装甲騎兵ボトムズ / Armored Trooper V.O.T.O.M.S.

A war like no other you've seen before.

装甲騎兵ボトムズ AKA Armored Trooper VOTOMS is one of the earliest attempts on "hard science" in the Mecha sub-genre. This particular mecha series, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi (known for his work on Gasaraki, and Silent Service), was an early pioneer of the 'realistic mecha' sub-genre, coming out right on the heels of Tomino's Gundam tv series, and it features Takahashi's interest in the inner world of the soldier. The Animé runs for 52 episodes which are (as it was common back in the day) divided into story arcs. Four to be exact.

Deciding which Mecha Anime is the best, i'ts a matter that is obviously up, to your own personal experience. If we talk numbers and sequels, and well established franchises. the answer would unmistakably leads us to Gundam & Macross. However, Armored Trooper VOTOMS is the unsung hero, that did get a few OVA sequels, some of them very recently, but somehow fell into obscurity due to the massive overshadowing caused by the above mentioned actual franchises of robots and pew pew!.

ATV offers a fresher look (fresh for 1983, that is) on how future wars are fought, lost, won and survived by everyday people and opposing armies.

VOTOMS (Vertical One-Man Tank for Offense and Maneuvers)

Chirico Cuvie, the hero.

Chirico Cuvie is the main character of ATV. He's the only character at the center of the storyline, and everything revolves around him. This is his story. Rarely have I seen an anime so dominated by one character, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. Chirico isn't a very unique personality. He's the (now) typical silent badass type who goes from being a silent loner to a swell guy, although he never gets any more talkative or expressive. The thing that makes Chirico, thus Votoms in general, distinctive from other mecha anime tropes is that he pilots a standard mecha (not even with a different paint job) for the vast majority of the series. He doesn't rely on any handicaps and instead wins his unfavorable match-ups through sheer skill and intuition. While he succeeds most of the time simply through greater reflexes, the times when he has to use his brain are a real joy to watch and what cement him as a popular character that stands out among the usual stereotype. Though simple, there's something admirable about his attitude. When something has to be done, he simply gets it done. Surprisingly endearing and likable even though he has less dialogue than some supporting characters in an episode.

This level of realism is only scratching the surface with VOTOMS, though. The greatest thing to this anime is how unusually down to earth it is. Getting back to the mecha themselves, they're really just bipedal tanks that use entirely ammo-based weaponry, skates to move faster, and explode with little damage (often unintentionally comic). There are no beam swords here, no barrier fields, no high-speed rocket boosters. Just hard science. Sure there are space battleships and genetic engineering, but that's as plausible as any sci-fi could possibly get while still being fictitious. Moreover, the name VOTOMS may be a reference to the "bottoms", soldiers that are expendable and that no one will miss. The phonemes /v/ & /b/ while clearly different in English, sound the same in Japanese and Spanish.

Every VOTOM comes in green. There are no red stripes or white paint jobs.

Fyana, the mysterious lady that gets Chirico in trouble.

The characters themselves are almost all business too, between the stoic Chirico and the formal military factions he's on the run from. The only comic relief comes from three perpetual tag-alongs by the names of Gotho, Vanilla, and Coconna. These three are all civilians and are essentially involved with Chirico's life only by chance, especially considering they just run into him a lot over and over. They never pilot an AT, and they contribute very little to the story based on any unique talents, instead moving things along only as plot devices to be captured or save Chirico when he's captured through a generic rescue plan. Not to mention their light-hearted existence screws with the series's tone, so they can occasionally drag the whole experience somewhere it's better off not being.

Other constant characters include Chirico's love interest Fyana, a character that actually starts out as a good female representation by being one of the best pilots in the series and kicking copious amounts of ass, but ends up never piloting again halfway through the third arc for some reason and has 80% of her lines consist of yelling "Chirico!" Rochina is an army general after Chirico, and it seems like he has some ulterior motives, but this is never enough to render his character interesting until the final arc where said motivations are finally revealed.

Heroes need friends.

I got this!

And that's really it for VOTOMS characters. The series mainly has a revolving cast of characters that range from barely being relevant to vanishing completely, and sometimes they show up again later to fulfill a new task but little else. This is unfortunate, because two of the greatest characters are Ypsilon and Kan Yu, and they're not around for the whole series.

Now, moving on to one of the better aspects of Votoms: the battles. You could easily call Votoms an action series first and foremost, so there are a ton of battles throughout the series. As if to remind you this a robot war Animé, you're pretty much guaranteed at least one per episode. Since Chirico is almost always the only AT pilot on his side, these battles often consist of Chirico severally outnumbered against several grunts. Despite the limitations of the time this was made, the frames are well-drawn and it's pretty easy to tell what's going on throughout the fast-paced cutaways. Even though Chirico is outnumbered, the grunts aren't shown just standing around as cannon fodder and actually make an effort to attack him - but they're just never good enough. Chirico is such a godly pilot that a threat of him losing quickly stops existing, and since the Votoms mechs are so basic in design there's a low amount of variety possible in the fights. Like said before, the fights where Chirico wins by outsmarting his opponent(s) rather than outperforming them are something to be treasured, as the latter quickly become repetitive and predictable.

Fyana.

Hygiene is important.

Returning to Ypsilon, this is what makes him such a necessary character for the series. Ypsilon is not only the first regular antagonist that can compete with Chirico; he's the first unique enemy AT pilot period. It takes 13 episodes for him to show up, but when he does we're finally given a reason to start paying attention to the fight scenes again. We now have a personal interest in the battles since Chirico's not just fighting faceless grunts anymore and he has a believable chance at losing to this new rival. Sadly, Ypsilon still isn't around for as long as such an important character should be, and his character arc never really goes much of anywhere, since Chirico is basically the only character that really noticeably changes.

The second best antagonist is Kan Yu, who isn't a skilled pilot by any means, but is entertaining in how he's one of the most genuinely pitiful antagonists ever. He's not an evil guy so much as a weak-willed douche with a major inferiority complex. I genuinely felt bad for him, and it's rare to get a villain that elicits that emotion in any capacity. Again, he should've been used more than he was.

The series wastes no time. At least one battle per episode is guaranteed.

Respect the past, embrace the future (?)

Other common antagonists are Serge Borough, who is just a generically selfish evil guy, and his subordinates, the Schmittel twins. Borough is nothing special, but the Schmittel twins's cold coyness is delightfully eerie and makes them the most entertaining of Votom's behind-the-scenes desk villains that rarely interact with Chirico directly.

It's well-known that a lot of early mecha anime would often come close to the 50 episode mark, and it's well-agreed that a lot of these series consisted of a lot of filler due to their episodic nature, yet the toy sales lasted longer. Does Votoms fall victim to the same? Well, yes and no. See, Votoms has an overarching plot that's constantly moving, but the pace of it is sometimes unbearable and you can sit through a whole 20 minute episode and only get 10 seconds of information that's seemingly relevant to the main storyline. In other words, the main storyline serves as a framework to individual storyline arcs. It's good to know this going in, because Votoms hits you with a lot of mysteries right off the bat, and due to how long the series is and how slowly these mysteries are explained you might expect the answers to have some shocking payoff. They don't. Despite building a lot of intrigue for it, Votoms shouldn't be watched expecting a great main storyline and instead viewers should just give their full interest to the four 13 episode arcs that make up the series.

Heroes & Villains.

One man army.

The absolute peak of Votoms is the second (Kunmen Jungle War) arc for several reasons. One, it revolves around a Vietnam-like setting with guerilla warfare and some actual battle and touchy political strategies. Two, it introduces both Ypsilon and Kan Yu, two of the series's rare stand-out characters. Third and last, Chirico fights alongside some other regular AT pilots that help fill out the small cast while also feeling important for the arc they're around in, as well as adding more dialogue during the battles. The final (Quaint) arc represents the worst of Votom's plot. It focuses entirely on the main storyline but you're given answers barely any quicker, and like I said earlier, these answers are pretty underwhelming and don't change your existing perspective of the series, plot, and characters. The series consists of four story arcs: Voodoo City, Kunmen Jungle Wars, Dead World Sunsa & God Planet Quent. 

Due to the series success (especially in the toy kit department) three OVAs were made. The Last Red Shoulder (装甲騎兵ボトムズ ザ・ラストレッドショルダー, 1985) which takes place after the Voodoo story line in the TV series. It details Chirico meeting with his old comrades in his old military unit, and their plan to get revenge on General Pailsen. A year later, Big Battle was released, and takes place near the end of the series. The story line features Chirico and his comrades participating in a mecha gladiatorial match. Two years later in 1988, The Red Shoulder Document: Roots of Ambition (装甲騎兵ボトムズ レッドショルダードキュメント 野望のルーツ). The story line serves as a prequel to the main series and especially The Last Red Shoulder. It details Chirico's time in the Red Shoulder elite military unit and his encounters with General Pailsen. Later in the 90's & 2010, 2011 more OVAs were made but they are all spin-off stories.

The series starts with a naked woman.

And ends with a naked woman.

 
Before I close, I'd like to mention how ATV has one of the best opening themes ever, "Honoo No Sadame" by Tetsuro Oda, who also sings "Itsumo Anata Ga" the ending theme. Moreover, the episode preview narrations are incredible and have some of the most quotable lines I've ever seen in an anime, and I'm a 37 years old fart.

That about summarizes how I feel about Armored Trooper Votoms. There are actually some really great concepts here, particularly in the series's loyalty to realism that I haven't seen matched by any other mecha, but the general execution, meaning the snail pacing, two-dimensional characters, and simple plot leave something to be desired when compared to the much more robust and emotionally affecting Mobile Suit Gundam and Super Dimension Fortress Macross contemporaries.

In the future women have perfect bodies.

But men prefer playing with their mecha.

There are things in Votoms to love, however. Like I said, it's maintained a damn strong cult following, and possible viewers with an interest in retro western science fiction would probably have a much greater interest in it than I and I implore them to check the series out. The series also wasn't very dialogue-heavy, making it an easy and often relaxing watch. If Votoms had its episode count cut by 15 or so, I'd probably give it a higher rating. As it stands, this is a mecha series that I think would only greatly appeal today to a specific kind of sci-fi fan, although there is still enough fun left for any mecha/sci-fi fan. 

Here's the opening:

Here's the ending:

The DVD box set trailer:

The Manga Corps. preview 1 Trailer:

 The Manga Corps. preview 2 trailer:

Honoo No Sadame:

Itsumo Anata Ga:

Supaida-man or The Amazing Japanese Spiderman

Your friendly Asian neighbor.

There is no denying that Spiderman is the number one superhero of Marvel Comics. Comic books, animated series, films, videogames, remakes and collectibles are out there for a reason. To this date, I declare I'm a profund fan of the 70's live action impersonation of The Amazing Spiderman over everything that came after (well, the Spiderman & Friends cartoon is also a favourite) You see, to your humble servant, Nicholas Hamond was the ultimate Spiderman and as a matter of fact, hundreds of people agree with my liking. Unfortunately, we still haven't had word of an official DVD or Blu Ray release of the two seasons the series lasted. Stan Lee sure didn't like it, he thought of it as a campy rendition but hey! he approved it in the first place. 

Anyways, today's entry is not about that series (already deeply reviewed here) today's entry is about the freaky Supaidaman, AKA Japanese Spiderman. 

In 1970, a SPIDER-MAN manga appeared in Shounen Magazine, illustrated by famed manga artist Ryouichi Ikegami. It was pretty good, and very faithful to the original story by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, but that ends with the Mysterio story arc (previously, Electro, the Lizard and a wrestling villain called "Kangaroo" appeared). After that, it becomes an artsy-fartsy mess that focuses less on Spidey and more on crime, violence, romance, rape, lust and stuff like that. One gets the feeling that Ikegami lost interest in the comic, and used it as his own personal scribble-pad. The manga was a failure in Japan, even with Spidey-fans there. Marvel brought an edited, translated version to the US in 1999 or so (Marvel Imports, or something like that), but few people actually cared. Neither did I.

it's Morphin' time!

Say hello to my little friend.

And in 1978, Marvel struck a deal with Toei: For four years, they could use their characters in any way they saw fit. Toei producer Tooru Hirayama, who was responsible for bringing many great superhero shows to TV throughout the 70s, decided to do a Spider-Man series, and wanted the story to remain as faithful to the Marvel comic as possible, but Toei's sponsor Bandai wanted to sell more toys, so there was a major story rewrite, and they had to push a giant robot into the story! Toei's producers thought Bandai was crazy! Nonetheless, this was to be the first time in a Japanese superhero series in which a costumed superhero (as opposed to a regular pilot, such as in MAZINGER Z) rode a giant robot.

The next Toei/Marvel project was BATTLE FEVER J (the 3rd Sentai Series and 1st "Super Sentai"), a Japanization of Captain America (the project was going to be called CAPTAIN JAPAN), but Bandai got more control than Hirayama, for whom this show was the last straw. When he left superhero shows (and worked on kiddie/family shows at Toei), it was completely Toei and Bandai's show from there on (except for Ishinomori's Masked Rider shows). The next Sentai Series, DENJIMAN (1980) and SUNVULCAN (1981) had Marvel Comics Group in the opening credits, but no Marvel characters were ever used in either series! Go figure.

Crazy foes!

Before Power Rangers...

Here we have Toei's SPIDERMAN, which, despite its shortcomings, should definitely be a treat for Spidey/Marvel fans! Before the excellent new SPIDER-MAN film starring Tobey Maguire, this is definitely the most visually faithful Spider-Man ever portrayed on film!(visually faithful) The costume was right, the poses and stunts were incredible, he can even do whatever a spider can; Spin webs from his wristband (but he only has one wristband; More on that later), scale buildings and even has his trusty Spider-Sense! But the faithfulness ends with Spidey himself.

The STORY is what bugs me! The Japanization is much more extreme than the aformementioned manga from 1970, and here, Spidey's foes are nowhere to be seen. Also, his origins have been changed completely! He's from outer space, he has a racing car (Spider-Machine GP-7) and rides a giant ship called the Marveller (hmmmm . . . Where DID they get that name . . . ), which transforms into the giant robot Leopardon! OK, now this is TOTALLY out of place for ol' Spidey, even more absurd than any of Ralph Bakshi's "drug-trip" Spidey adventures (from the last two seasons of the classic animated series)! But that's not all! Toei ran out of money to do the FX by Episode 5, and after Episode 10, no more footage of Leopardon could be done, as it was rumored that some nasty fanatic stole the robot costume! So its appearance was limited to stock footage of the robot, with new footage of the monster-of-the-week (reacting to and being destroyed by Leopardon's "Swordvicker" attack) spliced in!

Check my super wristband.

A hero needs super vehicles (Isn't spidey poor?)

But let's look on the show's plusses: At least we get to see more Spidey action! In fact, the show is VERY violent! Spider-Man rarely kills his enemies, so he doesn't have any Masked Rider-like attacks (unless he yanks his enemy by the neck with his webbing, like he did to one in the final episode; He usually resorts to using Spider-Machine GP-7 and Marveller/Leopardon, as his enemy is the monster of the week that grows to giant size), but he DOES get to use cool martial arts to waste a bunch of cannon-fodder henchmen (yep, every Japanese superhero show must have 'em) in each episode! Hirosuke Kayama, who plays Spidey's alter-ego Takuya Yamashiro, is very good and makes a nice dead-ringer for Peter Parker's later incarnations in the 70s! It's too bad that Kayama usually played villain roles (he later played General Hedrer in DENJIMAN), but this is one of his best non-villain roles! Veteran Hiroshi Miyauchi (MASKED RIDER V3, GORANGER, ZUBAT, etc.) is on hand as a semi-regular character, Interpol Agent Tachibana, who dresses like a cowboy, plays guitar and sings (exactly like his Ken Hayakawa/Zubat character!), as well as occasionally helping Spidey fight the baddies! It's still very refreshing to see our web-slinging hero fighting Henshin-style monsters (as opposed to his regular foes like Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus), and the ones in this show are pretty good! And also of note is the main villain, Professor Monster, played by the late Mitsuo Andou (Professor Gill in KIKAIDER, Fuehrer Geisel in INAZUMAN FLASH and Black Cross Fuehrer in the first Sentai Series, GORANGER)! Prof. Monster is obviously designed after Marvel's Doctor Doom (except that only half his face is covered)!

I'll be as brief on the plot as I can: In space, Professor Monster, leader of the Iron Cross Army (his cronies include right hand woman Amazones, a similar two Caucasian women, and crow-like henchmen) are in pursuit of the space craft Marveller, which comes to Earth and crashes on a mountain in Japan, freeing an old hermit named Galia, who was from the planet Spider (which the big Prof. plundered and destroyed long ago). After a race show, motorcycle stuntman Takuya Yamashiro (who lives with his sister and little brother, and has a photographer girlfriend, who's unaware that her boss is actually Amazones in disguise! Wow, and you thought J. Jonah Jameson was evil!) is fatally wounded by Amazones and the crow-henchmen, but is saved by Galia, who injects "Spider Extract" into Takuya before turning back into a spider! He also recieves a metallic bracelet, which stores his Spidey suit (PLUS!!!), shoots webs, and is also a communicator for the Spider-Machine GP-7 and Marveller, which he can ride and transform into Leopardon, which kills Professor Monster's monsters with its "Swordvicker" attack (it hurls its huge sword at the monster, as opposed to slashing it)! That's pretty much the formula with the whole series.

An emissary from hell!

I will say that the final episode (Episode 41), though incredibly rushed (especially after its slow first half), has its own cheesy, campy charm, mostly in the climax! After Spidey kills all of the other villains (right after Amazones meets her fate), he finally comes face to face with Professor Monster, who, after a little scuffle with our web-slinger, grows to giant size (Yes, just like all the other monsters!), pounds his chest like King Kong, and shouts "The Iron Cross Army is immortal!!!" Spidey does the usual Marveller/Leopardon thing and kills the evil Professor the same way he usually kills the other monsters, but this time, with a bit of ray-firing thrown in between for dramatic effect (remember, there was no Leopardon costume after Episode 10).

My final take: Toei's SPIDERMAN is a fun series, and a must-see for Marvel fans, just to see ol' Web-Head himself in breathtaking action! I say, don't let the minuses get to you, and just sit back and enjoy the plusses!

Here's the opening:

And here is the first episode of this unexpected rendition of Spiderman: