Heero Yuy

Heero Yuy (ヒイロ・ユイ, Hiiro Yui) was the main protagonist and a Gundam pilot during Operation Meteor in After Colony 195. Known as “The Perfect Soldier”, he was the pilot of the XXXG-01W Wing Gundam and later the XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero. His code name was taken from the martyred pacifist leader Heero Yuy (politician), whom his father had assassinated years prior.

Biography

Early life

Heero was born from a love affair between Aoi Clark and Odin Lowe, both agents working for OZ in the A.C. 170’s. Odin broke off his relationship with Aoi a few years after he assassinated the original Heero Yuy and became a freelance agent, and so the boy was raised by his mother and step-father, Seis Clark, until they were both killed. From then onward, he was the ward of Odin. In addition to protecting the boy (and giving himself an alibi), Odin taught the child how to survive on his own and how to handle a gun.

In A.C. 188, the pair went to colony L3 X-18999 on a mission to assassinate General Septum of the United Earth Sphere Alliance. While Odin handled the assassination, the child was sent to aid the colonial rebels who had clashed with the Specials. Taking an RPG, the boy attempted to destroy the communications tower (operated by a then twelve year-old Lucrezia Noin), but Instructor Treize Khushrenada moved his Leo s in the way, protecting Lucrezia Noin but badly injuring himself.

He found Dekim Barton, thinking Dekim was on his side, but Lowe was tricked and shot in the heart. Dekim called this revenge for killing his mentor Heero Yuy (politician) and vanished. Lowe later died after giving Heero his last piece of advice - to live by his emotions. The young boy then buried his father and continued alone until he was found by Doctor J.

Training as a Gundam pilot

After planting the explosives in the daytime, he took the time to relax, planning on destroying the base that night. While in a park, he met a young girl who was out walking her dog and befriended her. That night, when he triggered the explosives, a nearby Leo was knocked onto an apartment building, crushing it before it exploded. Investigating the ruins, he found the girl’s dog, dead. The direction leaves no doubt that the girl died as well. When he buried it, and possibly the girl, out of remorse, Dekim Barton ordered Doctor J to retrain the boy, saying that emotions, and especially “the humane feeling of kindness,” would be a detriment and unnecessary for a “weapon.”

Doctor J agreed to retrain the boy, but feared that the real Heero Yuy would not approve if his future namesake lost his humanity. Under Doctor J’s tutelage, Heero underwent intensive military training designed to suppress his emotions whilst honing his combat abilities to superhuman levels.

Operation Meteor

On April 7, A.C. 195, the young man was seated in the cockpit of the Wing Gundam, intent on carrying out his own version of Operation Meteor by focusing his attacks on OZ facilities and thus cripple the Alliance of its weapons and mobile suits. As he prepared to depart, Doctor J warned him that he’d be risking his life with his course of action, but the boy replied he wasn’t worried as, he put it, “life comes cheap, especially mine.” After telling the boy he would keep in contact to provide him with upcoming missions and enemy data, J decided to give him a codename. Picking one appropriate for the mission, J dubbed the young pilot “Heero Yuy,” and sent the boy to Earth to free the colonies as his namesake had once intended.

As the Wing Gundam entered Earth’s atmosphere, Heero spotted a civilian shuttle in his path, which carried Vice Foreign Minister Darlian and his foster daughter Relena. While contemplating whether or not to destroy the shuttle, Heero was interrupted by an Alliance patrol squadron, led by OZ’s ace pilot Zechs Merquise. Even with Wing’s incredible flight capabilities, Zechs managed to grapple the Gundam with his Leo in free-fall and subsequently vacate his machine, sending both mobile suits smashing and sinking to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Washing up on the beach, Heero’s unconscious body was found by Relena and, in an attempt to kill himself, pounded his chest detonator triggering the flight suit’s built-in suicide bomb. However, the saltwater damaged the explosive which caused only his detonator to fire, knocking Heero over. Nevertheless, the fizzled detonation gave him a momentary distraction to escape from both Relena and the medics arriving shortly thereafter, hijacking the ambulance and driving away with it.

School infiltration and Alliance operations

Heero enrolled himself at Saint Gabriel Academy as part of his mission to recover the Wing Gundam and eliminate any witnesses to his arrival. During this time, he encountered Relena Darlian repeatedly, leading to a complex relationship that would evolve throughout the war. His coldness and repeated death threats towards Relena masked a growing protective instinct.

He later encountered Duo Maxwell, pilot of the Gundam Deathscythe, during an attempt to destroy his disabled Wing Gundam with stolen torpedoes. This marked the beginning of his interactions with the other Gundam pilots, though he continued to operate primarily as a lone wolf.

Eve Wars and beyond

Throughout the Eve Wars, Heero demonstrated exceptional piloting abilities and tactical acumen. Most pilots wind up suffering intense hallucinations and even having intense bouts of anger. Heero is the first character in the series to figure out how to handle the Zero System without completely going insane, though even he struggles with it at first. His mastery of the ZERO System in the Wing Gundam Zero made him arguably the most formidable of the five Gundam pilots.

After the war’s conclusion, Heero joined the Preventers organisation alongside his fellow Gundam pilots to maintain peace in the Earth Sphere.

Personality & traits

His cold, stoic demeanor seems more fitting for a battle hardened veteran than a fifteen-year-old boy. When Relena Peacecraft meets Doctor J, the engineer comments that Heero is actually a very kind-hearted young man who keeps his emotions reined in while fighting. On many occasions, Heero espouses the philosophy that being emotional on the battlefield will only result in heartbreak, so soldiers need to be able to fight without caring about their opponents. However, he believes that there’s nothing wrong with showing emotion in normal situations.

The most important philosophy to Heero’s life, however, is the one his father Odin Lowe espouses: That the best way to live life is by one’s emotions. This created an internal conflict within Heero—balancing his training to suppress emotions with his father’s dying advice to follow them.

Something of a running gag in the Gundam Wing series was how often the main character attempted to kill himself. Heero’s apparent disregard for his own life stemmed from his training as a weapon and his belief that soldiers should be prepared to sacrifice themselves for their mission.

Skills & abilities

Heero is the most skilled and focused in combat out of the five pilots, both in mobile suits and out, which makes him a great asset and a deadly force to be reckoned with. His abilities included:

Combat prowess: Heero demonstrated exceptional hand-to-hand combat skills, marksmanship, and tactical planning. His training from childhood made him capable of surviving in hostile environments and adapting to various combat situations.

Mobile suit piloting: Recognised as “The Perfect Soldier”, Heero possessed unmatched piloting abilities. He could operate any mobile suit with remarkable proficiency and was the first pilot to successfully master the ZERO System.

Physical resilience: Heero seems to be freaking MADE of gundanium-alloy. Sally Po (back when she was still a doctor of the Alliance) said that he had over 250 small broken bones but no visible signs of them. That’s just scary. He falls fifty freaking stories in episode three or something, and all he gets is a broken leg. His extraordinary physical durability became legendary amongst his allies.

Computer expertise: Heero demonstrated advanced hacking abilities, capable of infiltrating secure systems and databases for intelligence gathering.

Relationships

Relena Darlian

Heero’s relationship with Relena Darlian began with repeated death threats but evolved into a complex bond of protection and understanding. Though his true feelings for Relena are never fully explained in the series, he has vowed to protect her from all danger (despite threatening to kill her when she initially learned his identity. Their relationship represented Heero’s gradual acceptance of emotion and human connection.

Fellow Gundam pilots

Though initially operating alone, Heero formed strong bonds with his fellow Gundam pilots, particularly Duo Maxwell. Although Heero often acts very cold, reckless, emotionless, and anti-social, he sympathizes with the oppressed colony citizens and formed strong bonds with his fellow Gundam pilots, Relena, and other allies over time.

Odin Lowe

Lowe was practically Heero’s father, and he watched that man die right before his eyes. He acted pretty nonchalant, in spite of what he probably really felt about the whole thing. Odin Lowe never really left him. One bit of advice Lowe gave stuck hard with Heero, even in the series. His father’s final words—to live by his emotions—became a guiding principle that conflicted with his military training.

Mecha

Wing Gundam

The XXXG-01W Wing Gundam served as Heero’s primary mobile suit during the early stages of Operation Meteor. Built by Doctor J, the Wing Gundam featured transformation capabilities between mobile suit and flight modes, along with the powerful buster rifle capable of destroying multiple mobile suits with a single shot. Heero demonstrated exceptional skill in maximising the suit’s capabilities, using its transformation feature strategically and employing the buster rifle with surgical precision.

Wing Gundam Zero

The XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero represented the culmination of Gundam development and became Heero’s signature mobile suit. Heero is the first character in the series to figure out how to handle the Zero System without completely going insane, though even he struggles with it at first. The ZERO System provided Heero with predictive combat abilities, showing him multiple battle outcomes simultaneously. His mastery of this system made him virtually unbeatable in combat.

Full mecha list

Wing Gundam: Heero’s first Gundam, piloted from A.C. 195 during Operation Meteor. He used this suit for infiltration missions on Earth and multiple battles against OZ forces.

Mercurius: Briefly piloted whilst captured by OZ, this defensive mobile suit featured planet defensors and beam sabers. Heero demonstrated the suit’s capabilities during his escape.

Epyon: Temporarily piloted the melee-combat specialist Gundam built by Treize Khushrenada. The Epyon System provided similar predictive abilities to ZERO, but focused on close-quarters combat.

Wing Gundam Zero: His ultimate mobile suit, featuring the twin buster rifle and advanced ZERO System. Heero used this Gundam to end the Eve Wars and later during Preventer operations.

Behind the scenes

Heero Yuy is modeled after Yuki Uchida. Originally, Duo Maxwell was set as the protagonist but was replaced by Heero Yuy. The staff members noted Heero was too different from previous Gundam protagonists and were afraid he would be unpopular.

The character design was handled by Murase Shūkō, who created Heero’s distinctive appearance featuring the green tank top and shorts that became iconic to the character. Sunrise staff decided to have a character who wore a tank top and short pants. According to Hideyuki Tomioka, Shūkō Murase designed the character in a detailed and delicate manner.

In Japanese, Heero Yuy is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa, born May 2, 1968) is a Japanese voice actor from Otawara, Tochigi who is represented by Aoni Production. He is best known for the roles of Softon in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Tamahome in Fushigi Yûgi, Seiran Shi in Saiunkoku Monogatari, Gridman in Gridman the Hyper Agent, Heero Yuy in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Kaede Rukawa in Slam Dunk and many other notable characters across anime and video games.

In English, he is voiced by Mark Hildreth, born January 24, 1978) is a Canadian actor and singer, appearing in movie and television roles. A graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada. He has voiced iconic characters such as Heero Yuy in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Quicksilver in X-Men: Evolution, Stalker in Spider-Man Unlimited, and Terry Bogard in Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture.

While the origin of Heero’s first name is, like the other pilots, quite clearly a number, there is also a meaning to his last name. In Japanese, yuui can be used as an adjective meaning either ‘superior’, ‘talented’, or ‘magnificent’, all which lend to the evocation of his name as: ‘Heero Yuy, the one and only’. Furthermore, the name Heero Yuy was most likely also designed to be evocative of the name Amuro Ray, the original Mobile Suit Gundam protagonist.

Appearances

Television series

• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (1995–1996)

Original video animation

• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (1997)

Manga

• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Episode Zero
• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Battlefield of Pacifists
• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Blind Target
• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz: Glory of the Losers

Novels

• New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop

Video games

• Dynasty Warriors: Gundam series
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. series
• Gundam Battle Assault series
• Super Robot Wars series