King! King! King Gainer!
A 2002 anime series produced by Sunrise Studio, created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and with mecha designs by Akira Yasuda. The characters were designed by Kenichi Yoshida and the head writer was Ichiro Okouchi. This series can be considered a return to the directorial approach seen in 1982 Xabungle, where comedy is much more emphasized than his normal dramas (Translation: Don't worry, Tomino doesn't kill everyone...or anyone, for that matter.)
After an environmental cataclysm, the humans went off to live in giant dome cities called Domeopoli to give the Earth time to recover. The domes are governed by London IMA, and are supplied by private firms like the Siberian Railroad company. Although the domes are nice-enough places to live, people want to return to the homes of their ancestors - they believe the earth has healed enough to support habitation once more, and thus set out on massive pilgrimages known as Exodus. London IMA and the private firms attempt to stop them, refusing to lose their massive customer base.
A large population of one dome wants to go to Yapan, and so, in preparation, hire Exodus specialist Gain Bijou. As part of his plan, Gain gets captured, meeting expert gamer "King Gainer" Sanga (the latter being arrested during class due to the two having similar names). Together they escape prison and find the Overman that Gainer names after his gamer title. They also kidnap Ana Medaiyu, the daughter of the dome's leader, Duke Medaiyu. Ana turns out to be a willing hostage, going with them to see the outside world along with her tutor Lioubov Smettana. As whole parts of the dome's city are pulled by huge Silhouette Mammoths, Gainer finds out that his friend Sara and teacher Mamado are a part of the Exodus, and he must protect them as they go to Yapan. Sent to stop the Exodus are the members of Siberian Railroad (first lead by lovers Yassaba Jin and Adette Kistler) and later London IMA's Saint Reagan, represented by Asuham Boone. While the Siberian goons are simply doing their jobs, Asuham has a personal grudge against Gain, who left his sister heartbroken years before.
The series is also noteworthy for being made after Tomino recovered from his infamous Creator Breakdown, the result being a lighthearted series that has remarkably little death (only around a dozen people die, most of them villains) compared to his previous "Everybody Dies" Ending forays.
Has nothing to do with that other sort of Overman.
The show provides examples of:
- After the End: Most of humanity fled to out-of-the way places like Siberia and deserts to live in domes, to allow Earth to heal.
- A Mech by Any Other Name: Two types: the relatively primitive Silhouette Machines and the almost biological Overmen.
- Angst: Defied. It's noted that angsting over things, justified or no, is unproductive at best and running away from the issue at worst.
- Ascended Fanboy: Subverted by Gainer who wants nothing to do with fighting Giant Robots in real life, and Cynthia, who can't seem to tell the difference between games and reality for most of the series. When she does learn the difference, it hits her hard.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Attack of the Overman-sized Overdevil-controlled Gainer.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Gainer, Sara, Cynthia and Gauli, all under the Overdevil's control.
- Calling Your Attacks: Most Overskills are called. Hughes Gouli also does it whenever he uses Ninpou.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The King Gainer is an Overman sitting in Wulgusk's museum that was seemingly hijacked simply to assist in facilitating the Exodus. But later, it turns out that it's part of the Overdevil family of Overmen, and can utilize Overfreeze, the Overdevil's primary power.
- The Overman arm on Gain's Gotchko also counts. At first it just seems like an in-field modification to give Gain an advantage without actually having an Overman. Turns out, it used to be attached to Brunhilda, Early Meeya's Overman, and can utilize Brunhilda's gravity and light powers, making it key in defeating the Overdevil later on.
- Chekhov's Gunman: In the first episode, the audience is introduced to Cynthia Lane, Gainer's online rival and friend. It isn't until much later in the series that the audience learns that she's the Siberian Railway's ace pilot.
- Cool Big Sis: Adette, after her Heel–Face Turn.
- Dancing Theme: "King, King, King Gainer/Metal Overman King Gainer!" Everybody, do The Monkey with me!
- Dirty Coward: Kashmir. One of his favourite sayings is "if I don't fight, I can't lose".
- Dual Wielding: The King Gainer starts using two Chain Guns starting in episode 24.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Overdevil.
- Everybody Lives: Aside from backstories, only two people die. Both of them bad guys, both of them non-sympathetic. Also, a crapload of poor mooks die over the series.
- Excuse Me While I Multi Task: Gainer, being pressured to multi-task, fights off a horde of Overmen controlled by the Overdevil in real-life and several enemies in his video games. AT THE SAME TIME.
- Expy: Sorta, many can consider the love triangle between Gainer, Cynthia and Sara to be a more developed form of the Jiron, Elchie, Rag triangle from Xabungle.
- Infact the whole SERIES can be considered Xabungle in Siberia, not that this is bad mind you.
- Sara has red hair, pilots a grunt mech alongside the hero, and is the hero's love interest. She and Sochie Heim should get together sometime.
- Forgot About the Mind Reader: Kashmir's Overman Planeta's Overskill. Gainer makes it backfire by simply telling him about what's on his mind most of all... Sara. The entire Exodus just so happens to hear it.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Gain takes on all comers in boxing matches during episode 4 and, later, gets the living piss punched out of him by Asuham.
- High-Speed Missile Dodge: King Gainer vs. Blackmail in episode 5.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: One of King Gainer's abilities. Y'know it's Chainsaw-Sword Gun? It can fit in King Gainer's pocket. Must be seen to be believed.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Gainer and Cynthia learned how to pilot by playing video games, and both improve by playing them. Only Gainer is a Last Starfighter, videogame jockey cum ace pilot. Cynthia has been trained and experienced real combat from childhood. Likewise, Gainer's progress and skill have a lot more to do with the series' completely unexplained mystic abilities (Oversense) and the fact that he pilots what is arguably the most versatile and powerfu Overman on the planet.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Gain. Justified in that he's a trained sniper with a lot of experience under his belt. The model-only Overman XAN, which appeared in the SRW Z Special Disc, is essentially a Black-colored Ninja version of King Gainer.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Asuham. The guy makes Lelouch Lamperouge look like an Aloof Big Brother! Also deconstructed in that Asuham's obsession is the cause of much distress and even danger for everybody around him.
- Manchild: Yasaba is a mild example one. He can be competent and composed at times, but is prone to crying fits.
- Mobile City: The city of Wulgusk runs on wheels, functioning as a base and living space for both the heroes and the entire population of the city that was mobilized. The enemies have control of the railroads, so quick transit of their forces makes a mobile base necessary for the Exodus.
- Motive Decay: Asuham's tactics increase in harshness, eventually deciding to freeze the entire world - all because Gain had a one night stand with his sister.
- To be fair, it's implied, if not outright stated that Gain (Charles) and Asuham's sister were engaged at one point, if not a serious couple. When Gain left London at a younger age to find himself, escape the oppressive society, and make a difference, he obviously intended to come back, but somewhere along the line he became a very jaded and different person.
- Even more to the point, Asuham's whole "for my sister's honor" thing is very obviously an excuse to cover for his crippling inferiority complex and jealousy of Gain's skills, freedom, etc. This is hammered home when his sister shows up at the end and reveals to the audience that she got over Gain ages ago(in the anime, she flat out says that wild guys like Gain are only good for one night). Finding out how useless he is in the grand scheme of things, and how pathetic affairs of the world have gotten (as well as the general loopiness of the series and atmosphere) kinda has him go more and more off the deep-end as the series progresses, from a somewhat suave Char-esque expy to a raving lunatic and omnicidal, Freudian-Excuse driven maniac.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Doing the Monkey with a Humongous Mecha, which gets transferred to SRW Z.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Cynthia's freakout when she finds out that This Is Reality and that smacking around King Gainer causes Gainer himself to actually get hurt. She liked him because he was the only one she "played" with who didn't leave afterwards. In this case, "played" means left the dormitory of the group she was in for the spot to control her Overman, Dominator. As she's starting into her My God, What Have I Done? phase, she realize
what them leaving likely meant for them, and this emotionally CRIPPLED her. - Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: When Yassaba attempts to stop the Exodus by stopping the time of Unit 1, he inadvertently saves a critically ill Toun's life - by freezing him and the ventilator he's hooked to with a minute of power left, allowing Gain and Sara the time to deliver the required medicine from Unit 9.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Gainer and Cynthia. In the manga, Gainer and Sara are this as well. For now.
- The Power of Love:
- How Adette breaks Gauli free from his brainwashing though this also then skirts into the Strangled by the Red String trope. Later cruelly subverted when Sara does the exact same thing with Gainer and fails to snap him out of Overfreeze. Illustrating how their relationship had been damaged towards the end of the series.
- It's not really the 'power of love' in Adette and Gauli's case, such as 'the power of a really hot chick kissing and coming on to you'. The power of lust, lets's call it. She seems to switch her somewhat shallow and obsessive crushes like a teenage girl...
- How Adette breaks Gauli free from his brainwashing though this also then skirts into the
- Punch-Clock Villain: Many of the Siberian Railroad goons are just doing it for the paychecks; in particular Kajenin and Enge, who are obsessed with their rank and quest for a higher salary.
- Red Baron: Gain's nickname of the "Black Southern Cross", Gainer and Cynthia's online titles ("King" and "Queen", respectively).
- Robot Hair: King Gainer, the only mech with hair. It's even called "The Overman with hair" in-series.
- Weak, but Skilled: Gain doesn't have an Overman for most of the series as uses the practically Joke Character Gachiko for most of the series. However, his skills turn it into a Lethal Joke Character.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Cynthia wants to repay her adoptive parent, President Kids Munt, for having taken her in.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Leader Gauli gets called out by Gainer and Sara, and later punched by Gain, when it turns out he's the one who murdered Gainer's parents.
- This is kind of extended to the entire leadership of the Yapan's Ceiling Exodus, specifically the 5 Wisemen, a few times over the course of the series, and definitely at the end, by protagonists NOT a part of the upper echelons (Gainer, Gain, Ana, etc.). Even though they're relatively affable, and not all that corrupt, it's pointed ut that they can be manipulative bastards, who are generally pretty cowardly, and don't actually contribute all that much in terms of leadership, accomplishment, or effort to the Exodus and the community other than acting as figureheads (similar to the utterly useless, ditzy, current Meeya, who's basically a glorified pop-idol rather than a key religious figure) and managing mundane bureacratic matters.
- The Overdevil also pulls one of these on many of the main cast members whilst possessing/assimilating Gainer in the last episodes, pointing out many of their flaws, "sins", and "crimes" (some accurate, some made up to act as psychological attacks) using their friend's face to weaken their resolve and play up their guilt.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Gainer disguises himself as such when keeping tabs on Gain while the latter competes in a boxing tournament to make extra money for the Exodus Movement. He's actually really effective at it.
- Wrench Wench: Cona and Nann are these to the Yapan Exodus.
- Wrestler in All of Us: After being tripped up by Adette during a festival relay race, Sara retaliates with a perfectly executed bulldog.
- Younger Than They Look: Per
Word of God, Yassaba is only 32. Would you believe it by looking at him?
