CHARACTERS!

Noa Izumi - What can be said about a girl and her labor? Noa is the daughter of a bartender and grew up in Hokkaido (far north Japan). It is uncertain whether or not she has siblings, although most people think she does. Although her position as a labor operator was a little surprising at first, (SHINOBU: "A F-FEMALE CADET!?"), she has proven to be a very capable police officer. She is Forward Number One in the Special Vehicles II (or SV2 for short), Unit 2. Her love for her Labor, an AX-98 Ingram named "Alphonse," is borderline neurotic. She waxes him a lot and is very concerned about him getting scratched. She is the central female character of the series (in fact, she's on nearly every cover), yet manages to pleasantly escape the ravages of typical male fanservice so prevalent in most other shonen animes. A little ditzy at times, she and her partner, ASUMA SHINOHARA, often trade witty comments, making them a very entertaining duo.

Asuma Shinohara - Asuma is the son of the owner of the prominent Labor Manufacturer, Shinohara Heavy Industries. In fact, Shinohara's group developed the Ingram. I've heard that he joined the labor force to get "revenge" on his father. He doesn't seem very interested in taking over the Shinohara Company, maybe because he had an older brother who killed himself from stress. Asuma is Noa's back up command car operator - he drives the police car and tells her what to do (It's hard to see in an Ingram!). He and Noa make a good team and work well together, when they're not hopelessly flirting with each other. While there isn't ever any official statement about Noa and Asuma having a relationship beyond co-worker, there are hints, here and there, that there might be, someday.

Isao Ohta - Referred to playfully as Ohta-chan by TAKEO KUMAGAMI and just plain "Ohta" to the rest of the group, Ohta is the "psycho-cop" of the unit. He's the pilot of forward number 2 (and no, he did not name his Ingram). He loves the giant gun his labor is equipped with; often firing off all six shots in one panel (and every single one of them missing). He's always ready to jump into battle, always wanting to duke it out. He doesn't worry too much about the condition of his labor by the time the battle is over, resulting in him getting a new head for his labor (a black one) because they ran out of parts for the other one. Ohta is the only one in the group who had any real experience before signing up with the SV2. He's loud, rough, and indelicate - definitely the "bad" cop.

Mikiyasu Shinshi - The "Old Married" of the group. Shinshi has a ... loving wife at home who is often worried about his safety, but at the same time, down not want his performance to suffer. Shinshi was the original command car operator for Ohta, but was replaced by Takeo Kumagami. Whether this action was taken because Ohta was too tough for Shinshi to handle, or because Captain Goto wanted to see Ohta suffer is still unclear. Shinshi is plagued by ulcers galore and gets stressed out very easily. Before joining the SVII, Shinshi was a typical Japanese businessman. There has been some speculation that he decided to become a police officer to get away from his wife, since the members of the SV2 are required to spend a lot of the time working on base. She's a very... loving person. Don't insult her though, or his marriage - get Shinshi upset and he's crazier than Ohta. Shinshi now drives the Labor Transport.

Hiromi Yamazaki - Hiromi-chan is a very gentle soul. He has hardly any back-story, is very quite, never gets angry, and is calm and rational. He drives Noa's Labor Carrier. At the SVII, he raises chickens (which all have names) and organically grown tomatoes. There is very little to be said about Hiromi, except he is a nice guy.

Captain Goto Goto is another one of those characters. He's mysterious, unusual, has an odd sense of humor, and probably one of the most brilliant men of his time. That's part of the reason he was sent to "The WasteLand" of SV2 - he was too smart. There's a bit of chemistry between him and Shinobu, not as much as he would like, but a little. He's the Captain of Unit 2, but is probably involved with other things as well. Very manipulative, he can usually convince other members of the SV2 with connections (namely Shinohara) to do his dirty work.

Nagumo Shinobu - Shinobu is the Captain of Unit 1, the "elite" group of labor pilots. She shares an office with Goto and seems to have terrible luck with boyfriends, if you consider Movie 2 to be cannon (which I don't). She's a good cop and a good public servant, seems to go by the book, and rarely gets into trouble with her superiors. Once again, there is a little chemistry between her and Goto. Seems like opposites really do attract, hmm?

Sakaki - The "mad engineer." Sakaki is the solid foundation upon which the SV2 rests on. Even Goto relies on his advice, occasionally. He is in charge of the SV2 mechanics, an odd group of young men with an obsession with dried fish. In the manga, he's completely computer literate, in the anime, he isn't. Sakaki runs his matinece crew like a small army, often threatening to "Throw them in the bay" if they misbehave. Outside of work, he's a pleasent old man who owns a cat.

Takeo Kumagami - Kumagami is Ohta bane. She a master judo expert, can use Noa's Ingram better than her, is very beautiful, and very commanding. She's Ohta's Command Car operator (took over for Shinshi). In the anime series, she replaced Kanuka Clancy when she went back to America. She had some kind of relationship with Richard Wong (also known as Utsumi), a shady, smiling character who plays a big role in the Griffin saga.