Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Part 1 Episodes 1-5

After Colony 195.  Twenty years after the assassination of a prominent pacifist, rebel forces from orbiting space colonies send five soldier to Earth, each armed with their own unique Gundam Mobile Suit.  Their mission: to strike back at the shadowy group behind their oppression, the OZ organization.  Against political intrigue and battlefields of man made giants, Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Reberba Winner and Wufei Chang will usher in the next chapter of human history…or die trying.  When Gundams arrive on the battlefield, the Earth will never be the same.

Seventeen years ago, one show on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block changed my life forever and set me on the path to becoming the Anime fan I am today.  That show was Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and this summer…I’m gonna look at it all.  Yes, joining the ranks of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, I’m going to be going straight through all 49 episodes of Gundam Wing over the next few weeks.  It seems daunting, reviewing shows this long always do, but after rewatching the first few episodes, I gotta say, im super excited to be watching this again…in Japanese and in HD too.

Before I get going, I think I need to add a little disclaimer.  Though it has been a little while since ive seen this show in its entirety, Gundam Wing is still an important title to me. That being said, I know that there are others who feel the same way, while there are plenty of die hard Gundam fans who dislike this show because its arrival overshadowed better Gundam titles in the franchise because of it’s meteoric popularity in the states.  As a fan, I’m going to go very fanboy on certain parts.  But as a reviewer, I will be a little critical of certain elements (one of which is in this first review).  Just because I’m giving Wing crap for certain things it doesn’t do as well as other Gundam titles, doesn’t diminish my forever love for the show.  I have seen other Gundams since then (obviously) and some are better than Wing, there I said it.  But this will always be a special show to me and I’m going to respect it, as well as give it my best critique.

All good?  All good, let’s get this started.

The opening salvo of episodes for Gundam Wing is your pretty standard New Series 101 set.  We get introduced to the new world, the cast, the mecha and the plot at a pretty rapid pace.  There barely feels like there’s enough time to catch your breath in between action sequences, rapid cutbacks to the large cast of characters and the new political developments at large.  So where to begin?  Well why not the Gundams themselves.  All five titular Mobile Suits are very impressive.  Being that these Gundams aren’t part of a standard military you can see the amount of freedom in customization.  Giant sword, a dragon fang, a literal death sythe and a giant machine fun for an arm, you can tell a lot of fun was being had coming up with what these Gundams could do.  Everytime any of the Gundams are on screen, they look phenomenal.  Wing and Deathsythe are the big stand outs for me: Wing because it’s introduction is legendary in every sense of the word; and Deathsythe because it look so freaking cool. 

As for the five boys piloting these mechas, it’s easy to see why Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei have been referred to as the Backstreet Boys of Gundam (does that make the Gundam Meisters from 00 Nsync?).  These are handsome devils who steal the hearts of women as fast as they are able to cut down Mobile Suits.  While we do have five pilots to focus on, it’s clear that Heero is meant to be the main character of the story.  Quiet, deadly and prone to laughing for seemingly no reason, he’s intriguing to say the least.  Is he even human by the way?  Surviving gunshots, falls from mass heights and prone to snapping broken bones back into place…I’d call Cyberization or Immortality…but I guess Heero is just stubborn.  Duo is my favorite of the quintet.  His character design just screams coolness and his happy go lucky attitude adds needed levity to a series loaded with drama.  Plus he pilots the coolest Gundam on the show (Deathsythe) and can rock a ponytail.  The other three pilots don’t get as much screentime as Heero or Duo but still leave something of an impression.  Quatre doesn’t want to kill but has no qualms about using giant swords to cut guys in half.  Trowa can talk to lions and enjoys rehashing Military 101 tactics from the comfort of his Mobile Suit cockpit (he also enjoys playing flute while Quatre plays the violin…Yuri and Victor before Yuri and Victor were even a thing).  And Wufei…I cant get a read on him really.  But apparently he hates fighting weak opponents…which is odd since he’s in a Mobile Suit that can destroy anything with little effort…we’ll see where the story takes him.

There’s a very strong supporting cast around, at least on the villains side.  Zechs is our Char clone for this outing and, really, if I had to choose anyone to be the legit son of the Red Comet, I’d want it to be Zechs.  He’s the only guy who doesn’t freak the hell out when a Gundam attacks and just has that calm and confidence that we all love about Char.  Plus he’s not hitting on younger girls.  Nope, Zechs has Noin to be his love interest that he wont touch cause…manliness?  Noin seems like she’ll be some good insight into Zechs, clearly attached to him on a deeper level that she wants deeper herself.  Finally there’s Treize Kushrenada, the handsome leader of OZ who gives order with calm, charisma and all while taking bubble baths in ancient Roman architectures…he and Zechs could be brothers.  As the supposed main villain, Treize feels like a threat even though he hasn’t done anything himself just yet.

However, there is one cast member who is just a frustratingly disturbing enigma…our heroine du jour Relena Darlin…or Peacecraft, I think we’ll get that all cleared up soon.  It almost pains me to write this…but Relena feels like the prototype for Bella from Twilight rather than a strong heroine we know from a Gundam story.  Think about it: she finds Heero on a beach and he later threatens to kill her because she knows his secret.  Does she tell anyone about this, like the police?  NO.  She follows him everywhere he goes, determined to get to know him and understand him…all because he wants to kill her.  Hell, she stand ontop of a cliff and shouts for Heero to come and kill her thinking he’ll actually show…WHAT THE F*** IS THIS GIRLS DAMAGE?!  Granted considering her “father” keeps skipping out on her, positive male role model reinforcement is something probably missing from her life.  I hope the death of her revealed to be foster father sends Relena on a better path.  Because this unhealthy stalker obsession with the cute boy who wants to kill her is more laughable than anything else.

The plot of the opening act feels very standard and doesn’t really change things up for the most part: Gundams attack, strategy is analyzed, Relena stalks Heero, Zechs looks for ways to look cool, etc.  It should feel stale by Episode 4 but really, the pacing is excellent.  Sometimes episodes are over before you know it and you feel like you’ve both gotten your fill and want to continue out.  Even if the political dialogue isn’t the strongest, the interactions between characters like Heero and Duo, or Zechs and Treize keeps things far more interesting.  This isn’t shocking since Gundam has always been a show about the pilots behind the Mobile Suit controls rather than the Mobile Suits themselves.  With a cast this big though, im wondering how it will balance out screentime.  I said above, Heero and Duo get a lot of that in this set.  Trowa and Quatre get the least amount, with only brief cutbacks to them and a short scene of them in battle together.  Wufei gets most of the fourth episode to himself but kind of just postures about.  I get the feeling that if we have to skip on a couple of characters to focus on others, I wont mind the disappearance of some for an extended period of time.

I will say, watching this again, the nostalgia factor is off the charts.  This is a show I used to camp in front of the TV mid afternoon as if my life depended on it, and if I missed it I made sure it was recorded to watch later.  Faults and all aside, watching the opening act of Gundam Wing felt like a proper reunion with a very dear friend I haven’t seen in a really long time.  Will it be as good as I remember as the series goes on, or will I find things to bash the hell out of like with Gundam 00?  Whatever happens, I’m gonna enjoy writing about this one, im even smiling as I type write now.

See ya Friday for Part 2 as the summer long Gundam Wing marathon continues.