Assuming you dont recognize the profile picture of Kamille Bidan screaming in horror one look at my anime list will tell you that I love Gundam. The epic battles the colorful dynamic characters the visuallyappealing robots and the brutal war narratives are all reasons why I love Gundam. But Gundam isnt a show nor a series nor a genre. Its a brand encompassing all manner of media and genres. I tried my hand at a less serious take on Gundam where the battles took place via virtual realityhttps://anilist.co/anime/101036/GundamBuildDivers/. The lowstakes and bland characters werent my cup of teahttps://anilist.co/review/3567. But what about a Gundam installment where there arent stakes and there arent meant to be stakes? What about a Gundam comedy? No not SD Gundam. 520https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gundam/images/1/1c/Ganotanoonna001.jpg/revision/latest/scaletowidthdown/329?cb=20120330152206 I believe I found out about Ganota no Onna due to it being likened to a manga I like Tokusatsu GaGaGa. A referenceheavy comedy about an officeworker juggling their love of Gundam with their daily duties? Yes please Ganota no Onna centers around Ganota Utsuki a closeted Gundam fanatic with a particular affinity for things relating to the Red Comet Char Aznable. She works for Zum Inc. a technology development firm where shes the number one employee. I would say that hijinks ensue as Ganota Utsuki tries to hide her love of Gundam from her coworkers but it doesnt really seem to be that big of a deal to the point where until I read the summary I forgot that it was a plotpoint. A lot of her fellow coworkers are Gundam fans as well. Only Kishirisan a man having what can only be described as Gundam PTSD seems to be averse to Gundam. With this in mind I wonder why the manga contains such a plotpoint thats so nebulous as it doesnt do anything for the story or comedy. Maybe thats the point showing that her worry over her interests is pointless and that shell be accepted either way. But until the end the theme of acceptance isnt really brought up. It doesnt feel like theres a disconnect between what the character believes and the reality of the storys world. Instead it seems like theres a disconnect between the authors intention and execution. 520https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gundam/images/4/4e/201007111405221105707596254956675.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120404202637 In the parallel universe where people actually pay attention to my manga list youd notice that Ganota no Onna remained on my list for the better part of a year. Surely that must mean I found the manga terrible right? Well no I just didnt find it that good. I was surprised by how easy it was to read once I got into it. So at the very least the manga isnt bad I just found that it didnt offer me anything that compelled me to return to it besides writing this review. I found the characters indistinct. Besides the ones that were recurring which were relatively few I found myself having a hard time remembering or caring about them. This is an office comedy first and foremost so there are a lot of characters and character relations. I unfortunately didnt find the characters interesting enough to remember which is a huge detriment when theres a large cast of characters. At other times I did remember characters but their jokes were shallow hurhur her boss is a lesbian isnt that so funny guys? At the very least I liked Lahlahchan a cute and creepy child who idolizes Ganota. Fans of Gundam will know that shes a reference to the original shows Lalah Sune. 320https://i.ur.com/7abmo5L.jpg I didnt find the manga that funny. The comedy of this manga seems to simply be making references. Not by really doing anything with those references mind you but just by making references themselves. They were cool when they popped up but didnt contribute to the comedy. Really my primary reaction was 520https://media2.giphy.com/media/tnYri4n2Frnig/source.gif Speaking of references Ganota goes about it in a weird way with Ganota making references to Gundam itself but also by having the world itself be a reference to Gundam. She works at Zum Inc. and several characters are named/modeled after Gundam characters. I find this odd because Gundam exists in this world yet none of the Gundam fans of the manga seem to notice the Gundam reference. I think you can have one or the other type of reference but having both is odd. Plus again nothing is done with either type of reference. We dont really have Ganota connecting her life to the shows she watches/living her life as if it were a Gundam show nor are the character relations of the gundammodeled characters developed. The characters as Gundamcharacters doesnt really go much past...having similar names often not even sharing personalities of their namesakes. I think this would have been a riot and its a painfully missed opportunity. 520https://i.ur.com/SOg16uM.png However things started to look up at the end. Towards the end of the manga things got a bit more serious and characters started to develop. I know that comedic works dont really need for there to be developments but its always nice for things to wrap up and for Ganota where I wasnt engaged as much these more tenderhearted and serious moments such as Lahlahchan and Ganota having to depart helped me see the point to the story I read. Then the story takes it a step further. Furthermore the story ends too soon. Th employees of the rival company Federation Inc. are introduced shortly before the mangas end so we dont really get to see a lot of the rivalry. A division based on AEUG the protagonist group from my favoritehttps://anilist.co/anime/85/MobileSuitZetaGundam/ Gundam show was introduced in the secondtolastchapter and got no exposure besides a brief mention. Needless to say I was miffed. According to the status distribution list less than one hundred people have completed Ganota no Onna. Meaning that most likely no one will read this review. Meaning that most likely no one will care if I do something completely different. I have two primary goals when writing reviews: conveying my thoughts in a coherent manner and recommending works that may otherwise have been glossed over. Today Ill talk about an obscure manga that I enjoy by detailing how it improves over Ganota no Onna. 520https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/3/171689l.jpg Id like to reintroduce you to Tokusatsu no GaGaGa. Tokusatsu tells the story of Nakamura Kano an office worker who has a secret. Shes a sentai fan but she fears ridicule for her passion and thus keeps it secret. Already Tokusatsu is an improvement over Ganota with the closeted nerd aspect being a very very central aspect to the plot. Unlike Ganota the manga wont let you forget Nakamura is a fan of sentail because the manga makes it apparent that is plays a role in her daily life. In practically every chapter we see Nakamura struggling to connect with her coworkers worrying about being found out and wrestle between her occupational and recreational life. Granted some of this can be chalked up to Nakamura being a lot more neurotic that Ganota but regardless the stated focus of the work actual is well focused on grounding Ganota more. Furthermore the same passion is often a part of the resolution of each chapter. Nakamura often ties the things she learns in her shows as theyre primarily children shows they always have a clear message to personal life lessons. Therefore each chapter we see growth and it helps us as the audience care for and root for Nakamura. Again comedic manga dont need to have takeaways and the difference in presentation can be chalked up to personalities with Ganota being more adjusted that Nakamura but these help make the character more interesting and likable as well as again tying the aspects of the manga together. Its not an office comedy that happens to have sentai in it its an office comedy about sentai. But the most important factor for a comedy regardless of subject matter is how funny again. Once again Tokusatsu blows Ganota out of the water. Both manga often use the main characters connection to their fandom as a source of comedy. Tokusatsu often does what I wish Ganota did: heavily utilize references in order to create a funny contrast. To be fair Ganota has its moments such as when Ganota wears a Char mask but these moments are very few and far between. Tokusatsu does this often and takes it a step farther. We see Nakamura constantly likening her lifes situation to a sentai show and at times she imagines that the characters are talking to her making mundane situations absolutely hilarious. 520https://i.ur.com/z3unwz1.jpg If you plan on reading Ganota no Onna for the interesting blend of fandom with office humor Id recommend Tokusatsu no GaGaGa instead. It does fandom better it does characters better it does office life better and it just does humor better as well. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk. 520https://i.yt.com/vi/xP1fk6QDJQ/maxresdefault.jpg At the end of the day Ganota no Onna really isnt anything special. Its a bit bland and theres at least one manga that fills its niche so much more successfully. With that in mind and based on its references I can only see Gundam fans getting much out of this but the references can be surprisingly sporadic and they seem to just be references for references sake. Not to mention the reference pool is a bit limited. Ganota loves Char so youre going to be getting almost exclusively One Year War and Chars Counterattack material. The manga isnt terrible its a bit below average at worst. But wouldnt you want to do better especially with such a novel concept? 6.5/10 D+ These last three reviews have been kind of a bummer huh? But as each score is higher than the last Im sure well soon be charting enjoyable territory again. 520https://i.ur.com/OdDwnP0.png