[Endless Waltz Information]

[basic info]
[summary]
[review]

[basic info]

Original Story: Yatate Hajime, Tomino Yoshiyuki (from Mobile Suit Gundam)
Writer: Sumiozawa Katzuyuki
Producers: Tomioka Hideyuki, Yukawa Jun (Sunrise, Bandai Visual)
Director: Aoki Yasunao
Character Designs: Murase Shukou
Mechanical Designs: Okawara Kunio, Katoki Hajime, Ishigaki Junya
Costume Designs: Izbuchi Yutaka
English Adaption: Bandai Entertainment, Inc., in association with Ocean Studios

[summary]

The year is A.C. 196, a year after the Eve Wars.  It is Christmas-time and people are celebrating a year of peace.  The government's secret peace-keeping agency, the Preventers, has caught onto something suspicious...

Quatre Raberba Winner has organized the sending of the pilots' Gundams into the sun to be destroyed, since there will be no need of them in a time of peace.  He might have acted too rashly, however...

Vice Foreign Minister Relena Darlian is kidnapped by a group who declares its independence from the Alliance and declares war against the poorly defended Alliance and the secret of the original Operation Meteor is revealed.  In the fight, the Gundam pilots discover that one of them was unable to cope with the end of the war...  

Now, it's up to the Preventers, with its agents code-named Fire, Water, and Wind and headed by Lady Une, and the four Gundam pilots to protect the incipient peace for which they had worked so hard and given up so much.

[review]

Usually one dreads sequels, fearing some cheap knock-off attempting to grab the hard-earned money of fans of the original show.  Well, Endless Waltz is a fun movie in and of itself.  It's great for fans, as it gives them a chance to see their favorite characters back in action.  However, it lacks continuity from the series and does not have anywhere near the depth of the series.

Endless Waltz is sound enough that is could stand by itself if you haven't seen the series.  Most of our favorite characters show up again for the movie and are portrayed quite consistantly in accordance to the character established during the course of the series.  The storyline is also quite exciting.  Once again, the story comes to a satisfying conclusion, but it also leaves the audience with several loose ends regarding the fates of our heroes.

Endless Waltz does suffer from black-and-white-ness, with an ugly, scowling, evil villain, but for a fan, that is quite forgiveable and certainly does not keep us from rooting for out heroes.  The plot strains at times, but personally, I was just willing to go along with whatever they threw at me, so long as it gave the boys more screen time!  On the up side, there is enough time to see our friends in action but not enough for it to bog down into melodrama (too much).

The mecha in Endless Waltz are different from those in the series.  All of the pilots' Gundams have been upgraded into "Custom" form.  (And check out Heavyarms Custom.  The original Heavyarms wasn't my favorite, but Heavyarms Custom is a major kick-ass suit!)  There are enough battles and blowing up of things to satisfy my latent pyschopath.  The changes in the suits raise considerable ire in my latent critic, though.  The suits are pictured in their upgraded form even in the backflashes.  And logically, if you were going to destroy something, why would you upgrade it?  To give the audience bigger and better guns?  Eh, good enough for me.  But while the new Gundams may be more high tech, in my heart, the originals from the series are the classics. 

About the best thing about Endless Waltz is the animation.  It's much better than it was in the series.  Makes you sorta wish it had been like that all along.. but there is that thing called money...

Music-wise, Endless Waltz is also great.  At the end of each of the three episodes is (a shortened verion of) the Two-Mix song "White Reflection."  And the ending theme for the movie version, Two-Mix's "Last Impression," is also very good stuff.  Typical techno-ish Two-Mix style.  The music for Endless Waltz is on the Gundam Wing Operation S CD.

Once more, I have my gripes with Cartoon Network's edited version.  Also, I have yet to get ahold of the DVD movie version, which includes the full theatrical version with extra animation and the Japanese audio track.

So in the end, Endless Waltz is a very worthy sequel to Gundam Wing.  Highly recommended!