Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

  With Buntis Faib Legacy's conclusion, I felt that reviewing Voltes V and Golion  was at hand. I rewatched the finale arcs and they did have some things in common such as: Both of them involved a prince being arrested and removed from power by their respective emperors. Zambojil had his second nephew Heinel removed. Daibazaal had his son Sincline removed. Both involved the titular Super Robots finally attacking the heart of the empire.  Both involved a final giant Beast Fighter duel. Voltes V faced off against the giant Beast Fighter Godor. Golion faced off against a Beast Fighter called Mecha Beastman Galra. Both had the base of operations turn into a spaceship for the finale. The similarities are there but there are also differences. Golion was trying to do some original things. Meanwhile, I think Voltes V did better than Golion in these areas: The role of the giant main base was revealed to be a spaceship. I think it was better that the whole Solar Falcon traveled to ...

As Buntis Faib Legacy ends this week - I feel like the time to discuss another plot from the Anime. Voltes V has Boazanian which is 14,000 light years away from Earth. That means trying to reach Boazan by standard means will not be possible. The Boazanians had high technology which allowed them to travel from Boazan to Earth at a very fast speed. An earlier episode had Duke Zaki arriving. Later, General Bergan arrived like it was nothing. General Gururu arrived like it was nothing. The Boazanians mastered the warp drive technology to reach Earth in a much shorter amount of time. The finale of Voltes V had the Solar Bird merging with Camp Big Falcon to form the Solar Falcon. The Voltes team went to Boazan in a much shorter amount of time. After all, the inventor of the Voltes V robot, the Camp Big Falcon, and the Solar Bird was none other than a Boazanian named Lagour. Basically, Voltes V was only able to defeat the Beast Knights (or called Beast Fighters in the dub) sent against it bec...

It's no secret that both Emperor Zambojil and Emperor Daibazaal are pretty much alike . Daibazaal is pretty much an Expy to Zambojil in many ways. Both of them take their anger out on their subjects, hardly do anything themselves, ultimately a coward (except Daibazaal died in battle rather anti-climatically), and they're both tyrannical rulers who oppress their own people. My problem with Galra is that it's hardly developed. Sure, we see some slaves here and there but we can't differentiate it if the slaves were from captive planets OR enslaved citizens of Daibazaal's cruelty. Nothing is known about how Galra came to be it was or did the writers want it to be Chaotic Evil. The only backstories known were that of Prince Sincline. It was discovered by the audience (but not Sincline) that Sincline was born of dual heritage. It can be assumed that Daibazaal probably married Sincline's mother at one point but later killed her. Sincline's mother seemed to be a mem...

Voltes V was somewhat ambiguous whether if General Bergan had horns (which would've been so FUNNY LOOKING that he was ashamed of them) or if he was born hornless. Some can assume that he lost his horns in a war. However, a better review of Voltes V from past episodes before he arrived and after he arrived can provide a clue. Blink and you might miss that Voltes V did have more than Prince Lagour (Dr. Kentaro Gou) as a significant hornless character. There were other Voltes V characters who were hornless too. Now, it's time to look at two Boazanian Beast Knights (dubbed over as Beast Fighters) or as some prefer to call it Robeasts. However, a Robeast is a ROBOT BEAST and not every giant monster that was sent to fight was a robot beast. Here are two of the Beast Knights that were actually HORNLESS... An earlier episode showed Gardo as a Beast Knight. It wasn't explained in-show how the Boazanians enlarged anything to become a Beast Knight. Granted, there were a few episodes w...

Above is a video by Filipino actor known by his screen name Michael V. Michael presents the history of Telesuccess Productions (a dubbing company in the Philippines that did the oh-so-cheesy English dubs back then). I remembered GMA-7 aired Combattler V by giving English first names and Japanese last names (which ironically made the real first names the dub surnames). Before that, Voltes V was aired by giving very American-English names to the cast of characters. I guess it was that hard to remember and pronounce Japanese names so the dub names were given. Personally, I don't hold a fondness for the dub names these days after seeing the Japanese original.  Voltes V got aired during the Empire of Marcos. I originally had a theory that Voltes V stopped airing straightly after episode 28 when Emperor Zanbazil was revealed. I wonder how true it was that Zanbazil was renamed Ferdinand and General Bergan (Ozlack) was renamed General Fabian? If that were true, I guess we can never find th...

I decided to give Voltes V: Legacy a shot. I noticed that the show added some backstory for Emperor Zanbazil such as showing his mother (who NEVER appeared in the 1977 anime). If there was one thing worth noting is how Golion has some similarities with Combattler V followed by Voltes V . The three shows both have similar team formats (leader, rebel, big guy, woman, child genius) and some similar villains. For some reason, Voltes V was cut short to 40 episodes in contrast to Combattler V which had 54 episodes. Why this happened may be because Voltes V  was Darker and Edgier in contrast to its predecessor. I guess children weren't too interested in the darker politics. Later, Golion was launched in 1981, four years after Voltes V . One could notice that Golion has better artwork, more episodes, and not to mention the HIGH BODY COUNT. Voltes V did have a high body count too such as the deaths of Mitsuyo Go, Professor Hamaguchi, and General Oka to name a few.  I did remember a con...

  Who can remember Toei Ltd.'s involvement before they decided to enter the American market? Sure, one would know (by now) that the Voltron franchise was a combination of two unrelated shows namely Golion and Dairugger XV . Yeah, I find it weird some people preferred Vehicle Voltron over Lion Voltron . In my case, I felt Dairugger XV had more interesting drama than Golion fighting villains who were more focused on half-brained For the Evulz plans. Before that, there was Combattler V and Voltes V . I remembered seeing Voltes V dubbed in English by Telesuccess Productions. Later, Combattler V was aired. I heard Voltes V was secured first because Combattler V was more popular, therefore more expensive. Hmmm... can anybody kindly explain why it's been cheaper to air Kamen Rider than Super Sentai ? I could care less Power Rangers still airs but it's weird really how Kamen Rider airs but not Super Sentai . Heck, GMA-7 aired Mischievous Kiss but not Gokaiger .  Having seen some of...

I could remember Voltes V introduced a character who possibly was born hornless, lost his horns, or had horns so oddly placed that he covered them in armor. This character was known as General Bergan (Ozlack in the dub and I heard he was at one time dubbed, General Fabian). Oh yeah, who can forget that the late dictator, Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., banned Voltes V because of the FINALE ARC? He was introduced after the death of Zuhl (who I dubbed Toothless).  What's the deal with Bergan? Bergan was practically a game changer in contrast to who I dubbed Toothless. Zuhl just wanted to get rid of Prince Heinel. What made him amazing was that he did introduce himself to contingency planning. Bergan though had the typical villain stupidity to introduce himself while disrupting the communication systems. Bergan also upgraded the Boazanian Beast Fighters with his Maxingal Steel. It was necessary for Voltes V to get new upgrades to defeat the Armored Beast Fighters.  The show doesn't seem...

Well I'm going to do a comparison to which series did better... just my two cents on everything. Golion's setting is non-canon to Voltes V evidenced by the beginning when in the year 1999, Earth is hit by a nuclear war to which Galra may have been responsible for. So that is taking things to far. In one instance to another, I thought that the Voltes V team had more drama involved especially with the three siblings Kenichi, Daigorou and Hiyoshi especially when in the middle of the series, they are revealed to be half-Boazanian. Golion's team members are apparently just "too standard". The obvious similarity is the presence of the Orcus on the throne, Daibazaal and Zanbazil.  Just thinking about it, Daibazaal might be 50 years old (500 in Earth years) but he really acts like a two year old with all his tantrums and the fact he does evil for evil's sake- does this guy even KNOW the meaning of planning? I mean really, no monarch should throw their scepter ...

Golion came later after Voltes, Combattler V and Daimos. Now since it's completely separate from these series, so don't try to connect them. I felt like Golion was created to be a tribute to its predecessors save blowing up the Earth to separate itself from Voltes V and Combattler V which may launch the question, "Where were the Super Robots to defend it from Galran invasion?" Golion's main five characters are obviously followed by Voltes V and Combattler V, all three were combining robot shows based on five mecha.  This was also clearly copied from Gatchaman as well. Even the personalities are pretty close. All three teams had their base that was actually secretly flying mecha. For Voltes V and Golion, both of them invaded their enemy planets to liberate the people from their respective dictators. Professor Raible was obviously based on professors of the past. Raible is similar to Dr. Nambara, Dr. Yotsuya, Dr. Hamaguchi and Dr. Sakunji in Voltes V. Also...