A Pretty Spy
Coran announces an alert, and we get a groovy shot of some sort of RADAR or maybe DRADIS installation on the red parapet things on the castle.
Three green, red and yellow fighters (the Yurak standard) are chasing a gray ship Keith identifies as a Zarkon pursuit ship. Or maybe the fighters are the pursuit ships. They shoot it down in the desert, and Hunk goes out on a horse to investigate. The ship is a flaming wreck (and the fighters have apparently gone back to Doom). Hunk finds an unconscious but alive girl thrown clear from the wreck. She bears a Doom horned and fanged skull tattoo on her left forearm. Sign of a Doom slave.
Hunk takes her back to Nanny's ministrations. Poor kid. About time Nanny makes herself useful.
The team spends the sunset discussing the girl's escape. Some of them seem a bit skeptical.
The girl is conscious, and Allura is spoonfeeding. The girl introduces herself as Twyla. She fled Doom because Zarkon was going to torture her. We flash back to a Skull Galley landing. Twyla and her brother become slaves, and she flees in a spaceship (she says the same one, but it's the one that looks like a Klingon ship she actually flees in). Hunk is angered at Zarkon by her story. Keith looks at her suspiciously.
Hunk gets Lance and Pidge (as they hang out by the moat) to discuss a preemptive stirke on Zarkon. Keith airs his suspicions and gets throttled by Hunk. Huh. Character development--the team doesn't all get along all the time.
That night, Twyla awakens with red glowing eyes. This is always promising. She walks past the room that the team now apparently share communally and checks on them with her X-ray vision (Arus must orbit a yellow sun). Keith is awakened and peeks out the door, but she's gone. He goes to sleep.
Twyla runs to a door marked "Missile Block 4." She clasps her hands together and her eyes glow. She shoots energy from her hands and opens the door. She enters a room lined with various sizes of missiles. The space mice, are munching on a snack in there and watch from around a corner as she calls Haggar on the spooky-com (by raising her hand in a sieg heil kind of thing). She tells Haggar she is in the missile room, and Haggar orders her to set the bomb.
Twyla takes off her boot heel and pulls out . . . the bomb?
Haggar explains the situation to Zarkon and slow audience members (or ones who had their younger sister screaming that she NEVER gets to watch HER shows through the first half). Zarkon actually utters the episode title, calling Twyla a pretty spy. He later calls her a pretty fool. Cheddar goes to warn the team Pidge chases him off, but Keith awakens everyone with an order to "roll out."
Twyla sets the explosive device at the base of one of the missiles.
Cheddar tells Allura the story. Everyone runs to the control room where Coran is sleeping at the desk (!). He brings up the camera to the missile room, and sees what's up. Fortunately, it was on, um, something that can be ejected. Twyla flees and Hunk pursues her on horseback into the ruins, hoping to stop her from returning to Doom.
Zarkon again explains the situation to those of us with psychopaths for younger sisters. Haggar says that while the team chases the girl, there will be no chance to form Voltron.
Hunk catches up to her in the desert. She is now sans pig-tails, and gets Hunk's horse to throw him with her eye-beams. Hunk confronts her, and Twyla confesses that Zarkon would free her enslaved people if she enabled him to conquer Arus. Hunk tries to convince her that she's made a mistake, but she reveals that Yurak is bringing her brother to Arus in the form of a clawbeast. The space coffin roars overhead and lands in the ruins. The Rooster Frigate supersizes the space coffin, and the great clawbeast rises. A cyclops with a morning star.
Twyla orders him to destroy Arus. He chases the same Arusian girl with no pants who has already fled attacks in previous episodes (I'd probably chase her, too. Does that make me Robeast material?) The team watches the attack, then they all launch. The chute numbers look to be standardized by this point.
The clawbeast is stalking nto the desert when the lions appear. He scatters him with a couple swipes of his morning star. Allura screams.
Twyla looks on and begins to have regrets.
The clawbeast catches blue lion in the chain and swirls her around overhead until Keith frees her with a missile. The clawbeast attacks again as Hunk shows up. No foolin' around this time, they form Voltron immediately. Seriously not messin' around, they form blazing sword and slice the chain of the morning star (which sails over the horizon and explodes). The clawbeast tries to hold him at bay with bad breath, but Voltron disables him with eye-beams, and then finishes him with the sword.
And we suddenly cut to the people celebrating outside the castle as they explain Twyla has returned to her home planet and will live happily ever after. Well, good for her.
Girl of the Land of Evil
We open on a starscape, and have a few more seconds of the Galra ship stolen by the slave girl. It's color scheme is new (gray body with red canopy and blue and red details) but it looks close enough to the design philosophy of the Galra fighters that it's believable as a Galra design. Y'know, for mechanical design nerds like me.
The castle also readies weapon ports--enclosed emplacements, none of the manned machinegun-looking weapons we saw in the first days of the new castle.
Seido actually hears her heartbeat. He also proclaims that she's from Earth, then Hys chases them out, 'cuz you shouldn't stare at a sleeping girl. Ummm, don't tell my girlfriend.
We've seen the basic room the girl recovers in a couple of times already--or at least the skylight-style windows. The girl identifies herself as Lisa, and she says she's escaped the Galra empire. After the five escaped Galra, Daibazaal apparently continued to collect slaves from Earth. Kuragane, Seido, and Suzuishi are angry. Lisa appears to be suffering from post-traumatic stress. Kogane is suspicious.
Outside, Seido muses over the fate of his sister, of whom he is reminded by Lisa. Kogane voices his suspicions, and Seido has a freakout. Oh. That's why they call him hothead. Seido keeps screaming as the scene cuts to later, when Lisa awakens all redeyed and evil. Is this dorm room arrangement the team's response to Bambara's serpent attack?
Ohhh, Kogane wakes up because he's suspicious of her and her ESP awakens him. Huh?
Her official title, as she contacts the Galra empire telepathically, is Lisa the Saboteur. Honerva orders her to blow the castle to smithereens. She then explains the Earth girl's abilities to Daibazaal. Honerva also has this weird way of referring to herself--she seems to be saying "Old Witch" in the third person whenever the sub says "I." But my Japanese sucks. Is that right? Anyone out there reading this with more knowledge of Japanese than me (and by more I mean any?) Is this common for kreepy old witch ladies in Japanese entertainment?
The resolution on the surveillance camera is good enough that they can see the timer reading "30 seconds) on the explosive. And Raible doesn't even say anything, he just ejects whatever it's wired to, while the team frets.
We're treated to the "Mitchell" theme music again as Seido hunts for her. Lisa has her hair down, and the visual of the sequence where her brother's space coffin flies in over her head, her hair blowing in the wind, made an impression on me when I saw this as a kid. Something about that image, her hair blowing, the space coffin entering the frame and flying over her as she yells and points to it, then the cut to Seido as he watches it fly by--I remembered that vividly for years.
Apparently. when a human is "remade" into a monster. they're only a half-beastman. And this one is Half-Beastman Gagarl. Seido tries to appeal to his human side, but this is to no avail. Kogane tells him these two are a lost cause, having sold their souls to the devil.
Huh. In Voltron, Keith is shown riding the chairlevator into black lion. In this rendition of the episode, it's the green lion shot from the third episode.
Wow, the princess takes a beating. From Gagarl and from Suzuishi and Kurogane.
I really like the little "Hmph" they work into the shot of Kogane as he reacts to Seido's appearance and then orders the Golion combination.
The Gagarl design is sort of like a lazy interpretation of Galcia and Bambara. I don't like it as much as the first beastman or Deathhell. It's kind of a generic lizardy-thing. But I always liked the weird, exposed bits of red, corrugated . . . tissue. Like the beastmen have vinyl for skin over red vacuum cleaner hose.
Seido goes to confront Lisa after they destroy her brother, and she throws herself off the cliff instead of speaking. Oy. This show's kinda rough. The closing shot is the rest of the team and Raible overlooking Seido as he places a wreath of flowers on a cross marking the cliff from which Lisa jumped. Saburo Hatte, whoever was actually directing some of these episodes, had a talent for strong imagery.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Stolen Lion/Stolen Blue Lion
The Stolen Lion
Blue lion is chasing red lion through the skies over the Castle of Lions. Wow, this is a fresh new opening. Pidge thinks the training is too hard for the princess. Blue lion fires at red with a left-shoulder mounted missile launcher. Red lion fires back with a tail-laser. Blue lion uses its claws as rockets. After dodging every one of the princess' missiles, red lion forms its lion blade and throws it like a Frisbee, knocking blue lion into a nosedive. The rest of the team get into their lions and go after her, but it doesn't look like they're going to make it . . .
. . . When a mysterious gray ship catches her with a tractor beam and smarms at the team "Thank you for your help. Such as it was." The team and the stranger get out of their ships. And . . . Nanny.
***Blaugh***
The stranger introduces himself as Prince Bokar as Sennack. Looking for a princess to marry. Yeah, this Disney bullshit is so much better than Vehicle Voltron . . .
Lance and Bokar get into a fist fight. Lance has a really weird kiai. Ultimately, Lance gets his butt kicked.
Allura (well, and the rest of the team rushing up to confront Bokar) end the fight. Bokar is about to leave when Allura invites him to be friends. And a guest. And Lance questions his princely credentials. And he fights like a space pirate.
Nanny makes her space casserole. And kicks Lance for slouching. Apparently, her space casserole is . . . a turkey. The mice run off with weird, spherical drumstick looking things. They are clearly space-drumsticks. Nanny takes off after them, and Lance trips her.
We now cut to Castle Doom. Vultures circle. Haggar laughs. In her crystal ball, she sees the team eating with Bokar, the young man she so carefully trained.
That night, the blue cat peers in through the skylight and freaks out the space mice. Bokar says something weird about Allura protecting mice from a cat. Lance says something awesome about protecting the royal silverware.
And space cobras slither through the air ducts into Lance's room. Fortunately Lance keeps a sword under his bed, and he starts hacking his way through the snakes by the dozens. The rest of the team answers his cries, and have to fight through snakes outside Lance's door. Bokar comes running up and immediately looks shifty.
They're all in the control room, accusing Bokar of, um, being a binger of snakes. Oh, but drop you suspicions, 'cuz we're going to make Bokar the pilot of blue lion. As Bokar contemplates the key, his arm twitches. Lance shoots the twitch, and snakes fall out. (Oh, yeah, and Nanny gets in the way. Why DIDN'T you shoot her first, Lance?!)
Bokar takes Allura into blue lion and dumps her on the cockpit floor. Luckily, Cheddar was along for the ride. Bokar calls Haggar and apprises her of the situation.
The team launches and plunges into the lake after blue lion. Bokar is having trouble starting it. King Deus ex Alfor speaks through the viewscreen and explains that no bad guy will fly a Voltron lion. Then he sees the rest of the team approaching. He forces Allura into the chair and knocks Cheddar unconscious. Evil jerk, beating up space mice!
Keith convinces Allura to just go along with Bokar. As they're all airborne, Yurak's Rooster Frigate appears. Bokar forces Allura to fire blue lion's backpack missiles at red lion. Lance knocks her down with the same "lion blade as frisbee" attack. Bokar responds by turning into Trogdor--er, a cobrobeast. Allura channels Ripley, opens the top hatch, and Cobrokar is sucked out. Yurak supersizes him with the magnification ray, and the team forms Voltron.
Bokar twirls his sickle. Voltron fires beams out of the arm lion mouths. Bokar launches beams from . . somewhere. Voltron launches the cross from his chestplate and shatter the sickle blade, which promptly regrows. They form blazing sword, trade a few blows with Bokar, and shake up Pidge. Red lion shoots Bokar in the face with fire, then they cut him in half. Yurak vows to one day defeat Voltron.
Allura sits in her thrown, and Lance makes fun of Nanny for being taking in by Bokar's handsome face. Hey Lance, isn't that a shootin' offense. Allura says something vague about falling in love some day or something.
Stolen Blue Lion
Kurogane's treatment of the princess is much more condescending here. "An attack like that couldn't take out a sheep!" Although he would have no regrets if she killed him. Blue lion can fire a near-Macross volume of missiles.
Oh, Hys. You're so shrill. And irrelevant.
The prince this time couldn't stand to see the weak bullied. That's what he says. He leaps out of his ship to total villain-introduction music and chuckles sinisterly. And his teeth gleam. He introduces himself as Bambara from Orion. Orion was an ally of Altea during Raimon's reign.
And Hys gets all class-conscious.
Kurogane and Bambara get into their fist fight. Bambara finishes the fight by doing some power-up move. He also stands on Kurogane's throat until Fala breaks it up.
So what I'm getting out of this is that royaly is basically a bunch of pricks.
Bambara's about to leave when Raible starts talking him into joining Golion. Fala thinks he will "better draw out the power" of Golion. Interesting. She invokes her father's authority to officially turn blue lion over to him. Hmm. This could end badly.
Oh, gods. Hys is fawning all over Bambara. Hold on, the barf bucket's too far from the computer . . .
Whew. We cut to Galra just in time. Honerva is pleased with the progress. This plan shows an interesting development in their "monster of the week" plotting. The first two beastman were just a frontal attack. Those didn't work. The third one was destroyed, but assassinated one of the member of Golion first. The fourth one was an ambush to draw out a weakened Golion team. This time, they infiltrate the castle with a saboteur/kidknapper. Who turns out to be a beastman.
When the cobras attack Kurogane, the rest of the team apparently carries knives in their pajamas. And Kurogane initially blames Raible of setting another test for them. Wha-!!! Raible doesn't know anything about it. Raible orders Bambara to board blue lion and start training. That's when Fala gives him the key and Kurogane sees the snake up his sleeve. The rest of the team really think he's lost it--until they see the snake.
Events follow in pretty much the same fashion: Bambara can't get blue lion started and the good, dead, king tells him he can't control blue lion because his heart is wicked. Fala says his soul must be in the lion. Bambara thinks the key is a fake.
Kogane convinces Fala to do as Bambara says while they figure out what to do--they can't afford to let Bambara kill her.
So, when Fala opens the hatch and blows Bambara out, how does Platt stay in the cockpit?
Bambara's voice doesn't change much while in snake form. Something else I like about the Japanese voice performances.
The combination music is still the theme song--without lyrics, but not the usual instrumental version. I think.
Bambara actually says "Come at me, Golion!"
The guns in the lion mouths are called the Laser Magnum. Golion also uses the cross beam and space cutter. And Kogane's almost got the Juyoken cry down. While Golion is holding off Bambara's sickle attack, Kurogane switches the sword to Suzuishi, who doesn't know what's going on, so he can blast Bambara in the eyes.
Meanwhile, in the throneroom, Kurogane tells everyone "I told you so." Fala explains that her father's spirit dwells in each of the lions, and that she will defend her kingdom by her own hand. Much better as an ending than some vague romantic allusion . . .
Blue lion is chasing red lion through the skies over the Castle of Lions. Wow, this is a fresh new opening. Pidge thinks the training is too hard for the princess. Blue lion fires at red with a left-shoulder mounted missile launcher. Red lion fires back with a tail-laser. Blue lion uses its claws as rockets. After dodging every one of the princess' missiles, red lion forms its lion blade and throws it like a Frisbee, knocking blue lion into a nosedive. The rest of the team get into their lions and go after her, but it doesn't look like they're going to make it . . .
. . . When a mysterious gray ship catches her with a tractor beam and smarms at the team "Thank you for your help. Such as it was." The team and the stranger get out of their ships. And . . . Nanny.
***Blaugh***
The stranger introduces himself as Prince Bokar as Sennack. Looking for a princess to marry. Yeah, this Disney bullshit is so much better than Vehicle Voltron . . .
Lance and Bokar get into a fist fight. Lance has a really weird kiai. Ultimately, Lance gets his butt kicked.
Allura (well, and the rest of the team rushing up to confront Bokar) end the fight. Bokar is about to leave when Allura invites him to be friends. And a guest. And Lance questions his princely credentials. And he fights like a space pirate.
Nanny makes her space casserole. And kicks Lance for slouching. Apparently, her space casserole is . . . a turkey. The mice run off with weird, spherical drumstick looking things. They are clearly space-drumsticks. Nanny takes off after them, and Lance trips her.
We now cut to Castle Doom. Vultures circle. Haggar laughs. In her crystal ball, she sees the team eating with Bokar, the young man she so carefully trained.
That night, the blue cat peers in through the skylight and freaks out the space mice. Bokar says something weird about Allura protecting mice from a cat. Lance says something awesome about protecting the royal silverware.
And space cobras slither through the air ducts into Lance's room. Fortunately Lance keeps a sword under his bed, and he starts hacking his way through the snakes by the dozens. The rest of the team answers his cries, and have to fight through snakes outside Lance's door. Bokar comes running up and immediately looks shifty.
They're all in the control room, accusing Bokar of, um, being a binger of snakes. Oh, but drop you suspicions, 'cuz we're going to make Bokar the pilot of blue lion. As Bokar contemplates the key, his arm twitches. Lance shoots the twitch, and snakes fall out. (Oh, yeah, and Nanny gets in the way. Why DIDN'T you shoot her first, Lance?!)
Bokar takes Allura into blue lion and dumps her on the cockpit floor. Luckily, Cheddar was along for the ride. Bokar calls Haggar and apprises her of the situation.
The team launches and plunges into the lake after blue lion. Bokar is having trouble starting it. King Deus ex Alfor speaks through the viewscreen and explains that no bad guy will fly a Voltron lion. Then he sees the rest of the team approaching. He forces Allura into the chair and knocks Cheddar unconscious. Evil jerk, beating up space mice!
Keith convinces Allura to just go along with Bokar. As they're all airborne, Yurak's Rooster Frigate appears. Bokar forces Allura to fire blue lion's backpack missiles at red lion. Lance knocks her down with the same "lion blade as frisbee" attack. Bokar responds by turning into Trogdor--er, a cobrobeast. Allura channels Ripley, opens the top hatch, and Cobrokar is sucked out. Yurak supersizes him with the magnification ray, and the team forms Voltron.
Bokar twirls his sickle. Voltron fires beams out of the arm lion mouths. Bokar launches beams from . . somewhere. Voltron launches the cross from his chestplate and shatter the sickle blade, which promptly regrows. They form blazing sword, trade a few blows with Bokar, and shake up Pidge. Red lion shoots Bokar in the face with fire, then they cut him in half. Yurak vows to one day defeat Voltron.
Allura sits in her thrown, and Lance makes fun of Nanny for being taking in by Bokar's handsome face. Hey Lance, isn't that a shootin' offense. Allura says something vague about falling in love some day or something.
Stolen Blue Lion
Kurogane's treatment of the princess is much more condescending here. "An attack like that couldn't take out a sheep!" Although he would have no regrets if she killed him. Blue lion can fire a near-Macross volume of missiles.
Oh, Hys. You're so shrill. And irrelevant.
The prince this time couldn't stand to see the weak bullied. That's what he says. He leaps out of his ship to total villain-introduction music and chuckles sinisterly. And his teeth gleam. He introduces himself as Bambara from Orion. Orion was an ally of Altea during Raimon's reign.
And Hys gets all class-conscious.
Kurogane and Bambara get into their fist fight. Bambara finishes the fight by doing some power-up move. He also stands on Kurogane's throat until Fala breaks it up.
So what I'm getting out of this is that royaly is basically a bunch of pricks.
Bambara's about to leave when Raible starts talking him into joining Golion. Fala thinks he will "better draw out the power" of Golion. Interesting. She invokes her father's authority to officially turn blue lion over to him. Hmm. This could end badly.
Oh, gods. Hys is fawning all over Bambara. Hold on, the barf bucket's too far from the computer . . .
Whew. We cut to Galra just in time. Honerva is pleased with the progress. This plan shows an interesting development in their "monster of the week" plotting. The first two beastman were just a frontal attack. Those didn't work. The third one was destroyed, but assassinated one of the member of Golion first. The fourth one was an ambush to draw out a weakened Golion team. This time, they infiltrate the castle with a saboteur/kidknapper. Who turns out to be a beastman.
When the cobras attack Kurogane, the rest of the team apparently carries knives in their pajamas. And Kurogane initially blames Raible of setting another test for them. Wha-!!! Raible doesn't know anything about it. Raible orders Bambara to board blue lion and start training. That's when Fala gives him the key and Kurogane sees the snake up his sleeve. The rest of the team really think he's lost it--until they see the snake.
Events follow in pretty much the same fashion: Bambara can't get blue lion started and the good, dead, king tells him he can't control blue lion because his heart is wicked. Fala says his soul must be in the lion. Bambara thinks the key is a fake.
Kogane convinces Fala to do as Bambara says while they figure out what to do--they can't afford to let Bambara kill her.
So, when Fala opens the hatch and blows Bambara out, how does Platt stay in the cockpit?
Bambara's voice doesn't change much while in snake form. Something else I like about the Japanese voice performances.
The combination music is still the theme song--without lyrics, but not the usual instrumental version. I think.
Bambara actually says "Come at me, Golion!"
The guns in the lion mouths are called the Laser Magnum. Golion also uses the cross beam and space cutter. And Kogane's almost got the Juyoken cry down. While Golion is holding off Bambara's sickle attack, Kurogane switches the sword to Suzuishi, who doesn't know what's going on, so he can blast Bambara in the eyes.
Meanwhile, in the throneroom, Kurogane tells everyone "I told you so." Fala explains that her father's spirit dwells in each of the lions, and that she will defend her kingdom by her own hand. Much better as an ending than some vague romantic allusion . . .
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The Lion has New Claws/The Beautiful Princess' Battle
I understand that Lion Voltron is more popular than Vehicle Voltron. I don't really care when I here people my own age listing off all the half-remembered reasons why Vehicle Voltron was boring, why it sucked, why it was different . . . I just patiently wait until their done, and say "But Vehicle Voltron didn't have Nanny. Or the space mice. But mostly Nanny."
Uhhhh . . .
Seriously. NANNY?!?! What the bloody---?!?!?!
Fine. Our heroes begin the series based out of the Magic Kingdom. And there's a princess. And a witch. And space mice. But please, explain to me how NANNY makes Lion Voltron superior. And bring a mop. 'Cuz I'll projectile vomit.
The Lion Has New Claws
This episode opens on . . . Planet Doom. Zarkon lamenting that Voltron was not destroyed. How unusual. However, we cut very quickly to the shiny new Castle of Lions as a boat approaches accross the moat. Ohhh, if only Coran had had the moat patrolled by Sharkticons, a lot of pain would never have to be endured.
The sleeping castle is awakened by the alarm. Everyone awakens in their separate rooms. Except Hunk. He writes the alarm off as a short circuit (logical, considering that, y'know, the team is short-handed and Zarkon has the advantage). Pidge, Keith, and Lance encounter a shadowy figure in the hallway. When the figure simply laughs at their challenge, Pidge kicks her. Why didn't he use his laser?
Coran introduces the team to Nanny. Nanny blusters.
***vomit***
Nanny agrees to be the royal governess again. And then more horribleness ensues.
The alarm goes off again, Pidge fails to rouse Hunk, and the other three run to the control room. Keith sees that someone is in the blue lion. Cutting-edge Pong-style computer graphics show that someone is stealing blue lion. A scream over the radio causes them to realize it's Allura, and she's clearcutting a few Arusian forests with blue lion. And she got a snazzy pink uniform. She just wants to help in Sven's absence. But, apparently, she hasn't had a learners permit.
Nanny (***bleyauuggghhh***) force the team to rescue the princess at spearpoing.
It's gonna be a long wait until that episode when Coran's son comes back. *ahem* I didn't say anything.
Allura discovers that blue lion apparently has a "spin violently and assume a nose-dive" switch. Or is it a button? Keith manages to talk her down. Despite Nanny's best efforts to interrupt and kill them all. There's apparently a switch that takes the lion out of "flat-spin nosedive" mode. And the princess is down. And safe. And Haggar's cat is spying on the proceedings from a mountain.
Allura recovers from the accident in her room, and then tries to go back to blue lion. Coran doesn't like this idea. Girls are supposed to be pretty, and quiet. And not to fight. Then nanny spanks her.
Yep. Sure glad I'm watching this. Vehicle Voltron is just sooo boooring.
Allura--back in her Disney dress--simply won't give up her desire to fly blue lion. Nanny claims that there are MEN (cuz defending your people is a MAN's job--Nanny, FUCK YOOOOOOOOOU!!!) in the village at Crown Mountain who could do it. Coran offers to go (cuz he's a MAN) but Nanny claims she should go 'cuz it's her idea. Oooh, a double standard!? God, I fucking hate Nanny.
Zarkon, fresh from the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, is gnawing on a turkey leg. Haggar says she's going to send a Robeast to hold Nanny hostage and lure the incomplete Voltron force to their doom.
Nanny nears the mountain village, and a mountain crag shatters, revealing a Robeast. An angry steer robeast. Who is about a mile tall in some of those shots, judging from the puniness of the buildings he's stepping on. And he eats some of the villagers, to Pidge's (and possible the censors') dismay.
They go out in the lions. Chute count: Keith 1, Lance 2, Pidge 3, Hunk 5. So blue lion must be behind door number 4.
Coran rushes to tell Allura of the attack, and is somehow surprised when she wants to join the Voltron force. And ties her to her chair.
Yep. Better than watching all those flying cars form Voltron.
Yurak watches the four lions approach from his Rooster Frigate. Keith arranges some sort of formation. The Robeast reaches for Nanny . . . And misses. Black and yellow lions form lion blades, and yellow does a piggy-back attack off of black's back, only to get knocked into a canyon wall. Red and green, also now with blades, join black lion in an attack from multiple directions. The robeast steps on red and holds black lion in his hands.
The space mice free Allura (yay space . . . mice?) she takes chute 4 to blue lion, and arrives on the scene. Nanny bluster. Keith decides he's had enough of being squished by the great cowbeast, and leaves his grip to lead the formation of Voltron.
Voltron first uses a combined fire-and-hurricane attack from red and green lions, and the yellow and blue lions add their own flames. Then Voltron forms the blazing sword, and the result is about a year's worth of hamburger.
Yurak wonders how he'll break the news of Voltron's return to Zarkon.
Nanny wonders what Alfor would say if he knew Allura is adamant about flying blue lion. I'm pretty sure he'd say KICK ASS!!!
Nanny's such a bitch.
The Beautiful Princess' Battle
Gods, I don't think I can take another version of this episode. But, since the likelihood of anyone reading this or watching along is almost nill, I will soldier on. Mostly because I hate myself and want to cause myself pain.
This is the first opening with Fala in the "One . . . plus one" sequence.
We open directly on Hys' approach to Castle Gradam by boat. So the brief Zarkon sequence was clearly added from other episodes. Also, the mice detect Hys' entrance a split second before the alarms go off. With antenna in their tails. That's good. At least it's not as stupid as Dairugger. That doesn't have any stupid mice.
Hys just laughs at their guard challenge in this one. So, kicking her really doesn't seem like that much of an overreaction. Especially since Honerva just killed Shirogane, and Kurogane states outright that he thinks she's Honerva.
Hys wants Raible to arrest the Golion team as thieves. Raible says they're not royal (?) but they're what they've got to work with. Hys is upset that they have to rely on lowborn rabble. Really? Could it be possible for Hys to be even more horrible than Nanny? Good gods, Japan/
There is a little more outright chauvenism in the dialogue throughout the scenes in which they try to talk Fala down from blue lion. However, Kogane is sure it's a Galra saboteur in the moments before they hear Fala's scream.
Fala actually seems even more determined in this performance. Aaand, we're treated to the comedy of Kogane, Kurogane, and Suzuishi falling off the elevator tower as it extends. (That was in Voltron, too, but I was too busy typing about other stuff to note it).
Maybe if Nanny/Hys didn't remind me so much of one of my ex-coworkers, I wouldn't feel like slashing my wrists every time she spoke. Yep, watching a multi-chinned matron spank a teenage girl sure is high comedy. And it's probably a good thing my girlfriend just took the scissors out of the room.
The mountain is named Pierrane here. Mount Pierrane. The first Altean place name.
Seido finally gets out of bed, yawns, and drops his pant, showing us all his uncharted regions.
But it could be worse. We could be hearing Commander Hawkins and Hazar talking about PEACE. How horrible.
Did Daibazaal "seed" conquered planets with beastmen as insurance? They start getting uppity in some regions, and he says "There is insurgent activity at Mount Pierrane. Activate Beastman Mogyula!" This Beastman Maguyla doesn't seem to have any weapons beyond its teeth, claws, and that weird stump on his right hand. He sure does step on a lot of those good strong village men, though. Go Maguyla!
Raible's got a bit of a beer gut. Raising a princess in a devasting kingdom may require you to drink a lot of your pain away.
He may not have any built-in weapons, but Mogyula sure can throw rocks good.
Shogane's plan seems to match Keith's pretty well. Were they just inferring from the images, or did they have a translation of the script?
We're back to the Golion theme song with lyrics for this formation sequence. And, if you've never watched Golion before, there is a reason I'm tracking the songs.
Golion attacks with Fire Tornado (from the hands), and then Grand Fire from the feet. The Juyoken cry is still a bit weak. And this time Golion decapitates the beastman before cleaving him in twain. Awesome.
Oh, gods, Golion, just step on Hys? And, oddly, Hys' comment about her father is much the same as in Voltron. They must have had a script handy.
Ugh. That's over. Not my favorite episode. Next up is the one with the cobra-man, and that one is one of my favorites!
Uhhhh . . .
Seriously. NANNY?!?! What the bloody---?!?!?!
Fine. Our heroes begin the series based out of the Magic Kingdom. And there's a princess. And a witch. And space mice. But please, explain to me how NANNY makes Lion Voltron superior. And bring a mop. 'Cuz I'll projectile vomit.
The Lion Has New Claws
This episode opens on . . . Planet Doom. Zarkon lamenting that Voltron was not destroyed. How unusual. However, we cut very quickly to the shiny new Castle of Lions as a boat approaches accross the moat. Ohhh, if only Coran had had the moat patrolled by Sharkticons, a lot of pain would never have to be endured.
The sleeping castle is awakened by the alarm. Everyone awakens in their separate rooms. Except Hunk. He writes the alarm off as a short circuit (logical, considering that, y'know, the team is short-handed and Zarkon has the advantage). Pidge, Keith, and Lance encounter a shadowy figure in the hallway. When the figure simply laughs at their challenge, Pidge kicks her. Why didn't he use his laser?
Coran introduces the team to Nanny. Nanny blusters.
***vomit***
Nanny agrees to be the royal governess again. And then more horribleness ensues.
The alarm goes off again, Pidge fails to rouse Hunk, and the other three run to the control room. Keith sees that someone is in the blue lion. Cutting-edge Pong-style computer graphics show that someone is stealing blue lion. A scream over the radio causes them to realize it's Allura, and she's clearcutting a few Arusian forests with blue lion. And she got a snazzy pink uniform. She just wants to help in Sven's absence. But, apparently, she hasn't had a learners permit.
Nanny (***bleyauuggghhh***) force the team to rescue the princess at spearpoing.
It's gonna be a long wait until that episode when Coran's son comes back. *ahem* I didn't say anything.
Allura discovers that blue lion apparently has a "spin violently and assume a nose-dive" switch. Or is it a button? Keith manages to talk her down. Despite Nanny's best efforts to interrupt and kill them all. There's apparently a switch that takes the lion out of "flat-spin nosedive" mode. And the princess is down. And safe. And Haggar's cat is spying on the proceedings from a mountain.
Allura recovers from the accident in her room, and then tries to go back to blue lion. Coran doesn't like this idea. Girls are supposed to be pretty, and quiet. And not to fight. Then nanny spanks her.
Yep. Sure glad I'm watching this. Vehicle Voltron is just sooo boooring.
Allura--back in her Disney dress--simply won't give up her desire to fly blue lion. Nanny claims that there are MEN (cuz defending your people is a MAN's job--Nanny, FUCK YOOOOOOOOOU!!!) in the village at Crown Mountain who could do it. Coran offers to go (cuz he's a MAN) but Nanny claims she should go 'cuz it's her idea. Oooh, a double standard!? God, I fucking hate Nanny.
Zarkon, fresh from the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, is gnawing on a turkey leg. Haggar says she's going to send a Robeast to hold Nanny hostage and lure the incomplete Voltron force to their doom.
Nanny nears the mountain village, and a mountain crag shatters, revealing a Robeast. An angry steer robeast. Who is about a mile tall in some of those shots, judging from the puniness of the buildings he's stepping on. And he eats some of the villagers, to Pidge's (and possible the censors') dismay.
They go out in the lions. Chute count: Keith 1, Lance 2, Pidge 3, Hunk 5. So blue lion must be behind door number 4.
Coran rushes to tell Allura of the attack, and is somehow surprised when she wants to join the Voltron force. And ties her to her chair.
Yep. Better than watching all those flying cars form Voltron.
Yurak watches the four lions approach from his Rooster Frigate. Keith arranges some sort of formation. The Robeast reaches for Nanny . . . And misses. Black and yellow lions form lion blades, and yellow does a piggy-back attack off of black's back, only to get knocked into a canyon wall. Red and green, also now with blades, join black lion in an attack from multiple directions. The robeast steps on red and holds black lion in his hands.
The space mice free Allura (yay space . . . mice?) she takes chute 4 to blue lion, and arrives on the scene. Nanny bluster. Keith decides he's had enough of being squished by the great cowbeast, and leaves his grip to lead the formation of Voltron.
Voltron first uses a combined fire-and-hurricane attack from red and green lions, and the yellow and blue lions add their own flames. Then Voltron forms the blazing sword, and the result is about a year's worth of hamburger.
Yurak wonders how he'll break the news of Voltron's return to Zarkon.
Nanny wonders what Alfor would say if he knew Allura is adamant about flying blue lion. I'm pretty sure he'd say KICK ASS!!!
Nanny's such a bitch.
The Beautiful Princess' Battle
Gods, I don't think I can take another version of this episode. But, since the likelihood of anyone reading this or watching along is almost nill, I will soldier on. Mostly because I hate myself and want to cause myself pain.
This is the first opening with Fala in the "One . . . plus one" sequence.
We open directly on Hys' approach to Castle Gradam by boat. So the brief Zarkon sequence was clearly added from other episodes. Also, the mice detect Hys' entrance a split second before the alarms go off. With antenna in their tails. That's good. At least it's not as stupid as Dairugger. That doesn't have any stupid mice.
Hys just laughs at their guard challenge in this one. So, kicking her really doesn't seem like that much of an overreaction. Especially since Honerva just killed Shirogane, and Kurogane states outright that he thinks she's Honerva.
Hys wants Raible to arrest the Golion team as thieves. Raible says they're not royal (?) but they're what they've got to work with. Hys is upset that they have to rely on lowborn rabble. Really? Could it be possible for Hys to be even more horrible than Nanny? Good gods, Japan/
There is a little more outright chauvenism in the dialogue throughout the scenes in which they try to talk Fala down from blue lion. However, Kogane is sure it's a Galra saboteur in the moments before they hear Fala's scream.
Fala actually seems even more determined in this performance. Aaand, we're treated to the comedy of Kogane, Kurogane, and Suzuishi falling off the elevator tower as it extends. (That was in Voltron, too, but I was too busy typing about other stuff to note it).
Maybe if Nanny/Hys didn't remind me so much of one of my ex-coworkers, I wouldn't feel like slashing my wrists every time she spoke. Yep, watching a multi-chinned matron spank a teenage girl sure is high comedy. And it's probably a good thing my girlfriend just took the scissors out of the room.
The mountain is named Pierrane here. Mount Pierrane. The first Altean place name.
Seido finally gets out of bed, yawns, and drops his pant, showing us all his uncharted regions.
But it could be worse. We could be hearing Commander Hawkins and Hazar talking about PEACE. How horrible.
Did Daibazaal "seed" conquered planets with beastmen as insurance? They start getting uppity in some regions, and he says "There is insurgent activity at Mount Pierrane. Activate Beastman Mogyula!" This Beastman Maguyla doesn't seem to have any weapons beyond its teeth, claws, and that weird stump on his right hand. He sure does step on a lot of those good strong village men, though. Go Maguyla!
Raible's got a bit of a beer gut. Raising a princess in a devasting kingdom may require you to drink a lot of your pain away.
He may not have any built-in weapons, but Mogyula sure can throw rocks good.
Shogane's plan seems to match Keith's pretty well. Were they just inferring from the images, or did they have a translation of the script?
We're back to the Golion theme song with lyrics for this formation sequence. And, if you've never watched Golion before, there is a reason I'm tracking the songs.
Golion attacks with Fire Tornado (from the hands), and then Grand Fire from the feet. The Juyoken cry is still a bit weak. And this time Golion decapitates the beastman before cleaving him in twain. Awesome.
Oh, gods, Golion, just step on Hys? And, oddly, Hys' comment about her father is much the same as in Voltron. They must have had a script handy.
Ugh. That's over. Not my favorite episode. Next up is the one with the cobra-man, and that one is one of my favorites!
Monday, June 13, 2011
The Right Arm of Voltron/Death of Shirogane the Hero
The Right Arm of Voltron
Is this because Sven is like Keith's right hand man? 'Cuz he flies blue lion. And blue lion is Voltron's right leg . . . Oh, right. Not dwelling on the obvious stuff.
Wew. At least we don't open up with vultures and Castle Doom. We see the Arusian coat of arms as the first image of the episode. And we see Alura in her pink jumpsuit outfit (instead of the elaborate Renaissance Festival outfit). They decide to celebrate with a feast. And they have a secret storage room. In the castle that just appeared out of the ground? Better check the "use by" dates on those packages, guys.
Naturally, the space mice are the first ones in. 'Cuz, yeah, mice like cheese. If they started shooting dogs and deer, I'd think I was watching Disney. But this time, the mouse early warning system is even more useless, because Yurak catches even them by more surprise than usual. Coran has the shiny new castle position it's "robot defenses." All robots, all the time. Except for the emplacement Allura uses.
Again, we only see Keith getting into chute 1 when they launch the lions. We get a couple of shots of the energy and missile weapons that are part of the castle defenses holding off the Doom fighters. Are the side sponsons on the Doom fighters air intakes or radiators or something? We only ever seem them firing out of the top and bottom protrusions.
Allura takes a cannon emplacement over from a fallen robot.
They don't waste any time in forming Voltron this time. No Robeast, just a lot of fighters and the Rooster Frigate. The Voltron formation sequence has a weird bunch of extra clanky sound effects in this episode. He immediately forms the blazing sword and takes a slice out of the Rooster Frigate bridge.
We're back to the victory feast, and yeah, Hunk and food.
Ah, now we're back to the obligatory "Castle Doom" intro. Jack Angel has finally settled into his Zarkon voice, and Zarkon is now the bungling windbag we all remember. Evil will always fail because evil is silly. Haggar proposes lowering their sights to just taking out one member of Voltron rather than all five.
She goes out to the Pit of Skulls (still creepy as hell) and find the "magnificent blue fiend." A slightly darker version of one of the Robeasts who got his ass kicked last episode. Haggar and the Blue Fiend take space coffins to Arus. Damn. I'll never call airliners "mailing tubes for people" again, compared to the space coffin. Well, the name says it all, I guess.
We cut to Galaxy Garrison. Been a while since we last checked in with those guys. At least two episodes. Lennie Weinrib is doing Steele's voice in this sequence. I think it's Lotor in disguise. Oh, wait, we haven't met Lotor yet.
Back on Arus, the team takes a cart of food out into the city ruins. We now see the same footage as yesterday; instead of insulting the Arusians into helping them, they're just advertising food. Cheddar (?) helps Pidge coax the survivors out of the ruins. They sure brought a lot of apples with them. People start spontaneously bowing in from of Allura. Haggar is watching, and sends the blue cat to, y'know, lure one of them. The cat's got three toes on each foot and claws it can't retract.
Lance tears off after the cat and gets caught in Haggar's glowing net bag. Fortunately for him, Sven comes up after him with a sword. He cuts Lance free and sends him back for help. Then Sven slashes at Haggar, but each cut just creates the illusion of more duplicates. One of the illusions blasts energy at him.
Keith sends Hunk and Pidge back to the castle with Allura, and then he and Lance go to help Sven.
Sven does an ancient Swedish Ki trick and detects the real Haggar, but is distracted by the cat. And then put down by the blue fiend. Sven is real bad hurt. Fortunately, they take him to the doctor on planet Ebb. Too bad he doesn't do house calls--wait, the doctor is on a totally different planet?
The Rooster Frigate appears and supersizes the Blue Fiend. In true Godzilla monster fashion, he tramples his way through the ruins. What? Keith even says Sven is Voltron's right arm.
They take the lions out after the Robeast. They do a lot of crashin', then black lion uses the harpoon launchers. The robeast retaliates with missiles from his kneecap and a launger on his right wrist. The lead the robeast to a cliff, and do the old playground "I jump on your face while my buddies push you into lave" trick.
Yurak is upset at the beast's failure, but Haggar feels it was a success that they took out one of Voltron Force. The Arusians now resume the feast. Wow, that was an upbeat ending. I feel good about myself and the world I live in now.
Death of Shirogane the Hero
Well, maybe the death of one of the original team members is so expected in the genre that the writers didn't see the need for, y'know, not blowing the big surprise in the title?! This episode marks the last time we see Shirogane in the opening credits. It's probably a good thing the princess starts wearing her jumpsuit in this one. It'd be an awful lot of work to get into that dress just to wave at the camera for the opening.
The castle is known as "Castle Gradam." Anyone know anything about this title? Former Altean soldiers are returning to the castle to rejoin the princess' forces. That's where all the dudes in the green uniforms come from. At least they get to exchange their spears for more effective weapons. Kurogane mentions the fact that Raible had all this food stored away in expectation of this day. Naturally, the mice have always been in there.
Sadak's force appear. Are the fighters carried in the Rooster Frigate, or do they just fly alongside it? It's a good thing all those former Altean soldiers have had time to train on the weapons batteries, seeings as they've been hiding out with spears and arrows for fifteen years.
Fala takes out at least one fighter.
During the fight with the fighters, the lions seem to predominately just ram them, though red lion uses some shoulder mounted missile launcher for the first time. They go right to Golion, and we're treated to the theme song in full vocal glory while Golion combines. No cries of "Juyoken" when they form the sword. Maybe Kogane needs more practice?
Suzuishi tries to make friends with the mice. Clearly to just betray and trap them later. What're friends for?
The music that accompanies the POV switch to Galra totally makes me think of old Heckle and Jeckle and Quackula commercials.
Daibazaal and Sadak are actually discussing strategy. Sadak says continued frontal assaults would be too costly. Honerva brings up the image of Fala because this is the first time they realize a member of the Altean royal family still survives.
Honerva goes out to find her beastman, who's name is Galcia. Galcia? Ooo-kay . . .
Fala and the boys take the food truck out to the ruins/ When they go looking for people, they actually have footage specifically for this. It's like the Voltron editors were really padding out this episode. Why might that have been? What did they cut out that would have reduced the running time so much?
Huh. Fala was handing out lollipops.
Since Shirogane is about to bite it, let's talk about his voice actor. Ryusei Nakao does a lot of crazy villain voices--I recognized him as Frieza from DBZ. Yeah, that's a bit of a different delivery than the one he uses for Shirogane.
I never realized from the Voltron footage, but that energy blast from Honerva's witchin' stick blinds Shirogane. He's not closing his eyes to use his inner Swede, it's because he's blind.
Things they apparently teach at the Fuji Space School (where the Golion team all went to school--we learn this later): the use of swords (well, maybe they all took Kendo) and how to ride horses.
Once again, the editing here suggests more time between Shirogane's death blow and Kogane and Kurogane discovering him. So it doesn't seem like Honerva and Galcia just teleported out to the desert to await Sadak. Oh, there are scenes of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth over their fallen comrade. This must be all the time Voltron was covering for.
There's something I've always wondered about the name "deathblack beastmen." In japanese, that's "Desaburakku Jujin." When it's spoken, it sounds a little to me like "desaburak-Kaiju jin," Kaiju being giant monsters like Godzilla. (The -jin suffix just means "race" or "being." Like Saiyan-jin from DBZ). Could this be a possible pun in Japanese? I know that at least older terms in Japanese are full of puns.
Is this because Sven is like Keith's right hand man? 'Cuz he flies blue lion. And blue lion is Voltron's right leg . . . Oh, right. Not dwelling on the obvious stuff.
Wew. At least we don't open up with vultures and Castle Doom. We see the Arusian coat of arms as the first image of the episode. And we see Alura in her pink jumpsuit outfit (instead of the elaborate Renaissance Festival outfit). They decide to celebrate with a feast. And they have a secret storage room. In the castle that just appeared out of the ground? Better check the "use by" dates on those packages, guys.
Naturally, the space mice are the first ones in. 'Cuz, yeah, mice like cheese. If they started shooting dogs and deer, I'd think I was watching Disney. But this time, the mouse early warning system is even more useless, because Yurak catches even them by more surprise than usual. Coran has the shiny new castle position it's "robot defenses." All robots, all the time. Except for the emplacement Allura uses.
Again, we only see Keith getting into chute 1 when they launch the lions. We get a couple of shots of the energy and missile weapons that are part of the castle defenses holding off the Doom fighters. Are the side sponsons on the Doom fighters air intakes or radiators or something? We only ever seem them firing out of the top and bottom protrusions.
Allura takes a cannon emplacement over from a fallen robot.
They don't waste any time in forming Voltron this time. No Robeast, just a lot of fighters and the Rooster Frigate. The Voltron formation sequence has a weird bunch of extra clanky sound effects in this episode. He immediately forms the blazing sword and takes a slice out of the Rooster Frigate bridge.
We're back to the victory feast, and yeah, Hunk and food.
Ah, now we're back to the obligatory "Castle Doom" intro. Jack Angel has finally settled into his Zarkon voice, and Zarkon is now the bungling windbag we all remember. Evil will always fail because evil is silly. Haggar proposes lowering their sights to just taking out one member of Voltron rather than all five.
She goes out to the Pit of Skulls (still creepy as hell) and find the "magnificent blue fiend." A slightly darker version of one of the Robeasts who got his ass kicked last episode. Haggar and the Blue Fiend take space coffins to Arus. Damn. I'll never call airliners "mailing tubes for people" again, compared to the space coffin. Well, the name says it all, I guess.
We cut to Galaxy Garrison. Been a while since we last checked in with those guys. At least two episodes. Lennie Weinrib is doing Steele's voice in this sequence. I think it's Lotor in disguise. Oh, wait, we haven't met Lotor yet.
Back on Arus, the team takes a cart of food out into the city ruins. We now see the same footage as yesterday; instead of insulting the Arusians into helping them, they're just advertising food. Cheddar (?) helps Pidge coax the survivors out of the ruins. They sure brought a lot of apples with them. People start spontaneously bowing in from of Allura. Haggar is watching, and sends the blue cat to, y'know, lure one of them. The cat's got three toes on each foot and claws it can't retract.
Lance tears off after the cat and gets caught in Haggar's glowing net bag. Fortunately for him, Sven comes up after him with a sword. He cuts Lance free and sends him back for help. Then Sven slashes at Haggar, but each cut just creates the illusion of more duplicates. One of the illusions blasts energy at him.
Keith sends Hunk and Pidge back to the castle with Allura, and then he and Lance go to help Sven.
Sven does an ancient Swedish Ki trick and detects the real Haggar, but is distracted by the cat. And then put down by the blue fiend. Sven is real bad hurt. Fortunately, they take him to the doctor on planet Ebb. Too bad he doesn't do house calls--wait, the doctor is on a totally different planet?
The Rooster Frigate appears and supersizes the Blue Fiend. In true Godzilla monster fashion, he tramples his way through the ruins. What? Keith even says Sven is Voltron's right arm.
They take the lions out after the Robeast. They do a lot of crashin', then black lion uses the harpoon launchers. The robeast retaliates with missiles from his kneecap and a launger on his right wrist. The lead the robeast to a cliff, and do the old playground "I jump on your face while my buddies push you into lave" trick.
Yurak is upset at the beast's failure, but Haggar feels it was a success that they took out one of Voltron Force. The Arusians now resume the feast. Wow, that was an upbeat ending. I feel good about myself and the world I live in now.
Death of Shirogane the Hero
Well, maybe the death of one of the original team members is so expected in the genre that the writers didn't see the need for, y'know, not blowing the big surprise in the title?! This episode marks the last time we see Shirogane in the opening credits. It's probably a good thing the princess starts wearing her jumpsuit in this one. It'd be an awful lot of work to get into that dress just to wave at the camera for the opening.
The castle is known as "Castle Gradam." Anyone know anything about this title? Former Altean soldiers are returning to the castle to rejoin the princess' forces. That's where all the dudes in the green uniforms come from. At least they get to exchange their spears for more effective weapons. Kurogane mentions the fact that Raible had all this food stored away in expectation of this day. Naturally, the mice have always been in there.
Sadak's force appear. Are the fighters carried in the Rooster Frigate, or do they just fly alongside it? It's a good thing all those former Altean soldiers have had time to train on the weapons batteries, seeings as they've been hiding out with spears and arrows for fifteen years.
Fala takes out at least one fighter.
During the fight with the fighters, the lions seem to predominately just ram them, though red lion uses some shoulder mounted missile launcher for the first time. They go right to Golion, and we're treated to the theme song in full vocal glory while Golion combines. No cries of "Juyoken" when they form the sword. Maybe Kogane needs more practice?
Suzuishi tries to make friends with the mice. Clearly to just betray and trap them later. What're friends for?
The music that accompanies the POV switch to Galra totally makes me think of old Heckle and Jeckle and Quackula commercials.
Daibazaal and Sadak are actually discussing strategy. Sadak says continued frontal assaults would be too costly. Honerva brings up the image of Fala because this is the first time they realize a member of the Altean royal family still survives.
Honerva goes out to find her beastman, who's name is Galcia. Galcia? Ooo-kay . . .
Fala and the boys take the food truck out to the ruins/ When they go looking for people, they actually have footage specifically for this. It's like the Voltron editors were really padding out this episode. Why might that have been? What did they cut out that would have reduced the running time so much?
Huh. Fala was handing out lollipops.
Since Shirogane is about to bite it, let's talk about his voice actor. Ryusei Nakao does a lot of crazy villain voices--I recognized him as Frieza from DBZ. Yeah, that's a bit of a different delivery than the one he uses for Shirogane.
I never realized from the Voltron footage, but that energy blast from Honerva's witchin' stick blinds Shirogane. He's not closing his eyes to use his inner Swede, it's because he's blind.
Things they apparently teach at the Fuji Space School (where the Golion team all went to school--we learn this later): the use of swords (well, maybe they all took Kendo) and how to ride horses.
Once again, the editing here suggests more time between Shirogane's death blow and Kogane and Kurogane discovering him. So it doesn't seem like Honerva and Galcia just teleported out to the desert to await Sadak. Oh, there are scenes of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth over their fallen comrade. This must be all the time Voltron was covering for.
There's something I've always wondered about the name "deathblack beastmen." In japanese, that's "Desaburakku Jujin." When it's spoken, it sounds a little to me like "desaburak-Kaiju jin," Kaiju being giant monsters like Godzilla. (The -jin suffix just means "race" or "being." Like Saiyan-jin from DBZ). Could this be a possible pun in Japanese? I know that at least older terms in Japanese are full of puns.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The Princess Joins Up/Fortress for the New Struggle
This episode happens to feature what was my favorite Robeast as a kid. Actually, I used to draw pictures and write stories of this guy as a super robeast. Where I combined weapons from the previous episode's Robeast with this one. Hey, they looked like they were part of the same design philosophy!
The Princess Joins Up
Planet Doom. Vultures. Castle Doom. Zarkon wants Voltron destroyed. So . . . most episodes start this way, huh? The robeast gladiatorial game sequence was another favorite of mine. And that later episode, where they use the arena to select 500 of the best robeasts? That fueled many, many afternoons of playing.
The Doom soldiers and and the slaves are all discussing Voltron. Obviously, this doesn't go so well with the slavemasters. When I saw this episode as an adult, I always thought that maybe the four slaves getting whipped in a group end up as the four Robeasts in the next couple of scenes. Golion, unfortunately, doesn't bear this out. Seriously, though, that alien slave with the weird gray head and lavender tracksuit could totally have been today's main Robeast!
I like how the Doomite(? Doomian?) spectators are apparently 16th century Englishmen. (Um, Elizabethan collars. READ A BOOK!)
So, the main gray robeast fights three: one who looks like the unsupersized robeast from yesterday with additional pincers on his head, one who looks like the one we will be seeing tomorrow, and Patrick the Starfish. I guess growing up in Spongebob's shadow does bad things to a guy.
So, the gray robeast wins. (Seriously, that could totally have been the grey-headed alien!) He gets super powered, which means he gets a good tan and a bunch of extra . . . pointy . . . things. (Honestly, I think his design is still pretty badass).
Meanwhile, the Voltron force are crawling around Arus, trying to convince the Arusians to join the fight. Y'know, by insulting them. And, oddly, Pidge brings up food instead of Hunk. They go back to Allura and Sven, who are doing . . . something on the roof. Whatever are they doing? Whenever will I find out? Umm, in about 20 minutes.
They're giving Zarkon the desire for Allura here. Later, that's Lotor's job. I mean, what does Zarkon want with her? To sign a treaty to make his blockade of Arus legal?
The space mice serve as the kind of early warning system that tells you an attack is coming at precisely the same moment enemy gunfire reaches your position.
They launch the lions. They also go through a weird countdown sequence they don't do ever again. Almost every sound effect has been re-edited for Lion Voltron from Golion--they leave a few, but I think some of the changes were simply to accomodate the fact that Voltron was in stereo. A new thing for 1984. Unlike most episodes, this one has a lot of sound effects they seem to have sampled from Dairugger. It's particularly noticeable in this fight.
Yurak launches the Robeast. The lions each launch exactly one missile, then decide that biting the robeast is the best option. Fortunately they only try that long enough for Hunk to get thrown dizzy, then they form the big guy.
The Robeast pulls two beefy-looking scimitar weapons RIGHT OUT OF HIS BACK. Not scabbards. Slots in his back. Bad. Ass. And Voltron takes a beatin'. Fortunately, his fall down a cliff is broken by a Zentraedi-sized tree sticking out of the cliff.
He forms blazing sword and . . .
. . . This is probably the best fight against a Robeast in the series because it actually just gets GOING with the forming of the blazing sword. The scimitars are explosive, as we see when the Robeast throws them to destroy rocky outcroppings Voltron hides behind.
Yurak bombards the castle with the weapons on his Rooster Frigate. Naturally, the mice warn the princess AGAIN just as the first blasts hit the castle. And Coran, weirdly begs Allura to surrender to save the castle. 'Cuz it's all that's left. Allura decides to go to the tomb. Meanwhile, Yurak's barrage destroys the same two towers several times.
The robeast suddenly develops his own voice, rather than relying on that horrible old haunted house soundtrack roar. I wonder why they didn't do this with all of them? Time constraints, I'd wager.
At the tomb, King Deus ex Machina-er, Alfor, has Allura push the on switch on the crown in the center of his sarcophagus. and a new, high tech castle emerges from the ruins of the old one. (Honestly, I wanted to live there when I was a kid).
To Yurak's dismay, this new castle also had AAA batteries. And the princess is gunnin' for him. Yurak says "Fire all lasers," and in the next shot his ship is retreating. Allura then turns the guns on the Robeast, and gives Voltron the opportunity to put an end to Robeast Bad Ass.
At sunset, we return to the newly-restored Castle of Lions. And then the episode is padded out with shots of the pilots and the lions, the ones from the closing cred---hey, what's Allura doing on Sven's lion?!
Fortress for the New Struggle
We open on Galra to slightly different footage. Daibazaal, incidentally, is voiced by Kosei Tomita--I recognize his voice as also being the same as that behind Dr. Hell, from Mazinger Z. I wish I could do the same back to back commentary for Tranzor Z and Mazinger that I'm doing here, but, well, episodes of both are hard to find (I love Mazinger Z. It's so charmingly 70s. And I love Go Nagai.)
Okay, back to Daibazaal. He's ruthless and has a sense of humor compared to Zarkon, who's bumbling and yulls all the time. We get to the half-beastman gladiator match. I guess they're half-beastmen before they get supersized. The unedited footage is easier to follow, and several of the beastman designs will appear in later episodes--one is the Medusan (he's the spotty one with purple hair), and one with the crazy salamandar-headed one with eyes on his chin that never actually fights Golion, but gets used for other purposes in some episodes. These are in addition to the other ones I noted with the Voltron episode. I don't think that weird, yellow-headed guy who is one of the initial beastmen, ever shows up again.
I like Honervas "These flames are the life of Hell, withstand them!" invocation.
So, if I thought the Voltron force were sort of being jerks with the Arusians, they're even worse here. Oh well.
Hey! Shirogane and Fala are putting up a communications tower! So that's what they were doing. To send a space message. Seido is kind of a prick about the Alteans' willingness to fight. And, again, the space mice and their impeccable timing. So much for the communications tower.
We just see Kogane go down chute 1 when they launch the lions.
In this battle, we also get to see a couple more of the lions' standard weaponry. Black lion's shoulder mounted harpoon gun (that was always a favorite of mine), red, green and yellow lions have their mouth blades, and blue lion has a missile launcher on its back.
The beastman is christened DeathHell, and the creepy Kaiju sound effects were never better used than here. Even Raible is impressed at Deathhell's awesomeness. Just look at his majesty. Again, the biting. Seido thinks he'll bite right through. And then he, Kurogane, and Suzuishi get thrown. Then they form Golion. We are treated to an instrumental, elevator-ready rendition of the Golion theme (you better believe Monica danced to this one).
I like how the lion components of Golion spontaneously roar. Like they've got minds of their own and the pilots are barely in control.
DeathHell can grow massive toenails and use his thigh-blades to beat up Golion, even cutting into yellow lion's cockpit. Fortunately, Seido is saved by forgetful animators who then draw his cockpit repaired/undamaged. DeathHell has a Gatling belt buckle that knocks Golion back.
Shirogane rebuffs Fala attempt at cheerleading with some outright chauvenism. Oh, cut the guy some slack. He don't have much longer to live.
Raible and Fala argue not over surrendering, but over getting Fala to safety. She chooses not to abandon her people. And to pray. Which then leads her to her father's tomb--while the same two castle towers are destroyed repeatedly.
DeathHell nipple attachments, while similar to last episode's beastman, are energy weapons that he actually uses. Golion also debuts his space cutter/spinning laser blade and missiles from blue lion. No big deal is made of it--and they don't do him much good. DeathHell gets Golion into a full nelson, and Golion again proves he's at least gokyu in Judo.
When the princess appears at the gun battery, there's a weird disconnect between the subtitles and the action. My Japanese isn't good enough to tell what she's actually saying, so I have to trust the translaters (I understand the grammar, but I have the vocabulary of a five-year-old). She starts strafing DeathHell, but accidently swings the gun over and grazes Golion. She yells "Chikuso!" which is translated to "son of a bitch!" but can also mean "Oh shit!" She apologizes in the subtitles for her language, but seems, in the animation to be reacted to the fact that she just took a couple of shots at Golion. Huh.
The Princess Joins Up
Planet Doom. Vultures. Castle Doom. Zarkon wants Voltron destroyed. So . . . most episodes start this way, huh? The robeast gladiatorial game sequence was another favorite of mine. And that later episode, where they use the arena to select 500 of the best robeasts? That fueled many, many afternoons of playing.
The Doom soldiers and and the slaves are all discussing Voltron. Obviously, this doesn't go so well with the slavemasters. When I saw this episode as an adult, I always thought that maybe the four slaves getting whipped in a group end up as the four Robeasts in the next couple of scenes. Golion, unfortunately, doesn't bear this out. Seriously, though, that alien slave with the weird gray head and lavender tracksuit could totally have been today's main Robeast!
I like how the Doomite(? Doomian?) spectators are apparently 16th century Englishmen. (Um, Elizabethan collars. READ A BOOK!)
So, the main gray robeast fights three: one who looks like the unsupersized robeast from yesterday with additional pincers on his head, one who looks like the one we will be seeing tomorrow, and Patrick the Starfish. I guess growing up in Spongebob's shadow does bad things to a guy.
So, the gray robeast wins. (Seriously, that could totally have been the grey-headed alien!) He gets super powered, which means he gets a good tan and a bunch of extra . . . pointy . . . things. (Honestly, I think his design is still pretty badass).
Meanwhile, the Voltron force are crawling around Arus, trying to convince the Arusians to join the fight. Y'know, by insulting them. And, oddly, Pidge brings up food instead of Hunk. They go back to Allura and Sven, who are doing . . . something on the roof. Whatever are they doing? Whenever will I find out? Umm, in about 20 minutes.
They're giving Zarkon the desire for Allura here. Later, that's Lotor's job. I mean, what does Zarkon want with her? To sign a treaty to make his blockade of Arus legal?
The space mice serve as the kind of early warning system that tells you an attack is coming at precisely the same moment enemy gunfire reaches your position.
They launch the lions. They also go through a weird countdown sequence they don't do ever again. Almost every sound effect has been re-edited for Lion Voltron from Golion--they leave a few, but I think some of the changes were simply to accomodate the fact that Voltron was in stereo. A new thing for 1984. Unlike most episodes, this one has a lot of sound effects they seem to have sampled from Dairugger. It's particularly noticeable in this fight.
Yurak launches the Robeast. The lions each launch exactly one missile, then decide that biting the robeast is the best option. Fortunately they only try that long enough for Hunk to get thrown dizzy, then they form the big guy.
The Robeast pulls two beefy-looking scimitar weapons RIGHT OUT OF HIS BACK. Not scabbards. Slots in his back. Bad. Ass. And Voltron takes a beatin'. Fortunately, his fall down a cliff is broken by a Zentraedi-sized tree sticking out of the cliff.
He forms blazing sword and . . .
. . . This is probably the best fight against a Robeast in the series because it actually just gets GOING with the forming of the blazing sword. The scimitars are explosive, as we see when the Robeast throws them to destroy rocky outcroppings Voltron hides behind.
Yurak bombards the castle with the weapons on his Rooster Frigate. Naturally, the mice warn the princess AGAIN just as the first blasts hit the castle. And Coran, weirdly begs Allura to surrender to save the castle. 'Cuz it's all that's left. Allura decides to go to the tomb. Meanwhile, Yurak's barrage destroys the same two towers several times.
The robeast suddenly develops his own voice, rather than relying on that horrible old haunted house soundtrack roar. I wonder why they didn't do this with all of them? Time constraints, I'd wager.
At the tomb, King Deus ex Machina-er, Alfor, has Allura push the on switch on the crown in the center of his sarcophagus. and a new, high tech castle emerges from the ruins of the old one. (Honestly, I wanted to live there when I was a kid).
To Yurak's dismay, this new castle also had AAA batteries. And the princess is gunnin' for him. Yurak says "Fire all lasers," and in the next shot his ship is retreating. Allura then turns the guns on the Robeast, and gives Voltron the opportunity to put an end to Robeast Bad Ass.
At sunset, we return to the newly-restored Castle of Lions. And then the episode is padded out with shots of the pilots and the lions, the ones from the closing cred---hey, what's Allura doing on Sven's lion?!
Fortress for the New Struggle
We open on Galra to slightly different footage. Daibazaal, incidentally, is voiced by Kosei Tomita--I recognize his voice as also being the same as that behind Dr. Hell, from Mazinger Z. I wish I could do the same back to back commentary for Tranzor Z and Mazinger that I'm doing here, but, well, episodes of both are hard to find (I love Mazinger Z. It's so charmingly 70s. And I love Go Nagai.)
Okay, back to Daibazaal. He's ruthless and has a sense of humor compared to Zarkon, who's bumbling and yulls all the time. We get to the half-beastman gladiator match. I guess they're half-beastmen before they get supersized. The unedited footage is easier to follow, and several of the beastman designs will appear in later episodes--one is the Medusan (he's the spotty one with purple hair), and one with the crazy salamandar-headed one with eyes on his chin that never actually fights Golion, but gets used for other purposes in some episodes. These are in addition to the other ones I noted with the Voltron episode. I don't think that weird, yellow-headed guy who is one of the initial beastmen, ever shows up again.
I like Honervas "These flames are the life of Hell, withstand them!" invocation.
So, if I thought the Voltron force were sort of being jerks with the Arusians, they're even worse here. Oh well.
Hey! Shirogane and Fala are putting up a communications tower! So that's what they were doing. To send a space message. Seido is kind of a prick about the Alteans' willingness to fight. And, again, the space mice and their impeccable timing. So much for the communications tower.
We just see Kogane go down chute 1 when they launch the lions.
In this battle, we also get to see a couple more of the lions' standard weaponry. Black lion's shoulder mounted harpoon gun (that was always a favorite of mine), red, green and yellow lions have their mouth blades, and blue lion has a missile launcher on its back.
The beastman is christened DeathHell, and the creepy Kaiju sound effects were never better used than here. Even Raible is impressed at Deathhell's awesomeness. Just look at his majesty. Again, the biting. Seido thinks he'll bite right through. And then he, Kurogane, and Suzuishi get thrown. Then they form Golion. We are treated to an instrumental, elevator-ready rendition of the Golion theme (you better believe Monica danced to this one).
I like how the lion components of Golion spontaneously roar. Like they've got minds of their own and the pilots are barely in control.
DeathHell can grow massive toenails and use his thigh-blades to beat up Golion, even cutting into yellow lion's cockpit. Fortunately, Seido is saved by forgetful animators who then draw his cockpit repaired/undamaged. DeathHell has a Gatling belt buckle that knocks Golion back.
Shirogane rebuffs Fala attempt at cheerleading with some outright chauvenism. Oh, cut the guy some slack. He don't have much longer to live.
Raible and Fala argue not over surrendering, but over getting Fala to safety. She chooses not to abandon her people. And to pray. Which then leads her to her father's tomb--while the same two castle towers are destroyed repeatedly.
DeathHell nipple attachments, while similar to last episode's beastman, are energy weapons that he actually uses. Golion also debuts his space cutter/spinning laser blade and missiles from blue lion. No big deal is made of it--and they don't do him much good. DeathHell gets Golion into a full nelson, and Golion again proves he's at least gokyu in Judo.
When the princess appears at the gun battery, there's a weird disconnect between the subtitles and the action. My Japanese isn't good enough to tell what she's actually saying, so I have to trust the translaters (I understand the grammar, but I have the vocabulary of a five-year-old). She starts strafing DeathHell, but accidently swings the gun over and grazes Golion. She yells "Chikuso!" which is translated to "son of a bitch!" but can also mean "Oh shit!" She apologizes in the subtitles for her language, but seems, in the animation to be reacted to the fact that she just took a couple of shots at Golion. Huh.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The Missing Key/Resurrection of the Legendary Giant
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.
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.
A Ghost and Five Keys/A Ghost and Five Keys
As we move one episode closer to Voltron/Golion's first appearence, I want to bring this up. As a kid, once I saw the first four episodes, I discovered they had them on VHS at the ol' Video King. So I'm pretty sure we rented that sucker every weekend for three months. Which means when it was on Cartoon Network when I was in college, I was less inclined to watch the opening episodes (y'know, 'cuz I'd seen 'em so many times). Then I realized that they were far less formulaic than the succeeding, um, entire series, save for the last several episodes when they take the fight to planet doom.
And now that I've seen them again as a post-college adult, and now that I've seen Golion, I realize that the Golion episodes follow a progression, an escalation, if you will. It's not so much formulaic as it is cyclic. Some of that is lost in the translation and editing, but not all of it.
A Ghost and Five Keys
We open on planet Doom, Zarkon and Haggar discussing the five fugitive slaves upon whom Zarkon is spending all of these military resources. Actually, this serves as more recap, explaining who everyone is and what they're doing.
Haggar convinces o'l' Zarky to send a Robeast. The Robeast does a serious WWF bodyslam to a yellow opponent, then gets send in a "Beastcraft" (soon to be called Space Coffin) to meet up with Yurak's forces. Said forces, however, have a combined-arms force of gray foot soldiers with rifles and those awesome-looking fighters. Who proceed to go all Spaceballs and "comb the desert." By shooting at it.
Well, that's one way to search.
Meanwhile, Corran won't let them use the lions, so Pidge goes out on his own. While he goes running headlong into a lot of fangy folk with energy weapons, Corran takes the other four to King Alfor's tomb. The Princess tags along--even though she's just, y'know, a girl. They take a super high-tech elevator about three miles below the surface to the tomb. The tomb looks very Parisian-catacombs.
Upon their arrival to the tomb, the ghost of King Alfor appears. Even when I was 7 or 8, I tried to rationalize it by imagining it was some kind of AI-powered interactive hologram or something (yeah, probably not in so many words).
They open Alfor's coffin, and this very Renaissance-European crypt contains, um, an Egyptian sarcophagus. Huh. Actually, I kind of like the weird collision of styles. It makes me think of the old Battlestar Galactica.
Yeah, one of the keys is missing from its container in the coffin.
We then cut to Pidge, who's dodging barrages from the Doom fighters and taking out swaths of the soldiers. Um, robot soldiers. And Yurak is riding on the deck of one of the absolutely kick-ass skull tanks. I got one for my birthday when I was a kid. Its jaw flapped open and closed and its eyes rolled around when you pushed it on the floor and turned its wheels.
Pidge calls for help, and the team decides to go after him. Allura finally convinces Coran to allow them to take four lions out. We see for the first time that the center console in the control room is on top of a zipline elevator that leads to shuttles that eject the chairs up another elevator to the lions. Wow. And really, this isn't the most complicated launch sequence in all of anime, either (just wait for Dairugger). Everyone is in their respective lions, except Keith is in the green one. Lance is red, Sven is blue, and Hunk is yellow, and the extended launch sequence introducing them all is pretty cool. In an animation error, the green lion's red trim is extended in a number of shots.
Pidge has apparently been taking his toll on the Doom troops, but now they have him cornered and exhausted in a series of ravines. One of the soldiers yells at him in gibberish, which is a nice effect--I always like it when you get the idea that alien marauders don't just speak American English. In reality, they probably had to use a sound effect because giving one of their six actors another speaking part would have sent them over budget.
Arusian survivors rescue Pidge from a laser-induced avalanche, and pull him into a network of caves.
The four lions attack Yurak's force, and tear through the fighters and tanks. And scare the crap out of Yurak. Pidge watches them from the caverns (which, from the opening sequence, Zarkon revealed that he knew about them, but in a display of arrogance, apparently didn't think the Arusians would shelter the Voltron force).
The four lions wipe out Yurak's detatchment, and chase him back the the Rooster Assault Frigate, which his tank cruises right into, and it launches. The space coffin with the Robeast arrives, and after a bit of resistance on Yurak's part, Haggar orders him to use it. The space coffin faceplants into the desert, and the Rooster Frigate fires some sort of energizer beam and supersizes the Robeast, which is now all fangs, bat wings, and, um, drill-bit nipples. Huh.
The design was kind of mind-blowing to my little Catholic-schoolchild brain. It look sort of . . . dirty, but without being so. You have no idea how many variations of this Robeast got scribbled on covers of notebooks and on the backs of assignments.
Rather than focusing on defeating the beast in front of them, the team talks about how they will get the fifth key and be unstoppable with Voltron. And get beaten unconscious. The episode closes on the Robeast chortling in a downright disturbing voice.
A Ghost and Five Keys
Here are a couple of comments about the brief history of Golion that starts the opening of every episode: the planet we see in the opening seems to be Galra. And Golion is fighting a beige version of the Beastman that appears in this episode. So, was ancient Golion just wandering around the universe, beating up random beastmen who were also just wandering arond the universe?
We open with the same basic discussion between Daibazaal and Honerva. And Honerva's voice is creepy as all hell. Honerva's suggestion of the beastman has Daibazaal wondering if she's questioning Sadak's competence. How did these people conquer the Great Dark Nebula? Probably by being totally ruthless.
The narrator implies that Sadak's fleet lands in the desert to establish a staging area for their scorched-Altea search. The anime always manages to convey a better sence of military organization, no matter what the series. In American animation from the same period, we had the standard set by Transformers and G.I. Joe, where every seemed to be about as well organized as a bunch of junior high kids tooling around the neighborhood on bikes.
Suzuishi goes out to singlehandedly wipe out--er, spy on the Galra advance, mentioning that he's the descendent of ninja. Well, I'm the descendent of central European farmers, but if you put crops and fields under my care, we'd all starve.
Anyway.
As Raible takes them to the tomb, we get a flashback of Daibazaal as he orders Sadak to execute the Altean royal family. Fala had at least an older brother and sister who look to be near-teens here. Oh, something I forgot to mention in the first episode: Coran was the castle diplomat, while Raible is the strategist. Interesting.
Fala, in convincing Raible to allow her to go to the tomb with them, informs him of her intention to fight alongside Golion. This is where the "you're just a girl!" comment comes from. Raible is shocked, because this is a Japanese series from 1981 and it was still okay to make fun of girls like this. Especially in a boy's cartoon.
Anyway.
Unlike in Voltron, this is apparently the first time Fala has been in the tomb. Kurogane gives us a rudimentary lesson in counting in Japanese, and they discover there's a key missing.
The Galra infantry, the Black Army, as Sadak calls them, march to some crazy process-trumpet sound. It sounds plenty alien. Once you accept that aliens, y'know, follow Napoleonic war conventions.
When Susuishi calls for help, his belt buckle is a communicator. I kind of like how there are little utilitarian attachments to the uniforms--the keys, for instance, attach to the breast pockets of the uniforms.
When the team goes down the elevator, the numbers of the ziplines are 1-Kogane, 2-Kurogane, 3-Seido, and 4-Shirogane. I'm pretty sure this changes in other episodes. And, if Kogane is going to green lion--is blakc lion 5?
A friend of mine refused to watch Gundam Wing because he thought the idea of calling unmanned mobile suits "dolls" was stupid. He hadn't actually seen any of the series, he just thought "dolls" was, um, unmanly or something. I guess getting upset of the elevator numbering is only slightly more ridiculous. But it's the kind of thing I like to point out.
The Galra soldiers speak normal Japanese when they bury Suzuishi in the avalanche. I like how crazy, alien-looking fish-men just have normal voice performances, instead of the "cartoon bad guy voice" American actors feel compelled to use.
That secret hatch the Altean survivors use to rescue Suzuishi? It's got a serious staircase carved right into the rock going down a ways from the entrance. Whatever the Alteans were doing for the last fifteen years, they weren't just sitting around waiting for Golion to come back. If they were gonna cower in caves, they were apparently going to do it in style.
When the lions wipe out Sadak's forces, they use an array of weapons that they seem to find by randomly hitting buttons. Why don't they use them against the deathblack beastman when he arrives? They just charge at him. Yellow lion launches a missile out of that tube on its back, blue lion has an energy beam in its tail, and red lion has fire breath. Then Kogane just rams the last fighter in green lion. Well, I guess if that's your leader, setting examples . . .
I love the crazy Kaiju roar sound effect they give the beastman. It's so over the top and ridiculous. Oh, I guess they do use some weapons against the beastman--yellow and blue lions use the same weapons as before, and green lion uses missiles that launch from just in front of the red backpack. Not that it does them any good. Apparently they're fighting in quicksand.
And now that I've seen them again as a post-college adult, and now that I've seen Golion, I realize that the Golion episodes follow a progression, an escalation, if you will. It's not so much formulaic as it is cyclic. Some of that is lost in the translation and editing, but not all of it.
A Ghost and Five Keys
We open on planet Doom, Zarkon and Haggar discussing the five fugitive slaves upon whom Zarkon is spending all of these military resources. Actually, this serves as more recap, explaining who everyone is and what they're doing.
Haggar convinces o'l' Zarky to send a Robeast. The Robeast does a serious WWF bodyslam to a yellow opponent, then gets send in a "Beastcraft" (soon to be called Space Coffin) to meet up with Yurak's forces. Said forces, however, have a combined-arms force of gray foot soldiers with rifles and those awesome-looking fighters. Who proceed to go all Spaceballs and "comb the desert." By shooting at it.
Well, that's one way to search.
Meanwhile, Corran won't let them use the lions, so Pidge goes out on his own. While he goes running headlong into a lot of fangy folk with energy weapons, Corran takes the other four to King Alfor's tomb. The Princess tags along--even though she's just, y'know, a girl. They take a super high-tech elevator about three miles below the surface to the tomb. The tomb looks very Parisian-catacombs.
Upon their arrival to the tomb, the ghost of King Alfor appears. Even when I was 7 or 8, I tried to rationalize it by imagining it was some kind of AI-powered interactive hologram or something (yeah, probably not in so many words).
They open Alfor's coffin, and this very Renaissance-European crypt contains, um, an Egyptian sarcophagus. Huh. Actually, I kind of like the weird collision of styles. It makes me think of the old Battlestar Galactica.
Yeah, one of the keys is missing from its container in the coffin.
We then cut to Pidge, who's dodging barrages from the Doom fighters and taking out swaths of the soldiers. Um, robot soldiers. And Yurak is riding on the deck of one of the absolutely kick-ass skull tanks. I got one for my birthday when I was a kid. Its jaw flapped open and closed and its eyes rolled around when you pushed it on the floor and turned its wheels.
Pidge calls for help, and the team decides to go after him. Allura finally convinces Coran to allow them to take four lions out. We see for the first time that the center console in the control room is on top of a zipline elevator that leads to shuttles that eject the chairs up another elevator to the lions. Wow. And really, this isn't the most complicated launch sequence in all of anime, either (just wait for Dairugger). Everyone is in their respective lions, except Keith is in the green one. Lance is red, Sven is blue, and Hunk is yellow, and the extended launch sequence introducing them all is pretty cool. In an animation error, the green lion's red trim is extended in a number of shots.
Pidge has apparently been taking his toll on the Doom troops, but now they have him cornered and exhausted in a series of ravines. One of the soldiers yells at him in gibberish, which is a nice effect--I always like it when you get the idea that alien marauders don't just speak American English. In reality, they probably had to use a sound effect because giving one of their six actors another speaking part would have sent them over budget.
Arusian survivors rescue Pidge from a laser-induced avalanche, and pull him into a network of caves.
The four lions attack Yurak's force, and tear through the fighters and tanks. And scare the crap out of Yurak. Pidge watches them from the caverns (which, from the opening sequence, Zarkon revealed that he knew about them, but in a display of arrogance, apparently didn't think the Arusians would shelter the Voltron force).
The four lions wipe out Yurak's detatchment, and chase him back the the Rooster Assault Frigate, which his tank cruises right into, and it launches. The space coffin with the Robeast arrives, and after a bit of resistance on Yurak's part, Haggar orders him to use it. The space coffin faceplants into the desert, and the Rooster Frigate fires some sort of energizer beam and supersizes the Robeast, which is now all fangs, bat wings, and, um, drill-bit nipples. Huh.
The design was kind of mind-blowing to my little Catholic-schoolchild brain. It look sort of . . . dirty, but without being so. You have no idea how many variations of this Robeast got scribbled on covers of notebooks and on the backs of assignments.
Rather than focusing on defeating the beast in front of them, the team talks about how they will get the fifth key and be unstoppable with Voltron. And get beaten unconscious. The episode closes on the Robeast chortling in a downright disturbing voice.
A Ghost and Five Keys
Here are a couple of comments about the brief history of Golion that starts the opening of every episode: the planet we see in the opening seems to be Galra. And Golion is fighting a beige version of the Beastman that appears in this episode. So, was ancient Golion just wandering around the universe, beating up random beastmen who were also just wandering arond the universe?
We open with the same basic discussion between Daibazaal and Honerva. And Honerva's voice is creepy as all hell. Honerva's suggestion of the beastman has Daibazaal wondering if she's questioning Sadak's competence. How did these people conquer the Great Dark Nebula? Probably by being totally ruthless.
The narrator implies that Sadak's fleet lands in the desert to establish a staging area for their scorched-Altea search. The anime always manages to convey a better sence of military organization, no matter what the series. In American animation from the same period, we had the standard set by Transformers and G.I. Joe, where every seemed to be about as well organized as a bunch of junior high kids tooling around the neighborhood on bikes.
Suzuishi goes out to singlehandedly wipe out--er, spy on the Galra advance, mentioning that he's the descendent of ninja. Well, I'm the descendent of central European farmers, but if you put crops and fields under my care, we'd all starve.
Anyway.
As Raible takes them to the tomb, we get a flashback of Daibazaal as he orders Sadak to execute the Altean royal family. Fala had at least an older brother and sister who look to be near-teens here. Oh, something I forgot to mention in the first episode: Coran was the castle diplomat, while Raible is the strategist. Interesting.
Fala, in convincing Raible to allow her to go to the tomb with them, informs him of her intention to fight alongside Golion. This is where the "you're just a girl!" comment comes from. Raible is shocked, because this is a Japanese series from 1981 and it was still okay to make fun of girls like this. Especially in a boy's cartoon.
Anyway.
Unlike in Voltron, this is apparently the first time Fala has been in the tomb. Kurogane gives us a rudimentary lesson in counting in Japanese, and they discover there's a key missing.
The Galra infantry, the Black Army, as Sadak calls them, march to some crazy process-trumpet sound. It sounds plenty alien. Once you accept that aliens, y'know, follow Napoleonic war conventions.
When Susuishi calls for help, his belt buckle is a communicator. I kind of like how there are little utilitarian attachments to the uniforms--the keys, for instance, attach to the breast pockets of the uniforms.
When the team goes down the elevator, the numbers of the ziplines are 1-Kogane, 2-Kurogane, 3-Seido, and 4-Shirogane. I'm pretty sure this changes in other episodes. And, if Kogane is going to green lion--is blakc lion 5?
A friend of mine refused to watch Gundam Wing because he thought the idea of calling unmanned mobile suits "dolls" was stupid. He hadn't actually seen any of the series, he just thought "dolls" was, um, unmanly or something. I guess getting upset of the elevator numbering is only slightly more ridiculous. But it's the kind of thing I like to point out.
The Galra soldiers speak normal Japanese when they bury Suzuishi in the avalanche. I like how crazy, alien-looking fish-men just have normal voice performances, instead of the "cartoon bad guy voice" American actors feel compelled to use.
That secret hatch the Altean survivors use to rescue Suzuishi? It's got a serious staircase carved right into the rock going down a ways from the entrance. Whatever the Alteans were doing for the last fifteen years, they weren't just sitting around waiting for Golion to come back. If they were gonna cower in caves, they were apparently going to do it in style.
When the lions wipe out Sadak's forces, they use an array of weapons that they seem to find by randomly hitting buttons. Why don't they use them against the deathblack beastman when he arrives? They just charge at him. Yellow lion launches a missile out of that tube on its back, blue lion has an energy beam in its tail, and red lion has fire breath. Then Kogane just rams the last fighter in green lion. Well, I guess if that's your leader, setting examples . . .
I love the crazy Kaiju roar sound effect they give the beastman. It's so over the top and ridiculous. Oh, I guess they do use some weapons against the beastman--yellow and blue lions use the same weapons as before, and green lion uses missiles that launch from just in front of the red backpack. Not that it does them any good. Apparently they're fighting in quicksand.
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