Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

新機動戦記ガンダムW
1995 -1996 Sunrise TV Asahi 49 episodes Completed
Action Mecha Sci-Fi Political Drama
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Details & Synopsis
After Colony 195. The colonies have had enough of the United Earth Sphere Alliance, so five teenage pilots are sent to Earth in five Gundams as part of Operation Meteor. Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, and Chang Wufei arrive separately, barely understand the plan, and spend much of the series fighting the same war from five different directions.

Gundam Wing was not the first Gundam series, not the cleanest Gundam series, and definitely not the easiest political plot to explain after missing an episode. It was the one Toonami aired in 2000, which made it the first Gundam for an entire generation of North American viewers. That matters more than any argument about where it ranks now. Wing put mobile suits, colony politics, masked rivals, tragic child soldiers, and Relena Peacecraft on television after school and trusted kids to keep up.

The dub became part of the memory. So did the edited daytime broadcast, the uncut late-night airing, the model kits, and Endless Waltz showing up later with redesigned Gundams that looked impossible and immediately became the versions everyone wanted. You did not need to know Universal Century continuity. You needed to know that Duo called himself the God of Death and Heero could survive almost anything except a normal conversation.

Forty-nine episodes of beautiful boys making catastrophic military decisions. It worked.
Alt Title 新機動戦記ガンダムW
Studio Sunrise
Network TV Asahi
Aired 1995 - 1996
Episodes 49
Genre Action, Mecha, Sci-Fi, Political Drama
Status Completed
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Late-War Upgrades & Endless Waltz Designs

TV-Series Late-War Machines

XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero

SPOILER! The earlier Gundam design · ZERO System · Twin Buster Rifle
Wing Gundam Zero is built from an older design concept that predates the five Operation Meteor Gundams.

Its most important features are the Twin Buster Rifle and the ZERO System, which confronts the pilot with enormous amounts of battlefield information and possible outcomes.
Why it matters
Wing Zero is not merely Heero's stronger replacement machine. The ZERO System turns piloting into a psychological problem and becomes one of the series' clearest tests of whether victory is worth pursuing without human judgment.

XXXG-01D2 Gundam Deathscythe Hell

SPOILER! Rebuilt Deathscythe · Active Cloak · twin beam scythe
After the original Deathscythe is destroyed, the five Gundam scientists rebuild Duo's machine into Deathscythe Hell.

The new version keeps the suit's close-range ambush role while adding the folding Active Cloak and a larger twin-bladed beam scythe.
Why it matters
The upgrade does not change what Duo's Gundam is for. It makes the same idea survive the increasingly dangerous space battles of the second half.

XXXG-01S2 Altron Gundam

SPOILER! Rebuilt Shenlong · twin Dragon Fangs · beam trident
The five Gundam scientists rebuild Wufei's Shenlong Gundam into Altron.

The new machine doubles down on Wufei's preference for close combat, adding a second Dragon Fang while retaining a long beam weapon for fighting at melee range.
Why it matters
Like Deathscythe Hell, Altron is less a new philosophy than an escalation of the original one. The machine becomes more capable without making Wufei fight like someone else.

Endless Waltz Redesign

Wing Gundam Zero (Endless Waltz Design)

Hajime Katoki redesign · angel-wing silhouette · same story role, different visual form
Endless Waltz presents Wing Gundam Zero with Hajime Katoki's radically different wing design, replacing the television version's mechanical silhouette with the now-famous feathered angel-wing appearance.

This is a redesign for the later OVA presentation, not a separate television-series upgrade that Heero receives after the TV version of Wing Zero.
Why it matters
Keeping the versions separate prevents a common continuity muddle. Gundam Wing's television story has its own Wing Zero design; Endless Waltz retells the machine visually without requiring another upgrade event inside the TV series.