Many of our favorite anime characters are main characters, or a supporting characters who eventually turn into main characters. A character I had in mind is a really supporting character, but he deserves more than he’s known for. Bright Noa from Mobile Suit Gundam/Zeta/Double Zeta/Char’s Counterattack/Hathaway’s Flash is Captain of White Base (0079) and the Argama (Zeta), but is not a Gundam pilot, which demotes to the bottom of the list when it comes to Gundam; He doesn’t have the same Bi-Shounen appeal, unlike Heero and Kira.

Here’s a snippet from his Wikipedia page about Mr. Bright for those not familiar with the Universal Century (and yes, there’s very mild spoilers involved):

In the anime, he is only mentioned as Earth-born. In the beginning of in Mobile Suit Gundam, Bright is just an officer candidate without a commission from the Earth Federation Space Forces but takes command as the surviving highest ranking military personnel.

During the One-Year War, Bright Noa serves on the White Base as the commanding officer. When Char Aznable attacks the colony, Side 7, all the officers on the White Base are incapacitated, leaving Bright, who is then an officer candidate, with the highest seniority on the ship, and he assumes command from the wounded Captain Paolo Cassius.

When you think about it, it’s pretty sad to see an old school Gundam character get overshadowed by the emo characters from the modern day Gundam stories. Come on… Look at what he did to Amuro, a popular character of the UC era; he prevented a fellow One Year War survivor from turning into a clone of Kira–an overrated character of the Gundam franchise!

Do you have a favorite underrated character?