Armored Trooper Votoms: Red Shoulder Document - Roots of Ambition

This prequel to the military sci-fi classic Armored Trooper Votoms tries to give some explanation of Chirico's past, shedding some light on both his time with the infamous Red Shoulder brigade but also the tragic childhood he had forgotten. Unfortunately, half-assed answers and recycled dramatic footage aren't as interesting as the faint air of mystery he had in the original series.


Red Shoulder Document - Roots of Ambition (also translated as Roots of Treachery) suffers much the same muddled and nonsensical plot as the modern prequel The Pailsen Files (which is supposed to immediately follow). The Red Shoulder brigade (the best of the best) essentially live in a prison and are routinely tossed into live combat just to see who survives, all as part of some quest to cull an immortal soldier who has luck/destiny on his side. This, of course, is Chirico. After proving he is immortal, they send him to the front lines to try to kill him once and for all. He's apparently too dangerous to be left alive.

There are a few glimmers of the tactics that made Chirico such a bad-ass in the TV series, but plot holes are large enough to run a mech through and what plot is there seems completely impenetrable without an encyclopedic knowledge of Votoms trivia. Recommended only for fans hardcore enough to watch a full hour for a few shots of a baby covered in goop floating in a vacuum with a terribly disturbing stare (at least judging from the other character's reactions).

based on full 60-minute OVA episode : ANN : Wikipedia

Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files

Despite fond memories of the original Votoms as military hard sci-fi that spanned from gritty realism on a futuristic battlefield to galactic conspiracies about super-soldiers, this shiny new prequel falls flat. The bad-ass hero Chirico is less stoic than effectively brain-dead and completely passive and the plot meanders around long-overused territory: the military brass keep sending Chirico and his misfit squad into ill-conceived suicide missions to test just how much of a super-soldier he really is.

While the retro-styled characters are inconsistently animated, the all-CG mecha are very well-done - making it all the more of a shame that very little is done with them. Most fight scenes come across as amateurish staging of WWII movies with giant robots.

A well-worn and aimless plot combined with suspense-less combat adds up to a terrible spin-off that arrived too late to ride on the success of a classic franchise. Recommended only to the most die-hard Votoms fans who will be happy just seeing the mecha animated with modern CG.

based on episodes 1-4 : ANN : Wikipedia