Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

Yes, Toei did the Fleet of Doom animation! What was either surprising (or not) was that Golion and Dairugger XV are both separate shows. The Earth was destroyed in Year 1999 in  Golion's setting. Dairugger XV has the Earth in the Year 2200 A.D. When adaptations happen -- there's a trope called Related in the Adaptation. My only guess is that American adaptations put several unrelated shows together for the adaptation -- due to cultural difference. Power Rangers put several unrelated shows or self-contained shows in their own expanding universe. I won't devote myself to writing Dairugger XV episode reviews. The show has TOO MANY characters to write about. What was Toei thinking in putting 15 characters in one Anime? It's probably no wonder why children didn't like it! Pidge's story is that he's from Planet Balto. However, that planet that blew up in Golion was actually EARTH! Yes, Lion Voltron episode 20 used footage from where the Earth blew up! None of that...

Lion Voltron was known to have extended to 20 more episodes -- followed by that awful 3D cartoon Voltron: The Third Dimension . Back then, a lot of stuff were kept trimmed away from Lion Voltron . I decided to lump up the last five episodes for this reason -- similar to how Voltes V created a movie based on the last five episodes. Yes, there are some spoilers and I'll hit on the RANDOM REVELATION that showed up as well. Who could remember the toned-down dialogue of Lion Voltron ? The arc maintains that Saint (Garrett in Lion Voltron ) was a saboteur. Here, it's revealed that Raible's son is not in "some other dimension". Instead, some tribal chief reveal that both of them DIED during the Galra attack. Hysteria wasn't hit by some stun gun. Instead, Hysteria really DIED when Saint shot him. Saint was created by Honerva as an evil clone of the real son, the late Roland. The scene almost looks like what if Okane from Daimos died defending Professor Ryuuzaki. Hyste...

  Episode 41 The mysterious figure is Ryo Shirogane -- Takashi's brother. Takashi is shocked to learn that his brother has died. They were probably separated at some point when Takashi escaped with the others. Takashi's died at the hands of Honerva. Ryo recalls the vision he had from Takashi -- which helped confirm Shirogane's death to him. A deleted scene is the Golion team visiting Takashi's grave. That scene was deleted for obvious reasons. Ryo's footage was used for Sven. However, Takashi and Ryo are two different persons from the source material. Interestingly, Power Rangers Zeo turned one person into two separate persons -- that was Kaiser Buldont into Gasket and Sprocket. A strange way to deal with source material adaptations huh?  Amue's escape gets Sincline ticked off. It's amazing to know how the firing squad failed to kill Amue. Amue has a pretty strong PLOT ARMOR on her. Amue helps some slaves escape but it FAILS. Sincline uses the new Mecha Beas...

Here's another set of episodes for Golion . The Lion Voltron episodes obviously cut off anything that's too brutal. Now, it's time for the next set of episodes.  Episode 26 As the defeats at the hands of Golion -- they decide to start using some subtler tactics again. Honerva creates an invisibility cloak. Sincline chooses a four-armed Beast Fighter called Bullbar to do the job. An invisible Beast Fighter would definitely do the job. Sincline still daydreams of capturing Fala for his sick pleasure. Once again, one must wonder where Amue is in Castle Galra? Is Amue simply getting too boring? Or is Sincline wearing condoms if ever he's actually raping her? Such details are best left out!  Fala, Hiroshi, and Hysteria are out getting fruits. However, the invisible four-armed Beast Fighter starts causing trouble. There's some scenes of people getting crushed by rocks -- something not shown in Lion Voltron for obvious reasons. Having an enemy one can't see can be a di...

Golion goes in a more bizarre direction. This time, we get a couple of episodes. Some of them connect to a previous plot. Others just didn't. That's a common problem with writing superhero show episodes. Golion would be no different. There are bound to be errors with different writers involved.  Episode 21 The Lion Voltron episode was tamed in the dialogue. However, this is where Golion adds some sexually suggestive dialogue. Sincline has his collection of women. Now, Amue is used as a substitute until he gets Fala.  Amue is called Sincline's plaything -- hinting that he molested her. However, there's still some censorship that prohibits rape. Amue was still fully dressed when she was returned. It might be that Sincline touched her privates but never bothered to do it with her.  Amue escapes with some women that Sincline kept for his pleasure. Alor wants to rescue Amue. This is where Amue's capture becomes a running gag. Amue's simply kept alive by Plot Armor. Y...

After giving Prince Sincline's introduction -- here are a bunch of rewatches. Warning: Some of these episodes can be grim. Yes, stuff that's not appropriate for TV-Y7-FV -- stuff that made localizing Hyajakuu Golion a necessity. Anyway, here are some of the episodes coming up! Episode 16 After Sincline's introductory arc -- it's time for him to get into a regular episode. The story of the two kingdoms is told. Two lovers from ages past tried to build a bridge. The love goddess Roman (this might be the same Goddess that split Golion) heard their pleas and built a bridge. Years later, it was destroyed during Galra's invasion of Altea. The bridge is rebuilt but spoilers -- it's destroyed again! This episode reveals Sincline's womanizer nature. Tsuyoshi gets to act as the youth from Helena. Fala acts as the youth from Altea. It's interesting to see Daibazaal try to teach Sincline about the basics. Daibazaal's probably only 50 years old by Galran Years. H...

For the past few episodes -- it seems the Galrans were mostly For the Evulz. However, episodes 14-16 give us an idea of what may be the Golion's greatest threat. Prince Sincline (Lotor) is introduced in episode 14 as the "Crown Prince of Hell". The Galran Royalty is pretty much For the Evulz. I wonder where the citizens of Planet Galra are?! Voltes V showed us the Boazanian citizenry. Daimos showed us the Baam-Seijin citizenry. Dairugger XV showed us the Galveston citizenry. I wonder why we don't see much of Galra except for the royalty? However, I'll just pretend that some non-human prisoners are critics of Emperor Daibazaal's tyrannical rule.  While watching Lion Voltron -- I simply can't help but make Lotor my favorite villain. Lotor had more depth than King Zarkon. I even hoped that Lotor would one day succeed in overthrowing Zarkon. I even imagined myself as Lotor. Lotor was actually more dangerous than any of the people on Planet Doom. In Golion -- S...

  After the introductory arc, we have episodes 8-13 that feature Sadak before Prince Sincline (Lotor) arrives. Rewatching these episodes makes me think of Galra's For the Evulz MO. We get a good idea of Galra's depraved activities. There are times they do come up with something good. However, some of their plans seem to just gloat in "Look at me! I'm evil!"  Episode 8  This episode quickly debuts after Princess Fala replaces Takashi. Come on, the ending sequence already gave it off! The episode starts off with Fala trying to get used to things. Isamu is training Fala to become a better pilot. Fala still has a LOT TO LEARN about piloting the Blue Lion. Yes, it's really easy to look down at Fala early on. Fala's not in the same league as Chizuru of Combattler V and Megumi from Voltes V. However, it doesn't mean Fala can be underestimated!  The episode features some obvious foreshadows. Bambara is a villain and Hysteria foreshadows it. Honerva wasn't ...

  Yes, you got that right! I was planning on doing this. Sure, I understand that Hyajakuu Sentai Golion was too violent for TV Y7-FV. It should be interesting that Golion aired on March 4, 1981. That would take place on the fifth anniversary of Combattler V . However, in Eastern reckoning, it may be the fifth anniversary of Chodenji Machine Voltes V . I remember watching Lion Voltron back in the 1990s. It was a rerun of a cartoon in 1984 -- three years after Golion wasn't well-received in Japan. Just a bit of a warning: I'm VERY biased against American remakes of Japanese shows -- even if they had a license. Expect my review to be biased against Lion Voltron like I'm PERSONALLY biased against Power Rangers .  Who can remember Lion Voltron's cheesy voice and the censorship? The show was connected to Vehicle Voltron . However, Golion was NEVER connected to Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV -- a show that's still better than Vehicle Voltron but lacks focus. Yes, that whole fle...

  The original Beast King Golion came out in 1981 and got localized for Americans in 1984. Speak about three-year gap between the source material AND the adaptation. It's unlike that Haim Saban and Toei did when Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers came out in 1993 while the source material was in 1992. It's safe to assume that Toei wanted to recover some of their losses and allowed World Events Productions to edit things out. One of the biggest changes was Lion Voltron's story was the background. Lion Voltron's titular hero was this magnificent defender of the Universe. As Keith's narration went, Voltron was terrific and put those robots out of business. However, King Zarkon had an ace on his sleeve with Hagar. Hagar disguised herself as a beautiful goddess. Lion Voltron went near and Hagar cursed the robot. Lion Voltron was fragmented into five robot lions.  Then there was the Omega Comet plot. I was wondering why there was a goddess who was empowering Lion Voltron. ...

  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...