Generation Voltes V: Japanese robot anime and the fall of the Marcos regime
Illustration by Richard Baron Reyes in ArtStation.
There’s a Voltes V exhibition at UP Bulwagan ng Dangal. I will drop by on Saturday after visiting my optometrist. In the meantime, here’s a repost of an essay I wrote for Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People, a ten-volume collection published by the Reader’s Digest on the occasion of the Centennial of Philippine Independence in 1998. The essay was based on a column I’d written years earlier, which in turn was based on one of those meandering conversations with Roby Alampay that turned into material. (Disclosure: I never watched Voltes V because everyone was so ga-ga about it. That is how I misspelled “Boazanians”. Much later, I met the voice actor who did the English dubbing for Prince Zardoz.)
Click on image to enlarge.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 1st, 2018 at 13:18
Still have that essay with your signature on it! If there’s one thing the post-Marcosian administrations learn the most is to never ever cancel the most popular tv shows even these are deemed unpopular to the people on power. Proud to teach that one in my Philippine History class!
June 1st, 2018 at 14:32
Thanks, wangbumaximus21! Posted it because I’ve come across some articles mentioning the anime-Edsa connection but not my essay. Oh well, they must’ve thought it up independently.