Dr. Nick
December 18th, 2007, 12:50 PM
Perhaps I've been visiting the wrong kinds of mecha forums, but based on the stories I've heard, I've always lived under the assumption that old school super robot anime was carefree, hot-blooded alien-slaying without any pretensions of psychological depth or moral ambiguity. Some of the more extreme supporters of this belief basically claim that Yoshiyuki Tomino invented angst when he directed the original Gundam.
Now that I've seen my first super robot anime from the 1970s, Voltes V, I can honestly say it wasn't at all what I expected. First of all, the pilots, especially the three Go brothers, were just as angsty as any run-of-the-mill real robot pilots (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/Dr-Nick/random%20anime/voltes_v_angst_montage.jpg), despite being trained combat professionals. Kenichi even tries to run away from the Big Falcon base, but he is stopped by Ippei who shoots out the tires of his jeep.
Secondly, the titular robot: even though it undoubtedly is a fantastic super robot that uses tops as its weapons, it nevertheless resembles a real robot in many ways. It requires maintenance, refueling and logistical support, and a large staff of technicians is needed to take care of all this. More battles are won by tactics than by yelling, and the mech often takes serious damage in the process. Sometimes the pilots even temporarily retreat in the face of a superior enemy. These aspects are immensely more realistically portrayed than in, to use a popular example, Gundam Wing (which I was watching at the same time).
And finally, the bad guys: without spoiling too much, I can say that the main Boazan antagonists were real characters instead of just end bosses. When I watched Gurren Lagann later on, I thought Viral resembled Prince Heinel a little.
I looked Tadao Nagahama up on ANN, and it seems three years after Voltes V he directed the first 18 episodes of The Rose of Versailles. I guess that helps to explain why Voltes, too, has lots of things like horses, swordfights, frilly dresses, revolution and general melodrama. But my question is, is Voltes V some kind of crazy exception that confirms the rule, or has everything I've been told about 70s mecha by the big boys been a big, fat, hot-blooded lie?
Now that I've seen my first super robot anime from the 1970s, Voltes V, I can honestly say it wasn't at all what I expected. First of all, the pilots, especially the three Go brothers, were just as angsty as any run-of-the-mill real robot pilots (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/Dr-Nick/random%20anime/voltes_v_angst_montage.jpg), despite being trained combat professionals. Kenichi even tries to run away from the Big Falcon base, but he is stopped by Ippei who shoots out the tires of his jeep.
Secondly, the titular robot: even though it undoubtedly is a fantastic super robot that uses tops as its weapons, it nevertheless resembles a real robot in many ways. It requires maintenance, refueling and logistical support, and a large staff of technicians is needed to take care of all this. More battles are won by tactics than by yelling, and the mech often takes serious damage in the process. Sometimes the pilots even temporarily retreat in the face of a superior enemy. These aspects are immensely more realistically portrayed than in, to use a popular example, Gundam Wing (which I was watching at the same time).
And finally, the bad guys: without spoiling too much, I can say that the main Boazan antagonists were real characters instead of just end bosses. When I watched Gurren Lagann later on, I thought Viral resembled Prince Heinel a little.
I looked Tadao Nagahama up on ANN, and it seems three years after Voltes V he directed the first 18 episodes of The Rose of Versailles. I guess that helps to explain why Voltes, too, has lots of things like horses, swordfights, frilly dresses, revolution and general melodrama. But my question is, is Voltes V some kind of crazy exception that confirms the rule, or has everything I've been told about 70s mecha by the big boys been a big, fat, hot-blooded lie?