Recap: Voltes V: Legacy, Episode 6 – Takeover

Dr. Smith introduces the five ships that make up Voltes V: Crewzer. Bomber, Panzer, Frigate and Lander. Each Volt Machine will be piloted by one of the cadets. But only five of them will get the responsibility. The rest of the initiative-taking cadets can work for the support team or potentially be an alternate pilot.

Jamie, Bert, Steve and Mark immediately take the double initiative and step forward to present themselves as the right candidates for the roles. Dr. Smith applauds them, but says all of them will undergo intense training to ultimately determine the Final Five Voltes V pilots.

The cadets begin their selection training. First up is the sniper training course. Bert only hit the target once. Ava and Mark have excellent scores while Steve has a perfect score, as usual daw.

Steve asks Lt. Somera to excuse him and Ava from the rest of sniper training so they can focus on other training classes. Mark speaks up to say, if that’s the case, the privilege should be extended to the rest of them too. For example, Jamie should be exempted from martial arts training since she is the best in the class there. And Mark should be exempted from horseback riding since he’s #1 there too.

Steve smirks and asks Mark if he has a problem with what he said. Mark says he just wants him to be fair. Not to take advantage just because his family are bigshots at CBF.

Steve says at least he’s not a pakialamero and that he gets along with everyone here. Jamie tells both of them to stop. Lt. Somera orders them to quit it and not to continue this nonsense outside of training. They are all dismissed.

Mark intentionally bumps into Steve as he walks away. Steve calls Mark an asshole, but Bert and Ava stop him from chasing after Mark

Meanwhile on the more interesting planet, HrothNed finally reaches Boazan. Zambojil heads to the defense command center where Oslack informs him of the strange ship that has entered Boazan’s orbit. He says their system initially did not detect an anomaly because the ship appears to be part of their old fleet.

Zambojil seems to know who this could be. Oslack says he has already sent troops to capture this potentially hostile arrival.

HrothNed walks through the capital’s marketplace, but is immediately found by the soldiers. They attempt to take him into custody, but HrothNed fights them off with some subtle help from a few slaves who are excited to see they might have someone on their side.

The soldiers have called Prince Zardoz to come and confront this supposed stranger. He scoffs at HrothNed not having any horns and calls him a maligno. Zardoz demands to know who HrothNed is, but HrothNed also demands to know who Zardoz is and why he is called a prince.

Zardoz says he is indeed the son of an emperor and the sole heir to the throne.

Zardoz demands to know where HrothNed has come from. But HrothNed refuses to answer that. They face off with their swords with everyone else looking on. Zardoz is able to disarm HrothNed who compliments his skills, saying he must have inherited it from someone.

More soldiers arrive, but HrothNed throws a cloth on them and manages to run off. Zardoz calls his soldiers “idiots” and they chase HrothNed up to the cliffs outside of the capital.

HrothNed pauses before leaping off the cliff and into the raging waters below. Zardoz and his soldiers throw explosives into the water with Zardoz cursing HrothNed to sure death.

Zardoz reports to Zambojil, saying he has most likely killed the stranger he believes to be a slave. Baron Zander adds that they have secured the spaceship and confirmed that it was one of the ships that was used to escape the planet during the brief slave rebellion. They’ve found that some parts are missing, however.

Zambojil believes this confirms Hrothgar is alive and has returned. Zardoz is taken aback to hear that was his father. But Zambojil is more concerned with where Hrothgar has been, what he is doing back and why are there missing ship parts.

Baron Zander says they believe Hrothgar has been to a planet not part of the Star Empire. Zambojil says he will punish whatever planet that may be. But for now, his focus is on punishing Hrothgar. That is, if he isn’t already dead at the hands of his own son.

Zardoz tries to comprehend the idea of having killed his own father.

Zambojil turns on the brainwashing and tells Zardoz to remember what Hrothgar did to him and his mother and all of Boazania.

Zardoz is sure he has killed Hrothgar.

Back to Earth, Little Jon is showing his best friend Dr. Smith a new invention of his. Dr. Smith thinks Little Jon is a true child genius and says he will support him no matter what. Little Jon, however, wants to undergo training like his brothers. Especially with how to fly a jet fighter. He is great at flight simulator games and believes that he can do whatever his brothers can.

Dr. Smith tells his best friend that this is not a game though. Anyone who graduates from the academy will eventually embark on important missions to protect Earth. But Little Jon says he’s not playing games. He is serious and wants to do what his brothers do.

Mama Mary Ann comes in just as Dr. Smith gives in to his best friend to give it a try. She reminds Dr. Smith that they have already talked about not allowing Little Jon to also undergo training. Little Jon tries to protest, but Mama Mary Ann says she is not talking to him. She asks assistant Vanessa to take Little Jon out of the room.

Dr. Smith tries to plead Little Jon’s case, saying he is as much of a genius as Ned was. His advanced intelligence puts him well ahead of the rest, so why not give it a try. Mama Mary Ann refuses, saying Little Jon is only a child. He does not want to put her son in danger.

Dr. Smith reminds Mary Ann that Ned left Little Jon in his care until he returns. But Mary Ann says she is mother and what she says goes. She asks Dr. Smith to respect her decision.

After Dr. Smith leaves, Mary Ann is in deep thought as she looks at the photos of her sons on her desk.

Back on the more interesting planet, Zambojil tells Zardoz that his first mission to command his own armada is ready. He tells Zardoz that they will immediately depart Boazan on a quest to conquer planet Earth, one of the last planets yet to fall to their empire. Accompanying him will be General Draco and General Zandra as well as General Zuhl who is currently putting the finishing touches on the technology they will use on their mission.

Episode Thoughts

Okay, so right of the bat, the training scenes are actually the least interesting part of this episode for me. Like, everything else was much more interesting and dynamic, relatively speaking. It also doesn’t help that the characters involved in those scenes were annoying, but we’ll get to that nitpicking in a little bit.

Let’s start first with nitpicking on the more interesting planet, Boazan. Now, again, obviously Voltes V: Legacy is going to feature a lot of tweaks to the original anime’s story. Things will get moved around. Some things will be omitted while lots more things will be added. (I mean, there’s double the episodes, after all.)

But it’s really interesting to see the show decide to do the big Zardoz reveal so early in the series. I can’t help but feel it has actually been really underwhelming. When actually the idea of Zardoz being Hrothgar’s son should be a major OMGWTF moment. Especially if it involves a father and son face off. And later on, brother vs. brother battle.

For a newbie to Voltes V like me, I had no idea about the Zardoz-Hrothgar connection until they revealed (in the episode preview!!!) that Rozalia was not only alive, but gave birth. Right then, I assumed the baby would grow up to be Zardoz. And sure enough the show explicitly revealed that the next day.

Couple that with the father and son coming face to face in Episode 6(!), it has actually felt like a big exposition dump. And in my toku watching, I really dislike expository scenes especially if it’s obvious they could have done so much more with the ideas.

Like, I want to see Zardoz have a big reaction to learning he just battled his father. I want to see the conflicted emotions running through his head after learning he might have just killed him.

Zambojil unceremoniously dropped the bomb on Zardoz this episode. But the bomb ended up being a water balloon.

And the face off between Zardoz and Hrothgar should have been a huge moment. Perhaps one of the most pivotal moments in the entire series. But it was presented like some random action sequence merely plopped into the episode to fill the time. Kind of forgettable.

In chatting with some Voltes V fans who know the original story like the back of their hand, I’ve learned that the reveal about Zardoz happened at the very end of the series. Now I absolutely see the value in that. It helps to heighten the tension.

I think there’s two things here. First, it feels like they’ve cheated the viewer out of potential shockers or juicy confrontation scenes. There’s something about that anticipation. Even if you the viewer know the details of relationships and secrets, you anticipate and look forward to the moments when shit hits the fan. When everything is laid out on the table and all hell breaks loose.

But for the other part, I think the show has kind of cheated the characters out of some amazing moments too. Like I said, I want to see Zardoz have a mental breakdown upon learning he just came face to face with his father.

There’s two critical points for Zardoz story-wise. First, learning that the people he’s fighting are his father and brothers. Which of course will fuel his anger and resentment based on the brainwashing from Zambojil. And second, learning that it was all a lie and his father was actually not a traitor who killed his mother and abandoned him on Boazan.

The second part can still happen. And I supposed that’s what the show is building up to. But the first part should’ve also been something to build up to. It would be one of the climactic moments of the story. Possibly around the 20s or 30s at least. We barely even know these characters yet. So having these reveals so early kind of falls flat when they should absolutely be major major moments.

Save for the one scene (which was great) of young Zardoz last week, we don’t even really know how he feels about his father. One scene is not enough to build a character’s emotions. And that’s why it almost feels like mere exposition rather than slowly but surely peeling the onion of Zardoz’s character.

Having HrothNed pop in and out too felt so awkward. Like, Okay bye!

Now back to Earth and OMG. More cocky Armstrong Bros. Mostly Steve this time. *cringe* I literally applauded Mark when he spoke up. I’m all, “YES BRO! GET HIM!”

When Steve went “Gago eh!’ Well dude, takes one to know one! lol

So far, and I again, I keep pointing out what episode we’re on. I know it’s Episode 6. But damn. There’s a difference between cocky, confident, charismatic heroes who learn how to tone it down as the story moves along and someone who just simply comes across as a complete douchebag. And right now, Steve is definitely the latter.

That said, Little Jon is #BestBoy so far! I enjoyed his scenes the most this episode.

Can he be the star of the team? He’s obviously smarter than his brothers combined. Much more clever. And he should have no problem learning how to fly a jet. Especially with his advanced intelligence. So I would love to see him take the lead instead please!

His friendship with Dr. Smith is nice. And Mary Ann being worried for him is the most heartfelt moment in this episode, for sure. So it’s great to have that impactful family moment with her and Little Jon. As opposed to the *shrug* Meh family moment in the Boazan marketplace.

So for Episode 6 overall, aside from the few parts I legitimately enjoyed, I feel like: 1. I see what they’re trying to do and 2. I think I disagree with the way they are doing what they’re trying to do. You know?

Anyway, 74 more episodes to go! lol

Voltes V: Legacy Episode 6 is available on GMA Network’s official YouTube channel:

However, it is restricted to the Philippines only. Hopefully it will be made available worldwide soon! (Though as of this post, GMA is now waiting to post the previous night’s episode until 5pm local time.)

You might be able to watch the episode via the recorded GMA livestream on YouTube:

Unless you’re in the United States, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia or Singapore. Then you’ll have to find “other means” 🤭