Interest

Anime Fans Choose the Strongest Robot Pilots

Mecha anime have been hallmarks of the medium for decades, but it's usually the robots themselves that get the spotlight, glory, and figures. Charapedia, a Japanese anime/manga/game character database, conducted a poll of its readers to determine which robot pilots in anime were the strongest. The poll was carried out from September 9 to 14 and 10,000 fans were queried. Of these, 74.8% were male and 63.1% were in their 10s or 20s. Unsurprisingly given its sway over the Japanese fanbase, the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise dominated the top ten.

Here are the results with Charapedia's vote points (these are calculated based on the number of votes, voting order, whether comments were left, and other factors).

1. AMURO, Mobile Suit Gundam (841)

2. KIRA, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed (687)

3. MASTER ASIA, Mobile Fighter G Gundam (525)
4. Kamille, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (433)
5. Setsuna, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (388)
6. Domon, Mobile Fighter G Gundam (371)
7. Char, Mobile Suit Gundam (322)
8. Guy, GaoGaiGar: King of the Braves (252)
9. Heero, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (228)
10. Suzaku, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (217)
11. Simon, Gurren Lagann (214)
12. Chirico, Armored Trooper Votoms (181)
13. Inaho, Aldnoah.Zero (148)
14. Shinji, Neon Genesis Evangelion (137)
15. Mikazuki, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (133)
16. Athrun, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed (116)
17. Hikaru, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (105)
18. Banagher, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (101)
19. Kaworu, Neon Genesis Evangelion (99)
20. Lelouch, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (94)

Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of the Gundam series, himself acknowledged Amuro as having the "best piloting technique" in an interview promoting Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. As for the robots themselves, Charapedia also conducted a poll to find out which of those is most powerful earlier this year.

Who do you think is the strongest robot pilot? Let us know in the ANN Poll!

Source: Charapedia; Images from Romeo-ya, Animanga Wiki and acecolo no nikki