Welcome back to Season 6 of Japanimation Station, where we are continuing our journey into the delightfully deranged mind of Tomino Yoshiyuki with our Tomino-thon – Part 2: The Tears of Time! You can subscribe on all platforms at www.Japanimation-Station.com.

As with much of what we’re covering in this half of the season, we’ve talked about Mobile Suit Gundam F91 before. But while we’ve reviewed the contents of the film itself in depth, we haven’t before dived too deep into its troubled, fascinating production, or truly understood why the film is the way it is. So for today’s episode we uncover the history of this perplexing Gundam classic, arguing that the popular understanding of it as ‘a TV series condensed into a film’ is a bit misguided, and examining the various ways it attempted to begin a bold new era for Gundam. As in the past, Jonathan’s a little more positive on the film itself than Sean, but we’re both fascinated by it, and there’s still plenty to break down where Seabook Arno and friends are concerned.

Enjoy, and come back next week for the Gundam that finally broke Tomino’s spirit: Mobile Suit Victory Gundam!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:38

Intro and History: 0:01:38 – 1:30:26

Eyecatch Break: 1:30:26 – 1:31:11

Gundam F91 Review: 1:31:11 – 2:52:23

End Theme: 2:52:23 – 2:54:28

Listen to our original Gundam F91 review on episode 11 of Weekly Suit Gundam from October 2019 – https://youtu.be/uwh3jdP_L6k?si=RFny8pWDgGnfg8dy

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Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

“Tominoson-G Mk. V” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku & KAITO. “The World You See” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

If you’ve ever listened to us before, you know Char’s Counterattack is a film we cannot shut up about. It very much lives in our minds rent free, not just as one of Tomino Yoshiyuki’s and Gundam’s finest hours, but an incredibly kinetic and powerful action masterpiece that asks big questions and forces the viewer to sit with and accept a lack of easy answers. So in coming back to the film today, we dive deep into the film’s production history, its various literary sources (since Tomino wrote two completely separate and contradictory novelizations in the lead-up to the film), and review it in the context of everything we’ve seen in our Tomino-Thon so far. And unsurprisingly, there’s still an awful lot to say – this is one of our favorite films of all time.

Enjoy, and come back next week to hear all about the troubled production – and stellar artistry – of Mobile Suit Gundam F91!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:38

Char’s Counterattack Part 1: 0:01:38 – 1:38:31

Eyecatch Break: 1:38:31 – 1:39:17

Char’s Counterattack Part 2: 1:39:17 – 2:55:56

End Theme: 2:55:56 – 2:58:02

Listen to our original Char’s Counterattack review on episode 9 of Weekly Suit Gundam from September 2019 – https://youtu.be/xg0hyAkE1hc?si=CChXGdhlpUUo4AxI

Read Jonathan’s written review of Char’s Counterattack from October 2024 - https://www.jonathanlack.com/p/review-mobile-suit-gundam-chars-counterattack

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

“Tominoson-G Mk. V” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku & KAITO. “The World You See” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

With Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam having successfully revived Gundam, Tomino Yoshiyuki and his team at Sunrise jumped straight into a sequel the following year with Gundam ZZ, a series that follows up on the Argama Crew’s battle with Haman Karn and Neo Zeon, but with a new team of heroes and a ‘brighter’ tone. We’ve always loved ZZ here, with its outstanding central cast, amazing antagonists, and stretches like the Dublin Colony Drop that are among the best bits of Gundam ever made. But since we’ve discussed the series in depth before, we focus more on the history and background of the series this time, while looking at specific standout episodes to better appreciate the series’ place in Tomino’s career.

Enjoy, and come back next week as Gundam hits the big screen with the seminal classic Char’s Counterattack!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:38

Intro and History: 0:01:38 – 2:16:11

Eyecatch Break: 2:16:11 – 2:16:54

Gundam ZZ Discussion: 2:16:54 – 3:23:30

End Theme: 3:23:30 – 3:25:35

Gundam ZZ Episodes Watched for this Podcast – Episodes 2, 3, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 45, 46, and 47

Listen to our original Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ review on episode 8 of Weekly Suit Gundam from September 2019 – https://youtu.be/ciVVxnsfq7E?si=Ggz2JWrbaWBJZQpZ

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

“Tominoson-G Mk. V” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku & KAITO. “The World You See” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com