Category: Gundam

Case Closed Reviews: Fall 2013 / Winter 2014

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A new short podcast series! First impressions are great but what about our thoughts after we’ve watched an entire series week to week? We figured our listeners might want to hear our final impressions as well so we’ve created the Case Closed Review podcast. Just like the S.W.A.T. Reviews, these will be mini-podcasts and completely off the cuff.

Here are the 8 shows we finished from the fall and winter seasons:

Listen – Final impressions of Kuroko’s Basketball S2 from Production I.G with ending “Hengen Jizai no Magical Star” by GRANRODEO. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Final impressions of Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha from Production IMS with ending “Saved” by Maaya Sakamoto. It is streaming on Hulu and Funimation.

Listen – Final impressions of Buddy Complex from Sunrise with ending “Ano Sora ni Kaeru Mirai de” by ChouCho. It is streaming on Hulu and Funimation.

Listen – Final impressions of Kill la Kill from Studio Trigger with the opening “ambiguous” by GRANiDELiA. It is streaming on Crunchyroll, Hulu, Daisuke, and Aniplex Channel.

Listen – Final impressions of Gundam Build Fighters from Sunrise with the ending “Han Pan Spirit” by Hyadain. It is streaming on Gundam.info.

Listen – Final impressions of Space Dandy from Studio BONES with ending “Welcome to the X Dimension” by Etsuko Yakushimaru. It is streaming on Hulu, Funimation, and Adult Swim; plus it is being broadcast on Toonami.

Listen – Final impressions of Hamatora the Animation from NAZ with ending “Hikari” by Wataru Hatano. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Final impressions of Silver Spoon S2 from A-1 Pictures with ending “Oto no Naru Hoe” by Goose House. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

REPOST – The Speakeasy #010: The Red Comet, Romance in the Various Gundam Universes

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Drink #010: The Red Comet,
Romance in the Various Gundam Universes

When you think of Gundam you usually think of a mixture of real robot battles and politics as the foundation of the various series that make up the franchise. But the relationships between the characters is an equally important part that is easily overlooked because of all the cool robot fights. High on the list of debate are the romantic relationships; some are praised as highly realistic and touching, others are viewed as melodramatic but engaging, while still others are seen as travesties. The problem is that few fans agree which relationships from which show go in which category. In this episode we will examine the relationships that stand out the most in our minds from all the Gundam series we have seen. We start with the works of Tomino and go up to the present with Gundam Unicorn and Gundam 00.

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And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present you a drink invented by Hisui:

The Red Comet (It gets you feeling toasty three times as fast)

Drop a shotglass of vodka into a Highball glass of Red Bull. Bonus points are given for being dressed as Casval Rem Deikun with a mask or at least wearing all red. Anyone dressed as Quattro Bajeena has to drink a Hyaku Shiki.

Ramba Ral: The Man, The Myth, The Mustache

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(This post contains spoilers for
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin)

narutaki_icon_4040 Truly anytime would be good to talk about Captain Ramba Ral, but we felt particularly compelled recently. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin collected vol. 3 retells his story in glorious detail. Gundam Build Fighters features Ral in parody as a Gunpla enthusiast and mentor. And to top it all off it is “Movember,” certainly Ral’s moustache is worth celebrating during this time!

hisui_icon_4040 “This is no Zaku Boy! No Zaku!”

Without a doubt that is Ramba Ral’s most famous catch phrase. But if that meme was all there was to him he would not be the iconic character he is today. While there is always a Char clone in almost every Gundam TV series after the original Ramba Ral has lesser but still rather pervasive legacy. We see characters like Andrew Waltfeld, Suberoa Zinnerman, and Sergei Smirnov in the franchise trying to capture some of that lightening in a bottle that was the original. A likeable enemy commander who forms a bond with the protagonist which makes their later confrontation all the more painful and dramatic. Characters who echo like this through the ages always come from primally powerful personalities that stay with audiences when they go on to make their own projectors.

Ramba Ral is one of those characters who ingrains himself onto your psyche.

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