Today's review is on a bit of a dated anime, at least at this point. Due to the large number of "Mobile Suit..." shows out there I will simply be calling this show just Gundam Wing. Endless Waltz is technically just 3 additional episodes, but I call it a movie to finish the series off.
So first off is Gundam Wing. The show takes place at some point in the future where mankind has taken to the stars and built a variety of space colonies. But more specifically the show centers around 5 teenage boys all of whom come from different colonies. All 5 are Mobile Suit pilots, though specifically they all pilot Gundams which are advanced suits made of the advanced element Gundanium. The series starts with the 5 boys being terrorists who are sent to Earth with various missions as they go along. The boys at first are completely oblivious to each other as they were each from different colonies and each was trained by a different scientist.
First of the boys I will talk about is Quatre Raberba Winner. He is the first guy in the picture who is wearing the vest and tan pants. Quatre is the kindest of the 5 and is also the only one with an entire army with him. He is also the only one with a family that the show actually reveals and talks about. His Gundam is known as Sandrock. His nationality is Arab. Next is Duo Maxwell which is the second guy in the picture who is wearing all black. Duo is a playful person who when he isn't having fun he considers himself to be the God of Death. His Gundam is my personal favorite and it holds the name of Deathscythe. His nationality is American. Next I will mention is the 5th guy in the line up Chang Wufei. Though everyone just calls him Wufei. He is an extremely good fighter both in and out of his Gundam which is called Nataku, at least that's what he calls it. Wufei tends to be a bit heartless which in the end does help him complete his missions without remorse and worry. His nationality is Chinese. Next to Wufei in the picture is Trowa Barton which is my favorite character within the series. Trowa has no background, he has no previous life. Trowa Barton isn't even the name he was born with, he was considered No Name until events occurred and he took the name from a dead person. Trowa pilots the Gundam Heavyarms which is a bit ironically my least favorite Gundam. Trowa's nationality is a bit unknown due to his life being almost completely unknown, though he is believed to be European of some sort. Finally we have Heero Yuy, the most important of all the Gundam pilots and the one in the center of the picture. Heero pilots the Wing Zero Gundam which is often considered the most advanced of the Gundams and possibly the strongest. Though that may just be Heero himself. He is a bit of loner in most cases. He is completely devoted to his missions and as such he lives no real life other than the missions he has. He comes from Japan.
Finally there is one last character I feel is important to mention is Relena Darlian (though her last name changes later in the series due to certain circumstances). Relena ends up having an interesting relationship with Heero that I don't want to spoil. She is the female lead of the show. She travels the Earth and space becoming a political leader of various places or being held for ransom or other various things. The show is majorly made up of politics. Countries rise and countries fall. Politicians rise and politicians are assassinated. And to help keep the series exciting the enemies become more and more powerful as the series continues.
The series has 49 episodes, each of which are about 22 minutes. The series does have an ending, though having the "movie" afterwards it helps finish it off.
Endless Waltz as I said is technically 3 episodes but it combines easily to become a single movie that is about 80 minutes. This series continues off from the show, however they changed a lot of the artwork and animation styles of the characters and Gundams. For example Wing Zero gains actual wings in this movie.
The movie is about a new political leader named Mariemaia. Even though she is only 7 years old she has a full army behind her. She gains control over just about everything, including kidnapping Relena. Unfortunately the only force that would be able to stop her is the Gundams, but most of them have sent their mobile suits into the sun. So they are forced to reacquire their suits before they are actually destroyed. The movie also reveals more about some of the characters backgrounds. Especially Trowa's background.
I grew up on this show a bit when I was 8 or so. The show came out in the U.S. in 2000 I believe, but it was removed from American television after 9/11 due to the terrorism issue. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and as such I give it a 10 out 11, but I give the finale an 11 out of 11. It was both inspirational and exciting. I thought Endless Waltz was very well done. While it wasn't as violent as the show I still found it to be quite enjoyable. So in the end I give it a 10 out of 11 as well as the show.
