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Review

by Allen Divers,

Gundam 08th MS Team

DVD - Miller's Report

Synopsis:
Gundam MS08 Miller's Report DVD
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
Recycled footage leads to some inconsistencies in art

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Production Info:
Director:
Umanosuke Iida
Takeyuki Kanda
Screenplay:
Hiroaki Kitajima
Akira Okeya
Storyboard:
Takeshi Ashizawa
Umanosuke Iida
Kunihiro Mori
Akira Nishimori
Tetsu Shimotaya
Yūichirō Yokoyama
Unit Director:
Nobuetsu Andō
Takeshi Ashizawa
Masamitsu Hidaka
Umanosuke Iida
Mitsuko Kase
Kunihiro Mori
Akira Nishimori
Hideki Okamoto
Tetsu Shimotaya
Hirokazu Yamada
Music: Kōhei Tanaka
Original creator:
Yoshiyuki Tomino
Hajime Yatate
Character Design:
Tomoaki Kado
Toshihiro Kawamoto
Art Director: Shigemi Ikeda
Chief Animation Director: Kōji Sugiura
Animation Director:
Shinichi Sakuma
Jun Satō
Kōji Sugiura
Akira Takahashi
Katsutoshi Tsunoda
Akitoshi Yokoyama
Tōru Yoshida
Mechanical design:
Hajime Katoki
Kunio Okawara
Kimitoshi Yamane
Sound Director: Yasuo Uragami
Director of Photography: Kumiko Taniguchi
Producer:
Kazuhiko Ikeguchi
Satoshi Kubo
Masato Mochizuki
Masato Terada
Masato Tereda
Masuo Ueda
Jun Yukawa
Licensed by: Bandai Entertainment

Full encyclopedia details about
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (OAV)

Release information about
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Miller's Report (DVD)

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