Kidou Senshi Gundam: Dai 08 MS Shoutai

A lot of Gundam fans will probably tell you this is definitely either the best Gundam series, or at least a top 5 one. Hell, maybe even one of the best animes of all time. Allow me to explain why many including myself feel this way which this review is of course for. Despite being a short oav series, it has a descent amount of character on both the Zeon and Federation’s side where they all stand out and get their chance to shine, and develop as a result of it. Every character has their own ambition and dreams out side of the war. Such ... as Eladore, the sound specialist wants to be a musician, and Michel, who is timid and cowardly, wants to go back home and be with his girlfriend. And there are some characters who have personal issues such as Terry Sanders who is called the reaper because he’s the only surviving member of his previous units, and Karen just doesn’t think Shiro has what it takes to be a commander. However, Shiro is the all around character who has this mysterious and unorthodox kind of charisma, who is trying to not only develop his own leadership skills, but to find his role in this conflict and to find his way to confess his love to Aina despite being an enemy soldier. Even though he is a rookie, he is still strict and very dedicated to completing his mission and truly values loyalty.

On the Zeon side, we have Aina herself. She is very formal and obedient to her brother, Ginias, who is a straight out psycho-path. And there’s the bad ass Norris, who is their ace pilot , and is a father figure to Aina. So once again, this Gundam series delivers an all around cast with a well paced story that revolves around solving their issues and developing the characters which was how I viewed it. The Romeo and Juliet thing is a bit cliché’, but not really over the top. It’s used effectively and reasonably, and it also helps the development of Shiro and Aina as well. I will further elaborate on what I feel on what I think the themes are.

The art is just fantastic. The character designs are very diverse and distinctive, and the environments are well detailed thanks to the work of Kawamoto Toshihiro, who has also served as a staff member in other duties such as on Votoms, Full Metal Alchemist, Gundam 0083, and Patlabor. I really like the expressions the faces have in the battles as well as the angles and postures. I will elaborate on how I feel about the battles later, so time to talk about the mechanical designs. The mobile suits are of course still in complimentary of the original Gundam designs, except the pack more heavy fire power and have more of a bulky look to it which suits the nature of the battles which I will now talk about. In comparison to your traditional Gundam where it’s all about space battles, we are now reduced to watching guerrilla jungle warfare, so strategy and tactics play a big part into this series like how it did in the final battle of War in the Pocket. So it brings a different sense of intensity, anticipation, and excitement which helps makes this series stand out in comparison to other Gundams because the characters aren’t of course newtypes where they got crazy reflexes. And you have to watch this anime until the end. The 2nd to last battle is most certainly a top 5 in Gundam battles or fights in general of all time. Due to all of these combined great features I can’t say anything bad on.

The voice acting in both English and Japanese are excellent and top quality. Both languages have actors that equally represent their characters. Even though Steve Cannon was very terrible as Ippo in the English version of Hajime no Ippo, he was great as Shiro. He played someone who was new to his role, but really took it seriously. I thought his higher pitched voice was well more suited to the nature of his character, but the Japanese voice actor, Hiyama Nobuyuki brought a different kind of maturity to the character, but wasn’t really as spirited which I felt was part of Shiro’s character. All-round veterans such as Kikuko Inoue plays the role of Aina, who is dead accurate as someone who looks meek, but is very strong willed on the outside. And believe me, I give this anime one of the best performances ever. I say it’s superior to that of Cowboy Bebop’s.

The music is also well suited to the nature of this show. The background music gives a more traditional military style to really represent the way I described the action with its different sense of intensity and excitement as a result of anticipation. And the opening theme Arashi no Naka de Kagayaite is highly energetic, and the ending theme 10 years after really represents a more campy nature that represents the unity of the team.

Well, I’ll conclude this review with two notes. First of all, I feel the only negative this anime has is its ending. Not really saying it’s a bad ending, but it didn’t really live up to what I was expecting and you’re free to disagree with that. But then again, who said endings had to be happy? I felt the Cartoon Network ending leaves things too inconclusive because the true ending they couldn’t show due to the portrayal of kids in war, which I thought, was a totally ludicrous reason. I felt the true ending was too much out of convenience and really felt out of place, and a majority of the cast was really absent. Maybe that’s because the original director died during the releasing of this oav. I don’t know. But my 2nd note is how I love this movie is about loyalty and trust. It’s a consistent theme throughout this show and it portrays it in a sensible way in the scenario presented in this anime. Even though Shiro is the leader and despite his age, I like how he treats everybody equally and he makes sure everybody lives up to his number one rule, that everybody comes back alive.

Where to start. Well, maybe I am crazy, as I am the only negatize reveiw so far, but to be frank this is my least favourite Gundam to date, regardless of the fact it is an OVA. It was not horrible, indeed it was alright, but thats it - alright. Personally I expected more, especially from Gundam.

STORY
This is one aspect that as stated earlier was mediocre. It had so more potential and I beleive if it had been a series, not an OVA, it could have been developed far better. Without divulging to much, the basic premise is that it is a side story ... to the original MSG and takes place near the end of the War between the EF and Zeon. It follows a rag-tag unit, the 08th MS team, and their various encounters while adding a romantic element with the commander of the team and a Zeon pilot. The zeons pilot happens to be sister to the Zeon Commander in the same area as the 08th team. A noraml 'Gundam' thing to do. However where as some Gundams pull it off, this one does not. The overall story is dull, and frankly the ending is unbelivable and bad. Also, and this is where opinions are split, the action is very realistic, or at least as realistic as possible, which I dilike. Some people like this, I personally do not. When I watch Gundam i want to see over the top action and fighting, but in this regard I was let down, which I could have excepted if the story had actuallt been decent. On top of this most Gundams have an overarching political or philosopichal meaning, even if they are obvious, and I like the chance to think about those things, to me the anime gains more meaning that way. The story here is simply a narrative, a story with no meaning, nothing to really pull out of it thematically, so in that regard I feel it fails.

ART
I have nothing bad to say here. The animation was excellent and a large step up from it's contemporary, Wing. It was gritty, and realisitic looking, and all the MS had details glaour. The art was excellent for it's time and a joy to see in motion.

SOUND
The Sound overall was good. The effects were excellent and the voices in Japanese i felt were wonderful, but in English failed as per usual. I did not car for the opening, ending, or sountrack however as it was pretty jazzy, which really isn't my style.

CHARACTER
Oh dear god. This is were my opinion differs the far by most. I could not stand most of the characters is the show, with maybe two exceptions. I did not think they were realistic at all. Their ideal were foolish and childish, and they were often overdramtic. Along with that they were the most rag-tag group of soliders I have ever seen, and would not last very long in an actual Army as they have a lot of trouble following orders.

ENJOYMENT[b/]
So, as you can most likely can tell, I had my problems with this series. It is not bad, but i could have watched far better things even if it is only 12 episodes.

OVERALL
Without a doubt in my mind, it was simply mediocre. It was not Bad, but with such a wide range of other, better Gundams out there to choose form, I would not bother. However, if like myself you wanted to watch it as it takes place between the original and Zeta, adn you wnat to watch them chronologically, then go ahead, just don't expect to be blown out of the water.

This gundam series differed completely from any other gundams I've watched. This is more of a lighthearted soldier's perception on the battlefield rather than the whole political and philosophical thinking that goes on in the other series. It really has a practical and direct style unlike the other gundams and takes a more lighter tone with a commander just trying to accomplish his missions with the help of his squad on an episode to episode basis. And you know what? Thats good. This show pulls it off with the enjoyment level. Shiro and his crew make ... people want to root for them and get into that "feel good" factor when they succeed against adversity.

The more realistic and intricate fight scenes are great which personally I favor more than the huge overexaggerated fight scenes in wing and seed (which I don't actually mind though).

Whatever you do, do NOT be put off by the old animation. If i remember correctly, I watched this right after finishing the 2nd FMP series and I consciencely didn't even notice the old animation style while being swept away by the excitement and pleasure of watching the 8th ms team.

Characters are incredibly likeable and they're all sound of mind (well, they are compared to the characters in other gundams).

But the factor that just blew me away was the enjoyment. Disregarding any of the aesthetic qualities and originality or blah blah blah of the series, I simply enjoyed the series and ended up watching through all 12 episodes straight through. It was just fun to watch. 12 episodes may seem short for a gundam masterpiece, but it turned out way better than my expectations. This is highly recommended for those who love gundam, or hate it. This is a more action/feel good style of gundam that people who may not be into mecha might most likely enjoy. All of my friends, who never were interested in mecha until this one popped up, agree. A fun, short, sweet, and memorable ride following the determined gundam crew and the struggles & adversity they face...

Hello!! It's me, Otakufreakmk2, with another Gundam Review!! YAAAYY!!! Knowing not many of you are fans of Gundam, I'm taking the privilage of introducing you to some of the best in Gundam!

Okay, when Gundam first came out in the US we were introduced to Gundam Wing and it's pretty boys. Well after that Cartoon Network soon showed the Original Gundam Series, then following up with it's side stories. One of these Side Stories was Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team. Unlike many of the Gundam series, this series showed much praise from it's loyal fans. It's uniqe way at approaching the story line was very ... good and the relationship between characters was very good. The designs, as well, were amazing. This was something that I had to see.

The Story involves a less known Earth Federation Soldier Named Shiro Amada. He is sent to Earth on a mission to force the Zeon Forces out of earth, but on the way to Earth a battle begins. He soon helps a soldier in need and ends up becoming stranded in space with a female Zeon pilot named Aina Sahalin. They both fall in love but go their seperate ways. They both arrive on Earth and in the same battle grounds. They must now face each other off in a battle to end all battles on Earth. Shiro and his team of Ground Force Gundams against Aina and her brother's ultimate creation the Apsulas.

The story shows alot about what war does to people, in this case a war between Giant Robots. This is a Gundam series that must be seen. It doesn't really matter if you don't like Gundam, it's just an anime that you have to see. It's been awarded one of the bestAnime Of The Year, so that's proof of it's quality. Take it from me, the Otakufreak.

For a superlative series that claims to be the most realistic Gundam entry, it more than lives up to that title. This series delivers as a compelling self-contained story that offers a unique interesting take on the franchise without rehashing past elements.

The story for the most part offers an interesting of the conflict. Rather than focus on a single hero and his special superpowered giant robot, the emphasis is on average grunts fighting on front line. This emphasis offers a unique insight on the soldiers that are often overlooked as worthless cannon fodder. Plus, it makes the action scenes more impressive. Rather than rely on ... special powers, these soldiers must rely on their skills and tactics which makes their accomplishments seem all the more significant. The Zeon commander Norris Packard in particular manages to win when outnumbered even if he lacks Char's his fancy custom red mechas and newtype powers.

The characters themselves are also pretty good. Our main hero Shiro is really identifiable since he has likable idealist views and tries to preserve those with harsh reality. It really helps that Steve Staley does a lively job voicing Shiro despite Gundam's history of having occasionally cheesy voice acting. Shiro's girlfriend Aina is a well-developed star-crossed lover who can be a proper lady while also fighting as an elite pilot. Norris Packard is also awesome because he's a badass who fights off elite mobile suits yet can be a loving father to Aina. Plus Norris is named after another awesome fighter: Chuck Norris.

Yet arguably the best thing about this series is its realism. Whereas other Gundam entries show the horror of wars through high body counts (I'm looking at you Zeta and Victory), this entry shows how war sucks because it's realistically exhausting and frustrating. All these giant robots need constant maintenance and have a tendency to fail at the worst times (just like real life robots). Normally this grittiness would feel like a distraction but here it complements the story since it intentionally exhausts the viewer. At the end, we would be sick of the hardships of warfare and want it to end just like Shiro. As a result, 08th MS Team hammers in the hellish aspects of warfare without having to cram in excessively brutal deaths or war crimes.

Overall this is worth a watch. The characters are well-developed. The story is engaging while also being self-contained and accessible. The atmosphere is well-crafted. This really is a worthy installment in the Gundam franchise

With this being one of the highest-rated Mobile Suit Gundam instalments, I must be missing something. Unfortunately, I strongly dislike this OVA. Watching it lead me to the point of putting on hold all MS Gundam-related anime.

Firstly, a bit of background. My Gundam journey started in an unusual way - with Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War In The Pocket. I was absolutely stunned by the skilful storytelling and the full-blooded characters whose naivete made me truly feel how terrible war is. 

After completing Mobile Suit Gundam 0079, I was absolutely hooked, so I decided to move on by following the recommended watch order, eventually reaching Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th ... MS Team. 

Once the first episode started, I was surprised at how unpleasant and weak the characters were - a pack of cliches bundled up together. The "lead" Shiro Amada is probably the worst protagonist in similar series. He has a burst of bravery a few minutes in but quickly proves he has no characteristics whatsoever except for his uncanny desire to always be looking for love in a way a 13-year-old would. 

The rest reminded me of other MS Gundam characters' pale copies. Example: Aina and Ginias are brother and sister, brought close by family drama and torn apart by their ways of overcoming it - just as Casval and Artesia. The difference is, Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team fails to provide any background and development for the pale doppelgangers, making them underdeveloped and useless alternative versions, screaming statements instead of acting like full-blooded humans. 

As a whole, the characters themselves are so weakly introduced that their "emotions", once displayed, seem unreal, forced and theatrical. I will only note the cellar scene between Eledore and Michael in episode 5. I have honestly never seen something so deranged and ridiculous in a non-comedy anime. 

You cannot argue with facts and it is no wonder the characters for this OVA are added to so few Favourites. They are underdeveloped, weak, and unmemorable, which is unfortunate for an MS Gundam series.

Story-wise, the centre-stage romance between the protagonist Federation pilot Shiro and the Zeon genius-test-pilot-disgraced-aristocrat Aina seems to come from nowhere and appears very pretentious and forced. If people's upbringing, resolve and motivation were as easily overwritten as they were with these two, there would have been no wars. This is a wonderful but, unfortunately, unfounded and superficial belief. The worst part is, this extreme pacifism is something I came up with to try and make sense of all the corny scenes.   

I am surprised how far behind war strategy, and even MS Gundam are in these series, following behind sex drive, romance, friendship, jokes, hobbies, talents etc. The stories are messy and do not really build-up to anything significant. There is also no particular continuation or purpose in any of the occurrences - people randomly grab boobs and blabber about their dreams, there are random enemies and intimate sharing between characters who never before spoke to each other. For the latter, I will mention episode 6 and the conversation between Michael and Kiki.

I will spare any spoilers, but another awkward moment is the extra-dramatic scene between Aina and Norris in episode 10, when we have only seen him acting pretty much as her silent bodyguard. 

When battles happen, they are mostly quick and without much display of either the pilot or the craft's skill. Mecha are shown as pretty standard clunky huge robots pushing into each other, smashing in-between mountains or getting shot by a rocket. This is all very impressive unless you have watched some of the other MS Gundam series and gotten to know what these mecha mean and are, what they cost their creators and how many lives they changed.

The last two episodes (11 and 12) were as inexplicable to me as possible. They defined logic, physics and anatomy in a completely bizarre way, expected maybe in an otome game but never in a war drama mecha adventure. 

The animation is quite good and the voice actors are doing a great job. Music sometimes gets in the way by being a bit too forceful while playing its part as an atmosphere-builder. Still, I did not mind it too much.

Overall, I am surprised this anime is not tagged as a comedy as well. I am giving it a 5, just because of the animation and how much I love other MS Gundam series. However, if this was the first anime I see, I would have never continued watching.

I really love the gundam series so when i saw this show i was hyped. In the end i feel like this show is ok the story was ok the sound was great but the one thing that sucked was the charecters. They were so paper thin the main charecters were so boring they introduced the reaper giving him a scary back story they gave him like 1-2 episodes to explain his back story than they kinda left him in the dust.his whole existence was thrown out the window its like the show completly forgot about him after explaining his charecter and this isn't the ... first time they did this the whole army got the same shit. Eledore got two episodes than boom he's geting too mych spot light time to pulll the plug. Then there was the main charecter jesus christ if you think shonen main characters are bad wait to you see shiro god he literaly thinks like a shonen main charecter except he does most of the killing and then cries like a baby when shit doesn't go his way. The worse part is the romance if i had to run a track couse against usain bolt i would use the romance as my body because it way too fast like literally he saw this girl like two or three times Then boom they fall in love for plot convenience using forced romance to cause tragedy when shit happens to them does not mean people will feel bad it just means it was rushed and lazy.

Final thoughts: this show is really good if not for the horrible characters i think this show would be really good i guess if you can brave the mediocrity then watch this show other wise don't watch this you will really get bored

I've talked about the Gundam franchise a few times. 00, Wing & Iron-Blooded Orphans. This time around we're looking at a shorter Gundam series, the 08th MS Team. This one aired starting in '96 and finished in '99. It went on for so long because the original director, Kanda Takeyuki, was tragically killed in a car accident and it took them a while to find a replacement. Let's take a look at the twelve episode OVA.

Story:

The narrative takes place after the original Gundam series. The Federation and Zeon forces are battling over Earth. Amada Shiro comes from space to lead the 08th MS Team, ... after meeting a Zeon woman and having his entire outlook changed.

There are a couple big narrative issues with the series. The first is that the big theme of needing to humanise your enemies and find common ground, while good in concept, isn't very well executed. The romance is utter rubbish with the two leads meeting and being forced to work together out of necessity and then falling for each other because they've known one another for all of an hour. Yeah, that's going to lead to a strong, world changing relationship. The ending is also pretty stupid. It's not well developed or handled.

With all that being said, there are some good ideas behind the series. The more episodic stuff that focuses on this small unit carrying out missions and engaging with the battlefield in their own way is pretty decent too.

Characters:

The characters in this are just generally under-written. They aren't a bad group of characters or super one note but they aren't very interesting or that complex and their interactions are just banal. It doesn't help that their motivations are also pretty weak.

Art:

The series looks pretty good. The backgrounds are nicely filled out. The mecha designs are pretty decent. And the action scenes flow pretty nicely.

Sound:

The actors are completely capable. Hiyama Nobuyuki, Koyama Mami, Yuuki Hiro, Genda Tessyo, Inoue Kikuko and the others are all capable. It's one of those cases where they'd probably be better if the characters were less under-written but they're decent. Tanaka Kouhei's soundtrack is pretty good.

Ho-yay:

There's none to be found.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Develop your romance so that it feels more natural, stronger and has some impact.

2. Have some strong character development. Maybe not for every minor character, but at least have it for your major characters.

3. A better developed ending. Spend more time setting things up, more time actually spent fleshing them out and extrapolating on things.

Final Thoughts:

This isn't the worst Gundam series I've reviewed. That dubious honour still goes to 00. That being said, it's not a good series. The under-written characters and poorly fleshed out narrative don't lead to a strong viewing experience. I'm giving it a 5/10. It's bland.

This is by far the most realistic of the Gundam series. Well, as realistic as giant robots fighting in outer space can be. Rather than focus on the pilots of intense, immensely powerful gundam units like Wing or Seed, 08th MS Team focuses on the grunts, the guerrilla soldiers, the front line troops fighting in the war. Battles are far more realistic, and while not as flashy as Gundam Wing's, just as intense. Damage is real, and when a Gundam's arm is blown off, it's not repaired the next episode for the point of having it back. People get really ... hurt, people die- and the ending brings tears to my eyes, seeing the two of them walking from the wreck (hope that's vague enough), no spoilers meant.

Watch it if you like sci-fi and war. Hell, even if you just like war stories. This one is more down to earth... very easy to enjoy. Too short, though.

The best Gundam anime series I've seen. It has many differences with all the other Gundam series out there. First there is the great story that only focuses on two main characters and five or six secondary characters, and the story is far reaching, taking place in one place through out the series. The second thing that separates this series from the rest of the Gundam series are the characters. There are only two main characters in Aina Sahalin and Shiro Amada and about six supporting characters. Other Gundam Series have five or six main characters and ... a bunch of supporting ones. With so few characters the anime and focus on them and give them life, which creators of the show did. Finally there is the action, which is unlike any other Gundam series you'll see. It's actually believable. No overblown battles, no super Gundams, just gritty down to earth war combat, that gets you excited and drawn into the battles.

So in conclusion if you want to see a Gundam series for the first time or see a different kind of Gundam series this is it. The only other series that compares is the original Mobile Suit Gundam.

I’m not a huge Gundam dan in general. I thought ironblooded orphans was fantastic but some of the older series seem to lose their purpose on me. Despite that I really enjoyed 08th team despite its flaws.

Where the anime goes right. I great action packed high quality animated Gundam with plenty of fun action. The fights have a sense of grounding to them which makes them very enjoyable and they are all animated superbly especially for the age of the anime. While the style will show this anime’s age the animation it’s self does not. Following a ragtag squad of pilots going about their missions ... while not necessarily being the linchpin of every major battle really works for me as I feel like I’m really watching what a squad of troops in war would experience.

Where the anime goes wrong. Every episode about the main love interest and pacifism is just boring to me. The love interest doesn’t feel deserved or interesting. It feel increasingly forced. When 08th takes a major turn into being about war being bad and peace is the only way just simply destroys the pacing. I’m here to see giant robots blow each other up not be told how bad war is. I know war is bad that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun to watch.

At the end of the day the good out weights the bad for me and it’s not a series that gets too bogged down in politics and jargon that you have to have watched 3 other series in their entirety to understand. Would recommend if you are looking for a fun action Gundam to watch just be ready for the mood killers.

Recently, I've been getting into Gundam by watching the series in rough release order. The 08th MS Team was one of the series that I was most looking forward to, considering that most of the fandom (as well as non-Gundam fans) seems to hold it in high regard, as well as its reputation for being the "muh realism" Gundam, or "space Vietnam", both of which were enticing concepts to me. Much to my surprise and dismay, as I watched 08th I quickly found my preconceptions about the show to be horribly misleading.

Firstly, though, we can talk about the Art and Sound design, which I'll bundle ... together here. In this regard, I can say that 08th is exactly what I thought it would be. The scenes are beautifully animated and the mobile suits are certainly the most realistic feeling in the series that I've seen; There's a weight to the suits that often doesn't manifest in the other shows', and each suit is clearly designed to evoke the fact that it is a gigantic mechanical weapon of war. We get to see the inner workings of individual mobile suits several times, and it's clear that they've redesigned classic suits like the Zaku, the Guntank, the GM, etc. so they would be more in line with this realistic vision of the One Year War. Sound design keeps in line with this, with the heavy stomping of mobile suits and the sounds of the guns that they use coming to mind.

Alternatively, I would say that the character design is in contrast to this realism ethos that the studio was going for. The late-nineties anime design that clearly echoes the likes of Gundam Wing or G Gundam certainly doesn't mesh as well as perhaps the style of War in the Pocket or Stardust Memory, but at the same time I wouldn't say that it automatically put me off of the series. Generally the characters look decent and are well-animated, I'm just confused as to this design decision, although it arguably ties into the severe problems that arise in the series.

That is to say, that I think the story and characters of 08th MS team are downright bad. We have several main plotlines that are various shades of poor: Firstly, there's the relatively inoffensive but certainly underwhelming main threat of Zeon developing a dangerous new mobile armor and the 08th's efforts to stop them. Next, we have the "shades of gray" narratives, so to speak, where we get to see that there's decent people in Zeon, bad people in the Federation and civilians that were caught in-between; not a novel plot thread but one with potential. Finally, we have the inter-personal relationships and tribulations of the 08th MS team as well as particular Zeon characters, the most prominent of these being those of the main character Shiro Amada, and the main Zeon perspective, Aina Sahalin.

As mentioned, the plot about the Zeon mobile armor "Apsalus" is inoffensive but doesn't really do much other than act as a threat. For the Feddies it just acts as a Macguffin threat that they need to stop, and on the Zeon side we don't really get much interesting intrigue out of it, just the normal Zeon betrayals. Meanwhile, the "gray" stuff mostly flatlines; nice guy Zeons is par for the course, we've had that since 0079, and bad guy Feddies is also not exactly new territory, both of these are explored in pretty surface-level manners and they've been done significantly better in preceding shows (watch Zeta and WITP). Ditto for the civvies caught in the middle, but luckily we get to see 08th distinguish itself here by making the guerilla fighters pretty irritating. The rebel shenanigans were the first real indication to me that my opinion was rapidly souring. Generally, whenever the main guerilla character "Kiki" showed up, I was already prepared to be annoyed. These characters also elude my understanding by being anti-Zeon freedom fighters that treat the Federation with open hostility for very hand-wavey reasons (soldiers, am I right?).

Which ties into the fact that the characters and their interpersonal problems in 08th suck and ruin the show. Out of the main characters, we have 2 of them that are the most likeable by virtues of not grating, Karen and Sanders. Both of them are generally competent and don't go out of their way to be annoying, so they're the best ones, but they also go through perhaps the least development or exploration despite both of them mentioning clear character motivations and backstories. Michel and Eledore both get pretty exhausting to watch, particularly in the episodes that center around them, and they both lack any meaningful depth; Michel is pining after his girlfriend in space, and Eledore wants to make it big as a musician, and they both don't want to die in this bad bad war, that's basically the run of it. "Ginias" is a pretty generic and lame evil scientist, not really much to say about him, there's no depth.

Shiro and Aina bring about the worst of it. Shiro and Aina both fall in love, somehow, after a fateful meeting in space, spawning by far the shittiest plotline in the OVA. The absolute superficiality of this relationship boggles the mind, after their heavily contrived first encounter and another heavily contrived second encounter, they somehow grow to love each other SO MUCH that they would rather die than live without each other. I can't say that I was very much invested in their relationship.

Needless to say, my enjoyment was essentially nil. Whenever the show was focusing on the military aspect, I perked up for long enough to enjoy the spectacle, with a particular high point in episode 10 that was one of the best fights of the franchise, but I was quickly slapped back down by whatever new annoying character beat or whatever new unimpressive plot point.

From here on I would like to nitpick miscellaneous things that delve into spoilers so keep that in mind if you haven't watched it already and weren't deterred by my incredibly talented polemic wit.

The survival of Aina and Shiro after what is VISIBLY a complete disintegration is worthy of taking off an entire point from the score. The final episode with the cyber newtype children was grating enough that I almost couldn't bring myself to watch it. After their second get-together, Aina finds out that Shiro was noticed and photographed by one of the Zeon rescue squads picking her up; why didn't they capture him? Eledore nearly gets killed after taking over a construction mobile suit and refusing to close the cockpit even in the face of certain danger; it's not explained why, and he gets shipped off with severe injuries that nearly warranted amputation but inexplicably returns later, awesome! Earlier in the same episode, Eledore and Michel start beating the shit out of each other in a really irritating argument while they're imprisoned by Zeon, but it works out that the Zeon guard comes in and then gets knocked out so they can escape; I figured this was gonna be the reveal that they planned it this way, but in fact it was entirely accidental and they were actually just being annoying pricks, and then their escape isn't even shown, you just have to assume they made it out somehow despite the place being swarmed with Zeon soldiers. It's hard to understate how much I hate Kiki, and how much I really don't care that she was in love with Shiro, also I would appreciate if the camera wouldn't shove her crotch in my face. Norris is the best character and he deserved better, his fight is obviously the best and my main complaint is that he honestly should've done even better, I find it hard to believe he couldn't have wiped them all out.

Overall I give this a 5 because it's pretty bad but the animation brings it up a bit, and I can't in good conscience rate it lower than ZZ which is obviously worse.

The 08th MS team provides the viewer with a ground view of the One Year War and every moment it spends in the grime with front line troops it excels.
From the early skirmishes to the legendary battle with a Gouf, the series supplies almost unmatched, realistic style for the 0079 era of Gundam.

Engaging in self-masturbatory or gratifying review of this series wouldn't accomplish much, so suffice to say if you're a fan of the original Gundam series and would like to see what a great animation budget can accomplish read no further and watch.

My major gripe with the 08th is the Romeo and Juliet story ... IN SPAAAAcE that we get. I understand that nearly every romance in the Gundam timeline is doomed to either fail or be poorly developed/ignored, and that maybe we ought to be thankful that at least one made it through partly unscathed, but what would be the state of any art without constantly seeking to improve and critique the medium?

Aina and Shiro's relationship is the almost perfectly superficial star-crossed lovers bit that develops into a little bit of something by the end at least. In contrast we have Captain Packard acting as a surrogate father to Aina, Kiki's infatuation with Shiro and then subsequent horror at the loss of her father and friends; sure Ginas is an awful stereotypical, mustache-twirling kind of sociopath, but there was potential to knock this out of the park with the two-punch of brutal combat without any newtypes or copious numbers of aces with maybe a tragic story of an earth girl losing everything to a war that almost forgets her, or a goodly woman from Zeon, dealing with a family crumbling apart and only finding a passing comfort before an internal self-destruct.

My biggest gripe with a lot of the Gundam universe has been when it all shines through, it shows you just how versatile animation as a medium can be to show very real emotions and difficulties with situations that a viewer can relate to. But often it falls just short of the mark of excellence, losing some of the spirit of humanity in the technical details or shoehorning in suspension-breaking for the sake of plot convenience or even simplicity.

The show Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (here after to be referred to as "The 8th MS Team") has received critical and fan praise and is oftentimes referred to as one of the better if not the best of the Gundam series. At the time of writing this series has a average score on MAL of 8.01 and is bested only by Gundam 00 and Iron-Blooded-Orphans among the Gundam series. But does the 8th MS Team deserve such praise?

Taking place during the universal century timeline, like most other Gundam shows this deals with the conflict between the Earth Federation and their Mobile Suits ... against the Principality of Zeon and their mechs. A key difference from most other Gundam series which tend to be space based is that excluding the first episode, this series takes place exclusively on earth, offering a more grounded (pun intended) take on the beloved mecha series. Another factor is that the 8th MS Team places a higher emphasis on romance than most other mecha anime, with a key part of the plot being the relationship between the Gundam pilot Shiro and the Zeon noble Aina.

Starting with the positives, despite the fact that it was released in 1996 the animation and sound of the 8th MS Team has aged fantastically well. The animation, especially the fights between the mecha, is more the most part fluid and well done, especially the latter episodes. Something I enjoyed was the attention to detail, for example all three of the mobile suit mechs in the 8th MS Team have slight differences reflecting the personalities of their pilots. For example in one episode Karen's mobile suit gets damaged, and for the rest of the series her mech has a slightly different head piece than the rest. The music, including the opening and ending songs, was very good, although perhaps a little too upbeat for a series focusing on the sobering effects of war.

The 8th MS Team also boasts a great and endearing caste of characters. On the Feds/Mobile Suit side we have Shiro, the typical idealist protagonist, Michel the naive mechanic, Terry Sanders, a veteran soldier who feels the guilt of seeing too many of his comrades die, Karen the no-nonsense female member of the crew, Kiki, a villager who often helps them out, and Eledore, the soldier who would rather be a singer. The opposing Zeon side also had some good characters, such as Aina the love interest of Shiro who is also a bit of an idealist, Ginas her mad-scientist brother, and Norris their honorable guardian. I liked how even the more badass characters like Shiro, Terry, and Karen still had moments of weakness when they had to be rescued, and other more wimpy characters such as Michel still had their moments of strength. Compared to a lot of other mecha anime this one was much more character based and driven, and no matter what personality you have you're sure to find a character you can relate to.

Now for the negatives, something I feel the 8th MS Team really struggled with was pacing. Despite being only 12 episodes long, relatively short for a Gundam series, many of the episodes felt like filler because they would always end with the same status quo with which they started. It really only felt that towards the latter part of the series that there was any serious development plot wise. Also, Shiro and Aina's romantic relationship does make much sense; they're literally trying to kill each other and then they make eye contact for a couple seconds and Shiro acts nice towards Aina which results in both of them falling madly in love with one another.

Another issue I had with the show was the constant immature humor and fan-service in the show. For a series that tries to portray the brutality of war it really killed the mood when stupid anime trope of a guy innocently walks into a girl bathing and gets called a pervert, as happens in episode when for a good minuet Kiki gets naked to swim in the water fall as an excuse for her to shove her assets all in the viewer's and Shiro's face. That's the worst example, but their plenty of others, such as Eldore grouping Karen's breast or how despite being in the tundra they still managed to fit in a hot spring episode of Aina and Shiro bathing naked together.

Being a tad pedantic now, but I also felt the fights in the 8th MS Team were a bit inconsistent. There are times in the show when their mechs would take multiple shots from point-blank range and the protagonists would only have a few scratches and bruises, while there were other times just one hit would make the mechs blow up. In one particularly notable example two of the main characters fight for what seems like a long time, with both their mobile suits being severely damaged, but soon after another mech just shots a laser beam at a massive ship for a couple seconds and that's all it takes to make said ship completely explode.

Lastly the worst part of this series is the final episode. Episodes 10 & 11 are very much the climax and conclusion of the show, episode 12 begins with a pointless time-skip and introduction to meaningless side characters and consist of Kiki and Michel going around acting like idiots only to discover at the end what had already been established at the end of episode 11. The whole episode is incredibly boring and disposable in an otherwise action-packed show. This episode was one of the main reasons I dropped my rating for the 8th MS Team from what would've been a 9 or 8/10 to a solid 7/10.

In conclusion I think the 8th MS Team is a good show and a worthy addition to the Gundam franchise, but at the same time I feel the praise it gets is a bit overblown. Viewers of the anime will be treated to great animation and good character development, but personally I was bothered by the less stellar parts of the show, and if you are planning on watching this I highly recommend you skip the twelfth episode.

Its always a great shame when awesome animes remain enigmas while overrated trash gets praise.This is without a doubt one of the best animes i have ever seen.Unlike previous gundam tittles that show the well documented earth vs colonies conflict this anime is different as it only show you the war from the perspective of a small group called the 08th Ms team.What make this anime so great is without a doubt the characters,they are varied in their personalities while at the same time being truly authentic in representing real human behaviour.Unlike most anime today where the characters are either strange,overly cutesy or pretentious in ... their attitude,the characters in this show are easy to relate to because they act distinctly human with all their strength and shortcomings.

Shiro amada was just given his first mission to head the Ms team and as a rookie his lack of experience is reflective of his personality as he is somewhat naive while at the same time quite convincing in his role as a team leader. Eledore is the impulsive arrogant loud-mouth of the group,hes a playboy and a show-off with a dream of hitting it big with his music career,He's without a doubt also very good comedic relieve.Michel is the youngest of the group,and he sometimes have a hard time fitting in and at times seems better suited for an office than in an army but grows well into his role in a convincing manner.All the charcters has an edge to their personality that makes them interesting and a good back-story.

This anime gives a more realistic portrayal of warfare than any other gundam series or mech series that i have ever seen.The gundams break down,overheat ,recieve damage and needs repairing that wont simply disappear in the next episode.The fight scenes is a fusion of mecha and gorilla warfare and come across excellently . Despite its realism this show has a lot of great humour and heartfelt moments that will leave you with fond memories.
The one flaw would definately be the forced and unrealistic relationship between Shiro amada and Aina sahalin,from their very first encounter in episode one they fell in love despite being on opposite side.The animation is good,the drawings are detailed while carrying that bit of imperfection that makes the gundam suits themselves look more real.What else is there to say,simply an awesome anime.

If there's a Gundam series that i think would best characterize the Mech scene as a whole, I think of 08th MS team.

The short series best lays out a team of whats basically the infantry of Gundam. Forget the over powered and god-like Gundams with their super human pilots, and think grit and WWII dog fighting.

There isn't much to dislike - there isn't good or bad guys at the ground level - just the common man suffering for the ambition of those in charge of them. The leadership of Zeon harks back to the "at-all-costs" mentality of Japanese leaders during WWII.

The soundtrack now is ... fairly dated, as is the artwork, but that's the nature of things twenty years old.

The characters are human with human issues, and think and act like normal humans. Its refreshing against the whining over-academic main characters of many other series.

While its vanilla in most respects, the solid and unique way that the story writers wrote this out is admirable for the sake of not overduing. It's basically the black coffee of anime, and the majority of other Gundam series are sugared frappes. If only there was more like this.

TL;DR: Part of the Trinity of masterpiece pre-2000's Gundam. (Zeta, War In the Pocket, and This. If you were curious.) Watch it. Just that.

War In The Pocket used to be my favorite U.C. Gundam show. Now after watching the 08th MS Team I'm not so sure.
I love when Gundam goes to a small scale to show us it's stories.
The general plot of 08th MS Team is very simple. A group of soldiers has to find and destroy the prototype of a weapon in the middle of the south-east Asia jungle. That's it. No grand plan to throw another colony onto Earth like happens in almost ... every Gundam show. (Maybe it's not in every one, but it's definitely common.) This "small" story is great, because it helps us focus on the important part: The characters and their interactions with the world. Our main cast is very likeable and well written, and while I would have loved to get to know them better, I wouldn't say they were underdeveloped at all. They were just so charismatic and interesting that every person would just want more of them.
The general themes about the nature of war and empathy in the battlefield are present and well done, I just personally felt they were more impactful in War In The Pocket, however that's just a personal opinion, things can still get rough and deep here.
The art direction and animation are just gorgeous. Peak of 90's OVA Quality animation right here. I specially liked the art style in episode 9, and the battles in the last episodes are just on another level.
Another quality i'd give to 08th MS Team will be it's binge-watching potential.
Even If I liked them, I've always had trouble watching the prior Gundam shows on a regular schedule. I'd just watch a couple of episodes, but because of some inconsistent pacing, or the lack of a cliffhanger in order to motivate the viewer to keep watching, I'd just go by for several days without the interest in returning to the series, until I did eventually.
That doesn't happen with this OVA. I watched all 12 episodes within 3 days, eager to see what would happen next.
For example: Stardust Memory, show that i've no problem with and I enjoyed took me about a month and a half to finish the 13 episodes.
This review has been long, so I'll just close it saying this:
Watch it if you're a Gundam fan.
Watch it if you're a Mecha fan.
Watch it if you like action anime.
Watch it if you like quality anime.
Cheers, and have fun. :)

The 8th MS Team is one of the most popular UC Gundam spinoff series, particularly due to its fluidly animated Mobile Suit battle sequences. And while the animation is definitely worth the praise, the 8th MS Team might not be as good as some diehard fans might regard it.

Compared to other UC spinoffs (War in the Pocket, Gundam Thunderbolt), this series has a longer runtime of twelve episodes and takes place mostly in Earth during the final months of the One Year War. The protagonist Shiro Amada, unlike the teen protagonists of the main UC series, is a fairly experienced Earth Federation ensign who is ... assigned as the commander of a ground division at the Far East front. One of the series most important developments take place at the beginning: while traveling to Earth from the space colonies, Shiro has a fateful encounter with the beautiful Zeon soldier Aina Sahalin and spares her life. After arriving to Earth, Shiro receives a hostile welcome from his new teammates, formed by two tragic war veterans and two inexperienced youngsters. Their first team operations are pretty rough, suffering mostly due to the team´s initial lack of communication and distrust on Shiro´s abilities as a commander. After lots of infighting mostly to help character development, the team gets to face the series´biggest threat: the return of Aina now as a pilot of an extremely dangerous experimental armor that puts the Federation´s advantage on Earth territory on risk.

Shiro´s reunion with Aina on the battlefield sets an important change on both the pace and tone of the series, now advocating for peace, Shiro and the team try their best at stopping the weapon´s development while trying to reason with Zeon foes with non lethal tactics and attacks. Aina, initially indifferent to the morality of her side´s actions, starts to question her orders and rebels against her superior and older brother. While star-crossed lovers from different factions is an usual trope present in most Gundam series, Shiro and Aina are one of the most proactive couples, actively pursuing each other on the later half of the series regardless of the consequences. Although the romance aspect of the series is present from the first episode, the development of Aina´s and Shiro´s relationship is extremely rushed. Having just shared a few words and tender moments, both characters fall madly in love with each other, becoming brassy and reckless and enforcing their own vision of pacifism.

While Shiro´s teammates get their fair share of character development and are overall likeable and relatable characters, the characters present on the Zeon faction are, for the most part, cartoonishly evil and terribly one dimensional, failing to give a realistic look on the struggles of said faction. One of the series´most interesting aspects is the showcase of non aligned civilian guerrillas, their focus episodes displaying a realistic portrayal of war. Even so, this gets overshadowed by the borderline cliche writing of later episodes and the cheesy love story.

Mobile Suit battles are very present in this series, their detailed animation being some of the best in the franchise. The battles portrayed are extremely gritty, while not being gruesome, displaying the particularities of Mobile Suit combat on Earth and ground support from tanks and such. Tactics inspired by guerilla fighting are also portrayed frequently, giving a fresh approach in comparison to other Gundam series. The mobile armor and main threat on the series is similar to other armors seen before in the Gundam series, but its absurd power level seems extremely unrealistic for this specific series and its realistic approach to battles.

On the sound department, the 8th MS Team has wonderful OP and ED themes fitting with the mild optimistic tone of the series. Sound effects are very well done and the Japanese voice acting is very good, especially for the members of Shiro´s team and Aina.

Overall, the 8th MS Team is a decent watch, especially worth it for fans of mechanical animation and UC completionists (though you can always watch the fight compilations on Youtube). While the plot is not offensively bad, the romance could´ve been handled better, as seen in the more subtle Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. For non Gundam fans, this series might be hit or miss depending on how high are your expectations.

In the aftermath of the original "Mobile Suit Gundam" which would first tell of the One Year War, an epic conflict between the Earth Federation Space Forces and the Principality of Zeon, a number of new perspectives on the One Year War would appear including one notable gem "08th MS Team". Set almost entirely on Earth, "08th MS Team" is a grittier perspective of the One Year War from the eyes of the leader of a squad of Mobile Suit pilots at the bottom of the chain of the Earth Federation. Thanks to time, "08th MS Team" has the glory of receiving an updated appearance ... compared to its iconic predecessor which grants it considerably more detailed Mobile Suits, with better sounds to match. Each Mobile Suit that appears in "08th MS Team" benefits from a more mechanical appearance for the sake of accentuating the fact that each model is a nightmare of complicated electronics and mechanics working together to form a stunning war machine. This means that famous suits like the Zaku II appear with newly found detail whilst still retaining the original designs that stole the hearts of fans everywhere. Each suit benefits from higher quality sounds as well from the hum of hot beam sabers, to the blasts of enormous machine guns. All of this helps to tell the story of the 08th Mobile Suit team led by Shiro Amada who fights love and the Principality of Zeon with his team in the thick jungles of Southeast Asia. This time a cast of more mature characters is exhibited unlike "Mobile Suit Gundam" which featured more adolescent warriors on the side of the Earth Federation. This cast which is more unimportant in the grand scale of the One Year War helps to better exhibit the horrors of war against the veteran pilots of the Principality of Zeon. The new sounds and newly detailed Mobile Suits of "08th MS Team" help to guide us through an intriguing war story of a team of average soldiers in a not so average war.

Gundam, The 08th MS Team is a great side-series of the Gundam franchise. It happens during the events of MS Gundam (0079) and it one of the best short series of the UC for me with real mecha action and tactics and a good story and characters. Let me explain why.

Story: This series had me tricked in the beginning because it looks like something it is not. In the beginning, it looks kinda childish but it growths in perfect pacing to something much bigger. It is heavy based on guerrilla tactics, and war strategies that are extremely distinctive from the classical "all-out war" of the ... franchise. It is more focused on small groups, combat trickery and careful tactics than anything else. By far, this series has the most realistic mecha fights of the entire UC, truly carrying the "real mecha genre" in its back - perfect. It has a romance going on that does not get in the way of the plot at all, and it is quite satisfying! The plot is convincing and shows a different side of the war, focused on some events on Earth but with a heavy impact on what could have happened if not for the events described in this series. It is like watching something like "the silent heroes that no one knew". I liked the story a lot.

Art & Sound: The art is amazing for the time, something that Gundam always did good. The sound is well placed, and the OST is also convincing. My only complaint is that everything is well drawn but sometimes the characters take a classical "exaggerated anime expression", which is misplaced in this non-exaggerated setting and overall artwork.

Characters: With the exception of one secondary character and two of the main ones (Eledore and Michael) I loved all of them. Karen is probably the most badass female pilot in the history of Gundam. I don't think that they will ever make a better female pilot than her, a true soldier. With the exception of Michael and Eledore, all characters have great development and personalities that you want to know more. Sanders, Karen and the main protagonist, Shiro, are great. Shiro is also has a massive growth as both commander and pilot in this series, a fact that left me astonished since this is a 12 episode series. Even some of the antagonists, like Norris, are enjoyable to see. Norris is also one of the best pilots in the series.

Mechas: Unfortunately, this is the only aspect that doesn't stand out. They never really say but I suspect that all Gundam in this series is some lower budget versions of RX-178-2. They all look like regular Gundams. Of course, you have tons of Zakus and a mobile armor but nothing great. However, this series is heavy on the "real-mecha" display, so it is quite good to see all the mechanics and fights they provide, which makes this regular MS shine brighter than the most amazing ones.

Overall I heavily recommend this series for all Gundam fans, for all mecha fans, and for everyone else that has some affinity with this genre. For all that like Gundam and mechas, you will truly enjoy The 08th MS Team for its great story and mecha action.