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Suit up for the history of the hit anime mecha series, including character and mecha spotlights By Mark Simmons and Benjamin Wright
Heero Yuy
Age: 15
Ethnicity: Japanese
Height: 156 cm (5'1")
Weight: 45 kg (99 lb)
Duo Maxwell
Age: 15
Ethnicity: American
Height: 156 cm (5'1")
Weight: 43 kg (95 lb)
Quatre Raberba Winner
Age: 15
Ethnicity: Arabian
Height: 156 cm (5'1")
Weight: 41 kg (90 lb)
Chang Wufei
Age: 15
Ethnicity: Chinese
Height: 156 cm (5'1")
Weight: 46 kg (101 lb)
Trowa Barton
Age: 15?
Ethnicity: Unknown
Height: 160 cm (5'3")
Weight: 44 kg (97 lb)
Gundam has been a household name in Japan since 1979, standing as the first and last word in giant-robot anime. Now, over 20 years later, America is finally catching up.
Gundam Wing began airing on the cable Cartoon Network on Monday, 6 March, 2000. In an unprecedented effort to appeal to new, young viewers as well as seasoned, veteran fans, the network is showing two versions: on weekday afternoons, it is airing a slightly toned-down, "kid-friendly" version, while at midnight, fans get both barrels with the uncut version. (We know which version you'll be watching!)
History
Shin Kid Senki Gundam W ("New Mobile Report Gundam Wing") first aired in April 1996 and ran for a total of 49 episodes. It had come on the heels of Yasuhiro Imagawa's pull-out-all-the-stops fight-fest Kid Butden G Gundam ("Mobile Bushido-Legend G Gundam," more typically known as "Mobile Fighter"). Whereas G Gundam had been such a free-spirited departure from traditional Gundam lore that longtime fans of the story almost didn't know what to make of it, Gundam W approached its source material with an air of energetic homage, bouncing off its predecssors with a frenetic glee. The final product is equal parts character drama, action-adventure, morality play; and, of course, cool robots blowing things up.
Directed by Masashi Ikeda (Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge), Gundam W features character designs by Shuko Murase (Night Warriors, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie); mecha designs by Junya Ishigaki (V Gundam), Hajime Katoki (Gundam 0083), and Kunio Okawara (Mobile Suit Gundam, Votoms); and costume designs by Yutaka Izubuchi (Record of Lodoss War).
The show was barely a month off the air before the first video compilations were released in Japan-and as a hint to what element of the series had captured viewers' imaginations, the compilations bore the titles "Odd Numbers" and "Even Numbers"...the "numbers" of the characters, that is. (We'll have to get into the numerology of the characters some other time.)
But isn't such character popularity unusual for a mecha show? Yes and no. As the director was to indicate, a large part of the show's appeal was its handsome heroes-straight from the realm of shows such as Samurai Troopers, a.k.a. Ronin Warriors, and Saint Seiya. But then again, even the original Mobile Suit Gundam series had great character popularity. Was Gundam Wing a brand-new take on the genre or just revisiting the story's roots? A little of both.
As mentioned above, Gundam Wing is part of a much larger and much older franchise-one that has been around for almost two decades that has racked up more than 140 hours of animation and story in that time! Before Wing, most Gundam stories occurred in the "Universal Century": a future that uses a new calendar system; a future whose population is shakily taking the next step in evolution; a future in which wars are fought with radical new weapons called mobile suits.
Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the "classic" Mobile Suit Gundam setting (the Universal Century) follows the struggle between Earth's repressive Federation and the semifascist rebels of Earth's orbiting space colonies. The mobile suits used in this ongoing struggle have become the standard by which all other animes' mecha are judged, since Gundam was the first story to treat giant robots as mass-produced military weapons rather than as the alter egos of alien-busting superheroes. (The hero's mobile suit is always an extra-special mobile suit whose name is some variant on "Gundam.")
However, creator Tomino has always been primarily interested in his characters, and this is what has given this franchise so much life. The many characters of the Gundam world are among the most memorable of any anime. The trouble is, expecting fans (especially newer, younger ones) to keep track of 15-odd years of characters and story background is too much to ask.
In a wise move-if initially unpopular, at least with longtime fans-Gundam's parent company, the toy giant Bandai (at least since Bandai acquired Sunrise, the studio that's produced all Gundam animation to date), decided to let other creators take a crack at the Gundam idea, with the intent of translating the "spirit" of the franchise into new, stand-alone, easily accessible stories. In addition, these new stories would allow Bandai to expand its tremendously profitable line of plastic mobile-suit model kits by featuring several Gundams in a single series. The first creator to take up the challenge was Yasuhiro Imagawa, of Giant Robo fame, but his G Gundam series, although a strong seller of model kits and toys, was considered by many to be too much of a departure from traditional lore.
The next man to try and reinvent Gundam was Masashi Ikeda. His efforts were met with tremendous fan approval. Gundam Wing was a hit.
A Classic Times Five
Set in the years of the "After Colony" (AC) future calendar system, Gundam Wing is a complex tale of human drama, intricate politics, and savage combat. In these ways, it definitely maintains the spirit of the original Gundam series.
The political background of Wing is extremely complex and not at all easy to understand from watching the first several episodes. The situation is as follows: The Earth Sphere Alliance has united the planet's nations and guided a program of space colonization, so that numerous toroidal space stations are now clustered at Earth's geostationary Lagrange Points. The future was looking bright, but now the Earth Sphere Alliance has been corrupted by militaristic interests. It has crushed the rights of individual countries (such as the pacifistic Cinq Kingdom) and is now paranoically oppressing its colonies.
To make matters worse, Treize Khushrenada, the leader of the Alliance's elite forces (the Specials) has founded a secret society with which he intends to take over the Alliance and achieve his own egocentric dreams. The core of Treize's secret society is OZ (the "Organization of Zodiac"), the concern that produces all of the Alliance's mobile suits. Its backers are the greedy and manipulative Romefeller Foundation, and once OZ has taken over the Alliance, the goals of the Foundation and of Treize no longer mesh.
In AC 195, the five main colony clusters begin Operation Meteor. This plan involves sending five prototype mobile suits to Earth to perform terrorist attacks against the Alliance in general and OZ in particular. Each of these super-powerful mobile suits is made of the nigh-indestructible alloy Gundanium, and so each one is called a Gundam. The five Gundam pilots are all very young (15 years old), incredibly skillful, and utterly ruthless. Though they are invincible in battle, the five Gundam boys are trapped in a dangerous game: They know little about their own missions, less about their enemies, and nothing at all about each other.
Over the course of Wing's story, the five Gundam pilots gradually make contact, alternately allying or dueling with each other between destructive missions and guarded liaisons with Earth's varied peoples. These five boys, as well as their friends and enemies, maintain the Gundam tradition of putting characters first. Each and every member of the cast is fascinating (if not downright bizarre), and by making the story's stars handsome and complex young men, Ikeda actually expanded Gundam's appeal by drawing in a new audience of teenage girls.
However, boys liked Gundam Wing too. With five (count 'em!) unstoppable, unique, and outrageous-looking Gundams, plus an army of believable, mass-produced, realistic-looking OZ mobile suits, Wing has more than enough giant-robot mayhem to keep even the most jaded mechahead happy. And with the second season right around the corner, fans can look forward to a whole new pack of mobile suits, including redesigned versions of the Gundams!
Suit Up!
Given the popularity of Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon with American fans, not to mention the undying legacy of Robotech (i.e., Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada, for you purists out there), Gundam Wing is likely to go over big. From the start, the series made a strong showing in TV ratings, pushing the already highly rated Toonami block to new heights. Bandai has already started putting its plastic model kits on the racks of Toys "R" Us, and soon fans can look forward to brand-new mobile-suit action figures-toys made exclusively for the U.S. market! What's more, the Cartoon Network's airing of Wing is slated to include the three-episode sequel series Gundam Wing Endless Waltz, with the further adventures of the G-Boys after the TV series' end. Bandai is also making the series available on video on both VHS and DVD-only two months after its initial broadcast.
So rejoice, anime fans! This is the beginning (hopefully) of a whole new ball game!
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What Has Gone Before...
When we last left Tetsuro and Maetel, at the end of the second GE 999 movie, Adieu Galaxy Express 999, Maetel had just bid Tetsuro farewell...again. The planet was La Metal, the planet from which Maetel's mother, Promethium, had long ago been exiled. Maetel, we may suppose, had been planning to leave with Tetsuro on Three-Nine, their ultimate destination unimportant, so long as the two of them were together.
Emeraldas - whom we now know to be Maetel's sister, thanks to a scoop provided by none other than Matsumoto himself, in his 1996 Animerica Interview (Vol. 5, No. 7) - gently reminded Maetel that they were both travelers, born under a star which fates them to continue their never-ending journey ("We've no end to our journey, you and I").
At the end of the first GE 999 film, Maetel boarded Three-Nine and left a shocked and stricken Tetsuro behind. At the end of Adieu, it's Maetel herself who stays behind, Tetsuro leaving on Three-Nine presumably to fulfill his vow to the leader of the Earth resistance movement, the Old Man we met in the beginning of Adieu.
As the train pulls out of the station, Maetel blinks back her tears and watches silently.
"Tetsuro... Adieu.
"I knew, someday, we'd have to part... I knew that well.
"I am but a shadow of youth, a woman who journeys through time, a woman seen only by youth. So long as the name 'Maetel' remains in your heart, it will be enough.
"It will be more than enough.
"Tetsuro... Adieu.
"The memory of traveling with you in your youth is something I shall never forget. Farewell, my Tetsuro...
"Adieu."
The New Galaxy Express 999 The new GE999 occurs what appears to be just over a year after Tetsuro's return to Earth from the previous adventures (though more than a decade later in Real Life). Maetel, ever ageless and yet time-worn, has returned to Earth for a mysterious reason ("Destiny," she quips to the conductor). She finds the Earth overrun by terrible cities, with humans kept fat and contented like cows intended for slaughter. Tetsuro himself has been chained in the city depths, where he is kept well-fed and harmless. Maetel frees Tetsuro (the reunion is briefly emotional) and gives him a new train pass for the new GE999. With Tetsuro's new but obligatory-Matsumoto-pet-cat-named-Mee, they once again board the star-bound locomotive.
The solar system and the locomotive have all changed drastically since Tetsuro had last seen them. Mars is a wasteland again. Shadow has forgotten him. The locomotive's computerized engine/engineer is now "incarnate" in a humanoid female android body. Captain Harlock is downright cheery and talkative! Clair has been mysteriously resurrected. And Queen Emeraldas is missing (though she turns up later).
Maetel and the various heroes of the local galaxies seem to be moving to fight a strange, mysterious threat, the Dark Queen --- who has first enslaved humanity in meaningless luxury and who then casually destroys the Earth!
In the second tankobon volume of this new series, we see a bizarre, striking meeting: The 999, Harlock's Arcadia, the Yamato (of Starblazers!), and another huge battleship all docked on the same planet (with only the Queen Emeraldas missing). Looks like Matsumoto is planning something big to wrap together all those different stories. In fact, with the destruction of planet Earth, one assumes that something big is going to happen....
So far, the new short stories have had some of the old Matsumoto charm, though as with DNASight 999.9, some of the "edge" seems to be missing. The "underlying continuing plot" aspect is new for GE999, and it changes the flavor somewhat. And what with the addition of the requisite cat, and the locomotive/engineer's persona, the resurrected Clair, not to mention the downright cheerful Harlock (and even dead Tochiro!) who keeps dropping by, it's like a continuous chummy family reunion on board the 999. There's an overall "fluffier" feel than the old series, despite the tears and philosophical soliloquys that seem to flow even more freely than ever.
There seem to be a lot more scenes of Tetsuro, Maetel, Harlock, Tochiro, and Emeraldas showing off their power, putting idiots in their place, giving away sound-bite-sized bits of mysterious backstory, and making short speeches. It reminds me of a walking showcase of past Matsumoto characters, each character made to give a patriotic spiel to boost Tetsuro's (and the reader's) sense of grandiose destiny. In other words, it all feels overdone.
Perhaps just as bad, in my personal opinion, are the subtle changes in art style. Maetel's eyes (as well as Harlock's) have been changed, via an extra outer iris layer that makes them look much bigger -- to me, they have lost some of their previous austerity and sadness. Many of the lovely cosmic images look recycled, somehow (though Matsumoto can still draw some great spaceships and planets) -- some scenes are rather obviously re-used elsewhere with minor alterations (I suppose it's cheaper that way). And Matsumoto's "sloppy" art style for organic beings now seems to have more errors in proportion than ever before.
On the positive side, there are still some good short stories happening, though in my opinion less frequently than before. Also, the series promises to reveal more about Maetel's past, present and future. For example, in later episodes we learn that her mother was in fact (Lar?) Ra Andromeda Promethium, the star of Millennial Queen and the villain of the original 999. A lot of this is stuff that I, as a long-time fan of 999, have been wondering about.
However, I'm not convinced this build up of exposing everything is a good thing. Moreover, the big merging of Yamato, Harlock, Emeraldas, Millennial Queen and 999 reminds me of Isaac Asimov's disastrous merging of his Robot universe with the Foundation universe -- IMHO, it ruined Foundation. With Matsumoto, there have always been intriguing hints of some of these connections, but this mixture seems too blatant.
All in all, somehow I can't like this new series nearly as much as I liked the original. The original had more class, somehow -- it was less frenetic, calmer, more personal, more peaceful, cleaner, and less grandiose. Some of the magic got lost between the original and the new series, at least in my opinion.
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