Today I'm reviewing the anime, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (or Gundam Wing, for short). Gundam Wing is a 1995 anime series that is part of one of the best and long running anime franchises in history. This anime is great show to watch, simply because of good lineup of characters and intense battle sequences added in the show. This makes this one of the best mecha anime series I've ever experienced since Super Dimension Fortress Macross.
The story of Gundam Wing starts off in the year After Colony 195, with the start of a plan from 5 alienated scientists called "Operation: Meteor". The scientists did this because they wanted revenge against the Organization of Zodiac, or OZ military organization. Now, the operation involves 5 young boys who have been choosen and trained by each of the scientists. And were also sent to Earth in advanced mobile suits designed by each of the scientists called "Gundams". So, our 5 pilots must stop the OZ organization and destroy them, before they start a war between Earth and it's colonies in space. The story also goes to a lot of different directions by introducing different groups in the series like White Fang, Romefeller Foundation and other in the series, that it makes the plot is so convoluted to understand. This marks the first problem of the anime. Unlike this anime, other animes I've reviewed like Serial Experiments Lain and Noein had a convoluted plot, but those animes explained the plot very well so that it wouldn't make the series too hard to understand. Gundam Wing, on the other hand, has a convoluted story that hardly doesn't make any sense. And this is one of the anime series where if you miss an episode, you will be completely lost. But even if you try to pay attention hard enough on the seires, it will still be hard to understand because of the multiple directions it takes.
Another problem I have with the series is that it is totally preachy. The anime mentions pacifism and war a bit too much in every corner of the show, which is the reason why I bring the second problem of the plot. But what saves Gundam Wing is by it's intense battles. This anime is jam-packed with battles. Every episode you watch will encounter fights with the mobile suits and such, that it will not make you bored at all for watching the series. And what also makes this series fun to watch is it's awesome lineup of characters. Heero Yuy is this cold hearted, but tough as nails young man. I didn't like him at first, because he doesn't talk that much. But I started liking him more later in the second half of the series. Relena Peacecraft starts off as this lonely young school girl, but later she becomes more knowledgeable because she really gets caught up about the war and wanting to bring total pacifism to the world. She is a nice girl. Duo Maxwell is an american pilot that want's to be called "The God of Death". He is quite humorous and he's very upbeat. He is also a bit sarcastic in the show. Trowa Barton is this quiet, but determined person. He is the most experienced Gundam pilot out of the 5, because of his long history of combat. Quatre Raberba Winner is the head of an army in Arab called Maganac Corps. He is a good character. And Wufei is this Chinese Gundam pilot that is considered a loner throughout the series. He always fights alone and he looks down on people that don't follow the same form of warrior's pride as he goes. He is not my favorite character out of the 5 Gundam pilots, compared to Heero and Quatre. But he is likeable.
Zechs Merquise is one of the main villians of the series. He's a member of the OZ faction and he is also a friend of the other main enemy of the series, Treize Khushrenada. Zechs real name is actually Milliardo Peacecraft, who is Relena's older brother. He is a good character. Trieze is the leader of OZ and he is one of the most complex characters in Gundam Wing, next to Relena Peacecraft. He's an interesting character. Noin is the military instructor for OZ, a personal bodyguard of Relena and a good friend to the 5 Gundam pilots. She's a very interesting character. Lady Une is a good character. What makes her interesting is her split personalities. On one case, she is the right hand officer of Treize Khushrenada and she is also a taskmaster. But on the other hand, she becomes Saint Une, who is this soft-spoker spokesperson of peace. So, all the characters in the series are really, really good. Now, the artstyle and animation looks nice for an anime that was in the mid 90's. The voice acting is very good on both dubs. I listen to mostly the dub and one episode in Japanese. The english voice work is amazing. It certaintly ranks up with Cowboy Bebop and Death Note as having the best voice performances in an english dub anime.
I'll bring out a few examples of the voice performers. Zechs Merquise is played by Brain Drummond, who plays Ryuk in Death Note and Eddie Brock/Venom in the american cartoon show, Spider Man Unlimited. Quatre Raberba Winner is played by Brad Swaile, who is one of my favorite english voice actors in an anime. He is known for roles like Amuro Ray in Mobile Suit Gundam and Light Yagami in Death Note. And Relena Peacecraft is voiced by Lisa Ann Beley, who voices Cammy in the american Street Fighter cartoon and she also voices Mai Shiranui in Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture. As I said, I seen one episode of the show in Japanese and it's good, but not as great as the english voice acting. There is actually one bad voice performer in the Japanese dub and that's the person that played Quatre in the Japanese dub. The voice actor for Quatre in the Japanese dub is terrible. Reason for that is because Quatre is played by a female named Ai Orikasa in the Japanese dub and she has failed miserably because she doesn't even try to make her voice sound boyish to play the role of a guy, unlike Veronica Taylor who was the original voice actor for Ash in the anime Pokemon. But besides the horrible japanese voice peformer for Quatre, the rest of the japanese voice work sounds ok. The anime also has some very good upbeat music and it really fits well to the overall feel of the anime.
In the end, Gundam Wing is an anime in the Gundam franchise that's not for everyone. Because of the convoluted and preachy story, this anime might not be interesting for Gundam fans that are looking for a Gundam series that has a story line that easy to understand. But what makes this anime successful is for it's fun action scenes, interesting characters and great english voice work. So, if you are looking for a mech anime that has intense action, Gundam Wing is for you. But if you are looking for a mech anime that has a story that's simple to understand, then stay away from Gundam Wing since it will confuse you.
8.5 out of 10.
I also announce the winner of my next anime series I'm reviewing. I combined the amount of votes on both here and Youtube. Here is the winner.
I got like 18 votes for this anime. Most of them are from people on Youtube. I think I got 16 votes for this anime on Youtube and 2 on here. The most votes for an anime that I got here on Gamespot is Hell Girl. But Hell Girl certaintly didn't beat the amount of votes that Trigun had. Here are the total votes for each anime combined on both sites.
Trigun-18
Eureka Seven-8
Hell Girl-7
Outlaw Star-2
I hope you enjoy the review. See you later.
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