How Many Miles to the Battlefield?

How Many Miles to the Battlefield?
How Many Miles to the Battlefield? (戦場までは何マイル?, Senjō made wa nan-mairu?)
Episode Data
Episode	Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket: #1
Episode Director	Shinji Takamatsu
Script	Hiroyuki Yamaga
Storyboard	Seitaro Nakayama
Animation Director	Itaru Saito
Key animator	Hidehiko Okano Hidekazu Ohara Hiroshi Shinada Hiroyoshi Iida Itaru Saito Kenji Miyazaki Mitsuo Iso Shinichiro Minami Toshimitsu Kobayashi Tsutomu Ohshiro Yoshinobu Ando
Production Advancement	Yoshinori Fujimoto
Airing
Runtime	26:12
Japanese	1989-03-25
English	1999-12-18
Next →	Reflections in a Brown Eye

How Many Miles to the Battlefield? (戦場までは何マイル?, Senjō made wa nan-mairu? ^?) is the first episode of Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. It was first released in Japan on March 25, 1989 . The dub was first released on December 18, 1999 on DVD , and this later aired in North America on November 5, 2001 at 12:30 AM as a Toonami midnight run exclusive .

Plot

Zeon mobile suits head towards the Federation Arctic base.

Jukon-class submarine U-99 carrying the Cyclops Team heads through the Arctic sea and launches a series of Hygogg mobile suits. Head of the Cyclops team, Hardie Steiner, who is piloting a Z'Gok E, gives orders to team members Misha, Garcia and Andy. Steiner and Andy head in one direction while Misha and Garcia head in another. Steiner and Andy's mobile suits head to the surface and immediately fire missiles at the Federation base there. Several RGM-79D GM Cold Districts Type rise out of the ground to fight them while the Federation forces rush with readying a rocket for launch. Misha and Garcia's Goggs rise out of the water from other areas and destroy the GMs in their way.

Steiner holds Andy's body.

Andy heads up on an elevator lift near the exit and spots the Federation's shuttle, with a container being loaded onto it. Steiner orders him to keep it from launching. A GM manages to cover the shuttle, firing at Andy's Hygogg when he tries to shoot at it. Thinking there's no time, Andy goes against Steiner's order and gets out of his hiding spot, getting shot down by the GM. A missile from his Hygogg goes off which nearly hits Steiner's mobile suit and forces both to the ground. Steiner watches as the shuttle blasts off into space. Steiner, holding Andy's body in his arms, screams.

Al's classroom.

The narrative changes to a colony in Side 6. 11-year-old Alfred Izuruha walks to school with his friends and sits through class. Alfred draws a Zaku instead of paying attention and his antics cause his classmate Dorothy to tell on him. Later a lunch Al eats with friends Chay and Telcott. Chay shows Al a Federation forces rank badge he found, telling him his brother is a mobile suit pilot. Dorothy comes by and says he's making it up, claiming the Federation doesn't have any Federation mobile suits. Al and Dorothy argue about the Federation having mobile suits and Al tells Dorothy that the Federation does have mobile suits as his father showed him one. Dorothy asks for proof but Al doesn't have anything. They get into a fight and Chay and Al get in trouble.

Al heads through the space port.

Later, Al and his friends head home and Chay ask Al if his father is coming home that day. Al rushes home and says hello to his mother. He grabs a camera and heads on a bus to the spaceport where he hopes to take a picture of a Federation mobile suit. Al is told that his father's ship will be coming by in 10 minutes. Al heads into one of the gates and sneaks through the warehouse there with his camera. Al looks at the shuttle inside trying to find a mobile suit but doesn't see any. He is soon found by a worker there and tells him he's just looking for a bathroom. One of the containers below opens, revealing the head of a mobile suit inside.

Al and Chris.

Later, Al eats with his father, seeming rather apathetic. Al's father gives him an envelope to provide to his mother. Al returns home and runs into his neighbor, Christina Mackenzie. Christina tells Al she just got back from Earth. It starts raining out and Al helps Chris gather everything and bring it inside. Chris removes Al's wet shirt and tells Al she has a government job and got sent here on short notice as she dries him off. Chris goes to get some clothes from her suitcase, revealing a Federation uniform inside and gives Al some other dry clothes to put on. Later, Al's mother expresses worry at not knowing where he was. Al gives her the envelope his father gave him.

Mobile suits battle inside the colony.

Al finishes only part of his dinner and goes to his room where he plays a shoot em up video game. Al's mother comes in and he turns everything off. Once she leaves, Al returns to his video game and instead of shooting monsters shoots hospitals and other civilian structures. Al wakes up and Chris notices him from her window. Chris walks with Chris and he complains about school and his teacher. Al heads to school and tells his friends that he wasn't able to find any mobile suits, only various commercial ships. Dorothy brings a series of rank badges she found at the toy store, claiming that where the badge came from.

Bernie holds a gun at Al.

Suddenly there is an explosion nearby. A GM Command appears and is shot down by a Zaku. The Zaku and a Rick Dom II do battle with the GM and much of the area is destroyed. The boys watch in wonder at the battle as another Zaku passes near to them. The Zaku, which is losing energy heads to the nearby forest park. Al runs after the Zaku as it comes down. Al reaches the forest park and finds the downed Zaku. Al approaches the Zaku and records a video of it on his camera. The pilot, a blonde haired man named Bernard Wiseman, stands atop the Gundam and holds a gun at Al.

Stats

Unless otherwise indicated, this section was compiled by watching the primary source available at .

Release

• Home Video:
  • LaserDisc: 1989-03-25
  • Betamax: 1989-03-25
  • VHS: 1989-03-25
  • DVD:
    • Bandai Visual R2: 1999-12-18
• Television:
  • Toonami: 2001-11-05 00:30

Characters

Name	Timestamp	Notes
Hardie Steiner	01:12
Andy Strauss	01:18	First Appearance;Killed in Action
Mikhail Kaminsky	01:22
Gabriel Ramirez Garcia	01:29
Operator	02:39	aka "Fed 3"
Engineer	02:47	aka "Mechanic 2"
Chay	06:32
Alfred Izuruha	06:32
Telcott	06:33
Teacher	06:47
Dolores Hayes	06:53
Michiko Izuruha	10:15
Clerk	11:04
Ems Izuruha	13:30
Christina Mackenzie	14:16
Bernard Wiseman	23:22

Mechanics

Name	Timestamp	Notes
Jukon-class U-99	00:21
MSM-03C Hygogg	00:53
MSM-07E Z'Gok-E	00:56
Cold Climate use A.P.C. (Type B)	02:15
Armored Personnel Carrier	02:26
C-88 Medea	02:28
Cold Climate use A.P.C. (Type A)	02:28
63 STS "Ginga"	02:39
Crawler-transporter	02:39
RGM-79D GM Cold Districts Type	02:41
Small Submarine	02:56
Armored Vehicle	05:02
Riah Tram	06:19
Ordinary Elecar	06:25	Yellow and red models.
RX-78NT-1 Gundam NT-1	12:44
Custom Elecar	14:08
RGM-79G GM Command	20:26
MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai	20:30
Elecar Taxi Type	20:33
MS-09RII Rick Dom II (Colony Attack Colors)	20:38
MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai Type-B	20:50

Factions

Name	Timestamp	Notes
Principality of Zeon	00:21
Mobile Assault Force	00:21
Cyclops Team	00:53
Earth Federation	02:06
Earth Federation Forces	02:06
Earth Federation Air Force	02:28	aka "U.N.T. Air Force"
Earth Federation Navy	02:56
Riah	05:52
Air UNA	10:55
G-4 Experimental Team	12:44
Earth Federation Forces	12:44	aka "U.N.T. Spacy"

Locations

Name	Timestamp
Earth	00:16
Arctic Base	02:06
Ribo	05:52
Side 6	05:52
Side 7	09:06

Conflicts

Name	Timestamp	Notes
One Year War	00:07
Attack on the Arctic Base	00:07	First Appearance; Conclusion

Technology

Name	Timestamp
Mobile Weapon	00:53
Beam Weaponry	02:41
E.F.F. Transport Container	02:47
Space Colony (U.C.)	05:48
O'Neill Cylinder	05:48

Music

Title	Timestamp
Itsuka Sora ni Todoite (OP)	05:42
Tōi Kioku (ED)	23:44

Notes & Trivia

• The title of the episode may be a reference to the nursery rhyme "How Many Miles to Babylon?".
• The video game played by Al uses various sound effects from Super Mario World.

References

This article is part of Project: 0080

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Please read the linked project page before editing this article.

Project Leader: User:ArcturusDaemon