Amazon.com essential video
Gundam premiered on Japanese television in 1979 and redefined the "giant robot" genre. It's become one of the longest-running franchises in anime history, with more than a dozen broadcast, original animation video (OAV), and feature versions. The four episodes on Shooting Stars (the DVD contains a fifth episode) opened a 49-part broadcast series that aired in Japan in 1995 and 1996.
After a war devastated the surface of the earth, many people left for the Space Colonies. The remaining inhabitants are governed by the United Earth Sphere Alliance, which has oppressed the Colonies. A group of rebels hope to win their freedom by attacking Earth with five teenage pilots in Gundam mobile suits (robotic rocket ships made from Gundanium alloy). Heero Yuy, the brash hero, immediately comes into conflict with the sinister Lieutenant Zechs and Colonel Treize, who are important officers in OZ, an elite mobile-suit unit trained and staffed by the powerful Romefeller Foundation. Heero also inadvertently wins the heart of Relena, the wealthy daughter of a cabinet minister. While Heero insults Relena and fights the forces of OZ, the other four Gundam pilots, Duo, Trowa, Quatra, and Chang (who, oddly, don't know each other) wreak havoc on Alliance factories and military bases. It's a classic confrontation between indestructible good guys with invincible weapons and bad guys who can't hit the broad side of a robot. The DVD contains the "unedited version" of the show that plays on the Cartoon Network. It contains no nudity or sex; the violence is largely restricted to machines attacking each other and is recommended for ages 7 and older. The VHS version has some language changes ("I will kill you" becomes "I will destroy you") and the blood has been removed when characters are injured. There is no difference in running time. --Charles Solomon
Description
The space colonies have grown tired of the oppressive rule by the Earth government, a corrupt organization ruled by people who have no real interest in the colonists or their well-being. Their rule is unjust and unfair, but not unopposed... Resistance forces in the colonies have created five special Mobile Suits (robot-like vehicles) called Gundams. Five young pilots have been selected to sneak these Gundams down to Earth and begin a guerilla campaign that will end the Earth government's rule forever. These pilots appear little more than children, but they carry the hopes and dreams of thousands of people with them as they descend to Earth to fight for their freedom.
Customer Reviews:
Gundam wing.......2005-01-30
I have seen the hole gundam wing searys on cartoonnet work and ever cents i hav seen the first one this has become my fav anime. and then i got my best friend in to this anme. and know i am working on buying the hole colection and i only need 3 more and ill have it. but anyways. if you have never seen gundam wing. its about bunch of 15 yearold kids tryign to make a difrents bye fighting. and it has hummer, drama, love and action in it. and there has been many gundam shows mad but out off all the gundam shows made. i think Gundam wing is the altoment best out of the gundam shows. I highly recomend you buying this.
Not the worst out there, but ultimately weak.......2004-12-06
Ah, Gundam Wing. Like many other Americans, this was the series that got me "into" anime (unless you count the time I spent watching DBZ, but I'm trying to forget that particular bit of fandom). One of the spinoffs from the original UC (Universal Century) Gundam storyline, Gundam Wing takes place in the AC (After Colony) timeline, giving it no connection to its predecessors... or so Bandai would have you think. Although GW was my first anime series and will always hold a certain place in my heart (somewhere far, far above DBZ), after a few more years I decided it was time to look back on it with a more critical eye. My perceptions had changed with experience.
It's not that Gundam Wing is a BAD series... it's just not very good. I don't need to bore you with too many story details, since the plot is summarized perfectly well in the Amazon review above. It echoes the conflict of the UC timeline (spacenoids versus Earthlings, although neither term is present here.) The problem is entirely in the execution; Gundam Wing is very slow and repetitive.
Let's take it from the top. The series spans 49 episodes. Fifteen to twenty of these could be cut without impairing the story one bit. These extra episodes are generally interludes in which one of the Gundam pilots meets the people - usually townspeople or guerilla fighters in some wartorn part of the world. After a couple of these, however, you realize that they're all pretty much the same: a Gundam pilot lands, talks to some people, hears a little speech about how great Total Pacifism (tm) is, and then is forced to fight to save his new friends from a sudden onslaught of bad guys. Conversations between the rivals Heero and Zechs follow a similar pattern, with lots of harping about the nature of rivalry and conflict (I lost count of the times somebody said "Why are we fighting this meaningless battle?" during the series.) Ultimately these speeches are nothing but filler - they sound nice until you realize that there's very little substance to them; they're there solely to make the series sound more intellectual than it actually is.
The politics of the story are similarly repetitive; the Earth and colonies are seized by a series of evil organizations, with another always appearing to replace its destroyed predecessor. You learn nothing about any of these groups, and don't really care when a hated enemy suddenly becomes the Gundams' ally.
Fans of UC Gundam will notice many suspiciously familiar events and characters. Zechs and Relena, children of a murdered visionary who end up on opposite sides of the conflict, replace Char Aznable and Sayla Mass from Gundam 0079. Heero, Zechs' rival, is intended to echo Amuro Ray - although while Amuro was human (sometimes annoyingly so), Heero is a flat and lifeless character. The Zero System replaces the superhuman Newtypes. Colonel Bask's colony laser from Zeta Gundam appears in two different incarnations here. The original concept for Operation Meteor (described in Endless Waltz) is a blatant recycling of Operation Stardust and the Zeon colony drop, while the final battle on the Libra battle station is a ripoff of the finale to Char's Counterattack. Even Endless Waltz continues the tradition, with Treize's daughter Mariemeia and her captor Dekim Barton replacing Mineva Zabi and Hamarn Karn of Zeta Gundam and ZZ.
The series' "action" is very weak, consisting of invincible Gundams mowing down hordes of hapless enemies - combat seems entirely too easy, and there's very little sense of danger at any time. About halfway through there's a brief stretch where the Gundams inexplicably start losing, but it's only a couple of episodes before they're back on top again. To top it off, the animation is pretty choppy, and there are many scenes where the same clip of animation is pasted onto different backgrounds to represent different locales.
I could go on, but you're probably getting the picture. Although GW is still a decent show, it lacks the intensity and depth that makes other anime series (the UC Gundams among them) great. It's fun mindless entertainment, but once you move on to something smarter (Cowboy Bebop was my next series), you probably won't look back. Not bad as an introduction to anime, and a good serious show for younger viewers... but those who demand MORE will look elsewhere.
Gundam is good.......2004-06-27
For all you GW haters out there, you need to cool off! I've seen the original series, 008, 0083, 8th MS team, and Seed. I enjoy Gundam Seed the most. GW is a close second. You can complain that the story was too complicated, or too unrealistic, but look...Gundam design has changed since 0083. Gundams are more bad ass than ever. You want to bitch about the past, fine, you do that. Your kinda like someone that thinks DOS is great, and won't switch to Windows cause you say "look at all the cool thing I can do with DOS." The original series sucked! The White Base looked like a retarted floating box. I'll stick with the newer age Gundam thank you! I recomend 0083, 8th MS, GW, and Seed.
GW has it all. Cool charaters. The best mecha design out of all the series besdies Seed! GW was a bold experiment for the Gundam series and it succeded much to the Relic's (old Gundam fans) dismay!
One of the best anime series of recent years.......2004-03-27
INTRODUCTION:
Ever since the late seventies, the Gundam series has been one of the most successful and widely-loved anime series in the world. It has become a favorite of many over the years. There have been several different sub-series over the years, and one of the most popular ones of which is the Wing series, released in the mid-nineties. This is a DVD featuring episodes fromt that series. Read on for my review.
BASIC PLOT:
The Gundam Wing series follows the exploits of five young men who pilot mobile suits against the forces of an organization seeking world domination. There's Heero (the main man), Duo (the cool guy), Trowa (the quiet guy), Quatre (the peace-lover), and Wufei (the overconfident hothead.) The battle rages on for forty-nine episodes, and as the series progresses, a number of plot twists keep things interesting. This is a rare example of a series where the characters aren't paper thin - they continue to evolve as the series progresses. This is one of the best anime series out there, as one of the best mecha series.
SERIES OPINIONS:
To put it simply, this is an excellent series. Many fans of the Gundam series call this the best sub-series of all, and honestly, who can blame them? The storyline is great, the animation is great, the characters are great - everything about this series is great. It's good to see the series get a long overdue DVD release in America.
DVD:
These DVDs are good, because they contain several uncut episodes, but they're bad in that they don't contain any special features (that is, other than the very basic DVD stuff.) The series is one of the greatest anime series out there, but don't expect any bonus material.
OVERALL:
Overall this is an excellent anime series, and I recommend it to any anime or mecha fan. If you like either one, this series will not disappoint.
Oh man... even one star is too much.......2004-01-06
I am aghast at all of the good reviews this series has received, therefore I felt the need to post my own opinion. And worry not, Wingers, it shall be short.
Basically all that I am going to say is that I ordered volume 8 of Mobile Suit Gundam from Amazon.com for $12 and they sent me the entire Gundam Wing DVD boxset instead. And you know what I did? I sent the boxset back because I wanted that darn MSG tape.
Don't think for a second that this is what Gundam is all about. Gundam is not babbling, superficial politics, overpowered Gundams, mindless killing that shows no human side of the soldiers, nonsensical "philosophy," and bishounen with ambiguous sexual orientation. Real Gundam shows what war is all about, it shows you the politics rather than have one character ramble on about them for one hour. It has real characters to whom you can relate and more emotion in one episode than in all 49 episodes of Wing.
Can you tell me the name of any of the OZ grunts that died at the hands of your beloved heroes, except for maybe Hilde's friend? I thought not. Go watch 0080 or Mobile Suit Gundam. Heck, even 08th MS Team is better than this tripe.
(By the way, God of Death was originally used in G Gundam in reference to the character Kieral. It's also used in 08th MS Team. So it is not hypocritical for a Wing-hater to use it.)
Amazon.com essential video
Gundam premiered on Japanese television in 1979 and redefined the "giant robot" genre. It's become one of the longest-running franchises in anime history, with more than a dozen broadcast, original animation video (OAV), and feature versions. The four episodes on Shooting Stars (the DVD contains a fifth episode) opened a 49-part broadcast series that aired in Japan in 1995 and 1996.
After a war devastated the surface of the earth, many people left for the Space Colonies. The remaining inhabitants are governed by the United Earth Sphere Alliance, which has oppressed the Colonies. A group of rebels hope to win their freedom by attacking Earth with five teenage pilots in Gundam mobile suits (robotic rocket ships made from Gundanium alloy). Heero Yuy, the brash hero, immediately comes into conflict with the sinister Lieutenant Zechs and Colonel Treize, who are important officers in OZ, an elite mobile-suit unit trained and staffed by the powerful Romefeller Foundation. Heero also inadvertently wins the heart of Relena, the wealthy daughter of a cabinet minister. While Heero insults Relena and fights the forces of OZ, the other four Gundam pilots, Duo, Trowa, Quatra, and Chang (who, oddly, don't know each other) wreak havoc on Alliance factories and military bases. It's a classic confrontation between indestructible good guys with invincible weapons and bad guys who can't hit the broad side of a robot. The DVD contains the "unedited version" of the show that plays on the Cartoon Network. It contains no nudity or sex; the violence is largely restricted to machines attacking each other and is recommended for ages 7 and older. The VHS version has some language changes ("I will kill you" becomes "I will destroy you") and the blood has been removed when characters are injured. There is no difference in running time. --Charles Solomon
Customer Reviews:
Gundam wing.......2005-01-30
I have seen the hole gundam wing searys on cartoonnet work and ever cents i hav seen the first one this has become my fav anime. and then i got my best friend in to this anme. and know i am working on buying the hole colection and i only need 3 more and ill have it. but anyways. if you have never seen gundam wing. its about bunch of 15 yearold kids tryign to make a difrents bye fighting. and it has hummer, drama, love and action in it. and there has been many gundam shows mad but out off all the gundam shows made. i think Gundam wing is the altoment best out of the gundam shows. I highly recomend you buying this.
Not the worst out there, but ultimately weak.......2004-12-06
Ah, Gundam Wing. Like many other Americans, this was the series that got me "into" anime (unless you count the time I spent watching DBZ, but I'm trying to forget that particular bit of fandom). One of the spinoffs from the original UC (Universal Century) Gundam storyline, Gundam Wing takes place in the AC (After Colony) timeline, giving it no connection to its predecessors... or so Bandai would have you think. Although GW was my first anime series and will always hold a certain place in my heart (somewhere far, far above DBZ), after a few more years I decided it was time to look back on it with a more critical eye. My perceptions had changed with experience.
It's not that Gundam Wing is a BAD series... it's just not very good. I don't need to bore you with too many story details, since the plot is summarized perfectly well in the Amazon review above. It echoes the conflict of the UC timeline (spacenoids versus Earthlings, although neither term is present here.) The problem is entirely in the execution; Gundam Wing is very slow and repetitive.
Let's take it from the top. The series spans 49 episodes. Fifteen to twenty of these could be cut without impairing the story one bit. These extra episodes are generally interludes in which one of the Gundam pilots meets the people - usually townspeople or guerilla fighters in some wartorn part of the world. After a couple of these, however, you realize that they're all pretty much the same: a Gundam pilot lands, talks to some people, hears a little speech about how great Total Pacifism (tm) is, and then is forced to fight to save his new friends from a sudden onslaught of bad guys. Conversations between the rivals Heero and Zechs follow a similar pattern, with lots of harping about the nature of rivalry and conflict (I lost count of the times somebody said "Why are we fighting this meaningless battle?" during the series.) Ultimately these speeches are nothing but filler - they sound nice until you realize that there's very little substance to them; they're there solely to make the series sound more intellectual than it actually is.
The politics of the story are similarly repetitive; the Earth and colonies are seized by a series of evil organizations, with another always appearing to replace its destroyed predecessor. You learn nothing about any of these groups, and don't really care when a hated enemy suddenly becomes the Gundams' ally.
Fans of UC Gundam will notice many suspiciously familiar events and characters. Zechs and Relena, children of a murdered visionary who end up on opposite sides of the conflict, replace Char Aznable and Sayla Mass from Gundam 0079. Heero, Zechs' rival, is intended to echo Amuro Ray - although while Amuro was human (sometimes annoyingly so), Heero is a flat and lifeless character. The Zero System replaces the superhuman Newtypes. Colonel Bask's colony laser from Zeta Gundam appears in two different incarnations here. The original concept for Operation Meteor (described in Endless Waltz) is a blatant recycling of Operation Stardust and the Zeon colony drop, while the final battle on the Libra battle station is a ripoff of the finale to Char's Counterattack. Even Endless Waltz continues the tradition, with Treize's daughter Mariemeia and her captor Dekim Barton replacing Mineva Zabi and Hamarn Karn of Zeta Gundam and ZZ.
The series' "action" is very weak, consisting of invincible Gundams mowing down hordes of hapless enemies - combat seems entirely too easy, and there's very little sense of danger at any time. About halfway through there's a brief stretch where the Gundams inexplicably start losing, but it's only a couple of episodes before they're back on top again. To top it off, the animation is pretty choppy, and there are many scenes where the same clip of animation is pasted onto different backgrounds to represent different locales.
I could go on, but you're probably getting the picture. Although GW is still a decent show, it lacks the intensity and depth that makes other anime series (the UC Gundams among them) great. It's fun mindless entertainment, but once you move on to something smarter (Cowboy Bebop was my next series), you probably won't look back. Not bad as an introduction to anime, and a good serious show for younger viewers... but those who demand MORE will look elsewhere.
Gundam is good.......2004-06-27
For all you GW haters out there, you need to cool off! I've seen the original series, 008, 0083, 8th MS team, and Seed. I enjoy Gundam Seed the most. GW is a close second. You can complain that the story was too complicated, or too unrealistic, but look...Gundam design has changed since 0083. Gundams are more bad ass than ever. You want to bitch about the past, fine, you do that. Your kinda like someone that thinks DOS is great, and won't switch to Windows cause you say "look at all the cool thing I can do with DOS." The original series sucked! The White Base looked like a retarted floating box. I'll stick with the newer age Gundam thank you! I recomend 0083, 8th MS, GW, and Seed.
GW has it all. Cool charaters. The best mecha design out of all the series besdies Seed! GW was a bold experiment for the Gundam series and it succeded much to the Relic's (old Gundam fans) dismay!
One of the best anime series of recent years.......2004-03-27
INTRODUCTION:
Ever since the late seventies, the Gundam series has been one of the most successful and widely-loved anime series in the world. It has become a favorite of many over the years. There have been several different sub-series over the years, and one of the most popular ones of which is the Wing series, released in the mid-nineties. This is a DVD featuring episodes fromt that series. Read on for my review.
BASIC PLOT:
The Gundam Wing series follows the exploits of five young men who pilot mobile suits against the forces of an organization seeking world domination. There's Heero (the main man), Duo (the cool guy), Trowa (the quiet guy), Quatre (the peace-lover), and Wufei (the overconfident hothead.) The battle rages on for forty-nine episodes, and as the series progresses, a number of plot twists keep things interesting. This is a rare example of a series where the characters aren't paper thin - they continue to evolve as the series progresses. This is one of the best anime series out there, as one of the best mecha series.
SERIES OPINIONS:
To put it simply, this is an excellent series. Many fans of the Gundam series call this the best sub-series of all, and honestly, who can blame them? The storyline is great, the animation is great, the characters are great - everything about this series is great. It's good to see the series get a long overdue DVD release in America.
DVD:
These DVDs are good, because they contain several uncut episodes, but they're bad in that they don't contain any special features (that is, other than the very basic DVD stuff.) The series is one of the greatest anime series out there, but don't expect any bonus material.
OVERALL:
Overall this is an excellent anime series, and I recommend it to any anime or mecha fan. If you like either one, this series will not disappoint.
Oh man... even one star is too much.......2004-01-06
I am aghast at all of the good reviews this series has received, therefore I felt the need to post my own opinion. And worry not, Wingers, it shall be short.
Basically all that I am going to say is that I ordered volume 8 of Mobile Suit Gundam from Amazon.com for $12 and they sent me the entire Gundam Wing DVD boxset instead. And you know what I did? I sent the boxset back because I wanted that darn MSG tape.
Don't think for a second that this is what Gundam is all about. Gundam is not babbling, superficial politics, overpowered Gundams, mindless killing that shows no human side of the soldiers, nonsensical "philosophy," and bishounen with ambiguous sexual orientation. Real Gundam shows what war is all about, it shows you the politics rather than have one character ramble on about them for one hour. It has real characters to whom you can relate and more emotion in one episode than in all 49 episodes of Wing.
Can you tell me the name of any of the OZ grunts that died at the hands of your beloved heroes, except for maybe Hilde's friend? I thought not. Go watch 0080 or Mobile Suit Gundam. Heck, even 08th MS Team is better than this tripe.
(By the way, God of Death was originally used in G Gundam in reference to the character Kieral. It's also used in 08th MS Team. So it is not hypocritical for a Wing-hater to use it.)
Product Description
French Language Version DVD 1 - Face cachée; - Prisonnier de l'Alliance; - L'ennemi Invisible; - Les larmes de la vérité
DVD 2
- Des liens trop forts; - Manipulation; - Pris pour cible; - Les héritiers; - Reddition; DVD 3
- La quête du bonheur; - Les guérilleros; - Les larmes de Catherine; - L'ordre de détruire Zero Un; - Confiance;
DVD 4 Le duel - Trahi par les siens Oz - Intime conviction - La capture - Nouvelles armures
DVD 5 - La fin d'un règne; - Les armes de la paix; - Pilotes d'élite; - Quatre contre; - Face à son destin;
DVD:
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - Operation 3
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - Operation 4
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - Operation 9
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DVD
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7-9 Years
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Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - Operation 2
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - Operation 3
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - Operation 4
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - Operation 5
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - Operation 6
