Concept: 5 weirdo scientists take 5 kids and train them, give them Gundams made of "Gundanium alloy" to combat OZ..."Operation: Meteor". Each of the pilots have no prior knowledge of Eachother, so they think they are the enemies at first. Then they realize they gots the same mission and team up, even though they have some issues down the line...
You know, watching this as a kid with no prior conception of storyline, plots and all that Jazz, I loved this show, it did introduce me into Gundam. But watching so many others and then watching Gundam Wing again...it was pure crap. It was popular for many reasons, it had five teens with giant kick ass robots. This conception set basically a standard for a lot of people in the states that when CN finally aired the Original Gundam, others claimed it as crap, because it was old, some even went as far as to calling Char a Zecks clone when it was in fact vice versa.
Characters:
Heero Yuy, Uses an Alias. The Cold Emotionless Hard-ass with a secretive "Heart of Gold". This character is shown to be almost a "super soldier" at times, fixing any dislocations without any sign of pain, yet he tries coming off as anti-social...and the fangirls just love that.
Duo Maxwell, another alias. Thinks of himself as the "God of Death"...his Gundam Shows this...He's the cocky guy with the jokes...and he was voiced by the same guy who voiced Rattrap from Beast Wars.
Trowa Barton, has no name, always seen as a close friend to Quatre. The "Quite" guy on the team. Likes to hide his feelings "behind a mask" He's basically a lot like Heero, except he's a little bit more accurate in terms of artillary.
Quatre Raberba Winner, he's actually my favorite character, he's the only one not afraid to show his feelings. My only issue with the guy was that he was not only wealthy, but an heir...But the guy wanted some love because his dadeh didnt wuv him...awww...
Chang Wufei, he's actually my older brother's favorite...only 'cause of his gundam. He comes from a family that was banished because they "feared their power" (ghey!) He's the loner type (no surprise there). He will fight anyone who doesnt feel the same way as him, and is sometimes seen as the badguy among the pilots, most of the time become rival to Heero.
Relena Peacecraft....two words, Sayla Mass
Zechs Merquise...Char Aznable clone...
Both joined the organizations that killed their families for revenge under an alias, and both quickly moved up in rank within them. When the Alliance was overthrown by OZ, Zechs became OZ's undisputed top ace. However, OZ (a corporate subsidiary of the Romefeller Foundation) betrayed Zechs, at which point Zechs became something of a freelancer and fought for his own merit. He occasionally sided with various mercenaries until being offered a head seat of the White Fang Movement. As the head of the White Fang he fought on the behalf of the space colonies, much like Char's speech that he fights for the sake of all "spacenoids". In the end Zechs attempts to crash the battleship Libra into Earth much like Char attempted to crash Axis into Earth. Also, like Char, he had blond hair and wore a helmet as a mask, where as Char wore a mask usually with a helmet as well. In addition, both Zechs and Char have sisters who live under assumed names, and fight on opposing sides.
My issue with them: Each character personality is very stereotypical. They lack originality and the character development is very minimal. I couldnt really stand that there was a Zecks clone. The only thing I LIKED about the characters...no Newtypes!
The Gundams. I gotta admit, I like the gundam designs, but like always the "Lead Character" gets the best looking one even if it doesnt suit his personality. Kinda like G Gundam before it, the Gundams are stereotypical on their character's origins, except G Gundam had an excuse.
I'd go on, but I know this thread will have some debates, I'll keep my comments until then.