The 08th MS Team
Ten years after…
Well, we’re in that ballpark anyway. For those of you who don’t get the joke, “10 Years After” is the ED song for 08th MS Team, one of my favourite Gundam shows from the Universal Century era. It took Gundam places it had been before, but with a fresh view of the action and a more grounded approach to the characters. Where most other Gundam series’ take place in space, on colonies, or on the Moon, 08th MS Team was happy to stay on the ground. In many ways, 08th MS Team gave viewers a look at the events of the One Year War as a war, rather than a space opera. It played upon thought-forms of Viet Nam and guerilla warfare, getting into the thick of things as the Federation and Zion squared off on Terra Firma.
Where most Gundam shows have been about the abilities of a mechanoid and often deal with mobile suits almost in a Super Robot fashion, 08th MS Team decided to take a different route. This was a show where a Zaku was not mere cannon fodder. It could hold its own — even take down the Federation’s favourite son: The Gundam. Departing heavily from the ordinarily sterile universe of Gundam (often a Star Trek show in its own way), it showed the ugly side of the war, where civilians had faces and the enemy was not only strong, but clever. More than that, very little of 08th MS Team is shown through the eyes of movers and shakers. It’s a story about the grunts, about the front-line troops on Earth. In that, it brought the war home.
The cast plays upon archetype quite a bit. From the young, handsome lead in Shiro Amada, to the goofy slacker Eeldore Massis, the typical characters of a wartime drama take the stage. But a cliché is not always a bad thing, and by and large the cast manages to escape their moulds and endear themselves to the viewer. They do nothing particularly new, but their showing is a strong one, and of a high calibre. That much can be appreciated. At the very least, 08th MS Team does nothing wrong with its characters, and while one Karen Joshua is perhaps the weakest link in their makeup, even she has a personality worth remembering. A tough, battle-ready woman of action, Karen’s one of my ideal archetypes. I like strong women, especially redheads, and Karen’s more or less the icing on an already delicious cake.
Sadly, the antagonist is where things fall apart here and there. Ghinias Sahalin is one of the weakest antagonists Gundam has seen. Although he shows promise in his backstory and circumstances, his actual exposition makes him into little more than a genius megalomaniac with a giant robot at his disposal. He’s your classic mad scientist thrown in with Ming the Merciless — who last I checked was pretty much a mad scientist himself. It’s a shame too, because Ghinias has potential, it just never comes through.
08th MS Team has no opportunity to redeem Ghinias, and so we are stuck with him. Nonetheless, he is the only character who proves so irritating. Terry Sanders — one of Amada’s compatriots and a bad-luck case with a record — proves to be perhaps the most attractive of the cast members. Not physically mind you, Terry’s pretty bara overall, but as a personality he demands the viewer care. It’s not often that I feel particularly close to the bear of the group, but Terry has a special place in my heart as far as Gundam goes.
Visually, 08th MS Team is probably the strongest Gundam series ever. Its use of heavy shadows and sense of scale with the mechanoids is something truly magnificent, unseen outside of itself and Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. Even the latter title doesn’t make as great use of size and depth, of light and shadow. At every turn, 08th MS Team does its best to make the viewer aware of its gritty nature. The Zaku is not merely a mobile suit of Zion, but an armoured beast stalking its prey through the trees. The mounted cannons at the Gundam’s disposal are not just weaponry, but an arsenal of thunder tearing open the battlefield. It’s a grisly, tactile feeling present nowhere else in the Gundam universe, and it’s wonderful.
08th MS Team’s human and wartime reality is what lends it strength. It covers important events in the political backdrop, but without shifting focus from the characters. This is something that defines 08th MS Team — no one is alone. Where most Gundam series’ give major importance to a character’s abilities as an individual, 08th MS Team is about the collective effort of a unit. Amada is not a best-them-all hero. He needs his people, and they need him. The same is true of the enemy, of the independent forces caught up in the war, and so forth. Only Ghinias, who thinks himself invincible, is stricken with the illusion that a single hand can turn the war. If nothing else, 08th MS Team is striking truthful in these regards.
A tale of Viet Nam repurposed for the Universal Century, 08th MS Team ranks as one of my favourite Gundam series’, superior in almost all ways to its brothers, sisters, and cousins. Comparable only with Zeta, 0083, and Char’s Counterattack, its attention to both character interaction and military tactic set it apart from the rest. It’s real mecha, for real mecha fans.
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