"Top o Nerae!" ("Aim for the Top!") Age: 16 Nationality: Japanese First Appearance: Episode 1 ["Unbelievable! Amano and I Are Pilots?!"] The main character of the story. Noriko's father Yuzo was the captain of the ill-fated Luxion starship, which was ambushed and destroyed by alien forces in the Milky Way on December 20, 2015. Seven years later, despite her father's death, she went on to enlist as a robot pilot at the Okinawa School for Girls. Many classmates ridiculed her because of her clumsiness in a Machine Weapon. She was at the bottom of her class alongside her best friend Kimiko Higuchi. But all that changed when Coach Ota selected Noriko and top student Kazumi Amano to join the thousands in the Exelion Expedition. At first, she couldn't take the peer pressure she was receiving after being selected. But she received complete encouragement from Ota, realizing that although she wasn't as skilled as Kazumi, she still possessed the raw talent to become the best in her class. A combination of hard work and pure determination enabled Noriko to prove her classmates wrong by single-handedly defeating upperclasswoman Reiko Kashiwara in a Robot fight. Noriko has passed the test of courage and determination. Now comes the next step: piloting humanity's last hope against the space monsters: Gunbuster. Voice: Noriko Hidaka