OVA
Description
Chief Engineer Curtis Lawson is a genius engineer affiliated with the TERRA faction in the 30th century. His most significant contribution is the creation of a functioning time travel gateway that connects the year 1999 AD with 2999 AD. This invention was inspired by his discovery of fictional novels in his own era about a girl named Yamamoto Yohko, which sparked his fascination and led him to build the machine on the hypothesis that she might be a real person from the past. Upon activating the gateway in 1999, the first person he met was the actual Yamamoto Yohko, shattering his assumption that she was merely a fictional character and confirming his theory.
In terms of personality, Curtis Lawson is known for his relaxed and approachable demeanor. He avoids micromanagement, preferring to grant his pilots a high degree of autonomy while intervening decisively when emergencies arise. His leadership style balances TERRA's strategic goals of reversing military setbacks against the rival NESS faction with his personal quest to prove his historical theories correct.
Lawson's primary motivation is his unwavering allegiance to TERRA and his commitment to scientific inquiry. He recognized that the reflexes of people in the 30th century had deteriorated significantly, which compromised their ability to pilot advanced starships effectively. To solve this problem, he implemented a recruitment strategy that specifically targeted girls from the past whose physical agility and reaction times were far superior. Beyond winning the war games that determine planetary control, Lawson is also driven by a deep-seated desire to validate his own theories about history and the individuals within it.
Within the story, Lawson serves as the pivotal architect of TERRA's tactical edge. He not only created the temporal gateway but also designed the TA-series starships, most notably the prototype Super Strike TA-29 piloted by Yohko Yamamoto. Demonstrating attention to personal detail, he equipped this ship with an arcade-inspired coin slot that requires a 100-yen coin to activate, a feature directly catering to Yohko's passion for video games. He also engineered crucial teleportation safety protocols that return pilots to their mothership upon starship destruction, ensuring zero fatalities during the faction's simulated combat exercises.
Key relationships define much of Lawson's involvement. His relationship with Yohko Yamamoto is primarily professional, as her recruiter and the provider of her advanced technology, though his decision to bring her to the future sets the entire narrative in motion. He is also the object of a one-sided romantic interest from pilot Momiji Kagariya, though the narrative emphasizes his professional impact over these emotional complexities. A much more personal and significant relationship exists with Sara Dread, a figure from his past with whom he shared a joint mission on the planet Sakura Taurus. When Sara fell into a dormant state within a TA-21 starship core, Lawson attempted to revive her, but she rejected his efforts and instead sided with the antagonistic entity Zenga, exposing unresolved personal conflicts between them.
Curtis Lawson is generally portrayed as a static yet pivotal force, unwavering in his scientific and factional loyalties. However, there are notable developments in his arc. On one occasion, he traveled to 1999 AD with the intention of permanently severing the recruited pilots' access to the future, a plan that the pilots ultimately thwarted. Furthermore, it is later revealed that Lawson himself was created through the Old Timer's Inheritance cloning process, a thematic link he shares with other characters such as the clone Yohsuke Yamamoto. This revelation adds a layer of depth to his character, connecting him to the very technological and existential themes that drive the series conflict.
His notable abilities lie almost entirely in his intellectual and engineering prowess. He is a visionary genius capable of constructing temporal gateways, advanced starship systems, and complex safety mechanisms that defy the technological standards of his own era. While he is not a frontline combat pilot, his technological innovations are directly responsible for TERRA's combat capabilities, and his understanding of systems allows him to counter unstable technologies like the Old Timer's Chronos system by demonstrating the superiority of his own designs.
In terms of personality, Curtis Lawson is known for his relaxed and approachable demeanor. He avoids micromanagement, preferring to grant his pilots a high degree of autonomy while intervening decisively when emergencies arise. His leadership style balances TERRA's strategic goals of reversing military setbacks against the rival NESS faction with his personal quest to prove his historical theories correct.
Lawson's primary motivation is his unwavering allegiance to TERRA and his commitment to scientific inquiry. He recognized that the reflexes of people in the 30th century had deteriorated significantly, which compromised their ability to pilot advanced starships effectively. To solve this problem, he implemented a recruitment strategy that specifically targeted girls from the past whose physical agility and reaction times were far superior. Beyond winning the war games that determine planetary control, Lawson is also driven by a deep-seated desire to validate his own theories about history and the individuals within it.
Within the story, Lawson serves as the pivotal architect of TERRA's tactical edge. He not only created the temporal gateway but also designed the TA-series starships, most notably the prototype Super Strike TA-29 piloted by Yohko Yamamoto. Demonstrating attention to personal detail, he equipped this ship with an arcade-inspired coin slot that requires a 100-yen coin to activate, a feature directly catering to Yohko's passion for video games. He also engineered crucial teleportation safety protocols that return pilots to their mothership upon starship destruction, ensuring zero fatalities during the faction's simulated combat exercises.
Key relationships define much of Lawson's involvement. His relationship with Yohko Yamamoto is primarily professional, as her recruiter and the provider of her advanced technology, though his decision to bring her to the future sets the entire narrative in motion. He is also the object of a one-sided romantic interest from pilot Momiji Kagariya, though the narrative emphasizes his professional impact over these emotional complexities. A much more personal and significant relationship exists with Sara Dread, a figure from his past with whom he shared a joint mission on the planet Sakura Taurus. When Sara fell into a dormant state within a TA-21 starship core, Lawson attempted to revive her, but she rejected his efforts and instead sided with the antagonistic entity Zenga, exposing unresolved personal conflicts between them.
Curtis Lawson is generally portrayed as a static yet pivotal force, unwavering in his scientific and factional loyalties. However, there are notable developments in his arc. On one occasion, he traveled to 1999 AD with the intention of permanently severing the recruited pilots' access to the future, a plan that the pilots ultimately thwarted. Furthermore, it is later revealed that Lawson himself was created through the Old Timer's Inheritance cloning process, a thematic link he shares with other characters such as the clone Yohsuke Yamamoto. This revelation adds a layer of depth to his character, connecting him to the very technological and existential themes that drive the series conflict.
His notable abilities lie almost entirely in his intellectual and engineering prowess. He is a visionary genius capable of constructing temporal gateways, advanced starship systems, and complex safety mechanisms that defy the technological standards of his own era. While he is not a frontline combat pilot, his technological innovations are directly responsible for TERRA's combat capabilities, and his understanding of systems allows him to counter unstable technologies like the Old Timer's Chronos system by demonstrating the superiority of his own designs.