Last month, major Japanese broadcasting company NHK conducted a nationwide poll in which domestic Mobile Suit Gundam fans were asked to vote for their favorite mobile suits, characters, scenes, and more from the franchise’s 46 years. While the cumulative results for all categories will be announced this Saturday, November 29, at 8 pm via a TV documentary, a preview video revealed the final ranking of the top 10 Gundam characters.
The results are as follows:
1st place: Char Aznable
2nd place: Kamille Bidan
3rd place: Cagalli Yula Athha
4th place: Athrun Zala
5th place: Amuro Ray
6th place: Challia Bull
7th place: Suletta Mercury
8th place: Heero Yuy
9th place: Banagher Links
10th place: Setsuna F. Seiei
Gundam SEED characters like Cagalli and Athrun have increased in popularity, likely due to last year’s massively successful Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom movie. Suletta’s awkward personality in Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury seems to have resonated with fans, as she continues to be a favorite even after this year’s Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (of which no new characters are on the list).
However, one of the names appearing on the top-ten list has been a huge surprise for Japanese fans, and that’s Challia Bull. In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Bull was a minor antagonist with very little screen time. Despite being 30 years old, his appearance was closer to that of a 70-year-old man with years of battle experience. Needless to say, he was not the kind of character to shoot up popularity rankings.
That was before this year’s Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX. In this newest mainline entry, Challia is a central character who is given depth through his friendship with fellow Newtype human Char and mentorship with protagonist Amate Yuzuriha. Not only does he get more screen time, he also undergoes a massive makeover, which was one of the most talked about parts of GQuuuuuuX in Japan during its airing. Despite being older in the new anime (his recorded age is 34 years old), Bull looks much younger and significantly more physically attractive, which earned him the viral nickname “Midori no Ojisan” (Green Uncle, courtesy of his greyed hair being replaced with green hair) in the Japanese fandom. Sunrise and Studio Khara’s more charismatic take on the character seems to have been very successful in making him a lot of peoples’ “husband material” and thus a national franchise favorite.
Related: Gundam GQuuuuuuX was responsible for 20% of Japan top 100 viral buzzwords in 2025
