Kidō Senshi Gundam-san (Mobile Suit Gundam-san) is an ongoing Yonkoma series featuring Amuro, Lalah, Char, and other characters from the first Gundam series... But probably not quite as you remember them. Written and illustrated by Hideki Owada (of Gundam Sousei and The Legend of Koizumi fame), you may never watch Mobile Suit Gundam the same way again.
An anime adaptation of the series aired on July 6, 2014.
This series provides examples of:
- Ace Custom:
- Discussed in Episode 1 of the anime. Char only thinks that painting his mobile suits red makes them go 3 times faster, and Lalah has to ban him from doing that.
- Throughout the manga, Char comes up with impractical merch themed after himself, such as Char's Custom Rubik's Cube with each face coloured in different shades of red, Char's Custom Toothbrush with his commander fin stuck on the back of the brush, and Char's Custom Bicycle with the fin placed on the seat.
- Adaptational Species Change: Zeon's amphibious Mobile Suits are portrayed here as actual marine lifeforms, as opposed to simply being robotic mobile weapons like in the original series. The manga details their life cycles and provides recipes on how to cook them.
- Butt-Monkey: Garma due to being forced to repeat his last words and any and all permutations whenever Char inconvenienced him in some way for whatever reason until he breaks down.Garma: "Char, you double-crossed me, Char!
" - Bring My Brown Pants: Char wets himself when Lalah threatens to shoot a beam from her forehead at him.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Kai wonders if Amuro thinks this of Lieutenant Matilda, and although Amuro denies it furiously, the idea of a flat-chested Matila straight-up horrifies him.
- Call-Forward: In Episode 1 of the anime, after Char is banned from painting any more of his mobile suits red by Lalah, he's about to come up with another idea...and then Lalah tells him she's not letting him paint them gold either since it's something he'd probably do 7 years later. In case viewers don't get the joke, the Hyaku Shiki makes a brief cameo behind Char, too.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Sayla and Lalah get saddled with this with having to deal with Amuro and Char respectively.
- Covert Pervert: Believe it or not, the Gundam itself in the anime. When Amuro is talking to Bright about what lurks underneath a Dom's skirt, one hypothetical flash-forward shows exactly what's there and its the Gundam itself getting a luminescent blush and steam just by catching a glimpse of a Rick Dom's...uhh...undercarriage. It didn't help that the hypothetical Rick Dom's pilot was a bubbly and bouncy teen girl.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Poor Captain Zaku.
- Funbag Airbag: One episode (of many) has Amuro plot to do this on Sayla just after escaping A Baoa Qu...and of course it fails when Sayla immediately gets wise and uppercuts Amuro into deep space.
- Gag Series: Takes the entire original series and twists it into a hilarious mess. And yes, any memes the original show came up with get put under its knife too.
- Gasshole: Degwin Zabi has an awful habit of breaking wind, even when Kycilia has friends over, which she obviously does not take kindly to.
- Henpecked Husband: Char, all the way though considering he's an egotistical Cloud Cuckoo Lander here it's not exactly undeserved.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: If the anime (and Amuro) is to be believed, Zeon recruits its soldiers with an ad by a very busty and very bubbly Zeon soldier who bounces a lot. It even causes Amuro to desert!
- Lighter and Softer: Than the original series, which is easy to do, really.
- Male Gaze: Sayla is subject to this quite a few times, like in episodes 6 and 8 of the anime.
- Mood Whiplash: Garma of the Space Island runs on this trope.
- Every so often, one of the gag comics end this way. Gundam and Guncannon having a chat? The final comic shows them immobilized and abandoned on A Baoa Qu, futilely waiting for Amuro to come back for them. Comet Chick hijinks? The final story has the Chicks realize that even though the war's over, Char and Lalah won't ever come back to their old house.
- Naked People Are Funny: Lots of Super-Deformed Char dancing naked, played for every laugh it's worth. This was apparently a Mythology Gag towards Char's shower scene in the original anime.
- Not So Above It All: Sayla is usually the unwilling recipient of Amuro's perversion. A later gag then reveals that she actually gets off to slapping Kai around.
- Power Perversion Potential: Newtype abilities + Puberty = Amuro...
- Running Gags:
- The Gundam running on Windows, of all things, and the problems thereof.
- Char being, well, himself.
- And Lalah Sune having to deal with him...
- Garma being doubled crossed by Char over and over again. The anime takes this further by having Char take Garma's famous last words ("Char! You deceived me, Char!"/"CHAR! HAKATTA NA, CHAR!") and making puns out of them involving measuring Garma's poop time and...organ size, trapping himself in front of Garma, madly trying to flirt with Lalah and of course forgetting the name of the Indian city of Kolkata.
- The anime has Char's hatred of Piyoto, a bird that Lalah adopts because he's wearing a miniature Char helmet, which she's kinda weak to.
- Samus Is a Girl: Big Zam and Gundam are both female, despite looking manly as ever. Gyan is rightfully female because of the feminine outline.
- Shout-Out: The gag regarding Lalah shooting a beam from her bindi is a reference to Ultraseven, whose Emerium Ray is fired from the Beam Lamp on his forehead.
- Stylistic Suck: The anime uses Best Mecha Collection model kits to represent all the mobile suits that appear on screen. For reference, they were the kits that were released during the 1980s and were barely posable, making them nearly impossible to get into dynamic poses. In one episode, the Gundam is shown walking through space while swinging its Gundam hammer in a stiff manner.
- Toilet Humor: Degwin farting, and Char timing how long it takes Garma to poop and measuring his penis at a urinal.
- Took a Level in Badass: Captain Zaku. Originally a bumbling idiot Ensign Newbie looked down upon by his subordinates, he gets reassigned to Jaburo and comes back covered in scars, wielding three bazookas tied together into a single weapon and a heat hawk bigger than himself, going on to solo the Gundam and force it to retreat. On the other hand, he's still as bumbling as before.
- Uncatty Resemblance: Vol. 2 introduces "Comet Chick", bearing a certain disposition. Bonus points for being red.
-
Viewer Gender Confusion: Played with in the Captain Zaku stories, the commander of Solomon, Big Zam was revealed to be female and the mother of Gyan. Gundam, Captain Zaku's arch nemesis, was also female. - Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Played with by Amuro, at first he hesitated to shoot down a Zaku because he assumed the pilot was a girl, as soon as he saw the ''incredibly vulgar kill count markers'' on the Zaku's head, he is sure the pilot was a man and shot him guilt free.
