🤖 The legendary 1983 mecha anime "Armored Trooper VOTOMS" is finally getting its long-awaited new chapter, and the man at the helm is none other than Mamoru Oshii, the director behind "Ghost in the Shell" and "Patlabor 2: The Movie."

On May 12, 2026, Bandai Namco Filmworks revealed that the previously announced "Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Die Graue Hexe" (The Gray Witch) will be released as a two-part theatrical film series, with Part 1 opening in Japanese cinemas on November 20, 2026. The first teaser visual and trailer have also been unveiled, alongside confirmation that original creator and director Ryosuke Takahashi will serve as the project's supervisor.

For mecha fans outside Japan, this is one of the most significant anime announcements of the year. Here's why.

What Is "Armored Trooper VOTOMS," for Readers New to the Franchise

Before diving into the new film, a quick orientation for international readers who may not have grown up with this series.

"Armored Trooper VOTOMS" (装甲騎兵ボトムズ, Sōkō Kihei Botomuzu) is a 52-episode television anime that aired in Japan from April 1983 to March 1984. It was created and directed by Ryosuke Takahashi at Sunrise, the same studio behind "Mobile Suit Gundam", and featured mechanical designs by Kunio Okawara, the very designer who shaped the iconic Gundam itself.

The acronym VOTOMS stands for Vertical One-man Tank for Offense & Maneuvers. In universe, these 4-meter humanoid combat machines are mass-produced, lightly armored, dirt-cheap, and powered by combustible artificial muscle fluid. Their pilots have terrible survival odds, which is why the troops who pilot them are nicknamed "Bottoms", the lowest of the low. The same Japanese pronunciation lets the title double as a self-deprecating joke about its own protagonist class.

The story follows Chirico Cuvie, a battle-hardened special forces ace whose unit is set up to die during a covert mission in the final days of a 100-year war between two galactic powers, Gilgamesh and Balarant. Inside the secret container they were sent to recover, Chirico finds a young woman, and the conspiracy he stumbles into forces him into a fugitive existence that spans the entire series.

If "Gundam" introduced the "real robot" genre to anime, "VOTOMS" was the series that doubled down on it. The mecha aren't heroic super-machines; they're disposable military hardware that gets shredded in combat. The tone is grim, the violence is consequential, and the conspiracy plotting is dense. Outside Japan, the series has been licensed in North America by Section23 Films' Maiden Japan imprint, which released the complete Blu-ray collection in 2020. HIDIVE has streamed the original series since 2018 in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, and select territories.

Why Mamoru Oshii Directing VOTOMS Is a Big Deal

Mamoru Oshii needs less introduction overseas than most Japanese directors. The 1995 film "Ghost in the Shell," which he directed, is regularly cited as one of the most influential animated films ever made, including by the Wachowskis when they made "The Matrix." His filmography also includes "Patlabor: The Movie" (1989), "Patlabor 2: The Movie" (1993), "Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer" (1984), "Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade" (writer, 2000), and "Innocence" (2004).

What makes the VOTOMS announcement remarkable is that Oshii has never previously worked on the VOTOMS franchise. In a 2005 interview with Newtype magazine, Oshii spoke wistfully about his long-unfulfilled desire to make a military-mecha film, and at one point said he feared he might "never get the chance." Twenty-one years later, he is finally directing the most quintessentially military-mecha franchise in Japanese animation.

Oshii himself has acknowledged a personal connection to the series in his comment released for this announcement. He has long been a fan of the original VOTOMS, calling it a work he had aspired to make something like, and addressed the elephant in the room with characteristic dry humor: some fans, he said, suspect he might insert his trademark tachigui-soba (standing noodle bar) scenes into VOTOMS, but he reassured everyone that he is approaching this "seriously" as a war action film.

The other side of that exchange is just as telling. Takahashi, the original creator now serving as supervisor, said in his own statement that every film director has a distinctive directorial "touch," and that he himself is a fan of the "Oshii touch." He framed his role as looking forward to seeing how Oshii's filmmaking sensibility plays out within the VOTOMS universe.

In other words: the founder is hands-off creatively, and explicitly excited to see what someone else does with his world. That's an unusually generous handover for a Japanese franchise of this stature.

The Production Lineup, Why Fans Are Calling It "Stacked"

The credits already released for "Die Graue Hexe" read like a wish list:

  • Director: Mamoru Oshii
  • Original Creator & Supervisor: Ryosuke Takahashi
  • Original Mechanical Design: Kunio Okawara (returning legend)
  • Mechanical Design: Yukihiro Tsuneki (Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These) and Yoshihiro Sono (artist of the manga VOTOMS AT Stories)
  • Music: Kenji Kawai
  • Animation Production: Sunrise
  • Production Cooperation: Production I.G

Two names stand out for overseas fans. Kenji Kawai is Oshii's most frequent musical collaborator, his haunting choral score for "Ghost in the Shell" is one of the most recognizable anime soundtracks in existence. Pairing him with VOTOMS suggests the film will lean into the brooding, ritualistic tone Oshii is known for.

And the Sunrise × Production I.G combination is the same studio pairing that made the original Patlabor films and works like "Ghost in the Shell" possible. Both studios have credibility in adult-audience mecha; together they are essentially the closest thing the industry has to a "dream team" for this project.

Why a Two-Part Theatrical Release, and Why Now

Theatrical anime is having a moment in Japan. "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle," "Gundam Hathaway," and other recent mecha films have shown that even adult-skewing animation can become major box office successes. Splitting "Die Graue Hexe" into two parts is the same playbook recently used by "Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway", front-loading event-movie momentum, then letting word-of-mouth carry the sequel.

The timing is also deliberate. "Die Graue Hexe" is a flagship project of the Sunrise 50th Anniversary initiative, a three-year program (2026–2028) commemorating the studio whose first TV series, "Invincible Super Man Zambot 3," premiered in October 1977. With "Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Witch of Circe" topping the box office and Science SARU's new "Ghost in the Shell" TV series having launched on July 7, 2026 (broadcast on the Kansai TV / Fuji network and streaming on Prime Video), Japan is in the middle of a clear mecha and sci-fi anime renaissance. Dropping a new VOTOMS into this climate is shrewd cultural timing.

The first part lands on November 20, 2026. The release date for Part 2 has not yet been announced.

Will International Audiences Get to See It?

This is where the picture gets less clear. As of this announcement, no overseas distribution partner has been named. Historically, the VOTOMS franchise has had a fragmented international footprint, the 1983 series went to Central Park Media in the 1990s, then to Maiden Japan / Section23 Films, with HIDIVE picking up streaming rights for select Western territories in 2018. Most of the spin-offs have never reached audiences outside Japan, and the most recent entry, the 2011 OVA "Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Alone Again", was released as part of an event screening with very limited overseas access.

For Sunrise's 50th anniversary flagship, however, the calculus may be different. The success of Crunchyroll-distributed mecha titles and Bandai Namco's clear global ambitions for the Gundam franchise suggest "Die Graue Hexe" is more likely than past VOTOMS entries to secure international theatrical or streaming distribution. Expect announcements closer to the Japanese release.

A two-part movie set ticket (muvichike) priced at 3,800 yen (about $24) will go on sale May 16, 2026, with limited in-person sales at the 64th Shizuoka Hobby Show on May 16–17, and online via Major and MOVIE WALKER STORE. Plastic model kits from Bandai Spirits (HG Scope Dog in a desert color scheme) and a new "VA-KIT PLATOON" collectable series from MegaHouse have also been announced for autumn 2026.

What This Means for Mecha Anime Fans Worldwide

VOTOMS has always been the cult-favorite, slow-burn alternative to Gundam, beloved by hardcore mecha fans, sometimes overshadowed by the bigger franchise in the mainstream. Hearing that one of anime's most respected directors is now helming a two-part theatrical revival, with the original creator's blessing, is the kind of moment fans of grim, grounded mecha have been hoping for for over a decade.

Whether you came to mecha through Gundam, "Macross," "Patlabor," "Evangelion," or even Western descendants like "Heavy Gear" or "Battletech" (both of which trace visual lineage back through VOTOMS), "Die Graue Hexe" is shaping up to be one of the must-watch anime films of 2026.

Is the original "Armored Trooper VOTOMS" widely known where you live? And which Oshii film made the strongest impression on you, "Ghost in the Shell," "Patlabor 2," or something else? We'd love to hear how this announcement is landing in your part of the world.

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