The Voltron version of this episode is better than filler, but not among my favorites. The Golion version, however, has some pretty interesting psychological developments for Sincline.
The Sleeping Princess
Lotor is having a nightmare. And, apparently, he sleeps in his uniform. In the dream, in the Voltron version of the dream, anyway, he's dreaming specifically about Allura. That's a little different from Golion, as we'll see. He rushes through a forest to Allura, dodging spears, until, um, ogre guards who are totally not Zarkon appear and take her awy.
Princess Corell of Deimos arrives on Doom in a Rooster frigate. She is to be married to Lotor to unite the two planets. And her language sounds suspiciously like . . . Michael Bell doing baby talk into a pitch-shifter. Lotor begs for one more chance to capture Allura. Whoah, wha?! At the end of last episode, Zarkon was all set to send Lotor to the glue factory. Well, I guess marrying him off to Corell is the same thing. Apparently, Corell wants Lotor to wed the one he loves. Then he kisses her.
In Haggar's workship, Lotor claims that the only reason Allura won't just marry him is because she's afraid of Zarkon. We then see . . . a dream of Allura's? In which Zarkon squishes her head. After trying to get him to leave Arus alone. Huh. Then Haggar bewitches a dagger. WEP was very careful to explain that the dagger wouldn't kill anyone. Just make them go to sleep.
Everyone's picking flowers on Arus. Allura is riding in a royal boat rowed by the Voltron force and coran. One of the mice is hanging out on Allura's shoulder. The rest of the team (and mouse) jump into the lake to gather flowers to present ot the princess. Then the mouse sees the blue cat with a dagger, in time to, um, get Pidge to turn around in time to see it stab Allura. A few seconds after the cat basically scratches her, she passes out. Nanny proves she's already in the denial stage of grieving by claiming it was too much sun.
At night on Arus (and that's a pretty cool shot of the castle lit up at night) Allura stops breathing in her hospital bed. And Keith demonstrates how secure he is in his masculinity by doing a Luke Skywalker-style howl. And. The team sits outside the castle and immediately figures out that this is all a scheme by Lotor and Haggar. And they're all going to pretend to be sad.
Yeah, this isn't to keep little american kids from being upset by potential death.
The fake funeral is held in the same cathedral that figured in the episode with Allura's Aunt. Her aunt appears, too. Then the team has flashbacks about Allura, how she invited them to become the Voltron force, and then joined the team herself. And some weird stuff that doesn't quite correspond to what's actually going on onscreen. And the Keith's voice breaks while Pidge hyperventilates.
And the priest/minister/vicar is downright scary looking. So . . . Arus is a weird mix of Catholic and Russian Orthodox?
Lotor and Haggar plot to snatch the princess. She's loaded into her casket, and the team carries her to the carriage. Coran admits that he suspects a plot as well. So don't cry kids. She's not dead!
Haggar uses her wand to blast a tree down in front of the carriage. The driver is thrown, but Pidge tears off after the carriage and Indiana Joneses his way onto it. The rest of the team is coming along behind, and then Lotor does a 6 Million Dollar Man jump into the driver's seat. Haggar diverts the rest of the team, who run back to the castle and launch in their lions.
Pidge is going all WWE on Lotor until Lotor knocks him off with the riding crop. Pidge hangs on to the carriage, but Lotor is weirdly concerned for his safety and warns him to let go before he's crushed by the wheels. Lotor finally pulls over and draws his sword, but Haggar warns him that the lions are coming. Pidge gets back up and stalls for the lions. Haggar hits him with some sort of beam from her staff, but it just stuns him. She picks him up and he freaks out. The others have gotten out of their lions and hold their sidearms on Lotor--until Haggar uses Pidge as a hostage. But Pidge pulls the pin on a grenade and threatens Lotor and Haggar. Lance picks up his gun, and Haggar tells Lotor to put her down--in hopes for a darker tomorrow. Then Pidge makes a suicide rush with the grenade. Lotor jumps, knocking the grenade into the carriage, and awakening the princess. Lotor is all set to fight, but the team holds him off. Keith shoots the blade right out of his sword. Haggar conjurs a lot of wind, hoding them all back while the two villains retreat to space coffins and escape.
On the castle balcony, Allura actually kisses Pidge, and then Nanny intervenes. On Doom, Lotor refuses Corell, Corall, whatever her name is. He throws down a glass of wine and sees Allura's shifting reflection in the puddle.
The Prince Imperial's Dark Love
So here the dream sequence makes more sense. Maybe villains with a clear psychological disturbance were too much for WEP?
Sincline is dreaming of his mother. Who looks a lot like Fala. But clearly is NOT Fala. Same thing with spears trying to hold him off, and then Daibazaal appears and grabs her by the throat. Then Sincline's mother becomes Fala. And Sincline doesn't KNOW why she became Fala.
See? Far more interesting than the random dream in Voltron.
The princess of Galleria (a mall?!) appears. Her name is Sahlia. She's an imperial blood relative. And she can talk. Sincline comes right out and says that Fala reminds him of his mother. Daibazaal is clearly distressed, and says his mother died in childbirth. He urge Honerva to do something. She arranges to tell Sincline about his mother in exchange for marrying Sahlia. Then he kisses her.
Honerva admits that Fala looked just like his mother. Sincline says he has nightmars of a demon taking his mother away.
In a flashback, Sincline's mother is begging for leniency for some Altean slaves. In response, he apparently kills her with his bare hands.
Of course, Honerva doesn't tell him any of this. Sincline declares he is going to get Fala before he marries Sahlia. Honerva agrees to help him. She conjures an enchanted blade. Walt Disney whirls in his grave.
Honerva gives Jaga the blade. Apparently, anyone who gives the princess a bouquet of flowers gets a kiss, according to an old custom. That's why the guys -- and Platt -- fall all over themselves collecting flowers. Then Jaga slashes Fala. Kogane tries valiantly to fend him off. With a bunch of flowers. And Fala passes out.
Cue Hys-trionics.
Sunset actually turns to night, and we get that cool shot of the illuminated castle. Helena appears in the scene where Fala stops breathing. Then Kogane gets all grief-stricken. And that whole night sequence where the team figures out it's a Lotorian plot? Edited in from scenes taken from "A Pretty Spy." We go right to the cathedral and the mourners. And there's some generic organ music throughout the funeral service.
Y'know, for it's time, Golion actually has very few clip shows. This episode has a sequence that lasts a couple of minutes. That's pretty tame, considering how crunched most animation schedules were. I mean, they basically had to create one episode a week for a year. Sometimes they'd fall behind and "catch-up" episodes were used to give them a little breathing room. There is no beastman in this episode, and really only one new character model (Sahlia), so maybe this episode was faster to produce.
Apparently, there is an unseen 21 gun salute going on somewhere as they load the casket into the hearse carriage. You can hear it in the soundtrack. There's just no indication of it in the animation.
The team gradually begins to think Fala might not be dead only after Sincline and Honerva appear.
When Sincline knocks Suzuishi off the carriage, he taunts him. Far more fitting than telling him to be careful of the wheels! Suzuishi must figure out that Fala's not dead when Honerva says the time of her revival is soon -- right in front of him. And -- it's funny that Honerva decides to use Suzuishi as a hostage when Sincline's already got Fala. Hm. Maybe she's a less satisfactory hostage because they have no intention of giving her up.
Hm. I guess Suzuishi doesn't know Fala is alive. He's all set to die and see the princess again in heaven. Then the explosion awakens her.
Honerva and Sincline arrived in space coffins. Are those the Galra covert insertion platform? Every time they go to Altea in space coffins, no one knows they're there. It's only when Sincline brings his flagship or the batplane that they pick him up on radar. Or dradis. Or whatever.
When Fala salutes her people from the balcony, the organ is playing its funeral music again.
When watching this episode with me, my girlfriend said "Sahlia's outfit would make a nice bellydance costume. I like the snake tiara thing, too!" It's nice when you're significant other is just as nerdy as you are.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Magnetic Attraction/Comes a Fiery Sky
Another solid episode. Mainly because its revelations of the inner workings of the lions appealed to my 8-year-old geek self.
Magnetic Attraction
A new robeast--the Magnabeast. An early mecha beastman--with flamethrowers! Haggar is enthusiastically demonstrating her new robeast to Zarkon and Lotor, extolling its greenhouse-effect powers. Lotor vows to not only conquer Arus, but to barbecue it.
On Arus, the team is practicing Judo. Seriously. And then, Nanny. Nanny makes pajama jokes. Come on, whatever happened to warrior princesses? I guess 1984 was too early. Coran and Nanny haul Allura back to the castle. Then the team hangs out by the lake, complaining about the heat. Pidge notices a funny sky--orange and red clouds at noontime. Hunk decides they shood check the monitor at castle control in case it's a forest fire.
At the castle, guards are out on the balconies, glad for once that no one will actually shoot at them. Coran has order the civilians into the caves as the cloud covers the sky, burning forests and evaporating all the water. Villages panic, and then splash around in the boiling water at the bottom of the lake.
Lotor hoves above the flaming cloud, watching the magnabeast add to the clouds. They catch sight of the 'beast in castel control. Coran orders a volley of missiles fired at the Mangabeast, but the missiles are vaporized before the reach the target. The team launches in the lions. Blue lion, however, is left powerless at the bottom of the lake, and we see some awesome cutaway drawings and views of the inner workings of the lines for the first time. The power crystal design is similar to red lion's in the last episode, but different.
Alfor, captain deus ex machina himself, explains that the lions are all powered by specific elements: black = lighting, red = fire, yellow = magma (? earth?), green = wind, and blue = water. And then we see the Voltron cutaway I spent hours trying to duplicate with crayons. Alfor admonishes Allura that without water blue lion will be like a beached whale.
Great thing to tell your teenaged daughter, deus.
Lotor gloats. The team charges the magnabeast head on. The lions get caught in some kind of magnetic field. Lotor gloats some more. The robeast tightens its beam to focus on yellow lion. Hunk passes out. Lotor gloats even more. Then he heads over to the dried out lakebed to menace the princess.
The team struggles in the magnetic field, and then the magnabeast reaches out with a pincer and drags yellow lion toward it.
Lotor approaches the princess in the batplane. Coran launches some anti-aircraft missiles. Lotor starts bombarding blue lion in response.
Lance suggests . . . um, a Star Trek solution. Involves negative charges and laser pathways. And green lion and red lion flying in tandem while Pidge frantically pushes buttons. A green tunnel opens up, and Lance rams the robeast repeatedly until he lets go of yellow lion. Lance says "follow me!" and then Hunk leads the way back to Pidge just as the laser tunnel collapses. Pidge urges them to save the princess. The lions turn away from the flame cloud.
Lotor gloats. Even more. And keeps launching missiles at blue lion, taunting Allura the whole time. And then the other four lions return. Lotor takes off. The team lands in the lakebed to see what they can do for the princess. Lotor gloats even as he's running away. An Arusian woman tries to get a drinking fountain to work for her son. And the team gets all introspective. And then Allura realizes Alfor ex machina was telling her to dig a well. Hunk pilots the yellow lion on a crazy looping dirt-eating tunnel path to water. He hits a subterrainean lake, then tunnels his way back to the lake bottom.
I don't want to think too hard about the physics of this.
As the lake refills, Allura opens a hatch to allow water into the lion's inner workings. And then blue lion launches. The team takes off into formation and combines into Voltron. Voltron plunges head-on at the robeast and gets grabbed by the pincers. Then he forms blazing sword and lops the pincers off before destroying the "control center" by cutting the 'beast in half at the waist. THEN Voltron impales it with his sword and launches him into orbit where he explodes. After THAT display, Lotor flees. Voltron uses tornadoes from four lion heads to disperse the flame cloud.
Back on planet Doom, Lotor bows his head in failure before Zarkon, who gives him the choice between exile and decapitation. And then offers him one more chance.
The Arusians are celebrating by splashing around in fountains and mobbing Voltron's landing site.
Comes a Fiery Sky
The beastman is named Devilburn here, and Honerva is very pleased with this masterpiece and pride of her occult science. The scene in which the team trains in Judo is a little more realistic here, with Kogane naming the technique and watching the others perform. And, ugh, Hys. Fala has to go study history and stuff. And Raible and Hys carry her off. Yep. Way to promote the royal dignity there.
I like how Suzuishi totally throws Seidou.
Um. Mind if I get pedantic for a minute? Are east and west relative? Like, if a planet has an orbit and a rotation like Earth's (which, maybe, would be necessary for it to have earth-like conditions), are the cardinal directions determined that arbitrarily? Like East just happens to be where the local primary star rises, and west is where it sets? Regardless of where magnetic north and south may be (which could be completely unrelated to rotation, right?)
I bring this up because the team sees red clouds that look like a sunset -- in the east. Huh.
The Alteans are terrified that this sudden spontaneous combustion means Altea will revert to a dead, desert planet. Y'know, after 15 years of desolation, the planet sure did recover fast with the resurrection of Golion. I mean, is Golion being the guardian deity of Altea also tied to the planet's eco-system somehow? Yeah, I'm full of it, today.
Aaand blue lion's energy source are aqua protons. Absorbed from water. King Raimon told me. THe energy sources are pretty close to Voltron for the other lions, but we get horsepower values for each lion. Black lion = 2,000,000 HP from thunder protons, red lion = 800,000 HP from fire protons, yellow lion = 1,200,000 HP from ground protons, green lion = 800,000 HP from cyclone protons. Golion himself uses planet protons for 6,000,000 HP. I'm assuming blue lion has a 1,200,000 HP engine, like yellow.
The interesting thing is that the Japanese uses the English "thunder protons," "fire protons," etc. So their technobabble is just nonsensical English words.
Sincine apparently sees that yellow lion has the least resistance against extreme heat--or at least Seidou, because he singles him out for a blast of 6,000 degrees. This episode is good for a lot of concrete-sounding data. So, is it the lion who's vulnerable to heat, or is Seidou just a cold-weather type like me?
Sincline's batplane launches missiles out of what look like beam emitters. I mean, the missiles are the same size or bigger than the nozzles they're coming out of.
Oh, hey, red lion can withstand temperatures up to 20,000 degrees. And, for having just learned the elemental power sources of their lions, they're sure name-dropping it a lot. It's like the animators just got the power crystal stock footage drawn and they're just dying to use it as much as they can.
Devilburn does, rather amusingly, look like an old home furnace with arms. And head.
This episode also uses a lot of shots with the Golion pilots in their seats with speed lines coming off of them. Fala is shown that way the most, when she finally lifts off, but everyone is drawn that way (I think Kurogane is the first).
Sincline's parting shot: "You can all suffer in an incandescent hell!" Well put, Sincline.
Seidou uses the Yellow Claws to dig his well to water.
Apparently refilling the lake revives all of the stricken Alteans. Or maybe it just improves the moral of the ones who are still conscious?
Our gattai music for today is, fittingly, the blue lion theme.
Once they finally form Golion, Devilburn is pretty helpless. I mean, Golion just plows through the flame cloud that had incapacitated the lions, and responds to getting grabbed by dismembering him. Kogane even says "Feh!" when the beastman grabs Golion. And then Devilburn is left just standing there, with no arms. "Crap. My only weapons is useless against you!" Maybe they took Devilburn out into orbit for him to explode because of all the high pressure flamethrower fuel he was carrying?
Golion actually uses each on of the lion-head weapons to disperse the flames: big fire, green tornado, water rod, and sandstorm.
Magnetic Attraction
A new robeast--the Magnabeast. An early mecha beastman--with flamethrowers! Haggar is enthusiastically demonstrating her new robeast to Zarkon and Lotor, extolling its greenhouse-effect powers. Lotor vows to not only conquer Arus, but to barbecue it.
On Arus, the team is practicing Judo. Seriously. And then, Nanny. Nanny makes pajama jokes. Come on, whatever happened to warrior princesses? I guess 1984 was too early. Coran and Nanny haul Allura back to the castle. Then the team hangs out by the lake, complaining about the heat. Pidge notices a funny sky--orange and red clouds at noontime. Hunk decides they shood check the monitor at castle control in case it's a forest fire.
At the castle, guards are out on the balconies, glad for once that no one will actually shoot at them. Coran has order the civilians into the caves as the cloud covers the sky, burning forests and evaporating all the water. Villages panic, and then splash around in the boiling water at the bottom of the lake.
Lotor hoves above the flaming cloud, watching the magnabeast add to the clouds. They catch sight of the 'beast in castel control. Coran orders a volley of missiles fired at the Mangabeast, but the missiles are vaporized before the reach the target. The team launches in the lions. Blue lion, however, is left powerless at the bottom of the lake, and we see some awesome cutaway drawings and views of the inner workings of the lines for the first time. The power crystal design is similar to red lion's in the last episode, but different.
Alfor, captain deus ex machina himself, explains that the lions are all powered by specific elements: black = lighting, red = fire, yellow = magma (? earth?), green = wind, and blue = water. And then we see the Voltron cutaway I spent hours trying to duplicate with crayons. Alfor admonishes Allura that without water blue lion will be like a beached whale.
Great thing to tell your teenaged daughter, deus.
Lotor gloats. The team charges the magnabeast head on. The lions get caught in some kind of magnetic field. Lotor gloats some more. The robeast tightens its beam to focus on yellow lion. Hunk passes out. Lotor gloats even more. Then he heads over to the dried out lakebed to menace the princess.
The team struggles in the magnetic field, and then the magnabeast reaches out with a pincer and drags yellow lion toward it.
Lotor approaches the princess in the batplane. Coran launches some anti-aircraft missiles. Lotor starts bombarding blue lion in response.
Lance suggests . . . um, a Star Trek solution. Involves negative charges and laser pathways. And green lion and red lion flying in tandem while Pidge frantically pushes buttons. A green tunnel opens up, and Lance rams the robeast repeatedly until he lets go of yellow lion. Lance says "follow me!" and then Hunk leads the way back to Pidge just as the laser tunnel collapses. Pidge urges them to save the princess. The lions turn away from the flame cloud.
Lotor gloats. Even more. And keeps launching missiles at blue lion, taunting Allura the whole time. And then the other four lions return. Lotor takes off. The team lands in the lakebed to see what they can do for the princess. Lotor gloats even as he's running away. An Arusian woman tries to get a drinking fountain to work for her son. And the team gets all introspective. And then Allura realizes Alfor ex machina was telling her to dig a well. Hunk pilots the yellow lion on a crazy looping dirt-eating tunnel path to water. He hits a subterrainean lake, then tunnels his way back to the lake bottom.
I don't want to think too hard about the physics of this.
As the lake refills, Allura opens a hatch to allow water into the lion's inner workings. And then blue lion launches. The team takes off into formation and combines into Voltron. Voltron plunges head-on at the robeast and gets grabbed by the pincers. Then he forms blazing sword and lops the pincers off before destroying the "control center" by cutting the 'beast in half at the waist. THEN Voltron impales it with his sword and launches him into orbit where he explodes. After THAT display, Lotor flees. Voltron uses tornadoes from four lion heads to disperse the flame cloud.
Back on planet Doom, Lotor bows his head in failure before Zarkon, who gives him the choice between exile and decapitation. And then offers him one more chance.
The Arusians are celebrating by splashing around in fountains and mobbing Voltron's landing site.
Comes a Fiery Sky
The beastman is named Devilburn here, and Honerva is very pleased with this masterpiece and pride of her occult science. The scene in which the team trains in Judo is a little more realistic here, with Kogane naming the technique and watching the others perform. And, ugh, Hys. Fala has to go study history and stuff. And Raible and Hys carry her off. Yep. Way to promote the royal dignity there.
I like how Suzuishi totally throws Seidou.
Um. Mind if I get pedantic for a minute? Are east and west relative? Like, if a planet has an orbit and a rotation like Earth's (which, maybe, would be necessary for it to have earth-like conditions), are the cardinal directions determined that arbitrarily? Like East just happens to be where the local primary star rises, and west is where it sets? Regardless of where magnetic north and south may be (which could be completely unrelated to rotation, right?)
I bring this up because the team sees red clouds that look like a sunset -- in the east. Huh.
The Alteans are terrified that this sudden spontaneous combustion means Altea will revert to a dead, desert planet. Y'know, after 15 years of desolation, the planet sure did recover fast with the resurrection of Golion. I mean, is Golion being the guardian deity of Altea also tied to the planet's eco-system somehow? Yeah, I'm full of it, today.
Aaand blue lion's energy source are aqua protons. Absorbed from water. King Raimon told me. THe energy sources are pretty close to Voltron for the other lions, but we get horsepower values for each lion. Black lion = 2,000,000 HP from thunder protons, red lion = 800,000 HP from fire protons, yellow lion = 1,200,000 HP from ground protons, green lion = 800,000 HP from cyclone protons. Golion himself uses planet protons for 6,000,000 HP. I'm assuming blue lion has a 1,200,000 HP engine, like yellow.
The interesting thing is that the Japanese uses the English "thunder protons," "fire protons," etc. So their technobabble is just nonsensical English words.
Sincine apparently sees that yellow lion has the least resistance against extreme heat--or at least Seidou, because he singles him out for a blast of 6,000 degrees. This episode is good for a lot of concrete-sounding data. So, is it the lion who's vulnerable to heat, or is Seidou just a cold-weather type like me?
Sincline's batplane launches missiles out of what look like beam emitters. I mean, the missiles are the same size or bigger than the nozzles they're coming out of.
Oh, hey, red lion can withstand temperatures up to 20,000 degrees. And, for having just learned the elemental power sources of their lions, they're sure name-dropping it a lot. It's like the animators just got the power crystal stock footage drawn and they're just dying to use it as much as they can.
Devilburn does, rather amusingly, look like an old home furnace with arms. And head.
This episode also uses a lot of shots with the Golion pilots in their seats with speed lines coming off of them. Fala is shown that way the most, when she finally lifts off, but everyone is drawn that way (I think Kurogane is the first).
Sincline's parting shot: "You can all suffer in an incandescent hell!" Well put, Sincline.
Seidou uses the Yellow Claws to dig his well to water.
Apparently refilling the lake revives all of the stricken Alteans. Or maybe it just improves the moral of the ones who are still conscious?
Our gattai music for today is, fittingly, the blue lion theme.
Once they finally form Golion, Devilburn is pretty helpless. I mean, Golion just plows through the flame cloud that had incapacitated the lions, and responds to getting grabbed by dismembering him. Kogane even says "Feh!" when the beastman grabs Golion. And then Devilburn is left just standing there, with no arms. "Crap. My only weapons is useless against you!" Maybe they took Devilburn out into orbit for him to explode because of all the high pressure flamethrower fuel he was carrying?
Golion actually uses each on of the lion-head weapons to disperse the flames: big fire, green tornado, water rod, and sandstorm.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Treasure of Planet Tyrus/The Demon's Birthday
Here's another of my favorite episodes. This one makes up for the evil space mice. It's got a unique plot, we see more of the Doom/Galra Empire, and our heroes actually plot against the baddies for once.
Treasure of Planet Tyrus
A meteor shower and Planet Tyrus--explained to us that it's a refreshing vacation destination for evil types. And some more H.R. Gigir architecture. The blue cat gets a "lava bath" and Lotor gets a massage. Then Zarkon calls in and scolds Lotor, who's supposed to be guarding the treasure ship on the way to planet Doom. He also tells Lotor that there's a gold statue of Lotor on board. Lotor swears to protect the ship.
How ironic, 'cuz we immediately cut to the ship crashing into asteroids and belching flames.
At castle control, Coran looks like he's playing DJ, but he's actually listening to a distress signal from a ship near planet Tyrus. Apparently Zarkon stole stuff from Arus last week. They launch to try to recover it. Since only a treasure ship would be heading to planet Tyrus. The lions streak past meteors until Pidge picks up a signal in the North Quadrant.
They find the ship derelict. They enter through a hole in the hull and begin exploring. Keith and Lance do a bit of a SWAT team entry. (This one reminds me of "My Brother the Robeast" in some ways, which we all know is another favorite). The team SWAT's their way right into the room with the gold Lotor statue. They restrain Hunk from shooting at the statue.
Cheddar appears, and actually serves a purpose in this episode--I don't categorically hate the space mice (the way I hate Nanny no matter what she does)--in some episodes they're actually pretty cool. Like this one. Cheddar leads the way to a massive treasure chest and some "unconscious" guards. Pidge finds a massive key to the gold chest. Hunk opens the chest, revealing a treasure haul that looks a lot like the treasure from Ghost Castle. Allura realizes that they needed all of the treasure for special medicine for Arus from planet Syban.
Cheddar runs to a portal and gets their attention as a Rooster Frigate appears. Wow. Space mice are better than radar.
The Frigate harpoons the treasure ship (which is massive). As the Doomites are boarding, red lion "atomizes" and melts its way into the statue. A contigent of Lotor's Doom troops enters the chamber with the giant statue. Keith, in the uniform of a palace guard, stumbles out and convinces the captain that they will continue to guard the treasure. (The guard captain is one of the Prussian-looking red uniformed ones).
The Rooster Frigate has magically morphed into Lotor's flagship. Oh well. They hall the treasure ship back to Tyrus. The ruler of Tyrus (I missed his name) pours Koolaid for Lotor, Haggar, and himself. The guard captain appears and tells him the treasure is ready. The Voltron force appears all in guard uniforms and stumble when opening the chest, arousing Lotor's suspicions. Lotor yells at the guard captain and draws his sword, then threatens to unmask the guards. Keith does a backflip onto the chest and rips off the uniform. The rest of the team follow suit, weilding the guards' swords. Lotor sends a swarm of other royal guardsmen acter them, and we get a bunch of animation errors and the guards change from royal guardsmen, the blue-skinned soldiers, and the gray troops.
Lance falls down a trap door into a chamber full of troglodyte zombies, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura are held at gunpoint, and Lotor corners Keith with his sword. A new huard captain arrives and tells Lotor the celebration is ready. In the dungeon, Cheddar chews an escape route for Lance, who evades the zombies.
The team is tied to stakes while Lotor watches fireworks and tries to ply Allura with the red lava juice of Tyrus. She manages to get a knife to start cutting her bonds. The ruler of Tyrus (Ah, his name is Count Zaida) tows a gigantice cake. Cheddar burrows out of the cake (Lance had told him to plant one of Pidge's grenade somewhere.). Gray soldiers wearing helmets appear with torches to set the team on fire, but Count Zaida says they should torture them by eating cake in front of them. Lotor walks over to the cake but it explodes. Lance burns ouf of the statue in red lion. The rest of the team has been freed by Cheddar. Haggar lays down some covering fire for Lotor with the guns of the flagship. The ship lifts off.
The team get back to the rest of their lions and form Voltron. They smash into the ship and cripple it before forming the blazing sword. Voltron hacks his way into the ship. As it goes up in flames, Lotor and Haggar flee in an escape ship, leaving Count Zaida. The ship crashes into the Giger palace and explodes. Voltron watches the palace burn.
We return to Allura kissing Lance. Again. And Coran says they got enough valuables back to pay for the medicine.
The Demon's Birthday
The planet is called Walbrane. That's right--Walbrane. Interestingly, it looks a lot like Galra from orbit. Maybe Daibazaal initiates a program of Galra-forming as they conquer planets. I haven't been mentioning what happens before the title card very often, but in this episode, I like the fact that they set up Sincline and Honerva on Walbrane before the title card. Oh, and Honerva is bathing Jaga in blood. My parent's cat would probably enjoy that, too.
The ruler of Walbrane is King Walbrane. It's probably some royal convention that saves time-pressed and lazy staff writers. It's revealed that this is Sincline's 106th birthday. Which leads to a weird chronological problem later on.
The Golion team are wary that the SOS from the treasure ship may be a trap, but they decide the best way of dealing with it is to go spring the trap, just in case. I like this ship design. And its sheer size. Platte is pretty awesome in this episode. And, when red lion melts into the statue, we get the first view of the lions' inner workings--some sort of energy lines going into a central crystal thing. The design is a little different in this episode, but we'll see a lot more of it in the next show.
In some shots, the sky of planet Walbrane looks like it has some fancy aurora borealis stuff going on. The Walbranians actually come out to celebrate Sincline's birthday. Since they're all dressed like King Walbrane, they're probably the royalty who've benefited from a relationship with Galra. There's probably some oppressed civilians hidden away somewhere . . .
Sincline totally kills the Red Army commander for not suspecting the royal guardsmen are actually the Golion pilots. In fact, the ensuing battle is pretty gruesome, with the team hacking up guardsmen pretty enthusiastically.
Oh, hey, Kurogane meets up with some guys who certainly look like oppressed masses to me. Red Army soldiers apparently find four of the lions hidden in the treasure ship. And they are totally using pickup trucks to unload the treasure ship.
And, this time around, when Platte blows up the cake, we don't have to sit through dumb dialogue about angel food and devil's food cake. And, we probably shouldn't worry too much about how Kurogane got back in red lion with it buried inside the statue. Fittingly, they form Golion to the red lion theme.
Sincline leaves King Walbrane to get crushed by debris as the flaship crashes into the Giger palace. Take that, king stupidname!!
Treasure of Planet Tyrus
A meteor shower and Planet Tyrus--explained to us that it's a refreshing vacation destination for evil types. And some more H.R. Gigir architecture. The blue cat gets a "lava bath" and Lotor gets a massage. Then Zarkon calls in and scolds Lotor, who's supposed to be guarding the treasure ship on the way to planet Doom. He also tells Lotor that there's a gold statue of Lotor on board. Lotor swears to protect the ship.
How ironic, 'cuz we immediately cut to the ship crashing into asteroids and belching flames.
At castle control, Coran looks like he's playing DJ, but he's actually listening to a distress signal from a ship near planet Tyrus. Apparently Zarkon stole stuff from Arus last week. They launch to try to recover it. Since only a treasure ship would be heading to planet Tyrus. The lions streak past meteors until Pidge picks up a signal in the North Quadrant.
They find the ship derelict. They enter through a hole in the hull and begin exploring. Keith and Lance do a bit of a SWAT team entry. (This one reminds me of "My Brother the Robeast" in some ways, which we all know is another favorite). The team SWAT's their way right into the room with the gold Lotor statue. They restrain Hunk from shooting at the statue.
Cheddar appears, and actually serves a purpose in this episode--I don't categorically hate the space mice (the way I hate Nanny no matter what she does)--in some episodes they're actually pretty cool. Like this one. Cheddar leads the way to a massive treasure chest and some "unconscious" guards. Pidge finds a massive key to the gold chest. Hunk opens the chest, revealing a treasure haul that looks a lot like the treasure from Ghost Castle. Allura realizes that they needed all of the treasure for special medicine for Arus from planet Syban.
Cheddar runs to a portal and gets their attention as a Rooster Frigate appears. Wow. Space mice are better than radar.
The Frigate harpoons the treasure ship (which is massive). As the Doomites are boarding, red lion "atomizes" and melts its way into the statue. A contigent of Lotor's Doom troops enters the chamber with the giant statue. Keith, in the uniform of a palace guard, stumbles out and convinces the captain that they will continue to guard the treasure. (The guard captain is one of the Prussian-looking red uniformed ones).
The Rooster Frigate has magically morphed into Lotor's flagship. Oh well. They hall the treasure ship back to Tyrus. The ruler of Tyrus (I missed his name) pours Koolaid for Lotor, Haggar, and himself. The guard captain appears and tells him the treasure is ready. The Voltron force appears all in guard uniforms and stumble when opening the chest, arousing Lotor's suspicions. Lotor yells at the guard captain and draws his sword, then threatens to unmask the guards. Keith does a backflip onto the chest and rips off the uniform. The rest of the team follow suit, weilding the guards' swords. Lotor sends a swarm of other royal guardsmen acter them, and we get a bunch of animation errors and the guards change from royal guardsmen, the blue-skinned soldiers, and the gray troops.
Lance falls down a trap door into a chamber full of troglodyte zombies, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura are held at gunpoint, and Lotor corners Keith with his sword. A new huard captain arrives and tells Lotor the celebration is ready. In the dungeon, Cheddar chews an escape route for Lance, who evades the zombies.
The team is tied to stakes while Lotor watches fireworks and tries to ply Allura with the red lava juice of Tyrus. She manages to get a knife to start cutting her bonds. The ruler of Tyrus (Ah, his name is Count Zaida) tows a gigantice cake. Cheddar burrows out of the cake (Lance had told him to plant one of Pidge's grenade somewhere.). Gray soldiers wearing helmets appear with torches to set the team on fire, but Count Zaida says they should torture them by eating cake in front of them. Lotor walks over to the cake but it explodes. Lance burns ouf of the statue in red lion. The rest of the team has been freed by Cheddar. Haggar lays down some covering fire for Lotor with the guns of the flagship. The ship lifts off.
The team get back to the rest of their lions and form Voltron. They smash into the ship and cripple it before forming the blazing sword. Voltron hacks his way into the ship. As it goes up in flames, Lotor and Haggar flee in an escape ship, leaving Count Zaida. The ship crashes into the Giger palace and explodes. Voltron watches the palace burn.
We return to Allura kissing Lance. Again. And Coran says they got enough valuables back to pay for the medicine.
The Demon's Birthday
The planet is called Walbrane. That's right--Walbrane. Interestingly, it looks a lot like Galra from orbit. Maybe Daibazaal initiates a program of Galra-forming as they conquer planets. I haven't been mentioning what happens before the title card very often, but in this episode, I like the fact that they set up Sincline and Honerva on Walbrane before the title card. Oh, and Honerva is bathing Jaga in blood. My parent's cat would probably enjoy that, too.
The ruler of Walbrane is King Walbrane. It's probably some royal convention that saves time-pressed and lazy staff writers. It's revealed that this is Sincline's 106th birthday. Which leads to a weird chronological problem later on.
The Golion team are wary that the SOS from the treasure ship may be a trap, but they decide the best way of dealing with it is to go spring the trap, just in case. I like this ship design. And its sheer size. Platte is pretty awesome in this episode. And, when red lion melts into the statue, we get the first view of the lions' inner workings--some sort of energy lines going into a central crystal thing. The design is a little different in this episode, but we'll see a lot more of it in the next show.
In some shots, the sky of planet Walbrane looks like it has some fancy aurora borealis stuff going on. The Walbranians actually come out to celebrate Sincline's birthday. Since they're all dressed like King Walbrane, they're probably the royalty who've benefited from a relationship with Galra. There's probably some oppressed civilians hidden away somewhere . . .
Sincline totally kills the Red Army commander for not suspecting the royal guardsmen are actually the Golion pilots. In fact, the ensuing battle is pretty gruesome, with the team hacking up guardsmen pretty enthusiastically.
Oh, hey, Kurogane meets up with some guys who certainly look like oppressed masses to me. Red Army soldiers apparently find four of the lions hidden in the treasure ship. And they are totally using pickup trucks to unload the treasure ship.
And, this time around, when Platte blows up the cake, we don't have to sit through dumb dialogue about angel food and devil's food cake. And, we probably shouldn't worry too much about how Kurogane got back in red lion with it buried inside the statue. Fittingly, they form Golion to the red lion theme.
Sincline leaves King Walbrane to get crushed by debris as the flaship crashes into the Giger palace. Take that, king stupidname!!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The Green Medusa/Giant Beastman's Lullaby
We've now passed the halfway point of the series.
The Green Medusa
What's this? We open on a planet that isn't doom or Arus. The planet Medusa, where Lotor (in his crag-face animation model) explains that a solar flair has put everyone to sleep. He hits a Medusan with a "blue beam" to revive it. It awakens and begins to scratch at the ground. Like it's burying something . . . Lotor observe's that it's a vicious redheaded female. Ahem.
Back on Doom, Lotor is exhibiting his new find in the arena. Zarkon scoffs at it, until it suddenly turns red, gets taller, and attacks the other robeasts with its hair snakes. It also turns one robeast into stone.
On Arus, Pidge, Hunk and Lance are looking for orphans. That's not sketchy at all. Children start to emerge from the ruins.
In the Castle of Lions, apparently the orphans are looking for foster parents. Allura vows to help take care of them. Pidge starts to have flashbacks. Hey, that's mount Fuji! He remembers when he met his foster parents. The fond memories are interrupted by the approach of Lotor and his fleet.
They launch the lions and confront the new robeast, the Medusan in her giant red form. They attack it with their missiles. It fires its stone beam at Keith, but it hits a flag first, so they see its supoerpower. Coran orders them to form Voltron. As they fly into formation, the Medusa strikes green lion and sends it into a flat spin. Pidge ejects (?) and the robeast grabs him before . . . um. . . tunneling through the ground somehow. (It's a weird effect that you just have to see). The team withdraws to the castle to use the sensors to search for them.
Lotor is pacing. and then decides to attack.
In castle control, they are unable to find the robeast.
Pidge awakens in a cave with the robeast. The first think he seas are the hair snakes. He tries to sneak out while the robeast is sleeping, but she awakens and the snakes drag him back. The lions launch are start searching. One of Lotor's officers finds the robeast on their sensors and they lift off to find them.
The medusa tries to feed him lizards, but he throws them back at her, making her cry. A subben cave-in prompts her to protect Pidge, and then we see that Doom fighters have caused the cave-in. The robeast drives them off. Pidge warms up to her.
Lotor appraises Haggar of the situation. She tells some bizarre story about scorpions and mosquitoes while we see images of totally different bugs that turn into the Medusan and a younger Medusan that turns into Pidge.
The team comes back, dejected. Zarkons forces return, and then they get a call back from Pidge. The robeast's name is Anga. Meanwhile, Lotor's fleet attacks with a second robeast. This one tries to set the lake on fire. The four remaining lions launch (black lion attacks with some shoulder-mountain ninja star things that rebound at Allura). The robeast counters with missiles launched from its abdomen.
Haggar arrives in a space coffin and tries to persuade Anga to squish Pidge. Pidge attacks Haggar with his pistol, but she shoots at him with her staff. Anga approaches, then Haggar zaps her and turns her back to being small and green. Pidge fires on Haggar, who flees.
I think out of the whole team, Pidge uses his gun the most.
Anga is hurt. Keith calls on the communicator, while the blue robeast mangles the castle's artillery (and there's a shot of a soldier-er, robot-dying). Anga carries Pidge to the castle on her back, and he has flashbacks until she passes out. He leaves her to get to his lion and rejoin the team. Pidge rejoins them as they swarm around the robeast. They form Voltron.
The robeast breathes fire, but Volts flies around in circles creates a tornado. It launches missiles again, but Voltron punches it. It tries fire again, but then Voltron just body slams it and forms the blazing sword.
We cut to the team basking it Arus's adulation, where Coran and Allura tell us that Anga has recovered and returned home. We get Allura kissing Lance and the mice kissing Pidge. Again.
Giant Beastman's Lullaby
I don't really have to tell you that the Medusans are dead in Golion, do I? They transliterate the planet as "Meduse." And Sincline's remote probe is actually kind of cool looking. The probe actually dissects one of the Gorgons. Gobra and Sincline discuss the death of the Gorgons by fever, and the fact that they have a mental-powered weapon called the Beam Eye. They capture a female Gorgon as she digs a grave for her dead offspring.
All of the beastmen the Gorgon fights are types we seen before. The gray and yellow one are from the second episode fight, and the spotty one that turns to stone is the same type as one that fought Deathhell.
We don't have the weird scene with the guys looking for orphans. This time, we open right on the women bringing babies to Fala. Apparently, it's some sort of baptism type thing. Suzuishi, the youngest member, flashes back to when he left his own parents to go to school. The alarm interrupts this.
Honerva's weird bug talk actually explains that antlion adults and larva look different, and that's why the Gorgon is giving in to its maternal insticts towards Suzuishi. Or something. Also, it's pretty obvious that Honerva severely wounds the Gorgon and that she dies of her wounds after carrying Suzuishi, right?
Rather than triumphant exultation, we get a scene of the Gorgon's funeral. Man, this show is kind of a bummer sometimes. Fala observes that even beastmen are people, too.
The Green Medusa
What's this? We open on a planet that isn't doom or Arus. The planet Medusa, where Lotor (in his crag-face animation model) explains that a solar flair has put everyone to sleep. He hits a Medusan with a "blue beam" to revive it. It awakens and begins to scratch at the ground. Like it's burying something . . . Lotor observe's that it's a vicious redheaded female. Ahem.
Back on Doom, Lotor is exhibiting his new find in the arena. Zarkon scoffs at it, until it suddenly turns red, gets taller, and attacks the other robeasts with its hair snakes. It also turns one robeast into stone.
On Arus, Pidge, Hunk and Lance are looking for orphans. That's not sketchy at all. Children start to emerge from the ruins.
In the Castle of Lions, apparently the orphans are looking for foster parents. Allura vows to help take care of them. Pidge starts to have flashbacks. Hey, that's mount Fuji! He remembers when he met his foster parents. The fond memories are interrupted by the approach of Lotor and his fleet.
They launch the lions and confront the new robeast, the Medusan in her giant red form. They attack it with their missiles. It fires its stone beam at Keith, but it hits a flag first, so they see its supoerpower. Coran orders them to form Voltron. As they fly into formation, the Medusa strikes green lion and sends it into a flat spin. Pidge ejects (?) and the robeast grabs him before . . . um. . . tunneling through the ground somehow. (It's a weird effect that you just have to see). The team withdraws to the castle to use the sensors to search for them.
Lotor is pacing. and then decides to attack.
In castle control, they are unable to find the robeast.
Pidge awakens in a cave with the robeast. The first think he seas are the hair snakes. He tries to sneak out while the robeast is sleeping, but she awakens and the snakes drag him back. The lions launch are start searching. One of Lotor's officers finds the robeast on their sensors and they lift off to find them.
The medusa tries to feed him lizards, but he throws them back at her, making her cry. A subben cave-in prompts her to protect Pidge, and then we see that Doom fighters have caused the cave-in. The robeast drives them off. Pidge warms up to her.
Lotor appraises Haggar of the situation. She tells some bizarre story about scorpions and mosquitoes while we see images of totally different bugs that turn into the Medusan and a younger Medusan that turns into Pidge.
The team comes back, dejected. Zarkons forces return, and then they get a call back from Pidge. The robeast's name is Anga. Meanwhile, Lotor's fleet attacks with a second robeast. This one tries to set the lake on fire. The four remaining lions launch (black lion attacks with some shoulder-mountain ninja star things that rebound at Allura). The robeast counters with missiles launched from its abdomen.
Haggar arrives in a space coffin and tries to persuade Anga to squish Pidge. Pidge attacks Haggar with his pistol, but she shoots at him with her staff. Anga approaches, then Haggar zaps her and turns her back to being small and green. Pidge fires on Haggar, who flees.
I think out of the whole team, Pidge uses his gun the most.
Anga is hurt. Keith calls on the communicator, while the blue robeast mangles the castle's artillery (and there's a shot of a soldier-er, robot-dying). Anga carries Pidge to the castle on her back, and he has flashbacks until she passes out. He leaves her to get to his lion and rejoin the team. Pidge rejoins them as they swarm around the robeast. They form Voltron.
The robeast breathes fire, but Volts flies around in circles creates a tornado. It launches missiles again, but Voltron punches it. It tries fire again, but then Voltron just body slams it and forms the blazing sword.
We cut to the team basking it Arus's adulation, where Coran and Allura tell us that Anga has recovered and returned home. We get Allura kissing Lance and the mice kissing Pidge. Again.
Giant Beastman's Lullaby
I don't really have to tell you that the Medusans are dead in Golion, do I? They transliterate the planet as "Meduse." And Sincline's remote probe is actually kind of cool looking. The probe actually dissects one of the Gorgons. Gobra and Sincline discuss the death of the Gorgons by fever, and the fact that they have a mental-powered weapon called the Beam Eye. They capture a female Gorgon as she digs a grave for her dead offspring.
All of the beastmen the Gorgon fights are types we seen before. The gray and yellow one are from the second episode fight, and the spotty one that turns to stone is the same type as one that fought Deathhell.
We don't have the weird scene with the guys looking for orphans. This time, we open right on the women bringing babies to Fala. Apparently, it's some sort of baptism type thing. Suzuishi, the youngest member, flashes back to when he left his own parents to go to school. The alarm interrupts this.
Honerva's weird bug talk actually explains that antlion adults and larva look different, and that's why the Gorgon is giving in to its maternal insticts towards Suzuishi. Or something. Also, it's pretty obvious that Honerva severely wounds the Gorgon and that she dies of her wounds after carrying Suzuishi, right?
Rather than triumphant exultation, we get a scene of the Gorgon's funeral. Man, this show is kind of a bummer sometimes. Fala observes that even beastmen are people, too.
Friday, July 15, 2011
The Invisible Robeast/Defeat the Invisible Enemy
Two filler-free episodes in a row! Yeah, so the invisible intruder idea is a cliche. But this episode handles it well. In that, they don't try to explain it too hard. Yep. They can't see him. Except for sometimes. Just watch, okay!
The Invisible Robeast
Haggar has summoned Zarkon and Lotor to look at a falcon. Zarkon loathes birds. But he gets all kinds interested when she makes the falcon invisible. Zarkon immediately wants to implant it in a robeast. Lotor suggests robeast number 50--he keeps in shape and never questions orders. Y'know, this is one of those times when the dialogue seems more like a parody of Voltron than an actual Voltron episode.
Ol' Number 50 lands on Arus in a space coffin. He had a good flight with no turbulence. Seriously. This is the dialogue. And I really like the image of the space coffin sitting on the beach with footsteps leading into the woods . . . It's sort of spooky, but hokey, too.
The princess, Pidge, Lance, and the royal arch bitch are riding back from collecting fruit in a carriage. Allura mentions mice "Pip" and "Squeak." But they've been followed . . . The sky gets dark, the horses freak out, and #50 flips the carriage over. Pidge managed to get a signal to castle control, but they lose the signal before he sends any messages.
Apparently satisfied with dunking the carriage in the water, the robeast leaves. And . . . Nanny. Ugh. The four make it to the shore. Hey, what happened to the carriage driver? As they're getting out of the river, something suddenly grabs Allura and starts to run off with her. Pidge opens fire and momentarily reveals the robeast, which drops the princess and takes off. They all decide to start running back to the castle.
They shelter under a cliff. Pudge can't send any more messages. The robeast goes visible so we can see him throw a boulder down the cliff at them. Black lion manages to stop the boulder. Lance and Pidge are picked up by Hunk and explain the invisible robeast. Allura and Nanny get in black lion. The two lions watch for the robeast, but find nothing. As they fly back to the castle, Lotor emerges from the woods in the batplane. He supersizes robeast #50. Great. A four-armed invisible health nut. Who's also a giant. The robeast begins to systematically stomp on an Arusian village. (Too bad their cottages aren't thatch-roofed).
The team watches the village get crushed by the invisible menace. Keith decides Allura is to stay in the castle, since it singled her out right from the beginning. The lions launch to find the robeast smashing the town. Fortunately, all the people have escaped to the hillside caves.
Keith tries to smoke the robeast out with a new, back-mounted missile weapon. Lance hits it with his shoulder cannon, but the 'beast returns fire. They lead it into the desert, and realize they can aim at its rough location by tracking the shadow. The robeast takes off running, then plunges into the lake as clouds cover the sun. The lions are caught by the thing at the lakeside. It becomes visibile so it can gloat. And knock the lions together. They break free, and #50 walks away. They fire a barrage of missiles at it. Direct hits make it go visible, but it's run away.
Lotor meets up with the robeast as it approaches the castle. He commands it to get the princess. The robeast crushes one of the red turrets. The castle artillery is unable to track it. Fortunately, the lions arrive. Lotor orders the 'beast to lure them into the lake. They open hydro-vents for underwater pursuit. They find the robeast doing . . . something to the vacant blue lion. It goes invisible again and starts kicking the lions around. Allura launches blue lion (and we get a neat shot of the shuttle tube leading to blue lion). Lotor gloats at the appearence of the princess. She forces the robeast to release the other lions, but is captured as robeast #50 surfaces.
Lotor taunts Allura over the radio as the team gives chase. They try some different visual settings, and find him on the static probe--though the screen says "Clairvoyance." Which is awesome. They lock on and shoot #50 in the face. It drops blue lion, but black and yellow catch her before she crashes. Then, they form Voltron.
They hit the robeast with Stingray missiles, and then tracking coils (? The laser magnum as its called in Golion). Then the lion torches envelope him in flame, and they form the blazing sword. Aaand the robeast is no longer invisible. Or intact. Voltron poses as the robeast explodes. Lotor flies back to Doom, shaking his fist the whole way.
Then we get some stock footage of the team standing on the balcony as a crowd cheers. Huh.
Defeat the Invisible Enemy
There's a lot less dialogue in the sequence with Honerva and the magical disappearing falcon. And it's an Occult Science Invisibilty Barrier that does the invisibilizing. Sincline selects beastman Bullbar. Bullbar. Even if you're not pronouncing it like Japanese, that's fun to say.
Fala's carriage passes some kids just before Bullbar attacks (they passed the kids in Voltron, too, but I just didn't mention it). So, really, what does happen to the driver? He falls off of the carriage, and then . . . disappears. It's not even implied that Bullbar squishes him or anything. They just . . . forget. I do like how Suzuishi and Kurogane just ignore Hys while she's thrashing around screaming. Good for them.
Suzuishi fires on the beastman, and thanks to Kurogane's advice to aim beneath her, hits Bullbar and not Fala. Suzuishi actually tosses the radio aside when he explains that it's waterlogged and useless.
As the beastman rampages through the town, there's a lot more footage of screaming villagers. And villagers being crushed by boulders and perishing in flames.
The back-mounted weapon black lion uses is the black boomerang. And they lead the beastman away specifically to avoid civilian casualties. Hmph. Underground shelters my ass.
When Bullbar attacks the castle, there's actually some dialogue from men manning the artillery, frustrated that they can't see the thing. And then they get squished.
Apparently, red lion doesn't function at even half-power under water.
Sensors they try when Bullbar's running off with the princess: Infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, laser sensors (those are the ones labeled "clairvoyance" and water evaporation and mass calculations. It's the water evaporation and mass calculations that save the day.
They form Golion to the lovely tones of the Black Lion theme.
They spend a lot more time just punching the beastman than they did in Voltron. That acconts for some of the cut time. There's just not that much going on after the beastman explodes. Sincline flies off, and the episode ends with a reminder that the bad guys won't give up so easily.
The Invisible Robeast
Haggar has summoned Zarkon and Lotor to look at a falcon. Zarkon loathes birds. But he gets all kinds interested when she makes the falcon invisible. Zarkon immediately wants to implant it in a robeast. Lotor suggests robeast number 50--he keeps in shape and never questions orders. Y'know, this is one of those times when the dialogue seems more like a parody of Voltron than an actual Voltron episode.
Ol' Number 50 lands on Arus in a space coffin. He had a good flight with no turbulence. Seriously. This is the dialogue. And I really like the image of the space coffin sitting on the beach with footsteps leading into the woods . . . It's sort of spooky, but hokey, too.
The princess, Pidge, Lance, and the royal arch bitch are riding back from collecting fruit in a carriage. Allura mentions mice "Pip" and "Squeak." But they've been followed . . . The sky gets dark, the horses freak out, and #50 flips the carriage over. Pidge managed to get a signal to castle control, but they lose the signal before he sends any messages.
Apparently satisfied with dunking the carriage in the water, the robeast leaves. And . . . Nanny. Ugh. The four make it to the shore. Hey, what happened to the carriage driver? As they're getting out of the river, something suddenly grabs Allura and starts to run off with her. Pidge opens fire and momentarily reveals the robeast, which drops the princess and takes off. They all decide to start running back to the castle.
They shelter under a cliff. Pudge can't send any more messages. The robeast goes visible so we can see him throw a boulder down the cliff at them. Black lion manages to stop the boulder. Lance and Pidge are picked up by Hunk and explain the invisible robeast. Allura and Nanny get in black lion. The two lions watch for the robeast, but find nothing. As they fly back to the castle, Lotor emerges from the woods in the batplane. He supersizes robeast #50. Great. A four-armed invisible health nut. Who's also a giant. The robeast begins to systematically stomp on an Arusian village. (Too bad their cottages aren't thatch-roofed).
The team watches the village get crushed by the invisible menace. Keith decides Allura is to stay in the castle, since it singled her out right from the beginning. The lions launch to find the robeast smashing the town. Fortunately, all the people have escaped to the hillside caves.
Keith tries to smoke the robeast out with a new, back-mounted missile weapon. Lance hits it with his shoulder cannon, but the 'beast returns fire. They lead it into the desert, and realize they can aim at its rough location by tracking the shadow. The robeast takes off running, then plunges into the lake as clouds cover the sun. The lions are caught by the thing at the lakeside. It becomes visibile so it can gloat. And knock the lions together. They break free, and #50 walks away. They fire a barrage of missiles at it. Direct hits make it go visible, but it's run away.
Lotor meets up with the robeast as it approaches the castle. He commands it to get the princess. The robeast crushes one of the red turrets. The castle artillery is unable to track it. Fortunately, the lions arrive. Lotor orders the 'beast to lure them into the lake. They open hydro-vents for underwater pursuit. They find the robeast doing . . . something to the vacant blue lion. It goes invisible again and starts kicking the lions around. Allura launches blue lion (and we get a neat shot of the shuttle tube leading to blue lion). Lotor gloats at the appearence of the princess. She forces the robeast to release the other lions, but is captured as robeast #50 surfaces.
Lotor taunts Allura over the radio as the team gives chase. They try some different visual settings, and find him on the static probe--though the screen says "Clairvoyance." Which is awesome. They lock on and shoot #50 in the face. It drops blue lion, but black and yellow catch her before she crashes. Then, they form Voltron.
They hit the robeast with Stingray missiles, and then tracking coils (? The laser magnum as its called in Golion). Then the lion torches envelope him in flame, and they form the blazing sword. Aaand the robeast is no longer invisible. Or intact. Voltron poses as the robeast explodes. Lotor flies back to Doom, shaking his fist the whole way.
Then we get some stock footage of the team standing on the balcony as a crowd cheers. Huh.
Defeat the Invisible Enemy
There's a lot less dialogue in the sequence with Honerva and the magical disappearing falcon. And it's an Occult Science Invisibilty Barrier
Fala's carriage passes some kids just before Bullbar attacks (they passed the kids in Voltron, too, but I just didn't mention it). So, really, what does happen to the driver? He falls off of the carriage, and then . . . disappears. It's not even implied that Bullbar squishes him or anything. They just . . . forget. I do like how Suzuishi and Kurogane just ignore Hys while she's thrashing around screaming. Good for them.
Suzuishi fires on the beastman, and thanks to Kurogane's advice to aim beneath her, hits Bullbar and not Fala. Suzuishi actually tosses the radio aside when he explains that it's waterlogged and useless.
As the beastman rampages through the town, there's a lot more footage of screaming villagers. And villagers being crushed by boulders and perishing in flames.
The back-mounted weapon black lion uses is the black boomerang. And they lead the beastman away specifically to avoid civilian casualties. Hmph. Underground shelters my ass.
When Bullbar attacks the castle, there's actually some dialogue from men manning the artillery, frustrated that they can't see the thing. And then they get squished.
Apparently, red lion doesn't function at even half-power under water.
Sensors they try when Bullbar's running off with the princess: Infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, laser sensors (those are the ones labeled "clairvoyance" and water evaporation and mass calculations. It's the water evaporation and mass calculations that save the day.
They form Golion to the lovely tones of the Black Lion theme.
They spend a lot more time just punching the beastman than they did in Voltron. That acconts for some of the cut time. There's just not that much going on after the beastman explodes. Sincline flies off, and the episode ends with a reminder that the bad guys won't give up so easily.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Short Run of the Centipede Express/Destroy the Giant Cannon
Short Run of the Centipede Express
Thank the gods. An episode that isn't filler. This one introduces another planet in Zarkon's grasp, another race, gives us a little more background on Arus and its former allies, and has the team basically doing a commando raid on an enemy installation. You can't go wrong with commando raids.
We open, not on Arus or on Doom, but in space. An asteroid field, and stars--and one star becomes the Centipede Express. Coran narrates the fact that Doom has placed asteroids surrounding the planet Mora, where they apparently have some sort of secret weapon. The team decides to observe the secret weapon. They launch in the lions.
Lotor is sipping on the blood wine and scheming against his father. And fantasizing about Allura. Then he receives a communicaton from Zarkon and Haggar. They warn him not to trust the slaves too much and sabotage. Then a guard comes and tells Lotor the slaves refuse to work. Lotor totally kills the messenger.
We cut to an arena (clearly that's one of the first things the doom empire builds when establishing a base somewhere) where some slaves are tied to stakes. THe rest of the Moran populace watch from the stands as one of the blue eye-bally robeasts enters the arena and licks a poor slave tied and left lying on the ground.
One of the Morans stands up and begins chanting about freedom. The rest of the crowd takes up the chant and the robeast is upset. Lotor is ready to charge into the stands with his sword, but his officers physically restrain him and convince him to finish the weapon, first.
Meanwhile, Voltron is approaching the planet, and see the Centipede Express en route. Keith decides that Voltron would be too obvious. Allura suggests she and Lance take the green lion--Keith insists on going instead of Allura. They detach the green lion head and make a covert landing.
Keith and Lance observe the palace (again designed by H.R. Giger), and see the weapon under construction. They decide they need to destroy it--but are caught by two guards. That's okay, the guards aren't much of a match for them. They take the guard's uniforms, and then see a pair of guards having a "juice break." Really. He pulls out a flask and says "Yum, vitamins." I'm not kidding.
The slave who started the riot in the arena comes across the two guards Keith and Lance have subdued. Lotor finds him and almost kills him, but the slave convinces him that there are intruders. Keith and Lance set explosives on the weapon. The bomb timers are apparently being jammed. Just then, the slave leads four guards to them, who begin yelling and shooting. Lotor and the slave take a look at the bombs.
The slave tells Lotor his name is Harem. He explains to otor that he didn't want the weapon destroyed because it's completion is the only way his people would earn their freedom. Lotor forces him to drink a "truth serum." Harem reveals that he wants to test fire the weapon to win his people's freedom. As he leaves Lotor's chamber, Lance tackles him. He and Keith confront him and reveal that they're from the from Voltron Force. He explains that Arus betrayed his planet. Mora sent a force to fight Zarkon, but Voltron was "somewhere else" while Zarkon conquered Mora.
Yeah, WEP kinda messes up the chronology. In Golion, this was Daibazaal's original assault on Altea. Here they make it sound like it occured at some recent time.
Harem summons the guards and the chase is on again. Keith and Lance make it back to the green lion head. The team is wondering what's taking them so long just as they return. Keith tells them about the super-weapon.
Lotor appears overlooking his troops, announcing the completion of the gun. The team debates strategy. Keith is counting on Harem the angry slave, and they take the head-on approach.
Lotor is pacing, waiting for Zarkon and Haggar to appear. He is told that Voltron is approaching. He decides to test the gun on Volts--but without harming the princess. Harem is seated in the cannon's con trol room. Lotor tells him to fire. Harem hears Keiths words from before . . . and he shifts his target to the Centipede Express. The cannon blasts passes Voltron and glances off the Centipede Express, causing Zarkon and Haggar to tumble across the floor. Harem then traverses the gun to point directly into Lotor's palace and fires point-blank, dstroying it. Lotor escapes in the batplane and makes a rendezvous with the Centipede, just as the Centipede crashes.
Harem turns the gun on the train, but it turns into a robeast that fires on Voltron, and then the cannon. The cannon begins to explode around Harem. Voltron drop kicks the centipede in the head, then hits it with the spinning laser blades and the electro sabre. Finally, we get the to blazing sword, and Voltron burrows his way through the centipede lengthwise.
Zarkon, Haggar, and Lotor all apparently escape the exploding centipede in the batplane.
The team entrusts Harem and the now-free Morans with the cannon, and look forward to cooperating with Mora against planet Doom.
Destroy the Giant Cannon
The Galra Galaxy Express actually has a steam-whistle sound effect. Trains are kind of a popular thing among Japanese hobbyists.
In castle control, they are suspicious of what's going on around Mura due to meteorites that have reached Altea from the destruction of a Muran asteroid. They decide to investigate.
Sincline is again plotting. Daibazaal and Honerva caution him against intelligence leaks. Good advice. And he does totally kill the guard who tells him that prisoners have escaped. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention during Voltron that Sincline appears over the arena as a giant hologram. The guards manage to convine Sincline not to wade into the crowd with his sword by explaining that they can't finish the weapon if they're dead.
We don't get the launch sequence we had in Voltron--Golion just leaves Altea. As if WEP were making up for time left by cut scenes . . .
Fala is the one who suggests detaching green lion's head. So, how do they switch lions and stuff while Golion's combined and hanging around in space? Are there like ladders in tubes running all through Golion?
Oh, yeah, that juice break the two guards go on? It's booze. Just in case you hadn't figured it out on your own.
This time, they don't have problems with the bomb's timer. Kurogane is just slow. And the sound effects of the guards' weapons are clearly projectile weapons. You even hear ricochets.
The slave's name is Hallem. Mora and Harem, Mura and Hallem. WEP stayed pretty close to the original names. And the "truth serum" Sincline offers Hallem is really blood wine made from Murans. Fresh squeezed?
Hallem's history lesson makes a little more sense here. When Daibazaal attacked Altea, Hallem's older brother and father died when Mura sent forces to assist Altea. Apparently those SR-71-lloking planes were no match for the Galra fighters. Hallem is angry that Golion didn't revive to support their fight. Kogane starts to explain to him that Golion couldn't have revived then, but he's cut off by Hallem calling for the guards.
Hallem actually cracks his knuckles before taking to the cannon controls.
Som why does Sincline dock with/land on the Galactic Train as it's plummeting out of control to the planet's surface? Also, the dialogue between Kogane and Sincline during the fight with the Galactic Train seems to imply that Sincline is actually piloting the mecha. This isn't named, like the majority of deathblack or mechablack beastmen. Maybe it's not technically a beastman, and just some kind of mecha?
Thank the gods. An episode that isn't filler. This one introduces another planet in Zarkon's grasp, another race, gives us a little more background on Arus and its former allies, and has the team basically doing a commando raid on an enemy installation. You can't go wrong with commando raids.
We open, not on Arus or on Doom, but in space. An asteroid field, and stars--and one star becomes the Centipede Express. Coran narrates the fact that Doom has placed asteroids surrounding the planet Mora, where they apparently have some sort of secret weapon. The team decides to observe the secret weapon. They launch in the lions.
Lotor is sipping on the blood wine and scheming against his father. And fantasizing about Allura. Then he receives a communicaton from Zarkon and Haggar. They warn him not to trust the slaves too much and sabotage. Then a guard comes and tells Lotor the slaves refuse to work. Lotor totally kills the messenger.
We cut to an arena (clearly that's one of the first things the doom empire builds when establishing a base somewhere) where some slaves are tied to stakes. THe rest of the Moran populace watch from the stands as one of the blue eye-bally robeasts enters the arena and licks a poor slave tied and left lying on the ground.
One of the Morans stands up and begins chanting about freedom. The rest of the crowd takes up the chant and the robeast is upset. Lotor is ready to charge into the stands with his sword, but his officers physically restrain him and convince him to finish the weapon, first.
Meanwhile, Voltron is approaching the planet, and see the Centipede Express en route. Keith decides that Voltron would be too obvious. Allura suggests she and Lance take the green lion--Keith insists on going instead of Allura. They detach the green lion head and make a covert landing.
Keith and Lance observe the palace (again designed by H.R. Giger), and see the weapon under construction. They decide they need to destroy it--but are caught by two guards. That's okay, the guards aren't much of a match for them. They take the guard's uniforms, and then see a pair of guards having a "juice break." Really. He pulls out a flask and says "Yum, vitamins." I'm not kidding.
The slave who started the riot in the arena comes across the two guards Keith and Lance have subdued. Lotor finds him and almost kills him, but the slave convinces him that there are intruders. Keith and Lance set explosives on the weapon. The bomb timers are apparently being jammed. Just then, the slave leads four guards to them, who begin yelling and shooting. Lotor and the slave take a look at the bombs.
The slave tells Lotor his name is Harem. He explains to otor that he didn't want the weapon destroyed because it's completion is the only way his people would earn their freedom. Lotor forces him to drink a "truth serum." Harem reveals that he wants to test fire the weapon to win his people's freedom. As he leaves Lotor's chamber, Lance tackles him. He and Keith confront him and reveal that they're from the from Voltron Force. He explains that Arus betrayed his planet. Mora sent a force to fight Zarkon, but Voltron was "somewhere else" while Zarkon conquered Mora.
Yeah, WEP kinda messes up the chronology. In Golion, this was Daibazaal's original assault on Altea. Here they make it sound like it occured at some recent time.
Harem summons the guards and the chase is on again. Keith and Lance make it back to the green lion head. The team is wondering what's taking them so long just as they return. Keith tells them about the super-weapon.
Lotor appears overlooking his troops, announcing the completion of the gun. The team debates strategy. Keith is counting on Harem the angry slave, and they take the head-on approach.
Lotor is pacing, waiting for Zarkon and Haggar to appear. He is told that Voltron is approaching. He decides to test the gun on Volts--but without harming the princess. Harem is seated in the cannon's con trol room. Lotor tells him to fire. Harem hears Keiths words from before . . . and he shifts his target to the Centipede Express. The cannon blasts passes Voltron and glances off the Centipede Express, causing Zarkon and Haggar to tumble across the floor. Harem then traverses the gun to point directly into Lotor's palace and fires point-blank, dstroying it. Lotor escapes in the batplane and makes a rendezvous with the Centipede, just as the Centipede crashes.
Harem turns the gun on the train, but it turns into a robeast that fires on Voltron, and then the cannon. The cannon begins to explode around Harem. Voltron drop kicks the centipede in the head, then hits it with the spinning laser blades and the electro sabre. Finally, we get the to blazing sword, and Voltron burrows his way through the centipede lengthwise.
Zarkon, Haggar, and Lotor all apparently escape the exploding centipede in the batplane.
The team entrusts Harem and the now-free Morans with the cannon, and look forward to cooperating with Mora against planet Doom.
Destroy the Giant Cannon
The Galra Galaxy Express actually has a steam-whistle sound effect. Trains are kind of a popular thing among Japanese hobbyists.
In castle control, they are suspicious of what's going on around Mura due to meteorites that have reached Altea from the destruction of a Muran asteroid. They decide to investigate.
Sincline is again plotting. Daibazaal and Honerva caution him against intelligence leaks. Good advice. And he does totally kill the guard who tells him that prisoners have escaped. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention during Voltron that Sincline appears over the arena as a giant hologram. The guards manage to convine Sincline not to wade into the crowd with his sword by explaining that they can't finish the weapon if they're dead.
We don't get the launch sequence we had in Voltron--Golion just leaves Altea. As if WEP were making up for time left by cut scenes . . .
Fala is the one who suggests detaching green lion's head. So, how do they switch lions and stuff while Golion's combined and hanging around in space? Are there like ladders in tubes running all through Golion?
Oh, yeah, that juice break the two guards go on? It's booze. Just in case you hadn't figured it out on your own.
This time, they don't have problems with the bomb's timer. Kurogane is just slow. And the sound effects of the guards' weapons are clearly projectile weapons. You even hear ricochets.
The slave's name is Hallem. Mora and Harem, Mura and Hallem. WEP stayed pretty close to the original names. And the "truth serum" Sincline offers Hallem is really blood wine made from Murans. Fresh squeezed?
Hallem's history lesson makes a little more sense here. When Daibazaal attacked Altea, Hallem's older brother and father died when Mura sent forces to assist Altea. Apparently those SR-71-lloking planes were no match for the Galra fighters. Hallem is angry that Golion didn't revive to support their fight. Kogane starts to explain to him that Golion couldn't have revived then, but he's cut off by Hallem calling for the guards.
Hallem actually cracks his knuckles before taking to the cannon controls.
Som why does Sincline dock with/land on the Galactic Train as it's plummeting out of control to the planet's surface? Also, the dialogue between Kogane and Sincline during the fight with the Galactic Train seems to imply that Sincline is actually piloting the mecha. This isn't named, like the majority of deathblack or mechablack beastmen. Maybe it's not technically a beastman, and just some kind of mecha?
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Raid of the Alien Mice/Look for the Little Shadows
Yeah, so it's been two weeks since I last posted. I was sick. And I'm self-employed, which means if i miss work due to sickitude, I make it up. Which means 40-minute-a-day diversions like watching and blogging about cartoons get pushed aside. But now I've got some time again.
Raid of the Alien Mice
We had a good run of episodes I really liked. Now we're in the series doldrums, I guess. Just kind of drifting . . . Drifting . . . Looking for a direction . . . Maybe we need a new gimmick. Y'know, like MONSTER MICE. 'Cuz that's sure better than searching space for new planets and talking about PEACE . . .
Nighttime on Arus. A meteor shower. The princess stands at a window. She wishes for peace on her planet. The mice wish for cheese.
YEEEEAAAAARRGGGHHH!!!!!
Several meteorites hit the ground near the castle, depositing an imperial probe droi--oh, no. It's full of evil mice. An alarm goes off in the castle and the team awakens. They gather in castle control, but don't see anything--except for some scurrying little shadows. Damn mice. Except the mice have been with Allura all night.
Allura switches costumes a bunch of times. Animation errors.
The mice go to check out the alarm, and run into demon mice. Apparently the mice are sappers equipped with explosives. They blow up a door and start a fire. Again Coran starts scanning things. They see holes chewed in the metal--and Cheddar caught in a mouse trap. Aaand . . . Nannie. The big tough mouse trapper herself. Ugh. Nannie
The team walks back to their rooms as the power goes out. They run to check on the generator. Hunk brute forces the doors open. And they see glowing red eyes in the darkness. RED EYES THAT START SHOOTING LASER BEAMS AT THEM. They return fire, and then Keith shines a flashlight on them and see . . . the DEMON MICE.
On Planet Doom, Haggar checks up on the progress of her mice with her crystal ball. Good lord, was someone at Toei hittin' the Disney a little too hard here?
In castle control, Coran shows the team a Demon Mice as it zaps security cameras with its eyebeams. The mice work their way toward the main computer. The team prepares to stop them--Cheddar volunteers to go demon mouse hunting. Coran gives him some sort of homing device. did he just have it in his pocket? The team stands outside the Master Computer Room/ Cheddar finds the alien mice, and lead them directly to the computer room. The mice get in the MC Room, and Coran tells Keith there's a robeast outside the castle.
Damn, was this episode done by the b-team? That's a terrible looking robeast. For the longest time, I had remembered this episode as part of the "new" voltron episodes, the US-only episodes WEP commissioned for a second lion season. It's not. But the animation quality is pretty low in some parts. And the robeast design is on a par with some of that season.
The team has to run to their lions, since there's no power in the castle. the robeast shoots lasers out of its fingers and keeps the team under cover, away from their lions.
Pidge can't follow the Demon Mice into the computer. But Cheddar can. He finds the mice and confronts them. By making faces. They chase him through the conduits of the computer, then shoot lasers at him. Before the lead mouse challenges him to a boxing match. Allura tells him to use the karate chop Pidge taught him. He defeats the mice and leads them into the main room, where Pidge blasts 'em.
Really. This is really happening in this episode.
The robeast is looking for the other three team members with its searchlight eyes. They're almost to the lions, when the robeast sees 'em and tries to stomp on eith. Lotor is dissatisfied with the progress, so the robeast sets the forest on fire in an attempt to cut them off from their ships.
All the alien mice have been killed and power is restored. Allura and Pidge get to their own lions as the robeast corners the team in the middle of the forest fire. Allura plays National Park Service and extinguishes the fire, then scoops up the three guys. Lotor gets excited 'cuz they're all in one lion, but Pidge holds off the robeast as she returns them to the castle. And there's a net in one of the turrets? Wow, Alfor planned for everything when he designed this castle.
The robeast grabs green and blue lions, and it's up to the rest of the team, who make their way through stock footage to their own lions. They use a lot of boxing terminology as they pound the robeast, and Pidge and Allura escape, enabling them to form Voltron.
They land as Voltron and throw the robeast. He gets back up and forms some sort of Robeast nunchaku. Volts forms the blazing sword, and that's pretty much all there is to this story.
Later, Nanny gives the mice cheese as a reward for defeating the Demon Mice. Pidge tries to snitch some, but the mice bite him. And then there's some more dialogue. About Allura's wish. Boy, this is sooo much better than Vehicle Voltron.
Look for the Little Shadows
Y'know, there are some anime fans who simply assume the Japanese version is better. There is something to be said for that, because things get lost in translation, rescripting and dubbing can get rushed and result in low-quality work, and sometimes the people working on the project just don't quite "get" the source material.
And then, sometimes, the source episode is just shit.
Like this one. Not even the original voice actors, music, and better pacing can change the fact that they're up against . . . demon mice.
Argh. (Weirdly enough, I actually enjoy the demon frog episode).
Okay, let's look at this in terms of Galra's strategy. They first tried frontal assaults. That didn't work. Then they started to find ways to separate the team so they couldn't form Golion. This "Divide and Conquer" strategy has pretty much been the way they've gone. Now, there's a bit of a shift in strategy. Galra is using sabetours (albeit stupid mousey ones) to disrupts Golion's infrastructure. Instead of kidnapping members, they're going to make it hard to form Golion by, basically, forcing them to go to the lions on foot. And, y'know, all the other advantages that come from disrupting the foundations of your opponent's organization.
OK, maybe I can outlast the rest of this episode by going on about Galra's flora and fauna. So, we've seen Galra cobras. And some sort of flowers that cause DEATH due to human allergies to their pollen. Now we meet Galra rats, who have laserbeams in their eyes. No wonder the Galra empire is full of ornery bastards like Daibazaal. Their goddamn RATS shoot LASERS!
Ugh. When the beastman appears, he makes the worst noise ever. Nothing in this episode is good. And the beastman's name is Catgun. I think the main staff was all on vacation when they did this one, and got some second-stringers from Sunrise or something.
Platt has gradually been speaking more in recent episodes. In this one, he's basically a full speaking character. I dunno. Is it a good thing that even the MOUSE is developing as a character?
On the plus side, this episode's combination sequence song is the red lion theme. Kicking at the magma.
Whew. I am glad this one is over. At least next episode is one to look forward to.
Raid of the Alien Mice
We had a good run of episodes I really liked. Now we're in the series doldrums, I guess. Just kind of drifting . . . Drifting . . . Looking for a direction . . . Maybe we need a new gimmick. Y'know, like MONSTER MICE. 'Cuz that's sure better than searching space for new planets and talking about PEACE . . .
Nighttime on Arus. A meteor shower. The princess stands at a window. She wishes for peace on her planet. The mice wish for cheese.
YEEEEAAAAARRGGGHHH!!!!!
Several meteorites hit the ground near the castle, depositing an imperial probe droi--oh, no. It's full of evil mice. An alarm goes off in the castle and the team awakens. They gather in castle control, but don't see anything--except for some scurrying little shadows. Damn mice. Except the mice have been with Allura all night.
Allura switches costumes a bunch of times. Animation errors.
The mice go to check out the alarm, and run into demon mice. Apparently the mice are sappers equipped with explosives. They blow up a door and start a fire. Again Coran starts scanning things. They see holes chewed in the metal--and Cheddar caught in a mouse trap. Aaand . . . Nannie. The big tough mouse trapper herself. Ugh. Nannie
The team walks back to their rooms as the power goes out. They run to check on the generator. Hunk brute forces the doors open. And they see glowing red eyes in the darkness. RED EYES THAT START SHOOTING LASER BEAMS AT THEM. They return fire, and then Keith shines a flashlight on them and see . . . the DEMON MICE.
On Planet Doom, Haggar checks up on the progress of her mice with her crystal ball. Good lord, was someone at Toei hittin' the Disney a little too hard here?
In castle control, Coran shows the team a Demon Mice as it zaps security cameras with its eyebeams. The mice work their way toward the main computer. The team prepares to stop them--Cheddar volunteers to go demon mouse hunting. Coran gives him some sort of homing device. did he just have it in his pocket? The team stands outside the Master Computer Room/ Cheddar finds the alien mice, and lead them directly to the computer room. The mice get in the MC Room, and Coran tells Keith there's a robeast outside the castle.
Damn, was this episode done by the b-team? That's a terrible looking robeast. For the longest time, I had remembered this episode as part of the "new" voltron episodes, the US-only episodes WEP commissioned for a second lion season. It's not. But the animation quality is pretty low in some parts. And the robeast design is on a par with some of that season.
The team has to run to their lions, since there's no power in the castle. the robeast shoots lasers out of its fingers and keeps the team under cover, away from their lions.
Pidge can't follow the Demon Mice into the computer. But Cheddar can. He finds the mice and confronts them. By making faces. They chase him through the conduits of the computer, then shoot lasers at him. Before the lead mouse challenges him to a boxing match. Allura tells him to use the karate chop Pidge taught him. He defeats the mice and leads them into the main room, where Pidge blasts 'em.
Really. This is really happening in this episode.
The robeast is looking for the other three team members with its searchlight eyes. They're almost to the lions, when the robeast sees 'em and tries to stomp on eith. Lotor is dissatisfied with the progress, so the robeast sets the forest on fire in an attempt to cut them off from their ships.
All the alien mice have been killed and power is restored. Allura and Pidge get to their own lions as the robeast corners the team in the middle of the forest fire. Allura plays National Park Service and extinguishes the fire, then scoops up the three guys. Lotor gets excited 'cuz they're all in one lion, but Pidge holds off the robeast as she returns them to the castle. And there's a net in one of the turrets? Wow, Alfor planned for everything when he designed this castle.
The robeast grabs green and blue lions, and it's up to the rest of the team, who make their way through stock footage to their own lions. They use a lot of boxing terminology as they pound the robeast, and Pidge and Allura escape, enabling them to form Voltron.
They land as Voltron and throw the robeast. He gets back up and forms some sort of Robeast nunchaku. Volts forms the blazing sword, and that's pretty much all there is to this story.
Later, Nanny gives the mice cheese as a reward for defeating the Demon Mice. Pidge tries to snitch some, but the mice bite him. And then there's some more dialogue. About Allura's wish. Boy, this is sooo much better than Vehicle Voltron.
Look for the Little Shadows
Y'know, there are some anime fans who simply assume the Japanese version is better. There is something to be said for that, because things get lost in translation, rescripting and dubbing can get rushed and result in low-quality work, and sometimes the people working on the project just don't quite "get" the source material.
And then, sometimes, the source episode is just shit.
Like this one. Not even the original voice actors, music, and better pacing can change the fact that they're up against . . . demon mice.
Argh. (Weirdly enough, I actually enjoy the demon frog episode).
Okay, let's look at this in terms of Galra's strategy. They first tried frontal assaults. That didn't work. Then they started to find ways to separate the team so they couldn't form Golion. This "Divide and Conquer" strategy has pretty much been the way they've gone. Now, there's a bit of a shift in strategy. Galra is using sabetours (albeit stupid mousey ones) to disrupts Golion's infrastructure. Instead of kidnapping members, they're going to make it hard to form Golion by, basically, forcing them to go to the lions on foot. And, y'know, all the other advantages that come from disrupting the foundations of your opponent's organization.
OK, maybe I can outlast the rest of this episode by going on about Galra's flora and fauna. So, we've seen Galra cobras. And some sort of flowers that cause DEATH due to human allergies to their pollen. Now we meet Galra rats, who have laserbeams in their eyes. No wonder the Galra empire is full of ornery bastards like Daibazaal. Their goddamn RATS shoot LASERS!
Ugh. When the beastman appears, he makes the worst noise ever. Nothing in this episode is good. And the beastman's name is Catgun. I think the main staff was all on vacation when they did this one, and got some second-stringers from Sunrise or something.
Platt has gradually been speaking more in recent episodes. In this one, he's basically a full speaking character. I dunno. Is it a good thing that even the MOUSE is developing as a character?
On the plus side, this episode's combination sequence song is the red lion theme. Kicking at the magma.
Whew. I am glad this one is over. At least next episode is one to look forward to.
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