More adventures of the Superior Defender Gundam squad!  This series, aimed at younger viewers, has small, cute, human-sized Gundam robots spouting witty lines as they battle the evil, yet totally incompetent, Dark Axis.  There is even a young boy, Shute, who tags along and tries to help.  While it shouldn't be confused with other Gundam continuity, this show does have appeal to younger children.

At the beginning of each episode, there is a short introduction that explains the setting and sides of the battle.  This makes just about any episode a great jumping on point.  The intro explains how the evil Dark Axis, evil robots from another dimension, are invading Neotopia, a perfect land where robots and humans live in harmony.  The SDG (Super Dimensional Guard) arrive to protect the peaceful city.

As with most shows aimed at juveniles, there is a simple plot.  Every episode involves the Dark Axis, which apparently consists of an unseen leader, three Gundam robots, and an unlimited number of ineffective robot fighters, the Zaku Soldiers, attacking the SDG or Neotopia.  The Gundam Force leaps to battle them, usually while learning an important lesson in teamwork, the importance of friendship, or some other social grace.
 
This is the third disc in the series, comprising episodes 7-9.  The episodes on this disc are:

Episode 7:  Go! Gunbike!:  A new member of the Gundam Force is introduced, the Gundam that trained Captain, Gunbike.  This tough drill instructor Gundam is just about to get the rest of the force into shape when they find out that Grappler Gouf has hijacked a freight train.  They whole squad goes into action, but they have a hard time because they don't work together.  Will they be able to learn the value of teamwork before it's too late?

Episode 8 – A Princess, a Cake, and the Winged Knight:  It's Mayor Margaret's birthday, and the princess is making her a giant (about three stories tall!) cake.   While she is working, Destroyer Dom transports in only to find that two Zaku soldiers have removed all the weapons from his Gallop Tank in order to clean it.  The two chastised Zaku's arrive at the bakery looking for weapons.  Assuming that the huge cake must have some offensive value, they call in Dom.  He arrives at the same time Zero does, and they battle.  But Dom steal's Zero's sword, and the Zakus use the Bagu Bagu gun to turn the giant cake to stone.

Episode 9 – Bakunetsumaru's Struggle:  Bell Wood has grown bored trying to repair his dimensional transporter, and decided to stop working on it.  This distresses Bakunetsumaru who wants to get back to his home world of Arc.  His pleas fall on deaf ears though, as Bell just wants to give up on the repairs.  But when some Zaku soldiers put a control horn on a digging machine, Bakunetsumaru takes Bell along with him into battle.  Bell is impressed with Bakunetsumaru's reluctance to give up, even when overwhelmed and facing an unbeatable foe.  Though he takes a lot of punishment, refused to quit fighting.  Will Bell learn something from this, and will Captain and Gunbike arrive in time to save him?

As I mentioned in my review of the previous volume, this show is aimed at a preteen audience.  Because of this, I didn't enjoy the series nearly as much as other Gundam shows.  My two young sons found it hilarious and entertaining.  They found the idiotic Zaku and foolish Gouf always good for a laugh, and enjoyed the story lines.  I found the comedy rather juvenile and the stories very predictable, but then again the show wasn't aimed at me.  Lines that I found dull ("That boils my oil!") or extremely sappy ("Evildoers like you will never understand what goodness can create!") my children didn't bat an eye at.

This show is animated fully by computer, and while the Gundams and ships look great, the people look unnatural, and move in a very unrealistic manner.  I found it distracting, though my sons did not.

While the show was entertaining for a younger audience, the fact that this DVD only has three 20-minute episodes was extremely disappointing.  With no extras, not even trailers, they could have easily fit twice the number of shows on.
 

There is only an English language dub on this disc, with no subtitles.  Granted this is a kid's show, but an original language audio track would have been desirable.  The audio quality from the two-channel mix was fine, though it was hard to understand Zaku at times, especially when he was talking fast.  This is more of a fault with the voice actor doing the dub rather than with the DVD itself.

Video:

This show was presented full frame, as it is shown on TV.   The video quality was about average.  The colors were bright and clear, but the were a significant number of digital artifacts.  There was a large amount of aliasing (diagonal lines having a stair step appearance rather than being straight) and horizontal lines would shimmer as they moved.  Finer lines on the Gundam's armor would appear and disappear while you were watching them.  Though these didn't cause the show to look really bad, I did find them distracting.   My children didn't notice this so it didn't interfere with their enjoyment of the show.

The Extras:

Unfortunately, there are no extras on this DVD.

Final Thoughts:

This show recently stopped airing on Toonami, so if there's a young SD Gundam fan in your household, this would be a great gift.  Younger audiences will find the humor and action in this series very appealing, and it's sure to be a show they will watch again and again.  Older viewers are more likely to find the show predictable and derivative.  Because there isn't a Japanese audio track, subtitles, or any extras, along with the poor encoding job, makes this a lower quality disc.  The fact that there are only three episodes on it, slightly over an hour of show time all together, knocks it down a few more notches.  Young SD Gundam fans will probably not be bothered by these considerations, so I whole-heartedly recommend it to them.  But because of the lack of features and small number of shows, I can't recommend it to older viewers.  They should rent it.