Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team takes Gundam back to its roots, back into the Universal Century timeline, back to the One Year War. This series begins in the ninth month of the war, when Amuro Ray, in the original Mobile Suit Gundam, is still fighting the Zeons in space. The first DVD in the 08th Team series is an excellent chapter in the Gundam saga.

The majority of the action takes place in Southeast Asia where several mobile suit teams made up of the new Gundam suits are holding out against the Zeon invaders. However, the series opens with Shiro Amada on a shuttle headed down to Earth to take command of the 08th. After an exciting battle, Shiro gets trapped with a Zeon pilot named Aina onboard a destroyed Federation cruiser. The two put aside their differences to survive. Not surprisingly, they do survive, and Shiro makes his way to Earth and joins his new unit. Also not a surprise, Aina also ends up on Earth.

The 08th Team is very much a return to the original series. The series takes place from the point-of-view of the soldiers on the frontline. There is a certain griminess to the surrounding. Soldiers are always in their uniforms, often dirty, but making for a less flamboyant situation than in Gundam Wing. It’s made quite clear from the beginning that, while Gundams are superior mobile suits, survival comes down to pilot skills. A clear shot on a Gundam and it’ll go down in a heartbeat.

Meet the main "enemy" mobile suit from the Universal Century continuity - the Zeon Zaku.	Master Chief Karen Joshua is a grizzled veteran - one of the most experienced members of the 08th MS Team.

The character designs walk a fine line between homage to the old series and being modern, and the character designer succeeded fabulously. When characters are seen in profile, or sometimes head on, the viewer is reminded of the original series in a subtle fashion. The music is the same, updated yet still retro. The animation shows that the industry has come a long way. Even though this series was originally released in 1995 (the same as Gundam Wing), it had been well over a decade and a half since the original. And while it doesn’t have the clean lines and colors of some of today’s digital animation, the muted colors of warfare have rarely looked better. The battles are strategic and exciting, a difficult thing to capture. The transfer does look wonderful, and I really couldn’t find any faults in the image.

If there is any downside to this series, it is that it begins in the middle of the war with no explanation of either side. One of the extras on the DVD is an animation clip that has a very brief intro into the war - if you’re unfamiliar with the Universal Century Gundam timeline, you’ll probably want to see this clip first. My only other gripe is that so much time was spent on establishing that Shiro was doing a good job of proving himself. Shiro may be the main character, but the secondary characters are far more interesting: the pilot that everyone views as a curse because he always returns from battle while his teammates rarely do; the youngest member of the team who is constantly writing home to someone named B.B.; the 08th’s second-in-command, a female master chief who seems to be the most competent soldier, and the most distant; and so on. Other than that, the content seems solid - hopefully, future episodes will focus on some of these characters a bit more.

A slight mention must be made of the disappointing menus. When the disc boots up, the mock Earth News Network overlay is very cool, until you realize how long it takes the cursor to move from item to item. On the extras page, it takes several moments for each image to load when you move the cursor. Not very impressive at all. The artwork for the DVD case, on the other hand, looks fantastic with a Zaku standing over a fallen Gundam. And, as a bonus, the cover is reversible with a character scene on the other side. Mechanically, everything is there to make this a great series. The overall feel of the war is great, the character and mecha designs are top-notch, and the animation and sound are excellent. All that is left is for the content to coalesce into a strong, sweeping storyline and to flesh out the characters a little more. As it stands, I can’t wait for the next disc to see how it goes!

Distributor: Bandai
Creator: Sunrise / Sotsu Agency
Released: 1995

Video Quality: A
Audio Quality: A-
Presentation: B
Content: B+
Overall: B+