Show Notes
This week, we recap, review, and analyze Mobile Suit Gundam episode 26 (25 in the US), "Char Returns," discuss our first impressions, and provide commentary and research on: war balloons, top secret information, the battle of Sekigahara, naval mines, and possible aesthetic influences for mobile suit design.
- Overview of the history of military ballooning, and of incendiary balloons specifically.
- More detailed information about the Civil War-era Balloon Corps.
- Explanation and photo of barrage balloons.
- Overview of Japan's Fu-Go balloon program, and the news story detailing the 2014 discovery of an unexploded incendiary from a Fu-Go. CORRECTION: I stated that I thought this happened in Oregon. It actually happened in British Columbia, Canada.
- Great explanation of how images can be sent via radio waves.
- Wikpedia page on classified information (levels, differences between different countries, etc.), and an article which discusses what happens when people reveal classified information.
- The US National Archive FAQ on identifying and handling classified records.
- Two overviews of the Battle of Sekigahara (the second includes lots of images of art depicting the battle).
- Wikipedia pages on Kikkawa and Kobayakawa.
- Detailed information on naval mines, including their history, types, and the technology and mechanisms involved, from the Minewarfare & Clearance Diving Officers' Association, NavWeaps (Naval Weapons, Naval Technology and Naval Reunions website), and the Worldwide Independent Inventors Assoication (archive).
- Pictures of E. Honda's "Sumo Torpedo" headbutt attack and a real one, another sumo photo, and a photo of the 'Spear' attack in pro wrestling.
You can subscribe to the Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, follow us on twitter @gundampodcast, check us out at gundampodcast.com, email your questions, comments, and complaints to gundampodcast@gmail.com.
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 photo 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 license. Both have been edited for length. 
Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. All Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise Inc. or Bandai or any of its 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 gundampodcast@gmail.com
Find out more at http://gundampodcast.com

1.23: 1.23 - Battle in the Age of Mobile Suits

MSB is a weekly Gundam podcast for new fans, old fans, and not yet fans. Nina (a Gundam first-timer) and Thom (a lifelong Gundam fan) analyze, review, and research all 40-years of the iconic sci-fi anime mega-franchise Mobile Suit Gundam in the order it was made. We research its influences, examine its themes, and discuss how each piece of the Gundam canon fits within the changing context in Japan and the world, from 1979 to today. Part history podcast, part discussion podcast, all Gundam podcast.

TV & Film

Leisure

Animation & Manga

Film History

Show Notes
We finally get started on Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, and it makes quite the impression! Was it the good or bad kind of impression? There's only one way to find out!
This week, we review and analyze episode 1, "How many miles to the battlefield?" (戦場までは何マイル?), and research and discuss the history of Playboy Magazine in Japan, how the creative team's nostalgia and childhood memories connect to 0080's story and themes, and how the unexpected appearance of mobile suits in a neutral colony connects to the history of US military bases and the presence of nuclear weapons in Japan.
Playboy Magazine in Japan

Wikipedia pages for Playboy, Monthly Playboy (月刊プレイボーイ / Gekkan Pureibōi), the Playboy Clubs, and Playboy Bunnies.
_Britannica page for Playboy. _
_History of Playboy, from the company's website. _
Twitter thread (with photos) about Playboy clubs (and similar) in Japan, by @mulboyne.
Photo of Taga Rie, a Bunny at one of Japan's Playboy clubs, from Getty Images (they had to lean like that to place drinks/light cigarettes because if they bent over they'd fall out of the one-piece).
_Vintage store based in Las Vegas, with photographs of Monthly Playboy covers from the 70s and 80s. _
Wikipedia pages for China Lee and Jennifer Jackson.

Papers and articles:

Batura, Amber B. “From the Bachelor Pad to the Jungle: Bunnies, Playboy Magazine, and Vietnam Soldiers.” Texas Tech University, 2018. Accessed at https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2346/73903/Batura_Amber_Thesis.pdf
Chrisman-Campbell, Kimberly. “The Surprising Tale of the Playboy Bunny Suit.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 4 Oct. 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/history-of-the-playboy-bunny-suit/541929/
“Tokyo's Foreign Flavors.” Edagawa, Koichi, Japan Quarterly; Oct 1, 1985; 32, 4; ProQuest pg. 356

Nostalgia and the Creative Team

Team credits and biographical information was sourced variously from animenewsnetwork.com's encyclopedia and ja.wikipedia.org pages for the specific people.
_Timelines of the major events of the Vietnam war are available in various places including History.com, Britannica, and Wikipedia. _

Japan & Nuclear Weapons

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is described on Wikipedia here,  and the full text of the constitution is available in English at the website of the National Diet of Japan.
_The 1951 Security Treaty Between the United States and Japan is described here. _
The 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan is described here.
_More information about the U.S. military use of Japanese ports, specifically during the Korean War. _
Two articles by U.S. researchers around the year 2000, going into what was then publicly known and acknowledged about nuclear weapons deployed in and near Japan.
Several articles from 2010 when the new Japanese government confirmed the existence of the secret agreements permitting U.S. nuclear weapons to pass through Japanese ports without prior consultation.
_A 1981 article from the Christian Science Monitor about the Japanese reaction to former Ambassador Reischauer's admission about the secret agreements: "Japan reels under Reischauer's nuclear 'bombshell'." _
Steve Rabson, Six Decades of US-Japanese Government Collusion in Bringing Nuclear Weapons to Japan. Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 19, Issue 14, No. 3. Available at https://apjjf.org/2021/14/Rabson.html

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 gundampodcast@gmail.com.
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 is "pieces of life" by Analog by Nature, licensed under a CC BY attribution 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 gundampodcast@gmail.com

5.2: The GMs of Navarone

Show Notes
It's time to start our coverage of the much-anticipated Gundam side story 0080: War in the Pocket! Kind of!
Actually, it's time for us to cover Gundam's real first OVA - SD Gundam Mk I Part 3: SD Olympics as we get ready for the first episode on War in the Pocket next week. We research and discuss the history and characteristics of the OVA format, some of what happened in Japan and the world between Char's Counter Attack and 0080, and the influences, references, and gags in the SD Olympics short. 
SD Olympics

Wikipedia pages for the 1988 Summer Olympics, the ABC gameshow Battle of the Network Stars, and the Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Laff-A-Lympics and Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics.
Gundam Fandom Wiki page on Mobile Suit SD Gundam Mk I. 
This book discusses the imports of American cartoons to Japan (though mostly it's about the influence in the other direction):
O'Melia, Gina. “Introduction.” Japanese Influence on American Children's Television: Transforming Saturday Morning, Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland, 2019, pp. 23–25.
As usual I relied on jisho.org as a Japanese-English dictionary, but I also used The Wisdom English-Japanese Dictionary (digital version for Dictionary app).

Articles about the Olympics:

Dahl, Tracy. “Award of 1988 Olympics Boosts S. Korea's Effort For Political Security.” The Washington Post, 4 Oct. 1981. Accessed at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/10/04/award-of-1988-olympics-boosts-s-koreas-effort-for-political-security/2db0f29f-29cd-4581-8771-2f08c225181f/
Nalewicki, Jennifer. “How the 1988 Olympics Helped Spark a Global Kimchi Craze.” Smithsonianmag.com, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Feb. 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/kimchis-olympic-connection-180968224/.
Manheim, Jarol B. “Rites of Passage: The 1988 Seoul Olympics as Public Diplomacy.” The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 2, [University of Utah, Sage Publications, Inc., Western Political Science Association], 1990, pp. 279–95, https://doi.org/10.2307/448367.
Aw, Gene. “The 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics.” Go! Go! Hanguk, 4 Dec. 2019, https://gogohanguk.com/en/blog/seoul-olympics-1988-memories/. (Includes embedded video of the opening ceremonies for the 1988 Summer Games)
Dator, James. “Never Forget That a Flock of Peace Doves Got Incinerated at the 1988 Olympics.” SBNation.com, SBNation.com, 9 Aug. 2017, https://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2017/8/9/16119834/peace-doves-olympic-opening-ceremony-1988-seoul
Trex, Ethan. “5 Memorable Moments from Olympic Opening Ceremonies.” Mental Floss, 26 July 2012, https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31314/5-memorable-moments-past-opening-ceremonies. (Content warning - contains embedded video of the dove incident)
Montague, James. “Hero or Villain? Ben Johnson and the Dirtiest Race in History.” CNN, Cable News Network, 23 July 2012, https://www.cnn.com/2012/07/23/sport/olympics-2012-ben-johnson-seoul-1988-dirtiest-race/index.html.
Eldridge, Larry. “Too Many `Perfect' Scores of 10 Distort Olympic Gymnastics Results.” The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Oct. 1988, https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/1004/prom.html.
From the IOC website, articles about the 1988 Summer Olympics and how it boosted tourism, South Korea's international profile, and national pride / feelings of global citizenship. While any content produced by the IOC is of course going to be propaganda for the Olympics, it's an important perspective on the event. 
Landing page for the Olympic World Library, part of The Olympic Studies Centre (a resource for official documents related to past Olympics).
Wikipedia pages for sprinter Ben Johnson, decathlete Jürgen Hingsen, and the "perfect 10" in gymnastics. 
Video about Olympic shot-put, with a good section on men’s shot-put 1988.
jisho.org page for the kanji 焼, and Cambridge Dictionary entry for 焼ける.
Article with photos and video of the "Samurai Trash Collectors" performance artists.
Tofugu article with LOTS of Japanese onomatopoeia, including the ワー！(wa-!) that appears over the stadium at the end of the short. 

March 12th, 1988 to March 25, 1989
Books and articles:

Field, Norma. In the Realm of a Dying Emperor. Vintage Books, 1993.
“Hibari Misora, Japanese Singer, 52.” New York Times (1923-), Jun 25, 1989, pp. 26. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/nathan-zucker-74-film-producer-dies/docview/110368815/se-2?accountid=35927
By, Robert T. "Japan's 'Lark of the Beautiful Sky': Hibari Misora is a chic chanteuse who is the rage of her country's teen-agers. A fishmonger's daughter, she has, at 19, the top income in Japanese show business." New York Times (1923-), Jun 09, 1957, pp. 201. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/japans-lark-beautiful-sky/docview/113922091/se-2?accountid=35927
Wikipedia pages for 1988 and 1989, as well as 1988 in Japan and 1989 in Japan.
Wikipedia page for World Expo '88.
An account from an Expo Japan-Pavilion attendant, describing the pavilion (with photos).
Informational document from the Expo, scanned to PDF.
Wikipedia page for singer and actress Misora Hibari (美空 ひばり). 
Short article from the Japan Society about "contemporary Japan" - from the 1989 beginning of the Heisei Era. to the present.
This article is mostly a summary of the Heisei Era, and discusses the transition to a new era (written before the Reiwa name was chosen). But it also touches on the previous transition from Showa to Heisei.

What's an OVA?

Pages defining and describing OVAs, often with additional historical context, from Wikipedia, Anime News Network, and TV Tropes.
Explainers on the OVA format and its place in the anime industry from CBR.com and OTAQUEST.
"Bandai, the Post-Gundam Wave, and the Year 1985" - by Sean O'Mara for zimmerit.moe, discussing Bandai specifically, including their OVA production and video rental segments, and their efforts to attract new consumers while holding on to aging, hardcore fans.

Music

The recap music in this episode is "Olivia" by Hyson.

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 gundampodcast@gmail.com.
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 gundampodcast@gmail.com

5.1: Passing the Torch

Show Notes
The saga that started on a whim with the Titans News Network back in Season 2 finally reaches its thoroughly avoidable conclusion in this action packed radio drama-style satire! What has become of Thom Thomson and Nina Ninasdottir after the end of Radio Free Shangri-La? Did any of the cyber newstype corps survive? What about those NZC interns? 
All that and more awaits you in Content Creators of Axis!
The music included in this episode was:

Quiet Hours and Quiet Rain both by onlymeith
Air by Jesse Spillane
Shiro (Instrumental) by Aussensaiter
B Calm Violin Track by String Factory / Dimitri Artemenko
Time Flux by Revolution Void

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 gundampodcast@gmail.com.
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 gundampodcast@gmail.com

Radio Drama for Season 4: Content Creators of Axis

Show Notes
On the podcast this week: our final episode of Season 4, Iraj returns to talk about asteroids, nuclear explosions, and capes, Thom names names, and Nina looks at alternative narrative frameworks. Plus we clean up a few ambiguities, answer some questions, and come clean about our favorite mobile suits. Will Thom's controversial takes enrage the MSB fandom?!
Names, Names, Names:
The Geara Doga

_The Nagano designs for a 'Killah Doga' / キラ・ドガ and a サイコ・ドーラ can be seen in this Twitter post by Mark Simmons. _
_The DWDS (Digital Dictionary of the German language) records usages of Killer going back to 1972. _
The assertion that the Geara Doga and its gear was designed to look like a German WWII soldier is from the Japanese Wikipedia page for the Geara Doga, which cites: Yutaka Izubuchi "Yutaka Izubuchi Mechanical Design Works (1)" Movic, August 2000, pp. 16-17. ISBN  978-4896014907.

The Alpha Azieru

Izubuchi Yutaka explains that he drew the Alpha Azieru without having been asked, and says that the name comes from the Greek letter α and the word アジール, meaning an asylum or refuge.
Background on what アジール means in Japanese can be found at the Japanese Wikipedia page.
Jisho.org page on アジール which specifies the German derivation from Asyl.

The Sazabi

Izubuchi Yutaka explains that the prior title for the MS was ザ・ナック and that he thought Sazabi would be hard to trademark.
ZeonicScanlations Twitter thread translating excerpts from an old Animedia book and specifying the Sotheby's reference.
_ZeonicScanlations page translating a section of B-Club 30 from 1988 about the Sazabi, mentioning Zanac and the conflict with a similarly named Famicom game. _
The video game Zanac, which prevented CCA from using ザ・ナック for the Sazabi.
_Japanese Wikipedia page on the Sazabi. _
_Japanese Wikipedia page for The Knack (the band). _
And the Japanese Wikipedia page for "My Sharona," specifically.
_A rundown by Zimmerit.moe of musical references included in Nagano Mamoru's Five Star Stories. _
English-language interview with Izubuchi Yutaka in which he mentions the name issues for the Sazabi.
Nagano's design for the Naitiengeaile (Nightingale) can be seen on this twitter post by Mark Simmons.
Nagano's revision of the Naitiengeaile as the Nahatgall (ナハトガル, Nachtigall) can be seen here, or here.

Story Structures, Cross-Cultural Analysis:

Masterclass overview of 4 different story structures.
Author Kim Yoon Mi's overview of story structures from around the world.
Tofugu article about how arguments are structured in Japanese (with reference to how this relates to Japanese story structures.
Blog post from art-collective Still Eating Oranges about "plot without conflict."
_dbpedia and Japanese Wikipedia pages for kishoutenketsu (起承転結). _
_Articles on kishoutenketsu from Art of Narrative, Book Riot, Mythic Scribes, and Tofugu (Tofugu specifically looking at how this structure is used in Japanese horror). _

Papers and articles:

Francisco Vaz da Silva. “Narrative Cultures in the Mirror.” Narrative Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, Wayne State University Press, 2014, pp. 85–108, https://doi.org/10.13110/narrcult.1.1.0085.
Matsuyama, Utako K. “Can Story Grammar Speak Japanese?” The Reading Teacher, vol. 36, no. 7, [Wiley, International Reading Association], 1983, pp. 666–69, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20198301.
Koenitz, Hartmut & Pastena, Andrea & Jansen, Dennis & Lint, Brian & Moss, Amanda. (2018). The Myth of ‘Universal’ Narrative Models. 10.1007/978-3-030-04028-4_8. Accessed at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329064597_The_Myth_of_%27Universal%27_Narrative_Models
Lien, Henry. “Diversity Plus: Diverse Story Forms and Themes, Not Just Diverse Faces.” SFWA, 18 Dec. 2020, https://www.sfwa.org/2021/01/05/diversity-plus-diverse-story-forms-and-themes-not-just-diverse-faces/.
Wikipedia page for jo-ha-kyuu (序破急).

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 gundampodcast@gmail.com.
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 gundampodcast@gmail.com

4.7: On the Other Side of Darkness

Show Notes
This week, Nina and Thom are joined by new guest Tatiana - a filmmaker, professional editor, and sometime animator to discuss technical aspects of filmmaking in Char's Counterattack, how the movie holds up today, what the movie tells us about it's intended audience (and how audiences unfamiliar with Gundam might react to it) and what Tomino and company might have done differently.
Plus Thom's research reveals one way in which Char's Counterattack turned out to be unrealistically optimistic, and Nina digs into the real science and technology that might have inspired the movie's psycoframe.
The Bamiyan Statues:

A survey of giant Buddha statues with brief descriptions and photos - the Leshan Buddha is number 11 and the Buddhas of Bamiyan are number 4.
"Bamiyan Buddhas" by Dr. Melody Rod-ari for Khan Academy, covering the history and design of the sculptures.
"Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley"  by UNESCO.
"Destroyed Buddhas Reveal Their True Colors" by Andrew Lawler for Science.org, an article about archeological reconstruction of the Buddha's pre-modern appearance.
"Bamiyan: Ten Years On," a brief video by UNESCO about the Bamiyan Buddha ruins.
"Commemorating 20 years since the destruction of two Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan" by Ernesto Ottone R., UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture. Available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2253.
"Why the Buddhas of Bamian were destroyed" by Michael Semple, who was personally involved in negotiations to try to save the Buddhas.
An 1833 sketch of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by Alexander Burnes.
"From Ruins of Afghan Buddhas, a History Grows" by Carlotta Gall for the New York Times,  Dec. 6, 2006. NYT article from 2006 about international archeologists examining the ruins of the Buddhas and speculating about possible reconstruction plans.
A collection of other drawings and photos showing the Buddhas. 
A timeline of the US invasion, occupation, and departure from Afghanistan including mentions of fighting in and around Bamiyan.
An article from late July 2021 about fighting between Taliban and government forces in and near Bamiyan.

Miniaturization of Technology:

Chemistry-specific definition of "particle." 
Wikipedia pages for miniaturization, transistor counts (great chart), integrated circuits, surface-mount technology, and Moore's Law.
How Stuff Works page for the transistor.
Wikipedia page for the transistor radio.
For more on Sony, transistor radios, the Walkman, and the sales of small, Japanese, consumer electronics in the US, check out this book chapter:
Alt, Matt. “5 - Plugging In and Dropping Out.” Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World, Penguin Random House, New York, NY, 2020, pp. 131–160.
US Government report about the contemporary state of miniaturization technologies: U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Miniaturization Technologies, OTA-TCT-514 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, November 1991). Accessible at: https://ota.fas.org/reports/9129.pdf 
Semiconductor History Museum of Japan website. Very detailed and often very technical, with different topics broken down into timelines. Of particular interest, Japanese improvements to photolithography in the early 1980s (the Wikipedia page on photolithography has some helpful and easy to follow diagrams of the simplified process).
"Molecular computers - tomorrow's technology?" by Leroy Cronin, and Hamera Abbas, 31 December 2006, for the Royal Society of Chemistry - Education in Chemistry website.
Pages from IBM, Wikipedia, and the University of Waterloo, Canada, about quantum computing.
"What Makes Quantum Computing So Hard to Explain?" by Scott Aaronson, June 8, 2021, for Quanta Magazine.
Article about the latest, record-breakingly tiny chip from IBM: Brown, Dalvin. “IBM Says New Ultradense Microchip Might One Day Quadruple Your Cellphone’s Battery Life.” The Washington Post, 12 May 2021. 

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.
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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 gundampodcast@gmail.com

1.23: 1.23 - Battle in the Age of Mobile Suits

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