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 Riofaldians, an alien race, the unveiling of an Elevator Ship, designed for orbital transport to and from the Riofald home world and Earth, is about to take place. However, this was just a ploy to take control of the Earth and establish a totalitarian occupation, using their advanced technology and large Riofaldian 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) Akane Hino (日野 茜 Hino Akane) Isaka Minagata (水方 勇華 Minagata Isaka) Hōsuke Kano (加農 砲介 Kano Hōsuke) Ambassador Zobrozaphka Shes’ka Miss Kin’ba Murata 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.

Mecha

An XXX, or in the Riofaldian language, Ra'un Meta'ar (ra'un meaning "three", meta'ar meaning "X"), Unit is a giant robot that uses antimatter as fuel. XXX Units are vanishingly rare; More common mechs instead use portable nuclear fusion reactors as power plants. Almost all Riofaldian warfare is based on electricity, with all Riofaldian guns being electromagnetically assisted but using chemical propellant to provide fired projectiles with a relatively small amount of initial acceleration. Riofaldian military vehicles, including XXX Units, also rely heavily upon generating and shaping gravity and inertial fields that lessen impacts and allow vehicles to "fall up", bypassing many of the physical and mechanical limitations that the square-cube law usually imposes upon large structures: For example, Exaxxion walks on cushions of focused electromagnetic fields to prevent its feet from sinking into the ground.

Exaxxion

Exaxxion is the titular XXX Unit of Cannon God Exaxxion. It was discovered by Hōsuke Kano during excavation of what was believed to be a meteorite, then subsequently restored to functionality using his large fortune. An ancient Riofaldian combat vehicle, Exaxxion's age dates back over 2,000 years. It is the most powerful XXX Unit in the series, due to its large antimatter power plant, which is able not only to store antimatter but also passively collect and produce fuel. This power plant design enables Exaxxion to handily outperform other mechs of similar mass, volume and construction in terms of power output. Exaxxion is irreplaceably unique; The technology used to construct its power plant can no longer be replicated by modern Riofaldian engineering as of the time of the manga's setting.

Publication

The English version of the manga was published by Dark Horse Comics, although it was discontinued after five of the seven Japanese volumes were translated. It also appeared in Dark Horse's long-running anthology, Super Manga Blast!, which is currently discontinued. Cannon God Exaxxion was also published in France by Glénat, and in Poland and Germany by Egmont.

Volume list