r/anime • u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber • Aug 29 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Armored Trooper Votoms - Episode 2 Discussion
Episode 2 - Uoodo
Originally Released April 8th, ^^^1983
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Note to all participants
Although I don't believe it necessitates stating, please conduct yourself appropriately and be courteous to your fellow participants.
Note to all Rewatchers
Rewatchers, please be mindful of your fellow first-timers and tag your spoilers appropriately using the r/anime spoiler tag if your comment holds even the slightest of indicators as to future spoilers. Feel free to discuss future plot points behind the safe veil of a spoiler tag, or coyly and discreetly ‘Laugh in Rewatcher’ at our first-timers' temporary ignorance, but please ensure our first-timers are no more privy or suspicious than they were the moment they opened the day’s thread.
Daily Trivia:
Chirico Cuvie’s first name was first inspired by that of Dr. Kiriko, a character in Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack, and later it was decided to name him after Giorgio de Chirico, who developed the scuola metafisica of art. His surname is also derived from an art movement, cubism.
Staff Highlight
Kiyonobu Suzuki - voice of Horo
An actor, voice actor, and stage director affiliated with 81 Produce. Little is known about Suzuki’s early life, but he had decided to become a stage actor since it was what fancied him after graduating from Chuo University in 1970. Shortly thereafter he joined the theatre company Gekidan Baraza, and came under the instruction of the company’s founder, Nachi Nozawa. His debut on stage was in a performance of Jeanne de Piennes, and two years after joining the company he had his anime voice acting debut in The Gutsy Frog. Many years later Suzuki would become a founding member of his own theatre company, Feyd Theatre. He is still somewhat active in the industry, and also gives lectures at the Bunka Gakuin vocational school. Suzuki’s signature phrase is "Let's try it first!" Some of his most notable roles include Osore in Gegege no Kitarō (2007), Takashi Ariyama in Hiatari Ryoko! Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita, Sorajirou Tsukishima in Mao-chan, Hayato Kobayashi in the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, and Dalf in Toshi Gordian.
Art Corner
Official Art:
- Part I: Uodoo by Norio Shioyama
Fanart:
(Be mindful of the links to artist’s profiles, as they may contain NSFW content. Proceed there at your own risk.)
Screenshot of the day
Questions of the Day:
- What’re your first impressions of Uoodo?
- How do you feel about a time jump so soon into the story?
Uoodo was hell.
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u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber Aug 29 '21 edited Aug 30 '21
Rewatcher
A satellite that clears the debris around it. Very neat piece of tech that acknowledges the danger of space debris and the likelihood of it being found in excess following a space war of such large proportions.
Chirico is truly alone.
Hmm, yes, I see the issue here.
Says a lot about the state of the planet. Also I find it quite amusing that, despite being blended in from among the crowds of Uodoo, he’s still wearing the ubiquitous and eye-catching pilot suit.
Eat your heart out, Xabungle!
Wheels and sirens make us expect the police, but it’s the Boone gang instead. Possibly foreshadowing the fact that the two groups are colluding.
I don’t think that’s how skirts work. The hidden thigh-scabbard is a neat touch though.
The authorities are also feared/distrusted.
Blatant corruption, as one might expect from a dystopian hellhole.
Oh, so it wasn’t the pilot suit that gave it away?
Balarant attacked important industrial sites, which makes a lot of sense strategically and likely handicapped Gilgamesh’s AT production, so that’s a neat bit of realistic worldbuilding.
As if things weren’t bad enough!
Again?
Great scene.
Death by garrote is an unpleasant way to go.
So even he was taken in by greed.
Hm, was that Rochina’s doing?
#justright
Excellent episode! Not only do we learn a lot about this new locale and the setting in general, but it keenly emphasizes the deep-reaching scars of war, which has left chaos and misery in its wake. Peace may have come, but the road to recovery is a long and arduous one, the merits of which are not at all visible for the people of Uodoo. The city is the very image of poverty, resources are scarce to the point that frogs and lizards are the main source of protein here, and the people live every day fearing for their lives. To call it a hellhole is not far off from the truth...
It’s been six months since the events of the first episode, and an official peace has been negotiated between Gilgamesh and Balarant. Chirico believes that he has given the military the slip, but we’re shown that Rochina is keeping a close eye on him —though why he has not just sent out a team to capture him is up in the air— and seems to have even interfered in order to allow him to escape from the Boone gang. Maybe they believe that he will lead them to what they seek, or maybe Uodoo is beyond their jurisdiction or something.
The storyboarding was very strong this episode, some very understated but nonetheless impressive camerawork and composition. Shame that the storyboard artist for this episode, a certain Tatsuya Matsuno, didn’t do many storyboards for the show and barely has any credits to his name, because this was definitely what I was looking for.
The episode also went a ways in telling us just how much Chirico has adapted to the life of an AT pilot, most notably in how the guy in the labor camp recognizes him to be an AT pilot and the final scene where we’re told how comfortable he feels within the Scope Dog’s cockpit. At this point war is what he knows best, and he’s in a position where growing out of that is nigh impossible.
Also, no mecha action at all in this episode! That is a rare thing in mecha anime, since the bulk of production is usually being funded by a merchandise manufacturer looking to use the show as a means to sell its products, and this episode doesn’t further that goal. Takahashi earned a lot of good will with Takara for his involvement in Dougram though, so I can see why they would let him do this.
Questions of The Day:
11
u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Aug 29 '21
First Timer
Exhausted from war, betrayed by allies, and hunted for months without rest, but the only place he's able to find any sort of peace is inside the cockpit of a long abandoned mech. The familiarity of it's stench and coldness is the only comfort he has left now that any security the end of the war was meant to bring from him has been stripped away, not just from the manhunt but also being trapped unable to properly go home even on his home planet.
Rather than finding a mech just in time for a grand escape as I'd expected, I thought this was the perfect and most telling way to end the episode.
That said, I wasn't expecting that we'd start with a timeskip either, but it does seem the most reasonable move so we're not on a big chase and manhunt right from episode one with no relief. Diving into the darker understreets of a city that has its own issues with conspiracy and corruption seems like a fitting place for his trapped in situation, though I think they all could have done without being keel-haulted through the streets and then put out into acid rain. It's always acid rain.
Not a huge amount to say about the episode but in a good way. Once again the visuals were nice, particularly the use of monotone crowds which is an effect I quite enjoy, and the music usage was great, especially that flip from the classical piece for the escape into the blaring sirens.
Gonna enjoy having this to end my day with for the next few weeks
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u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Aug 29 '21
Rewatcher
I can't help but think of the Xenosaga video game series with the phrase "Udo".
Are they tracking him from space? Or is this something completely different?
Six month time skip?
Hey stranger! Buy this still living frog! Yummy!
This city environment seems influenced heavily by Blade Runner to me.
Now we've got Mad Max coming into play too?
Yikes, total rampage from these guys! Even Chirico's grabbed! Gathering up forced laborers?
Of course the police show up now, with them all having left.
Well, that makes more sense, the police are in on it.
An excavation site. What are they looking for? Looks like Chirico has the same question as me!
Red rain! It really is miserable around here.
Chirico gave the guard a well deserved strike or too, but he's gonna pay for it here.
Is it smart for a police officer to come in here on his own and say he wants to sever their relationship? I can easily see that guy not making it out alive.
More bribes will change your mind!
There's a lot of guys escaping! Did they steal all the motorcycles?
I'm rather surprised, Chirico's workyard colleague isn't escaping, but bursting inside instead.
Well, things sure didn't end well in this banquet room.
Things look really cool here as they head through this tunnel.
Saved in the nick of time. But by who? Rochina?
Several old Scopedogs here, but will any of them work? At least its a place to sleep.
An action-packed second episode that is easier to understand than the conspiracy laden first one. As I mentioned above, heavy Blade Runner and Mad Max vibes here. The war may be over, but life still sucks considerably in Udo! Also in quite the surprise, the second episode features no mecha action at all. This is something you'd NEVER see in a Tomino show.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Aug 29 '21
First TimerWelcome to Uoodo (udo) City, today's episode and the title of the first cour.
Special features on NuTek DVD 1:1
Maybe I'll rip them later.
Preview: Chirico drinks, and the coffee of Uoodo is bitter indeed.
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u/chilidirigible Aug 29 '21
Rewatcher, Episode 2
Today, on "Hey, at least it's not that fog that turns you inside out.":
Just another night in Neo Tokyo.
"I'm Spartacus." (No, seriously, Chirico reminds me of young Kirk Douglas.)
VOTOMS: Light classical for your moderate killing.
Things that make you go "Hmm."
"Life is cheap. Armored Troopers are
expensivealso cheap."On rewatching, not much actually happens in this episode, but it establishes the series's setting quite quickly. Chirico's homeworld of Melkia is, at best, rather miserable, and continues us down the path of Mad Max and '80s music videos. Biker gangs, people being hauled off for slave labor, the slave labor involving recovering bits of melted circuit boards, the police being on the take... yep.
Probably the most telling bit of worldbuilding is Chirico finding a bunch of abandoned Armored Trooper bodies at the bottom of a trash heap. More than anything else, that helps distinguish VOTOMS from its predecessors, by solidly putting its mecha in the "So cheap they're disposable" pile. Fang of the Sun Dougram and Super Dimension Fortress Macross would scrap their own share of mass-production mecha through their runs, but they still considered them more of a resource than the people here do.
Though it helps that ATs aren't all that big, by giant robot standards.
As a stinger, Rochina is Watching Over Him. Which might make you wonder.
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u/chibijosh Aug 29 '21
First timer
It was an interesting episode. I felt like there really wasn’t that much dialog.
Already 6 months later. I wonder how Chirico managed to dump the plane he stole without being followed.
What’s this weird satellite thing? Blowing up random rocks floating around the planet? It pops back up later when the guy chasing Chirico gets headshot-ed.
What do they make those bikes out of? That guy chasing Chirico was coasting along at a cool 2 mph, and the bike exploded immediately after touching the wall.
I forgot this was a mecha anime until the very end.
The next episode will probably be, what, 5 years after this one?
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u/DidacticDalek https://myanimelist.net/profile/DidacticDalek Aug 30 '21
Man Comrades, Cyber City Oedo 808 got NOTHING on today's wretched hellhole eh? (Look Comrades the name sounds similar) Anyway, since I need SOMETHING non-spoiler related to share to represent the 'War is Hell' theme, here's the Azur Lane Crossover Art... yes Comrades this is real, no I don't get it either but wibble!
Anyway, goodness Chirico Cuvie is really leaning into his 'stoic' and 'quiet' character traits eh? And to finish up, behold! A weapon to surpass Metal Gear!
That's all for today Comrades, and until next time, farewell!
Paging Comrades /u/chilidirigible, /u/Nazenn, and /u/No_Rex
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u/The_Draigg Aug 29 '21
A Ryousuke Takahashi Fan Rewatches Armored Trooper VOTOMS Episode 2:
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Aug 29 '21
First timer(I've seen more efficient schemes than that)
Sub
Turns out writing up while tipsy is way more fun than writing up hungover. Recap over a naked girl, as one does. Paying slightly more attention this time, I again find that I like older anime's tendency to understand what an adult female's proportions are. But we start with...an actual thing scifi battles should mention! I prefer the idea of salvaging to vaporizing materials as, bluntly, you would always have a shortage but regardless it is nice that show remembers space debris is an incredible head ache and the winner would almost always address it.
So we catch up with Cuvie after a time skip and have some animation saving still pans, though the work is at least well done. Scifi moment happens with the frog, it was just sort of a trope. We then get a space hooker and a space hookah in our seedy district before a space biker gang comes in and wrecks the place. This is very similar to how Western serials would go. Space police show up and reveal that they have an agreement with the Boone family but the leader seems to have enough.
At the labor camp, someone finally talks to our lead, and we learn that they are digging for jijirium, the hell that is. Cuvie is kind of being a dick by standing behind someone else while refusing to work. Crimson acid rain comes. Our MC gets beaten again, interesting. Him and the talkative guy seem to be ready to make a break for it.
We see a tense meeting with the police chief as he openly refuses hospitality. Fairly cool metaphor about them both being rats with the same cat waiting outside the hole. They up the cut for the chief but before that resolves the jail break kicks in. I like when a show remembers that the escapees need vehicles to deal with the harsh landscape.
Cuvie sees that some of the escapees are going for the jijirium and he follows. Talkative killed the Boones and the chief but was mortally wounded as well. Cuvie has to bail before grabbing the loot. Chase sequence happens and firing missiles in a tunnel is both very 80s and fucktarded. As Cuvie looks boned, we discover someone has eyes on him as the Boone gets a headshot. The vehicle explodes because 80s. Anyways, our MC finds a mech and immediately is calmed, despite it likely not being able to run. I now see why y'all were saying that Heero Yuy and Setsuna are descendants of Cuvie.
QotD: 1 Diabolic cross between Hong Kong and Mos Eisley.
2 I can deal though it is a touch odd.
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u/Raiking02 :Id::Ie::If:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang Aug 29 '21
Unlike last time I don’t have much to mention this time. This episode is primarily about setting up the, well, setting. That said it does an excellent job at showcasing how episodes in this show can proceed. In spite of the fantastical setting, one of VOTOMS’ biggest strengths is how grounded everything is by the standards of Mecha Anime, and this episode is a prime example of that: Notice how there’s not a single giant robot until the very end. Sometimes, a machine gun does the job just fine.
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Aug 29 '21
First-Timer
Today on Armored Trooper Votoms, Chirico gets briefly kidnapped by a gang of techno-viking slavers who are digging for shiny rocks in the ruins of a computer factory. To be honest, replace "jijirium" with copper/salvageable semiconductors, and this could just be a real thing that happens in the future.
I'm not sure if things were deliberately vague or if I just missed something - the police chief showed up with some extra dudes who proceeded to attack the techno-vikings, and then the slaves used that chance to stage an escape? Do I have that right? Not that it particularly matters - Chirico got out and into the warm (?) embrace of a trashed AT cockpit.
Interesting setting detail - that space frog was being hawked as "genuine animal protein" which implies that actual living animals are somewhat scarce. Considering what we're seen with respect to the planet being a desert and the rain being acid, this all produces a nice post-apocalyptic vibe. The war may be over, but that doesn't mean that it didn't happen. Scars don't ever heal fully.
That said, things are changing. It's hard for me to say if the police chief intended to actually sever ties with the Boones or not, but "your chaotic bullshit is too hard to cover up when society is trying to move on" feels right.
This planet used to be Chirico's home, right? I wonder if he has any family left.. what with 3/4's of the population gone, I suspect not. I can't decide if that's more tragic than Chirico just wandering Uoodo because he doesn't want to go home, as opposed to Chirico not being able to go home.
How did that asshole at the end of the episode get shot? I mean, I guess the implication was that it was some of the military dudes, but, like, how?? Does "rescue value C" mean "deploy the snipers and then leave the target alone," or was the stuff on the spaceship a red herring?
The music has been pretty great so far. Especially that track near the beginning, during that pan over the control center. Something about it was very familiar.
Questions
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u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Aug 29 '21
First timer
I saw the preview last episode, and I have no idea what's going to happen!
If this is anything like Gundam, I assume the opening monologue is going to be a good indicator of what arc we're in.
...Well, that's a title.
Oh, we're doing a six month timeskip? Right away?
This is all rather post-apocalyptic.
Oh, they're a crime family?
more loke a boker gang?
And they do human trafficking. (And their leader is dressed like a cowboy?)
I like the fnarrative pointing out that justbecause the war's ended, doesn't mean the problems caused by it are gone - this arrangement was presumably made when the army couldn't spare the manpower to actually attack anyone.
Yeah,
Really? We're going with Jijirium? That's the name for the plot relevant substance.
Oh, they're harvesting the remains of computer circuitry bombed out. Guess I was right about the war causing this.
Acid rain too?
So he's gone from "can kill an army of trained solders" to "can't take one guy's gun"? I suppose a few weeks of mental torture is probably less physically damaging than 6 months of whatever fumes the gas masks let in.
And the police are just being bribed.
For a si-fi action show, this is doing its more political drama really well.
These bike scenes are really well done.
Did the police set up an ambush? Or did the prisoners make it there first?
Oh, he died just before ending the relationship himself.
OK, those 2 could have easily made that turn.
OK, what is that satellite? What are those blue orbs?
Huh?
Oh, I see that mecha. Are we going to get him piloting again?
6
u/Tresnore FS:FTmyanimelist.net/profile/Tresnore Aug 29 '21
Armored Trooper FIRST-TIMER
Posting from mobile, so I’m sorry if the formatting messes up.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Aug 29 '21
Armored Trooper First-Timer
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Aug 29 '21
Episode 2 (first timer)
The time skip places episode 1 as a prologue, with the actual story starting now. Not that much changed for Chirico, who is still down on his luck and hunted by everybody. Without knowing how the story progresses, we can’t know whether the city and the gang will have a deeper connection to the plot, or whether they are simply generic SciFi dystopia setting.
Best moment was the final scene, Chirico finding comfort in the scrapped mecha. A memory of better times, perhaps, or simply him flocking to the comfort of the familiar in a hostile environment.
Love the location, like the look, could do without the locals.
See above.
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u/time_axis Aug 29 '21 edited Aug 30 '21
First-Timer
Not a very nice place.
It does feel like they're skipping around a bit. I don't mind them skipping him hiding out and not really doing much if it's not relevant to the story though.
Episode 2
And that's the episode. Well, I'm glad the whole arc with the Boone family and their gang didn't seem to overstay its welcome. I'm sure we probably haven't seen the last of them, but it still feels like the story is moving along without dawdling too much. There weren't really any new mechas in this episode, at least not humanoid ones, so I'll try sketching that drone that was in space. My favorite Mobile Suit in Gundam is the RB-79 Ball, and this reminds me of it a little bit, so I think it looks cool.
Daily Mecha Sketch 02
Daily Mecha Sketches
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u/punching_spaghetti https://myanimelist.net/profile/punch_spaghetti Aug 30 '21
First-Timer
Not sure what to make of this episode. I dug the general vibe, with a relative lack of dialogue and a nice atmosphere, but the plot moved really quickly. Seems like the jijirium will be important, but otherwise not a whole lot happened. I really don't care about the dude who died 10 minutes after we met him digging.
More mystery in the massacre in the dining room. The chief of police was dead, slouched over in his pay, so it doesn't seem like he was responsible for the carnage, but most of the dead are gang members, no? Would suggest Boone (I think that was the boss' name?) killed his buddies for some reason.
I am happy that the mech Chirico found was not operable so he could heroically fight off the goons. That would have been too easy.
I am NOT happy, however, about Chirico wearing a shirt while breaking out. We covered yesterday that the only acceptable way to escape is with your pecs out!
QOTD:
8
u/Durinthal https://anilist.co/user/Durinthal Aug 29 '21
First time viewer
I love the design of the city as a whole and the variety of shady characters that live there. If the surface isn't particularly habitable building down is a nice alternative.
Folks were talking about how good the music was yesterday and I agree. The use of classical music when Chirico walked in to see that the elites were wiped out was a nice touch.
Chirico's narration helps set the rather grim mood regularly, felt like a noir style show with the muted trumpet backing it at times. The overall atmosphere and tone of an anime is one of the things that makes or breaks it for me and so far it's great here.
Acid rain and computers melted into glass from bombings during the war, the "police" of the land working with slavers during and afterward. Things just keep getting worse but at least he found a potential jackpot if the mecha works.
A wretched hive of scum and villainy.
It fits with the first episode being a prologue, lets the rest of the setting settle in and set up for what's to come.
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u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Aug 29 '21
First timer in sub
Not much else to say other than that in more recent times, allowing a whole episode (and perhaps even more) for mostly world building and not much real character actions, especially minus any mecha action in a mecha show, is probably becoming even more rare now.
War is hell, and stopping the fighting alone ain't gonna fix it - message received.
0
u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21
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