Hayato Kobayashi

Hayato Kobayashi (ハヤト・コバヤシ, Hayato Kobayashi) was a character who first appeared in the anime TV series Mobile Suit Gundam. He is played by Kiyonobu Suzuki (original series, Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, and the 3 Mobile Suit Gundam movies), Nobuyuki Hiyama (Zeta Gundam: A New Translation 1 and 2), Matt Smith (the dub of the original series), Richard Cansino (the dub of the original series' movies), and C. Adam Leigh (Zeta Gundam Tv series dub).

One Year War
Hayato was one of Amuro Ray's neighbors on Side 7. Short and stocky and with a tendency towards insecurity, Hayato often measured himself against the his friend Amuro's accomplishments. After surviving the attack on his Side 7 home, Hayato eventually started co-piloting the Guntank alongside Ryu Jose, acting as the gunner while Ryu acted as pilot.

After Ryu's tragically heroic death to save Amuro from Hamon Crowley, Hayato had to pilot the Guntank modified for use by one pilot, even during the latter part of the story in which the White Base joins the main Federal fleet up in space.

In the last part of the second compilation movie, Soldiers of Sorrow, Hayato was assigned to a second Guncannon (C-109) which he piloted all the way through the third movie, Encounters in Space. It's at this part of the story that Hayato confessed his hopeless struggle to be as good a pilot as Amuro to Fraw Bow, which serves as a precursor scene to the two becoming slightly more romantically involved as the final part of the story played out.

In the novelization of Mobile Suit Gundam, Hayato is one of Amuro's fellow cadets and is a backup pilot. When Ryu is killed, he takes over the other Guncannon, but still feels jealousy of Amuro's skill and power. Unlike the anime, he never tells Fraw Bow of his insecurities and ends up dying during the Battle of A Boua Qu

Zeta Gundam & Double Zeta Gundam


In Zeta Gundam, Hayato had married Frau Bow, who was pregnant by this time, and adopted the White Base's kid mascots Katz, Letz and Kikka. He was also the leader of the Earth-based anti-Titans group, Karaba, and the owner of the Kennedy Space Museum. After Katz was killed in the Battle of Gryps while fighting as a member of the AEUG, Karaba's main ally and space equivalent, Hayato was eventually killed in Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam by a Zaku III piloted by Neo-Zeon ace Rakan Dahkaran. When Hayato was assisting AEUG in an attempt to rescue the civilians of Dublin when the Neo-Zeon had targeted the city with a Colony Drop.

Trivia

 * Unlike some of the other mobile suit pilots in Gundam, he is not a Newtype. This is symbolized by his name, which comes from that of a Japanese infantry hero of the Second World War. Some characters in first Gundam who do become Newtypes have names taken from Japanese fighter aircraft of that war.