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Stardust Memory is mecha pornography, and I am a total mecha pervert. If you ever got a little hot when you watched Gurren Lagann's combination, aroused by the scent of a Gundam model, or felt flushed after watching Macross Zero's THRUST VECTORING, then you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, you'll probably be able to enjoy it, albeit on a different level. The best thing about Stardust is that the creators know that there is a segment of the human population that are raving mechaphiles (why else would their cheaply made plastic models sell so well...and be so damned enticing...), and the brunt of the episodes (or at least the most that you'll take out of it) are composed of well-animated fight sequences in space, and a clever land battle. The OVA has all of the charm of old-school Gundams and Gundam fight scenes with the sophistication of 80's OVA animation: the mobile suits are dingy and get pockmarked with bullets and shrapnel, and most of the fights are determined by the pilots' skill and wits, rather than a magic Deus Ex Gundam. The space battles are orgasmic, with thrusters flaring about as the characters dodge beam rifle shots over lavishly-rendered backgrounds. All of the fights have a kind of heft and plausibility that some of the newer series just don't have. They are a blast to watch, and I can only imagine how good it'll look in the Blu-Ray release.
The other thing you'll take away from it...is how poorly written some of the characters and scenarios are. Nothing really stands out: Nina's a bitch, Gato is manly and a fantatic, Cima wears too much makeup, Burning is Burning, and Kou hates carrots. Nobody's really worth mentioning, and whenever there aren't beautiful mobile suits on the screen, you want to skip past the aimless dialouge and watch some more giant robot matches. There's talk of conspiracy, and the ineptitude of the Federation's bureaucracy is a lot more apparent here than it was in first. The OVA ties into Zeta Gundam, but the references, and its place in the Universal Century timeline aren't too obvious the first time around, and feel a bit out of place. It's the same kind of problem that the Star Wars prequels suffered from: everything looks shiny and new compared to the older material, and a little bit of text at the end of the OVA keeps it from messing with the continuity. All of that aside, it fleshes out our understanding of the Gundam universe a little bit more, an gives us lots of cool-looking mecha to play around with. And most importantly, more cool-looking mecha to buy as plastic models.
