Cannon God Exaxxion: Difference between revisions

* [[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.

* [[Damsel in Distress]]: Akane falls into this territory in the first few acts with a regularity that borders on the depressing. Hoichi finally manages to get her to safety at about the halfway point, though.

* [[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.

* [[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''.

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: [http://www.mangavolume.com/index.php?serie=cannon-god-exaxxion&chapter=cannon-god-exaxxion-6&page_nr=14 Boy is it ever.] It was up there as a possibly for "biggest in the ''medium'' for a while until ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'' managed to snag ''that'' perch...

* [[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.

* [[Spanner in the Works]]: {{spoiler|Hoichi, who somehow manages to fuck up ''everybody's plans'' at every turn through a combination of [[Bigger Stick|superior firepower]], [[Hot-Blooded]]-ness, and at least ''trying'' to be an actual hero.}}

* [[Spell My Name with an "S"]]: The aliens. Are they supposed to be Riofaldians, or Leopoldians? The former is what the Dark Horse version went for, but the latter is preferred by some fans due to [[wikipedia:Leopold II of Belgium|the possible reference to King Leopold of Belgium]], the infamous conqueror, colonizer and exploiter of the Congo, [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|which seems rather apropos to our villains]].

* [[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.}}

* [[Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World]]: Averted so hard as to be ''profound''. From the instant he dons the Gunner Glove, Hoichi is doomed to a life that varies between furtive hiding and absurd violence. The Riofaldians would kill him in seconds if he tried to live a normal life (and nearly ''do'', at one point). {{spoiler|The one and only time he can return to school for any length of time is under deep, deep cover in volume 5.}}

* [[We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future]]: Definitely averted. Hosuke and the Riofaldians are constantly cooking up new phoney videos to make each other look bad. Not that there's a shortage of real ones that do it, too. If the story were told from the perspective of a civilian on the sidelines it would get [[Mind Screw]]-ingly difficult to tell what was real or not very quickly.

[[Category:Manga]]

[[Category:Cannon God E Xa X Xion]]