Soukou Kihei Votoms: The Last Red Shoulder

It was good to see Chirico meet up with his old squad from Unit X-1 of the Red Shoulders. His squad mates were pretty archetypal though but I guess Chirico himself is archetypal as well so it would make sense his squad mates would be. The story takes place between season 1 and season 2 of the original anime and there's almost no flashback scenes to their time as a unit.

They all join up to kill their commanding officer for sending them constantly on suicide missions (they all thought because they were hated which is why they were sent on these suicide missions and horrible ... assignments but in reality they were probably being tested as candidates for being abnormal survivors).

I would've liked to know more about how Pailsen (Chirico's old commanding officer) ended up working with the secret society and developing the new perfect soldiers but there wasn't much information in this OVA.

Also the garden of eden like scenes with Ypsilon and Fyana were kind of cringy. Why did Ypsilon have to be naked? I guess this was them trying to show like how Adam and Eve didn't mind being naked since they didn't have knowledge yet (and the whole point of this scene was Ypsilon just got brainwashed and had his mind wiped and didn't know anything at all (as if he was just born) as part of the conversion process to being a perfect soldier).

Those scenes were good the first time but if I watch it again I will probably skip past them.

The Red Shoulders have been disbanded, many died during the war, many others quit the military after the end of the 100 year with the Balarat, but Pailsen at his research base with the secret society has a small contingent that has remained loyal to him and defected to the secret society along with him.

Chirico and his old squad mates end up fighting them. The action scenes were the best part but soon Ypsilon comes and starts wrecking everyone. He dispenses with Chirico's friends near effortlessly one by one and they can barely land hits on him as he kills them right in front of him.

Meanwhile Chirico watches his friends die because he's too scared to fight thinking Fyana might be in the AT that Ypsilon is piloting.

I wish the Red Shoulders could've put up more of a fight (on both sides) because they are supposed to be near perfect soldier tier but were both too easily dispatched. It makes me think that Pailsen didn't even have real Red Shoulders at his base but was just continuing to use the name and maybe techniques/strategies with members of the secret society (that obviously haven't been fully trained in them or would even be capable to succeed as Red Shoulders since they were all just mercenaries).

And I believe that because why would Chirico and his squad mates not flinch at all about the prospect of thinking they're fellow Red Shoulders? That is unless they were fakes.

Or maybe they feel that the Red Shoulders are all bastards (from all the atrocities done during the war) and the fact that to become a Red Shoulder all new recruits must enter a death match against them for the right to train as a Red Shoulder so they always hated each other just for that.

But it's a very sad anime seeing all of Chirico's friends die even if he didn't react too harshly about that (but then again he never really does with anything, he often doesn't show his emotion or how he feels).

The ending scene though was perfect as Chirico walks off into the desert night and continues to look for Fyana.

I want to give it an 8 but those Fyana and Ypsilon scenes really ruin the rewatchability of this. Myanimelist doesn't have half scores (which they should) or I would've gave it 6.5 but I'll give it a 7.

As far as formatting is concerned, The Last Red Shoulder makes no attempt to produce something new for VOTOMS, going so far as to even include the OP from the original anime (albeit a different recording) to emphasise that this is pretty much just an ‘episode 53’, rather than something new to change any foundations. And in that regard, it does its job well, this OVA is pretty much just as good as any episode of VOTOMS was, and the 52 minute runtime gives them more breathing room to emphasise the episode’s B plot, albeit with mixed results.

Set some time after the Uoodo arc, the ... OVA has Chirico, and the 3 last remaining Red Shoulders set out to kill General Pailsen, who had ordered the operation to find Proto One in Episode 1, and then ordered to have them killed because having them alive was a liability. And for the B-plot, Fyana helps Ypsilon walk through some grassy fields to look at nature as it’s meant to make him appreciate life, or something. It doesn’t really feel congruent with how Ypsilon appears through the rest of the series, as Borough and the others have him constantly training to be a killing machine, and nothing else, so why this is happening at all doesn’t feel quite right. The primary reason it’s there is to have an excuse for a scene wherein General Paisen approaches Fyana who then gives some brief backstory on Chirico, and explains that he wants to see Chirico and Ypsilon fight because, well, no reason. Even if a bit uninteresting, “I need to kill Chirico to save my own ass” would have worked, but when they create another motivation, some vague notion of wanting to test the Perfect Soldier in battle or something, it leaves the viewer with more questions than answers. Not to mention, this idea was done better in the actual anime, with Ypsilon’s own hatred and pride making him want to kill Chirico, actual emotional reasons to want to see him dead, this scene removed the emphasis on the pragmatic reason Paisen wants to get rid of Chirico, and without any actual elaboration of his emotional reason, it doesn’t feel thought out.

The main plot of the episode involves Chirico and the disgraced Red Shoulders taking down Pailsen in his compound in the middle of some irradiated desert. The landscapes in the OVA are certainly something to take note of, as is the visual design in general, which has always been good, but Uoodo definitely looks a lot better than it used to, or at least it looks good because it’s mostly seen as bright lights in the distance so there’s no crackheads ruining the view. The other Red Shoulders are all new characters, who are pretty well developed, as while they are all in a similar situation to Chirico, they all do respond to their past difficulties in different ways, as people do – a good example would be an early scene where they’re repairing some ATs, and one of them asks if they should paint the shoulder red, which leads to some quiet disagreement, which displays how they feel about having been Red Shoulders, they could’ve just made them generic badass outlaws who renounced everything they ever did, but they went the extra mile, and actually added some character to these people.

Naturally, it’s not VOTOMS if there isn’t some ATs battling it out, and in this regard the OVA does not disappoint, each of the four main characters have some decked out ATs, and the combat is the best part of the OVA without any question, the mecha designs, the music and the editing all come together to make an excellent viewing experience. With that said, one thing that it feels like they overlooked was that the people defending Pailsen were other Red Shoulders, in conspiracy with him and the secret society, but they sure don’t fight like they are, as there is very little to suggest they’re anything better than mediocre AT pilots, but at least they have some new and unique AT units. Really, the only person who seems to actually be a major threat is Ypsilon, whose backstory is already well known, we’ve seen him fight Chirico probably upwards of 5 times, and from our first time seeing the Red Shoulders in combat with Chirico, it’s a bit of a disappointment, the corrupt cops in Uoodo could probably handle them. Also, the part with Fyana and Ypsilon in the beginning had another purpose, which was to serve as an excuse for Fyana to come in as a deus ex machina, which is fine, it’s a perfectly fine dramatic device, and having one be indirectly foreshadowed is definitely better than the opposite. Speaking of the opposite of that, they directly foreshadowed that the ATs that Chirico and his pals were using were completely broken and incapable of actual combat, which feels like a scene they forgot to delete, because they never bring it up again, and when the time comes, the ATs all work flawlessly.

The ending featured a mirroring of a POV shot that they also showed in the beginning, which was neat I suppose, but beyond that, there isn’t much else I could say about The Last Red Shoulder, its plot has some superfluous elements that weaken the narrative, but even still, you’ve got some excellent AT combat, this OVA makes good use of the full 52 length, and its quality matches up finely with that of the original VOTOMS anime, and that’s a high standard.

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Unlike the Red Shoulder Document, The Last Red Shoulder feels like a totally necessary part of the Votoms series, and I can't imagine it not being a part of the story. Seriously, it's odd everything in this wasn't in the actual series, as it's pretty important. Regardless, watch Red Shoulder Document first, as this has an important connection to information only shown in that OVA. This OVA takes place between the Woodo and Kunmen arcs (after episode 13), and ideally should be watched between them.

For starters, there are more ... significant plot developments in this than most single episodes of the Votoms series, and that's a huge plus. We get to see the origins of Ypsilon and learn that he didn't just come out of nowhere for the Kunmen arc. We get to see more insight into Chirico's past and some greater detail on the characters that make it up, as well as some closure that makes the Red Shoulder Document a much more worthwhile watch. The animation isn't as good as the aforementioned OVA, but is still superior to the series. Recommended.