The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird/Characters

Fighbird and the Space Police

In General

• Combining Mecha: Figbird fuses his android body with his Cool Jet to form Fighbird, whereas the Guard Team guys can combine into Guardion or Super Guardion and Ace Baron can use the other Baron Team members plus his own tank body to form Guard Baron.
• Energy Being: None of them have tangible bodies, which is why they merge with diverse machines: an android (Katori), Hiroshi's rescue machines (Ace Baron), Satsuda's police car (Guard Star), Yoshiko's ambulance (Guard Rescue), a local firefighter truck (Guard Fire) and a Cool Plane (Guard Wing). Hiroshi lampshades the trope when he describes Fighbird as a "cosmic life form" that his metal body is bound to.
• Space Police: As it befits the Brave meta series. 

Fighbird/Yuutaro Katori

The main character, a commander of the Space Police and leader of an SP unit sent to Earth to stop Draias and his followers. He inhabits an android body created by Dr. Hiroshi Amano and lives with the doctor's family, posing as Hiroshi's lab assistant.

• Achilles Heel: Since he has an android body, stuff that decomposes or mutates non-organic matter can be pretty deadly to him (and by extension, the Space Police's vehicle bodies).
• Adorkable: By the wazoo, as his innocence and kindness come off as very endearing. The famous "Is this a pigeon?" scene comes off from him seeing a butterfly for the first time ever and trying to describe it to Satsuda.
• Adrenaline Makeover: Once Per Episode, Katori pulls the trope when he gears up to fight the villains. He takes off his white lab coat, removes his glasses, and as he gets ready he looks VERY dashing.
• All-Loving Hero: He's exceptionally kind and gentle to nearly any living being he comes across, genuinely tries to see the best in everyone, and adores Earth with all of his heart.
• Badass in Distress: More than once, he's caught in hostage situations where fighting back will only get other people hurt.
• Beware the Nice Ones: A sweet and naive young man who is very good at fighting either in or out of his mecha and can become a fearsome force to be reckoned with to those who he considers enemies. It's quite the treat to see him go from his Nice Guy persona to a Hot-Blooded badass at the flip of a switch.
• Big Brother Mentor: Kenta and Haruka adore him, and Kenta calls him "Katori-niichan" (Big Bro Katori).
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: An extremely good fighter (whether as Fighbird or as not), a powerful Technopath and a capable leader of the Space Police... and also immensely naive and a bit childlike in "real life", since he's not from Earth and is barely aware of human social conventions.
• The Captain: When on the battlefield, he's a completely focused and VERY efficient leader.
• Clark Kenting: Putting a pair of Purely Aesthetic Glasses and a lab coat on him is seemingly enough to make him unrecognizable.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In his Katori persona, his blue hair is normally combed. When he goes into his Fighbird one, it shifts to more typical Shonen Hair until he has to properly transform.
• Fish Out of Water: Katori has zero idea of how human societies work and how people interact, being an alien. A good part of the series' humor relays on him learning about society as a whole and often Comically Missing The Point, though around the second half of the story he seems to have begun to adapt more or less well (aside of some blunders).
• Friend To All Children: He seems to have an instinctive ability to get along well with kids. Woe betide anyone who threatens children in his surroundings, and double if said kids are Kenta and Haruka.
• Friend To All Living Things: He also tends to interact well with animals. One episode has him happily rescuing a bunch of goats belonging to a shepherd boy and they quite like him too.
• Hot Blooded: As the protagonist of a Super Robots series, that's to be expected. Katori is normally gentle and naive, but when he gets a challenge or is in front of his enemies, he plays the trope straight to the freaking letter.
• Idiot Hero: Subverted: he comes across as this often, but it's out of being a Fish Out of Water than anything else. He further subverts the trope by being scaringly competent when in missions.
• Instant Expert: Subverted with his handling of anything technological (he's a Technopath), but played straight when he instantly learns how to surf and plays the ocarina like an expert right after finding one.
• Interspecies Friendship: As an Energy Being in an android body, he has these with several humans: the Amano children, Dr. Amano, Ippei and Goro, Kenta's school friends, little Kaoruko...
• Interspecies Romance: He can also potentially have this with either Yoshiko or Momoko, two women from Earth who develop feelings for him. It's left open ended, though out of both ladies, he's closer to Yoshiko.
• Lethal Chef: His cooking makes Ippei and Goro go pretty much blue in the face. It's understandable: up until then he had never cooked anything so, even when he can eat human food (though it's not his main source of energy/nourishment), he had next to no references about human tastes. 
• Love You and Everybody: In his and the Space Police's home planet everyone loves one another as soon as they're born, save for truly unredeemable people like Draias. In episode 16 he tells Yoshiko that he loves and admires her and Satsuda; she almost thinks it's a Love Confession and gets a bit flustered, before realizing what he exactly meant.
• Malaproper: Not being a native Japanese, at times Katori tends to mess up with the language.
• Naked First Impression: When Fighbird fuses with Hiroshi's android in the first episode, one of his first actions as Katori is to use the silicone foam that Hiroshi keeps around to 'recreate' his human looks, based on a drawing made by Haruka. This doesn't include clothes, so when Kenta and later Hiroshi and Haruka arrive, Katori is completely naked and doesn't seem to acknowledge it as he politely introduces himself to the Amanos and even to Haruka's pet monkey Champ. A very red-faced Haruka tells Kenta to get him some clothes as soon as it's possible.
• Nice Guy: It's hard to find a nicer person than him!
• Playing With Fire: Fighbird's more powerful attacks involve a BIG Flaming Sword, and later a just as big fire cannon.
• Precision F Strike: When Ippei and Goro help Katori defuse a Hostage Situation involving Haruka and Kenta early in the story, he screams "now I'm really PISSED OFF!!" before turning the tables.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Thanks to his android body, Katori is more or less able to pass perfectly as a human. As long as he doesn't goof up.
• Savvy Guy Energetic Girl: Tends to genderflip the trope when he's either with Haruka or Yoshiko.
• Saying Too Much: An early Running Gag has Katori sometimes almost spilling the beans about the Rescue Forces to people he barely knows, so Kenta and sometimes Haruka have to tell him to shut up.
• Ship Tease: With Yoshiko, and to a smaller degree with Momoko.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: On one hand, Momoko falls for Fighbird because he rescues her when she needs it. On the other, Yoshiko falls for him for his kindness to people in general.
• Superpower Lottery: Both coming from himself and from the android body built by Hiroshi. He has Super Speed, Super Strength and the sturdiness to handle both (from his body), Technopathy (he's able to use near any machinery and technological appliances by analyzing them on sight), empathy (i.e, he tells Kenta that he trusts Hiroshi completely because he and his companions can sense that his lab is filled with a positive energy, born from the prof's sincere desire to bring world peace), Super Senses (especially hearing and sight) etc..

Guard Team (Guard Star, Guard Rescue, Guard Fire and Guard Wing)

Fighbird's companions, who come to Earth with him. They fuse themselves with local vehicles.

• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Chapter 14 is dedicated to the members of the Guard Team, especially Guard Fire.
  • Later, there's a whole episode dedicated to Guard Wing's conflicted relationship with the other Guards.
• Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Wing is the Space Police version of this. Even Katori, who's very much TheCaptain and quite the BenevolentBoss towards his companions, has difficulties dealing with him.
• Badass in Distress:
  • In episode 22 Guard Wing is defeated by the Death Team and nearly forced to carry a bomb. While he does manage to rescue Katori and Kenta from Shura, he needs the Baron Team to help him later.
  • In episode 26, Dr. Jango kidnaps Yoshiko at gunpoint and Guard Rescue attempts to throw him off his vehicle body, but Jango is carrying a grenade and has a hidden bomb somewhere. This means Rescue is stuck in a Hostage Situation and cannot join the Guard Team until his companions locate the bomb and use their own energy to contain its destructive waves.
  • At the very end, the Guard AND Baron Teams try to destroy the Devil Tower on their own. They end up captured by Organic Draias, and Fighbird's last battle with Draias is their only hope.
• Barrier Warrior: The Guard Team can gather their own energy and create a protective shield strong enough to contain the destructive waves coming from a bomb strong enough to destroy an airport.
• Berserk Button:
  • No one should ever belittle Guard Fire's firefighting duties. Or service vehicles' duties in general. Those who do, like Kenta's otaku classmate Akira, will be given a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Though he'll be appeased if the culprit apologizes and means it.
  • Guard Wing may be a Jerk Ass, but he hates cruelty and abuse as much as the other Space Police members do. When Shura beats up Katori while Zol keeps Kenta hostage, he gets so angry that he breaks some powerful restraining bonds and tries running Shura over.
• Blow You Away: Guard Wing uses his turbines to create wind blasts, and Super Guardion can do as well to freeze his targets.
• Big Damn Heroes: In episode 22 Guard Wing subverts it (by being captured by Draias and Co.when he attempts to fight them alone) and then plays it straight (via rushing to free Katori and Kenta from Shura, giving Katori a chance to fight back.)
• Combining Mecha: Star, Fire and Rescue can combine into Guardion, and when Wing joins in they become Super Guardion.
• Deadpan Snarker: Guard Star sometimes shows quite the wit. It doesn't help that he masquerades as Satsuda's police car.
• Good Is Not Nice: Guard Wing is the goddamn definition of this trope. He thinks Earth is a really nice place and is sincerely loyal to the SP's mission but he's also quite the JerkAss and terrible at teamwork, which often causes friction between him and his teammates.
• The Gunslinger: Guard Star's WeaponOfChoice is a beam gun.
• Improbable Weapon User: Guard Rescue has what in practice is a gigantic bandage roll in his arsenal.
• Nice Guy: The Guard Team members (save for Wing) are pretty nice "dudes", unless they're SERIOUSLY angry.
• Making A Splash: Guard Fire uses high-pressure water blasts to attack the enemies.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: The arrival of Guard Wing prompts one of these for Guardion.
• Pet the Dog: Guard Wing gets a moment like this at the end of episode 27, when he's a vital part of Hiroshi's plan to help Fighbird and yet he says that they should thanks Professor Amano and not him
• Precision F-Strike:
  • When Guard Fire runs off at some point despite Guard Rescue's warnings, the normally level-headed Rescue refers to Fire as "a pain in the ass"
  • Episode 18 shows Rescue swearing quite a bit as he's infected with TheVirus and heavily incapacitated as a result.
  • In episode 22, Wing is subjected to Electric Torture AND forced to carry a bomb by Shura, whom he calls "an asshole".
  • Episode 26 has Star dropping a "oh, DAMN it!" when Yoshiko tells the police that Jango has planted bombs somewhere.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Guard Star sometimes gets to play the role... as much as he can while being a police car.
• Running Gag: Guard Star tends to run off to help Fighbird, so Satsuda is often left alone and believes that his "car" has been stolen.
• Serious Business: Guard Fire takes his role as a firefighter truck very, very, VERY seriously.

Ace Baron and the Baron Team

Ace Baron is another of Fighbird's teammates, who fuses with the vehicles that Dr. Amano created as part of his Rescue Forces. The main part of his soul resides in a huge tank.

Human Characters

Kenta Amano

The first human that Katori properly interacts with and befriends in the series. He is one of Dr. Amano's grandchildren, a cheerful fourth-grader who accompanies him on his Space Police missions.

Haruka Amano

Kenta's more level-headed cousin, who is also his classmate and another of Katori's friends.

Dr. Hiroshi Amano

Kenta and Haruka's grandfather, who serves as Haruka's guardian since her parents are working abroads. He is the scientist who created Katori's android body and the machines inhabited by the Baron Team.

Inspector Satsuda

A stubborn police inspector obsessed with the idea that Hiroshi is a white-collar criminal. His police car is actually Guard Star.

Dr. Yoshiko Kunieda

A kind-hearted doctor who often crosses paths with Katori and suspects that there's something going on with him. Her ambulance is actually Guard Rescue.

Momoko Yamasaki

A plucky reporter who frequently gets caught in whatever mess Fighbird has to clean up.

Akiko

Kenta's serious and no-nosense mother.

Ippei and Goro

Two young men who begin as petty thieves and trick Katori into helping them with their thefts, but ultimately start looking for more honest ways to earn their yens.

Professor Hillman

A well-respected man of science and Hiroshi's best friend, one of the few scientists who have him in high regards.

Draias and his followers

Draias

The main antagonist, an extremely powerful and extremely evil energy being who chooses Earth as a potential base to start his conquer of universe.

Dr. Jango

An evil scientist and Hiroshi's long-time rival, who allies himself with Draias.

Zol and Shura

Draias's minions: Zol is the short guy, Shura is the big one. They're energy beings that merge with androids created by Dr. Jango.