"Year 70 of the Cosmic Era. Due to the 'Bloody Valentine' tragedy, tensions between Earth and the PLANTs escalated into armed conflict. Noone doubted that the numerically superior Earth forces would be victorious, but these early predictions proved to be mistaken. The war became a stalemate, which has lasted for eleven months..."

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, the latest chapter in the Gundam saga, is set in a future world - unrelated to that of previous Gundam series - in which the years are reckoned by the Cosmic Era (C.E.) calendar. Like other Gundam stories, Gundam Seed chronicles a conflict between the people of Earth and the inhabitants of orbital space colonies, but here the root of the conflict is biological rather than political. This war is a struggle for supremacy between genetically-enhanced "Coordinators" and the unmodified "Naturals" of Earth, and the hero of the story is a young Coordinator who is forced to fight against his own kind in order to protect the lives of his friends and loved ones.

PHASE 1-13 | PHASE 14-25 | PHASE 26-40 | PHASE 41-50

PHASE-01: FALSE PEACE
(Broadcast: April 17, 2004)

The story begins in year 71 of the Cosmic Era, eleven months into the conflict between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance. One of the Alliance's member nations has secretly developed its own mobile suits at Heliopolis, a space colony which belongs the neutral nation Orb. But, just as the five experimental Gundams are on the point of completion, a ZAFT commando team enters Heliopolis to seize the Alliance's new weapons.

Heliopolis is home to many people who seek to avoid the ongoing war, among them a young Coordinator named Kira Yamato. Fleeing for shelter as ZAFT's forces attack the colony, Kira instead stumbles upon the secret factory where the Alliance's Gundams were developed. Here he confronts one of the attackers, who turns out to be his childhood friend Athrun Zala. As explosions consume the factory, Kira and a wounded Alliance officer take refuge inside the prototype Strike Gundam.

PHASE-02: ITS NAME: GUNDAM
(Broadcast: April 24, 2004)

The Strike Gundam, with Alliance officer Murrue Ramius at the controls, emerges from the chaos of the burning factory and squares off against a ZAFT mobile suit. Kira takes over the Gundam, rewriting its operating system in mid-battle in order to take down the enemy suit. He and a handful of his friends are then forcibly recruited by Murrue, who refuses to let them go now that they've seen the Alliance's secret weapons.

Outside the colony, ZAFT commander Rau Le Creuset fights a running duel with Alliance ace Mu La Flaga. And elsewhere in Heliopolis, Alliance officer Natarle Badgiruel gathers the few crewmembers who survived the ZAFT attack and takes charge of the carrier Archangel. Just as Le Creuset disables Mu's mobile armor and turns his attentions to the Gundam, the Archangel blasts its way out of drydock and enters the colony's interior.

PHASE-03: COLLAPSING LAND
(Broadcast: May 1, 2004)

Combining their firepower, the Strike Gundam and Archangel manage to repulse Le Creuset, and the Alliance survivors gather to plan their next move. Though the soldiers are disturbed to learn that Kira is a Coordinator, the modifications he's made to the Strike Gundam's software mean that nobody else can operate it. Kira and friends, for their part, are locked out of the colony's shelters and now have no choice but to try and escape Heliopolis aboard the Archangel.

Determined to capture or destroy the last of the Alliance's Gundams, Le Creuset dispatches a team of heavily-armed mobile suits into the colony. Athrun joins the attack in his Aegis Gundam, hoping to convince his friend Kira to join his cause. But in the battle that follows, Heliopolis itself sustains so much structural damage that it breaks apart around them.

PHASE-04: SILENT RUN
(Broadcast: May 8, 2004)

Drifting in space amid the wreckage of Heliopolis, Kira rescues one of the colony's lifeboats, whose passengers include his former schoolmate Flay Allster. The Archangel, having momentarily shaken off Le Creuset's pursuit, sets course for the Alliance's Artemis asteroid base. Cutting the ship's engines to avoid detection, the Archangel's crew begin their silent run.

Le Creuset, anticipating this decision, deploys his ships Vesalius and Gamow along the Archangel's probable route so as to trap his quarry between them. As the ZAFT ships close in, Kira decides to protect the ship by piloting the Strike Gundam once again, while his friends show their support by volunteering for bridge crew duty. Le Creuset dispatches Athrun and his comrades in their stolen Gundams, and the battle begins.

PHASE-05: PHASE SHIFT DOWN
(Broadcast: May 15, 2004)

Kira and Athrun skirmish and argue, until Duel Gundam pilot Yzak Joule cuts in. Yzak and Kira begin dueling in earnest, while ZAFT's other Gundam pilots target the Archangel. Meanwhile Mu has maneuvered himself into position to ambush Le Creuset's Vesalius, and Le Creuset is forced to order a withdrawal.

Despite Le Creuset's order, Yzak continues battling the Strike Gundam. Soon Kira has used up the Strike Gundam's energy battery, and the ZAFT pilots attempt to seize the powerless Gundam as a trophy. With timely assistance from Mu and a replacement Striker Pack, Kira is able to break free and return to the Archangel, and the battered ship limps to safety behind the impenetrable "Umbrella of Artemis."

PHASE-06: THE VANISHING GUNDAM
(Broadcast: May 22, 2004)

The Archangel has found safe harbor at the asteroid fortress Artemis but, upon their arrival, the crew are detained at gunpoint. Though Artemis is an Earth Alliance base, it's controlled by a different member nation than the one that developed the Gundams, and its soldiers are eager to seize the Archangel and its cargo for themselves.

Meanwhile, Le Creuset and Athrun have been recalled to the PLANTs, leaving ZAFT's other Gundam pilots to ponder how they can get through Artemis's defensive barrier. The team's junior member, Nicol Amalfi, proposes that they use his Blitz Gundam's stealth capabilities to launch a surprise attack on the base. In the ensuing chaos, the Archangel's crew escape captivity and flee Artemis.

PHASE-07: THE SCAR OF SPACE
(Broadcast: May 29, 2004)

Le Creuset and Athrun return to the Coordinator homeland to report to the PLANT Supreme Council regarding the captured Gundams and the destruction of Heliopolis. They arrive during the anniversary of the "Bloody Valentine" tragedy, in which Earth Alliance forces destroyed a PLANT with nuclear weapons. Athrun's fiancé, the pop star Lacus Clyne, has been sent to visit the PLANT's remnants as part of the memorial delegation.

The Archangel makes a detour through Earth's orbiting debris belt in order to salvage some desperately needed supplies. Here the crew discover the remains of the PLANT which was destroyed in the "Bloody Valentine" tragedy, as well as a recently wrecked civilian vessel. Kira then spies a drifting lifepod, which he brings aboard the Archangel.

PHASE-08: THE SONGSTRESS OF THE ENEMY FORCES
(Broadcast: June 5, 2004)

The lifepod's occupant turns out to be Lacus Clyne, daughter of the PLANT Supreme Council chairman. The crew are unnerved by the presence of a real live Coordinator, even one as friendly and gentle as Lacus, and Flay's especially vehement reaction verges on open hatred. The tension aboard the ship is relieved when they at last contact an advance force from the Alliance's 8th Fleet and arrange a rendezvous.

Once news of Lacus's disappearance reaches the PLANTs, Le Creuset and Athrun are dispatched to search for her. When they reach the debris belt, Le Creuset once again picks up the Archangel's trail, and decides to resume his pursuit.

PHASE-09: THE FADING LIGHT
(Broadcast: June 12, 2004)

The Archangel crew eagerly anticipate their rendezvous with the 8th Fleet advance force - none more than Flay, the daughter of an Alliance minister, whose father insisted on accompanying the fleet to greet her. However, their impending reunion is disrupted as Le Creuset dispatches his mobile suits to intercept the advance force.

Kira and Mu set off to aid the advance fleet, but the ZAFT mobile suits hold them at bay. Aboard the Archangel, Flay comes up with a desperate scheme to save her father by holding Lacus hostage. While the Archangel crew try to calm her down, Le Creuset's Vesalius finishes off the advance fleet flagship, and with it Flay's beloved father. Natarle, the Archangel's combat commander, carries out Flay's plan and forces the Vesalius to withdraw.

PHASE-10: CROSSROADS
(Broadcast: June 19, 2004)

By threatening Lacus's life, the Archangel crew have saved themselves from Le Creuset's forces, but they're troubled by their own craven tactics. Flay is inconsolable after witnessing her father's fate, and blames Kira for failing to save him.

Learning that Lacus is engaged to his childhood friend Athrun, Kira decides to make amends by helping her escape from the Archangel. With the aid of his friends, Kira arranges to hand Lacus over to her fiancé. The Coordinator idol is returned to her people, but Kira again rejects Athrun's pleas to change sides, and the two old friends part ways as sworn enemies.

PHASE-11: THE AWAKENING SWORD
(Broadcast: June 26, 2004)

The Archangel's officers conduct an ad hoc court-martial to discipline Kira for releasing their hostage, and acting captain Murrue decides to let him off with a stern warning. Meanwhile, taking no chances after the loss of the advance force, the Alliance's 8th Fleet is coming in its entirety to escort the Archangel.

Le Creuset has called in reinforcements of his own - the warship Gamow, from which Yzak and his fellow Gundam pilots launch a surprise attack on the Archangel just before it joins the 8th Fleet. Kira and Mu struggle to defend the Archangel, and the stress of battle triggers a strange reaction in Kira; with the vision of a bursting seed, he enters a berserker state and cripples Yzak's Duel Gundam. The ZAFT pilots retreat as the 8th Fleet approaches.

PHASE-12: FLAY'S DECISION
(Broadcast: July 3, 2004)

The Archangel has successfully joined the Earth Alliance's 8th Fleet, and its crew are warmly greeted by Admiral Halberton, the chief proponent of the Gundam development program. Halberton and his fleet will now escort the Archangel down to Earth, so that it can complete its journey to the Alliance headquarters in Alaska.

For Kira and his friends, the struggle appears to be over; they can now leave the military and return to Earth with the other Heliopolis refugees. But Flay, intent on avenging her father, decides to enlist in the Alliance forces. One by one, Kira's friends tear up their discharge orders and follow suit, and at the last minute Kira decides to remain aboard the Archangel in order to continue protecting them.

PHASE-13: STARS FALLING IN SPACE
(Broadcast: July 10, 2004)

As the 8th Fleet approaches Earth, Le Creuset dispatches his mobile suits to attack the fleet. The assault is spearheaded by ZAFT's Gundam pilots, among them the wounded Yzak, who is spoiling for a rematch with the Strike Gundam. But Admiral Halberton, determined to get the Archangel safely to Earth, is keeping the ship and its pilots out of the fray.

While the Archangel crew watch from the sidelines, ZAFT's Gundams proceed to wipe out the entire 8th Fleet. At last Kira and Mu sally forth to aid Halberton's embattled flagship, but Kira is instead drawn into a fierce duel with Yzak. As the Archangel and the battling Gundams enter the atmosphere, Yzak releases his frustrations by shooting down a troublesome distraction - a shuttle filled with Heliopolis refugees, the very people whom Kira has sworn to protect.

PHASE 1-13 | PHASE 14-25 | PHASE 26-40 | PHASE 41-50