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Ippei Mine is the deuteragonist of the anime series Chōdenji Machine Voltes V.
He is an 18-year-old rodeo champion who was born on November 24, and orphaned when he was still a young boy when his mother saved him from a pack of wolves. He alongside the others would later form the Voltes Team to save the world from the invading Boazanians, while also having a rivalry with Kenichi Goh.
He was voiced by the late Kazuyuki Sogabe.
Appearance[]
Ippei is a tall man with a slender build. He has long black hair and black eyes. He wears a blue and white uniform with a yellow "V" on his chest. He also wears a black belt with a golden logo.
Personality[]
Due to losing his mother at a young age and having to learn how to live on the streets and perform odd jobs, Ippei has grown pessimistic, bitter and aloof, but cool under crisis. It's his cynicism that causes him to often clash with the more optimistic Kenichi, but the two nevertheless get along well.
Ippei's best friend is a white stallion named Eiffel. The two are inseperable, so much that Ippei feels sad when he is forcibly separated from Eiffel when forced to join the Voltes team. As a result, Professor Hamaguchi would soon bring Eiffel to Big Falcon so they can reunite.
It's implied that Ippei has feelings for Megumi.
Biography[]
Ippei was born in Japan. Shortly after his birth, his family relocated to America in hopes of finding a better life.
At a young age, Ippei lost his mother when she saved him from a pack of wolves (which he misrembered as abandonment). Due to this, he learned how to live on the streets and perform odd jobs. This made him grow bitter and aloof, but at the same time strengthened his personality. Growing up, he participated in rodeo, learned to ride horses and use a whip, eventually became a famous champion. He also befriended the white stallion Eiffel, who he won two rodeo championship contests with. The two became inseparable.
Years before the events of the story, an alien from Planet Boazania, Prince Gohl, crash landed on Earth after fleeing oppression from his home planet. He was discovered by a Japanese scientist named Mitsuyo Goh. Gohl told Mitsuyo ogf his story - 14,000 light years from Earth, there exists a planet known as Boazania. The inhabitants of the planets are split into two classes, those with horns, and those without horns. In the past, both classes lived in harmony. However, at some point in time, a caste system was introduced that stated that those with horns were allowed to form an aristocratic nobility, while those without them are forced to live as slaves. This cruel caste system would dictate Boazanian society for aeons.
Gohl was born into the Boazanian Royal Family, who upheld this system, but he was born hornless. While his father tried to commit fillicide on him, he was stopped at the last minute by his wife, his messenger and the dcotor, and they agreed to raise him with prosthetic horns to hide his otherness.
Growing up, Gohl witnessed the cruelty the Hornless Boazanians would witness at the hands of the Horned. They were often assaulted, maltreated, made to labour and had little to no rights. Being a Hornless Boazanian himself, he felt their plight in his heart. Gohl's dream was to create a society where both Horned and Hornless Boazanians could co-exist without oppression. Gohl discovered that he had a great talent for technology and engineering. Soon, he became the Boazanian Minister of Science and Technology. At some point, Gohl married a Horned Boazanian woman named Lozaria, who knew that he was Hornless but loved him anyway.
When the 123rd Emperor of Boazania died, a succession crisis occured because his only child was mentally disabled, therefore unfit to rule. Next in line to the throne was Gohl. However, the son of the Emperor and his concubine, Zambajil, had been eyeing the throne for a long time. Before the coronation event, Zambajil's subordinates began looking for ways to incriminate Gohl so that he wouldn't be able to become King. They tortured the doctor that delivered him, who confessed that Gohl was Hornless.
Zambajil interrupted the coronation event and pulled of Gohl's horns in front of the public, exposing him as a Hornless Boazanian. The onlookers gasped upon finding out that he had been hiding his true nature from them, while Lozaria covered her eyes. Gohl was then thrown in prison, while Lozaria was exiled from the palace. Fearing Zambajil's wrath, she fled to the countryside with her parents, preparing to raise her son with them. Since Gohl was in jail, she was unable to tell him that she was pregnant with his child. Lozaria then died in childbirth after delivering a boy.
Gohl, who at this point was enslaved, didn't know Lozaria had died until news spread that she died in childbirth. He begged his overseers to at least let him buy flowers for her grave, but was abused in return. Gohl, now enraged, began inciting slave rebellions. Using his skill in science and technology, he began creating weapons that the slaves would use to attempt to overthrow Zambajil. However, they were unsuccessful each time.
Gohl was urged by his fellow slaves to flee Boazania for his own good. He initially refused, but they stated that he was their final hope for a future free of slavery and he was too valuable to die given his intelligence. They managed to safeguard a ship for his travel and shielded him with their bodies as the Boazanian Empire's forces opened fire on them. A frenzied Gohl hurried into the ship and flew as far as he could, far away from Boazania. It was by pure chance that the planet the ship eventually crash-landed on happened to be Earth.
Kentaro and Mitsuyo fell in love, and he assimiliated into Japanese society. He adopted the name "Kentaro Goh" to hide his real identity. Kentaro and Mitsuyo had three children, Kenichi, Daijirou and Hiyoshi. He was a loving father to them, but he also foresaw the Boazanian invasion. He told the Earthlings of it, but only a few of them thought he was telling the truth. Some of the humans that believed him included Professor Hamaguchi, Professor Sakaonji and General Oka. Kentaro, Mitsuyo, Hamaguchi and Oka worked together and created the robot Voltes V, designed to protect the Earth when the invasion inevitably happened.
Some time later, Zambajil recalled Gohl to Boazania. Gohl told Mitsuyo he needed to return to Boazania to appeal to him to end his cruelty. Mitsuyo begged him not to go, but Gohl insisted on it. Boazania was already conquering planets left and right and it was only a matter of time until Earth would be next. Before he left, he told her that if he wasn't back in two months, she can assume he failed.
Gohl returned to Boazania and begged Zambajil to stop colonizing other planets. Zambajil instead offered him his old position back, with the caveat that he would manufacture weapons for the Boazanian Empire due to his skill in science and technology. Gohl refused this offer, so Zambajil had him imprisoned. He planned to have him executed, but a Horned Noble, Dange, who was inspired by Gohl's spirit and drive for justice, broke off his horns and joined the resistance movement, rescuing Gohl from prison.
One day, out of nowhere, Ippei was kidnapped from California to Japan, being forced to undergo rigorous training so he could pilot the Volt Bomber. To make things worse, he was separated from Eiffel. This is because back on earth, after months passed without Kentaro returning, Mitsuyo assumed he died. With the help of Professor Hamaguchi, General Oka and Big Falcon, she prepared her children to fight the Boazanians. Alongside Kenichi, Daijirou and Hiyoshi, Oka's daughter, Megumi, and Hamaguchi's grandson, Ippei, were trained to pilot Voltes V.
After several years, Emperor Zambajil launched an invasion on Earth led by Prince Heinel. Heinel was aided by his General, Jangal and two scientists, Zuhl and Katherine. The Boazanians manage to lay waste to countries all over the world, including three million fatalities in Italy, burning Buenos Aires to the ground, destroying the Twin Towers and cutting off all commmunication between London and the rest of the world. Many survivors were forced to retreat. Mitsuyo Goh and Professor Hamaguchi summoned Kenichi, Daijirou, Hiyoshi, Ippei and Megumi to enter their respective vehicles and form Voltes V.
At first, the team manage to successfully defeat the first Beast Knight sent by Heinel's forces, Dokugaga. However, Heinel then deployed Baizanga, a stronger Beast Knight that manages to subdue the robot. Fearing for her children's safety, an injured Mitsuyo abandons her hospital room and enters a jet plane, where she flies into Baizanga, killing herself but managing to free the robot. Kenichi is broken and screams in shock, before brutally beating down Baizanga. The Voltes team mourned the loss of Mitsuyo, with Hamaguchi becoming a surrogate parental figure for them afterwards. From then on, they would fight the Boazanians' forces to protect Earth.
Ippei mocked the Go brothers for grieving over the loss of Mitsuyo, inciting a fight between him and Kenichi. Megumi breaks up the fight and demands Ippei be respectful, but Ippei acts dismissive. Later, while he's in his room, Megumi enters, demanding to know the reason behind his callous attitude. He refuses to answer her but takes off his shirt, telling her that he'd like to train, "but she's welcome to watch". Megumi then asks about his mother, which makes him angry. Megumi manages to take his whip from him and says she won't give it back until he tells her the truth about his mother. Ippei reluctantly confesses to her that when he was a child, his parents immigrated to America in search of a better life. However, this only brought them more hardship, as they failed to become successful and had to live on the streets. His mother abandoned the family shortly before his father succumbed to his disease and Ippei grew up an orphan in a country he was new to. He had to do odd jobs to survive, but found he had a passion for horseriding. Befriending a pony named Eiffel, Ippei managed to become a successful rodeo star and three-time national champion. However, Hamaguchi had him kidnapped from California to Japan so he could become the pilot of the Volt Bomber.
Later that night, as Kenichi, Daijirou and Hiyoshi were fixing Mitsuyo's grave (as Ippei had accidentally knocked it over during training practice) he mocked the dead woman again, earning the ire of the Go Brothers and resulting in Kenichi and him having a fistfight. However, before the fight could worsen, Megumi intervened. She told the Voltes team his (perceived) backstory and how Ippei felt upset that his mother abandoned him, causing him to run away in shame. The next day, Hamaguchi told Ippei the truth of what happened, having obtained a newspaper that reported on the incident where she supposedly abandoned him. Ippei's eyes filled with tears as he realized that he had misremembered the details and apologized to the Go brothers and Mitsuyo's grave for his actions.
The Voltes team would repel Beast Knights deployed by Prince Heinel's forces on the regular. The five teenagers formed a close friendship along the way and often supported each other's goals. When Professor Hamaguchi died, they were broken by his loss, and continued to speak his name in high regard even after Professor Sakaonji was sent in his place.
Some time after the Boazanian invasion of Earth, Gohl, leading a group of Hornless Boazanian rebels, led a spaceship to Earth, with the intent of hiding them in his secret base. Zuhl intercepted their ship and killed off a large amount of the Boazanians, though he deliberately left Kentaro alive.
Not knowing that Kentaro was Prince Gohl, and assuming that he was just a very skilled Earthern scientist, Zuhl told him that he wanted to use his genius to help him create technology that would overthrow Heinel. Kentaro refused, knowing that Zuhl was just as oppressive as Heinel. As a result, Zuhl took him prisoner, while the remaining refugees managed to make it to the base.
Zuhl eventually took him to Earth and hoped to trick him into working for him, but he escaped. When Kentaro fell off a cliff during a Beast Knight attack, Zuhl, and the rest of the Boazanians, assumed he died. Kentaro was actually rescued by the rebels he took to Earth and taken back to their secret base. In the base, Gohl constructed the Solar Bird, which would often assist Voltes V in battle. He also spread his knowledge of technology to the other Boazanian rebels. Though he was on the same planet as his children, Gohl didn't tell them where he was because he felt as if his mission to free the Boazanian slaves took precedence.
The base, unfortunately, did not have adequate healthcare for the rebels. When one Hornless Boazanian woman, Nina, gave birth, she required care the base was unable to provide. Kentaro ordered Dange to take the Solar Bird to fly Nina to Big Falcon as there were doctors there that could help her. Upon arriving to Big Falcon, the Go brothers assumed the pilot of the Solar Bird, would be their long-lost father, but were surprised to see Dange instead.
Megumi was surprised when General Dange informed the team of Kentaro's true origins (i.e. he was the disgraced Boazanian Prince Gohl).
Halfway through the anime, Megumi's father is diagnosed with cancer. Wanting to hide this from his daughter and his friends, he resigns from his position as General. At the same time Megumi became under the mind control of Daiand, a Beast Knight capable of mind control, and he made Megumi enter Oka's helicopter and hold him hostage with a gun. Oka managed to figure out she was mind controlled, and threatened to shoot her in return, saying that he didn't care if she was his daughter, he had a duty towards Earth. Upon seeing the Mind-Controlled Megumi cover her ring, he realized it was the weapon binding her to the Beast Knight's power and shot it, breaking the mind control. The ring changed into Beast Knight Daiand and tried to kill both the Okas, but General Oka handed her a jetpack and told her to form the Voltes robot. He then tried to lure Daiand away from Big Falcon as far as he could, dying after Daiand shot a projectile at his helicopter, making it explode. Megumi's eyes filled with tears watching her father die. She approched Big Falcon and, entering the Volt Lander, formed Voltes V and defeated Daiand.
The death of Oka had a heavy effect on Megumi. She pretended to be strong on the outside, but hid her true feelings from everyone else. When Ippei caught her picking flowers and asked if they're for a boy, Megumi replied that she was of the right age, which piqued his interest and he asked if they were for him. When Megumi said they weren't, Ippei was hurt, but hid it by having Eiffel nudge her. Infuriated, Megumi yelled at him and ran off.
After training with Eiffel, a curious Ippei followed Megumi on his horse to see who she gave the flowers to. When he sees Megumi placing them on her father's grave and crying, Ippei becomes enraged, vowing to make the Boazanians pay. When Jangal in their clutches, Ippei vows to have his head over killing Megumi's father while Kenichi says it's immoral to harm him since he cannot fight. This causes a rift between the two, especially after Kenichi takes a hit for Jangal when Ippei tries to shoot him, but Ippei later comes to appreciate Kenichi's empathy and admits that he was wrong.
Gurul and Belgan, two agents of Zambajil, discovered the rebel's secret base and took Gohl back to Boazania, where he was held prisoner - Zambajil wanted to use his talent in science to strengthen Boazania's machinery. After a gruelling battle with Heinel's forces, the Voltes team learn that Gohl is on Boazania. At this point Heinel has been exiled by Zambajil due to his failures in stopping Voltes V, and is desperate to fight them to regain his honour. Katherine, however, shoots him with a stun gun and takes him to Boazania, while Gurul and Belgan try to blow up the Earth with a magnemite bomb.
Doyle, one of the Hornless Boazanian rebels, flies a ship and disposes of the bomb. He then reveals that Big Falcon is actually a spaceship, and the Voltes team, alongside Sakaonji and Doyle, go to Boazania to free Gohl.
In episode 38, the Voltes team make their way to Boazania. When Zambajil sees them coming, he dispatches Bergan and Gururu to deal with them. While they initially seem victorius, the tides turn when Voltes V overpower them and bypass Sodom and Gomorrah, planet Boazania's defense system. Do Bergan and Gururu die in the battle when their starship is destroyed by the Voltes team.
When the Voltes team reunite with Kentaro Go, Kenichi and his brothers hug their dad. Just then, Voltes V is challenged by the legendary mecha Godol. They fight and Voltes V manages to defeat it. The Voltes team are shocked to discover that Heinel was the one who had been piloting it. Heinel then tosses a sword at Kenichi and challenges him to a fight, despite Kenichi telling him the fight is pointless. The two engage in a swordfight, and as they both break their swords, Heinel yells that the fight isn't over yet and pulls out a dagger. Kentaro instantly recognizes it and asks Heinel where he got it, to which Heinel responds by saying that it doesn't matter and he can't distract him. However, he does say that it is the dagger his mother gave him before she died.
Kentaro then says it does matter because it is the dagger he gave to his first wife, and says it has twin doves on it. Horrified, Heinel looks at the dagger, notices the twin doves, and realizes that Kentaro is right. He feels ashamed that he had been participated in a meaningless war against his family.
Just then Zambajil appears, having tried to escape with a wagonload of riches and a grenade. Once he realizes that he is cornered, he attempts to shift the blame to Heinel, saying that the earthlings should hate him since it was his idea to invade Earth (even though it wasn't). Angered, Heinel yells "What?! I thought you were on the side of good, but you're just a materialistic bastard! DIE!!!" and flings the dagger at him, killing Zambajil. Unfortunately, Zambajil accidentally drops the grenade in the process, causing it to explode and engulf the castle in flames, killing him. Heinel then saves Kenichi from the fire and willingly accepts his death, but not before biding a farewell to his newfound family, despite Kenichi screaming "brother" at him and trying to save him. Kentaro, while crying, also acknowledges Heinel as his son before the flames swallow him whole, while Heinel calls him "father". Ippei is saddened for his sake.
After Zambajil's death, Gohl finally becomes the emperor of Boazania and reorganizes the empire into one where the horned and hornless ones co-exist peacefully once again. The Voltes team help reconstruct the empire after it was devastated from battle. When they're leaving, they ask him to come back to earth, but he chooses to stay in Boazania. Hiyoshi is sad, but Kenichi reminds him they can visit each other regularly thanks to the Boazanian warp technology. Gohl then tells Sakaonji he leaves Earth in his hands and the Voltes team depart, smiling.
In the end of the anime, Kenichi, Ippei, Megumi, Daijiro and Hiyoshi vow to stay as Voltes V pilots and to always protect the Earth from threats together no matter what.
Relationships[]
Megumi Oka[]
In episode 3, after Mitsuyo Go died saving the Voltes team from a beast knight, Ippei disrespected her and mocked the Go brothers for feeling sad for her death. Megumi then personally went to his room to interrogate him and understand the root of his behaviour. However, since Ippei was shirtless at the moment (due to training), he instead stated that Megumi was "welcome to stare at him". Regardless, Megumi pressed on and eventually he told her that his mother abandoned him and his father when he was a young child.
Later that night, as Kenichi, Daijirou and Hiyoshi were fixing Mitsuyo's grave (as Ippei had accidentally knocked it over during training practice) he mocked the dead woman again, earning the ire of the Go Brothers and resulting in Kenichi and him having a fistfight. However, before the fight could worsen, Megumi intervened. She told the Voltes team his (perceived) backstory and how Ippei felt upset that his mother abandoned him, causing him to run away in shame. The next day, Hamaguchi told Ippei the truth of what happened, having obtained a newspaper that reported on the incident where she supposedly abandoned him. Ippei's eyes filled with tears as he realized that he had misremembered the details and apologized to the Go brothers and Mitsuyo's grave for his actions.
However, Ippei has a streak for teasing Megumi. In episode 30, once he finds out she is terrified of crabs, he later tries to prank her by attaching one to a stick and shoving it in her face. However, Megumi was hypnotized at the time by the beast knight Diaman and therefore wasn't scared, so she just walked past Ippei. Ippei then got pinched by the crab.
In episode 31, Ippei catches Megumi picking flowers and asks if they're for a boy. Megumi hides who they really are for, but Ippei is curious, and unbeknownst to her, he follows her on Eiffel to see who she gives them to. When Megumi places them on her father's grave and starts crying, Ippei is saddened and feels protective of her, vowing to get revenge on the Boazanians for killing General Oka. This scene implies that he has feelings for Megumi.
When Ippei and Megumi are travelling to Boazania, he asks Megumi what warp technology is, which causes everyone to laugh at him.
Kenichi[]
In the earliest episodes, Kenichi and Ippei had a fraught relationship due to Ippei's rebellious attitude clashing with Kenichi's drive for honour and following the rules. In episode 3, after Mitsuyo Go died saving the Voltes team from a beast knight, Ippei disrespected her and mocked the Go brothers for feeling sad for her death.
Later that night, as Kenichi, Daijirou and Hiyoshi were fixing Mitsuyo's grave (as Ippei had accidentally knocked it over during training practice) he mocked the dead woman again, earning the ire of the Go Brothers and resulting in Kenichi and him having a fistfight. However, before the fight could worsen, Megumi intervened. She told the Voltes team his (perceived) backstory and how Ippei felt upset that his mother abandoned him, causing him to run away in shame. The next day, Hamaguchi told Ippei the truth of what happened, having obtained a newspaper that reported on the incident where she supposedly abandoned him. Ippei's eyes filled with tears as he realized that he had misremembered the details and apologized to the Go brothers and Mitsuyo's grave for his actions.
However the two would come into conflict again when Ippei announced he was leaving the Voltes team with Eiffel, leading Kenichi to chase after him with a gun. While he was leaving, the Boazanians attacked Earth, causing a building to fall and nearly kill Eiffel by the falling debris. Ippei then decided to re-join the team to protect Eiffel. Unfortunately, Kenichi accidentally blasted a ray near Eiffel when trying to protect Ippei, causing Ippei to become furious and accuse him of trying to murder his horse. He continued to believe this until Kenichi proved that it was an accident, after which he apologized to Kenichi.

Ippei apologizing to Kenichi
In episode 31, Ippei catches Megumi picking flowers and asks if they're for a boy. Megumi hides who they really are for, but Ippei is curious, and unbeknownst to her, he follows her on Eiffel to see who she gives them to. When Megumi places them on her father's grave and starts crying, Ippei is saddened and feels protective of her, vowing to get revenge on the Boazanians for killing General Oka. Because of this, when him and Kenichi have Jangal in their clutches, Ippei vows to have his head while Kenichi says it's immoral to harm him since he cannot fight. This causes a rift between the two, especially after Kenichi takes a hit for Jangal when Ippei tries to shoot him, but Ippei later comes to appreciate Kenichi's empathy and admits that he was wrong.
Eiffel[]
Eiffel is Ippei's horse. In episode 5, Ippei states that Eiffel was like a mother to him, as he grew up as an orphan in an immigrant village in California. Ippei and Eiffel became rodeo stars in America, until Hamaguchi had Ippei taken to Big Falcon against his will and forcibly separated from Eiffel. Because of this, Ippei grew to resent Hamaguchi and the Voltes team.
When Ippei announced he was leaving, Kenichi tried to forbid him and challenged him to a fight. When Megumi reported this to Hamaguchi, he replied that he had already arranged for Eiffel to reunite with Ippei. Megumi then told Ippei, who took Eiffel and ran, with Kenichi chasing after him. During the chase, the Boazanians attacked Earth, causing a building to fall and nearly kill Eiffel by the falling debris. Ippei then decided to re-join the team to protect Eiffel. Unfortunately, Kenichi accidentally blasted a ray near Eiffel when trying to protect Ippei, causing Ippei to become furious and accuse him of trying to murder his horse. He continued to believe this until Kenichi proved that it was an accident, after which he apologized to Kenichi.
Other Media[]
Live-Action[]
- Main article: Mark Gordon
Quotes[]
“ | Happiness has value because you find it for yourself | „ |
~ Ippei |
Voice Actors[]
- Kazuyuki Sogabe (Japanese)
- Tony Nierras/Earl Palma (Philippine-English)
- Cliff Harrington (American-English)
- Frank Gonzalez (Cuban Spanish)
- Julio Chaves (Brazilian Portuguese)
- Victor Pi (Catalan)
- Allegrini Carlo/Pannofino Francesco/Ioannucci Marco (Italian)
- Ilias Plakidis (Greek)
Trivia[]
- Ippei's name was changed in various dubs of Voltes V:
- The Philippine-English and American-English dubs change his name to Mark Gordon.
- In the Italian dub, his name was changed to Gepi Mine.
- In the Greek dub, his name was changed to Geppy.
- In the Cuban Spanish dub, his name was changed to Mark.
- In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, his name was changed to Marky.
- Though Ippei is Japanese-American and was raised in California, he speaks English with a Japanese accent when he says "Let's volt in!".
- Ippei can be considered a counterpart to Prince Heinel:
- Both are seen as rivals to Kenichi.
- Both believed their parents (Ippei's mother for Ippei, Prince Gohl for Heinel) hated/abandoned them, when in real life this wasn't the case and their parents loved them.
- Both know how to ride horses.
- In the Greek dub, Ippei and Prince Heinel have the same voice actor.
- Ippei is somewhat inspired by Juzo of Combattler V (in terms of physical appearance).
External Links[]
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