A landmark for anime on television, yet far from the best Gundam series

cpm6

Gundam Wing is one of the first anime programs broadcast on American television that hasn't suffered from too many edits or sound/music changes. It also is directed at an older audience than most of the current anime offerings on TV (Although kids will no doubt get a hoot out of the giant robot battles). Gundam Wing is the 6th television series. The Gundam series is sort of the Japanese equivalent to Star Trek or Star Wars, and features some parrarels(Most notably the light-saber like 'beam sabers')However, unlike it's brothers on the other side of the Pacific, it doesn't have aliens or faster-than-light travel. It does, however, have a staple of anime-massive mecha(Giant robot). The original Gundam set the stage for later mecha classics such as Macross(AKA Robotech generation one) and Evangelion with it's gritty combat and character focus, as opposed to old mecha shows of the 70s in which a mecha would be controlled by multiple pilots in goofy uniforms and always end it's battle with a ridiculously overpowered weapon(Like in Voltron, for example). This is one of the reasons that Gundam Wing is disappointing. First off, Gundam Wing is a little too much like those old super robot shows, as the Gundams are outfitted with super-powerful weapons and have somewhat goofy designs(Most notably Duo, Wufei, and Zech's Gundams). While this was ok in "G Gundam", it comes across as a little goofy this time. As for the masked ace with a lost sister, that's ripped straight from the original Gundam. Other story threads, such as drop operations on Earth, are also ripped straight from the other Gundam TV series/movies/videos. Gundam Wing's story is initially interesting, but gets bogged down by too many speeches, banal dialogue(Especially from Relena) and a revolution of the week. Last but not least, a lot of the animation is weak, even when compared with some of the older Gundam shows. There are some scenes which look great, but often there is a lack of detail(Especailly shading, which is one of the strengths of anime) and most notably, reused animation sequences. I suppose either the production team was either too lazy on this one, or spent all their cash animating "08th MS team"(Which came out the following year)

score /10

cpm6 14 December 2000

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0605639/