Ask John: Is Gundam MS 08th Team: Miller’s Report a Real Movie?

Question:
I just bought the 08th MS Team movie, “Miller’s report” and was a bit disappointed. Sure, I like the show and all, but Bandai’s release classifies it as a movie, not a certain amount of series. I watched the movie, and it’s more of the 08th MS team series rather than a movie, since it just shows some clips of the show. I think that it should really be classified as it having volumes 5-8. Can you tell me why they classify this as a movie?

Answer:
While the Miller’s Report animation largely consists of simply footage from the OAV series with a small amount of original footage added in, the Miller’s Report movie was screened theatrically in Japan as a double feature with the Gundam W: Endless Waltz movie. The MS 08th Team OAV series took several years to be fully released in Japan, so it can be considered somewhat logical for Sunrise to sort of remind viewers of the series through a bonus film screened with the Gundam W movie, which itself is also nothing more than mainly previously released OAV animation. In fact, out of 10 theatrical Gundam anime movies released in Japan, only 2 of them (Gundam F-91 and Char’s Counterattack) are entirely original animation. The other 8 Gundam movies (films 1-3, 0083, Endless Waltz, Miller’s Report, Turn A parts 1 & 2) are all theatrical re-releases of previous TV and/or OAV animation.