TV Series Review:

By: "Shinan Gehlno"

The series ranged from 3 episodes, (1997’s New Mobile Report Gundam W: Endless Waltz. Not much of a series. But, in 1999, it was retooled and made into a 90-minute movie, for the 20th anniversary of Gundam.) to 150 episodes (1999-2000’s Turn-A Gundam).

One of the latest Gundam series to come to America is Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team. (The others being Gundam Wing, 49 episodes; Mobile Suit Gundam, 43 episodes; and Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War In The Pocket; 6 episodes.) This series is what’s called a "side-story," it tells a previously untold portion of the first story arc in the saga (namely the one from 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam. Here’s the backstory:) The name of the calendar is Universal Century, (UC) a post-2045 era, in which Earth’s excess population now live in "Sides," giant cylinder-shaped space stations that simulate the environment of Earth inside.

In January of Universal Century 0079, the Principality/Duchy of Zeon, which resides in Side 3, invents a giant humanoid-shaped weapon standing over 50-feet tall and controlled by a human pilot, called a Mobile Suit (MS) and wages a cataclysmic war of independence against the Earth Federation (later referred to as the One-Year War). That September, Amuro Ray, a native of Side 7, unwillingly becomes involved in the One-Year War, when he witnesses a Zeon attack inside Side 7, in which Amuro’s father gets killed. Unbeknownst to Amuro, his father had just completed construction of the Federation’s new Mobile Suit, the RX-78 Gundam. Amuro hijacks the Gundam, and successfully stops the Zeon attack, boards the Federation’s battleship, the White Base, and helps fight the One-Year War, on the side of the Federation..

(Now for the back story of Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team:) That October, Federation Ensign, (well, his rank is questionable, because on TV, he’s an Ensign, and in this one publication that I have and on a website I went to, he’s called a Lieutenant.) Shiro Amada, Side 2 native, is transferred from the Space Unit, to the Earth Unit. While en route to Earth, a battle breaks out between a damaged GM (an earlier Federation Mobile Suit,) and a Zeon Zaku, so Shiro goes out in a Ball (a ball-shaped mini-tank about the size of a small car), and tries to help the GM.

Shiro detains the Zaku long enough for the GM to escape. The Ball and Zaku float to a severely damaged ship (it is not known if the ship is "Feddy," or "Zeke".) Shiro and Aina Sakhalin, the pilot of the Zaku, get out and briefly have a little gun battle. It doesn’t help that all this action is using up their air supply, but one of Shiro’s shots rips Aina’s spacesuit. (I should probably tell you that Aina is a girl.) After forcefully patching Aina’s suit, neither one wanting to become prisoners, the two look for something to signal their respective sides. They use fireworks to blow up the ship, and it works! A couple Zaku’s, and the GM come for the two. The pilot of the GM, Terry Sanders, Jr., is surprised that Shiro made it.

Once on Earth, Shiro becomes the head of the Federation’s 08th MS Team, in Southeast Asia. The 08th Team consists of 3 MS, one Hovertruck, and 5 members (including Shiro,) Terry Sanders, Jr., MS pilot; Karen Joshua, MS pilot; Eledore Massis, Hovertruck operator; and Michel Ninorich, the second operator of the Hovetruck

Around the same that Shiro arrives on Earth, Aina arrives at a Zeon Special Weapons Research Base to help her brother Ginias, test his Apsaras mobile armor. The paths of Aina and Shiro cross again 2 more times.

Shiro soon gets a reputation of being missing in action and coming back, so I nicknamed him, "The Cat That Came Back The Next Day." Shiro does this 3 times throughout the series (In episodes 1, 3, and 6-7.) On his first mission as Commander of the 08th Team, Shiro stumbles upon a group of guerrillas. The leader’s daughter, Kiki, is attracted to Shiro. This is the 2nd time that he comes back. Soon, this helps Shiro to get the 08th Team’s loyalty.

Kiki and the guerrillas help the 08th Team out throughout the series. The most memorable time would have to be in episode #8, "Duties and Ideals," A trio of Zeon mobile suits comes to the guerrillas’ village. A villager fires a bazooka into one of the mobile suits’ cockpits, killing the pilot. (Now, keep in mind that the villagers are guerrillas.) A battle ensues. Things couldn’t get worse, right? Wrong, Shiro is accused of being a Zeon spy, by his superiors, after being seen alone with Aina, who as we know, is the pilot of the Apsaras, in episode #7.

Shiro is restricted to quarters, when he gets word of the attack on Kiki’s village. Enraged by the fact that nobody was sent to help the villagers, the 08th Team disobeys orders, and goes helps the villagers. But, in the closing moments of the battle, all the men are killed by anti-personnel fire. When they return to base, even through they disobeyed orders, they took out 3 Zeon mobile suits, so Shiro is off the hook.

"Duties and Ideals" also contains one of the most memorable quotes from the entire series. Shiro is talking to the enquiration committee, and Aina is talking to Ginias, about the two’s relationship. It’s like Aina and Shiro are both saying the same thing at the same time:

"Even though we’ve divided ourselves into enemies and allies, both sides have good people, reasonable people. And, believing in that, despite all the stupidity of this war, gives me hope for the day when peace will finally come."

That quote made me go, ".........Whoa."

Although the series is only 12 episodes, (eleven 25-minute episodes, and one 45-minute episode,) it is excellent! I definitely recommend it! It doesn’t fool around, it gets to the nitty gritty fast. I give Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team 10 out of 10!