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[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_cannon_v01_001.jpg]]

An OrdinaryHighschoolStudent is given a HumongousMecha by his MadScientist grandfather to battle an AlienInvasion.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Creator/KenichiSonoda (of ''Manga/GunsmithCats'' infamy, also principal character designer for ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'') rejuvenates the SuperRobot formula by injecting it with a psychedelic combination of a starkly realistic world along his own special brand of over-the-top humor, characters and of course, {{Fanservice}}. The manga ran in the {{seinen}} magazine ''Afternoon'' from 1997 to 2004.

Set in an indeterminate near-future time, ten years after Humanity was first visited by an alien race known as the Riofaldians, said aliens now live and work among humans all around the globe and their technology has advanced Earth society by leaps and bounds. But when the Riofaldian government decides to take a more... direct role in Human affairs, the Earth's defenses are quickly overwhelmed.

Enter Hoichi Kano, a tough, wisecracking highschool kid who resents the fact that the other kids are so enamoured with the new toys the aliens have brought, as his grandfather had written an infamous conspiracy pamphlet predicting the Riofaldians would eventually make a play for world conquest. On the day the invasion begins in earnest a new transfer student, the beautiful (and VERY well-endowed) Isaka Minigata, arrives at Hoichi's school with a message from his grandfather, Hosuke Kano.

It's not long before Hoichi is thrust into action, donning a [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman special powersuit]] with incredibly powerful guns, battling diabolical alien robots and saving the day. But as the alien attacks escalate in response to Hoichi's antics, he'll need the enigmatic giant cannon robot known as Exaxxion to liberate the Earth from the Riofaldians' tyranny...

[[DestructiveSavior ...If he can keep from levelling the place himself, that is.]]

Much like ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'', a major theme of the series is just how difficult the unbridled destructive power of the title mech is to control. Nearly every fight results in horrendous levels of property damage and civilian casualties, not to mention resultant angst from our hero. A fact the invaders are all too happy to point out in their propaganda.

Propaganda is also a major focus of the story, with elaborate smear and counter-smear campaigns waged back and forth by the Riofaldians and Professor Kano for the hearts of the populace. The importance of information control and the need for the public's support in the new media age is heavily stressed.

Equal parts HumongousMecha, AlienInvasion and Techno Thriller (with a heavy dose of that ol' Sonoda {{Ecchi}}-ness), ''Cannon God Exaxxion'' is (aside from the typical MechaShow flights of fancy) one of the most realistic portrayals of alien occupation to date.

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

----
!!Contains examples of...
* ActionMom: Reiko, oh so much. She's more badass than Hoichi, and HE is the protagonist!
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Faldian Terminal Drones are equipped with these as deployable arms and they are designed to effortlessly slice through steel, concrete, and, of course, hostile humans. Their legs also count in a way as their tips are sharp enough to pierce through targets like oversized needles. The wings of their flight packs are also built to double as flying swords.
%%* AdjectiveNounFred
* AllLovingHero: Used by Team Exaxxion as one of the tactics to increase their public support. Hosuke Kano has Isaka impersonate Hoichi and visit various shelters and gathering points for civilians to heal the wounded with her medmachines. To boost Hoichi's popularity even further, Isaka's instructed to treat both humans and Earth-dwelling Faldians, as demonstrated when she revives a fatally wounded Riofaldian peacekeeper who got injured trying to kill her just moments before with a gun she previously disabled.
* AlienInvasion: A Type 3, which draws some (narratively intentional) parallels to 19th-century colonialism. The manga milks these for all it's worth.
* AliensAreBastards: Played straight, averted and subverted six ways from sundown. By and large, the Riofaldian characters we see run the whole gamut of personality types and are shockingly... well, ''human''. The whole point is that, really, they're the same and that both sides should treat each other with dignity. The Riofaldian ''leaders'', however, really do reach inhuman levels of bastardity. [[spoiler:''And they even use it on each other.'']]
* AnimatedAdaptation: It's worth noting that, [[Anime/OtakuNoVideo despite]] [[Anime/BubblegumCrisis Sonoda's]] [[Manga/GunsmithCats pedigree]], it ''hasn't'' been made into an animated work yet, with no studio having even stated interest (not even from Sonoda's old fellows at AIC), even in spite of a ''seven-year'' serialization run and very successful results for the graphic novel collections. [[EpilepticTrees Speculation]] as to the cause varies, but pretty much everyone who reads the manga agrees it deserves a chance in the sun.
* AnyoneCanDie: In a meta sense, this is true; while the main cast has plenty of PlotArmor, if you aren't a named character and aren't part of the primary recurring cast? ''God help you.'' Your life expectancy anywhere near the proximity of Exaxxion is roughly ''five seconds''.
* ArtificialGravity: Most of the AppliedPhlebotinum in the series is based around gravity and inertial control. Giant robots, DeflectorShields, flying saucers, all of it, really.
* AuthorAppeal: This ''is'' a Creator/KenichiSonoda manga, after all. Expect lots of guns, boobs and copious amounts of lovingly detailed blood and guts.
* BarbieDollAnatomy: Obviously averted... for chest-shots, at least. In rare instances that a character needs to be seen whole-torso (such as [[spoiler:Akane's near-miss at [[AssimilationPlot being assimilated]]]]) then the trope kicks in to keep things PG-13. Ish. Mostly.
%%* BerserkButton:
%%** Try harming Akane. In any way. Go on. We fucking ''dare'' you.
%%** Placing her in danger is also ill-advised, [[spoiler:as Hosuke finds out nearly at the cost of his ''face''.]]
* {{BFG}}: Hoo boy, is it ever! As the name implies, the title robot is basically a giant cannon with limbs and a head, with a barrel diameter of 4.096 ''metres'' (Which, to put in perspective, is about the height of a professional basketball player... when he's standing on the shoulders of ''another'' professional basketball player). And that isn't the biggest gun in the series. Dagunov One, Exaxxion's EvilCounterpart, has a main gun ''50% larger''. Then there's Full Barrel Mode, where the thing extends to about as long as the mech itself is tall. And it's very tall, even as {{Super Robot}}s go. Plenty of others show up, too, both Human and Giant Robot scale. One memorable scene features Hoichi getting hit with a single gauge slug from a shotgun so powerful it turns the little girl he was holding at the time into a fine mist (she was already dead). To clarify, a conventional single gauge shotgun round is a '''one-pound ''' lead slug. And in this case it was made of '''depleted uranium.'''
%%* BigBad: General Shes'ka, at first, anyway. It gets complicated...
* BlackAndGreyMorality: As the story goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that Hosuke is quite the nasty piece of work himself, but all indications are he's still heaps better than [[ToServeMan a bunch of aliens who put dissenters into food processing plants]]. Although that isn't saying much ...
** Hoichi agonizes over the fact that even ''piloting'' his giant mech will kill people, and his attempts to save people will inevitably kill thousands. He eventually resolves [[spoiler:to build a future where no one else has to die, even if that makes him the biggest monster of all in the long run]].
** Depending on the exact scene, this can be either played straight or completed averted. Played straight when Hoichi fires his giant mech cannon in the middle of a city (resulting in tons of collateral damage from the shock wave of the cannon.) Averted when the Riofaldian military orders the HUMAN military to form a human wall around the giant mech knowing that the giant mech cannot move or defend itself without accidentally killing said human wall. Doubly evil when Hoichi refuses to fall for the obvious trap and the Riofaldians start firing on the human wall THEMSELVES and proceed to blame Hoichi anyway.
* BottomlessMagazines: Unlike his prior work, ''Manga/GunsmithCats'', no one reloads here, including the main gun of the HumongousMecha which in all rights doesn't appear to have the physical room for more than one round.
* BridgeBunnies: Hosuke Kano has a harem of beautiful women who act as a support crew for his info-war and Exaxxion's operation. Disturbingly, it's implied that at least some of them were brainwashed into serving him.
* BringMyBrownPants: In Chapter 14, a female Riofaldian guard is so deeply frightened by Reiko's powers that she makes an embarrassingly ''huge'' yellow puddle on the floor. It's the page image.
%%* CurbStompBattle: Oh so very ''many'', especially when Hoichi is in one-on-one combat inside his suit.
* {{Deconstruction}}: CGE shows just how much damage a giant mecha would cause just by ''walking'' (never mind the weaponry and fighting the "bad guys"), to pointing out that any sentient alien race almost certainly ''won't'' be unified in their desire to conquer humanity, to commenting on the fact that the MadScientist who reverse-engineered alien technology to save earth is ''not'' a guy you want to root for, and that having a harem of hot BridgeBunnies is indeed problematic. A lot of the above slowly takes a toll on Hoichi's sanity]] and he comes to realize the terrible ''burden'' that his grandfather has placed upon him. He takes it doubly hard because all the death and pain clashes with his vision of an ideal hero.
* DeathOfAChild: Hoichi tries to save a young girl in chapter 11, only to find out it was only the ''[[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe upper half of the girl]].'' Then he quickly discovers that the caravan nearby was full of dead children and women.
* DestructiveSaviour: No matter how much Hoichi tries to avoid or reduce it. Just ''knowing'' him, or being in the same part of the city when there's a battle, is dangerous.
* DiagonalCut: Specialty of the Terminal Drone robots.
%%* DirtyOldMan: Hosuke Kano is one of the dirtiest there is.
* DistressedDamsel: Akane falls into this territory in the first few acts with a regularity that borders on the depressing. Hoichi finally manages to get her to safety at about the halfway point, though.
* DoAnythingRobot: Isaka and Hosuke's other gynoids, due to being made of NanoMachines. It's pointed out that the Riofaldians rarely use robots of this type because they're too expensive to massproduce.
* DuelingHackers: Happens when both sides run a propaganda war against each other. Not so much the "Faldie" civilians. The majority of "Faldie" civilians are eventually relocated to Riofaldians military secured areas after Hoichi's resistance efforts prove to be more than expected. However, even prior to the resistance, "Faldie" civilians are protected by security robots which will attack and kill any human that attacks the "Faldie" civilian. In one scene, a human teacher is killed in front of Hoichi's "Faldie" teacher after an angry outburst in the middle of school... naturally with Hoichi and a good chunk of the human school watching.
* EmperorScientist: Hosuke pretty blatantly desired to become one, believing that the strength of his intellect - and his robot - meant he deserved the position. [[spoiler:Hoichi ends up dicking him over on this on ''multiple'' spectacular levels in the final act.]]
* EnergyWeapon: The Riofaldians' favourite weapon to use against anybody without access to gravitational lensing. One wonders why they would bother with something so energy-inefficient when they already have access to extremely powerful conventional guns, but lasers do look quite impressive and the 'Faldies are explicitly fond of terror weapons.
* EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture: Most of the robots and other gadgets are based on modern technological aesthetics. It's particularly interesting in that aside from the unusual shapes of some of their robots and the obvious flying saucers, most of the Riofaldians' technology doesn't look particularly "alien" at all.
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: In Chapter 18, it's revealed that all the times [[spoiler:Hosuke is called Hoichi's ''grand''father should technically omit the "grand" - Ryoko and Hoji were an ArrangedMarriage, and a rather bad one at that. Hosuke, on the other hand, deeply admired Ryoko's scientific background and flattered her shamelessly - leading to the ''ongoing'' affair that produced Hoichi. Hoji seemed okay with this at first, but ultimately went [[GreenEyedMonster green with envy]] at having lost a woman - even one he wasn't really attached to - to his father, and attempted to kill Hosuke while testing a prototype Gunner Suit. Unfortunately for him, he forgot that the prototype plugged into the wall and was crushed under a forklift he was about to smoosh Hosuke with when it ran out of power.]]
-->'''Hosuke''': [[spoiler:I don't think he '''minded''' losing his wife ''per se'' - what '''really''' pissed him off was losing her to '''me.''']]
%%* {{Fanservice}}: Right up there with ''Anime/AgentAika'' and ''Anime/{{Godannar}}''
* FantasticRacism: Starts happening immediately when the Riofaldians are revealed to be conquerors, especially against Hoichi's teacher who is one of the sweetest characters in the entire story. First, Riofald spent ''ten years'' shaping Earth's civilization into something that couldn't repel an invasion - bright shiny laser technology was one of the carrots that turned out to be sticks. Hell, ''conventional bullets'' have a fair chance of penetrating personal shields. Second, Riofald is a civilization that thinks ''nothing'' of building twelve-story-tall HumongousMecha at the drop of a hat. Their level of technology means lasers have BottomlessMagazines, and are perfectly fine for exterminating "monkeys". [[TemptingFate It's not like any non-Riofaldians have gravtech...]]
* GagPenis: Both Hoichi and Hosuke are MASSIVELY well endowed, but while Hoichi's [[BiggerIsBetterInBed size is seen as a positive]] by Hoichi's mom, while Hosuke's is described to be [[BigPrickBigProblems dark and rough "like a demon"]].
* GambitPileup: Between Hosuke, Shes'ka, the rest of the occupational government and the Homeworld government you've got the proverbial conga-line of fuckers all trying to screw each other.
* GatlingGood: Well, ''doy''. Of course the Ex features this in the form of 88mm gatling guns in its right arm - the "small" weapons.
%%* GroinAttack: [[http://www.mangavolume.com/index.php?serie=cannon-god-exaxxion&chapter=cannon-god-exaxxion-48&page_nr=10 Ow. Owowowowowow.]]
%%* HenshinHero: Hoichi.
* TheHero: Hoichi desperately ''wants'' to be a big-H Hero, which among other things means he shouldn't kill any civilians. Hosuke had rather different ideas when he built the Exaxxion, though. [[spoiler:Hoichi's final solution is equal parts disturbing, tragic and touching.]]
* HeroicResolve: The fact that Hoichi keeps opposing the Riofaldans (who, let's face it, very much needed opposing) despite the toll it takes on him and the fact he has to actually deal with the consequences may make him ''more'' heroic.
* HollywoodDensity: Averted. Isaka is an ambulatory colony of high-durability high-utility {{Nanomachines}}, and as any engineer would expect of a human-sized clump of ultratensile materials, she weighs ''three hundred and forty-five point four pounds.''
* HotBlooded: Hoichi bleeds ''fire'', not blood. He's very much cut from the mold of an 80's SuperRobot protagonist. ([[MyGodWhatHaveIDone This turns out]] to be something [[{{Deconstruction}} of a problem for him]].) [[spoiler:(It ultimately ''saves'' him in the end, though; whatever else it deconstructs, the story doesn't say that being courageous is bad, you just have to know how to apply it and what being brave ''means''.)]]
* HowDoIShotWeb: Hoichi takes some time to learn how to use his power suit and his robot properly. The former is comedic. The latter is terrifying, ''even for him''.
* HumongousMecha: Boy is it ever. It was up there as a possibly for "biggest in the ''medium'' for a while until ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Gurren Lagann]]'' managed to snag ''that'' perch...
* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: Hoichi thinks the human race should develop its own technology, so he's a bit disappointed when he finds out all Hosuke did was reverse engineer the Riofaldians' tech.
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: The Riofald homeworld would destroy all of planet Earth to stop Exaxxion if it had to, because of its 'limited potential' as a colony world.
* IntrepidReporter: Aoi, Akane's sister. Akane also tries to be one, although being a damsel in distress half the time makes it kinda difficult.
* JustifiedTrope: All over the place. Almost all of the seemingly nonsensical aspects of the technology or tactics used are explained quite well within the context of the circumstances or psychology of the people involved. Enough to maintain WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, anyway...
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:At the end of the manga, General Shes'ka is still alive and well, serving as the leader of Earth's Riofaldian population, albeit in peaceful coexistence with Humanity.]]
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Only kinetic weapons with huge amounts of force behind them can penetrate the DeflectorShields used by the aliens and Exaxxion.
* LostTechnology: The Exaxxion is really an ancient Riofaldian weapon that holds the last of their antimatter supply, aside from the stuff they need to keep their PortalNetwork alive.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Hosuke is really Hoichi's father, having stolen and impregnated his first son's wife.]]
* MarshmallowHell: Hilariously, Isaka does this to ''Akane'' by accident in the first chapter. Given what happens in the scene on the whole, it's hard to tell if her LuminescentBlush is from [[LesYay embarrassment]] or ''[[UnluckyChildhoodFriend anger]]''.
* MeaningfulName: The "Ho" in Hoichi uses the Kanji for gun or cannon, and Akane sometimes refers to him by the pet name "Ho" (or "Gun" in the Dark Horse English version).
* MechaEnablingPhlebotinum : Gravitational control, which relies on dark matter for power.
* MechaMooks: The Riofaldians use plenty of robot goons, though there are plenty of ordinary flesh and blood ones, too.
* MessianicArchetype: The 'Hero Project' is a PR plan designed to gain support for Hoichi by having one of Isaka's copies take his form and heal people, including Riofaldian troops. The fact that his healing seems almost magical (it's actually super-advanced nanomachines) only increases the effect.
%%* MonumentalDamage:
%%** Poor, poor Mount Fuji...
%%** The Statue of Liberty gets cut down too.
* {{Mukokuseki}}: A particular Sonoda mark. Akane gets this in particular - orange-red hair, big round green eyes and she's still ''supposedly'' Japanese.
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Once they decide to drop the pretense of cooperation, the Riofaldian authorities get ''really'' brutal. Their Terminal Drones summarily execute ''anyone'' who even ''slaps'' a Riofaldian. Most notably, they isolate and electrocute ''dozens'' of kids from Hoichi's school just because they're '''roughly the same height and body type''' as the "Black Rider". This pushes Hoichi to stop giving a shit about collateral damage and return to Exaxxion to bust things up.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Miss Kin'ba is a staunch supporter of Human rights. Well, as much as one can be when you've got a fascist police state breathing down your neck...
* NameTron: The Exaxxion's name is a [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] on this trope. Hosuke just took the three Xes on the antimatter generator and expanded them into a cool name with -on because "all the best giant robots have a name ending in -on".[[note]]He then proceeds to name what're clearly the manga's biggest inspirations.[[/note]]
-->"[[Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon Ideon]], [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]], [[Anime/SuperHighSpeedGalvion Galvion]], Anime/{{Voltron}}..."
* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: PlayedForHorror. [[ScaryDogmaticAliens The Riofaldians]] theorize that the pilot of the [[HumongousMecha Exaxxion]] mecha that is defying them is a Japanese teenager, but they don't know which… so they [[FinalSolution execute all Japanese male teenagers with a similar height, and build to the pilot]]. Scarier yet, they actually succeed -- if not for NanoMachines in his body that brought him back to life, [[TheHero Hoichi Kano]] would have become a DecoyProtagonist.
* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Completely averted between humans and Riofaldians; while one can carry the other's child, it's impossible for them impregnate each other through natural means and such pregancies requires lab-assisted artificial insemination.
* NothingUpMySleeve: a variation; Hoichi's Gunner Suit can deploy a pair of powerful pistols into his hands. While the storage for these guns is actually in the suit's backpack, the guns travel from the shoulder blades to the hands on flexible rail-like strips that run across the entire length of its user's arms
* NotSoDifferentRemark: The Riofaldians (Shes'ka in particular) never seem to get tired of pointing out how not only are they just doing the same thing Humans have been doing to each other for countless centuries with their colonization, they're a whole lot better at it.
* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: Justified by the fact that the Riofaldians want to colonize Earth, so they can't afford to use any weapons that are likely to damage the environment too badly. Weapons of Mass Destruction still get thrown around like they were Nerf balls at some points, but nothing that would prevent people from rebuilding after it's all over.
* OhCrap:
** Given how ''big'' the guns in this story are, this rather happens quite a bit. Hoichi pulls a particularly delicious one on Shes'ka [[spoiler:at the end of their showdown at the base of the orbital elevator, wherein the Long Barrel Cannon is ''point-blanked'' into Shes'ka's robot.]]
** The best one, though, has to be [[spoiler:''Hoichi's'' face at the end of chapter 5-4. Even if you found the rest of that sequence more annoying than touching, his reaction to Akane's "announcement" and his obvious, sudden realization of how totally ''fucked'' he is on a decidedly non-sexy level makes the whole sequence worth it.]]
* PinkMist: Features guns so ungodly powerful it's not just the brains that turn into pink mist, but the whole target!
* PlotArmor: The nameless masses may die like animals to the slaughter, but our main cast won't truly be in danger until at least the last act. This gets a hair annoying with [[spoiler:Aoi Hino, Akane's sister, who frankly should've been reduced to a fine powder when the Ex's main cannon blasted the elevator base. It almost seems like Sonoda planned on killing her then decided against it last-minute to make sure Akane didn't hate Hoichi's guts forever. Even though ''Hosuke'' was the one who ordered that.]]
* PoweredArmor: Hoichi and many other members of the Kano resistance group have them. The one used by Hoichi's mother is a ShoutOut to the ones Sonoda did for ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis''. The Riofaldians usually don't use them because they're expensive to mass produce, but one does show up eventually.
** The manga also points that the gunner suit is nothing but a fancy costume without power, which [[spoiler: Hoichi's father]] demonstrated when he was lifting a forklift when his suit powered down. SPLAT.
* PunctuationShaker: Sprinkled liberally over the Riofaldan language.
* PunyEarthlings: Partially averted. Physically, Humans are considerably stronger than Riofaldians.
* RagnarokProofing: Exaxxion slept on Earth in a giant packing crate for two millennia and is still perfectly capable of singlehandedly trashing an alien invasion force. That was some box!
** Or Hosuke was some MadScientist. He spent a lot of time adapting Exaxxion for a human pilot, and makes a last-minute total retrofit with no trouble at all.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Mainly averted. Despite her human likeness, Isaka admits she's not really capable of human emotions like love and only acts like she has a personality because that's how she was programmed. Of course, protecting Akane from a nanotech hack involved some ''really'' intimate mental interaction, and what else can you say besides, "HumanityEnsues?"
* RobotGirl: Isaka, of course. Some of Kano's BridgeBunnies also have robot duplicates.
* RubberForeheadAliens: The Riofaldians don't look much different from us aside from their albinistic skin and hair, black vitreous humor and elf-like ears. To be fair, a lot of the political angle of the story is predicated on the aliens having a similar psychology to ours and the government being worried they could face a backlash against their colonization policies if their people come to sympathize with the Humans, which would be difficult, if not impossible in a story with StarfishAliens.
* SacredFirstKiss: ''Isaka'' almost steals this from Akane in a way that has to be seen to be believed.
* ScaryDogmaticAliens: The Riofaldians embody some of the worst excesses of both European Colonialism and the Axis Powers.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Near the end of the manga, [[spoiler: Hoichi secretly rebels against his grandfather's plan and makes an alternate one with Isaka to do the ''right'' thing, not what his {{Jerkass}} grandfather wants.]]
* ShoutOut: A couple.
** There's the NameTron example above, and [[spoiler:when Hoichi infiltrates his school incognito, he uses the surname [[Anime/MazingerZ Kabuto]]]].
** Hoichi's mom, Reiko, uses a power suit that is VERY similar to [[Anime/BubblegumCrisis a certain rock singer-slash-armored vigilante's]]. In fact, all the suits are not only a reference to ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'', but they also have a similar appearance to ''Robot Hunter Casshan''.
* ShownTheirWork:
** A natural for Sonoda, who is a bit of an engineering nut in general (beyond his total love for guns and cars). While the Exaxxion is still pretty ridonk, he does do a lot of things to [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief make it seem plausible]], at least; one example is that the Ex has massive, flat, elephant-like feet, which are the kinds of feet any kind of large robot would actually need to consider walking. And the Ex leave giant ''craters'' every time it takes a step, due to how heavy it is.
** It's also shown that the Exaxxion uses its inertial dampening technology to actually increase its footprint even further.
*** The guns and cars, naturally, are all modeled lovingly from real-world examples despite the TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture setting.
*** And it has an ultra-rare ''justification'' for HumongousMecha; how else are you going to field giant gravity and inertia manipulating systems with multi-petajoule power requirements? Having them walk around rather than fly saves energy and permits precision usage of otherwise-nuclear kinetic force. Exaxxion is able to ''punch through an enemy robot's chest and rip out its fusion reactor''; instead of slowing down upon punching through the robot's armor, the inertial manipulators ''accelerated'' the punch at impact as if Exaxxion's fist was a multi-stage ''rocket.'' It's stated that the impact was the equivalent of a multi-megaton bomb, focused into an area the width of a car.
* ShutUpHannibal: the pilot tries a WeCanRuleTogether-[[http://www.mangavolume.com/index.php?serie=cannon-god-exaxxion&chapter=cannon-god-exaxxion-30&page_nr=27 type]] [[http://www.mangavolume.com/index.php?serie=cannon-god-exaxxion&chapter=cannon-god-exaxxion-30&page_nr=28 speech]]. [[http://www.mangavolume.com/index.php?serie=cannon-god-exaxxion&chapter=cannon-god-exaxxion-30&page_nr=29 This happens]].
* SpannerInTheWorks:
** [[spoiler:Hoichi, who somehow manages to fuck up ''everybody's plans'' at every turn through a combination of [[BiggerStick superior firepower]], HotBlooded-ness, and at least ''trying'' to be an actual hero.]]
** Isaka's [[spoiler:temporarily fusing with Akane to purge the Riofaldan nano-virus from her accidentally causes her primary loyalty to change from Hosuke to Hoichi.]]
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The aliens. Are they supposed to be Riofaldians, or Leopoldians? The former is what the Dark Horse version went for, but the latter is preferred by some fans due to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II_of_Belgium the possible reference to King Leopold of Belgium]], the infamous conqueror, colonizer and exploiter of the Congo, [[ScaryDogmaticAliens which seems rather apropos to our villains]].
* {{Squick}}: Early in the manga, a Terminal Drone saves Kin'ba from an assault from another teacher... [[spoiler:by cleaving that teacher in two through the waist. Right in front of her. Needless to say, she does not take it ''particularly'' well.]] Poor Hoichi finding the entire situation squicky as hell is also part of the ''[[{{Deconstruction}} point]]''. [[invoked]]
* TheStarscream: Shes'ka eventually [[spoiler:wants to capture Exaxxion so he can go home and stage a coup. His cronies in the occupational government feel the same, but as it turns out, they don't particularily care whether Shes'ka's the one leading it or not]].
* SuperPrototype: Pretty much everything used by the Kano family. They stress a quality over quantity approach, whereas the Riofaldians, who have to budget for an entire planetary occupation, do the exact opposite.
* ThemeNaming:
** The men of the Kano family all have the kanji for "gun" in their name (''Ho''ichi, his dad ''Ho''jo, and his grandfather ''Ho''suke). It's worth noting that "Hoichi" [[MeaningfulName means "First Gun" or "Best Gun"]], while Hosuke is something like "Selfish Gun".
** The Hino girls are named for colors - Akane (for a red pigment) and Aoi ("blue"). Interestingly, this [[AvertedTrope doesn't lead]] [[RedOniBlueOni to the obvious joke]], partially because Aoi doesn't really take part in the plot to a great degree.
* TransformationTrinket: The Gunner Glove. Hoichi's mom also has one of the stranger ones out there, in the form of a wig.
* TransformingMecha: Terminal Drones; when they have to travel long distances or just surveil their designated area, they will assume a shape similar to a ball lollipop and connect to flight packs that allows them get airborne or even hover.
* UnexpectedVirgin: PlayedWith. [[spoiler:After Hoichi and Isaka save Miss Kin'Ba and Murata from a gang of students that raped her, they take them to the Exa-base and have them hospitalized with medical nannites. To Miss Kin'ba's embarassed-yet-happy surprise, it is implied that the nannites also restored her pre-rape virginity.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Anybody lacking the smarts to keep up with all the maniacal plotting going on has a good chance of turning into one.
* VestigialEmpire: The Riofaldians would never have bothered with an InsignificantLittleBluePlanet like ours if not for the fact that an {{Antimatter}} accident wiped out most of their civilization a few centuries before the series takes place. Their interstellar empire was made possible by the discovery of ''an entire asteroid'' comprised of Antimatter - most of which was lost in that accident. They not only had to rebuild most of their civilization, they had to do it without the energy source that permitted it to be built in the first place. Imagine trying to rebuild modern civilization if an accident destroyed ''all the oil on Earth.''
* VichyEarth: Ranks up there with some of Creator/LeijiMatsumoto's best work.
* VictoriousChildhoodFriend: [[spoiler: Akane. Her and Hoichi's first night together somehow manages to be funny, squicky and heartwarming all at once.]]
* VillainProtagonist: Hoichi ends up thinking of himself as this for a while, and a large part of the story is dedicated to whether or not people see him as this or TheHero, straight up.
* WeHaveReserves: The Riofaldian government do not give the ''slightest damn'' about their own people, even ones who were just fighting against Hoichi. If they can kill millions of their own people to stop Exaxxion, they'll do it without a second thought.
* WeWillNotUsePhotoshopInTheFuture: Definitely averted. Hosuke and the Riofaldians are constantly cooking up new phoney videos to make each other look bad. Not that there's a shortage of real ones that do it, too. If the story were told from the perspective of a civilian on the sidelines it would get MindScrew-ingly difficult to tell what was real or not very quickly.
* XtremeKoolLetterz: The name Exaxxion is a SuperRobot-y name Hosuke made up from the XXX markings on its chassis. This is apparently the Riofaldian symbol for antimatter. The last letter of their alphabet just happens to look like an X and has similar connotations to the greek letter Omega.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: The wormhole gate is eventually destroyed, meaning all the Riofaldians on Earth will never see their home planet again.
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