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Also, your commentary is welcome. I want to know what people think of this.
It is with mixed joy and skepticism that I bring you this news. I will begin with the facts.
You see, once upon a time there was a show called Gundam Wing. It was dark, it was gritty, and it was awesome. The colors were very natural, and the characters had incredible depth. It inspired a lot of manga, posters, calendars, ect, and it created legions of followers. The politics were complex, the story was interesting, the dialog was fantastic, and the Gundams were cool.
On June 7th, 2010, Anime News Network announced that Gundam Wing cowriter Katsuyuki Sumisawa and Gundam illustrator Tomofumi Ogasawara (Gundam Seed, and the Zeonic Front game, and several novels) would be bringing us a new Gundam Wing manga, titled "The Glory of the Defeated." The prologue, titled "Frozen Teardrop," was released in Gundam Ace magazine, and a summary of it can be read here. The actual article can be seen here, and an unofficial translation can be read here (part 1) and here (part 2).
The new manga so far has not featured the original characters, but seems to be about Sally Po's daughter, and has so far seemed to include a Duo Maxwell, a "Father Maxwell," Wufei, and mention of other characters from the original series. The truth of the matter is unclear to me, as I have not read it yet.
http://ngeekhiong.blogspot.com does a general coverage of Gundam Ace magazine, including the monthly Gundam Wing character overviews:
July: Heero Yuy
August: Duo Maxwell (looking awesome)
September: Deathscythe and Trowa Barton
October: Quatre Raberba Winner
November: Chang Wufei
If you find anything else, I would be happy to add it to this site.
Given the facts, I will offer my opinion.
Given that neither I nor my friends are Seed fans, the new manga sounds as though it will be, as Duo so eloquently put it, "sparkley."
"Aurora Princess." Are we reading .hack, now? (It has also been translated as "Princess Aurora," in allusion to Sleeping Beauty.)
Operation Mythos. ... Again, wtf? As it happens, the people responsible for the magazine also produce, among other things, a .hack magazine. (It should be understood at this point that I really love the .hack franchise. It's just that I would cry if Gundam Wing turned into .hack.)
The title of the prologue reads like the title of a fanfic, and not like the title of a fic I would read, either. I will devote a second post to my thoughts on the prologue itself.
I am excited because it is Gundam Wing material!
HOWEVER
I am terrified of the impact this will have on the fanbase, and what it will mean for groups like mine, cosplaying the characters we Gundam Wing fans know and love so well. This is a distortion of the Gundam Wing universe as we know it, and it is going to change the way people look at us when we go to conventions, because you see, it has already begun. For pity's sake, Duo's eyes are not purple!!! They are cobalt blue! Heero's eyes, btw, according to official sources, are Prussian Blue.
I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.
So one question remains: Where is our Gundam Wing blu-ray???
