Gundam Wing

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing is a 49-episode Japanese television anime produced by Sunrise and broadcast in Japan on TV Asahi from April 7, 1995, to March 29, 1996. Directed by Masashi Ikeda, it was the second television series set outside the original Universal Century continuity, using the After Colony calendar. Its story begins in After Colony 195, when five Gundam mobile suits are sent from space colonies to Earth in Operation Meteor. Each machine is built from Gundanium alloy, and each is piloted by a teenager trained by a different scientist: Heero Yuy pilots Wing Gundam, Duo Maxwell Deathscythe, Trowa Barton Heavyarms, Quatre Raberba Winner Sandrock, and Chang Wufei Shenlong Gundam.

The operation is intended to resist the United Earth Sphere Alliance and its secretive military organization, OZ. Heero’s early encounter with Relena Peacecraft, daughter of Alliance diplomat Darlian Peacecraft, establishes one of the series’ central relationships; he initially responds to her invitation with the famous threat, “I’ll kill you.” After Darlian is assassinated, Relena learns she is connected to the pacifist Sanc Kingdom and later becomes a political figure advocating peace.

OZ officer Treize Khushrenada, who values combat as an expression of individual will, and his aide Lady Une engineer a coup against the Alliance. Zechs Merquise, an ace pilot secretly revealed as Milliardo Peacecraft, is Relena’s brother and a major rival to Heero. The conflict changes repeatedly: the Gundam pilots move from isolated missions to cooperation, the Romefeller Foundation gains influence, and Mobile Dolls, unmanned combat units promoted by Duke Dermail, make war increasingly industrialized.

Several Gundams are destroyed, rebuilt, or replaced. Wing Gundam Zero, designed by the five Gundam scientists, contains the Zero System, a cockpit interface that supplies pilots with overwhelming tactical projections while placing severe psychological pressure on them. Quatre first operates it during a breakdown, and Heero later becomes closely associated with its use.

Near the finale, Treize returns to command OZ, while Zechs leads White Fang, a colony movement that captures the battleship Libra. Relena becomes chief representative of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. Heero destroys Libra with Wing Zero’s twin buster rifle, and the war ends after Treize and Zechs die in battle. The 1997 original-video animation and film sequel, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, revisits the pilots and introduces their redesigned Gundams. In 2000, Gundam Wing became the first Gundam series aired in the United States, when Cartoon Network placed it on its Toonami block.