Review: Mobile SUIT "Hey, come back here right this instant!" Gundam: 8th MS Team.
Justin
RX-78-2 Gundam, the GMs purpose in life is to flit into frame for about
half a second before being sliced in two by some massively overpowered
Zeon Mobile Armour with beam sabres for hands. GMs are the physical
incarnation of a cannon fodder mobile SUIT.
So when, back in the mid-90s, Bandai announced that it would be
producing a Gundam series set during the Federations campaign to take
back Earth during the One Year War, GMs the Universal Century over must
have perked up a bit. One Year War? On the ground? No White Base and
Amuro wossname? Someone call my agent! This could be it boys! Bandai'd
never make a series featuring only GunTanks! This could be our big
break! Maybe we can finally get that house extension Mrs. GM wants -
- what do you mean, "RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type"?!
8th MS Team starts when a Federation transport on its way to Earth runs
into a team of Zeon mobile SUITs on a test flight. Facing certain
destruction, newly appointed ensign Shiro Amada flies out in a modified
Ball work module [1] to defend the transport. During the course of
engagement, his Ball becomes entangled (ooh, missus!) with one of the
Zeon mobile SUITs and is forced to take refuge in an abandoned space
destroyer.
On board the wreck, he finds out a) that hes not alone b) the other
resident is the Zeon pilot he collided with and c) following the first
rule of Lead Character Rookie Mecha Pilot Encounters, she is a female.
Following a bout of foreplay that up until I watched it I would have
considered impossible (fully space suited, facing oxygen starvation on a
vacuum filled wrecked spacecraft - how kinky is *that*?!), the two
supposed enemies form a rescue plan [2] and are retrieved by their
allies - but not before exchanging a keepsake, the Zeon pilots pocket
watch...
Upon arrival on Earth, Shiro is assigned to the Federations 8th Mobile
SUIT team and his new charges - tough as nails second-in-command
Karen, foppish Eledore (an aspiring songwriter), child-solider Michel,
and finally, Terry Sanders, a man with a reputation for survival - at
the expense of everyone else he is teamed up with. Equipped with the
RX-79[G], a mobile SUIT cobbled together out of spare Gundam parts [3],
the 8th MS set out to thwart the ambitions of Zeon - but fate will soon
mean that Shiro will be crossing paths with his Zeon counterpart once
again, but this time, on the battlefield...
8th MS Team might not be quite what you expect. With its opening
sequence of tracer fire looping in the night sky, Mobile SUITs escorting
armed patrol boats down jungle rivers, and Gundams sitting under
camouflage nets in forests, you might think its a kind of Gundam:
Apocalypse Now; that at some point a horde of GMs will charge into a
Zeon held village to the strains of Ride of the Valkyries, and that it
will end with Shiro cutting his own head off.
However, 8th MS Team is a bit too nice for that. Its definitely more
"grounded" than other Gundam series, mostly planet-bound and with
relatively normal pilots rather than physic super-humans doing the
fighting. Mecha get their gears jammed, villages hide guerilla fighters,
and occasionally the odd tactic is actually employed, but theres no-one
breaking down in the latrines and going on about Full Metal Panics. The
emphasis, as ever, is that if We Learn To Work As A Team, We Too Can
Survive Attacks By Massively Overpowered War-Winning Zeon Mobile Armours
[4].
Those not interested in Gundam or mecha series will be rolling their
eyes by now, but for Gundam fans its a great slice of Gundam cake with a
cherry Ball on top. It features some of the finest ret-con [5] designs
of all time - the Gouf [6] in particular steals the show - and is full
of the little details that have made Gundam fans the respected,
well-liked members of the anime community that they are today (ahem).
And the relationship between Shiro and his Zeon femme fatale drives the
series forward very well.
Theres a couple of caveats - it marks yet another step in the
demonisation of the Federation in Gundam continuity, with the Zeon
generally being portrayed as somehow noble and the Federation command as
being a bunch of murdering bar stewards. Its another stretch mark for
Gundam continuity, with squads of GMs being vapourised quite possibly
before GMs were actually deployed in the One Year War, and it seems
strange that Bandai felt the need to invent even more new Mobile SUITs
when theres already a number of underused designs that could have filled
the same roles. Well, I know why they did it, actually - Bandai
executives like to swim in pools filled with yen like everyone else.
Finally, just as you're getting into the series - just as plot lines
are coming together, just as things are getting serious - its over. Its
hard not to fill a little cheated. I could happily have done with a
little more.
Overall, though, 8th MS Team is well worth it for the mecha fan. If
Gundam 0083 was Bad Boys - a Jerry Bruckheimer film, all lots of guns
going off loudly, space colonies crashing into things, and many, many
explosions but with all the characterisation of a plate of diced
carrots, then 8th MS Team is Hot Fuzz; less of everything, except for
heart, of which it has spades. Also, the final episode - "Last Resort" -
is one of the finest Gundam episodes ever, and hardly features any giant
robots all all.
See? It *can* be done.
And as for those GMs? Well, just once, one GM gets to be utterly,
completely, totally, AWESOME.
Mind you, it then undoes it all about twenty seconds later by being
ordered to commit a major war crime, but then GMs get no love...
[1]Basically, an armed version of those neat work pods from 2001: A
Space Odyssey. It says something about the status of GMs that even Balls
get more love in Gundam (ooh, missus, again!).
[2]Its a typically mecha pilot approach to a rescue too - essentially,
any situation can be improved by blowing enough sh*t up.
[3]Its a bit like how really big car firms have their flagship brands,
and then their Russian-based subsidiaries get to rummage round in the
parts bin afterwards.
[4]Yes, another one. With all these war-winning prototypes around, Zeon
must have been really surprised that they didn't win.
[5]For those more interested in the big-eyed fluffies - the original
Gundam designs are classics, but look a little unfashionable these days
- like walking into Spearmint Rhino dressed as John Travolta. Ret-cons
are the mecha equivalent of a visit from Trinny and Susannah.
[6]Always something of a Gundam fan comedy moment favourite, as its
occasionally been translated as "Guff". Gundam SEED compounded the error
further by introducing the "Gouf Ignited".
--
*"Hes like a kid who just got a new toy!"* jus...@briareos.demon.co.uk *
*"Men are kids their whole lives..." * *
* - Tanabe and Fee, Planetes. * You copy? *