Originally posted by Wolffen
Calling Pilot Candidate fruity insults fruit.
As a self professed Gundam-o-holic, I'll chime in with my opinions. 0083 was my first exposure to Gundam outside of Gundam Wing. I bought the tapes across a year while Animevillage.com (now defunct) was having some cool deals on them (like vol 1 and 2 for free with an order of $30 or something). I was amazed at the artwork and battles. After feasting on the UC storyline, I was hooked. I dug up all the history I could on the UC timeline and the factions and wars, and was entranced by the UC universe.
After watching 0079 and 0080, I'm a less impressed with 0083. Kou is, well, a weiner. He reminds me of Luke Skywalker when he whines about getting some power converters at Toshi Station. Except Kou is like that for most of the series. Nina just needs to be shot. Wishy-washy bitch is how I typically describe her. The whole love story really bites, in my opinion. It feels like Sunrise didn't think the story could survive on the battle alone (which is possible), and threw in a love story. Unfortunately, the love story is about as much fun to watch, and about as believable, as Amidala and Anakin in SW:ATOC.
As far as investment potential, I dunno. 0083 is pretty good, and probably looks better on DVD than my lowly VHS. Other than a little blood and cursing, I haven't seen much cut from the Adult Swim version, storywise. The cuts aren't killing the series, by any means. I'm glad I own the series, if only for the first 2 tapes, and the last two (eps 1-4 and 11-13). So take that as you will.
And yes, I believe the director of Bebob worked on this film, as did a lot of the big names on Bebo. More worked on Macross Plus though.
As to best series for Gundam...well, you have these choices now:
0079 series (10 DVDs, dub only), 0079 Movies (3 DVDs, subs only), 08th Mobile Team (4 DVDs + 1 for Miller's Report, sub and dub), 0080 OVA (2 DVDs, dub and subs), 0083 OVA (4 DVDs, subs and dubs). 0080 is depressing, but very good. I haven't seen the 0079 movies yet, but I'll probably get the box set in a few months. 0079 hasn't aged well animation-wise, but the story is very good, and I love the classic mechs. 0079 and 08th alternate for my personal favorites, followed by 0080, then 0083. I'm sure Char's Counter Attack will overtake them all when it's released this fall though. (SAAAAAZAAAABIIIIII! Wonder why no one never made a Gundam "Whasssup" ripoff with Sazabi...)
Kosh, if you haven't started watching 0079 these last two weeks, try and start watching it as well. Like I said, the animation is getting long in the tooth, but this is the daddy of it all.
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