After crashing his mobile suit, Bernie manages to befriend Alfred "Al" Izuruha, an elementary school boy enamored with a romantic vision of warfare and excited by Bernie's status as a mobile suit pilot regardless of his allegiance, and Al's neighbor Christina "Chris" Mackenzie, secretly the Gundam test pilot.

As Bernie tries to repair his damaged mobile suit while hiding out within the station, he develops a close friendship with Al and slowly becomes infatuated with Chris, both pilots remaining unaware of each other's true natures.

Alfred tries to stop Bernard, only to see Bernie's mobile suit destroyed and an injured Christina pulled from the heavily damaged Gundam, leaving Al horrified.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket was produced by animation studio Sunrise in association with toy company Bandai.

[4] The screenplay was written by Hiroyuki Yamaga, with scenario by Kyosuke Yuki [ja], while the character designer for this series was Haruhiko Mikimoto.

[9] The first North American home media release of War in the Pocket was handled by Bandai Entertainment with dubbing produced by Animaze.

[6] First announced in 1998,[13] Bandai originally released it in a VHS box set along with Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory on March 9, 1999.

[1][22] Two "complete collection" re-releases followed; a collector's edition box set was published on July 12, 2005,[23][24] followed by a DVD under "Anime Legends" imprint on March 23, 2009.

[25] Bandai initially planned to broadcast War in the Pocket in the United States in 2002, but Sunrise set a September 2001 airdate.

[35] A novel based on the anime, The Dreams Chris Sees (クリスが見る夢, Kurisu ga Mieru Yume), written by Hiroyuki Yamaga and illustrated by Haruhiko Mikimoto and Toshiyuki Kubooka,[citation needed] was published as a bonus item for the April 1989 issue of Tokuma Shoten's Animage magazine.

[9] Shigeto Ikehara [ja] created a manga version serialized in Kodansha's Comic BomBom between its April 1989 and August 1989 issues.

[39][a] Kyosuke Yuki wrote and Haruhiko Mikimoto illustrated a novelization of the OVA series published by Kadokawa Shoten in October 1989.

[42] As part of the MS Saga – Mobile Suit Gundam in Comic anthology, MediaWorks published a manga by Kenji Mizuhara [ja] on February 1, 1994.

[43] Asahiya Publishing released two "film comics" titled Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 the OVA Movies in June and July 1998.

[5] Two soundtrack albums containing the instrumental and vocal music of the OVA were released under the title Sound Sketch I and II by King Records on March 5, 1999.

"[51] Chris Beveridge of The Fandom Post gave it an A− rating, stating that "this show stands the test of time with its story and its animation" and characters "you can connect with", and concluding that it is "Highly recommended.

"[52] Evan Minto of Otaku USA gave it a "Recommended" rating, calling it "Gundam as it was meant to be" and stating that it's "a short, poignant story of lost innocence in a world torn in two, and effectively makes the case that in war, we are all victims".

[54] Its DVD box re-release in 2011 was the third best-placed animation on Oricon's ranking of best-selling DVDs in the week of April 18–24, selling 3,739 copies.