Gundam Wing: Ground Zero

新機動戦記ガンダムW [Shin Kidou Senki Gundam W] #Side Story

by Reku Fuyunagi

Fighting to preserve the era of peace, Heero, Wufei, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Relena must also work to protect the Gundams from a mysterious group that wishes to control them for their own nefarious purposes.

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comics, Fiction, Shonen, Action

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Juushika · Rating 1 out of 5]

A(nother) manga oneshot that occurs between the series and Endless Waltz; this time, Heero receives a message from someone who has stolen Wing Zero. This is frankly awful. The plot is a contrived mess that defies suspension of disbelief; the tone is comic, caricatured, and ridiculous. Bobblehead art makes everyone look like children. Under that, the themes (what is a soldier in peacetime?) are apt, and the Relena chapter is less awful. But nothing excuses this; give it a miss.

[Mia Siegert · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a huge Gundam Wing fan, I actually quite enjoyed this when I read it a long time ago. I need to reread it and see of that has changed.

[James Zanghi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice fun little bridge story between the original Anime and Endless Waltz. The artwork is great, but the story is a little choppy and hard to follow.

[Airiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is, again, not my favorite GW manga that bridges the little time gap between the series and Endless Waltz, but I think the story is decent enough to pass as semi-canon (personally I prefer Blind Target more--and that's not just because of the pretty artwork). I liked it all the same. :)

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the flowers and some of the drawing, but otherwise it made no sense to have this with all of the other gundam books.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pros:
I loved the art style and humor—this is what Gundam Wing could have been instead of taking itself too damn seriously. It’s “OOC”, or “out of character,” but I don’t care much about that. Fans of the series would forgive this atrocity and imagine it as a “doujinshi” to fool themselves into liking the story a little more—but some won’t want to waste their time. Duo Maxwell, the Hot Priest of anime, is allowed to shine in this version of the story. Give the authors and editors some slack for allowing him to be the cute, devilish imp he is.

Cons:
Nonsensical plot has hella plot holes and very little context. The whole theme of “retired, restless, useless soldier” is constantly revisited in the Gundam multiverse, but especially within Gundam Wing works, so much so that it’s boring. The writers could have expanded and explored new and different themes. I think they thought they could play it safe and please everyone, but this effort failed.

[Mauri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rounding up to 2 stars for nostalgia's sake. Very silly and kind of difficult to follow, leans on way too many tropes. Tries to answer an interesting question - "What do (child) soldiers do when the war is over?" - with relation to Heero Yuy, raised to be an assassin/soldier/spy/saboteur, in particular, but sort of wanders off before anything profound is said.

The short story focusing on Relena is better and includes an entrance by Heero that reminded me why I shipped them so hard as a preteen.

[Andy Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

SO BAD IT'S GOOD. I laughed my ass off again and again at the sub-par writing: nonsense plots, convoluted storytelling, drama-less drama, and uniform characters wandering aimlessly. Oh, and the sound effects: Feesh! Tmp! Foomp! Fwoo! Fa-Fudd... Grl-Grl. Visually it's competent, excelling when expressing intensity around the face. The back-0f-book technical designs are elaborate and interesting to look at. Otherwise this is full on bwahahahahahahaha.

[Amanda Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a filler story, but it’s enjoyable. There’s a very sweet scene with Heero and Relena (and I love those so an extra star for that) and honestly all of the characters are so sassy in places throughout. That made me smile. Plus it’s always interesting to see what’s going on in Heero’s mind.

[Tifa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gets 4 stars for Duo and Trowa although Duo deserves 5 stars himself. While Heero was never that relatable or human, really, I love Duo's personality and attitude, and Trowa shows some spunk here too. The plot is frankly similar to fanfic but that only makes it better. This was cute overall even if it was simplistic.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt maybe a little bit rushed, but the art is pretty. Heero looks anorexically thin, though! If you look at some of the pictures, Heero's handgun is thicker than his wrist. There's some really cute bits in this, and it's an interesting idea for them all coming together.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable, nice supplement to the anime.

[Sem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd like to have given this more than 2 stars but I still can't stomach Relena Peacecraft (aka Queen of the World). That being the case, Chapter 3 was quite a downer.

[Wit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently decided to rewatch one of the very first animes I ever saw and when it was finished figured I should revisit the manga versions as well. It's been very nostalgic.
As for this story, I actually enjoyed it. It is very different from the rest of the manga series because the author is not normally one who writes for the giant robot type series.