This iconic anthropomorphic giant robot anime from the mid
1970s has gained a cult following, but does it retro-cool anachronism and
anachrophillia scaring away new potential fans?
By: Ringo Bones
The rather strong cult following of Voltes V here in the
Philippines had been for a number of years mostly the domain of guys over 40 –
i.e. those old enough to have experienced Voltes V first hand back in the late
1970s before it was banned by the then Philippine strongman named Ferdinand
Marcos The question now is – is this sense of anachronism and anachrophillia
that casts a cool 1970s retro feel to Voltes V scaring away potential fans –
specifically new younger fans?
Comparative analogy to the Samurai warrior class of feudal
era Japan is too hard to ignore given that at the time the rest of the world
are inventing better and better firearms, the Japanese stuck to their bimetallic
mono-crystalline steel blades as the epitome of technology in warfare. Such a
mix of bind insularity and anachronistic anachrophillia of such artifacts
nevertheless cast a cool mystique over these high-end mono-crystalline
bimetallic katana blades forged by famed sword-smiths like Muramasa amongst
others of a virtually perfect blade reserved for the elite Samurai class. By
the way, famed examples of such “Samurai swords” can easily fetch for as much
as 300,000 US dollars these days.
Sadly, the same problem seems to be affecting Voltes V’s
ability to attract a retinue of new and younger fans born way after of the
Marcos dictatorship here in the Philippines. It may be hard to attract new and
younger fans to the Voltes V bandwagon here in the Philippines, but who knows
what the future might bring.
