Recap: Voltes V: Legacy, Episode 16 – “Nasa gitna tayo ng laban!”

Recap: Voltes V: Legacy, Episode 16 – Target

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

Dr. Mary Ann regains consciousness after their military vehicle is hit by the saucers. She realizes that CBF has raised the barrier, meaning they won’t be able to get in. She tries to call Dr. Smith, but the phone lines are still down.

Zandra mocks Dr. Mary Ann being in the crossfire, but Zardoz says inferior beings like humans should not be kawawa’d. He gleefully orders Draco to play around with her.

The Skull Ship flies over them and shoots. But Master Chief Somera pushes Dr. Mary Ann out of the way, absorbing the attack himself. Dr. Mary Ann checks and sees that he is dead.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

She takes Somera’s gun and shoots at the Skull Ship. Draco asks Zardoz if they should finish her off, but Zardoz laughs at Dr. Mary Ann’s katapangan. He thinks she is quite fun to watch.

Dr. Mary Ann begins throwing rocks at the Skull. Zuhl calls her an idiot as he watches the video feed on the large screen, but he dodges out of the way when a rock gets close to where his face is.

Zardoz believes Dr. Mary Ann must have a high position of power on Earth, so she must die.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

The Skull Ship shoots directly at Dr. Mary Ann and she gets slammed back into the van before falling on the ground, unconscious. The Skull Ship turns around and flies toward CBF.

Draco is surprised when their attacks can’t seem to penetrate the shield. Zandra says the Earthlings must have copied their shield technology too. Zardoz orders them to continue what they are doing until the base is destroyed.

At CBF, Dr. Smith orders a lockdown and to have everyone accounted for. But Major Kelly points to a live drone shot showing Dr. Mary Ann sprawled across the bridgeway. Dr. Smith orders security forces to go save her. But Major Kelly says they won’t be able to without lowering the shields.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

Dr. Smith speaks with Commander Robinson, explaining that it was the plan to lure Voltes V away from CBF all along. Commander Robinson contacts the Voltes team and tells them to hurry and finish off the Beastfighter and return to CBF before the shield’s power completely drains from the bombardment.

Dr. Smith tells the Armstrong Bros about their mother being hurt and being outside the CBF barrier. They understand what they need to do.

The Beastfighter has disappeared suddenly. Big Bert and Little Jon think they should hurry back to CBF to save their mother. But Steve says they need to take care of the Beastfighter first. Jamie agrees with him. But Mark says they should go back to help the CBF and it won’t matter where they’ll fight the Beastfighter as they are capable of taking care of it anywhere.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

Spc. Tadao and his team have reached Dr. Mary Ann and are taking her back to safety. Dr. Smith thought they had prepared for an attack like this, but he realizes the Boazanians are still far too superior and Voltes V is their only hope.

Big Bert and Little Jon insist they Volt Out. But Steve tries to explain that they must take care of the Beastfighter and their mother wouldn’t like seeing them turn their back on the mission.

Dr. Mary Ann has arrived back at CBF and through her oxygen mask, all she is thinking about is her children. Dr. Smith tells his peoples to hurry her into treatment.

Dr. Smith hurries back to the command center where Major Kelly informs him the barrier is down to 40%. Commander Robinson holograms himself into the command center where Dr. Smith reports on the depleted forces of CBF. Commander Robinson will send in reinforcements.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

Meanwhile, the Armstrong Bros are still arguing over whether or not to leave and go back to CBF, basically repeating everything they’ve said just a few minutes ago. Mark asks them to stop and reminds them they’re in the middle of battle.

Mark asks if it is an Armstrong Bro trademark to feel as if the world revolves around them. Jamie tells him to shut up and then changes her mind by telling Steve they can just come back to their mission once they go back to make sure Dr. Mary Ann is okay. Mark says Steve’s indecision is delaying them.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

Steve decides they will continue with their mission. Big Bert and Little Jon accuse Steve of not loving their mother anymore. “What a stupid question Little Jon!” Steve snaps. He reiterates that they are the Voltes team and must continue their mission. That’s what they signed up for.

Big Bert says Steve better not regret this decision.

The Boazanians have finally penetrated the shield and Vaizanger shoots chains out of the smoke to wrap around Voltes V’s legs and arms.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

Zardoz laughs, saying he didn’t know it’d be so easy to conquer Earth.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

Meanwhile, Dr. Mary Ann gets up from the table, wanting to go check on her children. The Doctor tries to calm Dr. Mary Ann down. But Dr. Mary Ann says she has the authority to leave the medical bay whenever she wants.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

Dr. Mary Ann peeks into the command center and sees the Voltes team struggling. Major Kelly says there is no clear shot from CBF toward the Beastfighter as Voltes V might get hit as well. Dr. Smith says it is all up to the Voltes team now then.

Dr. Mary Ann knows what she has to do.

Voltes V Legacy Episode 16 Recap

Episode Thoughts

This was a mostly good episode. It helps that the focus was on Mama Armstrong. Whether it was actually going out to save her and having the arguments be centered around her. And also of course seeing her katapangan. Badass Mama! Though bullets and rocks aren’t going to do anything against the Skull of course hehe.

All the action scenes were great, as usual. More excellent work with the CGI scenes. That’s a given, by now.

But the highlight was more on the practical effects and direction. The CGI-enhanced on-ground scenes with Mama Armstrong were really great. And you can really be immersed in the idea that she’s in the middle of a warzone. The people at CBF doing their best miming with the attacks on the base were fun as well. Could’ve used more sparks from the computer consoles or falling ceiling tiles. But that’s alright lol We still get the chaotic feel of the situation.

Now, the funniest thing to me about this episode was the arguing of the Armstrong Bros. It really started to feel dragging. They may have just cut back to them a few times, but it felt like several. And I thought that they didn’t really need to do that as it only affected the pacing of the episode in a negative way. I get them needing to pad the episodes as much as possible to stretch this whole thing out to 80 episodes. But it felt the most obvious in this episode than previous ones.

Even if the scenes may amount to no more than a few minutes, it *felt* much longer. And I think that’s part of the writing and editing of the episode. It didn’t really add to the urgent situation. And actually maybe even diminished the urgency.

I mean, in the time that the Armstrong Bros went back and forth, repeating basically the same lines, Mama Armstrong had been laying on the ground, were reached by CBF forces, found, returned back to base and already been examined in the medical bay!

In that same time, the Voltes team could’ve looked around a bit more to find Vaizanger hiding out behind a rock or something. Then they wouldn’t have been caught from behind. Obviously, this is all for drama purposes, but even in the midst of chaos, you can tweak some of these things to make them feel less impossible to believe. There’s a way to provoke a suspension of disbelief. And I don’t know that the show was able to do that here. It only made you sideeye the characters’ decisions rather than give them the benefit of the doubt that would be required.

The funniest thing though for me is OMG, I actually agreed with Steve here. SHOCKING! I know. Lol They needed to focus on the mission. And probably wouldn’t have gotten caught by Vaizanger if they did. They should’ve trusted Dr. Smith to ensure Mama Armstrong’s safety. Of course Steve is conflicted. He loves his mama, but he also knows they need to save the world. Or at least, CBF first.

At the same time, Dr. Smith could’ve let them know they found their mother already and she was back at CBF. It only takes a few seconds. And they were already communicating with each other earlier while the Voltes team was actually engaged in battle.

It also kind of didn’t help that we the audience already knew that Mama Armstrong wasn’t going to die here. (They basically spoiled her death and how it happens in the trailers and all the previews.) So the tension is lessened here while the Armstrong Bros were arguing. We knew she would be fine, for now. So just go and deal with the Beastfighter instead.

The episode was also obviously setting up Steve having major guilt later. Which, according to some, will absolve him of all his negative traits. Lol But really, this just proves most of what they did to make Steve as contemptable as possible was at least pointless and a waste of precious screentime and at worse, negatively affecting him as a character.

I still agreed with Mark though that the Armstrong Bros were wasting too much time. And Jamie needed to calm down with telling Mark to shut up. Her lihim na pagtingin kay Steve was showing a little there too. Lol

Anyway, the very very good outweighs the very tiny bads this episode. And it helps to continue to build up to the fateful moment of Mama Armstrong’s… well, we’ll see!

Elsewhere, I have to comment on something I saw over the weekend. Some Voltes V: Legacy fans have resorted to slandering the show’s Toei cousins Kamen Rider and Super Sentai in order to defend it for whatever reason. I don’t see the need to do that. And it only makes these few fans look really petty. There are major differences between the productions. And again, Shinichio Shirakura of Toei already said that he has been inspired by Voltes V: Legacy to raise the standards for their shows.


It’s likely the same for GMA as well. Having Toei’s seal of approval encourages them (and other local producers) to raise their game as well.


Voltes V: Legacy Episode 16 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!

I’ve seen people talk about how people worldwide should subscribe to GMA Pinoy TV in order to watch the series. I’d recommend that if you are interested in watching lots of Filipino programming. But if you only want to watch Voltes V: Legacy, I don’t think it’d be a good investment. Especially since you can’t watch the series on demand anyway. GMA Pinoy TV is a linear, premium TV channel on most cable and satellite systems.

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