Hello, kitties. It's your old pal John Kucir,
the voice of the Cryptkeeper.
And you're listening to
the bottom shelf.
Must build
Gundam.
Alright. Must build
Gundam.
Dallas.
Must. Dallas. How long how long have you
been in here? Atomic bazookas.
Why does it smell like Atomic bazookas. Armpit
and
unwashedness.
Bro. Are you the new type? Bro. Bro.
It's time to Hey. It we've already missed
one movie this month. We gotta do come
on. Let's go. My funnels are out. I
can't leave. Tell you what tell you what.
I I have a movie here. It puts
the f in f 91.
I don't do race cars.
No. It's Gundam
f 91,
the movie. Did you say Gundam f 91?
Yes.
Follow follow the terrible movie, Dallas. Gundam.
Follow the terrible movie. I spilled Gundam.
Prepare yourself to discover a world of terrible
movies.
High above the planet Gekari, a group of
intrepid explorers hover over the dangerous planet in
their
super orbital spacecraft.
Their mission, to conduct a complete analysis of
movies known throughout the universe as terrible.
So grab your space popcorn, grab your freeze
dried ice cream, and join us for today's
mission of discovery and wonder.
Are these movies better than the galaxy thinks?
Or do they really belong
on the bottom shelf?
Hello, movie lovers and movie haters. Welcome to
the bottom shelf, the podcast where every movie
has a place. Our podcast is part of
the Geek Devotions podcast network, a podcast network
of podcasts. They're devoted to know your love.
So if y'all will pass this moment to
this, we love you. We care about you.
There is a plan and a purpose for
your life. Do not give up.
Every time you say don't give up, I'm
auto I my mind automatically goes to, that
song by Peter Gabriel that nobody that nobody
who listens to this podcast is probably old
enough to remember.
So it was a completely wasted reference for
me to even throw that out there right
now. Hi, everybody. I'm John.
Hey, John. How are you doing, buddy?
Hi.
So
what are we doing?
You you promised me Gundam. I did promise
you Gundam.
Do you know anything about this movie? Oh,
I know everything about this movie. Not everything.
I know a lot, though, and I'm excited.
Alright.
They post up. Alright. In 1991, Gundam creator
Tomino
was working on a new Gundam series that
was supposed to draw new fans
to the now
decade old franchise
struggling to sell more toys,
codenamed, hey state Gundam. This new project had
major names connected to the projects.
And this particular movie, Gundam f 91, was
starred Koji,
Tsujinati,
who played with Indian who was Indianwasha, and
he was in Street Fighter 2.
Tsuchani.
Tsuchani?
Tsujitani.
Alright. And, also,
Yumi Toma, who I'm Tekken 5 and Ama
Goddess.
But
production of the new series was unfortunately filled
with a lot of arguing,
a lot of,
big headedness,
basically,
and led to a choppy movie,
unfortunately. We can get more details with that
later because it was rough. Alright.
Now let me let me pick up the
back of this this,
we'll pick up the back. Let me pick
up this box and read the back.
It's going to be a good one today,
folks.
So it's universal century 1, 2, 3. Oh,
God. It's a 1980s rap song.
Universal Century 123
After a generation of peace, the Earth Federation
has begun to build new space colonies to
house humanity's growing population.
But a new force, the aristocratic
crossbone vanguard,
plans to seize and colonize the newly constructed
frontier side for itself.
As their home becomes a battlefield, a handful
of young civilians struggle to escape the conflict.
To save his friends and family, the reluctant
warrior
Seabook, Arno,
becomes the new pilot
of a new Gundam, which bears the code
name f 91.
Oh.
So what what do the comms tell us
about this movie? What what external
outside
signals have we received,
in reference to this movie? Oh, we got
quite a bit, but we're gonna call it
down a little bit coming into our feed
here.
One person said, there were some parts of
the story that need
further details.
The mecha designs were great in its animation
too.
Oh, I completely skipped my bit because I
went to directly yours. I apologize for that,
but we can do this.
I see here one person said, I don't
think it's infamous enough in the Gundam fandom
nor mainstream enough to be on the bottom
shelf.
Mhmm.
Well, that's that's pretty assumptive that we wouldn't
cover it on the bottom shelf.
Oh my goodness. In all honesty, I watched
it, and the only negative feedback I can
give is that
it feels so rushed. It could have been
an OVA miniseries
or an even better. Otherwise, it's a good
movie.
Another person also agreed that it's a good
movie. The soundtrack is top notch.
As a standalone film, I would probably say
up there to introduce people to the franchise.
Not a fan of the final villain
and may have been a bit better focusing
on world building a bit more. Overall, good
stuff. Mhmm.
Not the best part of the franchise
and not the worst part either. I think
you're going to find a general consensus
on the plot and pacing.
Also,
Iron Mask wasn't really a compelling villain,
probably the 2nd worst shark clone in the
whole UC.
F ninety one suffers from its production. I
wish it was 2 movies, maybe 3. A
decent story, kind of gutted and rushed.
No comment on the movie. Just wanted to
say
have a great time, and I hope it
goes well, and the engagement is through the
roof. No. Thank you. Well
let's hit some trivia because I skipped that
because I'm a big dumb dummy who ate
you're fine. Who ate dummy flakes for breakfast.
At this Miss Countryside
contest at the beginning of the film, a
background character wears a jacket that reads beautiful
life, Tomino,
a reference to Gundam co creator,
Yoshi Yuki, Tomino,
Carrozo
iron mask, Rona's characters based off the famous
star wars villain, Darth Vader.
This makes Gundams connection with the Star Wars
even more. Iron Mask is a cyber new
type with Darth Vader.
While Darth Vader is a cyber Sith, both
have powers.
Also, Iron Mask and Darth Vader are half
man
and more machine. So they're like, math doesn't
work because you can only be half and
half.
Anyway,
this is only this is the only Gundam
feature to be given an MPAA
rating.
It's rated PG 13 for pervasive sci fi
violence
and
instrumental arrangements
of the ending song Eternal Wind
Ho Home. Ho Ho. Amy
Ho. Amy Hua
Hikaru.
Kaze no Naka
bears a striking resemblance to Wilson Phillips Hold
On, which will excite my wife because that
song is her jam. Really? Cool.
Well, I mean, the Hold On by Wilson
Phillips, not
I thought it was the other one, the
Eternal Wind. I thought she was just jamming
over there to some sweet 19 nineties, 19
eighties
Japanese pop. Well, you know, they came out
about the same time.
So
I the hold on and the and the
j pop. I mean, like, literally within probably
a year of each other, maybe 2. So
let's hit let's hit those expectations.
Let's do it.
Badap.
We don't have a bumper for expectations. What
are you expecting, Dallas?
Oh, I'm expecting
a lot of a mess. Alright. So cards
on the table,
I I own this movie. I I
I yes. I was telling Celeste when I
pulled it off. Is anybody shocked by about
that at all? Maybe. I don't know. So
I was telling Celeste, I pulled off my
bookshelf, and I said, this this has a
special place in my heart,
because it was one of the first,
legal Gundam things I ever bought off of
Amazon.
And I ordered it, and I ordered,
the movie that continued
Robotech at the same time, and I got
them both. And,
I am expecting to,
enjoy the animation.
I'm expecting to,
be angry that there are plot holes that
could have been done better,
and I'm going to enjoy it. There is
probably gonna be a low in the middle,
though. I am expecting that. Mhmm. Well, that's
par for the course for Gundam, isn't it?
As far as my expectations are,
Gundams real hit and miss with me.
There are series I like. There are series
I'm not such a fan of. I apologize,
but Gundam Wing is one of them for
me. I'm not.
I try to like it, but really, you
know, makes me want to peel my skin
off with a carrot peeler.
Unless you didn't say mandolin. We're now trying
to ban mandolin's now. And if you heard
about that, I haven't, but I agree with
this because
I did my. Okay. So I'm for when
I'm not podcasting, I'm a medical coder and
I did my externship
in an urgent care clinic and I saw
more than 1 person coming in with blood
soaked
fabric on their arm
because they were mandolin without a guard.
And
I like one lady just forearm completely opened
up.
Yeah. It was gnarly.
So I get it. I don't necessarily support
that. I'm very much, you know, freedom of
decision type person, but I understand the reasoning
behind it. But getting getting back to my
my my expectations,
I feel
like
peek behind the curtain here. I I don't
think it's any shock that to say that
Dallas is one who picked this movie,
but I feel like you know me well
enough to know whether or not I'm going
to enjoy something. So I'm putting my trust
in you for this one, Dallas,
to
that. I I I am expecting to see
something
that at least there's a logical reason why
someone would expect me to enjoy it. You
you're trying to see if I was in
a good mood when I told you we're
watching this.
I here here's the thing. I know you
were because we picked this right after Geekcon.
So What was this or the alternative,
which was an acid trip chopped together version
of Gundam called Captain Cosmos?
Yeah. But the link we had for that
disappeared. So Yeah. How weird was that? Hey.
You know what?
September was a weird month, and we're only
getting one episode out. So it all worked.
Every so often, you can see God working
behind the scenes. It worked miracles for John.
Well, let's let's get in and see if
what
if I like this.
Dear listeners,
this is your opportunity to escape.
Our crew has just entered into the media
projection chamber.
What horrors and matters that they consume are
unknown?
Their mental state upon their return is
unknown.
You have been warned.
So what do you think, Sean? I don't
understand how in the same scene, the animation
can vary
so much from shot to shot.
There'll be there was like literally moments in
this movie where
the animation would be
fantastic.
And then,
like, at at a blink of an eye,
all of a sudden, it degrades, like, someone
threw some
some turpentine
on the cell while we were watching it,
and it just would blur and turn into
a big color y
mess. Yeah.
You're not gonna I'm not gonna lie. That
that
that is one of the things about the
film that does irk me is the,
how choppy things get. And but here, you
gotta remember though, and this is the problem.
The reasoning that this is the case, and
this is this is the back history of
it.
Again, a lot of disagreements, a lot of
issues within the production.
It was getting really, really bad. Production got
held up, and then there was a deadline.
And they're basically, like, we can't make a
deadline
for a series
at all. And this is, again, this is
supposed to be like a spearhead for a
new era. This is like the Heisei era
of Gundam. Mhmm. And Tomino had this whole
mindset of of I don't wanna do the
same thing. He was afraid that of continuing
based off of just the original Gundam
that
people wouldn't really appreciate it because it's nothing
fresh, nothing new, and he saw that as
a weakness in in his storytelling. And so
he was trying to create something brand new,
but because of all the issues taking place
and kind and there was a new, way
of thinking of of production
Mhmm. At the time in Japan,
it really
caused some issues. And so they're like, we
have enough to do a movie ish. And
so they kinda pieced together things,
and then they had to fill in some
gaps within a small time frame. Yeah. And
at the same time, they're like, we gotta
make some stuff happen. So, like, the opening
scene where you have the,
the enemy, I say enemy, the crossbone Gundams
or mobile suits,
cutting and getting into,
the the base.
That was beautifully animated. Like, it was cinematic.
I thought it was gorgeous. I thought it
was a great thing, but then you had
other weird shots. You're like, oh, this is
the nineties, isn't it?
Yeah.
And then, like,
I I I'm glad that you eventually told
me that this was originally supposed to be
a series that got reduced down to a
movie.
Mhmm.
Because when I first started watching it, there
were some time jumps.
Yeah. And
it
got a little bit irritating from time to
time. It like
I am tap dancing around this because I
don't want to name specifics, but
it's some it's a spoiler free comment that
should be made
if whoever is listening to this is going
to see this movie. Yeah, Definitely. Because you
can't go into it expecting
a consistent continuity.
There are gonna be some gaping plot holes
that you're gonna see in this movie that
some might find irksome.
Yeah. They really do jump into it. I
remember you texted me. You're like, wow. They
really just go after it right right out
the gate.
And, and they do, but they jump so
much. There was, like, a whole, like, musical
montage where they it feels like they jumped
a month of storytelling.
Oh, for sure. And that was, like, one
of my biggest, you know,
if if all you listen to from the
Geek Devotions Network is the show.
First of all, welcome. We're a whole network.
Please check out some of our other shows.
But outside of that,
I used to co host with Dallas and
and Branson,
who used to be on this show on
another show called
the Gundam Watch. The Gundam Watch. Thank you.
I sorry. I just was blanking on it.
My mind is still in not Cuba.
I've been I've been playing Far Cry 6
again. I have 126
hours in on it.
But,
yeah, so I was on the Gundam watch
and
it's the same thing that I was experiencing
with Gundam Wing, where
what we were watching
the continuity of it, like the spaces between
episodes wasn't always consistent. So sometimes there'd be
several months between episodes. And it's just like
if you can wrap your mind around that,
you may have a better time with this
movie
because this this movie will jump,
and
it's hard to follow the logic if you
don't understand
that time has passed.
Yeah. That is definitely a,
a weak point of the film. And as
you guys heard in the in the community
comments,
a lot of people point pointed that out.
Just these gaping holes of storytelling. But, again,
it's because they pieced together what they had
to make a movie. This was supposed to
be a a full length series of itself.
Mhmm.
I would one person mentioned about it being
OVA. I would have liked to have seen
this at least made into an OVA,
and something else done with it. Mhmm.
But it was definitely
definitely rough. I will say this, though, even
though that with that case, there were certain
small details that they added within the animation
that I thought were unnecessary, but it was
cool. Like, there's a whole scene where,
and the This is not the spoiler section,
sir. Well, this is a spoiler. It's just,
like, small thing. Like, there's a whole point
where, like, one of the characters is, like,
crawling and there's a snake.
Mhmm. And, and it's, like, why why do
that other than just to have a a
detailed animation?
There was another moment where one of the,
the Jagans,
which is a type of mobile suit had
been knocked out of the sky, and you
see,
a hand
twitching out of a malfunction just randomly Mhmm.
As the thing is about to blow up.
So they did it we we mentioned this
also on the Gundam watch when we reviewed,
Kukuru's Island, the and I think this is
a touch of Tom of Tomino and some
of that early team. They like to add
these small,
realistic details within the story,
just to give you something to,
reengage you at times.
Yeah. I I can I can see that?
So,
I I'm trying to think of anything spoiler
anything else spoiler free,
that I can think of. It did feel
a little a little bit over along
for what it was.
Yeah.
And when you said that they added that
they had their they had to punch it
up a little bit and add some some
stuff in there. I think that was the
wrong maneuver. I think they should have edited
some stuff out for a more concise and
preferably a more consistent story. But Yeah. I
can see that. But, again, I think it
was so much there's so much done and
not done. It's like, where do you build
a bridge? Where do you not build a
bridge situation?
And there are places, like, I could've used
the bridge here, but at the same time,
like, man, that bridge would have been an
episode and a half. Right. And so it
was I they were in an impossible situation,
but it had to go out because, really,
they had to
they needed to be able to launch,
the new era of Gundam. Yeah. This wasn't
a great launching. There's a lot of I
think that it actually it was a double
feature premiere
in theaters in Japan of this
and a new SD Gundam that came out,
which was an interesting maneuver. For a second
there, I thought you were gonna say that
they it was a double feature with this
and then that, g Gundam movie that we
watched previously. G Saver. Yeah. G Saver.
Woof.
That's so funny. That's yuck.
Yeah. That was a that was a thing
that happened, ladies and gentlemen. No. But the
SD Gundam coming out plus this at the
same time.
And at the same time, you also had
happening out,
in between a couple OVAs. You had, Gundam
double,
Gundam 80 war in the pocket and Gundam
83 stardust memory, which were both really, really
good OVAs that came out,
at the same, right literally at the same
time. But there's an SD movie that came
out also, and it was, like, one of
those, like, really, like again, they're targeting 2
different audiences. This is more for your teenage
adult audience.
SD Gundam was meant for your children. And
so is there a way of trying to
engage
2 different crowds
and bring them in? Did it work the
greatest?
Not really.
1 of the pocket, Stardust, miss memory. I
apologize. I'm burping. Stardust memory,
those are really solid OVAs or shorts.
Gundam Victory,
it's okay. It has mixed reviews. I've yet
to actually watch it, but it has a
lot of mixed reviews. But then you have
Mobile Fighter g Gundam, which,
is kind of split. People are like, I
don't know about this,
because they because they have this mindset of
OG Gundam. But people like you, you really
liked what you saw of g Gundam. And,
Drew from the Cellcast, he loves g Gundam,
and I can see why. It it's just
for me, it was just so different from
what I knew. And, I think it really
probably the reason why I enjoyed it. Yeah.
I can see that. But we didn't see
a real revival of Gundam until 96
with Gundam Wing.
Ironically,
which you dislike.
It's not so much I dislike it. It's
it's one of it's it's sort of like,
it's sort of like onions on pizza.
It's not something I'm going to choose, but
if somebody else puts it on there, I'm
not gonna be like, oh, that's disgusting. I
can't eat it. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I
get that. And I appreciate that about you.
So, again, it's it was an attempt to
launch something new. And it there was a
it was a new era, legitimately. Like, there's
a lot of things that they're changing. Because
beforehand,
outside of the SD Gundams, everything was locked
into
this
universal century world. Mhmm. And I that needs
to explain for those who are listening. This
goes all the way back to first Gundam,
from, like, 1979.
79.
And it kinda spans forward. You had Gundam,
Zeta Gundam, Double Zeta, but then you had
a movie called Char's Counterattack,
that came out 1988.
And it was supposed to be, like, the
wrap up of everything. Mhmm. This this movie
was supposed to be a relaunch,
and it takes place 30 years after
the events of stars counter attack. And so
that's what they're talking about, a new era,
a new generation.
Yeah. So
Alright. Let's let's
let's spoil this thing, shall we?
Okay. Let's rock and roll, babe.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the spoiler section.
Okay.
So now we can talk about things that
are actually in this
movie. I will say, first of all, I
am glad that,
what's her face didn't turn into
Cecily? Yeah. No. Yeah.
No. She did not. And but even, like,
Cecily,
her and, I'm trying to pull up what
her brother's name was. They were very much
a shadow, a mirror of,
Shar and,
Cecilia from the first Gundam series. Doesn't shock
me. Mhmm. I I I gotta ask because
I don't remember seeing anything happened. What happened
to her brother? Like,
he's like cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch.
Like, he stepped he stepped out the door
and got abducted by aliens or something and
just never showed up again. I'm really not
sure. I I don't know if if again,
it just in because in the first opening
of everything, there's so much happening. Mhmm. So
many explosions, so much other things. I don't
know if his of his mobile suit got
destroyed in a fight or what. Because there
are several. There's one character that at towards
the end that she defected from the crossbow
vanguard,
joined,
this rebellious group, and you get this, like
yeah. Emery, she's excited. She's like, I can't
do this. I can't follow you because you
you've become a murderer. And then he's like,
alright. Bet.
Gone. Like, she's just she's out of there.
And you you saw her for, like like,
she had maybe a total of, like, maybe
4 minutes of speaking in the entirety of
the whole Yeah. Movie. And they they make
her out like she's gonna be a giant
character in this movie, and then they, like,
kill her the next scene. I mean, she
had a special mobile suit, a special painting,
special designation, everything, and then just boom. And
again but this again, this is the fault
of it. Of yeah. This should have been
a folding series. Mhmm. We would have seen
a lot of character growth out of her
and a lot of things I feel like.
Speaking of of character growth that I I
was frustrated with, the fact that,
c book, he goes from being like, I
don't wanna do it, to
I'm a beast.
Like
like Yeah.
Like but, again, that's
over over a 50 episode series. I could
rock with that. Mhmm. But in a 2
hour movie, that was just
it it was hard. And that that's the
that's the biggest frustration for me about this
is because
this watching this is a tale of 2
observations.
Mhmm.
It and I will I will I will
quote this in the same
spirit that how
one of my favorite comedians, Josh Johnson, described
p. Diddy.
Horrible rapper,
terrific villain.
This is a terrible movie,
fantastic TV show. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Like, I I I can see what they
wanted to do, and I can see how
they were going about it. And I'm like,
the entire
I mean, there was one point where I
literally messaged you while I was watching this.
I'm like, did this series ever release? Like,
is there a way to I I will
watch this with subtitles.
I will watch it without subtitles and and
step up my learning Japanese.
Like,
I want it. Give it to me.
It's
it's just frustrating on that on that front
for me. Yeah. But
you can definitely tell that the time spent
was in the first 30 minutes of this
movie. Like like the first 30 minutes of
this movie feels like it was a complete
episode.
Mhmm.
Because that that got worse. Like the voice
acting was great.
The animation was mostly great.
And boy, did they try to work your
emotions
in the first. Oh, man. 20 minutes of
this. When they when they ragdolled that little
kid, Arthur. Mhmm. I was I was like,
oh my gosh. I'd forgotten how devastating that
scene was.
And just, like, having that poor child sitting
there just
just gone. Yeah. And it it the the
way the body was flopping around while they
were trying when that kid was trying to
revive him, was it as someone who works
in the medical field, I can tell you
that that body
looked like a dead body. Like, there's there's
very been very few times I have seen
in anime where I'm like, yeah, that's a
corpse.
Yeah. Like, for the most part for the
most part, you're like, oh, that's a drawing,
and I can understand what they're but the
the when I was watching it, like, it
registered in my mind corpse.
Mhmm. Definitely.
But they give us that's what I was
talking about earlier, though. Like, the small details
and, like, they put a lot of love
and attention into certain aspects of this all
the way through. Mhmm. And, if you listen
to the Gundam watch,
podcast, you guys will hear me say often,
one of the reasons I love the Gundam
series is because it does a great job
of of highlighting the tragedy of war. And
Oh, for sure. The fur the first sequence
in this movie is a giant
buffet of the horrors of war. Like, the
realistic horrors of war. And we're not talking
about just death, but the feelings of of
betrayal,
the feelings of loss, the the being unaware.
The first sequence,
it was giving me, like, World War 2
invasion vibes.
Like like, I like, it really felt like,
you know, this was in Europe and the
Nazis were attacking. Mhmm. And people are scrambling,
trying to figure out, trying to get to
bunkers,
just trying to understand what's happening. And then
there's these emotions of going, who's attacking us?
And then you see the the things begin
to bloom where there's a sense of betrayal
because you're like, my family's doing this or
Mhmm. That person's family do is doing that
or you're because your parents did this. We
hate you now. Right. And it's just this
mass chaos of and you have these children
who are innocent. And, again, this is one
of the reason why I love it. Of
course, those who know me, I I have
a I have a a strong part, love
for for kids and teenagers.
They're thrown into this mess, and they're just
trying to survive.
It reminded me and may it may be
that some people might think I'm being a
little bit melodramatic,
and I may be. But it reminded me
for those of you who are old enough
and were there when 9 11 happened,
I was
the looks I saw on the on the
people's face
faces
immediately
afterwards, the feeling of that feeling of utter
powerlessness
and confusion
and all that.
Like, what I felt on that day, I
saw a lot on the faces of that,
and I'm like, that is real. Like, whoever
animated that understands that feeling. Oh, yeah. Because
Absolutely. I mean, it was man, it's so
much there. And, again, as we said, the
animation does suffer through. There's moments throughout it
where you're like, okay. They put a little
bit extra attention into it,
because they understood this is gonna be on
a big screen. Like, some of the space
fights where there was a lot of lighting
taking place, it was interesting. Those were cool.
But, there something special about that first 30
minutes, man, where, I mean, it grabs you.
It really grabs you off the bat.
I also would have liked to have seen
the character development of,
what's her face. I can't I'm bad with
names in these.
Cecilia?
Yes.
Whatever her name was. The the one who
was the friend who ended up being the
daughter of the
villain.
Right.
I would have loved to see her character
development because there was a lot of
shifting
on her part.
Mhmm.
That really
made me want to understand
what happened in the scenes that weren't Sicily,
not Sicily. It's Sicily. Yeah. Yeah.
I got I got I got to remember
her. I got I knew that she's the
place where delicious food comes from.
That's fair. But because she take her character,
takes some twists and turns. And
is she brainwashed or is she buying in
sort of thing? And I would have loved
to have seen
the progress of that because I almost thought
that she was gonna be the
dissociative
identity
disorder
Oh, yeah. Lady
from Wing.
Mhmm. I I because there was a lot
of stuff they did miss that I saw
them do in Wing, and I'm, like, I
bet some of the what they did in
Wing was some recycled ideas from this too.
Oh, I'm sure. I I again, this is
one of those things where there was so
much that happened, and this was such a
a a weird point of of Gundam history.
And there's so many ideas that just weren't
taken and used. Now they did take some
of it. They did a lot they apparently
did a lot of 3 lines from what
I'm reading in the in the in the
weed channels,
that,
some of it was weed through Gundam victory,
which, again, I like to see,
but you're right. I mean, there's definitely elements
they took from this, and they have sprinkled
through the rest of Gundam ness. But at
the same time, that's that's one of the
beauties of Gundam that I like, though, John,
is the fact that they do that throughout
the entire franchise.
And There's nothing wrong with that. I I
No.
People do that in classical music all the
time. It's called using a theme, and then
you you can use a theme at one
point and then
bring it back at a different point. And
it's it's all a part of the same
composition,
but you have the same theme that ends
up weaving through it. So it's there's nothing
wrong with that if it's done right. If
it's something that you lean on too hard,
then it feels a bit derivative.
Yeah. Definitely.
And so but the way they do it
through a lot of Gundam stuff, I feel
like it's great because it's it's always that
whole, like, we're capturing a new audience, but
the old audience, they see things that that
that's the nostalgia that's grabbing them. A great
example of it in the Gundam franchise, I
think, is Gundam Seed. And I'm referencing that
because they just had a movie drop in
theaters a couple, months ago,
which is, kind of a a capping of
this of the franchise.
But that is such a, I mean,
parallel universe of the original Gundam. Mhmm. And
a lot of OGs could be like, man.
Like, it like, it captured the Gundam franchise
in a a special way. There's some people
who who just hate it still. But I
from the people I know, like, it captured
because they're like, it's new, it's fresh or
some interesting things taking place. But there's so
many parallels that go back to that original
that recapture the nostalgia that people had. Yeah.
And it's hard to talk about spoilers in
this movie because there is so much time
jump. So there's a lot of stuff that
you have to fill in Yeah. Mentally that
isn't there.
What did you think of the motivation behind
Cosmo Babylon?
This aristocratic
cross bone vanguard of this whole, like, where
where the aristocrats were were meant to lead,
and while we're at it, we're going to
kill
9 tenths of the world because we don't
like them.
Well, that wasn't the entire
that wasn't the entire,
plot
of the the oh, the Crossbone Vanguard. I
was I thought you're talking about the Roma
family because the Roma fam like like the
Roma family wanted the the
what the Cosmo Babylon.
Whereas
the the
pirates, I'm just going to call them pirates.
That's fair.
Whereas the pirates just wanted to kill 9
tenths of humanity. Like, so it was kind
of like a subplot
underneath
the
villain. It was sort of like,
I'm trying to remember characters from Wing to
give it as an example, but it's basically
like Lady
on Wing having her own agenda
or not or,
Trey's having his own agenda versus Zack's Marquise.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you you you get
that.
And
that's that's, again, another theme that you see
happen throughout Gundam is is who's the true
villain is a is a constant theme that
goes through there.
So it's like the idea of
like
what grandpa wanted in this movie
wasn't a bad ideal to strive for, but
I felt how he was going about it
was wrong. Whereas
Iron Mask,
who
was the leader of the
pirates,
as I'm going to call them, was the
one who wanted the extermination of the 9
tenths of humanity.
So
it's almost 2 separate agendas that are
woven together.
Yeah. So
we're on one hand, one's a good idea
that was being gone about wrong, and the
other one is just completely
awful.
But but that's the thing. At the same
time, Iron Mask, when I when I was
looking at his ideas, especially when you understand
the fact that he's a cyber new type.
Mhmm. And what happens with that, and we
need we should probably get to that conversation
here in a minute. It it felt like
the
the extreme
logical conclusion of causal babelon.
But, I mean,
you could say the extreme
the the extreme end of any sort of
political ideal is always gonna
be some form
of radicalization.
Oh, totally. That is
always gonna end
wrong. You never wanna go to the extreme
end of one way or another on anything,
which is well, I'm not gonna get into
that on this podcast. But
but
so I would say I can't
where I understand what you're saying. I can't
necessarily
say that it has to go that go
to that length.
So,
But it was the length of the like,
that was the thing is, like, what happened
with Crossbow and Vanguard and then where our
mass was going. And, again,
we'll have to get into the conversation about
new types and cyber new types here in
a little bit, but it is the it
is the demented
run of that ideal that was brought to
him by his by his father. Right. So,
and so but speaking of the conspiracy they
had, I did find interesting, and I I'm
I I've missed this for years. I've watched
this a 1000 times. But there was a
whole conversation about
first air federation was like, they're just let
them figure it out. We're not gonna deal
with it. Blah blah blah.
And, and they're talking about the whole situation,
and there's a revelation that
the,
the colonies that they have, they're built in
a very classical,
European high class way. And somebody goes had
the revelation going, this was
on purpose. Like, it it takes years to
build these. Mhmm. Minimum, you have at least
30 years that these have been built because
this all takes place after, Char's counterattack.
And they're like, somebody in their federation
is working with crossbow to make this happen.
And I would have loved to see that
storyline play out a little bit more about
the deception
in the
in the, the working of
Crossbone and dash Cosmo Babylonia
into,
the Earth Federation? Because, again, that was another
thing. It's like, nobody was a good guy.
No. It was just the kids on the
boat and which again is kind of a
running theme within Gundam of you got this
the small crew of people who are just
trying to survive and live life, and you
have you have some good people in the
in the federation, but then you have a
lot of crap people who are like, hey.
If we use the kids as human shields,
they won't attack
us versus the other cats who are, like,
blowing up stuff. And at the same time,
I I had to laugh in the front
end because they're coming guns blazing,
destroying stuff, and yet the crossbow and Vanguard
guys are like, citizens, we're not here to
hurt you. I'm like, then stop shooting us.
I that that's another thing that that I've
learned to appreciate about Gundam 2 is the
that there aren't
in war, there aren't
100%
villain or hero sides. There's only Mhmm.
Sides that have both heroes and villains.
Mhmm.
And
so and I think that's I mean, if
you really wanna get
highbrow
about it or meta, as the kids say
these days,
you know, that's
that's kind of
the message of the of this is just
like
they want to expose the realities of it,
but in a safe spot, in a safe
space, if that makes sense. Yeah. It's like,
I know what I want to say, but
I can't force it out of my mouth.
I was having this issue last night, too,
on playing games.
Oh, man. That's terrible. Yeah. Especially when you're
the DM and you have to tell people
what's going on.
You sound like Let me ask you this.
Porky pig.
Oh, no. Let me ask you this. The
conversations about new types, cyber new types Mhmm.
I I was really intrigued by,
how you would respond
to it.
Those of you listening to,
the Gundam watch, you know that when Branson
was going through
the original Gundam, there's a lot of stuff
to talk about cyber about new types. He
was lost a lot of the times because
the way that the movies that he and
I watched chalked things up. It took out
some information.
How were you
with this conversation? Do you understand what they're
talking about? Do you know what's taking place
with new types and cyber new types?
I was able to follow because I did
listen to the Gundam watch before I entered
the Gundam watch.
So,
like, I you explained the concept on there.
And so I'm like, so when they brought
it into this, I'm like, oh, okay. I
know what they're talking about.
But they did not explain it in this
movie
very well, I mean, they did, but not
very well. They basically are like someone who's
born a natural that can
automatically know it. Right. Right. Right.
That I was wondering about that,
because I I saw the same thing. I
was like except they kind of explain it
at times Mhmm.
But don't really go deeply into it. And
when they drop the the term cyber new
type,
at the end when they were referring to
the Iron Mask, I was, like, man,
the the gravitas of him being a cyber
new type is
so big, but I don't think it makes
sense for a crowd that doesn't know what
that is. Mhmm. And I and I'm I'm
hating that there was not a longer series
to explain this here. Me too, but for
different reasons.
Would you like to understand,
the concept of cyber new type, or do
you already know because you listen to the
gun and watch?
I mean, it's not so much I I
like I was I was kinda putting
bits and pieces together,
just based off of what I knew a
new type was and then context cues from
the movie itself. So
I I think I've got a handle on
it. But Yeah. Okay. Cool. Well yeah. So
you understand it's it's a it's a
new type skin. These are people who Mhmm.
They kinda have the 6th sense in space.
But the cyber new types, though, man, it's
sad.
You don't really get into it till you
get into Gundam Zeta. And, I think I
have at least 2 reviews of it in
in the Gundam watch feed about it. But,
I think you actually kinda brought it up
a little bit when we did the Christmas
episode for the Gundam watch as well. Oh,
yeah. I think I did. I did. So
but it's just it's tragic because you literally
are stripping the mind of a person. And
this is this is why I was talking
about how Iron Mask's motivation to do what
he was doing, it's it's tragic to me
on multiple levels because if for him to
become a cyber new type, and you discover
it was forced upon him to be able
to achieve the goals that he felt like
he needed to do, but it pushed him
that far. It's a it's a tragic moment,
to see that take place. And,
we don't know much about his suit that
he had. The,
where was it? What was it called again?
I just had it up.
The,
rafalassea.
That thing's so cool. Dude, it it was
a monster, dude.
It's actually a
mobile armor. It's
a it's a it's it's electronic
Lovecraftian
beast is what it is. Like
like, for those for those of you who
are familiar with HP Lovecraft,
if you think of like the flat, the
flower beings from the
at the mountains of madness,
it looks like a cybernetic version of one
of those. Like, no joke. I looked at
that and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's
at the mountain of madness.
So
yeah. So it was cool. It's I did
a quick look. It's not using a psycho
frame system, which is,
oh, okay. It's using a a psycho system,
but not psycho frame, which resonates with people.
But the psycho system,
it does date back to the original Gundam
series, and people were losing the listeners right
now as I talk about this because they're
like, I don't know what he's saying.
So, yeah, even that links back, but it's
meant to resonate
with the new types and the psychonew types.
But the more they do it, the more
they lose their mind to the point that
you have what happens after the movie where
he's ready just to off his daughter.
Yeah. And can I just say I hated
the
more to come
ending of this movie?
I I feel like that that that's a
lie, sir, and you know it.
Yes and no.
Again, it was meant to be the launch
of a of a new era.
Technically,
there are some highly celebrated mangas that people
are screaming to be made into an anime
series
and only and half of them are in
English. I was actually looking for them earlier.
I couldn't find them on Amazon.
I've I checked by I found 1 on
Amazon, but it was in Japanese,
called Gundam Crossbone,
and it takes place several years after these
events.
Cecilie has,
forsaken her aristocratic
roots,
and her and Seabook are are handling some
stuff. And
people genuinely
like it, but
Sunrise
isn't touching it for some reason. Because they
hate us.
That's probably it. You're probably right. Probably it's
alright. Well, do you have any final thoughts
before we hit the ratings?
I think we've hit basically everything.
We can go beat by beat, but to
really spoil this, it it's hard. I'll say
this.
I genuinely enjoy
the mech designs of this,
across the board. I I thought they were
fascinating. I thought that the crossbones,
I appreciated the,
the,
the very
military
style looking that they were.
I think they took the Zaku design, and
they just ran with it in a whole
new way that I appreciated.
And I appreciate the way that they designed
the f 91. I thought it was a
cool I thought it was a cool suit.
Now information nobody cares about, it's a tiny
suit.
The way that they built the Munozky particle
engine that it runs on, it's actually more
efficient
nerd crap that people will care about again.
But,
it's tiny. Like, it's genuinely just like when
you see it, like, in video games, you're
like, what is this little thing? You're like,
oh, it's got a big gun. And so
it's pretty cool.
As far as final thoughts for me,
if you're going to watch this movie,
don't go in expecting them to wrap up
all the loose ends by the end of
the movie because they left a few leads
untouched.
So
Mhmm.
You you could definitely tell they wanted this
to be a series, and it just didn't
happen.
Yeah. So well, let's go ahead and go
into the ratings.
We have
4 different ratings here on
the
bottom shelf. 1st ranking is the top shelf,
which is something to the effect of I
need to own this. I need to watch
this repeatedly.
I enjoyed it that much. Middle shelf is
I'd watch it again if it was streaming
or if someone else put it on. Bottom
shelf is I'm not gonna watch it again.
And,
you know, if you like it, great. I'm
not into it.
And Dumpster Fire is, I'm gonna actively try
to keep people from watching this movie, and
it needs to be wiped off of existence
forward and backwards.
So
that being said,
mister Mora,
how do you rate this movie? Like, I
actually have to ask.
Well, legitimately, like, it's a, I'm I'm conflicted
at times because, again, because of the choppiness
of it, it's hard to watch.
And I I genuinely question if somebody who's
not a hardcore Gundam fan or a Gundam
fan, period, would enjoy the film. But as
far for a personal thing,
again, I own it, and I was telling
Celeste, like, I really need to get this
on Blu ray.
I need to get an updated version of
this for on Blu ray. And so I'm
gonna have to top shelf this because
while we recognize these weaknesses,
you and I just spent an hour, and
for the most part, we're going, I want
more. Like, where's the where's the rest? And
so top shelf. So
as far as I'm concerned, like,
you know how
people always envision a scale where the top
is touching the bottom like it's almost a
circular ideal.
This again for me is a tale of
2 different
things.
Okay.
And where I want to put this
is
where the bottom shelf and the top shelf
meet.
Oh,
like right in the middle of those, like
the dumpster fire is a completely separate entity
for my scale. Let's get it off the
scale before it infects everything else. Definitely.
Because
as far as this is as a movie,
like as a movie movie, I'll never watch
this again because this this as a movie,
it makes me mad because I can see
I can see how good it was supposed
to be. Right. But
it took up too much mental energy for
me to connect the dots that they were
putting in front of me. I get that.
Whereas
if they flesh this out and made the
series that they had intended to, I would
watch that series over and over again. Like
if because like what they put in front
of me was something I legitimately wanted more
of, but I didn't have
enough of it to
really satisfy me. So being as
this,
it will only be a movie. I have
to put it on the bottom shelf because
I can only rate it as what they
put in front of me. So
it it's not a movie that I would
want, and it's not something I can see
myself streaming again. So Alright.
So we're putting this, we're kinda split down
the middle. Yep. So And I'm kinda concerned
about where to ask for help. We're gonna
put this in the Devoted Geek Life, tonight.
And the thing is we don't have a
ton of people in Devoted Geek Life that
are mega Gundam fans. Makasi
might be able to jump in. I think
Nathan Marchand has a thought on it.
But if I drop this in the Gundams,
space that I have,
It's going to get a top shelf, if
not middle.
Mhmm. No. Let's just keep it in let's
let's keep it as family business then, and
whoever answers answers.
Alright. I am making the post now. Actually,
why don't you drop the link to it
so they can watch it too, if, somebody
wants to answer but hasn't seen it. Right.
But you're being at
we we did I watched it for free
on,
YouTube. So Right.
For those of you out there who
You're like, how is this happening?
Yeah.
So I got you, man.
So I I'm dropping the link in there
here in a second, and we'll go from
there.
That being said,
I think we'll have to and you'll we'll
we'll we'll release the
crowd rating at the beginning of the next
episode
because That's fair. I wanna get this out,
and I want whoever listens this to
feel compelled to visit us on the socials
to take part in this as well. So
I get that. So here's a question for
you, John. What's that? Want to reveal to
people before we go off to the next
segment, what we're doing next time or next
month. Don't put me on the spot, Dallas,
because I don't remember.
Madame Web or 1970 Spider Man. Oh.
Oh,
that's right. I forgot you're gonna force me
to watch Madame Web. I was supposed to
do nothing.
So, yeah,
we're gonna we're we're next month is spider
month for us here at,
at the bottom shelf.
So
that's gonna be a thing we're gonna do.
We're watching
spooky
spider shows. Nah.
Nah.
So bad. It's scary.
How about that?
Yeah.
I don't know. I'm I'm not tying it
in the I'm not tying it into the
spoopy ness. Like
so
Oh, cool beans.
So with that being said, let's get on
over to
the weak connection section
to find out what we have to say
about this movie. If it can be redeemed,
we shall try to.
This is a weak connection.
Alright. Welcome to the weak connection
area where we try to
find something redeeming about the movies that we
watch.
Do you
I I you always have one because you're
the resident pastor on hand, Dallas.
I
sort of have I have a parallel more
than
a weak connection.
But I'll let I'll let you go first.
Alright. So
my weak connection
I'll pull my notes here. I'm seeing about
the end of the movie where,
Seabook's mother who peers out of nowhere,
is talking to him while he's trying to
find Cecily and or Cecilia.
No. Cecily. Cecily. You're right. The place where
delicious food comes from.
Anyways, so,
but she's trying to help him find her
and, she's lost in space. And, again, this
is tapping into some of the the the
the magical new type powers, plot armor. But,
she says this to him because if you
only focus on just what's in front of
you, you'll never see anything.
You can't and and I was listening to
that, and I was really beginning to think
about the fact that,
you know, there's a lot of things that
when we're in moments where we're just
and we feel lost, and we just sort
of look at things right in front of
us, it we don't really see everything that's
taking place. And it's such an easy thing
to take place,
where we're panicked, where we're frustrated, where,
things are just thrown up, and we're we're
we're struggling. We're grasping at thought straws. It
makes sense. Nobody's faulting you when you're in
that mode. But what do we need to
do? Well,
we've gotta look beyond
just our moments. And I think about the
scriptures,
Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 through 6, and
I'm reading from the, nearly inspired version. I
mean, the new international version. I'm sorry. It
says it's a old joke for you old
old heads out there. I like the NIV.
Fight me. It says this,
trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understandings.
In all your ways, submit to him, and
he will make your paths straight.
And,
what that means is, like, you're you need
to rely on on what the Lord has
for you. And what it's a conversation about
relying with all your heart. That means giving
up everything. Even if you are you're questioning
it, it doesn't look right, it doesn't you
don't under again, it says lean on your
understanding. Our understanding says we should not do
this. We should not do that. But if
we trust in what the Lord has for
us, it's different.
And we give him our whole heart. There's
a level of trust there. I know from
my own life, there are times and things
I chose to do that did not make
sense,
and it I I I struggled with the
decisions I made.
Even in as I'm coming out of traumatic
moments,
you know, coming out of a a very
traumatic moment with my family,
it did not make sense for me to
trust certain people
and to put my my faith in them
to help me out because I was hurt
so badly. Logic says I should have rebelled,
fought, done certain other things, but I decided
to trust in what the lord had for
me. And on the back end, I'm I'm
where I am now.
I'm not angry. I'm not bitter. I'm not
holding on to certain things because I trusted
in what the process I was walking through.
And it's hard. It's not easy, and I
need to make sure I say that very
clearly.
Trusting the Lord is not an easy thing
sometimes,
especially when we're in the midst of trauma
and we're in the midst of depression and
fear.
It's a scary thing because when we're in
those moments, our initial instinct is, I wanna
control it. I want my hands on it.
Because when we're out of control, we look
for what we can't control.
The thing is,
that's where why we trust the Lord because
we can't control it because he is the
one that's in control. You know, this is
the great cosmic being who created everything. He's
the reason why the earth floats perfectly in
orbit so we don't burn up or freeze.
He's the reason why our molecules don't just
separate and disappear.
He formed us in a way, and he
knows us, and we have to trust him.
It's hard. It really is hard. And I
think the way we get to that point
is by
we grow our trust in him, by loving
him, seeking him through the word, through prayer.
And then as we have these small moments
with him where we're like, man, I should
have made that, we need to recognize those
moments. We need to genuinely look back and
go, this was a moment that the the
Lord took care of me and and mark
that down in our spirits. You know, the
the people of Israel, when they traveled, they
made several markers
not to go, this is where we went
or this is where we were. Let's go
back to that moment and dwell on that,
but so they can take their kids and
go, hey. This is where we came from.
Look how far we've come.
Now you can go further because we were
here once, and we need to have our
own faith. We need to look at moments
where we were failing, we were dying, and
we felt like trash. And we go, man,
it sucked, but I made it through. And
I can look at several points of my
life. Even,
man, just just 8 years ago, Celeste and
I were going through a time frame where
we were, man, we were cooked. We were
exhausted. We were we were depressed.
And, you know, and we're doing good stuff.
We're serving the church faithfully. We're doing geek
devotions, but we were in a bad spot,
not in our marriage, but just us personally
in our hearts and our spirit. But we
held on to what the Lord had for
us even though it didn't make sense. Mhmm.
And we walked it out,
and here we are today.
Mhmm. So that's my my, weak connection. Alright.
Well, I like I said, I have more
of a parallel than a weak connection, but
there was something that there was something that
kept reoccurring to me when I was watching
this movie,
specifically
with Sicily,
that
her story
reminded me a bit of the life of
Hezekiah
to a certain degree.
For those of you who aren't familiar with
it, you you guys can go check his
life out in 2nd Chronicles. It starts in
chapter 29.
Hezekiah's dad was a bad, bad dude named
Ahaz.
And
Ahaz
set up
temples
to pagan gods and Ashera poles and
the high places. And if you don't know
what any of those those things are, we'll
just say it's bad things.
It was bad things that the people of
Israel were told not to participate in.
And
Hezekiah comes around and,
boy, I tell you that he he's he's
he's a Bible hero of mine for for
real. Like,
I before before I got married, one of
my things was like, if I ever have
a kid,
if I ever have a son, his name's
gonna be
Hezekiah. But the thing about it is,
though, when Hezekiah
takes over after Ahaz, the first thing he
does is he rededicates
the kingdom
to God's purposes,
and he tears down the wicked things that
his father had instilled and
elevates
God to the position
or rather,
he doesn't elevate God because man can't elevate
God. But
he places
God as the central ideal for his kingdom
again,
which
encourages the people of Israel or rather not
Israel,
the people of Judah,
rather, to
re acknowledge
God's lordship.
And all that is to say that in
this show, Sicily does the same thing where
she sees the ideals that her grandfather and
father before her
have put forward.
And instead,
she turns away from that and actively seeks
to tear down these things that
have been implemented and are being implemented
that is being so destructive
to her people, basically.
Right.
And all that is to say that the
moral of this is
you don't
who your parents are, who your lineage is
doesn't define who you have to be.
A common
a common
a common phrase that's used among certain church
folk is generational curses,
which are brought up in the Bible. However,
we're under a new covenant, whereas we're no
longer under the under a curse.
And who you are doesn't have to be
that generational
curse,
because the Bible talks about generational blessing as
well.
And
when we become
Christians,
we are placed in a new a new
lineage where we become a of a royal
line, the Bible says.
Right.
So my encouragement to you is don't be
discouraged because of what you come from, who
you were or who
your family are, but be encouraged and be
of good cheer that we have a new
father
through Christ. And I think that might even
be a Bible verse somewhere.
But
yeah. So I mean, that that was the
common thought that kept going through my head
when
I was watching this. So
it's not as well thought out as I
normally like to have these when I have
them, but it's what I got. I like
it. That was good. Huzzah.
Good job.
So with that being said,
how do you wanna close this out? We're
not really promoting anything at the moment, are
we? Is is it is there a theme
for October yet on the geek devotions front,
the comm talk? Yeah. It's, it's spooky. We're
we're talking about stuff that is, it's, it
talloweeny, but it's not so scary. But it's
it's,
spooptober.
Yeah. Okay.
Alright. Well, we might do a bonus episode
for some spoop next month. So you might
catch 3 because we only got one this
month, and I again, I apologize.
September was
hard all over. I'll put it like that.
Yeah.
So that being said,
how how do we land this? It's been
a minute.
Well, first off, we invite people to check
out the Discord channel and the rest of
the Geek to Ocean Network. Go to geek
toositions.com where you can find more episodes about
the bottom shelf, the Gundam watch. We read
allegedly, which John is a part of,
allegedly, and other fantastic podcasts. Don't forget to
check us on socials, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Don't look for Twitter because we don't have
that, but look for the bottom shelf.
And then you say something about Salonga, thanks
for all the fish. Or is that Celeste?
Celeste does that on We Read Allegedly. So
That's right. Oh, well.
Bye, everybody. And we'll hope to catch on
the next episode, and we hope to have
that out to you sooner rather than later.
Alright. Buy cheese puffs.
Stay fresh cheese bags.
Maybe.