Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
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| Aired: | Japan: April 7 1995 - March 29 1996 US: March 6 2000 - 2004 |
| Episodes: | 49 |
| Produced: | Sunrise |
| Director: | Masashi Ikeda |
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing was a 49 episode anime broadcast in Japan beginning in 1995 and later broadcast in the United States in 2000 on the popular Cartoon Network Toonami programming block.
The successor to Mobile Fighter G Gundam, this series combined bishounen character design with more traditional mecha anime to great popularity.
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Additional Information
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, known in Japan as New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (新機動戦記ガンダムＷ Shin Kidō Senki Gandamu Uingu?),[1] was an anime series in the mecha genre, and is one of the alternate universe Gundam series, taking place in the After Colony timeline. It is the second alternate universe in the Gundam media franchise, following Mobile Fighter G Gundam. The plot centers around a war between Earth and its colonies in space; however, in contrast to the Universal Century continuity, the Gundams in Wing are more closely allied to each other than they are to any particular side in the conflict unfolding around them.
The series was aired across Japan on the anime satellite television network, Animax, and the terrestrial TV Asahi network. It ran for forty-nine half-hour episodes, beginning on April 7, 1995 and ending on March 29, 1996. Directed by Masashi Ikeda and written by Katsuyuki Sumizawa (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers) with music by Kō Ōtani, the series was loosely based on the original 1979 Gundam series, Mobile Suit Gundam, created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate. Also, Gundam Wing was the first anime in the Gundam franchise to be dubbed and released in tagalog, airing on GMA 7 in the Philippines during the late 1999 to 2000 period. Then Cartoon Network in the United States in 2000
Series Summary
Plot
The story of Gundam Wing begins in the year After Colony 195, with the start of "Operation: Meteor", the scientists' plan for revenge against the OZ military organization. The operation involves five young boys who have each been chosen and trained by one of the five rogue scientists, then sent to Earth independently in extremely advanced Mobile Suits, one designed by each of the scientists, known as "Gundams". Their Mobile Suits are called Gundams because they are constructed from a rare and astonishingly durable material known as Gundanium alloy, which can only be created in outer space.
The five Gundam Pilots — Heero Yuy (an alias, not to be confused with the assassinated leader), Duo Maxwell (also an alias), Trowa Barton (another alias, he was previously known as Nanashi (No-Name)), Quatre Raberba Winner, and Chang Wufei — originally have no knowledge of each others' existence. On first meeting any of the other five, each pilot believes the others to be enemy pilots in new OZ mobile suit designs. Once the young pilots realize that they have the same objective of destroying OZ (and in some cases the same mission), they band together to help each other complete their goals.
Media Information
Gundam Wing had a run on Cartoon Network's Toonami, premiering on Monday, March 6, 2000 at 5:30 PM EST. In the promos leading up to the broadcast, Peter Cullen narrated the back story, evoking memories of Voltron's opening credits. It was broadcast in two formats; an edited version shown in the daytime and an uncut version aired at night. Examples of the edits included the removal of blood, obscene language, and the word kill being replaced by the word destroy. (This was extended to Duo's nickname, "The God of Death", with it being changed to "The Great Destroyer", forcing the alteration of two episode titles.) The uncut version, shown at midnight, was completely unedited - a first for Cartoon Network, which at the time had never shown an unedited anime.
Due to the popularity of the series,[citation needed] two OVAs, compiling various scenes from the series along with a few minutes of new footage, were released in 1996 as Gundam Wing: Operation Meteor I and II. A three-volume OVA series, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, was produced in 1997 as a sequel to the TV series; plot-wise, it ends the After Colony saga. In 1998, a movie version of the OVA series was made, with new footage and a different ending (Last Impression).
Manga sidestories have also been produced. A prequel, detailing the events leading up to the launch of the Gundams to Earth, is Episode Zero. Several sequel manga, occurring between Gundam Wing and Endless Waltz have been written, titled, Gundam Wing: Blind Target, Gundam Wing: Ground Zero,and Battlefield of Pacifists. A coincident storyline is presented in Last Outpost (G-Unit). The Gundam Wing, Battlefield of Pacifists, and Endless Waltz manga series are published in English by TOKYOPOP, while Blind Target, Ground Zero, and Episode Zero are published by Viz Communications. Another sequel manga detailing the future of the colonies entitled New Mobile Report Gundam Wing Sidestory: Tiel's Impulse was printed in 1998 and has not been published in America.
In 1996, a fighting game called Gundam Wing: Endless Duel was released for the Super Famicom in Japan. The game was never released in the United States or Europe, but has gained some popularity through the emulation of older video games. Since then, Gundam Wing had appeared in several entries in the Super Robot Wars series, its number of appearances are second only to the Universal Century. Gundam Wing also appeared in all of the titles of Another Century's Episode, with all five Gundam pilots and Zechs Merquise using their respective machines in Another Century's Episode 1 and 2, and Heero Yuy being the only one present in Another Century's Episode 3.
Like most Gundam works, Gundam Wing has also appeared in the SD Gundam sub-franchise. It was the main focus for Musha Senki and the basis for Superior Defender Gundam Force's interpretation of Lacroa, established hub of the Knight Gundam series.
Cast
Gundam pilots
Gundam Supporters
OZ
Romerfeller Foundation
Alliance
Civilians
White Fang
Gundam Scientists
Additional Information
Trivia
- In Episode 3, "Five Gundams Confirmed", when they are showing the computer statistics of Heero's body the text on top of the screen is actually the installation instructions and requirements for "TWAIN Abode Photoshop".
- In episode 8, "The Treize Assassination", when Heero is disarming the bombs, the panel he is accessing says "Intel Outside".
- Many of the characters are named after numerals, particularly French numbers. Lady "Une" = One; "Duo" Maxwell = Two; "Trowa" Barton = Three (Trois); "Quatre" Raberba Winner = Four; Chang "Wufei" (Wu); General "Septem" = Seven (Sept); "Treize" Khushrenada = Thirteen; "Quinze" Barton = Fifteen; "Milliardo" Peacecraft = Billion (Milliard); "Zechs" Merquise = six (German)
- An alternate ending was animated in which Relena reads Heero's letter before calling out to him and tearing it up; screencaps of it can be found floating around the Net.
- Several references to the Universal Century were hidden in Gundam Wing as "Easter eggs". In one scene, Wing's monitor reads "Charging M-Particles" (a reference to the mega-particles that make up the beam rifle blasts in the Universal Century). Later, when Quatre looks over Sandrock's blueprints, the Gundam is said to possess a Movable Flame (sic), Gundarium Theta, and ALICE Mk-II (a reference to the photonovel Gundam Sentinel).
- The name OZ stands for "Organization of Zodiac"; this is further evidence by the naming scheme of their weapons: Leo, Aries, Cancer, Pisces, Taurus, Virgo and Libra. The ground-use Tragos stands in for Capricorn ("tragos" is Greek for goat). Subsequent manga stories introduce the Gundam Geminass (Gemini), Hydra and Scorpio, and the G-Generation series of video games introduced the Gundam Aquarius.
- In the original draft, episodes 27 and 28 would have been flashbacks, revealing important moments from the Gundam pilots' and Relena's pasts. Unfortunately, scheudling conflicts arose which lead to head writer Katsuyuki Sumisawa quitting the series. The episodes were turned into recap episodes, and the backstories were archived in the manga Episode Zero.
- Scott McNeil thought of the time his wife accidentally ran over his motorcycle to get himself in the proper frame of mind for Duo's infamous scream in the English dub of episode 20.
- When Sally Po is viewing the data on Heero, the information being displayed is actually instructions for installing TWAIN devices into Adobe Photoshop.
External Links
| After Colony | |
|---|---|
| Anime | New Mobile Report Gundam Wing | Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz | Comprehensive Episode Listing |
| Events | |
| Topics | Nations and Factions |Locations | Characters | Technology | Mobile Suits | Warships and Spacecraft |
| Books | Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Episode Zero | Gundam W Dual Story: G-UNIT | New Mobile Report Gundam W: Battlefield of Pacifists | New Mobile Report Gundam Wing Sidestory: Tiel's Impulse | Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Technical Guide |
| Other Timelines | Universal Century | Future Century | After War | CC (Seireki) | Cosmic Era | Anno Domini | SD Gundam |
