Name(s): Mobile Suit Gundam Wing / New Mobile Report Gundam Wing / 新機動戦記ガンダムW
Format: TV series (49 episodes)
Studio(s): Sunrise
Related: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (1998)

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.