Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

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LightningCount
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Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

Hey, Gundam.info is showing a few episodes of the remastered Gundam Wing release (albeit I've read that it wasn't optimized right for Youtube, according to people in the comments). Regardless, I took a look at it, and I was surprised to see that the intro has cut out a few seconds of animation--the detailed sequences with the Gundams doing their thing! From roughly 0:42-0:47, those scenes have been replaced with scenes from the show. Considering those removed sequences are some of the best animation in the Wing franchise, I'm a bit disappointed. Are they maybe put back in later as the series goes on now, like how Gundam X changes its visuals with story developments while keeping the same song? Or are they just plain gone?

New HD Opening part in question: https://youtu.be/qne9tNhOF1U?t=42
Old Original Opening part in question: https://youtu.be/EBqDyAvv-_M?t=28

There are only two reasons I can think of why they would change this: 1.) They didn't show Wing Gundam during that old sequence, instead saving it for the end part of the opening. 2.) The animation from that section couldn't be remastered for some reason. Whatever the case, I'm not too happy about it.

EDIT: AmuroNT1 informs me that the original Japanese versions always had BOTH of these sequences at different times during the season. So this is just returning it to its original intention.
Last edited by LightningCount on Mon Sep 04, 2017 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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AmuroNT1
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Re: Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

Actually, that's how Wing's openings always were. For most of the run, both sequences used footage taken from the show and only switched to the higher quality animation before the theme song changeover (for JC) or before the end of the show (for RE).
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Deathzealot
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Re: Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

Huh. So did they actually do anything with the Remastered? Or is it only some minor changes and such?
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LightningCount
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Re: Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

AmuroNT1 wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 5:05 pm Actually, that's how Wing's openings always were. For most of the run, both sequences used footage taken from the show and only switched to the higher quality animation before the theme song changeover (for JC) or before the end of the show (for RE).
Oh, I see. So then the original Bandai Entertainment releases just streamlined the whole thing, is that it? (I remember hearing this happened with Pioneer's release of Trigun, which had only one opening for its original North American release, but actually had different animation sequences for that opening as the show went along in Japan.) Thanks for clarifying this. That's good to hear.
Deathzealot wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 5:14 pm Huh. So did they actually do anything with the Remastered? Or is it only some minor changes and such?
AmuroNT1 has informed me that the show originally had some variances in its opening, and that the version I know as the "original" was actually something used later in the show before the change in theme songs. So, both sequences I showed above should still be in the HD version, just in different parts of the show as was originally done in Japan, I gather.

Other than that...there shouldn't be any big changes. It's possible the sound mix was touched up a bit, but the biggest difference I've noticed from just watching a little bit is that the remastering process has resulted in some different views of the show. For instance, I compared with the old Bandai DVDs, and there are scenes where you see more in the right and/or left sides of the frame now. Also, the show is a lot brighter, which shows more details and line work overall...though this does change the "lighting" mood of certain scenes a bit, and not always favorably in my opinion. (Though this is probably closer to the original intent.) As an aside, when I first saw screenshots of this a few years back, and even now to some extent, it's a shock to find out that the OZ uniforms are not black, but a distinctly dark green!
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Deathzealot
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Re: Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

Yeah. Kind of notice the Intro Spiel with the Tragos appearing was a bit different. Thought I was imagining it.
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Mu La Flaga
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Re: Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

So I'm not alone in being confused with the always common used 1 variant of Opening 1?
Bandai back in the day making it cheap and streamlined for DVD I suppose.
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Deathzealot
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Re: Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

Or was it Toonami. Because I seem to remember the opening for Gundam Wing on Toonami was quite similar to the original opening variant.
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Chris
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Re: Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

Deathzealot wrote: Sat Dec 02, 2017 1:45 pm Or was it Toonami. Because I seem to remember the opening for Gundam Wing on Toonami was quite similar to the original opening variant.
Toonami created their own opening as they did with everything they aired. They used the Japanese opening as the end credit sequence with the instrumental theme, in place of Relena's safari and the song that goes with it.
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Deathzealot
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Re: Gundam Wing HD - Opening Changed? Why?

Oh yeah. Now I remember. Thanks Chris! :D
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