Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing: Dual Story - G-Unit
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Last Outpost

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Somewhere along the way I acquired the first volume of Gundam Wing: The Last Outpost (Or Dual Story - G-Unit in Japanse). I had read it a couple times over the years, and always intended to track down the other 2 volumes, but it was never a big enough priority that I actually did. After stumbling across some convenient scans, I tore through all 3 volumes in less than a week (Which is really fast for me) and was very glad I never bought the final volumes. The Last Outpost has all the elements of a pretty decent shounen mecha series, but just doesn't have ... the time to expound on any of them in its short duration.

This manga is a very quick read, and the story moves really fast. I found myself accidentally finishing entire volumes in a single sitting, not because I was riveted, but because each page goes by in the blink of an eye. Tokita-sensei uses many large panels, and none of the dialogue is particularly dense. There just isn't much to keep your eyes lingering on any page for too long, so entire chapters of 30-50 pages would fly by much faster than I expected (I don't know the exact page counts, but there are only 4-5 chapters per volume).

Tokita-sensei's art is... decent. I didn't see any spectacular illustrations that blew me away, and the character models honestly get a little wonky sometimes, but overall it doesn't look terrible. The character designs aren't terribly inspired or unique, and look pretty standard for 90s Gundam. The designs of the Gundams themselves are pretty cool, but after a while they just start to get really busy and cluttered with accessories. On top of that, the action can sometimes be hard to decipher from the panels, and I never felt a strong sense of flow from the fight choreography. Much like the Gundam Wing anime which this shares a setting with, many of the later battles boil down to firing large laser beams at distant groups of enemies and watching them explode, which is a lot less impressive in still black and white.

The story of Last Outpost feels like the skeleton of a much longer series. Plot points will play out with the bare minimum amount of character interaction required for them to make sense. It uses many cliche story beats that are hallmarks of shounen, which could have gone over well if there was more time to build up the characters. As it stands, though, everything is so rushed that you don't have a chance to become invested in the characters, so even the cliches don't feel earned. New, more sinister villains seem to appear every few chapters, characters have secret identities that are totally obvious, and the final "plot twist" can be smelled from chapters away.

Much like the story, it seems almost every character is pulled straight from the standard shounen playbook. There's the cool and skilled older brother, the hot headed younger brother who envies his brother's skill, the girlfriend who is 100% tsundere down to her DNA, and the list goes on and on. Only a couple of characters undergo any growth or development, and again due to the short duration of the series, that development isn't very deep, nor does it have a lot of build up.

For me, the real highlight of this series are the yon-koma at the end of every volume. These short gags star characters from almost all of the 90s Gundam series. In volumes 2 & 3, there are enough pages of 4 panel gags that they almost match the length of a regular chapter. Of course the comedy isn't groundbreaking, but the chibi renditions of the characters are cute and humorous. It's in these strips that we really see how big of a Gundam fan Tokita-sensei is. Most of them hardly mention UC Gundam, which is a nice change of pace. It's cool to see someone celebrating the first wave of alternate timeline Gundam series. In the third volume there are finally tons of strips dedicated to the original UC Gundams, as well as the UC OVA series that came out in the 90s.

So who should read Gundam Wing: G-Unit? If you happen upon it, it's a decent read. You could very easily finish all 3 volumes in a single evening, and forget everything that happened within them just as quickly. I would not recommend seeking out and buying the volumes. Even though it's related to Wing, I don't think it has all that much to offer to Wing fans. It adds on some extra plot that takes place far away from the Earth sphere, yet has almost no connection to the main plot of the anime. Read this if you're a really bored Gundam fan and just want something light and breezy with Gundams plastered all over it.