|
Amuro Ray (アムロ・レイ) is the hero of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. He is the son of Temu Ray, the project leader for the Earth Federation's 'Vinsion' Project, which produces the prototype Federation mobile suits Gundam, Guncannon, and Guntank to combat the Principality of Zeon's own mobile weapon, the Zaku. At the beginning of the Mobile Suit Gundam TV series, Amuro is about 15 years old and is a civilian, along with his friends Fraw Bow and Hayato Kobayashi, and living in Side 7, one of the few space colonies untouched by the fearsome One-Year War. Amuro Ray ends up piloting the Gundam when, during a Zaku raid on the transfer of the Gundam to the White Base and evacuation of the colony, he comes across the 'V' Project manual and the Gundam lying on a trailer. In order to defend the colony, he boards the Gundam and, using his inituition and reading the manual, manages to start up the Gundam and defeat two Zaku mobile suits piloted by battle-hardened veterans.
Shortly after that, he quickly gains the animosity of Char Aznable, one of the top aces in the Zeon military. Char Aznable and Amuro face off many times during the course of the One Year War, but it is not until when Lalah Sune is killed during one of their battles that this rivalry turns into a fierce hatred of one another.
Each blaming the other for her death, their intense rivalry continues until it is reached climax in Char's Counterattack.
Amuro is the first known Newtype pilot in the Earth Federation ranks and is arguably the most famous of them all, due the his piloting of the Gundam and the televising of one of his battles in Side 6, where he shoots down 9 Rick Doms in a matter of minutes.
Despite being one of the most famous heroes of the One Year War, Amuro is placed under house arrest shortly after the war due to the government's mistrust of Newtypes. It is not after the events of Zeta Gundam that he rejoins the Earth Federation's ranks and rises to Lt. Commander by the beginning of Char's Counterattack. During the Second Neo Zeon War he is assigned to the battleship Ra Cailum, the flagship of the Federation's Londo Bell taskforce. It is widely believed that his relatively low status in the Federation is a sign of the government's continued mistrust in his loyalties.
|
