Lalah's design is simple yet unique. This page covers the history of that design.

Tomino’s original Lalah concept was a thirteen-year-old girl named "Asteroid Lalah" with translucent blue or blonde hair. As the story developed, Lalah would later get involved with the Red Comet, and she would become older as well, and her appearance and ethnic background changed. It was scriptwriter Yu Yamamoto who decided Lalah should be Indian.

Yamamoto: When we were deciding on Lalah, I was adamant that she must be of Indian descent from the very beginning, but Tomino-san was adamant about blonde hair being better and he wasn't keen on it. I thought, "Oh, this isn't going to work," but then Yasuhiko-san's drawing of Lalah turned out to be Indian after all, so I was really happy (laughs).

Lalah's "Asteroid" name, her translucent blue hair, and her Indianness all make sense when you recall that an asteroid in First Gundam is called A Baoa Qu. "A Bao A Qu" is the name of an Indian mythical being described in The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges:

If you want to look out over the loveliest landscape in the world, you must climb to the top of the Tower of Victory in Chitor. There, standing on a circular terrace, one has a sweep of the whole horizon. A winding stairway gives access to this terrace, but only those who do not believe in the legend dare climb up. The tale runs:

On the stairway of the Tower of Victory there has lived since the beginning of time a being sensitive to the many shades of the human soul and known as the A Bao A Qu. It lies dormant, for the most part on the first step, until at the approach of a person some secret life is touched off in it, and deep within the creature an inner light begins to glow. At the same time, its body and almost translucent skin begin to stir. But only when someone starts up the spiraling stairs is the A Bao A Qu brought to consciousness, and then it sticks close to the visitor's heels, keeping to the outside of the turning steps, where they are most worn by the generations of pilgrims. At each level the creature's color becomes more intense, its shape approaches perfection, and the bluish light it gives off is more brilliant. But it achieves its ultimate form only at the topmost step, when the climber is a person who has attained Nirvana and whose act casts no shadows. Otherwise, the A Bao A Qu hangs back before reaching the top, as if paralyzed, its body incomplete, its blue growing paler, and its glow hesitant. The creature suffers when it cannot come to completion, and its moan is a barely audible sound, something like the rustling of silk. Its span of life is brief, since as soon as the traveler climbs down, the A Bao A Qu wheels and tumbles to the first steps, where, worn out and almost shapeless, it waits for the next visitor. People say that its tentacles are visible only when it reaches the middle of the staircase. It is also said that it can see with its whole body and that to the touch it is like the skin of a peach.

In the course of centuries, the A Bao A Qu has reached the terrace only once.

This legend is recorded by C.C. Iturvuru in an appendex to his now classic treatise On Malay Witchcraft (1937).

Lalah was clearly influenced by this creature, but in the end, only the asteroid itself is named after it. Lalah's final design in the anime has dark hair and her name changed from Asteroid Lalah to Lalah Sune.

Lalah concept art by Tomino:

In this concept art, you can see Lalah has her bindi-like birthmark. For more information on the spiritual inspirations behind her character, see the Lalah and Spirituality page.

Lalah's final design is likely inspired by Mari Paindavoine from The Story of Perrine, an anime that Tomino did some storyboarding for.

Although they look similar, they couldn’t be more different in personality. Mari is a very anxious woman who cries frequently and parentifies her child. Lalah is more strong and stoic.

So, in the end, Lalah's cute and classic final design was a collaboration between scriptwriter Yamamoto, director Tomino, and animator and character designer Yasuhiko.

Lalah wears a military uniform in Encounters in Space.

Lalah looks basically the same in the movie Char's Counterattack, but she is no longer wearing shoes.

In the manga Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 by Kazuhisa Kondo, Lalah's main dress has spots on it. She has visible pupils instead of plain green eyes.

In this manga, she wears different clothes in different scenes. She usually wears a pair of earrings and a bracelet or two on her left arm, and sometimes wears a necklace as well.

In the anime Gundam the Origin, Lalah looks like she did in First Gundam, but her dress has short sleeves.

In Mobile Suit Gundam Gquuuuuux, Lalah wears a black dress. Her hair is a little different, more like loops than buns.

The kirakira is sometimes visible in her eyes.

Lalah likes watching swans and geese. She watches a whooper swan in First Gundam and bar-headed geese in Gqux.

Lalah appears in the form of a coscoroba swan in the movie Char's Counterattack. Coscorobas are easy to identify because they look more like ducks than other swan species.

In the manga Gundam the Origin, she has more of a traditional swan shape, probably a whooper swan like the one she watched in First Gundam.

In one of the ending themes for the TV series Gundam the Origin, she transforms into a white bird of some kind and flies away. Maybe a swan, maybe a seagull, maybe something else?

Lalah is represented by a bar-headed goose in Gqux. Why so many swans and geese? Probably because they, collectively known as "hamsa," represent spiritual liberation in Hindu thought. See the Spirituality page for more information.