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 11.14, the darkness rises and we're your hosts. I'm Tom and did you know I wrote an original audio drama? No, not TNN or rfs. A wholly new thing called the Disappearances of Lydia Fontaine. A bunch of you helped fund it on Kickstarter back in 2024 and now it's ready. The first new episodes are coming out this month. It's a mystery that revolves around surveillance conspiracies and family feuds with a dash of fantasy and cyberpunk elements mixed in from Spice Friend of MSB. Sarah McCosteens directed. Nina was the producer and the sound designers. Editors were Vivian Wheeler of Very Random Encounters and Dallas Welt of Fetty Scum. Together we've made 10 episodes with a full cast, original music, a bespoke soundscape, the works. It honestly sounds really good and I am so excited to share it with you. The pilot episode is already available. You can find it on any podcast app by looking for the Disappearances of Lydia Fontaine. And we're going to release episode two, A Torch in the Night on June 21st. So go subscribe and be ready when it drops.
And I'm Nina, new to G Gundam and I had a whole thing planned to say here but it certainly can't follow on that.
Sorry, maybe I should have warned you.
It might have been nice if you warned me, but I am impressed. Tom normally hates doing self promotion, so this is a big step for him. I'm very proud. As an ad free independent podcast, Mobile Suit Breakdown thrives on the encomium and endorsement of our paying subscribers. Thank you all and special thanks to our newest patrons, James M. And Gerald P. You keep us Genki.
This week we're covering g Gundam Episode 14, Shogeki Shining Ufinga Yaburetari or Shocking Shining Defeated Originally broadcast on July 22, 1994 this marks the last contribution to G by Ashizawa Takeshi, who boarded and directed the episode. He directed both of George Dessand's prior appearances in Episode four Paris and nine London, as well as both the opening and ending sequences. He'll be back for one last Gundam Rodeo in a few years. The arrival of the Shuffle alliance this week means four new voice actors have joined the cast. All all of whom are Gundam veterans. Club Ace was played by Arimoto Kinryu, previously Katajina's father in Victory And Jack in Daya was played by Inaba Minoru, formerly the Zeon collaborator bartender Charlie in 0080. Both will have more prominent roles in future works, so we'll be seeing them again. Queen the Spade was played by Matsuo Ginzo, who also played Jin Jahannam in Victory. But the most impressive resume in the group belongs to Black Joker actor Mizutani Yuuko, who had major roles on Blackjack, Digimon Adventures, Chibi Maruko Chan, Nadia, the Secret of Blue Water, and many others. She played Mihoshi in about a million different iterations of Tenchi Muyo and sang theme songs, including for Sorcerer Hunters Tenchi in Tokyo and Tenchi Muyo gxp. She also played Sara Zabirov in Zeta and Millie Childer in Double Zeta. Now the play by play.
They came from outer space. Spawned in the colonies, brought to Earth by a wicked scientist and his Devil Gundam. Like parasites, they survive and spread. Unleashed to take over the bodies and souls of the people of Earth. Able to take possession of even the strongest Gundam fighters, they are powerful beyond comprehension. The unimaginable becomes real. The impossible becomes true. As Master Asia uses subterfuge and hypnosis to kidnap Raine and the other Gundam fight support teams, trapping them in a secret laboratory deep under the ruins of Tokyo. Though Raine leads an escape, the dread facility remains where enclosed glass pods, bodies that used to be human, incubate unthinkable horrors. Has Master Asia betrayed his ideals? Seduced by the pursuit of greater power? Or has he been infected? And what of Chibidi, Saesaichi, Argo, and George? At the head of the Death army, each declares that they've abandoned their old dreams, enthralled to the promise of superhuman ability. When Master Asia's attempts to beguile Domon failure, Master and disciple are pitted against one another. The Shining Gundam's Shining Finger versus the Master Gundam's Darkness Finger. Before either can gain the upper hand, their battle is interrupted. 4 Mysterious Gundam like objects fall to Earth. Black Joker Club Ace, Queen, the Spade, and Jaqen Dia, the other members of the Shuffle Alliance. Heartbroken and certain this is all Kyoji is doing, the Domon begs them not to fight Master Asia, their former comrade and former King of Hearts. And Master Asia and the other Gundam fighters quit the field. A malevolent curse is afflicting Domon's friends, making his life a vortex of sadness and betrayal. Can Domon bring himself to fight his beloved mentor? Can he redeem his Gundam fight rivals? Will the presence of the Rest of the Shuffle Alliance Martial arts champions dedicated to protecting humanity. Turn the tide. From Istanbul to Shinjuku. The contagion has already taken root. Nowhere is safe. You could be next. Invasion of the DG Cells.
So, on a scale of one to ten, how surprised were you by Mr. Master's shocking heel turn betrayal?
Uh, is ten most surprised and one least surprised?
Yes. Let's say. Let's say one is. Huh? Yeah, I was kind of expecting that. And 10 is. Oh my God, he's evil. He's been evil the whole time.
A one or a two?
Yeah. You didn't seem that shocked when we were watching the episode. No, I mean, I thought you might have been. In none of our discussions of the episodes thus far had you predicted such a shock. Shocking betrayal.
I don't know why I didn't bring it up in our discussions, though, because I had suspicions. There are a number of deeply suspicious moments in previous episodes, especially the last
episode, where when he just goes awol.
Well, he just goes awol. And then at one point after we think he has taken off and Domon's left, and it's just rain alone with the shining Gundam. The Kowloon Gundam kind of like appears between some buildings and then sneaks away.
Sneak, sneak, sneak. Only Master Asia could sneak in a Gundam.
And then at the end of the episode that the. The Master Gundam seems to fade into the Kowloon Gundam at the end of
that fight merely a camera trick? The sort of thing that happens in movies all the time. Well, Gomon thinks he sees it, but
we could imagine perhaps that with evil Devil Gundam powers, Kyoji made Master Asia's Kowloon Gundam look like this enemy Gundam so that the two allies would fight or something.
Oh, that's so sinister.
But then, that never gets brought up in the episode. So yeah, I had suspicions. But now the real question is, has Master Asia, like all of these other Gundam fighters, like George and Argo and Chibidi and Saesaichi. Oh gosh, we gotta do the T shirt. We gotta.
Which T shirt?
Put a pin in that.
I'm imagining the COVID of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Oh no, I'm imagining the ones where they just list names like so and so and so and so and so and so. And it's always, you know, four names.
Was that originally like a Beatles shirt? Is that what the first one was? Because it comes from somewhere, right? Definitely.
Yes, it comes from something, but I don't remember what.
Somebody used four iconic names and made a T shirt, and a million other people decided that was a good idea.
Unfortunately, the four names that keep popping into my head are for the four Gospels. Merp. Merp.
The Gospel of Ringo.
Yeah, my point was.
Oh, you had a point.
I did have a point. Has Master Asia been corrupted? Or is Master Asia involved in the plan for global domination through the use of Devil Gundam cells? Has he been in it? Perhaps from the beginning.
Well, he is old and kind of like Domon's dad. And to be old and a dad in a Gundam show. Pretty sinister. Have these other Gundam fighters been hypnotized? Has Master Asia used on them his Saiminjutsu? Or have they been infected with the Devil Gundam cells just like Sayat and Dahal Muhammad?
I actually wondered if the hypnosis was all coming from Master Asia. Mainly because once he traps Rayn, which is pretty clear, he behaves suspiciously on purpose to catch her. Although, did she put a tracking device on him or something?
How do you mean?
Because when she's on her motorcycle, he's like pinging on her little GPS map. So?
Well, it's just the quest marker.
Uh huh. Uh huh.
Realistically, maybe she just like put it into her Gundam maps app. Like the specific train station or whatever underground staircase he goes down into. Like she.
But didn't it look like it was moving?
I don't remember. Maybe it did. She was moving.
She doesn't try to hide that she's following him. She even calls out to him when she arrives. So it's pretty clear he is leading her into a trap on purpose. But then, having trapped her, what would be the point of using hypnosis to draw her into the lab?
Well, he wants to get her into one of those pod capsule things and make a skeleton of her, just like all the other support crew. Like clearly something has gone wrong in this plan. Rain is not supposed to free the others. Raine is not supposed to escape and get back to the fight in time to warn Domon that Master Asia has actually been behind it all. The main plan was to get Domon to take his hand, accept his offer, become his apprentice, parentheses Evil.
And he's appealing to all of Domon's deepest wants and fears. Believe in me and you will be saved. I will always be with you. Don't worry. Ever since the reunion between Domon and Master Asia, it's been clear how much Domon missed having someone he could depend on. Frankly, having someone to tell him what to do. Having someone around so that he didn't need to be. And to be seen to be so strong all the time. But I still don't entirely understand the purpose of the pods. Or like she says, it's meant to infect people with DG cells and then like cultivate the DG cells. But from Scyot's experience, what we learned was that all you have to do is kind of be proximate to the Devil Gundam and you get infected. And what about the Death Army? Can they not infect people with proximity? Like, what is this pathogen? What is the vector of infection?
I mean, I got the impression that the Devil Gundam didn't just like walk past, say it, but actually like injected him with something. When we see the lab rat infecting the other rats, it's by biting them. Maybe if you just like let the Devil Gundam cells go wild in a person, their behavior is unpredictable. If you want a reliable sci fi skellington to pilot your Death army, then you need to cultivate them in one of these tubes. You need to do it very precisely.
Anyway, I would like to know more about how precisely infection with DG cells works. We may or may not get that information though. Speaking of, who exactly is the mastermind? Or do we have a team of masterminds? Do we have a team of villains behind the scenes with some sort of grand plan? Shout out to the moment at the very beginning of the episode, talking about the colony. They don't care about what happens to us on Earth. They might be the ones causing all this. And Rayn's deeply troubled expression as she knows it was in fact people on the colony who caused this specific problem to occur.
She's also a colony person herself. A little awkward for her, right?
But they. The way that cowboy dude talks about. Talks about the colonies. And then the response of his co worker makes it seem like that attitude of, oh, it's the. This is all really the colony's fault is treated a bit like a conspiracy theory.
Like, I'm just saying, imagine you're at a party and you walk up into a conversation and everybody is talking about how much they hate podcasters, but they don't mean me. Keep telling yourself that. And maybe cowboy hat guy would be like, oh, no, Rain, I'm not talking about you. You're one of the good ones. His design really reminds me of somebody. The cowboy hat guy in Victory. I only just put it together. Khufu. Khufu from Victory.
Yep, yep, yep.
Welcome back, Khufu from Victory.
I am sensing in the narrative a bit of tension that I do not know how the show can possibly resolve it.
Go on.
All right. This is Going to take a little explaining. We have seen how Domon has formed bonds with some of these other Gundam fighters. You know, contrast how he holds back now with his early fights when he didn't know these people at all. He's worried about them. He doesn't want to defeat them. He wants to save them. The thing that tips him off that Master Asia has changed is when Master Asia shoots at all the sidekicks. And yet with tears in his eyes, he begs both sides of this conflict, both the Shuffle alliance and this new group of baddies who have allied themselves with Kyoji, not to fight. He really doesn't want to hurt these people he cares about. But Domon, how are you going to save any of them without fighting them?
Well, he's for sure gonna fight them.
What was the point of this?
Because he knew that he was entering minute 25 of a 26 minute episode. Like Domon is going through some strong emotions. Clearly he needs to get his head right. He needs to come to terms with this betrayal, figure out a way to save them. But it's going to be fighting. He's going to fight them. That's what the show is about. They're gonna fight in order to resolve their problems. It was very funny to me because as I was watching this, I was like checking the time. This episode is nearly over. We do not have time for another big fight.
No, but they could have left it cliffhanger. Like they could have left it on the verge of the two groups coming to blows. And then it could have been like, next time, the dramatic battle, do that thing.
The two sides rushing towards each other. Yeah.
And then you cut before anybody collides.
Right?
Yeah. They could have done that.
They could have done that.
But they wanted to draw it out.
They had to show us all of those transformation sequences for the new Shuffle Alliance Mobile Fighters.
And perhaps needed to show us that some part of Master Asia can still be reached by Domon, can still be touched by his tears.
He is not yet so far gone as to be completely unaffected by Domon's sorrow. But he's disowned him as an apprentice. They are no longer master and student, merely two Gundam fighters.
How horrible. We are also presumably leaving the one on one era of G Gundam and entering the tag team or team versus team era.
Alright again, scale of 1 to 10, how surprised were you that the four objects descending to Shinjuku? One turned out to be friends, not foes, and two turned out to be a pack of four playing card themed Gundams?
Not very Surprised at all that they wound up being friend rather than foe? Initially surprised by the designs, but then once I realized, like, oh, King of Hearts is one of a group, then not just a single guy. Okay. This makes perfect sense. I really like the designs of the Shuffle alliance, though. It does beg the question, is there a Heart Mobile suit, a Heart Gundam somewhere that the King of Hearts is entitled to use and Domon's just not using it because the Shining Gundam is better?
Yeah. I mean, Domon's relationship to this group is a big and very interesting question mark. Theoretically, he should be a member of this group, but if he's ever met these people before, it's not apparent. Yeah. Shouldn't he be out there piloting the
Heart King or whatever?
Okay, this is actually interesting. The titles that show up on screen, they're the titles of the pilots in the same way that Domon is the King of Hearts.
Okay.
The Mobile Fighters, I think, are all called like, Shuffle Spade, Shuffle Club, Shuffle diamond, or whatever.
Shuffle Joker. Okay.
Yeah. The Mobile Fighters have a different name from what's shown on the screen.
I'm trying to remember because I'm pretty sure in some narration in one of the previous episodes, did Domon become the King of Hearts and then Master Asia disappeared, or did Master Asia disappear First? First. And that's when Domon became King of Hearts.
At one point, it's implied that Domon became the King of Hearts by winning, like a tournament. Wide martial arts tournament.
Yeah.
And in another place, it's implied that he became the King of Hearts because Master Asia acknowledged him as the new King of Hearts. It's a little unclear.
Yeah. Anyway, obviously depends on exactly what it is the Shuffle alliance does and the specifics around how Domon became King of Hearts. He may well have met them through Master Asia, since his own master was a member of the Shuffle Alliance.
A little bit like meeting your dad's bowling club.
Right. But Tolman had only just become King of Hearts before he came home and got thrust into all this drama and the Gundam fight. And so he. He hasn't really gotten to do much Shuffle alliance stuff. I assume he's been rather busy since all of these other members of the Shuffle alliance have presumably been members for many more years. They have a lot of seniority on him. He is the newest and one assumes, youngest member.
Yeah. The history of this Shuffle alliance gets explained a bit more in a manga that came out a few years after this. Actually. If you have the Blu Ray set. If you have like the Blu Ray box set that Right stuff released when G Gundam was remastered a few years ago. You may notice that a bunch of the discs have Art of Gundams that do not appear in the show. Which is a little weird, right? They resemble Gundams that do appear in the show. They resemble the Maxter and the Bolt and the Rose and the Dragon Gundams. But are not. Those are from this manga. Those are from this manga. Those are the Gundams piloted by the members of the Shuffle alliance back in the seventh Gundam fight when they were all competing. Wow. They are the Gundam Freedom Koga Gundam, Moscow Gundam and Eiffel Gundam.
This sets up a really fun dichotomy. Actually. I love that you mentioned this on the Devil Gundam side. On Kyoji's side, we have all of these fighters who no longer care about the Gundam fight. They have bigger fish to fry. They have more important higher things to pursue. But in their case, it's just power to be more and more and more powerful forever. Knowing that the members of the Shuffle alliance used to be Gundam fighters, but are not anymore, sets them up as also having goals or vision that supersedes the Gundam fight that rises above this petty nationalistic squabbling. We don't know what it is yet, but presumably it is some good thing instead of just power.
Oh man. I don't know if this is ever actually said in the course of the show.
Why would it be? Why would they explain anything to us?
You want to guess what the purpose of the Shuffle alliance is?
To make people love martial arts? I don't know.
For 4,000 years, the shuffle alliance has been protecting the world through the powers of incredible martial arts.
4,000 years.
4,000 years protecting the world.
That's about as amorphous a goal as you could present.
Okay, I assume that this 4000 year history of the Shuffle alliance comes from the same origin as the idea that the number on Domon's tattoo is not a Rocky Horror Picture show reference, but is in fact a reference to him being the 4000, however many generation inheritor of the title of King of Hearts. But that would mean significantly more than one King of Hearts per year since the creation of the Shuffle Alliance.
Maybe a bunch of them got killed off defending the Earth.
Yeah. Or maybe the King of Hearts existed long before the Shuffle Alliance. Maybe it was only 4,000 years ago that the five most powerful martial artists all agreed to form a permanent alliance to protect the world. We should decide what we're going to call them. Because the names that are said in Japanese and displayed on the screen do not always correspond to what's in the subtitles. There's the Queen of Spades, which is actually Queen the spade.
Okay.
There's the Ace of Clubs or Club Ace. Black Joker is just Black Joker. And then the Jack of Diamonds is Jack in Dia or Jack India.
I'm probably going to refer to them as Queen of Spades, Ace of Clubs, Jack of Diamonds, Black Joker.
And then to cover the spread, I will refer to them as Queen the Spade, Club Ace, Black Joker and Jack India.
Just to maximally confuse all of you. Listening at home. Love to see that somebody decided we'd gone too long without a poofy haired, pink haired lady. That we really needed a new Pharah Griffin. A new Haman. I mean, she looks much more like Pharah than like Haman, but I describe
her as having pineapple frond hair. This is Tris Sergeyev, former Gundam fighter of Neo Russia, pilot of the Moscow Gundam. And now Black Joker.
She seems pretty cool.
There's also the like short thick dude in the medieval tunic with the turban and mustache. Max Burns of Neo, pilot of the Gundam Freedom.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Okay.
The bald bearded monk is Allen Lee of neochina, pilot of the KOGA Gundam. And finally, Nashus Kircher with the long white hair and the long blue coat. Neo France Eiffel Gundam.
Neo France, but with a name that sounds somewhat more Germanic.
Maybe he's from Alsace Lorraine.
Maybe. When we were first watching this, I started singing the Washington Washington song. Something about the hair looked like a powdered wig.
Mm, no, he's just old now. He's old and he has white hair.
What's really fascinating about this group is they are apparently the one thing that can worry Master Asia. The one thing to discompose him.
I love that. Early in the episode, someone is like, there are four objects coming towards us. And Master Asia immediately is like, oh, that's my former team.
Well, on some level, even if he has been infected or is being controlled in some way, assuming he still knows what he has always known, he hasn't lost his knowledge or his memories. He had to know they would come for him eventually. It was only a matter of time.
He just wanted to get Domon before they arrived. And he almost did.
And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you. Meddling Shuffle Alliance.
It must be so hard for Domon. Not just the betrayal, like by all of his friends and his master, but also to learn that he is not. He's not even that special. He's just the Latest in a succession of different corrupted Gundam fighters. Master Asia has already pulled this trick on four others. And I have to give you credit. You were right on in our earlier episodes, fixating immediately on the motivations of these four Gundam fighters. Because that's exactly what Domon throws back in their face. Now, Chibidi, what about your dream? Was your dream to become a slave to Kyoji Sai Saishi? What about restoring the temple, George? What about your chivalry? Oh, right, yeah, chivalry. That's the thing he cared about.
Argo, what about your pirate buddies?
No, we just want to be strong now.
This is a sort of meta narrative, but I'm getting increasingly fond of the narrator and his role in the story.
Stalker's great. What I'm hearing is that you would be devastated, drowned in your sorrows, if Stalker were now to betray you.
Well, Stalker can't betray me personally. If he were to betray Domon, that would be kind of interesting. How can he do that? I don't know. This was another episode with some really beautiful sequences, mostly focusing on the mobile suits. Of course. There were some close ups on smaller movements and repositioning of parts of the Master Gundam that I thought were really, really slick.
There was a fun story behind that, which I think I'm probably going to talk about in the research this week.
Ooh, okay.
I really loved maybe the opening minute when they're just doing like the cityscape
with the muffled explosions in the background,
the heartbeat, the thumping heartbeat in time with the flashing lights.
Oh, I thought that was like muffled explosions in the distance.
I mean, it might have been, but I think that was the heartbeat of whatever slumbers beneath the city. Whatever dark Gundam lurks down there.
Well, both of those would be cool.
I thought that was really beautiful.
It felt a bit out of place when they did the extremely silly, extremely exaggerated animation of the mayor dancing around telling Domon and Master Asia about the incoming objects.
That whole scene. Nobody in that scene is shadowed. That scene was done fast and cheap.
Maybe someone suggested kind of late into producing this episode that they needed a scene to bridge two other sections. Or wait, how did Master Asia and Domon hear about the thing? Or something. But yeah, it's not bad. Comic relief can be great. It just as the only real comic relief moment in this whole episode. It felt kind of odd and out of place when it was all on its own, though.
It was actually very funny when Domon is like, oh, I think Rayn is being weird because she has low blood pressure. And Master Asia Smacks him like, hey, respect women. This reminded me of the bit in Double Zeta, I think, where they're talking about someone, I'm pretty sure, a woman being irritable, and they're like, oh, she must have a calcium deficiency.
Yeah.
But this tendency to, like, to blame
women's emotionality on some sort of body
issue, some sort of physical, medical deficiency, to be like, oh, she is the way she is because her body is wrong somehow.
Once again, Domon, totally wrong about Rain.
True. I know the way Domon treats Raine, talks about Raine, bothers a lot of people who watch the show. And it is definitely the behavior of a young man who doesn't really respect women. Undeniably a lot of internalized misogyny. Definitely. And who has not yet come to accept his feelings for Rain and who
much of the time, seems to resent those feelings.
Oh, for sure, for sure. As was the style of the time. And it probably pretty accurately reflects the way most of the intended audience feels about girls at this point in their lives.
I haven't been particularly bothered about it, I think partially because it seems fairly realistic and also because it's very clear Rayn chooses to put up with it. She doesn't have to. Rain has options. She's a doctor.
She has, like, 10 jobs.
She's from the colonies. Her father is a respected scientist. Her family is clearly rich. She doesn't have to put up with Domon if she doesn't want to. She could leave.
But he's handsome and passionate and good at martial arts, and clearly that is doing something for her. Also, part of the appeal of this kind of love story is, is seeing the guy be kind of a jerk and have to get over that. This is what he has to overcome in order to tap into his real emotions and reach a more satisfying and complete relationship with her.
And we are gradually seeing him learn to treat her more as a partner and as an equal and less based on assumptions he has about how women are supposed to be treated. That's another part of it that helps me. He's clearly learning. Yeah, he has his bad moments, but he has good moments, too. And there is a general trajectory of improvement, I would say, in how he treats Rain and how he deals with his own feelings about Rain.
And within the established logic of the show, he is stronger when he works together with Raine as an equal. We saw in the previous episode that the two of them together have enough juice to be able to defeat the Darkness Finger. But Domon, on his own, especially drowning in sorrow as he is afraid, as he is, his shining finger is defeated. It gives the name of the episode. The way in which they do it is quite nice. Repeatedly, in the episode, Master Asia is seen offering his hand to Domon. Their final confrontation comes when they they clasp hands, the thing Master Asia has been trying to get him to do in friendship and subservience all throughout the episode. Now they join hands as opponents, as rivals. And it's in that action that we see Domon outmatched.
Domon join me on the dark side.
And Domon finds that against Master Asia, and this is the master stroke of strategy against Kyoji. Domon could activate the Super Mode. He can use his full power, the full power of the shining Gundam. But against Master Asia, he cannot summon up the rage that makes him peerless under heaven. He doesn't have it. The only question is, will he be able to find it? Now that we have been shocked, nay horrified by the revelation of Master Asia's antagonistic role in the story, I want to take a moment to talk about him and his Master Gundam. Because they are at least as important to G Gundam's production as a commercial project made by professional animators and put up on television under the direction and for the benefit of toy sponsor Bandai, as they were to the story. As of this episode, the show has been running for about three months, roughly a quarter of its total duration. Loyal listeners know we've talked about this before, but as a refresher, because of the way television time slots are apportioned in Japan, TV anime is usually planned out in blocks of roughly 13 episodes called Kor, with the end of one Cour and the beginning of the next marking major transition points in the story. Think back to First Gundam. The end of the First Cour sees Shar Aznabal leave the stage to make way for new villain Ramba Raal as the White Base departs North America for Asia. In Zeta, the First Corps ends with Camille and Quatro descending to Earth in Double Zeta. Lena's capture by Neo Zeon marks the end of the First Corps. And so on for G Gundam, which was planned on the fly in a remarkably short period of time. The whole First Corps was just a scramble, with the team still trying to figure out what kind of show they were making. The mood inside the studio during this period was low, and the reception did little to buoy their spirits. Nakayama Kotaro, a member of the Sunrise Planning Office who helped develop G and its future Century setting, called it a total firestorm. The manga Tie in running in Comic Bon Bon was dead last in the magazine's popularity polls. The TV ratings were atrocious. And direst of all, the merchandise was not selling. Victory Gundam had already been a huge disappointment on the merch front, a real nadir for the franchise. Yet somehow, G was doing even worse. And every week, letters from longtime Gundam fans, serious Universal Century purists would arrive at the studio with razor blades and threatening messages inside.
What? Yeah.
According to Nakayama, no one could understand what the show was aiming to be, and even those who worked on it were asking each other if what they were making was any good. Over at Bandai, the outlook was equally dire. The Gunpla team in the Hobby Division was divided into two units, one which produced BB Senshi kits based on SD Gundam designs for elementary schoolers, and one which produced what the company called Real Type Gundam kits with show accurate proportions for hobbyists from late middle school on up. From the perspective of American and European fans, which statistically includes you listening to this podcast right now, the Real Type kits are synonymous with gunpla. But if you've listened to our prior seasons, you know that was absolutely not the case in Japan at the time. SD Gundam moved kits, the Real types just sat on the shelf, and that whole division was treated as an afterthought by the company. This was especially bad when G started. Kishiyama Hirofumi, who was in charge of the Real Type team at the time, says that the Hobby Division had been excited for Victory and invested heavily in designing and producing Real Type kits for it. After all, it was the return of Gundam to TV after a long hiatus, the return of Tomino, and he was bringing with him a thrilling new story designed specifically to appeal to a younger demographic. What could go wrong? So all of this is to say that they needed G to hit and hit big. If it failed, there was a real possibility that that would mean the end of the Gundam franchise. Kishiyama recalls his predecessor telling him, I want to hand Gundam over to you as soon as possible. That is, I can see what's coming, and I do not want to be the guy holding the bag when Gundam's legacy finally peters out. Unsurprisingly, under these conditions, Chief Director Imagawa was struggling personally. It had been about a decade since he started working in anime. Remember, he first attracted notice in the industry for his work on Aura battler Dunbine in 1983, and transitioning from up and coming rookie to supposedly reliable veteran, and mentoring had left him with a crisis of confidence as A young and relatively inexperienced director, he had been able to see the rest of the staff as his peers, but now that feeling of camaraderie was gone, he had a team full of inexperienced youngsters looking to him for guidance and overbearing sponsors breathing down his neck. At the same time, he felt adrift in the world. His career had drawn him to Tokyo, but his heart still yearned for his native Osaka and the familiar comfort of his childhood home. But while he was working in Tokyo, his siblings had all married and moved away, and his parents had even sold the old family house, apparently without warning him. He would end up pouring his unresolved longing for home into the depiction of the Kashu family's ruined house in Episode six. His ambivalence over his new role as mentor to the next generation of animators found expression in the relationship between Domonic, the hotshot rookie he had been, and Master Asia, the wise leader he was expected to become. Incidentally, Imagawa is quite proud of his Osakan heritage and credits his high energy, maximum spectacle directing style to what he describes as his give the customer what they want Osaka merchant spirit. Like how I could credit MSB to my Brooklyn podcaster spirit, Imagawa calls this emotionally charged style raw direction, and as I mentioned in a prior episode, he had received orders to please not include any of it in G. I don't think Imagawa has ever said who gave those orders, but another staffer, Kawaguchi Yoshitaka, who worked on the setting, remembers producer Minami Masahiko telling the director not to include references to Hong Kong movies because he didn't want the show to feel derivative of Imagawa's previous works or to veer too hard into comedy. So I think there's a good chance it was Minami who gave the order originally. But a funny thing happened when Master Asia joined the cast in episode 12. According to Imagawa translated by Zeonic Scanlations Master Asia was nothing less than the living, breathing avatar of my suppressed raw direction, bursting onto the scene with thunderous declarations like what in the world are you doing, you utter fools. Effortlessly destroying enemy mobile suits with bare hands, playing his braided hair like a flute, he utterly shattered the series established tone. Master Asia appeared precisely to sweep away the stress and fatigue I had accumulated while suppressing my true creative instincts. At that precise moment, Master Asia provided the answer to the fundamental issue that haunted me throughout the the necessity of personal creative style. How foolish I'd been. What was the point of directing if I abandoned my individuality? Master Asia emerged as an amalgamation of all my suppressed creative impulses, rallying as one, breaking free and storming past all boundaries to defeat the false self that I had imposed. Seeing the results, Minami threw up his hands. Okay, fine. Include raw direction. Include all the Hong Kong action flick references you want. Clearly it's working for you. And others noticed the change too. In interview after interview, people who worked on the show or at Bandai at the time look back on Master Asia's debut as the moment things turned around for G. Enomata Kenji, who wrote a series of behind the scenes books about Gundam and Gunpla, says that the new show started finding its footing with fans after Master Asia's appearance. It appealed mainly to female fans who liked the male characters and younger kids who liked the outrageous Gundam designs. But even fans of the older works who had previously been resistant, found that the appearance of this new villain, with his intricate and formidable Master Gundam, gave a new clarity to the themes of the show and its main protagonist, Nakayama from the planning office called Master Asia absolutely pivotal. Kishiyama Hirofumi and the Gunpla Factory says Master Asia and the Master Gundam triggered a surge in popularity. Just seeing the design of the Master Gundam, he knew it would be a hit with Gundam fans. The complex way the wings fold around the body to form a cloak represented a major challenge and a huge leap forward for Gunpla design. At the time, they had no 3D computer assisted design programs to check for parts interference, and so they had to figure out how to make it work with handmade prototypes. Kishiyama refers to bringing in a hotshot young engineer, the now legendary mecha designer Katoki Hajime, to handle the wing to cloak transformation sequence, and mentions that it was Kotoki who later designed the transformation mechanism of the Master Grade Zeta Gundam. In fact, it's believed by many in the community that Katoki was commissioned to work on the early Master Grades precisely because he had impressed the Bandai team so much with his work on the Master Gundam. And all that effort paid off. The Master Gundam was one of the best selling kits, and the cloak system in particular proved hugely popular, which must have been very satisfying for the staff at Sunrise, because in Imagawa's telling, the Bandai side had objected to the cloak at first and had only agreed to include it when the anime staff, on their own initiative, asked Kotoki to do a design drawing to prove that it could really work in three dimensions. In the same interview, he notes with pride that the fully articulated hands which are included in some gunpla models now were another G innovation. After all, how else could you realize all of those intricate martial arts poses, much less the all important Shining Finger Attack. And by the way, if you're well versed in your early 90s mecha and you're thinking that the Master Gundam looks awfully similar to the JL9 Griffin from from Mobile Police Patlabor, there is a good reason for that. While the Master Gundam's design is credited to Katoki, he did consult with Griffin creator Izubuchi Yutaka while working on it. So Master Asia and the Master Gundam saved G? More or less. But who is Master Asia? Where did he come from? Why is he like that? For one thing, he is not what Bandai wanted. Nakayama remembers Bandai being strongly opposed to the idea of an eccentric old man antagonist. They wanted a young and handsome rival. The kind who might wear a mask. A mask? Imagawa, put him in a mask. We need that. Sharju's Imagawa. We need the mask. Just draw it. Just draw the mask. Just draw the F. The chief director was known to have a fondness for old man characters. The name he borrowed from a then recent wuxia movie known in English as the Swordsman 3 the east is red. That subtitle, the east is Red or Dongfang Bubai is also the name of the main character played by the incomparable Bridget Lynn, and a four character idiom comprised of the characters for East Direction, not and Defeat. There's nothing in there about the east being red, but the name was a reference to a Chinese communist song, the East Is Red, which was popular during the Cultural Revolution when the book on which the movie was based was written, and the English title preserves the reference. In Japanese, the character's name is pronounced Touhou Fuhai, and in English it could be translated as Invincible dawn, which is how it appears in the subtitles in the version that Nina and I watched, or somewhat more literally as Undefeated of the East. Imagawa is very open about the inspiration in the G Files interviews. He said, while trying to decide on the name of our enemy, a lot of films provided key words. I used the title of a film called Touhou Fuhai. It's a favorite of mine and I also love the use of the four character title. I felt that no one in Japan would know such a minor film. However, suddenly the film came to Japan and was shown in theaters and I panicked. People were going to think it was the same character from the movie. Then, in a section of the G Files from the Japanese laserdisc release that was not included in the English version. He adds that if you're wondering where the Master Asia part of the name came from, well, that's easy to explain too. Simply buy the original Hong Kong laserdisc version of the film, the one with English subtitles, and you will discover that the main character's name has been translated the there as Master Asia. Laughing, Imagawa describes the feeling the name gives him in a rapid fire array of metaphors. He says it has an over the top cheesiness. Kusai Aji. It's got a shadiness you can smell in the back of your nose, a 1960s vibe, the feeling you get from Ayashi Pachimon or shady Knockoffs, or when you see a picture that was clearly taken in black and white and then colored in. He also describes it as having a Tokyo Olympics feel. I don't know what the associations for the Tokyo Olympics were in the 1990s, but is that really his name? In the 1996 manga Kid Buto Gaiden Gandamu Fait Sebenzu or Mobile Fight side the Seventh Gundam Fight by Ototoi Kitaro he has a more conventional Shuji Kurosu, probably meant to be Shuji Cross, as well as a backstory that makes him Neo Japanese by birth and a former Gundam fighter for Neo Japan, working for Neo Hong Kong now as basically an expatriate mercenary. I don't know. It's a backstory which I hate so much that I plan to forget about it completely by the time this episode airs. If you ask me about it in a week, I will look at you like you're speaking in tongues. Fortunately, Imagawa offers a much better answer. In the G Files interviews, he says his name is Touhou Fuhai. Master Asia. I meant for Toho Fuhai to be his street name and Master Asia to be his real name. Or maybe I should just say which one is real doesn't really matter. Or as I would put it, don't worry about it.
Next week on MSB, episode 11.15 A History of Anti Violence we'll research and discuss g Gundam episode 15 and peer pressure Kashira Kashira Gozonji Kashira Are you telling me you could have healed your wounds at any time?
Not at any time. Only when when it's dramatic,
sinister uplighting Drafted into the Gundam War, the East is burning Red Succession Crisis Unpainted Gumpla Equivalent Exchange the coolest Most characters and Gundams are doomed to the shortest arcs and it makes no sense compels me though. Ready Go.
Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded and produced 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 Dayoxin, the closing music is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, and the recap music is window by 1000 hands. 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@gundampodcast.com Patreon or look for other ways to support the show@gundampodcast.com
Most
of all, thank you for listening. Are you ready to podcast?
I suppose, if you must.
But thou must.
I'd rather talk about fashion.
I mean, I know, but we don't make that kind of podcast. Maybe we could talk about it on Ungundan. Excuse me.
All right,
That timing. Originally broadcast on I didn't look this up. 1994.
I'm not familiar with that way of having the date.
Oh, it's. It's European.
Who is the Shar? How can we have a Gundam without a shar?
Oh, I didn't mention this in the research, but not only had Bandai objected to Old Man Master Asia, but I guess originally Sunrise wanted domon to be 16. He was going to be younger, and I think it was the TV network that was like, if he's going to be punching people with his bear head hands, he has to be an adult.
Well, because bare knuckle fighting, I mean obviously this is a sci fi cartoon, but it's possible that the, the connotations of bare knuckle fighting were more rough and tumble at the time than they might be now. Even in a like fantasy context. Yeah, and even in other fantasy shows. A lot of the characters who fight with with their hands wear gloves.
I wonder if that's why they do it. If the TV networks are like, if it's a kid, they have to be wearing gloves.
Maybe.