WEBVTT 00:08.640 --> 00:19.520 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. 00:30.660 --> 00:36.260 This is episode 11.10, the Mummy Gundam Returns and we are your hosts. 00:36.500 --> 00:39.180 I'm Tom and my genuine podcasting spirit 00:39.180 --> 00:43.380 has been twisted to evil purposes by Kyoji and the Devil Gundam. 00:43.540 --> 00:46.900 And I'm Nina, new to G Gundam and wondering if we need to watch 00:46.900 --> 00:54.020 the original Universal monster movies to properly appreciate G Gundam. We should watch every movie ever made in release order. 00:54.340 --> 00:55.780 That might take a while. 00:56.430 --> 00:57.550 Our listeners are patient. 00:58.750 --> 01:18.350 As an ad free independent podcast, Mobile Suit Breakdown is aided and abetted by our paying subscribers. Thank you all and special thanks to our newest Komo the Clown, Captain Harrow, Daniel F, Seth Triceranouk and Bill G. You keep us Genki. 01:19.070 --> 01:20.870 This week we are covering g Gundam 01:20.870 --> 01:25.890 episode 10, Kyofu Bore Fighta Shutsugen or Terror. 01:25.970 --> 01:31.090 The Phantom Fighter appears Originally broadcast on June 24, 1994. 01:31.810 --> 01:33.290 No new names to highlight in the 01:33.290 --> 01:41.090 credits this episode, but do note that the key staff are all Victory Gundam alums. Now the play by play. 01:49.490 --> 04:10.690 It all began on a dark and stormy night, much like this one. The Gundam team of Neo Egypt was sheltering in their hangar, passing the time by telling ghost stories about the long dead fighter Dahal Muhammad, who once brought glory to their forefathers. Suddenly they heard the howling wind, felt the spray of sand from outside. They turned to look and found the doors open. A figure clad in bandages stood in the gap, and behind him, just visible against the dark, the head of another Gundam. It was none other than Dahal Muhammad himself. Or was it? Where flesh had yielded to decay, now steel reigned in sunken sockets that once were eyes. Now only diodes burned. How came this walking corpse to quicken anew? Was it the lash of lightning licking at its half sunk stony tomb? Perhaps it was the work of that devil Gundam's cursed kiss, twisting the fighter's indomitable spirit to unholy ends. They say Dahal was slain in battle, an accident no fault of the Neo Chinese fighter he faced. But the dead do not accept such convenient absolution. Only blood will answer. And so the mummy wandered the dunes in search of a new victim to slake his thirst. The Dragon of Neochina Caesaishi A great storm gathered the sands, obscured the sun, and in the vortex Dragon clashed with Pharaoh and struck a killing blow against that which could not die. Banished neath the sands once more, the mummy left behind its mystery. The boy sought answers in the Mummy's tomb. But there the thing that once had been Dahael rose from second death to fall upon him anew. Nothing in the dragon's power, neither fist nor spear, nor fear of flame, could stop the relentless machine. Only living rage will answer the icy hate of the grave. They say a wandering swordsman from the east appeared in the nick of time to cut the revenant down. Before it could tear Saisaichi's heart from out his chest. They say he blasted the thing that had been Dahal to atoms and scattered the dust so widely that no devilish 04:10.690 --> 04:12.410 power might ever gather them up again. 04:13.850 --> 04:35.770 But do you believe such convenient stories? Perhaps Dahal Muhammad and his Gundam are still out there, sleeping beneath the sands. And one day, when the night is dark as it is tonight, and the wind howls over the dunes, they will roam this ruined earth again, looking for one more challenge. 04:38.620 --> 04:39.180 Ready? 04:40.780 --> 04:41.180 Go. 05:04.230 --> 05:23.270 Given what we know about Imagawa, the vibe of this episode is very much like an old school monster movie. I thought of Tintin and the curse of the Pharaoh's tomb. I thought of the mummy. You know, there's this mummy and it's unkillable and there's a curse and a prophecy. 05:24.550 --> 05:27.550 I was looking at this a little bit, actually, and when you say old 05:27.550 --> 05:36.190 school, you're probably more right than, you know. Like, the first movie to feature a mummy was made by the same guy who made the, like, Journey to the Moon film. 05:36.190 --> 05:36.990 Oh, wow. 05:37.150 --> 05:37.990 Lumiere. 05:37.990 --> 06:13.000 Yeah, in a year that starts with 18. But there was a. There was like a vogue for them up to the 50s, basically. And then it really petered off in the 60s. You get a couple, but you don't get nearly so many mummy movies in the 80s. You see a few and then there's a big, like, resurgence in the late 90s. But all throughout that period, even when mummy movies were no longer in the theaters, they were like a staple of Scooby Doo. And I think there's a lot of that Scooby Doo influence to be seen in Sai Saishi and his, like, Mummy is after me. 06:13.720 --> 06:25.160 He is so terrified. But yeah, the general feeling of the whole episode is very like those kinds of mummy media. 06:25.640 --> 06:27.360 Imagawa says what he was really trying 06:27.360 --> 06:29.360 to evoke in this episode was the 06:29.360 --> 06:45.600 feeling of old Twilight Zone episodes, or for the Japanese context, ultra Q. Although the shot very near the beginning of the episode where the mummy is like walking, shambling in front of a pyramid and its shadow is cast on the side of the pyramid. 06:45.600 --> 06:46.120 Huge. 06:46.680 --> 06:49.880 This he cribbed from the opening of a Hitchcock film. 06:50.280 --> 06:52.120 Oh, okay. 06:52.120 --> 06:54.560 I thought that looked kind of fun familiar. 06:54.960 --> 07:19.040 Yeah. And I'm torn on this because, like, it's got the G Gundam problem. This depiction of Egypt has nothing to do with the Egypt that exists today. No, again, like Neo Mexico, resurrecting the corpse of 19th century European literature. A lot of the mummy stuff is based on old. An old Bram Stoker novel, and a 07:19.040 --> 07:26.110 lot of it also on, like, travelogues of Egyptologists of questionable legitimacy. 07:26.350 --> 07:27.070 Absolutely. 07:27.150 --> 07:30.430 Visiting Egypt and hunting for relics and 07:30.510 --> 07:32.190 bringing all of that back with them. 07:32.350 --> 07:41.790 The stories about mummies and the curses of the tombs and all that, like, these are staples of European orientalism and 07:41.790 --> 07:47.070 probably stuff that local guides told tourists to make their visit more exciting. 07:47.230 --> 08:09.210 Sure. I mean, that's like we were talking about in the China episode. Many of these things are elements of the cultures and histories of these places that have proven to be globally commercializable, sensational, monetizable. You can make money selling the fear of mummies to a bunch of rich, stupid European tourists and Americans. 08:09.450 --> 08:25.260 I mean, the idea that the government of Neo Egypt would spend the kind of money necessary to build a guy a new ancient style tomb, complete with traps. Complete with traps. 08:25.580 --> 08:27.820 Do you know how much stone costs? 08:28.380 --> 08:41.020 I absolutely believe they would build a monument to this guy or even a very elaborate burial site because he'd be a local hero and people would revere him. But a tomb, like an old school 08:41.020 --> 08:43.689 Valley of the Kings tomb, maybe it 08:43.689 --> 08:46.169 was funded by the Neo Egypt tourism board. 08:46.329 --> 08:47.889 And I say this as someone who 08:47.889 --> 08:51.689 went through a really interested in ancient Egypt phase as a child. 08:51.769 --> 08:52.329 Ooh. 08:52.889 --> 09:18.750 Unlocking new Nina lore every day. So a big part of the reason you don't get these kinds of monumental constructions anymore is because, you know, they used enslaved labor. And now labor costs money. Right, A lot of money. But in a Gundam context, if you could use mobile suits to move your big slabs of stone around, even to quarry them, would it cost as much? Probably not. 09:19.150 --> 09:19.830 Probably not. 09:19.830 --> 09:25.070 But you'd still need skilled craftspeople to do the carving. Oh, and to make all the crafting and the traps. Yeah. 09:26.190 --> 09:28.910 Also that they have, like, hieroglyphics in this tomb. 09:28.910 --> 09:29.310 Yeah. 09:29.310 --> 09:31.470 Well, modern Egypt does not use hieroglyphics 09:31.630 --> 09:35.550 writing quote unquote hieroglyphics. I'm sure they don't make any sense. 09:36.280 --> 09:45.400 But I was saying I was torn because on the one hand, all that stuff, on the other hand, it's a fun episode. And the Pharaoh Gundam looks sick af. 09:46.040 --> 10:06.610 My only problem with this episode because I mostly liked it very much is that there are a few moments where it feels as though it can't commit to its tone. For the most part, it's a very lighthearted episode. And it's funny seeing Sais Saishi, who we know is such a good fighter, 10:06.930 --> 10:21.250 be terrified at calling Domon Aniki and begging him desperately, no, you have to stay with me. The ghost. And seeing the monks be like, oh, no, we have failed in raising Saesaichi because he's superstitious and afraid of ghosts. And they're crying. 10:21.650 --> 10:23.330 They're so good at the guilt trip. 10:23.410 --> 10:58.550 And the mummy itself, while terrifying, also feels silly, right? And yet this is then punctuated by Sae Saixi's genuine horror when he thinks he's killed someone, and Domon's anger thinking of his brother, and Raine's sadness at the end of the episode that he has to tap into this rage and that he is gonna have to keep tapping into it as he looks for and eventually probably fights his own brother. And these are quite, quite poignant moments, or they would be if they weren't 10:58.550 --> 11:01.550 surrounded by just, like, very silly stuff. 11:01.950 --> 11:12.590 If the episode were simply horror and tragedy all the way through, like, that would not work as well. It needs some variance in the tone. It needs some dynamic range. 11:12.830 --> 11:22.360 It does. I just felt as though they didn't handle that as well this episode as they have in some other ones. I don't know, because the funny parts I found very funny. 11:22.600 --> 11:24.920 Did you find the poignant parts very poignant? 11:25.000 --> 11:31.080 Saesaichi's total horror at having killed someone. Yes. Domon stuff about his brother less so. 11:31.240 --> 11:39.480 There's, I think, an element of unintentional humor, because the last thing he says to Raine is like, don't cry over this rain. It's gonna get much worse. 11:40.120 --> 11:40.680 Yeah. 11:40.920 --> 12:07.850 But I was glad you brought up how humorous and how scared saisaichi is, because there is, I think, a tendency in a lot of shows like this to make child characters who compete at a level with adult characters, basically just small adults. And I think they've gone out of their way to make sure that Sae Saiqi still feels like a child. Like, yes, he's a really good fighter. Yes, he's the Gundam Fighter for neochina. 12:07.850 --> 12:09.570 But he is also a young boy, 12:10.450 --> 12:16.570 and I really appreciate that and think it adds a nice silliness and fun to the series. 12:17.050 --> 12:31.770 I was reading some commentary Imagawa did about his process in making the show and how it evolved. And for him, all of the five main Gundam Fighter Characters represent different aspects of his own personality. 12:32.010 --> 12:32.810 Oh, neat. 12:33.050 --> 12:41.770 So for him, Saisaichi is how he remembers himself being as a child, with all the sense of remembered embarrassment. 12:42.010 --> 12:43.050 That's delightful. 12:43.610 --> 13:03.450 Do you think when Saishi landed the, quote, killing blow that he intended to strike the cockpit, was he pushed to the point of breaking the rules by this desperate struggle to survive? Or was it just that he couldn't tell with all the bandages and smoke and dust, where he was striking the second one? 13:03.450 --> 13:06.090 I think, you know, he's fighting in the middle of a sandstorm, 13:08.930 --> 13:09.170 and I 13:09.170 --> 13:20.850 think that's why Domon cries out like. I think he says, like, look out or be careful. Like, he means, you're getting close to the cockpit. And then he strikes it. I don't think he meant to. 13:21.570 --> 13:35.340 See, I don't know. In his comments after that, when he's like saying, you know, forgive me and I'm not supposed to do this, it's so horrible. He doesn't at any point say it was an accident. He doesn't say, I didn't mean to. He says I'm not supposed to. 13:35.340 --> 14:28.470 And yet that could also just mean that he's brought up not to make excuses, you know, whether he meant to or not, whether it was an accident or not, it is what happened. And then, of course, we get this nice parallel with what we find out about Dachal, and that Dachal was killed by Seisei's grandfather, who again, didn't even hit the cockpit, took off its head. But somehow this caused some kind of catastrophic failure and caused the cockpit to explode. So saiseaichi's grandfather accidentally killed Dahal, and then saiseaichi almost destroys the Mummy, again by accident. I gotta say, though, I'm not very knowledgeable about wrestling. However, the wrestler is killed, comes back as an undead monster generations later because his fighter spirit demands a rematch. 14:29.030 --> 14:31.110 Feels like a wrestling plot, doesn't it? 14:31.190 --> 15:35.180 It does, though it also feels like a wuxia plot. Really, Any horror movie plot. They're back from the grave for revenge. Maybe it was because he was defeated in a tournament. Maybe it was because he's angry at the hot young college teens for having a good time, because he never had a good time. Or maybe they ran him over with their car and now he's back for revenge. You know, in the Aegis context, specifically, like all of these stories about mummies coming back, right? It's built on this fear of the great power that once was and now sleeps beneath the sands. This ancient cult, these ancient gods that might one day rise again. In a Lovecraftian kind of sense, to swallow the world. But it's also, and this is the reason it was so popular, I think, during the height of the European Imperial period. It's is that it's also the fear that, like your empire could someday sink beneath the sands. The great glories of Victorian London could one day be swallowed up by the rising Thames. 15:35.420 --> 15:37.420 It's the Ozymandias poem, right? 15:37.420 --> 15:39.140 In all your vanity, in all of 15:39.140 --> 15:41.660 your glory, in all your confidence, you 15:41.660 --> 15:43.580 too shall someday walk this path. 15:44.060 --> 16:08.450 Someday you shall be wrapped in bandages and rise. Rise from the murk of the Thames. Rise from the bogs of England for revenge. After Saisaichi goes through the wringer for his maybe accidental cockpit strike, it's then revealed that the Pharaoh Gundam has a gun that comes out of its chest to point specifically at the other Gundam's cockpit. 16:08.450 --> 16:13.810 I noticed that. I thought that has to have been made specifically to kill other pilots. 16:13.890 --> 16:15.570 There's no other reason to put that. 16:15.570 --> 16:27.900 There was the Pharaoh Gundam 4, but built with that gun. Or did the Devil Gundam create that gun for it when it was regenerating the Pharaoh Gundam? 16:28.540 --> 16:55.110 That is a very good question. Which brings up one of the other things I like very much about this episode. There is a particular disgust, a particular kind of body horror in the sort of bio organic. It's not completely mechanical, it's not completely biological. Somehow. It's both. It's a machine doing weirdly organic gloopy things like regrowing flesh. 16:55.590 --> 17:01.030 Oh, I need to get you to watch Bubblegum Crisis. Remember when we went to see Akira at a midnight showing? 17:01.110 --> 17:02.630 Yes, yes I do. 17:03.750 --> 17:41.380 And again, there's this weirdly organic Gundam gore as well. Not just in the regeneration scenes, but when Saisaichi lights the Pharaoh Gundam on fire, like encloses it in this inferno of flames. The eyeballs look. Well, I say eyeballs. They're not eyeballs, but they look an awful lot like eyeballs. And when it comes back out of the flames, it's as if there's little gouts of blood coming off of it. And then on the other hand, underneath the mummy's wrappings is not an entirely like human corpse. There's something mechanical going on in there too. There are wires and tubes. 17:42.020 --> 17:48.740 Well, you can't really bring the dead back, but you can transform them into robots. Robots of revenge. 17:49.300 --> 17:53.140 Revengerine. Revengerine. Sorry, I had to do it. 17:54.100 --> 18:00.260 How much of an international incident do we think was caused by rain blowing up the Neo Egypt national heroes too? 18:01.220 --> 18:27.120 I mean, Neo Egypt just had its entire Gundam fight team murdered in the desert. I feel like they might have a few complaints to lodge. There's going to be a whole investigation of this. Oh, no. This is going to be one of those scenarios where the investigators get too close and then they become infected by the Devil Gundam energy. They're specialized investigating mobile suits like their Columbo Gundam are going to become corrupted by the Devil Gundam. 18:27.520 --> 18:31.800 No. You cannot corrupt a Columbo. Even a Columbo Gundam. It's impossible. 18:31.800 --> 18:32.720 It can't be done. 18:33.650 --> 18:36.770 They would never make a Columbo Gundam. Because you can't give it a funny hat. 18:36.770 --> 18:48.290 Do you have to give it a kind of ugly coat? I did have a moment at the very end when Domon has crushed the mummy in the shining Gundam's hand and the sparkly dust of it is floating away. 18:48.290 --> 18:52.530 I'm like, no, Domon. Don't you know how much money you could get from mummy dust on the black market? 18:52.850 --> 18:53.490 Oh, no. 18:53.810 --> 18:55.890 There was a vogue for using it 18:55.890 --> 18:59.890 in sort of pseudo medicinal powders and things. 19:00.470 --> 19:01.270 How long ago? 19:01.750 --> 19:04.470 I don't think as long ago as you might want to think. 19:04.630 --> 19:06.990 Uh, I mean, certainly long ago. 19:06.990 --> 19:14.630 I'm troubled by this, but what won't people make pseudo medicinal powders out of? Hang on, I'm searching. Powdered mummy. 19:14.950 --> 19:15.910 Well, don't buy any. 19:16.150 --> 19:17.070 No, of course not. 19:17.070 --> 19:18.390 Not even as a business expense. 19:19.590 --> 19:50.950 Oh. It turns out the powdered mummy thing was like a whole miscommunication, because in Arabic, mumia is a type of resinous bitumen and is used in traditional Islamic medicine. And then, beginning around the 12th century, when supplies of imported natural bitumen ran short, mumia was misinterpreted as mummy, and the word's meaning expanded to a black resinous exudate scraped from embalmed mummies. Unscrupulous European apothecaries began to sell fraudulent 19:50.950 --> 19:56.450 mumia prepared by embalming and desiccating fresh corpses. Then people are gross. 19:57.170 --> 20:00.050 I would like to go back a few minutes to when I didn't know that. 20:00.610 --> 20:01.170 Sorry. 20:01.330 --> 20:05.730 Mobile suit breakdown. You will learn things whether you want to or not. 20:06.050 --> 20:12.050 So it sounds like in Europe it was mostly from the 12th to 17th centuries, but also well into the 18th century. 20:12.290 --> 20:15.290 Okay, that's actually kind of about when I thought it would be. 20:15.290 --> 20:29.230 When you thought it would be. Okay. With this episode, we have now had a second episode with each of the group I'm going to call the secondary Gundam fighters, the ones who get to be repeat characters in Domon Saga, the 20:29.230 --> 20:32.150 Four Horsemen of the Something and all 20:32.150 --> 21:22.440 of their stories have been of kind of varying significance. Chibidi shows up again, but he doesn't do much, and it doesn't feel like the story has much importance for him as a character. Argo's story. Very important for Argo. We learn a bit more about his past. He gets to settle this, like, vendetta this guy has against him. It's kind of a big deal. For George Descende, somewhere in between. Gentle Chapman is a fighter who he has respected and admired since he started on this journey of being a Gundam fighter. And now he feels like he has to save the guy from himself. Not quite as personal as Argo's situation or as poignant, but still significant. And now we have Saiseaishi and a big part of this story with him just kind of feels like it's very. 21:22.440 --> 21:23.800 Fear is the Mind Killer. 21:23.880 --> 21:25.400 Sorry, kid, you gotta grow up. 21:25.640 --> 21:34.440 But I think you're missing the connecting factor. The thing that all four of these episodes have in common. The most important thing that they're doing functionally within the story. 21:35.160 --> 21:36.120 Cool robots. 21:36.520 --> 22:08.880 Well, obviously, yes, cool robots. Available in your local toy store right now. Go out and buy them. These are the four that are actually commercialized at this point. You could go out and buy them, but no, what they're really doing, the most important thing, I think, is to show that no matter how things ended at the end of each of their introductory episodes, they're bros. They're all Domon's friends. And not only are they friends, they're the kind of friends who work together. Even if it means bending the rules of the Gundam fight a little bit, they'll help each other out. 22:09.360 --> 22:11.280 These are his nakama. 22:11.770 --> 22:25.050 And if you're a weeb of my age, you probably remember one piece and the translator notes about how deeply meaningful the term nakama is. It's more than just your friends. But no, they're his buddies. They're his friends. There's pals. They're his crew. 22:25.690 --> 22:28.170 I mean, he calls Domon Aniki. 22:28.410 --> 22:40.730 You would definitely know this better than I. What is the specific nuance of Aniki versus other ways of referring to your brother? It's what they use in the. Like a Dragon Games for the various Yakuza characters, wasn't there? 22:40.730 --> 22:45.330 I forget which Gundam it was. There's a point where Haru calls one 22:45.330 --> 22:48.210 of the Gundam pilot protags Aniki. 22:48.210 --> 22:51.010 Yeah. Yeah. And so it's like, where did you learn to talk like that? 22:51.010 --> 22:51.370 Right? 22:52.250 --> 22:58.010 But in this episode, it is Aniki that Domon uses to refer To Kyoji. Mm. 22:58.810 --> 23:20.850 I think anniki implies that the person saying it and the person being called it are not of the same. Like social status status. Exactly. And it can mean elder brother, and it's familiar, but it's honorific or respectful. It can mean one senior, and it can mean just like an older man. 23:21.170 --> 23:23.410 So it doesn't quite work as like, bro. 23:24.210 --> 23:28.210 No, it's not something I think that peers would call each other. 23:28.610 --> 23:46.210 That makes sense. While we're talking about translation, I have generally not had any issues with the translation in the show, but there was one in this episode that really rubbed me the wrong way. It ran afoul of my domain specific knowledge, which is always dangerous for a translator. 23:46.450 --> 23:48.090 Was it one of the Chinese names 23:48.090 --> 23:50.290 of one of the attacks that he uses? 23:50.370 --> 24:08.900 No, it's the Japanese name of one of the attacks. When Domon goes crazy mode. At the end, when he goes into his super angry, super powered mode and he attacks with the sword, he says over and over again, he says, ski, ski, ski. As he strikes the head of the Pharaoh Gundam. 24:08.900 --> 24:13.460 Which is a name of a kendo attack. Right? Like a sword fighting attack. 24:13.620 --> 24:16.300 You're making the mistake that the translator made. 24:16.300 --> 24:19.100 Oh, does it just mean the target? No, not even. 24:19.100 --> 24:20.540 Okay, do you want to keep guessing? 24:20.540 --> 24:22.420 No, sorry, go ahead. 24:23.460 --> 25:03.880 In a kendo specific context, tsuki refers to a strike to the throat, which is how it's translated. In this show, it's translated as throat strike, but it actually means thrust. And it means throat strike in the kendo context. Because the throat is the only valid target where you can score with a thrusting attack. Unless you're using two swords, which is a different thing. Don't worry about it. In standard kendo, the throat is the only valid target for a thrusting attack. And so when you say throw thrust, you mean thrust to the throat. But ski in general, in sword fighting in general and in martial arts in general, just means a thrusting attack. 25:04.040 --> 25:04.600 Got it. 25:04.600 --> 25:12.040 And since Domon is not attacking the throat, he is attacking the front of the face. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to translate it as throat strike. 25:12.040 --> 25:13.560 I did think that was odd. 25:13.800 --> 25:37.330 And now you know why. Also, change of topic, not a translation point. I thought it was really funny when they confront the mummy in the tomb. And Domon is like, Raine, use it now. And we know Raine, she's a gadget sidekick. We expect like some sort of bespoke mummy capturing device. No, it's a grenade filled with high explosives. 25:37.650 --> 25:39.450 Yeah, when it first went off, I 25:39.450 --> 25:40.930 thought it was some sort of light 25:40.930 --> 25:43.330 grenade, like blinding or something. 25:43.490 --> 25:51.740 And then like, oh no, it's just explosion. Yet again, Domon attempts to deal with the problem by saying this has nothing to do with me. 25:52.220 --> 25:55.260 However, Raine does not threaten to leave him. 25:55.420 --> 25:56.780 Not even jokingly. 25:56.940 --> 25:57.340 No. 25:57.340 --> 25:58.620 Have we broken the streak? 25:58.780 --> 25:59.340 Maybe. 25:59.340 --> 26:00.780 Also, nobody got kidnapped. 26:00.780 --> 26:28.450 But for the third episode in a row, somebody gets disabled by being punched in the stomach. Three episodes in a row. They do the exact same solar plexus uppercut technique. I already said I really liked the Pharaoh Gundam. But Dahal's fight suit, when they show him in the flashback, the white suit with blue accents and the blue eye and the gold collar that looked so sick. That might be the best looking fight suit so far. 26:28.530 --> 26:29.570 It was pretty cool. 26:29.570 --> 26:55.940 I've actually thought a lot of the Gundams and other stuff that only show up in flashbacks or stills. Like the Scud Gundam. Like if they only have to draw it once, often it ends up looking super cool. They briefly show us the head of the Gundam that was piloted by Cai Saiqi's grandfather. And it looks a lot like the Dragon Gundam's head. But then it's got the red Chinese Communist Party star right in the center of its forehead. 26:55.940 --> 26:56.940 I noticed the star. 26:57.260 --> 26:59.980 It's a very good looking episode, especially at the end. 27:00.620 --> 27:08.710 I appreciated that at least based on the portraits. Dahal had just the same intense expression 27:08.710 --> 27:11.430 in his eyes when he was alive as he does as a mummy. 27:12.390 --> 27:22.470 Well, and you notice they did a bunch of the old like mummy movie tropes. Rain's lantern gets blown out even though they're underground. And it's like, where could the wind have come from? 27:22.870 --> 27:25.590 The fact that they're using a lantern with a flame. 27:26.070 --> 27:42.820 They open up the casket and it's empty. And I believe sandstorms really can generate electrical discharge as shown in the case of a sandstorm. It's from the static of all those particles, like flying around in the air and rubbing against each other and generating charges. 27:43.780 --> 27:45.780 Here's one more thing, One more thing of import. 27:46.260 --> 27:47.100 Just one more thing. 27:47.100 --> 28:16.120 Just one more thing. When Domon says Kyoji and the Devil Gundam have corrupted his genuine fighting spirit into something evil. This is the thesis of the show. Unlike in Tomino Gundam, where sometimes people are doing things that need to be stopped and you have to fight them. But the act of fighting itself is bad, regrettable and corrupting for those who do it. In G Gundam, fighting is good. A fighting spirit is an unambiguously good 28:16.120 --> 28:22.480 thing to have if it's put toward the right purposes. It can be put toward evil purpose. 28:22.970 --> 28:30.650 But fighting is not an evil purpose. No, fighting in the abstract is good. It's fun, it's sports, it's entertainment. 28:31.210 --> 28:36.970 And the fighting spirit is more neutral. Good or bad is fairly flexible. 28:49.380 --> 31:21.739 After learning about the battle between his grandfather and Dahal, Saesaichi throws off his fear and fights with renewed vigor. He calls out Houka Kyoten Ju Zetsu Jin Translated in the subtitles as Marvelous Treasure of Scripture 10 Perfect ranks sending his 10 flame banners to surround the pharaoh Gundam. Then says Hashire Bao Pei, which in the subtitles is translated as True Dragonfire and one of the dragon heads of the dragon Gundam shoots a torrent of flame, trapping the pharaoh Gundam in a fiery vortex. A vortex it somehow survives. The name of this attack was our first hint and led me to a classic of Chinese literature, the Investiture of the Gods. Written in the 16th century with authorship commonly attributed to Zhu Zhonglin, Investiture of the Gods is part of the Shenmue or Gods and Demons genre popular during the Ming Dynasty. First published in book form between 1567 and 1619, the 100 chapter tale is essentially myth making about the fall of the Shang Dynasty and rise of the Zhou dynasty. Set around 1046 B.C. combining history, folklore, mythology, legend, fantasy and religion, the Wikipedia page describes it as a romanticized retelling of the overthrow of Di Jin, the last ruler of the Shang Dynasty, by Ji fa, who would establish the Zhou Dynasty in its place. As you can imagine, the story has an enormous cast of human heroes, immortals, sorcerers, spirits and magical creatures, some of whom, thanks to recent adaptations and their appearance in other works, I recognized. For instance, the sometimes hero Nezha is on the side of the Zhou. While less well known in the English speaking world than Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Water Margin or Journey to the West, Investiture of the Gods is still hugely influential and has numerous translations and adaptations across all kinds of media, including manga. Remember that in and around working on G Gundam, Imagawa was also working on the Ova Giant Robot based on a manga by Yokoyama Mitsuteru. Well, Yokoyama also created the manga, roughly translated as Legend of Yin and Cho or alternatively Shang and Jo, based on 31:21.740 --> 31:25.900 Investiture of the Gods. The first issue came out in May 31:25.900 --> 31:30.460 of 1994, the month before this episode of G Gundam was first broadcast. 31:31.190 --> 31:32.430 We weren't able to get our hands 31:32.430 --> 31:38.870 on the manga to see if there were more direct or specific references to it in G, but it's certainly interesting 31:38.870 --> 31:54.630 timing and as we were looking into this, I discovered that there was a new translation of Investiture into Japanese in 95, a different manga adaptation in 96, and then another new translation in 99. So clearly it was having a moment 31:54.630 --> 31:57.670 in the 90s to bring it back to the episode. 31:57.670 --> 33:57.430 The first thing Seiseaichi says is Hoka Kyoten, which the on screen text describes as Marvelous Treasure of Scripture. Kyoten does mean scripture, as in a religious text, but Hoka doesn't mean anything in Japanese, at least not that I could find. However, the individual characters mean treasure or jewel and splendor, shine or flower. The breakthrough came in the second part, Ju Zetsujin in the episode this is 10 perfect ranks, and while researching, I also saw it phrased as the 10 heavenly arrays or 10 absolute formations. These are magical attack formations used by the Ten Heavenly Lords in Investiture of the Gods. To learn a bit more about these, I read a few relevant chapters of an English translation of the text, specifically chapters 44. 49. Chapter 44 opens with each of the ten heavenly lords describing their special formation to Grand Tutor Wen. Most of them use special battle pennants. Remember that the Dragon Gundam has 10 fiery pennants that it frequently uses for special attacks, and these combine various types of energy. The Heavenly Destruction uses pre creation energies and three pennants representing heaven, earth and humanity. In the trap, humans are reduced to ashes, while immortals are shaken loose and fall into pieces. Earthly Fury contains energies of the earth concentrated into a solid mass. It undergoes endless changes, now appearing, now disappearing. It has a red pennant, and when it waves, thunder roars above and flames spring up from below. Roaring typhoon produces wind and fire. But they are not ordinary wind and fire. They existed before Genesis. Millions of swords are concealed therein which emerge as the wind and fire arise. Men and immortals alike will be cut into small pieces. 33:58.950 --> 34:01.590 Frigid ice, which we saw depicted in 34:01.590 --> 35:40.150 the Nezha movie, is in fact a mountain of swords above solid blocks of ice. At the center are wind and Thunder, and then the upper and lower sections of ice crash together. Golden Light uses the essences of the sun and moon, heaven and earth. 21 magic mirrors, each hung on a high pole, emit these essences in the form of golden light, which turns any intruder, either man or immortal, into a stream of blood. Bleeding Blood is another that uses primordial energies. When someone enters the trap, Wind and thunder rise, whipping up black sand that turns anything it touches to blood. Vehement Flame is bounded by three red pennants and contains three kinds of the Divine Fire. That immortals produce in their stomachs the fire of air and the fire of rock. It instantly burns any intruder to ashes. Soul Snatching Trap uses one white paper pennant inscribed with charms and is full of the most deadly essence from heaven and earth. It blocks all the doors of life and opens wide all the windows of death, snatching away an intruder's soul. Red Water contains the essences of liquid. In the center there is a platform in the shape of the Eight Diagrams, and on the platform there are three dried gourds. When the Heavenly Lord casts down the gourds, they pour forth red water like a great flood, and if even one drop of this red water touches the intruder, they are instantly turned to blood. 35:41.030 --> 35:43.510 A whole lot of these just turn people into blood. 35:44.630 --> 36:23.040 Red sand is composed of three pecks of sand, each representing heaven, earth and man. Each grain of sand is a sharp sword that will reduce any intruder to powder. The Heavenly Lord, who is master of red sand, brags that not even an immortal or a Buddha can escape. Grand Tutor Wen and the Ten Heavenly Lords are on the side of the Shang Dynasty besieging the rebel Zhou forces. The Zhou forces describe themselves as standing up to a tyrant and have at this point taken a great deal of territory. Each of the 10 perfect ranks is set up like a trap on the field of battle, and their use in 36:23.040 --> 36:25.840 the story mostly follows this pattern. 36:26.480 --> 36:35.200 The Shang side issue a challenge. The Zhou commander divines who fate has chosen to go first and sends them over. 36:35.520 --> 36:37.520 This is usually a mortal hero. 36:38.000 --> 36:56.760 The Heavenly Lord and the mortal hero battle with physical weapons for several rounds before the Heavenly Lord retreats into their corresponding trap. The mortal hero follows and is killed. The Shang side taunt the Zhou side for sending mortal soldiers to their deaths rather than the the immortals who have 36:56.760 --> 36:58.320 come to Zhou's aid. 36:59.360 --> 37:21.520 Subsequently, an immortal goes out and battles the Heavenly Lord who as before, retreats into the trap. However, the immortal is able to survive the trap due to their own powers and magical items and ultimately defeats the Heavenly Lord. This is where the second part of Saesaichi's attack name comes in. While it says Dragonfire in the subtitles, I believe what he says is 37:24.190 --> 37:25.070 in this context. 37:25.150 --> 37:32.350 Hashire means go or launch. Bao Pei gave me some difficulty. For one thing, I also saw it 37:32.350 --> 37:36.350 transliterated as Bao bei, Pao BEI and Pao Pei. 37:37.070 --> 37:39.350 For another, in Japanese, the kanji used 37:39.350 --> 37:42.110 in the episode mean cowry shell, so 37:42.110 --> 37:48.710 I knew it had to be from Chinese. But its most common usage, if Google Translate is any indication, is as a term of endearment. 37:48.710 --> 37:49.310 For babies. 37:50.300 --> 37:52.500 Luckily, Wiktionary came to the rescue and 37:52.500 --> 37:54.540 I learned that one definition of Baopei 37:54.540 --> 38:26.270 is a treasure or a valuable object, and it is the blanket term used in Japanese translations of Investiture of the Gods for the various magical items used throughout the story. One example used against Heavenly Master sun by the Fairy Primordial is the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Coverlet which which wraps around the target, trapping them, while nine Fire Dragons coil around the outside and then burn the target to ashes. Ultimately, I don't think the Dragon Gundam's 38:26.270 --> 38:27.430 attack here is meant to be a 38:27.430 --> 39:23.220 reference to a specific attack or magic weapon in the Investiture of the Gods, but rather is inspired by the way these things are described in the text. Though not having read the whole thing, I could be wrong, and the inspiration doesn't end there. Twice in just those few chapters, groups of characters speak in one voice, which is to say in unison, just like the monks who accompany Saesaishi do. And on a grand narrative level, what is G Gundam but a story of mortals caught in the middle of a battle between superhuman and supernatural forces? Next time on MSB episode 11.11 Reign's man we research and discuss G Gundam episode 11, and we heroically refrain from 39:23.220 --> 39:25.500 making any reference to that famous song. 39:27.820 --> 39:35.230 I have some bad news. Your son has evil robot disease Rainy 39:35.230 --> 39:36.550 day smooth jazz 39:39.590 --> 39:46.390 Sasoga Domon let's rampage like it's 1453 39:49.590 --> 39:51.270 good ol colony you 39:51.750 --> 39:53.110 go fighting Comets 39:55.270 --> 39:56.790 can rain extinguish an 39:56.790 --> 39:57.670 old flame 40:00.640 --> 40:02.080 like that fungus that mind 40:02.080 --> 40:07.520 controls ants Regularly scheduled weather 40:10.560 --> 40:11.160 it's all 40:11.160 --> 40:12.400 worms in there 40:14.960 --> 40:16.240 is the devil Gundam 40:16.240 --> 40:22.400 the Antichrist and if you won't give me a hand, I'll just have to take it. 40:23.120 --> 40:23.760 Ready? 40:24.750 --> 40:24.990 Go. 40:40.910 --> 40:47.790 Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded and produced by us, Tom and Nina in scenic New York City within the ancestral 40:47.790 --> 40:49.790 and unceded land of the Lenape people 40:50.280 --> 40:59.320 and made possible by listeners like you. The opening track is Wasp by Misha Dayakson, the closing music is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio and the recap 40:59.320 --> 41:01.720 music is window by 1000 hands. 41:02.120 --> 41:03.520 You can find links to the sources 41:03.520 --> 41:05.400 for our research, the music used in 41:05.400 --> 41:38.450 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@hunt 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 support most of all. Thank you for listening. 41:42.470 --> 41:49.270 Are you ready to come down to Neo New York and throw hands over your Gundam opinions? No. You lack conviction. 41:49.670 --> 41:50.990 Or maybe you just haven't heard an 41:50.990 --> 41:52.390 opinion worth fighting over yet. 41:52.470 --> 41:54.630 So how about this one from Kobayashi? 41:55.190 --> 42:00.110 There is no rational explanation for why Argo Golski, the largest Gundam fighter, does 42:00.110 --> 42:01.350 not simply eat the others. 42:09.910 --> 42:10.950 That's a good end of it. 42:10.950 --> 42:11.590 Thank you. 42:11.670 --> 42:13.110 So why didn't you read the whole thing? 42:13.590 --> 42:14.950 Because it's 100 chapters long. 42:16.070 --> 42:18.070 How many pages was the translation we found? 42:18.070 --> 42:19.270 Oh, it's like a thousand. 42:24.550 --> 42:28.870 Oh, so you don't. You don't want to record today? You want to record again next week? 42:29.270 --> 42:30.430 I mean we're going to have to 42:30.430 --> 42:33.920 record again next week. We're gonna do what we do do every week, Tom. 42:34.480 --> 42:36.480 Record to take over the world. 42:36.560 --> 42:37.920 A Gundam podcast. 42:39.120 --> 42:41.360 It's not the most efficient way to take over the world. 42:41.680 --> 42:44.400 No, we don't want that kind of responsibility or attention. 42:45.040 --> 42:46.320 I would like the power. 42:46.960 --> 42:50.000 And this is why you must never have it. 42:50.560 --> 42:51.200 Rude. 42:51.360 --> 42:53.360 I shall force the world to be good. 42:53.920 --> 42:58.000 I think I could do a much better job because of my incorruptible morals. 42:58.570 --> 43:01.210 That's you all right. Incorruptible. 43:02.810 --> 43:04.410 When have I ever been corrupted? 43:09.370 --> 43:11.050 I'm a bad influence. 43:11.370 --> 43:13.050 Or a fun influence. 43:13.850 --> 43:14.250 Bad. 43:21.210 --> 43:24.900 When Tomon has crushed the gummy in the shape shine the gummy. 43:30.260 --> 43:39.700 Remember there was a few years ago they had found some like liquid in a mummy tomb. A lot of people were joking about like drinking the mummy liquid. 43:39.860 --> 43:43.980 Well, wasn't there a thing where somebody found like a 200 or more than 43:43.980 --> 43:48.740 200 year old cask of wine and then they and some friends drank it and they all got sick. 43:49.390 --> 43:58.190 200 or 2000 cuz I feel like a 200 year old bottle of wine wouldn't even be that old. Surely there's eight. There's bottles of wine from 1800 hanging around. 44:04.110 --> 44:06.510 And I'm nina. Sorry. 44:15.320 --> 44:15.560 Ra.