Characters / Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt

Character page for Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt.

Earth Federation

Io Fleming

Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura (Japanese), Max Mittelman (English)

Pilots: RGM-79 GM, FA-78 Full Armor Gundam, RX-78AL Atlas Gundam, MSN-02 Perfect Zeong

A Federation ace and unapologetic adrenaline junkie of questionable sanity, with a love of jazz. He eventually receives a Gundam due to his immense piloting skill.

• Badass Normal: Unlike most UC Gundam protagonists, Io is not a Newtype. He kicks ass like one anyway. To the point that he can keep up with Daryl, who's plugged directly into the Psycho Zaku in the Final Battle of the first season.
• Blood Knight: After Thunderbolt Sector arc,Io Fleming became massively addicted to fighting Daryl, so much that he willingly sold his stock in Fleming Industries and came to join the Federation on Earth when he heard that someone got their hands on Psycho Zaku remains.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's loud, obnoxious, and blares jazz in the hanger. But he's also by a significant margin the most skilled pilot on the Feddies' side so all that gets ignored. His superiors are almost sad that they have to give him the Gundam because he's so obnoxious, but his skills make him the only candidate.
• Combat Pragmatist: Uses decoys? Check. Blinds the enemy when he can? Check. Uses the environment to his advantage? Check. Grabs hold of a Zaku to use as a Human Shield to get close to Daryl? Double-check.
• Commonality Connection: He became good friends with Bianca when he learned that she likes jazz music too. They even have a jamming session together.
• The Cynic: Compare Io to Daryl the idealist. Despite his antics and Blood Knight tendencies, he sees the war for what it really is. It's strongly implied that he acts like what we see because he felt escaping is futile.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was there when Moore originally got torn apart by the fighting between the Federation and Zeon that occurred there and discovered that his father committed suicide while the battle was going on. Yikes.
• The Dreaded: Once the Living Dead Division hear that a Gundam has appeared in the Thunderbolt Sector, they're rightfully scared.
• Experienced Protagonist: In contrast to Amuro and many UC protagonists, Io's already an experienced pilot and soldier from before the story's beginning. Flashbacks show that even before the Federation had mobile suits, he was fighting against Zeon near the war's beginning.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Upon his arrival to Earth in becomes apparent that Io's Blood Knight antics hasn't endeared himself very well to the other pilots in the Federation. They all think of him as their Token Evil Teammate.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: To most people, he can be seen as an abrasive jerk with a lack of respect for those in command. On the other hand, to his friends, he actually does care a lot. Being concerned over Claudia's drug addiction after the strain of being in a command position got to her speaks volumes of this.
• Lightning Bruiser: The FA-78 Full Armour Gundam that he receives early on allows him to make absolute chumps out of any hapless Zaku that he comes across. It's fast enough to dodge shots fired from the Big Gun rigs that the Living Dead Division employ in the Thunderbolt Sector, while carrying a small armoury of weapons, an external layer of armour as expected of a Mobile Suit carrying the moniker 'Full Armour' and four shields to shrug off either debris or enemy fire.
• Malicious Misnaming: Gives Daryl the insulting nickname, "Peglegs", and continues calling him that even after they formally introduce themselves to each other.
• Military Maverick: Io Flemming is a massive adrenaline junkie, doesn't respect his superiors, pirates music, and is easily the best pilot in the Moore Brotherhood.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Openly mocks the Living Dead Division for their prosthetics, and was in sheer disbelief when one of them beat him in a Mobile Suit fight.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As the first few minutes of episode 3 show, yes. Having his home colony destroyed and finding that his father had been Driven to Suicide didn't do him any favors.
• Walking Armoury: The Full Armour Gundam is equipped with a double-beam rifle, a beam cannon, cluster missile launchers, an arm-mounted MLRS, multiple built-in micro-missile racks and three beam sabers (two above the jettisonable armour, one below for emergencies).
• Would Hit a Girl: Io would, just ask Claudia.

Bianca Carlyle

Voiced by: Yurina Furikawa (Japanese), Laura Stahl (English)

Pilots: RGM-79 GM, RX-77AQ Guncannon Aqua, RX-78AL Atlas Gundam

A Federation pilot who participated in Operation Star One. She is assigned to the battleship Spartan after the war.

• Ace Pilot: Already credited with 8 kills upon her introduction during the Battle of A Baoa Qu.
• Action Girl: Her Establishing Character Moment begins with her taking on a Bigro and winning by letting her shields take the brunt of its mega-particle cannon, and then ejecting her GM's backpack to get close enough to stab it with a beam sabre. And that was her third Bigro kill, AND eighth overall during that campaign.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: The manga's colored artwork depicts her Guncannon as a orange-red similar to the original. In the anime it's blue.
• Big Damn Kiss: Gives one to Io.
• Commonality Connection: She and Io became fast friends because their shared taste in jazz. They even have a jamming session together during shore leave.
• Custom Uniform: She is probably the only Federation pilot to wear both a pink normal suit and pink uniform aboard the Spartan.
• Genki Girl: She can be quite excitable at times.
• The Lancer: Much like how the other Guncannon pilot was this to the original Gundam way back in the OG series, Bianca takes on this role to Io. Unlike Io's other companions, Bianca is in the field with him and the pair's approach to combat are contrasted. She also shares a number of traits with him like a love of Jazz.
• Ms. Fanservice: Not that she has a ton of competition, but she's a Shameless Fanservice Girl who needed little to no provocation to strip down and show off her full body tattoos.
• Pink Means Feminine: Pink might as well be her favorite color. Interestingly enough, both the GM and the Guncannon Aqua she piloted weren't painted pink.
• Tattoo as Character Type: The easy going type. Bianca always gets a new tat whenever reassigned and is absolutely not afraid of doing buttcheeks as well.

Cornelius KaKa

Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), Christian La Monte (English)

A mechanic in the Moore Brotherhood, and a close friend of Io. He is a lot more friendly than Io, and usually tends to keep an eye on him thanks to how the Battle of Moore affected him.

• The Engineer: He's part of the engineering crew, so this is pretty much his job.
• The Mole: After the events of the Thunderbolt sector, he joined Levan Fu's cult and acts as a spy for the Nanyang Alliance.
• Nice Guy: There's a reason he's one of the few people Io actually likes. He's a caring, friendly guy who emphatically tries to talk some Zeon soldiers out of throwing their lives away (with the bonus of him not dying either). His allies exploit this to safely incinerate the detonator they had rigged and capture Dr Karla in one fell swoop.
• What Were You Thinking?: He calls out Io for allowing the Atlas Gundam to get extensively damaged after the Spartan ran into a fight with Zeon Remnants who were using amphibious Mobile Suits. Seeing as the Atlas is essential to carrying out whatever operation Monica has planned to counter the South Seas Alliance's recent actions, it's a little justified.

Claudia Peer

Voiced by: Toa Yukinari (Japanese), Cherami Leigh (English)

The Captain of the EFSF mothership, the Beehive and another close friend to Io and Cornelius. Not only does she have to deal with Io's antics, she has to deal with discrimination from her XO due to her family history.

• Brainwashed and Crazy: After joining the South Seas Alliance, she is clearly under the influence of Levan Fuu's powerful Newtype abilities and not acting of her own volition.
• The Chains of Commanding: Claudia is woefully unprepared to be a commanding officer, and her duties regularly leave her a broken, emotional wreck as a result. Io finds out later that she's taken on a drug addiction to cope with her guilt over sending soldiers out to die in battle.
• Disney Death: Shot by her XO at the climax of the Thunderbolt arc. Then her ship blows up with her on it. Shows up alive and well on Earth later on.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: According to her XO, Claudia is only in commander because of her family. Given the fact the XO is a complete Jerkass, this may or may not be true.
  • Director Humphries stating that the Nanyang cult becoming a much more dangerous tactical force under her command suggests that her XO was indeed slandering her.
• No-Respect Guy: According to her XO, if a mission fails, it's all her fault for being incompetent. If a mission succeeds, it's clearly a success in spite of her, not because of her.
• Took a Level in Badass: Upon returning as a Commander of the South Seas Alliance, she becomes a much more effective and hands on strategist. The brainwashing via Levan Fuu's Newtype abilities to remove her grief and subsequent anxiety attacks is implied to have helped.
• Unexplained Recovery: In the OVA. Her recovery by the South Seas Alliance is detailed in the manga.

Graham

Voiced by: Shunsuke Sakuya (Japanese), Ray Chase (English)

Number Two to Claudia, who resents her for having the position of Captain thanks to her family history and status. He also resents Io Flemming due to his father who was the leader of Side 4 when it was attacked by Zeon.

• Ambiguously Brown: He looks like he's supposed to be Native American, or possibly some kind of Pacific Islander.
• Freudian Excuse: It's implied that the reason he hates Claudia so much is that she's the closest thing to the leaders of Moore who he blames for the murder of his wife and child.
• Going Down with the Ship: Firmly believes in this as a matter of honor (and implicitly because he has no one to return home to). Claudia ordering them to evacuate is the final straw for him and cements his opinion of her being a terrible leader.
• Jerkass: He belittles Claudia behind her back, doubting her command authority at every turn, even though Claudia is clearly suffering from being assigned to a command position anyway.
• Taking You with Me: As he is about to die, he attempts to murder Claudia, who he considered an awful leader.

Principality of Zeon/Zeon Remnants

Daryl Lorenz

Voiced by: Ryōhei Kimura (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English)

Pilots: MS-06 Zaku II, MS-05 Zaku I, MS-06R Psycho Zaku, MS-14A Gelgoog, MSM-04 Acguy, Psycho Zaku Mk-II, Perfect Gundam, MAN-03 Braw Bro

An ace sniper of the Living Dead Division who is one of the sentries placed to keep Federation Mobile Suits from infiltrating the Thunderbolt Sector. Once he meets Io Fleming, an intense rivalry forms between them.

• Anti-Villain: Like Aina and Bernie before him, Daryl is a perfectly decent and moral person. Working for Zeon is the only reason he is one of the "villains".
• Artificial Limbs: Originally, he had just two artificial legs when he first met Io. His first encounter with the Full Armour Gundam causes him to lose an arm in the anime (in the manga, he loses an arm after a Federation attack on Zeon spaceship while he was resting), and he's eventually convinced to lose the other one in order to pilot the Psycho Zaku.
• Badass Normal: Even before piloting the Psycho Zaku, he was noted for his superb sniping skills, to the point where a few characters question if he's a Newtype, though he is almost certainly not. Subverted. Daryl is eventually revealed to be a Newtype when he steals the Braw Bro mobile armor from Luna II.
• Disability Superpower: By the end of the first season, he's a quadruple amputee... which is the only reason he's able to bring out the full potential of the Psycho Zaku. However, the second season shows that if he's not in the Psycho Zaku and is piloting something else, like an Acguy, then his piloting skills suffer.
• Fragile Speedster: Played With in the Psycho Zaku. It's heavily armed and armored and far more sturdy than the average High-Mobility Zaku but in an era of beam weaponry it's designed with speed and maneuverability in mind. This contrasts it nicely with the Full-Armor Gundam whose armor and shields lend it towards defense whilst the Psycho-Zaku's much larger thruster count lend it towards evasion.
• Friendly Sniper: In the first season, he was one of the pilots tasked with operating a Big Gun in order to intercept incoming Federation Mobile Suits, and is a generally decent Nice Guy.
• Handicapped Badass: Having lost his legs in no way hurt his sniping abilities, and losing all his limbs led to him being able to pilot the Psycho Zaku. Subverted when it comes to a normal mobile suit, his prostheses hinder his combat capability.
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Aside from a beam bazooka, most of the Psycho Zaku's weaponry are physical firearms. Bonus points for winning the final duel against Io in the finale of the first season.
• The Lady's Favour: Karla puts her scrunchie on his right arm before piloting the Psycho Zaku in combat for the first time, which effectively makes it a form of this. He continues to wear it afterwards, though at that point it might be considered a Tragic Keepsake due to Karla's mental regression.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: As per the norm for a Gundam series, the Psycho Zaku is red, and it makes an absolute mess out of the Moore Brotherhood's fleet.
• Love Hurts: He falls in love with Karla over the course of the first season. After the Final Battle is finished, the poor guy has to deal with the fact that due to trauma, Karla's regressed mentally.
• Unusual User Interface: This is how he controls the Psycho Zaku; it was stated by Karla that in order to take full advantage of the Reuse Psycho Device, all of the pilot's limbs had to be removed in order to directly connect his nerves to the Psycho Zaku's motor functions.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Psycho Zaku turns Daryl into a bit of an adrenaline junkie/blood knight. At least part of this has to do with the fact that he essentially has legs again after merging with the MS.

Karla Mitchum

Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Tara Sands (English)

• Brainy Specs: She's a scientist who rocks a thick pair of glasses. Given she works in cybernetics and in zero-g, one would think contacts or corrective surgery would be in order, but the glasses tells the audience more about her intelligence anyway.
• Break the Cutie: The events of the Thunderbolt sector, specifically watching her colleagues be vaporized a few feet away from her by a beam saber cracks her mind to the point that she's regressed to an adolescent state. The next season shows her mind has deteriorated to that of a child, but Zeon Remnants are hoping therapy with Daryl's assistance will fix her.
• I Have Your Wife: The primary reason that she works with Zeon is that her father had been arrested for his political views and her contributions to the war effort would free him.
• Medal of Dishonor: She just wants to advance cybernetic prostheses. She doesn't care about the war and actually threw away her Zeon Cross.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Her father was a historian who was locked up by Zeon forces and it's implied that Karla's forced to work for Zeon's war effort in order for her father to get out.
• Reluctant Mad Scientist: Karla's primary interest is in prosthetics and helping people, Zeon just found a way to weaponize that. Though it's Sexton that exhibits more of the amoral For Science! tendancies, Karla was the one with the base ideas about the linking of machines to people's brains. Karla is even the one to personally remove Darryl's remaining arm, the procedure causing her to break down crying at what she's done.

J.J. Sexton

Voiced by: Hiroshi Tsuchida (Japanese), John DeMita (English)

A member of the Zeon Science Division working with Karla.

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: During his initial tests with Darryl he's quite supportive, but he's unethical and manipulative to his core, seeing the soldiers as tools for research more than people.
• Dirty Coward: When ordered to fight to the death he freaks out and tries to find a way out. When the injured are being evacuated, he steals an escape pod from one.
• Mad Scientist: The experiments he performs stretch the definition of ethical and he's the one to suggest amputating Darryl's arm. That said his discussions with Karla make it clear that he credits many of the ideas to her, it's just that he's the one pushing them to their dangerous extremes.
• Uncertain Doom: He gets into an escape pod and blasts out of the ship with dozens of others, only for a GM Cannon to open fire, destroying some. This is the last time Sexton is seen in the original series and his fate is left up in the air much like Claudia. He and Claudia are found by the South Seas Alliance and defect to them.

Billy Hickam

Voiced by: Ryōta Ōsaka (Japanese), Todd Haberkorn (English)

Pilots: MSN-01 Psycommu Test High Mobility Type Zaku II, MSM-04 Acguy

A Newtype pilot who survives the Battle of A Baoa Qu. He serves under Daryl in a Zeon Remnant unit after the war.

• Attack Drone: During the Battle of A Baoa Qu he piloted a modified Zaku that served as a testbed for the Zeong. As such, it had the Zeong's signature detachable arms giving it the ability to perform a multi-directional attack.
• Combat Clairvoyance: Within the series, his Newtype abilities are mostly used to give him an edge in battle, sensing openings and attacks before his eyes can see them.
• Psychic Powers: He is a Zeon Newtype from the Flanagan Institute. His powers mostly manifest as Combat Clairvoyance, but they allowed him to use Attack Drones during the One Year War.
• Secret Test of Character: He allows a small team of South Seas Alliance Mobile Suits to chase Daryl's Acguy to see how well he can counter them. After seeing an Indy Ploy involving Frizzy Yard (which is apparently a gel tough enough to absorb bullets), he is suitably impressed.
• Self-Deprecation: Tends to sell himself short when it comes to his Newtype abilities, at times outright denying he has them. It's more obvious in the manga, where his Newtype abilities are made much less explicit.

Sean Mitadera

Voiced by: Shinya Hamazoe (Japanese), Ivan Nemer (English)

Pilots: MS-06 Zaku II, MS-06B Gouf

A sniper of the Living Dead Division who is friends with Daryl, he would come in contact with Io's Full Armor Gundam, and depending on either the Anime or the Manga, died via exploding fuel tank or survive and wind up on Earth after the One Year War. Main Character of the Gundam Thunderbolt Side Story Sean The Sand Rat, which details his adventure with a group of scavengers.

• Artificial Limbs: Missing both limbs, though this doesn't seem to hamper his piloting skills
• Death by Adaptation: The manga showed only a distant explosion, with his death only implied and later revoked when his side story came out, while the anime shows the Full Armor Gundam cramming a discarded fuel canister into his Zaku and exploding it to serve as bait
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Though the manga has yet to end, Sean's story seems to have been settled on a happy note, with Sean by 0080 alongside a group of friendly scavengers, with a potential love interest in the form of a AWOL Federation pilot missing her legs.
• Lighter and Softer: His side story is much more positive and humorous than the main Thunderbolt storyline. There are no major character deaths, and there is even a reconciliation between a Zeek and Federation pilot in the form of Sean and the Federation pilot who he rescues, a similar such situation ending poorly in the main story.

Fisher Nexx

Voiced by: Morita Ryokai (Japanese), Chris Jai Alex (English)

Pilots: MS-09R Rick Dom, Psycho Zaku Mk-II

A Zeon Sniper in the Living Dead Division.

• Artificial Limbs: He doesn't use them in space, but uses prosthetic legs on Earth where he can't just float in zero-gs. Later, he has prosthetic arms after getting his hands amputated to pilot a Psycho Zaku
• The Big Guy: After Darryl, Fisher seems to be the most powerful pilot. He's a skilled Sniper and takes on the Guncannons and GM Cannons single-handedly, managing to win the day. His MS reflects this, with the Dom's thicker frame dwarfing the Zaku I and II's the others use.
• One-Man Army: Takes on a squadron of GM Cannons and Guncannons by himself. Granted most of the pilots were inexperienced children, but they did manage to scrap his wingman.

South Seas Alliance

Levan Fuu

Voiced by: Hitomi Isaka (young) (Japanese), Micah Gursoy (young) (English)

"Daryl Lorenz, I can see through time..."

The High Priest of the South Seas Alliance, a renegade faction of the Federation which doubles as a religious cult. He is a powerful Newtype who uses his abilities to enthrall and control his followers.

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• A God Am I: Not quite a "God" since he's a Buddhist, but he genuinely believes that he is the chosen one who has the power to guide humanity to a future devoid of conflict.
• Bald of Evil: As expected of a monk, he has a shaved head and is definitely lacking in morals.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: His specialty is turning "recruits" into Brainwashed and Crazy supporters using his Newtype abilities.
• Cult: The South Seas Alliance, while ostensibly a military force, is also a Buddhist cult filled with zealots who will die with no regard for their own lives.
• Healing Hands: He undoes the damage in Karla's mind in return for Daryl's allegiance.
• People Puppets: Capable of controlling multiple people's bodies at once or just hold them paralysed.
• Psychic Powers: A powerful Newtype, he has the ability to control his followers with his mind. One of the few powerful Newtypes in the UC whose primary use of his powers isn't direct combat.
• Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Certain high ranking members of his cult act as "mediums" who by channelling allow him to see and hear everything that they experience.
• The Spymaster: In Season 2, it appears that he has a number of brainwashed moles in both the Federation Forces and the Zeon Remnants.
• The Starscream: The Alliance was a part of The Federation but once it gained enough power, splintered off to become its own faction. They were only playing nice in order to gain manpower and supplies.
• The Voiceless: As an adult, he only speaks via telepathy even when he's there in person. Whether he can't speak or just chooses not to is unclear. It is eventually revealed that he cannot speak or sleep because he is using his Newtype powers to suppress a brain tumor that will eventually kill him.

Claudia Peer

Voiced by: Toa Yukinari (Japanese), Cherami Leigh (English)

Following her apparent death at the end of the Thunderbolt arc, Claudia appeared alive and well as a high-ranking member of the South Seas Alliance, much to Io and Cornelius' shock. For Claudia's tropes, see her entry in the Earth Federation folder.