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, theOVA 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.
