Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing

Most definitely the gateway drug responsible for my anime fandom as a whole. Preceded by Robotech (in passing at least), and maybe some films from childhood. But the one that got me hooked was none other than Gundam Wing. I first got into it thanks to Toonami airings, and so well liked was it that when I made the jump from VHS to DVD, volume one was my first disc. Man, I can buy a whole series for that price now...ah the days of disposable income. The mecha designs are timeless, a standout among the franchise and fan favorites still. My first taste of quality anime soundtracks, I have Gundam ringtones two decades later. While not the brightest of visuals even for the time, it was the golden era before CG suits that didn't match the rest of the setting. Had a few uses of stock footage and some tropes that we later realized were franchise bread and butter--i.e. overused--but at the time we loved it for what it was. Our first real robot anime. Perfect for a nostalgic binge on a staycation or your next bout with the flu.

To me this was the anime that really got me into watching anime and will always hold a special place for me. These characters are iconic yet simple and the music I will remember for a long time to come. As for the mech genre of anime I think this is one of the better stories specially for when it was released. I would recommend this to anyone looking to get into the genre and then tell them that most Gundam animes follow similar story lines with variances. I do however believe the characters though fairly basic and lacking the complexity of emotional turmoil, are very memorable and typical to writing styles of this era. Overall a must watch for any mech anime lover and I think will last the test of time for the genre that it sits in.

I have watched quit a few Gundam series from all the UC to the newer one like Requiem for Vengeance and Gquuux, some are good some are bad, but I feel 'Wing' is by far the worst one of all that I have watched. The character writing is a mess. Forget about character development or depth or any high level writing, in 'Wing' all characters' motivations, personalities, goals, and moral standards are a huge inconsistent mess-. Aside of their basic anime character types/traits and their looks nothing else stay consistent, which made non of their action logical or predictable, too inconsistent to be relatable. Furthermore, 'Wing' has introduced so many "named" characters which made the unrelatable characters even less noticeable in the story, just more characters that you don't care about, which leads to the next point... The story has zero impact. When all named characters (and there are so many of them) has the plot armor of the main protagonist, there are no stake for any of their actions or plot twist, cuz the worst thing after tanking a direct nuclear bust at ground zero with their body would be having amnesia that lasted one episode. What is worst is 'Wing' uses this plot over and over to try to make it a big scene about their self sacrifice that you know well enough that they are going to be A-OK in the next episode. Since there are no consequences then there are no F is given. The rest part of the story outside of the named characters is like the regular gundam I guess but I didn't really get into it cuz I am enable to care for it. The characters are annoying and the story is frustrating what can make it worst? It's length, 49 episodes to be exact. It is not just the old TV format, as I have mentioned at the beginning I have watched all UC gundam and most of them runs like 50-ish episodes and I am currently 80% into Inuyasha which is 167 episodes in total! I barely run into the same problem with 'Wings' with old shows or at least not in the same intensity. I watched 'Wing' on youtube, I have watch the most latter half in 2x speed, and that is only because I don't want to pay youtube premium for the 3x and the subtitle just won't keep up with the free speed up extension. The only thing I like from this show is the classic op, but I end up skipping most of them, cuz I'd rather enjoy them outside of this show.