Since I'm in a nostalgic mood today--for Voltes V--I better make the 1st entry I had in more than a year about my experience 10 years ago; the time when the Filipino fandom of this iconic mecha reached its climax (no, not THAT, you green minded folks), as the theatrical release of the last 5 episodes was launched, both literally and figuratively, giving an entire generation; no, make that two; closure over how it will all end.

It was about 4 days before my 16th birthday when my dad and I went to SM North EDSA, the SM nearest to our place, to watch the aforementioned movie. We expected the queues to be gone right after the 1st screening, but wonder of wonders, they're still there, although not as long as the ones I saw from the media coverages. It's really easy to attribute it it to plain hype/marketing, but let's face it; the magic of Voltes V was still alive and kicking.

When we finally got in, the whole theater was teeming with kids running around and teens animatedly chatting amongst themselves; not the more subdued adults that I'd expect would be the main demographic of the generation that this cartoon had captured the hearts of. But maybe, the kiddos were just curious about what exactly made this show tick that it had their older folk go crazy over it in the same way that they're digging the current batch of various anime that were airing at that time. We hitched our wagons at the nearest vacant seats and found ourselves surrounded by a whole gang of teenage boys and a family of five(or six,I can't recall), with whom my dad was a bit annoyed with when the show finally started, as they kept on saying offhanded remarks and incessantly pointing their laser penlights at the widescreen. I think that may just be attributed to youthful restlessness and lack of focus; because as the movie progressed to the meatier details (Voltes team finally locating and facing off the heavily fortified Boazanian Underground Castle; Zardoz gets deserted by his allies except for Zandra and Draco; the latter committing seppuku later on; Voltes team racing against time to disarm a planet-busting bomb), the predominantly young audience fell silent as they, along with me, was riveted by the serious, yet frenetically paced story, as the war itself was brought to the enemy planet's home court and witnessed what the French Revolution might have been if it was set in the future and features more advanced weaponry. As the rebels and Earth attack forces succeeded in bringing down the tyrannic rule with no less than the titular robot himself, the audience threatened to return to their previously detached, indifferent state when the Armstrong brothers finally reunited with the father that they spent the whole run of the show emo-ing after; the smart-alecky teens around me went in Tagalog, "don't believe him! He's just a robot!!", obviously referring to one such incident in one of the previous episodes. But I suspected that a lot in the audience were just putting up a noisy, sarcastic front to cover the fact that they're friggin' touched by that scene. Dang you, Western tough-guy culture for turning us into hypocrites. Before I digress, though, the audience was brought back to rapt attention when whoa, here's another mecha to challenge the mighty Voltes V for the last time. As the two mechas damage each other, and the scene suddenly shifts to the final duel between Steve and Zardoz (who piloted the said other mecha); the whole thing fulminated in that moment when Dr. Armstrong did the "Luke...er,...Zardoz, I'm your father!!" line. An awed hush settled, at least for those who didn't have prior knowledge of what was just revealed. The silence was briefly broken when some kid blurted out, again in Tagalog, "No wonder he can't defeat Voltes V! He's fighting against his own father's invention!!" But despite that the audience can't help but stare silently at the screen as the formerly hated, arrogant prince was bought down to his knees wailing, for he had lost everything just for fighting his own family, the family he never thought he had. Equally haunting was Steve's blank, glazed stare; who was just as shell-shocked at this revelation, gazing at his former enemy turned brother and instead of the expected hysterical denial, he showed sympathy as he stammered, "Brother..." Although this all too dramatic moment was interrupted by the now deposed emperor turned madman, this only led to an even more epic level of drama when the grenade that the said madman exploded; Zardoz shields Steve from the explosion but the rock beneath them splits apart and the former gets engulfed in the resulting flames. At the exact moment that the rock split apart and separated the two brothers, the audience gasped--yes, Filipinos can get THAT caught up in a story that they care about so much--and settled to another awed hush as they witnessed the Armstrong brood desperately call out to their estranged kin that was about to leave them again, sadly for good; and the prince, in tears, repentantly acknowledged them and as someone wrote before me, "accepted his fate for he knows that he had given them too much grief to stand by them as a member of their family." Add to that the sheer irony that he just saved the life of the person that he tried to kill several times before; and you've got an instant woobie [link] that will be burned in the collective memories of the Filipinos. I swore by my vintage Raijin-oh figure that I actually heard a few around me stifle their sobs. I was no different from them either; this was one of the rare occasions that I actually clasp a hand over my mouth for watching an emotionally wrenching scene. So stricken am I from the death scene that the whole thing about Dr.Armstrong becoming the new emperor of Boazania and the emancipation of the hornless class was nothing more than a postscript of the bitter struggle that involved a meaningless death.

As a side note though; this [link] is supposed to be the alternate scenario of the aforementioned "death scene", although it was much, MUCH more melodramatic, it was more effective at resolving things and eliminating ambiguities--there was a BODY to be buried, for crying out loud! But I wonder if the ending will have the same effect if the alternate was used instead?

As the credits rolled, we walked out of the theater, as I was also in the blank stare that I described Steve was wearing before. I was satisfied with the ending; family got reunited and both worlds are at peace, although it's hinted that the Voltes team is not about ready to retire yet at that point. But all my thoughts were centered on that villain who got his ridiculous dub name from some obscure British flick (that might've explained the faux British accent). He may have done a lot of things that a lot of people would consider unforgivable, and there are others who insist that he's a war criminal who just got what he deserves; but to me and several others, he was just a tragic figure; bound by honor, traditions and the culture of his land, and a desire to be accepted; a culture that is doomed to collapse as surely as his life did; used as a pawn against his own kin and realized the futility of what he's fighting for when it was too late. Yes, he was, as I said in a poem [link] I composed for him then that eventually got published in the Junior Inquirer, "a little boy who committed a big and painful mistake". Besides, whoever said that suicide is romantic, anyway? Those thoughts were the reason why my favorite mushroom laden burger that we had right after the movie didn't really taste as good as before.

Thought of the day: Anyone up for a full-blown theatrical/musical reincarnation of Voltes V?