Cannon God Exaxxion: Difference between revisions

Compare ''[[Space Runaway Ideon]]'' and ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' for similar [[Deconstruction|Deconstructions]] of [[Super Robot|Super Robots]] which tackle somewhat different angles (although ''Ideon'' plays some tropes straight that are subverted here). Contrast, perhaps, the [[Combattler V|Nagahama]] [[Voltes V|Romantic]] [[Daimos|Trilogy]] or ''[[Voltron]]'' as the best straight examples of what ''Exaxxion'' is deconstructing.

 

* [[Adjective Noun Fred]]

* [[Alien Invasion]]: A Type 3, which draws some (narratively intentional) parallels to 19th-century colonialism. The manga milks these for all it's worth.

* [[BFG]]: Hoo boy, is it ever! As the name implies, the title robot is basically a giant cannon with limbs and a head, with a barrel diameter of 4.96 ''metres''. Then there's Full Barrell Mode, where the thing extends to about as long as the mech itself is tall. And it's very tall, even as [[Super Robot|Super Robots]] go...

** Plenty of others show up, too, both Human and Giant Robot scale. One memorable scene features Hoichi getting hit with a single gauge slug from a shotgun so powerful it turns the little girl he was holding at the time into a fine mist (she was already dead).

* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: As the story goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that Hosuke is quite the nasty piece of work himself, but all indications are he's still heaps better than [[To Serve Man|a bunch of aliens who put dissenters into food processing plants]]. Although that isn't saying much ...

** Hoichi agonizes over the fact that even ''piloting'' his giant mech will kill people, and his attempts to save people will inevitably kill thousands. He eventually resolves {{spoiler|to build a future where no one else has to die, even if that makes him the biggest monster of all in the long run}}.

* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: A lot of tension in the series comes from just how ''terrifyingly'' competent the Riofaldians are, especially Shes'ka.

* [[Deconstruction]]: Rather than be simply "lol boobs and guns", CGE does a good job of rather brutally examining the [[Cliché Storm|typical save-earth-from-aliens-in-a-mecha]] story, from showing just how much damage a giant mecha would cause just by ''walking'' (never mind the weaponry and fighting the "bad guys"), to pointing out that any sentient alien race almost certainly ''won't'' be unified in their desire to conquer humanity, to commenting on the fact that the [[Mad Scientist]] who reverse-engineered alien technology to save earth is ''not'' a guy you want to root for, and that having a harem of hot [[Bridge Bunnies]] really does imply [[Unfortunate Implications]].

* [[Diagonal Cut]]: Specialty of the Terminal Drone robots.

* [[Dirty Old Man]]: Hosuke Kano is one of the dirtiest there is.

* [[Do-Anything Robot]]: Isaka and Hosuke's other gynoids, due to being made of [[Nanomachines]]. It's pointed out that the Riofaldians rarely use robots of this type because they're too expensive to massproduce.

* [[Dying Like Animals]]:Human ''and'' "Faldie" civilians manage to cover the entire spectrum, with Hoichi's old high school being a particularly good example over the course of the series (as opinions shift and change depending on events). And boy howdy, they ''[[Anyone Can Die|die]]'' like animals, to Hoichi's absolute ''horror''.

** Not so much the "Faldie" civilians. The majority of "Faldie" civilians are eventually relocated to Riofaldians military secured areas after Hoichi's resistance efforts prove to be more than expected. However, even prior to the resistance, "Faldie" civilians are protected by security robots which will attack and kill any human that attacks the "Faldie" civilian. In one scene, a human teacher is killed in front of Hoichi's "Faldie" teacher after an angry outburst in the middle of school... naturally with Hoichi and a good chunk of the human school watching.

* [[Emperor Scientist]]: Hosuke pretty blatantly desired to become one, believing that the strength of his intellect - and his robot - meant he deserved the position. {{spoiler|Hoichi ends up dicking him over on this on ''multiple'' spectacular levels in the final act.}}

* [[Everything Is an iPod In The Future]]: Most of the robots and other gadgets are based on modern technological aesthetics. It's particularly interesting in that aside from the unusual shapes of some of their robots and the obvious flying saucers, most of the Riofaldians' technology doesn't look particularly "alien" at all.

** Which get a ''lot'' funnier later.

* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: The Riofaldians' favourite weapon to use against anybody without access to gravitational lensing. One wonders why they would bother with something so energy-inefficient when they already have access to extremely powerful conventional guns, but lasers do look quite impressive and the 'Faldies are explicitly fond of terror weapons.

* [[Gambit Pileup]]: Between Hosuke, Shes'ka, the rest of the occupational government and the Homeworld government you've got the proverbial conga-line of fuckers all trying to screw each other.

* [[Gatling Good]]: Well, ''doy''. Of course the Ex features this in the form of 88mm gatling guns in its right arm - the "small" weapons.

* [[Henshin Hero]]: Hoichi.

* [[The Hero]]: Hoichi desperately ''wants'' to be a big-H Hero, which among other things means he shouldn't kill any civilians. Hosuke had rather different ideas when he built the Exaxxion, though. {{spoiler|Hoichi's final solution is equal parts disturbing, tragic and touching.}}

* [[Hot Mom]]: Reiko. Oh is she ever.

* [[How Do I Shot Web?]]: Hoichi takes some time to learn how to use his power suit and his robot properly. The former is [[Crowning Moment of Funny|comedic]]. The latter is [[Squick|terrifying]], ''even for him''.

* [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet]]: The Riofald homeworld would destroy all of planet Earth to stop Exaxxion if it had to, because of its 'limited potential' as a colony world.

* [[Intrepid Reporter]]: Aoi, Akane's sister. Akane also tries to be one, although being a damsel in distress half the time makes it kinda difficult.

* [[Marshmallow Hell]]: Hilariously, Isaka does this to ''Akane'' by accident in the first chapter. Given what happens in the scene on the whole, it's hard to tell if her [[Luminescent Blush]] is from [[Les Yay|embarrassment]] or ''[[Unlucky Childhood Friend|anger]]''.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: The "Ho" in Hoichi uses the Kanji for gun or cannon, and Akane sometimes refers to him by the pet name "Ho" (or "Gun" in the Dark Horse English version).

* [[Messianic Archetype]]: The 'Hero Project' is a PR plan designed to gain support for Hoichi by having one of Isaka's copies take his form and heal people, including Riofaldian troops. The fact that his healing seems almost magical (it's actually super-advanced nanomachines) only increases the effect.

* [[Monumental Damage]]: Poor, poor Mount Fuji...

* [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]]: Miss Kin'ba is a staunch supporter of Human rights. Well, as much as one can be when you've got a fascist police state breathing down your neck...

* [[NameTron]]: The Exaxxion's name is a [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] on this trope. Hosuke just took the three Xes on the antimatter generator and expanded them into a cool name with -on because "all the best giant robots have a name ending in -on".<ref>He then proceeds to name what're clearly the manga's biggest inspirations.</ref>

* [[No Export for You]]: Siiiiiigh. This is probably why this here page sat fallow for so long. [[Dark Horse Comics]] published the first five volumes in English... and after the fifth volume proceeded to drop the title on a ''terrible'' cliffhanger. This may or may not have been due to a [[Fan Dumb|fandom kerfuffle]] over the editing of certain scenes in volume 5. Either way, they unfortunately stopped just ''before'' the manga finished making some of its [[An Aesop|Big Statements]] and before its [[Super Robot]] deconstruction was complete, so the manga isn't as well-known as it probably deserves to be.

* [[Not So Different]]: The Riofaldians (Shes'ka in particular) never seem to get tired of pointing out how not only are they just doing the same thing Humans have been doing to each other for countless centuries with their colonization, they're a whole lot better at it.

*** The guns and cars, naturally, are all modeled lovingly from real-world examples despite the [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] setting.

*** And it has an ultra-rare ''justification'' for [[Humongous Mecha]]; how else are you going to field giant gravity and inertia manipulating systems with multi-petajoule power requirements? Having them walk around rather than fly saves energy and permits precision usage of otherwise-nuclear kinetic force. Exaxxion is able to ''punch through an enemy robot's chest and rip out its fusion reactor.'' It's stated that the impact was the equivalent of a multi-megaton bomb, focused into an area the width of a car.

* [[The Starscream]]: Shes'ka eventually {{spoiler|wants to capture Exaxxion so he can go home and stage a coup. His cronies in the occupational government feel the same, but as it turns out, they don't particularily care whether Shes'ka's the one leading it or not}}.

* [[Super Prototype]]: Pretty much everything used by the Kano family. They stress a quality over quantity approach, whereas the Riofaldians, who have to budget for an entire planetary occupation, do the exact opposite.

* [[Vichy Earth]]: Ranks up there with some of [[Leiji Matsumoto]]'s best work.

* [[Victorious Childhood Friend]]: {{spoiler|Akane. Her and Hoichi's first night together somehow manages to be funny, squicky and heartwarming all at once.}}

* [[We Have Reserves]]: The Riofaldian government do not give the ''slightest damn'' about their own people, even ones who were just fighting against Hoichi. If they can kill millions of their own people to stop Exaxxion, they'll do it without a second thought.

** To be fair, Murata is actually in love with Miss Kin'ba {{spoiler|he actually marries her in the end}} so hes far from unbiased, let alone realistic to fact that the situation hes was in would have gotten him executed were it not for Hoichi rescuing everyone.

* [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]]: The name Exaxxion is a [[Super Robot]]-y name Hosuke made up from the XXX markings on its chassis. This is apparently the Riofaldian symbol for antimatter. The last letter of their alphabet just happens to look like an X and has similar connotations to the greek letter Omega.

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