You honestly just cannot beat Mobile Suit: Gundam Wing. It is anime with a great Manga to continue the story. Mobile Suit: Gundam Wing has it all: character development, complex plotlines and characters, political intrigue, cool war machines. Best of all is that is the cool war machines are piloted by teenagers who are struggling to do what they think is right in a universe full of corruption.
The characters, particularly the five pilots, are some of my favorite anime characters. They are five teenagers from different colonies. They come from various families. Some are orphans. Some have grown up wealthy while the others haven’t. None of them know each other before the series begins. All of the pilots do have one thing in common: they have been chosen and trained to take down the corrupt organization that is oppressing the peoples of space.
The rest of the cast of characters, of which there are many for a one season show, are also fairly amazing. The villains are complex albeit more than slightly odd at times. They further the storyline with many twists. The pilots also have allies in unexpected places. One of whom is Relena Dorlan.
I am going to take a few seconds to highlight Relena. She is the first character the audience really gets to know. Gundam Wing is seen through her eyes in turn with the pilots. Relena is also a teenager living a privileged life on Earth when the series starts. Without giving too much away, I can tell you that her journey is amazing through the show.
She is the “everyman” character that shows us the world of Gundam Wing. Relena is yet another female character that gets a lot of flack for being young, kind and sticking to her principals. I have always liked Relena. I think some of the problem viewers have with her, particularly the English speaking ones, is that something of her gets lost in translation. People want her to be perfect but not so annoying as well as many other contradictions. In reality, she is just a kid trying to make the best of the insane situation the war has put her in, just like the Gundam pilots.
Gundam Wing is beautiful to watch. The settings of both Earth and Space are well animated. The soundtrack is one more that was part of the soundtrack of my teen years while Gundam Wing ran on reruns. I know it is an older anime but a lot of the themes are more then prevalent for today’s audience. There is also a sequel in the form of a movie called Endless Waltz. If you like your anime full of intrigue and science fiction, then this is for you.
Always keep sparkling!
