Gundam wing is roughly the sixth installment in Sunrises’ expansive Gundam series, which began in 1979. It premiered on April 7, 1995 and concluded on March 29, 1996, lasting forty-nine episodes of roughly twenty to thirty minutes each. Gundam Wing premiered in the United States on March 6, 2000, on Cartoon Network. It was the first Gundam series to appear in America and gained a good degree of popularity. This can be partially explained by it’s similarities to Dragon Ball Z(big explosions, flashy characters, big explosions engulfing flashy characters) and realizing that it could have gotten a boost from that fan-base. When it appeared on Cartoon Network it was edited for content, which entailed mostly language, violence and the word death being changed to destroy in some instances.   

 

    In a nutshell, without giving too much away, the plot of Gundam is as follows. In some future timeline/alternate universe mankind has succeeded in establishing livable satellites surrounding earth. These satellites are called colonies and they exist in clusters at the five legrange points surrounding Earth. The year is given as AC (After Colony) 195, the rights of the colonies are being constricted by an oppressive leadership located on Earth which is known as the Alliance. In response to this oppression, five colonies each construct a Gundam and send both it and a specially trained pilot to Earth, to fight for freedom. 

 

           What is a Gundam? It is a GUNDAnium Mobile suit, so what is Gundanium? It is a fictional metal that is stronger and more durable than titanium, electrically neutral, and highly heat resistant, unfortunatly it can only be manufactured in space.   So then what exactly is a mobile suit? A mobile suit is a large robotic vehicle which is usually human shaped and can piloted from a cockpit located in the chest. What follows is a list of the more important Gundams in the series.

Suit / Pilot

Wing Gundam / Heero Yuy

Deathschythe / Duo Maxwell

Heavyarms / Trowa Barton

Sandrock / Quatre Raberba Winner

Shenlong / Chang Wufei

 

Epyon / Zechs

Wing Zero / Various (Mostly Heero)

(Pictured at top)

 

        Here is a brief description of some of the more important characters in the series, and since I am writing this I am also going to throw in my opinion (because you haven’t covered all your bases until you’ve been completely, biased and unfactual). 

 

Heero Yuy:One of the five Gundam pilots, and the main character of the series, Heero Yuy is presented as the ultimate soldier, and very much embodies the values of bushido. Stoicism, loyalty, and non-attachment are all present in his character and all three can be seen very plainly in episode 10. In the final moments of the episode when the colonies are threatened, and it seems that surrender is the only option, he detonates his Gundam while still riding it with no sign of emotion what so ever. His character does begin to change as the series continues and his personality becomes less stoic and he becomes more affected by the events that surround him. My Opinion: As far as main characters go, he isn’t terrible, but he does suffer from the same predictable stigma of being super powerful, and at times you can easily label his actions as “Unbeatable Protagonist Powers of Plot Progression”, but other than that he isn’t bad.  

 

Duo Maxwell: Another of the five Gundam pilots, and the second to be introduced. Very early on in the series he meets with Heero and to two work together for a good portion of the series. His personality draws a stark contrast to Heero, as his is much less serious and while he is not completely without serious moments, they are often punctuated with jokes or humor of some kind. It becomes very obvious early on that he is the comic relief character, and yet at the same time there are moments where he is more morbid than his allies. Most of these times occur when he is in combat and it is at these times that he often refers to himself by his own self-imposed moniker “The God of Death”. My Opinion: Personally out of all the characters he is my favorite, because I really like the contrast between his humor and his personality once he engages in a fight, also I think he probably has some of the best one-liners in the show.

 

Trowa Barton: The third pilot introduced and I believe the most mature acting of them all. As I type this I can scarcely think of one instance where he loses his cool, he is in control of himself all the times. Once he meets with the other pilots he quickly assumes somewhat of a leadership role. It is hard to talk about this character without revealing what happens to him, so I’ll do just that. Early on he joins a circus as a cover story and is essentially the most depressing clown in existence, then later in the series in a shocking twist befitting an M. Night Shaymalan flick HE GETS AMNESIA!?! Now despite how absurd that sounds, in context it all makes perfect near-perfect sense. My Opinion: There isn’t anything specifically wrong with him, he isn’t annoying or crazy, but there are a few things that make one stop and question suspension of disbelief. Moments such as when he jumps some twenty odd feet into the air, inverts himself and then spins like a top, all before landing on his feet without even a stumble. Or moments when after hours of combat he can still fire barrage after barrage of missile, only to finally run out when it is convenient for the plot. Yet still both of these take a back seat to the singular impossibility that is his hair, I swear sometimes it is standing at a perfect ninety degree angle, and never once is a can of mouse anywhere in sight.

 

Quatre Raberba Winner: Straight out of colony L4, taking charge in the middle east it is the conscience of the show’s cast. Saying he is the conscience is not in any way an understatement, he also has a penchant for making long dramatic speeches about doing things for the good of the colony, but they are fighting for freedom afterall. He leads a group of fighters known as the Maguanac corp, though really it is less of a group and more or less his own personal army. Not content just to be the leader of an elite group of soldiers he also holds the position of being heir to the winner family, one of the wealthiest families in the colonies. My Opinion: Those long dramatic speeches I mentioned earlier, well if it sounded at all like I didn’t like them that is probably because a hate them with the fury of Roloffs in a basketball game. The first time I saw this show I didn’t think much of them, the second time I took notice, the third I wanted him dead. To call them cheesy is an insult to cheesy speeches, he is the single worst speechmaker in history. If William Wallace had given a speech of the kind this kid normally gives, the scots would have turned around and left…maybe crocheted something on the way home. Spoiler alert, at the explosive final moments of the series after the world has been saved in one of my favorite moments in visual history, the moment that still puts an energizing shiver down my spine, this guy says something so cheesy I can’t put it into words. Which is hard to believe since the subtitles do it for me, but I refuse to recite those words, in fact after that scene I have to drink pure glucose just to recover the life that is sucked out of me. If it isn’t already abundantly clear, I hate this guy, but thank god for the mute button. 

 

Chang Wufei: The last pilot to be introduced is by far the most emotional. Not just one emotion either, no he goes through every emotion though his default if arrogance, followed closely by rage. If by chance he is defeated in combat like in episode eight, then he will go through the full gambit, from shame all the way back to arrogance making sure to hit every angsty stop along the way. Now despite how I make it sound, he isnt really that annoying and in context most of his mood changes seem justifiable. My Opinion: Really by comparison to Quatre this guy is the messiah, my only gripe comes from episode 8. In which he loses to Treize Khushrenada in a sword fight, take note, a sword fight not a mobile suit battle. He was selected as a pilot because of his skill with a mobile suit, not a sword. Where any normal person could take this defeat with a grain of salt and vow to win later with a mobile suit, he does not. Instead he sulks for what seems like an eternity even though it is only two or three episodes (an eternity in TV time, except in DBZ where 3 episodes were dedicated to standing still with arms raised).

 

Relena Peacecraft: The main female character, which means that she is the love interest for the main character (Shocker!!). She is a pacifist, which means she puts a damper on the action side of this show, also it doesn’t help that her main squeeze makes it a habit of annihilating people on explosion at a time. Her role expands into a pretty hefty position of power fairly quickly, especially for a fifteen year old. My Opinion: She too has a penchant for making long speeches just like Quatre, but unlike Quatre there are no point to her monologues. Making a speech, dedicated to the tenants of pacifism, whist in a show where the plot revolves around blowing stuff all the hell is like shooting yourself in the foot, only with less blood and more pain.

 

Zechs Merquise: AKA Milliardo Peacecraft, he is this series’ main rival/anti-hero. He comes equipped with sweet piloting skills rivaling the main character’s, and army of loyal secondary characters willing to sacrifice their lives for him, and more monikers than you can shake a laser stick at (this is gundam, everything needs more lasers…and desu). It is quickly apparent that he is the man to beat, and as his character shifts from bad to good, to neutral, and then back to bad, plenty of people get a chance to try and do just that. My Opinion: He has a cool hat (which is always bonus points in my book) atleast until it breaks in a symbolic gesture of broken friendship. Other than that he is a standard villain who you never really hate. 

 

Treize Khushrenada: Technically this guy also fits the bill as a villian, just not all the time. Basically whenever Zechs isn’t being evil Treize is and vice versa, and if neither are being evil at the moment then some other throw away guy comes in the pick up the slack. It really is hard to classify his character, as he is not specifically evil but he isnt that good either. I actually find myself not wanting to label him with a cliché, which is surprising because I love labeling things with cliches. The simplest way to understand his character is to realize he has a set of ideals that he lives by and that is who he is for better or worse. My Opinion: In one scene he shot a bird, probably just because it was Monday. 

 

         When it first appeared on Cartoon Network it was broadcast in the afternoon, and so it was censored to make it more “suitable” for the younger audience. Mainly it was violence that was taken out which for the most part was blood, and my favorite example of this is in episode ten. After self-destructing his Gundam while still riding it, Heero Yuy falls some twenty to thirty feet to the ground below, where he lies in a large pool of his own blood. In the edited version of this scene everything happens the same except that the large pool of blood is conspicuously absent. One strange difference is the alteration of Duo Maxwell’s nickname, where it is changed from “God of Death” to “The Great Destroyer”. In addition to this toy versions of his Gundam’s name were changed from Deathschythe Hell, to Deathschythe H. in hopes of avoiding religious references.

 

  Anime Censorship in America

          Throughout the series several themes are present, the most obvious of which being that almost every suit used by the group called OZ, is named after a constellation of the zodiac. A brief list includes: Leo, Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Pisces, Virgo

 

Another theme, though this one is slightly less prevalent is the fact that many character names are derived from numbers in different languages, the Gundam pilots being the most obvious as their suits are assigned these same numbers. 

In order they would be:

            Heero – 1

            Duo – 2

            Trowa – 3

            Quatre – 4

            Wufei – 5

            Zechs – 6

            Treize – 13

            Milliardo – 1,000,000,000

 

Impact:  

           Gundam wing was popular enough in Japan to earn itself its own Movie sequel, as well as several OVAs. Also a prequel manga series was produced entitled Gundam Wing Episode Zero, in which the back ground of the several characters are explored deeper. Its popularity was such that it was chosen to become the flagship series of the Gundam franchise to the United States, and it is credited as being the reason Gundam came to the U.S.

 

http://aboutgundamwing.com/