Trivia / Voltes V: Legacy

• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Like Mark Gordon, Radson Flores has been riding horses since he was very young.
  • Ysabel Ortega is the daughter of an authority figure, Senator Lito Lapid, like her character Jamie, who's Commander Robinson's daughter.
• All-Star Cast: The supporting characters (human and Boazanian) are played by big-time actors or had been active in the Philippine showbiz industry for a long time such as Dennis Trillo, Carla Abellana, Gabby Eigenmann, Epy Quizon among others. Meanwhile, two of the Voltes V team are played by Miguel Tanfelix and Ysabel Ortega.
• Approval of God:
  • The president and CEO of Toei itself, Fumio Yoshimura, has congratulated the Philippines for a job well done with Voltes V: Legacy.
  • Shinichiro Shirakura or "Shirakura P"^note (Toei's Director of Planning and Production for both the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series who is also credited as one of the show's executive producers) marveled at the quality of the robot design. He also positively comments on the popularity of Voltes V in the Philippines.^note 
    Shirakura: Thank you to the people of the Philippines who have loved Voltes V for a long time, overcame many challenges, and managed to realize this huge project. On the other hand, in Japan, Voltes V has (seemingly) been completely forgotten... but that's not the case. The flow of Voltes V was changed to a live-action series from Battle Fever J (1979) through the later program Tosho Daimos (1978). It is now called the Super Sentai series. [...] The DNA of Voltes V has been handed down from generation to generation as one of Japan's leading special effects hero series, and continues to fascinate children around the world. Although while it has become more sophisticated with each generation, it may be that something important has been lost. Voltes V: Legacy taught me that.
  • Jun'ichi Suwabe has tweeted out interest in doing the Japanese dub voice for the Voltes V: Legacy version of Prince Heinel/Zardoz, succeeding Osamu Ichikawa.
    Suwabe: Live-action adaptation of Voltes V!? I feel amazing.. I want to do a Japanese dub of Prince Heinel. I'm good at characters with a sense of nobleness! (smile)
  • Here's Masahiro Inoue (Tsukasa Kadoya from Kamen Rider Decade) singing the Voltes V theme song on stage while clips from Voltes V: Legacy plays on the rear-projected background at the 2023 Manila TokuSpirits Convention.
  • The Twitter account of Masami Obari follows the official Voltes V: Legacy Twitter account.
• Blooper:
  • The production finally fixed the typo during the Voltes V ending credits for the composer of the ED. It went from "Kobayashi Aso" to "Kobayashi Asei".
  • "Never Surrender" ends with a blooper reel containing the following:
    • Boazan soldiers indulging in some synchronized dancing.
    • Arisa's actress calls Countess Zaki's actress "Arisa" before "Zaki" reminds her, "You ARE Arisa."
    • Zardoz's leap of faith into Godor's flame was repeatedly messed up by Martin del Rosario.
    • Takeo kept unintentionally quoting passages from Encantadia to Arisa.
    • Mid-battle, Zardoz's wig and horns fell off.
    • Michael V. provides a sweet rendition of Octo-1 singing "Chichi Wo Motomete" as the background music for the entire scene.
• Dear Negative Reader: Both series head writer Suzette Doctolero and director Mark Reyes have dissed critics of the show on social media, calling them "bashers".
  • Doctolero has been far more vocal about the criticisms, as ever since the show was announced and certain details came out^note (like the people behind it, it's airing from Monday to Friday in a typical primetime evening slot, and having double the anime's episode count), some Filipino fans have voiced worries that the live-action series might end up veering off from the anime and becoming a typical clichéd Filipino soap opera with a Voltes V skin.
  • In response to a Pugad Baboy strip joking about the topic, Doctolero shot back at author Pol Medina Jr. with personal insults, which drew more preemptive mockery online. In the next strip, Medina's Author Avatar characters concede that they would check out the show anyway for nostalgia reasons.
• Dueling Shows: With ABS-CBN's Batang Quiapo due to sharing the same timeslot. While the genres are different, both shows are remakes of popular '70s to '80s media in the Philippines.
• Dyeing for Your Art: According to his interview with Philippine Star, Martin Del Rosario, who played Prince Zardoz, had to lose weight and build up his physique for the role. He also watched the anime to get a better understanding of his character and changed his voice for a bit to make it similar to the character.
• Friendship on the Set: Martin Del Rosario and Liezel Lopez became friends after spending together in the show. Their relationship created gossip that the two were dating. While Liezel mentioned having a crush on him, Martin stated in PEP.ph that they were just friends and reiterated that he prefers to be single for now.
• International Coproduction: Between GMA Network (Philippines) and Toei Company, Ltd. (Japan), with the intermediary being Toei's Philippine licensee, Telesuccess Productions.
• Meaningful Release Date: As shown on this poster, Legacy's release date^note  May 8, 2023 is just 3 days past the 45^th anniversary of the original air date of the anime on GMA.^note  May 5, 1978
• No Export for You: The official YouTube streams of the show from GMA's official channel are blocked off outside the Philippines, unless you are a GMA Pinoy TV (GMA's international channel) subscriber where the service is available. Justified as Toei has plans to make the show available outside the Philippines at a later time.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Some of the older cast members such as Gabby Eigenmann, Neil Ryan Sese, and Epy Quizon are huge fans of the anime.
  • Michael V., a fan of the original series who also cosplayed as Steve Armstrong in Pepito Manaloto, becomes the voice actor of OCTO-1 in the titular episode.
• Prop Recycling: Some costumes that were used in Encantadia are reused for some members of the Boazanian nobility, as shown here.
• Reality Subtext: Steve Armstrong falling in love with Jamie Robinson is synonymous with Miguel Tanfelix courting Ysabel Ortega in real life.
• Romance on the Set: Miguel Tanfelix (who plays Steve) and Ysabel Ortega (who plays Jamie) are dating in real life. Amusingly enough, the two also starred in GMA's 2022 romance drama, What We Could Be, where they play as a couple though Tanfelix and Ortega admitted they were just friends at that time. It's only on February 9, 2023, in Boy Abunda's Fast Talk that Tanfelix confessed he's been courting Ortega for quite some time. Later on in his and Ortega's interview with PEP.ph, Tanfelix admitted that his time with Ortega during the filming of Voltes V: Legacy for four years made them grow closer.
• Saved from Development Hell: Director Mark Reyes states that the series is eight years in the making, with the production of the series actually starting in January 2020. Then came the COVID-19 Pandemic, which delayed both the production and the principal photography processes. Filming wrapped up on April 1, 2023, with the additional ten episodes wrapping up filming on August 2023.
• Star-Making Role: For Matt Lozano and Radson Flores. Lozano is a singer-songwriter who played bit roles in several mainstream movies and indie movies. He's on the verge of quitting his acting career if he hadn't auditioned for the role of Big Bert. Flores auditioned in the Philippine talent search show, StarStruck, in 2019 but afterward, he focused on studying as a lawyer which he promised to his parents.
• Underage Casting: Matt Lozano (who played Big Bert) was born in 1993 and is five years older than Miguel Tanfelix, who was born in 1998 and portrays the eldest Armstrong brother.
• What Could Have Been: Reyes revealed that there were a lot of changes in the cast before the official announcement in 2020 due to the age of the actors. For example, Dennis Trillo was his first choice to play Zardoz before he settled him to play Ned Armstrong. Dingdong Dantes and Kylie Padilla were also his first choices to play Steve Armstrong and Jamie Robinson. Ruru Madrid was also supposed to be part of the main cast.
• Word of Saint Paul: Liezel Lopez believes that Zardoz and Zandra are reunited in the afterlife.

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