Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket

From the first episode I was deeply engaged (yes a full grown adult pushing 40 years) You don't need to be a Gundam fan to appreciate this, all you need is patience and a little imagination, the series will carry you through. I have not seen such storytelling in years, its right up there with the best and all in a plausible, believable way.

Sincere and non judgmental, this story focuses telling as is the perils of war without imposing views or stigmas, gets you drawn in wanting to see how the story unfolds. It blurs the line so well between good and perceived evil that you will be rooting for the Zeon forces that is conventionally deem as the bad side.

I watched the original Gundam, Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam series but this little gem that I circle back to after learning that in terms of Gundam time-line it follows immediately the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, was a real rare find that kept me mesmerized and touched.

If you are looking to lots of shooting and body counts you will be sorely disappointed, but everything else....you will not regret the time spent on this series and the memories that will stay with you.

Epitome of forward thinking (space colonies/technology) and humanity embodiment in a beautiful graphical tale (no this is not a cartoon/anime)considering the age of this production, it is light years ahead of its time.

Watch it!

War to me is a double edged sword, on one hand for whatever reason your protecting the people in your end of the spectrum but on the other hand the price of that protection means the loss of so many and worst of part or all of your soul. This is one of my favorite anime TV shows and it's my second favorite Gundam show that I personally think it's underrated.

It's true this show doesn't have much action but that's because this show is more of a war drama, which I thought was brilliant and really broke the convention of the mecha sub genre where usually their actioneers. This show also in a way is a presequel since it takes place during the final days of the war in the first "Gundam" series, which makes this twice as brilliant because this to me is an example of a presequel done the right way, most pre sequels make that mistake of trying to hard to explain how this and that happened without any suspense or allowing itself to be it's own story. This show is it's own story because in this show were in the perspective of the opposing side the Zeon. Kind like with Clint Eastwood's film "Letters from Irijima" where we were in the Japaneze perspective, this just goes to show that war is never a one way affair.

Plus the music I think is excellent, mainly the end credit song which is sad but beautiful because it has an emotional sensibility on the reality of war. It's personally one of my favorite songs in anime in general.

The animation I think is great I really like the use of color and detail. From how the mecha are designed really showed how up to date they were becoming as the franchise went on. However it was really the animation on the human characters and the background art of the colony which is impressive, the colony looks like the kind of places that I grew up in which increases the emotion more.

It's the dynamic between both Al and Bernie that really powers this show, it' a very good back and forth almost a big brother and little brother dynamic and both are equally sympathetic.

Al is a slightly relatable character because like him when I was his age, yeah I was into war toys I played with "G.I. Joes" or even those cheap plastic army figures a lot. For me they were just fun toys to play with, however unfortunately for Al it because a bit more as he has misguided desires to be in the war right now and kick some butt.

You sympathize a bit with Al though not completely due to how terribly naive he is. To him working with the Zeon in their covert mission is just a game to him, Al is too caught up in the delusions of the romanticism of war. Which makes him oblivious or completely unaware of the fact the Zeon team is just using him as a tool for a means to an end and after their mission is complete they'll destroy the colony and him with it. However we do see slowly if not entirely surely the truth does sink in and he learns the hard way, war isn't a game. As the casualties and even destruction of everything familiar to him starts to mount, it signifies his childhood ending sooner than he thinks.

However it was the character Bernie that is the most sympathetic. And on a side note for the English Dub he's played by David Hayder whom is most known for the voice of Snake Soild in the "Metal Gear" video game franchise which is cool since their my favorite video games. Personally I feel he's a person that is playing on the wrong team, and you get a lot of depth on him which made me like him all the more and shows how solders are people and have lives; the way he describes his life really made me wonder why the hell did you join at all. His time with Al really makes him remember all the things he left behind and gives him some hope he can get them back.

As we see despite what he's doing he begins to question the ethics of the team he's on, from not just using Al but also just simply the end result. Honestly what would destroying a colony really accomplish, sure it would destroy the new Gundam but also lots of civilians as well. At least when both mechas are in the battlefield it's a fair fight, but destroying the colony isn't a fight at all, it's just plain murder. As well as whether he should try to even destroy the Gundam himself at all, though if you've seen and remember the first Gundam series the Federation was winning so it wouldn't of made a difference whatever it was taken out or not; and also due to the capabilities of the new Gundam you already know from these two facts it's a doomed mission. What Bernie say in the confessional video near the end of the series is emotionally crushing which made me cry, and is something that will haunt you forever.

The show is a mediation on pro and anti war philosophy, as well as questions if we're all living a lie. Despite everyone in that colony living in peace, you also remember the current war going on and the new Gundam they have to maintain the peace. However the fact that this mission and the battles happening in the Coliny and how even though someone in one mecha or another dies, hundreds of unlucky civilians that didn't manage to get out of the way have also died, shows how in times of war it's always the civilians that pay the most.

War is never far from home.

Rating: 4 stars

When Gundam0079 became the movie trilogy most of us are familiar with, a lot of it was sheer action and less of anything else. This OVA is kinda the opposite. Though there're only half a dozen episodes, it isn't filled with action, but emotional things. The two main action sequences in this, I believe, are enough to satisfy me. After seeing so many gundam series, movies, and OVAs, I was completely ready for a civilian-esquire movie. This movie did a fantastic job of that. What makes this movie stand out is that shows both sides of the war have good and bad people. It made the Zeons seem more human rather than the original movies where they're depicted as the second rise of evil Nazis. Most people that don't like anime that I've forced to watch this movie (lol), liked it. So, I'd recommend it to a lot of people just for the anti-war story. If you're a Gundam fan, and haven't seen this, you shouldn't be reading this; you should already be watching it right now.

This anime is an amazing deconstruction of war, showing that the mobile suits that the Earth Federation and Zeon use are more than just "Cool looking robots", they're essentially death machines, and it shows how War affects civilians and our youth. A real amazing piece of work and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes an emotional story about war.

The first "side-story" in the universal century Gundam universe presents a refreshing new look at the war between earth and the space colonies. The focus is no longer on a small group of individuals who would go on to play pivotal roles in the conflict, but on the everyday civilian population and how the war is seen through their eyes.

The story does contain some Gundam staples, its premise being the attempts by a ZEON squad to capture an experimental Gundam, but it the execution of the plot that made this show so interesting to watch. This series focuses on the experiences of a young boy named Alfred and the relationship between his neighbor, Christina Mckenzie who is secretly a Federation pilot and a newbie Zeon pilot named Bernie Wiseman. Alfred develops a sort of "brotherly love" for Bernie while our young Zeon pilot also falls for Christina.

"War in the Pocket" proves that you do not need a sweeping epic tale about special individuals to make for a good war story. There are no uber ace pilots or large scale fleet battles to be seen here. This short 6 episode OVA focuses a lot more on character emotional drama over other themes like politics or philosophy and i love how realistically portrayed the characters are. Alfred is your typical everyday kid who plays violent computer games and thinks the armed forces is cool. He is then given a crash course in the horrible realities of war. The unlikely friendship and bonding between Bernie and Christina, each not knowing the fact that they are soldiers on different sides of the war, is played very real without going overboard with the romance drama stuff. Same goes for the endearing relationship between Alfred and Bernie. That being said, i would not want to spoil much of the story here, but it makes it a whole lot more heart wrenching to watch the tragedies that unfold as the show moves along all the way to its emotionally devastating twist ending.

Despite its lack of action, this show never falls into the category of "boring". The characters are just that engaging enough to carry the whole show. Not to worry as there are a number of mobile suit action scenes scattered here and there. Each are beautifully animated on a level that surpasses that of an OVA and are sure to satisfy the craving for some "mandatory" mobile suit battles in a Gundam series.

Normally watching anime in Japanese or English, i would leave up to personal preference. But in this case, i strongly recommend the English voice track over the Japanese one. Not only do the characters, whom all except Alfred are caucasian, sound more believable in English but the performances of the English voice cast are on par and even surpass the Japanese one, instilling each character with such realistic emotions and intonations that they sound just the acting in some live action TV dramas.

In short, this show does not try to impress the audience. What it does is conveys numerous heartwarming themes that hit closest to home especially the death of innocence on the battlefield and the horrors of war through the eyes of a child. A truly moving little story that deserves more credit than it is being given.