Why Gundam Wing Sux

Many people who visit here ask us why we would waste our time making an anti Gundam Wing site. The recurring question is always "why?". We put up the Manifesto as a humorous attempt to lightly explain most of our reasons. As expected, it wasn't enough for some people.

The following post made in our Guestbook was made by one of those people and provided the opportunity to answer the never-ending question of why. For all those who have been waiting, this is it. This is the no holds bared editorial that answers the question. The responses made by Gundam_Go_Home and Gundam_Sux perfectly explain the motives of this site and give a no nonsense look at why we believe Gundam Wing is nothing more than a second rate Anime.

---

Here is the intial post written by Crystal

Crystal:
7/4/01 4:06:04 PM

I normally don't flame people, because hey, everyone has a right to their own opinion. But I also took for granted the fact that said people would provide sufficient reason and proof for bashing something into the ground. I pride myself on having an open mind, which you obviously do not. You devoted a section to the questionable implications of images, many of which are fanart or doujinshi. Not liking an anime because of homosexual undertones... very open-minded, aren't we? Your so-called manifesto is composed of incoherent ramblings and babblings that really restate one thing in different terms. None of it is real proof; you hardly made an attempt to provide evidence from the show to support your claims. You dislike the soundtrack. But if you hate Gundam Wing so much, what possessed you to listen to it? You claim a lack of imagination with names, but how many animes out there base their characters' names on numbers? And besides, names are rather irrelevant to the quality of the anime, rendering yet another argument ineffectual. You state that there is a lack of diversity. Of course. That's why all five boys are of distinctly different nationalities. Not having an African-American or a Hispanic on the show doesn't mean the Japanese have anything against them. Also, Quatre is an Arab by religion, and by custom. And Japanese people don't necessarily have black hair and brown eyes. It's anime. People can have green hair and pink eyes and be Japanese. Big deal. In essence, you have no real reason to dislike Gundam Wing. All you do in your manifesto is take a sentence, run it through a theasaurus, and spit it back out. Sometimes you don't even do that [ie. 4 & 13, 10 & 18] Very convincing. Is your reasoning really so pathetic that you have to repeat them under the flimsy pretense of humor?
Now, with your 'reasoning' blown into next week, we can move on to the actual site. The layout is awful, especially the main page. Anyone with any color-coordination would know not to use blue on a red background, and vice-versa. I applaud your attempt at a header graphic... but you could at least make it transparent. The black looks rather unsightly against the red, and that's putting it nicely. In terms of the other pages, have you ever heard of graphics? They work a lot better for heading than font size 8 of the viewer's default font, nevermind the fact that font sizes only go up to 7. And for the 'signatures' at the bottom of your manifesto--have you ever thought that maybe people wouldn't have that font? That all they see is red Times New Roman?
One of your old updates says you've gotten the hang of HTML. I like to think I have as well, and let me say that you most definitely do not know HTML like you think. Your images page scrolls sideways. True, raw HTMl kicks Frontpage's ass. But Frontpage-generated sites could kick -your- sorry ass any day of the week. One would think that when you try to go against the masses [and trust me, there are masses this page goes against], you'd try to make it good. Have a decent-looking site, some good, solid arguments, and respect. Respect for the show, the people who -do- like it, and the people who made it. I find it pathetic that you have none of these. Yet you're shameless enough to ask for a rating, something you don't really deserve. I was all set to give you one star, but then I realized that this site wasn't worth even that.
One last thing: the name of the site. Gundam Wing -Sux-? Sux? Nothing destroys a good argument like wannabe-ghetto spelling, and you didn't have that to begin with.


This is Gundam_Sux's response which explains the motives behind this site and the particulars in why it is a humor site instead of a straight anti-site.

Gundam_Sux:
7/5/01 8:56:11 PM

My dear Crystal, you are by no means a flamer in the purest sense of the term, so I will answer in kind to your long and involved entry. I am neither ignorant nor temperamental in the least, so I apologize if you were expecting a short, four-letter reply. However, I cannot help but find your post utterly ridiculous. The very fact that you wasted your precious time to "tell me off" is downright laughable. I have been well aware of the grievances you listed since the creation of this site. I no not what you are trying to accomplish. Wound my pride, and gleefully picture me drowning my sorrows in cheap scotch, perhaps? Sorry, but it will take more than that.

If I was to seriously form an argument against your beloved series, I would simply concentrate on areas such as story, character motivation, recurring symbols, motifs, its message about war, and animation style. Believe me, I can systematically tear apart each area via cold logic devoid of fallacies (as can be done about anything if you analyze it down to it's basics). But this is just an anime series and, frankly, not worth the effort. Besides, who in their right mind would devote themselves to something as boring as that? You seem to view the series as something transcendent, and that's fine. However, we see it as an opportunity to make people laugh.

If you read Jenny's post a couple entries below, you will realize the main purpose of this site. She understood what our intentionally absurd Manifesto states: our site is just for fun. Either you let your emotions overtake you, or the blatant sarcasm flew over your head. We do not hate Gundam Wing, but rather love to make fun of it. Incidentally, our biggest fan base happens to love the show.

Of course, there is a secondary purpose to the site as you so wonderfully illustrated: to evoke a response. You unwittingly proved this point, thereby destroying your credibility. Riling people up is a pleasant side effect of this site, and you fell for it in spades. I can't help but find the whole thing funny: your smug tone of superiority makes it all the better. If you do not appreciate the humor, simply don't go to our site. No need to take the whole thing personally.

However, your "logical" post did accomplish one thing effectively: you made fun of my first attempt at HTML. I'm just crushed. There is no container big enough to hold my tears. If I had a rope, I would hang myself from the ceiling fan. And if that sarcasm wasn't blatant enough for you, you should really find a better past-time than sniveling about a site that was based in the absurd to begin with.

Good day.


Finally, here is the expose written by Gundam_Go_Home that was so long it took up two different posts on the guestbook. This explains specific points behind why we dislike Gundam Wing so much.

Gundam_Go_Home:
7/5/01 9:17:38 PM

(Sorry, GS. I couldn't resist letting off a few rounds. Well, more than a few. So many that it insists I break it up into two posts.) Here goes part one:

Crystal, before I go any further I need to point something out to you. If someone has a different opinion than you on a television program, they aren't closeminded. If you insist they are, it's probably reflecting on you.

Secondly, yes, the coding is sloppy. I designed the front page way back in december, and the other pages were done by GS and DGD even further back than that. Though we've toyed with the idea of improving it, I at least always decide it isn't really worth the effort. DGD has done a lot to make things neater -- and things are much better than they used to be -- but we aren't about to do an overhaul. Why? Because this isn't even our main site anymore. Most of our efforts go towards DAC. This is just a little side thing. Our first attempt at making a site. If you want to snipe at a layout, snipe at the DAC one. It isn't all that great either. But going after this is like going after a rough draft. It makes you look as anal retentive as, well ... Finish the simile yourself. (I'm big on interaction.)

Then you launch into a diatribe about the image gallery, apparently convinced that contained therein are all of our reasons for hating the show. Actually, the point was just a few cheap laughs. Most people see it that way. (Don't worry. It's still not too late to catch up.)

Then there's the manifesto. I'm not sure what exactly you were expecting. A forty page treatise, complete with foot notes? Something tells me that that sort of thing would be out of place on a humor site. But I stand by everything in there. Naming characters after numbers reveals a certain shallowness, as names are something that can carry a lot of power and resonance. "Duo" and "Quatre" draw blanks. Before you seize upon this as a poor reason for disliking the show, let me tell you that it's just one of many. And one of the less important ones, at that. As for the signatures, yes, their being in Times New Roman would just DESTROY the humor of the page.

I'll also stand by the lack of diversity. You can prattle about there being "five distinct nationalities," but a more accurate one would be "five distinct stereotypes." Actually, three. Trowa isn't much of anything, and neither is Quatre -- but more on that later. Duo is the stereotypical American as seen by the Japanese -- jovial and carefree. Wufei is -- you guessed it -- the stereotypical Chinese: obsessed with archaic traditions and stubborn to the point of pig-headedness. And Heero? He's how the Japanese would like to see themselves. None of them have any substance behind them. This is especially true of Duo. To an American, a youth going about in a Roman collar is inconceivable. But the Japanese are one of the most secular peoples on earth and don't think about these things. They don't see it as having any significance, so they just put it on as a neat little trademark for the character. This is just one example of the hollowness of the characters and the lack of any real diversity.

You also defend the complete absence of blacks. (Not just African Americans, but Africans as well.) Apparently, it doesn't seem odd in the least to you that in this futuristic world the cities of Mogadishu and Nairobi are both run exclusively by whites. It might sound as though I'm picking nits, but I'm not. Gundam Wing prides itself on its realism -- no pink hair or other anime quirks -- yet creates a world completely incongruous with any semblance of reality. How is it possible to dwell on anything substantial when everything is stripped away? Are we just supposed to take it at face value that blacks are too insignificant to be portrayed? Poverty, too, one of the biggest causes of all conflict, is neatly swept away as well. In its place we get, in perhaps the singularly most inane idea in the entire series, with the possible exception of it centering around five fifteen year olds (and having a 26 year old world leader), the Romafeller foundation, a group of European royalty, to stir things up.

This is exactly why Wing has to subsist entirely on clichés and platitudes -- there's nothing else. No one has any real motivation for doing anything. There aren't any clear oppressed peoples, just a few amorphous "colonies" who for some reason are dissatisfied by the status quo. We don't see any real oppression, we don't see any real resistance. Just the monotone voice-over of the narrator and a few fifteen year olds. Thus, the show has no emotional support. For all its supposed complexity, no character has any clear reason for doing anything. Treize talks about some subconscious urge to fight, but, quite honestly, how many conflicts can be traced to that? People are full of illogical hatred and mistrust of things that are different. These draw them toward conflict. They do not go gladly but because they are manipulated to think they have no choice or because in their worldview they really don't have any other options.

Did the Germans march through Belgium because they had a "subconscious desire"? Of course not. Was that the reason for the Russians' conquest of Eastern Europe? Did they set up satellite states because of some subconscious urge? Did the Hungarians rise up against them because of some subconscious urge? Or did they just not take kindly to being oppressed? Ever wonder why almost all of the conquistadors came from the same economically depressed province of Spain? I'll give you a hint. They saw no opportunities and decided to go were they might do well. The subconscious had nothing to do with it.

Also, the wars of Gundam Wing are without any consequences to the few characters we know, to the only people whose lives we even see. How, then, are we supposed to sympathize? Once does not feel a sense of catastrophe or loss when one sees a few robots blow up. Especially when they explosions are so neatly choreographed. The main characters all make it through without any loss whatsoever. No one dies save Treize, and only Quatre is severely injured. (And even that turns out to be nothing.)

That reminds me -- Quatre. You insist that he's an Arab, by "custom and religion." Neglecting the fact that one can be a Muslim and a non Arab or a non muslim and an arab, his spirituality seems more Japanese than anything else. Never in the entire series does he do anything that would distinguish himself from, say, Duo. The supposed Muslim and Christian have no major differences in outlook -- both have the same dull secularism. The only hint that Quatre is different comes from his remarks about alcohol and the Maganac. As for the first, Islam is by no means the only religion that prohibits alcohol. As far as we know, Quatre is a Southern Baptist or a Jehovah witness. Also, if he's a Muslim he needn't be opposed to alcohol. My brother in law is a Muslim and drinks wine and eats pork without a second thought. Yet apparently the creators of Gundam Wing saw this as all that was need to show Quatre's identity as an Arab. Apparently in space they have forgotten Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. They have no such struggles, only the generic struggle for one vacuous entity against another for an equally unclear goal. "Peace." How are we supposed to understand this peace when we don't even know what they're fighting for? But I digress. There are also the Maganac, who have names like Kurun Al-Rasheed and wear fezzes. Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever seen an Arab wear a fez? Apparently the creators got them mixed up with the Turks. All these brown people must be TERRIBLY confusing when you're trying to create an end-all commentary on the human spirit. (Since you never seem to be able to tell it when someone is being sarcastic, let me tell you that last sentence fits into that category.)

That's why I have no respect for Gundam Wing. All of this shallowness masquerading as intellectualism. It's nothing more than a bunch of manga obsessed Japanese with no understanding of foreigners or history who think the put down a few tired clichés and suddenly explain away in forty thirty minute episodes the course of history and the cause of war. You've blown our reasoning into next week? I'd say all you've done is flaunt your arrogance, provincialism, and pretentiousness.

Good day.

Back to the table of contents