“Bulagang heto ako!”
This was the phrase that my philosophy teacher used in class to Filipinize the concept of exclamatory awareness, a sudden realization of one’s existence that does not require deep thought. According to the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel, you can see this in giggling toddlers who call attention to themselves as they run into the waiting arms of their doting parents: “…this awareness is expressed in the small child (and, indeed, perhaps already at the level of consciousness of the higher animals) by cries, by leaps…”
Alas, as we grow old and inadvertently burden ourselves with our endless needs and wants to be “successful,” we tend to forget we are capable of such self-awareness: “…though naturally with the adult…that immediacy of self-awareness is crusted over by habits and by all the superstructures of an official, compartmentalized life…”
Thankfully, there are moments in one’s life when this exclamatory awareness could still resurface. Like the sudden gust of wind that rushes to our face as we’re walking outdoors, these moments could be our happiest. The first time I laid eyes on my office crush (who happily became my wife and BFF) comes to mind, as does the first time I crossed a marathon finish line not so long ago. Sometimes though these moments can come from the most ordinary experience—like going to the movies.
Never mind that it has its share of bashers who complain no end that its special effects are nowhere near the caliber of those found in Transformers and Pacific Rim. Never mind that there were some sequences, like the final moments of Mary Ann Armstrong (portrayed by Carla Abellana), that could have been trimmed for tighter pacing. To someone who excitedly looked forward to getting home from school every Friday afternoon, what mattered more was that Voltes V: Legacy: The Cinematic Experience, brought back my own experience of “bulagang heto ako!” Yes, it’s silly, I know, but in the darkness of the cinema one evening, I really suddenly realized I am!
There’s more. I also vividly remembered the first time I held in my hands a 12-inch replica of the famed anime robot, a gift that my loving Mama painstakingly saved up for as reward for my being at the top of my class. For years, that robot would stand next to me whenever I studied and slept.
Props to director Mark Reyes and the hundreds of visual effects artists who worked on this film for years for making me feel like I was once again holding that physical replica of Chodenji Mashin Borutesu Faibu. I suspect the details they got right, at least to this life-long fan, may help explain this.
There is the volt-in sequence and its remarkable fidelity to the signature scene of the original anime series
There is the volt-in sequence and its remarkable fidelity to the signature scene of the original anime series. And there is the launch conveyor take-off sequence—a near-perfect recreation of the original scene in the first episode. Indeed, if you look closely, the visual details make it plausible for each launch conveyor to actually transform into a cockpit.
Equally outstanding is the rendering of Camp Big Falcon (CBF) as the massive home base of the Voltes team, as the viewer can easily appreciate why CBF is earth’s last line of defense.
Okay, you may object that given our single squadron of South Korean FA-50 fighter jets, how on earth could the Philippines ever be the center of the Earth Defense Force? But this is a fantasy anime series, remember? Besides, the decision to have an all-Filipino cast made for a truly Filipinized retelling of the Voltes V saga, did it not?
While I could not complain about the reimagined Voltes V theme sung by Julie Ann San Jose, I do hope The Jett Pangan Group’s grittier Pinoy rock treatment of Voltes V no Uta could find its way to the final episode of the series. It is, after all, the first Filipino rock group that successfully reinterpreted the theme of the beloved anime series.
Official Voltes V poster (from GMA 7)
Interestingly, as my wife and I left the cinema lobby, I could not help but notice a number of grown men, some of them in Voltes V shirts, happily taking group selfies with their families against the backdrop of the movie’s digital poster. Looking at their beaming smiles, I had a feeling I may not have been the only one who got a dose of “bulagang heto ako!”
