Character Profile: Bright Noa

Bright Noa is the young, low ranking officer who was in charge of commanding the White Base. He was just one of the officers in the White Base when it was attacked at side 6. When the attack was over, nearly all the soldiers and higher ranking officers in White Base were killed, the captain of the ship having also been injured beyond command, leaving Bright Noa the only officer able to command White Base.

Bright takes to being a captain rather well, following text book maneuvers and keeping the crew alive with his adaptive thinking and quick responses. He also does well in making due with the bad and delayed orders given to him by the Federation HQ.

He has a very demanding personality, not wanting to hear any excuses when someone does not do their job. This poses a problem on White Base since nearly all the crew are underage civilians. This really agitates Amuro, who at first dislikes being the only pilot of the Gundam, never getting any rest breaks from fighting off Zeon attacks. He and Amuro have many a conflict of ego's and ideals, one such event causing Amuro to go AWOL in the Gundam. He also manages to take time to pursue more personal matters, at first trying to get close to Sayla, but then focusing on Mirai after Sayla questions his advances while they are still on duty.

Side notes: Bright never pilots a Mobile Suit in the series, though early on when he is scolding Amuro, he says he wishes he could pilot the Gundam in order to defeat Amuro's idea that he is the only reason the White Base was not destroyed by the Zeon. When a member of White Base dies, he seems to feel that it was his responsibility for that life, felt very much when Ryu dies. He appears to take his position seriously, but at the same time he uses his official powers to manipulate things to his advantage, like relieving Mirai from her post early so she could get some rest and also gain favor with her.

The above description make it sound as though Bright was hitting on Sayla on-duty, when he was just trying to make small talk with her in a dull situation (riding in an elevator). Also, it sounds like that right after Sayla blew him off, he went to Mirai as a second resort, when the Sayla thing happened in basically episode 2 and Bright didn't begin to show interest in Mirai until at least episode 20 (even then it's not like he had a choice, as the commander has to work with the navigator).

Also, I was irritated by the insinuation that Bright was abusing his power by getting a replacement for Mirai so she could go off and talk to Sleggar, just to raise favor with her. This was during Solomon, a very important battle, and Mirai was clearly distracted. If the pilot of the ship is distracted during an intense battle, things will not turn out very well. Bright saw that, and decided to get someone whose mind was more on the job until Mirai could set things straight and get readjusted. Perhaps some personal feelings did influence the action, but there is also a perfectly reasonable explanation behind it as well. Bright is nothing short of professional-- that's his entire problem, really.