Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, known in Japan as New Mobile Report Gundam W (新機動戦記ガンダムW(ウイング)), is 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 Gundam pilots of Gundam Wing are more closely allied to each other than they are to any particular side in the conflict unfolding around them.

The series aired across Japan on the terrestrial TV Asahi network. The series ran for forty-nine half-hour episodes, beginning on April 7, 1995 and ending on March 29, 1996. Masashi Ikeda was the overall director of the series. Katsuyuki Sumizawa (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers) wrote the scenario for the series and was one of three official script-writers, along with Akemi Omode and Katsuhiko Chiba. Ikeda wrote one script himself and one with Omode and one with Sumizawa. Toshifumi Kawase also wrote three scripts in the latter part of the first half of the series. Kō Ōtani composed the music. The series was loosely based on the original 1979 series, Mobile Suit Gundam, created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate. Gundam Wing was among the first series in the Gundam franchise (not including OVAs) to be dubbed in English and was aired on Cartoon Network in the United States. Since then, the series has also been dubbed into Tagalog, French, Italian, German, Arabic, Spanish, Indonesian, Malay and Portuguese.

Plot
In the distant future, Mankind has colonized space (with clusters of space colonies at each of the five Earth-Moon Lagrange points), and, down on the Earth, the nations have united as the United Earth Sphere Alliance. However, the Alliance oppresses the colonies with its military power. The colonies desire a peaceful resolution to the situation, joining together in a movement headed by the pacifist Heero Yuy. In the year After Colony 175, Yuy is shot dead by an assassin (believed to be Odin Lowe), forcing the colonies to search for other paths to peace. The assassination also prompts five disaffected scientists from the Organization of the Zodiac, much more commonly referred to as OZ, to turn rogue after the completion of the mobile suit prototype Tallgeese.

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 teenaged 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. Each Gundam is sent from a different colony and the pilots are initially unaware of the presence of the other pilots.

The series focuses primarily on the Gundam pilots; Heero Yuy (an alias, not to be confused with the martyred pacifist), Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, and Chang Wufei. Their Gundams are the Wing Gundam, Gundam Deathscythe, Gundam Heavyarms, Gundam Sandrock, and Shenlong Gundam respectively. Their mission is to attack OZ directly, in order to rid the Alliance of its weapons and free the colonies from its oppressive rule. The Gundam pilots each start out on separate missions, only to join up later on while on Earth. Along the way, Heero meets Relena Darlian, the daughter of Vice Foreign Minister Darlian. Relena seems like your average girl until she accompanies her father to outer space while on business. During a meeting, her father and other delegates who were discussing peace were murdered when a bomb disguised as a makeup compact was thrown into the delegation room. Before his death, the Vice Foreign Minister told Relena she was really Relena Peacecraft, heir to the pacifist Sanc Kingdom.

Although the five Gundams succeed in destroying several of OZ's supply bases and mobile suit factories, the sinister organization is still able to complete its ultimate goal of overturning the Alliance and becoming the new ruler of Earth and the colonies. The Gundams then band together for the first time, going after various points in OZ. Wufei goes after OZ's leader, Treize Kushrenada, only to be defeated. He swears to get his revenge and escapes. As the battles continue, Heero has several mobile suit battles with OZ's "Lightning Count," Zechs Merquise (whose true identity is Milliardo Peacecraft, Relena's older brother), who in his hunt for a mobile suit that can withstand a fight with a Gundam, comes across the remains of the unfinished Tallgeese. The Tallgeese was the first prototype OZ mobile suit designed by the same scientists who built the Gundams, before they defected. During their second encounter in Siberia, the colonies are held hostage by OZ's ruthless second-in-command Lady Une, and Heero, in response, self-destructs his Gundam, nearly killing himself in the process.

Later on, the Gundam pilots return to outer space, with Quatre sacrificing his Gundam to help the escape, only to find that the colonies they were sent from have now sided with OZ. This was brought about as Lady Une was sent to befriend the colonies to make peace. While this is going on, she has a much different demeanor than usual. Instead of her strict, angry OZ leader attitude, she is kindly, caring, and peaceful. This is due to her loyalty for Treize, who she may have a love interest for. This causes her to develop split personalities. One who is kindly and gentle, and one who is a strict and fearless commander. Upon returning to space, the Gundams are marked as rebels, and fall on hard times; Quatre returns home, only to witness his father's murder at the hands of OZ, while Heero, Duo, and Wufei are captured by OZ, and Trowa starts working for OZ, but does so as a double agent.

Meanwhile, the five scientists who built the Gundams wind up under OZ's employ again, this time to build new mobile suits that can stand up in a fight against the Gundams. This brings about the creation of two OZ Gundams: The Mercurius and the Vayeate. At the same time, technicians within OZ and its parent group, The Romefeller Foundation, created a new concept in mobile suit technology that allows suits to be controlled by an AI computer. This system was named the "Mobile Doll system." The system allowed for computer control to increase response time for mobile suits during battle as well as prevent human lives from being sacrificed. This upsets OZ leader, Treize Kushrenada, who was later confined to Romefeller's headquarters, as he believed that battles fought by humans was more honorable.

At this same time, the Wing Gundam Zero is introduced. This mobile suit, like the Talgeese, is the original Gundam designed by the five scientists, but was never constructed by them due to its massively destructive Twin-barrel Buster Rifle, which has the power to destroy an entire colony in one shot, as well as its signature feature, the ZERO System, a cockpit system that directly interfaces with the pilot's brain and feeds the pilot tactical data on the fly. The downside of this is that prolonged exposure causes hallucinations and in some cases, insanity. Following the death of his father, Quatre discovers the schematics for Wing Zero, left behind by Instructor H, and has it built as a replacement for his destroyed Gundam. He then uses it, only to be severely affected by the Zero System, causing him to become mentally unbalanced, and go on a rampage against OZ and the space colonies to avenge his father's death, taking out a natural resource satellite and an evacuated colony in the process. He is eventually stopped by Heero and Trowa, who were piloting the Mercurius and Vayeate repectively. As a result of the fight against Wing Zero, Trowa is nearly killed after repeat hits from "Zero's" Twin-barrel buster rifle, causing the Vayeate to explode. Trowa somehow manages to escape at the last second but from the blast suffers temporary amnesia as a result.

Wing Zero is taken into possession by OZ, who tries to test the Zero System with the hopes of possibly including it into their current mobile suits. However, Mobile Doll Chief Engineer Tuberoff sees the Gundam as a threat to his Mobile Dolls and orders it to be destroyed. Before this happens, members of a new faction of OZ, calling themselves "The Treize Faction," as they agreed with OZ's leader over the matter of the Mobile Dolls, attack and safely hide the two Gundam pilots as well as the five scientists. Ultimately, OZ was able to get Heero to run simulations in Wing Zero's cockpit, only to be adversely affected by the system, causing Heero to go on a rampage. Quatre stops him with the Mercurius just in time for Heero to hallucinate over an image of Relena. Quatre and Heero then depart to return to Earth.

Once back on Earth, Heero and Quatre take refuge in the newly reopened Sanc Kingdom, which is governed by none other than Relena, who by this time seems somewhat smitten with Heero. The kingdom however is being pressured by the Romefeller Foundation for its pacifist ways, with its leader, Duke Dermeil, to send his own granddaughter, Dorothy Catalonia, to keep an eye on Relena and report what she's up to within her kingdom. Meanwhile, from within in his confinement, Treize secretly builds the Gundam Epyon and later gives it to Heero. Much like Wing Zero, Epyon is equipped with the ZERO System, which Heero discovers very quickly. After being affected by the system, Heero fights once more against a returning Zechs, who is piloting Wing Zero. Both men fight a fierce battle against not only each other, but against OZ' new mobile doll type suits, the Virgos. After the battle ends in another draw, they exchange Gundams. At the same time, Relena formally dissolves the Sanc Kingdom due to the tremendous pressure from Romefeller. She then becomes the chief representative for the foundation (at first in image and gradually in real life) under the title Queen of the World.

Eventually, Treize is released from confinement and relieves Relena of her crown. Treize then takes control of the Romefeller Foundation and, at the same time, Zechs, who is devastated over the loss of the Sanc Kingdom, returns to space and is convinced by a man named Kannz to become the leader of the White Fang organization, under his true name of Milliardo Peacecraft. The White Fang has seized control of a Peacemillion class battleship OZ was building for Romefeller to show its military power, called Libra, as well as the new Mobile Doll suits, the Virgo II's, which were designed with the capabilities of both the Mercurius and Vayate. Zechs fires the main cannon of Libra at the Earth, causing great damage to the planet. This prompts Treize to start gathering all of the military power he can muster from Earth's forces to retaliate, consisting mostly of Space capable Leo Mobile suits, while the Gundam pilots remain neutral.

The White Fang try to fire the cannon again this time at Treize, who is leading the assault in the rebuilt Tallgeese II. When the cannon is fired, it actually hits the rebuilt Wing Gundam, destroying its lower half. The pilot of the Gundam is revealed to be Lady Une. The White Fang then continue to take it to the Earth forces by taking out the only remaining OZ base in space, Space Fortress Barge. Eventually, the Gundam pilots choose to fight against the White Fang. Zechs decides to move in towards Earth to finish it off, but is stopped when the Gundams and Zechs' old friend, Howard, ram their ship, Peacemillion, into Libra's main cannon, taking it out permanently. During the epic final battle, Treize is killed in battle against Wufei, while Heero fights against Zechs one last time. Their battle is broadcast to all of Earth and space. When the citizens see the battle, they put aside their differences, whether from the colonies or from earth, and form what becomes the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. However, the Zechs and the White Fang refuse to surrender and attempts to send the wreckage of Libra and Peacemillion plunging down to Earth. After several attempts from the other four Gundams to prevent this, Heero intercepts the battle station's remains as it enters Earth's atmosphere and destroys it with Wing Zero's twin buster rifle, bringing an end to the war. After the war, The Gundam pilots attempt to live normal lives, and Relena reassumes her family name of Darlian, and begins work as the new Vice Foreign Minister. As she boards a shuttle heading for space on her birthday, she finds that someone had left her a teddy bear and birthday card. She looks out the shuttle window, only to see Heero removing his shuttle crewman's disguise.

Anime
After the series ended, 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 brought the After-Colony timeline to a close. In 1998, a movie version of Endless Waltz was made, with additional footage, alterations of the music scores, and a different ending theme song.

Gundam Wing was later dubbed into English by The Ocean Group and broadcast in the U.S. on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, premiering on March 6, 2000 and ending on May 11, 2000. In the first extended promo leading up to the series' premiere, voice actor Peter Cullen narrated the back story, evoking memories of Voltron's opening credits. The promo was said to be so riveting that Bandai Entertainment decided to use it as the official promo for the series.

It was broadcast in two formats on Cartoon Network; an edited version shown in the daytime on Toonami and an uncut version shown past midnight as part of Toonami's "Midnight Run." Examples of the edits included the removal of blood, obscene language, and the word "kill" being replaced with the word "destroy" (this was extended to Duo's nickname, "The God of Death", changed to "The Great Destroyer", forcing the alteration of two episode titles), though the word "death" was mostly left intact. The uncut version shown was completely unedited - a first for Cartoon Network, which at the time had never shown an unedited anime. Reception for the uncut version was a factor in the eventual creation of Adult Swim, which joined the network on September 2, 2001.

All Gundam Wing episodes have been released on VHS and DVD in the U.S. Differences between the two video systems is that the episodes on VHS contain the edited version while the episodes on DVD contain the uncut version. Endless Waltz was also dubbed by The Ocean Group and an edited version of it aired on Cartoon Network on November 10, 2000. It was later released on a DVD that contains both the OVA and movie versions.

Music

 * Openings:
 * Just Communication by Two-Mix (ep. 1-40) (YTV Broadcast: 1-49)
 * Rhythm Emotion by Two-Mix (ep. 41-49)


 * Ending:
 * It's Just Love! by Rumi Onishi (ep. 1-49)
 * Just Communication (Instrumental Version) by Kō Ōtani (Toonami Broadcast, ep. 1-49; the credits aired over an amended version of the show's first opening)


 * Insert songs:
 * Just Communication by Two-Mix (eps. 3 & 49)
 * Rhythm Emotion by Two-Mix (eps. 36, 38, 39, and 41)

Manga
Manga sidestories have also been produced. A prequel, detailing the events leading up to series, is Episode Zero. A coincident storyline is presented in Last Outpost (G-Unit). Several sequel manga, occurring between Gundam Wing and Endless Waltz have been written: Blind Target, Ground Zero, and Battlefield of Pacifists. The Gundam Wing, Battlefield of Pacifists, and Endless Waltz manga series were published in English by Tokyopop, while Blind Target, Ground Zero, and Episode Zero were published by Viz Communications. Another sequel manga detailing the future of the colonies entitled Tiel's Impulse was printed in 1998 and has not been published in the United States.

Upcoming 2010 Novelization
In early 2010, it was announced in Gundam Ace magazine that a "New Gundam Wing Project" will be serialized in the magazine. The first installment, Frozen Teardrop, will be written by Katsuyuki Sumizawa and appears to begin a new timeline, following "MC" rather than the previous "AC" calendar. . According to an interview with the author, the stories will span backwards into the AC century, and the Gundam pilots, Relena, and their children will make appearances.

Other media
In 1996 a fighting video game called Gundam Wing: Endless Duel was released for the Super Famicom in Japan. It was the only Gundam video game to be based solely on Gundam Wing. 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 characters and mecha have appeared in several other video game series including Super Robot Wars, Gundam Battle Assault, Another Century's Episode, and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam.

Upon the show's popular debut in North America, Gundam Wing received a large roster of licensees for merchandise including wallscrolls, apparel, school supplies, skateboards, trading cards, and action figure models.

Reception
Gundam Wing was only a modest success in Japan during its initial run; it, along with G Gundam, was the only Gundam series of the 1990s which managed an average television rating over four percent. It was ranked number two in Animage magazine's Anime Grand Prix in 1996 and was also ranked number 76 in the publication's list of the 100 most important anime of all time.

Gundam Wing was a greater success in North America however, and is credited with single-handedly popularizing the Gundam franchise among Western audiences. Just over a week after its premiere on Cartoon Network on March 6, 2000, the series was the top rated program in all age groups. During the summer of 2000, it remained as the first or second top-rated show among kids and teens during its twelve airings per week on the Toonami block. The initial airing of the OVA Endless Waltz on November 10, 2000 was the channel's second highest rated program ever at the time, only being topped by the season three premiere of Dragon Ball Z.