Cheap Mobile Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team (Vol. 1) (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Mobile Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team (Vol. 1)

Probably the best Gundam series ever
Well, while Gundam Wing was getting a tiny budget, Sunrise was pulling all they're money into this piece of work. Unlike other series like Gundam 0079 and Gundam Wing, 08th MS Team is more of a ground war infantry battle with some small off-the-wall humor. In "War for Two", Shiro is assigned to Earth, but on his way there, a battle occurs. A Gundam is downed and requires assistance. Shiro decides to go out in the Ball fighter and save the pilot, but gets into a battle with a Zaku. The pilot is a woman. When both they're suits explode, they try to conserve they're air in an abandoned ship. They form a relationship and soon go back to their own forces. In "Gundams in the Junlge", Shiro goes into combat for the first time. While trading fire with some Zaku's at night, Shiro's navigation on his Gundam is knocked out. So later on, Shiro decides to explore the jungle only to stumble upon Kiki skinny dipping in a pond. However, Kiki opens fire once she notices him. When Shiro returns to his Gundam a Zaku is headed straight for him. Shiro takes it out with skill and heads back to base. In "The Time Limit on Thrust", the team must take out a couple of Zakus and three pill boxes guarding a village. However, while Shiro scouts out the route, he is ambushed by civilians. Not to mention Kiki, still mad about Shiro peeking. When Shiro is taken to a village, he explains to them that he is trying to take out Zeon and that his friends are fighting them right now. The boss of the village agrees to let him fight. So Kiki and Shiro head out to take out the Zeon forces and gain new ground. The textless opening was pretty good for an extra and the bonus clip is pretty much a trailer for the show. The one thing I hate about this disc is the sloppy menus. Not much effort looks like it went into it. Pretty standard. Overall, a great disc worth every dollar. It's nice to see a Gundam series on DVD besides Gundam Wing.

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Pleasantly Surprised
Shiro Amada, inexperienced in ground combat, is recently transferred from the zero-g's of space to become commander of the 08th MS Team. It's short (only 11 half-hour episodes, plus an epilogue), but things don't need to be long and politically complicated (more like confusing) to seem terribly realistic. A side story during the One Year War (basic setting for most of the orginal Gundam series), 08th MS Team is the story of the not-so-elite.

Straying from the main focus of shows like Gundam Wing - giant Mobile Suits destroying each other in the name of honor and peace - 08th MS Team is a quieter version of a large-scale war. Shiro isn't the heroic, I don't care if I kill you, I'll blast you for peace, war is the only way to solve anything, type presented in most previous Gundam stories (the Gundam universe sagas ran for over twenty years in Japan). Instead Shiro is sensitive, and protective of his teamates.

But things change when he meets a Zeon pilot named Aina. The 'evil' Zeon, enemy of the Federation, contains decent people. She's no more horrible and evil than Shiro. Things began to twist and turn for this young man, and he's not sure whether this is the right approach to the war at all. But his commanding officers aren't too hot about his connection with the Zeon pilot. Formerlly scorned by his teamates, he had earned their trust. Now...will things change?

The first episodes are a great introduction. You meet everybody, get the idea, begin to understand the characters. But it's not all talk. Watch out for some exciting jungle battles, and few plot twists that'll leave you wondering. The first ep is my only peeve about the series so far, being rather mushy and slow - but don't let that turn you off!

Technically speaking, the animation is wonderful. Since its an OAV, its a bit above standard when it comes to Gundam. Beautifully detailed jungle battles backed with colorful greens and browns makes this intruiging to look at. The animation can get rather comical at times, but everything is bearable. If your familiar with some anime, you'll reconize the looks of the animation from Outlaw Star, which premiered on Cartoon Network before 08th MS Team.

Actually, despite complaints, the dubbed voices aren't bad. Yeah, the dialouge can get cheesy, and the acting isn't perfect. But I've seen worse.

In conclusion, fans of spectacular battles and stoic, cute pilots may be a little turned off. But if you're looking for a more realistic side of the war, 08th MS Team is for you. The story of the cast outs and common soldiers, there's something in this for every anime fan. Simple, easy, real, no polotics - really. What more could you want?

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8th MS team dvd 2
Taking place in the year Universal Century 0079 (Same time as the original "Mobile Suit Gundam") Mobile Suit Gundam: 8th Mobile Suit Team tells the story of Shiro Armada and his team of Mobile Suit Pilots, for those wondering 8th MS is a great thing to watch if you are just now getting into Gundam. Now most Gundam series tell the story of a 15 year old Dragged into the war and how he and his friends win the war, 8th ms team is the opposite, it actually documents what the "regular" people were like in the time, they use regular robots that do not have the power to take down an entire fleet, and they fight against other regular robots like "Zaku II's". With that said you get to watch the team do various operations, like freeing a town from the control of ZEON, or doing stuff in the desert. One scene I really like is a scene where they are actually preforming maintence on a robot, scenes like this actually imerese the viewer in the feeling that this is what being a soilder is like.
The characters also have human sides, Shiro is trying to prove himself and keep his dysfunctional team intact, Micheal (Spelling) is suffering the woes of a long distance relationship, and there are many other characters with "human" problems, the characters also are not imortal, there are times when their MS get destroyed, and they get injured. There is also a love story, which I find rather interesting, because it has that whole "Two soilders on different sides fall in love." feel.

Would I suguest it? YES! to everyone. 8th ms team really shows what it would be like to be a grunt in the earth federation army, and also has a nice love story in it.