In Part 2 of our 3rd Anniversary ranking celebration, we’re diving deep into the amazingly rich waters of Gundam music! The songs and soundtracks for Gundam have always been one of our favorite parts of this franchise, and a ubiquitous topic of conversation with every show we cover, and having reviewed all the Gundam, it’s time to rank all the music! First we count down our Top 10 favorite Gundam Soundtracks – the scores, or background music, composed for the various shows and movies – and then it’s time to talk about songs. We rank our Top 10 favorite songs from the shows we reviewed over the last year, and then update our list of all-time favorite Gundam songs with our own individual Top 40 Songs lists! (Which we have made playlists of on YouTube, so you can listen to our lists like we’ve DJ’d our own Gundam radio stations!)

Enjoy, and come back soon for Part 3, where we’ll be ranking the best Mobile Suits, characters, and MUCH more, including fun and silly lists suggested by YOU the listeners!

Jonathan’s Top 40 Gundam Songs – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk08eaY2eGd991aJ6BmqzsYIDEnUba-ZM

Sean’s Top 40 Gundam Songs – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk08eaY2eGd9UwNYWBVQOMh4pS2HpDFL1

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

It’s been three whole years since we started this podcast, watching just two episodes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam for our first show – and three years later, we’ve watched over 800 episodes of Gundam and reviewed every series in the pantheon. So for this year’s celebration, we’re not just ranking the shows we reviewed in the past year – though we do that as well – but ranking every Gundam show, with Sean and Jonathan sharing their individual lists before debating and coming to a consensus on an official Weekly Suit Gundam ranking of all 33 Gundam shows/OVAs/movies we’ve covered on this show. It’s the moment you’ve been waiting three whole years for. What’s the best Gundam show? What’s the worst? By the end of today’s podcast, you’ll have the definitive answers on these questions and more!

Enjoy, and come back soon for Parts 2 and 3 of our 3rd anniversary festivities, where we’ll be ranking the best Gundam songs, soundtracks, Mobile Suits, characters, and MUCH more, including fun and silly lists suggested by YOU the listeners!

And be sure to check out the very special 10th anniversary special of our other long-running podcast, The Weekly Stuff, which is premiering Monday, June 13th at 10:00 am and has a special Gundam component! https://youtu.be/21eM2T-63Vs

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

Today we settle all Gundam business by reviewing two ONA (original net animation) series that are the last mainline Gundam titles we’ve yet left un-reviewed. Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, based on the manga by Yasuo Ohtagaki, aired from 2015 to 2017 and was collected into 2 films, December Sky and Bandit Flower, and it’s a fascinating, frequently rousing production, if also one that’s messy and incomplete. With detailed over-the-top action scored to incredible jazz music by Naruyoshi Kikuchi and a series of faux-pop oldies representing rival protagonists Io Fleming and Daryl Lorenz, Thunderbolt is a synesthetic marvel – but it’s also barreling through 7 volumes of manga in a scant 2.5 hours, and with no new episodes in 5 years, it’s an entirely unfinished project. Twilight Axis, on the other hand, is finished – but it’s very slight, a series of short ONA episodes collected into a 26-minute movie, loosely adapting a series of light novels into an impressionistic-at-best, confusing-and-vestigial-at-worst short film.

Enjoy, and come back on June 10th for our Weekly Suit Gundam 3rd Anniversary celebration, where we’ll be ranking ALL the shows in the Gundam franchise.

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

In the most pleasantly surprising qualitative whiplash we’ve ever seen, Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE follows the franchise low-point of Gundam Build Divers with a smart, soulful, exciting, and all-around excellent anime that is nearly as great as the original show is bad. Following a new group of characters – the BUILD DiVERS, distinguished by one lowercase ‘i’ – Re:RISE immediately distinguishes itself with a deeply human and compelling protagonist, Hiroto Kuga, and a fantastic group of supporting characters, all on a wild adventure that combines the video game isekai tropes the first show tried but failed at, a more traditional fantasy isekai journey to another world, and even dashes of other non-Build Gundam shows with heroes, villains, and major life-and-death stakes. Along the way, it tackles issues of grief, trauma, identity, and how we mediate relationships and experiences between the virtual and ‘real’ worlds, all in a handsome package that is equal parts entertaining and moving. Re:RISE is the last full Gundam show made to date, and we couldn’t ask for much more of the series that catches this podcast up to the franchise’s present day.

Enjoy, and come back next week for our review of the Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt anime with the movies December Sky and Bandit Flower!

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

After the highs of Gundam: The Origin, we’re going very far in the opposite direction to scrape the bottom of the Gundam barrel with 2018’s Gundam Build Divers, in contention with G-Saviour as the worst thing we’ve yet discussed on Weekly Suit Gundam. Capitalizing on the Sword Art Online-inspired Isekai craze of the 2010s, Gundam Build Divers takes the Gunpla action out of the real world and into a very boring virtual reality, without really understanding what makes Isekai shows or the prior Build Fighters series fun in the first place. With amazingly low stakes, wildly inconsistent world building, nary an interesting character in sight, and a final arc that goes from zero to bananas in record time (and not in a good way), Gundam Build Divers is the nadir of animated Gundam. It’s a show you absolutely shouldn’t watch, but it makes for a fun podcast you should listen to even if you haven’t.

Enjoy, and come back in two weeks for our review of the follow-up series – which you’ve all promised us is better – Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise.

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

After breaking down all six episodes of the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA series, we’re back for one more Origin discussion to talk all about the manga by the legendary Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. Serialized over a full decade, Yasuhiko’s manga is a virtuoso ‘comicalization’ of the original Gundam anime, realized in loving detail with some of the most incredible art one will ever lay eyes on. The ‘flashback arc’ from the middle of the manga was adapted for the OVA, but there’s much more material here, and for this episode, we talk about how Yasuhiko’s telling compares to the original TV series, what changes we like or dislike, and why Yasuhiko’s heavily ‘decompressed’ style is so immersive and involving. This manga is one of the best and most singular corners of the entire Gundam universe, and is more than deserving than the episode we devote to it here.

Enjoy, and come back in April as we journey forth to the next Gundam TV series, Gundam Build Divers!

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

With the hotly anticipated Season 2 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba having drawn to a close in Japan two weeks ago, we finally caught up with the astonishing run of episodes comprising the series’ “Entertainment District” Arc, which may just be the most impressively produced set of TV animation episodes we’ve ever seen. We spend a good long time gushing over the animation, the direction, the music, the voice acting, the characters, and everything else we can think to discuss about one of the best Shōnen anime ever made.

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

Gundam: The Origin comes to a spectacular end with its sixth and final installment, “Rise of the Red Comet,” in which Zeon decimates the Earth Federation at the Battle of Loum, Char Aznable becomes a legend, and General Johann Ibrahim Revil delivers a speech that will change the course of human history. It’s a great episode, one part space naval epic, another part political espionage thriller, with a rousing closing act that brings us right to the doorstep of the original Mobile Suit Gundam with unforgettable aplomb. And along the way, there’s plenty to discuss, debate, and gush over as we bring our journey through this outstanding OVA series to a close.

Enjoy, and come back next week for one more Gundam The Origin chat, as we discuss our thoughts on the rest of the Yoshikazu Yasuhiko manga!

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

With Part V of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Clash at Loum – this outstanding OVA delivers not only its finest episode, but one of the single most memorable and powerful installments in the 40-year history of Gundam. Dramatizing Zeon’s disastrous colony drop operation, Sayla Mass making a stand at Side 5, Ramba Ral and Crowley Hamon bemoaning the loss of a world that’s passed them by, and Char Aznable taking the final, ultimate step towards becoming the legendary Red Comet, this episode is absolutely overflowing with pantheon-level sequences that are among the greatest Gundam has ever given us, all combining to paint a deeply affecting portrait of a world spun entirely out of control. This is as good as it gets.

Enjoy, and come back next week for the dramatic conclusion to Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin – Rise of the Red Comet!

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

Eve of Destiny, Part IV of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, is a messier installment than others in this series, failing to find as clear or compelling a through-line as prior or upcoming episodes, and taking a weird jump in the middle that feels like a key piece of story is missing. That said, it’s still a highly entertaining part of this terrific series, featuring the first meeting between Char and Lalah, a powerful ending scene with Amuro and Fraw Bow, and an absolutely dynamite centerpiece action sequence on the moon, where mobile suits go into combat for the first time in the history of the Universal Century. There’s more than enough here to discuss and enjoy, even if it’s all something of a stepping stone to some of The Origin’s best material yet to come.

Enjoy, and come back next week for Part V of The Origin, Clash at Loum!

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman

WeeklySuitGundam.Com

http://weeklystuffpodcast.com