Voltes V

Voltes V
Original Title	超電磁マシーン ボルテスＶ (Chōdenji Mashīn Borutesu Faibu)
Original Language	Japanese
Dubbing Studio 1	Telesuccess Productions, Inc.
Dubbing Studio 2	Frontier Enterprises
Voice Director 1	Joonee Gamboa
Voice Director 2	William Ross
Recorded	1978-1979 1980 1999
Dub Country 1	Philippines
Dub Country 2	Tokyo, Japan
Original Country	Japan
Episodes	40
Year	1977-1978

Voltes V, (超電磁マシーン ボルテスＶ Chōdenji Mashīn Borutesu Faibu), also marketed as Voltus 5, is an anime television series that aired on TV Asahi from April 6, 1977 to March 25, 1978. It was created by Saburo Yatsude and directed by Tadao Nagahama.

Voltes V is the second part of the Robot Romance Trilogy of the Super Robot genre.

Synopsis From out of nowhere, a mysterious alien race known as the Boazanian Forces has invaded the Earth. A group of individuals specially trained to handle this kind of situation has been unleashed. Steve, Mark, Big Bert, Little John & Jamie are the pilots of the Voltes V, Earth's defense against the Boazanians and their terrible Beast Warriors.

Dubbing History

Filipino-English Dub (Questor International)

In the Philippines, an English-language dub of Voltes V was first aired by GMA-7 on May 5, 1978. The anime series, which was shown every Friday at 6:00pm, became popular across the nation. The dub heavily Westernized the character names, though the dub was generally quite faithful. In April 1979, shortly before the series finale, the authoritarian President Ferdinand Marcos issued a directive banning Voltes V and other similarly-themed anime series (particularly in the Mecha genre), ostensibly due to concerns about "excessive violence". The ban, however, led to speculations that the series was actually pulled from broadcast due to its underlying themes of rebellion and revolution at the time. This left the last five episodes undubbed.

After Marcos's regime fell in the 1986 People Power Revolution, the series returned on Philippine television and was aired on multiple broadcasters like PTV-4 and ABS-CBN in 1986, IBC-13 in 1989 and RPN-9. It returned to GMA in 1999, with the English dub version aired weekly on January and later on Filipino/Tagalog on December. In the same year, the last five episodes of Voltes V were dubbed, compiled together and released theatrically by GMA Films under the title "Voltes V: The Liberation". Due to the time passage, the original cast were replaced, save for Dodo Crisol as Prince Zardoz.

International English Dub (Frontier Enterprises)

The International Trailer for the Compilation Film. Narrated by William Ross.

In 1980, Toei edited together a compilation film of the series consisting of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 18th episodes and distributed it for overseas markets. The film was dubbed by Frontier Enterprises in Tokyo with William Ross serving as voice director and ADR scriptwriter. Frontier's dub uses all the same Americanized names originally used by the Filipino English dub. Because the compilation movie ended on Episode 18, the movie ends on a cliffhanger.

The dub would later be re-released in 1983 by 3B Productions under the title Voltus 5, (the same company behind the dub of Tranzor Z) with the Japanese background music swapped out for their new soundtrack composed by Douglas Lackey. The movie would also be shown on the Christian Broadcasting Networ, and would be released on VHS by Hi-Top Video in a highly edited format. It was also distributed by TEN (The Entertainment Network) as one of their anime titles.

Ross also attested in his autobiography to having dubbed the work in a serial format besides the compilation film, but the TV series version evidently never saw air. It is possible that such a dub is the same one that was to be distributed by United Productions in 1978, or the one offered by TEN for the 1986-1987 television season as a companion to the compilation film:

Telepictures is preparing the Silverhawks for the fall 1986 schedule; TEN is offering Voltus V via 65 half-hours for April, and taking its Kid-A-Littles off the air; and King Features Entertainment is going with Defenders of the Earth.

The same article also mentioned that TEN had an agreement with Matchbox Toys to produce merchandise centered around "Voltus V" as well as Tranzor Z. In either case, it is believed the short episode count of Voltes V made it unappealing for syndication as it did not comprise 65 episodes but only 40.

Cast

Image	Character	Seiyū	Filipino Dub		Frontier Dub (Comp. Film)
			(eps. 1-35)	(eps. 36-40)
Voltes V Team
	Steve Armstrong (Kenichi Gō)	Yukinaga Shiraishi	Tony Nierras	Earl Palma	John Armstrong
	Mark Gordon (Ippei Mine)	Kazuyuki Sogabe	Cris Vertido	P.J. Ramos	Cliff Harrington
	Robert "Big Bert" Armstrong (Daijirō Gō)	Tesshō Genda	Noel Mallonga	Bob Borjal	Richard Murphy
	"Little" John Armstrong (Hiyoshi Gō)	Noriko Ohara	Celina S. Cristobal	Dada Carlos	Nancy Culluci
	Jamie Robinson (Megumi Oka)	Miyuki Ueda	Christine Bonnevie		Gerri Sorrells
Allies
	Dr. Richard Smith (Professor Hamaguchi)	Seizō Katō	Joonee Gamboa		William Ross
	Dr. Ned Armstrong (Professor Kentarō Gō)	Yū Mizushima	Tony Nierras		Don Johnson
	Dr. Mary Ann Armstrong (Professor Mitsuyo Gō)	Takako Kondō	Christine Bonnevie		Judith Sackheim
	Commander Robinson (General Oka)	Hiroshi Masuoka	Chito Vicente		Cliff Harrington
	Dr. Hook (Professor Sakunji)	Tamio Ōki	Joonee Gamboa		Joseph Zucatti
	General Watson (General Dange)	Hisashi Katsuta	Dodo Crisol		Greg Starr
	Commander Garth (General Doir)	Seizō Katō		Earl Palma
The Boazanian Nobility
	Emperor Zu Zambajil	Mikio Terashima	Cris Vertido	Bob Borjal	Richard Murphy
	Prince Zardoz (Prince Heinel)	Osamu Ichikawa	Dodo Crisol		Tom Clark
	Zandra (Katherine Rii)	Noriko Ohara	Celina S. Cristobal	Dada Carlos	Patricia Kobayashi
	Draco (Jangal Rui)	Shōzō Iizuka	Chito Vicente	Earl Palma	William Ross
	Zuhl	Hiroshi Masuoka	Cris Vertido		Mike Worman
	General Oslack (General Bergan)	Kenji Utsumi	Noel Mallonga	P.J. Ramos
	Baron Zander (General Gururu)	Ryusuke Shiomi		Daniel Deopante
	Duke Zaki	Tamio Ōki	Joonee Gamboa
Other
	Narration	Daisuke Maki	Noel Mallonga		Cliff Harrington

Additional Voices

Filipino Dub (1978) Lynda Acojedo Christine Bonnevie Roger Chua Edwin Decenteceo Javi Garcia Dennis Mesina Dido de la Paz

Frontier Dub Nancy Culluci Cliff Harrington Avi Landau William Ross Greg Starr Joseph Zucatti

Notes

• The voice of Little John and Zandra is often misattributed as having been done by Christine Bonnevie and later Geraldine Oca. However, the end credits specify Celina S. Cristobal for both of them.
• Dada Carlos also voices Jamie/Megumi in the original Tagalog dub.
• The Filipino English dub uses an English cover of the Japanese theme, while the compilation film dub uses the original Japanese version.
• The English compilation film version of the series has also been dubbed into Latin Spanish and Italian.
• Discotek Media's release of the series is subtitle-only. They had attempted to include the English dub, but were refused permission.

Transmission

Date(s)	Channel	Country
1978-1979	GMA-7	The Philippines
1983	CBN*	United States
1986	PTV-4	The Philippines
1986	ABS-CBN
1989	IBC-13
1989	RPN-9
1999	GMA

*Compilation Film.

Video Releases

Voltus 5

Distributor	Year	Format	Region	Country
Hi-Tops Video	1983		NTSC	United States
Terminal Video	2006		PAL 2	Italy
Yamato Video	2015		PAL 2

See Also

• Mazinger Z - Another anime affected by the Marcos ban and had an ad for an unreleased compilation movie on the ending credits for the Frontier dub of the Voltes V movie.

External Links

• Chōdenji Machine Voltes V (anime) at the Anime News Network
• Chōdenji Machine Voltes V at the Internet Movie Database