As promised here's my review for the first Mobile Suit Gundam OVA. By being the first it suffers from a few flaws.

The series driving plotline focuses on a Zeon special forces unit as the infiltrate a secret federation base on the neutral colony side 6. Their mission is ultimately a futile gesture in the final days of the one year war as the Zeon fate was sealed. The goal of their mission is to take out the RX-78-NT-1, a new type designed Gundam, all good MSG series have a new Gundam. Instead of being a huge redesign or a whole new machine the NT-1 is an updated design of the classic Gundam, with its main new feature arm mounted machine guns. The other big Mobile Suit introduction is the Zeon Kampfer. A fast strike mobile suit designed for speed, confusion and mass devastation in a short amount of time.

While that's the driving plot the story revolved around Al and Bernie. As I mentioned the story takes place in the neutral side 6 colony group. Due to their neutrality, garnered through their declared independence from the Earth Federation and the respect that has within Zeon, they have been spared the horrors of the war. That's where Alen comes in. He's a young boy who is fascinated by mobile suits, much like all young boys, he loves the toys of war. Bernie is a rookie Zeon pilot shot down in a battle at side 6. While he was shot down he meets Al and sees his pictures of a mysterious federation cargo at the spaceport. After escaping he is transfered to the special forces unit to infiltrate the Federation base.

When they infiltrate the colony, during a nicely tailored distractionary battle, Al notices Bernie and chases after him. This begins the touching but mostly annoying friendship that serves as the cornerstone of this series. Bernie sees Al as a little brother and Al sees Bernie as a big brother, thus a relationship of trust and understanding forms.

A lot of the story takes place between Al and Bernie, this creates a light-hearted comfortable series, which is offset by one major scene. Shockingly for a Gundam series the biggest battle isn't between mobile suits but between infantry soldiers. In one of the bloodiest moments in any Gundam series the Zeon special forces invade the Federation base and soon all hell breaks loose. Many people are shot with bloody exit wounds. This is a dramatic contrast to how peaceful the series has been until now.

The other major side story involves Al's neighbor Chris, having just returned home after getting a job within the Federation. She and Bernie start to develop a relationship, but this being a Gundam series they aren't meant to be together, and it's of no surprise that she's the test pilot of the Gundam.

Bernie has to devise a plan to defeat the Gundam and save the colony from being destroyed by a zealous Zeon commander.

There's a lot to like about this series. It's a brutal look at the one year war. With the first major depiction of infantry battle it shows the human cost in lives, not just random mobile suits blowing up. The plot is nicely done. The two potential lovers who are unknown enemies is a nice change from when they are knowingly fighting each other. However there are a lot of drawbacks to the series that offset the positives.

It's not as fleshed out as the other OVA series due to its shorter length of just 6 episodes. The character animation is rather crude compared to how crisp the mecha animation is. The character design is juvenile, vastly inferior to 0083 which was released just a few years later. The biggest problem for me is the slowness. A huge portion of the story just involves Al and Bernie's relationship, this throws off the pacing and makes the series more boring than it should be.

Regardless of the drawbacks the series is worth at least a rental to get the full One Year War experience of the Gundam universe.