Gundam Evolution:Gundam 0083[1991]U.C.0080,with the fall of Giren Zabi,Zion Military eventually surrendered to Federal Military but not before some of them escaped unnoticed with a particular group led by Delaz Fleet,a loyalist towards Giren Zabi,waiting for a chance to launch a devastating attack onto Federal Military & the Earth government.U.C.0083,a remote military base situated in Australian desert received two latest Mobile Suits,Gundam RX-78-GPO1 & Gundam RX-78-GPO2,for testing with a small group of Zion soldiers,assmebled by Delaz Fleet,in a secluded area waiting for their spy to smuggled in their commander,Anabel Gato,whose name could easily strike fear into any Federal soldier which also earned him a nickname,Nightmare of Solomon.
Their objective was to hijack Gundam RX-78-GPO2,a Mobile Suit designed to fire nuclear warhead which was a forbidden weapon under the peace treaty signed between the political representative of Spacenoids & Earthnoids,and this particular Gundam was a damning evidence of the corruption within Federal Military besides having a warhead capable of crippling a fleet.Due to the arrogance among Federal soldiers,not only Gato hijacked Gundam RX-78-GPO2 with ease,his team managed to cripple the base badly as they made an escape route for Gato.Despite operating Gundam RX-78-GPO1,the lead,Koh Uraki was unable to stop Gato from escaping due to the huge difference in combat experience with the chase continue on into space.
Although Koh earned his ownership of GPO1 in a bet,his lack of space combat experience costed GPO1 dearly as they tried to fight off an MS Team led by Shima Garahua,who Gato despised greatly because of her tendency of betraying her superiors out of desperation besides serving under the traitorous Kishilia Zabi during the famous One Year War.Koh later ran away in shame especially knowing how much Nina Purpleton,the designer of both GPO1 & GPO2,put so much love into them and he later met Kelly,a one armed Zion veteran,after Koh lost a fight to a group of thugs who despised Earthnoids.Kelly had no intention of keeping Koh initially until Koh made himself useful in restoring an old MA kept in Kelly's garage before he was devastated to learn that Kelly intended to rejoin Delaz Fleet,after he overheard a conversation between him & the visiting Shima.As Koh was trying to make sense of everything,Nina found him but Koh insisted on finishing restoring that old MA before he return to test fly his upgraded GPO1,Gundam RX-78-GPO1Fb[Full Burner],after the feverish effort of Anaheim Electronic in restoring it.
Koh might had helped Kelly to restore his MA on time but he was left out due to the fact that he only had an arm so he was forced to take on Koh in the end,with Koh defeated Kelly with flying colour.Knowing the low success rate in Delaz Fleet's suicidal attack,Shima later intend to buy her way out by bargaining with the corrupted Federal officers before it was interupted by Koh which helped the crew of Albion & Koh uncovered part of Plan Stardust,but not enough to stop Gato from firing the warhead on time,during a ceremony that tries to remember the tragic One Year War.Koh & Gato lost their GPO1Fb & GPO2 respectively after a heated battle with Gato rather impressed at Koh's improvement before they later continued on in their new Gundam RX-78-GPO3 & a new MA called Neul Ziel.
Before the showdown and during the visit on the lunar city,Shima also dropped by Anaheim Electronic and secretly met the president of the corporation who sold out some of the technology used by Federal Military to Zion soldiers,besides agreeing on helping Shima to made Plan Stardust possible by navigate the two abandoned space colonies hijacked by the fleets of Delaz Fleet.With arrogance clouded the judgement,Federal Military forbade Albion to engage with Delaz Fleet despite the fact that they came all the way to collect the new RX-78-GPO3 and Shima took advantage of the heated battle to had Delaz Fleet held hostage to secured her survival,by offering Federal Military his head.Shima later exceuted Delaz Fleet out of frustration & his unwillingness in co-orporating and despite successfully avoided Gato's blow,she was later finished off by Koh's GPO3 before the final showdown between Gato & Koh himself.
The Zion fleet of Delaz Fleet might had been wiped out but Delaz still successfully dropped the space colonies near Jaburo,the headquarters of Federal Military situated in South America with Koh being handed court martial for defying the superior officer.His sentence was later lessened due to the lack of crucial evidences surrounding Gundam project secretly destroyed by General Koen,who had been supporting the crew of Albion from the very beginning,and Koh later was assigned to the new post where he reunited with Nina as if faith wanted them both continued on their romantic relationship,after they were separated during the previous battle.
This OVA series might be a sidestory but it can be considered an essential series for bridging the gap between "Gundam" & "Zeta Gundam" by explaining how Titans was formed before "Zeta Gundam".Despite injected some realism in "Zeta Gundam",Gundam series somewhat remained outlandish with only Gundam's capable of crippling a fleet whereas "Gundam 0083" proved even the mass produced GM's could be equally deadly,when being operated by pilots with vast experiences."Gundam 0083" also started the trend of Gundam VS Gundam and the reason it was more successful than "Zeta Gundam" was the fact that Gundam MkII feel into the right hand,whereas Gundam RX-78-GPO2 fell into the wrong hand."Gundam 0080" somewhat glorified Zion soldiers and forgot the crimes they commited whereas "Gundam 0083" unapologetically justified their reasons without denying their crimes.
Some people might argued that Sunrise might be being lazy as Shima executed Delaz like Kishilia executed Giren with Gato wanted revenge over the death of Delaz like Char wanted revenge over the death of Zion Zoon Daikun but through some observation,these events had some truth in it as the real world also constantly in the loop of history repeating itself which slowly became one of the theme of the future series.To many,Delaz Fleet might be no different than Osama Bin Laden but to his soldiers,he was more of a father figure who was able to convinced Gato that Shima would eventually see their ways and always left Gato satisfied before Shima betrayed them.Besides showing the link by having cameo of Haman staring into space,this series also exposed the corruption within Federal Military & Anaheim Electronic that helped bred the future tyrannous Titans and stripped Anaheim Electronic of trust & contract to Federal Military until "Zeta Gundam & "Gundam Double Zeta".This very same corruption also taught Koh to see the shades of grey and also had him understood Gato's action near the end of this series.
This series was such a success it was later condensed into a movie with the war viewed from Nina's perspective,and with herself as the narrator as she struggled between Gato,her former lover,and Koh,her new love interest,and hoped to avoid seeing either one of them die.With the 7 years gap filled and the actions of Zion justified unapologetically,Sunrise had enjoyed a brief success before Mr.Tomino was diagnosed with depression that had him retired temporarily,after his rather heavy "Mobile Suit----V [Victory] Gundam".
Side Note: Like any later Gundam series,there are also numerous sidestory Mangas & novels to explained the fates of the beloved sub characters,such as the foul-mouthed yet likable Monsia famous for giving young Koh hard time.Eager eyed viewers might had noticed that the senior officer threatening General Koen with a gun was Jamitoff Heiman,the future leader of Titans in "Mobile Suit----Z[Zeta] Gundam".
Devious Comments
Anyway, I've got a good impression about this series; it's always interesting to see the U.C. saga from a different perspective.
I always like the amount of realisms they put into "Gundam 0083" especially the military tactics such as Barning explained that Gato would not pick a pick up point even a rookie can think of,and making sure that Shima's MS Team would not break through the defence line as the main objective instead of shooting them down.
Above all,I like the rather noble Gato for looking out for his comrades and he even asked Kelly to fight along side him as both a soldier & a good friend.Certainly a good example of a solid story that justified the actions without glorifying the crimes committed.
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