In the early 1980s, the real robot mecha genre was at the peak of its popularity thanks to series such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Super Dimension Fortress Macross. In 1983, veteran mecha director Ryosuke Takahashi (Dougram, SPT Layzner, Gasaraki) took the real robot concept to a new level with Armored Trooper VOTOMS. In a departure from even its other real robot cousins, the ATs of VOTOMS are walking tanks that are not special prototypes, don't fly and don't transform. In the distant Astragius Galaxy, a brutal intergalactic war has been waged for over a century between the Gilgamesh Confederation and the Balarant Union. The VOTOMS TV series begins at the end of the war and focuses on Chirico Cuvie, a Melkian AT pilot with a deadly past who becomes entangled in a massive interstellar conspiracy. Following the conclusion of the TV series, several short OVA installments were released. Most of these focus on the past or continuing adventures of Chirico, but the 12 episode OVA series Armor Hunter Merowlink is a standalone story featuring a new hero. In subsequent years, the VOTOMS franchise has extended to books, manga and video games. The TV series was released on DVD in the U.S. in 2001, and a new edition was released by Central Park Media in 2006. A new VOTOMS prequel OVA series, Pailsen Files, was released in Japan in 2007.

Armored Trooper VOTOMS, characters, images and related items are copyrights of Sotsu Agency and Sunrise ©1983-2008. ©1997-2008 by Central Park Media.