And now I return from my scheduled viewings of Stardust Memory to give you my full opinion of it.

Now, prior to this post, the unrealism of the war depicted in SM caused me to hang my head. However, since then I’ve come to accept the fact that what makes this renowned is not its military logic, but its vivid depictions of futuristic warfare and space drama. It’s real, but not real to a fault; Gundam leaves room for the beauty of humanity to shine through. It’s the future, but there’s a fantasticness to it. If Stardust Memory were deadpan realistic, Gato would’ve cut down Kou in the first episode, Nina would be demoted for her illogical attachment to the Gundam units, and instead of being a dramatic secret, the GP03 would’ve made an appearance during the first phase of operation Stardust and smoked the Delaz Fleet before it even got a chance to do any funny business.

But none of that happened. The events of the story unfolded in a way that delivered maximum dramatic effect. That’s the premise of Stardust Memory, and perhaps Gundam; how villains make heartfelt speeches while having the protagonist at gunpoint instead of simply shooting him. That’s what is beautiful about it. If you want realistic warfare, go watch WWII documentaries.

Oh, NOW there are guards. They show up AFTER I complain about it and the Gundam is stolen – aren’t the writers just beating themselves up now?

Of course, that’s not to say that an emulation of realistic warfare doesn’t make good anime. It’s why Igloo is so excellent, after all.

So’s to say that I ended up still liking Stardust Memory very much. However, I felt that plotwise there were still a few shortcomings – and no, not of the technical variety. You’ll still see the vestiges of my dying sense of logic in the image captions though, but it’s okay to ignore them.

So are all of Anaheim’s researchers young women in their twenties?

Now, the overview.

It’s unsurprising that after the skirmish, Kou is assigned on the new Pegasus Class ship, the Albion. Apparently he was able to push the Gundam unit he was in to its full potential, and thus he’s drafted as the official pilot of the GP01 as well.

I’m guilty of wanting to poke fun at every time Gundam does something like this.

Uh, no, not really, judging by his willingness to kill then, I could probably survive as well…

Gundam researcher Nina Purpleton is shown to suddenly be attracted to Kou; possibly because of his fabulous piloting skills. And thus is birthed our shaky, obligatory space drama romance.

It’s certainly rushed; a timeskip between the third and fourth episodes show the two going from friendly acquaintances to being very attached to one another.

What is this brofisting business? If you have a woman you hug her, dammit!

I won’t condemn the series for this too much as it’s only thirteen episodes long, but with the first few episodes being a seemingly endless back-and-forth between Nina’s ‘suki, kirai, suki’ relationship with him, I’d much rather prefer a slow buildup and elaboration.

Very plot relevant.

An elder officer becomes displeased with Kou’s assigning to the Gundam, having thought the Mobile Suit would definitely be assigned to a veteran, and challenges him to a paintball duel.

Watch out, you might poke an eye out with that thing. No, seriously, what? It’s as tall as he is!

Kou wins as he has to, secures the respect of the girlfriend, and departs on a mission to retrieve the stolen unit 2.

One of the about five frames of Gato you will ever see in the rest of the first half of the series.

Gato successfully escapes to space however, and the Albion continues to pursue. Here’s where we move from exposition to body as Kou fails disastrously in his first space battle, wrecks the Gundam and goes into a slum.

Gato has Abe’s face. You can’t deny it.

One thing that really doesn’t help much though is the lack of Gato until the first phases of Operation Stardust, which is well into the first half of the series. Gato is the compelling character of Stardust Memory, just as Haman is to Zeta and ZZ. As Delaz says, his thoughts are pure as a stream – Gato is a determined man, single-minded on his desire to revive Zeon. Ruthless yet honorable, Gato is larger than life – there are minute few soldiers as zealous and true to his objectives as Gato is, and that’s what makes him entertaining to watch. Also, my friend says he’s remarkably fabulous, but that’s open for interpretation. I mean, how can one be Zeon without being at least a little on the fruity side?

I’m going to be pinging that site a lot for my Gundam-related exploits…

This is war! there’s no glamor here! What do you think the tiger pelt is for, huh?!

While Gato prepares for Operation Stardust, Kou wanders the lunar city aimlessly, getting beaten up by thugs and being timely found by an ex-Zeon.

This is where I saw Gundam for what it was – in no other context would an enemy soldier take care of an allied one. Yet this is shown with tactful drama here. Kou reignites the will to pilot in the soldier Kelly Layzner, who had lost an arm in the war and was deemed unfit to pilot, and Kelly gives Kou the will to return to his allies. Our protagonist helps the enemy soldier repair a mobile armor from the One Year War, knowing fully well that it could be used as a weapon against the Federation – and indeed, later a fully repaired Wal-Walo piloted by Kelly challenges the Gundam to a duel, thinking that defeating the Gundam would allow him to prove his worth as a pilot.

It’s a bright red, one-clawed trilobyte named the Wal-Walo. Doesn’t get much manlier than that.

Through this we can have the dramatic irony of Kelly discovering the Federation soldier he befriended is in fact the pilot of the GP01. The men who understand one another are forced to fight one another. In all truth this is an impossible turn of events, right from Kou deciding to help Kelly repair the Wal-Walo; but through the many manly tears and cries of woe let out as Kou shoots Kelly Layzner down and Kelly telling him he regrets nothing, one cannot say that the story being warped to become greatly romanticized isn’t effective.

Kelly is now officially the manliest name a man can have.

Tell me this isn’t a pirate ship.

Still, I think the lack of him isn’t due to poor storytelling, but rather, too little time. The series being only thirteen episodes long means that the developers have to introduce Kou and present scenarios that cause his character to grow in about five, in time to present the rest of the cast and actually get to the plot. We get plenty of Gato later anyways.

A change of focus happens after the Kelly Layzner arc; something called ‘the time of Gato’. In other words, the arrival of the actual story, and the iconic duel between Gato and Kou, where Kou is now skilled enough to match the Nightmare of Solomon in combat. So’s to say that Gato loses the GP02 on his first time out, in a double-down battle with the GP01.

He had to say it.

I found it amusing how Gato’s so pro he can tune his radio with one hand and fend off Kou with the other.

The story further accelerates, with Gato given no time to mourn for the loss of the Physalis as he is immediately given the Neue Ziel, and an incredible, previously top-secret third Gundam unit fully prepped and ready to lay waste to dozens of Zeon battalions magically appears. Whereas the Full-Vernian took Kou an episode to master, he learns to pilot the Dendrobium Orchis in about thirty seconds of screen time.

Guess which Ningyo was drooling at this point.

See what I’m getting at here? It’s as if for the first half the development team carried out as they wished, and allowed the story to progress as they’d envisioned it, but then realized they were short on time and rushed to a conclusion.

Yet sometimes Gato can be a man of few words.

He’s so B-A, he shoots already exploding ships so that they’re even DEADER.

The Dendrobium appeared out of nowhere, there was no explanation about its weaponry, Delaz dies before he can give a proper evil speech about what Operation Stardust truly consists of.

I seem to be complaining about the Dendrobium, but really, who can dispute a MILE long beam saber?

Or a MILE long cannon?

Nevertheless, Stardust Memory has this saving grace that turns it from a rushed story to a great watch – all the yelling and pride of the two rivals. This is as manly and Kamille-less as the Universal Century gets. Or maybe just Gundam in its entirety, as the series outside of UC aren’t exactly the epitomes of manliness either.

Gato’s here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And guess what he just ran out of. Definitely not ass, mmf, fruity!

The countdown for the colony’s arrival at The Point of No Return is one of the most bloodcurdling moments in anime history in my humble opinion; this may be the ghost of an Encounters in Space player speaking, but with the muted bgm and the strained faces of every character depicted, it’s hard not to get caught up in the pressure of it all. This was made even more effective in the game, where making the time depended on the player as well.

And then there’s the final colony scene which many people were bothered with, mainly because of Nina Purpleton’s erratic actions. Well, I won’t say too much as it’s pretty much the point of climax that mustn’t be spoiled (along with the results of the colony-drop, really) in Stardust Memory, so instead I’ll talk about Nina.

Nina, and the slapped-together love triangle, didn’t actually bother me all that much. Though an Anaheim staff member having had affairs with both a Zeon soldier and a Federation one at some point is a bit of a stretch, Nina’s reactions, both in the colony and to Kou’s awkwardness, I feel are fairly natural; a woman who is faced with a lover who fails to confidently ask her to a show is bound to be frustrated, a woman who has her ex-lover at gunpoint to stop him from further worsening a terrible war is bound to act recklessly and on first notion. Nina’s initial constant back and forth between hating and loving Kou was annoying, but ended early enough.

In all truth I would be pretty pissed too, if I had to do as much math as she did to create two Gundams that these two blokes just go and smash to pieces

Oh, were you talking about her earrings? In that case, I’ve nothing to say. I’ve noticed though that the UC Gundam series portray their heroines as mature, feminine women, shown especially by their use of jewelry and makeup. I rather find this a breath of fresh air as opposed to the near pre-teen girls found in SEED, or in many other series in general. I’ve yet to watch ZZ, so I don’t know what role Puru has to play, but my recent finishing of 08MS Team also supports this, Kiki be damned.

HAHAH, silly feddie! The Neue Ziel ALWAYS has more arms!

Translated: Manly manly manly manly… GAR GAR man man!

What was so striking about these final scenes that featured Gato was how alone he was – caught between Cima’s troops and the Titans, he was a small unit caught between armies. His mentor dead and the plan he strived for falling to pieces, Gato still stands firm and sallies forward. It didn’t matter to him that his ideals were only his alone; they were still enough to throw away everything for. And isn’t it this determination that really makes a man?

History is indeed written by the victors – But Gato acutely reminds us that the other party has a forgotten story too. It may be in natural order for the winners to make their mark, but it doesn’t make the pain of the ‘losers’ any less real. Through this way Gato has left the final footsteps of old-Zeon on the viewers. This is the ‘Stardust Memory’.

Ultimately, Stardust Memory was enjoyable. What bothered most about the series didn’t quite move me, so I assume I took it better than some. It’s far from perfect, with what I felt was a rushed pace towards the end, but it was entertaining. I felt a tinge of regret when Kou shot down Kelly, Crossed my fingers as the Dendrobium sped towards The Point of No Return, shook at every manly cry Gato made.

Well said, crappy subs that translates ‘onegai’ as ‘FOR GOD’S SAKE!!!’. Well said.

Eliciting the emotions it was meant to elicit, making the viewer want to know what happens next – I believe a series, no matter how much I bash it, has succeeded if it can do these things. It won’t make my top list, as it simply wasn’t elaborate enough to, but if that’s what it means to succeed, Stardust Memory has succeeded in spades. It was beautifully crafted dramatic theatre from my childhood, a piece I probably won’t forget in a long, long time.

Where it all started.

Ningyo

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1. First Two: Anabelle Gateaux, the Nightmare of Solomon
2. Counting Down with Gundam
3. First Two: Karate King Kamille
4. Unicorn – The Mythical Creature of Possibilities