Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz

Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, known in Japan as New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (新機動戦記ガンダムＷ：ＥＮＤＬＥＳＳ　ＷＡＬＴＺ, Shin Kidō Senki Gandamu W: Endoresu Warutsu^?), is the sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, both of which are set in the After Colony timeline, an alternate universe to that of the original Gundam series .

Endless Waltz is both a sequel and prequel to the Gundam Wing series. It is a sequel as it is a continuation of Gundam Wing, but is also a prequel as it reveals details regarding the past of the Gundam pilots and the true objective behind Operation Meteor.

Endless Waltz was first produced as a three part OVA and later in 1998 a compilation movie was released which also contained new scenes. It was broadcast on Cartoon Network on November 10, 2000.

Synopsis

It is the year After Colony 196 and the battles between Earth and the colonies have ended. Treize Khushrenada is dead and OZ has come to an end. This gives birth to the Earth Sphere Unified Nation and the Preventers.. Seeing they won't be needed anymore, the Gundam pilots (except Wufei) send their suits into the sun. However, this peace would not last, for a rebellion occurs on the newly completed colony, L3 X-18999. Led by seven year old Mariemaia Khushrenada, Treize's illegitimate daughter, the rebellion kidnaps Relena Darlian, now the Vice Foreign Minister of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation (ESUN), during a diplomatic mission to X-18999. As the Gundam pilots investigate further, they discover that Mariemaia is merely a puppet controlled by her grandfather Dekim Barton, a former advisor to martyred colony leader Heero Yuy, who is using X-18999 to go through with the original Operation: Meteor, as a contingency plan in case the ESUN doesn't comply. The Gundam pilots must prevent Dekim from seizing power over the ESUN. The Gundams were retrieved from their course to sun to Earth's orbit thanks to Quatre and the Maganacs. The pilots fought against Dekim's forces, not killing anyone. In the end, Dekim is killed by one of his own soldiers, Earth and its colonies are at peace once again and all mobile suits are forever destroyed.

Story

OVA Series

Episode 1: Silent Orbit

Following the end of the Eve Wars in late AC 195, Earth and the colonies are united in peace as the Earth Sphere United Nation. On December 24, AC 196, Sally locates a deposit of neo titanium alloy in space. Quatre and Duo load Wing Zero, Deathscythe Hell, Heavyarms, and Sandrock onto a ship that is to be sent into the sun to destroy the Gundams permanently. The only thing missing is Altron, which Wufei refused to bring. At MO-II, the President gives a speech about peace. Noin and Une don't really care for those sort of things now that they are Preventers, whose job it is to keep the peace. At colony X-18999, Relena attends a meeting about encouraging emigration to the new colony. She drinks poisoned tea and is captured by soldiers of the Mariemaia Army. Dekim and Mariemaia Barton watch as their plan begins to unfold. At the circus, Trowa beats up several mysterious men who belong to the Barton Foundation. He has a flashback of when he was No Name and was shown a picture of Mariemaia by the real Trowa Barton. Duo finds Heero, and he says he's leaving because Relena has been kidnapped. Sally tells Noin that the neo titanium is used for the 13th constellation of mobile suit, and it comes from X-18999. She also says that Relena has been missing since visiting that colony.

Relena wakes up on a bed and meets young Mariemaia, who says her last name is Khushrenada, making her Treize's daughter. She says that she will rule the world now and follow her father's footsteps. Dekim gives a speech to his soldiers about taking over Earth, and he points a gun at Trowa, who has disguised himself as a soldier of the Mariemaia Army. When Trowa tries to shoot Dekim, Wufei stops him. Duo and Heero head to X-18999, and Heero has a flashback about destroying an Alliance base and accidentally killing a young girl and her puppy. Duo wakes him up as Mariemaia makes an announcement. She declares X-18999's independence from the United Nation and declares war. The President calls Lady Une, and she concludes this was planned before the Preventers were formed. Zechs shows up and asks to join the Preventers. Heero and Duo approach X-18999, and Sally and Noin offer backup fire. Duo avoids the Tauruses and crashes the shuttle into the colony. Quatre and the Maganac Corps leave in a transport ship to catch up with the Gundams and retrieve them. Heero and Duo steal two space Leos and separate. Duo is attacked by the new model Serpent and realizes by the fighting style that the pilot is Trowa. Heero is attacked by Altron, and Wufei asks him if he is doing the right thing.

Episode 2: Operation Meteor

Quatre and the Maganac Corps decide to take a different course to cut down time on their journey. Quatre has a flashback about Instructor H telling him to ignore Operation Meteor and follow his heart. Duo's stolen Leo is disabled by Trowa, and Duo wonders why he's been betrayed. Trowa fires a missile barrage, and Duo has a flashback about trying to destroy Deathscythe before Operation Meteor. Professor G told him to steal it and ignore Operation Meteor. Trowa has a flashback of the real Trowa Barton being murdered for trying to expose Doktor S as a traitor. Trowa decides to take on the name and pilot Heavyarms. The missiles impact and create a hole for Duo to escape in. Heero and Wufei continue to fight, and Heero escapes. Sally and Noin realize that the Tauruses and Leos protecting X-18999 are mobile dolls, and the real troops are elsewhere. At the satellite MO-III, Dekim watches as preparations are made to ship the Serpents to Earth. Relena and Mariemaia travel through X-18999 as Heero and Duo watch from nearby.

Quatre's ship catches up with the Gundam disposal ship, and he transfers over to it. He reverses course and activates the engines to slingshot around Venus and pick up speed to return to Earth. Zechs arrives at MO-III with the Tallgeese III and begins destroying the mobile suit carriers. He tells Dekim to surrender or he will destroy MO-III. Dekim says that if Zechs keeps attacking, he will drop X-18999 on Earth. Since he originally conceived Operation Meteor, he has no problem doing this. Zechs is forced to watch helplessly as the Serpent carriers travel to Earth. He destroys MO-III with his mega cannon, but Dekim escapes. Relena is shocked when she hears of the plan to drop the colony. She discovers she was kidnapped so that she could endorse Mariemaia. Duo and Heero find Trowa trying to stabilize the colony, and they help him. To play along with Trowa's ruse, Duo is captured as Heero escapes. Dekim, Mariemaia, and Relena all return to Earth and arrive at the Brussels presidential residence. Citizens around the world watch as Serpents land in many cities. Heero steals a shuttle and prepares to rendezvous with Wing Zero.

Episode 3: Return to Eternity

Heero maneuvers his shuttle alongside the capsule containing Wing Zero and ejects from the shuttle. He gets inside, breaks the capsule open, and heads for Earth. On Earth, the Brussels presidential residence is lowered into the ground. While Wufei sits in orbit of Earth, he thinks about how before Operation Meteor he clashed with Master Long over the decision to drop the Long clan colony on Earth. Heero arrives at Earth, and Wufei attacks him. As they fight, Wufei tells Heero that Earth did not change after the Eve Wars. He says that to determine whether peace really did come, he will become evil itself. Duo breaks free from prison and finds Trowa sitting in a shuttle. Trowa says he is waiting for Sally, and she arrives after rescuing some hostages. In Brussels, Zechs and Noin fight off the Serpents with only the Taurus and the Tallgeese III. Their battle is more difficult because they are disabling the suits, not destroying them. Heero and Wufei continue to fight and enter the atmosphere. Heero tells Wufei that Treize is dead and his fight is over. Wufei says that he still fights Treize everyday, and that they both know they can only acknowledge their lives on the battlefield. Quatre, Trowa, and Duo reclaim their Gundams and head for Earth. Relena tries to make an announcement to the people, but Dekim stops her.

As Zechs and Noin are outnumbered, they receive help from the Gundams. Heero and Wufei still fight, and Heero asks how many times he must kill that girl and her dog. He then gives up and crashes into the ocean. Wufei is affected by this and has a flashback of his colony being destroyed. As citizens protest in the streets, he joins them. The Serpents continue to outnumber the Gundams, and they give up. Heero floats over the presidential residence with the battered Wing Zero and begins firing his buster rifle. Mariemaia begins to panic as the shelter collapses. Lady Une appears out of nowhere and saves Relena and Mariemaia. After the third shot, Wing Zero explodes and crashes on the ground. Lady Une is about to slap some sense into Mariemaia when Relena does it instead. Dekim is about to shoot Relena, and Mariemaia takes the bullet. He is then killed by one of his own men. Heero enters the room and offers to end Mariemaia's pain. He shoots his gun and finds it has no bullets. He no longer has to kill anyone and collapses. As AC 197 begins, the world is peaceful again. Duo, Quatre, and Trowa destroy their Gundams together. In China, Wufei destroys Altron. Sally asks him to become a Preventer, and he agrees. Zechs and Noin leave the Preventers to help terraform Mars. Lady Une takes Mariemaia to visit Treize's grave. Duo returns to a colony with Hilde, and Trowa rejoins the circus. Quatre parties with the Maganac Corps, and Heero watches Relena give a speech. Now that peace has been achieved, mobile suits are never seen again.

Theatrical Version Changes

When Endless Waltz was released in theaters in 1998 as a lead-in to Gundam's 20th anniversary, several new scenes were added, adding approximately ten minutes of new footage to the story. Most of this footage comes in the form of an extended battle scene between the Gundams, but there are a few noteworthy changes that were made between the two versions.

• The titlecards and transitions between episodes were removed, making the three episodes into a single movie.

• Many of the instrumental score cues have been shifted around from the OVA. Additionally, the OVA's ending theme, White Reflection, was replaced with a new theme, Last Impression, performed by TWO-MIX.

• Duo's flashback is moved up to the shuttle flight, just before Heero's; in the OVA, it takes place as Trowa's Serpent fires at Duo's damaged Leo.

• There is a new scene which shows Zechs Merquise reading his field manual inside the Tallgeese III and his eventual reunion with Lucrezia Noin. This takes place after he destroys the Mariemaia Army headquarters at MO-3.

• A new scene shows Sally Po, donning a stolen Mariemaia Army uniform, rescuing the hostages on X18999 (including Catherine and the circus manager).

• The Gundam Pilots battle scene in Brussels is lengthened and much longer compared to the OVA.

• Another new scene, taking place after Relena's impromptu speech, has Dorothy Catalonia appear in Brussels, convincing the citizens to heed Relena's words and do things for themselves if they want true peace.

• The individual character endings are changed to be longer and more elaborate, but remain generally the same in tone.

Manga Version Changes

Published in 1997, the manga version of Endless Waltz was handled by Koichi Tokita, the man responsible for most of Gundam Wing's manga. While the manga cleaves most closely to the OVA, it has several additions and changes not present in either animated version. Please note that this list does not include minor dialogue changes.

• There are minor costume changes throughout the manga. For example, Heero wears a different outfit in his flashback dream, while in the anime, he wore his outfit from the TV series.

• The resource satellite that is launched into the sun is changed into Vulkanus, the mobile doll plant from Battlefield of Pacifists, another Gundam Wing sequel illustrated by Tokita. This fact is alluded to early on, but is more important just before the final battle when Lady Une suggests using the OZ-02MD Virgos on Vulkanus to fight Dekim. Zechs flatly refuses the idea, going so far as to threaten Une's life if she makes the order, and insists that he'll handle things personally.

• When Trowa confronts Dekim (and is stopped by Wufei), he claims that he took on Dekim's son's name as a show of allegiance to the Mariemaia Army. Dekim then boasts to the soldiers that the presence of two Gundam Pilots proves that they are just. Interestingly, Dekim says that he harbors no ill will towards Trowa for his son's death.

• Zechs calls Lady Une from a city street to ask for enrollment into Preventer, instead of coming to her office. Unlike the anime, the manga shows his face. Additionally, he knows about the existence of Tallgeese III, and specifically requests it.

• A brief scene shows a soldier telling Mariemaia about Heero and Duo's break-in, but she simply tells Relena that it's a minor disturbance; Relena, however, immediately knows that it's Heero.

• In the anime, Duo recognizes Trowa as the Serpent's pilot because it uses his preferred tactic of heavy suppression fire. In the manga, he recognizes it because Trowa uses an acrobatic maneuver to dodge one of Duo's attacks.

• Trowa's description of Operation Meteor is accompanied by a series of illustrations showing how the plan would work. Notably, the scene ends with the original five Gundams, but re-imagined in Tokita's style. Though Wing is identical to Okawara's version, the other four combine elements of Katoki's "Customs" with the originals, such as Heavyarms' beam Gatling and Sandrock's shoulder missiles. However, just like the animated version, Tokita uses the Custom versions in all flashback sequences.

• Dorothy appears at the beginning of the fourth chapter, watching the Serpents descend from her mansion. Her hairstyle, as well as the mansion, are inspired by Battlefield of Pacifists, in which she played an important role.

• When Dekim, Mariemaia, and Relena arrive at the Presidential mansion, Relena has a brief flashback to a scene from Battlefield of Pacifists, in which Heero promised to be there whenever she needed him.

• Wufei's flashback includes minor elements of Episode Zero, with Master Long disagreeing with Operation Meteor and asking Wufei to fight according to his own sense of integrity.

• A new scene shows Zechs and Lady Une assessing the situation in Brussels before Zechs deploys. In addition to the event described earlier, this scene includes a cameo appearance by Dick Higasaki, the engineer from Tokita's popular spinoff G-Unit.

• Wufei gets a brief flashback to Treize's death; as with the rest of Endless Waltz, this scene replaces Okawara's Altron with Katoki's.

• Dorothy appears among the crowd of civilians near Altron, as do the President and his granddaughter.

• Some character endings are slightly different. Tokita's version features the strongest hints towards a Heero/Relena relationship, as he stays on as her bodyguard, complete with a Secret Service-like suit. On a more humorous note, Duo's ending features him wearing a baseball cap with "Gundam 20th Anniversary" written on the front.

Cast

• Heero Yuy - Hikaru Midorikawa
• Vice-Foriegn Minister Relena Darlian - Akiko Yajima
• Duo Maxwell - Toshihiko Seki
• Trowa Barton (real) - Hideoshi Nakamura
• Trowa Barton - Shigeru Nakahara
• Quatre Raberba Winner - Ai Orikasa
• Chang Wufei - Ryuso Ishino
• Mariemaia Khushrenada - Rei Sakuma
• Dekim Barton - Eisuke Yoda
• Zechs Merquise - Takahito Koyasu
• Sally Po - Yumi Toma
• Professor G - Yuzuru Fujimoto
• Instructor H - Takashi Taguchi
• Master O -
• Lucretia Noin - Chisa Yokoyama
• Rashid - Kazuhiro Nakata
• Auda - Daiki Nakamura
• Afmahd - Isshin Chiba
• Abdul - Tomoyuki Morikawa
• Lady Une - Sayuri
• Dorothy Catalonia - Naoko Matsui
• Catherine Bloom - Saori Suzuki
• Doctor J - Minoru Inaba
• Doktor S - Shinya Ootaki

Mobile Suits

• Gundam Heavyarms Custom
• Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom
• Gundam Sandrock Custom
• Wing Gundam Zero Custom
• Altron Gundam Custom
• Tallgeese III
• Serpent Custom

The Endless Waltz redesign

In Endless Waltz, all of the major Gundams underwent a massive redesign by Katoki Hajime. The Gundams are still the same ones that were used at the end of the TV series, although changed from the original TV versions. The Gundams have more stylized and somewhat ostentatious appearances, reflected in the "Angel Wings" on the Wing Zero, the much more demonic appearance of the Deathscythe Hell, and the more dragon-like appearance on the Altron. Zechs Merquise also appears in the series piloting the new OZ-00MS2B Tallgeese III, which has several similarities with Tallgeese II and was most likely created to boost model kit sales. Despite the dramatically different designs of the Gundams, the story in the OVA assumes that they've always looked that way. It is noteworthy that most of these changes in design do not have an overly large impact on most of the Gundams. However, the angel wings redesign of Wing Zero makes its neo bird mode transformation impossible.

Furthermore, in order to maintain a sense of balance, Hajime Katoki also redesigned the original gundams. One of these, the Wing Gundam version Katoki, has become a very popular model kit. This redesigned version of Wing Zero is also known among fans as the Wing Zero Custom, or simply Zero Custom.

Theme Songs

OVA Ending Theme

• "White Reflection" by TWO-MIX

Movie Ending Theme

• "Last Impression" by TWO-MIX

External Links

• Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz on MAHQ