Character Profile: Amuro Ray

The son of a scientist working for the Federation, Amuro was an introverted boy who preferred working on machinery to human contact. One fateful day, his home of Side 7 (a space colony) fell under attack from the Zeon's Zakus. In an act of urgency, Amuro quickly jumped into the Gundam's cockpit, manual in hand, and managed to defeat two Zakus on his first try...

Initially quick to anger, over the course of the Gundam saga he matured, realizing the dire state of the One Year War. He fell in love when he met a young Zeon test pilot named Lalah Sune. Their fateful encounter would forever seal the destinies of Amuro and his rival, Char Aznable...

Amuro, a civilian, encounters the Federation where the White Base (Trojan Horse) is picking up Gundam. Two Zakus appear and destroy the labs on side seven. Amuro gets in the cockpit, wings through the manual, then begins to pilot the Gundam.

He destroys those Zakus and gets aboard White Base and takes off. He keeps fighting against Zeon and the Red Comet (Char Aznable), and everyone else in their forces. I personally think that he has something for Sayla (in the books, he definitly does).

Amuro is the main character for this anime, most of the story revolving around his exploits. He is a Mobile suit pilot with no previous experience in MS piloting who becomes one of the best pilots of the entire series. He is the son of Tem Ray, the man in charge of the V project's development team.

Amuro starts out as a simple young boy, more interested in working on electronics and machines then the political environment around him. When his colony is attacked and nearly all of the inhabitants killed, he stumbles across an instruction manual for a Federation MS, which where not in existence until then. He then finds the Gundam and manages to fight off 3 Zakus with it, destroying 2. After this battle, he is forced to pilot the Gundam and work as the pilot of that MS for White Base (federation's new class of battle cruiser) At first, he suffers from shell shock and new pilot burn out, also becoming very egotistical and arrogant. As he progresses, he learns that the White base cannot survive without him and attempts to surpass all other pilots.

He has several run-ins with Char throughout the anime, taking him as a rival and vowing to take him out of the war for good. He soon grows obsessed with the idea of being better then Char and killing him in combat. The more he fights, the faster his reaction time and the more tuned into the war he gets, at one point scaring his own mother greatly with his lack of innocence she remembered him having.

As time passes, he becomes something of an anti-hero. He no longer sees war in a negative light but as a means to an end. He also loses any problems he had with killing people, at some points getting into a blood thirsty battle frenzy where he does not allow opponents to surrender. He also develops the abilities of a New Type, which he had been showing signs since the beginning of the series.

Side notes: Amuro does take love interests in the anime, but for some reason all of his interests end up in the death of those he admires. His head strong nature and arrogance came to a head in the series when Bright dressed him down after a battle, resulting in Amuro blowing his top and going AWAL in the Gundam from White Base. He appears to have had a close relationship with Frow Bow at the beginning of the series, but they drift apart rapidly as the war goes on. He has a bad relationship with Bright Noa, Bright's tough love policy and lack of consideration for Amuro's psychological well being causing Amuro to desert him.