From Losers to Glory-A Gundam Wing Special-Part 7

Previously:

For the second time in two volumes, we skipped over a ton of Anime material to get to the next big event.  This time, it was the arrival of Quatre and the Wing Zero.  We never got to see Wufei and Duo get captured by OZ or the destruction of their respective Gundams and Heero is shuffled into combat with Trowa the second Wing Zero appears.  This culminated in a 2v1 battle with Quatre against Heero and Trowa.  So far, despite some hopscotch with the timeline, events have been playing out just as they have in the Anime for a little while now (Trowas secret insertion into OZ happening sooner not withstanding).  But now we arrive at both the midpoint of the Anime and the midpoint of this new Manga.  Let’s see if the Manga rocks the boat a bit in the next volume of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz-Glory of the Losers.

Vol.7 (Episodes 25-26)

In the Anime:

The Wing Zero overpowers the Mercurius and Vayete and Trowa sacrifices himself to save Heero.  His apparent death snaps Quatre back to sanity but he and Heero are both captured by OZ forces.  There is a major power shift in OZ as Treize can no longer support Romafellers quest for dominance of the Earth.  This results in Chief Engineer Tuberov seizing power from Lady Une and shooting her.  Before this happens, Une frees Duo, Wufei and the Gundam scientists, the former two escaping with two brand new Gundams built in secret.  OZ splits into two factions: those loyal to Romafeller and the Treize Faction.  Heero and Quatre briefly meet up with the five Doctors but are all caught by the Treize Faction and forced to run test data with Wing Zero.  Heero volunteers and is nearly driven insane by the mind warping Zero System in the cockpit.  Quatre manages to stop him and sense Heero wishes to return to Earth.

In the Manga:

•  Sally Po and the Maguanac Corp successfully steal Quatre’s Gundam from OZ before Sally gives it to the Maguanacs.  In the Anime, this happens far sooner than Heero, Trowa and Quatre’s battle in space.
• Duo’s Deathsythe Hell and Wufei’s Altron Gundams are now featured with their designs from Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz.
• Hilde Schbiker is introduced as part of the unit that captures Heero and Quatre along with Wing Zero.  She is under Lieutenant Trant’s command.
• Zechs and Howard both travel to space separately but reunite later.  Howard resurrects Peacemillion and gifts Zechs an updated version of Tallgeese, now sporting wings on its engines similar to the ones Wing Zero has in Endless Waltz

So technically, this volume only covers 2 episodes of the Anime but it feels like more than that doesn’t it?  The showdown with Zero, Trowas sacrifice, new Gundam Models, Coup d’etat on the Moon, new faces entering the story in a different way, and yet I like all of the new changes better here, mostly cause we’re not skipping anymore…right now anyway.  The biggest moment of Volume 7 is the reveal of Deathsythe Hell and Altron…both sporting their Endless Waltz model design.  Guess since “Endless Waltz” is in the title of this Manga, it makes sense to skip over their initial looks in Wing and just jump to their EW upgrades for consistency.  This way, when we see them in the actual Endless Waltz OVA, it makes more sense (though I doubt the Manga will actually cover Endless Waltz).  Shame we wont get to see the TV Anime Deathsythe H and Altron but I can live with this change.  Speaking of redesigns…HOLY FRAK WHY DIDN’T TALLGEESE GET THOSE ANGEL WINGS IN THE TV SHOW!!!???  

They make a legendary Mobile Suit look even more legend, though I think it’s kind of a dead giveaway another certain Mobile Suit will be borrowing (?) those wings later on…just a guess.  Everything else plays out in its normal manner from Trowa’s sacrifice to Heero going nuts in Wing Zero.  Hilde coming in at this point is interesting.  In the seldom mention Gundam Wing Manga, she was introduced as not only a soldier under Trant’s command but also as an old friend.  I’m wondering how she’ll meet Duo, if she ever does, considering he is the Gundam pilot who has the biggest impact on her life.  In the Anime Duo and Hilde met way before now.  We even got a glimpse of Relena and Noin in the newly built Sanc Kingdom, which is nice…but there’s still no explanation as to how they got it up and running behind the scenes…guess some issues stay the same no matter the adaptation.

Man I had a lot to say here but the changes in Vol.7 were some of my favorites so far, better than the last couple of volumes.  There shouldn’t be any reason for a time skip montage in Volume 8 because the start point of the episodes it covers would be the two recap episodes from the series…and theyre really not necessary again.  Guess we’ll find out what happens.  I will say that given we’ve seen the Endless Waltz Versions of Deathsythe Hell and Altron, methinks we’ll end up seeing the rest of their EW brethren before the end, which would be awesome in Sandrock and Heavyarms’ case.  See ya Next Friday for a new episode of From Losers to Glory: A Gundam Wing Special.