Reviews for Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz

Now, Gundam Wing was a series I thoroughly enjoyed. Great characters who fit their roles perfectly, bang-on chemistry, and a brilliantly paced and thought-out story. However, I did take a bit of an issue with its art and animation, since the battle scenes lacked the fluidity and choreography I was used to. Reused frames and cheap explosions also dulled the experience. The foreground art was rather well done, but the lackluster backgrounds often left much to be desired. Ditto with the matte, blandish colors. I didn’t hang on this too much, because GW is rather old, and went withthe “it was good for its time” conclusion, and I often got the feeling that the excellent storyline mostly made up for the art and animation.

Thankfully, Endless Waltz addressed my issue with the art and animation. Much more precise actions, more fluid movements in the Mobile Suits, and much more time was spent on creating battles that looked and felt grittier and more realistic. The explosions didn't feel as cheap, the choreography was improved, and the beam blasts gave scenes a much better sense of dimension. The suits themselves benefit from flashier designs and with the slightly glossier color palate compared with Wing, they seem to pop out and become more vibrant. Ditto goes with the characters and backgrounds. Wing’s backgrounds to me felt a bit like a faded museum piece of art, but Endless Waltz’s art and animation feels much more contemporary.

A year has passed since the end of Wing, and while you can feel the characters have matured a bit in this timeframe, they’re still their old selves, keeping their old philosophies, battle techniques, strengths, weaknesses, skills, and personalities. This I see most apparent in Heero, Duo, and Relena. Keeping the characters relatively similar is perfect, since characterization was a huge strength of the original series. I’m glad that some time was spent on explaining the pasts of some of the pilots, but the movie only goes back a little while into the more recent events, and it feels like they only scratched the surface into the characters’ pasts. They also went into the true purpose and intent of Operation Meteor, but again, they only scratched the surface. Problem is that after they scratch the surface, the questions start flooding in and you’re left wanting more explanations. The new characters they introduce, Mariemaia and Dekim, are well developed for the time they are in the movie and despite minimal explanation, their intent is clearly shown and radiated towards the viewer very well.

The plot starts out in a rather hopeful note, with the results of Wing’s ending ushering in a new era of peace. But things get going rather quickly, and like Wing, each group of characters has their own agenda as to build up to the climax. Thankfully, unlike Wing, there isn’t a big dead spot in the middle of the movie where some characters get shoved aside and the viewer is left wondering what happened to them. The plot doesn’t slow down in the middle of the movie and the viewers are left wanting everything to come together. Even though each group of characters has an agenda, Endless Waltz doesn’t try to fragment and separate these groups as much as possible, and instead keeps their actions closely tied to the main plotline so there's a constant feeling of progression.

The shifts amongst these character groups apparent in Wing are also apparent in Endless Waltz, necessary and well done, but since the buildup to Endless Waltz’s climax is neverending, no shift in focus feels clunky and forced, which sometimes occurred in Wing. I would have liked a bit more focus on Wu Fei’s agenda and a little more on what happened to him and Trowa during the 2nd quarter of the movie, however. A slightly grittier battle between Heero and Wu Fei and more focus on Wing Zero would have also been welcome since Heero is the most central of the 5 pilots to the plot, but what Endless Waltz did deliver was still pretty close compared to Wing.

If you liked Gundam Wing, do not skip Endless Waltz. A good, though rather sad, end to the After Colony timeline, Endless Waltz concludes the Wing series very well. It’s like having an excellent dessert after your meal.

Overview: Time for a short review! Other than the first Pokemon movie and the first 3 DBZ movies, this was the first anime movie that a whole generation American anime fans watched. So how was it? Well...it was a bit polarizing to say the least. Every generation of anime fans has "the golden punching bag". That special anime that you just HAVE to hate online in order to call yourself a REAL anime fan. Darling of the Franxx currently holds that title belt. Before that there was Sword Art Online. Before SAO, there was Elfen Lied and before that there was Inuyasha. Gundam Wing was THEanime to hate in the late 90s and Endless Waltz was even more hated. Why? Did it REALLY deserve the amount of vitriol it got? Let's find out!

Story and characters:

The story is that a militaristic bastard is trying to use the daughter of the main villain from Gundam Wing as a puppet and launch his own coup against Earth's government. Now only the Gundam pilots and their badass robots can save the day by blowing up some enemy mechs and making people realize that war is wrong. So basically...it's another Gundam anime. There have been just a couple well written Gundam series over the last 40 years, but mostly they follow the same pattern. A shadowy organization launches an all out war and only some very special teens with awesome robots can stop them. Insert forced anti-war message here. We watch Gundam series for awesome looking robot designs and awesome space battles that get us pumped to go collect models kits. Endless Waltz DOES have a few major issues like Chang Wufei turning bad for the sake of the plot and then turning good again almost immediately. Gundam Wing in general had a huge issue with random character alignment shifts. Still, I'm not personally bothered by this. It's all a matter of expectations. Gundam Wing is like anime Pro Wrestling. It's something you watch entirely for the spectacle and you just assume that totally random face turns and heel turns WILL happen.

Art and animation:

Firstly, the new designs for the 5 gundams are all amazing! The original 5 designs were cool, but the "custom models" for Endless Waltz are all massive improvements. I also need to say that this film looked AWESOME for its time and still holds up really well. This was made in 1998 and it looks better than most anime being released 20 years later in 2018. Dragonball fans would come in their pants if a special episode of DB Super looked even half as good as Endless Waltz does. Sunrise was still flush with cash at this point and riding high on that early Western anime boom. No expenses were spared in the making of this movie. It's mostly hand animated and just looks gorgeous.

Music:

Here is another area where Gundam Wing and Endless Waltz shine. The opening song is awesome. The battle songs and background songs are awesome. Every track gets you pumped to see some giant robots throw down. I have nothing bad to say about the Endless Waltz soundtrack. It's fucking awesome. Go check it out.

Hate factor:

So...it's harmless, dumb fun with amazing production values and music. Why on Earth would people hate it SO much? I've been an anime fan since around 1997 and I can tell you the secret formula to being the internet's most hated anime. Is it having the worst plot and characters? nope. There is an anime called Kimera, that's about gay vampires from outer space and a douche-bag who is willing to sacrifice all humanity to get some sweet anal. Nobody has ever heard of that atrocity. The anime with the really bad plots typically go under the radar. Is it having the worst art? Nope. Is it having the most filler and worst pacing? Nope. The one thread that connects all the most hated anime on the English speaking internet from the late 90s to the present is demographics. So who are the gatekeepers of online anime taste? Who are the Watchmen? Geek males in their late teens and early 20s that think they're really smart and sophisticated. It is always been this way. What demographic do they utterly despise above all others? Teenage girls aged 13-19 who are more casual anime viewers and haven't seen TONS of anime. Whatever anime wins the hearts of "Fake geek girls" is going to be labeled the Anti-Christ online. Gundam Wing was one of these anime. Inuyasha? yep. Elfen Lied? yep. Sword Art? yep. I personally hate SAO, but even I realize it isn't THAT bad. I don't hate it more than I hate Bleach or Code Geass and yet nobody hates on those to the same degree. Why? Just look at their fandoms. I was a bit saddened and disappointed when I figured out this little formula, but that's just the way things are.

Overall:

Should you go into this movie expecting a cinematic masterpiece? NO. Will you have fun and probably enjoy the cheesy, 90s ride? Yes! I defy you to watch the aerial duel between Wing and Altron Gundam and not be entertained. Or not mark out watching Custom Heavy unleash a hailstorm of bullets and missiles. This movie is quality nostalgic cheese and I will never stop loving it.

(Check out my profile for a link to my site containing more up-to-date reviews and bonus media!) I already have a review for the Gundam Wing series, and I'd suggest reading that first as my feelings towards it also reflect that of this movie for the most part. Endless Waltz is the sequel to the Gundam Wing TV series, and the greatest thing about it is that it could've easily felt forced as the original series ended on its own but instead it feels like a natural continuation and extended conclusion of the series. This is surely for the better as it allows Gundam Wing to goout with a much greater bang. The initial scenario is nearly identical to that of the final episodes of Wing, but the progression is much different. After peace is obtained a new force shows up to take advantage of the Earth's powerless state with a big plan that puts the entire planet at risk.

We aren't here for the plot though (because it's Gundam Wing), but rather the thrills, and Endless Waltz delivers more of those than ever before through some incredible animation quality that blows the original series animation to smithereens, showcasing both much crisper art and fluid animation. To give an example of just how good the art is, there were many times before where I had seen still pictures of Endless Waltz and thought I was looking at high quality promotional art. It's really something.

To further justify this sequel's existence, it gives us some short backstories on all the Gundam pilots that the original series was sorely lacking. It isn't much, but Heero, Trowa, and Wufei all needed it most. We actually barely get anything about Duo unfortunately, but he was cool enough already, and Quatre's backstory was actually in the series.

Speaking of Gundams, the most controversial aspect of Endless Waltz has always been Hajime Katoki's Mobile Suit redesigns. These redesigns clash greatly with Kunio Okawara's popular originals and have met with much scorn from many Gundam Wing fans due to a perceived lack of respect for Okawara's designs by Katoki. These new designs are not upgrades, but rather complete retcons that don't acknowledge the originals other than the base concept. Deathscythe Hell no longer has any weapons besides the Beam Scythe, Sandrock loses its claw and instead fights only with its shotels making it redundant in the face of the fellow melee Gundam Deathscythe, Heavyarms is the same but now blue for some reason, Altron is... pretty much the same, but who cares about Altron? And of course, Wing Zero gets its now legendary angel wings, which you either think are cool as hell or incredibly stupid. Since Deathscythe was hit pretty hard here, you can definitely put me down as someone who dislikes the Endless Waltz redesigns, though I like Heavyarms's new color scheme more, and Tallgeese III is my second favorite Mobile Suit in the series. While I hated Wing Zero's angel wings before seeing this, when in motion they have a more mechanical look to them so I'm giving it a pass even though it doesn't beat the original (it even loses its Mobile Armor bird mode, please help me). These changes were all so, so unnecessary and minimize the original designs. I don't get it. Worse still, these are almost always the final versions used in the Super Robot Wars games.

Venting over. Endless Waltz contains the best qualities of Gundam Wing's fast-paced action and these positive qualities overshadow much of the usual lame melodrama. The movie's biggest misstep is having a set-up and ending that ignores its conflict with the series's central themes and resets things back to the status quo which Endless Waltz showed didn't work. Just Gundam Wing being stupid again. If you liked the series, you will like Endless Waltz. If you didn't like the series, you will at least like Endless Waltz more. It's that simple.

Gundam Wing the TV series was full of confusion for me, and this compilation movie of 3 OVA episodes are a nice touch finish the series. It felt like it tried to fix the mess that the TV show made. Unfortunately the mess was too big sometimes since it lost way too much focus sometimes and the characters weren't utilized effectively for best storytelling. This movie, however, revisited why the 5 Gundam pilots came to Earth in the first place, and explained some background of the characters and their settings. As a Trowa fan, I also loved the fanservice of his new circus costume (shirtlesswith suspenders) and WuFei got more important roles in this sequel and I was very glad he wasn't completely isolated like he was sometimes in the show. I feel sorry for Duo since he's always treated horribly (this movie not exception) and him not getting much background info is just fitting for the character and I'm fine with that. He's almost a comic relief it's sad but reassuring.

They were kinda obsessed with the idea of self-destruction switch and it made me laugh since it reminded me too much of that time when Heero did so in the show. The guys are seriously crazy like in the show, but more believable and well, a bit understandable. I think the whole Gundam series is filled with crazy, border line insane, characters, but this movie was a bit mild compared to the show. The show didn't explain the characters' psych. In this sequel, they're really talking and telling you all they can after they developed more emotionally throughout the show.

The female characters really shined in this movie. And although I cherished all the fanservice or basically getting more background info on the pilots, I enjoyed the toughness of the heroines. Well, except Catherine, she didn't get much since she's not soldier/politician, but Relena was more active, Sally and especially Lady Une were inspiring. But Noin takes the cake for me. She turned out much more manly than well, you know, that guy. The new antagonist is a little girl, and that reminded me so much of another little girl in Gundam Z or ZZ and she felt boring. The enemy side couldn't get more screen time to be compelling since there were so many protagonists, mainly gundam pilots, that took the much needed time for background stuff.

In the end, I'm so glad they made this sequel to the show. I know there are some novels or manga for the Wing series, as for any popular Gundam series, but with this movie I felt more complete and satisfied after the under-explained TV show.

Endless Re-Watchability, I must admit, I am undeniably biased toward this OVA because it was my very first introduction to anime. Before I even first saw Dragon Ball, Pokemon, or the other baseline Toonami-type shows everyone knows, Endless Waltz was melting my little 8 year old mind. That being said, I still love watching GWEW to this day, the animation is frankly awesome, the story, while not the most intricate or devastating in the timeless juggernaut that is the Gundam franchise, is still suitable for the message its trying to tell. The voice acting is on-point for the bulk of the run-time and though its notreally meant to be the most mind-blowing or in-depth drama, the emotional beats are still quite effective in my eyes. It's by no means a masterpiece, but it hasn't gotten old for me yet, it's an 8 out of 10 overall from me.

To begin with, endless waltz was by far one of my favorite gundam series. I actually built 3 models of Endless Waltz. To make a movie about it was like a dream come true. The voice acting was spot on, and I really liked the emotion that was portrayed. The battle scenes were unique and was full of action. Though some of the sounds effects did sound a bit off, it still is a great movie. Endless waltz is a great gundam TV show, and I would recommend it to anyone. The movie captured the magic of the television series with perfection. Too bad Tryfighters won't be getting any movie.

Just like the show, there's good kernels of ideas we could wrestle with: is it possible to have peace and completely get rid of weapons, what is the purpose of a solider during peacetime, is all the sacrifice of battle worth it? But just like the show it's ham fisted, stumbles all over itself, and is generally ridiculous. At least with this it's not too front and center most of the time and the fact that they had to write a tight 90 minute story probably helped. But why would anyone follow a 9 year old in a coup d'état? The animation is absolutely beautiful,full of fluid awesome fight scenes with only the occasional blemish. And the updated Gundam designs are super slick. I enjoyed it not for its story but for its visuals, and just like the show I'll always have a fondness for it. Watched the sub since that's all Crunchy had.

"Mobile Suit Gundam Wing" was a heckuva ride, it had the right enough amounts of action, plot, character, and mobile suits to make any mech anime fan let out a high-pitched squee noise. Needless to say, that was never going to be enough. We wanted more. So, we got a follow-up movie. "Endless Waltz" Picking up shortly after the "Wing" ended, this movie is a perfect microcosm of it's origin program. Lots of action, intrigue, new characters, and best of all- new versions of the Gundams from the "Wing" series. Oh, Merry Gundam-mas everyone- these things are AWESOME! It may cheapen this movie into an excusejust to sell toys, but how can you not love these invincible juggernauts?! They look great and just blow up everything in their way! Sweet, sweet, 'splosion porn everyone! Come get some!

Okay, serious notes. The film suffers from the same draw backs it's predecessor did. Too preachy. Too many big speeches about how right and/or wrong war is. And all packed into a short movie rather than spread out over a long series. You get some more background on the Gundam pilots, a couple new and semi-important characters are introduced, and a new conflict starts and is resolved with the help of our band of heroes.

The art is pretty good, each Gundam looks fantastic as does the cannon fodder their put up against. The sound f/x are everything you'd expect from a show with the word "Gundam" slapped on the tin, and the soundtrack is pretty sweet, too. I especially liked the featured song, "White Reflection" which sounds like the soundtrack to a training montage where Rocky Balboa is training to be a Gundam pilot. Sub vs. Dub is actually a win for English dub, to me they just sound better. Especially Scott McNeil as Duo Maxwell, he just sounds like he was born for the part.

I really liked this movie and I recommend it to any fan of the original show. I liked it so much, it's actually one of my favorite Christmas movies. (My favorite being "Die Hard") I wish it could have been drawn out into a longer set of OVAs, but this does well with a short run-time. A wonderful cherry on top of the action packed sundae that was "Gundam Wing". 7/10. Check it out. Cheers!

[Edit] This is a great OVA, and it expands what you see on the Gundam Wing series. If you liked Gundam Wing, please watch it, because it is really good. Story: Usually, the Gundam OVAs are made so they can sell more gunplas, that's the harsh truth. Yet, Endless Waltz (EW) creates a good story, expanding what you see in the series and gives a way better conclusion to the show than the regular series. This is a great feat that should not be overlooked because Gundam sometime really messes up when they create an OVA that concludes the series story (I am looking at you,Wakening of the Trail Blazers).

Art and Sounds: It was made 1 year after Wing, it's the same, meaning its good for their time.

Characters: I think here is what EW really made me happy. All characters that I had a problem in the series got fixed in EW. The ones that were good, continued to be good, and the ones that had a lot of cracks and holes in their development, were fixed in the OVA, like Heero and Trowa (which was relevant as a cold beer in the North Pole). Chang Wufei continues to be annoying but had some fixes. Relena is badass now, so I started to like her. I can`t give more here without spiling for you. In summary, in terms of characters, EW was on point.

Mechas: As you expect, Bandai has to make more money, so they developed new Gundams. I have no complaints, go for it Bandai, because the Gundam is even more badass with their OVA look now. the Gundam Wing Zero Custom is so beautiful and awesome that its gunpla became one of the most used gunpla for custom builds in the world.

Overall: Great OVA, closing the story of Wing with high honors, a must-watch for Gundam fans, and for those who liked Gundam Wing.

Endless Waltz is truly an anime classic. There are many scenes in there that go down as some of the greatest of all time. The story isn't anything crazy or that deep. The plot is rather simple. It's the excitement and suspense they do well with and fleshing out all the characters a bit more. It is quite possibly one of the most badass anime movies I've ever watched. I have yet to see anything in anime top the scene with Heero retrieving the Wing Zero. The animation and designs are brilliant, and the musical scores used were chef's kiss. Seeing the Wing cast inaction like this with these redesigned suits and that glorious animation has me revisiting the movie multiple times a year. As highly regarded as it was originally, I feel like this movie is criminally slept on.

I said that I'd give 10 if a character got shot, so here I am also MAL wants a bigger review so I'l just say that said character getting shot was the best part of the whole Wing series, I have never found myself enjoying it so much until that part because my God, Gundam Wing is terrible, it's laughable how bad the entire series is, and is by far my most hated gundam show of all times, and whoever says it's the best, I'm sorry but you're blinded by your nostalgia, I don't mean any disrespect towards anyone who loves it, bc I totally get it, theaction is so good, arguably one of the best in the entire franchise, but everything else, it hurts me just to remember

I've talked about Gundam Wing. It was a series I enjoyed quite a bit. This time, we're looking at the film. It came out after the series and serves as a sequel. So, there may be some spoilers for the series proper. Just be aware of that. Story: We open with some very simple events happening. Duo and Quatre are set to destroy their Gundams along with Heavy Arms and Wing Zero. But unbeknownst to them, a new threat is rising. Relena is kidnapped, not like anyone but Dorothy cares, and the remnants of Treize's army are gathering under a new leader, his young daughter. Thebiggest issue with the film is that it features a lot of flashbacks to kind of explain some back stories for the pilots that basically explain why they're reacting to the situation like they are. While it kind of works from a characterisation perspective, it's also a bit awkward in terms of story-telling. It almost feels like padding, they spend so much time on it.

That being said, I appreciate the way the film handles the theme of vigilance being a necessity for peace. I also do think it's a logical follow up to have Treize's followers still active. And the film does maintain a good degree of tension and stay compelling throughout.

Characters:

Most of the characters are the ones we know and love from the series. Also Relena. There are two major antagonists introduced. The first is Treize's daughter, Mariemaia. The second is Dekim Barton. Honestly, he's not a very interesting character. He has this vague thing about being involved with the original Operation Meteor because he wants to control the world. Which kind of puts him on the level of a Silver Age comic villain. Mariemaia is a bit better. She's given some sympathetic traits. My issue with her is that her bond with Relena isn't all that well developed. Most of it seems to form offscreen.

Art:

The film's art meshes well with the art of the series. It's a bit dated, but still looks pretty good and the action sequences are pretty good. The Gundams still look really cool. Wing has some spectacular designs in that regard.

Sound:

Nakahara Shigeru, Orikasa Ai, Midorikawa Hikaru, Koyasu Takehito, Seki Toshihiko, Ishino Ryuuzou, they all give really strong performances. Honestly, everyone in this gives strong performances. Sunrise did a fantastic job with casting and directing. The music is great as well. Otani Kow nailed it pretty handily.

Ho-yay:

There's not as much as the series proper. Dorothy doesn't really show her massive crush on Relena. Quatre and Trowa don't interact all that much. The most homoerotic thing that happens is Zechs saying he couldn't rest in peace while Treize's spirit called out to him.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Spend less time with flashback sequences. You'd honestly be better off with shorter sequences, and only the ones that are really relevant to the story. Which are Trowa's and Heero's. You could do without the others.

2. Better illustrate Relena's relationship with Mariemaia. Them becoming somewhat close is actually important to the plot, but they barely show them interacting. At least give us a brief montage of their time together.

3. Give Dekim some stronger motivation. As is, he seems to just want to rule the world for the lols. Give us something to explain why grabbing power means so much to him. It would give him a lot more complexity.

Final Thoughts:

This film is pretty solid. It may not be on the level of the series proper, but it makes a fine addition and it does follow up pretty strongly. I'm giving this one a 7/10. If you're a fan of the series, it's worth watching. Unless your sole interest in the series is based on the fairly high levels of ho-yay because there's not that much of that in this film.

SPOILERS AHEAD TL;DR Very pretty to look at, decent action, your usual old style Gundam dialogue and absolutely moronic decisionmaking every new character and Wiu Fei I was told to watch this by a friend that knows I like Gundam Seed+Destiny+00 and at the time of writing this review, episode 12 of Witch from Mercury finished airing. He pointed out that Wing is _not_ like those shows, but many people confuse references with copying, and he didn't remember Seed and Destiny that well (I've seen both twice), and well at least Seed doesn't throw in random new powerful factions whenever the writers need a new enemy. Wingdoes this at least 3 times in total, excluding the introduction of OZ in the beginning.

Wing has a completely insane morality system that I am absolutely convinced was either decided by dice rolls or people that needed different medication. There's one big battle at the end of episode 49, everyone except Treize walks away, and then there's this movie, and hoo boy good luck figuring out why the non main cast people do what they do.

You've got a random coup on Earth that happens without a hitch, the Gundams show up to get their shit kicked, then Heero does the hero thing, some random civies start yelling at the coup people, the Zero Wing shoots the cool overpowered as hell gun (that destroyed an entire space colony in one shot earlier in Wing) multiple times into an earth magical bunker which kills no one(?), then the random 9 year old gets shot, the dictator gets randomly executed by some grunt, and everyone else walks away. Those civies from earlier? They somehow encouraged the Nazis to throw down their weapons.

I suppose that I am fortunate that these writers didn't make any references to the wrong assumption that "6 gigatons of mass hitting earth from space = forever winter" like episode 49 of Wing beats you over the head with (apparently basic knowledge about the Bolide impact wasn't a thing in 1997, but w/e). My review of Iron Blooded Orphans had to include 12+ basic scientific + economic inaccuracies, and fortunately this movie dodges those particular pitfalls.

The show makes very little common sense, and the movie is worse. At least the Peacecraft daughter is no longer talking to herself like she did for the first 12+ episodes in Wing. I now mostly understand why I hate Iron Blooded Orphans, because the main scriptwriter watched Gundam Wing and G Gundam, both of which were, as other reviews here have pointed out, much closer to wrestling plots than actual warfare or anything in military history from competent generals or even commanders. The scene with the civies saying they were going to the Presidential palace (white house?), which buried itself Neon Genesis Evangelion Neo-Tokyo style to yell about pacifism (including former soldiers) would be laughable if it wasn't so sincere in its idiotic statement.

The movie is very pretty to look at, but as someone that actually reads every damn line of dialogue and pays attention to what is happening and expects humans to act like humans, I was infuriated.

At this point, you all know my feelings on Gundam Wing by now. It's a series that thinks it's a serious war drama when it's actually a ridiculous, campy, convoluted mess that tries way too hard to be the epic of the year at the expense of more important things like coherent storytelling and character development, gleefully pulling stuff out of its ass just to be bigger and more bombastic than it really has any right to be. And yet even with all of these huge problems, it still did pretty good in Japan and was the series that put Gundam on the map inNorth America, being a mainstay on the Toonami block for quite a while. So in light of its popularity, Sunrise decided to make a 3-episode OVA called Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz in 1997, which would then be recut into a theatrical movie with a new Two-Mix song and some new footage slotted in a year later. Fitting how I wrote this review not only on GW's 30th anniversary, but right as Endless Waltz is being screened in US theaters for the very first time as part of this celebration. Now that I've seen it, I've gotta say...seriously, why couldn't the series have been more like this?! Endless Waltz actually goes out of its way to address a lot of my issues with the show, even if it winds up having its own problems!

A year after the events of the TV series, it seems like all is going well. The Eve Wars have ended, and both Treize Khushrenada and OZ have passed from existence. The Earth Sphere Unified Nation (ESUN), and a special peacekeeping police force known as the Preventers, rose from the ashes of OZ. Since they figure they will no longer have a role in the post-war era, four of the five Gundam pilots put their Gundams on a giant disposal satellite headed for the sun, with Wufei being the lone holdout. Peace reigns supreme on Earth and in space...for about a year: on the anniversary of the Eve Wars' end, a rebellion occurs on newly-completed colony L3 X-18999. The rebellion, led by seven or eight-year-old Mariemaia Khushrenada, who reveals herself to be Treize's daughter, kidnaps Relena Darlian (now the Vice Foreign Minister of the ESUN) during a diplomatic visit to the colony. As the Gundam pilots investigate further, they discover that Mariemaia's grandfather—Dekim Barton—really controls the rebellion. Dekim plans to use X-18999 to go through with the "original" Operation Meteor— crashing the colony into Earth and letting the Gundam pilots take control in the chaos—if the ESUN doesn't comply with his demands. The Gundam pilots must prevent Dekim from seizing power over the ESUN, but two things complicate matters: most of the pilots don't have their Gundams, and the only one that does—Wufei—has defected to Dekim's side.

I know a lot of people, both Wing fans and non-fans alike, have their opinions on Endless Waltz. Some say it's a great conclusion to the TV series, others say it's a hot mess that's worse than the series, and so on. I'm of the opinion that while it does still have its own set of issues, I actually think Endless Waltz makes an effort to improve upon the TV series and remedy a lot of its issues. It may not have succeeded a lot of the time, but it tried. For one, the movie actually bothers to explore the backgrounds of the Gundam pilots and actually flesh them out for once! Sure, it's not to the level of Episode Zero, but it's a lot more than the TV series bothered to do! We actually get to see and learn about the events that made Heero into a suicidal nihilist, the reason Trowa got roped into piloting Heavyarms and even how he got his name, and, most of all, it actually bothers to give Wufei something resembling a character arc! Is it weird that I feel him having an antagonistic role wound up actually helping him in terms of rounding out his character? For one, his motivations for being an antagonist here actually make sense and are coherent this time around compared to his wishy-washy, all-over-the-place characterization in the TV series, though a more concrete explanation for why he does what he does here is still relegated to another side story manga called Battlefield of Pacifists. Seriously, what is it with Wing and delegating all its most important stuff to side stories that aren't in the TV series or movie?!

The biggest improvement from the TV series to the movie is obviously the animation. Sunrise really stepped up their game here. Wing's animation in the TV series was serviceable, but there were times when the characters would be really off model, and often times the colors would be flat. None of that is present here. The designs on both the characters and mechs are more detailed and sleek, gone are the wonky facial expressions and flat colors, and the action sequences are a feast for the eyes. Seriously, the way explosions and missile barrages are animated here, knowing that they're all lovingly hand painted, just amazes me and we'll never get to see anything like that again. Though even Endless Waltz had to have some sequences using very wonky CGI, but it's only used for showing asteroids. Not that that makes it any less jarring. The soundtrack also continues to be an absolute banger, Two-Mix's two new songs included. Though I kind of wish they could have found a way to integrate White Reflection into the movie rather than relegating it to just the OVA, considered the inferior version of Endless Waltz. Maybe they could have used White Reflection as an insert song and had Last Impression just be the ending theme. Them giving the song the shaft like that is doing it a massive disservice since it's still a pretty damn good song on its own!

One of my biggest issues with Gundam Wing in general was how convoluted it got a lot of the time. In an attempt to be this big, sprawling epic war drama, it had way too many things happening all at once, with characters constantly changing sides and going places on a dime, often for little to no reason, and it became far too complex for its own good, sometimes even leaving things completely unresolved and with no real payoff whatsoever. It could have benefited from limiting itself and cutting out a lot of unnecessary fat, and I'm guessing a lot of production issues behind the scenes resulted in how it came out. I know that was the reason episodes intended to explore the pilots' backstories got cut in favor of recap episodes and relegated to the Episode Zero manga. Endless Waltz, being a movie, cuts away all of the fat and focuses on one particular plotline that's guaranteed to have the biggest payoff, and is all the better for it. This also allows for all the relevant characters to have a role to play in the movie, no matter how small, their actions being the culmination of all of what little development they got in the TV series, even if the plot itself is still your standard cliche "Villain is gonna destroy the Earth because he's evil and he must be stopped!" plot.

That said, Endless Waltz does have some pretty serious flaws that prevent it from achieving true greatness, with two of them being especially egregious. For one thing, all the Gundams got complete redesigns. This in itself isn't a bad thing, though considering how the series ended, they'd have to fish for some sort of explanation for why they'd redesign the Gundams and then have them be sent into the sun to be destroyed. Instead of doing that, Sunrise decided it'd be a great idea to just act like these redesigns have always been around, both in the opening sequence and in flashbacks that take place before the TV series starts! Like...what?! I know Gundam is primarily made to sell merchandise and Gunpla kits and all, and if you wanna market new toys, fine, but don't do it in a way that completely ignores and disregards continuity!! Seriously, I know for a fact that no kid who watched the TV series would be stupid enough to not notice that the very bright red Heavyarms is suddenly navy blue and not be baffled by the movie treating it like it was never bright red! I think part of this is due to the fact that Endless Waltz was made with different staff than that of the TV series, similar to how that Digimon Adventure 02 movie Hurricane Touchdown was also made by different staff than the TV series and had its share of continuity issues as a result of the staff not doing their research.

Speaking of flagrantly ignoring continuity, this is gonna go into spoilers here, but I can't possibly tip-toe around this so I'm just gonna go all in: WHY THE HELL IS ZECHS STILL ALIVE?! Didn't he get killed in a nuclear reactor explosion in the final episode?! You can't just show a guy somehow surviving something like that with no explanation for how he did it and why!! Though considering Wing as a whole loves pulling random Deus Ex Machinas out of its ass and handwaving any possible explanation in order to do just about anything, this isn't really out of the norm, but it's still aggravating as all hell! Also, apparently Treize's age is said to be 24 years old, but Mariemaia, who is apparently between 7-8 years old, is somehow his daughter, assuming she isn't some kid that Dekim plucked off the street for his own machinations like the movie seems to subtly imply. If you do the math, wouldn't that have made Treize 16 years old when he impregnated Mariemaia's mother, whoever she is? If that's true, then...ew. Hey Wing, MTV called, they want their Teen Dad pitch pilot back. Also, due to Endless Waltz's nature as a sequel to the TV series, there's no way you're gonna be able to watch this and understand what's going on if you haven't watched the series beforehand. I forced myself to watch all 49 episodes of that off-the-rails convoluted mess, because I'm a masochist apparently, but for anyone who can't afford to do that, there now exists a cute little recap video of the TV series narrated by Duo's seiyuu you can watch on YouTube. I'd post a link, but unfortunately MAL doesn't like YouTube links for some reason. Hey, I'm always down for more of Duo being a sassy little bitch even when he's explaining the plot of Gundam Wing to you like you're a toddler.

So yeah, Endless Waltz isn't a perfect movie, and it's in no way a standalone movie, but its attempts to at least address some of the TV series' flaws and be actually comprehensible makes it a valiant effort all around. The fact that it was also made to celebrate the Gundam series' 20th anniversary also shouldn't be ignored, considering its influence on later Gundam series down the line and its impact overseas. Now I'm curious as to Yoshiyuki Tomino's thoughts on Wing as a whole. But yeah, Endless Waltz might appeal to you more if you're already a dyed-in-the-wool Gundam Wing fan, and it's an interesting little novelty that I might come back to every once in a while and a good send-off for the After Colony era as a whole.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz is the follow-up to the hit anime, Wing Gundam. Originally released as three OVAs, it was later complied into a movie, which is the version I'm watching. Picking up after the events of Wing, the gang's back to fight-off a new enemy that threatns the peace between Earth and the colonies. So, does it manage to be a fun time? Story - After Colony 196, one year after the events of Wing, peace between Earth and space colonies has been going smoothly... until it's not. The supposed daughter of Wing's villain Traize Kusheranada appears and declares war againstthe Earth-Space Union, believing that she's the rightful heir to rule. Naturally, it's up to our four Gundam pilots Heero, Duo, Trowa, and Quatre to put a stop to her plans. I say four as Wufei joined her cause-- believing its just (which is such a Wufei move)-- and will fight his former comrades. Characters such as Relena, Noin, Dorothy, and even Zechs are back and get their time to shine as well. All in all, the story wasn't anything special, but it got the job done in being entertaining and bringing the group again for one final adventure. It does offer backstory to each character via flashbacks prior to the show's first episode, which was cool.

Characters - The characters have grown after the events of Wing, with each going about living their normal lives. Their core personalities remain intact: Heero is still edgy as ever, Duo is the life of the group, Trowa is silent voice of reason, Wufei is arrogant as ever, and Quatre is the pure-hearted soul we know and love. Relena's more mature this time around, working to improve the peace efforts and has visibly grown after the events of Wing. Zechs is here after being presumed dead and this time, he's learned from his mistakes and aims to protect the harmony between Earth and the colonies. As for the villains, Mariemaia is a young and misguided kid and her second-in command Dekim was a generic villain taking advantage of her-- not the most interesting bunch. The silver-lining here is that Wufei finally redeems himself by the end by letting go of his stubborn ways of war and starts lending a hand.

Presentation- Being a movie, the higher budget meant that the animations and backgrounds look much more fluid and smoother than the show. The Gundams look better than ever, especially when causing all sorts of chaos. Though it's a bit odd that some designs like Trowa's Heavyarms Gundam look different from the show. The voicework (sub) was great and the original cast make a return. The soundtrack was great with many catchy tracks to boot.

Overall- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz was a fun time for fans of Wing Gundam. Granted, the villains were weak, but the main cast help carry the story. All in all, a fun time with more action, backstory, and flashy visuals to enjoy.

A nice sendoff for the Gundam Wing series. Its animation is good, and really goes to show how much better the Wing show could've been if it didn't rely on reusing animation. While I've seen better looking animation before, Endless Waltz still looks good and leaves me with no complaints. I also found the story to be very enjoyable, it doesn't waste any time and feels like a natural continuation of the Wing series that feels complete and well rounded. I also would like to note that even though it's been over a year since I watched Gundam Wing I was never confused, which goesto show how good of a job the filmmakers did at making this easy to follow, it also highlights how memorable much of the show is. The music is also really catchy, I already liked the original Wing series' soundtrack and this one doesn't disappoint. It's a very enjoyable watch, I'm not the biggest fan of Gundam Wing as a whole, but I still liked this nonetheless. I think if you've finished the original Wing series, you absolutely should give Endless Waltz a watch.