Japanimation Station's Kyoto Vacation

“Leave it to my psychokinesis.” 

The third season of Japanimation Station comes to a close with the jam-packed final installment of The Classic Adventures of Lupin the 3rd! We start by taking a look at Lupin’s first live-action adventure, 1974’s Strange Psychokinetic Strategy. This is one of the earliest Lupin adaptations period, created between the first and second anime before the franchise had become enduringly popular, and it’s a surprisingly creative, if narratively scattershot, madcap comedy, putting Lupin in a white jacket and throwing him into a series of increasingly ludicrous scenarios. Then, Jonathan gives us an exhaustive (maybe even obsessive) guide to the best Lupin the 3rd soundtrack albums and the wide world of Yuji Ohno’s Lupin the 3rd Jazz releases. And finally, Sean and Jonathan play a game drafting all our favorite Lupin characters for a hypothetical heist! 

Thanks so much for listening to Season 3 of Japanimation Station. We’ll see you later this fall for the debut of Season 4, Japanimation Station’s Kyoto Vacation, where we’ll be looking at the output of one of anime’s greatest studios, Kyoto Animation! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Strange Psychokinetic Strategy: 0:01:20 – 1:09:05

Eyecatch Break 1: 1:09:05 – 1:09:38

Jonathan’s Guide to Lupin Music: 1:09:38 – 1:50:51 

Eyecatch Break 2: 1:50:51 – 1:51:22

Season 3 Wrap-up: 1:51:22 – 2:12:21

Eyecatch Break 3: 2:12:21 – 2:12:49

Lupin Family Draft: 2:12:49 – 2:35:17

Season 4 Preview: 2:35:17 – 2:39:49 

End Theme: 2:39:49 – 2:41:04 

“I guess we do battle tonight, Pops!”

For the penultimate episode of Japanimation Station Season 3, we’re looking at a selection of Lupin the 3rdfilms and specials from the brink of the new millennium! Starting with 1996’s Dead or Alive, a theatrical feature directed by Lupin creator Monkey Punch himself, which sees our favorite thief embroiled in a narratively messy but visually stunning adventure on a very strange island. 1997’s Island of Assassins is a lesser Lupin special, weirdly violent but without any particular bite, while 1998’s Tokyo Crisis is one of our absolute favorites, a Zenigata-led, uproariously funny comedy with fantastic guest performances by Megumi Hayashibara and Kōichi Yamadera. And finally, we end our examination of Lupin the 3rd anime with 2002’s Episode 0: The First Contact, an origin story caper for the entire Lupin gang that sees the franchise taking its early steps into digital animation, with mixed results.   

Enjoy, and come back next week for our season 3 finale, where we’ll be reviewing the 1974 live-action Lupin adaptation, Strange Psychokinetic Strategy, and celebrating all this season’s Lupintic adventures!  

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro: 0:01:20 – 0:15:04

Dead or Alive: 0:15:04 – 1:15:59 

Eyecatch Break 1: 1:15:59 – 1:16:33 

Island of Assassins: 1:16:33 – 1:45:56

Eyecatch Break 2: 1:45:56 – 1:46:18 

Tokyo Crisis: 1:46:18 – 2:32:12 

Eyecatch Break 3: 2:32:12 – 2:32:37

Episode 0 First Contact: 2:32:37 – 3:08:44

End Theme: 3:08:44 – 3:09:59 

“I can’t just ignore a lovely lady with a big Diamond.”

As Lupin the 3rd rounded the corner of the 1980s into the 1990s, the character and the series was in a period of transition. The 1987 OVA film The Fuma Conspiracy featured some of the franchise’s greatest animation, but also had a completely different voice cast than Japanese fans had come to know and love. The series went back to the tone and style of Part II for the 1989 Osamu Dezaki-directed TV special Bye Bye Lady Liberty, with Yasuo Yamada, the original voice cast, and the red jacket in tow, and it was a huge success, creatively and commercially, kicking off an annual string of feature-length TV specials that continued through 2013, including 1993’s Voyage to Danger, which saw the one-time-only return of Part I director Masaaki Osumi to the franchise. Sadly, Yasuo Yamada grew ill and passed away in 1995, just before the release of the first theatrical film in 10 years, Farewell to Nostradamus, with Kanichi Kurita stepping into those impossibly large shoes as his replacement, and doing such an amazing job that he continues to voice Lupin to this day! We cover all 4 of these feature-length Lupin experiences in today’s episode, analyzing a period where everything is in flux for Lupin III, and the possibilities are endless! 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we look at Lupin’s adventures on the brink of the new millennium with a selection of films and specials from 1996 to 2002 – Dead or Alive, Island of Assassins, Tokyo Crisis and Episode 0: First Contact! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro: 0:01:20 – 0:06:57 

The Fuma Conspiracy: 0:06:57 – 0:49:06

Eyecatch Break 1: 0:49:06 – 0:49:38

Bye Bye Lady Liberty: 0:49:38 – 1:51:46

Eyecatch Break 2: 1:51:46 – 1:52:10

Voyage to Danger: 1:52:10 – 2:35:28

Eyecatch Break 3: 2:35:28 – 2:35:54

Farewell to Nostradamus: 2:35:54 – 3:27:49 

End Theme: 3:27:49 – 3:29:04 

“Nobody said I’m not in. We’re just out of cognac.” 

With Lupin the 3rd Part III, Lupin officially the enters the 1980s and he’s got a new attitude, a new look, and a new jacket – a pink one! The Pink Jacket Adventures, as this series has come to be known, is one of the weirder and wilder chapters in Lupin history, with Yuzo Aoki leading a talented team of animators to create a take on Lupin that’s both uniquely stylish and highly varied, with character designs shifting from episode to episode and sometimes scene to scene, and the series’ second half employing a particularly cartoon-y, Looney Tunes-esque approach to motion and mayhem. Meanwhile, iconic Japanese New Wave director Seijun Suzuki wrote one of the boldest and most bonkers Lupin episodes of all time, and co-directed The Legend of the Gold of Babylon, the Part III film released in 1985, which we also discuss on today’s show alongside 20 episodes from Part III (see the full list below). It’s one of the most memorable periods for Lupin the 3rd, and also one of the most rewarding. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we look at a transitionary period in the history of Lupin with a selection of films and specials from 1987 to 1995 – The Fuma Conspiracy, Bye-Bye Lady Liberty, Voyage to Danger, and Farewell to Nostradamus!  

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro & History: 0:01:20 – 0:10:44

Lupin VIII: 0:10:44 – 0:22:46

History Continued: 0:22:46 – 0:50:06

Eyecatch Break 1: 0:50:06 – 0:50:38 

Episode-by-episode Review: 0:50:38 – 3:01:47

Eyecatch Break 2: 3:01:47 – 3:02:14

The Legend of the Gold of Babylon: 3:02:14 – 3:52:09 

End Credits: 3:52:09 – 3:53:24

“Believe in the power of the thief.” 

Before he left the world of Lupin behind and went off to change the course of anime history forever with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Hayao Miyazaki returned to TMS for a final set of Lupin the 3rd projects that have become iconic anime classics: The 1979 feature film The Castle of Cagliostro, and episodes 145 and 155 of Part II, “Albatross – Wings of Death” and “Farewell, O Dearest Lupin!”, distributed in the US in the 1990s as Lupin III’s Greatest Capers. These were the first pieces of Lupin media commercially available in America, and Cagliostro in particular is the most frequent entry point for Lupin newcomers. While Miyazaki’s more heroic, chivalric vision of the character is a bit of an outlier, there’s a reason Cagliostro has such magnetic appeal, as it’s one of the single greatest animated films ever made, a perfectly paced action adventure fueled by some of the most virtuosic animation to ever grace the silver screen. An influence for all sorts of movies all around the world, it’s a true classic, and so are Miyazaki’s two episodes of Part II, with “Albatross” in particular taking the director’s love of airplanes to astonishing new heights, and setting an impossibly high bar for how good TV animation can be. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we enter the Pink Jacket era and review Lupin the 3rd Part III and the 1985 film The Legend of the Gold of Babylon! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro: 0:01:20 – 0:11:32

Eyecatch Break 1: 0:11:32 – 0:12:03

The Castle of Cagliostro: 0:12:03 – 2:27:07

Eyecatch Break 2: 2:27:07 – 2:27:39

Greatest Capers Episodes: 2:27:39 – 3:16:35

End Theme: 3:16:35 – 3:17:50 

“Lupin, our manly drama ends today!” 

Airing from 1977 to 1980, the second Lupin the 3rd TV anime – retroactively titled “Part II” – produced a whopping 155 episodes, and with the iconic red jacket and the entire five-person crew (Lupin, Jigen, Fujiko, Goemon, and Zenigata) in tow for every adventure, this is the series that firmly cemented Lupin III as an enduring anime icon, and set the tone for many of his future capers. For today’s episode, we watched a selection of 27 episodes – see the full list below – and experienced a wide range of adventures, from Lupin and company stealing a vintage bottle of wine on Christmas, to Jigen helping a ballerina defect to the West, to ‘Pops’ Zenigata springing a daring trap for Lupin on the highway, to Goemon surviving a shockingly violent bout of torture, to two whole episodes devoted to an extremely surprising (and very funny) alternate history of Jesus Christ himself! Part II is truly a wild ride, with some absolute masterpiece episodes displaying some of the greatest animation in TV history, and almost always providing a big dose of fun. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review Lupin’s most famous adventure with Hayao Miyazaki’s 1979 classic The Castle of Cagliostro, and look at the two episodes Miyazaki directed for Part II, Albatross – Wings of Death and Farewell, O Dearest Lupin! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro, History, and Part II Overview: 0:01:20 – 0:57:57 

Eyecatch Break 1: 0:57:57 – 0:58:30 

Episode-by-episode review, part 1: 0:58:30 – 2:22:00 

Eyecatch Break 2: 2:22:00 – 2:22:29 

Episode-by-episode review, part 2: 2:22:29 – 3:45:25

End Theme: 3:45:25 – 3:46:40 

“Wherever he goes, he’ll be chased. That is his destiny.” 

In 1978, Lupin the 3rd made the leap to the big screen with his first animated feature film, and while the second Lupin movie, 1979’s Hayao Miyazaki-directed The Castle of Cagliostro, is the more famous film, The Mystery of Mamo is arguably the single piece of Lupin animation that cuts closest to the heart of the character and the tone, humor, and storytelling style that makes Lupin the 3rd so enduring. It’s a globetrotting adventure that takes the audience all around the world, makes fantastic use of all five regular characters, has a wonderfully anarchic sense of humor, and is spectacularly animated from start-to-finish, a virtuosic feat from franchise stalwarts like Yuzo Aoki and Yasuo Otsuka. And it even has a thoughtful thematic core saying something surprisingly profound about Lupin as a character and the way he moves through the world, making for a movie that isn’t just uproariously funny and consistently surprising, but actually kind of poignant. It’s an absolute classic, and one that’s a delight to discuss on today’s episode. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we dive into Lupin’s longest-running and most successful anime, Lupin the 3rd Part II. 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro, History, and Review Part 1: 0:01:20 – 0:57:23 

Eyecatch Break: 0:57:23 – 0:58:08

Review Part 2: 0:58:08 – 2:26:58 

End Theme: 2:26:58 – 2:28:13

“I’m a greedy person. There’s so much I want to do with Mom and all of you.” 

Weekly Suit Gundam is back to review the second and final season of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, which brings the story to a close with a rousing, jam-packed set of episodes that’s darker, richer, and more action-filled than the first season. This is the first mainline Gundam series besides Reconguista in G to tell its story in just 2 cours, but that doesn’t mean it’s a thinner or less complicated show, as our super-sized conversation in today’s episode attests to. With so many amazing characters, stellar animation and music, and a story that revisits classic Gundam scenarios and iconography while also challenging and moving beyond them, Witch From Mercury is a show with a lot on its mind, and a lot to break down.  

Enjoy, and be sure to tune in for Japanimation Station Season 3, “The Classic Adventures of Lupin the 3rd,” airing Tuesday nights at 7pm CT on YouTube! 

“Lupin. He’s a nice man. But he’s cool.” 

Welcome to Season 3 of Japanimation Station: The Classic Adventures of Lupin the 3rd! This season, we will be exploring the countless capers of one of the most enduring icons of anime from his very first animated appearance in 1969 up through the dawn of the 21st century. In today’s season premiere, we go through the history of Monkey Punch’s original Lupin the 3rd manga, the creation of the 1969 pilot film, and finally do a deep dive on Lupin’s first anime TV series, 1971’s Lupin the 3rd, retroactively referred to as Part I. It is one of the most fascinating, unique, and compelling shows we’ve ever seen, a series essentially divided in half between early episodes helmed by Masaaki Osumi, which are more adult and irreverent a la Monkey Punch’s manga, and the later caper-centric episodes directed by the men who would go on to found Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki! Both visions of the series are equally accomplished, and the series sees a wide range of animation giants pass through its doors – including Yasuo Otsuka and Osamu Dezaki – and by the end, Lupin the 3rd has started to settle on a template that will serve it well for decades to come. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review Lupin’s first animated theatrical film, the 1978 classic The Mystery of Mamo! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro to Season and History of Lupin: 0:01:20 – 0:42:14

Lupin the 3rd Part 1 History and Review: 0:42:14 – 2:06:15 

Eyecatch Break: 2:06:15 – 2:07:03 

Episode-by-episode Review: 2:07:03 – 3:22:59 

End Theme: 3:22:59 – 3:24:14 

“For the sake of someone other than yourself, you can exert infinite strength.”

The third season of the hit anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba recently wrapped up its hotly anticipated third season, adapting the “Swordsmith Village Arc” of Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga, and as big fans of the series who have reviewed all the prior arcs, we’re here for a deep dive with another amazing season. This set of episodes introduces us to a cast of largely new (or previously briefly seen) characters, including two Hashira with Tokito Muichiro and Mitsuri Kanroji, a mysterious demon slayer named Genya, and two ferocious upper rank demons; it’s also where the story fully starts to lay out some of its biggest themes and ideas, before arriving at a pivotal turning point leading to the start of the series’ endgame. It’s a great season of television, and it produces what is easily our most in-depth, interesting conversation about this series so far. 

Enjoy, and we’ll see you again soon for Japanimation Station Season 3: The Classic Adventures of Lupin the 3rd, premiering July 4th! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Swordsmith Village Review Part 1: 0:01:14 – 0:43:34 

Eyecatch Break: 0:43:34 – 0:44:03

Swordsmith Village Review Part 2: 0:44:03 – 2:37:18

End Theme: 2:37:18 – 2:38:33

Hosts Sean Chapman and Jonathan Lack give you a special look at Season 3 of Japanimation Station, THE CLASSIC ADVENTURES OF LUPIN THE 3RD, premiering July 4th, 2023! In this 8-episode season, we will be surveying 30 years of anime history through the exploits of the infamous thief Lupin III and his friends Daisuke Jigen, Fujiko Mine, Goemon Ishikawa, and Inspector Zenigata! From the original anime in 1971 to the “Episode 0” origin-story special in 2002, we’re looking at many of Lupin’s biggest, best, weirdest, and most memorable heists, learning and laughing a lot along the way. In this preview, we give you the details on everything we’re watching and where exactly you can find it! Season 3 premieres July 4th, 2023, and will air Tuesday nights at 7pm CT for 8 uninterrupted weeks. 

“Getting to know someone is all about little moments like that, wouldn’t you agree?”

In this super-sized season finale of Japanimation Station, we close out ufotable/Moon Works with two reviews: First, we discuss Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, the 2018 original net animation spin-off of Fate/stay night that sees Shirou and all his friends making food and enjoying each other’s company. Animated by Ufotable and based on the manga by TAa, it’s a delightful and remarkably well-produced slice-of-life alternative to the action of Fate/stay night, but one that sacrifices none of the sharp characterization that makes this cast so wonderful.

Second, we dive deep with Witch on the Holy Night (aka Mahoutsukai no Yoru), the visual novel based on Kinoko Nasu’s first unpublished novel, originally released in Japan in 2012 and released worldwide in a 2022 remake. The remake landed right as we started recording ufotable/Moon Works, and we wound up making references to the visual novel throughout the season, as Witch on the Holy Night is something of a ‘Rosetta Stone’ for the Nasu-verse, featuring all of his character types and major themes in a single, smaller-scale story, and we felt we had to devote some extra time to it here at the end of the season. And since ufotable will in fact be animating the story for an upcoming feature film, it will soon be another ufotable/Moon work!

Thanks for listening to Season 2 of Japanimation Station, and be sure to listen through to the end of the episode to hear first details about the next two seasons, both premiering in 2023!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Intro: 0:01:14 – 0:03:36

Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family Review: 0:03:36 – 1:18:46

Eyecatch 1: 1:18:46 – 1:18:56

Witch on the Holy Night Review: 1:18:56 – 3:00:02

Eyecatch 2: 3:00:02 – 3:00:16

Closing Thoughts: 3:00:16 – 3:07:16

Season 3 and 4 Reveal: 3:07:16 – 3:14:49

End Credits: 3:14:49 – 3:16:04

“I’ll show you a miracle.”

The journey of Fate/stay night comes to a close with the third and final chapter of the Heaven’s Feel trilogy, Spring Song, and Sean and Jonathan are both in absolute awe at what this film achieves. Bringing the stories of Shirou, Sakura, Rin, Ilya, and the other surviving characters to a surprising, incredibly emotional conclusion, this final film is a true tour-de-force, with the full weight of ufotable’s animation abilities brought to bear on some of Kinoko Nasu’s best storytelling. Few stories close with as immense a sense of pay-off as Heaven’s Feel, bringing us circling back not only to prior Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night discussions, but also The Garden of Sinners – all of it was leading to this point. Add in some jaw-dropping fight scenes, more incredible music by Yuki Kajiura and Aimer, and a heaping helping of everybody’s favorite evil priest, Kirei Kotomine, and you’ve got an animated masterpiece for the ages.

Enjoy, and come back next week for our Season 2 finale, as we dive deep with the recently re-released visual novel Witch on the Holy Night, aka Mahoutsukai no Yoru, and head on over to Shirou’s house for a tasty meal with the anime mini-series Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Heaven’s Feel III Review: 0:01:14 – 1:13:23

Eyecatch: 1:13:23 – 1:13:37

Heaven’s Feel III Review (Cont.): 1:13:37 – 3:02:14

End Credits: 3:02:14 – 3:03:30

“She’s all I want to protect.”

The dark saga that is Heaven’s Feel enters its especially dark middle chapter with Lost Butterfly, the second film in the trilogy, and one that delivers an enormous, eventful, complicated slice of movie for us to break down. Filled to the brim with surprising revelations, major plot turns, and huge character moments, the film sees Shirou and Sakura becoming more and more entwined in each others’ lives, and presents the viewer with a bracing, challenging depiction of abuse and the cycles of violence and pain it creates. It also sees ufotable at the top of their production game, with some of the most stunning animation ever committed to film, not just in the bravura action sequences, but in intense character moments that are rendered here so beautifully and powerfully that it’s hard to imagine anyone making it through this film without a tear or two. It’s another outstanding movie, and one that leaves us on the edge of our seats to finish the entire Fate/stay night project next week.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the third and final film in the Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel trilogy, Spring Song!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Heaven’s Feel II Review: 0:01:14 – 1:23:40

Eyecatch: 1:23:40 – 1:23:50

Heaven’s Feel II Review (Cont.): 1:23:50 – 2:32:19

End Credits: 2:32:19 – 2:33:34

“If I ever did something bad, would you forgive me?”

We enter the final phase of ufotable/Moon Works with the first part of the Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel trilogy, Presage Flower, the first of three films adapting the third and final route of the original Fate/stay night visual novel. And whether you’re experiencing the story in its original visual novel setting or coming to it through ufotable’s anime adaptations, Heaven’s Feel is meticulously designed to throw you off balance, with a Holy Grail War that quickly becomes corrupted by dark forces unlike anything we’ve seen before, and a violent, horror-tinged tone more reminiscent of The Garden of Sinners than Fate/Zero or Unlimited Blade Works. This time around, the story focuses on Shirou Emiya’s relationship with Sakura Matou, an extremely different character than Rin Tohsaka, and one whose mysterious, trauma-filled past brings out new shadings in our would-be hero. It’s a terrific film, boasting ufotable’s finest production values thus far and a tremendous score by Yuki Kajiura, and it’s only the tip of the iceberg, as we still have two films to go.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the second film in the Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel trilogy, Lost Butterfly!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Heaven’s Feel I Review: 0:01:14 – 1:12:25

Eyecatch: 1:12:25 – 1:12:42

Heaven's Feel I Review (Cont.): 1:12:42 – 2:16:11

End Credits: 2:16:11 – 2:17:26

“That’s Hell you’re walking into.”

Where the first season of Unlimited Blade Works provided a lot of essential character work, the second season – episodes 13 through 25 – is where the plot kicks into high gear, and there’s a lot to break down on this episode, as the show doles out revelations about Archer and Shirou, brings Gilgamesh and his monstrous narcissism into the fray, and delivers twists, betrayals, and surprise alliances aplenty. It’s a terrific, instant-classic stretch of anime that’s left a major impact on pop culture, and offers us plenty to discuss as we cut to the heart of Fate/stay night and what Kinoko Nasu’s story is doing with the many intertwined themes and characters. And as always, it’s a magnificent production from ufotable, as the studio continues to hone its craft and forge its identity as one of Japan’s most accomplished and cutting-edge anime studios.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the first film in the Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel trilogy, Presage Flower!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:52

Unlimited Blade Works Season 2 Review: 0:01:54 – 1:41:59

Eyecatch: 1:41:59 – 1:42:12

Unlimited Blade Works Season 2 Review (Cont.): 1:42:12 – 2:41:36

End Credits: 2:41:36 – 2:42:51

“Starting now, things are gonna get real flashy!”  

The premiere of the Swordsmith Village Arc is just two days away – on April 9th – and we’re finishing out our reviews of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, ufotable’s extraordinary anime adaptation of Kyoharu Gotouge’s hit manga, with a look at the show’s singular second season. Fresh off the unprecedented success of the Mugen Train film, Season 2 is shaped unlike just about any other anime season out there: An original episode with fan favorite Kyojuro Rengoku, then a 6-episode TV edit of Mugen Train complete with a new theme song and end credits, and finally an all new 11-episode adaptation of the manga’s Entertainment District Arc, featuring a double-length premiere and a 1.5x length finale. It’s all fantastic, of course, particularly the new material of the Entertainment District Arc, the point in the manga where Gotouge’s sense of staging action really comes into focus, giving ufotable more than enough to craft some of the most incredible images ever aired on television. With sound hashira Tengen Uzui, his three wives, and an upper-rank demon split across two separate bodies along for the ride, the Entertainment District Arc is an edge-of-your-seat adventure, and more than worthy of another look ahead of Season 3. 

We will be back to review the entire Swordsmith Village arc when it finishes airing this summer, and be sure to continue listening to Japanimation Station Season 2 – ufotable/Moon Works – premiering every Tuesday night at 7pm CT on YouTube! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Intro: 0:01:14 – 0:03:48

Eyecatch 1: 0:03:48 – 0:03:56

Mugen Train Arc: 0:03:56 – 0:23:45

Eyecatch 2: 0:23:45 – 0:23:55

Entertainment District Arc: 0:23:55 – 2:28:30 

End Credits: 2:28:30 – 2:29:45 

“I am the bone of my sword.”

After the breakout success of Fate/Zero, ufotable returned in 2014 with an adaptation of the second route in the Fate/stay night visual novel: Unlimited Blade Works. And it’s a big series, released in two seasons, with the first including three hour-long episodes, and the entire production showcasing some of the highest-quality animation ever featured on television. It’s a spectacular show, and while ufotable did not adapt the first route of the visual novel, we find that Unlimited Blade Works operates surprisingly perfectly as a direct sequel to Fate/Zero. Today’s podcast discusses the first season, from the ‘0th’ episode on through episode 12, as we break down all the major characters like Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka, the featured Servants including Archer, Saber, Caster, and Lancer, and the incredible direction and production values on display throughout.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the second season of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, episodes 13 through 25!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:54

Unlimited Blade Works Season 1 Review: 0:01:54 – 1:28:37

Eyecatch: 1:28:37 – 1:28:50

Unlimited Blade Works Season 1 Review (Cont.): 1:28:50 – 2:45:54

End Credits: 2:45:54 – 2:47:10

“Set your heart ablaze.” 

Ahead of the premiere of the Swordsmith Village Arc on April 9th, we’re revisiting a series of reviews of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, ufotable’s extraordinary anime adaptation of Kyoharu Gotouge’s hit manga. This time, we’re talking all about the 2020 feature film sensation Mugen Train, which set historic box-office records in Japan and around the world – and is just an utterly stupendous film all around. Taking one of the shorter arcs of the manga and crafting it into a well-rounded, hard-hitting, tragic film adventure, Mugen Train features some of ufotable’s finest animation to date, boasts a killer score by Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina, and turned Kyujuro Rengoku into a worldwide anime icon. This is just about as good as it gets. 

Come back next Friday for our last Demon Slayer review before Season 3, with our thoughts on Season 2’s Entertainment District Arc! And be sure to continue listening to Japanimation Station Season 2 – ufotable/Moon Works – premiering every Tuesday night at 7pm CT on YouTube! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Intro: 0:01:14 – 0:03:39 

Eyecatch: 0:03:39 – 0:03:48 

Mugen Train Review: 0:03:48 – 2:05:00

End Credits: 2:05:00 – 2:06:15 

“Glory lies beyond the horizon.”

After covering just the double-length first episode last week, we’re back to discuss the full run of Fate/Zero, the Fate/stay night prequel that became a breakout anime hit all over the world, and given the run-time of today’s podcast, you can probably guess our thoughts on it. This is a tremendous show, whether you’re seeing it for the first time (like Jonathan) or the fifth time (like Sean), working equally well as either a prequel or the first chapter of the larger Fate story, with a giant ensemble of rich, compelling characters, a ridiculously deep bench of vocal talent, some stellar music and animation, and a tragic storyline that barrels towards its wrenching conclusion with unstoppable momentum. There is an almost endless well of amazing material to talk about here, and it leaves us more excited than ever to get into Fate/stay night itself in the weeks to come.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the first season of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, episodes 0 through 12.

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Fate/Zero Review: 0:01:14 – 1:40:18

Eyecatch: 1:40:18 – 1:40:29

Fate/Zero Review (Cont.): 1:40:29 – 3:20:12

End Credits: 3:20:12 – 3:21:27

“The bond between Nezuko and me can’t be severed by anyone.” 

With Season 3’s Swordsmith Village Arc of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba right around the corner – it premieres April 9th – we are re-releasing a series of episodes from our sister series, The Weekly Stuff Podcast, in which Sean and Jonathan review all of ufotable’s extraordinary anime adaptation of Kyoharu Gotouge’s hit manga up to now. In this first episode, we break down the first season of Demon Slayer, episodes 1 through 26, now known as the Unwavering Resolve Arc. From Tanjiro discovering his family slain and sister Nezuko turned into a demon, to training with Urokadaki and taking on the Final Selection, to the adventures in Asakusa and at the Tsuzumi Mansion, to the incredible, instant-classic battle with Rui on Mount Natagumo, this is the season that started at all, and cemented ufotable’s status as one of the most popular and beloved anime studios all around the world. 

Come back next Friday for our review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie: Mugen Train, and continue listening to Season 2 – ufotable/Moon Works – premiering every Tuesday night at 7pm CT on YouTube! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Intro: 0:01:14 – 0:04:23

Eyecatch: 0:04:23 – 0:04:32

Season 1 Review: 0:04:32 – 3:04:43

End Credits: 3:04:43 – 3:05:58 

“The Holy Grail will save you.”

After finishing up The Garden of Sinners last week, we are taking our first steps into the larger world of Fate/stay night, the most iconic of Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon’s creations, with Fate/Zero, the prequel anime based on the light novel series by Gen Urobuchi. On today’s episode, Sean gives us an in-depth introduction to the original Fate/stay night visual novel, all the ways it’s been adapted over the years, and tells us how Fate/Zero came about and where it fits into things. Then we discuss the first, double-length episode of the anime, and find that it’s not just a great hour of TV, but an excellent stand-alone introduction for anyone (like Jonathan!) who hasn’t previously experienced Fate/stay night.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the rest of Fate/Zero, episodes 2 through 25!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Intro to Fate/stay night: 0:01:14 – 0:27:17

Eyecatch: 0:27:17 – 0:27:26

Fate/Zero Episode 1 Review: 0:27:26 – 1:16:12

End Credits: 1:16:12 – 1:17:27

“Your dream will live on.”

After adapting the original seven chapters of Kara no Kyoukai, ufotable returned in 2011 to animate the novel’s Epilogue chapter as a half-hour short, and in 2013 for Future Gospel (also known as Recalled Out Summer), based on an additional chapter Kinoko Nasu wrote in 2008, 10 years after the original serialization. Both turn out to be essential parts of the experience, with the Epilogue complicating and adding depth to the major themes of the series – alongside the most stunning imagery in the entire production – and Future Gospel offering a nostalgic, thought-provoking set of stories that works both as a Garden of Sinners reunion and a pitch-perfect coda. We also discuss the OVA released alongside Future Gospel – Extra Chorus – which adapts three manga chapters telling small one-off stories, and look back on the entire experience of watching and reviewing this incredible magnum opus.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we dive into the world of Fate/stay night and review the first episode of Fate/Zero!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Intro: 0:01:14 – 0:07:20

Epilogue: 0:07:20 – 1:02:26

Eyecatch: 1:02:26 – 1:02:40

Part 8 – Future Gospel: 1:02:40 – 1:50:14

Extra Chorus: 1:50:14 – 2:03:32

End Credits: 2:03:32 – 2:04:47

“I won’t let you go, as long as I live.”

The original 7-part run of The Garden of Sinners comes to an end with these last two installments, Oblivion Recording and A Study in Murder: Part 2, the former providing a lighter, more comical one-off case where Shiki teams up with Touko’s apprentice (and Kokutou’s little sister) Azaka, while the decidedly-not-light latter chapter returns us to the mystery of the serial killings that first brought Shiki and Kokutou together. Oblivion Recording is a joy in its own way, and a welcome eye-in-the-storm between the series’ two longest, densest installments, but A Study in Murder II is the star here, as we learn the truth about Shiki, cut to the heart of who Kokutou is underneath his still exterior, and find out what these two characters mean to one another, and what choices they will make in the face of death.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the final pieces of The Garden of Sinners – the Epilogue short film, the eighth film, Future Gospel (aka Recalled Out Summer) and the Extra Chorus OVA.

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Intro: 0:01:14 – 0:06:34

Part 6 – Oblivion Recording: 0:06:34 – 1:06:05

Eyecatch: 1:06:05 – 1:06:19

Part 7 – A Study in Murder II: 1:06:19 – 2:47:21

End Credits: 2:47:21 – 2:48:36

“You know, high rises are strange.”

We are only reviewing one installment of The Garden of Sinners this week, but since that installment is Paradox Spiral, we basically have no choice, and it’s not even because this is one of the only Kara no Kyoukai films that runs a full two hours. It’s because Paradox Spiral is one of the best and most artistically audacious things we’ve ever reviewed in our many years of podcasting, a dense and complicated story told in even more dense and intricate fashion by Ufotable, with stunning animation, disturbing and provocative imagery, and maybe the most complex editorial schema we’ve ever seen in a commercial feature, animated or live-action. And it’s all in service of an incredibly powerful story arranged around themes of duality, of division and reflection, that builds to one of the single most impactful endings in the history of the medium.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the end of the original Kara no Kyoukai story with Parts 6 and 7– Oblivion Recording and A Study in Murder: Part 2.

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Part 5 – Paradox Spiral: 0:01:14 – 1:19:44

Eyecatch: 1:19:44 – 1:20:04

Part 5 – Paradox Spiral (Cont.): 1:20:04 – 2:32:48

End Credits: 2:32:48 – 2:34:03

“My eyes allow me to see death.”

Our journey through The Garden of Sinners continues with the third and fourth installments – Remaining Sense of Pain and The Hollow Shrine – as we learn (most of) the story behind Shiki, their powers, and how they, Kokutou, and Touko all came together. Remaining Sense of Pain sees the trio tackle one of the darkest cases in the series with the abused Fujino Asagami – and a content warning is definitely in order for this one, given the episode’s depiction of sexual assault – while The Hollow Shrine gives us a full tour through Shiki’s recovery and their mastery of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. It’s a striking, challenging set of films that ultimately leave us with a firmer understanding of this universe and its stakes, as we head into the series’ home stretch in the weeks ahead.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the landmark 5th part of The Garden of Sinners – Paradox Spiral.

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Intro: 0:01:14 – 0:05:09

Part 3 – Remaining Sense of Pain: 0:05:09 – 0:53:44

Eyecatch: 0:53:44 – 0:54:00

Part 4 – The Hollow Shrine: 0:54:00 – 1:33:22

End Credits: 1:33:22 – 1:34:37

“The overlooking view is a breathtaking sight.”

For Season 2 of Japanimation Station – ufotable/Moon Works – we will be discussing all of the animated adaptations of Type-Moon’s books and visual novels produced by renowned studio ufotable. The best-known of these are related to Kinoko Nasu’s groundbreaking visual novel Fate/stay night, but the story of ufotable and Type-Moon’s creative partnership actually starts with an earlier work: Kara no Kyoukai, known in English as The Garden of Sinners, a light novel written by Nasu in 1998, and adapted into a series of films by Ufotable starting in 2007. We’ll be spending the first five episodes of this season working through these films, starting today with the first two installments: Overlooking View and A Study in Murder: Part 1. It’s a dense, intentionally confusing, and immediately gripping introduction to the world of Kara no Kyoukai and the Nasu-verse in general, with Sean coming in as a long-standing Type-Moon veteran and Jonathan as a newcomer to all of this. As we quickly learn, The Garden of Sinners is nothing if not a powerful conversation starter, and there is an almost endless well of things to talk about, both here and in the weeks to come.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review parts 3 and 4 of The Garden of Sinners – Remaining Sense of Pain and The Hollow Shrine!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:14

Intro to Season and Nasu-Verse: 0:01:14 – 0:42:31

Eyecatch: 0:42:31 – 0:42:41

Part 1 – Overlooking View: 0:42:41 – 1:47:30

Part 2 – A Study in Murder I: 1:47:30 – 2:26:46

End Credits: 2:26:46 – 2:28:01

“Nice to meet you, my groom.”

Weekly Suit Gundam makes its triumphant return as Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury has wrapped up its fantastic 12-episode 1st season, and we’re here to dive deep on every facet of this so-far wonderful show: from our first female Gundam protagonist in Suletta Mercury, to the complex and seemingly sinister motivations of her mother/resident Char-clone Lady Prospera, to Suletta’s surprise fiancée Miorine Rembran and all the characters she meets at the Asticassia School of Technology, to the big questions like how in the world Chuatury Panlunch – aka ChuChu – fits those crazy hair globes in her pilot’s helmet. Even with just these first 12 episodes to work with, The Witch From Mercury delivers a huge amount of plot, big ideas, and stand-out moments, giving us more than enough to work with as we wait for Season 2, starting in April.

Enjoy, and be sure to tune in for Japanimation Station Season 2 – ufotable/Moon Works – premiering February 14th, Valentine’s Day!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:58:13

Intro & Spoiler-Free Thoughts: 0:58:13 – 0:20:55

Eyecatch 1: 0:20:55 – 0:21:03

Spoiler Review Part 1: 0:21:03 – 1:48:44

Eyecatch 2: 1:48:44 – 1:48:50

Spoielr Review Part 2: 1:48:50 – 3:06:49

Will You Be Able to Survive? 3:06:49 – 3:07:11

In our 1st-season finale, we conclude our series of Fullmetal Alchemist reviews by rounding up the remaining theatrical feature films. First, there’s 2011’s The Sacred Star of Milos, an animated spin-off of Brotherhood made by the same crew, but with entirely different creative leadership, leading to a radically different aesthetic and the best animation Fullmetal Alchemist has ever seen. It’s a bit narratively messy in integrating Hiromu Arakawa’s characters into an otherwise original and unrelated story, but it’s also an entertaining and memorably weird experience that’s an essential watch. The live-action Fullmetal Alchemist trilogy is entertaining in its own way, but far less essential. With three films – 2017’s Fullmetal Alchemist and this year’s The Revenge of Scar and The Final Alchemy, all streaming worldwide on Netflix – this series, directed by Fumihiko Sori and starring Ryosuke Yamada as Ed, is a surprisingly faithful recreation of the manga (maybe too much so at times). Bouncing between hilarious B-movie oddity, boring recitation of the original story, and a few genuinely affecting performances and scenes, these movies are uneven but extremely interesting, and more than worth taking the time to discuss here.

Enjoy, and come back next year for Season 2 of Japanimation Station, where we will be reviewing Ufotable’s Type-Moon adaptations, including their Garden of Sinners and Fate/stay Night series!

Our journey through Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood comes to an end with the second half of the second anime, now in fully uncharted territory as it adapts the final stretch of Hiromu Arakawa’s original manga. Diving deep into the Briggs and Promised Day story arcs that conclude the series, we discuss all the many ups and occasional downs of this last run. The manga is probably at its most uneven during this portion, but Brotherhood fully comes into its own as an anime, its pacing finally relaxed enough to fully tell the story, its ludicrously stacked voice cast fully in place, and its animation and aesthetics frequently on point as it approaches the end. As we go through the good, the bad, and everything in between, we find no shortage of topics worth discussing, and Brotherhood proves extremely rewarding to talk about all the way up to its all-time great ending.

Enjoy, and come back next time for our first season finale, as we wrap up all things Fullmetal Alchemist with reviews of the 2011 animated movie The Sacred Star of Milos and the live-action film trilogy currently streaming on Netflix!

Our Fullmetal Alchemist series enters its ultimate phase as we review Brotherhood, the 2009 anime that starts fresh to adapt Hiromu Arakawa’s original manga in full. With a new crew, a new animation style, many new cast members, and a largely new story, Brotherhood is extremely different than the 2003 anime – and in many ways, it’s also a different beast than the manga, especially in this first half. While the show has come to be canonized as one of the very best anime ever made by Western fans, initial reception was more mixed, and this first half certainly shows some growing pains, with some poor structural and adaptational decisions and inconsistent animations. But it also has one of the best voice casts ever assembled, with A-list Seiyuu from top to bottom, and while it fumbles in some moments, it soars quite high indeed in others, and even in this first half delivers several iconic episodes that have already proven to stand the test of time. It’s a lot to talk about, and with a whole half of the series left to go, we’re only just scratching the surface.

Enjoy, and come back next time for Part 2 of our Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood review, where we’ll finish the 2009 anime with episodes 33 – 64!

Nearly 4 years after Broly, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero – the 21st Dragon Ball film overall, and 4th of the modern era – opened this weekend in North American theaters, playing in both English and Japanese for the first time in franchise history, and with the widest opening for an anime film ever in the United States, playing on nearly 4,000 screens! It’s also the first Dragon Ball film to be produced completely in 3D CGI, with a new team led by director Tetsuro Kodama bringing Akira Toriyama’s script to life in a very different style than we’ve seen before. And the movie turned out to be well worth the wait and the hype, telling a compelling character-driven story centered on Piccolo, Gohan, and Pan, with several wonderful new characters, a lot of incredible action, plenty of big laughs, and even a few surprisingly touching pay-offs at the end! It’s a great Dragon Ball movie, and a big step forward for CGI anime, and it makes for an incredible fun discussion between Sean and Jonathan.

Enjoy, and come back next time for Part 1 of our Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood review, where we’ll be covering Episodes 1-32 of the 2009 anime!

Ahead of the release of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in North American theaters this Friday, we’re bringing you three special bonus episodes all about Dragon Ball, originally recorded in 2019 for The Weekly Stuff Podcast. In today’s episode, we review the spectacular 2018 film Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which saw Akira Toriyama taking all the most popular ‘non-canonical’ pieces from various Dragon Ball movies and TV specials – Broly, Bardock, and Gogeta – and reinvent each into a shockingly compelling new package. Brilliantly directed by Tatsuya Nagamine and with a gorgeous new animation style from Naohiro Shintani, Broly is an aesthetic tour-de-force, with the best production values the franchise has ever seen – all of which gave Sean and Jonathan a lot to gush about on this episode. And we’re glad to resurrect this review of the last Dragon Ball Super movie just as the new one opens today in theaters across North America!

Enjoy, and come back Monday for our next all-new episode where we’ll be reviewing the latest Dragon Ball film, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero!

Ahead of the release of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in North American theaters this Friday, we’re bringing you three special bonus episodes all about Dragon Ball, originally recorded in 2019 for The Weekly Stuff Podcast. In today’s episode, we look back on the three Dragon Ball Z movies from the 90s that introduced the iconic – if not always entertaining – character Broly, the legendary Super Saiyan. Before he was successfully reinvented by Akira Toriyama himself for the 2018 Dragon Ball Super film, Broly was a monosyllabic buff dude who mostly shouted “KAKAROTTO!!” and punched things before being beaten in an 11th-hour deus ex machina, and his films – DBZ Movies 8, 10, and 11 – are mostly duds, albeit ones that are very entertaining to talk about. It’s a conversation we very much enjoyed having back in the day, before we knew how much we’d love Broly coming out of the Dragon Ball Super film, and we’re happy to share it with Japanimation Station listeners today.

Enjoy, and come back tomorrow for our final Dragon Ball bonus as we review the Dragon Ball Super: Broly film and see how Broly got his groove back!

Ahead of the release of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in North American theaters this Friday, we’re bringing you three special bonus episodes all about Dragon Ball, originally recorded in 2019 for The Weekly Stuff Podcast. In today’s episode, we’re talking all about Dragon Ball Super, the TV series that aired between 2015 and 2018, building off the Battle of Gods and Resurrection ‘F’ films to expand the world of Dragon Ball into whole new Universes! In this podcast, Sean and Jonathan break down all the major Super arcs, from the rough early episodes retelling the prior films, to the big three anime-original arcs: the Universe 6 vs Universe 7 tournament, the Future Trunks arc, and the giant ‘Universe Survival’ arc that pitted all 12 universe’s best fighters against one another in a crazy battle royale. It’s an imperfect series, but one we really enjoyed, especially in its outstanding second half, and it’s such a blast to talk about.

For the debut episode of Japanimation Station, Sean Chapman and Jonathan Lack introduce themselves and host a spirited discussion about how they got into anime, how their fandoms and interests have evolved over the years, what makes animation special in the first place, and why anime in particular is the thing we find so interesting we had to make a whole podcast about it. You’ll learn about our backgrounds, our philosophies, our anime likes and dislikes, and much more as we introduce you to the foundational ideas of our show! And at the end, we share which 5 anime we would each take to a desert island if such a strange fate were to befall us.

Jonathan Lack and Sean Chapman, hosts of the upcoming anime podcast Japanimation Station, speak with musician Thomas Lack, composer of the original theme song to Japanimation Station!

Both Gundam as a franchise and Weekly Suit Gundam as a podcast come full circle this week by returning to the world of First Gundam, with the brand-new movie set in the timeline of the original show, Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island! A remake of the infamous 15th episode of Mobile Suit Gundam – an episode with such a troubled production that creator Yoshiyuki Tomino has never allowed it to be distributed outside Japan – original Gundam character designer and animation supervisor Yoshikazu Yasuhiko returns as director to redeem this story of a Zeon deserter protecting war orphans on a deserted island. It’s an absolutely wonderful movie, as beautifully animated as one would expect from the great Yasuhiko, but also incredibly smart and soulful in its themes and storytelling, finding a particularly compelling story for original Gundam protagonist Amuro Ray, played again here – possibly for the last time – by a never-better Tōru Furuya. This is a great movie, and an absolute pleasure to discuss for our final Weekly Suit Gundam before the launch of Japanimation Station.

Hosts Jonathan Lack and Sean Chapman introduce you to the world of JAPANIMATION STATION, a new anime podcast from the creators of Weekly Suit Gundam and The Weekly Stuff Podcast.   

In the 3rd and final part of our 3rd Anniversary ranking celebration, we’re ranking…well, almost everything! We start by listing our Top 10 favorite Mobile Suits from the last year’s worth of shows, our Top 10 Mobile Suits overall, our Top 10 favorite characters from across the franchise – and then it’s party time, as we deliver all the rankings requested by YOU, the listeners, including the best Gundam Boys, the best Captains, the best Char clones, the best Haros, the best deaths, and so much more! It’s a veritable cornucopia of Gundam rankings, and a great way to celebrate and close out 3 fantastic years of Weekly Suit Gundam.

Enjoy, and listen to the end to hear exciting details about the future of Weekly Suit Gundam and our big plans for covering even more anime in the years to come!

In Part 2 of our 3rd Anniversary ranking celebration, we’re diving deep into the amazingly rich waters of Gundam music! The songs and soundtracks for Gundam have always been one of our favorite parts of this franchise, and a ubiquitous topic of conversation with every show we cover, and having reviewed all the Gundam, it’s time to rank all the music! First we count down our Top 10 favorite Gundam Soundtracks – the scores, or background music, composed for the various shows and movies – and then it’s time to talk about songs. We rank our Top 10 favorite songs from the shows we reviewed over the last year, and then update our list of all-time favorite Gundam songs with our own individual Top 40 Songs lists! (Which we have made playlists of on YouTube, so you can listen to our lists like we’ve DJ’d our own Gundam radio stations!)

Enjoy, and come back soon for Part 3, where we’ll be ranking the best Mobile Suits, characters, and MUCH more, including fun and silly lists suggested by YOU the listeners!

It’s been three whole years since we started this podcast, watching just two episodes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam for our first show – and three years later, we’ve watched over 800 episodes of Gundam and reviewed every series in the pantheon. So for this year’s celebration, we’re not just ranking the shows we reviewed in the past year – though we do that as well – but ranking every Gundam show, with Sean and Jonathan sharing their individual lists before debating and coming to a consensus on an official Weekly Suit Gundam ranking of all 33 Gundam shows/OVAs/movies we’ve covered on this show. It’s the moment you’ve been waiting three whole years for. What’s the best Gundam show? What’s the worst? By the end of today’s podcast, you’ll have the definitive answers on these questions and more!

Enjoy, and come back soon for Parts 2 and 3 of our 3rd anniversary festivities, where we’ll be ranking the best Gundam songs, soundtracks, Mobile Suits, characters, and MUCH more, including fun and silly lists suggested by YOU the listeners!

Today we settle all Gundam business by reviewing two ONA (original net animation) series that are the last mainline Gundam titles we’ve yet left un-reviewed. Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, based on the manga by Yasuo Ohtagaki, aired from 2015 to 2017 and was collected into 2 films, December Sky and Bandit Flower, and it’s a fascinating, frequently rousing production, if also one that’s messy and incomplete. With detailed over-the-top action scored to incredible jazz music by Naruyoshi Kikuchi and a series of faux-pop oldies representing rival protagonists Io Fleming and Daryl Lorenz, Thunderbolt is a synesthetic marvel – but it’s also barreling through 7 volumes of manga in a scant 2.5 hours, and with no new episodes in 5 years, it’s an entirely unfinished project. Twilight Axis, on the other hand, is finished – but it’s very slight, a series of short ONA episodes collected into a 26-minute movie, loosely adapting a series of light novels into an impressionistic-at-best, confusing-and-vestigial-at-worst short film.

Enjoy, and come back on June 10th for our Weekly Suit Gundam 3rd Anniversary celebration, where we’ll be ranking ALL the shows in the Gundam franchise.

In the most pleasantly surprising qualitative whiplash we’ve ever seen, Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE follows the franchise low-point of Gundam Build Divers with a smart, soulful, exciting, and all-around excellent anime that is nearly as great as the original show is bad. Following a new group of characters – the BUILD DiVERS, distinguished by one lowercase ‘i’ – Re:RISE immediately distinguishes itself with a deeply human and compelling protagonist, Hiroto Kuga, and a fantastic group of supporting characters, all on a wild adventure that combines the video game isekai tropes the first show tried but failed at, a more traditional fantasy isekai journey to another world, and even dashes of other non-Build Gundam shows with heroes, villains, and major life-and-death stakes. Along the way, it tackles issues of grief, trauma, identity, and how we mediate relationships and experiences between the virtual and ‘real’ worlds, all in a handsome package that is equal parts entertaining and moving. Re:RISE is the last full Gundam show made to date, and we couldn’t ask for much more of the series that catches this podcast up to the franchise’s present day.

Enjoy, and come back next week for our review of the Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt anime with the movies December Sky and Bandit Flower!

After the highs of Gundam: The Origin, we’re going very far in the opposite direction to scrape the bottom of the Gundam barrel with 2018’s Gundam Build Divers, in contention with G-Saviour as the worst thing we’ve yet discussed on Weekly Suit Gundam. Capitalizing on the Sword Art Online-inspired Isekai craze of the 2010s, Gundam Build Divers takes the Gunpla action out of the real world and into a very boring virtual reality, without really understanding what makes Isekai shows or the prior Build Fighters series fun in the first place. With amazingly low stakes, wildly inconsistent world building, nary an interesting character in sight, and a final arc that goes from zero to bananas in record time (and not in a good way), Gundam Build Divers is the nadir of animated Gundam. It’s a show you absolutely shouldn’t watch, but it makes for a fun podcast you should listen to even if you haven’t.

Enjoy, and come back in two weeks for our review of the follow-up series – which you’ve all promised us is better – Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise.