Mobile Suit Gundam is love and loathed across the world, those who love it enjoy the classic tales of space battle, the characterisation and the huge franchise that it expands; those who loathe it do so for the exact same reasons. It’s been over twenty-five years since the 43 episode series was first aired in Japan, and this is its first time on UK DVD. Rather than getting the 43 episode series though we are getting the Gundam movie trilogy, the original series edited and compressed into three films that run for approximately 2 hours each.

The first film sets up the story, those of you who already know the story may want to skip this paragraph! It is the year 0079 of the Universal Century and mankind has moved its increasing population into space in the form of hundreds of giant space colonies (which form groups called Sides). Side 3 the collection of colonies furthest away from the Earth declare themselves the “Duchy of Zeon”, and declare a war of independence on the Earth, using new revolutionary weapons called Mobile Suits. In the first month of the war both sides had lost around half of their populations, and stood at pretty much a standstill. The Earth began construction on a new type of Mobile Suit, and battle ship in order to fight back, however the experimental weapons are attacked before they are launched and many civilians get caught in the crossfire. In an effort to protect his friends young Amuro Ray pilots the experimental Mobile Suit “Gundam” to buy time so the civilians can board the battle ship “White Base”. Amuro manages to defend the “White Base”, however this is not the end of his fight as he constantly has to go into battle against the forces of Zeon and his own feelings again and again.

The compacting of a 26 episode, or more, series into a feature length film (or in this case three) is not that uncommon in anime, Raxophoene, Blue Gender, Fist of the North Star and Evangelion: Death are all prime examples of this. However it is often that the movies try to fit too much in without enough background, or character development. Whilst there is more development than you might expect it still feels like there’s a lot missing, as some of the secondary characters disappear for ages only to return for a ten minute action scene. The film lasts just over two hours, which some people may find a bit long, and there isn’t any place to pause and take a breather as the film just keeps rolling on.

The animation and artwork do look dated but what do you expect from a film that’s pushing 25. The sound is not bad, again dated, but improved if you have access to 5.1 surround sound. The title is only available in Japanese with subtitles which may put some off but shouldn’t.

If you’re a Gundam fan, like older anime titles or just enjoy space operas, this is a title that you will certainly want in your collection. For those of you unsure about the series you may want to check it out before you buy.