Kidou Senshi Gundam: Dai 08 MS Shoutai

In year 0079 of the Universal Century, the Earth Federation initiates Operation Odessa—a full-scale assault to retake a major Ukrainian city from the Principality of Zeon. It is a success, and the remaining Zeon forces scatter across the globe. The Earth Federation gains the upper hand in the One Year War and deploys its ground troops around the planet to hunt down the stragglers.

As part of the deployments, Ensign Shiro Amada is transferred to Southeast Asia to take command of the 08th MS Team—a special squadron of RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type pilots. In their first guerilla operation, Shiro's team is tasked with distracting the Zeon forces while Federation ground troops locate a mysterious new Zeon weapon. Everything goes according to plan until Shiro runs into Aina Sahalin, an ace Zeon pilot he met in an earlier battle, during a skirmish. Their reunion weakens his resolve to continue fighting, and now the young commander Shiro must prove his loyalty to the Federation—or be branded a traitor.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Amada, Shiro Main

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Sahalin, Aina Main

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Joshua, Karen Main

Koyama, Mami Japanese

Ninorich, Michel Main

Yuuki, Hiro Japanese

Sanders Jr., Terry Main

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Massis, Eledore Main

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Packard, Norris Supporting

Ichikawa, Osamu Japanese

Zabi, Gihren Supporting

Ginga, Banjou Japanese

Rosita, Kiki Supporting

Nishimura, Chinami Japanese

Nickard, Jidan Supporting

Nagai, Ichiro Japanese

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Yatate, Hajime Producer

Ueda, Masuo Producer

Ikeguchi, Kazuhiko Producer

Reviews

Jan 4, 2024

Inter_anime

Recommended

The show Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (here after to be referred to as "The 8th MS Team") has received critical and fan praise and is oftentimes referred to as one of the better if not the best of the Gundam series. At the time of writing this series has a average score on MAL of 8.01 and is bested only by Gundam 00 and Iron-Blooded-Orphans among the Gundam series. But does the 8th MS Team deserve such praise?

Taking place during the universal century timeline, like most other Gundam shows this deals with the conflict between the Earth Federation and their Mobile Suits ... against the Principality of Zeon and their mechs. A key difference from most other Gundam series which tend to be space based is that excluding the first episode, this series takes place exclusively on earth, offering a more grounded (pun intended) take on the beloved mecha series. Another factor is that the 8th MS Team places a higher emphasis on romance than most other mecha anime, with a key part of the plot being the relationship between the Gundam pilot Shiro and the Zeon noble Aina.

Starting with the positives, despite the fact that it was released in 1996 the animation and sound of the 8th MS Team has aged fantastically well. The animation, especially the fights between the mecha, is more the most part fluid and well done, especially the latter episodes. Something I enjoyed was the attention to detail, for example all three of the mobile suit mechs in the 8th MS Team have slight differences reflecting the personalities of their pilots. For example in one episode Karen's mobile suit gets damaged, and for the rest of the series her mech has a slightly different head piece than the rest. The music, including the opening and ending songs, was very good, although perhaps a little too upbeat for a series focusing on the sobering effects of war.

The 8th MS Team also boasts a great and endearing caste of characters. On the Feds/Mobile Suit side we have Shiro, the typical idealist protagonist, Michel the naive mechanic, Terry Sanders, a veteran soldier who feels the guilt of seeing too many of his comrades die, Karen the no-nonsense female member of the crew, Kiki, a villager who often helps them out, and Eledore, the soldier who would rather be a singer. The opposing Zeon side also had some good characters, such as Aina the love interest of Shiro who is also a bit of an idealist, Ginas her mad-scientist brother, and Norris their honorable guardian. I liked how even the more badass characters like Shiro, Terry, and Karen still had moments of weakness when they had to be rescued, and other more wimpy characters such as Michel still had their moments of strength. Compared to a lot of other mecha anime this one was much more character based and driven, and no matter what personality you have you're sure to find a character you can relate to.

Now for the negatives, something I feel the 8th MS Team really struggled with was pacing. Despite being only 12 episodes long, relatively short for a Gundam series, many of the episodes felt like filler because they would always end with the same status quo with which they started. It really only felt that towards the latter part of the series that there was any serious development plot wise. Also, Shiro and Aina's romantic relationship does make much sense; they're literally trying to kill each other and then they make eye contact for a couple seconds and Shiro acts nice towards Aina which results in both of them falling madly in love with one another.

Another issue I had with the show was the constant immature humor and fan-service in the show. For a series that tries to portray the brutality of war it really killed the mood when stupid anime trope of a guy innocently walks into a girl bathing and gets called a pervert, as happens in episode when for a good minuet Kiki gets naked to swim in the water fall as an excuse for her to shove her assets all in the viewer's and Shiro's face. That's the worst example, but their plenty of others, such as Eldore grouping Karen's breast or how despite being in the tundra they still managed to fit in a hot spring episode of Aina and Shiro bathing naked together.

Being a tad pedantic now, but I also felt the fights in the 8th MS Team were a bit inconsistent. There are times in the show when their mechs would take multiple shots from point-blank range and the protagonists would only have a few scratches and bruises, while there were other times just one hit would make the mechs blow up. In one particularly notable example two of the main characters fight for what seems like a long time, with both their mobile suits being severely damaged, but soon after another mech just shots a laser beam at a massive ship for a couple seconds and that's all it takes to make said ship completely explode.

Lastly the worst part of this series is the final episode. Episodes 10 & 11 are very much the climax and conclusion of the show, episode 12 begins with a pointless time-skip and introduction to meaningless side characters and consist of Kiki and Michel going around acting like idiots only to discover at the end what had already been established at the end of episode 11. The whole episode is incredibly boring and disposable in an otherwise action-packed show. This episode was one of the main reasons I dropped my rating for the 8th MS Team from what would've been a 9 or 8/10 to a solid 7/10.

In conclusion I think the 8th MS Team is a good show and a worthy addition to the Gundam franchise, but at the same time I feel the praise it gets is a bit overblown. Viewers of the anime will be treated to great animation and good character development, but personally I was bothered by the less stellar parts of the show, and if you are planning on watching this I highly recommend you skip the twelfth episode.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 23, 2023

Galletita

Mixed Feelings

The 8th MS Team is one of the most popular UC Gundam spinoff series, particularly due to its fluidly animated Mobile Suit battle sequences. And while the animation is definitely worth the praise, the 8th MS Team might not be as good as some diehard fans might regard it.

Compared to other UC spinoffs (War in the Pocket, Gundam Thunderbolt), this series has a longer runtime of twelve episodes and takes place mostly in Earth during the final months of the One Year War. The protagonist Shiro Amada, unlike the teen protagonists of the main UC series, is a fairly experienced Earth Federation ensign who is ... assigned as the commander of a ground division at the Far East front. One of the series most important developments take place at the beginning: while traveling to Earth from the space colonies, Shiro has a fateful encounter with the beautiful Zeon soldier Aina Sahalin and spares her life. After arriving to Earth, Shiro receives a hostile welcome from his new teammates, formed by two tragic war veterans and two inexperienced youngsters. Their first team operations are pretty rough, suffering mostly due to the team´s initial lack of communication and distrust on Shiro´s abilities as a commander. After lots of infighting mostly to help character development, the team gets to face the series´biggest threat: the return of Aina now as a pilot of an extremely dangerous experimental armor that puts the Federation´s advantage on Earth territory on risk.

Shiro´s reunion with Aina on the battlefield sets an important change on both the pace and tone of the series, now advocating for peace, Shiro and the team try their best at stopping the weapon´s development while trying to reason with Zeon foes with non lethal tactics and attacks. Aina, initially indifferent to the morality of her side´s actions, starts to question her orders and rebels against her superior and older brother. While star-crossed lovers from different factions is an usual trope present in most Gundam series, Shiro and Aina are one of the most proactive couples, actively pursuing each other on the later half of the series regardless of the consequences. Although the romance aspect of the series is present from the first episode, the development of Aina´s and Shiro´s relationship is extremely rushed. Having just shared a few words and tender moments, both characters fall madly in love with each other, becoming brassy and reckless and enforcing their own vision of pacifism.

While Shiro´s teammates get their fair share of character development and are overall likeable and relatable characters, the characters present on the Zeon faction are, for the most part, cartoonishly evil and terribly one dimensional, failing to give a realistic look on the struggles of said faction. One of the series´most interesting aspects is the showcase of non aligned civilian guerrillas, their focus episodes displaying a realistic portrayal of war. Even so, this gets overshadowed by the borderline cliche writing of later episodes and the cheesy love story.

Mobile Suit battles are very present in this series, their detailed animation being some of the best in the franchise. The battles portrayed are extremely gritty, while not being gruesome, displaying the particularities of Mobile Suit combat on Earth and ground support from tanks and such. Tactics inspired by guerilla fighting are also portrayed frequently, giving a fresh approach in comparison to other Gundam series. The mobile armor and main threat on the series is similar to other armors seen before in the Gundam series, but its absurd power level seems extremely unrealistic for this specific series and its realistic approach to battles.

On the sound department, the 8th MS Team has wonderful OP and ED themes fitting with the mild optimistic tone of the series. Sound effects are very well done and the Japanese voice acting is very good, especially for the members of Shiro´s team and Aina.

Overall, the 8th MS Team is a decent watch, especially worth it for fans of mechanical animation and UC completionists (though you can always watch the fight compilations on Youtube). While the plot is not offensively bad, the romance could´ve been handled better, as seen in the more subtle Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. For non Gundam fans, this series might be hit or miss depending on how high are your expectations.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 31, 2025

BlernsballMVP

Not Recommended

Up front, I'll say that I'm in no way a Gundam fan. I'm watching the franchise for purely academic reasons-but that doesn't mean I can't give credit where it's due, as with the original 79 Gundam that had a lot of surprises in store for such an old show.

8th MS Team, though? Not much credit is due at all. The art and music is largely pretty good, the vocal perormances are adequate, and when the show tries to take its war stories seriously and in good faith, there's occasionally some good action or interesting ideas regarding how Mobile Suits work.
There's a lot more wrong with ... the show, though:some things endemic to the franchise as a whole, like the weak romance, the overt Zeon-sympathizing, and annoying comic relief characters, others unique to this entry, like the comicly one-dimensional villain or the protagonist peeping on a underage girl (in what is supposed to be a love story, remember!).

The real fundamental problem, though, is pacing. The first half or so of this 12 episode series is dedicated to character work, only to suddenly shift to all out plot and melodrama mode, concluding everything in the span of 4 or 5 episodes. It means that *nothing* is developed properly and everything is shallow and weird. The main antagonist, in particular, starts acting in ways that seem completely inexplicable.

Overall, 08th Team feels like a cliff notes version of other UC stories, with all the baggage that contains, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who either isn't already a die-hard UC fan or who can't just zone out between the (somewhat sparse) mecha fights.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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