YMMV / Mobile Fighter G Gundam

• Alternative Character Interpretation: The Devil Gundam of all things gets subject to this after the truth about Kyoji's escape to Earth is revealed: Did it really go insane after being damaged by the crash landing to Earth like Schwarz/Kyoji said? Or did witnessing Ulube and Dr. Mikimura betray the Kasshu family, in addition to seeing the state of the Earth it was created to restore, cause it reach a similar conclusion to Master Asia and believe that humanity's irredeemable and deserves to be wiped out? Given how ambiguous the Devil Gundam's own intelligence is, it could be either one.
• Awesome Music: Check out the Gundam page for entries from this series.
• Broken Base: Given how much of an Oddball in the Series G Gundam is, there has been some debate about if it should really quality as a Gundam series or not, or at the very least whether or not that should get in the way of being able to enjoy it. Its departure from the Real Robot Genre is generally the biggest complaint among those who dislike it, though the often cited Motion-Capture Mecha concept is not as unrealistic as is usually treated. Those who enjoy it consider it a much-needed reprieve from the typical bleak tone and endlessly hammered message of "War Is Hell" that the franchise usually indulges in.
• Catharsis Factor: Even if it doesn't kill him, seeing Wong beg for mercy before a brainwashed Allenby shoots him through a window is very satisfying after all he had done up to that point.
• Complete Monster:
  • Michelo Chariot is a Mafia boss turned pilot of Neo Italy's Neros Gundam, and the first opponent Domon Kasshu meets on his adventure. Vexed when Domon saves a group of children from his thugs, Michelo kidnaps and threatens to murder one of them unless Domon fights his entire gang barehanded. When Domon unexpectedly wins, Michelo kills his right-hand man for showing fear and engages in, and loses, a Gundam fight with Domon. Though seemingly disqualified and arrested, Michelo is granted amnesty by Wong in exchange for serving as one of his enforcers, and throughout the finals performs underhanded maneuvers such as mailing a bomb to an accomplice that got cold feet and attempting to force George to forfeit their fight lest Michelo blow up the entire audience.
  • Wong Yunfat is the prime minister of Neo Hong Kong. Wanting to prolong his rule over the world, Wong altered the rules of Gundam Fight into allowing the Gundam Fighters to aim for each other's cockpits. Wong also collaborated with Master Asia to obtain the Devil Gundam, which he brought to Neo Hong Kong, not caring when one of the Gundam Heads escaped to the city area. Taking an interest in Neo Sweden's Gundam Fighter, Allenby Beardsley, Wong had the scientist of Neo Sweden kidnapped and tortured to obtain information of the Berserker System, which caused great mental pain to Allenby. After that, Wong had Allenby kidnapped and injected DG cells into her, reducing her into a slave of the Devil Gundam. As Master Asia's age started to catch up to him, Wong sent some Gundam Heads as an attempt to kill him. Later, as his plans start to fall apart, Wong even has no problems with having the Devil Gundam destroy Neo Hong Kong.
  • Colonel Ulube Ishikawa is a former Gundam Fighter who reveals himself as a servitor of the Devil Gundam towards the end of the series. Having manipulated the control of the Ultimate Gundam, betrayed Domon Kasshu's father, and delivered Rain to become the Devil Gundam's Core, Ulube intends to use it to devour Japan, annihilating large swaths of land and attempting to even destroy the world so that he may rule.
• Crosses the Line Twice: All the ethnic and national stereotypes probably would've been more offensive if the series wasn't so over-the-top and silly.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • Allenby with the Domon/Rain shippers and Rain with the Domon/Allenby shippers. Even one official manga got some heat from the fanbase for making Rain out to be more of a Clingy Jealous Girl because the mangaka preferred Allenby.
  • Domon, if you ship Rain with George or Chibodee. Because it's not like he has the Freudian Excuse that makes him harsh to everyone, nooooo, he has to be a drunkard and evil Domestic Abuser...
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Hans Holgar from Neo Denmark. He's got a fish-shaped Gundam, but his smarts and and VERY good looks have given him a special place in the fans' hearts.
    • Hans' younger sister, Cécile also has her own share of fans as well due to a strong combination of her cute appearance, Plucky Girl personality, becoming a Love Interest to Sai Saici, and the fact that she personally slaps Sai Saici out of both his Heroic BSoD and 10-Minute Retirement after the latter had learned of Hans' situation with his Mermaid Gundam.
  • Master Asia's horse, Fuunsaiki, qualifies: What else can you expect when a horse gets its own Gundam?
  • Master Asia himself is insanely popular among mecha fans as well. He even finished runner-up in the 2007 SaiGAR tournament!
  • Neo Holland's Nether / Windmill Gundam shows up a lot when people are describing the series.
  • And Kyral Mekirel, old handicapped badass.
  • In Japan, Mandala Gundam is fairly popular - evidently due to its especially bizarre design. This backfired when G Gundam toys were released stateside: Mandala Gundam action figures were always the ones left hanging on the shelves, stores with a shelf dedicated to Gundam often having nothing but Mandala Gundams during the show's American run.
• Esoteric Happy Ending:
  • While on the personal level it's happy, on the global scale it may not be as happy as it seems. There's another Gundam Fight coming, though the pilots' resolve to preserve the Earth means that it might not be as ecologically-devastating this time round. The tone of the series and the conversation between Chairman Karato and Dr. Kasshu in the finale seems to strongly imply that they will devise a way to make the system less destructive, especially since Dr. Kasshu himself is now free to have another try at creating something that can restore Earth that won't decide to Kill All Humans if it gets a little dinged up on landing.
  • Not to mention the blowback on Neo Hong Kong and Neo Japan for Wong's actions and the creation of the Devil Gundam, respectively.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Michelo, replete with dark colors and Spikes of Villainy.
• Fountain of Memes: Goes hand-in-hand with being an Oddball in the Series that runs on Narm Charm.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Blink and you miss it, but the Twin Towers are visible in some of the establishing shots for Manhattan. Keep in mind that the series is supposed to take at least 60 years into the future, when the Twin Towers wouldn't be around seven years after the series aired.
  • Andrew's accusation that the report Neo Russia compiled on the accident that killed his wife was a cover-up is a bit painful to hear after the Russian annexation of Crimea and the subsequent information war between it and the West.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Neo France apparently uses Neo Francs, even though France stopped dealing in francs when it adopted the euro in 2002.
  • Let's just say the Tequila Gundam wouldn't be the last time we'd see a mobile suit sporting a moustache-like plating.
  • Neo Greece not only being able to afford a Gundam, but a very good one is this for some, seeing as they later faced a debt crisis.
  • The comparisons between G Gundam and the Dragon Ball franchise are funnier when you remember that Blue Water Studios, the company that dubbed G Gundam, would later made the alternate English dubs of both Dragon Ball GT and the original Dragon Ball for Canada and Europe. There are some funny coincidences between both dubbing casts:
    • Roger Rhodes voices one of the main rivals (Chibodee and Vegeta).
    • Steve Olson is the narrator for both series.
    • Carol-Anne Day is a love interest (Allenby and Chi-Chi).
    • Dave Pettitt is a badass grandpa (Master Asia and Mr. Satan).
    • Zoe Slusar is the young fighter (Sai Saici and Kid Goku).
  • Neo France's fighter, George de Sand is the Attack Drone-using redheaded member of the team who duels for his lady Marie Louise. Many years later, Gundam's first female protagonist, Suletta Mercury is an Attack Drone-using redheaded pilot who duels for her lady Miorine. It also helps that the Aerial's paint job is called French in the series.
• Ho Yay:
  • Chibodee, with Domon, especially in their Neo Hong Kong match. It's very MANLY, too.
  • And then there's this official piece of Master Asia and Domon doing the Sekiha Love Love Tenkyoken.
• Informed Wrongness: Neo France's President tells the representative to force George to withdraw before fighting Domon in their big match at Hong Kong. It's treated as a dishonor and goes against the fighter's spirit, but the President had a point in forcing him to withdraw. Domon's God Gundam was undefeated at that point and even if George won, the likelihood that Rose Gundam would be too damaged to fully repair before the Final Battle was great. As stated in the episode itself, while George may see the Gundam Fight as a sporting competition, it isn't. It's a war, and Neo France is participating specifically to gain the right to rule all of outer space. Pulling George back and preparing for the battle royale was the most practical decision.
• Magnificent Bastard: Master Asia, seeking to save the Earth's environment, became a willing servant of the Devil Gundam. Using the pretense of the Gundam fight to lure four Gundam Fighters to Shinjuku, Master uses DG Cells to brainwash them into becoming protectors of the Devil Gundam itself. When the Devil Gundam destroys Shinjuku, Master rallies the survivors while secretly leading the Death Army. When Master's student Domon Kasshu comes to Shinjuku to investigate, Master repeatedly lures Domon into traps in the hopes of brainwashing him into another of the Devil Gundam's protectors an Domon's partner Rain revealing Master's duplicity is only a minor inconvenience to him, as he just uses his Master Gundam to easily defeat Domon. Master frequently exploits Domon's anger management issues to bait him into making near fatal mistakes. Master enters an alliance with Prime Minister Wong, who wants to use the Devil Gundam to rule the world. Wong tries to kill Master so he can have the Devil Gundam to himself, but Master outmanuevers Wong. When Domon defeats Master for good, Master realizes that humans are a part of nature and apologizes to Domon for his crimes before he dies, revealing that he is the only character to work with the Devil Gundam without becoming a DG cell infested slave and remaining a man of honor to the end.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Master Asia, who could solo the Gundam multiverse. On foot armed only with a sash.
  • Domon and Rain are a "Memetic Sweet Couple", only getting edged out by Garrod and Tiffa in that regard.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Any variation of Domon's Shining/Erupting God Finger attack, due to the ridiculous levels of Narm Charm it exudes.
    • The fact that Domon wins all his fights by giving his enemies The Finger.
  • Thanks to YouTube, tons of people are doing things WITH THE HELP OF KYOJI!
    • Becomes an Ascended Meme in Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 where Kyoji (piloting the Devil Gundam) becomes available as a support/partner unit.
  • Who needs Gundams when you can PUNT SKYSCRAPERS 50 FEET INTO THE AIR!?
  • Greeting other fans by shouting "ANSWER ME, DOMON!" This prompts a reflexive recitation of the rest of their mantra of the Undefeated of the East.
  • Crossing over with Family Matters, the Super Robot Wars T rendition of the show's second opening, "TRUST YOU FOREVER", works well with the intro sequence to the former show, seen here.
  • Have you seen this [x]? ^Explanation  The photo that Domon carries around in the early part of the show is a popular target for photoshopped memes, with [x] substituting for "man" in the original quote. One of the most common versions is the ass◊ version, which edits in Rain's very plump ass instead of Kyouji.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales:
  • Americans Love Chibodee Crocket. He's a Boisterous Bruiser who manages to fit every Eagle Land stereotype imaginable, and his Gundam is a six-shooting cowboy quarterback boxer with a surfboard. He's enormously popular in the United States because he's so damn Crazy Is Cool. And as a character beyond the stereotypes, he's basically Apollo Creed if Apollo Creed were white, and like Creed is a well-written and complex character with many facets to him. If Chibodee is meant to be the creator's thesis on Americans, than they seem to think Americans are freaking awesome.
  • And Mexicans also love how ridiculous the Tequila Gundam and the Neo Mexico space colony look.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Before the events of the series, Ulube tries to steal the Ultimate Gundam in an attack that results in the death of Domon's mother and then has Dr. Kasshu cryogenized so that he can't tell Domon the truth about what happened.
  • Michelo shows us what a nice guy he's not by attempting to kill a child.
  • Of all the less than noble fighters in the Gundam Fight, Neo Portugal's Romario Monini deserves a special mention for looking up information about Chibodee's past trauma that led to the likely death of his mother and deliberately using it against him to drive him towards a psychological meltdown that would make him easier to beat in their match.
  • We already knew that Wong wasn't a very nice guy, but he crosses the line once he forces the Berserker System on Allenby and shows no concern after she goes on a rampage that severely inures Andrew. Master Asia is so horrified that he attempted to retaliate (unsuccessfully) against Wong for once.
• Narm Charm:
  • It's Gundam mixed with hot blood and revolves around a Tournament Arc. It ditches nearly all traces of War Is Hell in favor of pure Super Robot Genre tropes. It's chock full of over-the-top Narm moments, flat-out ridiculous attacks, and not a single line delivered with any subtlety. And yet, this show wouldn't even be half as good as it is if it was any less corny. The narmiest moment was Master Asia declaring he would become: SUPER ASIA.
  • Many of the more minor Gundams have the most ridiculous names and appearances. See the Windmill/ Nether Gundam, which is literally just a windmill with limbs, the Mermaid Gundam, which looks like a Gundam wearing a fish suit, and the Walter Gundam, a large ball on three little legs with stretchy arms — and again, its name is Walter.
  • The Neo-Mexican Tequila/Spike Gundam is an infamous example: it has a sombrero and moustache and fights using fishing tridents, feeding into stereotypes about poor Mexican peasants and fishermen. But the story around Chico Rodriguez, the Neo-Mexican Gundam fighter, is a tragedy, with the government trying to forcibly conscript him into being a pilot using his terminally-ill sister's longing to see Earth again as collateral, and his mastery of the fishing-spear is treated as a 100% serious martial art by the other characters, so the story itself is sincere even if the trappings aren't.
  • The show is generally able to take its over-the-top aspects and use them well during serious moments. The Gundams gaining the faces of their pilots or emoting as they do is generally ridiculous, but when the God Gundam sheds tears as Domon is forced to kill both Kyoji and Schwarz, it's heartbreaking.
  • Or Domon's line in Episode 26: "Except this time, I'M A WONDER BUG!!!"
  • This, one of the most Hot-Blooded renditions of Domon's In the Name of the Moon speech.
  • The entire dub is so hilariously over-the-top and silly, but considering the nature of the show it fits perfectly.
  • There's the Grand Finale. Never has an Anguished Declaration of Love been so fucking heartfelt and Hot-Blooded. To say nothing of the Sekiha Love-Love Tenkyoken, Burger King and all.
• Newer Than They Think: Robot Jox predates this anime by four years and has a similar plot.
• Not Badass Enough for Fans: Rain had the misfortune of falling in love with Domon at the end of the series. Cue the cries of "Rain lost coolness because of that" from the fans. They consider her "inferior" to Allenby due to being more traditionally feminine than she is and for being the Ms. Fanservice, ignoring her multifaceted personality. Not to mention, Rain fully demonstrated that just because she doesn't like to fight doesn't mean she's not good at it, especially after piloting the Rising Gundam to rescue Allenby from a DG Cell takeover.
• One-Scene Wonder: Some feel this way about the previous generation of the Shuffle Alliance.
• Retroactive Recognition: Mark Gatha is now known to be a medical doctor (orthopedic surgeon, specifically) working in Canada, though he did most of his work in Eastern Canada. Cue "THIS SCALPEL OF MINE IS BURNING RED" jokes.
• Signature Scene: The over-the-top nature of the series did develop a lot of these. Though two stand out as closest to this trope:
  • The scene of Domon and Master Asia gathering up their chi, before proceeding to launch a skyscraper into orbit with nothing except sheer Charles Atlas Superpower. It's to the point where it used to be the page picture for that exact trope.
  • The use of the Shining Finger Sword on Dahal also counts, partly because of the long dialogue sequence towards the Finishing Move, and the fact that the said scene was built up, indirectly at least... "WITH THE HELP OF KYOJI~!!!"
• So Bad, It's Good: While there's a sizeable amount of people who enjoy G Gundam for exactly what it is, there's also quite a few who think the show is completely ridiculous, seeing as how it is an Oddball in the Series, yet love it just as much.
• Superlative Dubbing: The English dub hams it up so well that many swear up and down it's far more entertaining than the Japanese audio. On top of that, they kept all of the songs intact.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: G Gundam was very divisive at the time of its release because of how different it is from the rest of the franchise. While most of the works in the franchise are Real Robot Genre series with strong War Is Hell themes, G Gundam is a Super Robot Genre series where the anti-war themes aren't as prominent. Nowadays, more people are willing to enjoy the show despite its odd nature, but this change in heart is far from universal.
• Too Cool to Live: There's a handful of characters who are notably more interesting and/or capable than the main characters. Therefore, they must die:
  • The first Shuffle Alliance. What exactly they've accomplished is unclear, but what is quite clear is that they are badass. And that if they continue to live, they risk making the new Shuffle Alliance look like chumps in comparison.
  • And then later Schwarz/Kyoji. The man goes through hell and back and is basically a Badass Normal compared to Domon and his God Gundam, but it doesn't change the fact that he's so great that he has to be put down to move the plot forward.
  • Finally Master Asia himself. He had to either die or else he would somehow resolve the series himself as he's widely regarded as one of the most awesome characters in the Gundam metaverse.
• Vindicated by History: It was the first alternate universe Gundam series, and to this day is the biggest departure from the usual Gundam fare (barring SD Gundam works), and at the time of its release was very divisive for those reasons. As time went on, it has become one of the most unilaterally beloved Gundam series.
• Wangst: Domon and Rain's relationship slips into this occasionally, notably towards the end of the series.
• Woolseyism:
  • Chibodee's nicknames for the other fighters are changed from national adjectives, to simply the names of their countries. E.g., he says things like "hey, Neo-Japan" rather than "hey, Japanese".
  • Many Mobile Suits were renamed due to religious or otherwise-negative implications, after a fiasco involving model kits of the Gundam Deathscythe Hell being pulled from toy stores over its name happened while Mobile Suit Gundam Wing was still airing. These changes include changing "God Gundam" to "Burning Gundam", "Devil Gundam" into "Dark Gundam", and "Tequila Gundam" into "Spike Gundam". Many of these are considered quite reasonable and arguably superior, as "Burning" fits the Gundam far more than "God" both in terms of its attacks and as being an upgrade to the Shining Gundam, and the Devil Gundam while monstrous isn't terribly satanic. Meanwhile, some changes are more arbitrary than others, such as renaming the "Lumber Gundam" into "Grizzly Gundam". Unlike Gundam Wing, an "uncut" track of the dub audio was not made.
  • Domon's most powerful attack in the Shining Gundam, the "Shining Finger Sword", is only referred to as such the first time it is used in the dub, every time afterwards it is simply referred to as "Shining Finger".
  • Also, the song that Rain and Chibodee's crew sings when he fights Romario. In Japanese, it's the end credits song. In English? AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL. A far more fitting piece to rally the comically Eagleland-y character than a random (albeit catchy) Japanese song.

---