Shin Kudo
An F-14 pilot for the UN Spacy. He's dragged into the conflict around Mayan Island, and joins up with Skull Squadron aboard the carrier Asuka II, as a pilot of the Spacy's prototype Transforming Mecha, the VF-0 Phoenix.
- Ace Pilot: Just look at how many kills are marked on his plane at the beginning. He adds at least five more by the OVA's end, and even manages to keep up with a Variable Fighter in an F-14... until it transforms.
- But Not Too Foreign: Shin's apparently half-American.
- Captain Crash: Despite the above, he wrecks three planes over the course of the show. This is mostly due to getting into lopsided fights in the enemy's favor.
- Disappears into Light: At the end. It's rather unclear just what happened to him, honestly.
- Heroic Safe Mode: He appears to suffer from PTSD, and goes a bit battle-crazy when the mood takes him.
Sara Nome
Head priestess of Mayan Island, also called "The Hand Guided By The Wind". She harbors an intense distrust of outsiders and technology, but is a very caring person who only wants the best for her people.
- Apocalypse Maiden: As the priestess, she is also the only one who can awaken and control the birdman.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Once she merges with the birdman she starts viewing everything as monsters and goes on a rampage to wipe them out. It takes Shin reaching out to her to snap her out of it.
- Broken Bird: Shin calls her a "person who was hurt, but that nobody bothered to heal."
- Closer to Earth: She's much more insistent on maintaining the islanders' simple lifestyle and dislikes technology on principle. Shin believes she's putting up something of a front, and if given the chance would love seeing a modern city.
- Earthy Barefoot Character: In-keeping with her simple and traditional island lifestyle, Sara is a perpetual barefooter.
- First Girl Wins: While she only meets Shin a few seconds ahead of her sister, she's still this considering that Sara is ultimately who Shin ends up falling for.
- Color-Coded Eyes: Her green eyes show both her connection to the earth and her Psychic Powers.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She plans on doing this at one point to stop the birdman from awakening, since it needs her to do so. Shin stops her. At the end, she and the birdman contain the nuclear explosions over the island and then Space Fold away, taking all the radiation and fallout with them. Neither is ever seen again.
- My Greatest Failure: The reason she's so hateful of outside influences while the rest of the islanders are pretty alright with it? She once permitted Dr. Hadsford to take a sample of her blood, breaking one of the island's taboos. She believes that Mayan becoming a battelfield is a result of this "sin", and in a way she's right: that blood sample alerted the world's scientists that there was something important hidden on that island.
- Psychic Powers: She appears to have minor precognition and is highly empathic, often able to feel the emotions of other people or the wildlife of the island. Turns out this is due to the Protoculture tampering with her ancestor's DNA.
- Together in Death: ...maybe? Her Heroic Sacrifice at the end along with appearing as an astral projection for Shin as his fighter disappears suggests this assuming that they didn't just both Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
- Tsundere: Towards Shin. On the one hand, he's a nice guy and she knows he doesn't mean her people any harm. On the other he's an outsider and a soldier, a sign of warfare on the island. No wonder her feelings toward him are conflicted.
Mao Nome
Sara's younger sister. Although she could be considered a priestess herself, she has little interest in the legends and religion of her native island, believing it to be myth, and is much more interested in the technological wonders of the developed world.
In Macross Frontier (60 years later), she is revealed to be the grandmother of Sheryl Nome, and one day becomes the leading scientific authority on the Protoculture and the Vajra.
- Genki Girl: Very energetic, and can often be found climbing tall trees.
- Love Triangle: She definitely has a crush on Shin, and competes with her sister for his attention.
- Psychic Powers: To a lesser extent than her sister, but she has them. It turns out to be due to the Protoculture tampering with her ancestor's DNA.
Roy Fokker
Commander of Skull Squadron, and one of the lead pilots for the VF-0 Phoenix. He becomes Shin's commanding officer and mentor.
- Ace Custom: A VF-0S painted in his signature yellow/black trim.
- Ace Pilot: Distinctly superior with the VF-0 compared to Shin, although Shin (an extremely skilled jet pilot) is new to the whole transforming fighter thing.
- The Alcoholic: He's seen getting drunk one night, despite that being prohibited on a Navy vessel.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: In this OVA we get to see the Stacy in question, leading to Roy's character in Super Dimension Fortress Macross.
Aries Turner
A cultural anthropologist who is assigned to a highly classified UN Spacy special task group on the Asuka II. She is constantly inquiring into the customs and beliefs of the Mayan Islanders. She is an old friend (and former girlfriend) of Roy Fokker.
- The Lost Lenore: She's the woman Roy lost prior to Macross, and her death is the reason he acted the way he did.
- The Power of Love: Her last words are her speaking of it to Roy, saying that the answer to the end of war is that simple. Considering what happens in the original Macross this is a prequel to, she's entirely right.
Edgar LaSalle
Shin's radar intercept officer and copilot.
- Black Dude Dies First: Averted, to the point it's almost a Running Gag. In fact, he's part of the only two major characters that are alive at the end and not Doomed by Canon.
- No One Could Survive That!: He has a habit of ending up in crashing airplanes and yet not dying."Hey, Shin! I failed to die again!"
Dr. Hadsford
Aries's former mentor and another cultural anthropologist. He is the one who originally studied the Mayan Island community and drafted his "Proto-Culture Intervention Theory" based on his studies there. He is now working with the Anti-UN Coalition.
- Cassandra Truth: Most of the world's scientists find his "Proto-culture Theory", that Ancient Astronauts accelerated and guided humanity's evolution, to be rather far-fetched and mock it often. Anyone who's seen the rest of Macross knows that he's entirely correct.
- Genius Cripple: Mostly due to his advanced age. When younger he seemed to be very fit, but is now confined to a wheelchair.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: His motivations aren't clearly stated; he just seems to be a scientist who wants to figure out the puzzle. On the other hand, his methods for getting a blood sample years ago were somewhat underhanded, and his emotional manipulation of Sara seems unnecessarily cruel.
DD Ivanov
Roy Fokker's former instructor. Ivanov has since defected and joined the Anti-UN Coalition. He is in a relationship with fellow pilot Nora, and serves as Roy's rival throughout the OVA, piloting the Anti-UN's transforming prototype, the SV-51.
- Ace Custom: His plane is painted jet-black and has a personalized emblem on it. It's by that emblem that Roy recognizes him.
- The Rival: To Roy.
- This Is Unforgivable!: He declares this after the birdman vaporizes Nora. His attempted Roaring Rampage of Revenge just gets him shot down by several dozen lasers for his trouble.
Nora Polyansky
A female ace for the Anti-UN Coalition. She is Ivanov's wingman and lover. She harbors an intense hatred for the UN forces, and serves as Shin's rival in piloting.
- Ace Custom: Like DD, except her plane is painted purple.
- Kick the Dog: When Shin and Sara escape into the island's jungle, her immediate reaction is to call in a fuel-air strike."If the cockroach hides under the bed, you just have to destroy the bed."
- Scars Are Forever: She has a really nasty one in the center of her chest, which she says was inflicted by UN soldiers.
- Shadow Archetype: She and Shin actually have a lot in common in their motivations, both saw their families killed in front of them by enemy soldiers, and both entered the war because of it.
- The Rival: To Shin.
