You're listening to season 11 of Mobile Suit Breakdown, a weekly podcast covering the entirety of sci fi mega franchise Mobile suit Gundam from 1979 to today.
This is episode 11.4, a Gundam fighter in Paris and we are your hosts. I'm Tom, longtime Gundam fan, and next year for Valentine's Day, why not get that special someone a bouquet of beautiful Gundam Rose Gunpla?
And I'm Nina, new to G Gundam and in the throes of a fun new research puzzle. Seriously, is there a common ancestor to
depictions of a messed up Eiffel Tower,
or is it a case of convergent evolution? Mobile Suit Breakdown is made possible by our unquestionably urbane paying subscribers.
We should be all caught up this
week, so if you think we missed you, please reach out and let me know. Speaking of, this is a good time to remind you all that we offer new shoutouts to anyone who has changed their name and would like a shout out with their new name. All you need to do is email us or message us on Patreon. Thank you all and special thanks to our newest patrons. Steve M, Mark H, Outlook COV Mighty D, Aaron L TC240 La Quebecada, Garindra M. Domino, Dorito Moonfell, David Ibrahim, Sam S, Steven C, Brendan F Frim Fram Ala R Vapor Vlad and another different David.
You keep us Genki.
And special thanks to World's Largest George
Dessand Fangirl for supporting us on Ko Fi and to Mitchell J for buying
us a book from our wish list.
This week we're covering G Gundam Episode 4, Izashobu Shinku no Bara no Kikoshi or Challenge the Red Rose Night, which Originally broadcast on May 13, 1994. The team for this episode includes some new faces. The script was written by Yamaguchi Ryota, his first for the series and for Gundam. He is better known as the head writer for Metabots, Cutie Honey, Flash Blue, Exorcist, and multiple Digimon shows. Also joining the team are episode director Ashizawa Takeshi, a Victory Gundam veteran without many other credits to his name, and animation director Yoshida Toru, a prolific animator and member of the studio Anime Richard. Yoshida started his career on Fang of the song Dawgram in 81, animated for everything from Shar's counterattack and Sarazanmai to Valreave the Liberator and Yokai Watch, including a recent credit on Dandadan Season 2. This is his only time directing animation for G though, so if this episode looks a little different from the Others. That may be the reason new character George Desand is played by Yamazaki Takumi, who also played Ares Mu in Saint Seiya, Bansai Kawakami in Gintama, and Miki in Initial D. This will not be his only Gundam role either. And I think I can reveal without spoiling too much that the aristocratic demeanor he shows off with Desand would eventually help him secure a role as the Origins version of Zeon Captain Makwe, huh? And now, the play by play.
We interrupt our regular broadcast for a special.
Gay Paris is Gay no More.
Following the shocking disappearance of Marie Louise, Princess of Neo France and main sponsor of Team Gundam Rose. The Princess was last seen in the company of Gundam Fighter l' Oreal brand representative and Neo Olympic fencing silver medalist George Desande after his scheduled match against Neo Cuba's Frank Gastro was called off due to the sudden and controversial elimination of the Neo Cuban Arachno Gundam by Neo Japan's Domon Kashu. Asked whether he believes Kashu could have had anything to do with the Princess's disappearance, Dassan stated through a representative that while he had no doubt Mr. Kashu would stoop to kidnapping a defenseless child to obtain an advantage in the Gundam fight, it remains doubtful whether he possesses the cunning to conceive and execute so dastardly a plan. The government of Neo France has issued a general alert which which describes the missing princess as a young blonde teenager with regal bearing and incredible drip. Patriotic citizens are encouraged to report any rizzed out youths to their local gendarmes immediately. And now back to our coverage of the 13th Gundam fight. Following an intervention by Neo Japan's major Urube, the international Gundam Fight Committee has ruled Neo Japan's unconventional victory over Neo Cuba valid. Meaning Domonkashi's record improves to 2 wins, 0 losses, 2 draws with one no contest against the Gundam Rose. A respectable record, especially considering his strength of schedule. But it's early days yet. This Gundam fight is far from over. Rumors are already circulating that the next target for his shining fingers could be Neorusha's mighty bold Gundam.
I'm here live in the shadow of the Eiffel Arch for the thrilling rematch between George Dessan's Gundam Rose and Domon roasted and salted Cashew's shining Gundam. After a tense but inconclusive meeting earlier today, these latter day Titans of Gundam fighting are ready and raring to put their bodies and their machines to the test. All for the sake of glory. Descend. Got the upper hand in their first encounter. Will the Gundam Rose. Be the one to finally put an end to Domon's irresistible Shining fingers? Or will the King of Hearts prove once and for all that chivalry really is dead? There's the Gundam fight signal. They're feeling each other out with their Vulcans, but I'm not seeing much effect now. They're closing in and locking sabers as usual. Desand is using his custom Chevalier Saber, which has a solid metal core wrapped in a cocoon of searing hot martial artsy particles. He's thrusting, trying to slip past Domon's guard. And there it is. He's landed a blow on the Shining Gundam's forearm. But now Domon is on the attack. He's leaping high. He's flying in the sky. He's disarming that Neo French guy. But there's an old Neo France saying. The pen is mightier than the sword. But mightiest of all is the Rose bit. And there they are, folks. Dozens of tiny Rose Drones blasting away like the Grand Battery at the Battle of Friedland. Domon is doing his best to evade, but even the shining Gundam can't survive a pounding like this for long. It looks like Domon might not get the chance to use his Shining Finger after all. Now the bits are moving into some kind of cage formation around the Neo Japanese Mobile Fighter. I'm told this is called the Rose Screamer, used to immobilize an enemy suit before delivering a truly beautiful coup de grace. Desand is now approaching the trapped Kashu. Since it looks like his victory is assured, I can only imagine that he is even now taunting his defeated opponent, confident that nothing can go wrong.
I can't believe it.
Domon is using the Shining Finger despite being trapped. The surging energy is overloading the Rose Screamer. And the Rose Bits are exploding one after another. What a sight. It's like the red glare of rockets. It's like bombs bursting in air. They are giving proof through the night that the shining Gundam is still there. Oh no. One of the explosions has damaged the Eiffel Arch. And it's starting to finish collapsing. Who would have thought this wanton destruction would cause so much collateral damage? But wait. The Gundam Rose has abandoned the battle and caught the falling wreckage. This could well cost him the tournament. With his bits gone and his hands full, there's nothing left to stop Domon's Shining Finger. Nothing except his sense of sportsmanship.
Yes.
Yes. Domon is deactivating his Gundam. The fight ends in a draw. Desande will continue in the Gundam fight. What a shocking outcome, but not as shocking as the powerful flavor packed into each one of Alfredo Gabbaldi's authentic Parisian style crepes. Enjoy the City of Lights with a snack that is light on calories and strong in flavor with the new rose bit dessert crepe flavored with real chopped rose petals. Gabaldi's Neo French creperie on Rue Poncelet near Avenue de Tern.
I have to get something out of my. Out of my system. First up, Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower, it's all twisty. What do you think happened to it?
I assume it got partially melted by some sort of beam blast.
You know, as a tower gets older and older, it starts to droop a little bit.
This is absolutely going to send me down a rabbit hole of, I want to say, like, very early French cinema, because the first thing I thought of was clair Obscure Expedition 33. They also have a f ed up Eiffel Tower. But it seems very likely that both are referencing some earlier artwork.
And I don't know, there's an image
nagging at my brain and maybe I'm like Mandela affecting it, I don't know. But I think some of the early silent films, one of them might have had a messed up Eiffel Tower in it.
I guess it's a visual shorthand for, oh, things have gotten bad here.
Something terrible has happened.
Like if you were doing a revolutionary France story, you gotta show the church that gets turned into a cannon foundry. Right? Like, this is weird. This isn't how it's supposed to be. What would be. What would be the equivalent for New York? And I know they kind of did the Statue of Liberty, like cut in half. But ignoring the Statue of Liberty, what would instantly tell you that New York City is still inhabited, life continues, but something has fundamentally changed.
The Twin Towers are gone. I'm sorry. I had to do it. I had to do it. You asked.
I think I blue screened.
The other thing about the messed up Eiffel Tower, though, is that the fact that they haven't fixed it, the fact that it has been like this for some indeterminate period of time and has not been repaired is significant. Right. It tells us about a certain amount of decay in society, especially now that we know that a substantial portion of Notre Dame Cathedral can burn to the ground and they will rebuild the whole thing if they have to.
I think there's a shot, very briefly, like an establishing shot from the viewpoint of Notre Dame Cathedral, like looking out over the front sort of towers, and they look kind of Ruined foreshadowing. Actually, the Eiffel Tower is literal foreshadowing for the. For the episode, since seeing it bent over like that anticipates its final collapse at the end of the episode.
I almost never get to say this, but it's a Chekhov's gun. They do show it to us so many times. There are at least three or four establishing shots of the scenery that depict the messed up Eiffel Tower. It's a great image, and it is
like, when you're walking around Paris, it's easy to see the Eiffel Tower from many different angles.
Yeah, but they wouldn't need to show it to us so many times unless they had no other ideas. Or they really want us to be thinking about the Eiffel Tower in advance of that scene at the end.
In talking about this episode, Imagawa said French cinema proved surprisingly difficult to adapt to anime. And so instead of basing their depiction of France on some French films, they based it on a Swing Out Sister music video. I'm pretty sure there's only one Swing Out Sister music video from the right time frame that fits his description of the two performers just walking around Paris. And that's the Waiting Game, which we watched this morning before doing this recording. So that's our media diet for this week. A four and a half minute long
music video that I didn't particularly enjoy the song or the music video.
Yeah, sorry about that. The things we do for work. Yeah, to be honest, the song has kind of grown on me. It's definitely a cut above the rest of their oeuvre from the time. It's just a lot of, like, easy listening.
I was gonna say bland pop with
mild to moderate jazz elements.
Eh? With a video that includes a bunch of frankly, odd interpretive dance moments.
That's basically all of their videos from this period, though. Every one of their videos involves them, like, traveling to some sort of vacation location.
Uncovered band established to pay for vacations as work expenses.
I think their first album, or maybe their second album, was just called, like, It's Nice to Travel.
Okay, this is starting to sound like a scam, but you were saying? I apologize, I interrupted you.
That's okay. Listen to the song, watch the video. It's fine. If you don't like it, you probably will not like anything else they've done.
So are we gonna do a proper introduction or are you just gonna bleep out all my curses in that intro?
Oh, I'll probably just bleep out all the curses in the intro.
All right, moving right along.
So do you have a guess as to the country of origin of the Arachno Gundam, which appears briefly at the beginning of this episode?
I don't have a guess for a specific country.
I would be willing to guess, however, that it is somewhere in Central or South America.
Mm. Mm.
I do like its little green army cap.
It is quickly becoming apparent the difference between Gundam fighters we're supposed to care about and ones we're not.
Mm. Yeah.
Like look at the design of the rose Gundam.
So elaborate.
It's got the bicorn hat worn old style. It's got a cockade on there. It's got the half cape manteau thing that the rose bits come out of. It's got the rose bits. It has an epee sort of beam saber thing.
It has the one. I forget if they're called epaulettes when
they're over the shoulder with the fringe.
Yeah, that's an epaulette. And of course we saw Chibidi's Gundam, Maxter and the Dragon Gundam. These are elaborately designed National Gundams versus the the Neros Gundam and now the Arachno Gundam, which basically just have a weird head and one gimmick. That being said, although we hardly saw it in the show, I actually think the Scud Gundam looks pretty good. It's a very classic Gundam body, normal head. And then it's got like F91 style vsbrs on the shoulders and a pretty slick looking sort of sand rock kind of color scheme.
There's a sort of neutral primary reason behind these design decisions, which is which ones are going to get made into Gunpla. And so those are the ones that get the cooler and more elaborate designs. But the deeper reasoning is like pretty much racism. I mean, we can't know until we see more of the series, Right? We can't know that we're not going to have major characters with elaborate designs and personalities and dedicated episodes from places that are not Europe, Northeastern Asia and the United States.
Sure.
But one could easily imagine that being the rest of the show that we just kind of gloss over all these other places, or we catch brief glimpse of them. They are side characters, which is really just an extension of what a lot of countries and people living in those countries, like Japan, saw as how global politics was organized. Like the countries that shaped global geopolitics were the countries in Europe, the us, China, Japan. Sure, those other countries were not major players in global geopolitics in the same way. Lacks a certain creativity to not imagine that Things might organize themselves differently in a sci fi future, but this is not so much a show about reimagining the world.
No, it is very much about projecting the specific moment of 1994 into the far future. And for what it's worth, France, America, Russia, China, these are all countries with big, well financed, strong armies as of 1994. So these are countries that we could expect to develop powerful Gundams in the future. On one level, there's some good commentary here that even when you reconfigure the international order, even when you replace conventional warfare with something like the Gundam fight, the big rich, powerful ones are still going to have an advantage.
Well, which countries, which governments, which entities are most able and willing to spend a ton of money on their arms industry? On developing a mobile suit?
And unless you do something radical to actually level the playing field, going out into space is not going to change things very much. The most powerful countries of today are going to build the most powerful space colonies of tomorrow.
Now that we've framed it this way,
I'm actually thinking nothing about this is supposed to make things more fair. Nothing about this is supposed to change the world order. All this does is take wars where this money would have been spread across
an entire army, and where thousands and
tens of thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands of people would have died and say, no, you're going to spend all that money on one guy and one piece of equipment, and that one guy might die.
Even though the rules specifically state you're not allowed to target the cockpit, he could still die. Certainly.
It's hard to argue. It's not dangerous.
Of course, though, you still have to maintain an army. Imagine a scenario where the United States wins the Gundam fight, Neo America wins the Gundam fight. But if you don't still have an army, even though you've won the Gundam fight, neochina could invade any treaty.
Any international law is only as strong as the ability of the participants to enforce it.
That said, this has all been diegetic about the world and the commentary and the art of it all. What about the commerce? These decisions were not made by the people making the show. The decisions about which mobile suits were going to get the full treatment and which ones are going to be disposable. That was made by Bandai. I do not think at this stage, Gundam has become an international enough franchise for those decisions to be based on which countries they think are buying Gunpla, not international markets.
But which countries might a Japanese audience be most interested in?
That's where I was going with it. Which countries have fandoms?
Mmm.
Mm. They do, however, give the baddies such interesting character design and clothes.
I mean, they look like street punks, right?
But like street punks out of some sort of post apocalyptic fiction. They're all wearing weird masks. One of those guys was wearing purple
overalls, which stands out all the more in Paris. It's not like Italy, where the whole city is destroyed and abandoned.
Two toned Mohawks, a weird Ren Fair ish tunic.
Like one guy has, I think a hockey mask and goggles. A couple of them have the medical face mask that I assume is full of like paint thinner or something else
to get them high.
Tom mentions that because that was a stereotype about like biker gang teens and young adults in Japan that they would wear the face mask, but it wasn't for health and safety purposes. It was so that they could put substances on the inside of it and huff them and get high.
I am so sorry to have to tell you this, because I know you've been feeling more in touch with your own Cuban heritage lately.
Oh, is that a Cuban?
It's the Neo Cuba Gundam.
Eh?
Knocked out of the tournament before it could even get started. And can you guess the name of the pilot of Neo Cuba's Arachno Gundam? This is a stupid challenge. There's no way you could possibly guess.
I mean, unless it's Castro with serial numbers filed off, then no, I'm not going to guess.
His name is Frank Gastro, so sorta, yeah, basically I was close.
George is, I think, our first Bishonen Gundam fighter.
Speaking of characters with obvious name references. Yeah, he's beautiful. And you notice there's that one scene where he walks out onto the terrace and he's looking at the bent over Eiffel Tower and it's bent towards him and his hair is bent towards it, almost as if they're bowing to each other.
His hair, every time I saw it made me think of like an eagle's beak. But he's clearly meant to be very pretty. There's kind of a Rose of Versailles thing going on.
Kind of is underselling it.
Well, except for the fact that the design of the Gundam rose and the whole general vibe is more Napoleonic, certainly,
up to a point. And definitely with the Gundam rose, like that shoulder cape thing it's got going on is a classic hussar affectation appropriate to the time period. As is the hat. As is the cockade. However, when George Desand processes down the boulevard flanked by trumpeters on both sides to get into the Gundam Rose. The trumpeters are dressed in much more of, like, a late Second Empire style, which, now that I think about it, also technically counts as Napoleonic, I was gonna say. And they've got a princess now, or at least they've got someone they call princess, whether that means they actually have a monarch or not. She might just be a very fancy ojou sama. I feel like you see that fairly often in Japanese media. Like fancy young ladies are referred to as princess, especially by their dashingly heroic knights.
I would not have thought they were being figurative, especially since George more or less equates the princess with their nation and she doesn't carry money. That's a classic royalty thing. So, like, Napoleon was never deposed, I guess, or brought back. They brought back the heirs to the Napoleonic dynasty.
All right, so the Rose Gundam has that, like, red disk behind its V fin on its bicorn hat. This is a reference to the cockade, which was a standard decorative element for the bicorn. The revolutionary cockade of France is fairly famous, but there were lots of cockades worn in that period of European history. Not just European history, actually. They were worn sort of all over the world. And the colors of the cockade indicate, like, what nation you're from. They're the national colors usually are put on it. It's a red disk on a white Gundam face with a yellow v fin. And it's hard to know exactly which of those colors are supposed to be the relevant ones. But if it's red and yellow, that would be Spain. And there was a branch of the Bourbon dynasty that ruled in Spain. So maybe the implication is that Neo France has, like, dug up some of the old Spanish Bourbons and made them the royalty of France.
Maybe.
Alternatively, if it's just supposed to be a red disk or a red disk with, like, a white circle around it, that would be Japan. So maybe the emperor of Japan has become the king of Neo France.
I'm sure any episode now they will give us a deep dive into the politics of the world of the future century.
It's coming. One of these days I'm gonna get it. But you could be right. Maybe they did find themselves a new old Napoleon. Or Neopoleon, if you will. There are a few Napoleons still knocking around. I think one of them is an investment banker. Somehow all the scions of fallen noble houses always wind up working in investment banking.
They have money and connections, which is really all you need. All right, going to publicly embarrass myself here. You mentioned George Desand is an obvious name Reference, but I don't remember who that is, so I think you have to explain.
So George sand is the pen name of one of the most famous authors of the 19th century, a French person of complex gender identity, because most people who knew George in their private life use feminine language and describe her as a woman. But then a lot of those same people, when talking about George's Persona as an author and work as an author, then switch over to masculine terminology. And George wore men's clothing, but men not exclusively, and explained it as being a practical concern rather than one of identity, though a person might say that in public. Either way, Victor Hugo, who actually knew sand, said something along the lines of, I hold them in very high esteem. As a colleague, sand cannot decide whether she is male or female, and it is not my place to decide whether she is my sister or my brother.
Victor Hugo. Queer Ally. I love that for us, just looking
at your friend and saying, wow, that is a whole situation you have going on. None of my business, though.
Good luck, my friend. I love you.
Regardless, one of the distinguishing features of George sand is that it is George, not Georges. There's no S on the end, which was chosen to make the pseudonym even more mysterious and unusual. And in the case of George Desand, there's also no S on the end of the name. And sand being not a particularly French name, I don't think there can be any serious doubt about where this name came from. Which does imply some very interesting things about George Desand personally. Is George Desand only a man when in the Gundam fight? The possibilities are intriguing.
This may be the first episode where
we get some real Gundam gender stuff happening. Which is to say George's total disinterest in the princess obsession with chivalry.
That one's real.
Come on. We know the Gundam Rose is George's one true love.
Oh, but at the end, when the princess is in danger and he rushes to stop the Eiffel Tower from falling, even though it means potentially losing the match and potentially losing the Gundam Rose? No, he cares for her. True. And that's obvious. Why else is he eavesdropping on her conversation with Rain when he's supposed to be in the middle of a battle?
I don't know. That was ridiculous. No, see, I think he saves the princess because as a chivalrous knight, of course, he must be willing to risk all to save the lady. Much more so a princess of the nation he serves, like she's basically a stand in for the whole country herself.
But he's willing to sacrifice the Gundam Rose for that.
Because he cannot sully the honor of his nation.
Gross.
Yeah, I know. But these are the literal words that he said during the episode.
Oh, who listens to the words characters say? You have to listen to their hearts. You have to perceive the feeling behind their punches, kicks and sword slashes. Their true feelings only come out when they fight.
Rayn rolling up to this younger woman being like, listen, listen girly, I have some advice for you. No matter what men say, all they care about is the battle. They are not thinking about us right now.
Rain has a limited experience of men, but in this case, I think she's right.
Did you notice George's fight? Alright, remind me. The thing that is not a normal suit, but is the skin tight suit they wear when they're inside. The Gundam Fighter is called the fight suit.
I think that's right. A fight or fighting suit.
Well, did you notice? George's suit looks like a fencing outfit.
Oh, that was not what I thought when I saw it. Oh, I see how you got there.
I think it looks like what fencers wear. But what did you think it looked like?
I thought it looked like what rhythmic gymnasts wear for floor routines.
Well, all of them kind of look like they're wearing leotards, but.
But Georges with the different colored like arms and legs.
And once again, Domon encounters someone who, despite living by a very different code than Domon does. Domon. Heck, the rules. Kashu.
He's such a little punk. I love him.
He spares George because he respects him.
Each of the Gundam fighters that Domon has spared or fought to a draw represents a different martial virtue. Chibidi has that confidence. He believes he can take on the world. He believes he can do anything and. And his Gundam is designed to be able to reconfigure itself to fit different scenarios where he needs different attributes. Saisaishi is all about cunning and guile. And his Gundam Fighter is designed for deception, trickery, and for George, it's elegance. Everything about what he does is beautiful.
I actually interpret these characters and Domon's response to them very differently. What is significant is that each of them lives by a largely self defined code, but lives very strictly within it. All of them, like Domon, to some degree, flout the regulations around them. They are not controlled by this system that they are existing in and fighting in. They have their own values and they adhere to them. They live up to those values that they espouse. That I think is what Domon really respects. That they combine this independence of thought and behavior with a high personal standard.
Independence is a good word because I was thinking about the counterexamples. We don't have very many at this point. But who has Domon actually defeated? Dispensed with Michelo Chariot and now Frank Gastro of Neo Cuba, both of whom have gangs who help them to prey upon those weaker than themselves.
We don't get much insight into Frank Gastro's motives, but Chariot basically just seems to want more power for the sake of doing crimes. There are no values espoused. There is no apparent standard for their behavior. The ones Domon respects all have a dream. To the extent the Miglo Chariot had a dream, it was not one we are meant to be sympathize with or respect. And who knows what Frank Gastro was up to.
The thing with Frank Gastro though is that this is a real kickin em while they're down moment. Like the early 90s were a really bad time for Cuba. The country because of the US blockade had depended on Soviet Russia for all kinds of imports. And the collapse of Soviet Russia meant that Cuba was in just like a complete economic depression.
Real bad times animation wise.
This was a very odd episode. There were a lot of points where especially characters faces looked off model to me. Lots more expression on Domon's face. He smiles, he frowns, he has a little smirk. He interferes in things that are happening that have nothing to do with him. Very undomon like this is why I'm
saying he's a little punk.
He teases Rain.
I think Domon interfering in the match in this episode is not so very different from him sneaking into the boxing ring to challenge Gibidi. And when he saves the princess at the cafe, that's basically just a replay of saving the urchin orphans in Rome.
But with the orphans.
Raine was there.
Do you think he was trying to impress her?
I think it affects his behavior.
And when he rescued the orphan that
Michelo had kidnapped, he doesn't have to go far out of his way. He was already going to go fight Michaelo. And yes, he. He could have let the orphan fall to her death. He could have done that. He doesn't. But he was already gonna be there fighting that guy. When he intervenes with Princess Mary Louise. He has no idea who she is. He has no idea she has any connection to his planned opponent. She's just some random teenage girl being menaced on the street.
I assume that he was feeling very pent up after his abortive battle with George. So he was out looking to blow off steam. That princess was just in the right place at the right time. You accused the animation of being off model. It was a bit more exaggerated, but I felt like it brought out the characters better. It was accurate to who the characters were, even if it wasn't exactly what we were accustomed to seeing from them.
I see your point.
I say off model because it's such a break from the way the characters have been animated and portrayed in the previous three episodes. If this is who the characters are
gonna be going forward, then yeah, this makes sense.
And having everything be a little more
stretchy, a little more expressive and exaggerated makes sense.
And it was fun, don't get me wrong. But to go from three episodes of flat affect, no expression, very taciturn Domon to this version of Domon is jarring. It's strange. It's like they are still figuring out both the animators and the writers who exactly these characters are. Even though they have already started making
the show, they are 100% still figuring out who these characters are. But as Sean pointed out in episode three, at this stage of the story, Domon is just making guest appearances in other people's lives. So he is acting as a deus ex machina. Yes, he's acting as the deus ex machina to push their stories forward. And so he acts as a foil to whatever their deal is. In Italy, he teaches the hard boiled detective guy that not all Gundam fighters are bad. So he has to initially come off as very, like, careless and then reveal that he actually has a shining heart of gold. In New York with Chibidi, he reveals how the champion's like willingness to play along with the powers that Be, his willingness to get in bed with the Neo American government and has corrupted him and has stolen his strength from him.
I disagree with that, but finish your thought.
And so Domon's function in that story is to break the rules, to show that he has no respect for the system or the opinions of other people, to chart his own path.
I agree that his function in the story is to be a kind of catalyst. We're not talking about this episode this week. But I disagree that Chibidi is corrupted in some way. Because as soon as Chibidi finds out what the government has done, he goes and fights them himself.
But would you agree that before he meets Domon, he has lost sight of his dream?
No. I agree that he, like many people who are champions at what they do, has an existential crisis when he loses. And it takes all of the people around him. It takes the citizens of New York City to remind him that they don't love him just for being a champion. They love him for representing a dream and for, frankly, working so hard to get to where he's gotten. And because they know he will keep working hard, they know he will keep fighting. I see him as much more emblematic of a. A mental condition, emotional condition that strikes anybody who's at the top of their game for long enough, which is that you think that's the only reason people value you, and you think that's your
only significance in the world. That's the.
Winning is the only thing you have to give. And so if you're not winning, what is the point of you? What is the point of your life?
That's definitely in there. I just think that his willingness to. To cooperate with Douglas and his men has caused Chibidi to lose his way.
He got scouted as a kid, and the people who scouted him are using him. I don't see how any of that is Chibidi's fault.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Chibidi.
But you are. You're saying he lost his way, that
he compromised, needed Domon to come smack him upside the head and set him straight.
He needed to see some of what was going on behind the scenes. And the closest we can argue is that he was complicit unknowingly, that he perhaps should not have been so ignorant about what was going on, that that was a choice on his part, to not look too deeply into it. But again, as soon as he knows what they're up to, he fights against them.
Yes, he does, because Domon has revived his dream.
I think you're giving Domon too much credit and Chibiri not enough. But we should probably move on since we're not even talking about that episode.
I guess what I'm just trying to say is that Domon is like Columbo. What are Columbo's wife's actual hobbies? Who knows? She's into whatever the villain of the week is into. So if Domon's character is shifting episode by episode in order to make him a better foil for the Gundam Fighter he faces in that episode, that's only to be expected. All we know about him is that he sure does love fighting. He's traveling around the world to fight and show people his photograph. He doesn't even show anyone his photograph in this episode. Now that I think about it, how
could he not show George the photograph? What A miss on the part of the writers and animators.
Maybe in like 10 episodes time, George is going to see the photograph and
be like, oh I know that guy.
Domon will be like hey, wait a second, I forgot to show him the picture.
Nuts. But no, this Domon reminds me more of the Domon from the first episode. A prickly exterior. Acts like he doesn't care, but secretly does.
Hot tempered.
It is fun seeing him tease Reyn though. This is developing into a maybe not a healthy relationship, but a very fun one to watch.
I just don't know how I feel
about seeing him with a sense of humor. That's new.
What did you think about her locked in the bathroom going I'm gonna leave him. Do you think that implies that they are actually in a romantic relationship or do you think she just means abandon him? As his mechanic, doctor, bodyguard, friend, I
think she means abandon him.
I also think that she is romantically interested in him. But as she pointed out to Mary Louise, he can think only of battle. So Raine more or less assumes that nothing is going to happen romantically between her and Domon while he's on this quest. And sometimes she's content to support him, and sometimes it's aggravating. What about you?
I plead I know too much about the series.
Oh, I see. Here I am trying to solicit your opinions. Have good conversation.
I can't have good conversation. I've watched too much Gundam.
You've been gagged by our spoiler rule. Apparently they felt like they needed to drop a few more hints about the photograph and about Domon's mission.
We get a mention of a professor and Rein refers to Domon's father's situation.
And there's that brief clip of some guy who looks kind of like Zeon Daikun lying in state surrounded by flowers. Is that the professor or Domon's father? Are they the same person? What is his situation?
If Domon is taken off the project,
he, the guy surrounded by flowers will be like that forever.
Dun dun dun. Love the implication. The army officer they're talking to who's complaining about this flagrant breach of the rules When Domon took out the Arachno Gundam implies that Domon was only made the Gundam Fighter because of his connections to somebody, presumably his father. So even though Domon is the martial arts champion of the colonies, he still only got to be Neo Japan's Gundam Fighter because of nepotism. Great system you got there, guys.
Well, I have some sympathy because have you been paying attention to Domon's behavior. Is this the guy you really want to entrust with the fate of your government?
Well, now that I know he's a Nepo baby, his behavior makes a lot more sense.
I'm just saying you might be willing to accept a slightly worse fighter who's a bit more responsible.
Is Neo France, the first country we've encountered who has actually picked a responsible Gundam fighter.
I am not willing to concede that Sciseishi is irresponsible.
Hmm.
It was not Syishi's fault that he got separated from the Dragon Gundam.
We don't know that.
And then he did everything possible to get it back, which is his responsibility.
Nina Gundam Podcast Infamous Sai Saishi Apologist the episode frames it as him being irresponsible, though the monks end by being like, oh, we're gonna raise him right so that this never happens again. They act like it's his fault.
I did not interpret that comment as being reflective of Saisaichi's behavior coming into this, but more of a the bandits running amok is what happens when people without principles have too much power. And so we are going to continue saiseaishi's education so that he has discipline and values and wields the power of the Dragon Gundam with honor and duty and respect. I just think that for all that we saw Sae Saichi at his most mischievous at his most. I'm going to cause problems on purpose. The stereotype of a young person who has grown up under strict martial arts training for basically their entire life in like a monastic system, you would expect that kid to be pretty responsible most of the time.
A child raised under a domineering parent in strict discipline could also yearn to break free. Maybe he's on martial arts. Rumspringer.
Whatever his upbringing, it clearly hasn't crushed his spirit.
We mentioned the music video already, but
I did think it was odd how how little of Paris it felt like we saw in this episode. Especially compared to the New York episode and the Rome episode.
Well, there's the. The palace where they have the party. I'm pretty sure that's the Palais de Luxembourg.
And they do show the Eiffel Tower,
of course, and the Arc de Triomphe.
The music video we watched doesn't really have a lot of Paris in it for all that it was Imagawa's main reference. What he actually said they got out of it mostly was like depictions of safety railings and staircases and other kinds of invisible architecture. And that the overall point of what they were trying to Express with Paris is that it was a city that had once been very beautiful but was
now old and decaying, which we certainly get some of.
I just mean from a recognizable sites perspective. You wouldn't necessarily think that for a foreign audience, for a Japanese audience, they would know more about or have better resources on the sites of Rome than the sites of Paris.
Yeah, I lived in Paris for like a year. And you were there for half a year. The Paris as depicted in G Gundam does not really resemble the Paris either of us experienced, I don't think.
Well, there's so little of it.
And I mean there are street side cafes. That's certainly accurate to Paris.
And with that, we are off to NEO Russia, the last location on Domon's list.
There's a bit in the next time ons. I don't know if you watched it.
I did not.
The next time ONS opens with the line. It's the moment you've all been waiting for. Domon Kashu is imprisoned. He deserves it. For his many crimes, for his treatment
of rain, for his flouting of the rules of the Gundam fight. He loves quoting the regulations, but he does not love following the regulations.
Well, he said that he got the fight signal first, so it's okay, right? He was following the rules.
There's nothing in the rule book that says you cannot kidnap a princess.
She kidnapped herself. That's not his fault.
How old do we think she is supposed to be? I feel like she could be anything from 12 to 18. I really don't know.
She is 13 years old.
Aw. She's got a crush on the Gundam
Fighter and he had better not do anything about it.
He clearly doesn't intend to. She's fangirling out. I feel like 13 is a prime age for girls to develop powerful crushes on celebrity figures.
She reminded me so much of that bit in Men in Black. It's during the testing process for new recruits and they take them to the shooting range and they've got all these different aliens popping out, doing pull ups on lamp posts or whatever. And then the one person in the lineup you're actually supposed to shoot is the little blonde girl walking around the slums carrying like an astrophysics textbook.
Do you mean that she looks visibly similar or that she feels out of place or ought to be recognized as dangerous? Like I don't quite get what you're saying with this comparison.
I'm saying when she is at that cafe and she's surrounded by the Neo Cuba delegation in their like 80s sci fi street Punk getups. She is the most dangerous person on that street with her power, with her influence, with her clear alignment towards chaos, self centeredness. The girl who, when frustrated in her romantic pursuits, starts an international incident, is a girl of whom one should be wary.
Something about her character design made me think of Dragon Ball.
Mmm, expand on that.
Something about the shape of her face,
the shape of her eyes, the way
they've drawn her hair in certain scenes.
Her build, which, you know, for a
13 year old, this isn't surprising, but is not a particularly shapely build. And this is a popularly shared comment about Dragon Ball is that the creator couldn't really get the hang of like, drawing women and mostly just gave them the same bodies as men and total serendipity. But so satisfying. I recently saw someone share a screenshot from Dragon Ball of young Bulma that looks very much like the Princess Mari Louise in her slumming it outfit, her
streetwear, her hype beast. Get up. I see what you mean. To me, the essence of Dragon Ball's art, of Toriyama's art style, is roundedness. All the curves, Short, squat, fat dudes, the rounded muscles. Like there's a liquid element to all the art. And I don't see that with her. She's too skinny, too angular. It's like a lot of the same aesthetic elements, but without the same artistic
style, which would make sense if it was inspired by Dragon Ball but animated and drawn by people who aren't working on Dragon Ball.
The cap she wears is like Terry Bogard from one of the fighting games that was popular of the time. And the rest of her outfit also feels like 90s couture. Yeah, she's stylin. She's wearing the royal snapback.
Which fighting game is Terry from again?
I recognize the name, uh, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters.
Okay, that's probably what I remember him from then. Played a lot of King of Fighters as a kid when one of my uncles had a Neo Geo.
I continue to be entranced by Rain and her many gadgets. She has a, like a VR repair
system that I thought was pretty neat.
Yeah, there's like a set of goggles
and a special glove she wears to test that the mobile trace system's working properly and that all of her repairs are holding.
Mr. Bondi, I know you are listening to this podcast. Make Immersive Mobile Fighter Repair Mechanics Simulator VR the video game. It will sell a million units.
It will.
Though it's true.
The real sickos don't want to be Gundam fighters. The real sickos want to be the Gundam Fighters mechanics.
It would work so good in VR too. You could even sell the branded accessories. And speaking of technology, the rose bits are able to produce a electro net shell thing for the obligatory shock bondage scene. Pretty much every Gundam has one. I always thought that was like Tomino's special interest, you know? But maybe it's just a Gundam tradition.
What was that weapon called in first Gundam. We did a whole thing about it.
We did. We did. It was the Adzam leader.
Aha.
Mm. And then there was. I think the Hamburabi had one. It was like the Sea Serpent.
I don't think we need to enumerate all of them, but I was trying to remember the first because we had Iraj come on and talk about the physics of it. Also, I'm sensing a narrative problem here,
which is that the Shining Finger solves every problem.
Yeah, that apparently there is no weapon that the Shining Finger cannot defeat.
At some point they are going to
have to introduce an enemy who actually challenges Domon. And then some sort of Super Shining Finger or some sort of power up for the Shining gundam. Shining Gundam V2. Because it's going to be hard to eke out drama in these fights when we know that the Shining Finger can just defeat whatever.
A curious prediction. We'll see if it comes true. And next week we'll see if the Shining Finger can defeat the carceral system.
Communism.
No, not in the 1990s.
Victory Gundam first aired in April of 1993, and G Gundam in April of 1994. That's only one year of world happenings to cover. And yet so much happened that I really struggled to condense it down to a reasonable overview. So I'm going to divvy it up.
This week I will talk about the
world, and next time I'll focus on Japan. Even then, some events I will really only be able to refer to without providing much or any explanation. For those of you who remember that year, hopefully it will spark more detailed recollections. And for those of you who don't, I hope it provides some sense of the time, the violence and chaos of it, but also the optimism and the progress in the realm of politics, economics and global affairs. The Supreme Court of Bolivia sentenced former dictator Luis Garcia Mesa to 30 years in jail without parole. And Paraguay, coming out of decades of dictatorship, held its first ever or second
depending on the source.
Free presidential election. A failed self coup forced the president of Guatemala to flee the country, and Peru ratified a new constitution. UN sanctions against Haiti were Reinstated after UN peacekeeping forces were prevented from entering the country by the military regime. Notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar was gunned down while trying to evade capture by Colombian special forces. The President of Sri Lanka was assassinated by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber. A coup in Burundi sparked a civil war. The Battle of Mogadishu, more commonly known in the United States as the Black Hawk down incident. Part of the ongoing US and UN intervention in the Somali civil war happened during this one year window, as did a successful military coup in Nigeria. Just weeks before G. Gundam hit the airwaves. The Rwandan genocide began in South Africa. The Transitional Executive Committee, a government in waiting and the first official government body in South Africa with black members was established and held its first meeting. And South Africa adopted a new national flag replacing that which had been used during apartheid. Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk were awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. The Oslo 1 accords, a framework to resolve the ongoing Israeli Palestinian conflict and the first face to face agreement between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization were officially signed in a public ceremony in Washington D.C. after which PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands. Israel and the Holy See began the process to establish diplomatic relations. Yemeni kidnappers abducted an American diplomat to use as a bargaining chip with their own government. Libyan human rights activist and known opponent of Muammar Gaddafi, Mansur Rashid Al Kikiya, disappeared in Cairo. US President Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile strike on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad. The Iraq disarmament crisis was ongoing. In August and September of 1993, Russia withdrew its troops from Lithuania and Poland. That autumn, Russia underwent a constitutional crisis and the power struggle between President Yeltsin and the Russian Parliament culminated in a self coup and the violent suppression of an uprising against the President, referred to in Russia as the October Coup or Black October. By the end of the year, Russia had adopted a new constitution. In January of 1994, the presidents of Russia and the United States negotiated the Kremlin Accords and an agreement that the two countries would no longer pre program strategic nuclear missiles to be targeted at each other. The accords included an agreement to dismantle the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine. The North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico went into effect and sparked the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico. Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor of New York City. The Waco siege, a 51 day standoff between a cult compound and the FBI ended in a fire that killed 76 people, many of them children. The United States Department of Defense issued its notorious don't ask, don't tell policy, prohibiting U.S. service members from inquiring about the sexuality of their comrades and prohibiting any gay service members from being out while serving. The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty took effect in November of 1993 and Finland joined the EU in April of 94. Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia and Eritrea, Monaco and Macedonia were admitted into the United Nations. Macedonia under a provisional the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Hey, I know about those guys.
Moldova held a referendum on reunification with Romania. The majority voted no. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was created at the Hague. The Bosnian war, part of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, was ongoing. There were mass protests in Belgrade, Serbia against Milosevic's regime, and the opposition leader there was arrested. The two sides in the first Nagorno Karabakh War, an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan which began in 1992, entered ceasefire negotiations in February of 1994, though the ceasefire wouldn't begin until May of that year. And Kazakhstan's government signed on to the Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as well as agreeing to dismantle the more than 100 missiles left in Kazakhstan by the dissolution of the USSR. In Northern Ireland, there were numerous killings carried out by both the Ulster Freedom Fighters and the Irish Republican Army. But tensions cooled somewhat with the Downing Street Declaration in December of 1993, which, among other things, affirmed both the right of the people of Ireland to self determination and that Northern Ireland would only be transferred from the UK to the Republic of Ireland if the majority of its population voted in favor. In Austria, multiple advocates for the rights of ethnic minorities and immigrants were the target of letter bombs. In Italy, a right wing coalition led by TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi won the general election. In Science, Technology and the Environment, the World Health Organization declared tuberculosis a global health emergency. On a personal note, I remember being tested for TB annually in elementary school. Mathematician Andrew Wiles presented a proof of Fermat's last theorem, which had been unsolved for more than 300 years. China got its first Internet connection. The London Convention banned the marine dumping of radioactive waste. An article in the journal Nature confirmed the discovery of the first complete Australopithecus
skull and possibly warranting some further research at a later date.
The first Biosphere 2 mission, an experiment
of the viability of closed ecological systems
to support and maintain human life in outer space, ended after two years. NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer Orbiter just days before it would enter Mars orbit. The space shuttle Columbia completed its 15th mission, and the space shuttle Endeavor successfully completed its mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. In Arts and culture, burglars stole $52 million worth of artwork from a museum in Stockholm, Sweden, only some of which were later recovered. And the scream was stolen in Oslo on the same day that the 1994
Winter Olympics opened in Lillehammer.
It would be recovered in May of
that year and stolen again in 2004.
The Church of England ordained its first women priests. Ireland won the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest. American rapper Snoop Doggy Dog released his debut studio album, Doggy Style. Michael Jackson made his first public response to the child sexual assault allegations made against him. And Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, died by suicide. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered in the United States. The first person shooter game Doom was
released and at the 66th Academy Awards,
Schindler's List was the big winner with seven Oscars including for Best Picture and Best Director. Other winners included Jurassic park, the Piano, Philadelphia, the Age of Innocence, Belle epoque, the Fugitive, Mrs. Doubtfire and the Wrong Trousers. English author Anthony Burgess, best known for the novel A Clockwork Orange, died by lung cancer A age 76. Ray Gillen, an American rock singer who performed with Black Sabbath, and Emile Ardelina, an American film director and producer best known for his work on Dirty Dancing and Sister act. Both passed away from AIDS related illness. Uruguayan born Argentine comics artist and writer Alberto Breccia passed away age 74. I was not familiar with Breccia's work, but speaking about modern comics, Frank Miller is quoted to have said it all started with Breccia.
Like I said at the beginning, a year with a lot going on.
Next time it will be Japan's turn for a whirlwind overview of news and significant events and hopefully a somewhat deeper dive into G Gundam's TV competition. Next time on episode 11.5 to Russia with Fight, we research and discuss G Gundam Episode five and Freezing Rain. Siberian Alcatraz. Domon has a face police really like to punch. Arrested for Gundam crimes,
they grow him big in Siberia. Help him, Domon. Kashu. You're his only hope.
Adding fire to the fuel. Prison Abolition welcome back Gundam Hammer. Go for the eyes.
Argo. Go for the eyes. Mutual disarmament.
And in the end, are we not all prisoners trapped by Earth's gravity? Ready. Go.
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded and produced by us, Tom and Nina in scenic New York city within the ancestral and unseated land of the Lenape people and made possible by listeners like you. The opening track is Wasp by Misha Dioxin. The closing music is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio. You can find links to the sources for our research, the music used in the episode, additional information about the Lenape people, and more in the show notes on our website gundampodcast.com youm can get in touch with us by email@hostsundompodcast.com if you'd like to support the show, please tell your friends about us. Leave us a nice review. Wherever you listen to podcasts or if you'd like to support us financially, you can do so@gundumpodcast.com Patreon or look for other ways to support the show@gundumpodcast.com support most of all, thank you for listening. Are you ready to come down to Neo New York and throw hands over your Gundam opinions? No, that's because you lack conviction. Or maybe you just haven't heard an opinion worth fighting over yet. So how about this one Submitted by Topaz George Desand Dipping out of a fancy party to go admire his Gundam makes him by far the most relatable character yet. If I could squeak like a hamster, I would. A miniature giant space hamster. Yeah.
I was like, I remember those street names.
I'm disappointed that I couldn't even get a snicker.
I mean, there was so much of that where I was just like, oh man. Okay. Yeah, nothing you do shocks me anymore. I kept my groan internal because I didn't want to throw off your groove. But when you. But when you pause for applause, when you pause for laughter, you do rather put me on the spot. But the way the rose bits were animated was so cool. It was so beautiful.
Do you think Neo America has maintained a blockade on Neo Cuba?
But inculcating values like that's a fairly non controversial role of parenting.
I disagree strongly. Controversy. The other main inspiration for the depiction of Paris was actually a particularly upscale shopping district in Japan, Aoyama Dori. And then she has the like safecracker that she uses to get out of the toilet.
The impression is of her just kind of of MacGyvering together whatever electronics were already in the bathroom and on her person.
That safecracker was built out of a disassembled bidet or something.
Yeah, except actually she's like, ugh. It's like he doesn't even remember that I'm a mechanic. To be fair, Japanese bidets are pretty high tech.
The shining figure makes Goemon so cheek. Chuni. The whole bit about like, I have a hand with special powers and it tells me to defeat you is straight out of the Chuni Handbook. It's anachronistic, though that wouldn't become a thing until like 10 years after this.
Nobody was calling it Chuni. No, not in the mid-90s.
But these are the. These are the sacred texts, the ancient influences.
Everything happens so much.