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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Fansub & Scanlation History

A Real VHS-Era Distribution Chain

ADK, E. Monsoon Studios, Anime West, and Anime Farms Covered the Run in Stages

Confirmed via Physical VHS Collector Documentation

A physical VHS collector source documents a real multi-stage fansub chain for Gundam Wing: episodes 1-12 covered under ADK (with Acefly Distribution Service handling distribution for 9-12 specifically), 13-20 by E. Monsoon Studios (also credited on Neon Genesis Evangelion), 21-28 by Anime West, and 29-36 by Anime Farms. Soyokaze Fansubs, already documented elsewhere on this site for its own fansub work on Rurouni Kenshin, appears here in a distribution role for episodes 21-32 rather than as the credited fansub group for this stretch.
[E.Monsoon]

Anime West Covered Episodes 21-28

Anime West, a real VHS-era fansub group, covered episodes 21-28, confirmed via a physical fansub VHS collector/trader documentation source.
[AnimeWest]

Anime Farms Covered Episodes 29-36

Anime Farms, a real VHS-era fansub group, covered episodes 29-36, confirmed via a physical fansub VHS collector/trader documentation source.
[AnimeFarms]

Zeonic|Scanlations & The Expansion Manga

Episode Zero · Glory of Losers · Light Novels
While anime fansubs introduced the main TV run, groups like Zeonic|Scanlations handled the massive web of side-materials. Zeonic translated essential lore expansions including Episode Zero, Blind Target, and the retold Glory of Losers manga series.
[Zeonic]

G-Unit (The Last Outpost), the Spinoff Zeonic Didn't Cover

Not every Gundam Wing side-story ran through Zeonic. G-Unit, published in the West as The Last Outpost, is a genuine spinoff manga confirmed in Anime News Network's own encyclopedia listing alongside Episode Zero and Blind Target. [UNCONFIRMED]: no scanlation group has been verified here for this specific title, only that it existed and circulated among fans seeking side-material the TV broadcast never covered.

1995-1999 Broadcast & Tape Trading

Tape Trading & Early RealMedia IRC Distribution

1995 Fuji TV Rips · VHS Mail-Trading & XDCC

Before Gundam Wing premiered on Cartoon Network's Toonami in March 2000, Western fans accessed the 49-episode After Colony saga through tape-trading networks. Early fansubbers digitized VHS raws into RealMedia (.rm) files distributed via automated XDCC bots on EFnet IRC.

Bandai Licensing, Toonami Censorship & Gunpla Legacy

Bandai Entertainment & The March 6, 2000 Toonami Premiere

First US Television Gundam Broadcast

On March 6, 2000, Bandai Entertainment and Cartoon Network premiered Mobile Suit Gundam Wing on Toonami, the first Gundam franchise series ever broadcast on American television. The show became an immediate hit and is widely credited with single-handedly popularizing the Gundam franchise in the West, well beyond its more modest reception in Japan.

Where the Show Landed on DVD and Blu-ray

EG's Complete Run Is the One Worth Finding

Complete, 2017-2018 · 9.29 from 31 Votes
Of every group that ever put out a complete 49-episode Gundam Wing release, EG stands well apart from the field: a 9.29 rating from 31 votes, nothing else on record comes close. If there is a single definitive fan release of this show, this is it.

Anime-Legion Finished It Early, March 2005

Anime-Legion completed the full 49-episode run on DVD in March 2005, right at the start of the digital-batch era, and held up well with an 8.43 rating from 32 votes, a real early benchmark before the show's AniDB release history stretched out across the next two decades.

Anime-Supreme Did This One Too

The same modern Blu-ray/DVD archival group behind complete releases of Dragon Ball Z, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Samurai Champloo finished a full Gundam Wing run in August 2020, part of a much longer pattern of the group working through classic-era shows for archival-quality home releases.
[A-S]