PUEYO, JOHN PAUL D.

ECE109/A12

Dr. GOU Kentarou (in English version: Dr. Ned Armstrong, in Italian version: Dr. Kentarus). He is the chief of Voltes V creators (the creators of Voltes V are GOU Kentarou, his wife Mitsuyo, Dr. Hamaguchi, and General Oka), father of Kenichi, Daijirou, Hiyoshi. As a Boazanian, he is also known by the name of La Gour (in English version: Baron Hrothgar).

Dr. GOU Mitsuyo (in English version: Dr. Marianne Collins-Armstrong): the earthly wife of Dr. GOU Kentarou , also one of the creators of Voltes V, mother of Kenichi, Daijirou, and Hiyoshi.

Dr. HAMAGUCHI (in English version: Dr. Richard Smith): colleague and one of Dr. GOU Kentarou's best friends. He's one of the creators of Voltes V and he's the man in charge of Big Falcon at the beginning of the story.

Chief Commander OKA (in English version:Commander Robinson): chief of Earth International Defense Force, friend of Dr. GOU Kentarou, also one of the creators of Voltes V. He is OKA Megumi's father and also a master of Ninjutsu.

Dr. SAKUNJI (in English version: Dr. Hook): a colleague and also a former student of Dr. HAMAGUCHI. He was in charge of Big Falcon after Dr. HAMAGUCHIs death.

THE STORY OF VOLTES V

Baron Hrothgar, now known as Dr. Armstrong married a woman from our planet earth. She was a professor named Mitsuyo in the Japanese series, they had 3 sons: Steve, Big Bert, and Little John. After establishing himself in the field of science, Dr. Armstrong teamed up with Dr. Smith and Commander Robinson to anticipate the coming of the Boazanians. They created a defense headquarters on a falcon-shaped island and called it Camp Big Falcon. This would become the base of their weapon of defense, a super robot called Voltes V. Then, Doctor Armstrong disappeared without a trace.

The robot was assembled from 5 vehicles, each piloted by a talented person. They are the three sons of Doctor Armstrong, plus Jamie Robinson-the daughter of Commander Robinson, and Mark Gordon.

The Boazanian army came to our planet under the command of Prince Zardos, together with his subordinates Zandra, Draco, and Zuhl. They made their headquarters (castle) in an underground cave of an uninhabited island. During the first few battles, Mitsuyo, the mother of the three was killed. Later on, Doctor Smith was also killed while trying to save Voltes V so he was replaced by his colleague, Doctor Hook.

Behind the scenes, Doctor Armstrong was actually kidnapped by the Boazanian army, but escaped later on. He, together with Doir-his colleague who also escaped from Boazanian prison(who looked like a cross between Santa Claus and Col. Sanders of KFC), secretely built a sophisticated defense fortress deep within the Alpen Mountains. Doctor Armstrong made a gigantic space ship, Solar Bird, intended to be the partner of Camp Big Falcon. That Alpen cavern also sheltered a big colony of Boazanian non-horned slaves who managed to escape to Earth. When Prince Zardos' beast fighters kept on losing its battles against Voltes V, General Gururu, the chief commander of Boazanian army, was sent to Earth by the Boazanian empire. After Zardos found out and destroyed the Alpen headquarters, Gururu kidnapped Armstrong and even showed Voltes the way to Zardos' castle. Gururu wanted Zardos killed. The battle between Voltes and Zardos was inevitable. Bergan, the evil leader who replaced Zuhl, led Zardos' army to leave their base, leaving the Prince alone with the faithful Zandra and Draco. The Voltes team caught up with Draco and asked him to surrender but he killed himself instead. Zardos wanted to fight our heroes to the death but Zandra tranquilized and took him to Boazania via an escape ship. At this point, Bergan activated the Magmait Nuclear Bomb, which was implanted below Zardos' headquarters. This bomb had enough power to destroy the Earth. Voltes V tried carrying or destroying the huge bomb with its laser sword, all to no avail. Almost near the last minute, the Solar Bird appeared, piloted by Doir. He pulled out the bomb with the Solar Bird's claws and threw it far into space, where it exploded harmlessly.

Solar Bird then sent a special electromagnetic wave that revealed the secret of Camp Big Falcon. Camp Big Falcon was actually a gigantic space ship!

It rose to the sky and volted in with Solar Bird.

Their plan was now to take the battle to Boazania and rescue Armstrong, defeat the evil Emperor Zanbazir, and free the slaves. As they approached Boazania, Zanbazir released his secret weapon, Sodom and Gomorrah. These were a pair of gigantic manmade satellites which could create an electric storm. This electric storm was so powerful that every object trapped in it would disintegrate. Falcon successfully escaped the storm using its Warp technology and then entered directly into the atmosphere of Boazania. Doir immediately made contact with his fellow non-horned slaves in the dungeon, and all the slaves simultaneously rebelled against the Bourgeouis. They freed Armstrong from his cell and quickly gained victory as Voltes V stomped on the puny Boazanian defenses. The three brothers met their father with tears of joy.

Meanwhile, Zardos ran into some of the Bourgeouis Officers trying to escape the castle. He scolded them for being such cowards.

One of them wanted to shoot Zardos but Zandra saved the Prince by striking the man with the carriage she was riding. The shot missed its target but hit Zandra instead. She died in Zardos' arms, professing her love for him. Prince Zardos was now furious and went to the statue of Godor, the protector god of Boazania. The statue depicted a man sitting on a chair, carrying a sword in its left hand, with a flame of green fire on the palm of its right hand. Legend has it that Godor will save Boazania if there's a man who loved his country so much that he could sacrifice himself by jumping into the flame. Zardos yelled "Long live Boazan Empire!" and then jumped into the flame. But he didn't get burned! He fell into a short tunnel which led him into a control room inside the Godor statue. The Godor Statue was actually an ancient battle-robot! So Zardos took control of Godor and fought Voltes V. The fight was incredible, both robots got many slashes and damages. Finally, Voltes V sliced his Laser Sword into Godor's chest and ended the fight. Zardos jumped out from the broken Godor and then challanged Steve to a sword duel. No one won, even with both swords broken. Zardos grabbed his knife to kill Steve but was stopped by Doctor Armstrong. Armstrong recognized the knife as the gift he gave to Rozalia, his Boazanian wife. Zardos said that the knife was his mothers. Armstrong was shocked and realized that Zardos was actually his own son from Rozalia, and he was the big brother of Steve. Zardos would not believe it. Armstrong, in tears, asked Zardos to look at the knife's grip, saying that it bears the symbol of Boazania's peace. With a trembling hand, Zardos looked at the grip and was shocked to find a sculpured pair of doves on it. Suddenly there was disdaining laughter. The evil Emperor Zanbazir appeared carrying boxes of treasures blaming Zardos, saying its all Zardos' idea to attack the Earth. Zardos was disappointed to see Zanbazir acting like a mad man and threw the

knife at him. Unfortunately Zanbazir was carrying a grenade. It exploded but Zardos spontaneously covered Steve and saved him from the explosion. The huge blast cracked the ground they were on and the brothers were separated by a large gap and fire. Steve shouted at Zardos calling him Niisan (big brother) and also Armstrong calling his name. Zardos looked shocked and said slowly to Armstrong, Otoosan (father), then the fire engulfed him. The battle was over. Armstrong was then the leader of Boazania. The Warp machine was implanted into Voltes V so it could Warp itself back to earth. Big Falcon-Solar Bird and Voltes V flew back to guard the Earth ...

The Boazanian Enemies

PRINCE
Prince Heinell (in Prince Sirius (in Italian version)

ZARDOS
Japanese version)

Commander-in-chief of the Boazanian Earth Invasion Forces.Heinell is a hard, high tempered guy, very much like Kenichi. He has no time for romance, and very loyal to Zuzanbazil, the emperor of Boazania. Zardos kidnapped earth people to work as slaves. He had a sad childhood. He never saw his father ...... and her mother died shortly after he was born. Zardos only knew that his father is a traitor. Because of his father, little Zardos was hated by his peers. That made him want to do the best to clean his name from his fathers stain. Later on, we found out that he is actually the son of Doctor Armstrong (Lagour) from his Boazanian wife Rozalia, so he is Steve's (Kenichis) big brother.

Draco
Gael in the Italian Jyangyaru Rui in the Japanese version version

Second-in-command of Boazanian Earth Invasion Forces. He is very loyal to Heinell. He used to work with Zuhl and often competed with him in making robots, but after Zuhl was punished to death for treason, he worked alone until laterBergan, a Boazanian Commander, came. He later killed himself in front of the Voltes team for being a failure to conquer earth.

Zandra

Kazarin Rii(in Japanese Kazarine (in Italian version)

Version

Robotics Adviser and Personal Adviser to Prince Zardos. Zandra died in Zardos' arms saying that she loves him. At that time, Heinell realized that he also loves her, but its all too late. Katherine saved Heinells life several times, i.e: by telling him about Zuhls and Zakis plan to kill him, by taking Heinell out of his destroyed castle to Boazan, and lastly by giving her own life to stop a an attempt on Zardos' life.

Zuhl
Military Adviser and Minister of Boazanian Ministry of Defense. He is a snivelling hunchback who will easily connive with either of the warring factions, depending on who has the upper hand. He was later executed by Prince Zardos for treason.

Emperor Zanbazil is the Emperor of the Boazanians. There was a competition between Zuhl and Draco in making tougher robots to beat Voltes V. When Zardos decided to attack Voltes V himself using a panther robot called Gargo, Zuhl--ordered by Zaki (a Boazanian Supervisor who wanted to kill Zardos) gave the Voltes team a blueprint of Gargo so they could learn its weak point. But Zandra found it out and later in several episodes, Zuhl was punished to death for trying to kill Prince Zardos. When fighting the Boazanian robot Daian, Commander Robinson was killed. To replace Zuhl, a Boazanian commander named Bergan was sent. He also didnt like Zardos but unlike Zuhl, he didnt do anything against him.

The AUTHOR and ARTIST of Voltes V

-The masters behind Voltes V Anime-

Combattler V, Voltes V, and Daimos are the "Nagahama Tadao Romance

also

known

as

Robot

Anime

Trilogy". They were created by Tadao Nagahama, one of the best

super robot anime creators in my opinion.
Not so many recognize him because of his early departure...he worked very closely with Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of Gundam, and other real robot anime like Ideon, Dunbine, and L-Gaim. Tadao Nagahama worked with anime such as Kyojin No Hoshi, and the later half of Yuusha Raideen (the first half was done by Yoshiyuki Tomino), which lead him to create the trilogy Combattler V, Voltes V adn Daimos. Afterwards, he worked on the first half of Daltanias, and later went into work on Rose of Versailles and Ulysses 33....he passed away after completing the first episode of Ulysses 33... His anime always had a very dramatic effect..and of course, some of the heavy stuff concerning slavery and prejudice between races...etc. Also, I found a beautiful quote from Mr. Nagahama:

"Up until now, when it came to robot anime, the battle scenes were its sales point, and the story concluded in one episode. Voltes V was a creation intended to go beyond that. I wanted to get behind the perspectives of the enemy to express their psychological aspects to the audiences. I also wanted to create some sort of blood relationship between the hero and its enemy. Previous animes have never dealt with social themes but in Voltes, I have presented a situation where there was prejudice between those who had horns and those who didn't. And I wanted to intigrate that situation into this epic saga. This work delves into the lives of different people. Since Prince Heinell's character was well written, it was possible for the audience to see things from his perspective. But that is not enough, take one step further. La Gour was enslaved because he did not have

horns. What would have happened if he didn't stand up for his cause? He risked his own life to fight for his cause, believing that there should be no slavery among their people. La Gour's agenda for life is just as worthy as that of Prince Heinell's. This work requires a lot of thinking from the audience. It would be grateful if this work be given some thoughts and applied to your own lives." --Nagahama Tadao, taken from Roman Album #14 Voltes V

The artist who originally designed the characters and Voltes V's mecha is Hijiri Yuki. He is very popular for the manga Choujin Rokku, which he currently still has been running on weekly manga magazines in Japan. He also designed for Combattler V and Daimos.