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Sep 13, 2008 10:24 AM
#1

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Feb 2008
1668
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
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Best end ever.

Holy shit Chirico is amazing. Best plot twist ever.
EchelonSep 15, 2008 12:55 AM
Nov 16, 2009 2:41 PM
#2
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Apr 2008
6
Great ending.

And Chirico is amazing, he totally owned GOD. How many main characters did that?
May 13, 2010 11:35 PM
#3

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Jun 2008
857
Yeah, that's a rather nice plot twist. I also like how this series seems to speak out against war and religion without being preachy. I believe Chirico may be the greatest atheist in anime history. I mean, killing god and religion is one massive win.
May 29, 2011 6:07 PM
#4

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Apr 2009
4214
I knew it! He had a plan or something like it...so Wiseman is an Overman consciousness/intelligence turned artificial? Reminds me of GLaDOS from Portal especially on the way they disabled Wiseman.

Looks like 'Endless Waltz' principle operates here too. Did they flood that capsule with jijirium, you know, just in case.

Joel_Shelton said:
I believe Chirico may be the greatest atheist in anime history. I mean, killing god and religion is one massive win.


LOL When you put it that way, you maybe right.
You see there's no need to wonder where your god is,
Coz he's right here! ...and he's fresh out of mercy.
Jul 24, 2011 11:32 AM
#5

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Mar 2008
418
"You just killed God!"
As expected, Chirico wasn't as much on the dark side as he seemed.

And I liked that the series ended with the proclamation of war. The two sides will now start another all out war, and not just hug each other and live happily ever after.

Even though I say this, I didn't like this final arc. Uoodo was decent, Kummen and Sunsa were great, Quaint was garbage in comparison.
Nov 4, 2011 4:12 AM
#6

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Jul 2009
462
Wiseman: Chirico! Why u shoot me? U not want to be god?



Wisemans death looked similar to HALs from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I foresaw the plot twist earlier though - when Chirico shot Shako - even that giant would drop dead if shot in the head... But the way it was executed made my jaw hit the floor heheh :D


Nov 11, 2011 6:31 PM
#7

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Jun 2010
1862
I've rarely seen a series start out so strong and end in such a confused, horrible mess. Although some of the other times were Space Runaway Ideon and Zeta Gundam. What is it with '80's mecha?

We never learn the identity or purpose of the conspiracy that stole Fyana. After spending 3/4 of the series with everyone dwelling endlessly on "perfect soldiers" suddenly no one cares anymore. After 45 episodes of simple human greed and pride driving events, suddenly everything is about a wind-up techno-God. This does explain why Chirico chose the name "Fyana" and why that space ship picked them up off Kummen (in the basest, least interesting way possible; "a wizard did it") but I just cannot believe they were intending this series to end with such an avalanche of nonsense.

And it's some "God" that can be fooled so easily. All Chirico had to do was put on an act. It makes it impossible to take it seriously when the characters are literally treating it as God. Not "like a God", or "the powers of a God", but outright God.

The only interesting part was when Fyana tried to stop Chirico from going through with it and only because I tried thinking about it with the context. In another series, a person created to be a weapon begging a normal human to stop a wrathful drive to destruction would be a pretty interesting scenario. But here Chirico isn't normal, isn't actually trying to do what he seems to be and Fyana had been irrelevant for 15 episodes anyway.

What a disappointment!
Jan 21, 2013 2:40 AM
#8
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May 2012
32
The amount of hate the final arc got on this site is ridiculous. The only bad arc was Sunsa. Everything else was great. Now I remember why I rarely associate with anime fans.

BTW Fronzel, Zeta Gundam and ideon are clasics.
May 26, 2013 1:21 AM
#9

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Oct 2009
7669
Megalosaro said:
The amount of hate the final arc got on this site is ridiculous.

Exactly. I don't see how this arc is any worse than any other; actually, I was really thrilled for the last plot twist. To tell the truth, I didn't like any of the arcs much. Mecha designs are fine, but the battles in this anime seem ridiculous to me. Well, most of them.
Jul 15, 2014 11:32 AM

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Nov 2013
120
Well I admit I had some doubts during the last couple of episodes but this was an amazing finale.

I have just 2 questions, what was the society's goal? and how did Chirico and Fyana escape that massive explosion?
Mar 21, 2015 4:41 PM

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Sep 2008
33
Bubcus93 said:
Well I admit I had some doubts during the last couple of episodes but this was an amazing finale.

I have just 2 questions, what was the society's goal? and how did Chirico and Fyana escape that massive explosion?

Chirico survived a bomb explosion on that asteroid base, and I'm pretty sure Fyana was caught in that explosion on the base too and survived. If they could survive that they'd survive a planet explosion.

They probably got an escape craft courtesy of Gotho and the crew. :P
Apr 19, 2015 12:23 PM

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Oct 2008
2043
Fronzel said:


We never learn the identity or purpose of the conspiracy that stole Fyana. After spending 3/4 of the series with everyone dwelling endlessly on "perfect soldiers" suddenly no one cares anymore. After 45 episodes of simple human greed and pride driving events, suddenly everything is about a wind-up techno-God.



Pretty much this,it really lost steam in that final quarter.Oh and the "plot twist" was very obvious since it would make no sense whatsoever if Chirico really did go all the trough like all of a sudden he turned into a power hungry tyrant in a blink of a eye.
I really liked the first and second arcs ,and while I do really appreciate how it did have a overarching story and wasn't episodic like almost any other of its anime peers of that certain time period,the overall writing and story wasn't exactly spectacular or groundbreaking and there were many downright goofy and not that well executed moments to really consider it a classic.
amateurApr 19, 2015 12:26 PM
May 7, 2015 4:53 PM

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Jul 2010
8334
Even though I disliked the final arc atleast the ending made up for it, thank god (but not really in this case) that Chirico was faking being evil and shit. Otherwise I quite enjoyed it especially the mindless action and explosions.
Aug 9, 2015 12:36 PM
The Shrike

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Nov 2009
11313
A fine last episode but I felt somewhat let down by that final arc which could have been handled much better. I think Votom was at it's best when it was nitty gritty jungle action. And I felt that the backstory of Fyanna could have been given more of a closure to be honest.
"Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii

There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov

Oct 30, 2015 5:34 AM

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Mar 2012
6975
Chirico is the epitome of Badass of all Badass.

i`m glad i watch this hidden gem.

9/10

the last arc was meh.
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Mar 15, 2016 2:48 AM
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Jul 2011
414
Nothing makes sense in this show.

The plot is excuse for massive mecha and space battles.
Also some scenery from popular movies - from Vitenam War actions to Star Wars, Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dune ect.
May 9, 2016 7:50 AM

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Nov 2011
1904
there ended up way too many details that the plot became kinda jumbled up
not the best, but each arc was damn unique

the idea of an artificial intelligence overseeing humanity/the galaxy was pretty cool, but it just didn't quite fall into place here

1st and 2nd arcs really are the best
such a shame as well since the mechs were realistic as hell
just what is gundam? lmao
Dec 13, 2017 9:33 PM

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Nov 2017
103
Lovely ending to an incredible series. I'm still blown away by how fantastic the final arc was. I'm floored to see people diss the final arc- as it was defiantly the most intriguing of the series.

Digged the nod to 2001, too.
Sep 3, 2019 2:17 PM

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Jun 2014
22303
Well, I'm glad that Chirico had a plan all along, and he destroyed Wiseman.

It could've been worse, but I was hoping for better, especially considering how this Anime is praised by so many people. I gave it a 7/10, which is high a rating as I could give it.

People say that this is better than Gundam. It's not, but it's pretty damn close.

Edit: On second thought, perhaps it deserves at least at 8. The combat was really well done.

Edit 2: Fuck it, I'm giving it a 9. I'm starting to become obsessed with this. I even have the Red Shoulders anthem as my ringtone now.
_-_Sally_-_Sep 7, 2019 1:23 PM

Nov 26, 2019 10:34 PM

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Nov 2019
13
The ending was a straight rip off of 2001 Space Oddysey. I had a giggle but it was a great finale none the less.
Jan 9, 2020 12:08 PM

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Jun 2012
2593
DAMN this was good. I didn't think I'd like it this much. Only gripe was I wish Chirico wouldve actually become God. Solid 9/10 for each arc.
Jan 25, 2020 6:26 PM

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Mar 2013
457
I honestly don't get why this "plot twist" gets so much praise. It was obvious from the second he accepted the entity's role. For such a long series, the ending was just kinda... abrupt. I'd have dedicated an entire episode to Chirico and Fyana meeting up with the others and planning the sleep capsule thing.

Anyway. I'm finally done with this series. I decided to give it a try as I'm planning to get myself familiar with the 80s and 90s mecha anime. As I usually like niche stuff, I went to Votoms after several recommendations. But to be honest, it's just an OK series.

It has several cool moments like the final battle in Kummen and the episodes with Chirico and Fyana wandering around the empty space ship, but other than that is kinda mediocre.

Chirico is one of the most autistic and boring anime protagonists I've ever seen. I'm OK with the serious "no emotions" type in anime but this was just stupid. He's so bland that even a scene like when he meets Shako again in Quent and they both have a quick laugh felt awkward because after three whole arc, the series just made us believe he wasn't capable of a single laugh with an old companion.

Cocona, Vanilla and Gotho were too stupid as well and usually just got in the way of the important plot and Fyana was stupid and useless most of the time despite her apparently being a super soldier. The rivalry with Ypsilon was OK but they didn't develop it correctly.

The twins and the fat church guy well... let's not even get started on those.

This is a 6/10 at best.
Sep 1, 2020 10:34 AM

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Jan 2012
116
I have to start off by saying I like this series. Kikou Ryohei Mellowlink got me introduced to this whole new mecha world from sunrise that is everything I wanted the majority of gundam to be.

No more young kid finding himself inside an overpowered killing machine kicking ass left and right. No more masked rival with a mysterious past. No more newtype bullshit that makes you invincible and allows you to shoot magic laser beams or have people disappear only to reappear as someone else for no reason other than to make people go wtf.

I won't go into detail on those, but if you follow, you know what I mean ;)

Ever since seeing Gundam 08th MS team, I've been looking for something with a bit more grit. I've seen just about every UC gundam out and nothing quite catches the realism that MS team had. Votoms is the closest thing I've seen thus far.

The good:

I love the world of votoms. It's so far into the future, that the galaxy itself has infinite possibilities when it comes to story. I'm sure they did this on purpose as a way to expand the IP, unfortunately though, this doesn't seem to be the case as there was never another full blown series after the first as far as I can tell besides some OVAs. There seems to be some compilation movies made probably in an attempt to get more funding for future projects much like how the gundam movies did. Obviously, it does not look like it did anywhere as well as Gundam.

The AT designs are pretty cool overall. Most of them tend to look kinda like Zaku IIs which is a plus in my book. After watching the series though, I couldn't tell you what their models are at all. I know they may have mentioned the names a few times through the series, but I don't think it was all that often whereas with gundam, I can name most suits. Even the zeta ones.

The fights were pretty awesome; especially early on in the series. They didn't constantly reuse animations as say gundam wing did, though they did sparingly. Though, it was more obvious/frequent later in the series which is understandable.

The characters that Chirico befriends are all great, but can be annoying at times. I have problems with some of the other characters, but I'll get to that in a moment.

The bad:

Everything but the last arc were quite enjoyable. I loved the whole urban/dystopian arc along with the jungle/vietnam arc. There isn't much to say other than I wished it was good in the end as it was in the beginning. What gets me is the last arc/over arcing plot. There are a few loose ends I would like addressed and would love to hear your thoughts on.

(Begin summary)
Let me do a quick summary of things for my sake: Chirico's unit steal Gilgamesh's secret weapon known as the PS for the secret society. The secret society's ultimate goal is world domination through the use of producing Perfect Soldiers.

Chirico isn't privy and is made into a scapegoat. Rochira, who is currently working with the Gilgamesh, tortures the shit out of him. Chirico escapes, finds out the secret and kinda falls in love with the PS. Oh, he also discovers friendship again with 3 weirdos. lol. He then swears revenge on the secret society and wants to save the PS.

Chirico, after all the bullshit in the city, looks for a change of pace by going to the jungles to kick more ass. His friends happen to be there. He makes some new friends and goes on a few sorties. He discovers a new PS and discovers it's a dude (honestly thought Fyana became a dude and it was going to get weird) and finds out they are with the rebels.

To speed things along, the secret society is using the war as a testing ground for their new PS as Fyana was practically useless unless they killed Chirico with her watching. That doesn't work out. Rochira shows up again and fucks everything up. Almost forgot this tasty bit, the fat priest dude dies.

Fyana and Chirico escape on the king's escape shuttle and then they get picked up by an unmanned battleship and this is where the show starts to go "Anime."

The unmanned ship goes into forbidden space and gets the attention of the two main factions as well as the secret society. The ship mysteriously keeps reminds chirico of his past for some odd reason. They keep getting attacked and then crash land on the planet sunsa.

Rochira is now with the Balarant and basically captures everyone because his friends suck. Yeah, they are here too for some reason. Such a small galaxy. Rochira now has an interest with Chirico and makes him fight the male PS. Chirico kicks his ass and Rochira somehow knows Chirico is special and tells him to go to Quant to learn his past.

Really speeding things along, he gets to Quant, meets an old friend, talks with the locals, discovers ancient ruins, god tells him he needs to go to some space station in the middle of nowhere to achieve godhood.

Chirico, Rochira, and friends gets captured by the secret society and they all get merry and meet with the god. Then, god tells him he needs to go back to Quant to become a god? lol.

So Chirico, determined to become a god, goes back to Quant, sacrifices his friends to his enemies, shoots his friend a couple of times, shoots at Fyana a couple times, climbs a tower, and takes out HAL9000. Rochira shows up, gets pissed, tries to reboot HAL. Planet explodes for no reason.

Then, Chirico and his gal get into a cryochamber naked and get thrown out into space. Also, the war continues.
(end summary)

Let me just say this. When Chirico said "We'll be asleep in 20 mins." I was thinking he might want to blow his "Shooting Star" at the moment of freezing so he could be in perpetual bliss until the time of their revival.

Joking aside, the end has some problems. First off, how can the "God" not notice Chirico wasn't serious about becoming a god. Chirico never shot to kill either Shako or Fyana. The god can see the outcome if he's truly all seeing. Though, Chirico did sacrifice his friends which was pretty brutal. I don't know how he could have ensured their safety.

That said, the God getting killed was kinda dumb. Chirico did mention he wouldn't have a weapon in the room, but you would think he'd have at least a teleporter in the room if shit got real for him. I mean teleporters on Quant are as common as doors anywhere else.

Also, how the hell did they escape the planet when it blew up? That's probably the biggest loose end that isn't even eluded to. The war starts up and they just strip down to their privates and jump ship in the end.

Also, what with the war starting up again. It's like Chirico's sacrifice of power had no impact at all. Nothing changed with the god being gone.

It appears that the 'God' would have taken control of his body, but there was no way Chirico would have known that at the time. So, he must have done this to save humanity right? Naw, the technical God of war didn't have shit to do with the world being at war as it started back up again. In fact, the war stopped when the God was in power. So, if anything, one can blame the war starting up again on Chirico's sacrifice. That's extrapolating, but still. It's all kinda pointless.

I love the series, but damn it on it's ending. It just becomes a bit of a car crash, not quite a train wreck. The ending had some interesting ideas, it just wasn't fleshed out enough. It's like they ran out of time/funding as is common with a lot of anime back then and even today.

I'll be checking out the OVAs/Movies as I truly have become a fan. I even bought the Complete collection on bluray (which was a disappointment due to frame issues on fast scenes).

All in all, was cruising for an 8, but just fell short... 7/10.
Jan 30, 2021 5:24 AM
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Dec 2017
335
Yeah, i didn't understood why this Overseer/Deus Ex Machina/Whatever was considered evil. Someone (maybe Chirico) said that war drives humanity forward, but God wasn't influencing any of that. Chirico didn't had to destroy him, he could've just...left, right?
Mar 27, 2021 7:16 AM

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Jun 2015
1184
Incredible ending!

πŸ’– 𝐼'𝓂 π’½π’Άπ“Žπ’Ήπ‘’π“ƒβ£ πŸ’–


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May 25, 2022 11:38 PM

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Jul 2013
1229
I was also letdown by the last arc. It felt like the writer's came up with shit on the fly and the quality just plummets because of it after Chirico reaches Quent. Not only did they waste a LOT of potential and made a messy ending but even the fight's become terrible.

Before last arc the fight's at least felt somewhat belieavable because Chirico usually took advantage of the ground and the enemies weren't so numerous but during the last arc everyone is made really fricking incompetent a Chirico's plotshield is at maxium.

It also felt like trio didn't have any significance after the second arc and they just become annoying. Cocona and Vanilla should have just gotten maried and went away.

Anyways. This series does things that it deserves credit for and i would recommend it up untill certain point but the ending is shite.
Sep 11, 2022 9:12 PM
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May 2018
162
Sondfer said:
Yeah, i didn't understood why this Overseer/Deus Ex Machina/Whatever was considered evil. Someone (maybe Chirico) said that war drives humanity forward, but God wasn't influencing any of that. Chirico didn't had to destroy him, he could've just...left, right?


EXACTLY MY THOUGHTS! Why did Chirico feel the need to kill god? Nothings changed even with God dead. Humans are still waging war so what was the point? I think it would’ve been better if we got a mass effect control ending. Where Chirico takes the power and ushers in an era of peace. God obviously couldn’t control Chirico. Yea, first two arcs were the best. Went down hill after that.
Apr 29, 2023 9:02 AM
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Jan 2020
1
You know, what kept me watching throughout the whole anime was the dynamic of Chirico just being a man seemingly against the world while dealing with conflicts that are *relatively* grounded and seemingly rooted in recognizably human motives. The buildup to this finale really started to lose me and I was getting the feeling that I was about to watch a train wreck that would leave a bad taste in my mouth. And it kinda was one, but when the climax beats you over the head with its not-so-subtle reference to Nietzsche and Rochina literally cries out "You've killed God!," the gutteral laughing fit it sent me into made it all worth it. The Quaint arc was a drag if you enjoyed the plot for what it was the entire show before it, but for some reason now that it seems to me like the buildup to this episode's punchline, I can leave content. It helps that they didn't actually have Chirico betray what he's been fighting for the entire time over some contrived temptation with "godhood."
Aug 22, 2023 9:55 AM
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Aug 2023
44
I didn't really like Votoms when I started watching it, as it seemed boring and outdated, but as I watched on it became obvious that this was a masterfully crafted piece about political intrigue and the complexities of war. i really enjoyed it.
Jan 14, 11:10 AM

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Apr 2009
654
I thought this series was good in spurts but kind of meandered. It ended on a strong note, I liked these last few episodes a lot. It could have been a nice tight 2 or 3 cour show imo. It kind of felt like a hodgepodge of different western media too; it didn't feel as original or as concisely plotted as some other early Sunrise series like Gundam or Dunbine. I also didn't really like Gotho's group as characters, it just kind of seemed like they were along for the ride and it felt kind of forced that they kept crossing paths with Chirico on different planets. I am interested in checking out some of the later OAVs and whatnot so that's a good sign that the show left a positive impression.

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