Fans of Gundam understand that the anime’s slate of awesome mecha battles and serious wartime stories don’t always take place in the same setting. After all, while the first iconic Gundam anime explored the war between the Earth Federation against the Principality of Zeon, the upcoming Gundam: The Witch From Mercury stars not just the first female protagonist in the franchise but also a potentially new setting. In fact, while some sequels starred new pilots in the same setting, others happened in new timelines entirely - such is the case of the Cosmic Era Timeline, the setting of the Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny anime.
At its core, the Cosmic Era highlights an Earth that managed to start conquering the stars, with humanity largely divided into two subspecies - the natural-born Naturals and the more genetically-enhanced Coordinators. And with tensions rising between the two groups, Earth is eventually plunged into an all-out war, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance of young pilots and their superiors.
10 Various Similarities With Universal Century
Given how the Cosmic Era series (SEED and SEED Destiny) heralded the arrival of Gundam in the 21st Century, fans think it made sense for its themes to be a bit similar to the original Gundam anime. However, this may also be a result of series director Mitsuo Fukuda who was a big fan of the first series as well.
Interestingly enough, SEED was actually intended to be Gundam but updated for the 21st Century, with the intention of adding and transforming elements from the new series geared to appeal to a new generation of viewers. This explains why the anime features commentary on themes and issues such as desires of genocide, racism, and even the cycle of violence.
9 World War 3, The Reconstruction War
Fans who look at Gundam SEED for the first time might think that the war between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT would have been considered World War 3, but this wasn’t the case in the overall lore. Prior to the adoption of the Cosmic Era calendar, the rapid depletion of petroleum resources and the worsening of pollution triggered a global economic collapse that forced the world’s nations to group into blocs. This soon led into World War 3 or the Reconstruction War.
It was at the end of the Reconstruction War that the United Nations finally adopted the Cosmic Era in a bid to begin a space development program. Aside from the notable Orb Union, nine other global powers emerged, chief among them - but not the most powerful - is the Atlantic Federation.
8 Enter The Space Colonies, Mobile Armors
A lot of Gundam series often featured humanity finally reaching space through space colonies, and these form a central part of Cosmic Era lore as well. It’s during the beginning of the Space Colony plan that the market ushered in the arrival of the space industry. Thanks to this plan, the first lunar city Copernicus began and the establishment of both the Federal Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Federal Space Force followed suit.
One of the major Earth powers, the Atlantic Federation, also created a lunar base, sparking much uproar. It didn’t help that this also marked the unveiling of their mobile armor, prompting a space arms race.
7 George Glenn’s Confession
When Nobel laureate George Glenn was appointed the chief designer and crew member of the Tsiolkovsky ship for a Jupiter mission, his infamous “Confession” shook the foundation of the world to its core. He’s apparently a Coordinator, a genetically-enhanced human being that, through genetic alterations, can get a number of enhanced traits such as improved physique and mental prowess, immunity to disease, and faster learning.
As expected, the world reacts wildly to the Confession, as well as George Glenn’s releasing of the genetic engineering techniques to achieve them. A group known as Blue Cosmos declares itself opposed to the idea of genetic engineering, while an international conference led to the Torino Protocol that prohibited genetic manipulation. Regardless, many wealthy individuals had their children turned into Coordinators in secrecy.
6 There Is An Alien, Apparently
While the world is still recently rocked by the Coordinator discovery, George Glenn also returns with “Evidence 01,” a fossil that proves extraterrestrial life exists. He initially took Evidence 01 to the Zodiac research colony in Lagrange Point 5 (L5) for examination. And as his restrictions as a Coordinator are lifted, Glenn’s research into Evidence 01 allowed the Zodiac organization to expand into a large facility.
Not much is revealed about Evidence 01 and its origins throughout the anime, except for the fact that it looks like a preserved skeleton of a whale-like creature. It’s postulated that it should have the equivalent intelligence and size of a whale on Earth.
5 The Coordinator Boom, PLANT Cities
In his time in the Zodiac colony, George Glenn unveiled his concept of a new type of space colony, which then ushered in a newfound intensity in the space development industry. By then, the influence of anti-Coordinator voices started to weaken and Coordinators became more accepted in society. This changes soon, though, as Coordinators created and raised in secret begin reemerging and proving their “superiority” against Naturals, once again causing an uproar in society. It didn’t help that as they married and sired purebred children that these second generations also inherited their parent’s advanced capabilities.
By the time that Glenn’s space colony plan resulted in the creation of the first 10 space colonies (dubbed Aprilius City) in the L5 cluster, Coordinator population already exceeded 10-million. Unfortunately, these cities - called PLANTs - were prohibited to produce their own food and instead must import all of their supplies from Earth.
4 The Zodiac Alliance, George Glenn Assassination
While public opinion towards Coordinators are already leaning towards the negative, it didn’t help that acts of terrorism were being conducted against defenseless PLANTs by anti-Coordinator groups. One such incident was the assassination of George Glenn by a young Natural who was frustrated as he’s not born a Coordinator.
This caused Coordinators to feel restless and dissatisfied with leadership, forcing Siegel Clyne and Patrick Zala to form the Zodiac Alliance. This political organization not only pursued PLANT autonomy but also pursued self-defense rights and trading independence. Heavy resistance initially forced the organization to go underground. Following Glenn’s assassination, the PLANTs formed a Supreme Council where representatives from each city were met.
3 The Type S2 Influenza Outbreak
Even before the Cosmic Era calendar’s implementation, a dangerous Type S influenza virus was already spreading throughout the world. Alongside the Reconstruction War, the original Type S influenza caused massive deaths worldwide. Details about the influenza were largely unknown due to the focus on Coordinators, as such it came as a surprise when the Type S influenza mutated into the much more lethal Type S2 influenza.
While the Type S2 influenza was extremely lethal, it didn’t affect Coordinators due to their advanced physiologies, leading many to believe the virus was Coordinator-made to avenge Glenn. This caused anti-Coordinator sentiment to go at an all-time high, with the Turin Protocol signed to once again ban genetic modification. While PLANT scientists were able to create a vaccine for the influenza, hate towards Coordinators didn’t disappear and prompted many to go to space.
2 Enter ZAFT, Earth Alliance
The creation of both ZAFT and Earth Alliance happened quite recently before SEED began. The Zodiac Alliance became the Zodiac Alliance Of Freedom Treaty (ZAFT) by the time they developed its first mobile suit, finally having an ace up their sleeve against the oppressive sponsor nations that kept on harassing them for production quotas while threatening violence with mobile armors.
Meanwhile, the Alaska Declaration formally established the Earth Alliance, composed of Earth’s major powers, after the Tragedy of Copernicus. This incident happened on the Moon when a United Nations delegation between PLANTs and sponsor nations became interrupted by a terrorist attack. Soon after the formation of the two organizations, the Earth Alliance declares war on the PLANTs.
1 The First Alliance-Plant War, The G-Project
The events of SEED formally “begin” during the First Alliance-Plant War, where various moves of both sides were highlighted in various events. First of them was the Bloody Valentine incident, when the Junius Seven colony was destroyed by a nuclear missile. Other notable events include the Battle of Yggdrasil which destroyed a prominent satellite, the April Fool’s Crisis that resulted in Earth having an energy crisis, and small skirmishes that marked ZAFT’s goal of securing terrestrial areas.
It was around this time that ZAFT caught wind of the secret G-Project of the Earth Alliance to create advanced mobile suits. Episode One of Gundam SEED formally begins when Kira Yamato stumbles upon one of them, the GAT-X105 Strike, and defends the warship Archangel from the elite ZAFT Le Creuset team which, to his surprise, has his old friend Athrun Zala as a member.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury will air in October 2022.