The 08th Mobile Suit Team

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:25 pm

Now that ****ing rocked. No Newtype bullshit, no ****ing kids, no deeply irritating middle 20 episodes, no bastard brat teenagers in lead roles. Instead, there's characterisation, well-mapped military combat sequences, dynamite plots. Brilliant, well worth seeing.

the_escaflowne_2k · Post by **the_escaflowne_2k** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:38 pm

I've heard great things about it, mainly concerning the points you raised. Did you download it or actually find an easy to get hand of physical copy?

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:44 pm

The subbed bootleg I got seems to be about £15 on the ebay thingummy. The overall style is very Patlabor.

the_escaflowne_2k · Post by **the_escaflowne_2k** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:51 pm

Cool, I do enjoy Patlabor (or at least the first two movies), now that I'm internet enabled I may have to see what options are available on said ebay.

the_escaflowne_2k · Post by **the_escaflowne_2k** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 7:23 pm

Well its ordered, £15 seems to be the going rate on ebay, looking forward to this one.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 7:37 pm

Nice one. The subs on mine were pretty accurate - every so often they became a little out of sync, but rarely by more than a split second (and possibly the only reason I've noticed is from scrutinising homemade Ideon DVDs to check audio sync...). I've not watched the OVA yet, and the 13th episode is a little... different. It'll either work as a nice coda for the series, or as an irrelevance you'll never watch again - it doesn't really spoil anything, though, it's just quite a different style to the rest.

I've always meant to catch up on some Patlabor - I've only seen the first two films (from what I gather, the third is only semi-related), but they really are masterpieces. Goto is one of my heroes, and the films manage to be very gritty without ever getting too mind-numbingly serious (Ota taking out the target range thingy in the second one never fails to make me laugh out loud).

the_escaflowne_2k · Post by **the_escaflowne_2k** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 7:50 pm

I do have a big anime guide which had a great piece (albeit only a few paragraphs) about this history of Patlabor and how the guys who made it wanted to make a series in which the future wasn't a dark apocolyptic place and instead was more or less the same as now but with a marginal increase in industrial technology, which I was makes the first two film stand out so much for me and why even after having first seen them some 7 or 8 years ago (or when ever the double vhs came out) I still happily go back to them time after time.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:04 pm

Yeh, it's nice - they're both basically Tom Clancy-style thrillers that happen to have robots in them. I always liked the way the police Labors just use giant shotguns, revolvers and batons too.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:49 pm

Don't really like the 08th mobile suit series, but I loved the first two Patlabor films. The first one is by far my favourite of the two, as it's one of the few robot anime that's not all about mecha porn.

I watched 08th mobile suit about 5 years ago, all in one sitting during a day. I vastly prefer gundam 0080, but 08th mobile suit is still better than 0083

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 2:54 pm

I probably just about prefer the second film, with Goto front and centre... I also tend to leave long enough between viewings that I tend to forget the more subtle bits of the plot before watching it again.

the_escaflowne_2k · Post by **the_escaflowne_2k** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 5:09 pm

Depends what mood I'm in for which film I prefer, the first one being something I can watch many times and put on as a background piece, however the second one I prefer if I really want to sit down and settle into a film.

the_escaflowne_2k · Post by **the_escaflowne_2k** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 7:02 pm

Just finished watching it, very impressed throughout bar the Final resort Episode which is fine in itself but I doubt I'll watch it many times again as i preferred the penultimate episode.
But yeah, very enjoyable, all the plus points that I'd read prior to seeing it I'd concur with (mobile suits being simply tools, tactics, newtype free etc.), also due to the overall high standard of the animation and its consistency with the more "down to earth" pacing/setting of the story it had me actually appreciating the design of the RX-78 (?) for the first time (having never experienced any UC stuff before).
So in summary, marvelous stuff.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 7:45 pm

Yeh, the last episode is a weird one... not so much bad as unnecessary - the 12th does most of the work needed, having seen Shiro and Aina escape together, we don't need to have them literally found again.

My favourite bits:
- The entire first episode, which makes a great stand-alone short film.
- The utterly botched parachute landing the 08th make - Shiro hits a plane on the way down, Karen lands and her MS is instantly decapitated by an Acguy.
- The cocky Zeon who gets taken out by the villager with the bazooka, just because it's a huge surprise first time you see it.
- Norris Packard. That whole fight scene is fantastic - not just because Norris is badass, but because you get a feel for what's going through the generic average pilots' minds whenever Char, Amuro or another lead character tears through a group of grunts in 60 seconds flat. Plus Shiro rips the arm off his own suit and hits Norris with it.

the_escaflowne_2k · Post by **the_escaflowne_2k** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:18 pm

I think the highlight for me would be the entire episode with the retreating Zeon forces in the village, the whole thing works brilliantly with Shiro just having come back and the edginess of the guerrillas' makes a much better "senselessness of war" statement than I've seen in the entirety of any of the later series and many other shows' in general really.
And yes the Norris fight (and him in general really) is bloody awesome, loved the end of it with the "Shiros' gone and won it" bit then we find out Norris had done everything he'd set out to in taking out the last tank.

bowspearer · Post by **bowspearer** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 3:30 pm

The DVD box set is a great way to go with it. I imported it from Amazon.com and on top of it including the movie as well as the series, there are some great featurettes in there on the Universal Century backstory and pre-history.

In other words some great extras to a great series.