Armored Trooper Votoms - Japanese military
science fiction mecha anime series produced by Nippon Sunrise, created & directed by Ryosuke Takahashi & featuring
mechanical designs by Kunio Okawara. Following directly in the footsteps of Takahashi's previous series, Fang of the Sun Dougram, VOTOMS continued
the trend towards hard science in the mecha anime subgenre.
Armored Trooper Votoms ,
main weapon of the conflict is the common Armored Trooper, a mass-produced humanoid combat vehicle piloted by a single soldier. Both the Armored Troopers & their pilots are also known as VOTOMS (Vertical One-man Tank for Offense & ManeuverS). However, since Armored Troopers have extremely thin armor, & use a highly combustible liquid in their artificial muscle, their pilots have a very low chance of survival .
The series follows a main character named Chirico Cuvie , a
special forces Armored Trooper pilot & former member of the Red Shoulder Battalion, an elite force used by the Gilgamesh
Confederation in its war against the Balarant
Union. Chirico is suddenly transferred to a unit engaged in a suspicious mission, unaware that he is aiding in the theft of secrets from what appears to be his side. Chirico is betrayed & left behind to die, but he survives, is arrested by the Gilgamesh military as a traitor, tortured for
information on their homeworld. He escapes, triggering a pursuit extending across the entire series, with Chirico hunted by the army & criminals alike as he seeks the truth behind the operation. He is especially driven to discover the truth of one of the objects he was assigned to retrieve in that operation: a mysterious &
beautiful woman who would become his sole clue to unraveling the galactic conspiracy.
