"Mobile Suit Gundam Wing" (2000) TV series

User Rating:

8.8/10   

Writer:

Rika Takahashi (translation)

Release Date:

6 March 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Animation

Plot:

A squadron of giant robot pilots of a beleaguered Earth colony bring the war to their oppressive home planet.

Plot Keywords:

Space | Mobile Suit | Giant Robot | Robot | Conspiracy

Cast

Mark Hildreth	...	Heero Yuy (voice)
Scott McNeil	...	Duo Maxwell (voice)
Kirby Morrow	...	Trowa Barton (voice)
Brad Swaile	...	Quatre Raberba Winner (voice)
Ted Cole	...	Chang Wufei (voice)
Lisa Ann Beley	...	Relena Peacecraft (voice)
Brian Drummond	...	Milliardo Peacecraft, aka Zechs Marquise (voice)
Saffron Henderson	...	Lucrezia Noin (voice)
David Kaye	...	Treize Khushrenada (voice)
Enuka Okuma	...	Lady Une (voice)
Cathy Weseluck	...	Dorothy Catalonia (voice)
Campbell Lane	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tony Alcantar	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Jim Byrnes	...	Duke Dermail
Jessie Cody	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Ian James Corlett	...	Quinze Barton / Additional Voices (voice)
Michael Dobson	...	Lt. Otto / Additional Voices
Paul Dobson	...	Lt. Nichol / Additional Voices
Samantha Ferris	...	Sally Po (2nd Half of series) (voice)
Andrew Francis	...	Additional Voices
Marcy Goldberg	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Leslie Hopps	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Kim Kondrashoff	...	Additional Voices (voice)
David Mackay	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Brent Miller	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Richard Newman	...	Tsuberov (voice: English version)
Mark Oliver	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Ty Olsson	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Ward Perry	...	Howard / Additional Voices (voice)
Michael Sicoly	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Moneca Stori	...	Sally Poe (1st Half of Series)
Dave 'Squatch' Ward	...	Doctor J / Master Long Shirin / Additional Voices (voice)

Also Known As:

"Gundam Wing" (USA)

Runtime:

30 min (49 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Certification:

USA:TV-PG | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | UK:PG (some episodes) | UK:U (some episodes)

Filming Locations:

Lompoc, California, USA

Company:

Sunrise

Trivia:

When Sally Po is viewing the data on Heero, the information being displayed is actually instructions for installing TWAIN devices into Adobe Photoshop.

Quotes:

Trowa Barton: The five of us have become nothing more than redundant soldiers, Quatre. So now, let's accept it. Turn back into the nice guy I once knew.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)

Soundtrack:

Rhythm Emotion

A good Intro to Gundam, but far from the best.........

OK, firstly, i'd like to state that this review is for the English dub version of Gundam Wing, but only because i have not had the time to watch it in its original audio track. OK, on with the review.

I'd like to begin with the plot. Many people may claim that its a spin on the original MSG 0079 series of the UC series. OK, maybe there's a hint of it, but compared to others (such as SEED, which I'm told is a re-telling of 0079) this couldn't be further from the truth. For the first 6-7 episodes the beginning story is that the colonies have sent 5 gundam pilots to earth to fight for the freedom of the colonies from the oppressive Earth Sphere Aliance.

The characters of the series are a mixed bunch. Of the 5 gundam pilots, i only ever truly liked Duo and Heero, whilst not caring to much for the others (Quatre drove me nuts with his whining and Wufei was non-existent for much of the first half, and complained a lot). Many people have argued that Heero's counter part, Zechs is a blatant rip-off of Char (of 0079) and in terms of looks he is, but he is one of the better characters that emerges through the series. Whilst I'm talking about characters, id like to bring up Relena. Now she has to be the most annoying character EVER !!. No, really, I can understand why she was included in the series, but i think that they put too much emphasis on her being the peace-wanting person, as in the end it was just frustrating to watch any scenes that she was in.

Despite the serious nature to the show, i always felt that it was just too kiddy-like in how it was presented. Where as in some of the other Gundam series or other anime, people die, even main characters. However, whilst we see many mobile suits blow up, or a glance of the pilots face, very rarely do we see a main character die which isn't what id expect from a series that is trying to show that war is wrong. This leads me nicely to my next complaint with Gundam wing, is that it takes itself far to seriously. The constant theme of Pacifism, i lost count how many times it was thrown in a sentence (mainly Relena).

On a plus side, the gundam designs are excellent and very unique compared to each other. The animation is brilliant and still stands well today compared to some more modern Animation. Another plus is the music score, especially the opening song for the first half of the series "Two-Mix; Just Communication" is catchy (although cheesy, plus spot the sexual under-tones)

To conclude then, this is a good anime, one that most people seem to see in order to get into anime (it was my path). Whilst it has excellent animation an fight scenes, its dragged down by its plot and some of the characters that are too bland and 1 dimensional. Make no mistake, a good anime, but not the best Gundam series.

6.5/10