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Main Characters
Al
Alfred "Al" Izuruha
Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese, OVA), Kumiko Watanabe (Japanese, Games), Brianne Siddall (English)
- The Cameo: A lookalike of appears in Gundam Build Fighters Episode 23
- Cheerful Child: At first.
- Free-Range Children: Al's parents are rarely seen.
- Harmful to Minors: Pretty much his story arc.
- Heroic BSoD: Al goes catatonic for three weeks straight after taking a blow to the head while trying to stop Bernie and Chris from killing each other. In fact, the series ends with him breaking down crying in front of the school's wreckage.
- Inter Generational Friendship: With both Chris and Bernie.
- Secret-Keeper: For Bernie.
- Supporting Protagonist: He's the viewpoint character, but it's Bernie and Chris (and of course, Killing) whose actions actually move the plot.
- Tagalong Kid: An interesting example in that the "heroes" he's tagging along with, in any other work of the franchise, would be presented as villains instead.
- This Loser Is You: As a kid who thinks Humongous Mecha and the wars they wage are cool, to the point where he lends assistance to soldiers from an enemy nation without understanding what they're doing on his colony and why, he represents the type of viewer who tunes in to watch the mech battles without grasping the horrors of war.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The video he took of the shipping crates allowed Zeon to figure out that the Alex was in his colony, unintentionally setting into motion the events of the film.
- War Is Glorious: Espouses this at first.
- War Is Hell: What he's left with at the end.
Bernie
Bernard "Bernie" Wiseman
Voiced by: Kouji Tsujitani (Japanese), David Hayter (English)
You are what you eat.
Main mecha: Zaku II FZ
A rookie Zeon soldier assigned to the elite Cyclops Team commando unit, Bernie is viewed as The Load by his teammates. However, when it comes down to him and Al as the only ones in a position to save the colony, he steps up and does his damnedest to make it happen.
- Anti-Villain: Heavy on the "anti". He's a perfectly decent guy, it's just that he happens to be working for a fascist dictatorship.
- Char Clone: His blonde hair and disguising himself with nothing but a pair of shades are likely a Shout-Out to Char's Quattro Bajeena persona, but he's otherwise got none of Char's traits, and is in fact the complete opposite of Char as far as skill goes, getting shot down in his first engagement and only making one kill in mobile suit combat, which ends up being a Mutual Kill that the other pilot still survives.
- Cool Shades: While in disguise.
- Fragile Speedster: In his Zaku; particularly, we seem him hovering at high speeds like the original series' Dom trying to lure the Gundam Alex into the forest, but both times he's piloting that Zaku he gets shot down pretty easily.
- Honor Before Reason: Downplayed, but Bernie admits in his confession video that he could have turned in the confession he put on his disk to the cops by himself, but as a soldier, he feels compelled to fight the Gundam.
- Inter Generational Friendship: With Al.
- Miles Gloriosus: Sort of; Bernie tells Al that he's a super-awesome Ace Pilot who's just one kill shy of actually qualifying as an ace, when in reality he's a rookie whose total battle experience is getting shot down in his first fight.
- New Meat: Both to the Cyclops team and to Zeon in general - the fight in the colony at the end of the first episode is his first deployment.
- Not Enough to Bury: After his death in the battle with Chris (Although she didn't know it was him piloting the Zaku). A Federation soldier tells his superior officer that there is not much left of Bernie and that he is just "A pile of hamburger."
- Pet the Dog: Bernie is treated FAR better in his interactions during crossover games than the plot of 0080. In the Gundam Vs Series alone, almost all the Zeon aces like Anavel Gato and Norris Packard are willing to act as mentors and guardians for the fresh recruit.
- Spared by the Adaptation: He lives/can be saved in any game of Super Robot Wars that includes 0080 in the story. In the novelization, he also survived and never turned into a "pile of hamburger".
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Chris. It doesn't end well, though he never knew his final opponent was her.
- Suicide by Cop: The fact that Bernie makes a taped confession implicating himself and his team and leaves it for Al to give to the cops, it gives the implication that Bernie knew he was going to die to the Gundam.
- The Cameo: A lookalike of appears in Gundam Build Fighters Episode 23
- Took a Level in Badass: Just before the end, when he engages the Alex one on one. He actually comes close to defeating it, before taking a beam saber to the cockpit. But even so...the fact that he was able to give a Gundam a run for its money while piloting a Zaku speaks volumes.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Hamburgers. This turns out to be particularly grim Foreshadowing, as the Federation crew that inspects his downed Zaku describes his corpse as being reduced to hamburger after getting stabbed and cooked alive by the Alex Gundam's beam saber.
Chris
Christina "Chris" Mackenzie
Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)
Main mecha: Gundam ALEX
Al's attractive redheaded next-door neighbor, Chris is clearly fond of her younger friend. Unbeknowest to him, however, she is actually an Earth Federation officer, and the current pilot of the secret Gundam ALEX undergoing testing in the colony.
- Action Girl: Not quite to the same extent as other examples from the franchise, as she's just a test pilot
- Combat Pragmatist: Chris is not a Newtype, so she can't bring out the ALEX's full potential. Not to mention that she is only a test pilot rather than the Gundam's intended pilot.note She makes up for it by being pragmatic with its weapons, best demonstrated when the Kämpfer attempts to close in for a sword duel with the ALEX and she simply rips it to shreds with one of its arm-mounted gatling cannons.
- Cool Big Sis: While not actually Al's sister, she fills this role quite nicely.
- Girl Next Door: Somewhat interestingly in that it's Al she literally lives next door to, rather than her actual love interest in Bernie.
- Hero Antagonist: While Chris is arguably the Tritagonist of the series, the OVA is primarily told from Al and Bernie's POV meaning when she goes into battle she's on the opposing side to them.
- Improbable Age: Why'd they choose her as the test pilot again?
- Inter Generational Friendship: With Al.
- Lightning Bruiser: In the ALEX, which combos speed, offensive power, and heavy armour (including an optional Chobham armour package), with powerful melee and ranged weapons.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Bernie, though she's totally unaware of it. This ends in tragedy as she unknowingly kills Bernie while piloting the ALEX.
- The Cameo: A lookalike of appears in Anime/Gundam Build Fighters Episode 23
Zeon
Colonel Killing
Colonel Killing A. Danigan
Voiced by: Kōji Totani (Japanese), Dan Woren (English)
A high-ranking Gihren loyalist planted within Kycilia Zabi's mobile suit team, Killing commands Operation Rubicon from the rear. Convinced that only the total destruction of Side 6 can ensure that the Gundam ALEX never sees combat, Killing constantly pushes for the colony to be subjected to nuclear bombardment, going against his orders to make sure that it happens.
- Armchair Military: Killing never engages in any combat. He stays in the back, directing operations from there.
- Bad Boss: Some commanding officers kill you for failing. Others just don't care about casualties. Killing sabotages his own operation and deliberately arranges for the deaths of his team, solely to get permission for his own plan.
- Big Bad: Directly or indirectly responsible for every horrible thing that the heroes go through in-series.
- Driven to Suicide: Possibly. Side materials reveal that in the last hours of the war, Colonel Killing A. Danigan shot himself in front of a portrait of Gihren Zabi. However, the Gundam Perfect File treats Killing's suicide with some level of skepticism, noting that there are many unclear points surrounding his death, and that the possibility that Killing was murdered (and set up to look like suicide) cannot be ruled out.
- Expy: Of his boss, arguably. They're both arrogant, cold-blooded social climbers and chessmasters who murder their way into command positions, authorize the use of WMDs in direct violation of a treaty banning their use, and will do anything to ensure a Zeon victory. Even the character designs are rather similar.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: If a "soul" is something that could stop people from committing horrible war crimes, Killing has clearly never heard of it.
- The Heavy: Killing's actions drive most of the plot, directly and indirectly. Everything Bernie, the Cyclops Team, Christina and Al go through is either because of, or a reaction to, Killing's actions.
- Insane Admiral: Seriously, what the Hell is in the water at the Zeon command centre? Gihren, Ginias, this guy...
- Karma Houdini: Gets out of the series alive, in a sharp contrast to all of his men; as noted above, however, he maybe commits suicide at the end of the war, or was murdered.
- Killed Offscreen: He is never seen again after the events of 0080; this is explained by the fact that he committed suicide (or was murdered) around when the end of this series takes place.
- Klingon Promotion: Shoots his superior officer and takes command of the operation from him when the latter tries to prevent the nuclear assault on Side 6.
- Lack of Empathy: If Killing had any, he couldn't do what he does.
- Meaningful Name: He goes to extreme, sometimes seemingly-counterproductive lengths just for a bigger body count.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Who names their kid "Killing"?
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Killing's a Gihren loyalist, meaning his personal philosophy is equal parts Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Killing spends most of the show sitting behind a desk, and demonstrating no combat skills whatsoever. Even when he offs his superior, it's in a sneak attack at point blank range.
- Nuke 'em: Deliberately sabotages Operation Rubicon so that he can have an excuse to nuke Side 6.
- One Name Only: He's only ever referred to as Killing in the anime. Side materials reveal his full name is Killing A. Danigan.
- Psychotic Smirk: Seems to be a permanent fixture on his face.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Plans to nuke Side 6 even if the operation is a success, as a way of making sure that the Gundam ALEX is not only destroyed, but buried. This explicitly goes against his instructions to capture it.
- We Have Reserves: Callously plans the destruction of his own team in order to gain permission to nuke Side 6.
Steiner
Steiner Hardy
Voiced by: Yosuke Akimoto (EP), Barry Stigler (EN)
Main mecha: Z'Gok-E
The Leader of Cyclops Team and Bernie's CO. Steiner was the one tasked with retrieving the ALEX Gundam and is often caught between Federation gunfire and his own superiors's power plays.
- Ace Custom: During the attack in the Arctic, he piloted the Z'Gok-E, an experimental upgrade of the Z'Gok suit.
- Ambiguously Brown: His skin color sits between the dark-skinned Latino, Garcia, and the pale-skinned Russian, Mikhail. Hardy's ethnicity isn't clear.
- A Father to His Men: Cyclops Team is his family and the loss of Andy in the opening is a severe blow to him.
- Killed Off for Real: Shot by EFF soldiers and dies of his injuries later on.
- The Leader: Of Cyclops Team, he's the one in the front issuing orders and directing everyone.
Mikhail
Mikhail Kaminsky
Voiced by: Yutaka Shimaka (JP), Paul St. Peter (EN)
Main mecha: Hy-Gogg, Kämpfer
A man of few words, Mikhail is the largest and most physically imposing of the Cyclops Team. When Operation Rubicon commences, Mikhail is the one piloting the Kämpfer and he ends up being Chris's first opponent in the suit.
- Ace Pilot: He is assigned as the pilot of the Kämpfer, being the best suited to the mission even in the elite ranks of the Cyclops Team. He quickly proves why he was chosen by wiping out the Gray Phantom's mobile suit detachment single-handedly.
- The Alcoholic: Mikhail keeps a flask in his Mobile Suits' cockpit dangling by an elastic string which he takes a swig of for good luck. He even toasts Hardy on the eve before the mission.
- The Dragon: While Mikhail's size and feats of strength may indicate him as The Big Guy, he functions as Steiner's main lieutenant. He and Steiner seem to go pretty far back and when Rubicon launches, Mikhail essentially functions as the climactic fight for the newly deployed Gundam ALEX.
- Fragile Speedster: Both of Mikhail's Mobile Suits are fast but lightly armored. It's not an issue with the Hy-Gogg, but in the Kämpfer it's what gets him killed.
- Glass Cannon: The series demonstrates Mobile Suits as this on the whole where they can dish out punishment but can't really take it, which makes the Gundam's endurance stand out. The Kämpfer is easily one of the biggest in the series; it's fast and loaded with weaponry but its armor is very thin.
- Hot Blade: There's a heat-hawk in one of the trucks that Mikhail parked in order to give the Kämpfer extra artillery. Though he never used it, presumably the Kämpfer was designed to use heat weapons making it one of the few MS's in the OYW to use both beam weapons and heated blades.
- Killed Off for Real: Dies at the hands of the Gundam's hidden gattling cannon.
- Husky Russkie: A very large man with a suitably imposing Russian accent.
- Laser Blade: The Kämpfer comes equipped with a beam saber, being one of the few OYW Zeon MS to do so and the only Cyclops Team suit with one.
- Throw-Away Guns: The Kämpfer has multiple weapons on it, but it doesn't have space for extra ammunition. After expelling their payload he tosses them and moves onto the next.
Garcia
Gabriel Ramirez Garcia
Voiced by: Bin Shimada (JP), Eduardo Torres (EN)
Main mecha: Hy-Gogg
A member of the Cyclops Team, Garcia was the lowest ranking until Bernie came aboard. He's fairly quick to resort to violence but there is a respect he has for his teammates.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: His most distinctive trait is his bright red bandana. Notably, when the mission goes to hell and he and Bernie are pinned down with fire, Garcia takes the time to remove his helmet and put on his bandanna. Since it's a suicide mission and he'd rather go out with his favorite head-gear.
- The Brute: It might not seem like it at first with Mikhail having the largest physique and being the pilot of the most powerful mobile suit, but on the whole Mikhail functions as The Dragon for the team. When Cyclops Team infiltrates the base, Garcia is the muscle. He's the one killing Federation grunts while Bernie and Steiner talk their way through and when the mission goes south, Garcia goes full Rambo on all the soldiers, wracking up quite the body count.
- Dub Personality Change: In the original audio, he suggests kidnapping and holding Al in order to keep him silent. In the English dub, he goes so far as to suggest they kill him.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: When the mission fails and the team comes under fire, Garcia tosses his Feddie helmet because Badasses Wear Bandanas.
- Hot-Blooded: Garcia is something of a hot-head. When the team assaults the Arctic base, Garcia pulls off a fairly flashy move, diving at the GM's with his engines blasting to grab one and use it as a shield. When he sees that Bernie and Al endangered their mission by their reconnaissance, Mikhail and Steiner are willing to drop it while Garcia decks Bernie and dresses him down.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Violence and loyalty to Zeon aside, Garcia does have a few softer edges to him. Notably there's his conversation with Bernie as they prepare for their attack.Garcia: Have you ever worn body armor before?
Bernie: Um, no.
Garcia: Bernie. You already know that you're the only guy in this unit that ranks below me. I don't want to lose someone I have rank on. Don't get killed, ok? - Killed Off for Real: In a Better to Die than Be Killed moment, he detonates explosives and blows himself up.
- New Meat: Implied to be one to the team before Bernie showed up. Garcia admits to being the lowest ranking and there seems to be a camaraderie that Andy, Mikhail, and Steiner had that he wasn't a part of. Notably Charlie, an Old Friend to the group, refers to Steiner and Mikhail by their names, but refers to Garcia as "the young fella with the black hair," further implying that he hasn't been on the team that long.
- Would Hurt a Child: In the English dub, Garcia is annoyed that they didn't just kill Al when he stumbled upon their operation.
Charlie
Charlie
Voiced by: Minoru Inaba (JP), Michael Forest (EN)
An old bartender at the "Pink Elephant" bar on the Libot colony who's also a spy for Zeon who informs the Cyclops Team from them.
- Going Native: He's presumably moved into Libot to be a spy, but decides he likes it enough that he'd rather die with it to Killing's nuke than flee.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: He told Steiner to abort mission and break ties from Zeon as he's aware that Zeon is likely going to lose the One Year War which they did eventually. After the failure of the mission to take out the Alex resulting in losing all but one member of Cyclops Team, he tells Bernie to leave Side 6 before Zeon carries out a nuclear strike that would destroy the colony if the Alex is not destroyed.
- The Mole: He leaks information to the Cyclops team for Zeon due to friendship with Steiner but he's willing to talk them out of it for the sake of their lives and knowing Zeon is on the losing side.
- Only Sane Man: He's this to the fellow Zeon comrades knowing that Zeon is losing and that his own friends would die fighting pointlessly which they did.
- Sole Survivor: He is the only Zeon character to survive the events of the series. Ironically, he was the only one who had made his peace and accepted death, which is made all the more tragic as he tries to urge the cast to run for their lives.
Federation
Stuart
Stuart
Voiced by: Ken Goto (JP), Steve Blum (EN)
The head of the Federation forces stationed in Side 6. Stuart is a no-nonsense commander quick to put the mission above the lives of everyone in the colony.
- Anti-Hero: Stuart's main mission is to fight Zeon; anything else, like the safety of civilians, is secondary. He even chides Chris for engaging the Zaku in the forest, reasoning that her advantage she receives in fighting in a civilian area is more important than the people who could be injured. Though he doesn't have any major moments of needless cruelty like other evil Federation commanders like Ryer or Jamitov he's not the most empathetic person around.
- Rank Up: He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the events of manga and game Mobile Suit Gundam Battlefield Record U.C. 0081: The Wrath of Varuna.
Richard "Dick" Lumumba
Richard "Dick" Lumunba
Voiced by: Hiroshi Masuoka (JP), Beau Billingslea (EN)
A paraplegic professor, he developed mechanical limbs in the laboratories of the U.N Medical Center at the Libot Colony, Riah Republic. This was in fact a front for his work on the EFF G-4 Unit's RX-78NT-1 Gundam "Alex".
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He is based on Morgan Freeman. His surname may also be a reference to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- The Professor: He's secretly part of the project on the Gundam NT-1 Alex.
- War Is Hell: It's implied he believe this to the point that he calls mobile suits like the Gundam Or Zaku a Necessary Evil that are too big to be useful for humans.
Civilians
Chay and Telcott
Chay and Telcott
Voiced by: Tomoko Maruo (Chay, JP), Mona Marshall (Chay, EN), Dorothy Elias-Fahn (Telcott, EN)
Al's two friends who are into the One Year War and collecting military paraphernalia.
- Big Eater: Telcott ate snacks while not paying attention to the principal's speech following the destruction of their school from the Cyclops Team raid.
- Fat and Skinny: Chay is skinny and Telcott is fat.
- Foil: They are this to Al due to not only experiencing the war at closer lines, they are more anti-Zeon while Al made friends with a sympathetic Zeon soldier, and not personally losing said soldier they connected with to another person they are also connected with because they were on the other side unknowingly in pointless fashion.
- Innocently Insensitive: When Al begins to cry, they try and cheer him up by saying that there'll be another much cooler war. They remain ignorant of the tragedy that Al had gone through losing people close to him during the conflict.
- Take That, Audience!: They're meant to parrot fans who glamorize war in the Gundam franchise.
- War Is Glorious: They believe this even at the ending when they talk about how they will look forward to another war bigger than the One Year War to Al who ws crying from what the war resulted in after actually experiencing it.
Dolores "Dorothy" Hayes
Dolores "Dorothy" Hayes
Voiced by: Konami Yoshida (JP), Melissa Fahn (EN)
A Class Representative and Al's classmate who's not obsessed with the war like he is and his friends.
- Only Sane Woman: Unlike Al and his friends, she's not obsessed with the war like they are and only gets into conflicts with them due to their mischief. Well, apart from her Know-Nothing Know-It-All moment in the first episode about the Federation having no Mobile Suits, which, the series being what it is, is shortly proved spectacularly wrong.
- Ship Tease: Very few in comparison. They get teased by the classmates for it even though Al claims She Is Not My Girlfriend. She stood up for him when they complain he drew a Zeon mobile suit instead of a Federation one and in the ending, was concerned of Al crying over what happened to him instead of questioning why he's sad.
- Tsundere: Type B as even though she can be at odds with Al and his friends along with having a competitive streak, she's overall a Nice Girl to everyone else including her teacher and is willing to go to Al's defense as long as he's not causing trouble. In the ending, she's the first to notice Al crying and immediately went to get her teacher to help him.
