Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel
Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel (Tenku no Gakko) [1] is a manga series written and illustrated by Haruhiko Mikimoto, starting publication sometime in 2002. One of its most notable characteristics is that it is only the second Gundam story to have a female protagonist. (Gundam 0080 has a female Gundam pilot, but she's not the main character. The first is Tiel's Impulse, in which the main protagonist is a 14 year old girl.) It is also notable for being the first one that's any good.
The story starts just as the events of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory concludes and the Titans are formed amidst apparent hostilities between Earthnoids and Spacenoids. Enter our heroine -- Asuna Elmarit -- enrolling into the distinguished military academy "Ecole du Ciel", training to become a mobile suit pilot. Of course, that's not what she really wants to do but she may not have a choice in the matter as the Titans have taken an interest in her due to her father's research - who has been missing since the One Year War.
- Action Girl (Asuna and Marie, primarily.) - Which marks a notable departure from Gundam tradition, as Asuna is the only female protagonist of Gundam to date.
- Axe Crazy ( Erisia, post-Time Skip)
- Bridge Bunny
- The Captain (Marie)
- Continuity Nod (all over the place. Aside from the Titans, there are references to Anaheim Electronics and when the timeline crosses into Zeta Gundam, there is a passing reference to the Gundamjack that starts that series as well as a snippet of
CharQuattro's Dakarl address.) - Crossover (The timeline crosses a little bit into Zeta Gundam.)
- Fantastic Racism (Asuna faces a lot of this in the short snippet where she enrolls into "Ecole Du Ciel".)
- Fragile Speedster (Mecha designer Yoshinori Sayama describes the Le Cygne as a "Kunoichi Gundam".
- Geo Effects (Asuna pilots really well in Space. On Earth or in a colony, however, she's not so good.)
- Gratuitous French (The titular Ecole du Ciel, plus the GM Canard and the Le Cygne. Justified by the Ecole du Ciel being located in Canada.
- Hostage for Macguffin (At one point, the Titans take Asuna's mother hostage and demands Asuna in exchange.)
- Hot-Blooded (Francis.)
- Hotblooded Sideburns (Francis has these. Figures.)
- Lady of War (Marie fits this. Erisia probably would have grown into one except...)
- Lethal Chef (Asuna)
- Humongous Mecha (It's a Gundam series, duh.)
- Psychic Powers (This is Universal Century Gundam. There will be Newtypes. But, more specifically, Asuna, Marie, Akira and post-Time Skip Erisia (see below), among others.)
- Soundtrack Dissonance (manga version: "Happy Birthday to You" seems to be playing as Marie's Pirates are decimated.)
- Space Pirate (Marie's Pirates, enough said.)
- Token Mini-Moe (Juna)
- Tyke Bomb ( Apparently, Asuna and Akira are Tyke Bombs trained by Zeon, sometime during the One Year War.)
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity ( Sometime during the Time Skip, Erisia becomes a Cyber-Newtype. Anyone familiar with Zeta Gundam will know what that means. For everyone else, see the entry for Axe Crazy above.)
- ↑ roughly translated, that's French and then Japanese for "School of the Sky"