Unboxing: Mobile Suit Gundam – Part 1 and Part 2 (Blu-ray) [UK]

It’s been a long-time-coming but Sunrise’s iconic Mobile Suit Gundam franchise has finally arrived on Blu-ray within the UK, courtesy of Anime Limited; and what better way to start than with the original 1979 TV Anime series Mobile Suit Gundam and so today we will be taking a look at both sets.

When Anime Limited released Mobile Suit Gundam – Part 1 on Blu-ray last year the first 1,000 units came with a chipboard artbox that would hold both half of the series; well as it’s been so long since its release finding a version with the artbox may be a bit tricky; in any event i picked mine up from the London MCM Comic Con in October 2015 so i won’t be having any problems there. Meanwhile those who purchased Mobile Suit Gundam – Part 2 would receive a limited edition collectors artbook and, once again, it was limited to the first 1,000 units sold. It was a strange decision by Anime Limited, as it means some fans could receive one but not the other; but fortunately for me i managed to obtained both (as pre-orders were guranteed to get them).

In any event both parts of Mobile Suit Gundam arrive in a standard amaray case, which for an Anime Limited release is different to the norm, with a newly created artwork on the front of each box. Eagle eyed fans will notice that its the same artwork used by Rightstuf in America, albeit a smaller image; however each set does feature a reversible sleeve with the bigger artwork image. Each set also only has 2 Blu-ray discs, so thats four discs in total, with around 10 episodes on each disc. Each episode comes complete with both English and Japanese audio options as well as a newly remastered picture quality which, surprisingly enough, looks fantastic. In short; it may look basic but these are great releases… even if they do mimic that of the US release. The only downside is the lack of episode 15 which, albeit is a bit of a recap episode, was removed from the release by request of the Japanese studio – it’s annoying but it can’t be helped.

The Artbox and Artbook included with Part 1 and Part 2 respectively is what makes these releases interesting; for starters the artbox features character artwork from the Federation (Good) and Zeon (Bad) sides and the box is big enough to accompany both parts and the collectors artbook. The artbook meanwhile is made of a rugged paper-material, which is much better than the Ultimate Edition Book with Full Metal Panic, and contains all sorts of artwork from the show, such as characters, mecha and backgrounds as well as newly drawn art for this Blu-ray release. Its simplistic; but yet its an effective goodie for fans of the Gundam franchise.

Both sets; whether you get the ‘bonuses’ or not are fantastic releases and they are both now available within the UK on Blu-ray.