Show Notes

This week we're joined by two returning guests, costume designer Sarah McCostumes and theatrical mask consultant Sean DMR to talk about costuming, mobile suits, and what the aesthetics of Char's Counterattack can tell us about the characters, the world, and the story. Plus in the research Thom looks at Char's iconography and tries to trace its origins.

Char's Iconography
Background on Prussian-style Collars:

• Prussian uniforms (including various Zeon-esque collars) - “The Waffenfrock 1842-1895” from Kaiser’s Bunker. 


• Imperial Japanese Army uniforms during the Russo-Japanese War (showing the contrast collar borrowed from the Prussians). 


• Influence of Prussian military uniform helmets in Latin America, by Ricardo Jara Franco. Aug. 18, 2011. Available at http://pickelhauben.net/old-site/articles/latin_America.html


• Martin, Bernd, and Peter Wetzler. “The German Role in the Modernization of Japan — The Pitfall of Blind Acculturation.” Oriens Extremus 33, no. 1 (1990): 77–88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24048466


• Wikipedia page on the uniforms of the Imperial Japanese Army.

General background on Eagles as symbols:

• “Eagle,” from Heraldsnet.org, an online glossary of heraldric elements.


• Wikipedia pages for eagles in heraldry, the national emblem of Indonesia, the Roman aquila, and the Shahbaz (the fabled eagle-like creature used in Achaemenid iconography).


• An overview about the role of eagles in different Native American cultures, with links to other sources.


• The Warrior and the Eagle, an old Lenape legend.


• “The Bald Eagle, Creature of Nature and an American Symbol” by Ellen Terrell for the Library of Congress. June 27, 2019. Available at https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2019/06/the-bald-eagle-creature-of-nature-and-an-american-symbol/.

The Reichsadler:

• Wikipedia pages for the Reichsadler, the coat of arms of Austria, and the coat of arms of Germany.


• German text of the Imperial Rescript of August 3rd, 1871. 


• “When is a German eagle a Nazi eagle?” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 2, 2016. Mirrored here.


• Flags of Nazi Germany, including ‘Podiumflaggen’ (podium flags).


• “Political and Civil Flags of the Third Reich 1932-1945,” by Pete Loeser.


• “The Nazi Eagles of Berlin,” from Digital Cosmonaut, documenting surviving depictions of the Reichsadler and Parteiadler in Berlin today.


• “The Federal Eagle,” published by Deutscher Bundestag (German Federal Parliament).

Katou Tateo (_加藤 建夫) and the 64th Sentai_:

• Wikipedia pages for Katou Tateo (加藤 建夫), and the propaganda film about Katou's squadron (Englishand Japanese).


• A forum thread featuring numerous historical photos of Katou's emblem on planes of the 64th Sentai.


• The opening to the propaganda film about Katou's squadron, featuring the song and a version of the eagle emblem.

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

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