Super Robot – Suffer Reboot

The 70’s was a decade that expanded humanity’s horizons. In outer space, Viking 2 lands on Mars. The world’s first test tube baby is born. Personal computers and mobile phones make their debut. Atari finds its way to many homes. Microsoft and Apple are founded. Betamax is introduced. Star Wars captures the imagination of a generation. And super robots like Voltes V, Daimos, Mazinger Z, Mekanda Robo, appear on Philippine state-controlled television. Filipino children learn to sing their Japanese theme songs by heart, probably more so than the patriotic anthems of the Bagong Lipunan.

The 70’s was also a tumultuous decade. The Beatles break up. Elvis Presley dies. The Vietnam War ends. The Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia. The Jonestown Incident happens. Nixon resigns after being implicated in the Watergate Scandal. Harvey Milk, an openly gay politician, gets elected into office, and is soon after assassinated. In the Philippines, martial law is declared. The short lived Diliman Commune happens as a response to the rising cost of fuel. People talk about a boy who fell from the sky, being thrown from a helicopter as payment for his father’s expose. A youth leader is found dead two days after he openly questions the legitimacy and credentials of the President’s daughter to head the Kabataang Baranggay in a public forum. Many others disappear. Countless others land in jail. The super robots are pulled off air after a year. A generation of children question what could be wrong, when these super robots represent the good triumphing over tyranny and evil.

This is the backdrop to a young boy’s coming of age, which becomes the material for Super Robot – Suffer Reboot, a collection of nearly a decade’s work of Toym Imao where a curious mix of robots, dictators, and martial law begs the question, does history repeat itself?