Gundam Wing: A Good Series Held Back 

Wing will forever be a series where guy said "I will kill you" to a girl and it worked as pick up line.

I love the couple of parts where Trieze is speaking and the people listening are like "I don't understanding what you're saying."

"The war has only had about 99,000 casualties" And Treize could name every one of them.

ah, Wing, the place where my Gundam journey began. I'll definitely say the show had it's flaws, but hot damn the Mobile Suit designs slap. edit: finally, someone acknowledges Noin. I never hear people mention her.

Gundam Wing shouldn’t really be considered an introduction to Gundam, but more like an introduction to anime instead

One thing I liked about Gundam Wing was that when they initially got into space to fight the mobile dolls the show made those mobile suits look like a formidable threat to even the Gundams. Things don't go well for the two pilots who try to fight them head on, Duo and Wufei, and the others are forced into hiding in order to evade OZ. It was a good change from how easily they were able to wipe out the mobile suits they encountered on Earth despite being heavily outnumbered in most encounters.

It was so weird how the end credits of Wing treated Relina like she was some adorable best girl.

Thank you for praising Lucrezia Noin. She's awesome and sadly often overlooked.

Hi~ This is Melody, webmistress of The Shooting Stars Collection: A Gundam Wing Image Archive. Gundam Wing does have some problems with it, but the series is enduring. We started our site in 2001, during its Toonami run. We still get visitors from all over the world--over 50 countries, which shows how special the series is in fans' hearts. I was 40 when my 13-year old daughter and I started the site, and it appealed to me so much, having grown up during the Vietnam War. The message of pacifism appealed to that part of me. The writers were likely around my age so they may have had that in mind. I've never seen the other Gundam series, except for bits of G Gundam, so I can't compare them....Tallgeese is our most viewed mobile suit, followed by Wing Gundam/Zero and the three incarnations of Deathscythe....The biggest problem for me is the timeline. The story starts in May, when Relena has her birthday. There is a month of complete inactivity with the gundams during the month Heero is recovering from self-detonating in episode 10. The series ends on Christmas Eve the same year. The story couldn't possibly realistically fit into its time frame. Too much happened to have it happen in only a few months, especially with the formation of the Treize Faction and White Fang. It just couldn't go so quickly. The thing fans of the series love is the development of the characters and their interactions with each other. Relena grows so much. I get something new out of GW every time I watch the series. I only watch it every few years because it is so special to me that I don't want to "wear it out" by over-viewing it. Maybe you had to be there at the time it was first broadcast in the US, when it was only 5 years old, to get the full impact? I don't know. You had some interesting things to say though. Dr. J explains about Heero to Relena in episode 5 and you will find out more about Wufei's and the other characters' backstories in Endless Waltz. Have you read the backstory manga Episode 0? ...Our site is massive, over 9000 images plus so much more. We do not support the new Frozen Teardrop or Glory of the Losers, which we explain on the site. Those follow-ups contradict the ending of EW. For us, the series, EW, and the four official manga comprise Gundam Wing.... Every time I get to the end of the last episode I say to myself, "Wow--what a series!"

To this day I consider Treize one of the best antagonist in the franchise

The ideas in Wing are friggin fantastic. Say what you want about the characters and such, the macro-story was glorious.

wasn't it stated that the colonies had all communications blocked between each other and that's why the 5 gundam pilots were never sent down as an established team or knew about each other.

Wing is the first Gundam show we all saw as kids.

When I was a kid oh mannnn, getting home in time for toonami gundam wing and dbz was my life.

For those wondering there is a Manga, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz: Glory of the Losers. It is similar to Gundam: The Origin, as in it is a retelling of Wing with the story cleared up. and fixes most of the problems you have with Wing.

I feel like 00 addressed a lot of the problems I had with Wing. Mainly the reasons for why everything happens are clearly fleshed out.

"Why didn't the doctors know about eachother, let the pilots know." The pilots weren't informed of the other efforts because that would put those others at risk if the pilot were captured. When the doctors were reunited they marveled at the fact that each one of them was able to complete their mission. Opsec is a pretty basic concept that you either know about while watching the show and it deepens the experience, or you don't and it doesn't really matter to the overall story. . "Treize hates war. Treize's goal is to create a trajedy so horrific it terrifies mankind into pacifism." This is not Treize's goal at all. I don't think you understand him. Treize says repeatedly that he loves people, that he loves and finds it beautiful that people fight and die in war. He admonishes Tubarov that wars begin and end with people. The show starts out with the alliance oppressing the Earth and the Colonies. The reason Treize had the Alliance leadership killed, apart from his plan to dismantle the Alliance was their reform leadership that planned to change how the alliance does things. Treize states that the world will be taken in the wrong direction, and he has them killed by the Gundams. . Treize turns on Oz when the Foundation starts using Oz to oppress the people, not just because of the mobile dolls. Treize respects the Gundam pilots because they, unlike the people of Earth and the colonies, chose to fight for their own futures. Treize builds the Epyon in secret and rather than using it to make some grand show he gives it to Heero. He also refuses to take down Oz in the same way he took down the Alliance. . Treize's goal was to inspire people to take action for their own future. He constantly talks about people doing things, not having things handed to them, or them being ruled over. This is why he employed Leo suits in the final battle and ordered that Libra be destroyed. If he really wanted a trajedy, like Zechs and Dorothy did, he would have allowed Libra to crash on Earth. Wufei didn't understand this until the end of Enless Waltz when he shows up with a crowd of people standing in opposition crying out that they will take control of their own lives. . "Heero wanted to die" I don't buy this either. The doctor refered to Heero as his weapon, rather than the gundam. Heero is dedicate to a fault on completing his mission, and failing that, limiting the fallout of his failure as much as possible, up to and including taking himself out to prevent the enemy from gaining intel from him. Heero is extraordinarily well trained in numerous highly technical fields, combatives, espionage, etiquette, social graces, sports, history, philosophy, horsemanship, etc etc etc. He has all the tools he needs to accomplish his missions, and blend in with high society, without standing out too much. You don't find that kind of exacting care and motivation in the suicidal members of the population. I'm sure he deeply regrets what happened to that girl and her dog, and uses that to motivate him to do better going forward. . It seems to me the reason you think Wing is missing pieces is because you came to it with preconceived notions that almost but don't quite fit. I suggest you re-watch it as though it were a completely new show unrelated to Gundam at all and see things as they are presented, not as you are expecting them to be.

defeating Treize's philosophy in a single step "I will create a conflict so bloody and tragic that people are going to detest war." "Why are you doing that?" "Because I detest war as it can be so bloody and tragic- oh I see the issue"

As a firm fan and defender of Gundam Wing since its North American airing, I have to say that I greatly respect this take, especially in regards to the nuances of the setting. You hit the nail on the head regarding the characters as well, who, as straight as they are all played, definitely tend to feel as if the why of their existence is missing much of the time, with the writers shrouding it in the operatic melodrama of the world around them. Doesn't make them any less entertaining or involving to watch, but the emotions just don't quite connect as they should.

I just rewatched all of Wing after not having seen it since I was in high school (about 20 years), and I still enjoyed the hell out of it - and though a few character motivations can seem muddled at times, of all the series I've seen Wing has maintained it's rank in my eyes as the best. Part of me believes this downtrend in Wing's reputation is more the result of hot takes and contrarian mindsets trying to make a statement, as opposed to legitimate constructive criticism, so I appreciate your level-headed approach to this topic. That said, I definitely disagree with most of your assessment of the mobile suit designs - I really like the more toned down designs of the Gundams in this series compared to those which came after (especially the overly elaborate ones with literal wings, ridiculous random pointy bits, and all sorts of trussed up kibble that makes them look like humanoid chandeliers), with the Tallgeese 1 being my favorite mobile suit/mecha/robot design across any anime.

Wing is sort of like a grand tour of the original Tomino UC series + CCA, squeezed into 49 episodes.

Endless Waltz has more storytelling than the actual series itself

Hot take: Gundam Wing has the best first episode of all the Gundam shows. Whatever follows it is questionable, but as a blind series intro, it’s great.

From what I remember there was some behind the scenes conflict with one of the writers midway through the series pre-production that caused them to not used a lot of the character writing he came up with. This eventually got sorted out, but by then they were already pretty far into actual production so they used the manga and Endless Waltz to fill in the gaps that were originally going to be in the series proper. I'll have to look into this again to refresh my memory. Edit: I forgot to specify it was in pre-production.

I think one of the problems was that Wing *had* to be a specific number of episodes. They had one Gundam series finish off then immediately the next day or something Wing started. Then the next day after Wing ended they started a new show. If Wing had a chance to make its own schedule then I'm sure they would have been able to keep in some of the stuff they had to take out.

I still revisit Wing about once a year or so. The show feels slow like things aren't moving, but in reality the dynamics from episode to episode shift rapidly. You are right in your assessment that we don't fully explore each of the characters, or at least not as obvious as you would like normally. Everything is subtle to the point of being completely lost; but that is probably a big part of the reason as to why I revisit Wing more than any other Gundam series or most series in general. I always feel like I notice something new each time I watch it. Basically, I totally agree with your assessment, but for me personally, that is probably why it has stuck in my brain all of these years.

Gundam Wing is an incredibly special show for me. It was the first gundam show I ever watched (thanks, toonami), it got me to look into the other anime, and I eventually bought the whole set on eBay back in 2003. It's been quite some time since I first watched it and I've seen a lot of anime since then, so its flaws are more apparent to me whenever I revisit it. Still, this show is awesome in more ways than one. The music, the mecha designs, and the over the top action that's showcased pretty much every episode. I realize some will disagree with me, but I don't mind that it's not the most well crafted story the gundam universe has to offer. It does enough well to the point where I can enjoy what I enjoy. To me, it's kind of how you can recognize that fast food isn't healthy or the best food out there, but you'll still end up having it every once in a while.

I definitely have a lot of nostalgia for Wing. I watched it every day on toonami right after DBZ. I never noticed it’s flaws then but even with them I still think it’s a super enjoyable watch 👊

Dr. Dre: Dr. Wiley did you get all the pilot there orders. Dr. Wiley: all of them I gave duo his orders, why would I give orders to your pilots

Heero: I'll kill you Also Heero: Self destruct go bbrrrr*

You did X, Wing and 00, I think we all know what must be done next GUNDAM FIGHT! READY? GO!

So gundam wing was actually re made as a manga called Glory of the Losers, it adds a lot of the backstory of characters that has been added sense wing ended, including the stuff from endless waltz. It uses the manga format to give more breathing room for the story to progress. All in all it is a better telling of wings story than the actual anime. Another fun thing to note is the manga uses Katoki Hajime's redesigns of the gundams in the series instead of the Tv versions

Zecks feels like 0079, Zeta, CCA all in a 49 episode series.

Releena: " I declare one nation... A world nation... The world leaders: "I'm okay with this Greta"

Trieze needed more time. Halfway through after he removes himself he disappears, suddenly is found by Heero and given the Epyon only to disappear again until Relena comes to power. All the while his soldiers are fighting and dying to Oz's new mobile dolls.

Ever watched Escaflowne? Imagine a medieval gundam, weird series but has its moments!

Wing is the series that needed multiple seasons but instead Iron Blooded Orphans got two while barely having enough narrative for one.

Boo, if you want what Gundam Wing should have definitively been, read Glory of the Losers. It pretty much fixes most of the problems that the anime had all while connecting to Endless Waltz and some other stories such as Episode Zero and Battlefield of Pacifists a lot better. Though the anime is still a guilty pleasure for me, Glory of the Losers is the true story.

I will always love the music from this series. It has been years since I have seen it and this review makes me want to go back and re-watch it.

Endless waltz's final narration about eternal peace is something i try to forget. It feels like a half assed staple on.

Wing was my first Gundam series. Last year, for the first time, I started to watch all UC series. And oh man, Wing isn't at the same level at all. But I love it anyway.

I love Wing. And I watch it every few years and still love it. Ive seen the full series probably about 10 times now. And it's amazing that I catch different stuff everytime. I feel like Wing gets hate because it was the one that got super popular in America. And it's cool to hate on the popular thing. Same reason I don't like FFVII that much. I still like it..but don't think its the best. And I feel a lot of people look at Wing like that. Also the show explained very clearly why Heero wanted to die in the beginning. He botched his mission and the Gundam was seen by the enemy before it was meant to be. He felt that he failed and the only way to make up for it was to get rid of the evidence(Blow up Wing Gundam) and then take his own life. He felt like a failure from the beginning. Remember. Heero was essentially a child soldier who was raised for operation meteor. When he failed at the start of it Im pretty sure he was told to destroy the suit and end his life if he was seen before he was meant to be. The other 4 landed without incident but he didn't. Throughout the show though he ends up finally accepting his failure and realizes that the mission can continue. Until Lady Unn decides to aim weapons at the colonies and then he does the unthinkable. Through out the show he struggles cause he really hates his failures. When you think about it the Wing Boyz lost a lot of battles. So in that final moment when he destroys the part of Libra thats about to hit Earth..he overcomes. He accepts his failures and realizes that he can win despite everything. When he says "I WILL SURVIVE!" Its him finally realizing that his life does have purpose outside of battle and that failing is just a part of life and its how you overcome those failures that determine you as a person. So the finale hit hard with me cause I got it. As a kid and a young adult and even about a year ago and I made my wife watch it. Which then leads me to Zechs. My wife had an awesome idea... Remember the battle of Antarctica? When Heero fought in the Heavyarms against Zechs in the Tallgeese? Yeah that fight. Anyways my wife thought it would have been awesome if during that fight when Relena and Noin had interrupted if either Heero or Zechs accidently hit the plane and killed them. That incident would have pushed Zechs to madness regardless which one did it. It would have also built up more tension between their final fight at the end. And if Heero did it..well he finally would have killed Relena lol. I felt like that idea would have worked well. And even be a throwback to the orginal gundam when Lala died. This was long but Im almost done. While I disagree with some of your points I do agree with others. I will say this is a pretty good objective analysis of wing. Also you hate the suit designs? I still think Wing has the best designs out of any series still. But ah well different strokes for different folks. Anyways great vid!

I almost feel like this series could use a refresh and re-release with an adjusted storytelling that carries better building action to the climax and less retelling of what has already happened. New scenes would be nice to explain away plot holes and character usage closer to other series in Gundam like 00. Updated graphics and animation with more intense moments would pull the viewer harder into the story. I have the entire series and loved it as a teen but the story drags on with too many history lessons and replays that it kills the forward movement of the story. Please someone redo this series and make it the way we envisioned it to be enjoyed. Who cares if the story is shorter time wise as long as the story is smoother flowing and deeper involved to bring out better anticipation in the end. Thanks for reading my Rant. Best wishes!

Great Video. I respectfully agree and disagree with a lot of things but one thing I am disappointed a about is that you didn't say anything about the "ZERO" system. Wing Zero Or Epyon.

The conclusion to Zechs' character arc is so much better in the manga adaptation. There, he turns out to secretly be collaborating with Trieze to pit White Fang against the Earth, and once all the mobile dolls are on the field, he switches sides and begins destroying them. In the anime, he just seems to want to destroy the Earth for... reasons? I've always appreciated Treize as a character, as he was the only one who really took responsibility for his actions in the end. All the Wing boys are mass-murderers, but the prospect of them paying for their crimes never really comes up. Treize seems to take on all the sins of the war on himself and lets himself be killed by Wufei.

God damn. I remember watching this on VHS back in the day. It will always have a softspot in my heart.

Looking back, what it was for me, it was the first story where I saw a so many different characters with so many different backstories, perspectives, and most importantly different motivations. It really shaped my storytelling and real world acceptance for moral relativity and lack of moral clarity.

Great analysis! They tell you about this great story, without showing. I can't help but love Wing because there's so much that draws my curiosity, but there's always been this problem I've never been able to put my finger on. I think your graph showing the dashd line of a srory arc hits the nail on the head.

I started Gundam Wing 2 years ago along with the original movie trilogy after I picked up the first 3 volumes of Thunderbolt, and I have an odd relationship with it. On one hand, I find it to be kinda hilarious, from "I'll kill you", to Duo (best boi)'s personality, to some dumb decisions characters make, I find it really funny (the dub certainly helped). On the other hand, the ideas presented are incredible and I enjoyed all of the amazing parallels. I might complain about it, but I complain about the things I love, and the sometimes unintentionally funny moments along with the genuinely great ideas make it one of my favorite Gundam series.

I love your reviews of the gundam shows. No one else I know of does a proper examination of both the ideas and the craftsmanship of the story like you do. Most just talk about a cool or bad characters. Fight scenes, and then completely side step examining the philosophy of it. Keep it up.

I was thinking about this and it feels like Wing is made by two writers. I think it has a overall pretty good military drama, and the other writer is making a action sentai team. Overall I like Wing and even still say it's pretty good, above average.

The thing with all Gundam Series is that....the anime alone pretty much never tell you everything, they usually give you a "good enough" detail for the store, but they left out plenty for novals, comics, radio shows, spin off, and OVA to fill the gaps and plot holes, which, is how they roll out more MS for action figures 99% of the time.

This is probably still the best gundam series out there. Watching this as a kid fascinated me so much lol. This series really what made gundam known in the world.

Wow I think your analysis is dead on, in fact I think it's the most accurate considering there's been 20 years of analysis, yours is the best I've ever heard. In fact if they did a remake and took your critiques seriously, a revamped remake of Gundam Wing could probably be the strongest Gundam series ever made.

The main reason Wing is flawed is because it was essentially an experiment. Until Wing, Gundam was always written around one central hero, be it Amuro Ray, Camille Bidan, Domon Kasshu and even Garrod Ran. All of those characters had friends and even other pilots around them, but they were the undeniable focus. Wing went intentionally for 5 main characters, which kinda overgrew what the writers were capable of handling.

Twenty years later, Wing feels like a chore to get through. There is a lot to like about the series but it feels like it drags on so it could fit 49 episodes. Not to mention, there's a number of episodes dedicated to recaps and people standing around talking. I agree with you that the series needed another pass with the writer to iron everything out. Something I with they could have gotten rid of was the plot armor.

This definitely helped illuminate my vehemence for Wing. I appreciate your review, thank you.

I remember being in the 2nd or 3rd grade when Wing first aired on Toonami, and as a child, I thought this was the smartest show on Cartoon Network 😂 As an adult, I can acknowledge the shows' shortcomings, but Wing will always standout for me as a nostalgic classic

Quatre = "KAT-TRUH" took me forever to get that down too lol

I think the main takeaway from this is, a remake of Wing that addresses these issues could truly be amazing - like game of thrones season 1-3 good. Some of the setup of the storylines in this show had a fucking awesome premise that wasn't properly executed.

Glad I found this channel! Love the videos.

WuFei fights cuz his dead wife. And also wasn't meant to be a gundam pilot

Arabic Dub fixes most of those issues without being too much changes that doesn't effect the story and agrees with Waltz that got realsed way after the dub. It also focuses more on justice with Arabic and by extension Islamic and Arabic linguistics of justice without mentioning God and focusing on underlying things of elements. Making Gundam gole to defeat main powers and unite humanity to end conflict and by extension saveing the colonies. Also the shaw with brains to fell the faps us still really good.

First and foremost, I really appreciate this type of content. As profound of a series as Gundam is, I feel like there isn't enough high level discussion like this. You've made some excellent points here and your analysis is very insightful. I'll touch on a few things here myself to further expand the conversation. It's important to realize that if you're watching the dub of any anime, you're going to be missing out on a portion of the characters. The voice acting is a layer of their characterization that can't be overlooked. Even if the translation of the dialogue is accurate, there are inherent differences between the dynamics of Japanese and English that prevent a proper translation. (Not that Wing in Japanese corrects any of the problems with overall plot or character development.) I'd even go as far as to say that a person needs to know some Japanese and at least be somewhat familiar with certain aspects of the language to fully understand and appreciate anime. I know that is quite a commitment, but it is something that develops over time. When I go back and watch older series, now that I have a much better proficiency in the language, the difference is significant. I've found that with Gundam, it's important to view it as a meta-series. There are specific reoccurring themes and tropes that are shared between the individual series. For example, the masked Char-type character. Each installment will incorporate those elements in some way or a other and contribute new ideas to the list as well. You can look at Seed / Destiny as a retelling of Gundam / Zeta, while 00 is essentially the spiritual successor to Wing. The Federation vs Zeon conflict worked extremely well in the various UC series. Anytime a story deviates from that scenario it is venturing into uncharted waters. The concept of a small band of pilots going up against a larger military force is established by Wing, but was greatly refined when it was used in 00. Instead of the Gundams being sent haphazardly sent to Earth to engage in independent guerilla warfare, they had them as part of a highly organized team conducting armed interventions. So the concepts that don't work out so well can be corrected the next time they are used, allowing for a constant evolution of ideas. Even with it's flaws, Wing has contributed immensely to the greater Gundam collective. Like you have mentioned, Wing jumps into the plot without the audience having a clear understanding of the back story. This is a fairly common scenario, but there isn't much character development as they rely almost exclusively on the back story to take care of it - leaving us without a proper understanding of the characters for much of the series. The one point I'll disagree with you on somewhat is in terms of Wufei. In my opinion, I would say that overall his motivation is the most clearly defined. (However, this may be due to having supplemental info from the manga.) The death of Wufei's wife providing an emotional catalyst seems to be the most reasonable motive of the bunch. Even though this may seem somewhat contradictory, as he is shown to be a rather cold character that sees emotion as weakness, Wufei is actually quite hot-blooded. (A character quality he shares with Nataku / Nezha) I would consider him the most passionate of the five pilots - see the dialogue during fight between Wufei and Heero in Endless Waltz for the best example of this. Although fighting for the sake of pure justice may be a bit cliche, it is straightforward and his actions are direct. Even early on, I found his character the easiest to identify with, and his dynamic with Treize is much easier to understand than the relationship between Heero and Relena.

I think the number of casualties is actually much greater and Treize was referring to ones on his side.

One of the things, when you go 'round the block' as it were, is that you discover that your favorite show that introduced you to a franchise got screwed over because of higher-ups screwing up. Due to Gundam X wrapping up, this show got forced to go far longer than it should have... and from what I've heard and read from other... less toxic... fans of the fandom, this is a consensus from level-minded fans. Gundam Wing is an enjoyable ride, that's for sure. It isn't the above-average that was SEED, the absolute trainwreck behind the scenes that was SEED DESTINY (the stuff I've heard about DESTINY was... bad...), it didn't try to pull an Asimov Foundation and came out with mixed results (Gundam 00), have one show not only buck the trend but compress THREE seasons into one season (AGE), one show that went Metabots on us (Build Fighters), and one that bucked the trend and had a gut-wrenching ending (Iron-Blooded Orphans).

The name is pronounced "Cat-tra," like in She-Ra. Quatre is French for four. By the way, you mention several times that there feels like there's something missing, and you're right. The series was supposed to be 56 to 58 episodes in length, but several of them, including the characters' back stories and the original series finale, were cut from the episode line-up. The back stories were produced as a manga titled Episode Zero, and the finale was mixed with clips of the series and shown on Japanese TV as Operation Meteor: Odds & Evens, Part Two. You can find them on Amazon and Ebay.

Hands down the best Gundam series ever, Wing zero is literally the best gundam ever... it literally popularized Gundam in the west... no argument more needed

It was my first anime so it holds a special place in my heart. Every few years I’ll come back to it. The story is far from perfect but I loved the way the show handled its cast of characters and I especially love the 90’s vibes and aesthetic the show brings.

As for why the 5 developers did not coordinate and why the pilots didn't know about each other it was BRIEFLY stated that OZ and Earth Alliance prevented communication between the colonies or at least made it MUCH harder for the people. It seems that at least the leadership had some communication between each other. By briefly I mean it was like 1 line total. They had planned the operation for several years and even made unit ZERO's blueprint and the 5 gundams are based off it and the Tallgese, but yes all this needed to be explored far more.

The real tragedy of Wing is that it had a problematic production history. The two halves of the series had two different directors. The producers changed directors due to disagreements with the first (don't remember what they were). This caused delays and the pilots backstories, that were eventually told in Endless Waltz and the Chapter Zero manga, were phased out of the anime because of time constraints. Remember those two recap episodes in the middle of the show... Yep, that's where they were supposed to go.

Wing's main issues are that it doesn't really explain itself very well and that it's trying to cram the entire arc of UC from OYW to CCA into a single series. Zechs is very much Char with the Fast Forward button taped down. Check out Glory of the Losers for what happens when Wing gets a chance to actually fucking breathe

One plot hole I do find in this show is that Why did people build the space colonies in the first place? Who proposed the idea? Were there any dire circumstances that led them to build those space colonies? Closest explanation was Heero's opening speech at a school in one of the colonies, but that doesn't really help because they're only based on what he heard. There's no explanation from the horse's mouth itself, whoever that is

You're right that Wufei's motivation has nothing to do with the colonies. His was actually a bookwork that had an amazing skill at fighting, but was in favor of being a passivist. However, his wife (or arranged marriage partner) was a pilot and hated his passive attitude and when the EUO came to the colony she fought them and died which understandably angered him. Wufei's motivation was revenge, not out of protection for the colony. Again sadly they was all revealed in a prequal manga, not the series.

As someone who's only familiar with the franchise through clips and videos like this one, at least the series gave us the Heavyarms.

YES! A fellow Noin appreciator! Noin for best Gundam Gal! And yeah, the grunt suits are seriously underappreciated. But man... "it felt like the outline of a story rather than a full draft"... that's actually a pretty darn spot on comparison... as much as I love it to death, it always felt like something wasn't quite right, and that actually sums it up in a way I never could put into words quite nicely.

@2:25 The reason the engineer's didn't work together or really collaborate is because travel/communication was HEAVILY restricted between the colonies under the Alliance.

The use of stock footage is an artifact of the era in serialized animation and it really doesn't bother me in the least. Studios only had so much budget to work on these shows and each frame of stock footage means more resources get to go into the important shots.

Just found ur channel. 70k subs for Gundam? Bruh! Congrats! Good video.

Hello boofire, if you’re reading this, thanks, yeah I do agree that the wing pilots weren’t explained much in wing in the terms of backstory, but One thing that I realized was that from the looks of it, it wasn’t by choice. The biggest example showing that is with the episode 0 manga and surprisingly the show itself, one thing that I often noticed in the show was the abundance of reused animation, it’s something that I noticed but let slide, but as you brought up, and then eventually realizing after reading something, I’ve come to realize why we didn’t knew a lot about the gundam pilots with quarte being an exception a bit as we had the largest quantity of information on his background out of the 5. The reason why was because of time constraints believe it or not, they were planning to develop their pasts but due to time constraints, they needed to scrap it out of the show, and eventually it was most likely adapted and potentially modified to the manga. The backstory of some of the pilots are absurdly good in my opinion, Duo and Wufei being the best ones with the backstories, either being in the episode 0 manga for duo (idk for the rest of the pilots since I only read on duo’s backstory), and GOL for Wifei for the moment, I’m saying for the moment because while I did read GOL, I only read volumes 1 and 2, the rest not a lot really, but with the second volume, it really did wufei absurdly well and I love it. I could be wrong but the reason why it had time constraints was because it was around the time gundam X was being developed so they were probably working on two different shows, I could be wrong about that though I don’t think it’s concrete

Comments: Review IBO Boo: nah, Imma do Wing

This is something I feel many have noticed upon rewatching Wing in recent times. In fact i've noticed this in other shows like RWBY as well. It seems that the outline of the story/setting and these vignettes, moments where the story reaches its peak seem sound on paper and i can kinda grasp why the characters could maybe react the way they do. But the process in which it happens is either insanely rushed or completely absent. Wing is a 8/10 show on paper and it clearly wants to be that, but it squanders its own potential and ends up as a 6. Its fascinating how both series among others have very similar issues but its a shame their potential could have never been reached. Its a well read case study if nothing else.

I really resonate with this take. You had me already nodding halfway through, Then you dropped the Noin bomb. DUDE, YES! FINALLY SOMEONE AGREES! I also echo your preferences with the MS, I really love the Leo. They're the first time I fell in love with Katoki's ability to resolve forms and his edge treatments/accents. Though his choice to remove the knife from heavyarms custom "Because it was too heavy" still gets me every time.

The series should have been longer to explain more but they might have only got green light for a certain amount of episodes. still love it even with its flaws.

I watched wing and endless waltz earlier this year. A flawed series but a very enjoyable one.

I rewatched it a few years back. Being old enough to remember watching it when it aired on the toonami line up. Wing as aged WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better now that I’m older. The people who don’t like Wing are typically people who are lulcows with the attention span of a squirrel.

Thank you for reminding me of this old gem

how don't you have nostalgia from this ? i am Egyptian 22 yeas old and this show used to give me goosebumps

As Attack on Titan wraps up I couldn't help but think about the crystal clear reasons for Eren's storyline and how the writer spent so long setting it up vs your description of Heero's lack of back story.

Wing’s biggest problem is that it’s so chalk full of big ideas it didn’t have time to tell a story. If this had been a series of series I think that might have worked better. Edit: also I want to point out that those big ideas is why wing is my favorite Gundam series. Because unlike so many of the Gundam series it is relevant and is close to an allegory without being pompous.

I'm guessing Relena was popular in Japan because it seems like besides having a Char clone in entries they try to add in a Relena clone.

Bless you Boofire. Actual story analysis is so hard to come by on this site, nevermind good analysis

These wasn't a warrior he was a ruler. The warrior archetype was the Zechs identity, seriously the show straight up introduced Zech's. The reason why the duel didn't have build up is because you gave to track the metaphysical battle that underpinns material battles. The metaphysics determines the material outcome, with one big exception related to the dolls as pure unembodied power, but thats a whole other post.

Being in that age group I still love the story itself outside of the wing boys. I love the supporting cast and the mech designs but the “main characters” all seem a bit one dimensional. As I’ve grown older ive gone with the conclusion that it’s fine as a series but a bit middle of the road all things considered.

Deathscythe will always be my favorite Gundam. You never forget your first

I was "that guy" in my pre-teen friend's group who didn't like Gundam Wing. I had seen the original MS Gundam and several of the other higher Japanese series and found them so much more compelling. That said, I'm indebted to WIng because it did get me into Gundam. It was on a Wing VHS where I first saw the ads for War In the Pocket and other (arguably superior) Gundam series that my friends never cared to watch. As I've gotten older and deeper into Gunpla though, I've come to enjoy the somewhat fantastical designs of the Wing mobile suits.

Wow, surprised how great an analysis this was by someone who didn’t watch Wing in the 90’s!

Wing is what I had as a kid. Still love it. Especially the music. One thing that always stood out was that I could see myself supporting both sides. Except the White Fang or whatever they’re called. They’re crazy. Extra irony points that the Big Bad elite organization that controlled Oz genuinely did a good job ruling and chose to end their warmongering and truly try to make a lasting peace. Which, of course, is why they had to die. Because this is Gundam.

This blew my mind, when it first came on toonami. Especially the end of the first episode when hero said to releena " I'm gonna kill you..." 😱😱😱😱😱😱