Mobile Suit Breakdown: the Gundam Podcast
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.
Episodes
Show Notes
In the Interlude this week, does Yugoslavia still matter? Does it still matter for Gundam in 1994? Plus, back in Yugoslavia: Stalin pulls a top ten anime betrayal (which might even be a Top Ten Stalin Betrayal, a much more competitive field), Yugoslavia proves itself a strange kind of beast, Ante Pavelić is more the slippery kind, and this podcast still isn't about Prince Paul.
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, ...
Show Notes
This week on MSB, G Gundam sets an unprecedented pace that would put the Shrikes to shame, Nina raises some interesting questions about the timeline, Thom dishes of scientific facts, and Domon takes a leap of faith. Ready? Go!
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...
Show Notes
This week on MSB: your hosts are shocked, dismayed, horrified by a sudden and entirely unexpected betrayal, a beloved Victory Gundam character makes a cameo, Rain reminds us that she's always got the right tool for every scenario, and Domon keeps one eye on the clock.
Ready? Go!
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Del...
Show Notes
This week on MSB, Domon walks into the most obvious trap in history and suffers a series of betrayals that will leave you shocked to your core... or they might have if the opening narration hadn't given the whole thing away! What evil lurks behind the mysterious new Mobile Fighter and its Darkness Finger? Nina and Thom are on the case, but first they have to decide whether it looks more like a...
Show Notes
This week on MSB: monarchs hate him! This former locksmith has ten weird tricks to win a crushing landslide election. Number five will amaze you!
The fourth of our Yugoslav Interlude episodes sees the Communist Party of Yugoslavia enjoying two impressive electoral achievements separated by 20 years in the political wilderness. Meanwhile, King Peter discovers the limits of royal influence, Stalin makes things eas...
Show Notes
This week on MSB, Tokyo is threatened by a menace from the sea! No, not Godzilla. No, not the lost undersea Empire of Mu or a stolen high tech submarine. And no, it's not angels either. It's cyber zombie skeleton horses!
But it's not all doom and gloom. Domon finds something he's been missing, Rain gets through a whole episode without being kidnapped, Urube and Dr. Mikamura get what they want from the governmen...
Show Notes
This week on MSB, falling rain is like the tears of the gods, bringing blessings to the thirsty earth... but no amount of water can wash away the pain of the past. When a fallen umbrella brings about an unexpected reunion in Istanbul, Rain Mikamura's resolve is tested. Tune in to this very special episode of Mobile Suit Breakdown to hear all about it.
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced with...
Show Notes
This week on MSB, a specter is haunting Neo Egypt: the specter of com-mummy-nism! Hang on, that doesn't sound right... As the specter of Dahal Muhammad hunts Sai Saichi and memories of the Devil Gundam continue to haunt Domon Kasshu, Thom takes solace in the coolness of the robots while Nina takes the show to task for its clumsy attempts to vary the tone. Then in the research, Nina traces the Dragon Gundam's new...
Show Notes
This week on MSB: the third of our dedicated Yugoslavia episodes! In this installment, we look at two Croatian members of Peter II's royal government, Vladko Maček and Ivan Šubašić, who spent their careers struggling in vain to find a compromise between Serbian ambition and Croatian independence. The war would catapult one to a position of power he never expected and cast the other into the depths of despair. Re...
Show Notes
This week on MSB, Gundam Fighters never die they just fade away (in the arms of a beautiful woman). A new Ramba Ral shows Domon the fate of a Fighter (or maybe he's a new Duker Iq trying to revive the lost art of shooting and the guns of the middle ages? It's hard to keep track), a new Hamon Crowley proves Rain isn't the only gadgeteer on the sidelines of the Gundam Fight, Thom sees a robot that is cool, and Nin...
Show Notes
This week on MSB, we're celebrating 8 episode of G Gundam with a romantic trip to Niagara Falls followed by an extended stay in a cozy log cabin in the Rockies. I just hope we don't run into any scary Canadian bears in woods... Plus stick around for Nina's profile of Seki Tomokazu (関 智一), the newbie Japanese voice actor who got his big break playing Domon Kasshu.
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and p...
Show Notes
With apologies for the delay, this week's episode takes us (back) to Mexico for a spy-thriller as Secret Agent Bunny and Team Chibodee pursue a missing Gundam Fighter and his dying sister. Also Domon is there for the usual reason. Plus, your stalwart podcast hosts are joined by none other than Bluesky's favorite Char Aznable superfan, Pike! Ready? Go!
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced with...
Show Notes
Note: for copyright reasons this episode does not include any audio of 4'33", composed by John Cage - you will need to find your own version to listen alongside this track. Start both at the same time in order to make sure our commentary is appropriately synced to the song.
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware,...
Show Notes
This week on MSB: the second of our dedicated Yugoslavia episodes! In this installment, we return to London to meet the gang of "discredited and out of date politicians" who made up King Peter II's government-in-exile, and find out how they kept themselves busy during the war years. Ready? Go!
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the ...
Show Notes
This week on MSB we're covering G Gundam episode 6 as the show finally sees fit to dump a big vat of mouthwatering main plot stew all over us. What deep emotional currents run beneath the seemingly placid surface of Domon Kasshu? Why was he really chosen to pilot the Shining Gundam? Who is the man in the photograph? Is his mother's cooking actually that good? And what exactly was going on in the real Japan aroun...
Show Notes
This week on MSB we cover G Gundam Episode 5 and a shocking revelation about how Rain got her position on Team Neo Japan, the cunningly-disguised real inspiration for Argo's prison, Foucault's Gundam Fight, a reasonable critique of Domon's problem solving methods, and much more. Ready? Go!
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lena...
Show Notes
This week on MSB, we're covering G Gundam episode 4 which means talking about [BLEEP]ed up Eiffel Towers, easy-listening pop, the Special Period in Cuba, what it takes to be a successful investment banker, national fandoms, and much more! Ready? Go!
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European ...
Show Notes
This week we take a break from our regular coverage of G Gundam to return to a research topic that will remain salient throughout the 90s Gundam era: the violent breakup of Yugoslavia and the history that led up to it. In Part 1, Thom picks up the story during World War II, as the old powers of the world begin to come to terms with the increasing inevitability of a Partisan and Communist victory, and gives a pro...
Show Notes
This week on MSB, we're visiting the ferocious world of wuxia action as Domon and a mysterious wandering chef follow the wreckage-strewn path of Neo China's Dragon Gundam and the Gundam Fighter Sai Saici. Plus theatrical fight director and martial artist Sean Michael Chin joins us to discuss megazords, how G Gundam resembles Westerns, the real purpose of a transformation scene, and a character who really isn't w...
Show Notes
This week on MSB: prog rock, MTV VJs (that's Video DJ for any youngsters in the audience), a science fiction double feature, something even more evil than Ticketmaster, the greatest and only city in the world, and just a little bit of G Gundam. Plus, Nina reports back on three whole episodes of Gundam you've almost certainly never seen!
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking...
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