Mobile Suit Gundam 00/Characters/Union and Free Nations
Graham Aker
Ace Pilot of the Union, and something of a Fan Boy when it comes to Japanese things. Graham tends to relate things with Japanese, following some sort of Bushido code, yelling about surpassing Ashura in battle, etc. Despite that, he is not a Japanophile, but one of the best pilots in the world, being the first to deal any substantial damage to a Gundam without a scratch. He also has a bizarre attraction to the Gundams (or more specifically, Exia), often talking about them in romantic terms even as he fights them. In response of the death of his comrade Howard Mason at the hands of Gundam, Graham made a vow to defeat the Gundam with just using Flags. He fought Setsuna after the latter defeats Alejandro Corner, and fought to a stalemate.
In the second season, he returns wearing a mask, now calling himself Mr. Bushido. He finally got his personal unit called "Masurao", a customized Flag using dual katana, which was built by his friend Billy Katagiri. It later got upgraded into "Susanowo" and he finally reveals his identity to Setsuna for the first time.
Voiced by Yuuichi Nakamura (Japanese) and Paul Dobson (English)
- Ace Custom: The Overflag and GN Flag.
- Actor Allusion: His Over Flag's strongest move in Super Robot Wars Z 2 is very similar to Alto's VF-25's ISC manevuer. They also say about the same thing when using it.
- Anti-Hero: Type IV.
- Arch Enemy
- Ascended Fanboy
- Ascended Meme: In Super Robot Wars Z 2, his unique ace bonus (as an enemy) is to auto-cast the spirit Love when he's at critical HP. "GUNDAM, I LOVE YOU!"
- Anticlimax Boss: He's pretty easy to shoot down in all his appearances in that game, the kicker is the last time you have several OTHER bosses on stage 49, after he's gone you have to shoot down Holland, Cheval or Margurite, and Aim. While a bunch of Coralians and Dimensional monsters are trying to kill you.
- Badass
- Badass Normal
- Bash Brothers With Zechs Marquise in Super Robot Wars Z 2 Hakai-Hen. Like Patrick and Orange-kun, where one goes, the other one usually isn't far behind. They're always double bosses. Except in their last appearances, where Zechs appears on 48 and Graham appears in the GN Flag on 49. Which, oddly, makes Graham appear AFTER the finale of season 1, since stage 48 is the last 00 stage.
- Blond Guys Are Noble Demons
- Blood From the Mouth: He has this when he uses a Trans-Arm-like technique on his Masurao.
- Boisterous Bruiser: He had his moments.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In Gundam Musou III, Graham greets the game itself when chosen as a pilot.
Mr. Bushido: Hajime Mashita Gundam Musou![1] |
- In English, meanwhile:
Mr. Bushido: All right! My first time as a Dynasty Warrior Gundam! |
- Bring My Red Jacket: He kinda suffered from The Worf Effect as Mister Bushido.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: He's a Japanophile all right, and has lots of honor issues. But still one of the best pilots that Union or A-Laws can offer.
- Celibate Rival: Supplementary materials revealed that he was asked by his commanding officer to marry his daughter, but Graham declined.
- Clear My Name: According to side-stories, Graham accidentally caused the death of his superior officer during a training exercise earning him a VERY bad reputation. That's why when Joshua mocked him, he stated that he'll do everything to, well, clear his name in the battlefield.
- Cool Mask: He is a CHAR.
- Covered with Scars: From season two onwards due to the wounds he suffered against Setsuna/Exia in the season one finale.
- Demoted to Extra: Despite all his scenery chewing, rivalry with Setsuna, and popularity among fans, thanks to Executive Meddling in the second season his subplot was largely irrelevant. Not to the point of being Trapped by Mountain Lions, but after he got An Aesop delivered to him, he was pretty much sidelined for the rest of the season.
- He gets better in the movie.
- Dual-Wielding: Dual Katana user.
- Eagle Land: Mixes both types.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Except Billy, everyone calls him Mr. Bushido in season 2.
- Everything's Better with Samurai
- Expy: Aside from being the Char Clone, he could also be the Seifer to Setsuna's Squall.
- Fan Boy: Of Japanese things.
- Fan Nickname: Aside from Tieria, this guy has plenty of nicknames too. Japanese people shortened his name to Ham, when he dons a mask, he was known as HamMask or Bushido Bob, the last one came close to canon. His mobile suits can use the Trans-Am system so it's jokingly called Trans-Grah-Am.
- In some circles, fans disappointed at his demotion to extra after all the hype surrounding him started calling him Mr. Bullshit.
- Fragile Speedster: All his mechs, but especially the GN Flag.
- Foe Yay: My God...
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: they're permanent.
- Green Eyes
- Heterosexual Life Partners: With Billy.
- Honor Before Reason
- Hot-Blooded: "HOOOWAAARRRDDD MAAASOOONNN!" and of course, "GUNDAM, I LOVE YOU!".
- More like "I've been entranced by your performance!" or "This feeling must be love!"
- Made even more evident when he pilots the God Gundam in the SD Gundam G Generation Wars video game. He renames the signature attack of the God Gundam as GOD GRAHAM FINGER.
- I Gave My Word: He promised himself that he'll defeat a Gundam using a Flag and keeps it even during the second season.
- In The Movie he's still using a (more powerful and technologically advanced) Flag unit called the Brave.
- I Like Swords
- In Love with Your Carnage
- Katanas Are Just Better
- Large
GraHam: Even amongst a particularly hammy cast, Graham is easily one of the largest hams in the show and only gets hammier in S2. Despite this, people tolerate him because of his status as the Union's best pilot. - Leeroy Jenkins: Actually says at one point "And I shall overcome reasoning with my recklessness". This also sums up his battle strategy when fighting Gundams, albeit with slightly more success than Patrick.
- Let's Get Dangerous
- McNinja: Despite his increasingly Japanese motif, he is still an American.
- Occidental Otaku
- One-Man Army: He spells this trope word by word. A-LAWS pretty much lets him do whatever he wants by himself.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You- Yes Setsuna, You!
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In season 2.
- Pet the Dog: he becomes very important in The Movie.
- Pick on Someone Your Own Size: He likes picking on Gundam. Squick!
- Rags to Riches: According to side stories.
- Red String of Fate: Claims that he and Setsuna are connected connected by this. He then says that that fate is to face each other in battle.
- The Rival: To Setsuna. He becomes an Unknown Rival in season 2, as part of being Demoted to Extra.
- Ryu and Ken: With Setsuna.
- Samurai: He wields a Katana-like beam saber, he strictly follows the code of Bushido and only fights...
- Screaming
WarriorSamurai - Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Billy and him, though he shows his sensitive side from time to time.
- Talking to Himself: With Alto Saotome in SuperRobotWarsZ.
- Transforming Mecha: His Flag units, including the one he'll use in The Movie, the Ace Custom Brave.
- Unusual Weapon Mounting: The scabbard-like blades on the Masurao and Susanowo's legs can swivel forward, letting him hip-thrust his enemies to death. Couple that with his rather... unusual approach to mecha combat, and we should probably start getting worried.
- Worthy Opponent
Billy Katagiri
A mobile suit developer and friend of Union Ace Pilot Graham Aker. After the appearance of Celestial Being, Billy, Graham, and Professor Ralph Eifman, who had taught Billy in college, are transferred to the Anti-Gundam Investigative Task Force, later named "Overflags". Billy is a former classmate of Sumeragi Li Noriega (aka Leesa Kujo) and inadvertently leaks information about "Project G" to her and Celestial Being. After the death of Professor Eifman and Howard Mason during an attack by Team Trinity, Billy uses one of the recently acquired GN Drives to upgrade Graham's Flag unit to the GN-Flag in order to fight the Gundams.
By the second season, Billy is taking care of a despondent Kujo, still unaware that she was a member of Celestial Being until Setsuna appears to retrieve her. Shocked by this revelation, Billy joins the A-Laws and becomes the head of mobile suit development. Once again teaming up with Graham Aker, now using the alias Mr. Bushido, Billy develops the Masurao and later the upgraded Susanowo.
Voiced by Yuji Ueda (Japanese) and Kirby Morrow (English)
- Action Survivor: Becomes more involved in the field during the second season.
- All Love Is Unrequited: He is in-love with Sumeragi, but she seems to be still in-love with her dead boyfriend Emilio. They seem to be together in season 2 tough. Altough it's that or they're just Friends with Benefits.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: To Sumeragi while sobbing during her Cooldown Hug
- Badass Labcoat
- But Not Too Foreign: He is one of the three Japanese-Americans in the series.
- Cannot Spit It Out: To Sumeragi, even though they lived together for four years between the finale of season 1 up to episode 2 of season 2. Guess they're just Friends with Benefits after all.
- Demoted to Extra: During the last part of the second season.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Arguably to Sumeragi.
- The Engineer
- Evil Genius: Subverted that he's not really an evil person , until he finds out that Sumeragi's a part of Celestial Being. But he gets better.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Subverted. Then played straight. And then subverted again.
- Go Mad from the Revelation
- Heterosexual Life Partners: With Graham.
- Hollywood Nerd
- Living with the Villain: With Sumeragi in season 2, altough she's retired at that point until Setsuna recruits her again.
- Love Makes You Dumb: See Unwitting Pawn below.
- Love Makes You Crazy And Evil: In the second season, but he got better.
- Mad Scientist: In season 2. Put more emphasis on the mad part. He gets better in the finale.
- Man Scorned: His response when he found out Sumeragi's identity is predictable. He got better fortunately.
- Megane
- Military Brat: Implied, but since his uncle Homer's the commander of A-LAWS, he may well be one.
- Mr. Fixit
- Non-Action Guy
- Sempai-Kohai: To Sumeragi during their college years.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Him and Graham respectively.
- The Smart Guy
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Arguably with Sumeragi.
- Unwitting Pawn: In his defense, he doesn't know at the time that Sumeragi is The Strategist of Celestial Being. But one could argue about keeping classified information should come first if one's a member of the military.
- Yandere: In season 2 after he learns of Sumeragi's true identity. Fortunately, he gets better.
Ralph Eifman
He is a famous Union engineer, technical chief, and scientist of several fields. He's also the co-developer of Union's OverFlag.
Voiced by Takaya Hashi (Japanese) and Ron Halder (English)
- Cool Old Guy
- The Engineer
- Gadgeteer Genius
- He Knows Too Much: While investigating over Celestial Being, Eifman made a revelation. He realized somehow the correlation between the Jupiter incident 120 years ago and Celestial Being gave Eifman an epiphany over Aeolia Schenberg's true philosophical intentions; his revelations were too late. His own computer monitor revealed a message,"You have witnessed too much." Shortly after, the Thrones attacked and Eins fired its GN Mega Launcher, vaporizing him before he could reveal the truth to anyone.
- Killed Off for Real
- Mentor Archetype
- Mr. Fixit
- Non-Action Guy
- The Obi-Wan: To Billy. So much that after his death, Billy became the head of mobile suit development and he had discovered some of Eifman's handwritten notes on CB's GN-tech. He worked a theoretical system that Billy applied into Graham's new mobile suit, the Masurao.
- The Professor
- The Smart Guy
- Spell My Name with an "S": Ralph, Ralf, Leif...
- Stern Teacher
Graham's Wingmen
Howard Mason is a Union NCO with the rank of Warrant Officer. One of the first Flag Fighters assigned to the Anti-Gundam Investigative Task Force "Overflags" under Graham Aker. He seemed to have a friendship with Graham due to their belief in the qualities of the Flag. He was killed in action by Michael Trinity. After his death, Graham and Daryl vowed to avenge his death.
Voiced by Kenji Takahashi (Japanese) and Trevor Devall (English)
Daryl Dodge is a Union soldier with the rank of Master Sergeant. Another first Flag Fighters assigned to the Anti-Gundam Investigative Task Force "Overflags" under Graham Aker. Unlike Graham and Howard, he doesn't share their faith that a Flag can beat the Gundams. He is killed after performing a head-on suicide attack on Gundam Dynames in order to avenge Howard Mason's death.
Voiced by Rintarou Nishi (Japanese) and Scott McNeil (English)
In season 2, Graham named his Masurao's two swords "Howard" and "Daryl" in their loving memory.
- Alliterative Name: Daryl.
- Anti Villains
- Black Best Friend: Daryl.
- Black Dude Dies First: Subverted by Daryl.
- Blood Brothers
- Cool Shades: Howard.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Daryl.
- Ho Yay: Howard and Daryl themselves are already Heterosexual Life Partners, but they and many Union soldiers have a rather "deep" connection to each other.
- Killed Off for Real
- Mauve Shirt: Both of them.
- Sacrificial Lions
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Daryl and Howard respectively.
- Taking You with Me: Daryl did this to Dynames. Subverted that although Lockon did die, it's not because of his kamikaze attack.
- Talking to Himself: Averted with Howard. In all versions, he shares a voice actor with another character, yet Howard and that character never met.
- Those Two Guys: To Graham.
- ↑ Pleased to meet you, Dinasty Warriors Gundam!