First of all Ivan, thanks for your detailed and impressive website about Voltes V.
I'm cuban, and exactly 22 years ago, near summer holidays, I was to the cinema to watch the "for kids only" Voltus V animated movie with my mom (I
completely forgot her since the lights went off and the music began). It was sensational, and I still remember with joy the feeling of seeing
something not of this world, but rather from another galaxy. People in Cuba made long lines of waiting at cinemas, grown-ups and children alike,
cinemas had had to allow for extra runnings. And after that, it was an explosion. I remember years later friends of mine that use to have fragments of
the reel of his hero, Voltus, which they carefully traded for only anything of high value. Not since Voltus V an animated movie has achieve total
success in Cuba, and I doubt anyone will. I was 8 years old, and one of my dreams of childhood was entering the cinema to see the "Second Part". This
month I will be 30 years old. It seems this childhood dream never will never come true or that I will have to remain a child forever. I prefer the later 8-).
The Voltus V movie came to Cuba via Panama/Venezuela/Mexico/WhoKnowsFromWhereItCame in the original japanese version and was dubbed by popular cuban
actors. The characters were named "Esteban", "Bert", "Juanito", "Mark" and "Yami". The rest of the cast were name-spanished too. Voltus fought 5
monsters in the movie: 1 - some insect at the begining of the invasion, 2 - a horned lionlike monster named "Bazanga" in the cuban dubbed version (who
panicks after Voltus raged because of the death of the mother of Mrs Armstrong), 3 - a wasp (pretty fast and humorous that also produce an stingsword,
my favorite), 4 - a hawk (whose feathers trapped Voltus in the air), and 5 - some punchbag monster obviously unable to match the continued fire of the
crew in their ships. Dr Armstrong managed to scape from "Planet Barzan" just to be captured again at the end of the movie.
The movie suffered of the "too-many-chapters-of-a-series-piled-in-a-movie" disease that every anime shown in Cuba has suffered, but not in it's
terminal state as the Mazinger Z or Cyborg 009 movies. Voltus V was in fact the first of a "regular" series of anime movies that were shown in Cuba
during the 80's. "Forget about the tv series, we have no money to buy them", that was the officially-unofficial statement (yeap, both at the same time)
of the state-run media network ICRT (which up to these very year used to have ... 2 chanels. Since this year (2002) we have ... 3!!!!). "Get used and
dream we someday managed to get the second part" that was the officially-unofficially statement of the state-run pictures distribuitor ICAIC. Of course
they never got it. They don't care about fans. And fans can't care about themselves in a country where everything is state-run, state-owned,
state-desired.
Cuban market is (in general, not only about anime) far away from consumer-oriented. So manga/anime, that part of mass culture of today is not
accesible at all from within the country as people outside Cuba frequently does. I suppose one day things will change ( I hope so very bad), and in
that case I expect to enjoy the whole tv series, no matter what it costs. But until that, well, I have to tell you this, this afternoon your website had
brought tears to my eyes. I finally knows how the story goes, and that there are people who really care about this big fucking red/black/blue/yelow
robot and his lasersword. It was encouraging to see the twists of the story (characteristic of anime) that my version of Voltus never had (Dr.
Armstrong being from Boazan for example, and having a child whose suffering made him hate those who are not like him), and also I deeply sorry that the
creator of Voltus no longer lives. But life, you have to live with a sense of creation awaiting for you on the next corner. Even when there are always some fellows (eg. Marcos or cuban "officers of Culture") who tend to ban or doesn't care about people,
creation itself is too strong for them to interpose. And I have in my childhood dreams since today not only Voltus (I will never name him Voltes,
sorry, but I think you will understand) but I also have, at least, my personal promise to myself that, someday, I will also enjoy Combattler, and
Daimos, together with Voltus, the "Nagahama Tadao Romantic Robot Anime Trilogy". Once again, thank you Ivan.
Best wishes, and keep your website up!
Leonardo M. Gala Echemendia
Cuba
20 Aug 2002 14:00:18
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