I guess, since I’ve started this thing, I should contribute my own two cents on what Gundam Wing has done for me.
Gundam Wing wasn’t the first anime I watched. There were others before it. My starter pack was the Dutch dubs of Pokemon, Digimon, and Flint the Time Detective (known as Jikū Tantei Genshi-kun in Japan) on Fox Kids. Sometime later they broadcasted an anime called Shinzo (known as Mushrambo in Japan) and I guess that is where my love for anime really started. My cousin introduced me to it during a vacation and we spend quite a few days watching episodes!
Anime, at that time in the Netherlands, was something regarded as a ‘boys thing’. So for me it was rather awkward to talk about it and I didn’t, because I already was an easy target due to my HSP. The only person I could share it with was my cousin, who was just as crazy about anime as I was. She introduced me to the little Cartoon Network block we had on tv, and that is where I discovered Dragonball Z.
Dragonball Z was a turning point for me. Over the course of just a few months it turned me into a fanfiction author. My cousin and I were practically joined at the hip at every family gathering we had, and would sneak off to write together or read what we had so far. It was a glorious time. Every day I would rush home from school to try and watch a Dragonball Z episode. I was not always able to, because I had a horse to take care of. On Saturdays and Sundays, the weekday episodes were rerun, so I’d try to catch anything I had missed then. Sick days were the best, because then I could watch the episodes for sure.
And it was a sick day that introduced me to my favorite anime of all times. I was at home with my brother and we were both down with the flu. We had actually set an alarm to make sure we’d be awake on time to watch Dragonball Z. But as we turned on the tv, it wasn’t Dragonball Z that started. It was a different series. At first, I was so pissed off, BECAUSE HOW DARE THEY STOP BROADCASTING DRAGONBALL Z, but ten minutes into this episode of this new series I was sold. For life apparently.
Wing Gundam fell from the sky and ruined me.
I have some of my best memories from that time, because my cousin was just as crazy about Gundam Wing as I was. She went to school in the Hague and often stopped by my house on the way back. We were, at this point, so joined at the hip we might as well have been siamese twins. We would sprawl on the couch in my living room together almost every day, shoulder to shoulder, and sing along with Just Communication in terrible Japanese. Epic moments where the first time Zechs took off his mask (“THIS GUY IS SO PRETTY! WHY?”), or the time when Heero said goodbye to Relena on Libra and showed us the ‘pretty eyes’. That really send us into hysterics.
During the first run of the series, my cousin introduced me to some fanfiction sites. This really opened a door for me, because apparently there were others like me that wrote stories about their favorite series! I started writing for Gundam Wing, but kept the stories to myself mostly. I was too shy to actually post anything. Most of the stuff I wrote was in Dutch and I didn’t switch to English until somewhere in 2005, when I started posting a story for Yu-Gi-Oh!. We’ll not talk about this story, because it’s horrible.
I wrote more stories and got a little better at it. My cousin found some more sites that had good stories for us to read and in this way I found Freedom of Speech Fanfiction, Lunaescence, and Fictionzone. It was through these sites that I started writing more actively for Gundam Wing and became the writer that I am today.
I wrote for other fandoms on the side for some time, and then my cousin told me that Gundam Wing was having a rerun on tv. I was quick to jump to the idea of a rewatch, and faithfully watched every episode. But halfway through that rerun, they stopped. I was devastated. I was really angry about it, because watching the rerun had reignited my love for the series. Around that time Limewire had its glory days, so I checked to see if I could download the episodes from there. And what did I discover then? Endless Waltz! Endless Waltz had never been broadcasted in the Netherlands, so can you imagine how happy I was? There was more Gundam Wing and I had never known about it!
I downloaded all the episodes and movie onto CDR’s, that I could only watch on the small television in my room. But boy, was I happy!
Since then, I do a rewatch of the series almost every year, and I never get tired of it. I just love these characters and the story so much. I feel as if it has become part of me. Maybe it’s because I watched it during a time in my life where I discovered I’m a bit different from other people. Whenever I didn’t feel accepted I could hide in my little fantasy world and think about my favorite characters. I never felt this kind of love for any other anime I’ve watched. I guess Sailor Moon gets close, but I never wrote a fanfic for it. I’m totally game for the complexity of the characters, the plot, the politics and intrigue that go on. I love watching these characters grow and develop, time and time again. That the fandom is so warm and lovely is a nice bonus! I’ve made lovely friends for life because of this anime!
The only thing I regret is not spending money on it sooner.
I was raised by parents who did not understand my love for anime one bit, so spending money on it was out of the question. I didn’t get to visit anime conventions until I was an adult, and since then I knew that Gunpla existed, but never thought about buying anything. In 2016 I bought my very first Gundam Kit. I was so overwhelmed with the idea that I FINALLY had bought something Gundam Wing related that I nearly cried. My best friend was so supportive and happy for me. She could totally see how much this meant to me and snapped a polaroid picture of me and this stupid little Gundam Kit so I would always remember that moment.
Since the last two years, I’ve been really putting some money into my Gundam Wing collection. I guess it’s safe to say it’s money well spend and I’m so thrilled with every new item that gets in! My fiancé sees how happy it makes me and even though he doesn’t always understand, he is supportive and stimulates my buying of Gundam Wing related goodies. Maybe I’m trying the catch up for all the years I’ve missed in collecting. Who knows.
Visiting Japan was a real treat, because there were so many Gundam kits, and if I took the time to browse, I could find some really nice stuff! Besides kits, I took home postcards, gashapon items, and T-shirts. Next year I’ll go back and then I plant to buy so much more!
