Anime / Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Spoilers for all previous Gundam entries in the Universal Century continuity, including Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

I feel you by my side. I know I'm not alone.

"The beast of possibility finds its master and soars through a shaken cosmos."

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn is a 7-episode 2010-2014 OVA series set in the Universal Century Gundam continuity. Directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi and produced by Sunrise, it features music by Hiroyuki Sawano (who would later compose the music for Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill, among many other projects) and is based on a ten-volume (plus one extra) novel series by Harutoshi Fukui. The novel series was also adapted into a seventeen-volume (plus three extra) manga by Kouzou Oomori, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn: Bande Dessinée.

Universal Century (UC) 0001 — Earth's population is finally united under The Federation, migration into space colonies begins, and a celebration is underway at the Laplace space station. The space station is blown to tiny bits.

UC 0096 — Three years after Char Aznable almost hit the Earth with a giant space rock, Ordinary High-School Student Banagher Links stumbles across a mysterious and attractive girl calling herself Audrey Burne. Meanwhile, a secret deal between the Vist Foundation and renegade Neo-Zeon forces led by a Char-lookalike named "Full Frontal", involving an artifact called "Laplace's Box" that's said to contain the power to destroy the Federation if ever opened, goes very, very wrong. Next thing Banagher knows, the colony is collapsing around him and he's fallen into the cockpit of an obscenely powerful mobile suit: the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam.

With each episode being released roughly every six months, apart from the sixth and seventh episodes, which took a year each, the series took four years to fully air. The last time this occurred was with The 08th MS Team,^note In the case of the former, the original director actually died, thus causing delays. In Unicorn's case, the release timing is attributed to the time required to produce each episode. which took three-and-a-half years. The complete OVA was released for worldwide streaming on Netflix in 2018.

A TV edition of the OVAs, Mobile Suit Gundam UC RE:0096, began airing April 3, 2016 on TV Asahi. The anime is reedited for the television version, featuring a new opening and ending theme with new animated footage. Tielle performed the opening theme song "Into The Sky", while Sawano performed the ending themes (Titled "Next 2U -eUC-" and "bL∞dy f8 -eUC-"), and Shūichi Ikeda narrated the "next episode" preview footage each week as his character Full Frontal. This version is available for worldwide streaming on Crunchyroll. It also premiered on Toonami on January 7, 2017.

The 11th novel was adapted into a theatrically-released epilogue movie for the OVA, titled Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative.

It should be noted that this is the first Gundam series to air on TV Asahi since After War Gundam X. And mind you, TV Asahi was Gundam's original home from 1979 to 1996.

This may not be the Robot Unicorn Attack you're looking for.

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Gundam Unicorn provides examples of:

A to E

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: More intense mobile suit battles and NT-D transformations switch to CGI that features more smooth movements and more consistent details compared to the hand-drawn animation. One interesting example is at the end of the Unicorn Gundam's first transformation, where it changes from CGI to hand-drawn in the same shot, and you can see the details on its body change slightly (such as the vents on the face) as the camera pans out.
• Ace Custom: A few:
  • Angelo Sauper's bright purple Geara Zulu.
  • The Rozen Zulu, a Geara Zulu that uses spare parts from the Sinanju to follow the concept of the Hamma Hamma Cyber-Newtype suit.
  • Londo Bell has the RGM-96X Jesta, officially a special operations development of the Jegan. ^note Supplementary materials disclose that the Jesta was actually developed alongside the Unicorn as part of the UC project, and was meant to escort the Unicorn and cover it while it was recovering from NT-D cooldown. It's essentially a mass production Unicorn without the Psychoframe and a less powerful reactor, built on the Unicorn chassis but using Jegan-drived armor to mask its true origins.
  • ECOAS also have special variants of the Jegan, painted in dark brown compared to the pale green of the basic version, with an additional sensor visor.
    • Conroy Haagasen pilots another Ace Custom version of the aforementioned ECOAS Jegan in Episode 7, which comes with a special sniper visor that he uses to aim the Mega Bazooka Launcher.
  • Befitting its status as the Federation flagship, the General Revil carries the Jegan A2 and ReZEL Type-C [Defenser B-Unit][GR], high performance variants of the Jegan and the ReZEL Commander.
• Actor Allusion: A lot:
  • Hiro Shimono voices Takuya Irei, an Ordinary High-School Student who's also a Mobile Suit Otaku turned Ascended Fanboy. His previous role was another Student slash Otaku slash Ascended Fanboy named Keima Katsuragi from The World God Only Knows. This makes Takuya's comment in Episode 6 about not being able to understand women all the more hilarious.
  • Meanwhile, Mihiro Oiwaken's voice actress Megumi Toyoguchi once played another Gundam Mission Control character in Mirallia Haw from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.
  • In the English Dub, Riddhe's VA Yuri Lowenthal also played Simon in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Suzaku Kuururugi in Code Geass who, like Riddhe, had at least one Memento MacGuffin that identify them. Unlike the other two though (who at least carries one up until the end), he treats his like junk at the end of Episode 5, as he approaches the abandoned Unicorn Banshee.
  • Another one from the English Dub: Jamieson Price as Gael Chan, who pulled off a You Shall Not Pass! with a mobile suit against Frontal's Neo Zeong in Episode 7. The other character that he voiced, who also pulled a similar trick with added Dying Moment of Awesome?: Lordgenome from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
• Affably Evil: Full Frontal may be one of the two Big Bads (opposite Martha Vist Carbine), but from his mannerisms and actions you'd never tell otherwise.
• Adaptation Distillation: The OVA simplifies many elements of the novels. Among other things, it includes the simplification of the Shamblo, turning it from a 4-man machine to singly-piloted, and the circumstances under which the Banshee changes hands from Marida to Riddhe. Also includes Canon Immigrancy and Canon Foreigners in terms of new machinery presented.
• Adaptation Expansion: The Bande Dessinee manga, while following both the OVA and novel, puts a larger focus on scenes that were either off-screen or only shown in passing.
• All There in the Manual:
  • Condensing the novels down to an hour's material means a lot of stuff got cut out, including backstories, some dialogue (a lot of important characters appeared in Episode 1 but didn't speak until Episode 2), explanations on how certain mobile suits work, etc.
  • The Delta Plus that Riddhe pilots is a further development of the failed Delta Gundam project, which isn't mentioned on screen at any point but becomes relevant when Marida -brainwashed to view all Gundams as enemies- attacks Riddhe for piloting it.
• Alliterative Family: The Marcenas family seems to be fond of this trope, given that all the named members have names beginning with "R" (Ricardo, Ronan and Riddhe).
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Vist Foundation, keepers of Laplace's Box.
• And Then John Was a Zombie:
  • Marida, who has an extreme hatred for Gundams, ends up piloting one after getting reconditioned by Martha. When she finally realizes what happened, she does not take it well.
  • Same thing happens to Riddhe, who develops an extreme hatred of Newtypes, right up to the point where Banagher points out that he's a Newtype himself.
• And Then What?: Ends up being a bit of an Armour-Piercing Question when Mineva aims it at Riddhe in Episode 5.
• Anti-Villain: The Sleeves, being organized sorts, appear to have rounded up every likeable, sympathetic soldier on their payroll, put them all on a single ship, and called it the Garencieres. In Episode 4, Banagher even gets to become a crew member and help out in a combat operation, though not in any way that the Sleeves' tacticians would have expected at the start of the battle.
• Animal Motifs: The Unicorn, obviously, is a unicorn. Banshee, meanwhile, has the lion motif. And then there's the Phenex, from the side-story One of Seventy-Two, which has a phoenix motif.
• Anyone Can Die: The first episode kills more civilians and mauve shirts than any Gundam series in recent history, at least in as rapid of a time as they did it. By the third episode, named players start dropping like flies.
• Arc Words:
  • "Possibility". It has been mentioned multiple times by various characters during the course of the story.
  • Variations of the French words À mon seul désir are also mentioned multiple times, usually translated as "To my only desire."
• Artifact of Doom:
  • Symbolically speaking, Laplace's Box could allegedly bring about the demise of the Federation.
  • Played straight with the Unicorn itself, which, while mainly serving as the "key" to the Box, is in itself a walking warhead.
• Art Shift: When Banagher recreates the Axis Shock in episode 5, the close-up of his face is drawn with the old late 70's - early 80's style of shading; a deliberate homage to a shot from Lalah Sune's death scene.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: As in previous UC series, this is pretty much what happens to Newtypes when they die. This happens to Marida and Full Frontal, and the spirits of Amuro, Lalah and Char make a cameo appearance. This nearly happens to Banagher but he chooses to remain human and return to Audrey and his friends.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Loni's attitude when attacking Torrington, to the point where she gets all the rest of the Zeon Remnants killed due to her unwillingness to retreat.
• Attack Drone:
  • The Kshatriya possesses twenty four funnels and employs them liberally to overwhelm individual units or engage multiple enemies simultaneously.
  • The Rozen Zulu's rose bits and forearms; the arm parts, however, remaining attached to the suit via cables.
  • The Shamblo also has a number of helicopter drones that help it reflect beams.
  • The Full Armor Unicorn Gundam's shields can function as this.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Ironically, all related to the Unicorn Gundam:
  • The Unicorn's Beam Magnum can only fire five shots before it needs to be reloaded. It has 2 extra E-Pac sets at its back skirt armor, therefore it can only fire a total of 15 shots per sortie. Even more, only the Unicorn line can use the Beam Magnum properly as seen with the Delta Plus, whose right arm short circuits after one shot.
  • The NT-D, which only lasts for five minutes before the pilot is overwhelmed and needs to detect an enemy Newtype before it even activates. Still, that's often more than enough to get the job done, as poor Kshatriya learned the hard way. Thanks to the events of episodes 4 and 5, the Unicorn's NT-D is more or less completely under Banagher's control, so he can activate it even when there's nobody to fight. As a result of this, and the fact he used it to save the Garancieres and get her into space, it almost seems to have lost the downsides.
  • Averted with the Full Armor Unicorn Gundam, which is packed with enough weaponry and ammunition to allow for extended sorties, including beam Gatling cannons on its 3 shields that also function as funnels.
• Awesome Personnel Carrier: The D50C Loto, which doubles as a Transforming Mecha.
• Badass Longcoat: Zinnerman wears one, as well as Marida.
• Batman Gambit: Full Frontal allowed Banagher to leave Palau, but not before having a psyco-monitor tracking device on the Unicorn so they could pinpoint his movements and intercept any data about the Box's location when NT-D is activated. Also, the bum who gave Banagher the note, who was shown as the Federation's inside man, was actually sent by Frontal. However, this backfires in Episode 4, when Zinnerman tells Banagher during the Battle of Torrington that he's tempted to go down there and add to the casualties himself, possibly just to spur Banagher to leave their ship and put a stop to all the destruction. What he probably didn't expect was to get beaten up instead. And then a double-subversion occurs, when Banagher does leave the ship to put an end to the casualties, after he beats up Zinnerman.
• Beam Spam:
  • Marida is the franchise's reigning queen of beam spam, bested only by Descartes Shaman. Witness the beginning of the second episode, where Marida uses only the suit-mounted mega-particle cannons against the Unicorn.
  • Banagher later gets on this after he picks up the Unicorn's shields, which can have two beam gatlings mounted to them.
  • Angelo's Rozen Zulu and and Full Frontal's Neo Zeong top even them.
  • The audience is treated to a rather epic one when the General Revil tries to take down the Sinanju and despite throwing everything except the kitchen sink at Full Frontal, can't hit him.
• BFG: Several
  • Unicorn's Beam Magnum. In appearance, it is very similar to the original RX-78's beam rifle, but the Magnum uses its E-Paks to their full extent, giving each shot the equivalent power of a Mega Particle Cannon. As mentioned above, the Unicorn is equipped to shoot about 15 of these per sortie.
  • The ReZEL suits have access to a Mega Beam Launcher.
  • Angelo's and Gilboa's Geara Zulus uses a Lange Bruno Cannon Kai and a Lange Bruno modified to fire beam shots as opposed to shells.
  • Angelo's Geara Zulu later upgrades to a beam shot rifle.
  • The Sinanju's unusually long, lance-like beam rifle, which is faster-firing and harder-hitting than most weapons of its type due to drawing its power from the suit's reactor rather than E-Cap ammunition batteries. Fortunately Frontal almost never seems to hit anything with it, preferring to fight up close.
  • Apart from the time he's seen picking off hard points and gun emplacements on the Nahal Argama with seemingly effortless,lethal accuracy. And also shooting down Lieutenant Homare from long range before his MS has even cleared the launching catapult.
  • The Mega Bazooka Launcher from Zeta Gundam is reused, this time by Conroy Haagesen's ECOAS Jegan.
• BFS: The Sinanju's pair of huge, confusingly-named "beam axes"^note a subtle Continuity Nod, this is a larger cousin to Sazabi's trademark weapon "beam tomahawk", which are actually broad-bladed, beam-edged metal swords a la SEED's anti-ship blades. Whilst they're big enough on their own, they can also be attached to the suit's shield in order to create an absolutely enormous double-edged Blade Below the Shoulder.
  • There's also the time in Episode 3 when Banagher is chasing Full Frontal. An asteroid comes into Banagher's path as he's following Full Frontal's Sinanju, so the NT-D Unicorn's Beam Sabre extends and cuts right through the asteroid!
• Berserk Button: Comrade killing. On all sides. But especially inadvisable when you are toting a machine designed to take down the most powerful of foes.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Full Frontal with Neo Zeon, Martha Vist Carbine with the Federation/Vist Foundation.
• Big Damn Heroes: Right when it looks like the Zeon Remnants are going to annihilate Torrington Base's garrison, the Byarlant Custom suddenly pops out of storage and proceeds to almost single-handedly halt Zeon's advance well before the actual Federation reinforcements have even arrived.
• Bigger Is Better: The Unicorn's NT-D Mode increases its height and bulk significantly as its armor slides apart to reveal the psyco-frame. Particularly obvious in the shot of it powering down near the end of Episode 5.
  • The NZ-999 (Neo Zeong). Quite possibly the third largest Mobile armor to appear in the Gundam universe.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family:
  • The Vist family is almost as screwed up as the Zabis. That's quite a feat.
  • The Marcenas family isn't doing so hot either. Riddhe basically ran away to become a mobile suit pilot.
• Bittersweet Ending: Everyone savvy in the UC universe knows Unicorn takes place decades before the brutal Cosmo Babylonia War and, much later, the even more gruesome Zanscare War, which means violence has never truly abated. Yet even amidst perhaps one of the darkest, bloodiest Gundam shows to date, by revealing the contents of Laplace's Box, Banagher and Mineva finally put a hopeful end to a century awash in blood and tears, even if for just twenty-odd years.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: This is the Universal Century, and the conflict between both the Federation and the Sleeves might result in one being just as bad the other. On the other hand, Banagher, who is caught in the middle, is as white as a unicorn.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: The Unicorn and Sinanju both have beam sabers built into their forearms in addition to their handheld weaponry, allowing them to strike from a greater variety of angles in melee.
• Bling of War: While the civilians live in abject poverty, the higher-ranking officers of the Sleeves live in a mansion, have the nice uniforms, and have rather decorative embellishments on their mobile suits, especially◊ the Sinanju◊. For bonus points, they've somehow convinced the civilians that the Federation is the reason they live below the poverty line.
• Bloody Handprint: Cardeas Vist leaves one on Banagher's face after giving him the Unicorn.
• Bothering by the Book: What the Garencieres bridge crew does whilst Banagher is beating Zinnerman up. Doubles as an Ironic Echo, seeing as Bothering by the Book was the reason he was getting his face rearranged.
• Bottle Episode: Episode 6 takes place almost entirely on the Nahel Argama
• Bottomless Magazines: This is averted when Banagher learns this the hard way. During his engagement against the Sinanju, he burns through the Beam Magnum's entire ammo supply by taking unwise shots. While he was only trying to stall for time, that became much more difficult once he couldn't use the magnum anymore.
• Boy Meets Girl: Banagher's meeting with Audrey starts the whole story.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: In accordance with their rather haphazard resources, the Zeon remnants have some very elderly mobile suits. Even the mighty Kshatriya is dated enough to belong in a museum.
  • This is all relative. Technology is at a point where it is advancing very quickly, as a result the Sinanju and Kshatriya while very advanced at the time of manufacture some three years ago, have become somewhat outdated by 0096. On the other hand, some of the suits used in attack on Torrington seemed to be the actual Zakus.
  • A bit of a subversion lets suits from even the One Year War give a good account of themselves. Beam weapons in the Universal Century are generally able to punch through almost any amount of armor mounted on a normal sized Mobile Suit. Even if outdated in other ways they still only need a solid hit to destroy modern machines.
  • As the Battle of Torrington shows, the Earth Federation forces also use whatever older equipment is available, ranging from the almost new Byarlant Custom, to Zeta-era Nemo III and Guntank II, to the One Year War-era Aqua GM. In their case, it's justified in that they're being deployed by backwater reserves and local garrisons instead of the top-of-the-line models the rest of the Earth Federation forces use.
  • All of this is lampshaded in the aforementioned Battle of Torrington, when one of the Tri-Stars asks “What is this, a walking war museum?!”
• Bring Him to Me: Barely a quarter of the way into episode two, Banagher finds himself overwhelmed in battle and captured. Less than ten minutes later, the viewer sees him taken to Full Frontal.
• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The Sinanju's 'beam axes'. See BFS above.
• Call-Back: In the first episode Banagher stops Audrey from falling by catching her in a mobile suit. In episode 5 Banagher stops Audrey from falling to Earth by catching her with the Unicorn.
  • In addition the series is a big love letter to the original Mobile Suit Gundam and contains many elements from it. In episode Four they even showed the colony drop on Sydney, re-animating the footage so that it's actually Sydney and not New York.
  • The three way conflict between the Earth Federation, Neo Zeon (The Sleeves) and The Vist Foundation (Martha V Carbine) is reminiscent of Zeta Gundam.
  • Episode 6 showed Axis being pushed back by the Nu Gundam. Unlike the Colony Drop, the Unicorn producers just used a clip from Char's Counterattack.
  • The way the Full Armor Unicorn Gundam launches from the Nahel Aghama in episode 6 is reminiscent of how Char's Sazabi launches at the start of Char's Counterattack.
  • As in Char's Counterattack, Londo Bell's base of operations is still Londenion, though it's also mentioned of Bright Noa being in Sweetwater during episode 1.
• Call-Forward: Sadly much less pronounced given that much of the plot takes place about three years after Char's Counterattack, but there are a few nods to Mobile Suit Gundam F91 here and there. The transforming APC Mobile Suit Loto is a forerunner of the Guntank R-44 and the salvage company Banagher has a part time job at, the Buch Concern, is owned by the Ronah family^note Buch being their original name before they bought the name and aristocratic titles of the original Ronahs, a family of European nobles who'd fallen on hard times and later goes on to manufacture most of their mobile suits.
  • The ECOAS unit, aka the Manhunters, may or may not be one. A Federation counter-insurgency group known as the Manhunters are the main antagonists of Tomino's Gaia Gear novels and radio play taking place in the early UC 0200s, but it was written before F91 and generally considered non-canon. Interestingly, the protagonist, Afransia Char, a clone of Char Aznable, is very similar to Full Frontal, in that both were created by anti-Federation scientists in an attempt to resurrect Char.
  • The Kshatriya Repaired is armed with funnel missiles (or at least a primitive version of them^note improvised by strapping grenades to the funnels in lieu of their beam-firing capabilities), a technology which first appeared properly in the novel Hathaway's Flash, which was written in 1989 but takes place 9 years after Unicorn. This could also be considered an example of Canon Immigrant, since Hathaway's Flash is a direct sequel to the Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack novelization Beltochika's Children rather than the anime version.
    • Better yet, a Gustav Karl makes a brief cameo in Episode 7. Knowing that Hathaway's Flash, or at least some version of it is apparently canon in the anime continuity makes Bright's discussions with Ronan Marcenas about fatherhood rather painful to watch...
  • The A2 Jegans used by the General Revil show clear inspiration that will culminate in the Normal-Type, A-Type and B-Type Jegans seen in F91.
• Canon Immigrant: It’s expected in a Gundam series.
  • The Stark Jegan ^note The Stark Jegan was originally slightly different in the first episode, but, in episodes two and three began to use more or less the exact lineart of the original, officially calling it the "Prototype Stark Jegan." and the Geara Doga Heavy Weapons-Type, having originally been in the MSV files for Char's Counterattack.
  • Same applies for the equipment on Angelo Sauper's and Gilboa Sant's Geara Zulu, as their main weapon is a modified beam firing version of the Lange Bruno cannon that was from the Geara Doga Heavy Weapons-Type.
  • So many in the fourth episode it's not expedient to list them here.
  • The ECOAS "Manhunter" Unit originally appeared as the antagonists of Tomino's Gaia Gear novels. No word yet on what this means for the novels' shaky canonicity.
  • The Gustav Karl from Hathaway's Flash makes an appearance in Episode Seven. Here though, its existence is explained as being newly-developed offshoots of the same project that spawned the Unicorn and Banshee. The same episode showcases the Zeta Plus A1, which first appeared in Gundam Sentinel.
• Cool Ship: The Nahel Argama and the Ra Cailum (for Londo Bell), and the Garencieres and Rewloola (for the Sleeves).
• Commonality Connection:
  • Banagher easily bonds with Audrey after learning they both were "always on the move" as children.
  • The same can be said for Riddhe and Audrey when they discuss their families and the responsibilities that stemmed from being born into them.
• Continuity Nod: Kai Shiden and Beltorchika Irma make brief cameo appearances in episode 5. Kai returns briefly in Episode Seven to warn Bright about the refurbished Colony Laser and what the Vists intend to do with it.
  • When Banagher is trying to connect a tow cable to the Garencieres, he manages to unlock the Unicorn's true power, surrounding both the Garencieres and Nahel Argama in a green light and pulling both ships out of Earth's atmosphere, just like what Amuro did to Axis in Char's Counterattack.
  • Bright still keeps a portrait of Amuro Ray in his office.
    • For possibly the same reasons, there's an unused Re-GZ in Ra Cailum's hangar.
  • Syam Vist, who was a young adult at the beginning of the Universal Century, is voiced by the narrator of the original Mobile Suit Gundam.
  • Martha Vist Carbine is the wife of Melanie Hue Carbine, who appeared in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam as the head of Anaheim Electronics.
  • The mobile suit museum in the first episode has a Zaku II in it with a gaping hole where its cockpit used to be, the implication being that it is in fact the one Amuro stabbed in the very first episode of the original series.
  • The Delta Plus and Anksha are successors to the Hyaku Shiki and Asshimar respectively, in the case of the Delta Plus, it uses the transformation mode the Hyaku Shiki was supposed to have but was dropped, Anaheim Electronics was only able to implement it now due to acquiring movable frame technology. The Sinanju and Kshatriya are based heavily on the Sazabi and Queen Mansa respectively, the former lacking the funnels, beamshot rifle and torso-mounted mega particle guns its predecessor had; and the latter scaled down with four wing binders instead of two, and no tail binder - the funnels are now stored under each wing binder.
  • The ReZEL was developed from the Methuss, hence some similarities in their designs.
  • The Rozen Zulu follows the concept of Cyber-Newtype Hamma Hamma mobile suit.
  • The battleship Rewloola from Char's Counterattack is still kicking about, being the flagship for the Sleeves. At least until it's blown up by the refurbished Gryps 2 Colony Laser.
  • Novel only: At the end, Banagher and Full Frontal fight each other outside of their mobile suits not unlike Amuro and Char's sword fight, the difference being that they're beating the crap out of each other with lead pipes; and later both the Unicorn and Banshee do the famous Last Shooting against a half-destroyed Sinanju much like the crippled Gundam did against the ejected head of the Zeong at the end of the original series (the Gundams in Unicorn were unharmed, though). The OVA ditched all this in favor of the gigantic Neo Zeong mobile armor, which is a continuity nod by itself.
  • The obligatory background events that reference other Universal Century series:
    • During the history lecture you can see names and dates of notable past events, including 0080 and Operation Stardust.
    • At the beginning of episode two, when Micott asks what a "Gundam" is, Takuya explains that it's the first mobile suit built by the Federation, called the "White Devil" by Zeon. This is a reference to Amuro's famous battle where he destroyed nine Rick Doms within five minutes.
    • Once aboard the Nahel Argama, Takuya states that it must be destiny for them to be carrying the Unicorn Gundam, since the Nahel Argama was the mothership of the Gundam Team of the First Neo-Zeon War.
  • The Sleeves' arsenal of mobile suits wouldn't look out of place in a museum, with everything from Dra-C's to Gaza-D's, Gallus K's, EWAC-zack's (admittedly a Federation suit but doesn't look out of place considering the design), Dowadages, Dreissens, Geara Dogas, and almost everything in-between.
    • The Jagd Doga that appears in Episode 7 has been stated to be the same one used by Quess Paraya but with field modifications, specifically the arm that it lost when used by Quess was replaced with one from a Geara Doga, the mecha it's based on.
  • In episode 3 Angelo's Geara Zulu is using a beam shotrifle that looks almost exactly like the one used by the Sazabi.
  • In the beginning of OVA 4, Syam Vist is dreaming of the first Colony Drop on Sydney. And they even got the skyline right this time.
  • The Sinanju's model number (MSN-06S) is almost identical to the MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type that Char once piloted, which is a clear play on its pilot Full Frontal being "The Second Coming of Char". Another gag is that Sinanju is described as moving "at three times the speed of a normal mobile suit."
  • When Unicorn transformed into Destroy Mode for the first time, it struck the same pose as the Gundam in the original series intro.
  • The first battle between the Unicorn and the Sinanju was filled with allusions to the original series, Frontal remarking that he wants to see the performance of the new Gundam, the Sinanju dodging Unicorn's beam magnum shots while Frontal says that it doesn't matter how powerful it is if it doesn't hit, and Sinanju kicking the Unicorn.
  • Gael Chan's ARX-014 Silver Bullet is basically a modified AMX-014 Doven Wolf from Double Zeta modified by Anaheim with a Gundam style head.
  • The NZ-999 Neo Zeong contains nods out a number of large mobile armors from past series. The name and basic design are taken from the MSN-02 Zeong from Mobile Suit Gundam, it docks with the Sinanju in a similar way as the GP03 from 0083 and the designation number calls back to the NZ-333 Alpha Aziel, except that it's 3 times the number which is fitting since it's red and piloted by the resident Char archetype.
  • It's revealed in episode 7 that the Federation rebuilt the Gryps II colony laser.
  • Episode 7 also shows several iconic scenes from the original series, such as Amuro defeating Big Zam, Amuro battling the Elmeth, the White Base being destroyed at A Boa Qu, and finally Amuro attempting to stop Axis from falling to earth in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: A century's worth of carnage and despair could have been avoided had the contents of Laplace's Box — the original UC Charter, containing a clause erased from the official Federation copy which encourages colonist involvement with the Earth government — been revealed sooner, which has been acknowledged both by the man who caused it to be hidden — Syam Vist, one of the terrorists who destroyed the Laplace in the first place, and his great-grandson, Banagher, to whom it was entrusted in the end. Then again, some couldn't stand losing an opportunity to get rich off a haze of misguided patriotic fervor, Syam himself included.
• Crapsack World: Earth has been almost completely robbed of its resources and subjected to at least four Colony Drops, The Federation is barely holding together, both it and what's left of Zeon have distorted their founding ideologies beyond recognition and to the point that both sides are just as bad as each other, and the few Newtypes that do show up invariably get drafted as soldiers and typically end up completely insane.
  • The mere fact that things had gotten to the way they are by this point underscores the failed promises of what the Universal Century was supposed to symbolize. What was meant usher a new utopian age for humanity had instead marked a new chapter of animosity that lead to bloodshed.
  • Ironically, for all the carnage wrought during the Universal Century at least some on Earth seem to consider the state of affairs in UC 0096 an improvement over the pre-Earth Federation days, given that they find the idea of countries fighting one another unthinkable (And even that doesn't last forever).
• Cumbersome Claws: The RX-160S Byarlant Custom was even less able to use weapons than its RX-160 Byarlant predecessor: instead of the small finger-like claws of the original Byarlant, the Byarlant Custom's forearms were gigantic claws capable of grappling with enemy Mobile Suits. However, unlike the original Byarlant, this wasn't considered a flaw: the Byarlant Custom's new function was rapid assault, and so the claw arms (coupled with how the beam sabers were now emitted from the now wrist-mounted beam cannons) were deemed conducive to its function.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In the anime, there's the Silver Bullet vs. the Neo-Zeong. The Silver Bullet is a modified Doven Wolf from Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ with a few new pieces of equipment and a Gundam head. The other is a freakin' humongous Mobile Armor piloted by a Psychoframe-infused Mobile Suit. Any damage done to the Neo-Zeong is negligible and the Silver Bullet literally beaten with one finger.
  • The Sinanju and Rozen Zulu vs the General Revil and its mobile suit team in a twisted instance of Neo Zeon serving as the cavalry to the Nahel Argama and Garencieres. After Angelo eliminates the mobile suits attacking the Nahel Argama with almost zero effort in his new suit he literally bows out to make way for Full Frontal and the Sinanju. From there it's a fight masterfully played by Full Frontal who starts with extremely precise long range beam attacks, only moving in when beam dispersal screens are deployed, evading long range counterattacks from the General Revil and its mobile suits, dismantling the mobile suit team in melee combat, and finally switching to its bazooka to deal enough damage to scare the ship and its mobile suits away. And to top it all off both Frontal and Angelo made it a point to do this all non-lethally.
• Cycle of Revenge: One of the reasons that the war continues between Zeon and the Federation is because both sides keep performing atrocities as revenge for past atrocities.
• Darker and Edgier: They dialed up the violence and destruction with this one. We're five episodes in, and Gundam Unicorn is almost rivaling Victory Gundam in utter bleakness. It belongs to the Universal Century timeline. What else can we expect?
  • Downplayed in the ending. By UC Gundam standards, the body count is pretty tame with Marida being the only protagonist to buy the farm. The rest are either mooks or redshirts.
• Death by Adaptation: Episode 5 and 7 pretty much confirms that Amuro and Char are declared KIA after the events of the Second Neo Zeon War.
• Death of a Child: In episode 3, where the rest of Banagher's class aside from two of his friends are killed by a rogue beam rifle shot during the battle between the Federation and the Sleeves.
• Deconstruction: In a way, Marida is a deconstruction of the Puru concept (which was in part designed to appeal to lolicons). Marida ends up being forced into prostitution in the backstory and is clearly shown to be utterly traumatized by it, while the people who force her into it are portrayed as heartless and unfeeling monsters. All this is alongside the simple fact that Marida is an adult, serving as a reminder that the Purus would eventually, you know, grow up.
• Didn't See That Coming: Nobody predicted Gryps II suddenly showing up to rain on everyone's parade. Counts double if you consider Full Frontal's plan was doomed the second he tipped off the location of the Box to the Federation; even if he had defeated Banagher, the colony laser would've killed him and destroyed the Box.
• Divergent Character Evolution: In the novel, Banshee is just Palette Swap of Unicorn without the La+ Program. In the OVA, it has two brand new Armed Armor weapons: a Beam Smart Gun and a Vibrating Claw. Later it gets the Armed Armor DE, an add-on for its shield that gives it offensive and thrusting capabilities.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: In Episode 7: After the colony laser was deflected bu the two Unicorns, Mineva, with help from Syam, accessed all broadcast lines on Earth and the Colonies in order to reveal the contents of Laplace's Box to humanity.
• Downer Beginning: The opening scenes of Episode 1 chronicle the very start of the Universal Century...only to be cut short by the destruction of Laplace.
• The Dreaded: Once the Unicorn reveals it's more traditional Gundam form, the Zeon affiliated have a very strong reaction to it as other characters comment on how legendary the Gundam mobile suits are.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Towards the end of Episode Seven, the Rewloola is destroyed without much fanfare simply for being in the refurbished Gryps Laser's line of fire.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The ending seems to imply that the voice saying it will entrust the Universal Century to Banagher and Mineva's generation was not Full Frontal, but Char's ghost, that seeing what the two of them have accomplished has cleansed his soul of the bitterness that drove him to commit the events of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack and allowed him to move on to the afterlife with Amuro and Lalah. However, since Frontal is voiced by a different actor than Char in English, it merely appears as if Full Frontal is admitting his respect for a Worthy Opponent as he dies.
  • This is somewhat rectified by the English dub of the Origin OVAs, in which Char is now played by the same actor as Full Frontal.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: In his final moments, Commander Daguza is able to distract the Sinanju with a series of charges and successfully hits it with a shoulder-fired bazooka. His last act before being incinerated by the Sinanju's beam tomahawk is giving Banagher a final, unflinching salute.
• '80s Hair: Guilty as charged. Despite the show having started in 2010, everyone has an epic 'do. It might be so it matches the style of previous UC shows, most of which were actually made in The '80s.
• Elaborate Underground Base: It's revealed in Episode Seven that the Vist Foundation along with their Federation allies are running the refurbished Gryps Laser from the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, which is a Real Life example of this trope. It's also shown to be heavily defended.
• Elite Mooks: On the Earth Federation side, both Londo Bell and ECOAS technically serve as these compared to the regular E.F.S.F. Both make a good accounting of themselves over the course of the OVA.
• Enemy Mine: In Episode Five, Londo Bell and the Sleeves team up to rescue Mineva, Banagher, and the Unicorn, on the grounds that 'if the Vist Foundation is going this far to cover up Laplace's Box, it's probably important'. The Federation planning to sacrifice the Nahel Argama probably helped.
  • And another one in Episode 6 between the Nahel Argama and Full Frontal, though that alliance doesn't last very long.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Several examples:
  • The crew of the Garancieres aren't terribly fond of civilian casualties, to the point where they're willing to sit back and watch whilst Banagher beats the crap out of their captain for refusing to intervene in a massacre.
  • Alberto is visibly uncomfortable about what the Vist Foundation is putting Marida through. It probably doesn't help that she saved his life.
• Evil Counterpart: Subverted with ECOAS, which is initially presented as one to Londo Bell. They have far less scruples in getting the job done by any means necessary, but what keeps them from becoming like the Titans is the fact that they're all dedicated, well-meaning professionals who are aware of their role as Necessarily Evil.
• Expy: Again, it's expected in a Gundam series.
  • The Geara Zulu is an Expy of the Zaku II (in-universe explanation states that this is deliberate in an attempt to raise troop morale).
  • The Sleeves repaint of the Dreissen◊ look similar to the original Dom.
  • The beam axe wielded by the Sinanju is reminiscent of the energy swords found in Halo, but is actually an Expy of the Sazabi's Axe.
    • The Sinanju itself is basically an upgraded funnel-less Sazabi.
    • The Sinanju also has a similar origin and look to Gerbera Tetra the Sinanju began its life as an Anaheim mobile suit known as the Sinanju Stein before being stolen by The Sleeves and being slightly modified to The Sinanju
  • The Rozen Zulu is an Expy of the Hamma Hamma.
  • The Ankusha, of the Asshimar.
  • The Kshatriya is (literally) a downsized, high-manoeuvrability version of the Quin Mantha.
  • The Unicorn Gundam, in Destroy Mode, resembles the original Gundam, especially with the backpack mounted Beam Sabers. Its beam magnum even fires with the same sound as the RX-78-2's beam rifle, a conscious decision by the producers.
  • The Mobile Armor in episode 7, the Neo Zeong, combines major elements of the Zeong, the Neue Ziel, and the Alpha Azeiru, all while integrating the mobile-suit-inside-a-mobile-armor aspect from the Gundam GP03 Dendrobium Orchis.
  • There are some in the case of the characters as well:
    • Having been raised by her now deceased matriarch, Haman Karn, Mineva Lao Zabi (Audrey Burne) inherits her cold, dignified personality traits. Unique to Mineva/Audrey is her ability to be completely warm with Banagher one moment and then go completely cold on him the next (see Episode 2 and Episode 6)
    • Zinnerman holds some of Char's warmer personality traits, and Marida is like his personal Lalah Sune. They even met the same way, Zinnerman found Marida working as a prostitute and Char found Lalah doing likewise. In their case, though, the relationship is parental rather than romantic. Zinnerman names her Marida to evoke his dead daughter, who was named Marie. In addition, Marida is more mechanical than free-spirited, perhaps as a result of her birth.
    • Angelo Sauper could be seen as a successor to Mashymre Cello. Both share an intense devotion towards their superior officers (Full Frontal and Haman Karn) and Angelo's Rozen Zulu is even based upon Mashymre's experimental Hamma Hamma. By proxy, the former trait also mirrors Patrick Colasour's similar veneration of Kati Mannequin. The only difference is that Angelo is devoid of the comic relief role that Mashymre and Patrick played. Angelo and Frontal's bond also has some father-son undertones as Angelo's real father died and his step-father abused him as a child.
    • Angelo also looks a hell of a lot like Dorel Ronah.
    • Loni Garvey is effectively Lalah Sune if Lalah Sune were consumed by vengeance.
  • The NT-D System itself is so astonishingly similar to the EXAM System in Mobile Suit Gundam Blue Destiny, right down to the operational time before the pilot completely loses it. Gundam Extreme Vs. Full Boost lampshades this with special crossover dialog if you partner the Unicorn or Banshee with either Blue Destiny 1 or the Efreet Kai, and Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative goes as far as to have NT-D-Equipped MS have their eyes turn red when the system is active.

F to M

• Failsafe Failure: The Federation forgot to even install a failsafe on The Gryps Cannon. Apparently the possibility that someone might want to abort the firing of a WMD never occurred to them, so once it's started charging, the only options are firing it or watching it self-destruct.
• Falling into the Cockpit: Bright Lampshades this trope by point out that literally every single Gundam pilot up to this point, including Banagher, ended up in a Gundam by sheer dumb luck. However, Bright also points out that what sets Gundam pilots apart from everybody else is that they chose to get back into the cockpit when the situation presented itself.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In Episode 1: Before Audrey's real identity as Mineva Zabi is revealed, she looks up at a theatre marquee showing a movie called "Runaway Princess".
  • Full Frontal's "conversation" with Banagher in episode 6. Full Frontal talks to Banagher about being a vessel, and that one has to empty themselves to achieve it. In the very end, Banagher is consumed by the Unicorn, thus being a vessel for the Unicorn at its maximum potential, but chooses to return to consciousness to be with Audrey (and after some "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight words from Riddhe)
• Free-Fall Fight: A most awesome variation occurs in episode three: Banagher ends up fighting Full Frontal amidst atmospheric reentry. In this case, the danger isn't so much the ground at the bottom, but rather Banagher's Roaring Rampage of Revenge preventing either of them escaping back into space before they burn up.
• Free-Fall Romance: Played with in Episode 5: Mineva, rejecting Riddhe's offer to elope, jumps into sub-atmospheric free-fall while telepathically calling out to Banagher—symbolically choosing him out of her Love Triangle. He, despite being locked in battle with the Banshee, immediately abandons the fight to catch Mineva with Unicorn.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: During episode 3, after Daguza blasts off half of the Sinanju's face, there are only a few clear shots of the damaged head, showing the more Gundam-like head underneath left over from its creation as the Sinanju Stein. Between the glowing red eye and a gap on the mouthpiece, it looks like a screaming skull face.
• Foregone Conclusion: While the series gives some closure to the issue of the Zeon rebellions, whatever peace won for the Earth Sphere by the heroes is fleeting at best. Please remember that Unicorn is set before F91 and Victory.
• Forever War: At the beginning the series, the Federation and Zeon have been at war with each other for almost twenty years. It's gradually winding down, mostly due to sheer exhaustion, but the Zeon remnants are very persistent.
• From Nobody to Nightmare:
  • Downplayed but tied in to Call-Forward. The Buch Concern, where Banagher works a part-time job, is part of a financial enterprise run by the Ronah family, who are at this point relatively obscure compared to Anaheim Electronics or even SNRI. By the events of F91, they've become powerful and influential enough to both make an empire (aka Cosmo Babylonia) almost overnight and manufacture their own mobile suits.
  • Syam Vist counts, as he went from a young bitter terrorist who was involved in the Laplace Incident in UC 0001 to the patriarch of a secretive and influential foundation that's in possession of Laplace's Box.
  • Laplace's Box itself arguably counts. Initially, all the Box was good for aside from justifying the Federation's power was as a bargaining chip that could do little more than cause a political scandal. By the time Zeon Deikun came into prominence and the One Year War, the Box had taken on far more weight than it originally had to the point that it could crush the Federation and justify Spacenoid supremacy if it were to fall outside of the Vist Foundation.
  • SNRI itself is another downplayed example, as at this point in the UC timeline, it's just beginning to steal the thunder from Anaheim Electronics.
  • Anaheim Electronics itself, which is further highlighted in the novels. It originally was just an electrics company in North America owned by the Carbines. Over generations (and thanks in part to Syam Vist's machinations), it grew in power and influence within the Federation. By the time the series takes place, it's very much the MegaCorp in the Earth Sphere in addition to being the public front for the Vist Foundation, though SNRI is beginning to steal some of its thunder.
• Fun with Acronyms: ECOAS, which stands for Earth Colony Asteroid, the areas they operate at.
• Gatling Good:
  • The Unicorn gets hold of a pair of twin beam gatling guns (originally meant for the Khsatriya) during Banagher's escape from Palau.
    • The Full Armor Unicorn sports three shields with twin gatlings on each - that's right, Banagher now has six beam gatlings to play with!
  • Gilboa's Geara Zulu also carries one to supplement its cannon, and the Greifer has two projectile-based gatling guns.
• Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: In Episode 5, Mineva escapes the Vist Foundation's Garuda by jumping out in mid-air and requesting that Banagher catch her (she'd lost her parachute moments beforehand). Happily, he has the presence of mind to match speeds before grabbing her in order to ensure that she doesn't go squish.
• Gone Horribly Right: As Riddhe reveals in Episode 5, the conspiracy that occurred at the Laplace Station, that's since screwed up all of Universal Century's history: Syam Vist and Federation conspirators intended to use the bombing at the station to enact hard line policies on colony control and gain power. They got what they wanted, but with the accidental concealment of Laplace's Box, it also brought unexpected rise of mutual Earth and Colonist prejudice that finally exploded into the One Year War. The Federation conspiracy, that had hoped for "more control", now oppresses its colonies, while the resentful colonies lash out in various Zeon rebellions, leading to almost 30 years of continued conflict with no apparent end, and lots and lots of dead people.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: The Vist Foundation's deal with the Sleeves, thanks to a traitor inside the Foundation and a nervous lookout with an itchy trigger finger.
  • Laplace's Box originally only had enough power to cause a major scandal and some civil unrest, but the One Year War and Zeon's Newtype philosophy transformed the secret of the Box into something which could tear the Federation apart (which ironically ruined the Foundation's ability to use it as leverage because they'd be hurt just as badly by the Federation collapsing), since one interpretation of it could legitimize the Zeon rebellion. When Mineva does reveal the Box, she is very careful to say that it in no way supports Zeon's ideals, and that there ended up being similarities is mere coincidence.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Banagher and Zinnerman's "disagreement" over tactics and ideology on the Garencieres bridge in the fourth episode. The rest of the bridge crew decided not to involve themselves. What's interesting is that despite the size difference Banagher won.
  • Although Banagher's victory is not so surprising considering that, in the first episode, he managed to beat back two grown men (one at least as big as Zinnerman) and Marida.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The Unicorn's hatch closes just before Cardeas's body is engulfed in an explosion, despite being averted many times in the preceding colony raid.
• Groin Attack: Delivered by Banagher during the aforementioned disagreement.
• Gratuitous English: The note Banagher gets in the second episode is written in understandable, but still rather broken, bad English.
• Guns Akimbo: In Episode 6, you can see a Re ZEL firing at the Banshee Norn using two beam rifles originally used by the Jegan.
• Haunted Technology: The series reveals that the psycoframe technology introduced in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack has some rather unusual side-effects - namely, it stores echoes of a suit's past pilots. This becomes quite a significant plot point. It's how they made Full Frontal, and the cause of Loni going berserk during the attack on Torrington.
• Heel–Face Turn: To nobody's great surprise, the Garencieres team pull one off in Episode 6, choosing to help Audrey, Banagher, and the Nahel Argama discover what Laplace's Box actually is before they decide whether handing it over to Full Frontal is really the best possible use for it.
• He Knows Too Much: The Federation tries to pull this on the Nahel Argama and its crew. End result? Londo Bell goes rogue... again.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Dr. Bancroft, a history teacher at Anaheim Electronics Technical School, willingly closes a bunker door from the outside to prevent those inside from being fried by a nuclear blast. It's one of the few truly heroic actions in the whole series so far.
  • Daguza also counts, using himself as bait to try and lure Full Frontal into a trap so that Banagher stood a chance at defeating him.
  • Marida decides to distract a berserk Riddhe by challenging him to a battle, even though her hastily repaired mobile suit was no match for his. It's also implied that she let herself get shot by his beam magnum in an effort to break him free from Banshee's control.
• He Who Fights Monsters: The Sleeves, who've spent so long trying to pay the Federation back for its misdeeds that they have no understanding of any other way to live.
  • The Federation, in both its efforts to keep the peace and maintain the Ancient Conspiracy regarding Laplace's Box, isn't much better off in UC 0096 than Zeon was in UC 0079.
• History Repeats: Related to Cycle of Revenge. Even after unifying Earth under the Federation, the progress made in space colonization and all the talk of Newtypes, humanity at large still finds itself repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Lampshaded by Mineva Zabi wondering whether there's even an answer to that age old conundrum.
  • In Episode 6, Mineva Zabi calls Full Frontal out on this should he find Laplace's Box. His vision for Spacenoid supremacy would basically amount to the colonies becoming the oppressors and Earth taking the role of the victim. It would also signify a return to the Anno Domini calendar as Earthnoids become increasingly resentful and collapse into infighting that may destroy the Federation and bring about a bitter and vengeful generation bent on taking their anger on the colonies. In other words, it would be the One Year War all over again, with the roles reversed.
• Hostage Situation: Inverted in episode two, when Daguza Mackle holds Mineva Zabi hostage in an attempt to prevent Full Frontal from destroying the Nahel Argama. This then turns into...
  • Hostage for MacGuffin: When Full Frontal denies these terms and holds the Nahel Argama hostage in exchange for the Unicorn Gundam.
• Hulking Out: The title suit's transformation from Unicorn Mode to Gundam mode is a mechanical version of this, complete with a rage-based initiation.
• I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: How Banagher receives the Unicorn at the end of the first episode.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Banagher attempts to reach out to Loni in episode four and very nearly succeeds.
  • He has better luck in Episode 5 with Marida, thanks to help from Zinnerman and Riddhe.
• Incoming Ham: Surprisingly enough, Syam Vist in Episode Seven happens to be a bit of a showman given that his introduction to Banagher and Mineva involves a lot of sweeping holograms and panoramas, culminating in Laplace's Box.
• Interrupted Cooldown Hug: Riddhe tried one when Banagher and Zinnerman were trying to defuse a Brainwashed and Crazy Marida. He failed spectacularly - see Nice Job Fixing It, Villain below.
• Ironic Echo: A recording of Ricardo Marcenas' Dawn of an Era speech is triggered from the Unicorn itself in the Laplace ruins. Unlike in UC 0001 however, its words come across as hollow and dissonant if not ignored amid a battle against the Sleeves.
• Jettison Jetpack Attack: Banagher piloting the Full Armor Unicorn Gundam launches one of its giant propellant tanks at a Neo Zeon mobile suit to assist Conroy piloting the Jegan ECOAS.
• Kill Sat: The Gryps Laser from Zeta Gundam makes a return in Episode 7, as Martha's last-resort option for the Federation to keep the secret behind Laplace's Box hidden. Fails to do so, thanks to the two "awakened" Unicorns, but disintegrates the main Neo-Zeon fleet (including the Rewloola) as a consolation.
• Lampshade Hanging: At one point in episode three, Banagher calls the search for Laplace's Box a "crazy treasure hunt".
  • Garencieres' mechanic lampshading the Anacheim Electronics' pouring the fuel into the EF-(Neo)Zeon's wars' fire.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: The Sleeves have two:
  • The Sinanju prompts this response from one of the Londo Bell officers:
    Bridge officer: The lead machine is approaching at... three times the speed of the others!
  • The Shamblo is a red mobile armour that single handedly lays waste to Dakar and the forces at Torrington Base.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Episode 7, the Ra Cailum's Jesta team remark on how they haven't had many chances to shine.
• Leg Cannon: The repaired Kshatriya get's a beam Gatling gun up it's makeshift leg.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Kshatriya is remarkably fast given its bulk and firepower, but even it pales in comparison to the Sinanju, Unicorn, and Banshee.
  • The Byarlant Custom in episode four, despite its incredibly wide shoulders and ungainly claw arms, flies circles around the Zeon attackers.
• Light Is Good: The completely white Unicorn Gundam, whose name is based on a beast of light and possibilities, mostly because it's piloted by the good-hearted kid serving as our protagonist. However...
• Light Is Not Good: Marida stated that Zeon replaced the light of God for the spacenoids, even using the phrase "a new light called Zeon". Moreover, the Unicorn itself has a nasty habit of going all Superpowered Evil Side when there are other Newtypes around, which is a bit of a problem if the pilot doesn't want to reduce them to a bloody smear across the cosmos.
• Linked List Clue Methodology: The Unicorn Gundam and its La+ OS can only be activated at certain times and places to unlock the next clue, eventually unlocking what's contained in Laplace's Box.
• Logic Bomb: What ultimately breaks Marida's conditioning is Riddhe pointing out that she's in a gundam. Since she's been programmed to see Gundams as the enemy the fact that she's piloting one makes her the enemy. The resulting contradiction completely overwhelms the programming
• Love Triangle: In the novels, there is Micott/Banagher/Audrey, and later, Banagher/Audrey/Riddhe. Both of them have been carried over intact into the anime.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Cardeas Vist to Banagher Links, though subverted as it turns out Banagher knew it all along and just didn't remember very well.
  • Of course, thus far the anime has also raised the possibility that his parents wiped his memories.
• Machine Blood: The series uses oil-as-analogue-for-blood in mobile suit battles, particularly in the assault on Torrington Base and when Marida rips Riddhe's Delta Plus limb-from-limb.
• MacGuffin: Laplace's Box.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Full Frontal is on the receiving end of one in Episode 6, but evades handily.
• Madness Mantra: In the last few minutes of her life, with her brain overwhelmed by a malfunctioning psycommu, Loni is unable to say anything except "Sieg Zeon", as she's consumed by a leftover lust for vengeance against the Federation (not helped by all of the other Zeon Remnants being killed around her.)
• Magic A Is Magic A: The Unicorn Gundam is basically a prototype to take the psycoframe system used in the Nu Gundam and Sazabi from Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack and extend it throughout the entire mobile suit frame and not just the cockpit. The climax of Chars Counterattack is a curious display of what the psycoframe can do, but anyone who has seen that film would take notice when the Unicorn Gundam is able to alter physics to pull a shuttle into low orbit all by itself while emitting a green glow.
• Malicious Slander: Possible example. When Banagher is eating with Gilboa's family after being captured, one of the kids claims that anyone held prisoner by the E.F.S.F will be denied food, his defense being "his dad told him so." This definitely isn't official Federation policy, but given the setting, it's still not implausible that Gilboa himself was starved during his previous run-ins with their military.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The Neo Zeon remnants are called "the Sleeves" due to the decorative patterns on the forearms of their mobile suits, on the other end the ECOAS are referred to as the "Manhunter unit" due to their stated mission of hunting down the Neo Zeon remnants.
  • Full Frontal, which stands for full frontal assault, is a shout out to the missing-in-action Char Aznable's combat style.
  • Extends to the mobile suits too:
    • The Unicorn is named after the mythical creature whose name means The Beast of Possibilities (something that Banagher does comment on).
    • The Kshatriya is named for the military and ruling order of one of the four social classes of Hinduism.
    • The Sinanju is named for a fictional style of martial arts (which is supposed to be the original base of all martial arts, with all other forms of martial arts being watered-down imitations) from a paperback book series known as The Destroyer.
    • The Sinanju Stein with Stein meaning "stone" in German and Norwegian. The Sinanju Stein is also referred to as "The stone from which Full Frontal's Sinanju was hewn.
    • The Banshee is named after a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld.
    • The Klimt, a Vist Foundation ship used under the guise of transporting works of art to and from the colonies, is named after Gustav Klimt.
• Mecha Expansion Pack: The Stark Jegan and the Unicorn's Full Armor configuration grant the mobile suits in question an increased array of weapons.
  • The Unicorn artbook shows a Full Armor configuration for the Jesta, which turns from a high speed low drag spec ops mecha into a Guncannon expy.
• Mecha-Mooks: This is subverted when the Londo Bell forces and ECOAS special operations units actually put up a decent fight against the Kshatriya.
• MegaCorp: Anaheim Electronics, though it no longer has a monopoly with the introduction of SNRI, who made the D50C Loto. It's also revealed however (at least in the novel) that the man who came to be known as Syam Vist was responsible for backing Anaheim, which was originally a run off the mill electrics company in North America to the point that by 0096, the corporation is effectively a front for the Vist Foundation.
• The Men in Black: The Vist Foundation has a generous supply.
• Mental Time Travel: Banagher and Full Frontal's shared Newtype vision in Episode Seven amounts to this, as both of them mentally travel back to scenes from Char's Counterattack, the One Year War and the Laplace Incident before winding up at the very end of time.
• Meta Mecha: Neo Zeong is actually an large armor from Sinanju.
• Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • Riddhe Marcenas gets two of these, upgrading from his ReZEL to the Delta Plus, and then upgrades that to the Unicorn Unit 02 "Banshee" after they reclaim it from the Sleeves. What makes this interesting is that it happens to one of the supporting cast rather than the main character.
  • Angelo Sauper gets one in the form of the Rozen Zulu.
  • Full Frontal gets one, specifically the mobile armor-like Neo Zeong for his Sinanju.
• Milking the Giant Cow: The Unicorn made quite the hand gesture when it took control of Kshatriya's funnels.
  • Of course the Unicorn was crushing it, as opposed to milking it.
• Mind Hug: Banagher tries a near-literal version on Loni in order to persuade her to stop her murderous rampage. Unfortunately, her malfunctioning psycommu got in the way.
• Mini-Mecha: The Tolro-800 "Torohachi" petite mobile suit.
  • Though not at "wearable Powered Armor" level, the Loto personnel carrier is so small that the HG model kit comes with two of them in a box usually sized for one kit.
• Morality Pet: Marida Cruz for the cast as a whole, and especially her fellow Sleeves. If you want a quick shorthand as to a character's moral alignment, check out how they interact with her.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous:
  • The Kshatriya, although the extra arms are mounted on the four giant shoulder weapons arrays.
  • Ditto with the Neo Zeong, which has 2 Arms up front, 4 at the back (mounted on rails under its shoulders which can swivel to the front when necessary), and each arm having 5 pseudo-funnels that can hijack enemy MS on contact.
• My Hero, Zero: The Unicorn Gundam's official designation is RX-0.
• Mythology Gag:
  • When moving at maximum thrust, the Sinanju is three times faster than any of its wing-men.
  • At the beginning of episode two, upon seeing the Unicorn transform into Destroy Mode, one of the crew members of the Nahel Argama shouts, "It's a Gundam!" almost identically to how Mooks of the franchise have in the past, prior to their deaths.
  • On the Sleeves-sympathetic colony there are English store signs that read "Red Comet" and "Black Three Star". The reference for the first one is obvious, the second one references the Black Tri-Stars, who captured General Revil at the Battle of Loum and who were defeated by Amuro.
  • Even on the first episode, the date displayed on the binoculars that Takuya lent to Micott^note The same one she used when she spotted Banagher and Audrey on the Colony Builder is 7 April 0096. The original first aired in 1979 on the very same date.
  • The Unicorn's Beam Magnum is likely a nod to the original depiction of Amuro's Hi-Nu Gundam in Beltorchika's Children, in which its Beam Rifle was described as having 'an output that rivals some mega particle cannons'
  • The Kshatriya's triangular hangar aboard the Grancieres looks and fuctions exactly like one of the missile compartments on the GP03 Dendrobium Orchis.
• Never Found the Body: Subverted. Full Frontal's cockpit hatch is found open after Banagher destroys the Neo Zeong/Sinanju, much like the Hyaku Shiki was at the end of Zeta. However, the cockpit manages to float by Angelo's destroyed Rozen Zulu and Angelo checks inside only to find Frontal's corpse.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In order to allow the Unicorn to unlock the next stage in the La+ program, the Zeon Remnants stage a full scale attack on the Federation base at Torrington. However, all this accomplishes is gathering all of the remaining Zeon resistance on Earth in one place to get annihilated.
  • On the Federation's side, meanwhile, Riddhe's deranged ranting turns out to be exactly the little nudge Marida needs to break her Vist Foundation brainwashing.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Zeon Remnants might possibly have won the Battle of Torrington if they'd been a little less squeamish about civilian casualties.
  • Marida saves Alberto from being sucked into space after the Nahel Argama suffers a breach in its hull. She is later taken by Alberto to Augusta, where she is mentally tortured by his aunt, Martha to essentially turn her into a slave soldier. Later afterwards, she dies protecting the Nahel Argama. Karma really worked with her.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Unicorn vs. Kshatriya, Round 3 is without question the most brutal one-on-one fight yet depicted in Gundam. It says a lot that one of our protagonist's greatest moments of heroism is managing to Save the Villain by forcing his own machine to stop hitting her.
  • Banagher does this to Zinnerman after he calls him out on his hypocrisy. Amusingly enough, Zinnerman's crew pretend not to notice.
    • They noticed it pretty well, please and thank you. They just refused to get involved. Flaste specifically said to Zinnerman that he's on his own there.
  • Marida administers one to Riddhe's Delta Plus in Episode 5 for looking too much like a Gundam during a time of severe emotional stress.
    • It's not just that the Delta Plus looks like a Gundam, it's that it's developed from the failed Delta Gundam project. It is a Gundam, in everything but name.
• Number of the Beast: The Kshatriya's official designation is NZ-666.
• Numerical Theme Naming: Two of the suits in the series have their MS Code follow the numbering from the Queen Mansa (NZ-000) and the Alpha Azeiru (NZ-333): the aforementioned Kshatriya and the anime-exclusive NZ-999 Neo Zeong.

O to Z

• Offhand Backhand: During episode three, the Unicorn Gundam is fighting against two Geara Zulus. After using its shield to block a beam rifle attack it uses the beam saber on its right arm to slice off the flanking Geara Zulu's weapon arm, stabs through the left side of its cockpit, and tosses it aside. All within the span of about two seconds.
  • Full Frontal later does this while soloing the General Revil's mobile suits.
• Oh, Crap!: Pretty much everybody's reaction upon first seeing Unicorn Gundam in NT-D mode.
  • Angelo in Episode 6 when Otto verbally slams him right before ECOAS retakes the Nahel Argama from Full Frontal's forces.
• Only the Pure of Heart/Phlebotinum-Handling Requirements: The Unicorn Gundam can only be piloted by a Newtype, and then only one with a noble heart in pursuit of a noble cause.
• Perspective Flip: In addition to being a Clip Show, the One Hundred Years of Solitude extra episode recounts the events of the Universal Century as well as the entire OVA up until Banagher's return to Industrial 7 from Syam and Cardeas Vist's perspective.
• Plot Armor:
  • The Unicorn Gundam is never seriously damaged through the story. The most it receives is some of its shoulder plates getting hit. Given this is an extremely complicated and unique piece of machinery, this saves the story from screeching to a halt to ask the question of how to repair or replace parts for a Gundam made almost entirely of Psychoframe. When the Unicorn is finally seriously damaged as a result of taking the brunt of the Colony Laser on by itself, it eventually manages to repair itself before returning to normal mode.
  • Somewhat averted with both the Banshee and Nahel Argama. By the last episode, the former's leg and built-in weapons systems get blown off, while the latter is just barely holding together.
  • The Sinanju. Angelo even comments how Unicorn's Beam Magnum is so powerful it can destroy mobile suits with just a graze. Yet the worst damage Sinanju ever takes is having some of its leg thrusters marginally damaged by a near direct hit from it.
• Power Glows: The psychoframe on the unicorns glows when active and exposed. What's interesting is that the engineers who built the thing have absolutely no idea how or why it does that...
• Praetorian Guard: Full Frontal's bodyguards, at least two of which were killed, pretty easily, by Banagher, making them something of a Red Shirt Army.
• Psychic Powers: As usual for a work set in the Universal Century, Newtypes dominate the main cast. So far we have Banagher, Audrey/Mineva, Full Frontal, Marida, Riddhe and Loni. The OVA also distinguishes itself by featuring quite possibly the most powerful Newtype ever in the form of Banagher Links.
• Punch-Clock Villain: When Banagher is taken to Palau, he finds that the rank and file Sleeves members aren't that different, and even befriends or at least earns the respect of a few of them.
• Putting on the Reich: The Sleeves have their equipment stylized after WWII German firearms and accessories, examples being the standard STG-44-lookalike beam rifle, the stahlhelm-like heads of the Geara Doga and Geara Zulu, and even their uniforms. Being The Remnants of the Neo-Zeon movement, this isn't too surprising.
• Put on a Bus: The crew of the Nahel Argama don't show up at all in episode 4 since they're being quarantined by the Federation for their role in trying to find Laplace's Box.
• Recap Episode: The EX episode One Hundred Years of Solitude is one for the entire Universal Century, featuring highlights from all three primary UC series up to this point and "Char's Counterattack".
• Recursive Ammo: The General Revil fires submunition-carrying missiles at the Sinanju, to little effect.
• Recycled IN SPACE!:
  • The show is essentially The Da Vinci Code with Humongous Mecha. Replace "Priory of Sion" with "Vist Foundation", the cryptex with the Unicorn Gundam, and the Grail with Laplace's Box, and you have the overall plot of Gundam Unicorn, complete with a plot where everyone is scrambling to get their hands on a secret whose disclosure will almost certainly create a massive crisis.
  • Since what the audience saw of Laplace's Box looked like the monolith, one can also think 2001: A Space Odyssey with Humongous Mecha — after all, the film was Yoshiyuki Tomino's inspiration for the original Gundam series. Banagher and Full Frontal's Newtype vision begins similarly to the infamous Stargate sequence, and like David Bowman, Banagher is transformed into a baby (and reunited with his father) as a result of using Unicorn's psychoframe to its fullest extent (though he ultimately chooses to return to the mortal realm). Also, Banagher manages to stop the General Revil from advancing while in perfected form simply by waving the Unicorn's arm.
  • Motif-wise, Gundam Unicorn also takes after The Lady and the Unicorn, with the Unicorn obviously being the Unicorn, the Banshee being the Lion and Audrey being the Lady.
• The Remnant: Both the titular Zeon Remnants and the Sleeves, themselves the surviving elements of Char's Neo Zeon movement.
• Reset Button‎: Episode Seven shows that regardless of whoever reaches Laplace's Box first, Martha and Ronan are willing to destroy it to create a new one in its place. Which also involves a certain Colony Laser. Unfortunately for them, Bright and Londo Bell swoop in to save the day.
• Retraux:
  • This poster◊ for Episode 7 is very reminiscent of both old Star Wars art from The '80s as well as this poster◊ for Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
  • The OVA itself, while clearly up to 21st Century standards takes heavy cues from The '80s in its animation style down to the '80s Hair, mirroring the Universal Century shows made in that time.
• Retirony: Gilboa promises to return to his family when he has to leave for another assignment. Guess what happens on his very next mission?
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • Cardeas lingering on Banagher's file in the student roster and somehow knowing what his father wanted for him makes much more sense when you find out that he's Banagher's father.
  • Knowing that Banagher is a Newtype himself makes certain elements much more clear, such as Banagher somehow being able to see the Unicorn and also knowing that Mineva was in danger.
  • The nature of the NT-D System using its pilot as a Wetware CPU makes a very easy-to-miss detail much more noticeable - before Banagher accidentally killed Gilboa, every time the NT-D System activates, Banagher's face is obscured for the entire period that it's active, illustrating that Banagher isn't the one controlling the Unicorn - the NT-D system is, using him as a proxy.
• Running Gag: Mobile Suits losing their legs. It happens to Riddhe most commonly, with his ReZel, Delta Plus and Banshee all losing their right legs. It also happens to Frontal, Angelo and Marida. Perhaps taken to its logical conclusion with the Neo Zeong, which has boosters instead of legs.
• Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: What it all really boils down to.
• Rocket Punch: Variation; the Loto has missile launchers for its forearms.
• Sequel Hook: The most important content Laplace's box, the lost 15th article of the Universal Century charter, not only contains a provision about involving a "new space-adapted human race", later called "Newtypes", into government, but also a provision about "preparation for an extraterrestrial biological emergency".
• Say My Name: Happens quite a bit, especially if it involves Audrey, Banagher or the Unicorn itself.
• Secret Test of Character: The entire wild goose chase using the Unicorn as a MacGuffin was all part of Syam Vist's plan to see if whether the person piloting the Unicorn was worthy to inherit Laplace's Box.
• Shoot the Dog: In Episode 4 Banagher can't bring himself to kill Loni, so Riddhe grabs the Unicorn's beam magnum and takes the shot instead.
• Shout-Out: Audrey Burne is named after Audrey Hepburn. There is even a movie poster named Runaway Princess, a blatant Shout-Out to Roman Holiday.
  • Gilboa taking the killing blow from Banagher meant for Full Frontal is similar to Lalah taking the killing blow from Amuro meant for Char Aznable.
  • The Unicorn Gundam and Unicorn Banshee are shout outs to The Lion and the Unicorn
  • The Newtype memory sequence in the final episode begins and largely plays out like something straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. More specifically, the infamous Stargate sequence.
  • The Jesta Cannon mobile suit, which is a black version of the Jesta with a multi-barrel cannon on one shoulder, a larger cannon on the other shoulder and numerous underarm weapon pods, has more than a slight resemblance to War Machine.
• Sins of Our Fathers: One of the recurring themes of the series is how children are cursed to carry on the grudges borne by their parents. In poor Loni's case, it's literal.
• Smash to Black: During the Mental Time Travel between Banagher and Full Frontal, they move to the very end of time itself. As they enter, the whole screen cuts to black and even the epic music comes to a dead stop.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Bright Noah and his Londo Bell team have an important role in the story and come across as the Hypercompetent Sidekick to the Earth Federation bureacrats, but ultimately fairly minor in the broad story.
• Space Is Noisy: Played with. The audience definitely hears all the explosions and action, but for those onboard a ship, space battles play out either heavily muffled or silent.
• Spanner in the Works: The Sleeves' plan to take Torrington Base might have actually worked if Loni's psycommu hadn't malfunctioned, causing her to start massacring civilians and forcing them to deploy Banagher to take out their own superweapon.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Most of the named characters who had appeared and were apparently killed off in the novel, were surprisingly left alive in the OVA. The only confirmed deaths (as of episode 7) were that of Marida and Full Frontal.
• Spit Take: After reading an emergency communiqué in episode five, Captain Midas sprays tea on the bridge officers in surprise.
• Start of Darkness: The events surrounding the Laplace Incident and concealment of Laplace's Box would send the Earth Federation, which wasn't exactly spotless to begin with, down a progressively darker path.
• Stuff Blowing Up: There's a reason why you should try to aim away from a mobile suit's Minovsky reactor... especially inside colonies.
• Super Mode: The NT-D.
• Superpower Lottery: Banagher momentarily achieves this in the end of Episode Seven upon being fully absorbed by the Unicorn, which makes him powerful enough to disable a whole army of Federation mobile suits with a wave of his hand. At least until he comes back and resists being consumed altogether.
• Superpowered Evil Side: The Unicorn's Destroy Mode gives off this feel, especially in episode three.
• Super Prototype: Invoked as a cover story. The Unicorn was sold to the Vist Foundation's backers as a test-bed for full-body psycoframe technology. The truth was rather more complicated. Its sister unit, the Banshee, plays it straight, being designed purely for military testing rather than, say, destabilising the entire Federation. Not that we're implying anything, of course.
  • The RGM-96X Jesta is also billed as this, particularly given its clear superiority over the basic RGM-89 Jegan, but is more correctly described as a limited production unit, rather than a prototype (12 units constructed & deployed). At the same time, it's also essentially a mass production Unicorn, built on the same frame as the Unicorn (albeit with a less powerful reactor and lacking psychoframe and NT-D).
• Tank Goodness: The D50C Loto is a transforming APC that can be armed with either an automatic cannon, a four-barrel rotary cannon or a 200mm suitbuster cannon. Besides that it also has a pair of arm-shield missile launchers and a set of beam torches that, considering they're meant to cut through doors rather than fend off beam sabers, actually do the latter just fine if the situation calls for it. It is also the smallest Mobile Suit ever produced in any of the Gundam universes, at 12m - or about 2/3rds of the average MS size.
• Technology Porn: The various mobile suits are lovingly animated, along with attention given to the use and activation of various features. The Scenery Gorn of the combat is also ramped up, with beam weapons carving up mobile suits and ships with exquisite detail.
• Tender Tears: During a conversation with Zinnerman, Banagher breaks down in tears over the pointlessness of the Federation/Zeon conflict. He apologizes to Zinnerman because men shouldn't cry, but Zinnerman points out that crying means he cares. He also remarks that he would never trust a man that doesn't cry.
• Terrorists Without a Cause: The Sleeves are a rather tragic example. They're theoretically fighting for the restoration of Zeon, but the truth is that they've been at it so long that it's all they know how to do.
• The Chosen One: After a long career of guiding them and seeing them change the course of history, Bright has started to view Gundam pilots like this.
• Theme Naming: The Zulu series of MS to the predecessors, the Doga series from Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. Both are named after African tribes.
• Thwarted Escape: Subverted. Micott interfered with Riddhe and Audrey's escape to Earth. After hearing them out, she reluctantly lets them go.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Justified: During the Unicorn's first activation of its NT-D, Marida has Kshatriya activate all 24 of its funnels so she can blast this new Gundam to all hell before it can finish doing whatever it's doing. They line up, fire... and the beams bend around the Unicorn as it deploys an I-field specifically designed to prevent the Unicorn from being shot down during its transformation.
• Transforming Mecha: The ReZEL, Delta Plus, Ankusha, Shamblo, Loto (the only difference being the first two change into a spacecraft while the latter changes into a tank) and of course the Unicorn and Banshee.
• Tron Lines: What distinguishes the Unicorn Gundams (both the titular one and the Banshee unit) from most of the suits in the series is the psycoframe installed throughout the internal structure, appearing and glowing brightly in Destroy mode (red for the Unicorn and gold for the Banshee). Even the custom normal suits of the pilots bear their respective Tron Lines colors. Moreover, when both are piloted through Tranquil Fury, the psycoframe glows aquamarine.
• Übermensch: Banagher arguably qualifies as he spends the story examining Federation and Zeon belief systems, and ultimately finds both to be flawed while his Unicorn represents the last hope to bring far reaching positive change for everyone. Riddhe and Full Frontal, in turn, represent ideological Last Men, as they believe the system is unchangeable and the only thing that matters now is ensuring their side "wins", regardless of the long term consequences. On the other hand, Banagher acknowledges that if Newtypes really are the next step of humanity as Zeon Deikun imagined them to be or the space-adapted species hoped for in the original UC Charter, it may never be confirmed as they would be much like regular people.
• Unwanted Rescue: Occurs in Episode 5, when Mineva chewed out Riddhe for getting in the way of far saner and more competent people's efforts to rescue her. Not being able to answer what he planned on doing after that didn't help.
• Villainous Rescue: Episode 5 contains two in a row. The first one (which overlaps with Big Damn Heroes, considering who it involves) has the Garencieres crew rescue Mineva, Banagher, the Unicorn, and (as an added bonus) Marida from the Vist Foundation, whilst the Nahel Argama provides support. The second one has Frontal and Angelo rescue everyone when the General Revil arrives to silence them.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The Sleeves and Neo Zeon have good publicity in the Palau colony.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: This happens nearly Once an Episode. In one of Banagher's first sorties, there's so much barf in his helmet that it should have drowned him. Riddhe has a truly epic one in episode 7 after he kills Marida, spewing and sobbing so much that there are little globs floating all over the cockpit. (He apparently had a vacuum in there, because they're gone once he comes through the other side of his Freak Out.)
• War for Fun and Profit: One cannot stop thinking that Anacheim Electronics has stirred most of the Earth Sphere wars since OYW to sell mobile suits to both sides. It's lampshaded by Tomura, the Garencieres' mechanic, while discussing with Banagher why the EF and Zeon's hardware is compatible.
• War Is Hell:
  • In the first episode alone we're treated to such things as a mobile suit pilot getting the lower half of his body incinerated by a beam saber, fleeing civilians being vaporized by stray shots from beam cannons, a nuclear blast from an exploding Minovsky reactor ripping a hole in the colony, civilians being crushed by falling mobile suit limbs, and other rather messy deaths.
  • As bad as the Industrial 7 battle is, it pales in comparison to the Dakar and Torrington massacre by the massive AMA-X7 Shamblo mobile armor.
• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • The Unicorn has a specialized beam rifle called a "Beam Magnum", which fires shots equal in power to a battleship-grade mega particle cannon (a shot in normal mode being powerful enough to rip through an asteroid without slowing down and another shot destroying a Geara Zulu by just passing near it). Unfortunately, to achieve such a yield it drains an entire E-pac in one shot, requiring it to use a specialized setup consisting of five normal E-pacs stacked together.
  • The Nahel Argama's Hyper Mega Particle Cannon packs enough power to push away a colonized asteroid while blasting a giant hole in it, as well as destroy two large Neo Zeon ships and severely cripple a third.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The third Unicorn Gundam, the "Phenex" (which appears in the One of Seventy-Two side-story) seems to disappear from the main UC timeline. It's the focus of the next movie.
  • When the Zeon Remnant forces are mobilizing to Torrington, one of those seen leaving is a Gouf Heavy Type, but it never shows up in the actual fight. According to the Gundam Try Age arcade game, it got itself lost and only ended up in Torrington after the brutal fight and he went to help the city.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Banagher delivers this several times^note In fact, Marida speculates that this willingness to question himself and others is what makes him a truly worthy pilot for the Unicorn, all to rather dangerous people to be calling out:
    • To Cardeas Vist when Industrial 7 is attacked.
    • To Audrey when she attempts to get Banagher to escape with her from the Nahel Argama.
    • To Audrey again when she tries to persuade Daguza to shoot her when her identity as Mineva Lao Zabi is revealed
    • to Daguza (see below) for involving Audrey in the conflict
    • To Full Frontal for continuing his attack.
    • To Zinnerman for sitting back and doing nothing as Zeon Remnants begin slaughtering civilians, even after he acknowledged that the hatred against Zeon was partially justified.
    • To Syam Vist for his role in the whole Laplace's Box mess from the very beginning. However, Audrey stops him mid-rant.
  • In return, Angelo lashes out at Banagher for accidentally killing a Neo Zeon pilot with a stray shot. Not to mention ruining Full Frontal's perfect battle.
  • Full Frontal muses that Cardeas Vist may have deliberately designed the La+ program to remind and call out Zeon on their past crimes when the next set of coordinates leads them to the impact site of Zeon's first Colony Drop.
  • Audrey calls out Full Frontal for being so cold and uncaring about people, and denounces him as not being the real Char Aznable. While in the novels he clearly wasn't Char, the OVA made the whole issue thus far very ambiguous
• Where It All Began: After 6 episodes of a wild goose chase across space and the surface of Earth, going after breadcrumbs that will lead to the mysterious hiding place of Laplace's Box, where does the cast arrive? Industrial 7, site of the first episode where Banagher received the Unicorn Gundam. In short, the Box was hidden in the same place where the Key was given away.
• Wolverine Claws: The Banshee's Armed Armor VN. Also a Vibro Weapon, and can act as a Power Fist when closed up.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Gael Chan in episode 7, when he used the Silver Bullet to hold of Full Frontal and his Neo Zeong to buy Banagher some time to get back to the Unicorn. Funnily enough, the latter was also invoking this towards Banagher seconds before the aforementioned.

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So... what's Laplace's Box?

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