Gundam Wing Endless Waltz

The format will be similar to my show review, but given that this is an adaptation of a show there will be some assessment of it's ability to do emulate the original work.

Setting:

The universe is the same as the series and almost a year to the day after the last great battle before the era of peace, over seen by the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. Occasional problems arise but are dealt with by the ESUN's preventer force an elite group trained in to put out fires. Most of the group are characters we know.

Characters:

the same cast essentially even Milliardo/Zechs reappears (this would bother me but Noin noted a belief that he was still alive at the end of the series so no resurrection foul here). I also enjoyed that they gave us each brief glimpses into the beginnings of each gundam pilots journey (just prior to project meteor) I'm only going to touch on notable changes in the characters from the series or things I've noted as significant, as well as the notable new characters.

Milliardo Peacecraft/Zechs Marquise

I'm actually really glad that they brought back Milliardo/Zechs, I was disappointed that such a great character was allowed to fall into villainy. He is actually offered a chance at redemption to prevent the very act he once tried to commit (the crashing of a large object into earth), and he is reunited with Noin (the true love story of the show), and they finally get their happy ending.

Heero Yuy:

Becomes a real person! He gains ability to express himself, and his feelings, he remains stoic and focused but now we are given insight into who he is and what he is about. I think the writers just bought into their own hype about him and actually wrote him that way rather than blatantly telling us who he is or what sort of person he might be we are shown by his actions and what he says.

The rest of the main pilots remain true to themselves. Wufei is having a crisis related to his final battle with Treize, and how it shook him about how to determine what is right and who is good. Quatre, Duo, and Trowa are all the same characters (though we learn that "Trowa" is not his real name, but one he took from the original pilot of Heavy Arms) as they were before which is no complaint. After all if it ain't broke don't fix it, right?

Mariemaia Khushrenada

She is one of two new characters in this story and the primary villain of the story. She is a 7 year old prodigy (I say that because of her ability to grasp concepts that were way over my head when I saw this movie originally at the age of 9). She is the daughter of the deceased Treize and a daughter of the Barton family. She turns out to be just a player in the scheme Dekim Barton has hatched.

Dekim Barton:

The head of both the Barton foundation and the Barton family. He acts in the shadows and turns out to have had some importance in the development of project meteor particularly the Heavy Arms Gundam his son was originally meant to pilot.

Plot:

the Plot is simple but excellent. Dekim Barton has been grooming his grandaughter Mariemaia to take her father's place as the ruler of the world. Also in the ESUN there are no Mobile suits, but the Barton's have themselves an army that stands poised to strike. It is revealed that to help Mariemaia ascend to power he is initiating the original Project Meteor, which involved threatening the Earth into compliance, but preparing to destabilize a colony's orbit and bring it crashing down to the Earth.

So the Pilots just go racing in guns blazing in the Gundams right? Wrong, the gundams (all except for Wufei's) have been packed up and sent toward the sun, as a last step in the disarmament process. Worse yes not only does Wufei have his gundam but he has joined up with the barton Foundation claiming that he can't really know what is right. Trowa joins under the guise of defection while Heero and Duo sneak in and high jack a pair of mobile suits before beginning a rousing gun fight where they encounter the two inside men.

Eventually they escape and the four reclaim their gundam's while Zech's gets to use the Tallgeese which has been kept in the care of Lady Une (now head of the preventer forces). so the stage is set for an awesome fight.

Relena who has been captured by Mariemaia, tries to dissuade her from her plan but to no avail. They end up baracading themselves in a base on earth that is almost impenetrable, even if there weren't a few hundred mobile suits guarding the place. the Pilots, (except for Heero and Wufei who are engaged in a battle falling through the atmosphere at the moment), begin their assault on the place, making sure not to kill the soldiers (realizing that they were once like them at the outset of project meteor). Heero and Wufei eventually separate, wufei joins up with a group of people stirred to action by Dorothy Catalonia, and Heero broods for a bit.

The throng of people (some of whom are former soldiers and survivors of the great battle a year ago) arrive protesting the Barton's claim on the throne. Since they fought to attain peace, they will now fight to retain it. as the number of soldiers seems on the verge of outdoing the pilots the group arrives, as does Heero who uses the exceptional power of Wing Zero's buster rifle to shoot all the way down to the base where the Barton's are held up along with Lady Une and Relena.

Defeated Dekim decries the situation and insists that Mariemaia, who is beginning to understand that she never deserved her place as leader, join back with him. But as she approaches him Une goes to slap her silly and Relena beats her to it. Mariemaia comes to her senses about this whole situation, and ends up taking a bullet for Relena when Dekim tries to shoot her.

As for the Gundams, they are each destroyed, and as the Epilogue states, the weapons known as mobile suits were never used again in the earth sphere.

Analysis:

The themes of this story are slightly different from those of the series.

"War, Peace and Revolution"

These three elements are referred to by Mariemaia to be the three beats of the Endless Waltz (see what they did there?). Where as the original show focused on the relationship between war and peace in terms of attaining it, this show focuses on war and peace in the question of preserving peace and preventing new wars. Fortunately for this society the movement became that of a people (not just the politicians) united by the common goal of sustaining peace. But is such a peace only attainable briefly or under the guidance of a writer of fiction?

Overall:

This movie is truly an extension of the original work. It doesn't undermine the original in any way, except for those who wanted Zechs to stay dead. It even gives Heero a personality, and shows that for this society lasting peace can be a reality. It's an excellent end to a series. a minor complaint is related to Mariemaia's super young age, but it fits given that she needed to be young enough not to battle when Treize originally fought and died. but other than that I thought this movie got it all right, and in terms of art direction it redesigned the gundams putting newer more intense versions of them in the final chapter of the story.

I'll miss this series but this made for a great going away present.

As always I appreciate comments and suggestions (since the format is still in development). I hope you've enjoyed this look into Gundam Wing Endless Waltz.

-matt

PS On my to-do list are the following: Trigun, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop.

PPS also the Movies Inception, Fargo, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Gundam Wing (analysis and overall)

So now we come to the end of it I hope you have enjoyed my thoughts so far. In this critical analysis segment I will focus on some interpretations of the meaning of elements as well as the themes of the show. In the overall I will just give my final impressions.

Critical Analysis:

I'd like to start by looking into a few of the themes of the show. Some of these I've already touched on, but I'll go into more depth here.

War and Peace

The most overt theme is this one. After all this is a story of a great war as people seek peace. We have the various ends of the spectrum represented in different characters. Some fall close to the belief of total pacifism others believe in the old adage, "in order to attain peace you must prepare for war." Some fight for peace overall, others for peace for their people. Almost every character is forced to discover what they feel about the goal of peace is it possible? is pacifism the key or must force be used? This theme runs to the heart of every moment of battle, or politics.

The Role of a Soldier

Many of the Soldiers lead other lives. Treize leads Oz, Milliardo eventually leads the White Fangs rebellion, Quatre operates his father business. But every soldier is faced to determine what part they are to play? Are they merely supposed to be empty shells to carry out missions as they are ordered to like Heero? Or are they to make decisions that their leaders can't (like Noin does in creating the Sanc Kingdom's defense forces)?

Moreover they don't just call into question the liberty of the soldier to decide for himself, but the need for soldiers at all. The overwhelming view of the Romefeller Foundation is that the age of soldiers is at an end with the Mobile Dolls to replace them, but what is war without soldiers? Treize states that is is no more than a game. He abandons OZ for a time in rejection of the mobile doll policy. He and other characters (Zechs/Milliardo and the entire group of Gundam pilots) believe that to remove the soldier is to remove any weight to the cost of waging war. The life of a soldier is of utmost importance in the fighting of wars, and the weight of its loss is the only thing that brings a value to peace. Treize finds this so critical in his own life that he knows the name of every person who has died for the sake of his ideal of peace.

What is Death?

For Trowa it is something to be outrun. For Duo it is something to meet head on and enter into in a glorious fashion. For Treize it is at its best sacrifice for a greater cause. But for each character the question of death is seen. For Wufei it is the barrier between himself and his wife. For Quatre is the sad end to which so many go needlessly. Even the wood stump, Heero, is given a perspective on this, which is that death is a necessary risk in order to achieve a goal. I enjoyed the probing look into each characters ideals of what death is or should be.

These themes help to inform some of the symbols used in the program. As I've said I think that there is a metaphor for the cold war being found in the arms race between the different factions. I think the Gundam represents the greatest potential for destruction (like the atomic bomb is for us). The Sanc Kingdom represents the inability of pacifism and neutrality to last in times of great conflict. I also think that the young age of the pilots, could actually represent the youth of the soldiers we send off to fight for ideals they, have grown to believe. The Colonies are analogous to any number of groups who broke away from their motherlands (america from England, latin countries from spain and portugal) and really encapsulate the ideal of breaking away from the old to pursue the new.

Overall:

I absolutely love Gundam Wing, even more than I did as a young boy running around pretending to be Trowa in the Heavy Arms Gundam. I didn't fully understand the intricacies of the plot and know that I have a better understanding I love it all the more. The characters are well conceived for the most part, and the plot flows naturally in a setting that it believable unto itself.

This show was a game changer in the ever changing genre of anime. It promoted detail in animation (which most were moving away from in pursuit of simpler animation that you find in most of it's contemporaries). It was also one of the earliest heralds of the age of anime in America and that it an anime could contain an real plot on par with other modes of story telling. It truly gave a sense of legitimacy to a genre plagued with criticism for it's over simplified story lines, simple appearance and cheap animation, found on that list would be Pokemon, and even fellow toonami favorites Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z.

Thank you for reading and I'll be doing a review for the movie, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, shortly.

-matt

Gundam Wing (Plot)

As you may have noticed this review is quite lengthy and I'd like to take a moment to explain why. This is a series (rather than a movie which would only take one review generally). Also this series is longer than the average anime (since most anime series have only a 26 episode run where as this one runs 49 episodes). This program boasts a broad cast of characters most of whom play a critical role in the out come of the story. The in-depth plot (to be covered in this segment) and characters result in some interesting implications for the shows meaning (to be discussed in the follow-up). Finally this series was part of a handful of series (many of the others will also be featured on this blog) that was responsible for bringing anime to the for front of American entertainment.

Consider that a PSA. Moving on...

Plot

The plot seems to break down to a few different groups. There are the political plot lines, the soldier plot lines and the character plot lines. There is obvious overlap between these areas (which is a sign of a great show) but I'll try to handle these separately.

Politics

Rather than try to summarize everything I'll give a general overview. No show I've watched, with the exception of 24, has the sort of political intrigue that Gundam Wing brings us. There's a Coup d'etat, several rebellious forces, pacifism against militarism, all of these play out as the show unfolds. Rebel factions find themselves rejected by the very groups they claim to represent, and devious plots that involve back door deals, deception of the masses, and assassinations. Truly this is the heart of the show. A fact missed by myself and many like me when we watched this show as children wishing we could skip all the boring stuff with Relena and get to the action. The twists and turns in the political region and their affect on both the soldiers and the average person in the show resonate with anyone who feels distanced from the politics of their day.

Soldiers

Much of the plot focuses on the soldiers, both in and out of battle. It deals with their motivations, their causes, and their philosophies on battle. Every clash between pilots (both gundams and mobile suits) represents a clash of ideals, which is made evident in the banter and rhetoric the pilots offer one another. There is also a consistent feeling of battles yet to be finished, which seems truer than the traditional tournament style fights of animes like Yu Yu Hakusho or Dragonball Z. The plot lines between allies and foes give a richness to the battles that is more than simply look at what they can do with that robot. I actually found myself rooting for the pilots because of their goals, not just their abilities or their coolness.

Characters:

You may wonder what characters there are outside of soldiers and politicians (and truth there are a very small number of characters that don't fit in either group), but what I really mean here are the Character development stories. As the Soldiers and Politicians, interact with one another they act as normal people, they are taking in what others believe and either accepting or rejecting their ideals. They are dealing with deep introspection about the propriety of the paths they've chosen. Whether or not what they seek to do is attainable, or right. Almost every major character finds themselves in moments of true doubt about themselves, what they thought their purpose must be. Many characters end up going on quests of self-discovery to better understand their place in the events of the past and where they wish to fit into the future of this world.

Love stories:

A small note on this aspect of the plot there are a few different romantic love stories that exist in this show. They include: Noin and Zechs, Treize and Lady Une, Trowa and Catherine, Duo and Hildi, and of course the awful Relena-Heero love story (if you can call it that). I actually really enjoyed the love story of Noin and Zechs, especially that they started with the same goals and drifted apart in ideologies but even as the series closes you realize their love for each other is still strong. Treize and Lady Une is a different story it's hard to say that they were in love but they definitely cared about each other greatly, always looking to protect the other no matter their distance. Trowa and Catherine's story manifested interestingly, it's not so much romantic as philial love, and she eventually tries to protect Trowa from his past like a good sister would. Duo and Hildi was surprisingly good; they actually began in an argument and ended up caring so deeply for one another that they risked their lives for the sake of the other.

Then there are Relena and Heero. Now I've already addressed Heero's lack of general compassion for anyone and the multiple times he plotted to kill Relena, but let me add a little more thought on this. This honestly felt like something out of a bad romance novel. Why are they in love? Because they are the lead protagonists of their respective genders. They share very little screen time with one another, and unlike other relationships I've mentioned, they appear to show every time these two see each other, not leaving any time for relationships to develop outside of the viewed times. In fact, I really wouldn't even call this a love story, they are truly just fixated on each other. I never get the sense that they are in love they just seem to think of each other at pivotal moments, because (as I've said) they are the lead protagonists.

The interplay of the different types of stories is spectacular. The affect the soldiers battles have on them as characters and on the political landscape as the Gundams begin to represent the weakness of OZ is simply stunning. The politics affect the goals of the soldiers and their considerations of who is on the right side of the ever growing conflicts, or if their is a right side. I adore this story, it incorporates elements of everything from colonial rebellions, to revolutions all the way to the Cold War. The politics never feel forced, each move comes naturally from the events preceding it. The decisions seem natural, even for the cardboard cut out that is Heero Yuy. I never question this plot other than the "love story," and it's because it doesn't present holes or difficulties of belief.

Next will be the final installment for this review series. An critical analysis of the show and my overall review.

-matt

Gundam Wing (characters)

(Pictured Left: left to right: Colonel Une, Treize Khushrenada, Dorothy Catalonia, Milliardo Peacecraft, Relena Peacecraft, Sally Poe, Lucrezia Noin, Catherine Bloom) (Picture Right: Left to right: Quatre Raberba Winner, Trowa Barton, Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Chang Wufei)

Characters:

Gundam Wing contains one of the broadest ensemble casts of meaningful characters in any anime I've watched, and meaningful is a key point. The overall themes of the show focus on the nature of war and peace and a soldiers purpose in battle, and the characters we are presented (with one notable exception) each have a depth to them that shows their philosophies of life, and battle as well as where they draw their purpose from and what they fight for, I even came to admire some of the antagonists for how well thought out their perspectives were. I'll touch on some of these things again in the Plot section but let's hit some of the main Characters (mainly the pilots), I’ll focus on their personalities rather than the mobile suits they operate.

Political Characters:

Relena Peacecraft:

Relena is the typical rich girl at the outset, until her father (who turns out to be her adopted father) reveals to her that she is a Peacecraft one of the last heirs of the Sanc Kingdom and part of the Noble bloodline of the Peacecraft family who promoted Pacifism until the destruction of their kingdom by the UESA. She nobly takes on the role of Leader of the Sanc Kingdom seeking to promote the ideals of pure pacifism throughout the world. She rejects the idea of peace through war and believes that the only way to peace is through civil discourse among nations. She plays a critical role as our main touchstone in the world of ever changing politics, while she struggles to know if her belief in pure pacifism is possible to attain or simply a misguided dream.

Dorothy Catalonia:

Is Relena’s foil in this story, having lost her father to war, she began to believe that it is only in war that things change or that honorable death can be found. As such she is transfixed on the idea of war, and is often found running toward battlefields rather than away from them. For her War is unavoidable and true peace is all but unattainable except through truly miserable wars. She joins Zechs in the end believing that he has found a way to end war with one last great battle. At which point she is challenged in her belief that peace cannot be attained so long as Earth continues.

Colonel (lady) Une:

I hated her initially, and not in that, love to hate her kind of way where every time I saw her I wished I hadn't. Then a huge twist is revealed. Colonel Une is also known as Representative Une when she is in the colonies. She has a split personality. She represents all those in war, who cling to the ideals of others. She developed a split personality in order to cope with this. One side is the cruel calculating Colonel Une, and the other is the sweet and kind Representative Une. This split personality allows her to act on the two fronts most important to the love of her life Treize Khushrenada, battle and politics. This aspect gave me an interest in understanding each side and how they were each crucial to her overall goal of pleasing Treize, even to her own near demise. She was intriguing and vital to the success of the plans of Oz.

Major Pilots:

Milliardo Peacecraft/ Zechs Merquise:

Known also as the “Lightning Count,” Zechs is one of the cornerstone characters of our tale. He begins as a soldier for OZ seeking to punish the UESA for its attack on his home of the Sanc Kingdom, but after they are defeated he realizes that OZ will be no different, thus he attempts to shed his life as a soldier (that of Zechs) and begins on a journey to fulfill his true purpose as a member of the Peacecraft Family. But he finds that his destiny always leads him back into battle. As he pursues his goal he finds that the chivalry of battle which he so clung to under OZ will not suit him if he is to become a warrior capable of defeating the Gundams and their pilots, whom he sees as the cause of the unrest between the colonies and OZ.

He ends up driven almost to madness as he tries to bring about this ideal. He tries diplomacy and finds it so full of corruption and gullibility that it is rendered an impossible route. He eventually decides that only by destroying all the weapons of war in a great battle and making the Earth unlivable can the universe attain peace. Since he has determined that the humans of Earth (as opposed to those of the Colonies) are to blame for the wars, it must be destroyed.

He is a tortured character who continuously seeks to be able to fulfill his destiny, and yet finds that he must bring about a great battle to secure peace. He is noble in his ideals but often wicked in his methods. He goes from Lawful Evil, to True Good to Chaotic Neutral and back in his journey to fulfill his destiny.

Milliardo provides a powerful counterpoint in the “ends and means” theme of war and peace as compared to his sister Relena. Whereas she believes that peace must be the goal first and diplomacy the method, he believes that war is the only route to peace.

Lucrezia Noin:

a fantastic mobile pilot and teacher at the Oz academy. She is initially drawn into the conflict when Chang Wufei destroys the barracks of her latest class of soldiers. She is the long term friend of Zechs and his key love interest. She, like Une, is a character who is trying to find her place in the midst of others agendas. As a favor to the Zechs she plays bodyguard to Relena as she begins to reestablish the Sanc Kingdom, but ends up embracing the cause of pacifism (at least in part). Noin goes about secretly rebuilding gundams, and building a small military force for the purpose of defending the sanc kingdom. She believes in pacifism but not a pacifism that rejects self-defense, which makes her unique among the cast. She eventually dedicates herself to this cause even staring down Zechs at a crucial moment, knowing that he wouldn't attack her, thus protecting a spacecraft.

Treize Khushrenada:

one of the chief commanders of Oz when it first takes over and a lifelong friend of Zechs. He stands as the symbol and rallying point of Oz so much so that when he abandons the newly enthroned Romefeller foundation in protest of their increased reliance on mobile dolls rather than soldiers, he becomes a rallying point for a rebel faction within OZ calling themselves the (you guessed it) Treize Faction.

Treize believes in honor and chivalry in battle, and when allowed to design a Gundam he designs the Epyon which has no long range weapons requiring the pilot to face the opponent in traditional sword combat. He represents all that is noble in war; he even leads the forces of Earth in their final battle. He believes that without a loss of life the cost of war would reduce it to nothing more than a game, which would remove any purpose in war. He supported OZ and the Romefeller foundation in pursuing a goal of complete piece through dominance seeing it as the only way to ensure a lasting peace. It is his philosophy of power and dominance to create peace, which drives Milliardo to the desperate point of trying to eliminate Earth.

Heroes:

Chang Wufei:

He believes that the only people belonging in battle are the strong. The weak have no place there since they will always be defeated by those stronger than themselves. His gundam (the shenlong), he calls Nataku, after the name of his deceased wife. He seeks to prove himself as a warrior, by defeating OZ and the UESA who are responsible for her death.

That is his purpose in battle, to prove that he is worthy of the gundam, though overtime he learns that it is not strength, but rather integrity, which makes soldiers worthy in battle.

This fundamental change echoes in all his battles as he shows that machines like the Mobile Dolls have no integrity in them and are unworthy to share the battlefield with worthy soldiers. He becomes transfixed on Treize, whom he finds to be matching in strength, and he begins a battle with him that eventually leads to Wufei regrettably killing Treize all too soon after realizing that he has more integrity and actually pulled his last punch so as to not kill Wufei. This last act makes Wufei more aware than ever of the power of integrity for a soldier on the battlefield.

Quatre Raberba Winner:

Quatre believes that battle is the last resort. He goes to Earth piloting his gundam Sandrock. He uses his weapons sparingly since his main goal is to find any and all peaceful solutions. After thedeath of his father, who was a long standing pacifist and inspiration of Quatre’s, he suffers a torturous break with reality. During this time he causes a great deal of destruction with the Wing Zero Gundam which he built from blue prints he discovered. He is brought to his senses and seeks to atone for his sins by protecting the colonies and trying to bring together the other pilots as the tensions between earth and the White Fang come to a head.

He is often viewed as the weakest of the Gundam pilots since he seeks to preserve life even in battle, but I enjoy his juxtaposition of the goal of peace and the necessity of battle to that end.

Trowa Barton:

Trowa is certainly a cool cat. He is a very relaxed individual, yet is consistently several moves ahead in all he does. He is merciless on the battlefield yet compassionate toward his friends and teammates. A great piece of characterization is found in the half face mask that he wears when he performs in the circus (while he carries out his gundam missions in secret). The Mask shows a clown face and his own more stoic face. The comparison is found in that he comes alive in battle, seeing it as an inevitability that must always be survived and seeing death as something that must always be out done. His planning comes into real affect as he poses as an up and coming soldier in the OZ space forces, allowing him access to the latest mobile suit models and to a captured Heero Yuy.

His belief in battle as an event to be survived is such a wonderful aspect to his character. He finds no joy in battle, he simply recognizes his place as a soldier to be that of one seeking to out-survive his opponents

Duo Maxwell:

Duo is the only one of the five to truly take joy in his work as a pilot. He calls himself the god of death (since his Gundam is the Deathscythe this is an appropriate nickname) and sees every battle as a joyous challenge. He seems to have no fear of death, only seeing death in battle as preferable, in fact when put in a prison and faced with death by suffocation he merely states that this is a lame way to die. But unlike some soldiers in this universe he doesn’t take joy in murder. He recognizes the silent agreement of warriors on the battlefield that only the better of them should survive. He sees war as a chance to have battles, and though he believes in peace I’m sure he’d be bored in a truly peaceful world.

Heero Yuy:

If I have one complaint about this entire show it is found in the character of Heero. You see archetypally he doesn’t fit the position of the protagonist. Now many would argue with me on this point but hear me out. He has a black and white view of the world (which isn’t a problem other characters do as well) but he has no driving force behind him. The rest of the major characters all have a reason they fight, or avoid fighting, or if they don’t they find a reason along the way. The other characters grow from their starting points, expanding and reaffirming their philosophies in the areas of war, peace, and the relationship of these two forces and the purpose of soldiers in the ultimate goal of peace. We never learn what Heero’s motivation is except that he is to complete the mission handed to him at the outset.

It wouldn’t bother me that he is this sort of character since (as many will note) he was raised with one purpose, to pilot a gundam and use it to bring freedom to the colonies. Normally that would be an excuse for a main character who is largely unfeeling, nonsympathetic, and driven on the purpose of his goal to such an extent that he forsakes the needs of those who call on him for help. Characters like this exist.

BUT that toward the end of the series Zechs makes a statement that implies something completely contrary to most of what we know about Heero. He says that Heero has a strong heart that can empathize with people, and that he is pure and kind. But he isn’t describing the Heero we’ve seen, the hero who has forced his agenda on others, threatened his supposed love interest’s life half a dozen times, killed mercilessly in battle, and executed with absolute precision every order that he has been handed. Zech’s description is NOT the Heero portrayed in this story. Zech’s description is of the hero-archetype in the world of anime. Heero Yuy is a great character a certifiably tough guy and the kind of character that makes you think “I’m glad he’s on our side,” but I never really worry for this character, or feel an emotion because of him, he’s static throughout the run of the series and not a very good PROTAGONIST!

That's all I have, regrettably though there are many other interesting characters, I don't have the time to go any more in depth than I already have. Next up we will discuss the plot.

-matt

PS if you have any comments feel free to share them at the end of each post.

Gundam Wing (Terms and Setting)

I've decided that I would do my series review for Gundam Wing, apart from the movie (Endless Waltz), since there are some changes in the art direction and it is a separate plot from the original series. I may also end up breaking this review into segments to facilitate easier reading.

***Spoiler Warning***

Now that I've said it I can do whatever I want. That said, let's begin.

Terms to Know:

• A.C. = "After Colony" refers to the era in which our story unfolds.
• Colony = A space station (built in the rotating ring design to produce gravitational fields), with an artificial weather system and working economy and society. Originally they were founded free from the Earth's nations though some have been overtaken by the UESA.
• Mobile Suit = a humanoid robot several stories tall, used almost universally in battle
• Gundam = a special type of Mobile suit built from a special type of alloy.
• Gundanium = an alloy that can only be manufactured in outer space. It is the strongest substance we know of.
• Mobile Doll = A mobile suit operated by a computer rather than a human pilot.
• UESA = The "United Earth-Sphere Alliance" the earth based government which rules most of the Earth (with the exception of a few nations unwilling to join) and many colonies (who were forced under the UESA's rule).
• OZ = the "Organization of the Zodiac"A rebel faction within the UESA that shows itself to seek to overthrow the UESA which it has deemed incapable of rule
• The Romefeller Foundation = a collection of nobles from across the globe known for their manipulation of world events over the centuries. Largely responsible for the Foundation of both the UESA and later the OZ militant wing of the UESA.
• Sanc Kingdom = a Kingdom of pacifists ruled by the Peacecraft Family that was destroyed by the UESA, prior to the beginning of the series. It's history and future are an integral part of the story.
• White Fang = A colonial rebellion that seeks to beat back the forces of OZ and the Romefeller Foundation and attain true independence for the colonies.

The Setting:

This series is based in a futuristic universe. In a time period they refer to as "After Colony" or "A.C." The year is 195 A.C. which only serves to tell us where we are relative to the beginning of the age of the Colonies. The colonies are a series of orbiting space stations (past the moons orbit), that were established independently of the Earth nearly 200 years before the beginning of the story.

The society of the Earth is one of a ruling aristocracy. The regimented discipline among soldiers is reminiscent of the Victorian Era, which actually fits nicely with the focal point of this universe: The Mobile Suit. Mobile Suits large mechanoid, bipedal robots. They are human in design (two arms, two legs with a torso and head) and piloted by individual soldiers, these (like the sword, the rifle, or the tank) are the weapons of the day. Pilots are expertly trained to operate these vehicles.

There is an elegance to this aspect of the universe (aside from being the main draw to the show), it returns warfare (which in our modern era is polluted with seemingly too many varieties of jets, tanks, guns, etc.) to a simplified seemingly equivalent state and restores skill to the equation, in this universe there is no belief that sheer numbers win a battle. More will be said about Mobile suits in the plot and character portions.

The physics employed in this universe, and the technology is based on existing and projected technologies, particularly things such as Lagrange points, and Vernier engines. Certainly leaps of faith must be made, but the universe is one that is captivating and convincing. The writers and artistic directors are respectful of the audience enough not to ask us to believe more than seems possible in this universe. Truly, nothing is so over the top that you argue it couldn't work, I mean these are giant robots we're dealing with, so just have fun with it.

The tensions established between the United Earth Sphere Alliance and the colonies are easily identifiable to anyone who has studies the nature of colonial revolution throughout history. Elements of the Cold War's arms races and espionage can be found as well. Not to mention ideas of honor both in and out of battle take on special importance for many of our focal characters.

The framers of this universe drew on recognizable elements. The aristocracy and the soldiers aren't as separated as we'd imagine, in fact there are many instances of the nobles leading the charge into battle, much as the nobles of days gone past.

Stay tuned for the next portion of the review where we'll discuss the Characters of the series.

-matt

Re-purposing

I've decided at the behest of some friends and family to begin to document in some fashion my thoughts on media. This will include a few different areas, television, movies, video games (on occasion) and anime.

My reviews will include a few sections, including: Overall review, Characters, plot, setting, and a critical assessment of meaning which will be somewhat subjective, I will also include notable affects of the work on society and media at large.

A few things I don't plan to do include: a number based rating since the Quantitative ranking of a show based on qualitative appeal would make it seem that one show is 0.5 better than another and thus imply that one is more worthy of your time. Most shows that I follow to the conclusion are worth watching (to me at least) you'll have to read the review to know if it is worth it to you. I don't plan to say that I know the exact meaning of every work (except where I may cite a statement by the creator) my assessment will focus on overt themes and ideas in the work and interpretations I can offer.

The first few posts will focus on anime, since I have spent much of my free time over break indulging in old anime's from the initial Toonami afternoon block as well as the Midnight Run, and the beginnings of Adult Swim (all of these finding a place on the Cartoon Network in the mid to late Nineties).

Be looking for my upcoming review of the series Gundam Wing, and the Endless Waltz movie.