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PODCAST

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON!

Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman

Japanimation Station is an anime podcast where hosts Jonathan Lack and Sean Chapman, creators of Weekly Suit Gundam, create deep dive conversations not just on individual shows, but on complete bodies of work, approaching these shows not just as fans, but with a fresh pair of critical eyes. We get deep into the stories, characters, and aesthetics, but also place the series and their creators into the proper contexts of history, backstory, and behind the scenes details that make these works so

leisure animation & manga

All Episodes

03:15:02

S6E15 - TOMINO-THON! Mobile Suit ZETA GUNDAM Part 2 -...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/10/05

After reviewing the first half of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam last week, we finish up our revisitation of one of Tomino Yoshiyuki’s undisputed masterpieces with a deep dive on the series’ second half. Building to one of the greatest final stretches in anime history and introducing iconic new villains Haman Karn and Paptimus Scirocco, Zeta Gundam only gets sharper and stronger as it barrels towards its legendary ending, and we still have plenty of new things to say about it all these years later. We also

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03:38:05

S6E14 - TOMINO-THON Returns! Mobile Suit ZETA GUNDAM...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/09/28

We are back for the second half of our Tomino-Thon, and we’re diving in with one of Tomino Yoshiyuki’s most legendary and defining works as a director: 1985’s Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, the sequel to the series that changed anime forever, and the first expansion of Gundam into a larger ongoing franchise. We reviewed Zeta Gundam years ago as an early episode of our Weekly Suit Gundam podcast, but this series is so central in Tomino’s filmography, and our podcast has evolved so much since then, that we

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03:29:55

Bonus - ULTRAMAN 60th Anniversary Spectacular! The...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/07/04

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the premiere of Japan’s most iconic tokusatsu franchise: ULTRAMAN! Created by the legendary special effects wizards at Tsuburaya Productions, Ultraman premiered on July 17th, 1966, and has been a phenomenon in Japan and around the world ever since. To mark the occasion, today we’re taking a look at 15 episodes from 5 different Ultraman series directed by the series’ most infamous filmmaker: the one and only Jissōji Akio, whose bizarre and innovative

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03:00:43

S6E13 - TOMINO-THON Mid-Season Finale! L-Gaim OVAs +...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/06/08

For our last episode of Season 6 Part 1, we’re taking a look at the 3 OVA releases for Heavy Metal L-Gaim. Released between 1986 and 1987, the first two offer recap specials of the TV series alongside original comedy shorts, while the third, Full Metal Soldier, is an original story set during the first half of the show, and it’s a real treat if you enjoyed the series as much as we did. Then, we look back on Part 1 of our Tomino-thon with a bunch of fun rankings! We rank each of the 7 shows we

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03:12:50

S6E12 - TOMINO-THON! Heavy Metal L-GAIM Part 2...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/06/01

The second half of Heavy Metal L-Gaim bucks the trend from Xabungle and Dunbine of Tomino shows that become messier down the home stretch, as this final set of episodes sees Daba Myroad step fully into his role as rebel leader, and the show itself tighten into a more focused, substantive experience. As we come to learn more about the truth of Oldna Posaydal and the fractured politics of Pentagonal World, a number of characters become deeper and richer, and the series reveals itself as something of a

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03:15:57

S6E11 - TOMINO-THON! Heavy Metal L-GAIM Part 1...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/05/25

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a prickly anime veteran named Tomino Yoshiyuki teamed up with a plucky young aniq`mator named Nagano Mamoru, and with a healthy dose of inspiration from an obscure international sci-fi hit called Star Wars, they made one of the most rad mecha anime of the 1980s: Heavy Metal L-Gaim! In these first 26 episodes, we enter Pentagona World and meet our hero, Daba Myroad, as he begins a resistance against Pentagona’s mysterious ruler, Oldna Posaydal. Driven by

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02:49:26

Weekly Suit Gundam #65 – Mobile Suit Gundam HATHAWAY:...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/05/20

The second installment of the Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway film trilogy is finally here, and it was absolutely worth the five-year wait. The Sorcery of Nymph Circe, based on the second novel of Tomino Yoshiyuki’s Hathaway’s Flash light novel series, is a more complicated, dense, and challenging film than its predecessor, but also one that dives deeper into its characters fractured psyches. And along the way, it presents some of the boldest and most immersive 3D mecha animation we’ve ever seen,

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03:11:19

S6E10 - TOMINO-THON! Aura Battler DUNBINE Part 2...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/05/18

The second half of Aura Battler Dunbine is one of the most fascinating and divisive stretches of Tomino Yoshiyuki’s career. After a killer set of episodes following the deepening conflict in Byston Well, the series’ action shifts to Upper Earth – our world – for the final cours, an increasingly brutal and bleak set of episodes that frustrates some viewers even as it invigorates others. That divide is seen between our two hosts on today’s show, as Jonathan found the series overly repetitive and

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03:19:15

S6E9 - TOMINO-THON! Aura Battler DUNBINE Part 1...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/05/11

Grab your motorcycle, hop on the aura road, and cross between the sea and the shore to join us in Byston Well, where we’ll be spending the next 2 weeks with Aura Battler Dunbine! One of Tomino’s most audacious, ahead-of-its-time creations, Dunbine anticipates the popularity of the isekai genre decades later with the story of Show Zama, a young man from our earth who falls into the high fantasy setting of Byston Well, and becomes embroiled in warlord Drake Luft’s bloody conquest. Reminiscent of many

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02:12:53

S6E8 - TOMINO-THON! Combat Mecha XABUNGLE Part 2...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/05/04

The second half of Combat Mecha Xabungle – episodes 27 through 50 – plays like a second season, with the action moving to Planet Zola’s snowy tundra, a new group of characters arriving on the scene in the form of the freedom-fighting Salt crew, and the kidnapping of the Iron Gear’s captain, Elchi Cargo, leading to a new set of stakes for the series’ second half. It doesn’t all work, as Xabungle falls into some unfortunately repetitive patterns down the home stretch, blunting some of the great

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03:14:01

S6E7 - TOMINO-THON! Combat Mecha XABUNGLE Part 1...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/04/27

Beginning an historic, uninterrupted run of 5 back-to-back 50-episode anime series airing from 1982 to 1987, Combat Mecha Xabungle marks an exciting turning point in Tomino Yoshiyuki’s career. After really giving his ‘Kill ‘em All’ ethos a workout on Space Runaway Ideon, Tomino set himself a very different challenge with Xabungle: What if this could be a ‘Nobody Dies’ show? The result is a vibrant mecha action comedy set in what is basically the wild west (albeit on the planet Zola), with a ragtag

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03:19:54

S6E6 - TOMINO-THON! THE IDEON Movies – A CONTACT & BE...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/04/20

Many years before Anno Hideaki remade the ending to his audacious but unfinished sci-fi TV series with an avant-garde theatrical tour-de-force in The End of Evangelion, Tomino Yoshiyuki blazed the trail with The Ideon: Be Invoked, providing the full ending Space Runaway Ideon never got on television in spectacular (and spectacularly violent) fashion. Alongside its companion film, A Contact – which recaps the story of the TV series – Be Invoked completes the Ideon experience in the most purely Tomino

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03:58:51

S6E5 - TOMINO-THON! Space Runaway IDEON (1980) TV...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/04/13

It’s finally time to discuss what is almost certainly Tomino’s best-known and most widely renowned work outside the world of Gundam: 1980’s Space Runaway Ideon, the 39-episode TV series that begins with a relatively similar premise to Mobile Suit Gundam – a ragtag crew of space colonists flee an invading army, with a mysterious and powerful mecha in tow – before quickly spinning into much stranger, darker, and more philosophical territory. In fact, Ideon might be something closer to a horror anime

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02:12:54

S6E4 - TOMINO-THON! The Revolutionary Creation of...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/04/06

Considering Japanimation Station started its life in 2019 as Weekly Suit Gundam – which itself started with a six-part podcast miniseries following Sean and Jonathan discussing every aspect of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series from 1979 – it’s safe to say we’ve already reviewed the legendary ‘First Gundam’ on this show. So for today’s episode, we’re doing something a bit different to celebrate the most crucial turning point in the career of Tomino Yoshiyuki: Narrating the history of the series

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02:44:11

S6E3 - TOMINO-THON! Invincible Steel Man DAITARN 3...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/03/30

“Exhilaration, humor, and pathos” – these are the three pillars Tomino Yoshiyuki outlined in a pre-production memo for the series that became 1978’s Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3. And the 40-episode show that followed very much fulfilled those goals, as this blend of super robot and Kamen Rider-style super hero action – also taking copious influence from the worlds of Star Wars and James Bond – is a fun and, in the end, surprisingly impactful series. It’s also the show where Tomino drilled down and

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02:26:31

S6E2 - TOMINO-THON! Invincible Super Man ZAMBOT 3...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/03/23

Our Tomino-thon reaches its first full review of the season with 1977’s Invincible Super Man Zambot 3, the debut series from a newly independent Sunrise, and the first original show directed in full by Tomino Yoshiyuki. Combining fantastical, episodic ‘super robot’ action with traces of the darker, more psychologically dense storytelling Tomino would eventually be known for, Zambot 3 also sees several members of the future Mobile Suit Gundam team working together for the first time, including

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01:57:09

S6E1 - Tomino-thon Begins! The Origins of Tomino...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/03/16

Our Tomino-thon kicks off with a history-focused episode exploring the origins of Tomino Yoshiyuki leading up to the creation of his first full original series, Zambot 3 (which we’ll be reviewing next week). Where did this mad creative genius come from, and what was he up to in the years before he earned his ‘Kill ‘em all’ moniker? This episode takes us from the political climate in Japan during Tomino’s college years, to Tomino’s time at Mushi Pro becoming one of the most prolific episode directors

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00:14:01

Season 6 Preview - Japanimation Station Returns for...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2026/02/01

Japanimation Station returns on March 15th, 2026 for its 6th season, and it’s one listeners have been demanding for a long time: our Tomino-thon! Throughout 2026, we’ll be peering into the delightfully deranged mind of Tomino Yoshiyuki, creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, which kicked off this entire podcast journey with our ‘Weekly Suit Gundam’ series back in 2019. Now, we’ll be returning to the world of Tomino with deep dives into every TV series and film he’s ever directed. In this special preview

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02:05:16

S4E34 - MISS KOBAYASHI’S DRAGON MAID: A LONELY DRAGON...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2025/11/03

We’re back in Kyoto again to look at another new work from our friends at Kyoto Animation: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: A Lonely Dragon Wants To Be Loved, the feature film sequel to the beloved (and bizarre) slice-of-life TV comedy. Originally directed by Takemoto Yasuhiro in its first season before his tragic death in the 2019 arson attack, the series originally returned for a second season directed by KyoAni stalwart Ishihara Tatsuya, who again takes the helm for this film sequel. But with a more

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03:30:10

S4E33 - CITY: THE ANIMATION Review & Discussion -...

Japanimation Station Season 6 - TOMINO-THON! ·

2025/10/15

After spending a full year chronicling the history of Kyoto Animation in 2024, we’re back for a brief return trip to review CITY: THE ANIMATION, the latest anime series from the renowned studio. Directed by Violet Evergarden helmer Ishidate Taichi and based on the manga Nichijou author Arawi Keiichi, CITY is one of the absolute greatest series KyoAni has produced to date, a return not only to Arawi’s zany comic stylings, but to the bold, experimental spirit of KyoAni’s early work. Seamlessly

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