Name(s): Armored Trooper Votoms: Red Shoulder Document – Roots of Ambition. / Armored Trooper Votoms: Red Shoulder Document – Yabo no Roots. / Armored Trooper Votoms: The Red Shoulder Document – Roots of Treachery. / 装甲騎兵ボトムズ　レッドショルダードキュメント野望のルーツ.
Release Date(s): March 19, 1988
Studio(s): Sunrise
Related: Armored Trooper Votoms (1983) / Armored Trooper Votoms: Big Battle. (1986) / Armored Trooper Votoms: Brilliantly Shining Heresy (1994)

A pretty welcome bonus prequel chapter in the Votoms saga. Seeing the same style designs as the series with much higher quality animation is a big treat. However, I feel that this doesn’t give enough new information.

At first I thought that since this came out years later that this would be even darker and more violent than the original, but if it was, it was a negligible amount. The gritty realism is the highlight of Votoms, and I’d hoped that would be realized here, if not taken even further. It’s a relief seeing those values retained.

It’s disappointing this doesn’t deliver further insight into Chirico. In Roots of Ambition, he appears the same as he was at the start of the Votoms series. I assumed the brutal Red Shoulder training would be what turned him stoic, but I didn’t notice any transition. We didn’t even get to see much of his training, likely because of the short length. Instead the whole thing mainly felt like a tribute to the Chirico we already know and a highlight of his special traits that make him up in a different context. I’m a little upset, because the potential for this part of Chirico’s history is very high. Still, I found Votoms: Roots of Ambition entertaining.