T5W#377-Top 5 Moments from Mobile Suit Abridged Gundam Wing Episode 10

Well todays my 35^th birthday and its wild to think about the fact that I’ve reached my mid 30s and also how big of a part Anime continues to play in my life.  This genre, this blog, all of the good things that have come with them, my life wouldn’t be what it is without Japanese Anime or the Gundam Anime Corner or the friends I’ve met along the way.  Alright, enough sappiness.  What am I going to talk about in this Top 5 Wednesday that happens to fall on my birthday?  Well, how about we talk about Gundam?  And not just any Gundam.  Incase you missed it, the comedic geniuses from Operation Meatier have returned with a brand new episode of Mobile Suit Abridged Gundam Wing…after a near 2.5 year long wait (I only know that because they acknowledge it in the episode).  MSAGW has become one of my all time favorite Abridged series, up there with Team Four Stars Dragon Ball Z and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.  It might be just a bit more special because of the fondness I hold for Gundam Wing while also learning to address its faults and laugh at how ridiculous it gets at times.  And let me tell ya, OPMeat hasn’t lost their touch, their sense of humor or their love for this series cause I was laughing a ton while watching this episode.  So, to celebrate their return and my birthday, on todays Top 5 Wednesday we’ll be looking at the Top 5 Moments from Mobile Suit Abridged Gundam Wing Episode 10.  It’s actually kind of rare I focus on one episode in particular for a Top 5, usually it’s looking back at a season, sets of movies, etc.  It’s a good first if that is the case.  Anyway, Commencing Mission.
 
#5-The Big Revelations Feel Heavy, Hilarious and Right

Any good Abridged Series can bring the laughs but also do the unthinkable and actually take some time to get serious for a second.  Because let’s face it, the best ones don’t just make fun of a story, they honor and occasionally improve on it (more on that in a bit).  At the apex of Heero and Zech’s big duel, Relena’s arrival triggers an avalanche of familiar and emotional revelations: Relena admitting she thinks of Heero as family and adopts her foster fathers mantra of “Being down with Pacifism”; Zechs admitting he’s Relena’s brother in a fit of rage when he cant stand Heero’s “Ill kill you” threats any more; and finally Noin getting some satisfaction that someone knows she’s in love with the ever aloof Zechs.  It’s all so good and is both emotional and outright hilarious, especially when Heero keeps refusing Relena’s feelings and Zechs accuses Heero of being too good for his sister.  Seriously, stuff like this is why Abridged Series might be my favorite dubs ever.
 

#4-Gundam Wing Endless Duel Cameo

By the time Gundam Wing made its way to the US, it was the year 2000 and we were well past the age of 16bit fighting games.  While we did get a few PS1 fighting games with Gundams, many might not know that when Gundam Wing was released in Japan in 1995, there was a Super Nintendo fighter released alongside it called Gundam Wing: Endless Duel.  It’s a pretty simple title: select your pilot and theyre accompanying suit and duke it out in a heavier version of Street Fighter.  Obviously we never got an official release here in the US cause the SNES was long gone by then but the game remains a hidden gem many use Emulators to experience.  So color me nicely and happily surprised when one of the OZ Soldiers in the Antarctica Control Room is playing Endless Duel off to the side…and he happens to be pitting Heavyarms against Tallgeese too, this is such a gem moment and its literally mostly off to the side for most of the episode too.

 
#3-Heero Cant Pilot Heavyarms

So yeah…how can another Gundam Pilot just hop into another Gundam and magically be able to use it sort of as well as the OG Pilot?  In retrospect it seems a bit weird that even with an injured arm, Heero can still handle Heavyarms as well as he does.  Well, the Abridged Series rectifies and improves on this with one simple but brilliant change: The second the duel with Zechs begins, Heero realizes he cant pilot Heavyarms at all.  From there on out, it’s mostly luck and guess work (and plot armor) that keeps Heero from not being totally decimated on the battlefield, even though Zechs does eventually start wailing on him in a fit of disappointment.  I personally loved the bit when Heero tried to use Heavyarms’ chest cannons only to experience the same tinnitus inducing pain Trowa does every time he uses them. (“Seriously, who builds gatling guns the size of apartments right above the cockpit).   Next time Heero, make due without the PA system or your (admittedly awesome) playlist.
 

#2-Heero and Zechs: Best of Friends, Greatest of Enemies

This was the moment we’d all been waiting for: Heero and Zechs meeting in the flesh.  And my, oh my, this is the match made in heaven they both kind of wanted.  Heero finally meets a man who can understand why he says “I’ll kill you”.  And Zechs is just as stubborn, oblivious and full of himself as Heero is.  You’d think theyd get along famously…annnnnd then their duel gets going and Zechs realizes he’s maybe overestimated the ultimate Gundam pilot.  Their back and forth as buddies is cute but their back and forth as rivals is even better imho.  Even if Zechs is sounding more mature and eloquent with his choice of words, he and Heero really are two school kids bickering back and forth and trying to one up each others comeback lines.  It really is like watching a 90s version of Amuro Ray and Char Aznable.

 
#1-Sylvia Noventa Returns in the best way possible

Whoa, I didn’t see this coming but holy heck it’s BRILLIANT!!!  In a payoff to not just the previous episode but also one of Gundam Wing Abridged’s spin off series: Sowing Discord, Sylvia Noventa returns and reveals she’s the one that had an entire OZ regiment (and Relena) sent to apprehend Heero and Trowa.  Just listening to her explain her manipulation of Relena and recruitment of Duke Dermail (who has a ton of anti-Treize paraphanalia decking out his office), it’s a bold claim to say that Sylvia should have had a bigger role in the original series as a villain out for revenge against the Gundam pilots (specifically Heero).  This end scene build up that possibility perfectly and even though Heero and Trowa find a loophole in Sylvia’s plans (just fly to space hahaha), I hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Sylvia as an antagonist in Mobile Suit Abridged Gundam Wing…hopefully we wont have to wait for two and a half years again like Noin did.