CXXXIV: "Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket"

I know. I took my sweet time before making another review, but this is it. Today, I'll be covering another Gundam title, but this doesn't succeed the original series storywise, as much as it does timeline-wise. The title of this one is a small OVA series Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket.

Departing from the story of Newtypes, the work involves ordinary soldiers as opposed to the before-mentioned types. In the year 0079, some time before the One Year War came to a close, Zeon intelligence forces gain intel on a prototype Gundam, belonging to the Federation in the Artic, prompting an attack on that area by Zeon forces. Among the elite solders was Bernard Wiseman, a rookie in the team of commandoes. However, he and his team fail this mission, as the Gundam is sent into space, landing in Side 6, where the story opens up.

Finding a Federation R&D base, they plan a covert operation to destroy the Gundam found there. However, this fails, and with the exception of Bernard, the entire team meets a fatal end. Sometime later, after crashing his Zaku II Kai, he meets the young Alfred Izuruha and love interest Christina McKenzie, unaware to either that they're enemies, and that she is the test pilot of the prototype Gundam, the RX-78NT-1 Gundam "ALEX". The Gundam in question was the successor to the titular titan of the original series, designed for Amuro Ray, as his Newtype powers were overworking that of the RX-78-2 Gundam. After spotting this failure, and annoyed that Side 6 would side with the Federation, Zeon plans a nuclear strike against it, unless Bernard can somehow destroy ALEX on his own.

This OVA comes as a side story, not bringing much significant to the Universal Century timeline. The OVA itself lasts only 6 episodes, and has been televised on TV in 2001 for English as part of Toonami's Midnight Run, and episodes were rerun afterward for a short while on Adult Swim, sometime after Midnight Run discontinued. Both of these were part of Cartoon Network, with Adult Swim changed, but still continuing. Ian Hawk voiced Alfred, or 'Al', Bernard/'Bernie' is voiced by David Hayter, and Christina is voiced by Wendee Lee in the English localization. Created by Sunrise, it undergone the tradition of redesigning costumes and suits, giving more detail notably to the mobile suits. Because of this, visuals are akin to  the reanimating of the in-game cutscenes from games like Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo, where Christina and ALEX make an appearance in.

Gundam 0080 isn't a key addition to the timeline, as the OVA dealt with what they call Oldtypes, and featured no familiar characters. Still, it was interesting despite its short run, gaining a 7.2 of 10.