EmaEiishi said: You kidding me? 0083's gotta be the next best thing after 08th ms team.
What? The characters are absolutely insufferable. Yes, the mecha fight porn is pretty good, but other than that it's horrible. The main villain? A white haired pathetic jerk with a cube of SIEG ZEON instead of a brain. The protagonist? Angsty, whiny little brat. Protagonist's love interest? Indecisive, annoying whore. Overall character developement? Zero point zero zero zero.
You can't be serious comparing it to 08th MS Team.
0083 has it's own merits from a story perspective. It did a fine job of presenting the scenario by which the Titans rose to power, in addition to effectively using a neglected piece of territory in Zeta (The American Midwest), which was came out before 0083 but is set after it, and making it the site of a colony drop.
Perhaps a part of the flaws of 0083 may have been that there were some scattered episodes guest directed by Ryousuke Takahashi, who, although he's one of my favorite directors, did somewhat mess up the flow of the show by adding in those conspiracy episodes in an already short show. I do agree with the statement that the second half of the last episode with Kou, Gato, and Nina came off as a bit of an asspull.
One 0083 character who stands out as an interesting and complex character is Cima Garmahau. Although her backstory wasn't presented in the show proper (it's in the Mayfly of Space special, she gives an interesting side to the situation insofar that she represents the less glorious side of Gato's Zeon: the abused grunt and the dirty work (and considering her past, the work was quite dirty indeed). With that knowledge in mind, her actions during 0083 are nothing short of fascinating and reasonable.
As good as 08th was, 0083 shouldn't be thrown into the gutter. Though I find that 0080 was the best of the three OVAs.