How many people with goofy masks could there possibly be?
—Duo Maxwell, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3
As expected from the Trope Namer, there is at least one of them among its various Alternate Universes. Most of them are even sourced in Otona no Gundam ("Gundam For Adults"), a book analyzing the economical impact of Gundam.
The Trope Namer Originals:
Note that all these are the same person, Casval Deikun, at various stages in his life under various assumed names.- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char Aznable/0079 Char, archetype for Char as The Rival.
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Quattro Bajeena/AEUG Char, archetype for Char as The Mentor.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack: Casval Rem Deikun/Neo Zeon Char, archetype for Char as the Big Bad.
The Clones:
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: While he doesn't wear a mask, pilot a red custom mecha, or have a relative among the crew of the Argama, Jerid Messa has blonde hair, works for the Titans, and the tensions between him and Kamille are very familiar to those between Amuro and Char.
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: Glemmy Toto is a blond, charming 17-year old, who has all of Char's manipulative ability and piloting skill, serves as a rival to two of the main characters, and eventually sets himself up as a rival to the Big Bad. He also seems to have Char's predilection for younger girls, though his own age makes it hard to tell. Char himself was originally slated to appear in ZZ, but was pulled when Char's Counterattack got the green light, so Glemmy was created as a substitute to fill his role in the show's plot.
- Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel: Gender inverted with Erisia Nocton. She is a blonde-haired star student of the eponymous Mobile Suit academy. Like Char in the One Year War, she was initially more skilled than her rival, the protagonist Asuna Elmarit (who can be considered as a female Amuro Clone herself). Also, it is revealed that Erisia has inferior Psychic Powers compared to Asuna, mirroring Char having weaker Newtype power than Amuro. The difference is while Char focused more on developing his own piloting skills to catch up with his opponents who possess stronger Newtype powers, Erisia willingly let herself be turned into a Cyber Newtype to catch up to Asuna. She even later pilots the pink-colored Gaplant Custom Erisia Special, which is a match to Asuna's Gundam-type Mobile Suit, the Le Cygne.
- Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn has Full Frontal, who (despite the unfortunate namenote ) is a cyber-newtype genetically altered to look like Char, with Char's memories — and, it's implied, a chunk of Char's soul — implanted in him via the psycoframe; to drive the homage even further, he is voiced by the same actor. He's a Char clone that ultimately plays with the trope rather than fully playing it straight or subvert it, as Frontal displays none of the many issues that plagued the original with none of his tragic idealism, which is pointed out near the end of the series.
- Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative: Double subverted with Zoltan Akkanen. A Cyber-Newtype created in the same project that would ultimately produce Full Frontal, he ultimately failed to "become Char" because he couldn't be the leader the Sleeves needed. However, where Frontal emulates Char's outward traits, Zoltan is characterized by the despair and frustration that Char only expressed internally throughout all of Char's Counterattack as both Char and Zoltan recognize the light of the human heart seen from incidents like Axis Shock, but can't reconcile that mankind will always commit atrocities in spite of it.
- Mobile Suit Gundam F91 has Carozzo "Iron Mask" Ronah, who mostly takes after CCA-era Char. Interestingly enough, he also seems to have some Darth Vader in there as well, in regards to being ruthless compared to the average Char affability. Instead of a mask, he wears an entire full-head helmet, which not only allows him to interface with Newtype machines, but is strong enough to deflect sniper bullets.
- Mobile Suit Victory Gundam:
- Cronicle Asher, who wears what looks like a white ski mask to protect himself from Earth's dirty atmosphere, is a subversion: everything seems to point towards him being the Char of the series (like for example having a younger female relative) but in the end he factors far less into Uso Erwin's conflict and overall lacks The Rival tendencies after an initial set of episodes on Earth.
- Katejina Loos is a much straighter example later on (and possibly, the first female in the franchise). While lacks a mask, she has blonde hair, pilots a red mobile suit called the Gottrlatan, has suggested Ephebophile leanings towards Uso, and overall having a stronger conflict with Uso compared to Cronicle.
- Gundam: Reconguista in G: Luin Lee/"Captain Mask" wears a four-eyed domino mask which acts as a monitor while piloting, and is the most recurring rival to the main character, Bellri Zenam. One of Bellri's female friends is in a reciprocated relationship with him and he was formerly a good friend of Bell himself.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam splits Char tendencies amongst several characters:
- Schwarz Bruder takes The Mentor aspect, albeit in an aloof, challenging way that lets him double as The Rival to Domon Kasshu. He lacks any sort of villainous characteristics, and his full-face ninja mask serves to hide the fact that he shares the same face as Domon's brother Kyoji, being a mechanical clone of him.
- Master Asia pilots the crimson Master Gundam, and shares some of Char's ideas and character arc from Char's Counterattack, wanting to cleanse the Earth and overall being antagonistic to Domon for most of the series. He, however, does make up with Domon in the end.
- Major Ulube Ishikawa wears a half mask and embodies Char's overall megalomaniac tendencies. Unlike Char, there is nothing redeeming about Ulube; he is simply a self-serving maniac hoping to use the Devil/Dark Gundam to lord over Earth as he sees fit.
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
- Zechs Merquise is a red-wearing masked blond Ace Pilot for the bad guys in a unique mask and is secretly the brother of the female lead who coincidentally gets wrapped up in everything. He's also paired up with a (female) Garma clone (right down to being one of his classmates from the Academy) who he ends up betraying. Unlike Char, though, this betrayal does not result in said Garma clone's death. In fact, she forgives him, and in the Frozen Teardrop novels, she goes on to marry him and have his babies. Make of that what you will. He pilots the Tallgeese, which is said to be similar to the Leo mobile suits, but three times faster. (Just like how Char's Zaku was three times faster than a regular Zaku.) Later on, he pilots the crimson Epyon Gundam, which alludes to Char's preference for red Mobile Suits and his close-ranged fighting style (the Epyon was tailored for melee engagements). He even goes through a similar arc, starting as an enemy ace, becoming an ostensible (if at times clenched tooth) ally, to leading a new army to ruin the planet for the greater good. He is, however, overall a more positive portrayal than Char was. For one thing, Char backstabbed everybody he came across, whereas Zechs is devoted to his friends and the soldiers under him (Otto being a great example, as Zechs mourned his death). Char blamed others for his mistakes, whereas Zechs took responsibility (in fact, often too much). Lastly Char felt justified in doing a Colony Drop, in the case of Zechs, it was an accident and he risked his own life to stop it from happening.
- Odin Lowe Jr. Heero takes up the namesake of the original Heero Yuy and the main weapon is similar to the mega beam bazooka launcher.
- Duo Maxwell was known as the God of Death/Great Destroyer, whose blinding speed and agility made him nigh invulnerable... much like how the Red Comet invokes fear within the Federation forces.
- Trowa Barton favors a red colored mobile suit known for More Dakka rather than the precise firepower of a Gundam as well as being a disowned son of the spacenoid extremists with a sister in tow.
- Quatre Raberba Winner shares Char's blonde hair and his father's tragic story of being betrayed by fellow spacenoids, which causes Quattre to embark on a path of revenge. His name is very similar to Char's second alias "Quattro", both derived from a word for "four".
- Chang Wufei has a bitter rivalry with Treize Khushrenada, and the death of Wufei's loved one is one of his major drives as he tries to find meaning as a soldier and his conflicting ideals of peace and justice.
- After War Gundam X:
- The Captain Jamil Neate taking on The Mentor aspect (complete with shades and sideburns). Unique in that he started off as a clone of Amuro.
- Lancerow Dawell takes the rival aspect for Jamil, effectively being the Char to Jamil's Amuro during the 7th Space War (albeit without the mask). For his appearances in the series, he doesn't serve as a rival to Garrod, but rather becomes an ally after various misunderstandings are cleared.
- On the genuinely villainous side, we have Shagia Frost, who pilots the red-coloured Gundam Virsago. He and his younger brother Olba share the role of The Rival to Garrod (though clearly Shagia is clearly the more dominant of the brothers), and are clearly shown to have their own agenda that involves stabbing quite a lot of people in the back (as in, just about everyone they work with) and become the Big Bad by the show's end.
- In the sequel manga, Under the Moonlight, Kai acts as The Rival to protagonist Rick Aller, pilots black-painted mobile suits, and wears a special mask while piloting that gives him false memories.
- ∀ Gundam: Harry Ord's distinguishing feature is a pair of red Cool Shades that look like bug eyes. He's The Rival and The Dragon for most of the series, but interestingly borrows a lot more from Quattro Bajeena in appearance, personality, and trappings, including a gold Ace Custom rather than the traditional red that the original Char used. In fact, he doesn't have any villainous, ulterior motives other than what he does for his Queen and people.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED:
- Athrun Zala serves as Kira Yamato's rival, complete with a red Gundam instead of a simple Ace Custom, before his Heel–Face Turn. His Paper-Thin Disguise as "Alex Dino" consists almost entirely of Cool Shades (and doesn't even have the benefit of his real face being relatively unknown since he never wore a mask). On a side note, Athrun's name is Arabic, derived from the Greek word, "erythron", meaning "red". He also mixes in elements of Garma Zabi as the purple-haired son of the local military dictator, Patrick Zala (who is an Expy of Gihren Zabi).
- Mu La Flaga is the blonde Big Brother Mentor, particularly to the main character. He starts with an Ace Custom mobile armor instead of a mobile suit, before receiving the Strike Gundam after Kira upgrades with the Freedom Gundam.
- Rau Le Creuset gets the trademark Cool Mask and Ace Custom mobile suits in a distinct color (Silver), and despite his apparent Newtype abilities his sheer skill is hammered in by a revelation near the end of the series (he is a cloned Natural who has been successfully passing himself off as one of the superhuman Coordinators for years). In a certain way, he is also the Long-Lost Relative to both Mu and Kira, being a clone of Mu's father, who commissioned him from Kira's father in exchange for funding his research into Kira's perfected version of the Coordinator augmentation process. He notably embodies all three primary incarnations of the Char Clone in different contexts through the series:
- He acts as The Rival to Ace Pilot Mu La Flaga as he pursues the Archangel, as well as the Hidden Agenda Villain in his private moments, fulfilling the first role.
- He acts as The Mentor and Older and Wiser to series Deuteragonist Athrun and the rest of the Le Creuset team, fulfilling the second role.
- He acts as the Big Bad and The Man Behind the Man to the entire series, simultaneously channeling Dark Messiah goals, fulfilling the final role. In many ways, he is considered an anti-Char Clone; where most Char Clones are at their worst well-intentioned, Rau is an Omnicidal Maniac bent on exterminating his entire race on the premise that Humans Are Bastards, completely defying the usual Char Clone's tendency to act out of a desire to better humanity (Char Aznable himself intended to leave Earth uninhabitable in order to encourage the population to leave Earth and enter space, so that they may become Newtypes). Rau, on the other hand, has no faith in humanity and relishes the idea of ensuring their extinction, escalating the Natural/Coordinator conflict until both sides destroy each other and leave Earth razed.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY Astray has Ash Gray, who wears a mask and pilots the Testament Gundam, which changes colours from white to red when engaging in close-quarters combat.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny:
- Neo Roanoke (actually the Not Quite Dead Criminal Amnesiac Mu la Flaga) fills the role of The Rival, while Athrun acts as The Mentor to Shinn Asuka, at least in the beginning. Then they swap, both of them (re)joining Kira. Neo/Mu loses the mask, gets the golden Akatsuki and acts as the Older and Wiser figure to Kira and Athrun, while Athrun gets yet another red MS and ends up as The Rival to Shinn.
- Rey Za Burrel fulfills The Rival role to Neo early in the series (ironically, two rival types against each other), and later to Kira himself. He pilots a silver custom ZAKU Warrior, similar to how Rau Le Creuset's suits were all silver. He is actually another clone of Al Da Flaga, explaining his Coordinator level abilities; however, unlike Rau before him (whom Rey looks up to and wants to be like), he is a Well-Intentioned Extremist and The Dragon to Gilbert Durandal, having full faith in the Destiny Plan.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom:
- Athrun, who is already a CHAR since his first appearance, one-ups this trope by piloting a red Gundam disguised as the CE equivalent of Char's Z'Gok.
- Orphee Lam Tao on the other hand, has similarities with Neo Zeon Char, such as his eye and hair color, his position as one of the Big Bads, being a Manipulative Bastard, and piloting the CE analogue to the Sazabi.
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00:
- Graham Aker starts as a more general example of The Ace and The Rival, challenging the Gundams with lesser mobile suits like the Flag. In the second season, he gains a scar and puts on a Cool Mask. He takes on a new name ("Mr. Bushido"), though it turns out that it's just a nickname other pilots gave him for his increasingly samurai-like tendencies and he went with it. He doesn't wear the mask to hide his identity, but rather because of scars given to him by the ostensible hero of the series. In Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer, he loses his mask and serves as The Mentor to the Solbrave Squadron, then briefly as The Mentor to the Hero (even delivering a Dare to Be Badass speech).
- "Trans-Am", a hidden Super Mode of the GN Drive which is unlocked midway through the first season, causes a mobile suit to turn red and triple in speed/performance, effectively turning any unit into a "Char Custom" variant of itself.
- Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G: Because the story takes place in the real world, Boris Schauer may just be a Char fanboy. Nevertheless, his similarity to Char is more than just cosmetic as no ordinary fanboy will ride a Cool Horse just to mimic Char.
- Mobile Suit Gundam AGE:
- Woolf Enneacle fits the Quattro-style take on the character in the first and second arcs. Like Char, he has a liking for a particular colour (white in his case), his mobile suits, the G-Exes, and later the G-Bouncer, resemble the Hyaku-Shiki, and he serves as The Mentor to Flit and later to Asemu.
- Vagan Ace Pilot Zeheart Galette's mask manages his Psychic Powers, which are powerful enough to require a custom (red) suit that is 3 times faster than normal Vagan suits; the drawback is that each time he removes the mask, its effectiveness weakens. He is Asemu Asuno's former best friend and becomes The Rival. He never had any interaction with Kio in the third arc, not counting their bouts in their mobile suits.
- In the third arc, Captain Ash, aka. Asemu Asuno serves as a Mentor, and adds to the Char parallels by being the father of the third arc's protagonist, Kio. Initially, he turns out to be a Stealth Mentor to Kio, in a way following the example of his own Quattro-style mentor Woolf. And funnily enough, he himself served as the Amuro in the equation for the aforementioned Zeheart.
- Gundam Build Fighters: Tatsuya Yuuki is nicknamed the Crimson Comet and pilots the Zaku Amazing, a highly customized Zaku II Char Custom. He later dons a pair of Quattro-style shades as Meijin Kawaguchi III, the current inheritor of the title given to the metaverse's master Gunpla Builder. Throughout the series, he is the Friendly Rival to the main characters before briefly plunging into the role of the Decoy Big Bad Final Boss due to being Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Gundam Build Fighters Try: Gender inverted with Lady Kawaguchi. Not much is brought up regarding her background, but she is the Stealth Mentor bit for one of the main characters, being the one who inspired her years ago to do Gunpla Battle.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans:
- Special Inspector McGillis Fareed of Gjallarhorn is is a blonde, charismatic, and well dressed officer. He acts as the main foil to the grungy Mikazuki, as well as being the first one to get a good hit on the Barbatos. His friendship with Gaelio Bauduin mirrors the original Char's friendship with Garma and his engagement to Gaelio's much younger sister echoes Char's infamous predilection for young girls. In episode 15, he gets the mask, a wig, and a nickname as "Montag", and in episode 19 he sorties in a high-performance red mobile suit, the Grimgerde. He eventually ends up betraying Gaelio and leads a messy, failed rebellion against a corrupt Earth government for reasons that end up having more to do with his own severe psychological issues than any higher ideology.
- The second season introduces a new masked antagonist known only as "Vidar". However it's clearly Gaelio, if his voice, use of a remodelled Gundam Kimaris, and grudge against McGillis didn't give it away. Which is interesting because it's the first time in the franchise where a character has been a Char Clone and a Garma Clone at the same time. As it turns out, though, the truth is a little more complicated - Gaelio is trying to understand a Char Clone by imitating their trappings, from the flamboyant masked-avenger persona to the Fragile Speedster fighting style. Unfortunately for his old friendship with McGillis but fortunately for his own continued health, he proves too fundamentally sane and sensible to ever quite get it: he's only the second of three Char Clones who are practical-minded enough to make their CoolMasks bulletproof.
- Unique in having two Char Clones is that they end up being more fixated on each other than the heroes. McGillis actually identifies Tekkadan and Mikazuki in particular as potentially powerful allies to help bring about his revolution. Barring a few light skirmishes, Mikazuki never develops a rivalry with either of them. McGillis and Vidar end up in a Duel to the Death shortly before the end of the series, where McGillis dies and Vidar/Gaelio is too injured to participate in the actual final battle.
- MS Saga: A New Dawn: Captain Hal Vizardt is blond, masked, an ace pilot, acts as a mentor to The Hero, pilots red MS (for extra points, he specifically pilots Char's), and is secretly the older brother of another party member in disguise.
- Gundam Breaker 3: Played for Laughs with Mr Gunpla, a Series Mascot and Large Ham fight promoter of sorts for the sport. In fact, he was a former champion who suffered a crisis of faith that affected his reputation and lost him his biggest fan - after which he left the sport entirely, but his love for it drew him right back, reinventing himself as a non-ironic Sad Clown (in his own words) to promote the sport as Mr Gunpla, operating a conveniently red mecha while wearing shades, a Funny Afro and a Hawaiian shirt. Yes folks, the metal mask has been replaced with a funny afro!
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket: For most of the fifth episode, blond-haired Zeon pilot Bernard Wiseman disguises himself with nothing more than a pair of Cool Shades similar to Char as Quattro in Zeta Gundam.
- Gundam Build Divers: In Episode 3, Kyoya Kujo dons a mask and a knight-like outfit in an attempt to join a group of beginners to weed out "Mass-Divers", cheaters within Gundam Battle Nexus Online. His disguise is incredibly flimsy — he even calls himself "Kyoya" and claims that his looks and name are because he admires Kyoya — and he horribly breaks character. Riku and Yukio fall for it, though Momoka, despite having just joined and not knowing much of Gundam, is incredibly suspicious, though Yukio tries to brush it off as masked men are common in Gundam. The ruse doesn't even last an episode as he's forced to reveal himself when protecting Sarah and Momoka from a rampaging Devil Gundam, destroying his disguise.
- Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE does weird things with this. Masaki Shido is clearly intended to invoke the image of Char, being the most personable member of the enemy forces, a masked man in a unique machine, and a well-known Ace Pilot. He even owns a Char-themed motorcycle helmet as a Lampshade Hanging. But the thing is, he doesn't quite act as any kind of rival because he's not on the enemy side willingly, his trademark mask is a Mind-Control Device, and he either acts as a silent obstacle to overcome or is Fighting from the Inside. And once he is finally saved from the clutches of Alus, he pretty much ditches the Char aesthetics aside from the bike helmet.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury:
- Lady Prospera Mercury, mother of protagonist Suletta Mercury. The head of Shin Sei Development, she wears a very Char-like mask that covers the upper half of her face, supposedly from damage due to high radiation levels in Mercury. However, this is simply a ruse to hide her real identity as Elnora Samaya, a fugitive researcher whose colleagues were killed by the ruling authority. This also brings up an interesting take on the trope: while she shares Char's taking of a new identity in order to enact her revenge on Delling Rembran, she's almost never shown piloting a suit (and is never in a situation to display any exceptional skill when she does), nor does she play The Rival to her daughter, instead offering support to her much like Quattro, but with shades of the abovementioned McGillis/Montag. However, as the series advances, Prospera increasingly resembles Char's Counterattack form: a Manipulative Bastard who frequently uses younger characters as her pawns (including her daughter).
- As Prospera is mostly a Non-Action Big Bad, the role of a physical rival falls to the series' Tritagonist Guel Jeturk. Guel has little in common with Char personality-wise, being more of a headstrong thug who develops into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but he does possess a bulky red Ace Custom mobile suit — the Darilbalde — and serves as Suletta's most persistent opponent, battling her multiple times over the course of the series. He also favors Char-like moves, with his Darilbalde possessing an enhanced kick, and like Char, he is overall lacking in "supernatural" power due to not possessing a Gundam. He has strong feelings for the protagonist, Suletta Mercury, but while Char's feelings stayed in the Foe Romance Subtext range, Guel explicitly does love Suletta. Albeit, in unrequited fashion, as Suletta is lesbian and in love with Miorine Rembran (though by the time Guel confesses his own feelings, she does consider him a friend). This is played to the hilt towards the end of the second cour, where he and Suletta have a fencing duel similar to Amuro and Char's, but unlike that duel, which was a legitimate fight to the death, their duel is a strictly a formality to settle the question of who is to be with Miorine and thus put the old rivalry behind them.
