Shiro and Aina, separated from their teams, fight for
survival in the mountains. As their love
grows, Shiro’s heart begins to change.
This doesn’t make his rescue and return easy as he finds himself under
investigation. Even his team begins to
share doubts about their commander. The
only hope of clearing the 08th MS team falls to a near suicide
mission behind enemy lines. The mission:
Locate the Apsalis testing base…or die trying.
Is it me or did Aina and Shiro get a bit of a Miyazaki
treatment in their character designs this week?
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing but has it always been like that? God would Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli even work
on a Gundam feature? That seems too far
out of their zone for them. Maybe one of
Ghibli’s animators worked on this series for a bit? I don’t know, it’s just an observation and
there’s more to talk about this week besides that.
Shiro and Aina’s reunion was both sweet and thrilling as
you might expect given how we left things last week. Working together to survive in the mountains
brought those little romantic feelings between both back to the forefront. Again, Aina seems so chipper and un soldier
like when not piloting. She’s not the
first Gundam female to be shown as such, i.e Lala Sune from Mobile Suit Gundam
and Four Murasame from Zeta Gundam. But
Aina’s definitely a lot less scarred than those two examples. Even if the romance still carries a bit of
Disney to it with how fast it progresses, Shiro and Aina do make a clickable
couple…too bad their respective forces had to pull them back to reality.
Once Shiro was back on base, well here’s where things get
a little interesting, storyline wise. As
you saw above, I’m also merging in my thoughts on the 08th MS Team
movie, Miller’s Report. Basically,
Miller’s Report is both a compilation film/extended episode focusing on Shiro’s
relationship with Aina and his subsequent investigation by the Federation. Most of this is in the original version of
Episode 8. However, there’s the
inclusion of the titular Alice Miller in the movie. Really, this movie didn’t need to happen and
could have just been merged into Episode 8 to clear up several events and
provide a better impact for Shiro and the team…and also explain how Eledore was
shipped back as he is simply there in Episode 9 with no explanation. Alice Miller herself, was a fascinating
character. It’s clear she used to be a
lot like Shiro and could be an example of what he might become if he loses hope
in his beliefs. She’s also a dirty
investigator, using truth serum to get Shiro’s story about Aina out of
him. God only knows she didn’t have to
do much to Michel to get any info out of him…God he needs to be punched again.
A quick fun fact about this: When Toonami first aired Gundam 08th
MS Team, it actually did air an extended version of Episode 8 and merged it
with some footage from Miller’s Report.
Shiro’s backstory with Aina is totally removed (since it’s all stock
footage from earlier episodes) and Miller only has her key scenes still
present. There’s also her “resolution”
with Shiro and Eledore’s return. Given
that this series is an OVA, I have to ask again, why wasn’t this done in the
first place? It almost makes Episode 8
kind of pointless to watch on it’s own.
But then again, the first half of Miller’s Report is kinda pointless
cause it’s just a clip show rehash (particularly of the Episode 7 which
preceeded it). Shockingly, Toonami did
it right in this case. The changes made
the transitions from Episode 8 to 9 much better.
All this rambling about one episode and there’s still a
lot to talk about. Shiro’s mindset
following his reunion with Aina, that he doesn’t need to kill to win the war,
is in very much keeping with the ideals of Gundam pilots who follow him in the
Universal Century timeline. Plus, there
are some strong minded soldiers on the Zeon side as well. Though introduced as kind of a lumbering
brute last week, Admiral Yuri showed real concern for his soldiers escaping
Odessa (our second shout out to the original series following a glimpse of
Ghiren Zabi’s eulogy for his brother, Garma).
He just wants to get his men back into space and his men were just as
willing to buy time with tanks against Mobile Suits to make this happen. I get the feeling that Yuri and Ramba Ral
from Gundam 0079 would have gotten along really well. But leave it to Ginias to mess things
up. I don’t even know why he’s so
obsessed with finishing the Apsilas at any cost. He just seems insane for insane sake. Chances are we’re just going to get an
explanation at the last minute…and that’s never a good thing for any
villain. In another vein, we got to see
the Federation top brass laughing off Shiro’s idealism…clearly hints of why the
Federation will sort of become the bad guys in Zeta Gundam…douchebags on both
sides of the war.
One last bit then I’ll wrap up. The action and animation were on fire this
week. Shiro’s Ez8 Gundam is one of the
coolest looking Gundam’s ever, even if it doesn’t look like one. There were some good, dramatic shots of the
unit charging, or falling from the sky, into battle. The desperate sniper showdown in Kiki’s
village was pretty impressive too.
Watching those Zaku’s go down were some of the best still shots in
Gundam history. That’s putting that OVA
budget to good use there Studio Sunrise.
Hard to believe but there’s only one more week left for
the 08th Team. And let me
tell you…they’ve saved the best for last…well more so…kind of…ah I’ll see ya
next week and you can find out my thoughts there.
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