Akadot - Review: Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Volume 1 page 1


Akadot Retail - Pop Japan Mercantile

by Lisa Klassen

Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team box

Episode 1 "The War of Two"

A transport ship shuttling Federal soldiers to Earth gets caught in the middle of an interstellar battle between a Federal Forces mobile suit and a Zeon prototype. A distress flare sent out by the Federal Forces suit attracts the attention of young officer Shiro Amada - a native from Side Two aboard a ship bound for Earth where he is to take a command - who wants to help. The captain of the transport ship isn't armed for encounters with the enemy and is reluctant to expose his ship to danger. Shiro persuades the captain to let him take out the Ball, a crude space pod intended for manual labour and armed only with a light cannon. The brave Shiro uses some quick thinking and gutsy tactics to take out the Zeon prototype, allowing the Federal Forces mobile suit to escape, but leaving the young Shiro stranded in an old relic of a ship with an enemy test pilot for company ... who turns out to be the beautiful Aina Sakhalin. The two must now work together to get rescued.

Episode 2 "Gundam in the Jungle"

Upon landing in Southeast Asia, Shiro Amada takes command of the Kojima Battalion 08th Mobile Suit Team, but the only team member who has any faith in Shiro's abilities is the stern sergeant Terry Sanders, the Federation pilot that Shiro rescued with his Ball tactics in the previous episode. While Michel Ninorich - the young corporal who was on the transport ship with Shiro - is too new to the team to have formed an opinion, sergeant major Karen Joshua and corporal Elodore Massis are hardened veterans of the jungle and they've seen too many commanders come and go to take Shiro seriously. His image is scarred further when Shiro, adjusting to ground mobile suit operations, becomes lost in the sweltering jungle while stalking a Zeon unit.

Episode 3 "The Time Limit of Trust"

The 08th MS Team is ordered to capture a nearby Zeon occupied village. After looking carefully at the lay of the land and enemy weapons, commander Shiro Amada decides to use a pincer move, the team draws fire in a frontal attack while a lone suit attacks from behind, a dangerous task that Shiro has reserved for himself. The team warns Shiro about the guerillas, but he still takes them lightly and is quickly captured by a group of them, among which is a red-haired girl, Kiki, whom Shiro caught bathing in the previous episode. After roughing him up for being a peeping tom, they take him to Baresto Logita, Kiki's father, who is the leader of the guerilla forces in this part of the jungle and isn't sympathetic to Shiro's urgent pleas to pass through so he can engage the Zeon village before his teammates begin their assault.

Even though "The 08th MS Team" is only twelve episodes long, it's release was spread out over a longer time than any other "Gundam" series, even the death of veteran director Takeyuki Kanda in July of 1996 couldn't stop this show's momentum (though it certainly slowed its progress). The final episode was released nearly three and a half years after the first one was filmed.

The timeline for this series is late in the year UC 0079, at the tail end of the One Year War that was the centerpiece of the original series. And the production team takes pains to re-create the tone and style of the original series. However, instead of the story taking place in the thick of the interstellar clash between the Federation and Zeon armies, spearheaded by the counterpoised Newtypes, Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, "08th" depicts the fringes of the war - the rank and file soldiers immersed in terrestrial skirmishes. Whereas "Mobile Suit Gundam's" sounds chords similar to majestic cinematic depictions of World War II, "08th" evokes the down and dirty jungle boogie of Vietnam.

Drawing from the strengths of earlier "Gundam" franchises, director Kenda focuses on character - the struggle of Shiro to win the respect of his tough team mates, the plight of the ill- fated Terry Sanders, the letters from Michel to his girlfriend back home, and Karen Joshua's reluctant warming to Shiro. Kenda weaves these elements into the framework of the story rather than allowing the mecha battles to usurp the human interest, but he still anchors the narrative with Shiro's arc to give shape to this epic.

Of course, the more annoying elements of epic slip into the mix as well. Sweeping orchestral scores bleeding into romantic sax motifs and wide-eyed naīve heroism tug at the heartstrings.

Art director Shigemi Ikeda and character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto have formed an appealing blend of styles. The quality of animation is high with little artifacting and plenty of thick, substantial colors. Kawamoto's unmistakable touch, evocative of his work in "Cowboy Bebop," enlivens the screen - the vivid hues of the character art are a striking contrast to the earthy tones and grim realism of the backgrounds. And, consistent with its fictional time frame, the mobile suits and costume designs are modeled along the simplistic, stylized lines of the original series, not the flashier, angular look of the nineties. This heightens the Vietnam-esque atmosphere of the jungle fighting scenes and offers a chance for long time "Gundam" fans to see the classic Gundams and Zaku models in action once again.

There are several minor flaws in this series, one common to many action anime - a habit of skipping over the 'trivial details' to pack more battle into each episode. An example of this is the lack of explanation for Shiro Amada's return to the base after he's been stuck in the jungle all night, lost. He's suddenly just there.

But despite little pitfalls, "Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team" is at once a spirited homage to the original "Gundam" series and an exciting, unique twist on the "Gundam" universe.

Love it? Hate it? Buy it.