Coconuts/Defend the Third Planet

When I started watching Vehicle Voltron as an adult, the Drules struck me, both in hierarchy and attitude, as being a lot like World War II-era Japanese Imperial Navy/Army.  Basically, they're an arrogant cabal who are the only ones in their society who really know what's going on (i.e., how badly the war effort is going), which is one way you can look at the Japanese Imperial Government in the 30s and 40s.  Plus, the planet-hopping warfare between the Galaxy Alliance and the Drule Empire reminds me a little of the island-hopping Pacific Campaign of World War II.  Then, you get this episode.  I'll talk more about that when I finish the episodes.

Coconuts

At the Drule HQ, A small transport ship approaches.  It carries Hazar and Dorma back to the homeworld (nevermind some robot guard voiceover that gets it backwards).  Dorma (whose eyes are miscolored as normal rather than Drule red throughout this scene) urges him to go underground and lead a resistance.  In the HQ planning room, Borgam calls Captain Zucca and orders him to attack the Alliance base.  Zucca moves out, and his XO tells him they're approaching planet Aloha.  Zucca orders him to ready the robeast.

Cinda and Crick are craving coconuts.  They ask Hawkins.  He says it's silly.  Jeff starts in on him, too, and finally takes the initiative and takes off for coconuts.

The alliance fleet waits in the bay as construction progresses on the base.  Tanks stand guard.  Spike and Herbie are two GG crewmen working on a communications tower.  And Herbie likes coconuts.  And they're both clearly paragons of maturity.  They act like idiots in the jungle, and then Jeff arrives and does a flyby of the base.

Herbie and Spike are drinking coconut juice when Jeff lands his ship nearby.  They recognize him and go to see what's going on.  He hops out of his ship and tells them he's there for coconuts.

Zucca's fleet is closing in on the base over the sea.  He starts jamming the communication towers with a transmission barrier, and launches four low-orbit satelliltes to do the job.  The sky turns sepia-toned.  They launch the robeast, which looks a lot like a green Zaku from Gundam (didn't we go through this in Golion, too?!)

Jeff, Spike and Herbie watch the fleet move in.  Jeff goes to call for help, but can't get through the transmission barrier.  The robeast rampages over the base while the Drule fleet decimates the fleet in the bay.  Herbie is wounded twice by strafing Drule fighters.  Jeff watches as Spike bandages the wound, then he tells them to find a hiding place and he launches his mecha.

Hawkins, Crick, Cinda, and Cliff are all on the bridge wondering what's taking Jeff so long.

Jeff is forced to hold off the Drule's on his own.  He takes the dogfight low and loses some Drule pursuit in the jungle.  The fleet is moving overhead toward the base, having finished the fleet.  Zucca's officers tell him that the Voltron ship is trying to take out the satellites.  He sends the robeast after him.

Jeff is flying through the devastated base, and then the robeast is on top of him.  He outruns it momentarily, and then sees the jamming satellites.  The robeast cuts him off and tries to drive him into the fleet.  Zuccca orders his ships to fire, but they hit the robeast instead.  Jeff uses the opportunity to knock out the jamming device, and the sky turns back to blue.  Jeff calls the Explorer and tells them what's happening.  Then Newley cuts him off and tells him to go to Aloha, and he's sending ships with Hawkins as backup.  Hawkins deploys Cliff and Crick.

Spike is trying to help Herbie to shelter, and then looks up and sees Drule fighters.  He heads for a cave and the fighters peel off and make a strafing run on them, wounding spike as he's carrying Herbie.  Herbie tries to protect Spike by, um, collapsing on top of him.  Then Jeff lands and carries Spike into the cave, and Herbie follows.  Spike is awake-totally not dying--and Herbie gets the idea to climb a tree for coconuts.  A flight of Drule fighters shoots him out of the tree and totally doesn't mortally wound him.  Jeff shoots the fighters down WITH HIS SIDEARM and tries to drown the two injured crewmembers with coconut juice.  Then Spike collapses again, and Jeff gets pissed. 

Just then, he sees ships start exploding, and it's the rest of the Voltron force to the rescue.  Jeff gets in his ship and they form Voltron.

Zucca is angry that Voltron has appeared.  He sends the damages robeast after Voltron.  Voltron immediately bodyslams the robeast into the ground, and Zucca prepares his fleet to fire on them, but then Hawins and the cavalry arrives, engaging Zucca's fleet and preventing him from supporting his robeast.  On the ground, the battle against the damaged robeast is pretty one-sided, and it's over fast.  Then Voltron takes off and destroys Zucca's flagship, bridge first.

The fleet has splashed down, and Jeff and Hawkins discuss the repair of the base and the tyranny of the Drules.  Then Spakrs the red tells us that all of the men on Aloha have totally not died.  Jeff goes out to the observation corridor and looks over the destruction, and we get footage of Spike and Herbie not being dead.  Then Jeff flashes back to the battle from FIVE MINUTES AGO.  Then they're in the lounge eating something gross.  Hilarity ensues.

Defend the Third Planet

At the Galveston Frontline HQ, we hear sad music played as a shuttle leaves, carrying Teles and Sirk back to the Galveston Homeworld, and Teles reflects on everything that's been happening.  Sirk, with weird miscolored eyes, tries to comfort him.

We see the shuttle pass beyond the debris ring of the planetoid, and then Raucher calls Zucca.  Zucca reports that the Earth fleet is moving away from the third planet, and Raucher sends him to recapture it.  Zucca prepares his forces for the sneak attack.

The Allied fleet is searching for the Galveston Homeworld.  Keats is brooking in the observation corridor, and Kirigas asks him if his spider senses is tingling.  The two of them report a sense of foreboding for the third planet to Ise and Aki.  Aki volunteers to go check it out.  HOLY FRACK!!!  This is totally different from the Voltron dialogue.

On the Third Planet, they're listening to Macross music and two crewmembers are working on a communications tower, complaining a little about the planet's lack of development.  Then they display their professionalism and chase each other through the jungle.  The skinny guy is thirsty.  Aki flies over of the installation and sees nothing out of the ordinary, then he decides to land and pick up some coconuts as a gift.  The two crewmembers are just now drinking coconut juice when they see Aki land.  Aki asks them if any is going on, but the crewmen are happy to say everything is peaceful.

Meanwhile, Zucca's forces advance over the ocean and prepare to attack the base.  He divides his forces and launches satellites (they deploy from the battle machine hatch) to jam communications.  Again, everything goes sepia-toned, and he launches the Mobile Suit--er, Battle Attacker.  Well, I guess it's a switch from the Invid-looking battle machines form the early half of the series.

Aki and the crewmen see the attack start, and Aki gets in his ship, but is unable to raise the Rugger Guard.  The battle attacker and the fighters strafe the base, destroying tanks and static defenses while Zucca's capital ships hit the fleet in the bay.  Aki yells at the crewmen to get under cover, and the skinny one is wounded by fragments.  Aki launches.

On the bridge of the Rugger Guard, Ise, Walter, and Keats are apprehensive as Kirigas points out that Aki should have contacted them if there'd been trouble.

Aki defeats a flight of Galveston fighters and wonder what's happening to the base personnel.  Overhead, Zucca's fleet closes in.  Zucca plans on establishing a base and migrating the people from his homeworld.  Then they detect one of the Rugger mecha, and he orders the battle attacker to finish off Aki.

Aki is flying low over the devastated base, and is surprised by the battle attacker.  As he evades it, he sees the jamming satellites, and then it's chasing him again.  He charges Zucca's fleet, prompting the ships to open fire and inadvertently damage the battle attacker.  Aki breaks free, destroys the jamming satellite, and calls the Rugger Guard for help.  Asimov is going to continue the search for the homeworld, and he sends part of his fleet to help Ise fend off the attack on the thirst planet.

The two crew goons get themselves injured again trying to make it to a cave for shelter.  The fat one is Satou and the skinny one is Morikawa.  Aki destroys the enemy fighters and helps them get into the cave.  Morikawa goes to get a coconut and is spotted by Galveston fighters.  And, Aki shoots one of them down with his hand weapon.  He then tries to give them both coconut juice.  Morikawa dies.  Satou gets angry and tries to run out of the cave, but collapses.  Aki realizes he's dead, and starts punching the cave floor.  He sees the Galveston fleet moving overhead, and then the rest of the Rugger team arrives.  Aki gets in his ship and they form Dairugger.

Zucca sees this and launches the under-repaired battle attacker.  It flies at Dairugger, leaking flames.  Zucca orders his fleet to back up the battle attacker, but the Rugger fleet under Ise arrives.  Aki vents his rage at the deaths of Satou and Morikawa on the battle attacker by punching it (successfully, for once), and then dedicates the death blow struck by the Rugger Sword to everyone at the garrison.  Then Dairugger kills Zucca and destroys his flagship in the name of the entire Third Planet.

The fleet has splashed down outside the burning base.  Ise realizes Galveston must be desperate, and they must find the homeworld and liberate them.  Ise gets the report that only 3 men survived the attack.  Aki goes out to the observation gallery and reflects on how war can make someone seem as though they never exists, just statistics in a report.

OK--Here is my cultural commentary: Is this Pearl Harbor?  Am I way out of line for suggesting it?  All along, I've thought of the Galveston/Drule forces as being like the Japanese in WWII, and the Alliance as being the Allies.  I'm only a dumb white guy, and I don't even really speak Japanese (I know a few words and some sentences, that's it).  But would it be weird to think that some animators in the 80s were commenting on WWII?  I know (or at least, I've been told) that, as a whole, Japanese society was pretty anti-military up until the mid-70s or early 80s and refused to support the idea of more than a minimal Self-Defense Force.  But is this also emblematic of this?  Does someone who knows more about Japanese culture, particularly "last-half-of-the-20th century Japanese culture," get what I'm saying?