Heero defiantly appeals to the stoic guy archetype...in his case, he dials it up the 11, though really everything in wing and anime in general does that at times
I JUST now realized a connection with their names and I'm ashamed its taken me this long: Hiiro (or Heero) is the main, well, hero, and Yuy is a play on the Japanese word for "superior," Duo is number two, Trowa (like tre) is number three, Quatre (like quatro in Spanish) is four, Wufei is five (wu is 5 in Chinese)
If you ever make a wrong turn down an internet backalley and find yourself reading a GW fanfic, the numbers are actually used as short hand for talking about the characters. Like: "Drama, short story, 3 + 5 try to kill 13."
To this day, ever since I saw it on Toonami, I still love Gundam Wing. Sure, it has it’s problems, but it still has some good moments, minus the recycled footage of course. Also, let’s be honest, the Endless Waltz designs of the Gundams and the other mobile suits, especially the Wing Zero, and now the Epyon, were badass as hell!!! Heck, they’re still badass!!!
I'm a Winger, and I will never be ashamed. Zechs and Noin were the first ship it was truly interested in. Not my favorite series but I remember it fondly.
Zechs and Noin were also muy first ship and 10 years later they are still muy favourite. The only reason why like frozen teardrop is because they make the ship cannon and because of they had twin kids *.* pd: sorry for bad english
So, I'm a mom who watched Gundam Wing on Toonami back in the day. When my little anime fans had graduated from Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura (and were tiring of Pretty Cure), I hit upon showing them Wing because of the number and variety of female characters in the cast. Yes, the "Pretty Boys with Problems" is a thing, but I've had the hardest time getting these two interested in watching the exploits of male characters. Them being younger tweens may be a factor. They were sold on Wing when Relena pulled a pistol out from behind her dress bow. We watched in Japanese and stopped at least once an episode to discuss who was doing what (or fighting who) and why. Neither has shown much interest in watching Endless Waltz (and thanks to this review I'll not worry about that), but the older one is interested in watching a different Gundam series because of the politics. I think their age and the emphasis on character motivation and female characters kept the "Pretty Boys" from being much of a factor in their enjoyment (or kept them from discounting the show because boys, ew) and did make it a stepping stone into more serious anime. We had some really good discussions about people doing awful things because they felt it was right or would have a good outcome. Also, they gained a new appreciation for giant robots.
Gundam Wing is basically everything my 15-year-old self thought was cool. And for that reason alone, I can't hate it. Call it a guilty pleasure or whatever. I know it's bad. The voice acting is average at best, the themes are ham-fisted instead of naturally developing as a consequence of war, and the characters are exceptionally melodramatic. And yet, I can't see myself enjoying it if it was any less. At the very least, it's entertaining in how needlessly hard it tries to be Gundam while not understanding what made Gundam fantastic.
"the characters are exceptionally melodramatic" they were basicaly trained at an early age to pilot MS like elite soldiers. They were geniuses with actual training of course they'd be off to a normal adult but they were teens who had killed more people than any other veteran ptsd would have been the least of their issues.
I watched Gundam Wing when I was around 15, or maybe younger. I thought it was awesome, but it didn't age well for me. The ONLY reason I don't sell my copy of it is that my sister bought me the copy as a gift, and I'm not going to sell that gift, even if I never watch it again.
Peter Hanson Same here. I asked some friends what they considered the best entry point into the Gundam series and they all said G Gundam. Its loud roar tells me that Gundam is awesome!
I think I saw this movie on Toonami a lifetime ago, and have been trying to find it again for a long time. Thanks so much, man! I always thought the daughter was trying to get revenge on her father (goes to show how long it's been and how poor my memory is at time).
It’s the most epic Gundam series in my opinion. I love the characters and how earnest it is in its goofiness and the fights are epic and I love the ending.
As someone who's never actually seen the other Gundam series outside the first Seed manga volume when I was six, I can honestly call G Gundam my favorite.
I love G Gundam; the larger-than-life characters, the show's refusal to be anything other than over-the-top, the zanny rule-of-cool feel of the battles, and the general "fuck you, YES I CAN!" attitude that permeates everything. Does anyone else think that Gurren Lagann is G Gundam cranked up past 11?
G Gundam is legit one of my favorite animes of all time, mostly because I like anime for BEING ANIME! So yes! Give me characters that scream attack names while doing martial arts in giant robots themed after the countries they represent! I've been re-waching random episodes and I STILL love it! It is the best kind of stupid! BUT! I also understand that it is the Anti-Gundam and the most hated Gundam series in Japan. It was the first Alternate Universe, the first one NOT to involve series creator Tomino, the first one made after Bandai bought Sunsrise, and it's a Super Robot series instead of a Real Robot series and was made to sell toys to a younger audience. Remembering that the previous four Gundam series were all interlinked and in the same universe with a serious sci-fi story, Gundam is basically the Japanese Star Trek in a LOT of ways (even how the original series was recieved). So imagine if Voyager suddenly declared that The Federation was a WRESTLING Federation and the whole show was about Klingons wrestling with Vulcans. Yes, "That sounds AWESOME" but at the same time it would confuse and alienate most Trekkies and that's what G Gundam is. People have since warmed to it because they are now used to the idea of AUs and G Gundam didn't completely change all future entries...the way Wing kinda did.
gundam wing holds a special place in my heart. 3/4 of the english voice actors were in death note. my bro was watching death note, i heard familiar voices, and that got me into death note. thanks gundam wing!
Same but a little more differently. And not before this review. I had rewatched some episodes after the series ended. It seemed off to me. Like pieces were missing in the story. But overall still loved it.
When you think about it, it's actually not unrealistic for a politician to have a secret love child who shows up out of the blue. Happens all the time in real life, after all.
Yeah. I remember liking Inuyasha initially, but as the series dragged on and on and on. I just came to hate it more and more. I suppose part of the problem is that they introduced us to the main antagonist way to early on in the series. As such, all of the hero's victories over the disposable villain of the day feel entirely pointless.
Actually it used a different song by the same artist. It's called Rhythm Emotion and was the second OP for Gundam Wing. ua-cam.com/video/IHWRslSVpek/v-deo.html
I still find the series interesting. The characters are diverse in both methods and goals, and there's not really a clear cut bad guy, something that the original 3 gundam series and their movies tried and honestly failed to achieve. Everyone, from Kushranada to both Peacecrafts, to the Gundam Pilots all have reasons you can see them as the good or the bad guys, and each is trying to get to the same place, via different means. Their goal, make war obsolete. Treize is trying to make war seem ugly, by creating the largest conflict he can, and shove people's face in it, showing them that war, with the current weapons tech, is nothing like it used to be, and that it is an ugly thing we must reject. Milliardo is trying to just break those strong enough to pick up the weapons of war. Basically he's Celestial Being, except not as asshole. He wants no one to be strong enough to fight. Relina wants people to see themselves as good, kind people, and to see that war, no matter what you might win in the fighting, is never worth what it costs the soul in the end. The Pilots...for the most part, are kind of like Millardo, expect they're specifically targeting the weapons of war, trying to make it so there's nothing to fight well. All told, none of these people are right, and even though Relina's view came out on top in the series, the final episode and Eyebrow girl both point out, her way can't work forever, something she acknowledges, but wants to see how long the peace can last. That is why I liked this series. There's no Durandel/Zabi Family/Crossbone Vanguard/Zeon Remnant/Axis/Etc. manipulating/conquering things to make him/her/them/self god emperor of mankind. There's no Dark Gundam, trying to eat the world, or whatever he wanted, and there's no Char/Rau trying to kill humanity because they have a hate boner for someone. Here, everyone has a good goal at the end of it all, they're opposed in the method of getting there.
I couldn’t have said it any better mate! I too believe Wing is a very strong, interesting series. Contrary to this video, I would say I appreciate it even MORE watching now as an adult. Such a unique story with so much depth. I love your comparison to other Gundam series as well haha very true.
Its also why Wufie changes sides, Every time he fought Triez his view were challenged and he struggled to see his way as right. He join Marimeia (SP?) because in the end Wufie started to see triez as right and regrets basically killing him (Triez technically commits suicide, but Wufie blames himself). The Triez was such a good character, and the way he treats the gundam pilots is super interesting because he see them for what they are. Kids doing their best to make the world a better place. He still manipulates the fuck out of them, but still see a place for them in the world.
Excuse me but I been watching Gundam before Wing and Gundam Wing is and still my favorite of the series and my favorite pieces in my collection of Gundam
This was one of my favorite series as a teen. How many other shows on the air at the time gave me pretty boys AND robots fighting? Only this and Escaflowne! I even got the art book for Christmas. It is very melodramatic, and has not aged well, but it holds a special spot in my heart for the nostalgia.
As a lesbian that used to watch this with all my straight male friends and still enjoys it, I find the idea that it's just a weak story for girls fucking hilarious.
I agree, I'm a guy and watched Gundam Wing with all my guy-friends and never realized it was a boy-band concept or marketed towards girls until years later, it never bothered me.
I'll always enjoy Gundam Wing. It's filled with plot holes (particularly this movie) but the character designs and the personality of the main cast is great along with having Treize as a villain which I love.
I recently rewatched Wing. The story itself and what organization is the real bad guy is something that if you blink you’ll miss it. However I thank god I was the right age to see this premier on Cartoon Network and is the sole reason I continued to watch anime to this day. Regardless of the quality of story or anime every single one of us should be thankful Wing came around when it did or we might not have the accessibility to the genre that we have today.
I saw Wing way later, and fell in love with it due to how batshit crazy everyone is, and the really cool still frames they used because of low budget. It's okay to love schlock.
Nah. .. Still dont regret being a fan of Gandum Wing. Admitedly mostly a fan of The Gandum models & the music. In a way that those were the main reasons I watched but dont regret it. Im kinda more shocked I was a fan of Tiger Mask given how unwatchable that show is to me now
Much the same here. The characters are a mixed bag - and the half-assed philosophizing is downright painful - but the music and mecha were worth it. Even as overboard and ridiculous as they are, the quad-cannon Heavyarms and batwing-cloaked Deathscythe introduced in Endless Waltz are two of my favorite models.
Ironically Quatre is voiced by Amuro’s VA. No wonder how cathartic the slap was in the original Gundam. Minosky Particles I thought they only existed in The UC Timeline.
Keith Thompson I'm actually not sure about the after century's technology, I know universal century goes by minovsky particles, Gundam 00 goes by GN particles, cosmic era has their own particles as well, but unlike the other series, the beam sabers in the cosmic era do not have repelling factor meaning beam sabers would phase through each other.
@Donquixote Doflamingo It doesn't work that way.. pseudoscience is still a pseudoscience, just in fiction it tend to work. Generally the point of terms like "Malinowski Particle" is to not need explaining it. You should said that I used incorrect term here, and yes I did. Corrected.
Honestly, the characters in Wing never really appealed to me so much as the background story and the conflict both within the governments and other forces and between them. As far as Endless Waltz is concerned, there is only 1 thing I liked about it at all ever on any level what so ever, and that was the redesign of the Heavy Arms Gundam. It went from being my least favorite machine to much more appealing with the endless waltz redesign, everything else lost all interest with me and hell even the story behind the movie was shit, as I said the 1 and only good thing IMO that Endless Waltz did was the Heavy Arms redesign. On another note, one of the reasons WING is so much different aesthetically and story wise is that it both tried to stick true to Gundam while at the same time trying to integrate as much of what ti's creators perceived to be why Macross was kicking their ass in popularity from one end of japan to the other the LONG way around aka by circumventing the globe. Hence why there is not one, not two, not three, but FIVE different Mobile suit types that have not only a giant robot mode, but a plane mode it can transform into as well! The original Gundam doesn't count in this regard as ANY federation plane could fold up it's wings and enter the torso of the Gundam, not to mention that the Gundam itself had to be launched separately making the legs and torso separate pieces and therefore a combination or attachment of an extra piece of hardware, not a transformation.
Tastes change with age. Yes but I can't lie to myself and say I don't still like something I watched, read or done long ago. I can ether be in denial and push it away or accept it happened, keep it close to me and move on with my life with that thing right at my side
21:45 - it's been years since I last saw anything GW, but I remember there was a distinction between piloted "mobile suits" and AI-controlled "mobile dolls." Each model was set up for one or the other. I don't remember which were which, but that's the best I've got.
Gundam Wing was my introduction to Gundam, and I started watching at the beginning of the series. I still haven't seen the show all the way through. I had no idea what was going on, and I was nearly convinced at the time that the heroes were the bad guys.
The fandom was a terrible bog of internalized misogyny - in order to be a Wing fan, you were female, hated the female characters and wanted the male characters to make sweet sweet love to each other. Lots of seme/uke dynamics, lots of angst. I never wrote any of it but it was everywhere I went when I was just trying to look for pictures of the Deathscythe. And Duo. Hindsight being 20/20 I see now how awful and self righteous Quatre is and how pointless Endless Waltz is. There's apparently another sequel, a manga set over fifteen years later called Frozen Teardrop mostly about the children of the characters. So cry, fangirls, cry. Heero and Duo aren't together. Duo married Hilde, Zechs married Noin and they made more pretty boys (and girls) with problems. ...yeah.
I was so in the demographic this was aimed at. I LOVED me some Gundam Wing and even had Wufei as the desktop picture on the family computer. *Not ashamed*. I have zero interest in watching the episodes today but mention of the series does bring back some good nostalgia.
I have the Deathscythe Hell model kit, the one that's about a foot tall. I can't watch the series again, because the War R Bad childishness is too offputting. The writers of Gundam can't accept that war is a necessary evil, at times. And yeah, I enjoyed the $@(&* out of Gundam Wing when I was on Toonami/Adult Swim, and watched both the afternoon censored version, and the late night uncensored version too.
I was a fan, and if it was on I would probably watch the series occasionally even now. But even then I thought Endless Waltz was a raging dumpster fire.
Gundam Wing, like G Gundam, was my childhood Gundam series. But looking back, Wing is basically just another angsty teen drama where the characters just sit around and mop while the love subplot of the show is basically just a girl pining over a guy who constantly denies her feelings for her. Is it any wonder why I like Duo and Quatre, mainly because they’re the more positive characters in this angsty teen drama anime with giant robots.
@@samflood5631 Gundam wing : glory of losers is basically official manga reboot(like gundam theborigin.) With new designs for ms and Characters are actually act less dumb and it includes episode ZERO. You can read it if you want an actual good version of gunam wing.
Wing was my intro to Gundam when I was 11-12, so I'll always like it because of nostalgia. Also, the gundam designs are great as far as I'm concerned, really the only reason why I got into it. That being said, I do acknowledge that the plot doesn't make any damn sense especially during the second half. I consider myself a pretty smart person, but trying to figure out the characters near the end makes me go crossed-eyed like Austin Powers trying to explain time travel.
@@ChaoticAngelKitten Before too long, I'll be starting another rewatch myself (well, there are some other Gundam series in this rewatch as well). And My Heart Belongs to Noin.
I rewatched all of _Wing_ last year and I think it still holds up. It's actually pretty well paced and smartly drops the high-school stuff by episode 6. And it has neat ideas like the idea of the Sanct Kingdom being a global power without having an army isn't really explored like it was in _Metal Gear Peace Walker_ since there are real world nations that have no armies but do function. The show almost works as a revenge anime, on both personal and geopolitical levels. The Gundams are launched as revenge for actions taken by Oz who does this on behalf of the rich and when the Gundams take out the Romafellas, the Colonies unite as White Fang to destroy earth for revenge. Then there's all the stuff with Zech's and Relina's murdered family. There's really a lot of smart things here but the show was aimed at a young audience so they couldn't be explored. Endless Waltz has great fight scenes and amazing mech designs. It tries to deal with the message of dealing with soldiers in peace time and failing but does a VERY poor job of that. Heck, it should have continued the revenge theme of Treize's daughter wanting to destroy the colonies over his death instead of "CONQUER THE WORLD!" Alas, that is not what happened and we got a lackluster anime.
Just remember, don't throw away your superweapon mechs unless you're throwing away ALL the superweapon mechs. It just doesn't work if you're just throwing away your stuff and expecting someone keeping theirs not to walk all over you the moment you give them that opening!
Gundam Wing has some colossal problems, but the whole pretty boy stuff is hardly the issue. You could argue that Zechs is almost the main character through most of it. The main problems are the extremely bloated plot, the divide between the personal and political plots, and slow storytelling. Also, Quatre isn't that bad of a character. He does wish for peace, but he understands that he must fight for the good of the colonies. His struggle is probably the most tangible out of the pilots. Wufei probably has the worst arc, which has him jumping between motivations and personalities throughout the whole show. The main problem with Endless Waltz is the fact that it feels inconsequential and small, and also that its paced horribly and doesn't believe in a first act.
Seed is the most popular Gundam Anime in Japan of all times based on property revenue. Clearly they are doing something right with their boy band thing lol
That Wufei ranting is a bit much. The movie highlights his colony (as in, his entire life) blowing up infront of him and how he feels discarded by society after the war was 'resolved'. Wufei would be the poster-boy for radicalization: A young, directionless, teenager suffering from PTSD who glorifies violence. Wing is bad, the pacing, the dialogue is all sorts of terrible, but is there is more than enough set-up for Wufei's heel turn in this series and while he's blasting the audience with post-war / post-soldier philosophy, I wouldn't deride it as nonsense.
I have a similar assessment of Reylena arguably the character with the most character development. She starts as a young sheltered elite to peace envoy and Diplomat, ultimately to protect the boy she loves who destroyed her bubble and gave her life new meaning to protect people.
Wait, so you're complaining about Gundam wing being “pretty boys with problems?" Name one Gundam series with a non-attractive main character with problems, I'll wait
Wtf see you talking about, the original gundam series always had lame, uncool even nerdy or clumsy or stupid main characters...they were real people not badasses like wing or the new Ones, that's why the originals were better
I'm trying to figure out what your point of contention -- the "pretty boy" part or the "problems" part. Because if it was the former, congrats, you missed the point.
I always thought Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz was the most awesome TITLE for an anime ever - Second only to Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-blooded Orphans.
Have to disagree with Sage on this one. While not as great as the other Gundam Series, it was the first to attempt to try something different from the others in that Wing tries to show a world in which there is an effort to attain peace and an end to war. Waltz does show that peace attained at any cost (pacifism) is no peace if the causes for those who fight war are not resolved are more likely to fight again, to be taken advantage of and led by those like Dekim Barton. As far as the pretty boys with problems motif, each Gundam pilot had their own quirks which today look like twilight characters, but I blame Deviant art and those that posted their Yaoi depictions of all of them for promoting that image.
Zach Delozier Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Wing the first Gundam series to branch away from the UC world of the Federation and Zeon. If they just wanted to try something different and tell a new story I can respect them for that. The UC timeline has two forces, the Earth Federation and principality/republic of Zeon both fighting for causes. They both have reasons to hate each other and fight to achieve a set desired goal. Wing is different in that it has forces/factions that say they want peace but will fight and conquer to achieve a world of peace and an end to war. In other words kill and conquer everything and we live happily ever after.
Zach Delozier Ok, that's true. However the factions in wing eventually merge into two massive forces in the end, White Fang and the Oz/Romefeller foundation. One thing I find fascinating still today was how OZ/Romefeller foundations way to rid humanity of death and war was to build the Mobile Dolls, the first of their kind in the Gundam World. Today we know them as drones that are used in conflicts as of right now. This long before 911 came around were we first saw them in Afghanistan, which gives me shivers still. Props to Wing for predicting something of the future.
I will have to wholeheartedly disagree with you on this video. Whilst not the best Gundam series, Wing is far from the worst. It's got it's problems for sure but it's undeserving of the hipster levels of hate and indifference it continues to garner from anime fans today.
I have to admit I enjoyed the story writing overall, the aesthetics, villains or anti-heroes of Wing, but never could stand artificially forced monologues about peace and psychological traumas. This review is justified.
im gonna flat out say this, YES I love Gundam wing it is my first favorite of the series, but yes it is horribly flawed, but still It has it's charms and honestly it has, to me, the most diverse set of mobile suit and Gundam types (i don't count G-Gundam cause that is just Racial Stereo-types the anime)
Temujin18S look at half the shit he worked on during the seventies. It's pretty clearly been the intention since yuusha raideen and continued to be cultivated with combattler v and voltes v. Just do a quick Google search of fanzines during the time any of these shows were airing and you'll find fucking mountains of dislocated nobility bad boys.
Zooo Gok I'm talking about specifically the 79 series they characters never stood out especially when compared to heroes in mecha at time and even years later
Temujin18S of course we're talking about 79. I'm the one who brought it up. The reason I'm mentioning older shows is to demonstrate that the similarities between them showed a clear understanding of what their audience was. It's an incredibly common practice to examine the surrounding culture of a work in order to properly understand where the work's ideas come from.
i loved gundam wing when i was in high school i still love it to this day. only time i didnt like it was when they went into space it got boring in the middle tho but over it was a awesome series to start my interests in the gundam universe. also the soundtrack great for both wing and endless walts hell i watch endless walts ever xmas because it was i first saw it around xmas break in high school.
GW endless waltz is not there to empress you.. The story or even the the gundams is not there to make you feel proud, it's they own way to show you the horror of war.
5:32 I couldn't help snickering as you said he's like Butters from South Park... because he LOOKS like an Anime version of Butters from South Park. Merry Christmas Sage
I might still have my nostalgia glasses on, but I still like Gundam wing. Mainly cause of duo. His Gundam I always loved the most. I dunno, maybe it's just my guilty pleasure
I find Heero and Relena to be odd. Most people don't seem to think she has a clear motivation and he is emo. Heero's arc is a sad one. He was a child soldier who was orphaned in the war. He was also brainwashed multiple times to surpress his emotions because he was so empathetic. As a result, he attempts suicide several times to avoid the enemy capturing him or his gundam. In the last episode he declares, "I WILL SURVIVE!" because he finally found self worth. Relena is a girl bored with her father's job, not really understanding it until it directly affects her. Her obsession with Heero is because he is her age and all of what I just said has happened to him. She''s trying to show him a life outside of his mission. Eventually, she learns the value of her father's work.
Not too long ago I rewatched all 49 episodes of Wing to see if it still holds up. Let me put it this way: This is not an anime to binge watch I could only do 4-5 episodes in one sitting. I'd say stick to the original Mobile Suit Gundam, 0080: War in the Pocket, Zeta, and just as Sage said, Stardust Memory
Eh, I marathoned a lot of the various Gundam series not that long ago, and while I would never call Wing my favorite series, I wouldn't really call it out for aging poorly or having any more flaws than most of the other series. At least in my opinion. When it comes down to it, just about all of the Gundam series are flawed in fairly major ways, particularly the 50+ episode ones. And it's certainly aged better than others in the franchise (looking at YOU, Victory Gundam).
I have no shame in saying that I love Gundam Wing. It's was a good series, yes it had plenty of flaws but I didn't care when I first saw it. To this day im getting back into it thanks to the HD rerelease( but watching the English sub version since it is better than the 90's dub). And I believe there were some good series after Gundam Wing; for example: Gundam 00, Gundam Unicorn, Iron Blood Orphans, and yes the ones based on Gunpla Gundam Build Fighters.
I didn't expect an actual Christmas Day upload! Thanks man, and Happy Holidays. Also, just wanted to give you a quick thank you in general, because it actually really hit me the other day just how hard you work on your reviews. Most reviewers tend to just stick with movies on the whole, which, while time consuming, yes, is a lot shorter viewing time overall versus your average OVA (which can be several near movie-length "episodes") or even a portion or sometimes entire first season of a series ( where the episodes can be anywhere from 20-60 mins run time). You regularly work about 2 or even 3X as hard as any given reviewer on just a single episode, and you definitely deserve cheers for that. Put up your feet and have fun this holiday season, you've more than earned it man.
Around the early 00s, I came down on a Saturday morning, turned on Cartoon Network and was greeted by this. I was so exited, but then my mother told me we had to go visit Grandmother. Thankfully she put a tape in for me before we left. And I re-watched it so many times until I got a DVD player.
You probably willfully avoid Wing fans to justify the image you've painted about them looking back at it more disdain. I liked Wing back then and I love Wing today, in fact, it's my favorite anime in general, not just Gundam. I'm not even a girl and I never liked boy bands and the ONLY one I could say I had any sort of interest in, even in the slightest was the Jackson Five and only because of their connection with Michael Jackson, but they are from another era to match up with 90's boy band trends. To say that it's popularity stems primarily from the interests of teen fangirls and the time it came out is so stupid, especially considering, as you said, Wing is the most financially successful series in this male dominated franchise. And furthermore... the narrator clearly states at the end of the movie that it's now AC197, and the movie started around Christmas, so the events clearly took a number of days.
Like a lot of people here, Gundam Wing was my introduction into the franchise, although I found it hard to understand. The main character wants to kill the rich girl, but is is in love with the rich girl!? Lady Une is a psychopath when she wears her glasses and has her hair braided up, but is a humanitarian when not wearing her glasses and having her hair down!? Also, war is hell, but pretty boys apparently make great, hardened killers. Really, the only character I could identify with was Duo. I also enjoyed the Super Famicom fighting game adaptation of this series. A certain reference that you made withstanding, Bennett, I really liked this review. Keep up the good work.
Bennett, I have to disagree with you in that Wing still has value as a series. As science fiction, Wing is actually the most relevant Gundam series these days when it comes to it's themes. Drones on the battlefield, pacifism and the cost of war, a soldier's place in society especially after war, the military industrial complex, aristocracy/oligarchy, insurgency and one man's terrorist being another man's freedom fighter. These are important issues today. It's problem is that the writers know these are good themes and spend too much time navel gazing at how smart and profound they think they're being by having characters going on these long monologues, where they're less characters speaking dialogue laced with social commentary and more the writers just talking AT YOU about their philosophy through the characters with mostly interchangeable cypher speeches - seriously, you could quote some of these speeches to me, pick a character at random to attribute it to and I couldn't tell if you were lying or not because most of the characters have a single, generic voice when it comes time every episode to expound upon the nature of war and societies. And yeah, pretty much everything you said about pretty boys with problems shtick, which is unfortunate because if they hadn't ratcheted up all the angst (especially in Waltz) they had a great foundation (which we get glimpses of the few times they they build on it) for meaningful characterization and explorations of the toll of war on the civilians caught in the crossfire, the way it pushes some societal institutions to their breaking point while other institutions exist to perpetuate conflicts, and what happens to soldiers' psyches during these conflict and how they cope with the experiences of what they had to do to survive. Instead they go full-tilt on the melodrama while occasionally paying a little more than just lip-service to the themes I previously mentioned. Endless Waltz takes these problems the main series had and cranks them up to 11, minus what little charm and occasionally nuanced social commentary on war that the original series had, chucking what little pretense at subtley the main series could sometimes show right out the window in order to double down on GW's worst excesses. At least GW had a decent amount of cool action scenes with at times very likable characters (ie the ones not named Heero or Quattro) to break up the monologues and broody teenage angst. At one point this movie actually cuts to a random old grandpa we've never seen before and will never see again, because he exists purely to give his own little ham-fisted philosophical monologue about the nature of war to his kindergarten age grand daughter who's too young to understand the shit he's saying anyways, because this scene only exists for grandpa to be used as a transparent vehicle for the writer to talk at the audience with their superficial social commentary. Literally any other character who was actually important to the plot could have given that still ham-fisted speech so it at least would have more impact as a moment of introspection from someone we followed for the previous 40 or so minutes that we're actually invested in and supposed to care about when they talk. Or they could have actually written a couple more brief scenes with grandpa in them for earlier in the movie to at least better establish him as a sort of civilian POV of war in EW to add contrast to the combatant POV we get for the other 99% of the OVA. Then we actually might care a little about him and what he has to say when it comes time for his mini speech during the film's climax. Instead they just throw him at us from out of nowhere to talk at us for 45 seconds and then yank him back off screen before we have time to process what the hell just happened. But at least the animation is great, and we get more of Duo... I'll always love Wing out of nostalgia, and I love the main series mech designs, Duo, Trieze, and Zechs, but it's a flawed series that'll always be a hoot and a half to talk about but is at least a little bit of a chore at the best of times to actually sit down and watch as entertainment if you didn't grow up loving it, mostly blind to its flaws because you were too young to notice them like I was. Endless Waltz however... I hated it when I first saw it on Toonami, and I hate it now. I hate the mech designs, I hate the plot, I hate Marie Maia, I hate the retcons it introduces, I hate the way the stilted and generic dialogue of the original series gets massively one upped here, I hate the way multiple characters have completely nonsensical motivations that contradicts how the characters had changed at the end of GW... I can go on, but other than a few select scenes, half the Ocean dub voice actors and the lush animation, this was a waste of an OVA budget. PS, I fucking love War in the Pocket, so thank you for finally reviewing it! I know a lot of US fans prefer 08th MS team, but 0080 has always been my favorite Gundam OVA, your review should be a treat.
I will defend Gundam on this. From what I remember reading, Bandai intentionally wanted to appeal to a wider demographic as the earlier Gundam were HEAVILY slanted towards young boys. Thus the pretty boys - they rightly figured that girls would comes for the "pretty boys with problems and that" while their existing demographic would stay for the cool mechs and fights. I actually SALUTE Gundam for this as if you look at the cartoon landscape in America at the time, GW was the only property that blatantly appealed to young tweener girls' sexuality.
Heero is more emo than bad boy. He's multiple times tried to kill himself and is never optimistic.
Another reason why Heero sucks
L
P
Duo best boi
Idk, I remember him constantly threatening to kill Relena. It was hilarious. Even Relena stopped taking it seiously.
Heero defiantly appeals to the stoic guy archetype...in his case, he dials it up the 11, though really everything in wing and anime in general does that at times
I JUST now realized a connection with their names and I'm ashamed its taken me this long:
Hiiro (or Heero) is the main, well, hero, and Yuy is a play on the Japanese word for "superior,"
Duo is number two,
Trowa (like tre) is number three,
Quatre (like quatro in Spanish) is four,
Wufei is five (wu is 5 in Chinese)
Quatre is 4 (French)
Treize is 13 (French)
Sechs is 6 (German)
Milliard is 1,000,000,000 in the long scale counting style
imwithstupid086 I don't know what's worse: the numbernames or the made up ones.
If you ever make a wrong turn down an internet backalley and find yourself reading a GW fanfic, the numbers are actually used as short hand for talking about the characters. Like: "Drama, short story, 3 + 5 try to kill 13."
Lady Une is 1
Zechs is 6
Acht is 8
Noin is 9
Treize is 13
Quinze is 15
Milliardo is 1000000000
"Every single bad fanfiction"
Oh sweet, Sage read the sequel mangas
Doubt he even does. In short...I don't think he fully understands the meaning of bad fanfiction writing. Like AT ALL.
To this day, ever since I saw it on Toonami, I still love Gundam Wing. Sure, it has it’s problems, but it still has some good moments, minus the recycled footage of course.
Also, let’s be honest, the Endless Waltz designs of the Gundams and the other mobile suits, especially the Wing Zero, and now the Epyon, were badass as hell!!! Heck, they’re still badass!!!
I'm a Winger, and I will never be ashamed. Zechs and Noin were the first ship it was truly interested in. Not my favorite series but I remember it fondly.
JamcalX Same. Zechs was great back in the day.
Zechs and Noin were also muy first ship and 10 years later they are still muy favourite. The only reason why like frozen teardrop is because they make the ship cannon and because of they had twin kids *.* pd: sorry for bad english
it;'s the pasicfism that kills it Wing in the end.
Nice.
6 and 9? Interesting.
So, I'm a mom who watched Gundam Wing on Toonami back in the day. When my little anime fans had graduated from Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura (and were tiring of Pretty Cure), I hit upon showing them Wing because of the number and variety of female characters in the cast. Yes, the "Pretty Boys with Problems" is a thing, but I've had the hardest time getting these two interested in watching the exploits of male characters. Them being younger tweens may be a factor. They were sold on Wing when Relena pulled a pistol out from behind her dress bow. We watched in Japanese and stopped at least once an episode to discuss who was doing what (or fighting who) and why. Neither has shown much interest in watching Endless Waltz (and thanks to this review I'll not worry about that), but the older one is interested in watching a different Gundam series because of the politics. I think their age and the emphasis on character motivation and female characters kept the "Pretty Boys" from being much of a factor in their enjoyment (or kept them from discounting the show because boys, ew) and did make it a stepping stone into more serious anime. We had some really good discussions about people doing awful things because they felt it was right or would have a good outcome. Also, they gained a new appreciation for giant robots.
Gundam Wing is basically everything my 15-year-old self thought was cool. And for that reason alone, I can't hate it. Call it a guilty pleasure or whatever. I know it's bad. The voice acting is average at best, the themes are ham-fisted instead of naturally developing as a consequence of war, and the characters are exceptionally melodramatic.
And yet, I can't see myself enjoying it if it was any less. At the very least, it's entertaining in how needlessly hard it tries to be Gundam while not understanding what made Gundam fantastic.
Mystic Mind Analysis nailed it.
Agreed.
I’m super nostalgic for it,got me through a pretty bad time in my life.If I saw it now and not back then I’m not sure how I’d enjoy it.
"the characters are exceptionally melodramatic" they were basicaly trained at an early age to pilot MS like elite soldiers. They were geniuses with actual training of course they'd be off to a normal adult but they were teens who had killed more people than any other veteran ptsd would have been the least of their issues.
I watched Gundam Wing when I was around 15, or maybe younger. I thought it was awesome, but it didn't age well for me. The ONLY reason I don't sell my copy of it is that my sister bought me the copy as a gift, and I'm not going to sell that gift, even if I never watch it again.
My introduction into the Gundam franchise was G Gundam. Which was helped by KYOOOOOJIIIIIIII!!!
Peter Hanson Same here. I asked some friends what they considered the best entry point into the Gundam series and they all said G Gundam. Its loud roar tells me that Gundam is awesome!
Best gundam ever. It showed peace could be attained, and world order could be shifted fairly from nation to nation via sanctioned fighting.
G Gundam is amazing
Peter Hanson G Gundam was my second intro into the Gundam franchise.
ANSWER ME DOMON!
Gundam Wing was, and still is, awesome.
I think I saw this movie on Toonami a lifetime ago, and have been trying to find it again for a long time. Thanks so much, man!
I always thought the daughter was trying to get revenge on her father (goes to show how long it's been and how poor my memory is at time).
G Gundam is so over the top that I LOVE IT! It's like Punch-Out, Dragon Ball and Gundam all in one mixture of anime!
G Gundam is the best Gundam series...prove me wrong. PROVE. ME. WRONG.
It’s the most epic Gundam series in my opinion. I love the characters and how earnest it is in its goofiness and the fights are epic and I love the ending.
As someone who's never actually seen the other Gundam series outside the first Seed manga volume when I was six, I can honestly call G Gundam my favorite.
I love G Gundam; the larger-than-life characters, the show's refusal to be anything other than over-the-top, the zanny rule-of-cool feel of the battles, and the general "fuck you, YES I CAN!" attitude that permeates everything.
Does anyone else think that Gurren Lagann is G Gundam cranked up past 11?
G Gundam is legit one of my favorite animes of all time, mostly because I like anime for BEING ANIME! So yes! Give me characters that scream attack names while doing martial arts in giant robots themed after the countries they represent! I've been re-waching random episodes and I STILL love it! It is the best kind of stupid!
BUT! I also understand that it is the Anti-Gundam and the most hated Gundam series in Japan. It was the first Alternate Universe, the first one NOT to involve series creator Tomino, the first one made after Bandai bought Sunsrise, and it's a Super Robot series instead of a Real Robot series and was made to sell toys to a younger audience. Remembering that the previous four Gundam series were all interlinked and in the same universe with a serious sci-fi story, Gundam is basically the Japanese Star Trek in a LOT of ways (even how the original series was recieved). So imagine if Voyager suddenly declared that The Federation was a WRESTLING Federation and the whole show was about Klingons wrestling with Vulcans. Yes, "That sounds AWESOME" but at the same time it would confuse and alienate most Trekkies and that's what G Gundam is.
People have since warmed to it because they are now used to the idea of AUs and G Gundam didn't completely change all future entries...the way Wing kinda did.
gundam wing holds a special place in my heart.
3/4 of the english voice actors were in death note. my bro was watching death note, i heard familiar voices, and that got me into death note.
thanks gundam wing!
I still love gundam wing
MrBoylan100 no regrets, no shame
Rewatching the series right now.
*raises fist*
Themanwithn0eyes: But do you... Raise Your Flag?!
*Puts on sunglasses.* YEAAHHHHH!
Same but a little more differently. And not before this review. I had rewatched some episodes after the series ended. It seemed off to me. Like pieces were missing in the story. But overall still loved it.
When you think about it, it's actually not unrealistic for a politician to have a secret love child who shows up out of the blue. Happens all the time in real life, after all.
"might have liked once apon a time ago but can't stand the thought of ever liking it today"
that's basically how i feel about Inuyasha
Yeah. I remember liking Inuyasha initially, but as the series dragged on and on and on. I just came to hate it more and more.
I suppose part of the problem is that they introduced us to the main antagonist way to early on in the series. As such, all of the hero's victories over the disposable villain of the day feel entirely pointless.
I mainly remember that title for the kick-ass Super famicom fighting game
Gundam Wing Endless Duel
Love it!
Actually it used a different song by the same artist. It's called Rhythm Emotion and was the second OP for Gundam Wing.
ua-cam.com/video/IHWRslSVpek/v-deo.html
I still find the series interesting. The characters are diverse in both methods and goals, and there's not really a clear cut bad guy, something that the original 3 gundam series and their movies tried and honestly failed to achieve. Everyone, from Kushranada to both Peacecrafts, to the Gundam Pilots all have reasons you can see them as the good or the bad guys, and each is trying to get to the same place, via different means. Their goal, make war obsolete.
Treize is trying to make war seem ugly, by creating the largest conflict he can, and shove people's face in it, showing them that war, with the current weapons tech, is nothing like it used to be, and that it is an ugly thing we must reject.
Milliardo is trying to just break those strong enough to pick up the weapons of war. Basically he's Celestial Being, except not as asshole. He wants no one to be strong enough to fight.
Relina wants people to see themselves as good, kind people, and to see that war, no matter what you might win in the fighting, is never worth what it costs the soul in the end.
The Pilots...for the most part, are kind of like Millardo, expect they're specifically targeting the weapons of war, trying to make it so there's nothing to fight well.
All told, none of these people are right, and even though Relina's view came out on top in the series, the final episode and Eyebrow girl both point out, her way can't work forever, something she acknowledges, but wants to see how long the peace can last.
That is why I liked this series. There's no Durandel/Zabi Family/Crossbone Vanguard/Zeon Remnant/Axis/Etc. manipulating/conquering things to make him/her/them/self god emperor of mankind. There's no Dark Gundam, trying to eat the world, or whatever he wanted, and there's no Char/Rau trying to kill humanity because they have a hate boner for someone. Here, everyone has a good goal at the end of it all, they're opposed in the method of getting there.
I couldn’t have said it any better mate! I too believe Wing is a very strong, interesting series. Contrary to this video, I would say I appreciate it even MORE watching now as an adult. Such a unique story with so much depth. I love your comparison to other Gundam series as well haha very true.
Its also why Wufie changes sides, Every time he fought Triez his view were challenged and he struggled to see his way as right. He join Marimeia (SP?) because in the end Wufie started to see triez as right and regrets basically killing him (Triez technically commits suicide, but Wufie blames himself).
The Triez was such a good character, and the way he treats the gundam pilots is super interesting because he see them for what they are. Kids doing their best to make the world a better place. He still manipulates the fuck out of them, but still see a place for them in the world.
"I used the massacre to stop a massacre, it nearly... killed me."
Excuse me but I been watching Gundam before Wing and Gundam Wing is and still my favorite of the series and my favorite pieces in my collection of Gundam
Gundam went full Odagiri. Never go full Odagiri.
shiit gundam wing was what got me into anime period as a 5 year old and it's still some of my fondest memories watching it every night
Quatre as Butters...that's so on-point the observation made me do a spit take.
This was one of my favorite series as a teen. How many other shows on the air at the time gave me pretty boys AND robots fighting? Only this and Escaflowne! I even got the art book for Christmas. It is very melodramatic, and has not aged well, but it holds a special spot in my heart for the nostalgia.
7:01 Duo liked being the God of Death
And Quatre has always been sentimental toward Sandrock
God I wish the US got Turn A Gundam in '99 when it aired in Japan. So good.
Turn A is easily the best Gundam IMO.
Gundams on Christmas. What a combo.
As a lesbian that used to watch this with all my straight male friends and still enjoys it, I find the idea that it's just a weak story for girls fucking hilarious.
Juan David Mejia Mena wtf lol
except it is, because it has nothing else going for it
I agree, I'm a guy and watched Gundam Wing with all my guy-friends and never realized it was a boy-band concept or marketed towards girls until years later, it never bothered me.
I'll always enjoy Gundam Wing. It's filled with plot holes (particularly this movie) but the character designs and the personality of the main cast is great along with having Treize as a villain which I love.
So Wufei basically becomes Big Boss in this movie? Trying to create a world where soldiers will always have purpose.
I recently rewatched Wing. The story itself and what organization is the real bad guy is something that if you blink you’ll miss it. However I thank god I was the right age to see this premier on Cartoon Network and is the sole reason I continued to watch anime to this day. Regardless of the quality of story or anime every single one of us should be thankful Wing came around when it did or we might not have the accessibility to the genre that we have today.
I saw Wing way later, and fell in love with it due to how batshit crazy everyone is, and the really cool still frames they used because of low budget.
It's okay to love schlock.
I Found This Movie in A Salvation Army and I LOVED it as my first intro to Gundam and I regret nothing.
Nah. .. Still dont regret being a fan of Gandum Wing. Admitedly mostly a fan of The Gandum models & the music. In a way that those were the main reasons I watched but dont regret it. Im kinda more shocked I was a fan of Tiger Mask given how unwatchable that show is to me now
There is no crime in liking Wing.. only crime is saying that it was good, or worst.. proposing it to people.
Much the same here. The characters are a mixed bag - and the half-assed philosophizing is downright painful - but the music and mecha were worth it. Even as overboard and ridiculous as they are, the quad-cannon Heavyarms and batwing-cloaked Deathscythe introduced in Endless Waltz are two of my favorite models.
Same, loved it.
When he says Gundam fans are ashamed of Gundam, he's basically trying to say you SHOULD be ashamed if you like it, because he doesn't.
Eh, Sage didn't even like Akira. He's a hard guy to please.
Ironically Quatre is voiced by Amuro’s VA. No wonder how cathartic the slap was in the original Gundam.
Minosky Particles I thought they only existed in The UC Timeline.
And pseudo-science isn't scientific..
Keith Thompson I'm actually not sure about the after century's technology, I know universal century goes by minovsky particles, Gundam 00 goes by GN particles, cosmic era has their own particles as well, but unlike the other series, the beam sabers in the cosmic era do not have repelling factor meaning beam sabers would phase through each other.
@Donquixote Doflamingo
It doesn't work that way.. pseudoscience is still a pseudoscience, just in fiction it tend to work. Generally the point of terms like "Malinowski Particle" is to not need explaining it.
You should said that I used incorrect term here, and yes I did. Corrected.
they do only exist in the uc timeline.
Doesn't matter which timeline, all of them are the same timeline during different periods of change according to Turn A Dark History video.
Oh my god you're reviewing War in the Pocket next. I can't wait to get depressed all over again!
SaltpeterTaffy you will see the tears of time...or boredom!
Man Sage has always thought his opinion speaks for everyone
Honestly, the characters in Wing never really appealed to me so much as the background story and the conflict both within the governments and other forces and between them. As far as Endless Waltz is concerned, there is only 1 thing I liked about it at all ever on any level what so ever, and that was the redesign of the Heavy Arms Gundam. It went from being my least favorite machine to much more appealing with the endless waltz redesign, everything else lost all interest with me and hell even the story behind the movie was shit, as I said the 1 and only good thing IMO that Endless Waltz did was the Heavy Arms redesign.
On another note, one of the reasons WING is so much different aesthetically and story wise is that it both tried to stick true to Gundam while at the same time trying to integrate as much of what ti's creators perceived to be why Macross was kicking their ass in popularity from one end of japan to the other the LONG way around aka by circumventing the globe. Hence why there is not one, not two, not three, but FIVE different Mobile suit types that have not only a giant robot mode, but a plane mode it can transform into as well! The original Gundam doesn't count in this regard as ANY federation plane could fold up it's wings and enter the torso of the Gundam, not to mention that the Gundam itself had to be launched separately making the legs and torso separate pieces and therefore a combination or attachment of an extra piece of hardware, not a transformation.
Duo always had fun(and was arrogant about his skills). And quatre always talked to his Gundam. Damn Bennet really never knows what he's talking about
Tastes change with age. Yes but I can't lie to myself and say I don't still like something I watched, read or done long ago. I can ether be in denial and push it away or accept it happened, keep it close to me and move on with my life with that thing right at my side
Cool?
21:45 - it's been years since I last saw anything GW, but I remember there was a distinction between piloted "mobile suits" and AI-controlled "mobile dolls." Each model was set up for one or the other. I don't remember which were which, but that's the best I've got.
Gundam Wing was my introduction to Gundam, and I started watching at the beginning of the series. I still haven't seen the show all the way through. I had no idea what was going on, and I was nearly convinced at the time that the heroes were the bad guys.
The fandom was a terrible bog of internalized misogyny - in order to be a Wing fan, you were female, hated the female characters and wanted the male characters to make sweet sweet love to each other. Lots of seme/uke dynamics, lots of angst. I never wrote any of it but it was everywhere I went when I was just trying to look for pictures of the Deathscythe. And Duo.
Hindsight being 20/20 I see now how awful and self righteous Quatre is and how pointless Endless Waltz is. There's apparently another sequel, a manga set over fifteen years later called Frozen Teardrop mostly about the children of the characters. So cry, fangirls, cry. Heero and Duo aren't together. Duo married Hilde, Zechs married Noin and they made more pretty boys (and girls) with problems. ...yeah.
I was so in the demographic this was aimed at. I LOVED me some Gundam Wing and even had Wufei as the desktop picture on the family computer. *Not ashamed*. I have zero interest in watching the episodes today but mention of the series does bring back some good nostalgia.
It wasn't demographic, just fact that there was no other Real Robo show back then in States, not counting Robotech.. what is a trash.
I have the Deathscythe Hell model kit, the one that's about a foot tall. I can't watch the series again, because the War R Bad childishness is too offputting. The writers of Gundam can't accept that war is a necessary evil, at times.
And yeah, I enjoyed the $@(&* out of Gundam Wing when I was on Toonami/Adult Swim, and watched both the afternoon censored version, and the late night uncensored version too.
I was a fan, and if it was on I would probably watch the series occasionally even now. But even then I thought Endless Waltz was a raging dumpster fire.
Same. I was the exact demographic but anymore I'd just be over it lol
Gundam Wing, like G Gundam, was my childhood Gundam series. But looking back, Wing is basically just another angsty teen drama where the characters just sit around and mop while the love subplot of the show is basically just a girl pining over a guy who constantly denies her feelings for her. Is it any wonder why I like Duo and Quatre, mainly because they’re the more positive characters in this angsty teen drama anime with giant robots.
The glory of losers reboot fix it.
@@YangJungwon-rx6ok Glory of Losers Reboot?
@@samflood5631
Gundam wing : glory of losers is basically official manga reboot(like gundam theborigin.) With new designs for ms and
Characters are actually act less dumb and it includes episode ZERO.
You can read it if you want an actual good version of gunam wing.
Wing was my intro to Gundam when I was 11-12, so I'll always like it because of nostalgia. Also, the gundam designs are great as far as I'm concerned, really the only reason why I got into it. That being said, I do acknowledge that the plot doesn't make any damn sense especially during the second half. I consider myself a pretty smart person, but trying to figure out the characters near the end makes me go crossed-eyed like Austin Powers trying to explain time travel.
Also it aired pre 911. That makes a big difference in American consuming sensibilities.
I see a lot of fans not being ashamed for liking wing. So Bennett, I think you might be wrong on that one...
I loved this show and I've just finished rewatching it... Trowa is my heart. XD
@@ChaoticAngelKitten Before too long, I'll be starting another rewatch myself (well, there are some other Gundam series in this rewatch as well).
And My Heart Belongs to Noin.
EcchiSpud she is awesome. :) I just finished all of Wing and now it’s on to Seed. I don’t think I ever finished Seed.
@@ChaoticAngelKitten SEED is probably my favorite Gundam series (not so much SEED Destiny, though).
EcchiSpud I think I finished Seed and just couldn’t get into Destiny
OVA: "I've been lost since the day I was born"
me: *Crawling by Linkin Park starts playing in my head*
The marimeia shorts trowa and wufei wore still made me laugh out loud.
I rewatched all of _Wing_ last year and I think it still holds up. It's actually pretty well paced and smartly drops the high-school stuff by episode 6. And it has neat ideas like the idea of the Sanct Kingdom being a global power without having an army isn't really explored like it was in _Metal Gear Peace Walker_ since there are real world nations that have no armies but do function.
The show almost works as a revenge anime, on both personal and geopolitical levels. The Gundams are launched as revenge for actions taken by Oz who does this on behalf of the rich and when the Gundams take out the Romafellas, the Colonies unite as White Fang to destroy earth for revenge. Then there's all the stuff with Zech's and Relina's murdered family. There's really a lot of smart things here but the show was aimed at a young audience so they couldn't be explored.
Endless Waltz has great fight scenes and amazing mech designs. It tries to deal with the message of dealing with soldiers in peace time and failing but does a VERY poor job of that. Heck, it should have continued the revenge theme of Treize's daughter wanting to destroy the colonies over his death instead of "CONQUER THE WORLD!" Alas, that is not what happened and we got a lackluster anime.
Sure it's no masterpiece, But Gundam Wing along with G Gundam still top my Gundam charts.
Just remember, don't throw away your superweapon mechs unless you're throwing away ALL the superweapon mechs. It just doesn't work if you're just throwing away your stuff and expecting someone keeping theirs not to walk all over you the moment you give them that opening!
I'm not gonna lie I love G Gundam, it's so unapologetically over the top. Interested in what will happen when it's time comes.
It was a Super Robo after all..
$10 says Sage won't mention how it killed Gundam for a time in Japan and will just Kyoji meme it up.
Gundam at that time was already dead with cancellation of F91. G was at best failed reanimation.
You will die inside. A lot.
G Gundam is the only Gundam series I like.
3:31 You'd be surprised (or I suppose, maybe not) at how many of those characters I thought were women before seeing that picture.
Gundam Wing has some colossal problems, but the whole pretty boy stuff is hardly the issue. You could argue that Zechs is almost the main character through most of it. The main problems are the extremely bloated plot, the divide between the personal and political plots, and slow storytelling. Also, Quatre isn't that bad of a character. He does wish for peace, but he understands that he must fight for the good of the colonies. His struggle is probably the most tangible out of the pilots. Wufei probably has the worst arc, which has him jumping between motivations and personalities throughout the whole show. The main problem with Endless Waltz is the fact that it feels inconsequential and small, and also that its paced horribly and doesn't believe in a first act.
Doug Doug As a once long time fan of wing. I agree with this. This film has been one hot mess of inconsistencies.
"Mobile Suits were never seen again."
Frozen Teardrop happens.
"Oh..."
Seed is the most popular Gundam Anime in Japan of all times based on property revenue. Clearly they are doing something right with their boy band thing lol
That Wufei ranting is a bit much.
The movie highlights his colony (as in, his entire life) blowing up infront of him and how he feels discarded by society after the war was 'resolved'.
Wufei would be the poster-boy for radicalization: A young, directionless, teenager suffering from PTSD who glorifies violence.
Wing is bad, the pacing, the dialogue is all sorts of terrible, but is there is more than enough set-up for Wufei's heel turn in this series and while he's blasting the audience with post-war / post-soldier philosophy, I wouldn't deride it as nonsense.
I have a similar assessment of Reylena arguably the character with the most character development.
She starts as a young sheltered elite to peace envoy and Diplomat, ultimately to protect the boy she loves who destroyed her bubble and gave her life new meaning to protect people.
okay. the "pretty boys with problems... yeah" gag nearly had me fall of my chair with laughter XD
Wait, so you're complaining about Gundam wing being “pretty boys with problems?" Name one Gundam series with a non-attractive main character with problems, I'll wait
All of them. Although, if I may point out:
Big O
Wtf see you talking about, the original gundam series always had lame, uncool even nerdy or clumsy or stupid main characters...they were real people not badasses like wing or the new Ones, that's why the originals were better
I'm trying to figure out what your point of contention -- the "pretty boy" part or the "problems" part.
Because if it was the former, congrats, you missed the point.
Most UC series
I always thought Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz was the most awesome TITLE for an anime ever - Second only to Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-blooded Orphans.
16:58 XD Bring Stabity sounds like a troll name you gave your rogue in DND
Zechs and Traizes where what made the series for me. Plus the grunt suits are some of the coolest. I wish they'd do HG models for all the OZ suits.
Have to disagree with Sage on this one. While not as great as the other Gundam Series, it was the first to attempt to try something different from the others in that Wing tries to show a world in which there is an effort to attain peace and an end to war. Waltz does show that peace attained at any cost (pacifism) is no peace if the causes for those who fight war are not resolved are more likely to fight again, to be taken advantage of and led by those like Dekim Barton.
As far as the pretty boys with problems motif, each Gundam pilot had their own quirks which today look like twilight characters, but I blame Deviant art and those that posted their Yaoi depictions of all of them for promoting that image.
Joe Haigh
Wing was literally just a Rebrand of Zeta
Zach Delozier Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Wing the first Gundam series to branch away from the UC world of the Federation and Zeon. If they just wanted to try something different and tell a new story I can respect them for that.
The UC timeline has two forces, the Earth Federation and principality/republic of Zeon both fighting for causes. They both have reasons to hate each other and fight to achieve a set desired goal. Wing is different in that it has forces/factions that say they want peace but will fight and conquer to achieve a world of peace and an end to war. In other words kill and conquer everything and we live happily ever after.
Joe Haigh
Basically Zeta a third tertiary faction fights against the world and its politics
Zach Delozier Ok, that's true. However the factions in wing eventually merge into two massive forces in the end, White Fang and the Oz/Romefeller foundation. One thing I find fascinating still today was how OZ/Romefeller foundations way to rid humanity of death and war was to build the Mobile Dolls, the first of their kind in the Gundam World. Today we know them as drones that are used in conflicts as of right now. This long before 911 came around were we first saw them in Afghanistan, which gives me shivers still. Props to Wing for predicting something of the future.
Joe Haigh military used drones in Vietnam.By no means as advanced as the ones today.Look up the Ryan model 147
All I know is that Gundam Wing has the best Toonami ending theme of anime anime.
I will have to wholeheartedly disagree with you on this video. Whilst not the best Gundam series, Wing is far from the worst. It's got it's problems for sure but it's undeserving of the hipster levels of hate and indifference it continues to garner from anime fans today.
13:26 makes sense cuz Trowa uses the Heavyarms
I have to admit I enjoyed the story writing overall, the aesthetics, villains or anti-heroes of Wing, but never could stand artificially forced monologues about peace and psychological traumas.
This review is justified.
metal87power Facts
hey bennett! long time fan here, I just introduced my husband to your channel yesterday.... we spent the rest of the night watching your channel lol
im gonna flat out say this, YES I love Gundam wing it is my first favorite of the series, but yes it is horribly flawed, but still It has it's charms and honestly it has, to me, the most diverse set of mobile suit and Gundam types (i don't count G-Gundam cause that is just Racial Stereo-types the anime)
Wing was the best then. And holds my heart. Made me a gundam fanatic as a kid. Keeps me there to this day
Oh come on. Wing is not that bad. The politics are about the most contemporary, outside of 00.
Maybe it was because Wing was the first series I watched, but Wing is my personal Favorite of the Gundam series.
gundam's been yaoibait since 1979. please don't insist on falsely attributing it to something you happened to be around for
Zooo Gok That was never Tomino intention though so stop
Temujin18S look at half the shit he worked on during the seventies. It's pretty clearly been the intention since yuusha raideen and continued to be cultivated with combattler v and voltes v. Just do a quick Google search of fanzines during the time any of these shows were airing and you'll find fucking mountains of dislocated nobility bad boys.
Zooo Gok I'm talking about specifically the 79 series they characters never stood out especially when compared to heroes in mecha at time and even years later
Temujin18S of course we're talking about 79. I'm the one who brought it up. The reason I'm mentioning older shows is to demonstrate that the similarities between them showed a clear understanding of what their audience was. It's an incredibly common practice to examine the surrounding culture of a work in order to properly understand where the work's ideas come from.
Zooo Gok Again that was never Tomino intention and you can see clear difference between then and later shows
While on the subject of gundam's head-scratching character names, I think there's a character in "gundam unicorn" named Full Frontal.
i loved gundam wing when i was in high school i still love it to this day. only time i didnt like it was when they went into space it got boring in the middle tho but over it was a awesome series to start my interests in the gundam universe. also the soundtrack great for both wing and endless walts hell i watch endless walts ever xmas because it was i first saw it around xmas break in high school.
It's still my favorite and it will be forever.
I love gundam wing....and yes i did watch this this when it come out.
GW endless waltz is not there to empress you..
The story or even the the gundams is not there to make you feel proud, it's they own way to show you the horror of war.
Merry Xmas fam!
I think I've heard ryoka voice as duel
5:32 I couldn't help snickering as you said he's like Butters from South Park... because he LOOKS like an Anime version of Butters from South Park.
Merry Christmas Sage
BRING STABILITY!? ARE YOU SERIOUS
I might still have my nostalgia glasses on, but I still like Gundam wing. Mainly cause of duo. His Gundam I always loved the most. I dunno, maybe it's just my guilty pleasure
Your parents kept their Scrabble letters in a Crown Royal bag too??
Informative but wrong thread.
My sister keeps her DnD dice sets in one
I find Heero and Relena to be odd. Most people don't seem to think she has a clear motivation and he is emo. Heero's arc is a sad one. He was a child soldier who was orphaned in the war. He was also brainwashed multiple times to surpress his emotions because he was so empathetic. As a result, he attempts suicide several times to avoid the enemy capturing him or his gundam. In the last episode he declares, "I WILL SURVIVE!" because he finally found self worth.
Relena is a girl bored with her father's job, not really understanding it until it directly affects her. Her obsession with Heero is because he is her age and all of what I just said has happened to him. She''s trying to show him a life outside of his mission. Eventually, she learns the value of her father's work.
Not too long ago I rewatched all 49 episodes of Wing to see if it still holds up. Let me put it this way: This is not an anime to binge watch I could only do 4-5 episodes in one sitting. I'd say stick to the original Mobile Suit Gundam, 0080: War in the Pocket, Zeta, and just as Sage said, Stardust Memory
"He is like butters from southpark"
THANKYOU, I had always subconsciously linked butters and gundam and never understood why
Never made that connection, Quatre reminds me of Tails. 😂
Wait Wait Wait. There's actually a character named "Bring Stability." God, that's so lame.
Worse: His (?) name is actually "Bring Stabity". Still not as stupid as Wootbit Gunhale.
Loved Gundam wing lol. I loved the philosophy..... And the gundams were my favorite in all the series
Eh, I marathoned a lot of the various Gundam series not that long ago, and while I would never call Wing my favorite series, I wouldn't really call it out for aging poorly or having any more flaws than most of the other series. At least in my opinion. When it comes down to it, just about all of the Gundam series are flawed in fairly major ways, particularly the 50+ episode ones. And it's certainly aged better than others in the franchise (looking at YOU, Victory Gundam).
I have no shame in saying that I love Gundam Wing. It's was a good series, yes it had plenty of flaws but I didn't care when I first saw it. To this day im getting back into it thanks to the HD rerelease( but watching the English sub version since it is better than the 90's dub). And I believe there were some good series after Gundam Wing; for example: Gundam 00, Gundam Unicorn, Iron Blood Orphans, and yes the ones based on Gunpla Gundam Build Fighters.
CHRIS CONLEY true the second season was bad, but the series was good even though THAT happened in the end of the series.
6:18
-If you wanna skip the lecture, and get to the review click here.
I didn't expect an actual Christmas Day upload! Thanks man, and Happy Holidays.
Also, just wanted to give you a quick thank you in general, because it actually really hit me the other day just how hard you work on your reviews. Most reviewers tend to just stick with movies on the whole, which, while time consuming, yes, is a lot shorter viewing time overall versus your average OVA (which can be several near movie-length "episodes") or even a portion or sometimes entire first season of a series ( where the episodes can be anywhere from 20-60 mins run time).
You regularly work about 2 or even 3X as hard as any given reviewer on just a single episode, and you definitely deserve cheers for that. Put up your feet and have fun this holiday season, you've more than earned it man.
I'm more ashamed of past me liking SEED more than my nostalgia for Wing.
Holy fuck that's rough, are you okay bro? just thought I'd ask haha
Around the early 00s, I came down on a Saturday morning, turned on Cartoon Network and was greeted by this. I was so exited, but then my mother told me we had to go visit Grandmother. Thankfully she put a tape in for me before we left. And I re-watched it so many times until I got a DVD player.
You probably willfully avoid Wing fans to justify the image you've painted about them looking back at it more disdain. I liked Wing back then and I love Wing today, in fact, it's my favorite anime in general, not just Gundam.
I'm not even a girl and I never liked boy bands and the ONLY one I could say I had any sort of interest in, even in the slightest was the Jackson Five and only because of their connection with Michael Jackson, but they are from another era to match up with 90's boy band trends. To say that it's popularity stems primarily from the interests of teen fangirls and the time it came out is so stupid, especially considering, as you said, Wing is the most financially successful series in this male dominated franchise.
And furthermore... the narrator clearly states at the end of the movie that it's now AC197, and the movie started around Christmas, so the events clearly took a number of days.
Jesus Christ dude, just relax already. You are waaay too into this. Take your little butthurt self somewhere else and stop getting so easily offended.
You may not be a girl, but I'm still gonna call you one.
Like a lot of people here, Gundam Wing was my introduction into the franchise, although I found it hard to understand. The main character wants to kill the rich girl, but is is in love with the rich girl!? Lady Une is a psychopath when she wears her glasses and has her hair braided up, but is a humanitarian when not wearing her glasses and having her hair down!? Also, war is hell, but pretty boys apparently make great, hardened killers. Really, the only character I could identify with was Duo. I also enjoyed the Super Famicom fighting game adaptation of this series. A certain reference that you made withstanding, Bennett, I really liked this review. Keep up the good work.
Jeez, Sage. You went a little too much into hate territory here. Sucked out the funny.
Bennett, I have to disagree with you in that Wing still has value as a series. As science fiction, Wing is actually the most relevant Gundam series these days when it comes to it's themes.
Drones on the battlefield, pacifism and the cost of war, a soldier's place in society especially after war, the military industrial complex, aristocracy/oligarchy, insurgency and one man's terrorist being another man's freedom fighter. These are important issues today.
It's problem is that the writers know these are good themes and spend too much time navel gazing at how smart and profound they think they're being by having characters going on these long monologues, where they're less characters speaking dialogue laced with social commentary and more the writers just talking AT YOU about their philosophy through the characters with mostly interchangeable cypher speeches - seriously, you could quote some of these speeches to me, pick a character at random to attribute it to and I couldn't tell if you were lying or not because most of the characters have a single, generic voice when it comes time every episode to expound upon the nature of war and societies. And yeah, pretty much everything you said about pretty boys with problems shtick, which is unfortunate because if they hadn't ratcheted up all the angst (especially in Waltz) they had a great foundation (which we get glimpses of the few times they they build on it) for meaningful characterization and explorations of the toll of war on the civilians caught in the crossfire, the way it pushes some societal institutions to their breaking point while other institutions exist to perpetuate conflicts, and what happens to soldiers' psyches during these conflict and how they cope with the experiences of what they had to do to survive. Instead they go full-tilt on the melodrama while occasionally paying a little more than just lip-service to the themes I previously mentioned.
Endless Waltz takes these problems the main series had and cranks them up to 11, minus what little charm and occasionally nuanced social commentary on war that the original series had, chucking what little pretense at subtley the main series could sometimes show right out the window in order to double down on GW's worst excesses. At least GW had a decent amount of cool action scenes with at times very likable characters (ie the ones not named Heero or Quattro) to break up the monologues and broody teenage angst.
At one point this movie actually cuts to a random old grandpa we've never seen before and will never see again, because he exists purely to give his own little ham-fisted philosophical monologue about the nature of war to his kindergarten age grand daughter who's too young to understand the shit he's saying anyways, because this scene only exists for grandpa to be used as a transparent vehicle for the writer to talk at the audience with their superficial social commentary. Literally any other character who was actually important to the plot could have given that still ham-fisted speech so it at least would have more impact as a moment of introspection from someone we followed for the previous 40 or so minutes that we're actually invested in and supposed to care about when they talk. Or they could have actually written a couple more brief scenes with grandpa in them for earlier in the movie to at least better establish him as a sort of civilian POV of war in EW to add contrast to the combatant POV we get for the other 99% of the OVA. Then we actually might care a little about him and what he has to say when it comes time for his mini speech during the film's climax. Instead they just throw him at us from out of nowhere to talk at us for 45 seconds and then yank him back off screen before we have time to process what the hell just happened. But at least the animation is great, and we get more of Duo...
I'll always love Wing out of nostalgia, and I love the main series mech designs, Duo, Trieze, and Zechs, but it's a flawed series that'll always be a hoot and a half to talk about but is at least a little bit of a chore at the best of times to actually sit down and watch as entertainment if you didn't grow up loving it, mostly blind to its flaws because you were too young to notice them like I was. Endless Waltz however... I hated it when I first saw it on Toonami, and I hate it now. I hate the mech designs, I hate the plot, I hate Marie Maia, I hate the retcons it introduces, I hate the way the stilted and generic dialogue of the original series gets massively one upped here, I hate the way multiple characters have completely nonsensical motivations that contradicts how the characters had changed at the end of GW... I can go on, but other than a few select scenes, half the Ocean dub voice actors and the lush animation, this was a waste of an OVA budget.
PS, I fucking love War in the Pocket, so thank you for finally reviewing it! I know a lot of US fans prefer 08th MS team, but 0080 has always been my favorite Gundam OVA, your review should be a treat.
I will defend Gundam on this.
From what I remember reading, Bandai intentionally wanted to appeal to a wider demographic as the earlier Gundam were HEAVILY slanted towards young boys.
Thus the pretty boys - they rightly figured that girls would comes for the "pretty boys with problems and that" while their existing demographic would stay for the cool mechs and fights.
I actually SALUTE Gundam for this as if you look at the cartoon landscape in America at the time, GW was the only property that blatantly appealed to young tweener girls' sexuality.
I only watched 7 episodes of Gundam Wing on Gundaminfo's UA-cam Channel.