Review
by Allen Divers,Gundam 08th MS Team
DVD - Miller's Report
Synopsis: | |||
Shiro Amada, commander of the 08th MS team, returns from a grueling mission to find himself at odds with Federation leaders. Suspected of treason and spying for the Zeon, Shiro must explain his actions and the actions of his team. Alice Miller, of Federation Intelligence is sent to investigate the actions of Shiro, the 08th MS team and their recent capture of a new Zeon Mobile Armor. Looking back on their actions, Ms. Miller must decide whether Shiro truly crossed the lines of Federation and Zeon. |
|||
Review: |
Miller's Report is a compilation movie featuring new clips intertwined with scenes from The 08th MS Team OAV series. This movie covers the first 8 episodes, with most of its current events occurring during episode 8. During its run on Cartoon Network, episode 8 featured some of the new footage associated with Miller's Report. The original cut of Episode 8, featured on Vol 3, has no mention of Alice Miller. Making up for the length of this movie (55 Minutes) is the inclusion of nearly 25 minutes worth of footage from the PlayStation 2 game, Gundam: Journey to Jaburo. This footage is basically redone scenes from the first Gundam series with audio featuring much of the current English dub cast. In addition to this are the various cut scenes featuring characters from many of the different Gundam series. Also featured are textless versions of the opening and closing animation for the OVA series. Animation and artwork are the standard fare for this series. There are times though when the new footage is obvious because of a slightly different drawing style. At these times, the animation seems a bit rushed with a lot of the detail toned down. This style is most notable at the end of the movie right before the team heads out towards the events covered in episode 9 of the series. (Early pressings of the Miller's Report DVD featured a flaw in the English soundtrack. On many systems, this flaw can be heard as a tinny echo effect throughout the soundtrack. Later pressings corrected this problem. If you managed to get one of these flawed disks, you can contact Bandai Ent. for a replacement.) Both the English and Japanese soundtracks are new 5.1 Dolby Digital recordings. Both soundtracks use the same casts used in the original OVA series. All actors are well suited to their roles and do a good job of keeping with the tone of the dialogue. The English script stays true to the original Japanese, with only a few wording changes for timing. Aside from new opening and closing songs, the music in the series is unchanged. The music in many of the Gundam series is used to help convey the emotions of the moment. 08th MS Team's music always remained serious in tone, conveying the danger they faced. The original OVA series of 08th MS Team was spread out over a few years. When Miller's Report was made, only 8 episodes were out at that time. As such, this compilation movie only covers the first 8 episodes. The primary focus of the movie is Shiro's involvement with Aina, a Zeon Mobile Suit pilot. Most of the background footage comes from their initial meeting and their subsequent encounter. The character of Alice Miller is simply a plot point to move the story along as Shiro recounts his encounters with Aina. Shiro and Alice's final confrontation at the end of the movie simply reinforces Shiro's ideals, which guide his actions throughout the series. Miller's Report steps away from the standard compilation movie, by providing new footage to walk the viewer through the major events of the series. Despite some of the new footage showing up when aired in North America, fans will still want this movie as a nice companion peace to The 08th MS Team OAV. Unlike some of the other Gundam series, 08th MS Team always remained rooted with the foot soldiers in this series. Miller's Report compliments that ideal by focusing on the fallout of one person's decisions and how he is made accountable for those decisions. |
Grade: | |||
+ Human drama plays out amongst the giant robots |
|||
Production Info: | ||
Full encyclopedia details about Release information about |