Mobile Suit Breakdown: the Gundam Podcast
by Nina & Thom
MSB is a weekly Gundam podcast for new fans, old fans, and not yet fans. Nina (a Gundam first-timer) and Thom (a lifelong Gundam fan) analyze, review, and research all 40+ years of the iconic sci-fi anime mega-franchise Mobile Suit Gundam in the order it was made. We research its influences, examine its themes, and discuss how each piece of the Gundam canon fits within the changing context in Japan and the world, from 1979 to today. Part history podcast, part discussion podcast, all Gundam podcast.
Episodes
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11.26: The Gods Must Be Fighting
Show Notes And now the moment you've all been waiting for: the Gundam Fight Finals have begun! This week, Domon faces his most terrifying opponent yet in the form of the mighty Zeus Gundam and must learn that even a smaller and weaker opponent can still triumph, so long as... hang on! Didn't he...
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11.25: The Cantonese Candidate
Show Notes This week on MSB, I've got a funny feeling like I've seen all this before... Ready? Go! Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move…
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Yugoslav Interlude 7: The Race for Trieste
Show Notes In this week's Yugoslav History Interlude: the race for Trieste! Yugoslav and British Empire troops converge on the contested city from two directions, existing alliances give way to new contests, and international diplomacy gets uncomfortably close to a game of Finders Keepers /…
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11.24: Around the World in Four Hours
Show Notes This week on MSB, the final battle between Domon and Master Asia begins at last! Plus: What's love got to do with it? Will Domon make it to the finals on time? Why does the tiara need a V-fin? Was that a horse? Did anyone realize what a good pun they were making? And how do you make a...
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11.23: The Devil and Domon Kasshu
Show Notes This week on MSB, the greatest trick the Devil Gundam ever pulled was convincing Domon to get mad, get mad, get so mad that it drove him mad. It didn't last long though, thanks to a little help from his buddy Bruder and the memory of rain. Meanwhile, Thom's got a product to sell and…
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11.22: Last Stand at Angel Falls
Show Notes This week on MSB, it's the final battle between Domon and Master Asia (for real this time we swear, no foolin')! Everyone shows off their skills, Chibodee can't handle his emotions, Nastasha knows how to motivate the boys, Rain and Domon share the childcare, Thom still thinks it's…
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[Bonus Episode] The Witching Hour: The Witch and the Bride
Show Notes Hello again, welcome back to Mobile Suit Breakdown! This week I have another treat for you, from the MSB vault, this one from the long distant past of Twenty-Twenty-Two. Ever since the Witch from Mercury first aired, Nina and I have been ever-so-gradually producing a Patron-only bonus...
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[Bonus Episode] Nina's Revenge: His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Show Notes This week: we're exhausted from Anime NYC so please enjoy this first episode from our Patron-exclusive bonus series Nina's Revenge! Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people.…
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11.21: The Death Army Strikes Back
Show Notes This week on MSB, could this feeling I'm feeling be the feeling... of friendship? As their support crews head to Neo Hong Kong for the Gundam Fight finals, the boys of the shuffle alliance hang around a little while longer hoping to reconnect with their best bro, inspiring Nina to…
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11.20: His Man Raymond
Show Notes This week on MSB, in an episode thick with subtext, Domon is the belle of the ball and everyone wants to be on his dance card, George realizes that it's hard to find good help these days, and Raymond faces the greatest foe of all: time. Isn't male friendship nice? Plus stick around…
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11.19: Dragons in the Mist
Show Notes This week on MSB, Domon takes a seat on the sidelines while Argo and Sai Saici answer the eternal question: can big guys and little guys be friends? Meanwhile, Schwarz Bruder takes a weird approach to coaching, Rain is feeling inspired, the monks fall from grace, Thom thinks Nastasha...
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Yugoslav Interlude 6: The Adriatic Question
Show Notes On this week's Yugoslav History Interlude, they say that if you want to understand any political event in Europe you have to start with the Romans... and that may well be true for the split between Tito and Stalin. After going through a few of the theories competing to explain the…
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11.18: Cowardly Tiger, Headstrong Dragon
Show Notes This week on MSB, Rain's bored out of her mind, Domon still can't beat a tree, and Chibodee's struggling to cope with the trauma of DG Cell infection. Meanwhile his team gets back to their roots by indulging in a little software piracy... 90s style. You wouldn't download a Shining...
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11.17: The Fist and the Furious: Tokyo Adrift
Show Notes This week on MSB: Domon takes our Gundam Boy Evaluation Test and scores off the charts in one metric, Schwarz Bruder remembers the old ways, the Death Army displays unexpected potential, Master Asia finds some new students, Nina has theories, and Thom finds himself on desperate ground....
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11.16: The Invisible Fighter
Show Notes This week on MSB, can Shinjuku survive yet another climactic showdown? Could Domon have ended things right here if hejust had the right attitude? Who is behind the (goofy) mask of Neo German Gundam Fighter Schwarz Bruder? And how might that cloaking device of his actually work? Mobile...
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Yugoslav Interlude 5: The Music Stops
Show Notes In the Interlude this week, does Yugoslavia still matter? Does it still matter for Gundam in 1994? Plus, back in Yugoslavia: Stalin pulls a top ten anime betrayal (which might even be a Top Ten Stalin Betrayal, a much more competitive field), Yugoslavia proves itself a strange kind of...
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11.15: A History of Anti-Violence
Show Notes This week on MSB, G Gundam sets an unprecedented pace that would put the Shrikes to shame, Nina raises some interesting questions about the timeline, Thom dishes of scientific facts, and Domon takes a leap of faith. Ready? Go! Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced...
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11.14: The Darkness Rises
Show Notes This week on MSB: your hosts are shocked, dismayed, horrified by a sudden and entirely unexpected betrayal, a beloved Victory Gundam character makes a cameo, Rain reminds us that she's always got the right tool for every scenario, and Domon keeps one eye on the clock. Ready? Go! Mobile...
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11.13: Big Gundams in Little Shinjuku
Read transcript Show Notes This week on MSB, Domon walks into the most obvious trap in history and suffers a series of betrayals that will leave you shocked to your core... or they might have if the opening narration hadn't given the whole thing away! What evil lurks behind the mysterious new...
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Yugoslav Interlude 4: What Rough Beast Slouches Toward the Ballot Box to be Elected?
Show Notes This week on MSB: monarchs hate him! This former locksmith has ten weird tricks to win a crushing landslide election. Number five will amaze you! The fourth of our Yugoslav Interlude episodes sees the Communist Party of Yugoslavia enjoying two impressive electoral achievements…
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11.12: Night of the Living Death Army
Show Notes This week on MSB, Tokyo is threatened by a menace from the sea! No, not Godzilla. No, not the lost undersea Empire of Mu or a stolen high tech submarine. And no, it's not angels either. It's cyber zombie skeleton horses! But it's not all doom and gloom. Domon finds something he's been...
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11.11: Rain's Man
Show Notes This week on MSB, falling rain is like the tears of the gods, bringing blessings to the thirsty earth... but no amount of water can wash away the pain of the past. When a fallen umbrella brings about an unexpected reunion in Istanbul, Rain Mikamura's resolve is tested. Tune in to this...
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11.10: The Mummy Gundam Returns
Show Notes This week on MSB, a specter is haunting Neo Egypt: the specter of com-mummy-nism! Hang on, that doesn't sound right... As the specter of Dahal Muhammad hunts Sai Saichi and memories of the Devil Gundam continue to haunt Domon Kasshu, Thom takes solace in the coolness of the robots…
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Yugoslav Interlude 3: the Questionable Croatians
Show Notes This week on MSB: the third of our dedicated Yugoslavia episodes! In this installment, we look at two Croatian members of Peter II's royal government, Vladko Maček and Ivan Šubašić, who spent their careers struggling in vain to find a compromise between Serbian ambition and Croatian...
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11.9: London Falling
Show Notes This week on MSB, Gundam Fighters never die they just fade away (in the arms of a beautiful woman). A new Ramba Ral shows Domon the fate of a Fighter (or maybe he's a new Duker Iq trying to revive the lost art of shooting and the guns of the middle ages? It's hard to keep track), a new...
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11.8: Bon Gundam, Bad Gundam
Show Notes This week on MSB, we're celebrating 8 episode of G Gundam with a romantic trip to Niagara Falls followed by an extended stay in a cozy log cabin in the Rockies. I just hope we don't run into any scary Canadian bears in woods... Plus stick around for Nina's profile of Seki Tomokazu (関...
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11.7: Once Upon a Fight in Neo Mexico
Show Notes With apologies for the delay, this week's episode takes us (back) to Mexico for a spy-thriller as Secret Agent Bunny and Team Chibodee pursue a missing Gundam Fighter and his dying sister. Also Domon is there for the usual reason. Plus, your stalwart podcast hosts are joined by none...
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MSB Listen-Along Track + Review of 4'33"
Show Notes Note: for copyright reasons this episode does not include any audio of 4'33", composed by John Cage - you will need to find your own version to listen alongside this track. Start both at the same time in order to make sure our commentary is appropriately synced to the song. Mobile Suit...
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Yugoslav Interlude Part 2: Exile and Grief
Show Notes This week on MSB: the second of our dedicated Yugoslavia episodes! In this installment, we return to London to meet the gang of "discredited and out of date politicians" who made up King Peter II's government-in-exile, and find out how they kept themselves busy during the war years....
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11.6: The Devil that Fell to Earth
Show Notes This week on MSB we're covering G Gundam episode 6 as the show finally sees fit to dump a big vat of mouthwatering main plot stew all over us. What deep emotional currents run beneath the seemingly placid surface of Domon Kasshu? Why was he really chosen to pilot the Shining Gundam?…
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11.5: To Russia with Fight
Show Notes This week on MSB we cover G Gundam Episode 5 and a shocking revelation about how Rain got her position on Team Neo Japan, the cunningly-disguised real inspiration for Argo's prison, Foucault's Gundam Fight, a reasonable critique of Domon's problem solving methods, and much more. Ready?...
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11.4: A Gundam Fighter in Paris
Show Notes This week on MSB, we're covering G Gundam episode 4 which means talking about [BLEEP]ed up Eiffel Towers, easy-listening pop, the Special Period in Cuba, what it takes to be a successful investment banker, national fandoms, and much more! Ready? Go! Mobile Suit Breakdown is written,...
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MSB's Yugoslav Interlude Part 1: Houses of the King
Show Notes This week we take a break from our regular coverage of G Gundam to return to a research topic that will remain salient throughout the 90s Gundam era: the violent breakup of Yugoslavia and the history that led up to it. In Part 1, Thom picks up the story during World War II, as the old...
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11.3: Kung Fu Hassle!
Show Notes This week on MSB, we're visiting the ferocious world of wuxia action as Domon and a mysterious wandering chef follow the wreckage-strewn path of Neo China's Dragon Gundam and the Gundam Fighter Sai Saici. Plus theatrical fight director and martial artist Sean Michael Chin joins us to...
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11.2: Battles Over Broadway!
Show Notes This week on MSB: prog rock, MTV VJs (that's Video DJ for any youngsters in the audience), a science fiction double feature, something even more evil than Ticketmaster, the greatest and only city in the world, and just a little bit of G Gundam. Plus, Nina reports back on three whole...
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11.1: Combat, Neo-Italian Style!
Read transcript Show Notes This week we're lacing our podcasting gloves up and jumping back into the arena for a brutal and bruising battle, with the fate of the Earth and the colonies hanging in the balance. Rather than our usual pre-season prologue we've decided to get into the action right…
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The Bikes of the Middle Ages (History of Motocross) Part 2
Show Notes It's a short episode this week as Nina wraps up her research on the history of motocross, bringing us forward to the Xtreme sports era of the 1990s, offering our theory on why it took Japan so long to produce an internationally competitive motocross rider, and considering the...
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Season 11 Announcement and 10+3: The Bikes of the Middle Ages
Show Notes This week on Mobile Suit Breakdown, an important update about what's coming next for the podcast, plus Nina finally gets to sate her curiosity (and yours) about the origins of motocross, and the state of the sport in the 1990s. And don't miss the real explanation behind Victory…
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S10+2: The Environment Problem ft. Colin
Show Notes This week on MSB, environmentalism consultant Colin returns to the program to discuss the role of the environment across the whole grand sweep of Tomino Gundam to this point. Is Tomino actually an environmentalist? Has he always been one, or did he become one at some point? And what…
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S10+1: The Diapers of Victory
Show Notes This week in the first of our Season 10 extra research episodes, Nina explores the long history of diapers around the world and in Japan to better understand the subtext and significance of Karlmann's cloth diapers. Please listen to it! Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and...
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September 2025 Status Update
Show Notes A quick update on our work behind the scenes as we prepare for Season 11. Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape...
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10.52C K A S A R E L I A
Show Notes Thank you all for your patience and your kind words of sympathy. We're ready to talk about Gundam once again, and this week a question from a listener prompts us to look back at the whole Tomino Era of Gundam, and on that perfect note we end Season 10. Mobile Suit Breakdown is written,...
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10.52B - Kasarelia?
Show Notes This week we answer most of the outstanding listener questions, ranging from Haro to Hilda Bidan, missed opportunities, Family Guy, Tomino's improvisational writing style, and more! Please listen to it! Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the...
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10.52: Kasarelia!
Show Notes Part one?? That's right, on this week's episode of MSB we start to answer your many thought-provoking questions about Victory Gundam. From the show's position on the role of women in society to its music to its relationship to Japan's New Religions, this episode has everything! And if...
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10.51: Victory
Show Notes This week on MSB: Victory Gundam episode 51. After a wild road-to-air-to-space trip that took us from Kasarelia all the way to Kasarelia, we've reached the final stop and we're ready to type up our TripAdvisor reviews. Opinions on Victory's ending seem to vary quite a big, and ours...
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10.50: They Sing the Songs that Remind Them of the Good Times
Show Notes This week, Victory Gundam's penultimate 50th episode! This one has it all: Tragedy! Heroism! Gender! There are shocking twists, heel turns, face turns! And the true audience surrogate is revealed at last! Please listen to it. Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced...
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10.49: In Hoc Signo Vinces
Show Notes This week: Victory Episode 49! Nothing says Epic Space War like bikinis! Plus we ask the important questions, like is Haro a misogynist? What does Katejina keep in the trunk of her mobile suit? Is Uso finally over the girl from Uwig? Is the Universal Century actually overpopulated? And...
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10.48: Cleansing Fire
Show Notes This week on MSB: Victory episode 48, plus... Maria makes things right by making everything worse, Warren gives Elisha exactly the kind of pep talk we'd expect from a thirteen year old boy, Thom is forced to acknowledge thinking some Kagatie-like thoughts, and we break out our cork...
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10.47: Two Lives in One
Show Notes This week on MSB: we're covering Victory episode 47. The Gender of it all is overwhelming, Cronicle underwhelms in truly impressive fashion, Maria has a funny idea of compassion, and Marbet discovers a cool new power up with no sinister implications whatsoever. Please listen to it!...
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Wheels on Wheels within Wheels
Show Notes This week on MSB, we're joined by new consultant, and Bible scholar in training, Vivian 'Wheels' Wheeler to talk about the Ophanim, the famous 'wheels within wheels' from the Book of Ezekiel. You can also find Wheels on Bluesky (@singularwheels) or on the podcast Very Random Encounters...
About this show
MSB is a weekly Gundam podcast for new fans, old fans, and not yet fans. Nina (a Gundam first-timer) and Thom (a lifelong Gundam fan) analyze, review, and research all 40+ years of the iconic sci-fi anime mega-franchise Mobile Suit Gundam in the order it was made. We research its influences, examine its themes, and discuss how each piece of the Gundam canon fits within the changing context in Japan and the world, from 1979 to today. Part history podcast, part discussion podcast, all Gundam podcast.
Hosted by
Nina & Thom