Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing

Whether brought in as a pure import of the original content at hand or a distillation of several ideas taken from it to form a new product, Japanese media, and its aesthetic sensibilities, have constantly found its way stateside throughout the decades. From live-action shows to those of the animated variety, the stylistic fingerprint left behind by this cultural entity has continuously drawn the attention of curious onlookers. A curiosity that's led to you, the reader, and me, the writer, to this point of intersection. And from all the decades that this media has been funneled into the states, perhaps no other time period has ... proven to be quite as pivotal in kick-starting the western anime fan-base quite as prominently as the period in the 90s. While the 2010s has congregated an international community with the most apparent signs of community growth, it's the 90s where the fledgling stages of said community were truly seen taking form.

Among the series that helped cultivated this young fanbase, Gundam Wing was one of the biggest to make its debut, becoming a tent-pole entry that not only served as a gateway title to the Gundam franchise but perhaps, more importantly, a show that became many viewers first exposure with anime altogether. Because of its status as many people's initial experience with the medium, or at the very least, their first conscious discernment between Japanese and Western animated works, a great deal of nostalgic value has been associated with it. A predicament that would inadvertently lead to a lot of blind appraisal under false pretenses, whether the parties in question were aware of it or not.
Its influence in the western climate is undeniable but that doesn't negate it from the same baseline criticisms applicable to any other show. And in that regard, Gundam Wing is far from a timestamp of fidelity and quality-control. While its production values have certainly stood the test of time — with sharp edits, gorgeous matte paintings, ear-worm industrial synthpop mixings and fluid animation that could go toe to toe with many titles being produced today — the screenplay, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky, falling victim to the common narrative conceits of its time period.

Overwrought with needless plotting manipulation, contrived idealistic monologues delivered by cardboard cutout personalities, and a narrative that quickly spirals into a chop suey of hackneyed writing; Wing was Gundam's messy attempt at a rule-of-cool political shounen. An attempt that got all the attributes correct on the surface, but when brought under an analytical microscope, barely kept its head above water. Where past installments found an equilibrium between teen angst and the war drama that facilitated it, Wing ended up fumbling this formula with wrongheaded attempts intended to capture a younger demographic, while seemingly forgetting the fact that it already had that demographic in their back pocket, to begin with. It's the kind of creative misfiring only possible by the hogwash of self-obsessed auteurs being allowed to run amok. It certainly succeeded in creating easily digestible entertainment but sadly at cost of proper storytelling. Today, we'll shelf whatever nostalgic value the show has with the community, as we attempt to examine it for what it is and not what landmark value it may have held.

The story starts out like any other in the franchise, with a conflict brewing between two separate factions: one found on earth (United Earth Sphere Alliance) and the space colonies that occupy the heavens. And in the wonderful Gundam tradition of dressing up opposing factions in broad strokes of fascism, The Alliance in this iteration represents our big baddies, extending their oppressive control over the space colonies with such aggression that even Benito Mussolini would blush. It's the kind of setup that alludes to a grandiose battle to determine supremacy, and we do certainly get to see something like that play out, but the plotting used to get to that power struggle, was, for the lack of a better word, laughable.

The Gundam franchise has always used teen pilots in their series as conduits to channel their themes of warfare and human ethics. And while what I'm about to say may seem like a trivial detail, it's the core difference that separates successful installments in the franchise that still manage to feel plausible, from those of the likes of Wing which could only muster up all of its creative juices to obtain juvenile status at best.

This core difference I speak of is the allocation of character relevance.

In 79 and Zeta Gundam respectfully, Amuro and Kamille were both talented pilots due to their upbringing and new-type abilities, but there was never a point in time where their involvement led to the tipping point that determined the outcome of any given large-scale battle. They were more adept than the average soldier but was ultimately just another person operating under the guidance of a small rag-tagged group, which was itself just a small cog in the machine, manipulated by the governing parties as they saw fit. Regardless of their individual talents as pilots, they didn't win wars single-handedly; there was always a group effort, involving the sacrifices of many people on both sides. Even Char Aznable, considered the best pilot in both series, had to rely on the strength of others around him to achieve victory in any given battle.
The point I'm trying to make here is that no one was ever an end-all-be-all trump card for winning the war. The teen pilots may have been incredibly strong relative to those around them but that's all they were: strong. Nothing more, nothing less. But this is where Wing differs significantly, and not for the better.

Unlike before, the teens weren't just strong this time around, now, they've practically been turned into God-sent messiahs... EDGY God-sent messiahs at that (sigh).

What once took the collective effort of battalions fighting against each other to cause a dent in the war, was now reduced to the actions of a handful of angsty teens with a mech suit, pent-up rage, and an endless line of fodder to mow down — cool poses and manchild yelling notwithstanding. And yeah, I know what you're thinking "But ZephSilver-sama, what's the problem with that?" Well, my young Padawan, have patience, I'll explain further once we address another pressing issue with Wing. That being its treatment of war factions and politics.

A Coup d'etat; common occurrences during wartime, and one that the Gundam franchise readily utilizes to spice up its content, and understandably so. Whenever any governing party finds itself at odds with the militaristic stronghold that keeps it in power, it's basically a powder keg waiting to blow. For Gundam, that translates into a cool ass firework display of mecha action, pink explosions, and blood confetti just waiting to happen. And Like any good thing, moderation is key. And as you've probably guessed by now, this is an understanding that escapes Wing. Coup d'etats are expected events but the amount of times that it ended up occurring in Wing is just unrealistic, to the point of approaching parody.
The mere act of existing as a governing entity in Wing basically assures you a one-way ticket to shitsville. There is zero stability in this universe. A constant potpourri of back-stabbing and upheaval. This fickle game of musical chairs between alliances became so bad at times that any given character could find themselves supporting no less than 4 separate groups in the course of the show's 49-episode run. Wing, despite its simplistic narrative, was constantly asking its audience to keep tabs on several moving parts simultaneously. A type of sensory overdrive where tertiary factions were constantly sticking their necks out to remind the viewer that "they still exist!"

The constant betrayals meant that there was no true side for the audience to follow or individual motivation worth investing into, turning the human race into a marginalized group of trigger-happy neanderthals. With no solid conviction for the numerous groups that sprung up and a mess of Heel-Face Turn characters that easily switched sides at the whim of whatever the screenplay belched out at any given episode, what was left in the end were our teen pilots (a.k.a Emo Power Rangers), as they rode in on their high horses providing the answer to everything. And by "provide answers" I mean they blew shit up while reciting their edge-lord diatribes.
Using youths as the poster children for justice is one thing, but making them the sole proprietor to end the human race's problems is a complete other... and no, I'm not being hyperbolic either. Our five teen edge-lords: Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner and Chang Wufei, were tasked with taking on The Alliance's military stronghold, without the help of any backing nation or military group. Yes, you read that correctly. 5 teenage emo rangers are quite literally tasked with defeating a united earth front all by themselves... but perhaps even worse than that is that the show writes it to where such a ludicrous task is actually made feasible by turning the mobile suits into indestructible doomsday machines.

Because the characters were all one-note, personality-wise, they were often re-written to service whatever role the plot demanded at the time. This turned megalomaniacs into spokespeople for peace and vice versa. Something that was made all the more bothersome with constant bombardments of contrived, idealistic monologues. A notable example being Zechs Marquise, the show's watered down version of Char Aznable, where he made a 180 in mindset while still delivering his idealistic speeches that conflicted with his actions. There were times where he was quite literally trying to murder someone in cold blood while delivering messages akin to "peace and unity bro!" But it wasn't limited to him alone, as most of the characters cashed in on these long-winded, ass-backward speeches that were contradictory to their immediate actions on-screen. This failed attempt at adding depth to the cast did nothing but further expose their lack of dimension and characterization. And depending on your investment, this could make the experience enjoyable in an unintentional "haha, they can't be serious right now?" parody way, or just plain stupid in a "what were the scriptwriters smoking?" way. Thankfully, my approach was the former.

When taken by themselves, any one of these specific issues mentioned doesn't become a huge detriment to the story, but when they're compounded into a snowball effect of bad ideas meet even worse screenwriting decisions, that's where the true issue arises. What could have been a simple rule-of-cool political shounen, was now transformed into a molotov cocktail of messy outcomes, the likes of which was too far gone to be salvaged by a script revision.

Where all of this extra time went unaccounted for when addressing Wing's writing seemed to have turned up in the show's visual and auditory output. And boy did it pay off! Despite all the verbal carpet bombing I've directed towards Wing so far, even I can't find anything worth scrutinizing in these departments. Wing's production values are better than a vast majority of anime entries released in the 90s — hell, I'll even take it a step further and state that in its restoration form, it could outpace many entries in the early 2010s as well. Needless to say, this was also some of the highest production values seen from the Gundam franchise as well; not since Zeta in 85 has their been such a noticeable increase in audiovisual output.
With a staggering amount of saturated color gradients, physical encounters that had a tangible weight behind it, and an undeniable fervor for blood-boiling theatrics, Wing definitely delivered on visual spectacle. When you put aside the nonsensical propulsion that led to any given action scene and just soaked it in for what was shown on-screen, this was quite the crowd pleaser. Also, before we continue on, the J-Pop opening "Just Communication" by TWO-MIX is a national treasure that should be protected at all cost! And no mention of Wing's audiovisual output would be complete without making special mention of the aesthetically appealing design work.

When it comes to creating vogue-looking, rugged character models, very few can topple Shukou Murase. Though, at the time, that was yet to be seen. Being an up-and-coming creative, Murase secured his position as character designer based on his work on 89's Ronin Warriors Gaiden. A decision that he would prove wasn't a fluke with an extensive catalog catapulted by his newfound recognition on Wing, where he would go on to further lend his talents to titles such as Argento Soma and Gasaraki.
And last, but certainly not least, the mechanical designers themselves. While there were several names attached to the project, all of which deserving of a comb-over, I'll only focus on one; mah boi Hajime Katoki. When it comes to beefing up mecha designs to look like "Do you even LIFT bro?" steroid-memes (in a good way, of course), Katoki is your go-to guy. He has the magical ability to do with mecha what Jojo's Bizarre Adventure does to the masculine form, all the while making the final product appear plausible for the universe it's a part of. Which brings me to perhaps one of, if not, my favorite mecha design in the entire Gundam canon, Zechs Marquise's Tallgeese. This glorious, Roman gladiator inspired hunk of metal was just a demanding screen presence. It's a fan favorite for good reason and I'm inclined to support the appraisal that it has racked up throughout the years.

And yes, there were noticeable shortcuts taken at times, with a few still-image panning shots here and speed-lines there, but those sporadic moments of cost-saving techniques never detracted from the overall care given to bringing the entire vision to life. As a whole, the audiovisual output is where Wing truly shines.

After taking everything into consideration, both the good and the incredibad, I can't say I wasted my time with Wing. Sure, like everything else, it had its problems, but what in the Gundam franchise doesn't? Yeah, there were times where the issues mentioned impeded on my enjoyment and certainly other occasions where my invested interest was tested. But upon passing the finish line, looking back from where I started to where I eventually stood, at the very least, the journey through Wing offered up aspects worth cherishing. Even if they were aspects knee-deep in issues I'd rather forget.

Although Gundam Wing's historical relevance may have engulfed its actual inherent value, it's still a title I would recommend to others. It's not really one of those shows where you could divorce its issues through selective viewing, as is the benefit for something Like Zeta or 79 Gundam; where under the context of warfare and the understanding that the new-types are essentially hypersensitive, autistic x-men in space, excusing their irrational blurps of emotional responses to others become acceptable. With Wing, the issues found are far too deep-rooted, corrupting the very foundation of its script that everything grows out from. You can cut the proverbial limb off of Zeta or 79 Gundam and still be left with something functional, but attempting such an act on Wing is no different than taking to its head with a swift guillotine strike.

With all that being said, approach Wing with reasonable expectations. If you walk in understanding that it's Emo Power Rangers vs The World, with the added benefit of having high production values, then you can walk out unscathed, taking with you a fun viewing experience and another legacy title under your belt.

Gundam Wing was the series that helped popularize the Gundam franchise here in America as it was the first series in the franchise that was aired via Toonami. But in terms of the amount of praise a number of fans have given the series, it is definitely overrated as the series overall is an average one that is trying to be grand with its plot yet is quite sloppy and unoriginal in its execution. A good amount of the writing for the plot is quite sloppy where logic is thrown out the window in vain attempts to create drama to hook in the audience at ... the cost of creating a cohesive story that makes any sense. The series gets into enough of a bad habit of featuring characters spewing out ideological monologues while in the middle of a heated battle and talking about wanting peace while they are trying to kill off one another in battle. In addition, enough organizations and factions are brought up, a number of them formed without any foreshadowing or created for ridiculous reasons, where it gets hard enough to figure out who you should be rooting for.

Alongside the sloppy plotting, a number of the characters also have their issues. Many of the characters in Gundam Wing are tough to connect with due to their bland/ eccentric personalities, lack of background, and/ or questionable ideologies. This is especially prominent with a number of the Gundam pilots who are too emotionally detached from the events around them and it gets laughable when they emote during or after a battle. Speaking of Gundam pilots, Wufei proved to be the most unlikeable of the five for me because of his cocky, rude and sexist attitude. In other areas, Zechs just screams "Char ripoff" considering his very character, personal beliefs and the events that he becomes involved with are very similar to what Char pulls in the Universal Century titles of the Gundam franchise and don't even get me started with some of the members of OZ/ Rockefeller Foundation who have varying mental disorders from Lady Une's split personalities to Tsuborov's unhealthy obsession with the Mobile Dolls. There are some characters who are level-headed enough where you could care for them such as Duo, Sally Po and Zechs' right-hand woman Noin. But with the many characters not right in the head throughout Gundam Wing, it gets tough enough to take the series seriously at most points. I was laughing myself senseless over the absurdities in this series and it was very likely not what Sunrise and the show's creators had in mind when they made Gundam Wing.

In terms of presentation, the visuals to Gundam Wing are about standard for what you would expect in a mid-90s anime title. Scenery, mecha and character designs look decent when there isn't much movement onscreen. However, the quality does degrade at points during battle scenes and animation shortcuts are quite apparent. The only decent praise I could give for Gundam Wing is for parts of its soundtrack which feature some solid J-Rock tracks coming from Two-Mix used for OP and insert musical selections.

I would only recommend watching Gundam Wing if you are in the mood to mock its sloppy writing, unoriginal ideas and ridiculous characters. Otherwise, the series isn't worth wasting money to add to your anime collection.

I really wanted to like this anime more than I did, really I did. I'll start off by saying that I've never watched any Gundam series, so I didn't really know what to expect. Starting the anime the first couple episodes really drew me in and I was very interested to see what would happen next to the Gundam pilots. After those first couple episodes though, that's where the series flat lined for me.

I couldn't help but feel they tried to be too ambitious with the whole series, too many "main" characters, WAY too much flipping of politics and sides. For example, the character ... Wufei is discarded for episodes at a time often making you forget the need for him, and in all honesty there wasn't a need for him. For me, the hardest part about the anime is I couldn't find any likable characters. Out of the main cast the only ones I enjoyed seeing were Duo Maxwell and Quatre Raberba Winner, everyone else felt like a hollow shell that never changed at all throughout the ride.

Characters aside the story became a jumbled mess towards the middle and ending, and it was confusing and hard to follow at certain points. I understand people enjoy deep stories, but I felt like this could have benefited from a more streamlined approach. You know who's going to be fighting at the end, but the ridiculous political battle up into the last fight was just distracting from the action.

There were parts that did shine and stand out for me, like anytime the Deathscythe was on screen and mainly the mobile suit battles. The action I really did enjoy, but it felt like it was an after thought because they seemingly wanted the storyline hammered into you. When I was craving the battles and emphasis on the Gundam pilots they would go off on the political tangent for a couple episodes, and I just couldn't sink myself into that world.

All in all I really wanted to love this series, but I just couldn't do it. If it would have been more streamlined and more about the battles and Gundam pilots themselves, I think I could have really enjoyed it. It just missed the mark for me.

I loved this anime when it was aired on Toonami, but after my second time watching it, I don't have the same love for it as I did before.

I will say that for it's time, it was a good anime...but it could have been better is so many other aspects.

Story: The story was okay. It had it's plot twists to keep you on edge, but all of them were easily seen, and not too bewildering. I would say it is average in that respects.

Art: Again, for it's time, it had decent artwork. They definitely had all the explosions and firepower well captured throughout ... the entire series.

Sound: Meh...other than the Opening theme song, most of the tracks were easily forgettable...there were no BGMs I can name that stick out in my head right now.

Character: This is where the series failed in most respects. All the characters are so one dimensional, it is so easy to predict anything that they say or do. Some of them do things that are so OOC, it doesn't make any sense. Herro had no reason to kill Rilenna, yet he still tried to. The writing could have been alot better at that.
Not to mention, the dub is so bad, it's a wonder I didn't off myself then.

Still...this was a classic anime in the past, and not all of them were perfect like alot of the animes that have been released over the last few years, so in where the show has failed at, it can be forgiven. I still enjoyed watching the show all the way through, and would probably watch it again to remember being a six year old again.
It's just that there's much better mecha series out there now.

Pop quiz time! What Alphaville song best describes the Gundam franchise? The answer is, of course, "Big in Japan"! And over the years, many people have tried many times to make it "Big in the West" as well, but it never really gained much traction. The small amount of success it did find mostly traces back to "Gundam Wing", which made a decent sized splash on American TV around the turn of the millennium.

And that's rather unfortunate. Because although I've only seen a handful of Gundam series, "Gundam Wing" ranks among the worst ones in my book.

"Gundam Wing", with its cast of characters starring mostly ... angsty world-beating teenagers, is obviously a series aimed at teenagers. But the problem is that it feels like it's also written BY teenagers. The show kind of reminds me of "Code Geass": they're both ridiculous, over the top, and both seem more concerned with shocking the audience with twist after twist than anything else. Both resemble train wrecks, but here the similarity ends. "Code Geass" feels like a train wreck involving a train driven by James Bond: the carriages may be on fire and the some of the wheels may have come off, but thanks to some brilliant driving, the momentum ultimately takes it to its intended destination. With "Gundam Wing" the train seems driven by a teenager who THINKS he's James Bond. The result is a survivorless, smouldering wreckage on the side of the tracks still some distance away from its destination.

For a near-50-episode show, "Gundam Wing" certainly doesn't suffer from slow pacing. If anything, it has the opposite problem: it throws out plot twists faster than you can digest them, rarely following through on the implications of the new developments. Not many of the twists feel organic or thought through, and frequently the latest twists would cancel out the effects of the ones before it (even if they only happened within the last episode or two). It's as though the show had an army of (teenage) writers, and they took turns to slap their latest cool (at least to them) ideas onto the story with fervent zeal while impatiently doing away with whatever the previous writers wrote.

The characters, often wearing obscene amounts of plot armour, serve as slaves to the plot, regularly undergoing drastic personality changes according to its needs. Luckily the show can't be accused of wasting potential as the characters come across mostly as a bunch of one-dimensional posers whom teenagers would find cool, but almost everyone else would just find insufferable. Their fate is further sealed by the trashy melodramatic dialogues forced upon them. "Gundam Wing" takes itself very seriously, but alas, I could hardly take it less seriously.

Although "Gundam Wing" is a pretty dumb show, but it's also a PRETTY dumb show. The series has a lot going for it in the production departments. It leads with a catchy, iconic opening theme, features good action scenes, and the attractive character designs of its teenage Gundam pilots ensured the show gathered enough fangirls to make Elvis jealous. However, it's the Gundam designs that stole the show for me. The five Gundams piloted by the five main pilots are all very distinctive: they look different, their fight differently, and they all have different strengths and weaknesses. On top of that, the designs ooze style, with Deathscythe being particularly cool - no wonder it's one of the top-selling Gundam models of all time (maybe even THE top selling one).

I may not rate "Gundam Wing" very highly overall, but it scores decently on (unintended) entertainment value, at least for me. Your own mileage may vary: the absurdity of the plot, the ridiculousness of the characters and the terribad melodrama can often be thigh-slappingly funny to some, but frustrating and cringeworthy to others. I suspect it's the kind of anime that would be gloriously entertaining to watch in a group though. Oh, and you might also like it if you're a teenager.

Personal rating: -0.5 (mediocre)

I'd like to preface this review by confessing that I'd never watched Gundam Wing as it originally aired on Toonami when I was a child. I may have tried once or twice, but the dialogue-heavy show went over my young head in a way that made me prefer the much simpler G Gundam. Even still, I've always had something of a relationship with Gundam Wing's Mobile Suits. I was gifted some of the cheaper models of the heroes' Gundams as a kid, and the units have always been some of my favorites to use in the Super Robot Wars series of videogames. I also enjoyed ... them in the videogames Gundam Wing: Endless Duel and Gundam Battle Assault 2, so much of Gundam Wing's characters, mechs, and storyline weren't totally unfamiliar to me.

Even though I had heard countless opinions that Wing was near the bottom or the absolute worst of the Alternate Universe Gundam titles and was only fueled by Toonami nostalgia, I decided to bite the bullet and check out the series that had already meant something to me for so long and found both a Gundam anime that was highly enjoyable and a puzzle in how harshly it's criticized these days by Gundam fans.

To cut to the chase, much of the plot of Gundam Wing is very stupid. The series is primarily derided for its heavily political talk. The optimist in me made me think action fans were complaining about a stronger focus on drama, and as someone who generally preferred his mechs in mecha anime to take up modest screentime that I would enjoy that aspect. I didn't. Like said, the politics in Gundam Wing are very stupid, childish, black and white, and most of all, extremist. Though the countless number of politicians and intense teenagers will wax philosophical and doll up their bland statements and beliefs in charisma and a fancy vocabulary, it's nothing but laughable how the full grown adults are every bit as naive as the teenagers in the series. You really have to watch it to get a handle on how dumb it is, but to make it short it's endless repeated platitudes about how true peace can only be obtained by throwing away weapons and telling people to stop fighting wars where people die "meaninglessly" (durr), or how true peace can only be obtained through authoritative power (durrr), or how peace can only be obtained by killing people to show people how killing people is bad (what). It's literally stuff a 6 year old comes up with as soon as he first learns about war. When it comes to the political side of things, character motivations change like the seasons based on really poorly thought-out and vague ideals which can make their incredibly extreme decisions (this is war, after all) very frustrating at the worst. No one ever sounds like they've thought about what they're saying, and if it wasn't for their conviction you wouldn't believe them either. But to be fair, Gundam characters do stupid things literally all the time. Granted, it was rarely the adults in positions of power being so naive, but I'm still pretty accepting of it by now.

That's it. The absolute worst part of Gundam Wing is indeed the politics, and it's very understandable that people with varying tolerance towards that aspect would really hate the show. On top of that, the storyline set-ups are often very obviously taken from Universal Century Gundam works, which is very disappointing when realized. But what about everything else? Actually, based on the Gundam series I've seen so far, Wing does a lot of things very well that its predecessors did not.

Let's start with the five main protagonists who actually have a very nice chemistry with each other. Heero Yui is a stock stoic soldier type, but he's redeemed in the English dub somewhat by Mark Hildreth, who gives him a sort of sarcastic asshole tone that makes him a lot more entertaining and likable than he's meant to be (this is really all I can say about him, but he's cool enough I suppose). Duo Maxwell is the free-spirited type that calms the intensity of the other pilots and is a very necessary breath of fresh air among the entire series cast making him easily the best character in the series. Trowa Barton is pretty much Heero but done slightly better, an emotionless soldier that seems to noticeably warm up more than Heero does by the end even though that's supposed to be Heero's character arc. Quatre Winner seems like he'd be the normally annoying pacifist fighter among the group, and while it's clear he's the most gentle, he never shies away from fighting when prompted to and plays a pivotal role in uniting the Gundam pilots which actually yields results. Wufei Chang is the Japanese culture insert who is an asshole searching for honor and resolution in battle and becomes an asshole who has found honor and resolution in battle.

So there isn't much depth to these guys, but they're almost always entertaining to watch whether in or outside of a Mobile Suit, and their development as rogue fighters into a team is fun to follow as well. The pilots don't initially know each other at all so it makes sense that they'd clash with each other which is another aspect that makes them believable as human beings. Furthermore, no one in the team feels like a weak link, and it's extremely nice to have a cast of competent main characters in a Gundam series as opposed to one lead character surrounded by a vastly inferior supporting cast that complements him alone. Everyone feels important when it comes to defeating the enemy.

Zechs Marquise and Treize Khushrenada are effective as antagonists and are often the most likable characters outside of Duo. Zechs is the series's token Char character (though not really token until now) and inherits more of his inspiration's personality than usual which is unfortunate, but he serves his role well as a classic cool ace pilot type, and often is the only antagonist that can go toe-to-toe with the Gundam pilots, making him valuable when it comes to the action. Treize is the unshakably elegant, classy, badass Oz commander whose stance on the Mobile Dolls has the distinction of being literally the only interesting thing said among Gundam Wing's political waxing. Before closing out on the characters I'd have to mention Relena Peacecraft, the mouthpiece for the pacifistic side in the political talks who has noteworthy position of being the most naive and pointless character in the show, and how her "fighting is bad" speeches amount to so much in the show deserves nothing short of wonder when taken into any real-world context. She also has a completely unbelievable affection for Heero, but that barely takes up any of the show so it's okay.

We have a solid cast of characters that are fun if not deep, but what Gundam Wing really excels at, more than any Gundam I've seen yet, is the goddamn pacing. 49 episodes is a normal count for a Gundam series, but whereas Zeta Gundam would make you question its episode count more the longer the series went on, Gundam Wing is never content to stay in one place, and the plot and characters are constantly on the move. This is aided by a narrative structure that follows five main characters that are rarely ever all together instead of the usual one main character, so multiple times in one episode you'll suddenly be taken to check up on the other Gundam pilots, supporting characters, or antagonists. Even outside of focusing on different characters, these characters are never spending 10 episodes in the same area and are always coming up with significant new plans that seem like they'll take the plot in a new direction, and they usually do. I don't think there was ever a time in Gundam Wing where I felt things weren't progressing fast enough, which is more than I can say for some other Gundam series.

Oh yeah, and the one thing nearly everyone agrees on: the Mobile Suit designs are fantastic and some of the best in the franchise. Each of the Gundams are very distinctive in appearance and are often coupled with some flamboyant flairs to give them further personality, such as Deathscythe Hell's wings and cloak, or Sandrock's unique shoulder guards, headpiece, and claw... thing. The point is, they all have a strong sense of identity much like the pilots themselves and there's a very strong connection between each of them and their pilots when it comes to both personality and emotional attachment. The non-Gundams are great too, with the Zodiac suits having a more utilitarian appearance to them when compared to the cyclops-like Zakus etc., and the Tallgeese line being one of my personal favorites (though Deathscythe Hell for sure gets that distinction out of all Wing Mobile Suits). And of course, Epyon is very cool too.

To extend on the Mobile Suits, the action is either very good or... mediocre. It varies. Another thing Wing is good at is setting up Mobile Suit matches to actually give a damn about as opposed to the main Gundam just fighting grunt Suits. There are many personal matches in the series, even between the Gundam pilots themselves, that demand the viewer's attention. These fights between unique Mobile Suits are very dynamic and fun to watch, and since the pilots frequently switch to other Mobile Suits it can make watching the same Mobile Suits fighting again still interesting. Most importantly they're serious fights between top-class Mobile Suits instead of being the main Gundam against some bland-looking new grunt Suit. The fights between generic Mobile Suits use a ton of stock footage, but if they're going to make budget cuts somewhere, at least they choose to do it in places where the viewer wouldn't have been paying much attention in the first place. Regardless, Wing succeeds overall in the action and animation department, and looks quite nice for its time which transfers over to it still being fairly eventful even today.

I have to talk about the music somewhere, but I can never think of enough to say to fill a full paragraph on the subject, especially since music in anime is rarely worth talking that much about. But Gundam Wing does have a pretty great musical score overall, making it easily my favorite of the Gundam franchise so far. Beat Communication is kind of a lame opening, as it's just a poor man's Rhythm Emotion, which sadly shows up very late but still at an appropriate point. There's a balanced mix between organic instrumental scores and 90s electronic dance, and both are always fitting when they're playing.

To end this review which is already taking up too much time, Gundam Wing is a stupid show that's enticing much in the same way a stupid action movie would be enticing, only having the advantage over said action movies in that it has a solid cast. The "philosophy" is idiotic, thus the drama is unaffecting, and the Gundam pilots are borderline superheroes (then again, so are Newtypes), but there's a charm to its melodrama that, when paired with the excellent pacing, action, and non-political dialogue, prevents me from dwelling on its flaws too much and instead makes me relish in the amount of wild scenarios they provide. Gundam Wing is definitely not something I'm going to be thinking about after watching it, but I know that while I was, I was never, ever bored and always felt comfortably satisfied. That's entertainment.

Let me first start off by saying I felt that the animation, sound and music were on par for the era; those hold up with time. I also need to add that this was not the first Gundam series I watched (that honor belongs to 0083). But the bottom line is I did not enjoy this series despite how much I enjoy Gundam and mecha in general. Most of the reason stem from the fact that I'm from the future, but we’ll get into that later. The first thing I wish to mention is my disdain for the the designs of these Gundams. It’s almost ... as if they’re designed to look cool and sell toys, rather than practical combat applications. Heavyarms makes sense for long range attacks, as does Deathscythe for CQC. The Wing Gundam can fly but boasts a cannon that cares nothing for collateral damage. Sandrock is inferior to Deathscythe and Heavyarms. And the Shenlong makes no sense. Then there’s the cardboard cutouts that pilot these toys.
Heero is nothing but the mission, Duo is the voice of reason, Quatre just wants to sacrifice himself and Wufei wants nothing but to fight. Relina, peace at all costs. Treize, Milliardo & Dorothy, there must be war! Noin, Rashid & Une, blind devotion to their man. No one grows, changes or learns anything. The show is also very vague about the logistical aspect of its own story. Mobile suits run on fuel, who provides it for five Gundam meister's? Who provides the ammunition? All their backers and resources are in space, no?
I liked the character of Trowa as he was the only character had any depth and growth to him. I liked Zechs for his transformation, but Milliardo Peacecraft is one dimensional. I liked Sally Po, she was a refreshing character amidst all this brooding. The action was entertaining to watch, when it wasn’t rehashed shots of Wing obliteration targets. And there wasn’t a SEED amount of crying.
Now for why I couldn’t enjoy this series. As I said, I’m from the future and what I mean is I completed Endless Waltz before completing Wing. And the one thing I learned from Endless Waltz is that every single character except for Treize survives the series. So it's kind of hard for there to be any sort of life or death drama if I know the characters are going to survive. Another is the fact that a future series, 00, does this very same plot and story better. In fact most Gundam series that follow this are better. That’s the problem with being from the future. I had the same problem when I watched Gundam SEED Destiny. I'd suggest watching any Gundam series that's newer than this.

Note: this also includes endless waltz because that technically is the “absolute” ending for the gundam wing series.

After now going through more than a handful of mainline gundam shows i can’t help but wonder that these shows are too long for their own good. There seems to be some consensus from the production committees for these show to absolutely have a benchmark of about 40-50 episodes. While no necessarily a bad thing as it allows for more content to be added allowing for a more expansive scope. There are times when a show just ends up meandering around while adding nothing new to the ... story and characters leading to the entire thing being a waste of time and ideas, and that for me is gundam wing.

The backdrop to gundam wing is initially similar to the universal century with there being a conflict between earth and the space colonies. This time it’s earth that comes off as the instigator of the conflict as they want to bring order to all that is around them even if it means using oppressive force, especially on the space colonies. This in turn leads to the events of the show, as some faction within the space colonies retaliate by sending a handful of mechs to earth which are actually the gundam. Since in this show the gundams aren’t just a better version of the run of the mill mechs, but rather a SUPER better version of them as they are made with a special gundamuim alloy that serves as appropriate plot armour and a cheeky way to keep them as gundam within the shows universe.
The show itself starts off fine although overtly over dramatic sometimes for the sake of drama. the viewers get a sense for the show as it establishes its settings and characters and how the gundam pilots go about their missions. There’s alot of fighting and gundam action in between all this, and then the story takes a new turn as there is some form of coup that leads to the enemy infighting and more factions being formed. This isn’t the only time this happen, and more groups continue to form while the gundam pilots fight whoever there enemy is at that moment. There are of course some political intrigue and a lot of sweet gundam action in between all this. However alot of this just comes off as uneventful or boring because of the way most of the characters were handled.

Alot of the characters in this show come across as being one-dimensional and flat. There’s really not much to work with them outside of their most basic of personalities. Even then when it comes to the gundam pilots only about half of them have an interesting personality while the rest are just so boring especially the main protagonist, Heero Yuy. this is basically true for all characters in the show as it’s not whether they have depth or complexity, but rather if you can find them relatable of endearing. There are characters that change throughout the story, but that is very different from being developed. The most change they have is their personalities and that’s usually because the plot demands so usually via identity disorder, amnesia, or some brain altering device. They never feel organic and are only for the means of spicing up the story just to chug to episodes along a bit longer.

In terms of production value the show is really good compared to the last couple of titles. The characters while a bit stylized are very well defined. The mechanical design for the mechs are also good with the more common mobile suits taking inspiration from the real world military. The gundams themselves also look good and also very stylized maybe to the point of being on the edge of being ridiculous such as the nataku being like the dragon gundam although less overt. The animation for the show is also good as it bring as much mecha action as possible which are a blast to watch even if the plot is tedium. In the audio department the voice acting is good with the actors doing a well enough job making their characters sound believable. The sound effects are still similar to the ones used in previous gundam shows which is alright because it is a gundam show. The soundtrack is also good with a nice mix of orchestral and pop that are good to listen to even by itself.

There are few more points worth making such as it’s overarching thematic of peace. Such as how peace should be about through pure pacifism or through order and oppression from a high ruler, or that peace is impossible as humans will always find a way to create conflict. While the ideas themselves are fine the way they are presented is more preachy and less profound. It doesn’t help that it mostly comes in the form of long speeches from one dimensional characters that just makes the entire thing superfluous. Next pint of zechs aka a blatant char clone. While not the first char clone he’s the most obvious one in terms of his character and design. While not a bad thing and being a decent character himself. It shows that even other gundam show sometimes rely on many of its own archetypes for better or worse. Final point is the endless waltz ova which are a beautiful fireworks of nothing. They just look better while adding very little to the entire show except some contrived revelations and a more decent ending. They pass as an ok complementary piece and not much else.

Overall gundam wing is a very style over substance kind of show. While a bit tedious to get through, the reward is some nice gundam combat and cool explosions, Cool looking characters with drama that comes off as so bad it’s funny, and most of all a a good soundtrack.

Gundam Wing was one of the more overrated entries to the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise as at the time this show hit American airwaves there were more websites dedicated to this show than any other Gundam show.

At the time this show was on Cartoon Network I was going through a bit of a purist phase as I wasn't into Wing since my introduction to Gundam was through the 1st Mobile Suit Gundam movie. Also I had desire to watch the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series. But I soon sat down and watched the entire series on DVD and I didn't think it was that ... bad... overrated perhaps but I rated this better than 00 or Ironblood Orphans.

Gundam Wing has a lot of issues, but I genuinely like many of its aspects in spite of them.

To start with my problems, the animation is not very good. It relies way too much on reused animation for battles, this makes most of the battles hard to differentiate from eachother and is my main problem with the show. I also would like to mention that there are two back-to-back recap episodes which are kind of lame, but the animation quality seems to increase for a few episodes after those. Some of the sound effects also feel overused, much of the time you hear the same ... rapid fire gunshot sound effect for different weapons and it gets distracting. I also think that the main character in particular has a weak introduction, trying to focus on how cool he is which fell a little short for me, and I didn't like him very much until much later in the series. Some character backstories are straight up not here and you have to watch Endless Waltz or read the Gundam Wing: Glory of the Losers manga to see those. There is also an important plot point that should've been acknowledged more than one time near the end, it's properly developed in Endless Waltz, but that should've been more well developed at the beginning of the entire story like it is in the previously mentioned manga. This means you never understand why some characters are the way they are and hurts the story.

I really like the characters in this story, aside from the previously mentioned bad start for the main character. Treize in particular is great whenever he's on screen, but I do like all the main characters. They are the best part of the series in my opinion and make the series for me. The story is pretty good for the most part, aside from a few contrived moments, I think its very interesting in the way it shows wars with how it affects the world and the people in it. I also like the music, the openings are great and the music in the show complements whatever is happening while retaining a consistent style that feels unique to Gundam Wing. However, there's one song that plays towards the end that felt suspiciously similar to the theme from the Mortal Kombat live-action film which was a little questionable.

Overall, it's hard to recommend Gundam Wing, even though I like it. I find what it's going for to be great, but the execution is very sloppy.

When I watched Gundam Wing the first time all those years ago back in 2016, I was like, "what was the hype even about, what was so special about this?" While I like it a bit more than I used to I can understand why me from all those years ago was never a big fan of it despite me thinking the series is decent overall.

I'll start with the good, the setting and world like a lot of Gundam shows are fascinating and interesting, I always loved the idea of mankind moving up into space colonies and one day leaving the earth which could ... happen someday, and I love how this franchise explores that possibility, and it's still just as interesting here, even if much of the backstory is clumsily delivered through narrated exposition a lot of the time, and I feel like the show could do a better job at weaving in backstory and exposition in better. The characters are also decent, Heero is a strange character at first but he started to grow on me, the villains like Trieze and Miliardo are also solid enough. However characters like Catra and Wu Fei aren't particularly that great, Catra being hard to sympatheize with after the actions he does later in the series and Wu Fei just comes as a smug brat a lot of the time. I do like Duo Maxwell a lot and he's a pretty entertaining character and the rest of the cast is just okay overall. Relieena is also somewhat tolerable for a pacisfist character since she never contradict herself that much or at least I can't recall.

This is where the series tends to break it for me, my big issue with Gundam Wing is the frequent time jumps and perspective breaks with characters, there's a lot that happens on this show but it never feels like you are going on a slow gradual journey with them, it feels more like a highlight reel where you will follow one character one minute for a few episodes, then they will be written out of the plot for a while and then you follow another character(s) and then after a while they will be written out of the plot. It makes for an awkwardly disjointed narrative where it's hard to get overly attached to anyone and their plight, Relianna's character development later in the show felt particularly jarring since she had shown up in so long. There's a "death" of sorts that happens later in the series and the whole time, I am wonder, "are they ever going to explain what her fate actually was already?" It makes me appreciate the original series and many other Gundam shows in how they are written since the cast was generally always together in one location, meaning you didn't have to break the perspective of other characters nearly as often since they were always near by. It made the narrative feel less disjointed ans stilted as a result. Most of the cast in Wing are always seperated and are off in different places so far away from each other as opposed to the story following two groups in the original series like the White Base and the Zabi family.

The last few episodes are easily the best since the series by that point is following 3 factions and the most of the characters are together making the story feeling it doesn't need to break off into subplot land nearly as much anymore. It actually feels like I am following a group and their stuggles rather than having it be the highlight reel.

Overall, I like Wing a bit better than before but not by much, this show will always be a reminder of how I take certain tropes for granted and how bizarre a story can be when these tropes are not being followed.