 This article is about a/an member of the Voltes team in Chōdenji Machine Voltes V.
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Kenichi Goh is the leader of the Voltes team and the main protagonist of Chōdenji Machine Voltes V. His parents are Kentaro and Mitsuyo Goh, and his brothers are Daijiro and Hiyoshi Goh. He is also the half-brother of Prince Heinel. Kenichi, Daijiro and Hiyoshi are half-Boazanians. His Volt Machine is the Volt Cruiser.
Appearance[]
Kenichi is a tall man with a slightly muscular body, dark-brown style hair with sideburns and green irises on his eyes. In the original anime, he was depicted to have black hair and black eyes. His pilot suit is the signature Voltes Team suit, his being a red-and-white jump suit with white gloves, a belt buckle and a giant yellow V on the torso.
His casual appearance has him wearing a green short sleeved denim blazer with a dark green collar and dark green linings at the edge of his sleeves, a light yellow long sleeve shirt underneath, green denim jeans with a black belt around his waist and black loafers. In Episode 31, his casual outfit was shown to conceal his red and white Voltes Team suit which he removes it to reveal his suit before piloting.
Personality[]
Kenichi is the eldest of the Goh brothers, he is serious, responsible, selfless and caring. In his early years he was an adventurous kid. Kenichi would often hang out with his friends without telling his parents. Ever since the disappearance of his father he becomes responsible and takes care of his brothers. Kenichi is dedicated to following the rules and doing whatever it takes to defend the earth; this puts him at odds with his teammates at times because he gets angry when they don't follow rules and refuses to let them abandon their duties.
Though he's supposedly the leader of the group, Kenichi can be naive; in episode 31 he eagerly believed a letter claiming to have information about the whereabouts of his father (it was actually a ploy set up by Katherine) and would have been killed had his volt cruiser not arrived. He is also seemingly self-sacrificing to a fault, taking a hit meant for Jangal shot by Ippei, because he viewed it as immoral to attack someone who had no weapon. However, Jangal would remember this act and later gave him information about his father.
Kenichi is also confident in himself, and is willing to take risks no matter the cost, such as trying to clasp a sword between his own two hands despite having no training in martial arts.
Kenichi is very adamant on a no-killing policy on living beings, especially one that is driven by revenge, because he doesn't want his team to look as bad as the (mostly) evil invaders and it will set a good example of the good guys. For the most part, the team understands him.
Skills[]
Kenichi is a highly skilled pilot and fighter able to fight against multiple enemies with relative ease, even with serious injuries. He is also a highly valuable strategist able to find the weaknesses of an entire group of enemies. His skills in engineering are also great shown when he modified the original wrecked Voltman, the predecessor prototype to the Voltes V, into the Black Voltman as well as use its power source as a last ditch weapon. Kenichi has been shown to pilot almost any and all Voltes Machines showing a diverse skill set in the different systems and mechanics.
Aside from his exceptional marksmanship and formidable barehanded fighting skills, Steve is also quite adept with the use of swords (he can surprisingly hold his own against Heinel who is an accomplished swordsman).
He is also good at motocross and shooting pistols.
Relationships[]
Hiyoshi[]
Kenichi demands Hiyoshi shoot Tako
While Kenichi and Hiyoshi are brothers, they tend to fight from time to time. In episode 6, he subjected Hiyoshi to a verbal smackdown and threatened to shoot his invention, Tako, because he blamed it for Hiyoshi's volt machine being stuck. However, this was the only notable instance of a disagreement between the two, and in later episodes Kenichi is seen encouraging Hiyoshi and being a father figure to him.
Daijirou[]
As Kenichi is the firstborn son of the Go brothers, he stepped up as a father figure to care for both Daijirou and Hiyoshi.
In episode 18, the Go brothers learn their father is alive. With this newfound knowledge, Daijirou is desperate to reunite with him. In a future episode, he ditches the mission to break his father out of jail. This comes at odds with Kenichi, who also wants to see his father again, but knows that he has other plans such as liberating Boazania. When Daijirou fails, he gets angry at Kenichi and blames him for their loss, causing a temporary rift between the two. However, he realizes that deep down Kenichi wants the same thing, to reunite with him, and their shared love for their father unites the two and they resume on good terms.
Ippei[]
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 fighter, 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 Earthh, 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.
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.
Heinel[]
Heinel viewed Kenichi as a sworn enemy due to him being the leader of Voltes V, though the two fought rarely fought one-one.
Their first direct confrontation was in episode 30, when Katherine ambushed him and Heinel went to save her. Heinel and Kenichi then had a swordfight duel. At first Heinel initially seemingly won by knocking the sword out of Kenichi's hand, until Kenichi tackled him by siliding across the ice and knocking him to the ground. When Kenichi touched Heinel's horns, Heinel became enraged and swore to kill him. The two continued to spar until they fell into the sea, after which Katherine rescued Heinel and took him back to their secret base.
When Heinel learns Kenichi identifies as Boazanian he grows enraged and swears to have his head for "humiliating" him. He continues to deny his Boazanian heritage until Jangal proves that he does in Episode 37. In episode 40, once he finds out that Kenichi and him share the same father, he grows remorseful and is ashamed to have been fighting against his own blood. He dies saving Kenichi, and Kenichi weeps for his brother.
Further reading[]
- Kenichi's entry on Encirobot (Italian)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- His birthday is June 22, making him a Cancer.
- His name was changed in various dubs of Voltes V.
- He was named Michel in the Italian dub, but his surname was kept.[1]
- In the Philippine-English dub of the show his name was changed to Steve Armstrong.
- Kenichi is partially based on Hyouma of Combattler V; this is apparent in their colour schemes. His appearance and behavior is also somewhat based on Shinichi Kuruma, the protagonist from Maju Sensen.
- It's likely that after La Gour's death, Kenichi would assume the throne of the Boazanian empire, being his oldest son.