Released in seven parts from 2010 to 2014, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn is an extravagant OVA sequel to the original saga of Universal Century Gundam, set three years after Char’s Counterattack and engaging in a direct, deeply thoughtful dialogue with the major themes and ideas of the franchise’s 70s and 80s output. It’s also a spectacular production, with movie-caliber animation, an all-time great score by Hiroyuki Sawano, and some of the greatest mobile suit action the franchise has ever seen. We dive deep with the series on this week’s show, while also touching upon Unicorn’s own movie sequel, Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative, the 2018 film that stands as the most recent entry in the Universal Century canon. 

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

After a few weeks away from the main podcast, Sean and Jonathan are both back for a fun, oftentimes extremely silly episode. We review Platinum Games’ Astral Chain for the Nintendo Switch and Remedy’s Control for PS4 and Xbox, but also debate whether Goku or Superman would win in a fight, taste test a new mystery Mountain Dew flavor live on the air, hear a list of fact checks from Sean on Jonathan’s Nintendo Direct comments on last week’s bonus podcast, and there may or may not also be an impromptu dramatic reading of Joe Biden’s viral ‘Corn Pop’ speech. So yeah. It’s a weird one, and I’d say we sent out the 200s with a bang. 

Enjoy, and onwards to Episode 300!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:22

Stuff: 0:04:22 – 0:26:08

Sean Fact Checks Jonathan: 0:26:08 – 0:56:09

Astral Chain: 0:56:09 – 1:20:50

Control: 1:20:50 – 1:52:27

Dramatic Corn Pop Reading: 1:52:27 – 2:08:25

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

The original saga of Mobile Suit Gundam reaches its spectacular climax with Char’s Counterattack, the 1988 theatrical film that reunites Char Aznable and Amuro Ray for one final conflict, and sees Yoshiyuki Tomino and company bringing these characters, their story, and the major themes of the series up to now home with astonishing aplomb. As the first original movie in the franchise’s history, Char’s Counterattack boasts incredible production values and some of the greatest animation we’ve ever seen, but it’s also a deeply intelligent, incredibly thoughtful capper to all the big ideas, character arcs, and interpersonal conflicts broached in the original three TV series. And after spending so much time talking about the ingenious character creation that is Char, this movie gives us ample opportunity to put the character and his complex evolution in context, leading to one of the best conversations we’ve had about Gundam so far.

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Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

Sean couldn’t record this week, and we didn’t want to let this week’s exciting, jam-packed surprise Nintendo Direct go unremarked upon for another week, so Jonathan grabbed the mic to do a quick solo podcast – and a surprise last minute guest was able to join! Along with his brother Thomas, recording from Japan, we break down every major announcement from the Nintendo Direct, from the reveal of another Smash Bros. fighter to a whole lot of ports, to the Super NES finally coming to Nintendo Switch Online, and much more!

Enjoy, and if you want a full podcast with Sean this week, be sure to listen to tomorrow’s new episode of Weekly Suit Gundam, our special bonus Mobile Suit Gundam podcast.

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

After the abject darkness that was the ending of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, we come out on the other side to review and discuss its immediate successor, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, a show that appears lighter at first glance…but is it? ZZ has a bad reputation among Western fans, but we’d argue it’s a deeply misunderstood and underappreciated gem, an essential follow-up to Zeta Gundam that masterfully shifts the franchise’s POV, boasts stunning visuals from start to finish, and is chock full of great characters, both heroes and villains alike. As the final TV entry in the initial Gundam trilogy, it wraps up the first saga of the Universal Century with aplomb, challenging much of what we thought we know and taking the series to bold, compelling new places along the way. It’s not one to miss, and this jam-packed discussion is a lot of fun.

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

It’s an absolute explosion of entertainment news this week, with Spider-Man getting a divorce from the MCU, WB relaunching The Matrix franchise 20 years after the original, the unveiling of the Breaking Bad movie El Camino, Gamescom underway in Germany, Disney showing off all sorts of Star Wars, Marvel, and various animated and live-action content for the Disney+ streaming platform and theatres, and Sony losing their fifth Uncharted director in a decade-plus of trying to bring the game series to the screen. We go over all of that, talk about the time Bruce Springsteen almost had a song play in a Harry Potter movie, and much more in this jam-packed installment of the podcast.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:06:41

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Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

In this episode, Weekly Suit Gundam goes beyond its original missive of reviewing the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam by jumping ahead for a deep dive with the second series in the Gundam franchise, and one of the most beloved: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, the sequel set in 0087 that sees new protagonist Kamille Bidan joining forces with the AEUG – and several familiar faces, including the mysterious, sunglass-wearing Quattro Bajeena – to fight against the fascistic takeover of the Earth Federation by the evil Titans. Now that Jonathan’s binged the entire 50-episode series in just over a week, we have a lot to talk about, from how beautifully this series functions as a bold, thoughtful sequel to the original, to its blend of new and returning characters, to how impactfully its political content resonates with our current moment. It’s one of the greatest anime series of all time – with as dark an ending as you’re ever likely to see – and that’s more than enough for a packed episode’s worth of discussion.

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Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

As summer comes to a close and our non-podcast lives get busy again, it’s a shorter podcast this week, centered around Jonathan’s thoughts after 70 hours of Fire Emblem: Three Houses on Nintendo Switch. It’s a very good game, great in many ways, and has many ‘series best’ superlative qualities. Why, then, does Jonathan feel so conflicted about it after playing so much? There’s a lot to break down and it makes up the bulk of the episode (all spoiler free), but we also make time for a few exciting pieces of housekeeping – the podcast is now on Spotify! – and Sean talks about rewatching Neon Genesis Evangelion on Netflix only to find that it’s more problematic than he remembered.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:09:17

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

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Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

Our first ‘season’ of Weekly Suit Gundam comes to a close with a big, fun, celebratory ‘wrap-up’ episode. For our main topic, we discuss the series of theatrical films, released between 1981 and 1982, that compiled and reworked the original Mobile Suit Gundam into a surprisingly effective film trilogy that saved the series from its initial lack of popularity and helped launch the franchise into the stratosphere. That’s a great discussion in and of itself, but it’s not all! We also briefly review all the other One-Year War series – Gundam: The Origin, War in the Pocket, The 08th MS Team, and Thunderbolt – talk about some Gundam manga and books, and count down the Top 10 Best Mobile Suits, Best Character Names, and Greatest Episodes of the original series. It’s a fun, jam-packed episode saluting one of the best anime series of all time, and a fitting celebration for Gundam’s 40th anniversary.

Enjoy, and stick around to the end, because while this may be the end of what we planned to do with Weekly Suit Gundam, it’s certainly not the last you’ve heard of our Gundam talks.

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Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

It’s the final stretch of Mobile Suit Gundam – episodes 39 through 43 – and if you thought a mere five episodes wouldn’t be enough to fill a full installment of this podcast, you clearly haven’t seen the absurdly jam-packed final push of this incredible show. With the strange, metaphysical concept of ‘Newtypes’ taking center stage, Gundam’s closing episodes are both its most action-packed and its most boldly experimental, as Amuro comes fully into his new abilities and Char tries to harness the powers of the mysterious Lalah Sune. It wasn’t exactly the ending creator Yoshiyuki Tomino and company had in mind – the series was cut from 52 to 43 episodes, with these final five installments having to tell a much-condensed version of a longer original game plan – but as we argue here, it’s nonetheless a stirring, pitch-perfect ending to this all-time great anime, and one worth the deep dive we give it here.

Enjoy, and come back next time for our final episode (for now!) of Weekly Suit Gundam, where we’ll be talking the compilation movie trilogy from 1981-1982 that sent Gundam’s popularity into the stratosphere.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman