Oota, Kouichirou

オオタ・コウイチロウ

Ota serves as the school's primary instructor and subsequently becomes the second-in-command of Exelion, the spaceship functioning as the headquarters for space missions. Ota places complete trust in Noriko and her abilities, which will enable her to pilot the Gunbuster, an extremely powerful robot capable of effectively countering the aliens. Furthermore, Ota was a crew member on the ship captained by Noriko's father; during the ill-fated battle in which her father perished, Admiral Takaya declined the final opportunity to escape and allowed Ota to leave instead. Likely because of this incident, Koichiro holds Noriko in high regard and trusts her.