To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sunrise, we will be getting a new Armored Trooper VOTOMS anime directed by Mamoru Oshii.
Called VOTOMS: The Grey Witch, this new anime will be made at Production I.G and directed by Mamoru Oshii, famous for his work on Patlabor and Ghost in the Shell, among many others.
The choice of Oshii is a good one, as Patlabor is also very much in the “real robot” vein, so shifting over to VOTOMS is a logical choice.
Apart from that, not much else is known about the anime, apart from the new trailer (shown below), which continues the 3D CG approach for the mecha, starting with The Pailsen Files.
The original Armored Trooper VOTOMS was written and directed by Ryosuke Takahashi, with mecha designs by Kunio Okawara, back in the early 80s. It followed the gritty, industrially themed trend started by Fang of the Sun Dougram.
The name VOTOMS is actually an acronym and stands for “Vertical One-man Tank for Offense and Maneuvers”, and the armored trooper mecha were at a much smaller scale compared to other mecha anime with wheels in their feet.
VOTOMS also helped to inspire the Heavy Gear series, so its gaming lineage is an important and influential one.
While it’s not known yet if Okawara is attached to handle the mecha design, it’s clear that his original Scopedog designs are being used as the basis for this new anime.
We also don’t know in what capacity Takahashi will be involved, as he’s been writing the ongoing VOTOMS narrative for over 40 years now.
In any case, we have a brand new VOTOMS anime to look forward to later this year, and I genuinely cannot wait to see it.
In the meantime, you should definitely check out the original anime, as that’s available on Blu-ray in almost its entirety.
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