Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team


Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team is an original video animation anime series in the Gundam franchise. Released from January 25, 1996, to July 25, 1999, the 12-episode series details the exploits of an Earth Federation ground unit during the One Year War - specifically a month after the beginning of the original 1979 Gundam series and into the final weeks of the war.

Plot

The series is set in Universal Century 0079 in the jungles of Southeast Asia. The Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon are fighting a brutal guerrilla war for control of the area and its resources. Zeon’s best hope for victory in the region rests with an experimental mobile armor and its pilot, Aina Sahalin. Meanwhile, the Earth Federation Army receive reinforcements in the form of Ensign Shiro Amada, newly named commander of the 08th MS Team. Aina and Shiro know each other from a mutual rescue in space, but when Shiro discovers that Aina is in fact the pilot of the Zeon mobile armor he is arrested for treason. The Federation offers Shiro one chance at redemption: He must take the 08th MS Team deep into Zeon held territory to find Zeon’s hidden base. With the Zeon backed into a corner, and the Federation dependent on Shiro and his team for victory, the star crossed lovers must decide where their true allegiances lie: with each other, or with their respective sides.

Characters

Main characters

; Ensign Shiro Amada
; Aina Sahalin

Supporting characters

; PO3 Eledore Massis
; Rear Admiral Ginias Sahalin
; MCPO Karen Joshua
; Kiki Rosita
; Cpl. Michel Ninorich
; Col. Norris Packard
; CPO Terry Sanders Jr.
; Real Adm. Yuri Kellarny
; Kojima

Featured Mobile Suits

Earth Federation

  1. RX-75 Mass Production Guntank
  2. RB-79K Ball Type K
  3. RX-79 Ground Gundam
  4. RX-79Ez-8 Gundam Ez8
  5. RGM-79E Prototype GM
  6. RGM-79G Ground GM
  7. RGM-79G GM Sniper

    Zeon

  8. MSM-04 Acguy
  9. MS-05 Zaku I
  10. MS-05 Topp's Zaku
  11. MS-06 Zaku II
  12. MS-06J Dell's Zaku
  13. MS-06J Ash's Zaku
  14. MS-06JC Ground Zaku II
  15. MS-06K Zaku Cannon
  16. MS-06V Zaku Tank
  17. MS-06RD-4 Prototype Zaku II
  18. MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom
  19. MS-07H-8 Gouf Flight Type
  20. MS-09 Dom

    Production and development

The series first took shape in 1995 with the first episode released on January 25, 1996. Production went well until director Takeyuki Kanda died in July 1996. GONZO's Umanosuke Iida took over production for the rest of the series.

Theme music

Opening:
Endings:

''Miller's Report''

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team Miller's Report is a compilation movie. Released in 1998, the movie largely focuses on Shiro Amada's court martial over his concern towards the enemy. The movie mixes footage from the first eight episodes along with new footage. It also introduces the titular character, Alice Miller, an Earth Federation investigator assigned to gather additional evidence against Shiro.
The movie explains the plot connection between episodes eight and nine by showing Eledore's return from leave and the team's issuance of new orders.

Release

Miller's Report was not fully shown on TV in America, although the new scenes were all spliced into the eighth episode for the Toonami broadcast. Miller's Report was released on DVD in America separately from the main series, but is included as a fifth disc with all 12 episodes in the Collector's Edition Box Set. Bandai Visual released the movie on Blu-ray in 2011.