Gigantis

Gigantis
Gigantis (巨神)
Unit Type
Prototype Newtype-use Transformable Interstellar Mobile Weapon
Profile
Manufacturer	Sixth Civilization
Operator	Neo Zeon
Known Pilots	Mineva Lao Zabi Cosmo Yuki
General Characteristics
Power-plant	Ide Energy Core
Power Output	∞
Pilot Accommodations	Pilot Only, Cockpit on Torso
Armor	Ideonite Alloy
Equipment
Standard	Ide Barrier
Standard Armaments
Fixed	Ide-powered missiles 2 x Gigantis Sword Black Hole Cannon 2 x Glenn Cannon
Handheld	Wave Leader Cannon
Real World
Appearances*
Manga	Mobile Suit Vs. Giant God of Legend: Gigantis' Counterattack Mobile Suit V Gundam Project Exodus

The Gigantis is a mysterious interstellar combat mecha appearing in Mobile Suit Vs. Giant God of Legend: Gigantis' Counterattack. It is piloted by Mineva Lao Zabi. It is later revealed to be the reincarnation of the Ideon from another universe.

Technology & Combat Characteristics

Discovered by the Neo Zeon, the Gigantis is portrayed as a very destructive Mobile Weapon in terms of raw destructive power. Its armaments included an array of missiles and a double barreled energy cannon called the Glenn Cannon on its abdomen as well as limited melee and defensive shields.

The Gigantis's overall performance increases to incredible heights of speed, durability, and power; even its basic weapons increase their potency dramatically such as the "All Missiles" attack where all of the Gigantis' now Ide-powered missiles are launched simultaneously at great speeds destroying fleets of ships in one attack. Without a doubt, the Gigantis' destructive power reaches godlike status when three distinct weapons are discovered.

Armaments

• Glenn Cannon

The Glenn Cannons are twin-barreled beam cannons located on the Gigantis' abdomen.

• Ide-powered missiles

The Gigantis is equipped with several Ide-Powered Missiles, capable of destroying several battleships with each silo. With sufficient Ide Energy, Gigantis may launch all missile at once, attacking enemies in every direction. A single salvo from this All-Missile Attack demolishes all Neo Zeon forces, with only Char Aznable's Suzaku and Amuro Ray's MSZ-009M Mega Zeta surviving the attack.

• Gigantis Sword

The Gigantis Sword is a beam of pure light emitted from each of Gigantis's hands. While the beam's destructive power is immense (even cleaving an entire planet in half at one point), its most peculiar quality is its length. While adjustable, the maximum length of the sword is depicted as being quite possibly infinite.

• Black Hole Cannon

The Black Hole Cannon, as the name implies, creates a miniature black hole capable of massive destruction. This weapon was only used once in Ideon but never use by Gigantis.

• Wave Leader Cannon

The Wave Leader Cannon is a massive blue cannon directly powered by the Gigantis' Ide energy to produce an enormous white wave of energy that destroys literally anything in its path in a forty-five-degree angle, including starships and planets. This cannon's initial use is so powerful that the crew is very wary of using it. Although it's Ideon's signature weapon, Gigantis does not have it.

System Features

• Ide Energy Core

Considered as the power source of the Gigantis, it lets it have infinite energy and powers up it's most powerful weapons onboard.

• Ide Barrier

An energy field created by the Ide Energy Core to protect the Gigantis from weak attacks.

History

Space Runaway Ideon

Originally called the Legendary Giant-God Ideon, this previous incarnation of Gigantis was first discovered on the planet Solo by archeologists from Earth. It was an artifact of the Sixth Civilization (the sixth sentient alien race that Earth found evidence of existing on another planet). During their attempts to analyze the various Ideon machines, a new alien race known as the Buff Clan attacked humanity. The Buff Clan feared that Earth's objective was to revive the Giant God to use against them. In order to stop them they carried out a series of attacks on the colonists, which prompted them to combine the machines to form the Ideon to fight them off.

Finding the Ideon initially to only have its fists and its bladed feet available to defend itself, the Solo colonists armed it with both missiles and Glenn Cannons. They then used it to defend against the repeated assaults of the Buff Clan. As the Buff Clan attacked their colony the colonists fled and the humans found and repaired another relic of the Sixth Civilization, a large vessel with self-contained hydroponics they named the Solo Ship.

Loading the Ideon onto this vessel the beleaguered colonists learned that Karala Ajiba and her companion were in fact members of the Buff Clan. The colonists attempted to surrender to the Buff Clan, however their efforts failed as they later learned that the Buff Clan regarded red flags as a sign of surrender and white flags as a sign of fatal defiance. Karala warned them of this, but it was too late. After these incidents the colonists attempted to escape from the planet Solo by entering Null Space (a subspace used for faster than light travel). Despite the high durability of their ship, and nigh invincibility of the Ideon, the colonists were forced to exit Null Space landing back on another part of the planet. Karala had begun to want to help the humans and explained the origin of the Giant God's power.

The Ideon drew its source from the power of Ide, an infinite energy source said to be wielded by an ancient hero of the Buff Clan. This gave it a sort of religious significance for the Buff Clan and made their efforts more fervent, especially once they discovered that it was in fact the Giant God of legend that they thought it to be.

The Ideon fought as the Solo Ship's sole defender across many strange and alien worlds as the Buff Clan pursued them mercilessly. As it did so its power spiked. The colonists began to learn that the power of Ide was activated by a need to protect something. With this power needing to constantly grow they began to learn of weapons of terrible power that were stored inside it, the Ide-powered missiles being the first manifestation.

As the colonists attempted to seek assistance from other colonies of Earth they were initially snubbed and when another colony attempted to help them, it proved too weak and the Buff Clan wiped it out. The desperate struggle to save the world resulted in the awakening of a new power and the activation of the Black Hole Cannon.

Realizing that no tactic to destroy the Ideon itself was effective (thus far only electrifying it had had any effect) they initiated a new plan to use a psycommu-like weapon to affect the minds of its pilots and paralyze them. This initially proved successful, however it led to a greater awakening of Ide that produced the devastating Ideon Swords.

Once the Solo colonists traveled to other Earth colonies the colonies shifted from skepticism to the point that they actively allied themselves with the Buff Clan. In tear-filled battles the colonists losing hope fought their way to the moon. Trying to infiltrate to a key computer facility Karala and Solo Ship captain Bess used it and calculated that the potential energy of the Ideon is indeed infinite. Following this and in a difficult situation they make the first use of the Wave-Leader Gun (a.k.a. Ideon Gun). The devastating tornado like effect is so severe that when used near Saturn it destroyed most of its rings. Foolishly they continued to use its immense power, at one point using it at low energy and tearing a swath across the Earth.

The members of the Solo Ship fled deeper and deeper into space. Their final battle occurs against the gargantuan Buff Clan ship, Bairaru Jin. This battle sees the deaths and near deaths of several key characters, an event which invokes the power of Ide and causes the Ideon to destroy much of the galaxy, including the entirety of humanity and the Buff Clan. It is alluded that this happened so that life could begin again in a more perfect form, a key theme picked up and used as backstory by Mobile Suit Vs. Giant God of Legend: Gigantis' Counterattack.

A Contact and Be Invoked

In the Ideon film "A Contact" events are repeated much the same as they were in the series, except with omissions of many connecting incidents.

In "Be Invoked" an entire new conclusion to the Ideon's saga was seen. While it ended the same way as the series, the Ideon was shown even more clearly to have a will of its own, particularly its desire to protect the infant Piper Lou and later the child of Karala and Bess, Messiah. The Ideon fights against the immense Gandow Roa, a mammoth space fortress that dwarfs even the titanic Bairaru Jin. Throughout the film the characters from Solo are given much more graphic and clear deaths until in the end Ideon is invoked resulting in a similar end to all life. The film however clearly shows the souls of those who have died communing, and explicitly sets up the future of mankind being born again as a more enlightened race, this being stated in Gigantis' Counterattack to take the form known as Newtypes.

Mobile Suit Vs. Giant God of Legend: Gigantis' Counterattack

The Zeons have uncovered what they call the "Giant God" (which is never actually called Gigantis or Ideon within the story). While investigating, Judau Ashta learns that the Zeons are planning on using Mineva Lao Zabi's Newtype powers to awaken the Giant God and get their revenge. Unfortunately, it goes out of control and begins attacking anything in sight. As Judau infiltrates the Giant God, Amuro Ray (along with Char Aznable) fights to distract it. As he nears Mineva, the spirit of Karala Ajiba and her baby appear, explaining that Gigantis remade the universe because it hoped that a new type of human - namely, Newtypes - would be the universe's salvation from war. But since this turned out not to be the case, the Giant God was set to remake the universe again. Judau also learns that he is the reincarnation of Ideon protagonist Cosmo Yuki, and violently opposes this plan. With Amuro's help, he manages to free Mineva and shut Gigantis down before Amuro destroys it from inside using Mega Zeta's High Mega Cannon, to make sure it can't do any more harm.

Notes & Trivia

• The Gigantis's relation to both Space Runaway Ideon and to the Gundam series in the manga is due to Yoshiyuki Tomino's name, who comes up in the story as Amuro explains the myth of Giant God (the events of the Ideon series) to Judau, suggesting that Tomino himself exists within the Gundam universe.
• Gigantis appears to have a pair of 2-barrel turrets on each of its shoulders; these weapons weren't present on the Ideon and are not ever used in the manga.

• Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: Gundam Frag contained a reference to Ideon: one of the shorts showed an RGM-79 GM posing in front of two Salamis-class while they were firing their beam cannons, make it look similar to the Ideon while it was firing its missiles.
• The Ideon Sword sound effect was used in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn and Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative, in which they were associated with the NZ-999 Neo Zeong and the NZ-999 II Neo Zeong.
  • The "Intention Automatic System" installed on the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam and the MSN-06S Sinanju is a direct reference to the control system of the same name used by Ideon.