Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (機動戦士ガンダムSEED [シード], Kidō Senshi Gandamu SEED [Shīdo]), shortened to
Gundam SEED, is an
anime television series and a
manga series by
Sunrise. It is a part of the
Gundam franchise that started in 1979, but takes place in an alternate universe called the
Cosmic Era. The series spanned 50 episodes, aired in
Japan from
October 5,
2002 to
September 27,
2003 at 6:00 p.m. on the
JNN TV stations
TBS and
MBS. The series won the
Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 2002.
Gundam SEED's story continues in
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.
Plot
The series is the first set in the
Cosmic Era. This series begins with the
Bloody Valentine War between Earth and the colonies that is similar to the
One Year War of the original
Gundam series with certain traditional elements from
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and
After War Gundam X such as the presence of five multicolored Gundam mobile suits and the threat of an apocalypse. On one side is the
Earth Alliance, and on the opposite is the space colonies that form
ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty). Mankind is divided over human genetic engineering, with normal humans known as "Naturals" and the genetically altered humans known as "
Coordinators". Like the original series, while ZAFT has a head start on mobile suit design, the Earth Alliance quickly catches up with its five prototype Gundams. With ZAFT having stolen four of the prototypes, young Coordinator
Kira Yamato pilots the
GAT-X105 Strike Gundam and is forced to fight his old friend
Athrun Zala. Little do they know that there exist sinister forces working to bring about events that go far beyond their worst nightmares.
