Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy (Kidō Senshi Gandamu) is a 1981-1982 original theatrical anime film series by studio Sunrise, and director/writer Yoshiyuki Tomino. It is a compilation of the original Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 anime series by the same studio and team. The films were theatrically released in March 1981, July 1981, and March 1982 for Japan respectively.
Brief Unboxing Redux Note:
I first received Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy in March 2017 by pre-ordering the set through Anime Limited’s online store. This was unboxed over on my Normanic Vault blog via Blogger. This post is a remaster of that unboxing with better photos, updated information and any added extras. Enjoy!
Background:
“Universal Century 0079. Amuro Ray finds himself caught up in the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. He unwillingly becomes the pilot of a prototype Mobile Suit called the Gundam. Now he and the crew of the White Base will haver to fight for their very lives as the enemy attempts to destroy this new weapon at all costs.
Combatants will face triumph and turmoil as they battle their way through space to get to their final destination on Earth. The outcome of the war lies in the hands of the Newtype in the anime series that started it all.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, March 2017.
The original Mobile Suit Gundam series became a success and spawned many sequels, spin-offs, video games, toys and dozens of other things. One of those instances was a compilation movie series recapping the events of the original series with a few adjustments to the mix. This version is technically the canon route for the Universal Century storyline, which Zeta Gundam following the events of these films.
Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy was released by Bandai for the North American audiences many years ago and even got an English dub in 1999. Though because the English dub was considered “not very good” by Sunrise, the dub was never allowed to be brought back for future re-releases and that still continues for the recent ones done by Bandai Entertainment, Beez Entertainment, as well as Nozomi Entertainment and Anime Limited.
Because the films as a result had to be released subtitled only, Anime Limited weren’t sure if there was a market for them, especially as we already got the original Mobile Suit Gundam series brought over to the UK on Blu-ray. Thus, there was a special limited release which did better than expected and eventually years later was brought back so newcomers can still start with the films if they wish!
Collector’s Edition Contents:
This release is an interesting one. As I mentioned briefly earlier in this post, Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy received a special limited release which was a collector’s edition Blu-ray set that was only available to acquire through Anime Limited’s online webstore. In addition, the SRP was £34.99 and only received 500 units in total.
The packaging for the collector’s edition is larger than the usual Gundam box set but also has no additional content. You have the three films presented across three Amaray cases and that is it. No booklet, or art cards, or posters. On the upside, you do get the nice artwork that represents each film.
The regular edition which eventually did get a release a few years later, was released at a smaller SRP compared to the TV shows.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with amaray case packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specs and sticker on wrapping for BBFC logo
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 20th March 2017
Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy presents all three films across three Blu-ray discs using the French Anime Limited author. As mentioned earlier, the audio option available for the films is Japanese with English and French subtitles.
What’s interesting about this release is that Anime Limited got the Blu-ray out before Nozomi did, and as such there were some differences. The big difference is the audio version itself. Nozomi used the 5.1 audio version, while Anime Limited was able to include both the 5.1 audio and the original theatrical mono audio for their release.
The white subtitles (for both subtitle languages) are locked during playback, and the regions are locked to B for Blu-ray.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | Japanese |
| Audio | Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 4:3 (anamorphic 16:9) aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English, French |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 3 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
No extras across all discs
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition set sold out very early on, but you can still acquire the standard edition on Amazon UK.
The Normanic Vault 
I’m enjoying these remastered videos. Upon discovering your writings, it’s made me wonder what the difference is between what you buy from Anime Limited, and a place like Rightstuf? I’ve always gotten things from Rightstuf, so I’m wondering if I need to expand my search areas.
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Honestly it comes down to whether you have the money to import (depending on your location), whether you prefer a simple release or a nicer packaged product, or which title you feel you wish to get sooner. With the Gundam franchise, Nozomi & Rightstuf have released a majority already, but Anime Limited takes a fair bit longer as they go through more approvals in order to provide a box and physical contents like booklet and art cards.
That being said, I do like Anime Limited as they offer something that UK distributors don’t generally risk or provide nowadays, but Rightstuf is a great place for ordering a variety of anime and books, though international shipping ruins it for us UK anime fans (which is why I use United Publications USA as my go-to for US anime imports). Nowadays I just stick to Anime Limited, MVM’s Anime-on-Line, Amazon, and United Publications for my anime hauls (and use Rightstuf as a last resort if something happens to a specific title).
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Thank you so much! I usually hold off (somehow…) and wait for the Black Friday deals and utilize Rightstuf. Being in the US (west coast), I can see why your preference is Anime Limited.
With Gundam I’ve been buying the giant sets that I’ve seen with Rightstuf. I always wonder ‘did I get the right set, or the best set’ when I see other boxed sets like those you are doing these videos for, so I had to ask and I am very grateful you always take the time to respond.
I’m always looking for new places that are customer-oriented, fair in their pricings, and have a good selection. I was doing Funimation, Sentai Filmworks, and Rightstuf all in combination – looking up the same titles between the 3 and seeing which had the best pricing for the same products. Funimation I’ve given up on with anime due to limited titles, and they focus more on merchandise and streaming and seems to have really dropped the ball for media offerings. I like Rightstuf and Sentai, and now I’ll be looking into these others when I do my next purchase run!!!
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If you want to try out a distributor that puts a lot of fantastic effort into their disc releases, I highly recommend looking into Discotek Media. Sure they don’t provide special editions, but they are in my opinion the best distributor for anime in terms of disc content.
I like Funimation, Sentai, Aniplex and Nozomi for what they do, but those distributors generally cut corners for various reasons while Discotek takes the time to see what is available and whether they can achieve it. One notable example was Street Fighter II the Movie where they somehow managed to get every single version possible in audio and video (UK only got one of the versions). They recently put a lot of effort in going through Galaxy Express 999 after the infamous DVD release by S’more Entertainment, and are even slowly started working on offering English dubs for titles like Kemono Friends and Lupin the Third.
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