Anime / Gundam: Reconguista in G

Due to its nature as a Distant Sequel to the Gundam entries in the Universal Century continuity, all spoilers for it will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

See with your own eyes.

Gundam: Reconguista in G is the first series in the Gundam franchise by Yoshiyuki Tomino since ∀ Gundam and meant to celebrate Gundam's 35th anniversary.

It is Regild Century 1014, more than a millennium since the Universal Century ended. Bellri Zenam is a cadet of the Capital Guards, charged with protecting the Space Elevator called the Capital Tower, mankind's most important link with space and source of the priceless photon batteries. Suddenly, the Tower is attacked by space pirates and Bellri encounters an unknown mobile suit called the G-Self, piloted by one of the space pirates, Aida Rayhunton. Somehow, Bellri is able to operate the G-Self, which is supposed to be operated only by a select few. Bellri ends up joining the space pirates to fight the emergent Capital Army and an unknown threat from space. Through his adventures he will learn about the mysteries shrouded in the Regild Century, including his own history.

The series can be watched on YouTube on the official Gundam page, if you live in certain territories. Not officially available in Europe, unfortunately.

During a 40th Anniversary livestream for the entire franchise, five compilation movies for G-Reco were revealed to be in production. The first film, Go! Core Fighter, premiered on November 29, 2019, covering events up to episode 5 of the TV series. The second film, Bellri, Advance! released on February 21, 2020. The third, Legacy from Space premiered on July 22, 2021. The fourth and fifth film, Shouting Love Into a Fierce Fight and Crossing the Line Between Life and Death respectively, were both released in 2022, with the fourth film premiered on July 22, followed by the fifth and final film on August 5.

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Gundam: Reconguista in G provides examples of:

• Ace Custom: Par for the course in a Gundam series.
  • Instructor Dellensen gets a couple, first is the custom, orange painted Recten he uses in the first episode. Then there's the Elf Bull, a special Super Prototype that he tested himself.
  • Klim Nick's custom Montero. And later, he gets a custom Space Jahannam
• Allegory: Aside from the usual Gundam anti-war messages, the series' main themes present a pretty transparent argument against both Japanese rearmament and against the institutional ignorance that let calls for rearmament gain ground.
• Alternate Calendar: It uses the Reguild Calendar and is intended by Tomino himself to be the future of the Universal Century Gundam series.
• Animal Motifs: Every piece of pilotable machinery is patterned off some kind of animal: the Capital's bird-walkers, its mobile suits are called "Caitsith" and "Elf Bullock", and the pirates' appropriately-named Megafauna deploys fishlike fins in flight mode. The Megafauna's MS team also adopts a rabbit emblem, after the G-Self's antenna that make it resemble one.
  • Fairy Tale Motifs, Mythical Motifs, Theme Naming: The majority of Mobile Suits in the series are named or patterned after various folklore figures or fantastic ideas. Many of these are also multifaceted, such as G-Lucifer, which is from Venus, historically known as the Morning Star.
• Animation Bump:
  • Episode 10 is considered a highlight for the series' animation. This is due to the episode being directed by Attack on Titan's Tetsuro Araki, who brought over several animators from that series to help out.
  • While the compilation movies largely retain the same animation quality as the series for the new footage, the fight between Bellri and Mask near the end of the fourth movie sees a dramatic jump in animation quality.
• Anyone Can Die: "Kill 'em All" Tomino is back and some characters were killed off.
• Armed Legs: A popular feature on Capital Army suits in particular. As the defenders of the Capital Tower, their machines spend most of the time in space or in the air, meaning they need to find a use for their legs other than standing on them. The specific weapon systems vary from suit to suit, but it's generally a very bad idea to approach a Capital Army machine from below.
• Artistic License – Physics:
  • The waterballs are the biggest culprit of this for two reasons. First is that water cannot be compressed. Second is that the weight of all the water they contain is ignored, each one contains enough water to fill a small lake which has to weigh several thousand metric tons yet characters handle them as one would beach-balls about the same size rather than in a way one would expect for an object containing that much mass.
  • The Crescent Ship has a treadmill-like structure running along the center of its entire circumference to provide some Centrifugal Gravity to its inhabitants. The only problem is that the treadmill is facing outwards instead of inwards. This configuration would result in the centrifugal force flinging them away from the surface, not holding them down. This is fixed in the movies with it now facing the correct way and is changed to have the whole section rotate rather than just a treadmill.
  • The Photon Torpedoes are small bits of contained antimatter that are sprayed out over the battlefield and then annihilate whatever makes contact with it. The problem is that it is not a 1:1 conversion, the tiny amount of antimatter within each packet destroys huge chunks of whatever they hit. And if one instead assumes that the antimatter is tightly packed and that there is more than it appears then it raises another problem. The destroyed matter does not just disappear, it becomes energy. And as matter and antimatter annihilation is the purest form of E = mc², that means it turns into a lot of energy, with so little as one gram capable of releasing more energy than Little Boy did over Hiroshima. In other words, the stuff hit by the Photon Torpedo would not just disappear into thin air, each hit would be like a shower of nukes going of all at once.
• Ascended Extra: Not a person, but Minovsky Particles. In past UC Gundam stories they were still important, but their communication-blocking properties were more or less just glossed over. Here in Reconguista, much more attention is called to it.
• As You Know: When a character provides exposition, they're usually providing it first and foremost to other characters in the show, thus they often will mention terminology the audience still isn't familiar with. Though the context tend to vary. At times they give exposition that characters should already know while other times they are talking to themselves with no one else around simply to provide info for the audience.
• Beam Spam: The Elf units are prone to do this as they can shoot beams from various parts of their body.
  • The same goes for the Armorzagan mobile armor.
• But What About the Astronauts?: Word of God suggests that the Colonies became "trash," devastated from the conflicts that ended the Universal Century. It's implied however that while Towasanga is descended from the surviving Spacenoids, it's also implied that others attempted to leave the Earth Sphere altogether for greener pastures. Foreshadowing the Dark History alluded to in ∀ Gundam.
• Cargo Cult: To a degree, with a dash of Lost Technology. The Capital itself was built around the Space Elevator, itself refurnished to working order at some point early in the Regild Century. Over generations however, the elevator and the Capital's policies took on a religious tone that would lead to below.
• Church Militant: If you look at the Capital from a Catholics In Space point of view, you can consider the Capital Guard as an expy of the Pontifical Swiss Guard and the Capital Army as a newly founded Papal Army. The latter especially hits the point home; after all, how would the modern Holy See look if it suddenly decided to (re)amass military power?
• Continuity Nod:
  • One of the factions is named Ameria, a reference to ∀ Gundam.
  • Towasanga's mobile suits combine design features from enemy suits from the original Mobile Suit Gundam as well as Mobile Suit Victory Gundam.
  • During the return battle on Earth, Bellri and Luin end up fighting in the ruins of Jaburo base, with the remains of mobile suits from the One Year War and Gryps Conflict still present.
  • The G-Self Perfect Pack's photon torpedo launcher releases a cloud that erases anything it touches. Much like the Moonlight Butterfly.
  • An interview with Tomino revealed that the G-Lucifer has a Moonlight Butterfly system aboard it, but you only get to see it briefly used in the Blu-Ray cut. That same interview also suggested that G-Reco takes place after ∀ Gundam, turning a whole bunch of fan theories on their heads. It's also recreated in Super Robot Wars X during one of the G-Lucifer attacks in the game.
• Cool Starship: The totally-not-an-Amerian-military-prototype Space Pirate battleship Megafauna, our heroes' main ride.
• Cute Machines: The G-Self's wide eyes, oversized head, and sleek, rounded lines make it look a lot more friendly than the average Gundam. This is probably because it was sent to Earth to find and guard lost children.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: 'SU-Cordism', the primary religion of Earth, combines this with Deus est Machina. The Capital Tower space elevator (the Space Umbilical Cord) is worshipped as a provider of life-giving photon energy from the 'heavens' (the lunar colony Towasanga), and breaking the technological taboos designed to prevent a repeat of the Universal Century's devastation is viewed as a sin against SU-Cord which will cause it to withdraw its divine blessings. All of the above is wrapped up in a classic Roman Catholic aesthetic, from the soaring cathedrals to the flowing white vestments.
• Cyber Cyclops:
  • Standard for Amerian suit designs, though some (like the Grimoire black-ops suit and Hecate assault suit) instead have Extra Eyes. In the Grimoire's case, this may well be to disguise its country of origin.
  • Some of the mobile suits from Towasanga also have this, notable since these suits are even more "Zeon" like in design than Ameria's.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A unique Gundam variant. Ameria's technology uses the standard visual aesthetic of Gundam villains - lots of eerie, glowing red-on-black monoeyes, bright colors, and organic curves. Grimoires, the first Mecha-Mooks of theirs we see, are particularly bad offenders, with black paintjobs and sinister, skull-like faces. Despite this, they're A Lighter Shade of Grey and the primary backers for our heroes.
• Deus ex Machina: At one point, Mask manages to line up a would-be killing shot on the G-Self only for then a random bird appearing and hit his mobile suits sensors, throwing off his aim.
• Distant Sequel: To all of Universal Century Gundam.
• Eagleland: Ameria is a mixed example. It is a militarist, expansionist nation that is gleefully breaking the technology taboos that are keeping humanity from wiping itself out (or so they're purported to be doing), and that's seeking to seize the Capital, the source of the world's energy supply, for itself. On the other hand, it's run by Reasonable Authority Figures who want to democratise that energy supply in order to sort out their people's crippling poverty, have good evidence that the Capital are up to something very sinister, and are perfectly willing to negotiate in good faith if necessary.
  • Episode 10 suggests that the militarism and pacifism is divided neatly between the civilian President Zucchini Nick and Inspector-General Gusion Surugan (respectively), in an ironic reverse of the relationship between Siegel Clyne and Patrick Zala.
• Eldritch Starship: The Crescent Moon Ship and Full Moon Ship are made of long, curved arcs framed around a hollow center, making them appear almost alien.
• Expy:
  • The G-Self with atmosphere pack looks similar to Aile Strike Gundam and Force Impulse Gundam.
    • When equipped with the Perfect Pack it looks a lot like the 00 Raiser
  • Amerian mechanical design echoes that of Zeon in the Universal Century, particularly during the One Year War, with lots of bright colours and mechanical curves in contrast to the Capital Army's Federation-inspired blocky, pastel-shaded designs. Some examples:
    • The Grimoire has the dark colour-scheme and large, rounded head of the Acguy, and its three eyes reference that suit's unique multi-track monoeye.
    • The Jahannam is the obligatory Zaku-expy, with exactly the same paintjob.
    • The Montero, a blue Ace Custom with far-reaching melee weapons and gold highlights, echoes the Gouf.
    • The Hecate, a purple-and-black behemoth with an oversized gun and an unusual eye design, is a clear nod to the Dom assault suit.
    • The Armorzagan, a towering, heavily-armed green mobile armor with a surprisingly nippy flight-mode, is a Bigro that can transform into a Big Zam.
    • The shape, colour scheme, and wing placement of the Megafauna, the resident Cool Starship, all call to mind the Gwazine-class battleship.
    • It should be noted that most other Amerian ships have a Hubcap Hovercraft look similar to the motorcycle battleships from Mobile Suit Victory Gundam in their flight modes.
    • Amerian Army uniforms are predominantly green, not unlike standard Zeon uniforms back in the day. In terms of styling however, they're (rather fittingly) more akin to 20th century United States Army uniforms, which were also mostly green.
  • Capital Guard/Army uniforms hold high similarities to those of the United Federation Army from Eureka Seven. In fact, Cumpa's ensemble is quite similar to Dewey Novak's, right down to including a cape. Well, who are we trying to fool — Cumpa Rusita downright is Dewey Novak, come some 20 to 30 years.
    • Tomino must have really loved Eureka Seven, because even some of the Capital's mecha seem to be based on LFOs and KLFs. Examples include the Mack Knife, which holds a great and rather obvious resemblance to the Nirvash typeZero (though its eye cameras fall more along the line of the RA272 Nirvash from Eureka Seven AO) and the Wuxia, which has a similar build and color scheme to the Mon-Soono series.
  • The G-Arcane has a flight mode like the Zeta Gundam, and its design resembles the L-Gaim Mark II from Heavy Metal L-Gaim, another anime directed by Tomino.
  • Montero use identical type of wings and twin beam sabers from Justice Gundam and Infinity Justice Gundam.
  • Raraiya Monday is identical as an Gender Flip from Loran. Similarly, she also holds a passing resemblance to Lalah Sune, lighter hair aside.
  • The Elf mobile suits are similar to the Messala, the Elf Bull that Mask uses spams beams in a manner similar to the Psyco Gundam.
  • The Catsith and Recten types are blocky with visor style faceplates, similar to the GM.
  • The Capital's overly religious/superstitious theme runs parallel to ZZ's Moon Moon colony, a "lost" space colony whose inhabitants, having been long cut off from the rest of the Earthsphere, had devolved into a Aztec-styled tribal society that worshiped an ancient worker mech as an idol.
  • Klim Nick's general usage of blue suits and his all-but stated relationship with the blonde Mick Jack somewhat makes him a younger Ramba Ral. And as noted for his looks and supporting his father's militarism, he also becomes akin to a Composite Character of Yzak Joule and Athrun Zala.
    • This extends to his performance in a Jahannam Space Type, which evokes the image of Ral at the beginning of the One Year War - when he was taking out Feddies in a custom blue Zaku I.
    • Additionally, his character design bears a distinct resemblance to Dio.
  • Donyell Toss (the Megafauna's captain) wears a personalized uniform that's seemingly based on the old Earth Federation stylings, i.e. being khaki based and having the same style belt as post-CCA designs.
  • Fitting for his position as the initial Pirate Corps commander (and ironically for his quick death), Cahill Saint resembles a very young Bright Noa.
  • Character design-wise, Aida is an orange-haired and green-eyed Anemone.
  • Episode 11 of G-Reco has a shout-out to the iconic helmet bump scene between Amuro and Char — but with the roles reversed. This time, it's Bellri, the protagonist, who takes on the place of Char, with his red personal space suit, while Mask plays the role of Amuro, down to the colors of his spacesuit.
  • The Moran and Elmoran mobile suits used by the Towasanga fleet strongly resemble the Shokew line used by the Zanscare Empire.
  • It turns out that Bellri and Aida are siblings sent to Earth from the colonies after their parents were taken out by the ruling spacenoid faction, similar to Char and Sayla.
    • Of course those two, as well as Kira and Cagalli, were in turn based on Luke and Leia.
• False Flag Operation: The series starts with the nation of Ameria disguising its soldiers as pirates and launching a series of raids on the Capital Tower. The fact that, on balance, the Amerians are the good guys says a lot about this show's Grey-and-Gray Morality.
• Fantastic Racism: Against Kuntala, a whole class of people formerly used as Soylent Green source.
• The Federation: Surprisingly, yet fittingly, the Capital. Alongside being the headquarters of the SU-Cord religion, it retains a conventional government for day-to-day administration of the Earth, which in turn is headed by a (seemingly token) Prime Minister and containing a Senate. This makes the Capital more apparent as the Earth Federation's successor.
• Fictional Countries: It's Gundam, it's After the End and it's directed by Tomino. Obviously no surprise here. According to magazine scans◊, they are as listed:
  • Ameria - North America
  • Capital Territory - Upper South America
  • Gondwan - Europe
  • Izanel - Africa
  • Towasanga - The Moon
• Future Imperfect: Seemingly averted. Enough time has passed that some aspects of the Universal Century are shrouded in mystery. However, the principles and technology from those days have endured in some form, whether it's Mobile Suits or the awareness of Minovsky Particles.
• Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: Raraiya is saved in this manner after taking a high-altitude tumble out of the G-Self in the first episode. Justified in that she and the mecha that caught her were both falling at relatively similar speeds.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Deliberately invoked by Tomino. The word Reconguista is based on the Spanish word reconquista ("reconquest"), but the Japanese audience prefers a hard 'g' which made the change necessary.
  • Doubles as Genius Bonus, as those familiar with religious history, especially that of the Catholic Church, realize that the term "Reconquista," coupled with the obvious religious overtones concerning technology in this series, is associated with the Crusades.
• Guile Hero: Bellri was able to capture the G-Self with a worker type Mobile Suit.
• History Repeats: The Capital and SU-Cordists are purportedly trying to prevent the events of the Universal Century from happening again. In practice however, the state of affairs in the Regild Century is reminiscent of the eras before the Earth Federation's founding. The point is driven home near the shows climax, where the hero and their rival duke it out in the ancient ruins of Jaburo base- as Amuro and Char did a Millennium before.
• Homing Lasers: The Elf Bull spams the things!
• Hufflepuff House: Gondwan and Izanel, the world's largest political blocks in Europe and Africa respectively, receive little mention other than being rivals to Ameria. While a couple of the show's characters hail from Gondwan, Izanel exists solely on a map. The other great houses of Towasanga other than Dorette and Rayhunton also count.
• Human Resources: In the backstory. The "Kuntala" epithet that Luin gets hit with refers to people who were bred to be eaten.
• Interservice Rivalry: One reason the various groups and their motivations are so difficult to keep track of is that there are invariably factions within those groups that are at odds with each other, sometimes boiling over into actual in-fighting.
  • The Capital Guard and the Capital Army are constantly butting heads, with early episodes especially showing them arguing over who gets to keep and study the G-Self. Wilmitt Zenam (Guard) and Cumpa Rusita (Army) are often seen vying for political control, with the Pope as a third party.
  • The Megafauna and its crew are technically supposed to be an Amerian Army unit (them being "pirates" is a cover), but act mostly independently and at several points even seem to be working against the Amerian Fleet when the latter does things they don't like.
  • The Towasangan standing government is shown to be distrustful of the Dorette Fleet, envious that they'll be the first to resettle on Earth. The garrison remaining at the colony aren't happy about the situation either, and eventually the rivalry boils over and they come to blows with members of the Dorette Fleet — in the middle of a battle, no less.
  • The G-IT Corps of the Venus Globe are dismissive of the Rosario Ten police, but they take it a step up from mere rivalry when they attack them.
• Lighter and Softer: Coming from Tomino, this anime has an even lighter tone than ∀ Gundam which was already a chill Gundam series compared to the first anime, Z and Victory. Of course, this is still Gundam, so we'll get some heartbreaking deaths.
• Lightning Bruiser: The G-Self when equipped with the High Torque pack becomes this.
• Limited Animation: Of the five Sunrise productions released in the Fall ^note Along with Gundam Build Fighters Try, Cross Ange, Tribe Cool Crew and season three of Aikatsu!, this series was hit with this trope the most. Much to the fandom's dismay. Episode 10 being a notable exception.
• Ludd Was Right: The general attitude in the modern world. Similar to Warhammer 40,000, technology and scientific development are both considered taboo subjects while any innovation and distribution is, not unlike with the Adeptus Mechanicus, tightly controlled by the Capital and the SU-Cordists. The basis for this mindset is, naturally, the chaos and ultimate failure of the Universal Century, in which technological development only caused a multitude of wars and conflicts while (despite Zeon Daikun's wishes) humanity never really made it off of Earth. That being said, there are several nations (namely Ameria) that have taken issue to this idea...
• Made of Iron: Barara's Mack Knife surprisingly. It took a torso shot from the G-Arcane's anti-ship rifle - a blow that would have destroyed any lesser mobile suit outright - and was "merely" disabled. Potentially Plot Armor.
• Mecha Expansion Pack: G-Self have various: Atmosphere Pack, Space Pack, Reflector Pack, Trick Pack, High Torque Pack, and later Perfect Pack, which incorporates all the previous packs.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: This runs rampant once the cast gets their hands on Venus Globe tech:
  • On the Megafauna side, the G-Self and G-Arcane both get Mecha Expansion Packs in the form of the Perfect Pack and the Full Dress respectively, while Raraiya switches from piloting a Neodu to the G-Lucifer (with Noredo serving as copilot), and even Kerbes moves up from a Recksnow to a Zansgato.
  • Klim and Mick meanwhile switch from their custom Jahannam and Hecate to the mobile suit/armor Dahak/Dharma combo and Trinity respectively.
  • On the Capital Army side Luin obtains the Kabakali and Manny the G-Rach.
  • Interestingly, this is the first series in a long time where the main character does not receive a new Gundam.
• Mini-Mecha: Various types of smaller walker vehicles show up in this series, including mopeds with arms and legs.
• MRS Degree: A variant. Saintflower Academy cheerleaders apparently have a reputation for going husband hunting among the trainee Capital Guards. While it's not played up, both groups are available to both genders, and have both boys and girls in them.
• Mythology Gag:
  • All the G-Self backpacks draw upon past Gundam designs, as is the norm by now:
    • Atmosphere = Aile Strike Gundam / Force Impulse Gundam
    • Space = Gundam F91
    • Assault = A scaled-down Dendrobium
    • Trick = Qubeley.
    • Reflector = Gundam Double X
    • High Torque = classic Full Armor Gundam
    • Perfect = OO Raiser and the ∀ Gundam
  • In the second episode we have various statues repersenting various mobile suits from various Tomino-directed Universal Century entries:
    • First Line: Zaku II, Galbaldy B, Jamesgun, Rick Dom
    • Second Line: Rick Dias, Capule, Jegan, Guncannon, Gogg
  • The Capital soldiers inspecting the Grimoire wreckage is a pretty blatant one to the end of Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, especially with the fried body of an important character still in it.
  • The Capital is located in South America, which was a major setting in Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
  • Klim Nick comes across as the Garma Zabi Expy, so it's no coincidence that the Montero takes its blue color and massive wingspan from the Gaw carrier, the last thing Garma ever piloted.
  • The Megafauna takes shelter in a cave that looks like one of Jaburo's old entrances. Given that the base actually shows up late in the series, it may very well have been one.
  • Beam sabers in this series seem to stay mostly in a sort low power mode, only going to full power the moment before they slash something. This seems to be a callback to how Amuro and Char would use their beam sabers in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, except it's now automated and not manually done by the pilot.
  • Bellri spins the G-Self's beam sabers around to act like a shield, in the same way Seabook uses them with the F91. Later, even Klim Nick uses this maneuver with his longer Beam Javelin.
  • The crew of the Megafauna deploys a giant sized balloon decoy that looks like their ship, similar to how decoy balloons were used in Universal Century Gundam shows such as Zeta Gundam and Char's Counterattack.
  • Ameria shares its name with one of the main locales from ∀ Gundam. Since Turn A is a Distant Finale for the whole metaverse, this Ameria is almost certainly the same country.
  • The Amerian capital city appears to be a still-standing New Yark.
  • Amerian ships resemble the Zanscare Empire's infamous "giant motorcycle" ships in their split-wheel configuration.
  • The dynamic between earthnoids and spacenoids calls to mind Full Frontal's plans for Laplace's Box centuries before the anime.
  • The From the Past to the Future OVA short has Bellri and Aida taking on a refurnished variant of the third Unicorn Gundam, the "Phenex".
• Narrating the Obvious: As per standard of Tomino's work, This in turn leads to nonstop dialogue.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: The G-Self. It keeps on pulling out new and unmentioned weapons, gadgets and tricks whenever Beliri seems to be in need of it.
• Nobody Poops: Averted. The seats of the mobile suits in the show can function as toilets for long missions.
• No Name Given: Barring Donyell, most battleship captains are left without names, including those in charge of Ameria's Salamandra, the Capital Army's Garanden, and Towasanga's Knossos.
• Oh, My Gods!: "SU-Cord!" is the exclamation of choice.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • A particularly hackneyed example, with Space Pirate Cahill's attempts to rescue Aida in Episode 2. Had he just called Aida out and allow Bell (piloting the G-Self) to understand what his intentions were, Bell might at least let her get off the open cockpit she was on. Instead, he tried to punch the G-Self to a pulp, which would have been fatal for her, and gave Bell the exact opposite impression. Predictably, this results in his death by point blank beam rifle fire. Justified, he had no idea Aida was in the unit's hand behind its shield, and was just trying to take down a stolen MS.
  • Enforced by the use of Minovsky Particles, which make it impossible to communicate except with direct metal-to-metal contact. Since enemy mobile suits don't usually grab each other and it's hard for allies to do so in the heat of battle, this results in many things that would be averted if the pilots were able to speak for just a few seconds.
• The Pope: The Holy Minister effectively functions as one for SU-Cordism. Amerians even refer to him derogatorily as a Pope.
• Privateer: The Space Pirates operating from the ship Megafauna are actually members of the Amerian military. The reason they're operating as "pirates" is so that the advanced tech they're testing can't be traced back to Ameria. Nobody is really fooled by this pretense, and the Megafauna's crew eventually stop pretending they aren't Amerian military irregulars.
• Privileged Rival: Inverted from the usual play. Bellri is the son of a high-ranking official and has never wanted for anything; even his comments that she's always working are casual rather than bitter, and his attitude is often casual or carefree. Luin, on the other hand, is always fending off comments about his Kuntala heritage and pushes himself as hard as he can in battle to prove his worth, taking the whole conflict much more seriously. Late in the show, it's revealed that Luin has always resented Bellri for having everything easier. That Bellri was actually born to more privilege before being orphaned just makes Luin madder.
• Punny Name: A good portion of the cast have wonderfully goofy Tomino names. Some examples include: Manny Ambassada, Barara Peor, Turbo Brockin, the Megafauna's helmswoman Steer, Chickara Dual (a woman obsessed with physical fitness), and the Amerian president Zuchini Nicchini.
• Ragnarök Proofing: To a degree. Quite a few UC-era relics have survived the numerous generations. Including the ruins of Jaburo and the mobile suit remains in it, but nobody climbs in to see if they still work. Mostly they serve as a reminder of the wars that nearly ended humanity. Also, the Unicorn Phenex Gundam in the From the Past to the Future OVA short.
• Random Events Plot: The TV series suffered a great deal from trying to fit too much into a limited runtime leading to a plot with a bunch of random things and events just happening with little explanation or follow-up, characters switching sides like one would underwear and fights just starting and ending for seemingly no reason. The movies also suffer from this but to a lesser extent thanks to some parts being changed to make things connect better as well as trying to explain some events.
• Robot Buddy: True to most post-2000 Gundam shows, there's a Haro, or (in this case) an Expy of Haro, No-Bell (which stands for Noredo - Bellri). While officially Bellri's, Raraiya gets the most kick out of him (quite literally) by using and abusing him as her ball. This mostly stops after Raraiya finally snaps out of her amnesia.
• Running Gag: People having trouble zipping up their flightsuits.
• Scenery Porn: The first half of the series takes place in lush tropical environments.
• Significant Background Event: If you keep watching the viewscreen with Director Zenam as Dellensen prepares to launch on his rescue mission, she's arguing vociferously with a captain in the Capital Army, undoubtedly about the Capital's military buildup.
• Sinister Geometry: The Yggdrasil is a powerful mobile armor that's shaped like a giant pyramid with a single "eye" (its weapon). Combined with its branching beams, it's one of the more unnerving weapons used on the show.
• Shoot the Bullet: Has always been a part of the Universal Century setting ever since Kamille and Jerid's iconic scene in Jaburo, but here it becomes an actual, recognised tactic - warships' mobile suit teams are encouraged to put up a wall of fire to disrupt incoming beams. In particular, the Full Dress upgrade for Aida's G-Arcane is optimised for this, providing one of the few examples in anime of defensive Beam Spam.
• Shout-Out: The Mack Knife's design and color scheme piloted by Captain Mask had its similarities with Kamen Rider Drive.
• Space Elevator: Capital Tower, which is actually the focus of the setting's religion. It's the place where photon batteries are delivered (similar to the elevators Mobile Suit Gundam 00 being connected to the main energy source). It is occasionally raided by a group of pirates trying to distribute the batteries more freely.
• Space Age Stasis: Due largely to the Ag-Tech Taboo, it seems humanity is still stuck on Earth (souls held down by gravity and all) and the only real development past the Universal Century is the Space Elevator. In fact, possibly following Earth's fate in Turn A, it seems society (if not technology) has actually regressed from the Universal Century, with the Earth yet again having fragmented into individual states that squabble with each other while the Capital, the Earth Federation's apparent successor, is content to simply sit by and keep everyone on a tight leash through Photon Battery distribution. It is, however, hinted that technology is actually more advanced than it appears, and that it's just the Earthnoids that are stuck in the stasis, all while the space dwelling SU-Cordists are free to progress in any way they wish.
• Space Pirates: A group of them serve as some of the main characters, stealing Photon Batteries from Capital Tower in an apparent attempt to break the Capital's monopoly on energy production. It appears they are being unofficially sponsored by Ameria, a nation noted to be somewhat hostile toward the Capital.
  • The fact that they're actually members of the Amerian military makes them more akin to Privateers.
• Spoiler Opening:
  • The opening has scenes showing Bellri wearing a space pirate pilot suit.
  • The ending theme shows Bell's friend Luin Lee as the resident rival.
    • The ending also shows Dellensen and Cahill arm in arm with Bell, signifying the captains' shared fate.
  • The ending theme actually spoils A LOT of the cast, especially the characters in the second half of the show.
• Status Quo Is God: Almost literally. SU-Chordism, the majority religion of both Earth and the Moon, holds maintaining the current state of affairs in the Earth Sphere as its central tenants, all to prevent yet another near-extinction of humanity. It seems to have worked for the last two thousand years, the series is all about what happens when the status quo is upset.
• Super Prototype: The G-Self, AKA YG-111, being one of the competitors for the Towasanga new production mobile suit. It lost, but obviously not for the lack of performance, but rather due to the cost and complexity issues, being absolutely devastating towards those very suits it lost to.
  • Later, it's implied that the YG-111 deliberately underperformed during testing so that it would be passed over for production and made into a one-off prototype used as a recon unit. This was done so that the YG-111 could be used to identify the surviving Rayhuntons during its scouting mission on Earth.
• Talking Is a Free Action: All over the place.
• The Theocracy: The Capital is the headquarters for the SU-Cord religion, which is in turn headed by a Holy Minister (the modern day Pope).
• Time Skip: The series takes place in the Universal Century timeline, though far enough into the future that the UC Calendar has since been abolished.
• Title Drop: The Reconguista in the title is eventually mentioned by members of the Dorette fleet as pertaining to their planned invasion of the Earth.
  • In episode 16, we finally hear the name "Gundam" for the first time when pilots from Towasanga are amazed on how the G-Self easily beats them back.
• Transforming Mecha:
  • The Elf Bulls. The development of them is another thing that breaks the Ag-Tech taboo.
  • The G-Arcane's flight mode.
• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: In episode 13, when Bellri, Aida, Kerbes, Luan, Noredo, Raraiya, Klim, Mick, Mask, and Barara all end up in the same elevator.
• Un-person: The fate of Bellri and Aida's biological parents.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Wilmit comes dangerously close to one in Episode 9 thanks to the ship rocking in the wind. Donyell offers her a barf bag, but she brushes it off.
• We Have Become Complacent: Colonel Cumpa is decidedly unimpressed with the revelry on weekends in Capital territory, and various other characters float the opinion that the Ag-Tech taboos and lack of warfare is causting humankind to stagnate.
• Wham Line:
  • Colonel Cumpa mutters a complaint in Episode 9 that reveals a great deal about the Capital Tower's political situation and his place in it:
  "These Earthnoids belong on the list of organisms that ought to go extinct."

  • Which, together with his hair color, would probably suggest that he's a Moon Race member.
  • He really loves giving these as continued in episode 17:
  "Until the YG-111 appeared, I had no idea where the children (Bellri and Aida) I abandoned on Earth were being raised."

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