I've discussed before that Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Network's Toonami block was the first anime I watched that a) I really was a fan of, and b) I actually knew was a cartoon from Japan. I don't think Gundam Wing was the second, because I think Toonami started showing the various Tenchi Muyo! series first, but it was definitely the third.
It's not part of the main Gundam timeline, with I don't know how many series and movies set within it. Rather, it's off in its own distinct timeline, which has its appeal. I don't have to worry that I haven't seen a bunch of other series that preceded it. I think means Gundam Wing is the Gundam version of Marvel's Ultimate Universe.
From what I remember reading, it wasn't popular in Japan because all the teenage pilots were considered to be too pretty. I don't know if that means it wasn't popular at all, or wasn't popular with the traditional/entrenched/hardcore Gundam fans. I'm thinking the equivalent of the American comic fans who complain about replacing a white guy superhero with a black woman or a teenager.
There's been a few mangas based on it, and I owned three. Episode Zero was a prequel, looking at each of the pilots as children and explaining a few things about their backstories. Why Duo refers to himself as a "God of Death", why Trowa was running around using the name of a dead son of an important family.
The other two, Blind Target and Battlefield of Pacifists were set between the anime and the Endless Waltz movie, and focused on the difficulties of moving into a new era. There are people in the colonies (satellites out in space) who doubt that the Earth is really going to treat them as equals rather than servants. There are those who profit from that sort of mistrust continuing. And there are those who want to be the ones holding the reins. So the pilots have to find their way through a changing world like everyone else. Question why they fought and whether they're done fighting. What the Gundams were meant to represent.
So the stories have a mix of ideologies and goals that make for interesting conversations. I feel like my imagination - or maybe my memory of the anime - is doing a lot of the work for the art. Koichi Tokita can convey the movement in combat, and sometimes the force, but I don't think the art carries the sense of size and power. That these are dangerous weapons that people covet because they could tilt the balance, upset the fragile state of things at the moment.
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