After giving a speech to his graduating classmates, Ryou Masaoka struggled to the clinic, where we learnt that he has some form of genetic illness inherited from his mother, who passed away 2 years ago. Things took a big twist when Yumi Ikoma returned from a date with Ryou at the beach to find her extremely sick father dying before her eyes. With his last breathe, Yumi's father said something about getting to Alvis. Returning home from her father's funeral, Yumi found her father's PDA, which contains a key to Alvis. Upon touching the key, Yumi started hearing her father's voices in her head, telling her to head to Alvis.
Opening the gate to Alvis with the key left behind by her father, before her eyes were giant mechas known as Fafners (Titan-model TSX-01). The surprise continues when Yumi found Ryou, together with Karin and Soushi, in Alvis. Due to the fact that Yumi's father died on the day Ryou took her to the beach, she now holds a grudge against Ryou for her father's death. To complicate matters, both Ryou and Yumi are partnered up in the Crossing system after being enlisted to become Fafner pilots.
The countdown for Plan L, which was instigated by Yumi's father, started. Taking a total of 60 days, the team will have to fight off the invading Festum, holding them off before Plan L is put into action. However, during this period, pilots who were fighting along Ryou and Yumi were killed off one by one due to the assimilation phenomenon which was caused by the prolonged usage of the Fafners. Yumi then requested for the combat duration of each pilot to be shortened from 15 mins to 10 mins in order to prevent the exhaustion of the pilots. Her request was revoked by the commander, giving the reason that he wasn't informed of an escape plan. Ryou stood up for Yumi, saying that he believe her father had made plans for the survival of everyone in this mission. That earned back her respect.
Finally, after 60 days of waiting, Plan L is executed; to self-destruct the island where all the Festums have gathered, and escape using a submarine. Ryou and Yumi took off in their Fafners trying to hold off the Festums while the rest escape through the submarine. However, the submarine was destroyed and Ryou and Yumi had nowhere to go as the Festums were camping for them. In order to protect the secret location of the islands, they have no choice but to wait for a rescue team. On the other hand, Karin in her Fafner Mark Zwei with the Siegfried System, was sent out to rescue Ryou & Yumi. Initially, she was called off until Soushi convinced Commander Minashiro to allow the search to continue. However, both Ryou and Yumi started to assimilate, but not before both of them confessed their love to each other. Right before his final moment, Ryou recorded a final voice message to Alvis, before activating the Fenrir system as a Festum approaches him.
Four months later, Ryou's Fafner was salvaged from the depth of the ocean, together with the voice recording. At the end, Soushi left the islands to check on the Solomon project.
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It's been quite a while since i watched something this sad. Through out the whole show, i couldn't help but think that Ryou is Shinn, while Yumi is Luna; the impact Gundam Seed Destiny have on me. Personally, i like this one shot Fafner special a lot - there's a good plot, great characters and exciting mecha scenes, nothing comes better than "Right of Left".
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