Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 9, 2017

Sometimes it can be at least a little problematic to brand an artistic enterprise with a year, even if that year is supposedly fictional. In the case of the trio of movies included in this new set from Right Stuf, it's the so-called Universal Century year 079, though not so coincidentally Mobile Suit Gundam, the series these films are derived from, started broadcasting in 1979, and indeed one of the series' alternate titles is Gundam '79. That's not the only Gundam offering to sport a suffix detailing a supposed year, with Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket and Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (among others) also sporting the same titular conceit. While some of these later entries aren't tied to an actual calendar year the way Mobile Suit Gundam '79 is to 1979, including a descriptor like the ones seen in these titles can tend to instantly "date" them, sometimes in unhelpful ways. There are actually examples of this same branding problem in media other than anime. Boccaccio '70 actually came out in 1962 but intentionally sought to modernize the Decameron by positing a future year in its title. Another television outing, Galactica 1980, didn't exactly scream "the future" by announcing the year of its production in its title, in a decision that is perhaps at least slightly reminiscent of the tack taken by Gundam '79. But there are even examples in something as unexpected as the music industry. One of my favorite musicians when I was a kid (and frankly beyond) was Sergio Mendes, but by the time I became aware of him, his signature band Brasil ‘66 was already well past it titular expiration date. Even relatively early in the band's heyday, Bob Hope joked about this when the band performed on the 1968 Academy Awards ceremony, stating that they had been too busy to update their name. Somewhat hilariously, a year or so later a series of ads appeared in Billboard and other industry magazines with a supposed poll asking fans to mail in their responses as to whether Mendes should update the band’s name to Brasil ‘70. That didn’t happen, but ultimately a whole host of new band names tied to various years followed, much as with the case of the various iterations of Mobile Suit Gundam, perhaps one indication that those involved in any medium where a name includes a year might do best to forsake such specificity. (Mendes’ wife once gave a really funny interview about having to reorder stationery and business cards every time the name changed, and one wonders about similar issues that might have been faced by Mobile Suit Gundam's various creative staffs.) As mentioned above, the three films collected together in this new set from Right Stuf are more or less reedited versions of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, the one taking place in Universal Century year 79 (for those who prefer our calendar, that is ostensibly circa 2124). While all three films are rather lengthy (all well over two hours), for those not wanting to wend their way through the entire first series they provide an alternate route toward getting much of what has made Mobile Suit Gundam such an enduring anime property through the years (for a little background, I refer you to my Mobile Suit Gundam: Collection 01 Blu-ray review.

There’s both humor and melodrama galore in this second compilation culled from what might be called the mid-story of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. On the comedic front, as politically incorrect as it may in fact seem, there are vignettes given over to what amount to “women drivers” of mecha, to at least initially calamitous results. On the melodramatic side of the story, there’s a rather interesting sadness that accrues that was one of the original series’ most distinctive elements, where characters, and seemingly important characters at that, suddenly meet their fates. There’s probably little doubt that at least one of these demises has more emotional heft in the original series, where it’s surrounded by a lot more material (some might argue “padding”), but even in truncated form and being referred to in part as quick montage like flashbacks, it still gives the “sorrow” part of Mobile Suit Gundam II: Sorrow of Soldiers some unexpected resonance.

There’s both some clunky exposition as well as some over reliance on certain coincidences (Amuro frequently is in just the right place at the right time, often for no other reason than that he has to be to get to the next fight scene) that make this second entry a bit of a downward dip in terms of the overall excitement that the film franchise offers. On the plus side, this second installment actually has some of the best content in terms of Amuro coming to terms with his new role in society, dealing with various stresses that he seems at least somewhat unprepared to tackle.

If the first film is commendable for quickly laying out baseline plot points and character introductions, and the third film enjoyable for being more of a nonstop action adventure enterprise, this second entry might be thought of as the “breathing space” between the two bookends. That may mean that it’s not always the most viscerally compelling of the trio of films, but it has its own secure content to provide, something that it does with a decent amount of coherence, despite the obvious redactions that have taken place.

Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All three films in the Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Right Stuf with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.33:1. Despite the fact that the third film reportedly has vastly more original animation in it than the other two, all three transfers show the same strengths and weaknesses, and so I'll largely deal with them as a whole, with some isolated comments specifically geared toward individual films. All three films in this set are comparable to the video quality that I detailed in our Mobile Suit Gundam: Collection 01 Blu-ray review, though I'm slightly upping my video score for the television version since some of the newer animation, as brief as it is in spots, offers at least marginally better clarity, line detail and (in some cases at least) palette saturation. Also, all three releases here have a more consistent looking grain field than the somewhat variant presentation I addressed in the review of the first volume of the actual televsion series. All three films have various issues at times, though, including minor but pretty recurrent age related wear and tear, with speckling and white flecks showing up fairly regularly. There's also occasional wobble and other frame instability, some of which may be source related due to inartful edits between older, pre-existing material and animation done expressly for the film in question.

The second film has a somewhat better saturated palette than the first film, with some really nicely vivid blues and reds. There are still somewhat variant levels of sharpness and clarity, seemingly unrelated to whether or not the footage is culled from the television series or newly done for the film. Line detail is largely solid throughout this film, exhibiting little to none of the occasional anomalies seen in the first film.

Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All three films in this set sport LPCM 5.1 tracks in the original Japanese (with optional English subtitles), with no English dub being offered. All three tracks exhibit slight phasiness due to the surround rejiggering, with the first film showing the worst signs of that problem. All three films have rather substantial LFE, with rumbling effects not always limited to the subwoofer but often panning through the side and rear channels when battles are entered. Of course the many action sequences provide a glut of surround activity, even if some individual effects and even the score at times sound a little on the boxy, reverberant side. Dialogue is generally delivered cleanly and clearly on all three tracks.

Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

None of the three discs in this set offer any supplementary material, in a decision that will no doubt be a disappointment to many genre fans.

Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you don't have umpteen hours to make it through either the original series or even the entire film trilogy culled from the original series, you wouldn't be missing that much to skip over this second film. There's decent enough content here, but this sophomore entry is pretty obviously a bridge meant to unite the introductions of the first film with the slam bang action elements of the third. As with the Blu-ray release of the original series, video and audio both have occasional hurdles to overcome. For genre enthusiasts if for no one else, this film and the entire trilogy comes Recommended.