T5W#499-Top 5 Reasons Why Gundam Wing Was So Big on Toonami in 2000

Tomorrow, March 6, 2025, marks the 20^th Anniversary of a landmark event for the Anime community: the day when Mobile Suit Gundam Wing first dropped on Toonami.  This was and still is the show that changed everything for me as an Anime fan.  It opened my eyes to a wider world of Mecha and Mature titles and was, like for many others at the time, my starting block for rushing headlong into the greater Gundam Multiverse. Back in 2000, Gundam Wing was all anyone could talk about besides Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon.  But why exactly did Gundam Wing make such a big impact in the West?  Was there something special or was it just good timing?  Maybe it’s a bit of both.  Either way, it’s a tough five choices to narrow down but with the help of my friends from the Gundam Community, I think I’ve got em picked.  So, to commemorate Gundam Wing’s 25^th US Anniversary (subsequently it’s turning 30 this year in Japan), here are my Top 5 Reasons Why Gundam Wing Was So Big on Toonami in 2000 on todays Top 5 Wednesday.

 
#5-The Trailers

“In the Distant Future, mankind has reached the stars.  But the galaxy is troubled.  The Earth Sphere Alliance rules the outlying colonies with an iron fist.  Those who oppose them, die.  Battles are waged with Mobile Suits, the key to military dominance.  The only hope for the Colonies: Five elite soldiers and their legendary Mobile Suits called Gundams.  Now, these pilots will shake the very foundations of the Alliance and change the course of history…if they can stay alive.”
 
For me, it’s always going to be that 15 second TV Teaser that got my attention. I mean when you open it with Trowa’s battlecry and then Heavyarms’ chest gatling guns firing, how can you not ask “What the heck is Gundam W?”  But for everyone else, and kind of me too, it’s that second trailer that got everyones attention.  Hearing Peter “Optimus Prime” Cullen narrarate the basic premise of Gundam Wing while watching sick looking mecha beat the mess out of each other was nothing short of a stroke of genius.  This wasn’t Voltron or Robotech, this was something bigger, newer and different and it felt so damn epic the more everyone watched those trailers.  Add in Toonami’s awesome background music and you’ve got one of the biggest and best advertising campaigns Toonami’s ever done for an Anime.

 
#4-A New Mature Kind of Anime

To be fair, Toonami had “mature” Anime before like Robotech (which retains a lot of the more grisly demises of characters from Macross).  But in an era dominated by the super fast fights of Dragon Ball Z or the cuddly Pokemon, Gundam Wing was a new kind of Anime experience.  The series focused on more politically driven storylines and wars with child soldiers at the forefront.  The cost of war and the effect it had on its main leads was not something you’d seen a lot of and many who were starting to age out of more cutesy Cartoons gravitated to it.  After all, not having Dragon Balls to bring back a pilot meant that everyone was on a razors edge (and yet only one major main character in Gundam Wing dies in the end, weird).

 

#3-Hello Ladies

Heero Yuy. Duo Maxwell.  Trowa Barton.  Quatre Reberba Winner.  Wufei Chang.  They’re the Backstreet Boys of Gundam (does that make the 00 crew Nsync?)  Five of the most eligible bachelors in all of Gundam and I’m not just talking about their reputation in Japan.  While DBZ was seen as more for the boys and Sailor Moon for the girls, Gundam Wing became an open to both sides of the playground kind of Anime.  Naturally, the boys had their mecha and the dream of being the bad ass piloting that mecha.  For the girls, the five Gundam pilots were dreamboats worth fantasizing about (plus Zechs and Treize too if they were into them).  Not that Wing doesn’t have some stellar beauties in Lucrezia Noin and Lady Une, but it’s the guys that made the girls want to get in on the fun too.

 

#2-Gundam Wing “Uncut”

When Toonami moved the Midnight Run from a 5 hour Saturday night block to a Weekday one, they had to do something to get people to turn in.  Their solution?  Well as Peter Cullen put it, “Midnight, Gundam Wing UNCUT.  Yeah you heard me.”  For the first time ever, an Anime was able to be broadcast in the US completely free of edits necessary for a weekday afternoon crowd: all the violence, blood, swearing and anything else that had to be omitted.  Duo’s nickname of “The God of Death” was reinstated too.  It was a perfect testing ground for how well Anime that didn’t need a lot of censoring would do for future Cartoon Network block like Adult Swim.  For the newer Gundam Wing fans though, getting to see the show the way it was meant to be seen, trust me it was worth staying up and getting caught on a school night just to see it for yourself.

 

#1-All According to Plan? (If you ask Treize then, yes)

Whether Toonami knew it or not, Gundam Wing was something special.  With this in mind, it and Bandai pushed the hell out of this show, giving Gundam Wing as much exposure as possible during its first airing in the Spring and Early Summer of 2000.  On Toonami, the show was positioned to air alongside megahits like Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors and quickly capitalized on their momentum to become one of the most talked about Anime at the time.  Not only was Gundam Wing being aired several times a week due to demand, Bandai was pushing Gundam Wing merch like no other Anime at the time, even Gundam Wing.  Action figures, T-Shirts, Manga and “Action Figure Model Kits” (not quite Gunpla but not quite not either) were being advertised multiple times on Cartoon Network.  And all of it worked, big time.   It worked so well in fact that Gundam Wing became one of the highest rated broadcasts for Cartoon Network, nearly or just beating out Dragon Ball Z.  Not only that but the Fall 2000 airing of Gundam Wing Endless Waltz became the second highest rated broadcast in Toonami history (following the Season 3 Premiere of Dragon Ball Z).  Thanks to these revolutionary Anime advertising tactics, Gundam Wing was able to shake the foundations of Toonami and change the course of Cartoon Networks history forever.