Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO

Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO is a CGI Gundam feature which takes place during the One Year War. Three series have been released under the title: The Hidden One Year War, which was exclusively shown at Bandai Museum in Matsudo, Japan but has seen a limited release on DVD; Apocalypse 0079, an OVA series released on DVD starting in April 2006; and MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front, starting in October 2008. The director of MS IGLOO is Takashi Imanishi (previously directed Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory), and Yutaka Izubuchi is the supervisor. There is also a manga series MS IGLOO 603 which start as adaption of The Hidden One Year War but later add its own content.

Tropes used in Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO include:

• Ace Pilot
• Action Girl - Monique Cadillac: She at first seems to just be an obnoxious officer, but when push comes to shove she'll gladly jump into the fray even if she's piloting a screaming metal death trap like the Zudah.
• All CGI Cartoon - The main thing that connects the two series released under this title is that they are the only examples of this trope in the Gundam franchise.
• Anyone Can Die - It's the Universal Century, even having a name won't save you.
  • Incidentally, everybody who pilots/operates the titular suit/weapon of the episode dies before the end of said episode, with only Oliver May being the exception.
• Badass Normal - Engineering Lieutenant Oliver May, while piloting the Big Rang in episode 3 of Apocalypse. Lieutenant Ben Barberry from episode 1 of Gravity Front also, an infantryman who has more MS kills than most pilots, at the beginning of the war.
• Bittersweet Ending - Oliver is astoundingly grateful to find that the war is over, even thought they've suffered great losses. Then finds out that neither side CARES what their leaders say.
  • It's no better when seen from the eyes of Feddie grunts. We're clued in to how The Gravity Front will be from the first episode.
• BFG - The first weapon tested in Hidden One Year War, the Jormungand, is a massive anti-ship cannon.
  • The AMS Reginas used by Barberry's platoon in Gravity Front are rather large compared to their users.
• Colony Drop - Operation British, the Trope Namer, is actually seen underway.
• Continuity Nod - Gihren Zabi and Kycilia Zabi are voiced by their original actors.
  • The picture of the colony used in the Colony Drop, from the opening of Gravity Front, bears the watermark of 603 Technical Evaluation Unit, the protagonists from MS IGLOO 1.
  • Colmatta's battalion receives resupply from the Matilda Squadron in the first episode of Gravity Front, the same squadron that resupplies White Base in Mobile Suit Gundam.
  • The aiming scopes used in the Guntanks in the last episode of Gravity Front are virtual twins to the ones used by Amuro, Kai, and Hayato in the original Mobile Suit Gundam for their respective machines.
• Does This Remind You of Anything? - In episode two of season three, there is a Tank platoon leader who was injured in combat and is obsessed with destroying the Zaku that wounded him. The color of the Zaku?: White.
• Doomed Hometown - Subverted. Zeon manages to survive in no small part thanks to the protagonists of MS IGLOO 1.
  • This is something many characters share, saying that they've got no homes to return to because of the war.
• During the War - Yet Another One Year War side story.
• Energy Weapons
• Excited Episode Title - All of the episode titles of Gravity Front.
• Gundamjack - The Federation steals some Zakus during the period before they have mobile suits of their own.
• The Federation - The protagonists of Gravity Front are Feddies.
• Fragile Speedster - Surprisingly applied to the gigantic Zaku's when fighting against Federation infantry/Tanks in gravity front. In general, the Average Zaku is shown to be VERY vulnerable to infantry deployed guided missiles and Type 61's cannon fire. Provided the rounds hit of course. Fortunately even Mook Zaku's seem capable doding cannon fire. Also overlaps with Glass Cannon, since the Zaku's also have a tremendous firepower advantage over the tanks with their Machine guns and giant Bazooka's.
  • Even more applicable in an ironic way to the Zudah. The Zudah is incredibly fast, capable out out-maneuvering a GM. However, if it goes too fast...
• Heroic Sacrifice - Several times. The irony being that Zeon will lose no matter what the heroes do.
• Heroes Want Redheads - Oliver May obviously is attracted to Monique Cadillac.
• Heroic BSOD - Cadillac, after the death of her little brother.
• Hey, It's That Voice! - There's more than one Shinigami in Gravity Front, namely Lewis and Kuzwayo.
  • Alternatively, it could be said that Shiro Amada was resurrected at some point or other.
  • Lelouch makes an appearance as well. He even gets to pilot one of the Super Prototypes!
  • Ironically, Ryu was also resurrected and switched sides sometime during the war. Or maybe, he was really born on Side 3 and Captain Prochnow is his father...
  • Akio Oozuka
• Hope Spot
• Hot Scientist - Monique Cadillac
• Humongous Mecha - Yep.
• Iconic Characters - Char Aznable is shown earning his nickname in his red Zaku at Loum in the first episode of Hidden One Year War.
  • And later in episode 3, Amuro Ray shows us just how feared the Gundam is, though only briefly in a video.
• It's Personal - Primary motives of Herman Yandell and Arleen Nazon in Gravity Front.
• Kill'Em All - It's almost as though Tomino himself directed the whole thing, especially Gravity Front.
• Machine Empathy: Both Herman Yandell and Elmer Snell from the second episode of MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front claim to have very temperamental machines (a tank and a Zaku, respectively) that stop despite regular maintainance saying they should still run. This happens when the pilots can tell if the other is not on the battlefield they're going to since they both want to save their strength for their fated encounter.
• Making Use of the Twin - The opening of Apocalypse saw Jotunheim getting hit and blowing up. Shortly afterwards, we see the crew of the Jotunheim learning that their sister ship, the Muspelheim, was destroyed during a drop operation.
• Mid-Season Upgrade - A minor example, the Jotunheim gets rocket boosters to give it greater speed sometime between Hidden One Year War and Apocalypse.
• Minovsky Physics - It's Universal Century, when are there not Minovsky Particles?
• Not So Different - The most visibly moving episode is the second episode of Apocalypse. The audience realizes, even though the characters do not, that both sides are untrained children.
• Putting on the Reich - Colonel von Kuspen wears a variant of a Waffen-SS officer's uniform. Other than that, it's Zeon.
• Real Robot - Although there are no Gundams in this work.
  • The original Gundam does appear very briefly in the form of a video feed recovered from a dead Zeon suit. It can basically be summed up as "This is what it's like to be killed by Amuro Ray."
  • Needless to say, Oliver himself is utterly frightened to see the infamous White Devil that has killed so many of his comrades single-handedly...
• The Remnant - Horribly, horribly subverted as both sides who want to continue the war are shown to be utter madmen.
• Rooting for the Empire - Sort of. While you hope for the best for the main characters, despite them supporting Zeon, you can't really support the empire they are fighting for due to how badly they treat their own soldiers.
• Shinigami - Pervades throughout The Gravity Front, as a spectral entity that causes nightmares for men on both sides. Is voiced by Kikuko Inoue.
• Super Prototype - Averted, most of the prototypes that appear in MS IGLOO 1 are Awesome but Impractical and were used as mere propaganda: the Jormungand is an outdated and useless cannon, the Hildolfr is tank that was already marked as a failure, the Zudah breaks apart if its thrusters are used at high output, the Oggo is just a worker pod outfitted with weapons (very much like the Ball).
• Talking to Himself - In the MS IGLOO 2 finale, both the female tank driver and the Shinigami are both voiced by Kikuko Inoue.
• Tank-Fu - First by the Hidolfr, as when it's cannon and arms can't do the talking, a lifted corner of its 220-ton body gets the job done.
  • Used later with the 440-Guntank to help take out an enemy.
• Tank Goodness - The Hildolfr in Hidden One Year War, and Type 61s and Magella Tanks in Gravity Front.
• War Is Hell
• What A Bunch Of Idiots - In episode 3 of series 1, the Zudah, an old machine which was poorly disguised as a "New Superweapon" and had been outed as such, are deployed to the space above Odessa to help the fleeing Zeon forces escape. A single Zudah destroys a GM squad commander with machine gun fire and impales a second GN seconds later. The remaining four GMs then laugh and treat the Zudah and its pilot like a joke, despite the fact that he had reduced their squad by a third in mere seconds.
• What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic - Shinigami, full stop. They thought they had to make up for the lack of heavy handed Newtype symbolism.