Just Finished Watching Dairugger XV

I've finally finished watching Dairugger XV and I don't want to rewatch Vehicle Voltron. American adaptations of Japanese shows in the 80s-90s were really sucky to keep cutting out character deaths from the plot when they can always kill a person, without having to show the brutality. The whole story of Dairugger XV also differentiates itself from Vehicle Voltron as:
  • It is not connected to Golion in any way. In Golion, Earth was destroyed in the year 1999 by a thermonuclear war against itself and Dairugger takes place in the year 2200. This also means Mutsu isn't Shorty's brother because they take place in different continuities.
  • The Galaxy Garrison was only in Dairugger XV.
  • At first Dairugger was a space exploration robot but was given combat weapons to defend itself. Later, they end up discovering about the Galveston (Drules) and it becomes a random conflict while other members of Galveston want peace while others want war. It's like the Brahms in Daimos. This also adds more drama.
  • A lot of characters both heroes and villains who were injured beyond repair died in here compared to Vehicle Voltron where they were lamely written off as "left to the healers". The best death here is Emperor Corsair's death when his own bodyguard accidentally kills him while trying to prevent his death. But I wished he died more like Zanbazil trying to escape and getting caught in the explosion.
  • Also I was shocked to learn Sirk (Dorma) wasn't the sister of Teles (Hazar).
  • In the finale, Teles really died. Hazar was stabbed by three Galveston youths who were once part of the fighting force and wanted revenge. I thought the scene was stupid yet it also allowed Teles to die with Galveston.

Its tribute to previous Super Robot series:
  • The Galveston drama is almost similar to Daimos with Brahm. In here, the Galvestons need a new homeworld as their planet is dying while in Daimos, the Brahm's planet was destroyed and they need a new homeworld except here, it was given more drama.
  • Emperor Corsair's no concern for his people dictatorship is similar to that of Emperor Zanbazil in Voltes V and Olban in Daimos.
  • Teles like Ulrich in Daimos is more of an anti-hero and was dismissed earlier though.
  • The final battle was similar to Voltes V. The heroes enter into the enemy planet to liberate its people though the crew didn't get to deal with the big bad personally.

Comments