Read more about The 08th MS Team (Gundam) at: Wikipedia Official Site: Sunrise is an original video animation (OVA) anime series in the Gundam franchise. Released from January 25, 1996, to April 25, 1999, the 11-episode series details the adventures of an Earth Federation Space Force ground unit during the One Year War - specifically before the original 1979 Gundam series and into the final weeks of the war. The 08th MS Team is the first Gundam series to show the war from the viewpoint of the average soldier. A twelfth epilogue episode, called "Last Resort", was released a few months after the series ended, and featured a more surreal plotline than the rest of the series. The series took a long time to be released largely due to the sudden death of director Takeyuki Kanda in July 1996. GONZO's Umanosuke Iida took over production of the series until it ended. The first 11 episodes of The 08th MS Team were broadcast on Cartoon Network in 2001. "Last Resort" was never televised in North America. However, all twelve episodes are on the DVD release. The series is set in Universal Century year 0079 in the jungles of Southeast Asia. The Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon are fighting a brutal guerrilla war for control of the area and its resources. Zeon’s best hope for victory in the region rests with an experimental mobile armor and its pilot, Aina Sahalin. Meanwhile the Earth Federal Army, which has been fighting the Zeon in the region, receive reinforcements in the form of Ensign Shiro Amada, newly named commander of the 08th MS Team. Aina and Shiro know each other from a mutual rescue in space, but when Shiro discovers that Aina is in fact the pilot of the Zeon mobile armor he is arrested for treason. The Federation offers Shiro one chance at redemption: He must take the 08th MS Team deep into Zeon held territory to find Zeon’s hidden base. With the Zeon backed into a corner, and the Federation dependent on Shiro and his team for victory, the star crossed lovers must decide where their true allegiances lie: with each other, or with their respective sides. ; Shiro Amada |