Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space 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.

Several background sources looked at in preparation for this review state that the vast majority of this third Mobile Suit Gundam film was newly animated for this release, rather than simply relying on re-editing the original series, as was the case with the vast majority of the first two films (those films did indeed offer short bridging segments that were newly done for their releases). That said, it’s a little bit of a head scratcher why at least some salient information from the original series was evidently left on the cutting room floor, leading to some lurches in the story that may be downright confusing for those who haven’t seen the original version.

With that perhaps pressing caveat set aside, Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space provides what is probably inarguably the most consistent action adventure ambience of all three films, with a virtually nonstop assortment of very close encounters of whatever kind fighting with mecha might be. Kind of interestingly, a lot of this third “episode” veers at least slightly away from Amuro to Char, who takes center stage for large swaths of the story.

This is also arguably the most visually audacious of the three Mobile Suit Gundam films, whether or not that can be attributed to the “new, improved” animation or not. There’s some frankly near hallucinatory material at play in various battles here (courtesy of Amuro's so-called "Newtype" skills) that may remind some of that old “ultimate trip” tagline that accompanied some showings of 2001: A Space Odyssey. As with the first two installments, certain plot points and even some supporting characters are left largely by the wayside, but things wrap up well enough, if sometimes a bit chaotically.

Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space 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.

Despite there being a reported prevalence of newly done animation for this third and final film, there's really not a huge uptick in overall quality, which may surprise some viewers. There's probably less evident speckling and white flecks in evidence here, but there are still occasional signs of age sprinkled throughout the presentation. The palette is as nicely robust as in the second film, and line detail is also very strong. Generally speaking, this is also the most consistently sharp of the three presentations, though it also displays what is probably the most heterogeneous looking grain field of the three films, with clear differences between the older material, which is often pretty gritty looking, and the newer, which is relatively smooth looking.

Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space 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 III: Encounters in Space 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 III: Encounters in Space Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This third film in the trilogy is probably the most consistently exciting of the three, based as it is on so many spectacular fight sequences. Characters almost take a back seat throughout this film, though, meaning the endgame may strike some as curiously unemotional. 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.