Earth: After the Colonies

The world depicted in Gundam Wing is futuristic, yet it is certainly not alien compared to present day. Time is recorded using the "After Colony" (A.C.) system: the years are counted starting from man's first move toward space. Between now and this far-off future, scientists and laborers set up five, space station-like colony clusters orbiting Earth. The populations on these off-worlds grew as they became more inhabitable and as tensions and wars on Earth led more people to migrate to the relative peace of space.

A world of danger, secrets and shifting loyalties.

The year is A.C. 195, and world wars have led to the formation of the Earth Sphere Alliance, a world government that oversees both Earth and its colonies. The Alliance asserts dominance over its earthbound opposition by utilizing the latest in technology — "mobile suits" piloted by the expert soldiers of its "Specials" unit. Their stranglehold on the human race has been strengthened by a divisive strategy: in the name of "protecting" Earth from the colonies, they impose a ban on communications between the space outposts.

Needless to say, the military occupation of their home worlds does not sit well with certain people within the five colonies. They want their freedom, and they decide to hit the Alliance where it will hurt the most. Five young pilots are chosen, and each is outfitted with a customized mobile suit made of "gundanium," a virtually indestructible ore found only in space. On the launch date of "Operation: Meteor," the fifteen-year-olds and their suits, dubbed "Gundams," fall from the sky toward Earth. They land at different points and proceed to wage guerrilla warfare against Alliance targets.

However, one pilot, Heero Yuy from the first colony, is spotted by two people as he makes what is supposed to be a covert descent. Relena Darlian is the pampered daughter of the Vice Foreign Minister (one of the few figures within the Alliance working for peace). She is fascinated by the "shooting star" and even more intrigued when the meets the handsome, antisocial pilot face-to-face. The other is Zechs Merquise, the famed "Lightening Count" of the military's "Specials" division. His first encounter with the pilot of "Gundam 01" sets the tone for a dangerous rivalry that continues throughout the duration of the series.

The truth is that the "Gundams" are just one threat to the Alliance. Hidden agendas and secrets play an important role in the series' often serpentine plot. Viewers truly need to keep a mental scorecard as characters' loyalties shift multiple times. For starters, the Alliance's biggest threat is close to home and within its own ranks. Treize Kushrenada, the charismatic leader of the "Specials," has his own ideas about world domination. He leads OZ, a secret organization of officers in his mobile suit corps, in a bloody, military coup to overthrow the government. The Gundam pilots, who have been unwittingly manipulated into playing the bad guys from which OZ will save the world, have a new enemy.