Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Pailsen Files #01 — The Other Kind of Hardcore

October 26th, 2007

 

Beefy men and gritty mechs.

Impressions:

Well… you know me and mecha. We have a mutual understanding. I don’t try to watch it, and no giant robots try to step on me. So far, it’s been a good arrangement for a long time and I’m loathe to change it. 

The oft-delayed VOTOMS: Pailsen Files finally got its first release of 6 DVD releases after only two and a half months of being pushed back. VOTOMS has been Sunrise’s answer to more gritty and serious mecha shows set in a universe far closer to the western Mechwarrior series than anything Japan has created in the recent past. As opposed to the big pink explosions, abundant fanservice and emotionally charged heroes and heroines of Gundam, the VOTOMS series is much darker and more focused on people actually engaging in war and the politics surrounding it. At the end of the day though, it’s still about giant mechanized -things- clubbing eachother to explosive ends.

That said, VOTOMS shows how CG should be done. Sunrise really outdid themselves in showing the battles with the mechas, the landing at the shore and that whole opening scene. All the CG is very well skinned as well as textured and the entire environment is rendered instead of the usual CG modus operandi (not pointing fingers at Gonzo or anything…) of haphazardly drawing generic background and then dropping their totally textureless CG creations into it creating a somewhat freakish juxtaposition of a low resolution but highly animated object placed on a highly detailed static image. As much as I like the feeling that I’m watching PSX era graphics, time has moved on and it’s nice to see somebody putting effort into their CG models and environements for once.

I’m done rambling about the merits and demerits of computer aided graphical work now. If you crave something more serious and less ridiculous than Gundam, definitely hit VOTOMS up. The first DVD release came with a second episode, but I can only really stomach one episode of ‘hard mecha’ per diem, so just consider it a nice extra.

No summaries for the first episodes. I write as I watch, and I don’t know if I’ll care about a show until after the first episode.

VOTOMS Pailsen Files OP

Posted in Anime | 3 Comments »

3 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Dorne says:
    November 1, 2007 at 7:50 pm

    I can’t believe my brother watches Gundam Seed over this u_u. Anyways, I applaud you for being the first English speaking person to review VOTOMS: Pailsen Files. Go Chirico!

  • V says:
    November 24, 2007 at 1:13 pm

    Hey, I share your agony at local modern Gundam garbage, but the older series that paved the way for much serious anime as a whole is still a lot of quality entertainment with a lot of historical (within the anime industry) value.

    After all Gundam is what changed it all. The only exception before that is Yamato, but it took 2 major features to get anime moving into a more mature direction that present day anime fans get to enjoy through more full fledges and explored themes.

  • Armour Hunter Mellowlink « The Animanachronism says:
    June 6, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    […] To compensate for recently giving in to the urge to write about Kaiba, I sought out a helping of big men, big guns and big robots: Armour Hunter Mellowlink, a spin-off OVA set in the same world as Armoured Trooper VOTOMS. ATV is an unusual franchise, and one with which I’m not too familiar. Aided by some fine people (who know who they are) I’ve acquired the original VOTOMS, but I’ve only dipped my toe into it so far. My only other VOTOMS experience is the first half of the Pailsen Files (ably introduced by Hidoshi, with more structured first episode summaries from Kaioshin-sama and at Tenka Seiha). […]