Voltes V Trivia

 

 

Voltes V Trivia
Looking through the windows of Big Falcon ...

 

  • COMPUTER VOICE :: The computer voice in Solar Falcon's command room in the Japanese version is male. In the Philippine English-dub, the voice is female.

  • LITTLE JOHN :: The name "Little John" came from the then newborn nephew of the show's owner in the Philippines back in the 1970's.

  • MARCOS ISSUE :: The cancellation of the show back in the 1970's in the Philippines was not because Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator of the Philippines, thought the show had messages of rebellion. It was cancelled because the TV station that aired it back then was the number one TV station in the country, beating the other 2 TV stations that were owned by the government. To negatively affect the ratings of the station that aired Voltes V, the dictator banned the airing of super robot anime, as well as other top rating TV shows like "Charlie's Angels", saying that the violent content had a negative effect on children. After the dictator was unseated in the famous "People Power Revolution" in 1986, Voltes V was shown again, but not entirely.

  • CAMEO :: Characters from NAGAHAMA Tadao's previous Super Robot Anime "Combattler V" were seen in Voltes V:
    • Jyuuzou NANIWA of The COMBATTLER V Team: was seen in episode #01 of Voltes V, sparring with GOU Daijirou. He attacked Daijirou with a sword but Daijirou defended himself successfully. He was the last one hit before Daijirou spun the "bo" staff like helicopter blades which hit everybody.
    • DR. NANBARA [Creator of COMBATTLER V] - he was seen as a UN ambassador who was on his way to Big Falcon to appeal to Chief Commander OKA not to resign. This was in the episode #31 where Chief Commander OKA died.


    Jyuuzou NANIWA in Episode #01
    "Bearded" Dr. NANBARA in Episode #31

  • HROTHGAR :: In the Philippine English-dub version, the name for La Gour is Baron Hrothgar. "Hrothgar" is a character in an old English story called "Beowulf".

  • NAMES :: Japanese version names origin:
    • BOAZAN: the Japanese pronunciation of "VOISIN", French word that means "neighbor".
    • HEINELL: a play of word of the English word "HIGHNESS", the word used to address royalty: "Your Highness".
    • KAZARIN: the Japanese pronunciation of the name "CATHARINE". The name derives from the Greek word "Katharos", meaning "pure".
    • ZUURU: from "ZULU", a South African tribe.
    • Jangal: a play of word of the English word "JINGO", meaning "person who combines excessive patriotism with contempt for other countries, especially one who supports a warlike policy".
    • LA GOORU: the Japanese pronunciation of "LA GAULE", French name given to describe a whole of areas ranging between the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean, the south of the Alps, the Rhine and the Ocean. It's known in English as "Gaul" (such as in "Asterix, the Gaul" comics). It seems no coincidence that La Gooru's secret rebel base was located in Alpine mountains.
    • ROSALIA: The name of La Gooru's wife is derived from English word "ROSARY".
    • SKY ROOK: "ROOK" is the English word for a chess piece that resembles a castle. So it's "Sky Castle" and indeed there's a castle sits on top of this gigantic horned skull spacecraft.
    • GODOR: the protector god of Planet Boazan. It's obvious that the name derived from the English word "GOD".

  • TAKKO-CHAN :: The name of GOU Hiyoshi's cute red octopus robot, "Takko", is actually the nickname of Director NAGAHAMA Tadao when he was a little kid.

  • YEAR OF INVASION :: According to the original scenario, Boazanian invasion happened in 1990. La Gour escaped from Boazan and flew to the Earth about 16 years before the invasion, that means in 1974.

  • RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ADULTS :: Dr. GOU Mitsuyo and Chief Commander OKA were classmates. Dr. HAMAGUCHI was the teacher of Dr. SAKUNJI, Dr. GOU Mitsuyo, and Chief Commander OKA.

  • CHARACTER'S HEIGHT PROPORTION :: In the production note, it's said that the height of GOU Kenichi and OKA Megumi is proportionally 7.5 times the height of their heads, while Prince Heinell's height is 8 times the height of his head. GOU Kenichi is 175 cm tall, Prince Heinell is 185 cm.

  • 52 EPISODES :: As we know, the anime series "Choudenji Machine Voltes V" spans in 40 episodes. It was broadcasted every Saturday from 04. June 1977 to 25. March 1978 at 18:00 to 18:30, started just one week after its predecessor, the anime series "Choudenji Robo Combattler V" ended on 28. May 1977. However, Voltes V was initially planned to be broadcasted until the end of June 1978 with the total of 52 episodes. So what happened? At that time, TV Asahi (the TV station that broadcasted the series) had a plan that starting from April 1978 they would introduce news programme every Saturday at 18:00 to 18:30 slot time, which unfortunately was Voltes's time slot. From the film maker's perspective, that means they had to end the series in March 1978 the latest, because eventually Voltes's time slot on Saturday would be replaced with news programme in April. Of course having Voltes V series terminated in the middle was not in the film maker's agenda. So in order to solve this problem, arrangements were made on the script so that the story ends in episode #40 as the last episode of the series, which was scheduled to be broadcasted on the last Saturday in March 1978.

  • BERGAN AND ZUURU :: General DO Bergan is related to DO Zuuru, the Boazanian advisor put to death by Prince Heinell for treason. They do share the same surname, and Bergan might be Zuuru's younger brother or cousin, but in the anime the relationship between them is not developed nor revealed.

  • THE SECRET OF NUMBER "8" :: Every Voltes episode which number has the number "8" is an important episode.
    • Episode #08: "A Conspiracy in the Underground Fortress"
    • Episode #18: "Father! The Earth is Near!!"
    • Episode #28: "Our Father, Gou Kentarou's Secret"
    • Episode #38: "Commence Sortie into the Universe!!"
    Just by watching these episodes, the entire plot of Voltes V story can be understood.

  • SASAKADO'S EARLY VOLTES TEAM CONCEPT :: When discussing the Voltes Team concept, Character Designer SASAKADO Nobuyoshi came up with this character sketch and name:

    From left to right: OKA Megumi, the little one: SHIRATORI Saburou, the big one: MINE Ippei, the one with soccer ball: SHIRATORI Jirou, and SHIRATORI Ichirou. Later, the surname of the trio was changed from "SHIRATORI" into "GOU" and there are some switching of the characters. Note: the surname "SHIRATORI" in Japanese means "white bird", the remnant of this concept is still reflected in the final movie in the shape of Big Falcon and the white dove symbol (La Gour's family crest) on Heinell / Rosalia's dagger.

  • CHOUDENJI :: The term "Choudenji" ("Super Electromagnetic") is copyrighted to Mr. NAGAHAMA, and can only be used to refer exclusively to terminologies in his works such as:
    • "Choudenji Machine Voltes V", in which Mr. NAGAHAMA was director: Choudenji Machine, Choudenji Ball, Choudenji Goma, Choudenji String, Choudenji Wave.
    • "Choudenji Robo Combattler V", in which Mr. NAGAHAMA was director: Choudenji Robo, Choudenji Yoyo, Choudenji Tatsumaki, Choudenji Spin.
    • "Mirai Robo Daltanias", in which Mr. NAGAHAMA was art director: Choudenji Eraser, Choudenji Arrowgun.

  • THE SECRET OF TENKUU-KEN :: The movements of Voltes V's attacks using the sword Tenkuu-ken are based on observing the members of "Mishima Sword Club" doing practice fight.

  • THE SECRET OF DESRAA :: Desraa is the archer beast fighter in Episode #25 "Suicide Attack!! Super Electromagnetic Ball". At the time the script was written, Japan was right in the middle of "Uchuu Senkan YAMATO" anime booming, which was aired by the rival TV station (TV Yomiuri). The resentment of the Voltes V design team resulted in the ugly design of Desraa, which was parodied from the evil character Dessler in "Uchuu Senkan YAMATO". In this episode #25, even Prince Heinell laughed at the ugly design of Desraa.


    The blue-faced archer DESRAA in episode #25 and the blue-faced DESSLER from "Uchuu Senkan YAMATO".

  • HAMAGUCHI :: The name of Dr. HAMAGUCHI originated from the mixing of the family names of Director NAGAHAMA Tadao and Script Writer TAGUCHI Shouichi.

  • PLANET BOAZAN :: Planet Boazan is located approximately 14,000 light years from Earth, in the direction of the star Antares of the Scorpius constellation, inside the Globular Star Cluster (Messier M4 NGC 6121). Within the radius of 1 light year, 5 fixed stars were formed and they are called "The 5 Suns". Around one of the stars which resembles the Earth's sun, a solar system was formed, and the 4th planet that revolves around it is Boazan. In planet Boazan, three continents were formed which nearly covered the ocean. The ocean has lavender color. Planet Boazan has no satellites, but for defense purposes, 2 artificial satellites were launched: Sodom and Gomorrah. Around the planet are double rings of swirling particles: one ring contains the positive-charged particles, the other negative-charged.

  • THE HORN CHROMOSOME :: First of all, the chromosome theory is the Earthling approach which tries to explain the heredity of the existence of horn in the Boazanian race using the simple Mendelian analysis. It seems that the existence of horn is determined by the genes in the dominant X chromosome. We know that the male chromosome pair is XY and the female is XX. The diagram below will show the horn determining X chromosome in red. Since the horn determining chromosome is dominant, if the red X chromosome exists in just one of the chromosome pair, the person will have horns.

  • AOI AKIRA :: The name of the lyricist who wrote the ending theme of Voltes V ("Chichi wo Motomete" - "Searching for Father") as well as that of Daimos ("Erika no BARAADO" - "Erika's Ballad") is listed as AOI Akira. "AOI Akira" is actually the pen name of Director NAGAHAMA Tadao.

  • A BOAZANIAN TAIL :: In the early character design concept of HIJIRI Yuki, the enemies were drawn having horns on their heads and a thick lizard-like tail on their buttock. Director NAGAHAMA Tadao was thinking to make distinction between enemy and friend, parent and child, and also younger and older brothers. He then later concluded that the "lizard tail" idea is unappealing but he agreed on "horns on head" idea. In the final anime, the remnant of that "lizard tail" idea can still be seen implemented on those Boazanian soldiers.

  • OPERATING VOLTES V :: Concerning the function controlling of Voltes V after Volting-in, each Volt Machine's role is strictly regulated into separated tasks such as: the one in charge in controlling does the controlling only and the one in charge in attacking does the attacking only. For example, GOU Kenichi's Volt Machine #1 is in charge of controlling the body of Voltes V using computer. When attacking, to give instruction to use a weapon, Kenichi may shout "Choudenji Goma!". When the weapon (in this case, the "Goma") is ready to be used, the one in charge of controlling the attack would be the Volt Machine #2's pilot, MINE Ippei. Consequently, if Kenichi were unconscious, Voltes V would become completely malfunctioning. This centralized system is different from its Super Robot predecessor, Combattler V, which implemented decentralization system in which each of its Battler Machine had a more balanced role in the functioning of the Robot. Even if AOI Hyouma (Combattler V's pilot) failed to command the Robot, each of 4 other team members would still be able to launch the weapon individually.

  • ALTERNATIVE HEINELL'S SCENE :: In the last episode of Voltes V (Episode #40: "The Crumbling Tower of Evil"), in the final scene of Prince Heinell, there was an alternative scenario.

  • VENGEANCE IN ENGLISH-DUBBED VERSION :: In the original Japanese version, there is no dialog nor plot that shows the main characters (both the good guys and the bad guys) swearing to avenge somebody's death. But in the English-dubbed version, some dialogs were altered so that they contain vengeance element. For example:

    Episode #28: when General Dange (General Watson) died right after he revealed the past of Dr. Kentarou (Dr. Armstrong), Kenichi (Steve) said:

    • [English-dubbed] "General Watson, your sacrifice will not be in vain! Thank you. Father has severe and tragic past, we will avenge your death."
    • [Original Japanese] "I never knew it before, but after listening to father's path of life, I realize there's Boazanian blood flowing in our veins!"

    Episode #31: when Chief OKA (Commander Robinson) died of beast fighter Daiand's attack, Megumi (Jamie) said:

    • [English-dubbed] "Father, I vow to avenge your death, I'll destroy that robot!"
    • [Original Japanese] "Father, please watch me, I will surely beat that armored beast fighter Daiand with my own hands!"

    Episode #37: when Prince Heinell (Prince Zardoz) wanted to fight Voltes himself, he said to Kazarin (Zandra):

    • [English-dubbed] "Draco is dead because of them, do you not understand, Zandra? Those despicable earthlings were responsible for Draco's demise. Our fallen comrades cry for vengeance. Aside!"
    • [Original Japanese] "I will not run away from my castle, Kazarin! I will defend this castle by fighting Voltes V, that's what I want to do, and now I have no other choice but to fight them myself. Aside!"


    Vengeance was put into Steve's, Jamie's and Prince Zardoz' mouth, but not into Kenichi's, Megumi's and Prince Heinell's.

    From the examples above, it's very clear that these vengeful dialogs in English-dubbed version were not the faithful translation of the original Japanese dialogs, since the matters of vengeance were never said at all in the original Japanese version. By deliberately altering the dialogs and inserting vengeance into them, the English-dubbed version deviates the moral values originally taught by the original Japanese version.

  • MEGUMI'S PANCHIRA :: "Panchira" in Japanese means "upskirt" or "showing panties", basically it's a term to refer to the event in which a girl's skirt unintentionally sways so that her panties are visible. In Japan this becomes a fetish and some people do watch movies looking for any panchira scene of their favorite actresses. OKA Megumi does have some panchira scenes in Voltes. From the whole 40 episodes, her panties are visible in these 4 episodes:

    Episode #03: "A Strategy Told by A Grave Post"

    		 Episode #09: "A Dream-Invited, Big Crisis"
    Episode #31: "Chief Defense Oka Falls into the Sky!!"

    		 Episode #32: "Jangal's Pursuit"

  • POLLING :: according to a polling done in 2000 in Japan :
    • THE MOST FAVORITE VOLTES V CHARACTER is Prince Heinell (59%). He beats GOU Kenichi whose votes were only 28%. The rest 13% was shared between MINE Ippei, RII Kazarin, OKA Megumi, and La Gour (Dr. GOU Kentarou).
    • THE MOST PITIABLE VOLTES V CHARACTER for female character it's Rosalia (the Boazanian wife of La Gour) with 58% votes, she beats RII Kazarin and Dr. GOU Mitsuyo (the Earthling wife of La Gour) both got 21%. For male character, it's Prince Heinell (85%) who beats the trio GOU brothers (10%) and Dr. GOU Kentarou (5%).
    • THE FATE OF PRINCE HEINELL : about 49% of the voters were glad that he found peace in his death (just like the movie scenario), while 51% were of opinion that it's better that he keeps alive no matter how bitter his life would be.
    • THE MOST LOVABLE CHARACTER OF NAGAHAMA TADAO'S WORKS : from all the characters in NAGAHAMA Tadao's anime works, the characters from Voltes V seem superior:
      • THE MOST LOVABLE HERO : GOU Kenichi from Voltes V (54%), beats HIBIKI Akira from Raideen (22%), AOI Hyouma from Combattler V (17%), and RYUUZAKI Kazuya from Daimos (7%).
      • THE MOST LOVABLE HEROINE : OKA Megumi from Voltes V (62%), beats NANBARA Chizuru from Combattler V (22%), Erika from Daimos (13%), and SAKURANO Mari from Raideen (3%).
      • THE MOST LOVABLE MALE ENEMY : Prince Heinell from Voltes V (85%), beats Garuda from Combattler V (7%), Commander Richter from Daimos (5%), and Prince Sharkin from Raideen (3%).
      • THE MOST LOVABLE FEMALE ENEMY : RII Kazarin from Voltes V (50%), beats Mia from Combattler V (45%), and Raiza from Daimos (5%).
      • THE MOST LOVABLE RIVAL HERO : MINE Ippei from Voltes V (51%), beats NANIWA Jyuuzou from Combattler V (35%), YUZUKI Kyoushirou from Daimos (9%), and JINGUUJI Riki from Raideen (5%).

  • THE AGE OF VOLTES TEAM MEMBERS :: at the time when the Voltes V story happened (1990), the age of both GOU Kenichi and MINE Ippei was listed as 15, GOU Daijirou was 13, GOU Hiyoshi was 8, and OKA Megumi was 14. These ages seem most likely to come from the preliminary concept as shown in SASAKADO Nobuyoshi's sketch (scroll up above to see it) which illustrates the characters to be very young, properly in these ages. But the final concept as shown in the released version clearly shows a significant change: all of the characters except GOU Hiyoshi seem to have their ages cranked up 4 or 5 years, so they appeared a lot more mature. In the released version, Kenichi and Ippei looked like they were 20 years old, Daijirou and Megumi about 17 to 18 years old, while Hiyoshi remained 8 years old.

    Thanks to Francis Ibanez, Kaseijin, and Frank Omarr for contributing to this page.

    If you have any comment, correction, or update, please kindly mail me
    Last updated on 11. February 2006

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