Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

A series of short manga stories, revealing important background details about the five young Gundam pilots and Relena Peacecraft. Episode Zero explains such details from the series as the origin of Duo Maxwell's nickname "Shinigami" (Grim Reaper/God of Death), Quatre Raberba Winner's link with the Maganac mercenaries, and other elements that would go on to play major roles in the Gundam Wing anime and its sequel, Endless Waltz.
Before the outbreak of the colony war, forces were at work shaping the future and preparing its players for the final game. As children, each of the Gundam pilots endured hardships that would have broken the will of any normal person. Gundam pilots Duo Maxwell, Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton, Quatre Rabbera Winner and Chang Wufei have endured more pain and difficulties than most people experience in a lifetime. But not even their comrades in arms could have known about the even more tumultuous childhoods as war orphans and other hardships.

(Source: Anime News Network)

The year is After Colony 195, and the Gundam boys have taken a stand for eternal peace by deciding to destroy their robotic weapons, Gundams. The peace is broken, however, when Mariemaia Khushrenada, who claims to be the daughter of the late Oz leader Treize, kidnaps Relena and declares a war of independence against the United Earth Sphere Nation. Perhaps it’s time to pull those Gundam units out of retirement.

Summer AC 196, the Earth Sphere Unified Nation begins the long process of disarmament with Relena Darlian leading the preceedings. However, something troubles the Gundam pilots; rumors fly about Vulkanus, an OZ manufacturing plant, full of Mobile Dolls and lost somewhere in space. In the meantime, an organization called the Perfect Peace People is calling for even further measures of disarmament than even Relena herself. The Gundam pilots set out to find and destroy Vulkanus before anyone can get their hands on it and use it for their own purposes.

After the events of Gundam Wing, peace still does not come easily. Small rebel factions slowly gain influence and power, and those that were wronged during the war creep out from the woodworks. Relena, a symbol of peace and a primary political figure in the post-war rebuilding efforts, is kidnapped. The five pilots must once again come together in order to protect their fragile peace while simultaneously wrestling with their own morals and motivations.

Just when he thought life was returning to normal, Heero Yuy receives a cryptic message from a person claiming to have stolen the Wing Zero and requesting a rendezvous at a remote space station. There he finds the station deserted except for his fellow Gundam pilots all of whom have received similar messages. But only a handful of people are capable of piloting the Wing Zero... As tension and distrust grows, Heero is pitted against his comrades with mind control, assassination, and a loaded gun thrown into the standoff.

AC 195. Earth and its surrounding colonies were fighting the bloodiest war mankind had ever known. But on the remote asteroid colony MO-V, life carried on as normal. It wasn't long, however, before OZ agents came to enlist the colony in the battle for independence from Earth rule. Now the once neutral colony not only finds itself lending resources to OZ, but they are under attack by a mysterious group who call themselves the Stardust Knights. When Odel Bernett, the colony's top pilot, is shot down in combat, his younger brother, Odin, must don the experimental new MS, the G-Unit, and fight to defend his home. 
(Source: Tokyopop)

It is the year After Colony 195, and war between the Space Colonies and Earth has begun. To give the colonies an edge, they send 5 young soldiers, trained to perfection, to earth in the most powerful of Mobile Suits-Gundams. With their arrival, the tide of the war changes as they battle against the Earth forces and the Colonies of their origin.
(Source: Anime News Network)

Centuries in the future, in the year After Colony 195, Earth is surrounded by orbiting space colonies. The colonists are cruelly oppressed by the Earth Alliance, which uses huge humanoid fighting machines called "mobile suits" to control the populace. Behind this tyranny is the secret society called "Oz," which has infiltrated the Alliance military and steered it towards its repressive course.
Now, the space colonies are ready to strike back. Five young pilots, equipped with advanced mobile suits called "Gundams," are sent to Earth to wage guerilla war against Oz and its Alliance puppets. 
The war to decide humanity's destiny begins.

Rather than having a war between the colonies and the Earth, a fighting tournament is held. Called the Gundam Fight, it is held once every four years by the United Colonies Federation. Each country would send its own representative, that would pilot a Gundam, and the Gundams would then fight on the Earth until only one is left, and that Gundam's nation will then be able to obtain sovereign rights over all the nations, until another nation wins in the next Gundam Fight. This series is set in Future Century (FC) 60, during the 13th Gundam Fight and it focuses on the Neo Japan Gundam Fighter Domon Kasshu, who is in the fight as much to win as well as fulfill his own mission of tracking down his brother who had stolen a mysterious Gundam; the Devil Gundam from the Neo-Japan government.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Neo Belgium's Gundam Fighter John Browning is shunned in his hometown after dropping out of the 13th Gundam Fight. Determined to participate in the Gundam Fight, even if unofficially, John attempts to assassinate Rain, only to be confronted by Domon and Rain after it is revealed his target is a hologram.