FANATIC cannot even begin to describe how a young boy named Marciano Arcega Reyes was drawn to the classic Japanese anime, “Voltes V,” which conquered Philippine television in May 1978.

Such was his astonishment over “humanity’s last remaining hope for survival,” the colossal Super-Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V, that it practically turned into obsession. Besides watching the cartoon action series en punto, he would spend every waking moment living and breathing Toei Doga Animation Company Ltd.’s mind-blowing robotic creation.

His bedroom walls were also splattered with posters of the show. The young but brave Armstrong brothers — Steve, Big Bert and Little Jon —, lone lady fighter Jamie Robinson and rodeo champion Mark Gordon, and, of course, the predominantly blue, white, red and yellow beast of steel into which the five characters transform after they dramatically chorus, “Let’s volt in!”

Even in school, the teachers and classmates of little boy Mark, as he was nicknamed, would always find him drawing sketches of the animated enigma on the pages of his notebooks and textbooks where lessons should have been. And, oh! During his free time, he would bask in recreating the most intense action scenes from the series as he played with his very own die-cast metal Voltes V robot, the first and the original made by the Japanese toy manufacturer, Popy.

“I was the worst kind of fan. The worst!” an all-grown-up Mark Reyes gleefully confessed to The Sunday Times Magazine, present day.

If you haven’t caught on, the precocious Mark Reyes in the story is also Philippine Entertainment’s foremost fantasy series and movie director of the last two decades. More than that, his very same name and artistry have officially become synonymous with the world’s first and only live-action TV adaptation of the iconic Japanese anime since “Voltes V” was abruptly canceled in the Philippines in August 1979. [It can be recalled that the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. banned the show at the height of Martial Law, citing the risk of sedition or its “harmful effects on children”].

The truly impressive revival, which brought tears and goosebumps to those who have seen the cinematic preview of the gargantuan project, is proudly produced by GMA Network with a completely all-Filipino team of creatives, cast members and crew, all the way to post-production. Fittingly titled “Voltes V: Legacy,” every episode that will finally be shown on Philippine TV beginning tomorrow earned the exacting approval of Toei’s Voltes V experts.

For GMA Network and Reyes, most especially, the realization of “Voltes V: Legacy” is a veritable dream come true. For even when the local media conglomerate initially came up with the ambitious idea of a remake — zeroing in on “Direk Mark” as the only Philippine filmmaker who could do it — it would take another 18 years and twice as much doubt for the endeavor to come to life.

But thanks to Reyes, the “Voltes V” fanatic who didn’t stop pushing for the impossible to happen, an entire generation’s rudely interrupted enjoyment from long ago, not to mention the excitement of several others that followed, will finally be appeased, amazed and thoroughly entertained.

The boy who could

That GMA believed only Mark Reyes could deliver this extremely challenging task was a no-brainer. Besides being their longest resident director — ergo, the captain behind countless mega-hits it has aired through the years — the Filipino filmmaker’s body of work practically leads towards this cinematic crescendo.

For a brief refresher, Reyes’ credits impressively include GMA Networks’ extremely successful “Encantadia” franchise, which incredibly saw supernatural characters like fairies, elves, parthuman, part-eagle beings (or the Mulawin) and dreadful beasts realistically befriend or battle one another and even fall in love on the small screen. Spread out from 2005 up until 2016, this collection of series and a finale movie earned the revered director many local awards, including several New York TV & Film Festival plums.

Reyes further directed out-and-out blockbuster action titles (“Kamandag,” “Code Name: Asero), bloody horror thrillers and horror comedies (“Tiyanaks,” “Trip Ubusan: The Lolas vs. Zombies”), and one or two science fiction films (the postapocalyptic “Resiklo”) that unknowingly steeled his knowledge and expertise for such a high stakes and technically advanced series as “Voltes V: Legacy.” He was simply the boy who could. However, if you ask Reyes today if his filmography is what fully prepared him to deliver a project whose first online teaser dropped in January and earned overwhelming praise the world over, he prefers to credit the young Voltes V fanboy all those years ago for leading him to direct what is likewise his career’s massive legacy.

“I’d like to say I got this done because this is my passion. I mean, when I was a kid, it was really science fiction that was driving me to do something with the arts,” he wistfully recalled. “Of course, there was the original — ‘Voltes V’ and then ‘Star Wars’ came along and all of this.

“I don’t know,” he pensively paused, “maybe it was all boggled up in my mind that I subconsciously knew even back then that I was bound to do something like this.”

The inherently intelligent fanboy, however, didn’t leave his promising predilection to passion and fate alone. He studied the stuff closely, dissecting every frame possible in the latest global blockbuster sci-fi or superhero movie that landed in cinemas, researching directors’ commentaries and behind-the-scenes documentaries, if any, and pouring over limited edition commemorative books on how smashes of the genre were made.

“My dream was probably to direct a ‘Star Wars’ movie apart from Voltes V but of course, that’s not going to happen,” Reyes chuckled. “But to even think of doing something like that, I think God must have told me, ‘Aralin mo ‘to!’ (study about it).

“So from every Star Wars movie to every Marvel movie, that’s what I did, so much so that in my house if you look at my library, it’s not filled with the classics, but the titles there are ‘Production design of Thor,’ ILM (Industrial Lighting and Magic) books — all the production books I could get my hands on.

“So when I got into ‘Voltes V: Legacy,’ I basically knew how to go and how to do it. I had the blueprint on how to approach such a project, so it was just a matter of executing it already.”

Reyes was certainly right when he far from conceitedly told The Sunday Times Magazine that had any other director been given this project, if they hadn’t been preparing for this specialized genre for the 20 years he has, they would just as soon hit a wall.

The right time

And even if his real-deal sci-fi project had been an exaggeratedly long time coming, Reyes wouldn’t change a thing. He believes that time is of the essence in this exercise, further attributing the realization of “Voltes V: Legacy” to a more mature Philippine audience today and the unbelievable technology now available to filmmakers.

“Times have changed, and Filipinos are now more exposed to Netflix and downloading on YouTube, so the level of intelligence and the hunger for new material is very much there,” he enthused.

“It can’t just be any soap opera nowadays, so here we have a space soap opera that deals with familiar relationships — bloodlines and blood loss, parental sacrifice, the fight against evil — weaved in with the incredible technology and the level of CGI (computer-generated imagery) expertise never seen before for the action scenes. If I had to shoot ‘Voltes V: Legacy’ back then, it would have really looked bad,” Reyes chuckled at the thought.

Moreover, when GMA got cold feet just as soon as they dreamt up the project as early as 2005, Reyes confidently egged them on with the conviction that “Votes V’s” story will always be relevant in any era, especially to Filipinos.

“You know, among all the animations I’ve watched in the past, it was ‘Voltes V’ that resonated with me because it is a story that’s not just about robots but a compelling story of a family. That part was easy to convince with the bosses.”

As to the question of the local entertainment industry’s capability to produce an immense and complicatedly high-tech series — read: 80 episodes in total — Reyes knew a verbal confirmation wouldn’t be enough, so he simply went ahead and proved it.

“I appreciated everyone’s hesitation since Filipino animators and CGI artists haven’t pursued a project to this extent. No one. There have been attempts — we’d sell some animation and CGI — but there had never been a follow through.”

A firm believer in the Filipino grit and talent, however — “You give the typical Pinoy any old thing, and he won’t just fix it, but he’ll run with it and make it better” — Reyes collaborated sometime in 2012 with Jay Santiago of the remarkable local animation company Riot Inc. and came up with a pitch tape.

“GMA saw it, and they really liked it, but the next hurdle was how expensive the production was going to be.”

With one foot finally in the door, Reyes was unfazed and quickly brought the pitch tape to Telesuccess Productions, Inc. to seek additional investment.

The over four-decade-old Telesuccess is renowned as the Philippines’ premiere content localization, dubbing and audio post-production go-to for television. Once there, he was told from the pitch tape they had long been looking for a group, whether here or abroad, who could bring “Voltes V” back to life again. Obviously, they were it.

With the project now backed by two established companies, GMA and Telesuccess unitedly sought and were enthusiastically granted Toei’s green light to film “Voltes V: Legacy,” the Filipino adaptation.

“And the rest, as they say, is history.”

An industry’s triumph

Of course, the “rest is history” part wasn’t as easy as it sounds. The years that followed required intense preparation for the adaptation’s script, auditions and casting, production and costume design, and identifying and locking locations, which all led to the actual filming taking place at the height of the pandemic in 2021. It would take nearly two more years before Reyes could post a grainy picture from Camp Big Falcon captioned, “It’s a wrap. May 27,2021 to April 1, 2023.”

“There were moments when I’d ask myself what I had gotten myself into, but I was never going to give up,” the director laughed. “There were just times when — it wasn’t frustration I felt, but I just didn’t want to compromise, you know?”

Grateful for casting GMA Sparkle actors whom he deems perfect for the five in Voltes V (Miguel Tanfelix as Steve Armstrong, Ysabel Ortega as Jamie Robinson, Matt Lozano as Big Bert Armstrong, Radson Flores as Mark Gordon, and Raphael Landicho as Little Jon Armstrong) and a superb support cast in the likes of Dennis Trillo, Carla Abellana, Neil Ryan Sese and Albert Martinez among so many others, and having an utterly devoted crew and production team that number the hundreds, Reyes emotionally avers he has “reached the apex of (his) dreams.”

“I mean, just to get reactions all the way from Russia and around the world with the mega trailer, it’s just — wow!” Reyes related in joyful disbelief. “There were even Japanese media folks who posted online that their filmmakers can learn a lot from the director Mark Reyes and their Filipino counterparts. “It’s just so overwhelming that there are people from the motherland of anime and the mecca of Voltes V who are impressed by what we’ve done, and all this just goes to prove that Filipinos can do it. When given the chance, they will excel and deliver. I’m not saying we’re perfect or that we’re already of the Marvel or Star Wars levels, but this is a start and a triumph for everyone.” Indeed, Mark Reyes’ “Voltes V: Legacy” has opened not just a door of opportunities but a floodgate for the local entertainment industry. For finally, there is a hundred percent Filipino production that clearly shows the rest of the world that its creatives can do topnotch CGI, fashion fantastic costumes, build elaborate sets and deliver breathtaking cinematography. Of course, emotions are raw as they can get when Filipino actors are inspired, which rounds up the director’s vision into reality.

“I really hope and believe that Voltes V won’t be the first and last of its kind in our entertainment industry because I can’t keep saying enough that we can do it too. To the same extent and in the same quality of series and movies we’ve marveled at before from Hollywood and other countries,” Reyes maintained.

“There’s no reason not to do it, especially since a lot of graphic novels are being written by younger minds across the country. Wouldn’t it be great if studios would adapt them for TV or the movies, just like what Netflix did with ‘Trese’?”

Laughing at The Sunday Times Magazine’s follow-up question if he thinks all these projects were just waiting for him, the dreamer fanboy-turned-game changing filmmaker humbly ended, “I just raised the torch, and I’m sure a lot of people will follow and do the same. I’m just a crazy guy who had enough courage, innocence, audacity or ignorance to go for it and shoot!”

And so, as “Voltes V: Legacy” premieres Monday, May 8, at 8 p.m. on GMA Telebabad and at 9:40 p.m. on GTV, including GMA Pinoy TV worldwide, let everyone hope that impassioned youngsters continue to abound across these islands for they are the very spark that can make great things happen for all for always.