It was the year 1995. Over fifteen years had passed since Gundam first aired on Japanese TV, and a mere week had passed since the first Gundam show not directed by Yosiyuki Tomino had finished airing. After the martials are setting of G Gundam, Sunrise decided to take Gundam back to basics, and return the metaseries to being a serious war drama. Perhaps this would be a return to form for Gundam?
Gundam Wing takes place in "After Colony" 195. In this timeline, an Earth Alliance has been controlling the space colonies around Earth for some time, and the people of space have grown to resent this. In response, five mad scientists from each colony covertly design, build, and send five top secret Gundams to Earth, tasking their teenage pilots with destroying the Alliance military, and especially its mysterious special forces division, OZ.
One of the difficulties of describing Gundam Wing to an audience is attempting to describe the plot. The first 10 or so episodes are straightforward, if occasionally dull. The pilots of the Gundams blow up a base, a enemy pilot shouts "It's a Gundam!" and dies, and one of the Gundam pilots proves how eccentric they are. Usually Heero. From then on, however, the plot gets increasing labyrinthine. One side betrays another, a new military factions rise as if from a vacuum. The plot the show is attempting to tell, is one of how a single coup d'etat can cause a complete collapse in civil order, and lead to years, or in this case only months, of civil war.
The issue is, Gundam Wing was written by children. Well, perhaps that's too harsh. It was written by a very rushed production team, who have the geopolitical world view of children. For example, take this glowing exchange, where one of the mad scientists explains to the heroine Relena, the shocking principal of killing evil people.
This somewhat childish perspective, where punishing evil is seen as astonishing, applies to much of the events and characters of Gundam Wing. The Gundam pilots are lauded as great heroes by every major character in the show, despite the obvious questionability of their actions. To be clear, the Gundam pilots are not affiliated with anyone in particular. When they land on Earth, they're not even aware there are other pilots or other Gundams. Each has been tasked with simply blowing up enough Alliance military and OZ bases, until the Earth Alliance somehow gets the message to pull its troops out of colonies. Essentially, our heroes are lone-wolf terrorists who commit random acts of violence, in the hopes that this will intimidate people into accepting their demands, that they don't seem to have broadcast to anyone in particular.
Yes, Gundam Wing is not the most tightly plotted show of all time. Characters start fights with little provocation, loyal soldiers turn their backs on their sides like its nothing. Worse is that the story constantly and uncritically takes the side of the protagonists, with little thought to how third parties would realistically view the Gundam pilots. For example, when the Marshall of the Alliance military is accidentally murdered by one of the main Gundam pilots, this is the response of his wife, a letter to his assassin. "You made a mistake in battle, but stop suffering over it. My Husband died trying to build a world where genuine young men like yourselves could live happily..... Our family is honored to have met you!" This is the letter the widowed wife wrote, to a man that had already killing thousands of men under her husband's command.
The show has a strange disconnect. Inside any individual episode, there may be a brief story where one of the Gundam pilots goes through a mini arc, and this mini arc will be a enjoyable diversion. Wufei in particular has some strong episodes at the start, defining him as a honorable, arrogant, and chauvinist warrior, who earns the respect of the antagonists for abandoning his Gundam for a one on one sword duel. Heero, and his topsy turvy, kill her or make love to her romance with Relena, makes for an entertaining, soap opera feeling experience. In some ways, the show is easy to recommend because of this. Where else are you going to find a teenage girl falling in love with her emo assassin, who slowly reciprocates her feelings?
What enhances this is the fact that, with perhaps one exception, all the main characters are strong willed and active protagonists. They're not exceedingly complex characters, but they are likable and entertaining enough. Watching Heero tell the audience in a perfect monotone, that the best way to live one's life is to act on their emotions, is hilarious. Watching wisecracking Duo start a relationship with a girl as passionate about saving the colonies as he is, is heartwarming. Watching Treize or Lady Une put their lives on the line, to show how they despise the idea of killing machines replacing the human heart on battle, is inspiring. And on top of that, the show can be just straight wacky. It's the type of show with events that are jokes out of other movies, played totally straight.
One also has to consider Gundam Wing's "competition", for lack of a better word. The early Gundam shows, directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, are subtle. They rely on subtext and observed character action when communicating character arcs to the audience. Gundam Wing is quite different. These characters are upfront about their feelings, directly stating who they are or monologuing about their motivations. At times, the show can begin to resemble Metal Gear Solid, with characters using verbose, blunt, yet also vague language to describe their ideals.
Ideals are at the center of Gundam Wing. Relena Peacecraft's ideals of total pacifism, the ideals of the common soldier, Treize Khusrenada's ideals of the gentleman warrior, and rejection of war by computer. The show is idealistic in the extreme, sometimes to the point of being blind to the subjectivity of war and politics, or even where a character's greater loyalties should lie.
Zechs Merquise is a perfect example of this. During the show, Zechs willfully abandons his duty as an OZ ace to eliminate the Gundam pilots, instead indulging in his desire to fight a Gundam pilot, in single combat. He has his most trusted officer search out the Gundam pilots, and invite them personally to his base, as if they were his most valued guests. He even has his subordinates must shoot down fellow OZ/Romefeller pilots to keep the duel a secret, a clearly traitorous act, yet one his soldiers comply with. Romefeller are the bad guys now, and even the previous bad guys of the week realize that. Look, their inspector even wears a bowler hat, what can be more evil then that?
While Gundam Wing will dwell on the fact justice can be a very personal view, it does not dwell on the personal views of those the show depicts as "evil" or "irrelevant". Even when organizations like OZ are lead by heroic men like Treize, the protagonists never question whether they are on the right side, nor does the show. And sure, I hear you say, "Treize assassinated Relena's father, that's horrible". That is true. Is it any more horrible then murdering thousands of soldiers, with no plan of how their deaths will lead to peace? At least Treize acted like he almost regretted it. When the protagonists do doubt themselves, it's often for esoteric reasons, such as "I'm a coward who can only fight those weaker than me." Surely, one can find better motivations for a protagonist, then a near tautology.
And yet Gundam Wing persists. Despite its shortcomings, its fallacies, its sloppy writing, Gundam Wing is one of the most popular Gundam shows, both in the West and in Japan.
Surely, one reason is as complicated as Gundam Wing's plot becomes, it can be hard to keep track of everything going on. Better to enjoy the moment, and each individual episode. Tune in this week, and watch what wacky and dramatic adventures your favorite character is up to.
As I said, while the characters are rarely complex, they all have some depth to them, and they are all likable enough. Character and mecha designs are both flashy and attractive as well, the action choreography is often well done, even if some give the show grief for stock footage. When the music plays and a Gundam blows away half a military base with one shot, Gundam Wing can be really enthralling. This is to say nothing of the movie sequel Endless Waltz, which is a much tighter story then anything in Gundam Wing, and features some of the greatest mecha animation of all time. I'd almost recommend people to skip the show and read a synopsis, and then jump straight to that movie.
As for the show itself, I find Gundam Wing hard to recommend, but I will say this much. Watch the first episode. If you're not enthralled by it, don't bother, there's nothing in the rest of the show you'll latch on to. But if you enjoy that episode, if you can "turn off your brain", you might find something to enjoy in Gundam Wing.
Excellent review.