Mobile Suit Breakdown: the Gundam Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

It's time for everyone's favorite convention: the Ameria Colony Guillotine Fest! Bring the kids on down, it's fun for the whole family! On this episode we discuss what makes a Char, the Uso Cycle and the Big Sister with a Thousand Faces, narrative imperatives, and how we're each of us getting what we want out of Victory (despite some quibbles).

Please listen to it!

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected].

Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more!

The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses.

All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it.

Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

This week on MSB: Victory Gundam episode 25 and... Oliver is Uso-pilled, Odelo is getting better at romance, Peggie is waving death flags in both hands, Uso asks if Shahkti can come out and play, and Marbet is still just terrible at strategy. Plus, we get to meet the REAL star of the show.

Please listen to it!

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected].

Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more!

The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses.

All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it.

Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

This week on MSB, we're covering Victory Gundam Episode 16: Reineforce, Lift Off! or リーンホース浮上. We talk about the episode name, the legacy of Gundam, Shahkti's hacker vision, the relationship between children and war, and much more!

Please listen to it!

And you can listen to episode 1 of The Disappearances of Lydia Fountayne at https://lydiadisappears.com

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected].

Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more!

The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses.

All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it.

Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

With last week's general discussion of the plot of Char's Counterattack out of the way, it's time to start diving deep on specific aspects of the film. This week: environmental justice advocate Colin joins us to discuss the environment, and environmentalism, in Char's Counterattack. Plus in the research Thom explores what it might mean that the Federation is headquartered in Lhasa while Nina looks at how a 1988 audience might have responded to talk of 'nuclear winter'. From the Talkback

• In preparation for our conversation, Colin had us read "Principles of Environmental Justice" by the Delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held on October 24-27, 1991, and "The Progressive Plantation" by Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin.
• You can find Colin on Twitter at @padgettish and listen to them co-host for Wow! Cool Robot!!'s coverage of Zeta Gundam, or their own much less serious podcast about Medabots at Medawatch.
• They also recommended the Environmental Justice Network as a resource.

Lhasa, Tibet

• Timeline of major events in Tibetan history from the BBC.
• Tibetan history via Britannica.
• Wikipedia pages for the history of Tibet, Lhasa, the 5th Dalai Lama, Tibet under Qing rule, and Mongol invasions of Tibet.

General Tibetan history:

• “Tibetan Nation: A History Of Tibetan Nationalism And Sino-tibetan Relations,” by Warren Smith. Routledge. 1997.
• Tourist guide to the Potala Palace (which definitely appears in the movie) and the Jokhang Temple (which probably does). By She Jingwei for China Global Television Network, Mar. 26, 2019. Available at https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514d30496a4e33457a6333566d54/index.html.

Recent History: Tibet and China:

• “Tibet, China and the United States: Reflections on the Tibet Question.” By Melvyn C. Goldstein for The Atlantic Council of the United States. 1995. Available at https://web.archive.org/web/20061106021854/http://cc.purdue.edu/~wtv/tibet/article/art4.html.
• Topgyal, Tsering. “Identity Insecurity and the Tibetan Resistance Against China.” Pacific Affairs 86, no. 3 (2013): 515–38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43590713.
• “The Monastery as a Medium of Tibetan Culture,” Donald S. Lopez, Jr. For Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine. March 1988. Available at https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/monastery-medium-tibetan-culture.
• “Timeline of Destruction of Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in China,” by Alexander Berzin. 1994. Available at https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/history-culture/buddhism-in-east-asia/timeline-of-destruction-of-tibetan-buddhist-monasteries-in-china

• “Threat from Tibet? Systemic Repression of Tibetan Buddhism in China,” by Ryan Cimmino for Harvard International Review. Sept. 16, 2018. Available at https://hir.harvard.edu/repression-tibetan-buddhism-china/. “Genocide in Tibet,” by Maura Moynihan for the Washington Post, Jan. 25, 1998. Available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1998/01/25/genocide-in-tibet/27c0891c-57f1-4a7c-b873-a1071d93cbfd

• “’Prosecute them with Awesome Power’ - China’s Crackdown on Tengdro Monastery and Restrictions on Communications in Tibet.” Human Rights Watch. July 6, 2021. Available at https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/07/06/prosecute-them-awesome-power/chinas-crackdown-tengdro-monastery-and-restrictions

• International Resolutions and Recognition on Tibet (1959 to 2004), assembled by Lobsang Nyandak Zayul for the Department of Information and International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration. Available at https://tibet.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/International-rsolutions-on-Tibet.pdf
• The Dalai Lama:

• “Chronology of Events [in the Dalai Lama’s life].” From the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Available at https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/events-and-awards/chronology-of-events “14th Dalai Lama,” by Britannica. Available at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dalai-Lama-14th/Life-in-exile

• “Dalai Lama caught in the middle as India and China reboot ties,” by Sugam Pokharel for CNN. March 30, 2018. Available at https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/30/asia/india-tibet-china-dalai-lama-intl/index.html

• “Dalai Lama opens exhibit of Tibetan art at Ueno,” by Ray Mahon for Stars and Stripes. Sept. 28, 1967. Available at https://www.stripes.com/news/dalai-lama-opens-exhibit-of-tibetan-art-at-ueno-1.18977.

The 1980s Negotiations:

• Norbu, Dawa. “China’s Dialogue With the Dalai Lama 1978-90: Prenegotiation Stage of Dead End?” Pacific Affairs 64, no. 3 (1991): 351–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/2759468.
• “Tibet 1985: The Last Fact-Finding Delegation - A Personal Account” by Tenzin Phuntsok Atisha.” 2020. Available at https://www.atc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Tibet-1985-EBOOK.pdf.
• A report about the 1980s negotiations, based on declassified documents created by US officials at the time. “U.S. Officials Hoped Chinese Liberalization Program for Tibet in Early 1980s Would Bring Significant Improvements,” by Robert A. Wampler for National Security Archive. Feb. 28, 2013. Available at https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB414/.
• Press release: “Sino-Tibetan Contacts to Resume,” by Chhime R. Chhoekyapa from the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, including an annexed timeline of negotiations between the Dalai Lama and Beijing. May 2, 2008. Available at https://www.c3sindia.org/geopolitics-strategy/sino-tibetan-contacts-to-resume/
• Additional relevant Wikipedia entries on the "Great Game," the 1959 Tibetan uprising, Tibetan unrest 1987-1989, the Tibet Autonomous Region, Chushi Gangdruk, the Tibetan independence movement, the Convention of Lhasa, and the Seventeen Point Agreement.

Japan, Chernobyl, & Nuclear Anxiety

• Wikipedia pages for the Chernobyl disaster, its effects, and its cultural impact,
• Page on the Chernobyl accident from the World Nuclear Association.
• About the "Red Forest."
• Page on the "Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident."
• Wikipedia pages for the band The Blue Hearts (ザ・ブルーハーツ), and for "On Your Mark," the Change and Aska song with the Ghibli/Miyazaki AMV (anime music video).
• Radiophobia.
• Specific pages on the nuclear-power debate, the anti-nuclear movement (in general and in Japan), and anti-nuclear organizations.
• Japanese-language page on the anti-nuclear movement.
• Website for the Citizens Nuclear Information Center (原子力資料情報室) (shortened to CNIC), a Japanese anti-nuclear organization (in Japanese),
• History and timeline for CNIC (in English).
• CNIC English-language newsletters, Oct. 1987, Dec.1987, and Jan-Feb 1988.

Contemporary articles the Chernobyl disaster:

• Silk, L. (1986, May 02). Economic scene|: Chernobyl's world impact. New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/economic-scene/docview/110930284/se-2?accountid=35927 Hudson, Richard L., Terence Roth. "Chernobyl: Coping with Consequences --- Lingering Fallout: A Year Later, Mishap at Chernobyl Damps Atom-Power Industry --- Siemens Plant-Building Unit Battles Germany's Greens, Seeks to Reassure Public --- in Britain, Cuddly Reactors." Wall Street Journal Apr 23 1987, Eastern edition ed.: 1. ProQuest. 10 Nov. 2021.

• STUART D. "BIG AREA STRICKEN: SPREAD OF RADIOACTIVITY WAS FAR GREATER THAN INDICATED BEFORE FALLOUT FROM CHERNOBYL DISASTER AFFECTED LARGER AREA THAN FIRST REPORTED." New York Times (1923-) Aug 22 1986: 2. ProQuest. 10 Nov. 2021.

• Taylor, Robert E. "Scope of Chernobyl Accident is Unclear to West as Fallout Continues to Spread." Wall Street Journal May 05 1986, Eastern edition ed.: 1. ProQuest. 10 Nov. 2021.
• "Panel Says Japan should Boost Nuclear Power use." Wall Street Journal Jul 21 1986, Eastern edition ed.: 1. ProQuest. 10 Nov. 2021.
• WEINSTEIN, BERNARD L. and HAROLD T. GROSS. "Japan is Spending Heavily to Avoid Oil." New York Times (1923-), Mar 27, 1988, pp. 1. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/japan-is-spending-heavily-avoid-oil/docview/110543916/se-2?accountid=35927.
• ERIK E. "After Accident at the Soviet Station, Nuclear Power is Questioned again." New York Times (1923-), May 02, 1986, pp. 1. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/after-accident-at-soviet-station-nuclear-power-is/docview/110943137/se-2?accountid=35927.

Other articles and papers:

• Zhukova, Ekatherina. “Foreign Aid and Identity after the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: How Belarus Shapes Relations with Germany, Europe, Russia, and Japan.” Cooperation and Conflict, vol. 52, no. 4, Sage Publications, Ltd., 2017, pp. 485–501, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48590276.
• Okabe, Aki. “Japan Reacts to Chernobyl.” Earth Island Journal, vol. 2, no. 2, Earth Island Institute, 1987, pp. 14–15, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43881866.
• Great book about film director and screenwriter Honda Ishiro (本多 猪四郎): Ryfle, Steve, et al. Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa. Wesleyan University Press, 2017.
• English and Japanese Wikipedia pages for the Kurosawa Akira (黒澤 明) film, 生きものの記録 or "I Live in Fear."
• About the Stanley Kubrick film "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."
• Not mentioned in the research but when I was editing and got to the part about Nazi scientists, I remember the existence of this satirical song, "Wernher Von Braun" by Thomas Andrew Lehrer (1965).

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario. You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected].

Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more! The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses. All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it.

Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

This week, we recap and discuss Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counterattack (機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア), while trying to avoid spoiling the discussions coming up in future episodes. Before we dig in to the movie itself, Thom presents research on how and why Char's Counterattack got made - background information on the production, tie-in novels, and other versions of the story. We also discuss how we'll be pronouncing a number of the names in the film.

The Other Counterattacks

• Japanese-language Interviews with various staff for CCA, including producer Uchida Kenji.
• Much of the information about the production timeline is based on information and images collected in this discussion on Twitter.
• Japanese-language summary of Beltorchika's Children.
• Different Japanese language blog entries with some details about Hi-Streamer and Beltorchika's Children including publication dates.
• Translated version of the original Zeta proposal (but be warned that this incorporates antisemitic conspiracy theories).
• Interviews with Nagano Mamoru and Izubuchi Yutaka, both touching on the behind-the-scenes of Char's Counterattack.
• Japanese Wikipedia page on 'Gaia Gear' (aka Mobile Suit Gaia Gear: Char's Counterattack).
• Japanese-language commentary on Beltorchika's Children.
• And of course... Beltorchika's Children itself:

富野 由悠季 (Tomino Yoshiyuki), 機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア―ベルトーチカ・チルドレン (Beltorchika's Children). Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko (1988). From the Talkback

• Oshii Mamoru talks about Char's Counterattack (including the politically-charged language).
• Japanese-language explanation of the Buddhist origins for the commonly used word 邪魔 (じゃま / jama).
• The demon in question.
• Japanese-language explanation of the differences between 粛清 (purge) and 粛正 (purge).

Music

• "Dangerous Tonight" by VYVCH.
• "Noise to Flange Tag" and "The Placing Rule," both by Small Colin and available here.
• "Cold War Echo" and "November," by Kai Engel.
• "Onistwave" by P C III.
• "Immersive" by Sergey Cheremisinov.
• "Garden of Untamed Roses (Act II)" by Lloyd Rodgers.

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario. You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected]. Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more!

The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses. All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it. Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

This special bonus episode is a companion for Season 4 of Mobile Suit Breakdown. It's a brief recap of the history of the Universal Century up to the start of CCA, for the benefit of anyone who wants a refresher on how we got here. 

Normally this would be included in one of our regular numbered episodes. We had scheduled it for episode 4.2, but since that episode wound up being more than 3 hours long, we made the call to split this section out and release it separately as a short bonus.

The music used in this episode included: The Dance of the Sky by MMFFF, Grey Sky Piece by Rutger Muller, Golden Riddles, Echoes and Points (Act II) by Lloyd Rogers, and New York City (Instrumental) by spinningmerkaba.

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected].

Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more!

The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses. All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it.

Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

This week begins our coverage of Char's Counterattack with... a bunch of things that happened before Char's Counterattack. We recap and discuss the first two SD shorts, - both of which were shown in theaters before the Char's Counterattack movie: “Fierce Fighting - Will Gundam Stand Up!?” (激闘編 - ガンダム大地に立てるか!?) and “Holiday - The Menace of the Zeon Hotel? Destruction orders for the Gundam Pension!” (休日編 - ジオン・ホテルの脅威？ガンダム・ペンション破壊命令!!). In addition to our first thoughts and impressions, we try to identify and explain references, puns, and other gags that might be missed by an audience that doesn't speak Japanese. Thom researches the origins of the SD or "Super Deformed" aesthetic in anime and anime merchandise, and I give a whirlwind review of world events from the end of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ to the premier of Char's Counterattack - February 22nd, 1986 until March 12th, 1988.

Contemporary Events

• Wikipedia timelines for 1986 and 1987.
• More detailed information about the Khian Sea waste-disposal incident, and the Goiânia accident.
• About "Our Common Future" (aka the Brundtland Report), and estimated world-population milestones.
• The (financial markets) Big Bang, a timeline of Japan's asset price bubble, Black Monday 1987, and the Economist's "Big Mac Index."
• A March 2020 article about the use of the "circuit breaker" during the financial shocks caused by Covid-19 lockdowns and related uncertainty.
• The Kurdish genocide (aka the Anfal campaign), the 1987 "Mecca incident," the Sumgait pogrom, and the first Intifada.
• Explanation of the Leiyu massacre.
• More detailed timeline and explanation of the June Struggle.
• All about the Iran-Contra scandal.
• Wikipedia pages about Klaus Barbie (the "Butcher of Lyon") and the warcrimes allegations against Kurt Waldheim.
• In Cold War notes, the history and content of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the drafting and belated fame of Reagan's "Tear down this wall" speech, and Perestroika.
• How the Seville Statement on Violence came to be, the contents, and critiques.
• Diego Maradona and the 1986 FIFA World Cup.
• The slang phrase "going Postal" and its origins in US Postal Service workplace shootings.
• The 1980s in Japan specifically.
• Tokyo Weekender article about the 1980s news stories that garnered the most public attention in Japan.

SD Gundam's Origins

• A basic explainer of SD Gundam from Bandai itself: Part 1 and Part 2.
• Anime News Network Encyclopedia Entry for Choro-Q Dougram.
• Settei (setting documents) showing character heights (and head sizes) in First Gundam.
• Japanese-language interview with Kouji Yokoi (横井孝二), an early innovator of SD art often cited as the creator of SD Gundam.
• Archived version of a different interview with Yokoi.
• Japanese Wikipedia page for Kouji Yokoi (横井孝二).
• Japanese Wikipedia page for SD Gundam.
• This page from Space Battleship Yamato fan Tim Eldred features some photos taken from old issues of _Model Information, giving a sense for the kinds of photos included alongside SD fan art._
• This blog has scans of other pages (including fan art and model photos) from _Model Information. _A drawing of Aura Battler Dunbine (written Ohlah Battler Dunbine) by Yokoi is included in one shot.
• Image showing some of the RoboChanMan toys.
• Early SD designs by Yokoi.
• SD-styled horror monsters, made in 1986 by Bandai.
• A Yokoi Zaku that appeared on instruction manuals for RoboChanMan.
• Detailed and image-rich Japanese-language blog post about the origins of SD Gundam.

Gags & References in the First Two SD Gundam Shorts

• The History of Gunpla from gunpla101.com.
• About tanning-as-beauty-trend in Japan, by Japanese cosmetics and skincare company, Kanebo.
• An article on the history of light therapy from 1900-1950. Doesn't address Japan directly, and obviously doesn't cover the 1980s, but includes pictures of the kind of sunlamp that appears in the first SD Gundam short.
• From TV Tropes - the 'lots of luggage' and 'human pack-mule' tropes.
• A tweet from professor of early modern and modern Japanese religions, Takashi Miura, featuring art inspired by traditional depictions of the warrior-monk Benkei. If you click through the images, he also posted some of the original art of Benkei (Saitō Musashibō Benkei / 西塔武蔵坊弁慶), and explains that the tools arrayed behind him represent the "low-wage laborers whom he protects."
• Jisho.org page for the word あげる (ageru), listing multiple meanings and their different kanji. There is also a jisho.org page for the colloquial expression 揚げ足 (age-ashi) that the first SD short makes a visual pun on (literally - fried leg).

• This dictionary was a big help as well: Chie, Yamane. “あげあしをとる.” 研究社　日本語口語表現辞典　Kenkyusha Nihongo Kogo Hyogen Jiten, 2nd ed., Kenkyusha, Tokyo, 2020, p. 11.

• A bit about Japanese tea ceremony.

• Wikipedia pages on the games Go and Reversi. The Reversi page has a section on the Othello version/ruleset.
• About the common ostrich.
• A source discussing the changing methods of measuring the speed of a baseball and the introduction of radar guns in the 1970s and 80s, and a post from a baseball performance-training company about ball exit-speed.
• Wikipedia's list of baseball video games.
• Jisho.org search for the word のり (nori).
• Wondering about the samurai with one arm out of his kimono sleeve is apparently pretty common. Here are two responses, one on Quora and one on Reddit's "Ask Historians" subreddit. It is also covered very briefly in this article from TimeOut Tokyo about kimono.

Music

• The music in the SD recap sections is "Hyson" by Olivia and "Dawn" by Mr. Smith.

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected].

Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more!

The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses. All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it.

Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

Find out more at http://gundampodcast.com

This week we revisit the final episode of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ in light of the first draft of the episode 47 script recently shared by Gundam expert Mark Simmons. This script was written solely by Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ writer Endo Akinori, before being significantly re-written by head director Tomino Yoshiyuki. It stands out as a rare window into the work process behind the scenes of Gundam, and offers Nina and Thom the chance to ask... would the episode have been better without the boss' meddling?

Huge thanks this week to Mark both for making this script draft available and for translating relevant sections into English!

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected].

Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more!

The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses. All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it.

Original content is copyright Mobile Suit Breakdown.

Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

Find out more at http://gundampodcast.com

Warning: Due to an error, an uncensored version of this episode was briefly available for download. The error has been corrected, and we apologize for the oversight that allowed it to slip through. We encourage anyone who downloaded the episode between 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM on August 7th to re-download the corrected version.

This week, we look back on Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ) as a whole. We analyze the show, assess its strengths and weaknesses, check in on its running themes, compare Judau Ashta to the protagonists of First Gundam and Zeta Gundam, and much more. Plus, Nina predicts where Gundam will go next, the final episode of the Radio Free Shangri-La radio drama, and Thom wraps up the Heike Monogatari Breakdown series of research segments.

• Books Thom referenced in the research segment this week:

平家物語 (The Tale of the Heike), trans. Royall Tyler. Penguin (2012).

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected].

Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more!

The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses. The recap music for Season 3 is New York City (instrumental) by spinningmerkaba, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.. All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it.

Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

Find out more at http://gundampodcast.com

This week, we review and analyze Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ) episode 47 - “Warrior, Once More” (戦士, 再び......), discuss our first impressions, and provide commentary and continuing research on the Tale of the Heike and it's influence on Double Zeta.

• Books and articles Thom referenced:

平家物語 (The Tale of the Heike), trans. Royall Tyler. Penguin (2012).

Totman, Conrad D. A History of Japan. 2nd ed., Blackwell, 2011.

• The poem read in the eulogy is an excerpt from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, available at Project Gutenberg.

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to [email protected].

Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more!

The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses. The recap music for Season 3 is New York City (instrumental) by spinningmerkaba, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.. All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text.

Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it.

Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to [email protected]

Find out more at http://gundampodcast.com