We see Voltron/Golion in action for the first time in this episode. About frackin' time!!
Actually, I like the way the original writers handled this. It's different from just about evey other super robot series from the same era, the fact that they waited until the fourth episode to actually reveal the titular robot.
The Missing Key
We open with Zarkon ranting about the failures of Yurak and the Robeast to capture the Voltron force. Again, this seen serves as a recap. Interesting that they discontinued using the original pre-titlecard recaps after doing once in the second episode. Also, how does Zarkon know the Voltron force is still kicking? As far as anyone knows, the Robeast finished them. Then they all sank in the, um, quicksand.
A quick cut to the castle of lions and Coran and Allura, and they know less about the fate of the Voltron force that Zarkon and Haggar. Aaand we cut to Galaxy Garrison. Hello, Space Marshall Graham. I thought maybe the further you get from the Voltron force, the more you know about them, but, no, Galaxy Garrison knows as little as Allura and Coran.
Now we return to Pidge and some Arusian survivor leading him back to the castle. Will people please stop calling him "the small one?" He's got a name!!!! He sees the space mice--oooh, mousetastic foreshadowing. Pidge refuses to believe the rest of the team is lost. I mean, it's just the fourth episode? Spirits are bouyed when they . . . hear Hunk snoring over the radio. Huh. At least he's not talking in his sleep about Space Burgers.
Clearly, Pidge's voice is annoying enough to jar them back into consciousness. The four lions dig themselves out of the mud and fly back to the castle. Errr. Aren't they close enough to Yurak's position that he can see/detect/pick them up on DRADIS?
When the team gets back to the castle, we see that they reenter the control room from the elevator tower. Huh. So it's a two-way delivery system. And the doors to each lion form a five-pointed star. BURN THEM!! THEY'RE WITCHES!!!
They return to the tomb, set on finding the fifth key. Instead, they discover that space mice can chew through rock. Pidge calls them his friends. So he promptly leads the rest for find and trap the mice. So they can interrogate them. Yes, this is sooo much more serious and awesomer than Vehicle Voltron with its searching space for planets, blah blah blah.
We see pretty clearly that there's only four mice, a pink adult, a blue adult, and two blue mouselings. The American writers can't seem to keep track of them. Just watch. And, conveniently, Allura as a child was lonely because her parents were so busy. Not because they were, um, DEAD.
Wait, I said I wasn't going to focus on that stuff. So, I lied. Take a cab, Nancy.
Allura says "Inky, Toady?" Are those names, or an ill-conceived attempt at mouse-talk?
God, I haven't complained about Sven's "Swedish by way of Goa" lilt until now, but seriously. They take the character with black hair, dressed in a Japanese school uniform, and decide he's Swedish?
Yurak's Black Army fighters return to attacking the desert. This time, at least they're caving in the Arusian refuges. Taking a page from the Harkonnens? (It's from Dune. READ A BOOK!).
Once again, Coran tries to keep them from tryin' out the Voltron. Really? This is the best you could come up with for this scene? Keith again jumps into chute 1. As a kid, I liked the idea that the elevator tower rotated for each pilot, but, no, the background details change with each one. Oh, well.
The rocks in the reverse shot facing Hunk in his shuttle cockpit always looked like peanuts to me.
Black lion is revealed. I always dug the folding wings.
Yurak sees the lions and wakes up the Robeast. It's carrying a short sword. It was empty-handed in the last episode, wasn't it? Again, they start the attack by--headbutting the Robeast. On the second pass, they actually seem to try to grab it with their teeth. Then Keith and Lance go for a third ramming attack (definition of insanity?) and the robeat tries to puncture red lion. I like that evasive hop he does.
They finally get a clue and leap to form Voltron. The robeast launches blue fireballs out of his wrist -thingsies and knock them out of the sky the first time. On the second attempt, they outlast the fire and we hear them activating interlocks for the first time.
Yeah, this is stock footage that shows up in every episode, but . . . It was utterly different from anything else on TV in 1984. I mean, he has lion heads for hands and feet. And they all have to roar.
The look on the robeast's face is a pretty good, "Oh, shit."
He tries for a sword cut, but Voltron does a Judo throw. Huh. The Robeast is quite a bit bigger than ol' Volts. The robeast then launches four missles out of his belt boxes. Voltron stands and takes it. The robeast shoots his blue wrist fireball thingies. And Voltron stands and takes it. Then Voltron forms the blazing sword (yeeeaaah!!!), and the two charge each other.
End of Robeast.
Voltron weapon breakdown: The first time of many for the blazing sword. And that's it. Not even any lion weapons.
Robeast weapons: Blue fireballs from his bracers. Missiles from his belt pouches. And a sword. So were those sixteen-foot nipple drills just decorative? Oh well. It's the aesthetic that counts.
Resurrection of the Legendary Giant
At least the Japanese series can give us a decent pre-titlecard recap.
Daibazaal is astonished that there's anything left on Altea to resist him. Also, Jaga is prescient. So, he orders Sadak to comb the desert.
Sadak's fleet has set up a staging area with searchlights. He will commence the search operation (which will undoubtedly consist of shooting at rocks) at dawn.
The caves down here are pretty elaborate, with the secret passages and all.
Suzuishi passes out when he reaches the control center, and again, we get the impression of a lot more time passing than in Voltron. In this version, it's some sort of alarm, or just the realization that the radios are on. And, Suzuishi "spends all night" yelling at them on the radio. Well, at least the guys got a good night's rest. As Seido says when he regains consciousness. And Kurogane managed to land upside down.
If you pay attention to the elevator tower, Suzuishi is right over the #1 chute, but in the overhead shot, it looks like Shirogane comes out of the chute directly under him. Hey, how can I help it? I'm pedantic.
In the tomb, things go pretty much the way it did in Voltron. Yep. Space mine. At least he doesn't call them his "friends." I've had people who called me their friend, then set traps for me. I don't hang around them much anymore. The bastards. And, this time, Fala mentions her dead family. Not "away on royal business." And the adult mice are named Platte and Chuchule.
Also--what is up with the Japanese and the Can-Can? Is it just their Gallophilia in general? I mean, really. I can't even think of other anime series where the Can-Can comes up, but I know this isn't the only one, or I wouldn't remember it.
To their credit, the Golion team thanks the mice, rather than, I dunno, being mean at them for having stole it. Daibazaal would've et 'em.
Is that just a stylized shot, or do the lower guns of the Galra fighters swivel? It would be convenient.
Oof! A little girl gets squarshed by falling rock when Galra attacks the caves. I missed that when I first watched this version. Her doll survives. It's no surprise that a country that lived through Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have a certain talent for very quick heart-wrenching images.
Kogane rides up his chair into black lion in the open air, as he would if he were going up into the lion statue, but the view from inside the cockpit is still green lion's tree den.
The deathblack beastman in this episode doesn't have a name. Kinda sad. That was one feature I like about Golion. Naming EVERYthing. And when the lions go on their first ramming run, there's a shot from behind the beastman, and he's got some serious triceps horeshoe. A favored tactic of his seems to be to toss one lion on top of the other in an attempt to knock them unconscious.
So, in a previous post, I mentioned my friend who likes to dance to the Golion score? That cue that starts just as they're jumping off rocks in the first attempt to form Golion causes her to sing the "Mitchell" song from MST3K. Y'know: "(Mitchell) Arteries pumpin'! (Mitchell) Heart is thumpin'! (Mitchell) Keep your eyes on the sandwhiiich!!"
Spending my time with normal people would be boring.
When Golion throws the beastman, he does a pretty solid roll out of the throw. But the sound effect for his belt missiles is terrible. It sounds like a misfire.
Golion forms Juyoken for the firs time, and Kazukiko Inoue's delivery of the name needs some work. That's OK, he'll get a ton of practice. And does Kogane sound familiar to you? He's been in a TON of other series. He did someone in Naruto, but I've never seen it (I'm old. Most anime I know is from the 70s and 80s. Well, that's mostly by preference). He was a pilot in the second season of Space Battlecruiser Yamato. He was Ryukotsusei in Inu Yasha. I think I remember him the most, right now anyway, as Jerid from Zeta Gundam--seeings as he was basically the main rival to our hero, Kamille. Right from the first episode. Because he accused Kamille of having a girly name. What a prick. He probably sets traps for his "friends," too.
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