Hey you pilot that giant robot like a girl! Once considered a “man’s job”, like several other jobs, the occupation of being a mecha pilot has over the years shown that skill and finesse are not confined to one’s gender. “Anything you can do I can do better, I can do anything better than you, No you can’t… oh hell yes I CAN!”
Let us now pay tribute to a selection of ladies who are some of the best giant robot pilots EVER! And yeah, it’s an all 80s cast… as usual… you know me, no matter what year it is, to me it can still be 1987, or 1982, or 85, 89, 86… etc. etc. A small note, this will be a listing of pilots I know from shows I have seen. This means in the future I can create additional entries once I become aware of even more talented pilots. For this second round I pick…
Sara Yuki
Dancougar
The Cyber Beast team’s only female member and pilot of the Land Cougar. Haunted by the love for her ex who defected early on to the enemy, Sara is perhaps the most complex character in all of Dancougar. Also has some of the best 80s hair in my opinion!
Haruka Kaga/Lisa
Armored Fleet Diarugger XV/Voltron
Piloting one of the submarine like mechs, the Aquatic Space Explorations Prober, that is Dairugger’s/Voltron’s right thigh, Haruka/Lisa is a valuable member of the Keats/Sea Team.
Kazumi Amano
Aim For the Top! Gunbuster
The idol of the academy and the most talented senior admired by everyone who looks to be the obvious shoo-in for the Gunbuster project. The coach thinks so as well and decides to pair her up with a novice freshman, which at first seems a little ironic.
Iczer-1 & Nagisa
Fight! Iczer-One
Meet the renegade Cthulhu who has more interest in saving the Earth and it’s people instead of invasion and conquering and her partner, a fairly typical high school girl. Much like a call to action, it is Iczer-1 who brings the hero out of the timid Nagisa.
Houquet et Rose/Rook Bartley
Genesis Climber Mospeada/Robotech
A streetwise girl on a motorcycle who is part of a rag tag group of rebels trying to get to Reflex Point, the home base of the invading alien race the Inbit/Invid. Just be careful during the journey when you bump into your own hometown and see an old boyfriend and your mom.
Ikuuru
Dragon’s Heaven
The things you find in a desert on a random day… A wandering nomadic girl happens to find a fossil of a warrior mech, Shaian, and quickly becomes great friends with the sentient wonder. Soon they fight Shaian’s old rival together and live happily ever after. How cute!
Mia Alice
Dangaioh
Mia was the first Dangaioh pilot to wake up and be put to the test of demonstrating her skills. She is the most quiet and gentile member of the Dangaioh team, but also the most capable of demonstrating leadership. Her superpower is that of moving energy which can act as a shield.
Galaria (Garalia) Nyamhee
Aura Battler Dunbine
A talented and promising native Byston Well pilot who seems to always have a grudge on her shoulder. She is a strong feminist who believes that because of her gender she is always being overlooked for promotion… or perhaps part of it is her personal frustration?
Mary Angel/Marie Crystal
Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross/Robotech
The tough as nails ace pilot for the Tactical Armored Space Corps whose no nonsense attitude and approach gives her a reputation of being an ice queen. Yet beneath the exterior she is very vulnerable and never lets that get in the way of her duty… except for that one time.
Athena Henderson
Super Dimension Century Orguss
The emerging young ace pilot for Chiram Army who finds a rival in the supposed Singularity, or as the English dub called him, the Differentiated Idioblast? The only catch is the fact that this man that she hates so much is her long lost father… wait, what! NO!! This can’t be true, NO!!!
…
to be continued…
Links to previous posts in the 10 Ladies Who Defined Mecha Excellence… 80s Edition series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3: Gundam
Part 4
Following up the success of 1982’s Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Big West advertising and Studio Nue would strike out again the following year with Orguss. Retaining much of the staff from the previous year including director Noburo Ishiguro, character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto and music composer Kentaro Haneda to name a few, Orguss would despite similarities adapt to change. Shoji Kawamori did not stay and the services of Tatsunoko, who did the heavy lifting of animating Macross, would be supplanted by Tokyo Movie Shinsha. Thus we have a slightly different product. As a Macross fan I am often jealous of Orguss as TMS in general always has a certain patina that cries quality in terms of line work and color palette. Orguss is for that time (and even now!) an attractive looking show, but what about the bigger issue? What of the story and the characters?
Speaking of characters, let’s start with our protagonist Kei Katsuragi. Fighter pilot, happy go lucky and the biggest ladies man I have ever seen, Kei is a complete 180 from Macross’ Hikaru Ichijo. He eyes all those who are cute to his ocular perceptions, but in the end he is ever faithful to the ones he is truly in love with. The series begins with him in an intimate moment with his girlfriend at the time, quite bold, which is interrupted by her father barging in with a shotgun. Not many times I have seen that to open a piloted robot show. And like Lupin III, he escaped unscathed to be picked up by his best friend and fellow pilot Olson (or is it Orson?). Together they are part of a mission to use the previously mentioned space time oscillation bomb in order to get rid of a space elevator. The mission goes awry, but Kei feels it is only right that the mission
Arriving in a parallel alternative Earth, which at the time he does not know, Kei is thrust 20 years into the future into a world born of his consequences. Here he meets friendly nomadic traders known as the Emaan, who oddly have tentacle like antennae coming out of the back of their heads, the aggressive Chiram, a militaristic society and Jabbi (I’ll let you figure out who he is!). All parties involved have interest in capturing, or obtaining Kei… why? Because he is the chosen one, or in more precise language the singularity (or, differentiated idioblast… what did you call me?) This makes him quite valuable on the market. So what are the issues that the Earth is facing in Orguss? First it is suffering from excessive heating, global warming to the extreme. And second, the mixing of races and landscapes on Earth are appearing from different dimensions due to the explosion of the previously mentioned space time oscillation bomb. Space and time are unstable and guess who is the one who can right these events? A little hint, he’s a womanizer fighter jock who happens to be named Kei! Now I know that name from somewhere? (sarcasm)
Oh Kei, look what you have done! Orguss is an interesting show in that we have a character that has to come to terms with fixing past issues that resonate with the present. Call it karma, fate, or what have you, Orguss is a show that strikes a chord as a mech show for a more mature audience looking for an alternative to the usual space opera of the time. Like Macross, we again have transforming mechs and a heavy romantic subplot which makes Orguss ever more enjoyable. Just be ready for the final climactic moment, as the scene appears to be very open ended, but from my eye brought in an element of the tragic, which really left me surprised… and a little teary eyed.
The Classic Anime Museum 
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