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Votoms, A. T.
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“Armored Trooper Votoms” is a 52-episode TV series from 1983, which has been followed by a couple of mid ’80s side-story OVAs; a late ’80s spin-off OVA series; a 1994 OVA sequel; and a couple of OVA prequels, the newest of which started its release in 2007, with a compilation movie in 2009 (more "Votoms" OVAs are in the works for the 2010s). “Votoms” is the signature series of legendary anime director, Ryousuke Takahashi.
"Armored Trooper Votoms" opens at the end of a 100-year intergalactic war between the star systems of Gilgamesh and Balarant. Very soon, the two hundred planets that were involved in the conflict will begin to demilitarize. But before that happens, a few army commanders are attempting to take control of Gilgamesh’s most powerful secret weapon, the perfect soldier, Fyana, code name: Proto-1.
With promises of gold, Commanders Oriya and Conin entice their subordinates to engage in an unsanctioned mission to Asteroid Base Lido to retrieve the bio-cloned perfect soldier. Among this group of soldiers is the just transferred VOTOM (Vehicle Of Tank for One Man or the equally implausible Vertical One-man Tank for Offense and Maneuvers) pilot, Chirico Cuvie, who has no knowledge of the mission objective.
“The moment I saw her, my own personal war had begun. A war for which there would be no end.” Haunted, brooding, Chirico spends the rest of the show chasing across the galaxy after Fyana, and uncovering the secret behind why he was sent to Asteroid Base Lido; aided by his fun-loving group of friends: Coconna, Vanilla, and Gotho. And all the while being pursued by the sadistic Gilgamesh Capt. Rochina, who wants to retrieve his army’s bio-clone; and the forces of Oriya and Conin, who want to use the perfect soldier to seize and remain in power.
"Votoms" has some of Anime’s finest military utilitarian humanoid-mecha-designs (yes, I have Toybox DX’s 2004 Toy of the Year!), and many very well drawn scenes, but is limited by its animation, which looks like the average cut had all of maybe five cels. As the series continues through its five seasons, many scenes were apparently inspired by different famous war and sci-fi movies like "Apocalypse Now", "Dune", and "2001: A Space Odyssey". One of my favorite aspects of this show was Chirico’s friends, who always seemed to be successful at creating a comfortable life for themselves in the war-torn universe of “A.T. Votoms”, until Chirico would suddenly show-up and send it all to hell. Yet, inexplicably, they were always happy to see him.
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8.65/10 
9.12/10
8.70/10 
65 votes