Regalado, Vhon Jhon Oliver P.

May 17, 2018

2015-09206, BS Civil Engineering Sir Clod Marlan Krister Yambao

Art Studies 2 THV 11:30am-1:00pm

Super Robot – Suffer Reboot

“Super Robot – Suffer Reboot” is the title given to the series of three sculptures

created by the Filipino artist Toym Imao. The sculptures were made in the span of three

years, specifically from 2014 to 2016. Each sculpture was inspired by a particular Japanese

animated television series which were prominent in the Philippines in the 1970s. The

sculptures were made to symbolize the sufferings and treacheries experienced by Filipinos,

with an accentuation towards the season of martial law amid Ferdinand Marcos'

administration, when numerous Japanese mecha enlivened television series wound up famous

among Filipino kids. Super Robot - Suffer Reboot is the aggregate name for three separate

sculptures. The names of each sculpture are alliterations - a stylistic literary device which is

identified by the repetition of the same letter sounds in stressed syllables of a phrase.

Toym Leon Imao was born in 1968, only four years before President Ferdinand

Marcos proclaimed Martial Law in the Philippines. There were few viewing channels in

1970s television, having just five communicate channels to browse. Amid this time, Toym

and his kin were eager aficionados of week after week Japanese kid's shows, the super robot

cartoon Voltes V and Mazinger Z. Be that as it may, with just four episodes left before the

finale of Voltes V, the cartoon were prohibited from communicated because of its asserted

"unnecessary viciousness", leaving its young fans crushed and upset.

Presently, just about four decades later, Toym utilized that underlying sting of outrage

experienced amid the Marcos years to make this installation work. This craftsmanship
installation was the result from the beloved memory and experience of the craftsman, molded

and shaped with scholarly education in architecture and fine arts, utilized with the

meticulousness of expert practice, and propelled by the heroes and standards of history, and

the character and gravitas of open workmanship.

“Last, Lost, Lust for Four Forgotten Episodes”, first of Imao’s “Super Robot-Suffer

Reboot Series”, was created in September of 2014. President Marcos is portrayed as the

Boazanian Skull with Horns starship - the famous "Sky Rook." The horns are the adapted

front end of an M16 assault rifle. The wings depend on the 1960s T-28 planes, nicknamed the

tora toras, which were widely utilized as a part of counterinsurgency strafing activities in the

'70s and amid the few overthrow endeavors against President Cory Aquino in the mid-'80s.

On the peak of the head is a portrayal of four structures: at the front is Malacañang, on

its sides are the Batasang Pambansa and the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and at the back is

the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The center zone is populated by portrayals of industrialization by means of various

smokestacks. These notable structures related with the late tyrant, each having their own

particular exceptional accounts on how the state has appropriated their assets of what the

Marcos imagines as his "New Society."

The top part delineates the exemplary fight pursued amongst good and malevolence, a

heavenly attendant against the devil enlivened by the Ginebra San Miguel bottle

workmanship. Lead celestial host Michael wears a Voltes V-propelled protective armor and

draws his laser sword against a four-armored portrayal of a mob police and the Constabulary,

equipped with a metal truncheon and a .45-gauge gun, with antiriot shields as his wings.
 The whole sculptural totem outwardly recommends a kind of holy place statuary

structure like a carroza, lit by a collection of Molotov bombs. It consolidates characters from

the "Voltes V" arrangement as portrayal of the Philippine experience under martial law.

The second sculpture in the series, “Coping with a Couple’s Copious Cupboard of

Curious, Cops, Cuffs and Corpses”, or simply “San Mazinger Z,” was made in July of 2015.

It features the marital autocracy of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, and is Imao's tribute to the

despot couple's arrogance. The Mazinger Z plot examines the prototype fight amongst good

and evil. The story rotates around Dr. Hell and his cohort Baron Ashura, a composite of a

male and female enlivened, speaking to the marital tyranny.

On top of the sculpture is a Filipino pieta, while underneath, four renditions of the

thoughtful anime character: Aphrodite A holds the eviscerated parts of Marcos martial law

casualties; a leg to symbolize the loss of versatility or freedom; a wing for the demolition of

dreams; a broken sword for a crushed peace; and wicked hands for abilities made pointless by

death.

The last piece in the series, “The Fright to Fight or Flight with Freights of Plights”,

was unveiled in February of 2016. The sculpture is based on the Japanese animated television

series “Daimos”, and it is centered on the tale of the Aquinos and Marcoses.

“Everything has a story. That’s why my story, more than my art form, should be what

people must remember.” – Toym Leon Imao

References:

Imao, Toym Leon (27 September 2014). "Ferdinand Marcos angered 'Voltes V'

generation". Inquirer.net. Inquirer.net. Retrieved 16 May 2018.

ayalamuseum (12 May 2015). "OpenSpace: Toym Imao". Ayala Museum. Ayala Foundation,

Inc. Retrieved 16 May 2018.

Charm, N. (2018, May 15). Toym's Labyrinth. Retrieved from

http://bworldonline.com/toyms-labyrinth/. Retrieved 17 May 2018.

Coping with a Couple's Copious Cupboard of Curios, Cops, Cuffs, and Corpses (aka San

Mazinger Z). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://toymimao.com/artwork/3824068-Coping-with-a-

Couple-s-Copious-Cupboard-of-Curios-Cops-Cuffs-and-Corpses-aka-San-Mazinger-Z.html.

Retrieved 17 May 2018.

Imao, T. L. (n.d.). Ferdinand Marcos angered 'Voltes V' generation. Retrieved from

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/640937/ferdinand-marcos-angered-voltes-v-generation.

Retrieved 17 May 2018.

Inkwell Manila. (2015, December 23). The Sculptor is a Storyteller. Retrieved from

https://inkwellmanila.wordpress.com/2015/12/22/the-sculptor-is-a-storyteller/. Retrieved 17

May 2018.