Amuro Ray
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Amouro_Ray_(Gundam).jpg
Amuro Ray (アムロ・レイ) is a fictional character from the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam and its sequels, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Char's Counterattack, voiced by Tohru Furuya (Japanese), Brad Swaile (English dub of original series and Char's Counterattack) and Matthew Erickson (English dub of Zeta Gundam).
Amuro Ray is the hero of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. He is the son of Tem Ray, the project leader for the Earth Federation's 'Project V', which produces the prototype Federation mobile suits Gundam, Guncannon, and Guntank to combat the Principality of Zeon's own mobile weapon, the Zaku. At the beginning of the Mobile Suit Gundam TV series, Amuro is 15 years old and a civilian, along with his friends Fraw Bow and Hayato Kobayashi, and living in Side 7, one of the few space colonies untouched by the fearsome One-Year War. Amuro Ray ends up piloting the Gundam when, during a Zeonic operation to spy on Side 7 on the transfer of the Gundam to the White Base and evacuation of the colony, he comes across the 'V' Project manual and the Gundam lying on a trailer. In order to defend the colony, he boards the Gundam and, using his inituition and reading the manual, manages to start up the Gundam and defeat two Zaku mobile suits piloted by two Zeon ace pilots. Due to his lack of experience Amuro also caused Side 7 to become unstable and come close to destruction.
Shortly after that, he quickly gains the animosity of Char Aznable, one of the top aces in the Zeon military. Char and Amuro face off many times during the course of the One Year War, but it is not until Lalah Sune is killed during one of their battles that this rivalry turns into a fierce hatred of one another.
Each blaming the other for her death, their intense rivalry continues until it is reaches its climax in Char's Counterattack.
Amuro is the first known Newtype pilot in the Earth Federation ranks and is arguably the most famous of them all, due the his piloting of the RX-78-2 Gundam and the televising of one of his battles in Side 6, where he shoots down 9 Rick Doms in a matter of minutes.
Despite being one of the most famous heroes of the One Year War, Amuro is placed under house arrest shortly after the war due to the government's mistrust of Newtypes. During the Gryps conflict Fraw Bow convinces Amuro to rejoin the military. Amuro heads off and joins the AEUG ally Karaba and leads several attacks on Titan's bases on Earth. It is not until after the events of Zeta Gundam that he rejoins the Earth Federation's ranks (now merged with the AEUG) and rises to Lt. Commander by the beginning of Char's Counterattack. During the Second Neo Zeon War he is assigned to the battleship Ra Cailum, the flagship of the Federation's Londo Bell taskforce. It is widely believed that his relatively low status in the Federation is a sign of the government's continued mistrust in his loyalties. At the end of the Second Neo Zeon War Amuro Ray attempted to singlehandedly use his Gundam to stop the asteroid Axis from colliding with the earth. Although he succeeded, Amuro's Gundam overloaded in the process and was destroyed.
Notes: During the One-Year War, Amuro holds the rank of Ensign; when he joins the AEUG six years later he is a Major, and during the second Neo Zeon conflict in UC 0093 he is a Captain.