Chirico Cuvie: Mecha Man-Whore

Destiny_Gundam · Sat Oct 11, 2008 3:58 pm

So I just finished watching the Armored Trooper VOTOMS TV series for the first time. While watching the series, I kept track of exactly how many ATs Chirico went through. Here are my findings:

Scopedog x8
Marshydog x3
Standing Turtle x1
Scopedog II x5
Fatty x3
Zwerg x2
Rabidly Dog x1

Total: 23

Note that this total could be off by one or two. Sometimes it's unclear whether or not Chirico switched ATs. When keeping track, if I didn't see the AT outright destroyed/abandoned, I assumed Chirico just fixed it up for the next outing. A few exceptions to this, specifically when they're on Space Battleship X. Given Chirico's state at the time, and the sheer number of Scopedog IIs at his disposal, I doubt he bothered with repairs.

The longest surviving AT was Marshydog #3, which lasted from episodes 18 to 27. The shortest lived was Scopedog #6 (the Red Shoulder one) and Fatty #1. They didn't even survive an episode before Chirico hopped into a new one.

There were 8 episodes when Chirico didn't pilot anything.

This has been your daily dose of useless trivia.

Kylern · Sat Oct 11, 2008 5:13 pm

good ole Chirico... He just never dies as long as he can mech jack another random AT. Not sure who goes through more machines, him or the silent Mechwarrior from the Mech Assault games.

Dark Duel · Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:54 pm

YIKES. And I thought Jerid Messa went through mech pretty fast, but 23? That's a lot...

Zeonic Glory · Sat Oct 11, 2008 9:20 pm

Well, you are talking about the man who can go into Hell with a Scopedog and a pistol, hijack another unit, and come back out with just his pistol. As for the list, thats a pretty good rate of 1 mech per episode. I think we might have to make Chiricos the measuring unit of mech longevity.

Hmm, I wonder how many Chiricos is a Leo?

DAG101 · Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:52 am

Zeonic Glory wrote: Hmm, I wonder how many Chiricos is a Leo?

0.0001,

But really, 23?

Draco Starcloud · Sun Oct 12, 2008 1:13 pm

If a Chirico is 1 episode, then a Leo is, at best, 0.5 Chiricos.

Ryvius · Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:19 am

Dark Duel wrote:YIKES. And I thought Jerid Messa went through mech pretty fast, but 23? That's a lot...

This IS Votoms we're talking though, where AT's are nothing but generic tanks with legs basically.

Also, Chirico ... the only true God character out there!

Genocide · Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:46 pm

Indeed; Chirico isn't bad at piloting by any account. In fact, he's perhaps the best mecha pilot in any real-robot series. He used grunt machines throughout most of his career as an AT pilot, yet managed to best almost anyone he came across. It's a lot to ask in today's day and age, but I would love it if a new mecha anime would make use of the same concept.

Toru Masuta · Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:28 pm

Yeah, Chirico is pretty much the ultimate Real Robot pilot. Not only doesn't he have personal, customized mecha, but he switches out mecha like they were popcorn and they're often just whatever he happened to find, or whatever spare parts he was able to put together. You never see Kamille dumpster-diving to put together the Zeta Gundam or anything. In Votoms, the robots are so Real you can build them out of trash. The Pimp My Ride/Monster Garage guys would be proud.

And! It's by no means a gradual progression but Chirico seems to pilot less effective units as time goes on, compared to what he's facing. He starts out with Scopedogs against criminals and underequipped police, stays in a Scopedog for most of Kummen when everyone else in his unit has something better or more adapted to Vietnam environment, and in some of the last few episodes he's piloting the Balarant's Scopedog imitation, which doesn't seem to be quite as good. He gets demoted from a GM to a Zaku I and is still able to become even more of a badass, in other words.

By the time he finally does get his own custom unit (which was actually probably someone else's custom unit first)* in the last three episodes, he's so outnumbered it really doesn't matter, and plus Spoilers spoiler spoilers you think he's spoilers.

* Edit: Just did a quick check and his custom unit really is his own; the Rabidly Dog is similar to the earlier Strike Dog but apparently isn't the same model. The point is still the same, though: he gets a unique unit only late in the series and even then it's not powerful enough to be really unfair considering the numbers he's facing. It's not a Gundam by any means.

Bright Noa · Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:17 pm

Draco Starcloud wrote:If a Chirico is 1 episode, then a Leo is, at best, 0.5 Chiricos.

You sure your math is right? I keep getting 0.3 Chiricos for a Leo....

Destiny_Gundam · Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:45 pm

Averaging it out, I get a Chirico to be about 1.8 episodes.

hawk of endymion · Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:47 pm

Destiny_Gundam wrote:
Total: 23

23?!

I knew he went through a lot, but I never imagined 23!

And 23 grunt suits too, imagine what he would've done if he got the midseaon upgrade.

Zeonic Glory · Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:08 pm

The Rabidlydog is kind of along the lines of a midseason upgrade, although it came much, much later.

yazi88 · Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:53 pm

Ironically the Rabidydog was/is still the only customized AT that Chirico will ever use cause I believe in the ova sequel Shining Heresy he's still using a scopedog variant. Correct me if I'm wrong about this.

Mark064 · Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:00 am

The first customized unit Chirico used was the Scopedog Red Shoulder Custom during the Uoodo arc.

yazi88 · Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:16 am

I completely forgot about the Red Shoulder Scopedogs. But then again they are still just customized AT not brand new prototype AT's that I keep thinking of like the Rabidydog.

bluemax151 · Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:35 am

Mark064 wrote:The first customized unit Chirico used was the Scopedog Red Shoulder Custom during the Uoodo arc.

Wasn't that just an Imitation RSC?

Zeonic Glory · Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:48 am

It was an imitation, but that's what it was called.

Mark064 · Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:03 am

The units the actual Red Shoulders used was either the ATM-09-ST Scopedog Red Shoulder or the ATM-09-STTC Scopedog Turbo Custom and if you wanna throw in The Last Red Shoulder the X-ATH-P-RSC Blood Sucker.

Since while I'm at it Chirico did pilot another customized one off Scopedog too the ATM-09-LC Light Scopedog (Big Battle).

Toru Masuta · Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:07 pm

Point taken about the Red Shoulder Custom being a custom unit--I was thinking more along the line of a Gundam/GM difference, meaning a more or less one-off unit, but technically a customized unit counts as a custom unit

The Red Shoulder Custom was something put together with parts available to a Battling arena, which is why I didn't think to include it--there's nothing special about it that makes it different from what someone else could throw together with commonly available parts, I mean. Even stuff like Char's Zaku II had a model number change to distinguish his Commander type from grunt units, I guess. The Rabidly dog is in a different class, since it's probably the only one of its type made and definitely not mass-produced--but I stand corrected!

Also thinking back on it, it seems like the customized units Chirico pilots might have a shorter lifespan than the average Chirico unit. Red Shoulder Custom lives on in our hearts and through model toys, but it doesn't last through the episode it appears in, and meanwhile there's something about Marshydog #3 that lets it persevere. Can mecha be abnormal survivors, too?

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