History Manga / CannonGodEXaXXion

* EditedForSyndication: A pretty acceptable example and only appears in the Dark Horse Manga translation; [[spoiler:the love scene between Hoichi and Akane]] veered pretty hard toward the "too hot for American publication" side of things, and so was neatly trimmed from it. While some fans were annoyed any editing occurred at all, others didn't mind it [[spoiler:since they thought that scene probably went too far in the original and the edit ''still'' manages to keep the heartwarming and comedy intact.]]

* {{Bowdlerise}}: A pretty acceptable example and only appears in the Dark Horse Manga translation; [[spoiler:the love scene between Hoichi and Akane]] veered pretty hard toward the "too hot for American publication" side of things, and so was neatly trimmed from it. While some fans were annoyed any editing occurred at all, others didn't mind it [[spoiler:since they thought that scene probably went too far in the original and the edit ''still'' manages to keep the heartwarming and comedy intact.]]

* {{Bowdlerize}}: A pretty acceptable example; [[spoiler:the love scene between Hoichi and Akane]] veered pretty hard toward the "too hot for American publication" side of things, and so was neatly trimmed from the Dark Horse version of the manga. While some fans were annoyed any editing occurred at all, others didn't mind it [[spoiler:since they thought that scene probably went too far in the original and the edit ''still'' manages to keep the heartwarming and comedy intact.]]

* AnAesop: The story ultimately has two Big Messages. The first: [[spoiler:being a hero requires ''forethought'' and ''planning'', not just [[HotBlooded Hot Blood]]. Courage is important too, but if you don't take the time to consider how your actions will impact the lives of others, you'll end up being just as much of a villain as those you seek to defeat. And to truly be a hero, you need the courage to fight in a way that'll keep others safe - even if that puts your own life in far greater peril.]] The second: [[spoiler:ultimately, the only source of "news" you can trust is what you witness with your own eyes. Anything else will be tainted by the bias of those reporting it; you can only grasp the real truth by finding it for yourself. And grasping that truth, and acting on it, is one of the keys to happiness.]]

* HeroesWantRedheads: Hoichi and Akane have a lot of sexual tension right from the start. [[spoiler:Gets resolved, too!]]

Compare ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'' and ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' for similar {{Deconstruction}}s of {{Super Robot}}s which tackle somewhat different angles (although ''Ideon'' plays some tropes straight that are subverted here). Contrast, perhaps, the [[Anime/CombattlerV Nagahama]] [[Anime/VoltesV Romantic]] [[Anime/{{Daimos}} Trilogy]] or ''Anime/{{Voltron}}'' as the best straight examples of what ''Exaxxion'' is deconstructing.

* HumongousMecha: [[http://www.mangahere.co/manga/cannon_god_exaxxion/c006/14.html Boy is it ever.]] It was up there as a possibly for "biggest in the ''medium'' for a while until ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Gurren Lagann]]'' managed to snag ''that'' perch...
** Well... Anime/{{GunBuster}}'s still slightly bigger(250m to Exaxxion's 200). And by the time this manga came out, [[Manga/GetterRobo Getter Emperor]] was already around.

%%* GagBoobs: Isaka. Most of the other women also, with the exception of Akane, who is totally flat.
%%** A completely hilarious lampshade is also hung on this in chapter 5.

* {{Bowdlerize}}: A pretty acceptable example; [[spoiler:the love scene between Hoichi and Akane]] veered pretty hard toward the "too hot for American publication" side of things, and so was neatly trimmed from the Dark Horse version of the manga. While some fans were annoyed any editing occurred at all, others didn't mind it [[spoiler:since they thought that scene [[CoitusEnsues probably went too far in the original]] and the edit ''still'' manages to keep the heartwarming and comedy intact.]]

** The best one, though, has to be [[spoiler:''Hoichi's'' face at the end of chapter 5-4. Even if you found the rest of that sequence more [[CoitusEnsues annoying than touching]], his reaction to Akane's "announcement" and his obvious, sudden realization of how totally ''fucked'' he is on a decidedly non-sexy level makes the whole sequence worth it.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: CGE shows 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 MadScientist who reverse-engineered alien technology to save earth is ''not'' a guy you want to root for, and that having a harem of hot BridgeBunnies really does have UnfortunateImplications. A lot of the above slowly takes a toll on Hoichi's sanity]] and he comes to realize the terrible ''burden'' that his grandfather has placed upon him. He takes it doubly hard because all the death and pain clashes with his vision of an ideal hero.

* AdjectiveNounFred

* AuthorAppeal: This ''is'' a Kenichi Sonoda manga, after all. Expect lots of guns, boobs (both underage and not) and copious amounts of lovingly detailed blood and guts.

* BerserkButton: Try harming Akane. In any way. Go on. We fucking ''dare'' you.
** Placing her in danger is also ill-advised, [[spoiler:as Hosuke finds out nearly at the cost of his ''face''.]]
* {{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 4.096 ''metres'' (Which, to put in perspective, is about the height of a professional basketball player... when he's standing on the shoulders of ''another'' professional basketball player). And that isn't the biggest gun in the series. Dagunov One, Exaxxion's EvilCounterpart, has a main gun ''50% larger''. Then there's Full Barrel Mode, where the thing extends to about as long as the mech itself is tall. And it's very tall, even as {{Super Robot}}s 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).
*** To clarify, a conventional single gauge shotgun round is a '''one-pound ''' lead slug. And in this case it was made of '''depleted uranium.'''
* BigBad: General Shes'ka, at first, anyway. It gets complicated...

*** Depending on the exact scene, this can be either played straight or completed averted. Played straight when Hoichi fires his giant mech cannon in the middle of a city (resulting in tons of collateral damage from the shock wave of the cannon.) Averted when the Riofaldian military orders the HUMAN military to form a human wall around the giant mech knowing that the giant mech cannot move or defend itself without accidentally killing said human wall. Doubly evil when Hoichi refuses to fall for the obvious trap and the Riofaldians start firing on the human wall THEMSELVES and proceed to blame Hoichi anyway.

* CurbStompBattle: Oh so very ''many'', especially when Hoichi is in one-on-one combat inside his suit.
* {{Deconstruction}}: CGE shows 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 MadScientist who reverse-engineered alien technology to save earth is ''not'' a guy you want to root for, and that having a harem of hot BridgeBunnies really does have UnfortunateImplications.
** A lot of the above slowly takes a toll on Hoichi's sanity]] and he comes to realize the terrible ''burden'' that his grandfather has placed upon him. He takes it doubly hard because all the death and pain clashes with his vision of an ideal hero.

* DirtyOldMan: Hosuke Kano is one of the dirtiest there is.

* DuelingHackers: Happens when both sides run a propaganda war against each other.
** 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.

* FanService: Right up there with ''Anime/AgentAika'' and ''Anime/{{Godannar}}''
* FantasticRacism: Starts happening immediately when the Riofaldians are revealed to be conquerors, especially against Hoichi's teacher who is one of the sweetest characters in the entire story.
** First, Riofald spent ''ten years'' shaping Earth's civilization into something that couldn't repel an invasion - bright shiny laser technology was one of the carrots that turned out to be sticks. Hell, ''conventional bullets'' have a fair chance of penetrating personal shields. Second, Riofald is a civilization that thinks ''nothing'' of building twelve-story-tall HumongousMecha at the drop of a hat. Their level of technology means lasers have BottomlessMagazines, and are perfectly fine for exterminating "monkeys". [[TemptingFate It's not like any non-Riofaldians have gravtech...]]
* GagBoobs: Isaka. Most of the other women also, with the exception of Akane, who is totally flat. Did we mention this was a Sonoda manga? (Of course, Isaka's completely absurd GagBoobs are a hint early on that she isn't quite human...)
** A completely hilarious lampshade is also hung on this in chapter 5.

* GroinAttack: [[http://www.mangavolume.com/index.php?serie=cannon-god-exaxxion&chapter=cannon-god-exaxxion-48&page_nr=10 Ow. Owowowowowow.]]
* HenshinHero: Hoichi.

* MonumentalDamage: Poor, poor Mount Fuji...
** The Statue of Liberty gets cut down too.

* OhCrap: Given how ''big'' the guns in this story are, this rather happens quite a bit. Hoichi pulls a particularly delicious one on Shes'ka [[spoiler:at the end of their showdown at the base of the orbital elevator, wherein the Long Barrel Cannon is ''point-blanked'' into Shes'ka's robot.]]

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Mainly averted. Despite her human likeness, Isaka admits she's not really capable of human emotions like love and only acts like she has a personality because that's how she was programmed.
** Of course, protecting Akane from a nanotech hack involved some ''really'' intimate mental interaction, and what else can you say besides, "HumanityEnsues?"

* [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight Screw Grandad's Plans, I'm Doing What's Right!]]: Near the end of the manga, [[spoiler: Hoichi secretly rebels against his grandfather's plan and makes an alternate one with Isaka to do the ''right'' thing, not what his {{Jerkass}} grandfather wants.]]
* ShoutOut: A couple. There's the NameTron example above, and [[spoiler:when Hoichi infiltrates his school incognito, he uses the surname [[Anime/MazingerZ Kabuto]]]].
** Hoichi's mom, Reiko, uses a power suit that is VERY similar to [[Anime/BubblegumCrisis a certain rock singer-slash-armored vigilante's]].
*** In fact, all the suits are not only a reference to ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'', but they also have a similar appearance to ''Robot Hunter Casshan''.
* ShownTheirWork: A natural for Sonoda, who is a bit of an engineering nut in general (beyond his total love for guns and cars). While the Exaxxion is still pretty ridonk, he does do a lot of things to [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief make it seem plausible]], at least; one example is that the Ex has massive, flat, elephant-like feet, which are the kinds of feet any kind of large robot would actually need to consider walking. And the Ex leave giant ''craters'' every time it takes a step, due to how heavy it is.

* ThemeNaming: The men of the Kano family all have the kanji for "gun" in their name (''Ho''ichi, his dad ''Ho''jo, and his grandfather ''Ho''suke). It's worth noting that "Hoichi" [[MeaningfulName means "First Gun" or "Best Gun"]], while Hosuke is something like "Selfish Gun".

* UnexpectedVirgin: played with. [[spoiler:After Hoichi and Isaka save Miss Kin'Ba and Murata from a gang of students that raped her, they take them to the Exa-base and have them hospitalized with medical nannites. To Miss Kin'ba's embarassed-yet-happy surprise, it is implied that the nannites also restored her pre-rape virginity.]]

* BiggusDickus: Both Hoichi and Hosuke are MASSIVELY well endowed. Hoichi's is nicer-looking, at least according to Hoichi's mom. Hosuke's is supposed to be [[{{Squick}} dark and rough "like a demon".]] Pass the [[BrainBleach brain bleach, please.]]

Creator/KenichiSonoda (of ''Manga/GunsmithCats'' infamy, also principal character designer for ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'') rejuvenates the SuperRobot formula by injecting it with a psychedelic combination of a starkly realistic world along his own special brand of over-the-top humor, characters and of course, FanService.

Propaganda is also a major focus of the story, with elaborate smear and counter-smear campaigns waged back and forth by the Riofaldians and Professor Kano for the hearts of the populace. The importance of information control and the need for the public's support in the new media age is heavily stressed. [[spoiler:And in the end, the importance of finding and deciding the truth for ''yourself'' being a key to happiness is a major plot point.]]

* WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld: Averted. 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.]]

* BadassMustache: Hoichi's grandfather. It looks like [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Kamina's]] shades turned upside down...

* AliensAreBastards: Played straight, averted and subverted six ways from sundown. By and large, the Riofaldian characters we see run the whole gamut of personality types and are shockingly... well, ''human''. The whole point is that, really, they're NotSoDifferent and that both sides should treat each other with dignity. The Riofaldian ''leaders'', however, really do reach inhuman levels of bastardity. [[spoiler:''And they even use it on each other.'']]

* NotSoDifferent: 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.