Outlaw Star: The Requisite Cat Girl Character
Aisha Clan Clan is a former ambassador of the Ctarl-Ctarl empire. After she allowed the outlaw "Hot Ice" Hilda to escape, she was demoted and put on the mission of finding the Galactic Leyline and claiming it for the Ctarl-Ctarl. For this reason, she was exceedingly displeased with the crew of the Outlaw Star and spent a good amount of time attempting to kill them. Over time she grew rather fond of them (particularly Jim) and eventually joined the crew. Of course, joining the Outlaw Star was also her best chance of finding the Galactic Leyline; eventually she sells them out and turns the location over to the empire.
Aisha is very strong, even for a Ctarl-Ctarl, and tends to be rather volatile. For example, she once killed 5 armed men with her bare hands when they shot up some lobster that she wanted to eat (in the process she also destroyed the entire restaurant). She also has the ability to transform into a more powerful form (which looks like a cross between a tiger and a wolf, with white and black coloration), though this is needed only rarely. Along with "Twilight" Suzuka, Aisha is the primary muscle of the crew, which is a pretty major innovation as far as I know: how many mixed male/female anime casts have the girls be the powerful fighters?
In addition to filling in the ass kicker role, Aisha is the primary comic relief in the show. She is, after all, a cat girl, and thus spends a reasonable amount of time doing over the top reactions (the best of which can be seen in Episode 14, "Final Countdown"). In another episode, she gets 500 Won for killing a giant bug that was infesting the sewer... and spends it all on food that she promptly eats.
Some people find Aisha pretty annoying (see, for example,
--OutpostMir--'s writeup in Outlaw Star). She also annoys Suzuka by insisting on calling her Suzu. But my general impression (personally knowing 4-5 people who have seen Outlaw Star) is that people like her. I'll admit I'm
in the latter camp and rather biased about this topic. She's not exactly deep, but she's my favorite character in the series.
Not relevant: My primary computer at home is named Aisha.