Why/How does Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team have such good art and Animation!?!

Johnnyd3rp said:
Aside from the first series the quality is usually high for the Gundam franchise especially the OVAs.

I recommend also 0080 and 0083 for the animation/ost.

Soriki said:
Aside from the first?! I disagree, the first was good too, I mean, cmon, give it a break, it was made in 1979 that one :D!

The opening song for the first is awesome... I miss Amuro ;-;

Johnnyd3rp said:

The animation of Gundam 0079 is quite mediocre compared to other anime from the same era.

Soriki said:
Calling is a song mediocre is just wrong, especially when it is isn't something inherently bad/bad theme/topic but... Whatever, I loved it, had a lot of emotion in it

Johnnyd3rp said:

The animation of Gundam 0079 is quite mediocre compared to other anime from the same era.

mecharobot said:

The movies have a few added scenes that have almost DYRL level animation, though. Like the scene with white base taking off with the flamingoes at the end of 1st movie iirc.

TripleSRank said:
Age doesn't determine animation quality. That depends on the format, working environment, and staff (roughly in that order too). Movies and standalone OVAs in particular can often be much better animated since they don't necessarily have the pressure of a weekly release.

Old Ghibli films are a case-in-point. Even back in the 80s they have gorgeous artwork and plenty of sakuga.

Addressing Gundam more specifically, I'm really looking forward to getting into the OVAs at some point, though that'll likely happen after I finish the core U.C. timeline with ZZ, CCA, and Unicorn. Unicorn is an OVA series itself, so that'll be a treat.

Brb said:

It was mediocre (considering mediocre means average) for its time if you compare it to shows at the same era. People should just stop thinking mediocre=bad.

TripleSRank said:
Age doesn't determine animation quality. That depends on the format, working environment, and staff (roughly in that order too). Movies and standalone OVAs in particular can often be much better animated since they don't necessarily have the pressure of a weekly release.

Old Ghibli films are a case-in-point. Even back in the 80s they have gorgeous artwork and plenty of sakuga.

Addressing Gundam more specifically, I'm really looking forward to getting into the OVAs at some point, though that'll likely happen after I finish the core U.C. timeline with ZZ, CCA, and Unicorn. Unicorn is an OVA series itself, so that'll be a treat.

Rei366 said:
Because.
They're OAVs.
They're supposed to be like that during the format's golden age. (despite certain couter-examples)


May I know what makes 0079 mediocre against contemporary series rather than just average? Are people comparing it with 80s shows? (or shorter ones)


You forgot that the last movie is full of remade footage. (wasn't it because the animation director was hospitalized during a good chunk of the TV run)

Rei366 said:
Because.
They're OAVs.
They're supposed to be like that during the format's golden age. (despite certain couter-examples)

@Soriki Sorry then.
OAV stands for Original Animation Video. They are simply animation works made exclusively for the home video market. The format was borned along the video renting shops in the 80s (thanks to the bubble enterprises who didn't know where to spend their money) and experienced its golden age up to the mid-90s when it was not profitable anymore. It offered more liberties in term of time, regulations (absent unlike on TV) and sometimes money and artistry.
Most of what is released today as OAV/OAD(original animation discs, same thing)/ONA (original net animation, for internet market only) is not really like them anymore.


May I know what makes 0079 mediocre against contemporary series rather than just average? Are people comparing it with 80s shows? (or shorter ones)


You forgot that the last movie is full of remade footage. (wasn't it because the animation director was hospitalized during a good chunk of the TV run)

Soriki said:
It doesn't determine Animation quality but it sure does determine video quality!

I know why Animation/Art CAN be good lol, I haven't been watching Anime was I was a kid to not know that :D!

But in this case I'm sorta asking, which one those reasons was the real determining factor of how good is it, like, was it the team or something? Which studio was it? Yeah I know all that

Johnnyd3rp said:


I didn't edit anything to be honest :D

Rei366 said:
@Soriki Well, it's easy to not know better nowadays since they're not trendy anymore like in their best years.

If you want a bit more infos, here come some texts from Wikipedia:





As for the direct effect of money on animation production, you can check Honneamise no Tsubasa and Akira who are the two most expensive japanese anime movies in their days. And it shows. (even snipsets of them should be enough to witness that)

Soriki said:
It doesn't determine Animation quality but it sure does determine video quality!

I know why Animation/Art CAN be good lol, I haven't been watching Anime was I was a kid to not know that :D!

But in this case I'm sorta asking, which one those reasons was the real determining factor of how good is it, like, was it the team or something? Which studio was it?

TripleSRank said:

To answer your question in your first post, OVA stands for Original Video Animation (similarly, OAV is Original Animated Video) and refers to anime released directly to home video rather than being aired on TV. The length and number of episodes can thus be played with a lot more than a TV release. The format was a lot more popular in the 80s than they are now; these days OVAs are mainly used as bonus episodes bundled with the BDs for TV series.

You didn't ask about it, but ONA stands for Original Net Animation and is used to refer to anime released directly to the internet rather than TV or home video.

I'm not sure what you mean by "video quality". If you're referring to resolution then a lot of popular retro anime have been re-released in true 1080p since cel animation contains a lot more detail/quality than technology was able to bring out back then. If you're referring to the "look" what with retro anime having a darker color palette, that's just the difference between how cel animation looks and how digital animation looks and is preferential rather than quality-oriented.

The quality is likely just a product of it being an OVA series. The director isn't very well known and sakugabooru doesn't know which animators most of the sakuga scenes should be credited to. Sunrise is the studio that animated the project, as they do every Gundam anime (I know of no exceptions), but that in itself doesn't explain the production values.

@Rei366 Money is a factor in animation quality, but it's not the only factor nor necessarily the most important one. Having passionate staff with enough time is all that is needed generally. One Punch Man had an average budget and makes a good case-in-point that it's more about the staff and time constraints than the money.

ShiroiMuffler said:
1995 is not that old, there are many examples of good art/animation during that time, glad you enjoyed it.