This is where I began. I saw DBZ on TV first but it was merely fun to watch, this however is what truly opened my heart to anime and manga both. Gundam Wing is not the first series to hold the title Gundam, but by God it is probably the most loved by its fans.
There is a quality similar in every Gundam series, themes and characters that are reborn or recast depending on writers and so forth. This version however I think is probably one of the longest and most layered stories I have encountered in anime up until I dived into Railgun and Index.
We start with a time of tremulous peace after mankind has finally colonized space with artificial structures that mimic earth conditions for the humans there. Earth is under a United Alliance of nations, currently under fairly direct military control. The Colonies are being treated as colonies of old usually were, sources of income, supplies, and generally secondary citizens.
It is into this era that we meet our first MC, Relena Darlian. She is of course a teenager, but is traveling with her father on diplomatic missions from the Colonies to Earth. While looking out a window, she sees a shooting star, that is actually a meteorite to her.
We of course follow this and join a military tracking unit led by a young Zechs Marquis, who wears a mask almost the entire first half of the series. He and his men are suspicious of this lone meteor and 4 other detected UFOs on incoming trajectories. Of course they are not natural.
We are explosively introduced to Heero Yui in the Wing Gunam, codenamed 01 by Earth. It is 1 of 5 Gundam mobile suits, so named because of the alloy they are made from and because of their technological level. The Alliance is not without recourse to combat the suits however, they have Leos as well, but as we quickly see they are no match for a Gundam.
Heero surprisingly wins the fight but at the cost of his ability to land. We quickly have Relena and him meet up at her school where she begins to learn he is not the student he seems, especially after he tries to destroy his own suit.
It is not long after that we jump to our other Gundam pilots:
Trowa Barton of Heavy Arms
Quatre Winner of Sand Rock
Duo Maxwell of Deathscythe
Chang Wufei of Shenlong
Each of them are young men and each Gundam is different in ability and technique, Heavy Arms for example is gun happy.
Their enemy is not actually the Earth Alliance, but an organization that has been behind the Colonial policies and creation of the mobile battle suits, Oz.
Zechs is actually from Oz and is often at odds with the Gundams. Oz itself is later revealed to be much older and nefarious organization that has been leading mankind to a more "enlightened" rule. Even though there have been advocates for peace that were welcomed, they felt things were not going in the right direction at the time and had them eliminated.
The last main character I will bring up is Treize Khusherenada, the leader of Oz for most of the series beginning, then sent into exile when he did not like the creation of Mobile Doll system into mobile suits.
Of all the characters he will be the one that surprises you most.
The series touchs on an array of themes but most of them deal with warfare and how it should be approached and eventually completely removed from humanity. We see massive emotional choices of each character and it is never clear cut or easy as some series may have portrayed it. The characters are very human in how they approach their failures and even their successes.
This is a very political heavy anime but it has plenty of action to complement it. Even when we settle down into the flow of the series it takes a dark turn with the introduction of machines that seem to look into the future, the Wing Zero Gundam and the Epyon. Each are fearsome machines and we see an epic battle between them that is well worth it.
In the end however we stay with Relena's battle through the confusion of war and Heero through the confusion of his heart. It is not as straight forward as it might seem at first, but in the end you are left with an ending that does go back to its beginning with a perfect tone in my opinion.
If there is any Gundam series I would recommend, or any anime series, it is this one.
Additional Note: There is an OVA after the series timeline called Gundam Wing Endless Waltz...bit over dramatic but still pitch perfect moments for all our MCs and some answers that were left in the air after the end of Gundam Wing.
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