Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON!

Ahead of the release of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in North American theaters this Friday, we’re bringing you three special bonus episodes all about Dragon Ball, originally recorded in 2019 for The Weekly Stuff Podcast. In today’s episode, we look back on the three Dragon Ball Z movies from the 90s that introduced the iconic – if not always entertaining – character Broly, the legendary Super Saiyan. Before he was successfully reinvented by Akira Toriyama himself for the 2018 Dragon Ball Super film, Broly was a monosyllabic buff dude who mostly shouted “KAKAROTTO!!” and punched things before being beaten in an 11th-hour deus ex machina, and his films – DBZ Movies 8, 10, and 11 – are mostly duds, albeit ones that are very entertaining to talk about. It’s a conversation we very much enjoyed having back in the day, before we knew how much we’d love Broly coming out of the Dragon Ball Super film, and we’re happy to share it with Japanimation Station listeners today. Enjoy, and come back tomorrow for our final Dragon Ball bonus as we review the Dragon Ball Super: Broly film and see how Broly got his groove back! Follow us on Twitter @JapanimationPod Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman JapanimationStation.Com WeeklySuitGundam.Com WeeklyStuffPodcast.Com

Ahead of the release of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in North American theaters this Friday, we’re bringing you three special bonus episodes all about Dragon Ball, originally recorded in 2019 for The Weekly Stuff Podcast. In today’s episode, we’re talking all about Dragon Ball Super, the TV series that aired between 2015 and 2018, building off the Battle of Gods and Resurrection ‘F’ films to expand the world of Dragon Ball into whole new Universes! In this podcast, Sean and Jonathan break down all the major Super arcs, from the rough early episodes retelling the prior films, to the big three anime-original arcs: the Universe 6 vs Universe 7 tournament, the Future Trunks arc, and the giant ‘Universe Survival’ arc that pitted all 12 universe’s best fighters against one another in a crazy battle royale. It’s an imperfect series, but one we really enjoyed, especially in its outstanding second half, and it’s such a blast to talk about. Follow us on Twitter @JapanimationPod Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman JapanimationStation.Com WeeklySuitGundam.Com WeeklyStuffPodcast.Com

This is the last episode of JAPANIMATION STATION we'll be sharing in the Weekly Suit Gundam feed for now, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the new podcast feed on your platform of choice. All links can be found at JapanimationStation.Com or by searching in your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening! The first Fullmetal Alchemist anime comes to its ultimate conclusion in the 2005 feature film Conqueror of Shamballa, a narratively messy but beautifully made movie that showcases the best and the worst that this ‘alternate’ version of Fullmetal Alchemist has to offer. With Edward Elric lost in ‘our’ world on the other side of the gate, Conqueror of Shamballa is set primarily in 1923 Germany on the eve of the Nazi Party’s ‘Beer Hall Putsch,’ with Ed navigating a society on the brink of collapse into genocidal fascism. It’s a fascinating and often quite effective setting, while the action back in Amestris – where Alphonse Elric, back in his human body, is searching for a way to get back to his brother – feels pretty threadbare. The worlds eventually collide, and we see how Seiji Mizushima and company bring this version of the story to a close, with Sean and Jonathan giving their final thoughts on how the 2003 version of Fullmetal Alchemist stands the test of time nearly 20 years later. Enjoy, and come back throughout the week for a series of Dragon Ball bonus episodes leading up to the American release – and our review of – the new film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Follow us on Twitter @JapanimationPod Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman JapanimationStation.Com WeeklySuitGundam.Com WeeklyStuffPodcast.Com

We're sharing the first few episodes of JAPANIMATION STATION here in the Weekly Suit Gundam feed, but be sure to subscribe to the new podcast feed on your platform of choice. All links can be found at JapanimationStation.Com or by searching in your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening! For our first anime subject, we’re diving into the world of Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist, starting with the 2003 anime that partially adapted the then-young manga before branching off into an increasingly divergent anime-original story. While it was a huge and acclaimed hit, in Japan and abroad, at the time of release, the show has a more controversial reputation now, years after Arakawa’s manga was completed and faithfully re-adapted as Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Sean and Jonathan are coming at the 2003 series from wildly different directions – Jonathan a lifelong fan who started with this anime as a kid, and Sean only recently having read the manga without ever seeing either anime – so our perspectives inherently diverge. But if there’s one thing we clearly agree on, it’s that this is a fascinating show very much worth talking about. Whether one loves it or hates it, it’s clearly more than an outdated curio, and we think you, like us, will come away from this conversation with a greater appreciation for all versions of Fullmetal Alchemist. Enjoy, and come back next week as our journey through Amestris continues with our review of the Fullmetal Alchemist movie sequel, Conqueror of Shamballa! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Follow us on Twitter @JapanimationPod Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman JapanimationStation.Com WeeklySuitGundam.Com WeeklyStuffPodcast.Com

For the debut episode of Japanimation Station, Sean Chapman and Jonathan Lack introduce themselves and host a spirited discussion about how they got into anime, how their fandoms and interests have evolved over the years, what makes animation special in the first place, and why anime in particular is the thing we find so interesting we had to make a whole podcast about it. You’ll learn about our backgrounds, our philosophies, our anime likes and dislikes, and much more as we introduce you to the foundational ideas of our show! And at the end, we share which 5 anime we would each take to a desert island if such a strange fate were to befall us. Enjoy, and come back next week for our first anime review with Fullmetal Alchemist, the original 2003 anime based on Hiromu Arakawa’s classic manga! Subscribe at JapanimationStation.Com to make sure you don’t miss a single episode! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Follow us on Twitter @JapanimationPod Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman JapanimationStation.Com WeeklySuitGundam.Com WeeklyStuffPodcast.Com

Jonathan Lack and Sean Chapman, hosts of the upcoming anime podcast Japanimation Station, speak with musician Thomas Lack, composer of the original theme song to Japanimation Station! Subscribe on all podcast platforms at http://JapanimationStation.Com Follow Japanimation Station on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JapanimationPod Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeanTheChapman Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theweeklystuffpodcast Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Original Music composed and produced by Thomas Lack

Both Gundam as a franchise and Weekly Suit Gundam as a podcast come full circle this week by returning to the world of First Gundam, with the brand-new movie set in the timeline of the original show, Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island! A remake of the infamous 15th episode of Mobile Suit Gundam – an episode with such a troubled production that creator Yoshiyuki Tomino has never allowed it to be distributed outside Japan – original Gundam character designer and animation supervisor Yoshikazu Yasuhiko returns as director to redeem this story of a Zeon deserter protecting war orphans on a deserted island. It’s an absolutely wonderful movie, as beautifully animated as one would expect from the great Yasuhiko, but also incredibly smart and soulful in its themes and storytelling, finding a particularly compelling story for original Gundam protagonist Amuro Ray, played again here – possibly for the last time – by a never-better Tōru Furuya. This is a great movie, and an absolute pleasure to discuss for our final Weekly Suit Gundam before the launch of Japanimation Station. Enjoy, and we’ll see you on the other side with the premiere of Japanimation Station on August 1st. Be sure to subscribe at http://japanimationstation.com 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

Hosts Jonathan Lack and Sean Chapman introduce you to the world of JAPANIMATION STATION, a new anime podcast from the creators of Weekly Suit Gundam and The Weekly Stuff Podcast. Subscribe on all podcast platforms at JapanimationStation.Com Follow us on Twitter @JapanimationStation Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

When our other, ‘mothership’ podcast, The Weekly Stuff, turned 10 years old last month, we celebrated with a whopping 10-hour podcast celebration, each hour devoted to a different topic we’ve covered over the years. One of those, of course, was Gundam, and we wanted to share that segment with Weekly Suit Gundam listeners as a standalone episode, because it’s a very fun conversation about a corner of the Gundam world we’ve never discussed before: SD Gundam! That’s right – on today’s show, we’re talking all about the super-deformed world of chibi Gundam comedy by looking at the original theatrical shorts from the late 80s and early 90s, including SD Gundam Mk. 1, Mk. 2, Mk. 4, and SD Gundam Counterattack! Do they hold up 30 years later? Are they funny? Are they weirdly offensive? Are they kind of boring and annoying? It depends! We talk all about it before finishing up the episode with a look at the insanely surreal FMV cutscenes from Gundam 0079: The War for Earth, an obscure but also kind of iconic ‘video game’ from 1996. Enjoy, and come back next week for our review of the new Gundam movie, Cucuruz Doan’s Island! Time Chart: Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:02:31 SD Gundam Mk. 1: 0:02:31 – 0:18:41 SD Gundam Mk. 2: 0:18:41 – 0:28:51 SD Gundam Counterattack: 0:28:51 – 0:33:07 SD Gundam Mk. 4: 0:33:07 – 0:45:39 Gundam 0079 – The War for Earth: 0:45:39 – 1:03:11 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 3rd and final part of our 3rd Anniversary ranking celebration, we’re ranking…well, almost everything! We start by listing our Top 10 favorite Mobile Suits from the last year’s worth of shows, our Top 10 Mobile Suits overall, our Top 10 favorite characters from across the franchise – and then it’s party time, as we deliver all the rankings requested by YOU, the listeners, including the best Gundam Boys, the best Captains, the best Char clones, the best Haros, the best deaths, and so much more! It’s a veritable cornucopia of Gundam rankings, and a great way to celebrate and close out 3 fantastic years of Weekly Suit Gundam. Enjoy, and listen to the end to hear exciting details about the future of Weekly Suit Gundam and our big plans for covering even more anime in the years to come! 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 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

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

A legend is born in Part III of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Dawn of Rebellion, which sees Casval Rem Deikun adopt – er, violently steal – the identity of Char Aznable, and gradually develop the colorful, calculating persona made so iconic in Gundam ’79. It’s one of the most entertaining episodes in the history of Gundam, an archetypal military academy story built on the foundation of Char’s twisted friendship with Garma Zabi, and all leading inexorably towards the horrors of the One-Year War. This is an hour full of moments we’ve been waiting literal years to talk about, and it couldn’t be more satisfying to finally discuss the installment in which Gundam’s greatest character fully steps into his own destined role in history. Enjoy, and come back next week for Part IV of The Origin, Eve of Destiny! 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

Our journey through the past of the Universal Century continues with Part II of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Artesia’s Sorrow. Picking up three years after Casval and Artesia fled their homeland of Munzo, the action picks up on Earth in 0071, where a young Edouard and Sayla Mass live peacefully with Don Teabolo Mass and Jimba Ral…for a time. Events conspire to rip peace away from the siblings time and again, and Sayla watches her brother harden into a cold man with the demeanor of a drawn knife. One of the most heart-wrenching installments in the Origin OVA series, Artesia’s Sorrow is a fantastic hour with more than enough to make it worth the full podcast treatment, and we once again find countless things to talk about breaking it down. Enjoy, and come back next week for Part III of The Origin, Dawn of Rebellion! 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

To kick off 2022, we’re starting our journey through Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, the 6-part theatrical OVA created between 2015 and 2018, based on Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s manga of the same name. And to give this great series the royal treatment it deserves, we’re covering it one episode at a time! For this week, we’re discussing Part I: Blue-Eyed Casval, where we return to Universal Century 0068 in the Republic of Munzo, where a young Casval Rem Deikun and his sister Artesia see the world thrown into chaos after the death of their father, the revolutionary leader Zeon Zum Deikun. With the scheming Zabi family angling for power, the Deikun children are taken in by Jimba Ral and his son Ramba, and Casval’s journey to become the Red Comet, Char Aznable, begins. It’s a great debut episode for one of the best prequel stories ever told, and a really fun way to kick off another year of Gundam podcasts. Enjoy, and come back next week for Part II of The Origin, Artesia’s Sorrow! 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

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all! At The Weekly Stuff Podcast, we have an ongoing tradition of extremely silly Christmas special episodes – from reviewing the hilariously terrible Pokemon Christmas Bash album in 2018 to performing an entire Western-themed Evangelical Christian rendering of A Christmas Carol in 2019 – and this year, we’re bringing that tradition to Weekly Suit Gundam! To celebrate the season, Jonathan has found several pieces (out of a surprisingly large sea of options) of Christmas-themed Mobile Suit Gundam fanfiction, set in the worlds of Gundam Wing, Gundam SEED, and Mobile Fighter G Gundam, and he surprises Sean on air by inviting him to read them out loud. A festive, flabbergasted, and altogether confusing time is had by all. Enjoy, have a very happy holiday, and come back in the new year as we begin our next voyage through the fantastic OVA Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin, one episode at a time! 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 safe to say we were big fans of the first season of Iron-Blooded Orphans here at Weekly Suit Gundam, and as the length of this podcast can attest, we are even more invested in the big thematic, narrative, and emotional swings the show takes in its second and final season. As it traces the fall of Tekkadan, Iron-Blooded Orphans challenges its characters and audience with a story that’s richer, more complicated, and intentionally structured very differently than the first season, with an absolutely knockout set of final episodes that cross many lines Gundam has never ventured past before, and somehow comes out on the other side seeing more hope in the world than the franchise has seen in its darkest hours. It’s an all-time great finish to a truly tremendous show, and even with an extra-long 4-hour podcast, there’s still so much that could be said about this modern masterpiece. Enjoy, and come back in the new year as we begin our next voyage through the fantastic OVA Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin, one episode at a time! 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

We finally arrive at the most recent mainline Gundam TV series – 2015’s global smash hit Iron-Blooded Orphans, created by the “Super Peace Busters” team of director Tatsuyuki Nagai and writer Mari Okada. Tackling the theme of child soldiers more directly than Gundam ever had before, Iron-Blooded Orphans is one of Gundam’s darkest and most violent hours, but also one of its richest and most rewarding, a unique blend of daily life coming-of-age storytelling with hard-edged military fiction that leaves a huge impact. Season 1, which we’re discussing today, follows the formation of the child-mercenary group Tekkadan – the eponymous Orphans with Iron in their Blood – and their journey to bring Martian independence activist Kudelia Aina Bernstein to Earth. It’s a stupendous season of television with tons to talk about, and a pleasure to finally reach and discuss on Weekly Suit Gundam. Enjoy, and come back in two weeks for our review of Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 2! 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

For the 35th anniversary of Mobile Suit Gundam, franchise creator Yoshiyuki Tomino returned for what is, as of now, his latest installment in the series: Reconguista in G, perhaps the strangest and unquestionably the most formally daring of all Gundam series. Dense, complicated, wildly fast-paced, and persistently challenging, Reconguista is a divisive entry among the global Gundam fandom, but here at Weekly Suit Gundam, we are in awe of it. There is simply nothing quite like Reconguista in G, which sees Tomino turning up all his thematic and stylistic interests to 11, resulting in one of the purest auteur statements in modern mainstream media. With the best action sequences in the history of Gundam, arguably franchise-best TV animation, amazing and vibrant characters, and a structure that practically re-invents the language of anime before your eyes, Reconguista in G is an endlessly rewarding artistic gauntlet, and one of the very finest shows we’ve had the pleasure of discussing in 40 episodes of Weekly Suit Gundam. Enjoy, and come back next time for Season 1 of the global hit Iron-Blooded Orphans! 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 reviewing the original Gundam Build Fighters and its sequel series Gundam Build Fighters Try on our last two episodes, it’s time to round out the original Build Fighters run by rounding-up the many OVAs related to this corner of the franchise. We begin with Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G, the 2010 OVA that first introduced the concept of a Gunpla Battle-based anime, and holds up surprisingly well on its own, with great animation and mecha designs and a whole lot of heart. Then there’s the 5 Battlogue episodes, providing quick bite stories set in the Build Fighters world, and apart from one memorable episode involving Bearguys getting crucified, there’s not much to talk about. Finally, Build Fighters Try gets a 30-minute sequel in Island Wars, and the original Build Fighters gets its own half-hour follow-up in GM’s Counterattack, which is an absolute delight. Discussing all of these and more makes for a very fun capper to our Build Fighters journey. Enjoy, and come back next time for the return of original Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino to the franchise with Reconguista in G! 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 huge success of the original Gundam Build Fighters, Sunrise turned around and produced a sequel in just six months – Gundam Build Fighters Try, set 7 years after the original with a new cast of Gunpla battlers. It’s a divisive show in the Gundam fandom, and on this podcast! Jonathan loves it, though not without some reservations, and Sean is mostly unmoved by it, despite liking certain things quite a bit. It makes for an interesting and dynamic discussion, as we break down the ways the show doesn’t live up to its predecessor and fails to follow through on its own interesting ideas, while also celebrating what’s genuinely good here. We also give our thoughts on the recent announcement of both the first new mainline Gundam series since Iron-Blooded Orphans, The Witch from Mercury, and a new film by original Gundam character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Cucuruz Doan’s Island, both of which ensure the Weekly Suit Gundam train won’t be stopping anytime soon. Enjoy, and come back next week when we review all the Gundam Build Fighters OVAs: Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G, Try Island Wars, GM’s Counterattack, and Battlogue! 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 2013’s Gundam Build Fighters, Gundam leaves the world of life-and-death warfare and science-fiction (mostly) behind, and instead settles in for a slice-of-life sports anime centered around the Gunpla plastic models that have long been one of the most beloved and popular parts of the franchise’s legacy. And in a wonderful surprise, it winds up being one of the franchise’s finest hours, a practically perfect 25-episode series chock full of great, vibrant characters, big laughs, awesome Gunpla designs, and truly rousing, get-on-your-feet-and-cheer caliber mobile suit duels. Whether you’re a Gundam novice or a grizzled veteran, Gundam Build Fighters has something for everyone. It’s as entertaining an anime as you’re likely to find, and maybe the most crowd-pleasing installment in the franchise’s stories history – and because of that, it’s a real treat to get to talk about here. Enjoy, and come back in two weeks for Gundam Build Fighters Try! 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

Almost two years ago, we took a little detour from Gundam to review Neon Genesis Evangelion upon its Netflix streaming debut, and promised that we’d come back to discuss Eva again if and when the 4-film Rebuild of Evangelion project was ever finished. And with the final film in Hideaki Anno’s lifelong passion project, Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time, now streaming worldwide (alongside the first three films) on Amazon Prime, we’re keeping our word and then some, with our longest Weekly Suit Gundam episode to date! We discuss all four films in the Rebuild project, diving deep into how these masterpieces fully realize the magic that was always there in Evangelion, but for us at least was held beneath the surface by frustrating and limiting creative choices in the original series. These are great, beautifully told, stunningly animated productions that give Shinji, Asuka, Rei, Misato, and everyone else the fully realized character arcs they’ve always deserved, and ends in a place that feels like Evangelion has finally found the conclusion it was always searching for. And that’s more than enough to fill a super-sized podcast. Enjoy, and come back in two weeks for GUNDAM BUILD FIGHTERS! 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 the end of an Age on today’s show as we finish reviewing Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, covering the 3rdand 4th arcs and episodes 29 through 49 of this severely underrated gem. This half of the show sees another jump to a new generation, as we join young Kio Asuno on his journey to learn the true nature of the Vegan and their world, reunite with his pirate father, and to bring his grandfather Flit back from the brink of his vengeful vendetta. It all builds to an outstanding conclusion, with a truly terrific set of final episodes that brings the series full circle in powerful fashion, and along the way we have all sorts of fun and interesting things to talk about, making for a great discussion about a Gundam series that deserves a much better reputation than it’s previously enjoyed. Enjoy, and come back in two weeks for a detour back to the world of Neon Genesis Evangelion as we review all 4 Rebuild of Evangelion movies! 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

Continuing on to the next full-length Gundam series, we reach Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, Sunrise’s 2011 collaboration with video game giant Level-5, whose lead creative Akihiro Hino conceived of and wrote this child-friendly Gundam series that spans 3 protagonists over 3 successive generations in a century-long space conflict. AGE did poorly upon its initial airing in Japan, and has suffered a quiet and often negative reputation in years since. But we don’t think that reputation is deserved – through its first two arcs, at least, AGE is an imperfect but extremely compelling show, with a really cool central narrative conceit, great characters, and some really interesting ideas that take Gundam to places it had never been before. At the very least, it’s a show worth giving a serious shot, and in this first part, covering Arcs 1 & 2 and episodes 1 through 28, we aim to do just that. Enjoy, and come back in two weeks for Part 2 of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, with episodes 29 – 49! 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

Premiering worldwide on Netflix this week after its debut in Japanese theaters last month, Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash is the first film in a planned trilogy adapting original Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s trio of novels from 1989-1990, following the exploits of Hathaway Noa 12 years after the events of Char’s Counterattack. And it’s a terrific start to this new film series, offering some of the best animation, music, set pieces, and writing in the history of the franchise. From Tomino’s characteristically rich writing to the complex and nuanced vocal performances to how this story fits into the larger cycle of Tomino’s original Gundam saga, Hathaway’s Flash offers so many rich avenues for discussion, making for a podcast that’s an hour longer than the film itself, and could have gone on much longer still. Enjoy, and come back in two weeks for Part 1 of our Mobile Suit Gundam AGE review, where we’ll cover Episodes 1 – 28! 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

Two years ago today, Weekly Suit Gundam was born, and what a wild ride it’s been! Just as we did on its first anniversary, we’re using the show’s birthday to take stock of everything we’ve reviewed up to now. With a particular focus on the “Year Two” shows – namely G Saviour, 0080: War in the Pocket, 0083: Stardust Memory, The 08thMS Team, Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, Gundam 00, and MS IGLOO – we rank the best mobile suits and best songs from the series we reviewed this year, and adjust our master rankings for those topics from last year’s anniversary show. For the main event, we each rank all 21 Gundam shows and movies we’ve reviewed these past two years, and then come together to create our complete, unified, official Weekly Suit Gundam series rankings thus far. With listener feedback, lots of reflections on the show’s second year, and a roadmap for year 3, today’s episode is a really fun trip down memory lane and a great start to the next, climactic phase of the series, as we inch closer to Gundam’s present day. Enjoy, and come back Monday, July 5thfor our review of Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway after it’s July 1st debut on Netflix! 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

This week, we have a quick little bonus episode for you, with an excerpt from this week’s Weekly Stuff Podcast, where we talked about two major pieces of Gundam news from the past few weeks: The announcement that Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway will be debuting worldwide on Netflix very soon, on July 1st, and the reveal of a brand new Gundam SEED movie coming from the original creative team. We knew both of these items would be of interest to listeners, so we thought we’d throw this excerpt in the podcast feed for those who don’t listen to the mothership show. And just to clarify the schedule for the immediate future, our next episode of Weekly Suit Gundam will be on Thursday, June 24th, and it’ll be our 2nd Anniversary Spectacular episode, where we’ll be adding all the shows we reviewed this part year to our official ongoing rankings, and list some of our favorite songs and mobile suits and more. It’ll be a lot of fun. And then the next episode after that will be our review of the Hathaway movie, which will come out on Monday, July 5th. And after that, we’re moving on to Gundam AGE. So lots of good stuff to come – and we hope to see you there for all of it. Enjoy! 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

This time, we’re taking a detour into one of the most obscure corners of Gundam animation, with the 6-episode CGI OVA MS IGLOO and its 3-episode sequel series MS IGLOO 2: Gravity Well. Originally produced for the Bandai museum in Japan, the first series suffers from repetitive storytelling, thin plotting, and some of the worst 3D CGI animation the early 2000s had to offer, and on its own, there’s not a ton worth saying about it. But the sequel series, produced in 2008, isn’t just a huge step forward in the quality of the CGI production – it’s also a wonderfully unique, compellingly told set of ground-level war stories that make for essential viewing for anyone interested in the One-Year War period of Universal Century Gundam, and is a lot of fun to talk about. Enjoy, and come back in June for our 2-year anniversary podcast celebration! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

With both seasons of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 reviewed, it’s time for the third and final piece of the 00 tapestry: Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer, the 2010 feature-film follow-up/finale that brings a close to the world of Gundam 00 and introduces the world of Gundam to extraterrestrial life for the first time. It’s a wild, strange, defiantly singular movie, and one of the stranger corners of the Gundam universe – but also one of the most rewarding, especially when you break it down in a long-form conversation as we do here. Operating on the levels of symbolism, metaphor, and myth-making, A Wakening of the Trailblazer isn’t quite like any other piece of Gundam, and it isn’t quite like anything we’ve discussed before; but it’s got a lot of fascinating, rich ideas on its mind, some of the most startling imagery in the entire franchise, and brings the Gundam 00 saga to an unexpected but wholly satisfying close. Gundam 00 has been one of our favorite series to discuss so far, and the film is no exception. Enjoy, and come back next time for the CGI OVA series, MS Igloo! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeanTheChapman Subscribe to Weekly Suit Gundam: https://anchor.fm/weeklysuitgundam Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Visit our website at http://weeklysuitgundam.com

After its stupendous first season, Gundam 00 has a lot to live up to in its back half, and we find it more than rises to the challenge with an incredibly smart, exciting, affecting, and entertaining second season, bringing the TV portion of this Gundam experience to a rousing close. Set 4 years after the first season, in a world that increasingly resembles some of Gundam’s most recognizable archetypes, Gundam 00 Season 2 reconfigures and interrogates some of the franchise’s longest-running ideas for the 21st century, not just applying issues of 21st-century geopolitics to its own fiction, but asking where Gundam belongs, and how it must evolve, as the franchise goes forward. With amazing animation, outstanding mobile suit designs and action, tremendous characters, and one of the best voice casts the franchise has ever assembled – including the very surprising return of one of Gundam’s most iconic voice actors – Gundam 00 truly is one of the franchise’s finest hours, and we had even more fun talking about it the second time. Enjoy, and come back next time for Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer! Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Gundam moves boldly into the era of HD, widescreen, and 21st century geopolitics with Mobile Suit Gundam 00, an absolutely terrific installment that’s wickedly smart, wildly exciting, and features some of the best characters and world-building of the entire franchise. It’s also the first Gundam series to split itself into seasons, so on today’s episode we’re covering Season 1 – Episodes 1-25 – which work pretty splendidly on their own, as the story of the rise and fall of Celestial Being, a stateless military organization aiming to eradicate war through armed intervention. We discuss the story, world, themes, characters, and so much more, including the incredible production values and remarkable batch of theme songs, for a Gundam show that’s definitely worth the deep dive treatment. Enjoy, and come back next time for Season 2 of Gundam 00! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeanTheChapman Subscribe to Weekly Suit Gundam: https://anchor.fm/weeklysuitgundam Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Visit our website at http://weeklystuffpodcast.com

This time, we’re taking a look at a curious oddity in the history of Gundam – Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation film trilogy from 2005 and 2006, which saw the Gundam creator returning to the classic sequel series and compiling it into three feature films, just as he had done for the original series in 1981, but now 20 years later, with much shorter run times, and, due to the inevitable passing of time, a much starker difference in new and recycled animation. There’s probably no Gundam series more difficult to condense in to three 90-minute movies than Zeta Gundam, with its enormous cast of characters, heady and challenging themes, and dense, complicated storytelling, but A New Translation is nothing if not a valiant effort, worth examining even if it never quite overcomes the sheer weight of factors working against it. We discuss the pace, the animation, the music, which characters make a strongest impression in this format, and are consistently reminded, at every turn, of just what a masterpiece Zeta Gundam itself truly is. Enjoy, and come back next time as we move into the HD era of Gundam with Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – Season 1! Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

The day of reckoning has arrived – at last, it is time to review perhaps the most controversial show in the Gundam pantheon: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, the baffling, confounding, infuriating, utterly fascinating sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Set two years later with both new and returning characters, Destiny tries to be two different, contradictory shows at once: a challenging sequel questioning the assumptions and characters from the original, a la Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and a straight-up sequel to SEED – Gundam SEED: Here We Go Again – and in the shuffle, somehow makes us hate the entire returning cast even while it buries and repeatedly does dirty its interesting new characters. The result is one of the most inept sequel stories ever told – but undeniably one of the most compelling to talk about. Enjoy, and come back next time as Gundam revisits its canonical sequel series with Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation film trilogy! Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Weekly Suit Gundam continues into the bold new world of the 21st century with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, the first Gundam of the 2000s and one of the most broadly popular entries in the history of the franchise. It’s also a hell of a series – even if it took one of us a while to start enjoying it! – and builds to one of the best runs of episodes we’ve had the pleasure of discussing so far. It makes for one of our longest and most in-depth episodes, as we break down the characters, music, digital animation, and so much more, including how the series starts by reconstituting the structure of the original Mobile Suit Gundam before exploding into something new, vibrant, and incredibly compelling, both for the time in which it was made and the world in which we’re watching it now. This has long been one of our most requested episodes, and it was a real pleasure to try doing it justice. Enjoy, and come back next time for our last episode of 2020 with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter! Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

Our OVA-a-thon concludes with one of the most universally beloved and undeniably entertaining series in the Gundampantheon, The 08th MS Team. Taking a ‘boots on the ground’ approach with no newtypes or ace pilots as heroes, the OVA follows a mobile suit team in a Vietnam-esque setting during the One-Year War, and provides some of the best action, animation, and mobile suit designs in the series. We gush over the lush production values and incredible set pieces, discuss the vibrant cast of characters, puzzle over how best to categorize the bewildering 12th episode (and why this should really be considered an 11-episode series), and also touch on the compilation movie Miller’s Report. The 08th MS Team is one of those works it’s impossible for any Gundam fan not to love, and getting to celebrate it at length here is a lot of fun. Enjoy, and come back next time as we move forward into the 2000s with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED! Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes!Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLackFollow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapmanwww.weeklystuffpodcast.comSubscribe to our YouTube Channel!

After an unplanned two-month hiatus, we’re finally back to continue exploring the wide and wonderful world of Gundam, continuing our OVA-a-thon with Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, the 1991 OVA chronicling the adventures of Ensign Kou Uraki and his encounter with Zeon loyalist Anavel Gato. It’s a series that provides some of the highest highs but also many of the lowest lows in the entire Gundam franchise, with stupendous animation, great music, a few really strong episodes, and outstanding voice acting, but also some really shaky storytelling and character work and a final episode that may the single worst Gundam half-hour we’ve talked about so far. It makes for one of the best critical discussions about Gundam we’ve had on the podcast, and it’s an episode you won’t want to miss! Enjoy, and come back next time for our next OVA review with The 08th MS Team! Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Before continuing on to 21st-century Gundam, we’re doubling back for deep dives with the OVA series we’ve mentioned in passing but never reviewed in depth, starting with Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. Released in six installments in 1989, War in the Pocket marked the first time creator Yoshiyuki Tomino wasn’t involved in a Gundam production, and is widely regarded as one of the franchise’s finest hours, expanding and deepening the series’ themes and perspective by focusing in on the small-scale story of a boy growing up amidst the backdrop of the One-Year War. It is one of the greatest and most powerful anti-war stories ever told, on similar footing as Isao Takahata’s 1988 Grave of the Fireflies, and began a rich tradition of Gundam taking some of its best artistic leaps on home video. Enjoy, and come back next time for our next OVA review with Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory! Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

To close out our anniversary month celebrations, we’ve got a surprise review of a (rightfully) forgotten piece of the Gundam universe: G-Saviour, the live-action Canadian TV movie from 2000 that brought Gundam to live-action for its 20th anniversary, in spectacularly awful fashion. Boasting awful production values, bargain bin acting, a script straight of the Hallmark channel recycling bin, and almost nothing to distinguish itself as part of the larger Gundam franchise, G-Saviour is a morbid curiosity that is, at least, worth some laughs, as we pick apart the mostly nonsensical story, watching and reporting so you don’t have to! Enjoy, and come back next time for the start of our series of OVA reviews with Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

With one year of Gundam podcasts under our belt, we thought now would be a good time to take a look back at everything we’ve discussed so far. We’ve reviewed 11 Gundam shows or movies to date – Gundam 79, Zeta, ZZ, Char’s Counterattack, Unicorn, F91, Victory, G Gundam, Gundam Wing, After War, and Turn A – and on today’s anniversary celebration episode, we rank the best Songs, Musical Scores, Mobile Suits, and Characters from that pool of 11 works, before making our official Weekly Suit Gundam ranking of everything we reviewed in our first year. It’s a very fun episode, getting into the minutiae with music, mechs, and characters in ways we don’t always have time for in our various reviews, and these are lists we intend to revisit and update as Weekly Suit Gundam continues and we watch, review, and discuss more of this incredible franchise. Enjoy, and be prepared for a special surprise episode of Weekly Suit Gundam next week on June 30th to finish our anniversary month! Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

It’s been one year to the day since we started our podcast journey through the wide, wonderful world of Gundam, and to celebrate our one-year anniversary milestone, we’re diving deep into one of the single greatest works the franchise has ever produced: Turn A Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino’s return to, and revolution of, the series he created. Set on a pre-industrial Earth in the very distant future, Turn A looks, sounds, and feels like nothing that’s come before, a punch drunk act of endlessly creative world-building that is so impossibly rich with ideas and dense with fascinating themes and characters that even though this is our longest episode yet, it feels like we only scratch the surface. Turn A is essential viewing for anyone even vaguely interested in Gundam, and talking about it makes for one of our richest conversations yet. Enjoy, and come back later this month for our 1-year anniversary special, where we’ll be ranking the best songs, characters, mobile suits, and series from our first year of Gundam reviews. Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

After War Gundam X is one of the least known and most underrated corners of the Gundam universe, running for only 39 episodes, with its shortened run marking the end of four continuous years of the franchise holding the same time slot on Japanese television. But it’s also a special, woefully underappreciated show, a smart and soulful return to and commentary on the major tropes and archetypes of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original Gundam cycle, serving as something of an alternate sequel to the original Mobile Suit Gundam wherein Amuro becomes a dejected, sunglass-wearing Captain mentoring a new Gundam Boy. Full of great characters, excellent storytelling, and thoughtful, bold ideas about Gundam’s past and future, After War Gundam X deserves a greater reputation, and we hope this in-depth podcast conversation is a step in the right direction. Enjoy, and come back throughout the month of June as we celebrate one full year of the Weekly Suit Gundam with a review of Turn A Gundam, an anniversary celebration special, and more! Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

It’s a big moment for our journey through the world of Gundam, as we finally reach New Mobile Report Gundam Wing – aka Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, or just Gundam Wing – the 1995 anime that finally brought Gundam to the mainstream in the West when it premiered on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block in 2000. At once a throwback to many iconic pieces of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original Gundam formula and a bold break with the structure of every Gundam series up to this point, Gundam Wing is a very different experience than anything we’ve talked about before. Initially exhilarating before growing increasingly frustrating, the show is one of the messier entries in the Gundam canon, but nevertheless fascinating to talk about. And the OVA/movie sequel, Endless Waltz, is a real treat for those who stick with it all the way to the end. Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on iTunes! Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter @SeantheChapman www.weeklystuffpodcast.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!