Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories

 Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories (機動戦士ガンダム0083 STARDUST MEMORY) is a 13 episode OAV series based in the Universal Century era of the Gundam franchise.  The series was released between 1991 and 1992.

    As the title suggests, Stardust Memories is set in UC 0083 and the Earth Federation is working to maintain the peace across the stretch of humanity.  The One Year War is three years in the past now and the Principality of Zeon should be extinct, at least to a degree that it can't attempt to repeat the One Year War in the foreseeable future.  A group of people looking to reclaim the glory of Zeon attack a military facility in Australia, capturing one of two new Gundam prototypes and a nuclear warhead along with it.  Ensign Uraki Kou finds himself the chosen test pilot for Gundam Unit 1, the one that wasn't stolen, as  ship its assigned to, the Albion, is tasked with retrieving the stolen Unit 2.

    The chase results in the Albion confirming suspicions of a large scale uprising from remnants of Zeon band together under a man named Admiral Delaz.   The Delaz Fleet looks to avenge Zeon after their defeat in the One Year War with an eye on reviving the effort to eliminate the Federation with an eye on Earths population its self.  As the pursuit of Unit 2 continues, Kou struggles with conflicting personalities of his superiors and crew mates, at one point inadvertently ending up AWOL.  He finds himself in the care of a disgruntles Zeon veteran works with the Delaz Fleet in hopes of restoring his lost glory.  Kou, not holding any hatred towards the man, returns to the fleet only for both fleets to finally face off with each other.  Unit 2 appears again, utilizing its nuclear warhead to destabilize the Federations position, allowing a sinister plan to unfold that could once again bring devastation to Earth.

    In the course of working through the Universal Century series in relative chronological order, I was glad to return to and finish the series that introduced me to Gundam.  I had access to a few episodes of Stardust Memories at the end of the 90's but never completed it or paid much attention to Gundam in general until 00 aired a decade later.  Since then I have casually watched Gundam, largely non-UC titles.  But with GQX and its massive tease of plot lines not understood, I have decided to dive head first into the franchise.  It was really nice to return to this and compared to the minimal quality of the original, this was a massive breath of fresh air.  Fantastic and realistic mechanical designs, more aesthetically pleasing character designs and a significantly high budget...not to mention it was made 12 years after the OG...and a lot changes in anime in that time.

    Aside form the massive improvements (yes I watched this before War in the Pocket) the story was a bit more palatable.  Largely because of the absence of plot lines aimed at a younger audience.  This is a more mature story that is at the core the same thing as was told in Mobile Suit Gundam.  We still have to deal with a young wunderkind pilot in Kou, but hes above the age of 18 and a legit member of the military, he just pig heads his way into being the Gundams pilot.  But he also doesn't differ much from Amuro.    It was great to get back to this series and finish it.  The story was well worth its time and they did well to tell it in 13 episodes.  If not my favorite, perhaps one of the two 3 series in the franchise for me.

Sadly...its not currently available for streaming as far as I understand.