Soukou Kihei Votoms: Pailsen Files

After 1994's Shining Heresy more or less failed, the Votoms franchise went quiet for over a decade. It's return further explores the familiar grounds of Chirico Cuvie's past, and serves as somewhat of a sequel to Red shoulder document: Roots of ambition. If this sound a little inaccessible that's because it absolutely is made for fans familiar with both the original Armored Trooper Votoms and it's follow-up OVA's. To make matters worse, the mechs are now done with CGI, and mid-2000's CGI at that. Pailsen Files really is just for those interested in the franchise, but past that it's quite a good show that scratches ... an itch no other votoms show does.

Coming off the conclusion of Roots of ambition, the titular Yoran Pailsen is in deep trouble as the full force of a military tribunal comes down on him. Intelligence undersecretary Fedok Wokkam is determined to further his own agenda with whatever knowledge Pailsen holds, and the interactions between them form the smaller half of a split narrative that lasts through the series. On the other side, Chirico Cuvie and his new handpicked teammates are used as pawns in Wokkam's game, and repeatedly forced into dangerous situations the same way Pailsen once tested his Red Shoulders.

Chirico's team ultimately gets the most screentime, even if their actions have limited impact on the larger picture. As is usual for Votoms they all have pronounced characteristics, ranging from a phlegmatic squad leader to a coward engineer. Much like Chirico's Kummen squad they continually have small squabbles and other things going on, while at the same time ploughing through hordes of enemy AT's. It's hard to call most of them great characters, but they're all grounded soldiers with positive and negative traits, and they provide the noise to counteract Chirico's quiet demeanor as other supporting characters have done before.

What makes the show work is that unlike most of the other OVA's following the original Votoms, Pailsen files has a proper 12-episode run, twice as long as any other sequel or prequel. This allows time to firmly establish it's cast and give them some development, have a plot that steadily progresses without feeling rushed or cut short, and allows for several long setpiece battles that end up being more diverse and interesting than anything seen before in Votoms. This is also the only entry in the entire franchise where Chirico's past in the Gilgamesh military is truly explored, something I had personally found to be extremely lacking in earlier OVA's.


The CGI.
It's impossible to talk about the Pailsen Files without getting into this. While most of the presentation like sound and direction are extremely similar to Armored Trooper Votoms, the CGI AT's are not. And it's hard to make a real verdict on the quality on display when it has to be compared to a TV anime from the 80's. Votoms hasn't always had amazing animation, but the show did quite well by making sure it's action was usually quick-paced and involved a lot of explosions. The later OVA's did a decent job of improving the quality while maintaining the spirit, but there was little chance a franchise like votoms could avoid joining in on the CGI-era. Pailsen Files tries it's best, but it's hard not to be a little disappointed that some of the best action setpieces aged as badly as they did. Especially some of the early bullet effects are simply sub-par even for the time, and while the quality slightly improves as the show goes on, it's not enough. The one big plus of using CGI is that the show is more or less free to display as many AT's as it wants at any point in time, and as such manages to have even more of them on screen than was possible before.


Ultimately your enjoyment of Pailsen Files hinges entirely on how much the viewer cares about the details of Chirico's past and that of the Astragius galaxy and it's politics, as well as one's ability to look past the questionable CGI at the ideas behind it. Pailsen Files isn't the most necessary or the prettiest of the Votoms OVA's, but it's probably both the smartest one as well as the entry with the most creative battles, and that makes it more than worth checking out for fans of the original.

The CGI in this is disgusting lets get out of the way first. The models are way too undetailed and the frame rate is too low (and this was advertised as having the latest CGI (it's like between a PS1 game and a PS2 game).

But this anime was extremely funny with all the ridiculous ways the military tried to kill Chirico and his squad to see if they are actually "abnormal survivors."

The story was really good and entertaining (even though it's not as gritty or dark as the original VOTOMS and much more lighthearted).

I thought it was worth watching though. It takes place after Red ... Shoulder Document: Roots of Ambition and by the time the anime begins the Red Shoulders have been disbanded and Chirico is placed in a new squad made up with other members of the military that are believed to be "abnormal survivors" (along with him). The story is about all the suicide missions they are sent on to test their skills as "abnormal survivors" and it's kind of like The Three Stoodges or something with how slapstick it gets of the military trying to kill them (such as stranding them on a planet that's about to have a -250 degree ice storm).

I'll give it an 8/10 because the story was really good and so was the twist at the end even if the CGI was bad (and some of the music). And as someone who often finds anime humor cringy and unamusing, this show made me laugh a lot and for that I feel it has a lot of value.

Pailsen Files is only worth watching if you've seen the original AT VOTOMS, alongside the Roots of Ambition / Treachery / Red Shoulder Document OVA. If you haven't seen those, don't bother...

The story is mediocre at best. It does have some decent twists, but it gets predictable and formulaic after a while. Plus, there's not much fear that anyone is going to bite it; until the very end! I won't spoil anything, but the concept Pailsen Files runs with -- the same concept Roots of Ambition runs with -- can easily remove tension. Despite having 12 episodes (plenty for an OVA) the writers missed opportunities ... to toy with that concept and introduce proper tension, instead waiting to roll that out at the very end.

The art is alright, and I'm happy it's cel animation, but the CGI makes the presentation always lackluster, though they did the best with the medium they could. When it comes to sound, the nostalgic music pulled from the original is good, but everything else feels cheap; especially gunfire, explosions, and the AT sounds themselves. It's a downgrade from the original.

The new characters are memorable, but their actual artistic design leaves much to be desired, at least in my opinion. They're all quite exaggerated and mostly flat.

I didn't dread watching it, as I did finish it in a few nights. But overall, it's, like most of AT VOTOMS' modern content, mediocre - it leaves much to be desired.