銀鈴 — The Beautiful Spy

What does it mean to create one original character in a show built entirely from borrowed ones?

Ginrei is an Earth Defense Force agent — experienced, armed, professionally composed. In a cast built entirely from Yokoyama's manga characters, she is Imagawa's own invention. The contrast is structural: every other major character carries the weight of their source series. Ginrei carries only the weight Imagawa chose to give her.

The 銀鈴コレクション section of the anniversary book runs four full pages of promotional illustrations — Ginrei in different outfits, by different artists, across the entire production run. No other character gets comparable treatment. The collection includes the beach illustration (summer clothes, hibiscus in her hair, something briefly not serious), the cheongsam variants from the spin-off, the action pin-ups from B-CLUB magazine. It reads as a document of what the audience wanted more of.

Imagawa built her with that outcome in mind, or the outcome built itself around what he created. Either way: the one character not borrowed from Yokoyama became the one the audience most wanted to follow.

For example

The design went through visible iterations. Yamashita Akihiko's settei sheets show the evolution: the original costume (white dress, long black gloves, the bell earring), the revised version that removed the cape, and the later china-dress uniform introduced in subsequent episodes. The 30th Anniversary Book includes a separate page for each costume — evidence that Ginrei's look was continually reconsidered throughout production.
Her spin-off: Giant Robo Gaiden: Ginrei Special (1994–1995), three OVA episodes built around her exclusively. No other character in the series got this treatment. The spin-off exists because the audience response to Ginrei was strong enough that Emotion/Bandai Visual greenlit a separate production. A character Imagawa created from nothing became the series' most commercially significant figure.
She protects Daisaku. Not as an assignment the series dramatizes — as a consistent presence. The Episode 1 jacket art places her beside him on Giant Robo's fist. The Last Episode jacket keeps her in the foreground with him. Whatever else the series is about, Ginrei and Daisaku are always its visual anchor.