Gundam Wing

While I understand that the point of a review is to inform, I am honestly disappointed in the ones posted by my peers. Most of the reviews are either blindly positive or blindly negative. I hope that this review proves to be informative and unbiased, so that it attracts the attention of interested parties.

The plot of Gundam Wing is standard fare for the epic Gundam saga: in the near future, orbiting space colonies are unfairly repressed by a greedy terrestrial government. On the anniversary of a great colonial leader's death, five young rebels go to Earth to wage guerilla warfare on the Earth Alliance. Their weapons: Gundams, giant humanoid battle machines of immense power. As the five boys fight for independence, the Alliance is overthrown by OZ, a secret society run by a powerful military-industrial complex that has been pulling the strings all along. Soon after, the Gundam pilots, their civilian allies, and like-minded members of OZ join forces to take down the warring factions and bring real peace.

With the characters, we have a group of young people who are highly misunderstood by the anime community. Heero Yuy, pilot of Wing Gundam, is a teenage soldier who's been trained to keep his emotions in check to the point where almost seems inhuman. On the civilian side is Relena Darlian, an introverted girl whose lonely upper-class childhood has left her seeking real friendship. The connection that begins with their chance encounter on a beach eventually leads to great emotional growth in them both, as Heero learns to live with his humanity - and his mistakes - and Relena becomes a more assertive, well-rounded person. Completing this classic triangle is ace pilot Zechs Marquise, Relena's long-lost brother, who entered the military so he could exact revenge for the slaying of their parents and the destruction of their homeland. Aiding Heero in his battles are the other four Gundam pilots: the cheerful Duo Maxwell, the somber Trowa Barton, the caring Quatre Winner, and the brash Zhang Wu Fei. On the side of OZ, we have the anachronistically noble Treize Khushrenada, his multi-faceted aide Lady Une, Zechs' old friend Lucrezia Noin, and Dorothy Catalonia, Relena's war-loving rival. Rounding out the main cast are the civilians: rebel soldier Sally Po, the Maganac Corps (a group of soldiers allied to Quatre, junk dealer Howard, and the "mad" scientists who built the Gundams.

The story is carried out pretty well. Most older Gundam series have the problem that they focus on the main character so much that it almost seems like the world revolves around him. With Wing, time is spent with a large number of varying characters, giving us a better picture of the After Colony world. The characters are well-written and exhibit a lot of growth, keeping with the central theme of communication between people. The mechanical designs are skillfully handled by three Gundam veterans: Kunio Okawara, Hajime Katoki, and Junya Ishigaki. The soundtrack features slick pop tunes by Two-Mix and a large number of well-orchestrated background tracks that underscore the action perfectly.

Admittedly, there are some pacing problems (such as two consecutive clip shows), but it all evens out in the end. A lot of people like to trash certain characters (Relena in particular), but as I've seen, most of this springs from their forming an opinion of the characters within their first five minutes on screen and never changing it. Some people complain that the Gundams are too powerful, ignoring the fact that they HAVE to be strong to fight entire armies by themselves. Also, while some say that Wing is "a complete rip-off of the original series", it's actually more original than Gundam Seed, a more recent addition to the family. And there is a bit much in the way of stock footage, but that can be expected with almost any anime.

There's another stumbling block, though: a disproportionate amount of people insist that the entire male cast is homosexual. Despite what the fangirls may say, this is not official. The actual series, and its sequels, show Heero and Relena as very close, with subtle hints at a deeper relationship than the princess and her knight in shining armor.

So, what's the final verdict? Personally, I love this series, so obviously I'm going to recommend it. But I will say this: if you decide to watch Gundam Wing based on my comments, ignore everything you read or hear about it. Watch the series with an open mind and no preconceptions. Don't listen to anyone else, because in the end, the opinion that matters the most is your own.

I absolutely love this show so much.

Because the reason I love the show it's because it has great story, great music and the characters are really cool, and the Gundams are more modern than the other gundams in Mobile Suit Gundam.

If there's a real Gundam Wing movie someday I will go to see it definetly and I will know the movie will be the best.

Gundam Wing is the first installment of the 20 year old Mobile Suit Gundam franchise to make it to american television. And quite frankly, I think that Cartoon Network could have chosen a better introduction. A the same time, they could have done worse as well.

Gundam Wing tells the story of the five Gundam Pilots, young terrorists sent to Earth from the space colonies to take revenge on the death, ten years earlier, of the leader of the Colonies. In the course of their actions, they discover that their true enemy is the secret society OZ. Over it's 49 episodes, this series takes a convoluted plot, and executes it quite well. >

While the story of Gundam Wing is it's greatest strength, it is also the show's greatest weakness. The simple fact is that anyone who knows Gundam has seen it all before... We saw it in Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) and again in Gundam F91 (1990). In addition, Gundam Wing does something else which is contrary to Gundam. It makes it Superheroic...

When the original Gundam premiered in 1979, it was a landmark series because it was the first show to portray the Mecha as simple fighting machines, like a tank or fighter jet. Prior Mecha shows always showed their machines as characters, mute and unintelligent, but characters nonetheless. Gundam chan ged all that. Unfortunately, by making it's Gundams superheroic Mecha that are invincible, Gundam Wing turns it's back on that.. And ultimately, that's what turns me off of the show...

In other words, It's good, but it's just not Gundam...

Well, Gundam Wing is the best Gundam series I've ever seen, because the gundams are a lot better than the gundams from Mobile Suit Gundam. The characters are really cool.

For example I have some things to say about them: Heero Yuy is the main character of the show and he's like one of the best characters, Duo is the all-American funny guy, he is very funny most of the time in every episode, Trowa is very silent and the first time he appeared he was a guy without a name, Quatre is like the youngest of the pilots, I think that most people say that he is gay and some others say that his main woman is Dorothy, Chang Wufei is the coolest character and he's the strongest of the pilots. My favorite gundams are: Heavyarms, Shenlong and Deathscythe, Wing Zero is my favorite too.

Relena, oh her name strikes the fear of men, she felt in love with Heero at first glance, gosh some ppl hate her.

This is a great show, it even shows the rivalry of Zechs and Heero, just like the rivalry between Amuro Ray and Char Aznable.

I give this show a 10/10

It saddened me to see the number of people panning this excellent series on this site. Gundam wing, for me, was possibly one of the best anime's I have ever see, and YES I have seen the original series.

GW's charm lies not in it's battles, but in the evolution of it's characters. sure, fanboy-puritans could aruge that they are merely vacuous pretty-boys, but I put this down to annoyance that this excellent series managed to be more popular than it's predecessors.

The characters of GW all start out with certain mannersn and opinions, yet as they move through the show, their personalities develop. Heero, for example, starts off as a cold, cruel and calculating individual, trained from birth to be the "Perfect soldier". throughout the series, he rediscovers the humanity that had been so brutally drummed out of him, through his relationship with possibly one of the most unjustly hated female characters in the anime world.

Yes, I like Relena. she's a strong character, stays true to her morals, and suffers dilemmas and hardships that any other teenager of her age does. the relationship between this pair develops gradually.

and the Battle-Philosophy! there is so much moral dilemma in this series you could use it as a test for a debating group. the definition of enemy changes repeatedly throughout the series as loyalties change and situations vary.

the battle scenes are fun, the dialogue is excellent, the dubbing is pretty good...

all in all, the only thing I could find about to complain on was the fact that the voices for the dub sound far older than the actual characters do, Zechs in particular.

If you want a fun series that will make you think if you want it to, and show the moral dilemmas that could easilly be related to today, watch Gundam Wing. you might be pleasantly surprised.