Voltes V
Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V, popularly known as simply Voltes V is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Company and animated by Nippon Sunrise. It is the second installment of the Robot Romance Trilogy. It is directed by Tadao Nagahama and produced by Yoshiyuki Tomino. It aired on TV Asahi and its affiliates from June 4 1977 to March 25 1978.
Voltes V grew into a cultural phenomenon in the Philippines since its airing in the country in 1978, and had achieved popularity as well in Indonesia and Cuba. A Philippine live-action adaptation, Voltes V: Legacy, premiered on GMA Network in May 2023; it was preceded by the film Voltes V: Legacy – The Cinematic Experience, which compiled its initial few episodes, in April 2023.
Plot
One day, a massive horde of flying saucers appears out of the depths of space and launches an invasion of the planet Earth. Despite the best efforts of the world's militaries and the Earth Defense Force under the Japanese Commander Oka, simultaneous deployments of the invaders' fleets of well-armed and highly mobile flying saucers devastate key strategic targets around the world and completely overwhelm the defenders. The invaders are aliens from the imperial planet Boazan, fighting under the command of the Boazanian emperor's ruthless nephew, Prince Heinel. With their victory all but assured, the Boazanian commanders retire to Castle Heinel, a secret underground citadel constructed by their agents in preparation for their conquest, and deploy the massive bio-mechanical "Attack Beast Knight Dokugaga" to destroy humanity's last bastion of resistance.Unbeknownst to the Boazanians, however, are the efforts of Japanese scientists Mitsuyo Goh and Professor Hamaguchi, who have been working alongside Oka on a plan originally created by Mitsuyo's vanished husband, Dr. Kentaro Goh. Having forced her children, Kenichi, Daijiro, and Hiyoshi, to undergo a grueling training regimen alongside the American rodeo champion Ippei Mine and Commander Oka's daughter, Megumi Oka, it is revealed that all of their efforts up to this point were secretly meant to prepare the earth for this very eventuality. The scientists take the children to a top-secret base on the hidden island of Ootorijima known as "Big Falcon", where they reveal to the five Kentaro Goh's greatest life's work and humanity's last remaining hope for survival: the Super-Electromagnetic Robot, "Voltes V". Though it takes them some time to adjust to the controls, the five are able to work together and save the EDF from total destruction by finishing off Dokugaga with their powerful Heaven Sword, or Tenkuu-ken.
The Boazanians continue with a variety of strategies, attempting to defeat Earth's robust new robot, ever constructing new Beast Knights based on different animals. The Voltes team train to improve their teamwork and skill, learn more about the nature of the Boazanians and the Goh siblings' missing father. Professor Goh is revealed to have disappeared on a diplomatic mission to the planet Boazan itself, hoping to stop their impending invasion. Imprisoned by the Boazanian empire the entire time, he escapes from their control and attempts to return to Earth with several allies, but is waylaid by a breakaway force and taken prisoner by Heinel's traitorous science officer, Zuhl. Much of the second half of the series revolves around the Goh siblings desperately searching for their father, while he in turn works to oppose the invaders in secret.
Aside from its technological advancement, the planet Boazan is in fact very similar to Earth, and the native Boazanians are so like humanity that the two races can even healthily interbreed. The planet is wholly governed by an oligarchic monarchy with a cruel caste system: Boazanians born with horns are highly regarded and form an aristocratic elite, while the hornless are forced into slavery and worked to death on physically demanding tasks such as mining and construction. During a succession dispute between the highly-revered Chief Science Minister La Gour, son of the late emperor's brother, and Zu Zambajil, an illegitimate son of said emperor, it was discovered that despite La Gour's noble birth, he had been born hornless and had hidden the fact with prosthetics. Taking advantage of this fact to further his own quest for power, Zambajil had La Gour imprisoned and exiled his wife Rosalia, causing him great despair. After learning that Rosalia died while he was forced to work as a common slave, La Gour joined a band of hornless dissidents and subsequently led a daring insurrection against the empire, only to be easily thwarted by their vastly superior military. With no other options available to him, La Gour was forced to escape on a flying saucer and flee across the galaxy until he found himself on the faraway planet of Earth. Upon crash-landing, he was discovered by a Japanese scientist, and they fell in love. To blend in on Earth, La Gour exchanged his name for a Japanese one: Dr. Kentaro Goh. Thus, Dr. Goh's powerful technological advancements and knowledge of the oncoming alien invasion suddenly make sense, for he was once a native of that very planet himself.
Knowing that Zambajil's ambition was to rule a galactic empire, Goh quickly set into motion his plans to protect Earth from their eventual attack, and moreover, to someday finish what he started by returning to Boazan and liberating its oppressed underclass. Yet when Zambajil threatened to invade the earth unless Goh returned to work under him, Goh had no choice but to abandon his family. Refusing to work for the tyrannical ruler, Goh was once-again imprisoned and nearly executed, only to be saved by the remnants of the rebel army he had created right before his exile. It is here that he met the rebel General Dange, an aristocrat who cut off his horns to join the rebellion, and they left for their ill-fated return to Earth. Just when everyone else believes them to be dead, it is revealed that Goh and Dange have been working on the creation of a massive spaceship known as the Solar Bird, with which they hope to return to Boazan to topple its oppressive government once and for all.
Characters
Voltes Team
;Kenichi Goh;Ippei Mine
;Daijiro Goh
;Hiyoshi Goh
;Megumi Oka
Allies
;Professor Kentaro Goh / Prince La Gour;Professor Mitsuyo Goh
;Professor Hamaguchi
;General Oka
;Professor Sakunji
;General Dange
;General Doir
The Boazanian Nobility
;Emperor Zu Zambajil;Prince Heinel
;Ri Katherine
;Rui Jangal
;Zuhl
;Do Bergan
;General Gururu
;Duke Zaki
Development
Voltes V was produced by Toei Company with animation from Nippon Sunrise and sponsorship from Popy for the toys. During the development of Voltes V, Nagahama originally conceived the series to be a sequel to Chōdenji Robo Combattler V and to follow the events of the series after the finale before making it into a separate series. From Nagahama's memo, the series is originally meant to be titled Granbuffer Ace or Chōdenji Robo V.Krieger. Both names were ultimately scrapped and it was renamed Voltes V.During the time of its development, NET TV transitioned its name to TV Asahi during 1977. In a proposal from Popy in 1976, Voltes V was meant to have a gun-like finishing attack but Sunrise and Toei wanted the actual attack for the toys to be changed. As such, the gun was changed to a sword, which is carried over to the mech's Heaven's Blade/Laser Blade attack. At that time also in 1976, Nagahama was given creative direction on the series and used Stage combat as reference for the titular mecha's combat moves. As describing the story itself, the plot of the Goh brothers' search for their father were inspired from Taiga dramas, as explained by Shoichi Taguchi, one of the anime that inspired him for the plot was 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother and that he wanted the heroes to search for their father instead of a mother.
Akinori Watanabe, the previous director of Toei's Television Business Division, was worried that the plot will be too depressing to viewers and wanted to avoid viewers crying all the time. In response to Watanabe's request, he created the rival character, Prince Heinel, who was based on one of the actors in the world-famous Takarazuka Revue. According to Kei Iijima, one of Toei's producers, the Goh brothers and Heinel will be rivals throughout the series until the final episode, in which Heinel will be revealed to be related to them by blood but have a tragic end and redemption. He also said that he wanted viewers to strongly elicit anger against various discriminations around them and to hate discrimination through this work and think about correcting them.
The final draft of the series was completed in March 1977, with the first episode was broadcast on June 4 of the same year. Shinya Sadamitsu and Yoshiyuki Tomino were brought to the staff by Nagahama for their roles as producer and art director. Kazuo Tomizawa was also brought in as one of the staff until he decided to focus more on Invincible Super Man Zambot 3.
''Robot Romance Trilogy''
The Robot Romance Trilogy are three Super Robot anime series created by Saburo Yatsude, directed by Tadao Nagahama, and aired on TV Asahi and its affiliates from late 1976 through early 1979.The trilogy is known for telling complex human stories instead of merely being having a monster of the week format.
The trilogy, consisting of Chōdenji Robo Combattler V, Chōdenji Machine Voltes V, and Tōshō Daimos, was a co-production between Tohokushinsha Film, Nippon Sunrise and Toei Company with Nippon Sunrise providing the animation work on Toei's behalf.
Yuki Hijiri was character designer for Voltes V and Daimos.
Media
Anime
Voltes V was broadcast in Japan by TV Asahi from June 4, 1977, to March 25, 1978, replacing Chōdenji Robo Combattler V and was replaced by Tōshō Daimos. The series' opening theme is titled by Mitsuko Horie, Koorogi '73, and Columbia Yurikago-kai with the ending theme titled by Ichiro Mizuki. The lyrics to the opening theme were written by Toei staff with music written by Asei Kobayashi, and arranged by the series' composer, Hiroshi Takada, while the lyrics to the ending theme were penned by Akira Aoi, with music written by Asei Kobayashi, and arranged by Hiroshi Tsutsui.In Asia, Telesuccess Productions holds the Philippine rights to the anime series since its English dub premiered on GMA in 1978; with Infiniti Music having held exclusive rights to release its soundtrack in the 1990s. The Telesuccess dubs were made available in Southeast Asia through video-on-demand service iflix in September 2016. Discotek Media licensed the series and is released on DVD and Blu-ray in North American territories.
Another English dub, written and directed by William Ross, was produced in Tokyo, Japan by Frontier Enterprises and released in North America in 1983 by 3B Productions as Voltus 5. It was a compilation of selected episodes.
Live-action adaptation
A Philippine live-action adaptation, Voltes V: Legacy, premiered on GMA Network from May 8 to September 8, 2023. The production is licensed from Toei Company through its Philippine licensee Telesuccess Productions, Inc. Director Mark A. Reyes led the production of the series with Suzette Doctolero as the headwriter, which involved close supervision from Toei. Riot Inc. was hired to do the special effects alongside GMA's video-graphic department.Toys
During the series' run, Popy released a Deluxe die cast metal toy of Voltes V, as well as a smaller 6" one. The Deluxe toy was available either with the five Volt Machines sold separately or in a gift set known as the "Volt In Box". Aside from the Volt Machines combining to form Voltes V, the toy also transformed into Voltank mode. This mode never appeared in the series, but was a unique feature of the toy. The smaller toy was re-released in the United States in 1978 by Mattel as part of the Shogun Warriors line of imported toys. The Deluxe set never saw release by Mattel, but in 1982 it was repackaged as part of Bandai's Godaikin line for the international market. Popy also released a Jumbo Machinder version of Voltes V. Standing at over 24 inches in height, the toy featured firing projectile fists and could transform into Voltank mode, which small children could ride on.In 2006, Bandai released a newer, smaller Voltes V toy as part of their Soul of Chogokin line. This toy is more detailed and more poseable than its Popy diecast predecessor. In 2008, the toy was re-released as a special edition called "Respect for Volt In Box", which pays homage to the original toy in both color scheme and packaging. In addition, this version has been retooled to transform into Voltank mode.
In 2018, Bandai released the Soul of Chogokin Voltes V F.A. figure. The figure sacrifices its combination gimmick in favor of more anime-accurate proportions and dynamic articulation. In 2020, Bandai released the titular mecha under the DX Soul of Chogokin line.
Video games
The series itself has been included and featured in the long-running Super Robot Wars series of video games with its first appearance on the PlayStation game Shin Super Robot Wars in 1996.Cultural impact
Voltes V is notable for its cultural impact in several countries like Indonesia, Cuba, and the Philippines. In the case of the latter, it had a major impact in the country during the period of martial law under President Ferdinand Marcos, who banned the series along with other "violent" Japanese animated series on August 27, 1979, for their "harmful effects on children". However, popular speculation was that the series was banned because of the anime's underlying themes of rebellion and revolution. The remaining four episodes were never aired and Filipino children angered by the sudden ban have sometimes been referred to as the "Voltes V generation". After the success of the 1986 People Power Revolution, Voltes V was re-aired on Philippine television from the 1990s to 2010s with a Filipino dub on PTV from 1986 to 1987, ABS-CBN from 1987 to 1988, Radio [Philippines Network|RPN] from 1988 to 1989, IBC from 1989 to 1990 and Hero in 2006 and 2009. In March 1999, however, Davao Oriental congressman Mayo Almario filed a bill seeking to remove Voltes V from the air once again, proposing to give the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board the authority to remove programming deemed too violent for children.Toym Imao, a visual artist who was a child at the time the series aired, made a sculpture inspired by Voltes V in 2014 called Last, Lost, Lust for Four Forgotten Episodes as part of his series of art installations entitled Super Robot - Suffer Reboot that was displayed at the entrance of Palma Hall at the University of the Philippines.