Cannon God Exaxxion

Cannon God Exaxxion (THE CANNON GOD EXAXXION 砲神エグザクソン) is a seven volume manga by Kenichi Sonoda that deals with Earth's fight against alien colonization with the help of giant robots and super powered battle suits.

Story
Hōichi Kano, the Grandson (revealed in stage three to be son) of world famous inventor Hōsuke Kano, is a student at Howa High School in Musashino City, Japan. At the tenth anniversary of first contact with the Leopoldians, an alien race, the unveiling of an Elevator Ship, designed for orbital transport to and from the Leopoldian home world and Earth, is about to take place. However, this was just a ploy to take control of the Earth, using their advanced technology and large Leopoldian work force on Earth to their advantage. It is now up to Hōichi, with the help of his grandfather, his school friend Akane, and Isaka, who recently transferred to Howa High School, to stop them and save Earth.

The series was published in North America by Dark Horse Comics but they unexpectedly stopped and currently have no plans to release the last two volumes in English.

Characters
Hōichi Kano (加農 砲一 Kano Hōichi)


 * The main character of the series, Hōichi's life is turned upside down when the Leopoldians take over the Earth by force.
 * Hōichi is called "Gun" by his friends, which is a joke on his name. He is called this because the kanji symbol for Hō in his name (砲) means "gun" in Japanese. On the day of the tenth anniversary of first contact with the Leopoldians, Hōichi meets Isaka, a beautiful, not to mention well-stacked, young high school girl who wants some time alone with Hōichi. She turns out to be a creation of Hōsuke Kano, and gives Hōichi the Gunner Suit Glove, which allows Hōichi to change his clothes into a power suit. After fighting off Leopoldian robots, Hōichi is taken to the XXX Unit, Exaxxion.

Akane Hino (日野 茜 Hino Akane)


 * Akane is, like Hōichi, a Howa High School student, and a member of the school's media club. Akane has a long-standing crush on Hōichi and is a budding young journalist who wants to interview Hōichi's grandfather for the tenth anniversary of first contact. However, when the Leopoldians take over, Akane, because of her love for Hōichi, is launched into the fight to save humankind.

Isaka Minagata (水方 勇華 Minagata Isaka)


 * Hōsuke Kano created Isaka to be Hōichi's private assistant in the war against the Leopoldians. She is a humanoid colony of nanites capable of a number of tasks including, but not limited to, providing Hōichi with vital information, transforming into an air bike, interfacing with computers, and defense against nanotech viruses.

Hōsuke Kano (加農 砲介 Kano Hōsuke)


 * Hōsuke Kano is an old scientist who was made famous by his anti-Leopoldian stance. When the Leopoldians take over, Hōsuke is prepared, and has reverse-engineered the Leopoldian technology to use against them. He is expedient and willing to sacrifice many lives to gain victory over the Leopoldians. He also keeps himself a private harem consisting of his daughter-in-law/wife (in fact, Hōichi is not his grandson but his actual son) and his all-female lab assistants. As well as working to save the Earth, and as one of the maddest of mad scientists, old Hōsuke is planning on ruling Earth, setting up Hōichi as the first heir in his dynasty.

Ambassador Zobrozaphka Shes’ka


 * AKA General' Zobrozaphka Shes’ka, The Leopoldian governor on Earth and one of the main antagonists on the aliens' side. Callous and scheming, he uses the people around him to try to gain an advantage. He has a personality somewhat like the historical Cardinal Richelieu, a man who is privately contemptuous of his inferiors but a natural flatterer of people who can help his career, and capable of putting on a very convincing act of sincerity. In short, a "kiss-up, kick-down" kind of guy. He proves equally willing to betray Leopoldians as well as Earthlings. Very much a mirror to Dr. Hōsuke Kano, General Z is plotting to take over his own homeworld once he secures Exaxxion.

Kin'ba-sensei


 * A beautiful young Leopoldian teacher at Howa High School who quickly becomes an innocent target of hostilities by her pupils when the war breaks out. A total pacifist, she is appalled by the council's takeover, the wrath of most of her students (for whom she genuinely cares), and the horrifying methods the Leopoldians use (such as the slaughter of humans for animal food processing). She finds an ally and romantic interest in her pupil Murata, and after the end of the war both are engaged to marry.

Murata


 * A classmate of Hōichi. Brash and outgoing, he can also be sensitive and caring, as he reveals when he defends his teacher Kin'ba from the attacks of his agitated fellow students. When some of them even go as far as raping her, he confesses that he is actually in love with her, and with the help of Dr. Hōsake Kano and Hōichi, manages to protect her until the end of the war.

Mecha
An XXX, or in Leopoldian, Ra'un Meta'ar (ra'un meaning "three", meta'ar meaning "X"), Unit is a giant robot that uses antimatter to work.

Almost all Leopoldian warfare is based on electricity. The guns are all rail guns with small amounts of chemical propellant. The electricity is also used to generate gravity and inertial fields that lessen impacts and allow the mechs to "fall up". Exaxxion even walks on cushions of fields to prevent its feet from sticking through the ground. Because Exaxxion has antimatter, its electricity output is on the level of a huge battleship, even though its in a small body. This allows it to take hits undamaged that most mechs could not survive.

Exaxxion
Exaxxion is the main XXX Unit from Cannon God Exaxxion. It was found by Hosuke Kano during excavation for what was believed to be a meteorite. It dates back over 2,000 years, was created by the Leopoldians, and is the most powerful XXX Unit in the series, due to its large antimatter power plant, able not only to store antimatter, but also create new reserves.


 * Weapons
 * Exaxxion is equipped not only with strong robotic arms and legs, but also with very powerful guns. In its right arm, Exaxxion holds an array of three 88 mm Gatling Guns, in its left is a single 460 mm chain gun (the same caliber as the battleship Yamato's main battery.) Finger/thumbs can extend from the arms to manipulate things.


 * Exaxxion's main weapon is the Exa-Cannon. It is a 12 caliber gun with a muzzle diameter of 4096 mm and a barrel length of 49.2 meters. The Exa-Cannon is located in Exaxxion's chest. It fires morphing rounds that change shape in flight to allow great accuracy for hitting targets. For even more muzzle energy, a folding barrel extension can increase the barrel length to 21 calibers. This extension has handlebars that Exaxxion grips with its enormous arms to brace for firing.


 * Exaxxion can actually fly--one could ask the question "why does it need to walk around if it can fly, even into space?" Well, maybe fuel consumption has something to do with it, but the real reason is that if Exaxxion or any other giant robot spent most of its time in the air, it wouldn't step on things and crush them. (At one point, Exaxxion crushes a freeway before Hōichi notices he's stepped on it.) As David Pulver points out there are good physical reasons why giant walking fighting machines would be poor value for the investment, "But who cares? The number one reason why mecha exist in science fiction and comics is that they look cool. A giant semi-humanoid war machine is just so much morel awe-inspiring than an ordinary tank or spaceship. In a cinematic campaign, that's reason enough!" (GURPS Mecha!, p.6, ISBN 1-55634-239 X) Exaxxion certainly qualifies as cinematic, in the best tradition of space operas like Star Trek and Babylon 5, all the way back to A Princess of Mars, complete with aliens so humanoid they can actually interbreed with Earthlings. And nothing can show off an RBFG (Ridiculously Big F****** Gun) like an LLFR (Ludicrously Large F****** Robot).

Publication
Cannon God Exaxxion appeared in Dark Horse's long-running anthology, Super Manga Blast!, which is currently discontinued. The English version of the manga is published by Dark Horse Comics.

Trivia

 * The majority of the female characters appearing in the series have names which have been adapted from famous guns and their manufacturers. This stems from Sonoda's love of firearms, which he has already demonstrated in his previous series Gunsmith Cats.