Customer Reviews

Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team - Miller's Report (Movie)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The English Dub of this DVD has a serious chorusing/echo problem that makes everything sound metallic. It's potentially bad enough to make viewing difficult for some people. Bandai has not yet said whether or not they will recall the disc - IMHO, they should.

As for the movie itself, what is there to say? It's a compilation of several episodes leading up to and including the first mission after Shiro's espionage hearing. The episodes are stitched together well by new sequences involving an intelligence officer named Miller and her investigation of Shiro. However, the scene that closes the movie is very disappointing and quite obviously forced. It's arguably the worst moment out of the entire Gundam 08th MS Team series, with a cheese quotient up in the serious Velveeta range. Fortunately, the overall quality of the 08th MS Team series is so high that its worst moments are better than other series' high points. As a result, if you compare the ending to some of the cheesier anime products (who will remain nameless for now), it could be a lot worse.

Even with the sub-par ending, it's still a DVD worth buying, especially if you're collecting the Gundam series. The quality of the rest of the show makes up for the bad ending, even if it is mostly recap material. Also, "specials" like this don't get imported to the States that often, so it's nice to see some of the extra material that the Japanese audience got to see during the original run.

The casual Gundam watcher should probably investigate Gundam 0080 before buying this DVD. More serious fans should enjoy it for what it is - a special recap episode that leads into the final story arc.

Synopsis:
Universal Century 0079. Federation Intelligence Officer Alice Miller has been assigned to investigate Shiro Amada, Commander of the 08th MS Team. Her mission: to uncover details of his mysterious prolonged absence after the last battle and to determine whether or not he is a spy for the Zeon forces. Facing the potential end of the his military career, Shiro must finally choose between military duty and his relationship with Aina as the 08th MS Team strives once more to prove itself in battle.

Review:
This DVD contains little that advances the MS08 storyline, and is basically a "clip show", splicing together various scenes of Aina & Shiro's blooming romance with a (very) few scenes of Shiro being interrogated by Cdr. Miller. In addition to what is basically a swipe at any Anime Completist, the copy that I received had an annoying bug in the 5.1 Dolby audio, the voices of all of the characters were strangely pitched and warbled in a very annoying manner. In addition, the dialogue kept switching to Japanese whenever the DVD came to a new scene, causing me to become psychotically enraged as I rewound to the point where everything became incomprehensible...same when played in Japanese, it switched to English. Overall this would be a 4 star review, but technical problems and the lack of more Miller material, including an improbable resolution to the Miller scenario, really drive the entertainment value down.

O8th MS Team holds the honour of being the longest running Gundam OVA. Although a mere 12 episodes, it was plagued by behind-the-scenes problems that led to it taking almost 4 years to reach it's end. To try and gain some interest into the drawn out affair, Bandai produced a movie to tie in with Gundam's 20th anniversary. Thus, Miller's Report was born.

Largely made up from OVA footage, the movie adds a plot of the Federation sending one Alice Miller to investigate Shiro, who at this point is believed to be a Zeon spy. Although initially acting as Shiro's friend, we soon learn that this is a trick to get him to talk openly about his encounters with Aina. These flashbacks are made up of re-used footage from the OVA. However, the scenes are told from Shiro's point of view so you'll miss out on some scenes from the OVA. As Shiro is confined to base, a group of Zeon pilots end up coming to Kiki's village for food. Although they intend not to bring violence, the youngest of the Zeon is an arrogant jerk who soon starts a conflict. Word reaches the 08th MS Team, who go against orders to save their friends.

Some other reviews call this a waste of time and a desperate attempt to get more money from the fans. Whilst this is partly true, I believe the DVD is worth a purchase for Gundam/08th MS Team fans. Bandai have not brought over the similar but much worse 0083 compilation movie. Miller's Report shines where that fails, showing that this is the right way to handle such a project. There's also the very good extra of all the animation footage from the game Journey to Jaburo. Whilst you might expect a trailer or two, Bandai have been generous to include all the footage from the game. The only complaint I have with this is that you can only listen to it with the English cast.

Whilst not the greatest Gundam movie, 08th MS Team:Miller's Report certainly isn't the worst.

For 2008, I made a decision to watch every Mobile Suit Gundam release (Universal Century) released on DVD. With the film trilogy which I watched back in the early 90's, the first series I was able to purchase was "Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team".

In my review, I went on and on on how much I enjoyed the overall storyline because it was more realistic and also a leadership trait I found with its main character Shiro Amada and him falling in love with Zeon pilot, Aina Sakhalin.

In Japan, with the success of a television series or series in general, there tends to be a special that focuses on clips from the series. Sometimes you get additional footage and fortunately for "MILLER'S REPORT", you get footage covering Shiro Amada's trial as he is standing trial on being a spy for the Zeon.

Alice Miller, an officer of the Federation Intelligence Division has been dispatched to find the truth of why Shiro Amada a) Let a Zeon officer go free (not once but twice) b) wWhy he did not capture the enemy mobile armor when that was his primary mission.

Of the 55-minutes of the special episode, five minutes or maybe less is actual additional footage and thus, the question is whether this special is worth purchasing.

Personally, for me, enjoying this series so much, not having it in my collection would seem like having a hole in the series and I would go crazy knowing that I didn't have a complete episode of "Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team".

It may be a rehashing of clips from the series but the fact is that there is additional footage that has Amada explaining to Miller of why he did what he did. Footage of Alice Miller pointing a gun at Amada's head with his team watching from a distance, footage of how the Federation got to know about Amada's relationship with Aina and also footage of Eledore returning back to the 08th MS Team after recuperating from the hospital.

No matter the duration of the content, the fact is that... again, it's still new and additional content not on the series.

So, if you are fan of the series, then yes...I recommend it as a must-buy for your collection. But if you are a viewer on a budget, then you have to ask yourself is five minutes of additional content worth it

Personally, the series is worth it. I enjoyed this series so much that I'm happy to own this DVD. Again, if I didn't purchase this, knowing that there is a DVD (even though it features mostly video clips from the series) with new additional content, not purchasing it would make me feel I had an incomplete collection.

I've read may people complaining that its Bandai's way of cashing in on the series but I never saw it that way. I've been watching Japanese entertainment for so long, from drama series to variety shows, there are special episodes showing the best of clips to rehashing of popular scenes from the series.

For "Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team", the storyline did not dwelve too much on Amada's trial and what happened behind-the-scenes. This special does. Duration wise for additional footage, not as much as one would like but even for popular Japanese dramas, same situation and sometimes there are no additional footage. So, the fact that we got a little insight of what happened during his trial, I was ok with it.

Since this DVD was released back in 2001, you can find "MILLER'S REPORT" for almost $5-$10 these days. And if you are planning to buy the collector's box set, the special comes with the box set.

All in all, I recommend this to fans of this awesome series! If 5 minutes of additional content does not set well with you, then you can bypass it.

Warning: If you have the 08th MS series (or even just vol 3) do not buy this DVD. Please rent or borrow it and you will see why. It adds nothing to what you get in vol 3. There are several reason why I say this:

1) The events take place during episode 8 (Duty and Ideals) with truncated battle footage from episodes 7 and 8. It claims "over 25 minutes of bonus animation". It didn't seem like it was that it was that much to me and I not sure if this includes the "special feature" footage from the PS2 game "Journey to Jaburo". The only additional footage to episode 8 was extended scenes in the investigation of Shiro being a Zeon spy and the character of Alice Miller, a Federation Intel officer. Nothing is added to story that you see in episodes 7 and 8, except that the reason that Shiro and the team undertake the dangerous mission in episode 9 (Front Line) is because they were give the choice to go on the mission or be punnished (which meant a firing squad for Shiro). We also see short scene where Eledor returns from the hospital.

2)There is something wrong with the sound. The cover claims "New Japanese and English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio". This "new" audio makes the character voices sound very tinny like they are speaking through a pipe. I found it really annoying and spoilt my viewing.

3)Value for money. I don't understand how they justify selling this DVD for a higher price that the 4 series DVDs when it has less actual content. The cheaper series DVDs contain 90 mins of episodes, Millers Report is only 55 mins long. I guess the higher price is because they sell it as a stand alone "movie" (which I think is pushing it).

4)Lack of special features. I might accept all this if something was added in they way of special features that you don't get on the 4 series DVDs but there is nothing that you don't get on those DVDs.

I love the 08th MS team series and think it is one of the best and most realistic Gundam series to date. But I have given it such a low rating because it is clearly a cynical attempt to squeeze more from the loyal fan, because the only people who are going to buy this after reading all I have said is the fan that must have it all for his Gundam collection. ...

Remember all those old sitcoms that would take a whole episode to go over previous episodes like some kind of narcalyptic amnesiac? Well, if you're a Gundam fan, then you'll eat this up like candy! Miller's Report is an OVA one-shot that was released after the original Gundam 08th M.S. Team anime series and recaps some of the background on commander Shiro Amada and his platoon of mecha pilots. Alot of what went on in the first part of the series is recapped, but has some new footage added on to it. Not much here though, but there are some cool bonus clips dubbed in English from the Playstation Gundam games.

As Matt Stone and Trey Parker (Made South Park) said,
"Flashback episodes are ususally used when the creators of a show is out of ideas and are trying to fill up air time. Well a flashback MOVIE? You would think it would be horrible, but it really isn't.
The reason there is only 4 stars is there is Barely ANY fighting sequences. The plus side is, the flashbacks are remastered so they look AWESOME. This Movie is basically for people who never got the chance to buy the DVD. Buy it now 'cause this DVD is discontinued. The Speech and sound could use a little work though.

PEACE!

Now I have another contribution to my collection of strange and potentially to-be-recalled DVDs (my other one is Little Shop of Horrors with the original tragic ending) But enough about me... let's talk about dear Ms.Miller...and her lousy english dub.
Something of a cross between Faye Valentine and Julia from Cowboy Bebop, Miller's "report" covers the gaps between episode 7 and the final story arc of Volume 4. It includes clips from several episodes, but not in a way that does them justice. The soundtrack is completely altered, especially the musical score, so Kiki's dramatic cry of "Shiro!" loses some of its power. Frankly, you are probably better off just sticking to the first four volumes. But, in case you wanted a little closure where Shiro is given the assignment by Kojima to invade the Zeon territory, then it is worth checking out. Other than that, this DVD is a little bit of a waste.
So why a full FOUR stars?
However, just like the how the final episode "Last Resort" compensated for the lack of the Miller's report storyline, so do the special features of this DVD make up for its shortcomings. The highlight of the special features is the collection of cut-away scenes from Gundam: Journey to Jaburo for the Playstation 2. So, if you are like me, and still haven't beaten the game but are so close you could cry "Gimme" or "Mulligan" and no one would contest, this Bud is for you.

If I was not so into wanting the whole 08th MS Team collection I probably would have never bought this. It has nothing new except for Miller. Personally I would not even call this a movie. It is just a bunch of clips from the series. There is only about 10 min. of new footage on the dvd. If you have the whole series already and are trying to decide weather or not to get this just think to yourself; is it worth [the money], and could I think up a better story then the one given.

I found this some what entertaining but for the most part I was bored. All it basically has is talking and bareley any fighting. They characters voices sounded horrible for some odd reason. Although it had its downs I was entertained with the storyline. If you want a 08th MS team dvd I would recomend volume four and I would just rent millers report.