Mobile Suit Breakdown: the Gundam Podcast

By Nina & ThomTV & Film Leisure Animation & Manga Film History

Mobile Suit Breakdown: the Gundam Podcast episodes

January 15, 20225.2: The GMs of Navarone
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 [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 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 [email protected]
1 hr 15 min
January 08, 20225.1: Passing the Torch
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 [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]
1 hr 6 min
December 25, 2021Radio Drama for Season 4: Content Creators of Axis
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 [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]
35 min
December 18, 20214.7: On the Other Side of Darkness
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 [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]
2 hr 30 min
December 11, 20214.6: Committing Thousands of Sins
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.
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]
1 hr 53 min
December 04, 20214.5: You Belong to Me, I Belong to You, We Belong to Earth
Show Notes
Holidays or not, we're back with another episode! This time we're joined by long time friend of the show, and neuropsychology consultant, Dr. Shar! She returns to the program to discuss the psychologies of the many deeply broken people at the heart of Char's Counterattack.
This episode also features a collaboration between MSB and Matteo Watz of anime research and analysis blog Animétudes!
Beltorchika's Children:
Tomino Yoshiyuki, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack - Beltorchika's Children (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). Kadokawa Shoten Sneaker Bunko. Feb. 2, 1988.
Char's Counterattack Production:
Matteo Watz (aka @Animétudes)'s article, "The animation of Char’s Counterattack."
Izubuchi Yutaka (出渕裕)'s Wikipedia pages (English and Japanese) and Anime News Network encyclopedia page (ANN).
ANN reporting on the Yutaka Izubuchi Focus Panel at Anime Expo 2006, by Sean Broestl.
Masuo Shouichi (増尾昭一)'s Japanese Wikipedia page and ANN encyclopedia page.
ANN obituary for Masuo Shouichi (増尾昭一).
Kitazume Hiroyuki (北爪宏幸)'s Wikipedia pages (English and Japanese) and ANN encyclopedia page.
Yasuomi Umetsu (梅津泰臣)'s Wikipedia pages (English and Japanese) and ANN encyclopedia page.
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]
1 hr 42 min
November 27, 20214.4: More Than Peace, More Than Freedom, More Than Justice... All I Want Is You
Show Notes
This week we're joined by two returning guests, costume designer Sarah McCostumes and theatrical mask consultant Sean DMR to talk about costuming, mobile suits, and what the aesthetics of Char's Counterattack can tell us about the characters, the world, and the story. Plus in the research Thom looks at Char's iconography and tries to trace its origins.
Char's Iconography
Background on Prussian-style Collars:
Prussian uniforms (including various Zeon-esque collars) - “The Waffenfrock 1842-1895” from Kaiser’s Bunker.
Imperial Japanese Army uniforms during the Russo-Japanese War (showing the contrast collar borrowed from the Prussians).
Influence of Prussian military uniform helmets in Latin America, by Ricardo Jara Franco. Aug. 18, 2011. Available at http://pickelhauben.net/old-site/articles/latin_America.html
Martin, Bernd, and Peter Wetzler. “The German Role in the Modernization of Japan — The Pitfall of Blind Acculturation.” Oriens Extremus 33, no. 1 (1990): 77–88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24048466
Wikipedia page on the uniforms of the Imperial Japanese Army.
General background on Eagles as symbols:
“Eagle,” from Heraldsnet.org, an online glossary of heraldric elements.
Wikipedia pages for eagles in heraldry, the national emblem of Indonesia, the Roman aquila, and the Shahbaz (the fabled eagle-like creature used in Achaemenid iconography).
An overview about the role of eagles in different Native American cultures, with links to other sources.
The Warrior and the Eagle, an old Lenape legend.
“The Bald Eagle, Creature of Nature and an American Symbol” by Ellen Terrell for the Library of Congress. June 27, 2019. Available at https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2019/06/the-bald-eagle-creature-of-nature-and-an-american-symbol/.
The Reichsadler:
Wikipedia pages for the Reichsadler, the coat of arms of Austria, and the coat of arms of Germany.
German text of the Imperial Rescript of August 3rd, 1871.
“When is a German eagle a Nazi eagle?” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 2, 2016. Mirrored here.
Flags of Nazi Germany, including ‘Podiumflaggen’ (podium flags).
“Political and Civil Flags of the Third Reich 1932-1945,” by Pete Loeser.
“The Nazi Eagles of Berlin,” from Digital Cosmonaut, documenting surviving depictions of the Reichsadler and Parteiadler in Berlin today.
“The Federal Eagle,” published by Deutscher Bundestag (German Federal Parliament).
Katou Tateo (_加藤建夫) and the 64th Sentai_:
Wikipedia pages for Katou Tateo (加藤建夫), and the propaganda film about Katou's squadron (Englishand Japanese).
A forum thread featuring numerous historical photos of Katou's emblem on planes of the 64th Sentai.
The opening to the propaganda film about Katou's squadron, featuring the song and a version of the eagle emblem.
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]
1 hr 48 min
November 20, 20214.3: The Cobalt Blue Planet
Show Notes
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]
0 min
November 13, 20214.2: Inescapable Moebius Loop
Show Notes
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]
3 hr 11 min
November 13, 2021 Season 4 Extra: The History of the Universal Century So Far (Char's Counterattack Edition)
Show Notes
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]
18 min

About Mobile Suit Breakdown: the Gundam Podcast

From the publisher's feed

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…