Kira Yamato (キラ・ヤマト Kira Yamato) is the protagonist of the television anime series Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.

Kira is a Coordinator, and lives in the neutral colony Heliopolis with his friends. He gets involved in the ZAFT attack on the colony and becomes the reluctant pilot of the GAT-X105 Strike, thus effectively enlisting in OMNI (the military of the Earth Alliance). Thereafter he follows the crew of the battleship Archangel in the fight against ZAFT.

As an Earth Alliance pilot, Kira often has to confront in battle his childhood friend Athrun Zala, now a ZAFT soldier. While Athrun is driven to fight to protect his nation, Kira is more concerned about his friends, now aboard the Archangel. When Fllay Alster, a Kira's friend from Heliopolis, witnesses the death of her father by ZAFT hands, she starts to discriminate Kira as a Coordinator. In emotional distress, she fakes an affection for him in order to make him kill all the Coordinators.

In a confrontation with Athrun, Kira loses his mobile suit GAT-X105 Strike and is seriously injured. Thought dead, he awakens and later recovers on ZAFT, in the house of Lacus Clyne. As part of her plan to form the Clyne Faction, Lacus steals and gives to Kira the ZAFT prototype ZGMF-X10A Freedom. Kira returns to Archangel as the ship, with (almost) the entire crew, defects to the Clyne Faction, and is soon joined by Athrun, who stole the Freedom's brother unit, the ZGMF-X09A Justice.

Towards the end of the Bloody Valentine War Kira learns that he is the Ultimate Coordinator, his fetus was artificially developed outside his mother's womb. He was the first and the last fetus to be successfully developed using the apparatus (although other "failed" examples, most notably Canard Pars, were successfully birthed). Kira learns also that he is the twin brother to Cagalli Yula Athha, but she was born naturally.

Kira, Athrun, Lacus, Cagalli and the crew of the Archangel are instrumental in ending the Bloody Valentine War.

After the war, Kira and Lacus live in an orphanage in Orb, run by a Clyne family's friend, Reverend Malchio. As the events escalate to the Second Bloody Valentine War, during the Junius-7 Colony Drop the orphanage is destroyed by unknown forces, trying to assassinate Lacus. Kira and Lacus return to the Archangel and escape from Orb, as the island nation enters the Earth Alliance. Before leaving Orb, Kira "kidnaps" Cagalli, saving her from an unwanted political marriage.

Kira appears to have some kind of sensitive power, like Mu La Flaga and Rau Le Creuset. When Flay Allster is killed and Kira talks with her after her death, the scene is reminiscent of when Lalah Sune is killed by Amuro Ray in the original Mobile Suit Gundam series.

Personal Data

Genetic type: Coordinator
Age: 15 later 16 (18 in Gundam Seed Destiny)
DOB: Cosmic Era May 18 55
Rank: Ensign (PHASE-15)
Family: Adopted Mother (Caridad Yamato); Adopted Father (Haruma Yamato); Father (Ulen Hibiki); Mother (Via Hibiki); Sister (Cagalli Yula Attha); Possible Brother (Canard Pars)
Height: 165 cm (5'4")
Blood type: A
Mobile Suit: GAT-X105 Strike, ZGMF-X10A Freedom, Nu-Freedom/M AKF-0

Quote on file: "It's not fair! You're going to tell me that's the only mobile suit on board, and I'm the only person who can pilot it!" - PHASE-03: Collapsing Land