Nobody expected the biggest applause to belong to a giant robot.

Beethoven got his. Tchaikovsky, too. But when the New Japan Philharmonic slipped into the theme from Voltes V, the evening took off its coat, lifted its head, smiled before it realized it was smiling.

That's diplomacy, too.

The orchestra was in Manila to mark 70 years of diplomatic ties between Japan and the Philippines, its first performance in the country.

Ambassador Endo Kazuya and Madame Endo Akiko joined Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, former Health Secretary Teddy Herbosa and a hall full of diplomats, business leaders, government officials at The Theater at Solaire.

Ambassador Endo talked about friendship that lasts, and music that lasts even longer.

Then conductor Honna Tetsuji raised his baton, as violinist Kamio Mayuko opened with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, the kind of piece that asks a lot from the person holding the violin and even more from the people listening.

Beethoven's Seventh Symphony followed, restless and loud when it wanted to be.

The program could have ended there. Nobody would have complained. Instead, the orchestra looked toward the Philippines. Freddie Aguilar's "Anak." No translation needed. Then Voltes V, the Japanese cartoon that somehow became Filipino property decades ago. Children watched it. Their children watched it. Nobody bothered asking which country it belonged to anymore.

That may have been the most truthful moment of the night.

The bond is easier to spot in a melody people still remember. In an old TV theme that can fill a concert before anyone sings a word.