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YMMV / Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

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  • Abandon Shipping: And a lot of them involving Gaelio, for some reason. McGillis/Gaelio was one of the most popular BL pairings in fandom at first, but once McGillis' true plans were revealed and he betrayed Gaelio, many fans jumped ship to Gaelio/Ein. The same also happens to NL shipping for both McGillis/Carta and McGillis/Almiria, considering that McGillis plotted a Uriah Gambit to his lover, it's no wonder that many fans jumped ship to Gaelio/Carta instead. Unfortunately, that never caught up because of Carta's death, but with his reveal as Vidar in the latter part of Season 2, fans are quick enough to jump ship to Gaelio/Julietta.
  • Accidental Innuendo: This conversation in Episode 50 between Julietta and a wheelchair-bound, flirting Gaelio:
    Julieta: [pouting] I want to have some meat.
    Gaelio: Good idea. I like you better with a little more meat on you.
  • Angst Aversion: Season 2 took its toll on some people. While IBO is no stranger to character deaths, some fans found the much higher number of character deaths in Season 2 to be too off-putting and some deaths like Lafter being shot to death while shopping or multiple characters, including Mikazuki, dying in the Final Battle while Gjallarhorn comes out victorious to be too mean-spirited and spitefully going against everything the first season established, leading said fans to pretend the show only had one season.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Gaelio is jarringly upbeat in the epilogue, even though last time we saw him he was fretting over having killed McGillis and didn't look like he was getting over it any time soon. Not to mention the fact that McGillis was also his younger sister's husband, something which would have inevitably made his next interaction with Almiria (who already wasn't in the best mental state to begin with) very awkward. Incidentally, Almiria is completely absent from the epilogue.
  • Audience-Alienating Ending: Season 2 in general is a Contested Sequel in large part because of the controversial ending which has fans divided. In short Gjallarhorn crushes Tekkadan killing Mika, Orga and most of the other main characters, but their actions force Rustal to partially reform Gjallarhorn's corrupt system, allowing the survivors live decent lives and world to improve at the cost of Rustal remaining in power. While fans of the ending find it to be very bittersweet, but satisfying and the logical consequence of their Detrimental Determination and luck running out, detractors argue that Tekkadan's loss broke the themes of Season 1 and was more due to contrivances like the heroes grabbing Idiot Balls and Rustal's Diabolus ex Machina aces up his sleeve. These people also believe that the fact that Rustal is still able to continue evildoing unopposed following his reforms makes what was portrayed as a happy ending to be anything but, and that the fact the reforms to the system came from Rustal makes the heroes' actions feel pointless (even if they did back Rustal into a corner by exposing his crimes and killing Iok).
  • Awesome Music: As one would expect:
    • The first opening theme song, "Raise Your Flag" by Man With a Mission. Apart from accompanying the awesome, from-underground debut of Gundam Barbatos, the song has become the fans' de facto Battlecry for the series.
    • Tekkadan's Leitmotif, the aptly-titled "Iron Blooded Orphans", is a powerful piece of battle, showing how brave, determined, and violent Mika is when he crushes every single obstacle, and how merciless he can become when seeking vengeance.
    • The first ending theme, MISIA's "Orphans no Namida" (Translated as "Orphans' Tears"), is not only hauntingly beautiful, but also used to accentuate last-minute bits of action during the credits, such as Kudelia's First Kiss, and tear-jerkingly, Biscuit's final moments.
    • The third ending theme, "Streetlight of War", is a sad and beautiful piece, only used when Mikazuki descends to Earth and finally learns the origin of his name.
    • The Third Opening, "Rage of Dust" by Spyair is no slouch either. It plays during Mikazuki's Big Damn Heroes moment aboard the Barbatos Lupus in the second season.
    • The Fourth Opening, "Fighter" by KANA-BOON, continues the trend that the songs it preceded maintained. Though with Rule of Symbolism apparent throughout the said opening sequence, it could probably invoke a few different tropes altogether.
  • Broken Base:
    • The Gundam Gusion's design fueled debate within the fandom on what a Gundam should look like, and if the Gusion should be considered a Gundam. Barbatos' design has also had similar discussion. Even after it was rebuilt with its original Gundam-like appearance as the Gusion Rebake, some think that the new design is generic compared to the unique design of the original.
    • The treatment Mika gives Kudelia was a hot button topic for the first two episodes. Some people see his constant dressing her down as something worthy of praise along the lines of her being a useless naive princess (in the same vein as to how Relena, or in a more recent example Marina, is often perceived by the western Gundam fandom), while others see it as being unnecessarily mean or tactless. This feeds into the argument of whether she's ignorant of their plight and is just in the way or if she is making an effort to understand how things look from their point of view and treating them as equals, which is why she's trying to gain independence, but Mika is just being standoffish because he seems to lack enough social skills to explain his perspective on the matter. There are also people who don't think that Mika is necessarily "dressing her down" as much as he is just being blunt without being malicious and that Kudelia is trying to help out and understand the crew as equals but still is in many ways naive and ignorant of their plight but won't stay that way as she acclimates to her situation.
    • Crank's death at Mika's hands after their duel. Some consider it a natural consequence of war and the result of tussling with trained kids. Others were devastated, thinking that Crank deserved more screen time beyond just three episodes.
    • Mika's continuous awesome moments of hanging his enemies their asses every time can either be even more awesome time after time, or just become plain boring and repetitive given how his character seems to be OP murdering machine, where you know he'll just end up moping the floor with his enemies after a short while anyway.
    • Somewhat minor, but there's a bit of a divide on the technology level of the setting: specifically the lack of beam tech (a real first for a Gundam series) and how relatively baseline the MS are in general (i.e. compare the Barbatos to the Strike Gundam or the Gundam Exia in terms of armament and special features). Is the show better for it, especially in light of Gundam's traditional issues with beam spamming and overabundant gimmicks, or has this actually degraded the action to So Okay, It's Average levels?
    • Lafter's fridging in episode 41 spurred another one, especially since it came right off the heels of Naze and Amida's deaths. Fans considered it either a great One-Two punch of a Wham Episode, or was overly telegraphed and mean-spirited.
    • The focus on politics and plot, over action and mecha fights is one of the biggest dividers of the series. While most love that the show goes deep into the politics and the setting (which is normal for the Gundam franchise), those who came for the mecha fights may be disappointed, especially in the first season, where it wasn't uncommon for there to be two to three episodes between any fight.
    • There are several debates, particularly on Reddit, regarding which Gjallarhorn side (Rustal's and McGillis's) has a high moral ground.
    • The Final arc and ending as a whole, with some liking it and others hating it: Some agree that the ending, while bitter for all the lives lost, made sense with all the buildup towards it, and that the survivors at least get to live happy lives, while Iok and Nobliss got what they deserved. Others state that Rustal, Julieta, and Nobliss getting everything they wanted at the cost of the lives of Tekkadan makes it unacceptable, and believe that their victory basically came out of nowhere. Likewise, there would always be a heated debate regarding Rustal's actions in the end, and whether he's meant to be viewed as a bastard who got away despite his crimes, a pragmatist with ultimately good intentions or some combination of the two. It's reach the point where people have debated whether it makes the second season an Even Better Sequel or Seasonal Rot.
  • Captain Obvious Reveal: Fans correctly guessed Vidar's "secret" identity almost the moment he appeared on-screen, though it wasn't officially confirmed until much later. Heavy foreshadowing aside, there were very few characters he could have been, and a brand-new character would have no reason to hide his face behind a mask.
  • Catharsis Factor:
    • Tekkadan crushing Jasley during Episode 42 was immensely satisfying after his betrayals resulted in the deaths of Naze, Amida, and Lafter. Seeing Jasely beg for his life when he knows everything he has done backfired on him spectacularly was highly satisfying.
    • Iok getting crushed by Akihiro's pincers is regarded as the best thing in the controversial finale. After doing a lot of stupid things in the past, narrowly escaping death and being responsible for deaths of Naze and Amida and indirectly Lafter, it's satisfying to see Iok getting for what he deserved and Akihiro finally avenging the Turbines. And for what it's worth, Iok's death led to the reformation of Gjallarhorn and the establishment of the Mars' independent government. Even Akihiro lampshades how satisfying and unexpected it was for him to be able to crush Iok with his own hands.
    • Ride assassinating Nobliss in retaliation for organizing Orga's assassination along with Ride's group wiping out Nobliss' men has also been highly regarded in the finale. After everything Nobliss had done throughout the series, some fans found satisfying to see his Karma Houdini Warranty expire while he is on the toilet of all places, a fitting end for a monster like him to die without any dignity.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Nobliss Gordon, while publicly a beloved businessman and supporter of noble revolutions, is in truth a greedy monster who cares nothing for any cause but filling his wallet. Manipulating the young Kudelia Aina Bernstein into becoming the figurehead for the Mars independence movement, Nobliss has her spied on while tricking the revolutionaries into dying pointlessly. When Kudelia reaches the height of popularity, Nobliss attempts to have her murdered to make her a martyr and spark the biggest, bloodiest, most violent revolution imaginable to profit on it from his arms trade. In the second season, Nobliss continues his corrupt practices by manipulating the media to portray victimized Child Soldiers as villains in the media to help facilitate their slaughter and continue to line his pockets.
    • Iznario Fareed is the worst of the already corrupt Seven Stars, and a major mover-and-pusher of power in the corrupt and oppressive Gjallarhorn. Throughout the first season, Iznario seeks to spread his enormous sphere of influence even wider than it already is, and resorts to rigging elections, calmly ordering the death of disposable Child Soldiers, and attempting to silence the revolutionary leader Kudelia Aina Bernstein by any means necessary. The second season reveals his supposed illegitimate son McGillis was actually a child prostitute that Iznario "adopted" for the purposes of molding the boy into an heir. Throughout his childhood, McGillis was molested by Iznario and subject to such brutal abuse his entire body is warped with bruises when he's briefly seen nude, sitting on the side of his "father's" bed with a vacant look in his eyes.
  • Diagnosed by the Audience: Mikazuki is both incredibly indifferent to most of what goes on around him and prone to sudden violent outbursts if you do manage to get to him. He also seems to outsource all of his moral thinking to Orga, making him look positively psychopathic at times. He'll gun down helpless prisoners and wounded enemy combatants without breaking his usual blandly calm demeanor, as long as it's under Orga's orders. His behavioral tendencies seem to be consistent with Schizoid Personality Disorder (i.e. emotional coldness, indifference, lack of motivation, Lack of Empathy).
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Yes, Gray-and-Grey Morality is definitely in effect for this series, but it's pretty clear that Rustal and Gjallarhorn performing crimes like framing protesters for terrorist attacks to justify killing them or denying their enemies the chance to surrender are not supposed to be seen as noble. Try telling some sections of the fanbase that though.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Crank is highly popular among the fanbase. Too bad he dies just three episodes in.
    • Yamagi is climbing in popularity, mostly due to the sympathetic portrayal of his crush on Norba.
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: The general consensus of the controversial ending among detractors is that it is this. While the series portrays the finale as a clear bittersweet ending with Rustal outright winning but needing to make some concessions to secure his victory like reforming Gjallarhorn and recognizing Martian independence, while the survivors of Tekkadan get to live happy lives and Iok Kudan and Nobliss Gordon are killed, detractors of the series finale feel that it's still too happy in tone for one where Rustal, a member of the previous Gjallarhorn regime who was at best complicit in or at worst actively responsible for much of the corruption that plagued the organization, is still on top and in a position to resume his dirty business while Kudelia is basically forced into working with the very man who orchestrated the death of her beloved Mikazuki and many of her friends. Onscreen, he doesn't bat an eye at starting proxy wars, fomenting violent rebellions as false flags, and making use of outlawed weapons to achieve his ends. Even with the Seven Stars disbanded, he's managed to hold on to his power by making himself the best possible candidate to be elected to lead Gjallarhorn, and both he and Julietta were willing to side with Nobliss Gordon, of all people (not that it really matters anymore). As a result, the detractors see him as carrying on old Gjallarhorn's corrupt practices while propping up a public façade of being a reformer. Although some would even argue that that's entirely the point of the finale, to show how history is Written by the Winners rather than whoever truly had the moral high ground and that the protagonists came out with as much as they could have hoped for given the circumstances, but detractors believe that this still nullifies any happiness the ending is meant to have.
    • One character who's happy ending seemingly glosses over a lot of things is Gaelio, who's last shown flirting with Julieta and appearing to be happy. No focus is given to how Almiria reacted to the news that her older brother killed her husband, or the inevitable tense relations between them that would have come of that.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: While the Season 1 finale ends on an open-ended but optimistic note, Season 2 kills off a massive amount of characters, including fan-favorites, and ends with the villains prevailing and Tekkadan losing the war, along with most of the main characters getting killed. Because of this, some fans prefer to pretend that the show only had one season.
  • Fandom Rivalry: With the Universal Century fans, as both of the fans debate on whether Universal Century or Post Disaster timelines are even darker in terms on story. This extends to half of the Iron-Blooded Orphans fans would defending the show from Universal Century fans, including its controversial final arc.
  • Fanfic Fuel:
    • The appearance of Mikazuki's son and Ride's Roaring Rampage of Revenge along with the absence of Almeria in epilogue could make some decent material for a sequel a la Hathaway's Flash.
    • Many fans have also an interest in the Calamity Wars, Agnika Kaieru and how he founded Gjallarhorn during it, and the origin of the Mobile Armors. All of that is grounds for a very interesting story.
    • The last episode alluded to the fact that Gordon has been avoiding Kudelia and the Tekkadan survivors in Mars after the Martian Union was established. There's a lot of ideas on what he did before Ride's faction capped him.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
    • The show is actually more popular out of Japan than in it. This might also be why the show has English text on banners and screens — Iron Blooded Orphans is the first Gundam series since 00 to get a full dub and distribution in the US. Its debut on Toonami makes it the franchise's first return to US cable TV since the end of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 in 2009. Bandai's reprints of IBO model kits in 2020 even show the official English logo of the series instead of the Japanese one.
    • Canadians have grown especially fond of the show as of episode 24, due to the fact that there is a huge mecha battle in a perfect recreation of Edmonton, Alberta. Especially given that Canada is rarely recognized within anime.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The description on Biscuit's fake twitter account becomes this after Episode 21. Ditto with the fact that the episode aired on February 28, Biscuit Day in Japan.
    • Akihiro subverting Talking Is a Free Action in Episode 21 by shooting at Carta's team while Carta is giving a speech becomes considerably less funny when Mikazuki does the same thing two episodes later. This time, it's a much bloodier affair... and, given that he was basically attacking people who'd abandoned their weapons and were carrying a flag of truce, a far more ethically-dubious one.
    • Just the whole thing with Akihiro looking like an Expy of Guts, once you realise that it's Mikazuki who 'lost' an eye and an arm instead.
    • A lot of the "McGillis is a pedophile" jokes became a lot less funny when episode 43 revealed that he was sexually abused by his adopted father when he was a child... and he gets along well with kids because he never really grew up past that.
    • The concept of "Gundam Valhalla" as it relates to Gundam Build Fighters is explored in the official parody comic. With Lafter's death, we see the full repercussions of a character looking into their own universe as fiction, and it's heartbreaking.
    • In the first season we see Carta surrounding herself with handsome blond men, implied to be because of her unrequited crush on McGillis, with this very site's Characters Page noting she Has a Type. Episode 43 revealed that McGillis' was adopted by a man who also had this type, with five blond "sons", seemingly all of whom he abused and raped. This might also serve to explain why Carta's feelings for McGillis are unrequited...
    • The allusions as to Mika and Orga being Gundam's take on Simon and Kamina takes a very chilling meaning after Orga's demise in Episode 48.
    • Ride's Troubling Unchildlike Behavior near the end of the first season where he insists on watching Mikazuki kill Carta takes an even darker turn come the end of the series, where he's one of the few Tekkadan members unable to move on from the war.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: Atra having a son with Mika would be this when her dub actress Cassandra Lee Morris would have a boy years after the series ended. While he never got around to having a child with Kudelia, both of Kudelia's voice actors, Yuka Terasaki and Cherami Leigh would also have children.
  • He's Just Hiding:
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • They first deal with "Hitler guy" by locking him in a closet. And boot him off the ship in a locker-sized pod.
    • Kosuke Toriumi's role as Naze Turbine comes off as this (with a bit of Casting Gag thrown in), considering his previous role as Soutarou Kanou from Maid-Sama!.
    • The first opening, "Raise Your Flag", was the second single for Man With a Mission's upcoming album The World's On Fire. Three months later in mid-January 2016 came a second opening from Blue Encount called "Survivor", and a month after that MWAM's album was released, with its first track being the Image Song for Street Fighter V, also called "Survivor".
    • Mankind finds half-metal, and the first thing they do is make weapons out of it, then act all surprised when the weapons Turned Against Their Masters - are we talking about the backstory of IBO or Battlezone (1998)?
    • Humanity creates an AI weapon to fight their wars. A.I. Is a Crapshoot ensues, and the weapons begin wiping out humanity. A brave group uses mechs to defeat the A.I.s, and feudalistic governments are reestablished while the Earth government oppresses colonies to avoid a disaster like that repeating. Is this Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans or Starsiege?
    • In the same vein as Kosuke Toriumi, seeing Julieta Juris battle against pirates early on is pretty funny if you consider the fact that M.A.O previously played Gokai Yellow; in other words, she went from being a pirate to fighting pirates. Then she upgrades to a new mech with dual Whip Swords — each of the Gokaigers had a "gimmick" fighting style, and Luka's was swinging her cutlasses around on wires like Whip Swords. Gets even funnier when she ends up voicing another Sentai Ranger who Julieta would likely hunt down. She's also partnered and later gets together with Vidar, himself played by a veteran Sentai actor-turned-voice actor, Masaya Matsukaze of Denji Sentai Megaranger fame.
    • Speaking of Gokaiger, in that show, Takahiro Sakurai voiced Jealouso, a Zangyack Action commander, and Kikuko Inoue voiced Insarn, the main female villain, and in that show, Jealouso had an unrequited crush on Insarn since they were younger. In this show, the roles are reversed, with Carta Issue (voiced by Kikuko) pining after McGillis Fareed (voiced by Takahiro) - and just like in Gokaiger, Sakurai's character survives the series and ends up on good terms with the main characters, while Inoue's character is killed by the main characters.
    • McGillis and Gaelio are a reunion of Takahiro Sakurai and Masaya Matsukaze from another mecha anime about more than a decade prior, Zoids New Century Zero. However, not only are their characters flipped, they truly do end up on differing sides, and the clash they do have is as bitter enemies rather than a ruse.
    • While overall response to the Mobile Suits in the show is positive, there are a large amount of people who generally agree that IBO's MS rank among the weakest in the Gundam metaverse, citing the low level of tech, how primitive the weaponry is, the fact that there are almost no MS capable of atmospheric flight in the series, and the most common comment being the lack of beam weaponry in the PD Timeline/the fact that said beam weapons could overcome them with ease. Come season 2, it's revealed that the Nano-Laminate Armor used on EVERY SINGLE MACHINE in PD also doubles as the series' version of anti-beam coating, implied to have specifically been designed to counter beam weaponry. Granted, while machines do still take some damage from beam lasers, IBO is notable for being the ONLY Gundam series where said coating is capable of letting even grunt MS not only tank, but completely negate Wave-Motion Gun level beam weaponry with negligible damage. While some people may argue that this only counts for the series and not the greater gundam universe as a whole, the very existence of widespread technology that outright negates the most commonly used weapon type in all of Gundam puts PD machines on an unexpected higher level than expected.
    • Atra prodding for Kudelia to have a baby with Mikazuki in Season 2 became more hilarious when after the show just ended, Kudelia's voice actress, Yuka Terasaki, announced on her blog that she's pregnant.
    • Speaking of Atra, the fact that her son's name is Akatsuki also counts considering the said name was previously used as a Fan Nickname for Gaelio's younger sister Almiria (see the Trivia page for details).
  • Ho Yay: So much that the Pixiv community has denoted the entire series as "鉄血のオル腐ェンズ" note :
    • Are Mikazuki and Orga really Bash Brothers within the lines of Simon and Kamina, or is there some deeper meaning between their synergy? Considering Gundam's reputation among Yaoi Fangirls regarding some o its older stablemates, it's not much of a surprise. Orga has said to Biscuit that he has to always look cool in front of Mika; particularly due to Mika always watching him. Orga has also said that he's not interested in women. The fangirls took this as support for Orga/Mika, making Merribit a potential Die for Our Ship target.
    • Considering the use of terms "brothers" and "Family" in Episodes 8 and 9, this trope also comes to mind regarding Orga and Naze. His Single Tear at the end of Season 2 Episode 15 kinda mirrors the one with Biscuit, as explained below.
    • Orga and Biscuit for that matter. Much of their interactions in Episodes 20 and 21 come across like a married couple having a dispute. Their eventual reconciliation just adds to this. And makes Biscuit's subsequent death all the more tragic.
    • Takaki is very touchy-feely with the people he likes. As of season two he and Aston have grown particularly close; Takaki regularly invites him over for supper, and Aston is familiar enough with Takaki's and Fuka's routines to know when Fuka is studying for an upcoming test. Aston also states that supporting Takaki is more important to him than getting revenge for Chad and swears to protect Takaki's happiness, even if it means killing someone or being killed.
    • Yamagi has a crush on Shino, and Shino, though oblivious, has a particularly tender and caring attitude toward him in the fair share of moments they have.
    • Numerous statements have been made regarding both Shino's alleged bisexuality as well as his apparent popularity among other Tekkadan guys, Eugene and Akihiro in particular. Shino's seiyuu Taishi Murata advocates for the issue, and has stated that Yamagi's feelings most likely wouldn't have been met with rejection if he ever decided to confess them.
    • McGillis and Gaelio used to be a popular pairing in the beginning of the story, this was changed ever since Gaelio was paired with Ein instead and McGillis was implied more to prefer women. And eventually, he's more into accomplishing his goals and stopping Gjallarhorn's oppression rather than falling in love with anyone.
    • Gaelio and Ein. Ein's narration in the preview for Episode 17 consists entirely of him gushing about how great a man Gaelio is and during the episode proper Ein gets injured taking a blow that would have killed Gaelio. Gaelio is very impressed with Ein's skills and resolve and considers him to be an "impressive man." The preview for Episode 22 has Gaelio narrating about how he would do anything to keep Ein alive. It even goes above and beyond by Season 2, when Vidar/Gaelio eventually reveals that Ein's brain is preserved as the Gundam Vidar's pseudo-AV system—making this a literal Cargo Ship of sorts.
    • Speaking of Ein, aside from Gaelio, he's often paired with Crank because of how much Ein remembered him.
  • I Knew It!: Since the beginning,there were a lot of fans who predicted that Orga will die at some point given how he invoked a lot of "Kamina vibes". Episode 48 confirmed this prediction though it happened at the worst possible moment.
  • Informed Wrongness: A major criticism of Season 2 is that this applies to Tekkadan’s portrayal. According to the staff, Mc Gillis and Tekkadan lost the war and deserved to lose because they went too far in their opposition to Gjallarhorn to the point of Detrimental Determination and becoming just as bad as their enemies, and should have sought a compromise instead of acting recklessly. Detractors counter that Tekkadan effectively had no choice but to fight against Gjallarhorn, as Rustal outright said that anyone who opposes them must die, and Gjallarhorn had no plans to leave them alone; he only grants Martian independence once he has already won, and only after Tekkadan’s own actions forced him to do so, effectively making Tekkadan opposing him the right move to make. Detractors also feel their loss came about less due to any mistakes on their part and more due to the narrative itself screwing them over.
  • Iron Woobie: Akihiro Altland is gaining some major points due to the fact the people that he cares about keep dying. After being separated from his little brother for years, he finally finds him and then he dies in a Heroic Sacrifice. Then he starts to treat Aston like family due to his closeness to his brother. Then Aston dies halfway into season two while he's stuck in space. It just get worse when Lafter, someone who had been helping him since season one and might have been more, was assassinated in episode 41. Yet, he managed to pull himself together and continue to move forward.
  • Jerkass Woobie: McGillis is a Manipulative Bastard more than willing to betray his friends and allies for the sake of his personal goals, but it's hard not to feel some empathy for him after learning what his childhood under Iznario was during Episode 43, and he is fighting a corrupt system with the goal of freeing everyone under its thumb, so to some extent he is an Anti-Hero making hard choices that he must.
  • Just Here for Godzilla:
    • Some fans who were not entirely fond of episodes with not a lot of action are waiting for Mobile Suit battles instead. Then again, this is hardly a new trend for the Gundam franchise.
    • The series has gotten some attention from fans of multi-ships for featuring actual polygamous relationships depicted positively.
  • LGBT Fanbase: The Bara fandom took a more or less immediate liking to Akihiro. Most Doujinshi is produced well after the series is over and with luck western fans will get a hold of some of it. Doujinshi starring Altland had found its way onto western sites before the first season was halfway over.
  • Love to Hate: Rustal Elion is the epitome of Gjallarhorn's corruption and would do anything to keep the status quo. He's one of the few characters who managed to overrun McGillis's plans and forced Tekkadan into a terrible position as he is the first person who gave them their first defeat. Not even Iznario Fareed can pull that. In the ending, however, he never suffers any comeuppance for his actions and is in a better position at the end of the series, which turned much of this into outright hate among some fans.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Rustal Elion is one of the Seven Stars who lead the military police force Gjallarhorn. A charismatic nobleman and brilliant military strategist, Rustal has the complete trust of his subordinates. When Rustal's rival in the Seven Stars, McGillis Fareed, moves against him, Rustal engineers a small scale war to turn McGillis' allies, Tekkadan, against McGillis. While the war fails to break McGillis and Tekkadan's alliance, it does force Tekkadan to shut down their Earth branch, weakening the organization considerably. When the tensions between Rustal and McGillis lead to civil war, Rustal has one of his subordinates infiltrate McGillis' forces, fire an illegal Dainsleif railgun at Rustal's fleet and commit suicide, giving Rustal justification to annihilate McGillis and Tekkadan. While political tensions ultimately force the Seven Stars to disband in favor of democratically elected leaders, Rustal still comes out ahead as he is elected leader of Gjallarhorn. Rustal remains a hero to the public and becomes the first Big Bad of the franchise to win in the end.
    • Naze Turbine is a brilliant smuggler turned gangster official in Teiwaz. After being called in against Tekkadan, Naze betrays his superior in favor of Tekkadan to be sent to the mines. It is revealed Naze's vast "harem" of wives are in truth women he has rescued from slavery and married to place them under his protection with Naze only reciprocating offered affection. With his true love Amida, Naze guides Tekkadan and ultimately provides a diversion to rescue them from Gjallarhorn. When his plan to surrender is ruined by the vainglorious stupidity of Iok Kujan, Naze selflessly changes the plan to Sacrifice himself in pursuit of Tekkadan's future.
  • Memetic Badass: Mikazuki. Like Heero Yuy and Setsuna F. Seiei before him, Mikazuki bucks the traditional trend for Gundam Protagonists being reluctant pilots, instead being rather ruthless and willing to fight dirty. Needless to say the fandom loved this, even if the show as a whole ended up becoming an indictment on this type behavior.
  • Memetic Loser: The Helmwige Reincar has found itself as the butt of many jokes due to it seeing hardly any action and its sole role was being reduced to a glorified sword carrier.
  • Memetic Molester: McGillis "Chocolate Man" Fareed got fans thinking that he's a lolicon after being engaged to the nine-year-old Almiria, offering chocolate to Biscuit's little sisters and later asking him how they were doing.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • QUALITYNote In relation to this, Photoshopping Atra's appearance from that ep into anything.
    • Space Rat note 
    • Where did Chocolate Man touch you? Explanation
    • Mikazuki, the Murder Manlet. Explanation
    • Flag RAISED Explanation
    • When the second OP started with Kudelia merely looking at her hands before the wreckage of the Barbatos behind her was revealed, jokes were made about how she was responsible.Note
    • In light of what happened to Ein (getting literally built into a Mobile Suit as part of his cyborgization), fans are now declaring that he has achieved what Setsuna could not: he is his Mobile Suit.
      • By the time of Episode 43, Ein's brain is integrated with Gundam Vidar in the form of Ālaya-Vijñāna System Type-E, in other words, Ein is a Gundam.
      • Others have declared him Gundam's take on a Space Marine Dreadnought, under the caption: EVEN IN DEATH, EIN STILL SERVES, or R-TYPE GRAZE. note 
      • Waifu Destroyer.note 
      • Pay To Win player has logged on.note 
    • Char/McGillis, you double crossed me! note 
    • Fleet Girl Mikazuki x Admiral Orga note 
    • Masked Gaelio note 
    • Fucking McGillis. note 
    • The Mobile Armor Hashmal is already proving to be a Fountain of Memes even before its debut, from the teaser silhouette combined with its resemblance to a Pokémon, to the preorder page attracting "reviews" long before its release. And yet its actual debut can still be a shock.
      • Due to its appearance, some called the Season 2 arc as MA Hunter G.
    • "Iok you fucking IDIOT!", or "Idiok!" (or "Idiok Crud-jan"), or most commonly "Fuck Iok!" note 
      • His sheer incompetence has has ballooned so wildly that many fans have also started comparing Iok to Zapp Brannigan.
      • A new hashtag has been created in Japanese Twitter circles named #イオクがどんな死に方したら満足か考える (Let's think of the satisfying ways to kill Iok), and イオク・クジャン殲滅部隊 (Iok Kujan Annihilation squad) has been making the rounds. Some of the tags include photo-shopping his face on antagonist characters from previous Gundam series being killed, and on one picture, even replacing Radice at them moment he was executed by Takaki.
      • As of the events of Episode 41, the hashtags have spawned the following variants: #ジャスレイがどんな死に方したら満足か考える (Let's think of the satisfying ways to kill Jasley), and #ジャスレイ殺し隊 (Jasley Assassination Team).
    • Speaking of Episode 41, fans have taken to calling any teddy bear with thick eyebrows (badly drawn or otherwise) as a massive death flag, as evidenced by these edited meme pics based on studio stablemate Love Live!.
    • MUH BAEL note 
    • Fucking Dainsleifs note 
    • I see you're having trouble with an anime protagonist. Have you tried using Dainsleif? note 
    • Don't you ever stop... (止まるんじゃねぇぞ…) note 
      • Orgaposting note 
  • Misaimed Fandom: In a weird flip, the main character's themselves seemed to have inspired this. By the end of the second season the writers take a rather definitive stance that Tekkadan are Classical Antiheroes where in that the way they went about achieving their goals was ultimately wrong and led to the deaths of several of the main members and their ultimate loss in the war. Needless to say, this proved to be a rather divisive development of the audience, partly from those who both loved how ruthless Tekkadan was and those others who found Gjallarhorn is so much worse that Tekkadan was fully justified in doing everything to oppose them, and that Rustal and Juliette's last minute development and policies were not enough to justify their prior actions.
  • Mis-blamed: Lead Writer Mari Okada became an easy target for the things that went wrong in the show such as the characterization, plot deaths, and controversial ending to name a few. Even Lauren Orsini of Anime News Network seem to think that Okada had the most involvement. This is notwithstanding some of the plot deaths were already in place prior to Okada's involvement in the series, and it was Okada and most of the storyboard staff who brokered a compromise with the director and producers to limit the character body count to what appeared in the final episode.
  • Moe: Despite (or maybe because of) the show focusing on Child Soldiers, there are plenty of adorable characters.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Episode #7 is where Maruba outright states that the human debris caste are expendable enough to risk putting the potentially-crippling Alaya-Vijnana system into. Even the resident mafia enforcer draws the line at what is essentially a human rights violation.
    • The Brewers' leader takes this up a notch by not only putting their Human Debris through the same procedure, but going so far as to starve them. Even Maruba kept his Child Soldiers properly fed.
    • Nobliss Gordon crosses it by arranging for Kudelia to get killed by snipers during a non-violent protest, all to turn her into a martyr.
    • In Episode 16, the entirety of Gjallarhorn crosses it when they frame the Dort protestors for a terrorist attack on a government building so Gjallarhorn will have a pretext to massacre them. Which they do. Gjallarhorn would rather gun down dozens of innocents before they'd give the colonists more rights. The previous terrible things Gjallarhorn was portrayed as doing could be attributed to individual corruption, but this was a carefully and deliberately planned operation - ep. 17 even reveals that a lot of the arms supplied to the natives had been pre-sabotaged, turning the supposed armed conflict into a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Even Gaelio expressed dissatisfaction for abuse of such tactics.
    • Rustal crosses it early into Season 2 by having Galan Mossa perform a false flag assassination on the Prime Minister of Arbrau, triggering a war between Arbrau and the SAU that gets hundreds of people killed, purely with the aim of weakening Tekkadan and making McGillis look bad. It's an early insight into how ruthless of a manipulator he is.
    • Radice Riloto crosses it for being responsible in all of the avoidable debacle earlier on season two, namely selling out Tekkadan's Earth branch to the hands of Galan Mossa by taking the leadership out of the picture, all because he didn't like how they operate and find the kids rather annoying.
    • Iok crosses it in Episode 40 by ignoring Naze's attempts to surrender unconditionally and using illegal railguns to attack the Hammerhead and its retreating escape shuttles, even when Julieta is in the way of the attack.
    • Jasley crosses it in Episode 41 by crashing Naze's funeral to get a rise out of Tekkadan so he can use that to overthrow McMurdo. When that didn't work, he had Lafter assassinated and tried to use that get all the Turbines to work under him.
  • Narm: Orga's death is a sad thing as it's meant to be, but it becomes drawn out and even comical with how it's presented. He takes a hail of bullets, then has enough breath and time to make a speech, then falls to the ground in a symbolic pose (it didn't help that said pose ended up resembling the Saturday Night Fever pose). Some viewers also felt similarly about Masahiro's death in season 1, in that the tragedy would've been more efficiently conveyed had the character in question died quickly. This gave birth to the "Don't you ever stop" meme above.
  • Narm Charm: All of the "Ryusei-Go" mobile suitsnote  fall under this - when Mobile Suit Gundam AGE tried to do this with Yurin's Farsia in the First Generation Arc, it fell into the category of Narm, so you'd expect a pink mobile suit in this series to do the same thing...yet it surprisingly works. It probably helps that unlike the aforementioned Farsia, any suit bearing the name "Ryusei-Go" is painted because Norba wants it like that, and none of them are introduced under circumstances that are obviously trying to be tragic.
  • Nausea Fuel: The reveal of McGillis' relationship with his stepfather, Iznario. Said relationship is less family and more master and sex slave.
    • The remains of botched surgery on Builth's back.
    • Hush Middy's death. Not only he vomits blood profusely, he also faints face-first in it.
  • Older Than They Think:
    • Many seem to get bored by the lack of mecha fights in some episodes of Iron Blooded Orphans. Actionless episodes have always been around in the franchise long before.
    • While the show got in trouble in Japan, for being a lot more brutal, mainly for the CGS take-over scene in episode 3. Any longtime fan knows that Gundam has always been surprisingly bloody and violent, dating back to Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket and Mobile Suit Victory Gundam.
    • The idea of killing off the main Gundam pilot/majority of the characters is nothing new. Amuro Ray was planned to die in the original draft of Mobile Suit Gundam. This concept was used however in the novel version. Amuro would later be killed off in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. Also in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, while Kamille does not die, a large number of the main characters, such as Quattro, Emma, Jerid, Katz, Reccoa, Henken, Sarah, Four, Rosamia were killed off eventually.
  • One True Threesome: Episode 10 has Atra coming to the realization that, like the Turbines, she could share Mika with Kudelia. Fans definitely took notice.
    • In episode 18 Mika hugs Atra and Kudelia together while mourning Fumitan's demise a couple of episodes back, which probably is another step in the OTT direction.
    • Becomes a Brick Joke in the final episode where Atra and Kudelia patted Mika's head together to comfort him, after his 'loss' of arm and eye in battle.
    • Pretty much confirmed as of Season 2 Episode 12 with both declaring that they both love Mika and each other, though the latter might just be platonic.
    • Outright confirmed towards the end of the series after Mika and Atra get a Relationship Upgrade. Rather than being a Ship Sinking, they accept Kudelia into their relationship as well and in the epilogue after Mika has died, Word of God has stated that Atra and Kudelia are married, although Mika’s death breaking up the OT3 is one of several reasons some fans pretend the ending and Season 2 as a whole never happened.
  • Rooting for the Empire:
    • Not the entire empire per se but there are several Gjallarhorn characters who are seen as sympathetic such as Crank, Gaelio and to a lesser extent, Carta, and had a set of fans. And these characters are all killed; two of them were killed by the "hero" of the show, who also pushed his best friend and his group into an entire Roaring Rampage of Revenge after one of their friends was killed. However, Gjallarhorn as a whole, are nowhere near as noble as the aforementioned group of characters within their ranks nor are they popular as the Draco in Leather Pants founding antagonists of the franchise Zeon.
    • There are also those who are rooting for McGillis due to his desire to reform Gjallarhorn and purge it of its corruption, even if it means walking over the corpses of his friends and comrades to do so.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Quite a bit of fans, in addition to supporting Rustal and downplaying the evils of Gjallarhorn, portray Tekkadan as a straight-up terrorist organization, and McGillis as a heartless psychopath, even though they are clearly Anti Heroes within show itself who have to make several unpleasant decisions and were screwed up by tragic pasts. For what it's worth, Gjallerhorn officially takes this stance on both Tekkadan and McGillis in the finale.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat:
    • While small, there seems to be a bit of a tussle between Kudelia fans and Atra fans as to who should be paired with Mikazuki. Finally solidified on Episode 4.
    • Whether Almiria or Carta should be paired with McGilis used to be a question; it was answered in episode 23, where McGillis revealed he was using Carta for his own ends and later dispatched her with the help of Mikazuki. The only thing left to answer is if he was truly in love with Almiria.
    • Gaelio is subjected to this as well, initially the pairing combat was between McGillis fans and Ein fans, after episode 23, the pairing of Carta x Gaelio spawned in Pixiv community all thanks to how Gaelio rescued Carta in a Big Damn Hero moment.
    • Even extends (sort of) to Cargo Ship territory: fans are torn betwen Mace-chan and Wrench Mace-chan as to which is the better weapon for Barbatos (and by extension, Mikazuki.)
    • After the finale of S2, Some fans argue over which of Biscuit's sisters (Cookie and Cracker) should hook up with Akatsuki.
  • Shocking Moments: Tekkadan failing to shoot Rustal's flagship and losing their battle against the Arianrhod Fleet completely changes how one would have expected the final five episodes to play out. Instead of it being a Final Battle to defeat the baddies, it becomes a battle for survival as spend the remaining episodes trying desparately to save as many people as they can before the Arianrhod Fleet closes in and wipes them all out.
  • Signature Scene:
    • For Season 1, either the from-the-ground debut of Gundam Barbatos, or Mikazuki's execution of the deposed CGS management and staff.
    • For Season 2, the fight between Barbatos and the Mobile Armor Hashmal is one of the craziest battles in the franchise.
    • For the Grand Finale, the executions of Jasley, Iok (by way of the Gusion Rebake Full City Scissor Shield) and Nobliss; while all three serves as Catharsis Factor, the last one is more of a Pyrrhic Victory.
  • Spoiled by the Format: Episode 44 is all about Tekkadan preparing for what is supposedly the final battle of the series. However, IBO is 50 episodes long and Gundam has never spread a battle over six episodes, which means that complications are very likely. Sure enough, Tekkadan loses the fight and is forced to retreat back to Mars.
  • Stoic Woobie:
    • Mikazuki. Particularly in the second season. He's a Child Soldier who despite being an Anti-Hero has tons of sympathetic qualities and wishes to own a farm one day and read books on farming, but is undermined by the circumstances that result in him losing his sight in one eye and being paralyzed in the entire right side of his body. Yet remains steadfast and shows very little visible emotion. In addition, he's implied to be affected by all the killing deep down but he ignores it so he can continue to be useful to Orga and his friends.
    • Mc Gillis. After The Reveal of his backstory being that he was also an orphan as a child, working at a brothel as a child, and being used as a sex slave by his foster father. With his goal being to tear down the organization that ruined his life and make a world he deems better, it's hard not to feel for the guy.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • A lot of fans were expecting Carta to pull a Heel–Face Turn, only to be greatly disappointed when Episode 23 aired.
    • While the epilogue gives closure to a number of characters, Almiria Bauduin is curiously absent, leaving it unclear how she must have reacted to the news her Not Quite Dead older brother killed her fiancee. What makes it even more noticeable is that Gaelio himself appears in the epilogue seeming pretty upbeat and doesn't even make any reference to her.
  • Too Cool to Live:
    • Crank, an honorable soldier who felt genuine sympathy for Tekkadan. Mikazuki kills him without a second thought.
    • Naze and Amida. The former is a suave and savvy gangster, the latter is one of the most skilled pilots in the setting and both are nothing but helpful to Tekkadan. They're both killed in a Last Stand against Gjallarhorn by Iok using underhanded tactics.
  • Tough Act to Follow: Not the series itself, but the subsequent OP and ED songs for the series, including the second season. Most fans who stuck with the series from the start were not exactly drawn into them, especially considering the critical acclaim that the first OP and ED had (though the appeal of the Season 2 OP does come close.)
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • Rustal Elion was a ruthless and self-admitted shady individual, but he was supposed to be genuinely well-intentioned, or at least pragmatic that despite winning, he still cooperated with the surviving heroes to reform Gjallarhorn, allowing both sides to achieve their goals, with his remaining in power treated as a necessary compromise to reach this otherwise optimistic ending. But Rustal had been involved in the worst of Gjallarhorn's corruption; his Arianrhod Fleet partakes in setting up and massacring hapless protesters, he did nothing about Iznario Fareed physically and sexually abusing the child McGillis (it's unknown it Rustal fully knew about these, but a flashback indicates he had some idea of the abuse), uses the same illegal weapons and frame-up he chastised his subordinate for using, sacrifices his loyal forces (only one was shown willing) to do so, and cooperates with the exiled (lacking the power that could've excused prior inaction) Iznario and equally corrupt Nobliss Gordon to destroy and defame McGillis's faction and allies while refusing to let them surrender. This along with Rustal’s frequent smugness left many feeling his willingness and trustworthiness to reform Gjallarhorn was too left field to be legitnote , at best hollow promises just to hold onto as much power as possible, allowing them to continue their corruption.
    • Julieta Juris was ultimately meant to realize Rustal wasn't the noble figure and Tekkadan the demons she assumed, the ending implying she'd succeed Rustal as a more moral leader. But then she continued to follow Rustal, albeit conflictedly, to the point she did all the same stuff she'd have done if she remained blindly loyal, which made this sentiment, and being one of the few characters to get a straight happy ending feel unearned to many.
  • The Un-Twist: Some fans expected for the writers to pull a fake-out with Vidar's obvious secret identity and have him turn out to be Ein Dalton. He wasn't, but they were technically correct that Ein Dalton was involved with Vidar as his remains serve as part of the control scheme for the Gundam Vidar.
  • Values Dissonance:
    • The show introduced a character having a polygamous marriage and an adult character engaged to a nine-year-old which caused many viewers find it very unsettling. However, Reality Is Unrealistic as some countries, particularly Islamic countries, do practice polygamy and child marriages today and considering that the show is set in the future, it might be Deliberate Values Dissonance. Also, Gjallarhorn has a lot of parallels with the medieval world, which often did employ the exact same type of cutthroat politics and featured arranged marriages and infighting between powerful families - often simultaneously.
    • Also, the casual discussion between Atra and Kudelia about who gets to bear Mika's children sticks out like a sore thumb given that one of the overarching themes of the series is that Tekkadan, competent as they tend to be, are still mostly just teenage boys. And particularly for Mika and Atra, who are 15 (maybe about 16 by S2) but look significantly younger than that. Especially Atra, whose lack of physical development is discussed and even made fun of at points. Although there are a few arguable justifications even for this:
      • The theme of kids having to grow up too fast is part of what makes the plot point work.
      • Given Atra's past note  she certainly wouldn't be as innocent of sexual matters as you would assume by looking at her.
      • Such conversations seem tame, and even comforting, when contrasted with some of the awful stuff these teenagers see on a regular basis. Which was perhaps the whole point.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: A lot of viewers were totally surprised that the feminine-looking mechanic◊ in the epilogue happens to be a very grown-up Yamagi.
  • Wangst:
    • Ein Dalton spends most of his screen-time whining about how he's going to get Revenge on Tekkadan for the death of his superior, Crank Zent, which can get really tiresome after awhile.
    • Several viewers disliked Kudelia's constant self-pity during in the first half of the show. Fortunately, she gets better in the second half when she started becoming more serious with her role.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Gundam shows have traditionally been marketed for young boys, and especially with the last major productions being more blatantly aimed at kids, it seems many weren't prepared for the more adult themes Iron-Blooded Orphans is portraying. From a darkly realistic portrayal of Child Soldiers, abject poverty, slavery, prostitution, pedophilia, and an actual harem, as well as the main character coldly gunning down prisoners (granted, they were all Asshole Victims), the show has received criticism in Japan from concerned parents (who are either against the show itself or are calling for more stringent standards on Japan's TV age-rating system). note  It fell square into this largely because it aired at the prime-time family slot, which is traditionally the time slot for big-name little kid shows, making the confusion very understandable.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Rustal Elion's actions in the show's finale is a very heated topic, wherein some people compared his actions to several Real Life world leaders who did some morally questionable actions but are praised positively in the media. There are also some who see the show as an allegory for Imperial Japan and its subsequent occupation by the United States.
  • Win Back the Crowd: While the Build Fighters series' can be said to have held the line, Season 1 of IBO had the task of carrying forward for those who want serious mecha action again. A number of long-time fans who have been disappointed with the last few Gundam series expressed their appreciation for how this one has brought them back. Season 2, however, drove some of those fans away again due to its more cynical tone compared to the first season.
  • The Woobie:
    • Many of the younger Tekkadan kids veer into serious Woobie territory. Start with almost all of them being orphans so poor they would normally be starving or doing something worse on the streets in most cases. Then you add in the horrifying Alaya-Vijnana surgery that a number of the unlucky ones don't survive or recover from while those that do the CGS used to readily send them to their deaths as fodder... and that's not counting the Human Debris who have no choice and their inevitable early deaths. These kids don't even understand what a funeral is. How warped this has made them becomes apparent when they want to watch Mika wipe the floor with Carta and her crew as vengeance for Biscuit's death.
    • Almiria Bauduin is just a little girl who is forced into an Arranged Marriage and had no idea on what is going on in the world. Though her fiancee treated her with respect, she felt very insecure about the engagement because of her young age. Likewise, she had no idea that he killed her brother and when she learned that her brother came back from the dead which also exposed her fiancee's crimes to public, she's completely devastated and tries to kill him. When that didn't work, she tries to commit suicide but her fiancee stopped her. You felt really sorry for this girl who had to grow up such as Crapsack World.

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