Kidou Senshi Gundam AGE: Memory of Eden

Gundam Age is not very well-received by the Gundam fanbase. Nobody even cares to remember it. I dropped it early on and never put it on my list. That said, this Gundam entry is not without its good points. The animation is consistently good and it definitely tried to be different. Unfortunately, the execution is not good enough.

This OVA, on the other hand, solves a lot of the original's problems. As a retelling of the Asemu arc, widely considered the best part of Age, it is actually pretty well-written. Two main characters' friendship and rivalry is engaging to watch. The characters are more ... Shounen-esque than the typical Gundam, but it's not a bad thing. Top-notch animation quality and great directing provide some of the best mecha action I've ever seen. The story, unlike most Gundam, never drags on.

Unfortunately, most of the necessary background information was explained in the original anime, so you need to either watch that or read the wiki. With a runtime of only two and a half hours, this OVA is extremely focused. It tell the story extremely well, but much information is left out. Thankfully, if you have watch enough Gundam and mecha, you can understand most of it with minimal explaination.

Overally, I enjoyed this OVA a lot. Watching this anime, I believe that a three-movie remake can turn Gundam Age into one of the best mecha anime of all time. Shame Gundam Age flopped hard, so we are left with an incomplete retelling. If you are a fan of Gundam Age (all 5 of them!), or have somehow watched all of Age despite hating it, this a must watch. For others, it a good way to waste 2 hours.

Only for fans of Asemu Arc from the original show. The first episode of the OVA isn't so bad (feels like a retelling almost), but the second episode carried expectations that Zehearts character would be expanded upon beyond the unsatisfactory development he had in the original show. That is unfortunately not the case, as they simple double down by showing more scenes that affirm that he is a stupid character, and basically ignore the actual plot ofnl the show to just show him moping on the mothership.

I can't recommend this to people who haven't seen AGE, as it (especially in episode 2) expects you to ... fill in missing pieces with knowledge of the actual show. It also is FIRMLY Zehearts perspective, but despite that sounding like a good thing on paper, they don't actually add anything to his characterization. The OVA does have some nice newly interpreted fights from the show that fans can look forward to, though.

I would have been really happy if they focused more on Rosamys role in the story of Xeheart and Asemu, they could have fixed a lot that was wrong with those two characters roles in part 3 of AGE if they had done that. Unfortunate. At least episode 1 is "fun". (As a side note, Kio and Flit barely even cameo in this version of the show)

Unlike the great Wing OVA "Endless Waltz", this can only be recommended to Gundam AGE diehard fans.