (Cue the Dublin drop in ZZ), but it strikes me as even more odd considering that 0083 begins by passing over the Sydney crater, and that was the result of just part of a colony hitting, and then they largely hand wave their own colony drop away. That’s the sort of thing that really bothers me about 0083, some things are either invented out of nothing (The love triangle) or totally reduced to nothing (The colony drop) and those are the sort of things that lessen my enjoyment of the show...
Strike Zero wrote:Gato's sole purpose is to be a talented Zeon pilot who flies around the battlefield whilst exuding an inordinately vast amount of unadulterated concentrated manliness.

And that is just fine by me.
Uh, how can you make that judgment if, by your own admission, you haven't seen the entire show? Granted, Gato doesn't really change at all from the first episode to the last, but there isn't anything about him that struck me as really 'manly', and it's not like he ever does more than sprout Zeon propaganda and blow up the inept people that make up 99% of the Federation in 0083...
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Re: Impressions of Gundam 0083

mcred23 wrote: And really, that just puts them in the same retcon boat as the colony drop on North America, which we see pretty much untouched in Zeta. Yes, I know, colony drops are shown inconsistently in different Gundam shows (Cue the Dublin drop in ZZ), but it strikes me as even more odd considering that 0083 begins by passing over the Sydney crater, and that was the result of just part of a colony hitting, and then they largely hand wave their own colony drop away. That’s the sort of thing that really bothers me about 0083, some things are either invented out of nothing (The love triangle) or totally reduced to nothing (The colony drop) and those are the sort of things that lessen my enjoyment of the show...
Completely agree. The start of the series makes such a big deal over what happened to Australia that to then say 'Oh, we just lost some corn produce' is confusing at best. You're right to point out that the Dublin drop in ZZ was equally underwhelming but here we have the two conflicting examples of the results of a colony drop within the exact same series.

In regards to that ZZ drop though- I could be mad but was the dialogue there implying Neo-Zeon intentionally slowed the colony so it would be one hell of warning shot and less so a 'nuke' like Operation British?
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