VOTOMS

[mpchi]

Think a Revoltech Votoms is bigger than a AG, but not by much. And definitely smaller than a CM's or Max. Revoltechs are pretty small, like MSIA size. And that article is more of a fan teaser, so we don't even know if they will produce it later on.

[promethuem5]

Hopefully it does get produced. I've got RTs, the MF Scopedog, and an Actic Gear sitting here on my desk, and the MF 'Dog is bigger than the RTs, but the RT figures are still waaaay bigger than the Actic Gear.

[Graham]

Just finished watching the OVA 'Roots of Ambition' and it was awesome. Fantastic animation, with some great AT action.

Currently half way through 'The Defrost' OVA.

Votoms is now my second favorite mecha anime franchise behind Macross. I can't belive I delayed watching it for so many years. I don't see what the fuss is about the TV series ending, semed fine to me.

For those who have seen it, is Merowlink wih watching?

Graham

[Retracting Head Ter Ter]

Votoms is now my second favorite mecha anime franchise behind Macross. I can't belive I delayed watching it for so many years.

Graham

I am trying to grab the Votoms shows as well. Not easy over here. Its great to have an anime where the main characters are PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS who are NOT TEENAGERS!!! And no SINGING THE ENEMIES INTO SUBMISSION!!!

[Graham]

Just saw on the Takara Votoms site that the release date for the 1/48 Buglary dog is May 17th. Can't wait to get it.

Graham

[Graham]

I am trying to grab the Votoms shows as well. Not easy over here.

I ordered the R1 TV series from Amazon and the R2 OVAs from CD Japan.

GRaham

[eriku]

Just saw on the Takara Votoms site that the release date for the 1/48 Buglary dog is May 17th. Can't wait to get it.

Graham

Wow, that's sooner than I thought! I need to find a website that I can order it from. I know HLJ has it but I try to avoid ordering through them.

[Valkyrie]

For those who have seen it, is Merowlink wih watching?

Yes, it's quite worth watching!

The only fansubs of it that I know to exist are kinda crappy quality tho

[ChrisG]

For those who have seen it, is Merowlink wih watching?

Graham

It's definitely worth watching. It stands on its own (compared to the other OVAs) because it doesn't focus on Chirico, although the story does tie in nicely with all the stuff about the Perfect Soldier conspiracy from the TV series.

[Graham]

Just finished the R2 DVDs of the 5 part OVA "The Defrost". Great action in eps # 1, 4 & 5.

Can anybody fill me in on what happens to Fyana at the end of ep #5? Does she die? is she sick and can't be cured and has to go back into cold sleep or what?

Confused!

Graham

[Hoptimus]

I picked up at my Comic Shop the Blue Knight PVC figures. Pretty cool!

[mpchi]

Just finished the R2 DVDs of the 5 part OVA "The Defrost". Great action in eps # 1, 4 & 5.

Can anybody fill me in on what happens to Fyana at the end of ep #5? Does she die? is she sick and can't be cured and has to go back into cold sleep or what?

Confused!

Graham

SPOILER!!!

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At the end, you can say that the ending is quite sad. And yeah, Fyana did died. What happened is that, Perfect Soldiers that are 'man-made' has a very short life-span(inspired by Blade Runner). Something like 2 years. They didn't really emphasize on this much in the TV series, but elaborate it more on the OVAs, specifically on Big Battle, and The Defrost. Which explains another reason why Chirico chose to freeze themselves up at the end of TV, rather than just live a life quietly with Fyana where no one can use them as weapons anymore. Since its been 32 years since Chirico & Fyana has been frozen, Fyana is already in a critical state, and therefore had trouble to wake up at the beginning. Though at that moment, nobody knows her situation, and Titania chose to wake her up, which literally causing Fyana's death later on. She would have been fine if she was kept frozen. So yeah, pretty sad for Chirico, couldn't even 'sleep' happily ever after with his love one after all the years of war and torment, and now all alone again, with friends of the past probably all gone as well.

Supposingly, Titania is sort of the next heroin replacing Fyana. Therefore we see her having a lot of screen time, almost a bit too much on her background (made the middle episodes very slow). But at the same time, the director promised there will never be a sequel to The Defrost, so pretty much this marked the very end of Chirico's story in terms of animation goes. However, the story of Chirico and Titania continues in novel form. Though never read that novel or even know what its called. I wish they had condensed the middle stuff a bit more, as they try to elaborate too much on something that is very straight forward. It'll have better pacing and overall a more enjoyable series.

[mpchi]

Speaking of The Defrost, I was surprised to see some preproduction sketches of the enemy ATs on the DVD sleeve that actually look much cooler than the final look. Its the same design, but the proportions are much more 'normal' and expressive. Not blocky and with the 'backward knee' look on the final ones. These were designed by the Dunbine designer guy instead.

Edited May 3, 2007 by mpchi

[F-ZeroOne]

Votoms is now my second favorite mecha anime franchise behind Macross. I can't belive I delayed watching it for so many years. I don't see what the fuss is about the TV series ending, semed fine to me.

Graham

I recently got to see VOTOMS all the way through for the first time. What impressed me the most is how mature it is. Many mecha heroes sit around whining about their lot; Chirico instead gets up an punches Trouble in the face. He gives every impression of being harder than nails. Nails made of neutronium. I finally get now why all these VOTOMs toys keep coming out.

[Area88]

Just watched The Last Red Shoulder OVA last night, as my R2 discs finally came. A very good OVA. Animation not a big jump from the TV series quality, but you can see the difference, with smoother action and characters on model all the time.

I watched this OVA a few days ago and i actually thought the animation was pretty spectacular in places. The background shots especially the early scenes in the forest were extremely detailed. All the action scenes were very exciting and neatly executed.

I loved how the OVA ended on a sad and angsty note, it reminded me alot of Area 88. Overall i would probaly grade this story as an A-. I look forward to watching more of the Votoms OVA's. I would defintly buy 'The Last Red Shoulder' on dvd should it ever get licensed..

[promethuem5]

Yeah, LRS is simply awesome. So much great action, and the quality is just that much better than the TV series...

[Graham]

While The Last Red Shoulder has some awesome AT action, I thought the animation quality was only slightly better than the TV series, being made only one year after the tV series.

Red Shoulder Document on the other hand being made a few years later has much better animation and also awesome AT action.

They are both great OVAs.

Graham

[mpchi]

While The Last Red Shoulder has some awesome AT action, I thought the animation quality was only slightly better than the TV series, being made only one year after the tV series.

Red Shoulder Document on the other hand being made a few years later has much better animation and also awesome AT action.

They are both great OVAs.

Graham

That was just what I was about to say.

Finally watched Big Battle too. While still a good OVA, it seems to be the weakest among all the Votoms OVA series. Really not much background stuff or important history. Just a set up of Chirico's battle with this lunatic PS Niwa, who wants nothing but crushing Chirico. While the main theme is battle arena, we don't really see a lot of different fights. Only a short but sweet first fight of Niwa against some no name dude, and the fight between Chirico & Niwa towards the end. It still pack some pretty cool action and very entertaining though. Just that it serves a lesser purpose than the others in terms of filling in gaps of the main story.

I guess when looking at all, Red Shouder Document: Roots of Ambition still holds the crown, while The Defrost/Shining Heresy series has the prettiest graphics.

Edited May 8, 2007 by mpchi

[Chet]

Didn't someone post a link to a torrent for the series? Can't seem to find it anymore.

[yellowlightman]

Didn't someone post a link to a torrent for the series? Can't seem to find it anymore.

Right here: http://search.deepdiscount.com/search?w=vo...amp;x=0&y=0

[Area88]

Or bid on this auction here for the Votoms 9 dvd boxset

[mpchi]

Takara DMZ 1/18 Red Shoulder Custom accesories set.

Yup! Looks great. Really wish there will be more add-on accessories sets like this, as there are tons of variations appeared in the TV and OVAs, with different backpacks, minor parts change...etc. Having more of these might actually boost the DMZ-01 base figure sales, as some collectors might actually want the variations displayed at the same time. Just like many Macross fans at least get a couple of the 1/48 VF-1s, just to wear the different accessory packs. This could even help keeping the dying Microman line to stay alive, with more Votoms characters pair up with these accessories. Hope Takara will go this direction, making more dollars while make fans happy.

[eriku]

Nice! Although it's weird they shadow out Vanilla because he's already been shown...

[Graham]

The Vanilla Microman has only been shown from the back so far IIRC. I guess they want to keep the face sculpt secret until the last minute. Doesn't bother me, as I'm buying this set for the waepons, not for Vanilla.

And speaking of the weapons, they look awesome.

Graham

[promethuem5]

Is the DMZ RSC going to be available as a set? The toy consumer whore in me wants to try a DMZ, and unless they release a Turbo Custom, the Red Shoulder scopey is the only one I would consider... I like playing with my Yamato Red Shoulder (I'm really puttin it thru its paces Graham, and having the Chirico figure is alot of fun as well!) but you guys have such nice things to say about the DMZs, and I do like the paint jobs on them...

[mpchi]

I think there is still no news in terms of a RSC set yet, not that it means there won't be any for sure. Though I don't think buying the DMZ-01 & the RSC accessories separately would hurt much, other than having 2 boxes instead of one. But if you already have the Yamato 1/12, as well as other Votoms toys to play with, waiting is much less of a pain.

I personally can't wait for the Rapidly Dog. Looks mighty sweet and wanted to check out the backpack gimmick.

[Retracting Head Ter Ter]

I am definitely buying this! Sweet! Can't wait!

I'd rather have another spare missile than Afroman though!

[Graham]

Just saw it was announced on Gunota that the Pailsen Files is going to be a 12 part OVA, with each episode being 22 minutes long and the ATs will be all CG animated.

Although I prefer traditional cell animation, I suppose CG could be OK for the ATs, if say done to the standard of Macross Zero mecha or better.

Graham

[Graham]

I hope the missiles in the Takara 1/18 RSC missile pod stay in more securely than the missiles in The Yamato 1/12 SMAT-38 9-tube missile pod. Those pencil-sized missiles fell out of the pod far too easily.

Graham

[mpchi]

Awwwww, CG Dogs?! That doesn't sound too good, unless its some really high quality stuff. They better not look like the Zoids TV or the stiff animation like the cell shaded ones in SRW TV series. That might ruin it for me.

[promethuem5]

I hope the missiles in the Takara 1/18 RSC missile pod stay in more securely than the missiles in The Yamato 1/12 SMAT-38 9-tube missile pod. Those pencil-sized missiles fell out of the pod far too easily.

Yeah, those missiles on the 1/12 you really gotta push into their clip, but a good bump will still send them tumbling out.

CG ATs could be good, but they are going to have to be some really gritty and detailed models to impress me... M0 stuff was good, but I think they could be better still.

Just finished Kummen Jungle Wars myself... gotta pick up set 3 next! I LOVE this series.

[eriku]

The Vanilla Microman has only been shown from the back so far IIRC. I guess they want to keep the face sculpt secret until the last minute. Doesn't bother me, as I'm buying this set for the waepons, not for Vanilla.

And speaking of the weapons, they look awesome.

Graham

I was thinking of this pic, which probably isn't an official Takara pic.

[promethuem5]

I think there is still no news in terms of a RSC set yet, not that it means there won't be any for sure. Though I don't think buying the DMZ-01 & the RSC accessories separately would hurt much, other than having 2 boxes instead of one. But if you already have the Yamato 1/12, as well as other Votoms toys to play with, waiting is much less of a pain.

It's not a financial pain to get the Scopedog figure first... it's just having to find it. And, like you said, it's not like I don't already have plenty of other Scopedog toys to play with that I can't bear waiting for the possibility of a combo set.

The real clincher to me is which will come out first... the Yamato or DMZ RSC weapons sets? I've already got my RS Scopey for the Yamato set...

[emerson]

I've been digging around, but can't find any promo photos of the 1/12 RSC set...but my memory (probably wrong) tells me I've seen something before...

Anyone got pics?

[promethuem5]

There was a line-art drawing in the Feb Hobby Japan I think... nothing great tho. Graham has a prototype shot or two in his WF report on the main page... there may be more I don't know about, but I don't recall any good big pics yet.