Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1998)

Original title

機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊 ミラーズ・リポート

Directed by

Mitsuko Kase

Genre

military science fiction, mecha

Country

Japan

Runtime

55 min

Rated

PG-13

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 14 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An Earth Federation mobile suit squad fights on the ground during the One Year War. It shows the daily danger and human cost of combat for ordinary soldiers in a massive space conflict.

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What happens

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊, Hepburn: Kidō Senshi Gandamu Dai Zerohachi Emu Esu Shōtai; lit. Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Platoon) is a Japanese OVA anime series in the Gundam franchise produced by Sunrise. Released from 1996 to 1999, the series follows an Earth Federation ground unit fighting in U.C. 0079 during the One Year War, presented as a ground-level side story contemporaneous with the 1979 television series Mobile Suit Gundam; its first video volume was issued on 25 January 1996, with a separate epilogue special, Last Resort, released on 25 July 1999 outside the original eleven-episode count. Directed initially by Takeyuki Kanda (episodes 1–5) and subsequently by Umanosuke Iida, the project also spawned the compilation film Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team – Miller's Report (1998) for Japanese theaters. As the franchise's third Gundam OVA following Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989) and Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991–92), it assembled a staff composed of Gundam franchise veterans, including character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, mechanical designer Hajime Katoki (with additional mecha design work credited to Kunio Okawara and Kimitoshi Yamane), and composer Kohei Tanaka. Retrospectives have since highlighted its infantry-level realism and jungle-warfare set pieces as a grounded standout within the franchise, with the “Shivering Mountain” duology frequently cited as a series high point. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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