What were you doing when you were fifteen years old? Or what do you hope to be doing at that age? Was it piloting a mech in a war fought in space as you have been drafted due to being one of the few people who can pilot this new model? That’s what happened to Amuro Ray and his life, and the life of all humanity, was changed the moment he stepped into that Gundam. So who is Amuro Ray and how do you get to be such a skilled pilot at such an age? Let’s find out!
Born in 64 UC, Universal Century, Amuro Ray was born to Tem and Kamaria Ray on Earth. A studious child with a knack for mechanics, like his father, Amuro would spend his days tinkering and going so far as to put together a spherical robot pet, Haro. His parents would eventually divorce and Tem would get custody; and so, Amuro joined his father moving to the satellite colony of Side 7 for his father’s work.
Amuro would find himself left home alone, his father off at work all the time. While he had friends from school like Fraw Bow and Hiyato Kobayashi, he would often stay at home tinkering on devices. One day, Amuro would finally find out what his father was working on: a new type of mobile suit called a Gundam. Mobile suits were mechs that had been used in construction but his father’s new model was being designed for military applications.
By 79 UC, Amuro was spending all his time in his room working on devices and reading up on his father’s schematics for the Gundam RX-78-2. At this time, the One Year War was underway and the Zeon Principality represented satellite colonies that desired to be independent from the Earth Federation and had declared civil war. Both sides were using mobile suits but Zeon had their supremely powerful Zaku mobile suits and the current generation of Earth Federation mobile suits couldn’t keep up.
That all changed when Zeon attacked Side 7 and Amuro was forced to suit up into the first Gundam ready to go. Even at fifteen, the Gundam’s superiority outclassed the Zakus and allowed Amuro to protect his friends and the people of Side 7. Seeing as Amuro was the only one able to pilot the Gundam with such skill, which confounded everyone involved, he was drafted into the Earth Federation Space Force.
It was becoming clear that there was more to Amuro than met the eye as he was able to survive fights with Zeon’s Red Comet, Char Aznable, who was their finest pilot. Soon, it was discovered that Amuro was a Newtype: a theorized evolution of humanity’s experience of living in space that would awaken psychic abilities like spatial awareness, precognition, and even telepathy with other Newtypes. This was what was making up for Amuro’s inexperience in combat; the more he gained in training and the trial by fire that was war, he grew as both a pilot and in his Newtype abilities.
There you have it! There’s more to Amuro’s story that goes beyond the One Year War and well into his adult life. Amuro’s the first Gundam pilot of what would become a mech empire franchise. While he was the first, he would not be the last, there’s been literally dozens of pilots who have starred in their own Gundam series. There’s many to try out as either manga, TV series, or films if you ever wanted to try out Gundam. See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Mobile Suit Gundam 0079
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Define
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
