WEBVTT 00:08.720 --> 00:20.440 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. 00:29.280 --> 01:00.560 This is episode 11.18, Cowardly Tiger, Headstrong Dragon, and we are your hosts. I'm Tom, and as another plume of toxic wildfire smoke hangs hazy over scenic New York City, I'm considering the job opportunities for a podcaster in an apocalyptic wasteland scenario. I'm thinking wandering bard? For the low price of a bowl of mystery stew and a place by your fire, I'll regale you with tales about a Gundam episode that I remember from the before-time. 01:00.600 --> 01:46.860 And I'm Nina, new to G Gundam, and this week's episode is giving me karate club training trip flashbacks. As an ad-free, independent podcast, Mobile Suit Breakdown relies on the geniality and generosity of our paying subscribers. Thank you all, and I wish I could give special thanks to our newest patrons, but we don't have any this week. If you enjoy this show and would like to hear our takes on later Gundam series, please consider supporting us on Patreon or Ko-fi. Paid subscribers also get access to years' worth of bonus episodes, extended cuts, exclusive outtakes, and other fun tidbits. Check out gundampodcast.com/patreon for more details. And to all our current patrons, thank you again. You keep us genki. 01:48.830 --> 03:40.090 This week we're covering G Gundam episode 18, Hisatsu Waza o Nusume: Bijou Gandan no Dai Sakusen, or Steal the Secret: Scheme of the Beautiful Warriors, originally broadcast on August 19th, 1994. Chibiti's whole team gets speaking roles in this episode, and the actors playing them are an interesting mix. We've noted before that when only one member of Team Chibiti needs to speak, it's almost always Bunny, and so it's no surprise to learn that the woman voicing her, Yamazaki Wakana, was the most successful of the 4. She was raised in Kyoto and studied chemical engineering at Doshisha University there, but though she graduated from the program, she had already been seduced by the lure of theater. She had been a Takarazuka Revue fangirl through middle and high school, and then started acting as a hobby while in college. By the time she graduated, she had concluded it would be impossible to make a living as a stage actor, but figured that she just might be able to pay the bills with voice acting while pursuing her real passion, theater, in her free time. She had only started her career a few years prior to G, but had already started landing major roles. Then in '96, 2 years after wrapping on G, Yamazaki snagged one of those coveted forever jobs, playing Ran on Detective Conan. In 2000, she got another long one as Nojiko on One Piece. She also played Sophia, the executive officer of the pirate airship Silvana in Last Exile, and Ayane in the Dead or Alive series. Sadly, she fell ill earlier this year and passed away in April of 2026, just 61 years old. There's no research at the end of the episode this week. The toxic air quality disrupted our schedules and our health enough that it was all we could do to get the rest of the episode done in time. 03:40.090 --> 03:44.520 Yeah, the smoke has been triggering my migraines. Basically all week. 03:44.520 --> 07:34.100 Next week, however, will be all research as we return to Yugoslavia, where the looming clash between Stalin and Tito threatens to tear the communist world apart. For now, though, it's time for the play-by-play. These are the Guiana Highlands, one of the most beautiful stretches of unspoiled nature left on Old Earth. Here, more than a kilometer above sea level, the lonely battle cry of the endangered Gundam Fighter can still be heard over the roar of the cataracts. No one knows why the Gundam Fighters began coming here, but every 4 years a few of them make the journey, crossing many thousands of miles in order to reach this remote stretch of jungle. Scientists believe that Gundam Fighters who have been defeated in battle by older and larger males feel an instinctual desire to return to the place where they were first trained to develop their skills. This one, nicknamed Mr. Japanese by researchers, was recently driven out of his territory in Shinjuku. He has spent the first few days here licking his wounds, cliff diving, and chopping at trees with his sword, but is now ready to begin performing elaborate martial arts routines in hopes of attracting a companion. Though the ritual resembles a mating dance, nothing could be further from this young Gundam fighter's mind. He is looking for a much more intimate connection— a rival. Once, the valleys and plateaus of this dense rainforest rang with the calls of hundreds of Gundam fighters. Now, only a handful of these noble beasts remain in the wild, and most fighters who make the journey will leave the highlands disappointed. But what's this? Mr. Japanese has had a stroke of luck! A new American Gundam fighter is in the area and has taken notice of the display. And what's more, the newcomer has a large and devoted support crew, a sure sign of good health in a Gundam fighter. The 2 will now begin cautiously testing each other's strength to decide if the other will make a suitable destined rival. With special infrared trail cameras, we can see how their body temperatures rise in tandem as their fighting spirits rage. What incredible speed! What agility! Now Mr. Japanese attempts to demonstrate his power by cutting through a massive tree with a rusted sword. The other Gundam fighter looks unimpressed, and another inauspicious development soon follows. The American support crew is trying to steal data from the Neo-Japanese mobile fighter, but they have been spotted by their counterpart. This is a serious breach of etiquette, and it could doom the budding rivalry. Fortunately, a dangerous storm soon rolls in, putting an end to the conflict between the crews. Facing the raging torrents of these flood-prone rivers, will give both Gundam fighters an ideal opportunity to display their skills. Perhaps they will survive the winter after all. Way back in season 1, I remember we did an episode where we looked at Amuro's behavior compared it against a list of common PTSD symptoms and asked, is the depiction of Amuro in these episodes meant to convey that he is suffering from PTSD? And we reached the conclusion, or at least I reached the conclusion, that I thought he was. But reasonable minds can differ, and over the years, um, various people, including some professionals with a much better idea of such things than I, have either agreed or disagreed or Simply said, there's no basis on which to make that determination for a fictional character. No such analysis would be necessary for Chibidi in this episode. It's fairly clear this is a pretty standard Hollywood depiction of PTSD for Mr. Chibidi Crockett. 07:34.100 --> 07:38.420 He's having hallucinations, he's hypervigilant. 07:38.420 --> 08:39.840 Yeah, he's having flashbacks to when he was infected with the DG cells, he's lashing out violently. And part of the reason we had to do that analysis with Amuro was that the depiction of Amuro was highly externalized. We saw Amuro as the other characters saw him. To the extent there was any interiority, it was only in what he chose to share or what was revealed by his actions. And at the time I posited that was because, for Tomino, a member of the war generation, growing up with older Well, surrounded. Friends, relatives, neighbors, etc., surrounded by people who had experienced the war very viscerally and directly. Tomino's experience of post-traumatic stress disorder was seeing the behavior of other people who had experienced it. For Imagawa, of a younger generation, his primary experience of PTSD is seeing movies in which it is depicted. Probably American movies and probably about Vietnam soldiers. 08:39.840 --> 08:46.960 Probably, right? Like, we don't— we don't know the specifics of Imagawa's background, his friends, his family. 08:46.960 --> 08:55.680 Sure, we're making some assumptions here. Um, but yeah, I, I think the depiction of chibiti is very internalized. 08:55.680 --> 09:02.200 I actually, uh, quick sidebar, who is he meant to be fighting? 09:02.600 --> 09:04.920 This is Neo-Mongolia's Temujin Gundam. 09:04.920 --> 09:37.650 Okay, that is less helpful. I— so the curved swords I thought looked vaguely Chinese, uh, or possibly like they were meant to look like machetes or like Middle Eastern scimitars. Uh, and I thought that your, uh, mention of Vietnam War veterans and the trauma many of them brought home with them would have been especially fitting if he was in fact fighting a uh, you know, Southeast Asian Gundam fighter. But alas. 09:37.650 --> 09:55.090 I think the idea of having Neo-America's Gundam fighter destroy, say, Neo-Vietnam or Neo-Lao's Gundam fighters in New York City would be maybe too much of a live wire even for this show to touch. 09:55.090 --> 10:07.070 Also, why doesn't the Neo-Mongolia Gundam fighter have a Like hunting hawk or eagle. Why doesn't it have a bow weapon? 10:07.070 --> 10:08.750 It's such a shame. 10:08.750 --> 10:13.190 Why is it not on a horse? Serious missed opportunity. 10:13.310 --> 10:18.270 That's it. The show has failed. Into the bin it goes. Let's move on to something quality. 10:18.270 --> 10:22.190 I'm just saying, if they're going to call it the Temujin Gundam, come on. 10:22.190 --> 10:28.630 Oh, I hear you. I hear you. I see you. I'm on the same page. It could have been much cooler. 10:28.630 --> 10:33.030 For those of you who don't know, Temujin was one of the names for Genghis Khan. 10:33.030 --> 10:50.150 And Chibiti is not the only one who is suffering, apparently, from PTSD or something like it. Both fighters, including Domon, are clearly struggling with a sensation of powerlessness created by their recent fight against the Devil Gundam. 10:50.150 --> 10:58.000 And a sense of being haunted by it, of it looming over everything they do all the time. 10:58.120 --> 11:07.480 Domon reacts to this, we know, by going to the Guiana Highlands and training. But a lot of what he's doing to Rain doesn't look like training. He's just, like, cliff diving. 11:07.480 --> 11:26.130 What struck me about this is that while we see him clearly doing martial arts and training his balance and agility and strength and what have you, The cliff diving, the waterfall dive, all of that is actually about training against fear. 11:26.130 --> 11:26.930 Mm-hmm. 11:26.930 --> 11:30.290 About making himself do things that are frightening. 11:30.290 --> 11:49.010 Or even just trying to prove to himself that he's not afraid. But it's not enough. He doesn't seem to be making any kind of progress. He still cannot cut the tree. Although in his defense, that tree is thicker than Argo Goldsky. Like, Doumon and Chibiri together probably could not wrap their arms around that tree. 11:49.010 --> 12:02.050 And Schwartz is there doing his puppet master thing. He has identified the problem and is cleverly prodding at various parties to produce what he believes is the solution. 12:02.050 --> 12:08.930 You had suggested that Schwartz might actively train Doumon, and I had said that he wouldn't, and we're kind of both right. 12:08.930 --> 12:23.440 Well, maybe we're building towards that. Maybe it's too soon for that. I will say, for anyone curious, I have absolutely had total strangers butt into conversations in New York City. That is a thing that happens. 12:23.440 --> 12:29.120 If you're a New York native like the Chibidi Gals, this would not be a surprising incident. 12:29.120 --> 12:32.240 Like a random old dude insisting on giving you advice. 12:32.240 --> 12:33.280 Might be good advice. 12:33.280 --> 12:43.740 Not that unusual. But they wouldn't have listened if it hadn't rung true. They pay a lot of attention to Chibiti. They can tell that something is off. Sure. 12:43.820 --> 13:22.920 Well, he and Domon again are paralleled in the way that they are reacting to their defeats at the hands of the Devil Gundam. Both of them are lashing out in this sort of, like, formless, artless violence. Chibiti obviously smashing away at the already disabled Temujin Gundam, but Domon, like, running through the wilderness just slashing randomly at whatever low-down, dirty, nasty piece of vegetation happens to look at him wrong. Incidentally, this is exactly how I spent a lot of afternoons as a little kid growing up in the woods. Although I didn't have a sword, I would just grab a dried-out reed and swish it around me as though it were a sword. 13:22.920 --> 13:34.840 I will return to the matter at hand, but I have to say I was cracking up looking at Domon, who insisted on tearing his shirt off for training but is still wearing, like, regular slacks. 13:34.840 --> 13:35.640 It's a look. 13:36.270 --> 13:42.190 I don't know if any of you have ever tried to throw a high kick in regular pants. I don't recommend it. 13:42.190 --> 13:48.670 No, no, he's got the special, um, he's got the ones with the gusseted crotch that Chuck Norris was selling. Do you remember these? 13:48.670 --> 13:51.710 No, but that sounds like a very Chuck Norris thing to do. 13:51.710 --> 14:02.270 There were special Chuck Norris brand jeans that had an extra triangle gusset sewn into the crotch so that you could throw high kicks in them. Look it up, kids. You'll find the ads online. 14:02.610 --> 14:28.050 But returning to the matter at hand, the real message of this episode, the point of this episode, is that these Gundam fighters need to learn that they need other people and that that's okay. It is in fact good. Training on your own can never be as good as training with a really good sparring partner. 14:28.050 --> 15:11.460 That's the thing. It's not just that they need other people. They need good training partners. They need other men. The gender going on here is neither complex nor accidental. Like, both of them have devoted female companions, and yet in their trauma reactions, in their misery, they are driving them away. Chibidi, you know, the girls are so concerned about him that they boat off to, um, South America in order to find a solution to his crisis, but As much as Raine needs this break, like, she's bored out of her mind. She doesn't see the benefit of Domon's training. He can't explain it to her. We've seen her on the verge of leaving him before. 15:11.460 --> 15:33.700 I specifically said need people. I appreciate you bringing up the gender dichotomy, but people, because there's the training partner side, and then there is the fact that— and this is not Subtle. Both of them reach new heights of power and ability only when they are acting to save people they love. 15:33.700 --> 15:38.260 This is the ultimate fantasy for a young man of a certain age. 15:38.260 --> 15:41.380 The greatest power of all isn't anger, it's love! 15:41.380 --> 15:58.100 That when the chips are down and the girl you have a crush on is in danger, you will, you will be the one to save her. You will demonstrate your incredible skill and power. You will pull her out of the raging flooded river. You'll pull her out of the way of traffic. You'll beat up the bully, whatever it is. 15:58.100 --> 16:03.700 And she will know the true depth of your feelings without you even having to say the words. 16:03.700 --> 16:07.140 That's the best part. You never have to say the words. 16:07.140 --> 16:11.700 You don't have to say anything, actually, except with your fists. 16:11.700 --> 16:25.150 Which, as we've learned, martial artists are awkward people who can only communicate with their fists, so... This is really the best chance they're gonna get. You have to find a girl who is constantly winding up in danger so that you can always be saving her. 16:25.150 --> 16:44.840 And Rayn makes the point to Shirley, because Shirley doesn't want to call for Tivity's help initially, but Rayn makes the point, you're partners. You have to depend on each other. There's nothing wrong or shameful in being rescued by your partner. I love their combat fits, by the way. 16:44.840 --> 16:47.560 The tank tops and cargo pants? 16:47.560 --> 16:47.960 Yup. 16:47.960 --> 17:02.600 I love their sense of fair play. Like, there's 4 of them and they have guns, and yet when Raign chases, they still, like, run away from her. What is she going to do to them? But I suppose the guilty flee when none pursueth. 17:02.600 --> 17:25.410 One of them even comments admiringly that Raign has been able to keep up with them. In a nod to the necessity of having good training partners, of being inspired by your rivals, of having these relationships with other fighters, other men, where they're not, strictly speaking, your comrades, but they're not your enemies either. 17:25.410 --> 17:26.530 Mm-hmm. 17:26.530 --> 17:53.610 Of having men around who you admire and can look up to, which both of them acknowledge is like, this is the best kind of training. all gets hammered home visually at the very end of the episode when the 2 mobile fighters are standing side by side, not opposed to each other, both sort of facing the same way, standing at the same distance to us. They look as though they are together rather than in opposition. 17:53.610 --> 18:29.810 Well, and in facing the, the raging river, the flood and the debris, they are facing an opponent greater than either of them, which is the whole point of this. They are doing this so that they can face off against the Devil Gundam. Neither one of them is really concerned with the Gundam fight right now. Neither one of them is concerned with the fact that eventually they will have to fight each other. This is an alliance. This is a union of 2 people who would normally be rivals, and to some degree still are, against a 3rd greater adversary. As Sun Tzu says, when in ground of intersecting roads, seek alliances. 18:30.820 --> 18:49.140 An interesting through line that we are maybe going to see more of— I would say we've got 2 incidents so far, so until there's a 3rd, it's not really a pattern— but when the Gundam fighter himself cheats, that is portrayed pretty strongly negatively. 18:49.140 --> 18:49.540 Mm-hmm. 18:49.540 --> 19:04.860 Cheats or does something sort of nefarious and immoral to gain an advantage. When the women who support them very reluctantly and against their own inclinations cheat in order to support them, that's tragic. 19:04.860 --> 19:05.740 Hmm. 19:05.740 --> 19:15.740 But it's not bad. Because Chibity's gals, there is a lot of reluctance to steal this Shining Gundam data. 19:15.740 --> 19:16.220 Mm-hmm. 19:16.220 --> 19:21.340 The real plan all along was, in my opinion, just to goad Chibity into action. 19:21.340 --> 19:48.790 I— no, I don't think so. Do you not think? No, I think the plan from the perspective of the girls is they go to South America, they steal the Gundam data, they then use the Gundam data to give Chibiti an unfair advantage over the Shining Gundam. Chibiti defeats his, his rival from Neo Japan and feels better because he has attained a victory. This reveals that the girls don't really understand what's wrong with Chibiti, but like, I think that's their plan. 19:48.790 --> 20:14.720 I had sort of understood it as They take off without telling him. They leave the note, which is fairly insulting, and I think clearly goading him because they expect him to follow them, and then he will have to fight the Shining Gundam. He will have to fight Domon. They're going to steal the data also because they're concerned. They don't entirely trust his ability to win without it. Mm-hmm. 20:14.880 --> 20:32.870 They think what he needs to feel better is a win. But what he really needs is a friend. I think that's the mistake they've made. And it can't be just any friend, right? It has to be somebody who has faced the same overwhelming menace that Chibiti has faced. Because only Doumon can understand. 20:32.870 --> 20:35.510 I wouldn't call this a friendship, though. 20:35.510 --> 20:39.030 Well, I know. I said alliance earlier, and that's also what it is. 20:39.030 --> 20:40.510 Training partner. 20:40.870 --> 20:43.350 But not just training partner. 20:43.520 --> 21:02.320 the best kind of training partner. My point was just that similar to Chapman's wife cheating on his behalf, the girls don't really want to do this underhanded thing, but they feel like it's necessary for their survival. It's necessary for Chibiti to keep going. 21:02.320 --> 21:04.160 It's the gender of the thing. 21:04.160 --> 21:04.640 Yeah. 21:04.640 --> 21:14.550 For the, the female partner of a Gundam fighter, right, the highest ideal of that character type is loyalty, that she's willing to do anything. 21:14.550 --> 21:20.230 And self-sacrifice, right? She's willing to sacrifice her own moral compass even. 21:20.230 --> 22:05.490 Exactly. She'll do anything to help her man. And if the man is good and strong, then that's great. But if the man is weak, then it becomes tragic. Because if the man is weak, then that loyal partner will even stoop to breaking the rules in order to help him. But also in the case of Chapman, his wife, Manon, didn't really understand what he wanted. Partly because, like all Gundam fighters, he is incapable of conveying anything with words. He's incapable of saying what it is that he wants clearly. In both cases, the women assumed That what their partner wanted was to win at any cost. 22:05.490 --> 22:42.560 I will be very curious to see if we ever encounter another woman Gundam fighter other than Black Joker, who was around for all of an episode and a half. Because you could make this a contrast between men and women. You could, in the case, say, of Sae Saichi, make it a contrast between the young and the old. But you could just make it a contrast between fighters, like people who are fighters in their core, at the center of their being. It's who they are. And people who aren't that. 22:42.560 --> 22:53.680 I think we would have to see a female Gundam fighter to really be able to make a call here. But to me, there are also, as you said, some male support staff. Sae Saishi's monk friends, George's butler. 22:53.680 --> 23:03.050 A butler, though, is in such a a caretaking role already that it's very easy to kind of like feminize that. 23:03.050 --> 23:31.630 And we don't have data, right? We haven't seen those characters put into similar situations. The suggestion thus far seems to be that the women don't really have their own honor. If honor is a resource, honor belongs to the Gundam fighter. There's no dishonor in the women like breaking the rules for the sake of their man, except the dishonor that then is, like, conferred onto the fighter as a result. 23:31.630 --> 23:44.910 Right. Which is why Chibiri destroys the disc with all the Shining Gundam data on it. Also because he wants to win from his own abilities. He has enough pride in himself that he wants to earn the win on his own ability. 23:44.910 --> 24:07.480 And after this meetup with Domon and clashing together and training together, He feels a lot better about himself. He feels a lot more confident about his abilities. Perhaps they believe that together they can overcome their trauma by defeating its source, which as we all know, is the only form of therapy which 20-year-old professional fighters can respect or recognize. 24:07.480 --> 24:15.240 Is this the first of our round 3 encounters with our new Shuffle Alliance Gundam fighters? 24:15.240 --> 24:17.000 Oh baby, you better believe it is. 24:17.000 --> 24:24.510 Another Sae Saichi episode, another, George de Sand episode and another Argo Golsky episode. 24:24.510 --> 24:32.350 We're going to be deepening our knowledge of these men very shortly, I expect. Um, to move off of the gender question— 24:32.350 --> 24:34.510 It doesn't seem like much of a question, really. 24:34.510 --> 24:41.550 Fair enough. Um, how cool is the backstory for Chibidi's team? 24:41.550 --> 24:45.870 Ugh, they were all delinquents. I love it. And I love their teenage delinquent outfits. 24:46.040 --> 24:54.760 Not just delinquents, but downtown New York delinquents in their early '90s-looking outfits. Ugh, they're great. Love all of them. 24:54.760 --> 24:58.720 Thieving and fighting and rioting, apparently. 24:59.160 --> 25:09.080 And then stowing away on a shuttle to the colonies. And Chibidi wins their eternal loyalty by being the first person in their lives to treat them like real people. 25:09.080 --> 25:24.860 And all that happened is that he saw shuttle security grab a bunch of delinquents and start to drag them off of the shuttle. And he felt that sense of kinship with them. He recognized in them something very similar to his own background. 25:24.860 --> 25:25.900 The hunger. 25:25.900 --> 25:26.700 The fight. 25:26.700 --> 25:28.660 They've got those good eyes. 25:29.260 --> 25:31.540 And they've been with him ever since. 25:31.580 --> 26:08.870 I don't expect G to be making profound political statements. I don't think that was their intention. Um, when you watch a Tomino show, it sometimes feels like he's grabbing the viewer's head in his hands and he's shouting, think! Think about the world you inhabit! Read a book or a newspaper, for God's sake! Learn some history before one of those idiots blows us all up! There's a desperation coming from him. And G is— G is not like that. G feels like Imagawa is sitting down on the couch next to you, with a bowl of popcorn and saying, aren't movies wonderful? 26:08.870 --> 26:10.550 Hehehehehe. 26:10.550 --> 26:50.810 Do you want to watch some Netflix with me? And it's a real sign of the times. Definitely says more about our world today than about G Gundam, that this extremely basic depiction of, like, America and New York is suddenly a radical statement. The tension has always been there, but the strength of America, and especially of New York, Has al— has always been sirens. Hey, very appropriate. Thank you, New York, for making yourself heard on this episode. The strength and the beauty of New York, and I guess America too, has always been if you have that fire in you, if you have that hunger in you— 26:50.810 --> 26:51.930 Scrappiness. 26:51.930 --> 26:58.570 And you come here, you will be welcomed. You'll be treated like a person, and you will be given the opportunity to prove yourself. 26:58.570 --> 27:37.300 In a Admittedly somewhat, like, facile in a historic way, but very in keeping with the early '90s. Having the show itself describe Chibori as Tomon's destined rival is a projection of the kind of relationship Japan maybe wanted to have with the United States and felt like it had at that time and in the late '80s of not too friendly, Mm-hmm. and not subordinate, but 2 powers that could work together and respect each other and actually spur each other to new heights in their competition. 27:37.300 --> 27:38.260 Mm-hmm. 27:38.260 --> 27:59.480 I try not to read too much political commentary into G because I don't know how intentional any of it is or if I'm just so used to reading a lot into Gundam shows that I'm reading it. But to have Chibiti in this same episode make a crack about the quality of made-in-Japan goods, it feels like, okay, we're talking about Global economic competition. 27:59.480 --> 28:33.200 To that point of, like, how political is G ever trying to be? I know there's a fairly significant element of the story, not to give away which one it is, but I read an interview where one of the people who worked on the production and who worked on the initial, like, pitch for the show just said, oh, this one thing was a really popular issue at the time. So I just put it into the proposal because I thought it was more likely that the show would get approved if we said we were going to talk about it. 28:33.200 --> 28:36.000 Incredible. Did they actually include it? 28:36.000 --> 28:36.400 Yes. 28:36.400 --> 28:38.320 Okay. Because they also— 28:38.320 --> 28:44.080 it ends up being a pretty major part of the show. Um, but this was not a— not something they passionately cared about. 28:44.080 --> 28:44.960 Got it. 28:44.960 --> 29:02.840 And set out to make a show that talked about this. It was like, no, we're gonna make this show, and we think it will be more likely to pass muster with the Bandai executives if we pass it off as being somewhat topical. The listeners at home who have already seen the show can guess what it's going to be, and I'm— I'll confirm when we get there. 29:02.840 --> 30:05.090 The final point that I thought was interesting, and that I, I wrote the line down, I flagged it in my notes, was when Chibiti arrives in the Guiana Highlands, he says, you don't get this kind of scenery on the colony. And Again, it hasn't happened very often, but we have had a few moments, uh, with the Mexico episode in particular, and now here in the Guiana Highlands, of acknowledgement that there are good things about Earth also. It's not as though Earth is just 100% a dump and the colonies are the place to be. The colonies are you know, a place of opportunity. Uh, they are the seat of power for a lot of these, uh, neo-nations. But the relationship between the colonies and Earth, and the relationship people have between these 2 kinds of places, is perhaps a little more complicated than it seemed at the very beginning of the show. 30:05.090 --> 30:35.050 The colonies are cities in 1990s Japan. The colonies are the cities The Earth is the countryside. The Earth is all the small villages, largely depopulated, economically depressed, but beautiful scenery, and also the traditional way of life that people still value and want to preserve. And then the Colonies are the cities, expensive to live in, every convenience you could possibly want, beautiful in their own way. 30:35.050 --> 30:38.010 Everything modern and on the cutting edge. 30:38.950 --> 30:46.070 And that's where the people want to be. That's where the, the wealth is concentrated and the power. And there they have artificial nature. 30:46.070 --> 31:00.870 But they cannot truly recreate the beauty of the countryside. They can create different kinds of beauty, but they cannot replicate the grandeur of it, of the rural parts of the world. 31:00.870 --> 31:34.820 And this is a period of time in which the rural parts of Japan are emptying out. People are increasingly moving to the cities. You can say that about basically every period of Japanese history that we've covered on this podcast so far, but it's, it's still— it's definitely happening in the early '90s. And in fact, the, the collapse of the bubble economy, which, like, historically the bubble has popped, the economy is collapsing, but it takes a while for perceptions to start changing. Like, it's not clear that people in Japan were aware at this point that the bubble had popped. 31:34.820 --> 31:55.220 Or even if it had popped, this period might have seemed like it was likely to be a, you know, a recession of a few years' duration before things picked up again. I doubt many people expected the lull in their economy to last as long as it did, to become lost decades rather than like a lost few years. 31:55.220 --> 32:13.050 Right. But there may have been a sense of anxiety slipping in. about life in the cities, about this direction for Japanese culture and the economy to be taking, that perhaps something has been lost. Perhaps there is more value in the old earth than they thought. 32:13.050 --> 32:42.120 It may also be around this time that some of the people who were older adults in the, you know, immediate pre-war and World War II era were starting to pass away at this point. And so there was a sense of loss of knowledge with the loss of that generation, that that was a generation that remembered what a less modern, less urban, less developed Japan was like, and that knowledge was being lost with those people. 32:42.120 --> 33:18.850 And to get specific instead of general, we know Imagawa, like, he's from Osaka, he's from a city, but a somewhat smaller and less, um, fast-paced city than Tokyo. And we know that he had a lot of ambivalence about living in Tokyo. So it may well be that some of his personal feelings about Tokyo are slipping into the character's feelings about the colonies. Also, it's frequently said, and said enough times that I am forced to kind of believe it, that Imagawa was like mentored by Tomino to some degree. 33:18.850 --> 33:19.090 Yeah. 33:19.360 --> 33:29.360 And we know from anecdotes like on Victory when Tomino was unpleasantly surprised to discover that nobody— none of the animators on staff knew how to do, like, a traditional diaper. 33:29.360 --> 33:33.280 Or the traditional, like, carrying ties for a baby. 33:33.280 --> 33:44.320 Right. Tomino has a strong feeling of tradition and nature in the countryside versus modernity in the city and may have passed that on to Imagawa during the time that they were working together. 33:44.320 --> 34:14.640 And while in general I am very critical of Tomino's sort of anti-modernity, anti-cities, uh, attitude. In the specific examples you mentioned, it comes out of this completely understandable and frankly very practical wartime mentality of like, okay, but what are you gonna do when the imports stop? What are you gonna do when you can't just go to the store and buy a thing? What are you gonna do when there's no money but you have to just like repurpose what you already have? 34:14.640 --> 34:15.120 Mm-hmm. 34:15.850 --> 34:41.850 He remembered and grew up with people who remembered even more strongly, like, the periods of deprivation during and immediately after the war. And the abundance of modern life, I imagine, felt a bit dangerous because it lulled people into a sense of security. It, uh, lulled people into forgetting how to make do. 34:41.850 --> 35:01.780 It creates a simultaneous paradoxical situation where you're more dependent on other people than ever because you're dependent on these long supply chains. You're dependent on complex manufacturing processes. You're dependent on supermarkets and industrial production of goods. 35:01.780 --> 35:04.580 But it's not people you know. It's not your neighbor and your cousin. 35:04.580 --> 35:20.890 That's the other side of the paradox. more isolated from the people providing the things that you need than ever before. You're placed into a dependent position. You are dependent on the continuation of this massive system that you do not understand and really cannot affect. 35:20.890 --> 35:28.890 You know, some of my grandparents who had grown up during the Depression just, like, would not throw things away. Kept so much stuff. 35:28.890 --> 35:30.570 You never know when you'll need it. 35:30.570 --> 36:00.270 And there was that sense of, like, you never know when you need it. You never know when it'll be useful. And now that's a thing you don't have to buy. And obviously this was crazy-making for their children and anybody who had to, like, deal with their things. And it felt so strange because that had been such a long-ago part of their life, right? Like, they had lived many decades without that same sense of precarity. But it had happened when they were so young, it affected them all the rest of their life. Mm-hmm. 36:00.820 --> 36:46.590 But now in July 2026, for the benefit of anyone who's listening to this in the future, after COVID, with the oil supply shock looming, with the Ever Given getting stuck in the Suez, there have been a lot of things lately that have made us extremely aware of how precarious the international supply chains upon which we depend for our material prosperity really are. And I think we know quite a few people who have over the last few years taken a real interest in home canning, backyard gardening, you know, all sorts of hobbies, quotation marks around them, various pursuits and endeavors to try to make themselves more self-sufficient, you know, just in case. 36:46.590 --> 37:07.410 And none of these activities are ever going to fully replace market commerce. But they can supplement for, you know, possible shocks to that system, whether that means stuff being totally unavailable or stuff being too expensive. But the more significant purpose of these activities, to my mind, is to give people a sense of control. 37:07.410 --> 37:08.370 Mm-hmm. 37:08.370 --> 37:13.970 A sense that there is something I can do if the situation becomes really bad. 37:13.970 --> 37:26.030 It's a way to sublimate your anxieties about the the precarity of your situation. Just like finding a training partner and developing some new techniques in order to be able to face the Devil Gundam. 37:26.030 --> 37:31.550 I'm impressed you managed to bring it back around. I was thinking about how far we had strayed from the episode proper. 37:31.550 --> 37:49.030 Well, let's close out with a few fun little observations. For instance, that's definitely the Brooklyn Bridge. Like, it's a little bit wrong, but it's mostly right, and it has those iconic Pointed, um, the arches. Yeah, the pointed arches. 37:49.030 --> 37:54.390 And his horror at destroying it makes more sense because the Brooklyn Bridge is such a significant landmark. 37:54.390 --> 38:05.030 Though, given how different this one is from the actual Brooklyn Bridge, like, I think it's got too many towers, um, presumably it's been destroyed in previous Gundam fights and just rebuilt. 38:05.030 --> 38:08.230 I don't know. I think they just didn't know what the Brooklyn Bridge quite looked like. 38:08.230 --> 38:11.350 And then Chibiti is staying at the Plaza Hotel. 38:11.900 --> 38:14.300 The hotel plaza, thank you very much. 38:14.300 --> 38:18.140 But they pan up just enough that you can see the gabled roof. 38:18.140 --> 38:18.940 Mm, gotcha. 38:18.940 --> 38:26.060 And it's clearly the plaza. That's a fancy hotel to be staying at, Chibidi. It is going to cost a lot to replace that door you punched off the hinges. 38:26.060 --> 38:29.260 I assume the US government is good for it, as long as he keeps winning. 38:29.260 --> 38:48.520 And then finally, did you notice Chibidi also rides around standing on top of his Core Lander, just like Domon? Gentlemen, the car has a seat for a reason. You're gonna get bugs in your face. Huge South American jungle bugs. Any final thoughts? 38:48.520 --> 38:50.440 No, we've covered all of it. 38:50.440 --> 39:11.670 Then you should end this conversation the way Chibidi Scowls would. Flashbang! Before we go, don't forget to go to iconsofanimedoc.com and fill out the survey there. And what the heck, while you're visiting the World Wide Web, maybe check out lydiadisappears.com too. 39:11.670 --> 39:54.910 After the Yugoslavia episode next week, we will have MSB episode 11.19, Dragons in the Mist, and we'll research and discuss G Gundam episode 19 and Freeze Frame. Sai Saichi, you Pervert! This teen keeps getting distracted from his rigorous moral and physical training. The only explanation? Mental illness. Low-down, mean, and nasty tricks. Hup! Hop! Ponytail! Why does Argo, the largest Gundam fighter, not simply eat the smaller fighters? 39:57.620 --> 39:58.340 False dragons. 39:58.340 --> 40:24.330 The ultimate martial arts power? Paying attention. Peak character design is when there's a big guy and a little guy and they're friends. And— has Reine considered polishing and sharpening the sword while Domon sleeps? Ready? 40:25.690 --> 41:39.150 Go! Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced by us, Tom and Nina, in scenic New York City, within the ancestral and unceded 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, 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. You can get in touch with us by email at hosts@gundampodcast.com. If you'd like to support the show, please tell your friends about Leave us a nice review wherever you listen to podcasts, or if you'd like to support us financially, you can do so at gundampodcast.com/patreon, or look for other ways to support the show at gundampodcast.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? 41:39.880 --> 41:39.960 No? 41:41.000 --> 41:56.640 Well, you lack conviction. Or maybe you just haven't heard an opinion worth fighting over yet. So how about this one, submitted by TheBandOfTheHeatHawk? Whenever Master Asia is not on screen, all of the other characters should be asking, where's Master Asia?