Because there always seems to be an assumption that there is nostalgia at play when it comes to Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, one of the most widely watched shows on Toonami back in the late 90’s, I will start by saying that I have absolutely no childhood attachments to Wing, or really any anime save Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and Naruto, given that my anime days began in my sophomore year of high school. Unable to avoid it forever, I did eventually watch Wing in my freshman year of college, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying it. Beyond having my favorite Gundam designs to date—albeit slightly less practical than most others—there was a real maturity behind how the characters handled the ideals of peace and war, much more so than many of the more preachy Gundam shows I have seen to date. Moreover, it felt much more imperative that the pilots were children, given a good amount of discussion given to innocence, as well as the horrifyingly real and brutal choices they are forced to make despite their young age. It really does feel like a transcendence of mecha, or rather a great use of the mecha universe for the sake of exploring age-old concepts that are very real to us today.
Endless Waltz goes from here by neatly tying up the Wing universe, as well as settling a major point of backstory for all five of the Gundam pilots. With only three episodes, the pacing admittedly feels all over the place. Things happen on screen very quickly with no time to really feel the impact of the circumstances, and while this is a nice reflection of the blitzkrieg pace of the fighting at hand, there is still too little room for enjoyment. All the returned characters are back and just as good as ever. Even without Treize, who in my opinion is one of the greatest anime villains of all time, between the tortured Gundam pilots, the dead ghost of Treize and the living ghost of Zechs, the ever-enjoyable Relena Darlian and her realistic idealism (if such a thing is possible), and nice minor appearances by the rest of the Wing cast, all the key ingredients are there. The villain this time is Treize’s daughter, who has strong and somewhat believable writing for an eight year old tyrant-to-be, and it is truly unfortunate that the brevity of the OVA cut down on her ability to expand as a character.
However, the true face of evil in this show is not a human face, but rather the operation known as Operation Meteor, which holds a special place in the hearts of all the Gundam pilots. The original operation was changed and eventually became synonymous with their descent to Earth, which sparked the radical changes that led to the original Wing. In its true form, however, Operation Meteor was a plan to invoke mass destruction against the Earth by plummeting not just the five Gundams, but an entire colony onto earth, as a massive ritualistic sacrifice to shock the nations and incite mass panic and death. There are obviously points borrowed from the events in the Mobile Suit Gundam universe, but in Endless Waltz we get the perspective of the Gundam pilots who were being raised for the sake of Operation Meteor, and their visceral reactions. As stated before, it has never felt so important that the pilots are children. They all reject the plan to come to Earth themselves, and their stories are each unique and tell us a lot about how their personalities formed before the start of Wing. A particularly standout character is Trowa, who remains a monotonous and somewhat withdrawn character but with an interesting backstory about identity and allegiances.
Allegiance plays a huge role in Endless Waltz, as we now get a chance to see duels between the Gundam units themselves as the team of five is split down the middle. Wu Fei, a seemingly straightforward character, becomes the highlight of the key issue with the current peace: the soldiers of the previous era no longer have anything to do but decay or find enemies to fight, whichever side they may be on. He even asserts himself as “evil” for the sake of discovering what purpose the current peace has. I feel more connected to him in Endless Waltz than I did during the original show, but I would have been much happier had there been more time at the start to show how he ended up working towards the operation he so vehemently defied in his youth. All the characters show different allegiances, all within the frameworks of their loss of innocence and coming of age. In fact, had the central conflicts of the OVA been less dominating, Endless Waltz could have provided a much more streamlined and well-paced closer to the thoroughly interesting and complex Wing universe. Alas, with only a few episodes there is only enough time to introduce these complexities, and it's only by having a longer earlier experience with the characters in Wing that I could find their decisions believable for such a short time frame.
I'm glad that it committed whole-heartedly to not allowing for sequels while also removing any further need for prequels, as this signifies to me that the directors are happy with the messages they have been able to convey and are now ready to move to new characters, new themes, and new adventures. While I am unhappy with the way in which Endless Waltz decided to present itself, all the elements are in plain sight, and having completed it I can safely say I feel completely resolved with the Wing story. They ended it with two strong titles to their credit, and showed exactly what was necessary. There is no reason not to watch Endless Waltz as a closer to the After Colony timeline, even with the stark differences between the executions of the two.