he time is Universal Century calendar 0083, three years after the end of the cataclysmic One Year War. The Duchy of Zeon, a separatist faction of "spacenoids" based in Earth-orbiting colonies, has been beaten back from Earth by the planetbound "earthnoids." The corrupt Earth Federation's power is once again secure, thanks to Earth's rapid development of Gundam mobile battle suits, which are capable of fighting off Zeon's most powerful weapons.
But as this 13-episode miniseries begins, a remnant Zeon cabal has boldly conspired to steal a new-model Gundam, one armed with a nuclear weapon. A daring straightforward attack by the legendary "Nightmare of Solomon," Zeon pilot Anavel Gato, liberates the new Gundam from its base and provokes a violent battle. Rookie pilot Kou Uraki takes the raid as an excuse to jump into the only other new-style Gundam, which he's been eyeing worshipfully since it arrived. But he and his partner Chuck Keith quickly face their lack of experience when they both come apart on the battlefield after seeing teammates die.
Their commander, Lt. Burning, holds them to their purpose through sheer force of will, despite substantial injuries. As Gato fights to rejuvenate Zeon, Burning fights to force his pilots to mature emotionally. The arrival of a group of cocky veteran pilots, who treat Uraki and Keith with sizzling contempt, complicates matters considerably. Meanwhile, the Federation ship Albion is hunting across Africa for some sign of the missing Gundam.
The series that launched a thousand mecha
Stardust Memory is a poor place to enter the vast Gundam universe, now in its 20th year of spinoff fame in Japan but only recently officially entering the U.S. This particular miniseries starts abruptly, with no introduction to the situation or characters, and promptly unfolds into a massively elaborate web of people, plots and historical assumptions. Fortunately, a fantastically detailed and organized chronology is readily available. Without a scorecard this lovingly crafted, it would be highly difficult to keep track of the many, many players in any of the standalone Gundam series.
But once versed in the Gundam basics, anime fans will find watching this series to be a rewarding experience: it's anime that has the epic scope and detail of the classic Star Blazers as well as the beautiful painterly qualities and highly detailed animation of the 1990s. The mobile-suit images are particularly impressive. The designers have used a number of tricks of perspective and motion to make the Gundams seem graceful but massive, and uniquely designed but generically military.
No tricks were necessary in the scriptwriting, on the other hand. It is, however, unusual to see such a standard plot--stolen supertech, hotshot teen pilot, etc.--handled in such an offbeat, unfocused way, with the attention diffused over the scope of an entire world rather than on a single fatuous hero. Kou is simply one of dozens of deftly characterized people who each have an important place in a wildly complex space opera, much as this is just one small segment of a larger--and highly respected--story continuum.
