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The second Alternate Universe series following Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Gundam Wing (or simply "GundamW" as it was originally
known) follows a story similar to that of the original One Year War saga. The year is After Colony (AC) 195, and after long
years of war over rights to indepedence, the Earth based government has seized full hold of the colonies. In an effort to
free themselves, rebel forces from five of the colonies send five young men in five powerful Gundams to Earth in order to
combat the Earth Sphere Alliance and the secret organization responsible for their misery, OZ (Organization of Zodiac).
Trained
to be mercenaries, the five fifteen year old boys, Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei, begin a desperate battle to uncover
and destroy OZ, only to find that the situation was not as straightforward as once thought. In the midst of it all, one of
OZ's top pilots, the mysterious Zechs Merquise, is fighting a private war of his own to right the wrongs in his own past.
And in and out of the center of conflict, one young girl named Relena Darlian is struggling to find her way and help settle
the war with as little loss to either side as possible. There is no real good or evil; only each man or woman's perspective
on war and how mankind should live in order to further its own existence.
Unlike G Gundam, Gundam Wing is a story
heavily dependent on the philosophy of war as opposed to a true love story. The relationships between characters are sometimes
sketchy at best, and their interactions are often best defined in conflict; whether against one another or in aiding one another
in battle situations. In addition, it is believed by many that Wing was shaped as it was to attract a larger audience to gundam,
extending it to females, whereas G reached out to the Super Robot genre. The series was later followed up with an OAV entitled
Endless Waltz, which brought the AC story to a close and dealt with the original organization that ordered the Gundams sent
to Earth. It was later released as a movie version with additional footage.
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