Now viewable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6MOz2M_Gvs
As well as: https://archive.org/details/srb-77-voltes-v-transcript
One thing I really dig about a lot of kid's media from 60s/70s Japan is that they predate the invention/adoption of many modern conventions. Some of this comes from simple values dissonance (the past is a foreign country, and foreign countries are also foreign countries) but some of this is from the simple fact that these were some of the first children's cartoons produced in Japan. This was all new stuff. Not everything had been figured out yet, and there was much more willingness to play around.
(Or, more cynically, merchandising concerns were different and artists could get away with more.)
Voltes V starts as a pretty typical super robot show, given that the genre itself was only established some short years ago. A lot of the more outright bizarreness from previous cartoons seems neatly sanded down. But then about midway through the story starts revolving less and less around the good guy robot beating the bad guy robot and more around the political intrigue between the villains and their rebellious enslaved laborers. The team of good guy robot pilots then takes time out of their busy day to overthrow the monarchy.
It made very enjoyable television.
Some thoughts about making this video essay below:
When I made my first Super Robot Blueprint video (almost four years ago, now...) I was nervous about putting my work up publicly online. I knew my work didn't have the quality of many of the other channels, and I knew my freshman production was rough. I took some comfort in the fact that the shows I was covering had an English speaking fanbase that could fit in a single greyhound bus.
I'm not sure I have that luxury with this one. Voltes V is a well known and well regarded show, thanks to some fascinating circumstances regarding it's dubbed release in the Philippines.
That said, I am mostly very happy with how this came out! (Although I did have to cut some fun moments to appease youtube's copyright management algorithm...) I think I've gotten a much better handle on how to produce a good script, as well as how to showcase a cartoon. I think I've gotten my voiceover sounding quite a bit better than in my previous stuff as well!
I attribute much of my improvement to stumbling onto @ErynCerise 's MahouProfile series, which did something quite similar to what I wanted to do with Super Robot Profile and did it fantastically better. I discovered her the very week after I finished my Combatter V video, and I was so upset I hadn't watched them sooner. I remember thinking, "oh, so this is how I should have made my videos! If only I had known!"
Check out her channel on youtube!
I definitely need to give a shout out to my pal @kazeugma 's work as well. If you're following me then you're probably already well aware of his excellent work, but his videos on Bravely Second and Omori cannot be overpraised.
I also need to mention him because I remember him joking that whenever he started working on a video essay for a game its producers would announce a sequel ... and while I was working on my latest video the Filipino media network GMA announced a live action sequel? remake? reimagination? of Voltes V, this time with relationship drama.
What the fuck..?
Anyways, my video essay is finally fucking done. I rest now.