Akio Yamamoto was a pilot in the United Nations Cosmo Force and the elder brother of Akira Yamamoto.
History[]
Along with his younger sister and the rest of his family, Akio evacuated his home planet of Mars and settled on Earth during the Second Inner Planet War waged between the two planets.[1][2] The planet bombing of Earth during the Garmillas War claimed both of Akio's parents, leaving him as Akira's only living relative ("Farewell to the Solar System").
Akio later enlisted in the UN Cosmo Force as a pilot in the UNCF's Flying Corps. He received a red crystal pendant from Akira as a memento before deploying, and during his service, he was able to give Akira a glimpse of the new Type-0 Cosmo Zero space fighter. Akio flew reconnaissance missions under the call sign "Sword 3." He would befriend fellow pilots in the 343rd Squadron, Saburo Kato and Hiroki Shinohara, who both respected his flying skills. Akio was eventually killed in a Garmillas attack ("Graveyard of the Universe", "Over the Black Light", "They're Coming!", Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (manga)).
Following Akio's death, Kato returned Akira's pendant to her. He also took upon himself the role of protecting Akira from a fate similar to her brother's, and was briefly able to have her assigned to the accounting division aboard the space battleship Yamato over her wishes. Even as Akira was able to resist and distinguish herself as a fighter pilot, she held on to her rage over the loss of Akio until she was nearly killed in one-on-one combat with a Garmillan ace pilot meant to avenge her brother ("Toward a Sea of Stars", "Gravestone on a Frozen Field", "Graveyard of the Universe", "A World I Once Saw"). On a reconnaissance mission to a major Garmillan facility, Shinohara took on Akio's call sign in his friend's honor ("Over the Black Light"). During an incident in late 2202 when a swarm of "space fireflies" infect Yamato and its crew, Akira is mesmerized and briefly sees her brother's visage reflected in a window ("Bewitching - The Space Fireflies Beckon a Crisis").