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.

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?

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.

It Takes Real Lions/Friday the 13th

Okay, this is a more pedestrian episode for me.  I guess this is where the series started to become routine for me . . .

It Takes Real Lions

Planet Doom.  Bad-face Lotor is standing on a rock outcropping.  He's watching a crazy looking three-eyed robeast as it fights three robeast lions.  The robeast lion designs are actually pretty cool looking, though the main robeast is too bizarre for me.  During the fight, Lotor flashbacks to an argument he has with Zarkon.  The robeast has swords it pulls out of its knees, and glowing laser rope thingies that it uses like lariats.  It also shoots beams out of its head-eye.  The other two eyes are on its chest (what is with these designers and repurposing nipples?

On Arus, the team is practicing in their lions.  Allura is having trouble staying in formation.  Damn azimuth.  Keith coaches her, and then the team uses a mountain for target practice.  The black bazooka has a new design I kinda like.

The animation in this episode is a little different.  Farmed out to a different animation studio to make up for running late?  The cockpit models are a little weird looking.  Basically, they're drawn in a style very different from what we're used to.

The team lands in the lake in blue lion (How'd they all get there?) and go swimming.  Aaand Allura loses her bikini top.  *sigh*  And then, just when thngs couldn't get more annoying, Nanny.  *blargh*

Nanny and Coran see Allura lounging on the lakeside in her pink bikini, and then I'm not really sure what happened.  Possible traumatic brain drama from smashing my head against the wall.  Clearly, the Arusian royal court hasn't seen much of what passes for British royalty the last couple of decades.

Whew.  Back to Haggar's gnarly looking workshop.  Lotor (who keeps switching animation models) and Haggar see the Voltron force hangin' out at the beach in Haggar's crystal ball.  Lotor launches in his flagship.

Allura, back in her Enchanted Kingdom dress, is bored with studying.  The night sky is lit up by a strange light she sees through her window.  The team sees the same light in the rec room.  They run to castle control.  Coran enlarges them on the screen to reveal a space coffin and the batplane.  Coran urges them to launch without the princess.  What?  Why?

I guess the last few episodes overshadowed illogic like this with rampant coolness.  So far, there's nothing really cool or memorable happening.

The team buzzes the robeast.  Bad-face Lotor deploys the robeast.  The goofy-looking thing gets out of the coffin and supersizes itself.  The team does a flyby, and Lotor, who's apparently just learned to count, realizes the blue lion isn't out.  He veers off and heads for the castle.

The team bounce off the robeast, and it throws Hunk down and steps on him.  The rest of the team open fire, and then the robeast lassoes the three of them.  Lotor approaches the castle.  Apparently, the castle hasn't gone on defense like the first time Lotor attacked.  Lotor sees her standing at her window.  He draws a pistol and shoots a grappling hook (?) into her room.

In castle control, a computer read-out indicates trouble in the princess' room.  In her room, Lotor has princess backed up against the door--which opens and two guard run in with submachingeguns.  Coran rescues Allura, and she rushes to her lion despite his (and Nanny's) protests.  A veritable stampede of guards drives Lotor out.

Allura reaches the team as the robeast tosses them around with the lassoes.  Blue lion slices through the ropes with her ion knife (that's what they're callin' it these days).  And what?  They say she accomplished that with perfect form, and she says "Does that mean I'm on the team?"  Haven't we already established that?

Then they form Voltron.

Voltron kicks off the fight with eyebeams, and then both sets of lion torches (hands and feets).  Then the robeast uses it head-eye beam, knocks Voltron down, and brandishes its knee-sword.  Yellow lion hits it with a missile, then they form blazing sword and lop off an arm.  The robeast spins around, then explodes. 

Back on Castle Doom, Haggar tells Zarkon how Lotor took Arus completely by surprise--and lost.  Then, at the castle, Allura stands in her window and vows never to bow to Lotor.  And she now knows she can be both her peoples' ruler and defender.  Again, hasn't all this been established already?!

Friday the 13th

Sincline calls the beastman Kauman.  Is that like "cowboy?"  He has spurs, too.  And Kauman's opponents are leopard beasts.  Daibazaal is angry at Sincline for not defeating Golion, and the absolute rule of Galra will be threatened.

Kogane's treatment of Fala is much harsher than Keith's of Allura.  And they smash the mountain with a maneuver called "V-spin." 

The backgrounds of the split-screens in this episode are unusual, too.  I really think a lot of the animation was handled by a different group then usual.

The space mice theme plays during the topless swimming scene.  Oddly, I don't think Voltron cut any of that out.

Ugh.  Hys.  That voice is worse than Nanny's/  Or, maybe it's the second time running through these scenes.  Gods.  I'd gouge my eyes out, but I'll need them later.

We get more of Honerva's "El roy mu el roy mu," and the crystal ball tells Sincline to attack tomorrow.  So that's what he does.  There's a whole weird time sequence that basically works out to Friday the 13th.

And, Raible has brilliantly locked Fala in her room and grounded her from training and . . . fighting?  Seriously, guys, haven't we covered all this before?  Is this your idea of development, or is this just a filler episode that got rushed and farmed out to some other studio?

Oh, and Sincline kills some of the guards who rush in to rescue Fala.  He attackes them with a sword while they're using submachineguns.  It takes a wave of reinforcements to drive him back out the window.

At least they form Golion to the blue lion song.  Again.

Okay, so I just don't like this episode.  The animation is dodgy, and it takes a few step backwards in terms of character development with the princess.  Basically, it's filler.  If this were based on a manga, I'd be guessing that they're waiting for the manga writer to catch up.  But they're not, so they must just have been behind schedule.  God, even the beastman explodes in a way that annoys me.

The Deadly Flowers/Phantom Space Flowers

And another favorite in a row.  A new plot (biological warfare), a new planet, and Lance is actually showcased in this episode.

The Deadly Flowers

Arus.  In space.  With pink things floating down to the planet from outerspace.  And the Invid Flower of Life takes roo--er, no.  Other pink flowers.  Of death.  They take root in the desert.  And Peter Cullen narrates the opening for the first time.  The Arusians are overjoyed at this miracle.  The mice (disease vectors if I ever saw one!) bring Allura flowers.  she proceeds to dance around her room like a 5-year-old.

And then Zarkon is upset that they've sent flowers to another planet.  But this is no bouquet.  These are evil flowers.  On Arus, people start keeling over from the flowers.  The mice run back to their mouse hole and decontaminate themselves with a watering can.  Allura orders Coran to contact Dr. Gorma, who says the flower disease can only be cured by flowers from planet Lira. 

Lance returns from burning all the flowers.  The team expains to him that they need to ge to planet Lira--but, naturally, it's protected by a magnetic field.  Blue lion, however, can somehow circumvent the magnetic field.  We don't get to hear exactly how, because then Allura passes out.  Lance takes off in blue lion,

Lira looks more like a gas giant from orbit.  Oh well.  Lance has already landed, and uses the blue lion's tail as a periscope.  But, in a palace thing that looks an awful lot like an Invid hive, Lotor is hanging out with the king of Lira.  They watch blue lion land and Lotor gets all excited.  He sends troops to capture who he thinks is the princess.

Lance lands, climbs a mountain and eats "honey" from some sort of rock basin.  Then guys with arrows ambush him, let by a girl.  She explains that the roses of Lira are the source of all their livelihood and only their supreme ruler can give anyone permission to use the roses.  Then the Doom snowmobiles from the last episode appear and take Lance before Lotor.

Lotor is upset he got Lance instead of Allura.  He backhands him onto one of the flying snowmobiles.  The girl explains that he is here because the princess is ill.  Lance cuts his bonds on the front grill of the snowmobile, and a sword fight ensues.  Lance has Lotor up against a wall, and then he gets his sword stuck on a magnetic rock.  Lotor knocks him into the river, and then sends troops to blow up blue lion.

The king here apparently has his own troops that look a lot like Lotor's brand of Doomites.  They even have similar uniforms.  Doomite mercenaries?  The king tries to haggle with Lotor--that doesn't go so well for the king.  Lotor gets both the medicine, the gold, and destroys all of the flowers.  And . . . doesn't kill the king.

Lance returns to blue lion, and discovers that the pool he's in is full of flowers.  Then Lotors troops start blowing up the flowers with WWI era German hand grenades.  Farla (the girl introduced earlier) confronts the Doom troops, but they throw her into the pool and "stun" her archers.  Lance rescues Farla and she gives him seeds to the Roses of Lira. 

Lotor's fleet attacks the Castle of Lions.  He delivers an ultimatum to the castle.  They launch the three remaining lions against him.  Lotor launches the new robeast against them.  Four arms, and we've still got the services of the good Robeast designer.  The three lions try to attack him with their lion blades.  It doesn't go so well.

Allura gets out of bet to help them, actually tossing Nanny aside.  Desparation makes you strong.  The team is bombarding the robeast with everything they've got as Allura joins them in the red lion.  The robeast bombards red lion, then tosses black lion around.  And I'm not even going to mention Nanny's stupid dialogue.

Lance reappears and knocks Keith free.  They form Voltron.  Voltron forms spinning laser blades and actually mouths the words.  Huh?  They then use their stingra missiles and the electro saber to further tenderize the beast, and then cook it with the blazing sword.  Lotor's fleet withdraws.  He explains to Zarkon that he has a lifetime supply of Lira's flowers to keep Zarkon alive in perpetuity, and got all his gold back.

The team poses on the castle balcony as the newly-healed Arusians clap, and Allura smooches Lance.  And the mice kiss Pidge.  Lance vows to replant the seeds on Lira, and Allura offers to join him.  The two fly blue lion--did they take turns?  Or did Lance insist on driving the whole way?

Phantom Space Flowers

We open with the pink flower . . . seeds?  Spores?  Tryffid transportation modules?  Whatever they are, they land on Altea with an explanation by the narrator, as in Voltron.  When the space mice bring the flowers to Fala, they're accompanied by their theme song.  Which sounds like Wizard of Oz Munchkins on an acid trip.

There's a painting or a portrait in Fala's room.  Is that a royal ancestor's portrait?  Or something she snipped out of Tiger Beat?

Fala is the one who orders Raible to have Dr. Gior bring the sick to the castle.  And the problem is that the flower's pollen causes a severe allergic reaction.  That can only be counteracted by flowers from Amazon.  And, luckily, the orbits between Amazon and Altea are close at this moment, and Fala thinks maybe Amazon's magnetism would be mitigated by . . . *GAK*.

Yeah.  Same as in Voltron.

That blue lion tale periscope is cool.

The king of planet Amazon is King Amazon.  Actually, that might be a titular thing.  Like Bob, the archduke of Buckingham gets called "Buckingham" in official documents.

Jeez, some animators should try actually rock clombing once in a while.  It'd make sequences like Kurogane scaling the mountain look a little less generic.  Still, it's not as bad as some of the old Sunbow GI Joe episodes.

When he is apprehended for stealing amazonian honey, Kurogane doesn't react to the fact that Galra red army soldiers pick him up.  Come to think of it, maybe they haven't seen this Galra ethnicity outside of Sincline.  Their uniforms are much different from the gray and black Lego Castle outfits the black army soldiers favor.  There's also much more variation in bodytypes amongst these troops (the three Sincline sends after Kurogane look like the three stooges).

The amazonian girl's name is Aimee.

The blue guys working for King Amazon even have the same color scheme in their uniforms as Sincline's solders, red for officers, dark blue/black for gun fodder.  Maybe, since Amazon is apparently a client kingdom, these guys belong to a different Galra army?  Like the Amazonian Green Army, similar to Sadak's Black Army and Sincline's Red Army?  Oh, and this is the first episode where the red army is actually named.

Pink flower peftals juxtaposed with violence is sooo Japanese.  That whole macho sakura petal thing.

Okay, so why exactly does Aimee die?  The Galra soldiers backhand her into the water, and then shoot all of her men.  But she crawls out of the water on her own, gets her arm bandaged by Kurogane, and . . . kicks off?  Does she die of grief?  Hypothermia?  Did Kurogane put the bandage on too tight?

I do like the way Sincline's flagship looks distinct from the rest of his fleet, but all of the ships still share a general layout.

Sincline's words on seeing the three remainng lions, that Voltron is so much scrap/Golion is a lump of iron, are almost identical between both versions.

The beastman's name is Deathbeetle.  Makes sense, since he's obviously beetle-esque.  Not as awesome a name as Killwrestler.

When I was a kid, I relaly liked the fact that black lion and red lion both scratch the beastman on the chest and form an x.  Whenever we played Voltron in the playground, I wanted to do that with every robeast we fought.

We form Golion to the blue lion themesong.  I wonder if these songs were ever released?  There was a Golion toyline (which is why WEP and Matchbox licensed these shows in the first place).

WHY DOES GOLION'S MOUTH MOVE?!?!

The laser magnum attack is called, but it's animated more like a one-handed grand fire.

Daibazaal is upset that Sincline attacked Amazon without his permission.  The resolution is the same as in Voltron.  And the sequence on the castle balcony with the adoring Alteans is the same as in Voltron.  However--apparently I misremembered this, but when I was a kid, I thought Allura/Fala never went back to her Disney Enchanted Kingdom dress after she became blue lion's pilot, that she only went between the Golion uniform and her pink jumpsuit.  Clearly, I was wrong, 'cuz she's welcoming Disney visitors--er, Altean citizens in all of her royal finery.

It'll Be a Cold Day/Altea's Sister Planet

Still in favorites territory.  I partly like this episode because I always like "winter" episodes in my vintage cartoons.  Because I've spent a good chunk of my life in that frozen tundra known as the upper-midwest, and always thought it was funny when cartoons have maybe 1 in 50 episodes set in snow.  When, y'know, most years like this one, 1 in 50 days is WITHOUT snow.

Sorry.  That's just an exaggeration.  For comedic effect.

I also like it because it brings back a thread established a few episodes back, and one that will run through to the end of the series (the Romelle/Amue thing).  For a cartoon from 1981, this is very Babylon 5-ish, to set something up in a way that's pretty casual and then have it carry through to the end.  Of course, anime is different than American prime-time live action science fiction, but it was a sophisticated concept for me when I was 8.

It'll Be A Cold Day

The episode opens on Doom, with Lotor laughing maniacally.  His voiceover continues as the scene changes to Romelle and several other slaves in the Doom prison.  He plans to use her as bait to capture Allura.  He enters her cell, and I bet he's in a bad mood because he put on the wrong animation model--it's a bad face day.  He abuses Romelle for a while, then carries her out.  Later, she stumbles back into the cell alone, and flashes back to the events on Pollux that led her to this state.  The three other slaves tend to her and bring her water.  The begin plotting to escape. 

Romelle has a plan involving fire.

Guards on duty near the spaceport loaded with Skull Slave Galleys suddenly see smoke, and react the way any guards on duty near expensive ships under a totalitarian regime would: They panic.  Romelle and her three co-conspirators board one of the galleys (they were wearing headscarves.  To protect themselves from the smoke?  As disguises?)

Zarkon in having a feast.  Many officers and Lotor are present.  An officer in yet another uniform variant approaches Lotor and apprises him of the fact that Morgil is in pursuit of Romelle, who's escaping.  We next see the galley fleeing Lotor's fleet.  This is the first time we actually see his ships doing things close up (last episode, they just kinda bombarded the team from a distance).  Lotor orders his fleet to use only stun beams.  The stun beams leave the galley tumbling through space, in flames.  That's some nice stunnin', boys.  Romelle gets an S.O.S. off to Bandor.  Haggar contacts Morgil with a plan . . ,

The team is in castle control.  They receive her SOS from the ice planet Neve (clearly named in honor of that frigid bitch from the Scream movies).  They see that Bandor is also en route.  They launch in the lions and form Voltron.

This is also the first time we actually see the Polluxian trireme-ships in action.  Voltron reaches the planet and disassembles into the individual lions (using reversed footage from the Golion opening).  Bandor and his men (who fortunately have snowsuits to wear over their togas) drive to the galley in a slick snowmobile.  Allura is surprised to find Cheesey, the mouse, hiding in her, um, uniform.

They enter the galley.  Allura goes off alone (HOCKEY MASKED KILL-oh, wait) and finds Romelle.  Who is actually Haggar in disguise WITH A CHAINSAW--oh.  No.  Before Haggar can grab Allura, Cheesy attacks her.  Bandor comes in and doesn't quite get it, until Haggar reveals herself.  The blue cat foes after Cheesy, but Pidge very elaborately kicks him.  Bandor goes for Haggar, but she . . . bops him on the head and takes him captive.  The team opens fire, but she escapes.  They follow her on a Doom-built snowmobile (we'll see then later as air-speeder things).

They lose the witch, but hear Lennie Weinrib practicing his Vincent Price--er, Lotor cackling evilly.  Then his ship scrapes to a landing on the ridge above them.  He proposes a bargain--Romelle and Bandor for Allura.  He threatens her with his laser sword, which is pink today (this must be part of his craggy-face animation model).  As the team debates and Lotor gnaws on scenery, a blizzard blows up.

Keith tells Allura to go to Lotor.  And he's got a plan.  Keith tells Lotor to perform the trade simultaneously.  Romelle and Bandor trudge down the hill in the snow, while Allura trudges up and Keith sneaks along with her, keeping in cover.  Haggar orders Morgil to prepare the robeast for when Allura is in their clutches.

Keith gets ahead of Allura and uses his belt buckle to attract snow as a disguise.  He passes Romelle and Bandor and they don't notice he's not Allura.  Just as he reaches Lotor, the Robeast emerges from the snow--and this guy's back to the classic deathhell/Galcia design lineage (I like it, in other words).  The team even engages the robeast all old school, ramming into him.

Bandor vows to go back to Lotor for vengeance.  Romelle goes with him.  Keith approaches Lotor and de-ices and draws his weapon on Lotor.  The cat jumps on Keith's face and Keith finds himself held at bay by Lotor's sword--until Bandor shoots the sword from Lotor's hand.  He tosses the pistol to Keith, then draws his own sword.  Romelle's packing a dagger.  Of course. Lotor manages to reverse things again, with Haggar's help.  Bandor and Keith are knocked down and Romelle is recaptured.  Keith assures Bandor that they'll get her back, then rejoins the team in black lion.  They reform Voltron. 

Wow, two combination montages in one episode.  Was Toei running low on story for this one?

Voltron punches the robeast, who responds with an energy blast "High voltage ray."  Amazingly, they wrestle around some more and then we get the blazing sword.  First they lop of robeast's arm, then cut him horizontally, and then vertically.  Has Voltron been practicing Toyama-ryu? 

In a scene cut from another episode, they threaten Lotor, who . . . agrees to release Romelle?!  And then Voltron lands in the city ruins on Arus and happy villagers rush to him.  Errr . . .

Altea's Sister Planet

This time, we have the narrator explain Amue's situation.  With a lot less moustace-twirling laughter (oh, come on, if Lotor had a 'stache, he'd be twirling it).  Sincline's abuse of Amue is much more obvious in this one.  Again, the narrator does the explaining during the flashback sequence.  And the narrator refers to Amue's situation as being "Sincline's plaything."  Oi.

Huh.  The Galra spaceport fire alarm is the same as Castle Gradam's alarm.

The music the Galra officers like to party to is, as always, completely thwacked out.  Again, Sincline is advised that Gobra is pursuing Amue in her stolen ship.  Sincline apparently catches up, and instead of ordering his fleet to use "stun beams," he urges them to "KILL THEM ALL."

Just a slight change in translation.

They approach Planet Russel, just as a lone fighter takes one last shot at them.  She manages to get off an SOS.  Sincline complains that those Golion jerks (actual translations) might show up.  Honerva decides to use it to their advantage.

And, the SOS is actually in something like morse code when they hear it in Castle Gradam.

They try out some new sound effects when Golion combines (to the instrumental theme song version).

Seriously, just because the planet's named Heracles, do they really have to wear togas and Roman legion helmets?

Apparently Chuchule told Platt to help out.  And when Fala puts Platt back into her . . . uniform to stay warm, Kurogane very blatantly says "I wish I was Platt."

Umm, where'd Amue's fellow slaves go?  Probably best not to ask.

Akira Kamiya's laugh is much lower key than Lennie Weinrib's. 

Fala says she must go if it means saving Amue and Alor--they're like her brother and sister.  Woah, Princess, in the last episode with them, they spend most of the episode plotting to invade your planet!  I guess she's the forgiving and not the vengeful type of monarch.

Oh--Sincline actually uses a pistol to prod Amue and Alor into the exchange.  I think that's the first time he's used something other than a sword.

The beastman's name is Killwrestler.

Kogane disguises himself simply by switching off his suit's heater, rather than doing some tekspeak thing.

We also see that Sincline's flagship is able to transfer a space coffin into the ground.  So that's how they get all the beastmen underground on Altea. 

Galra's tactics, and particularly Sincline's, have mostly been to separate one of the lions from the others so they can't form Golion.  This is yet another of those attempts.  Of course, Sincine is so preoccupied with nabbing Amue again that he sort of just lets Kogane get away and rejoin the team.

For the second Golion gattai scene, they combine to the black lion theme.  And, seriously, the first thing they do is use red lion to punch Killwrestler.  God, they don't watch enough MMA.  I mean, a good grappler is more than a match for any striker.  Oh, shit, Golion's using a sword now.  Nevermind.

Okay.  Killwrestler is dead.  Golion lops the top of Sincline's ship off, and Sincline escapes in an escape ship.  I guess this does actually happen often enough that it's plausible when WEP just sort of mentions it in the dialogue.  And we hear Amue cry out, and Sincline laugh, and Alor collapses to his knees, weeping, while the Golion team all look distraught.

Pidge's Home Planet/Goodbye Earth

Another favorite.

Pidge's home planet

We open on Castle of Lions.  And Nanny.  Blaugh.  Allura has to get married off to a prince consort to be coronated.  And the team's not good enough.  But hey, they'll make great butlers.  Y'know, it's a good thing we don't have to sit through all of that political crap and talking, talking TALKING in Vehicle Voltron.  I mean, watching our heroes in silly Buckingham Palace uniforms kissing the hand of the princess in Disney's enchanted kingdom is NON.  STOP.  ACTION.

Just as bored as I am, the team (sans princess) goes to castle control and sees radioactive missiles bombarding the planet Balto, Pidge's home planet.  The team decides to go intervene, but princess, Coran, and palace gaurds come to stop them.  If they leave, they leave Arus without Voltron.  And then, Nanny.  Keith makes the point that Voltronb's duty is to defend other planets in their federation.  Coran places them under house arrest.  They beat up the guards (damn, those guys have a shitty job).  They leave without Allura and the blue lion.

As they fly off, Coran opens fire with the castle's AAA batteries.  To, y'know, give them a salute.  Yeah. 

Ah, planet Doom.  I was kinda jonesin' for that clanky planet Doom music.  Zarkon, Lotor and Haggar all watch the team fly to Balto.  Lotor takes off with his flagship and a flight of other ships.  This is the first time we get a good look at the other ships in Lotor's fleet.

The team approaches Balto, which has been destroyed, wiped out.  They fly over a city swamped by lava.  They near Pidge's village, and land near his old school.  It looks like the people escaped to another planet, but the planet is lost.  Inside the school, they suddenly hear weapons bombarding the position.  It's Lotor's fleet.  He deploys fighters.

Keith shoots fighters down with his proton missiles, while they others fire their lions' shoulder weapons.  Then Lotor launches the Robeast--who is basically Kurt Langstrom, the Man-Bat, with a Haggarian makeover.  He launches missiles out of his shoulders, then flaps his wings real hard to blow the Voltron force out of the sky with a tornado.  Then it commences to strafe them.  Oh, yeah, and he has batwings on his knees.

Allura sits in her room, and they can apparently see Balto through her window.  Keith convinces her to go to their aid through, um, telepathy?  I think it's meant to be a radio transmission, and WEP is kinda pretending they're in castle control.  Coran and Nanny try to stop her, but they don't try very hard.

Lotor observes the princess' arrivle while the robeast knocks the team into a crevasse.  Red lion tunnels through the rock.  As Allura arrives, the shoots a flight of Doom fighters down from behind.  This turns Lotor on.  So he hits blue lion with some sort of energy weapon from the bow of his ship.

Underground, Lance uses red lion's weapons to start a volcanic eruption, separating the team from the robeast, and disabling Lotor's ship.  The team sees the princess, and they form Voltron.  They start the fight with the electro-saber, deflecting energy frisbee things the robeast launches from its mouth.  Voltron throws the sabre, then the robeast pins them to the volcano with a force field thingy from its wings.  Then the volcano erupts more and knocks the robeast over, breaking the forcifield.  They form blazing sword, and destroy the robeast with some weird star-shaped enery blast.

Lotor is angered that they've destroyed yet another robeast, but a robot convinces him to leave before the planet explode.  The team follows suit, shedding a few tears for the passing of Pidge's home planet.  And this is the first planetary explosion we see in Voltron--there'll be plenty more in Vehicle Voltron (well, at least three more).  Pidge wishes he could have seen his back yard again.  Allura offers to make Pidge an honorary citizen of Arus.

After the last commerical break, we get a hodge-podge of scenes edited together to represent Pidge's new citizenship celebration.  Y'know, to make up for all the stuff that was cut out of Golion.

Goodbye Earth

Because it's EARTH that's actually being destroyed, seemingly by a combination of the after-effects of World War III and a meteor bombardment, not by any efforts of the Galra empire.  But even though this is the original Japanese version, I'm not so much of an Otaku that I will claim that the Japanese version of something is ALWAYS better.  The opening bullshit with the princess being told she has to get married off isn't any better in Japanese.  In fact, Hys' voice grates on me even more than Nanny's weird Russian milkmaiden accent.

However, I wonder if the prince Fala is supposedly marrying in Hys' hallucination is a "cameo" of a character from another series, or just a generic character design.

When they go to castle control, they're just looking at Earth out of nostalgia, but happen to catch the meteor strikes.  They're pretty vague about what exactly is happening.  Fala tries to appeal to the team, while Raible is the one who brings out the guards.  And . . . Hys.  But at least I don't have to keep track of a dozen different Drule captains.  That would suck!

And as they launch in the lions, we're serenaded by a thematically weird choice of music.  I guess it's a variant of the black lion theme.  Because they mention black lion in the chorus.  Oh, and Raible is actually trying to shoot them down.  Suzuishi gives Kogane some crap about wanting to stay on Altea (these are really about as far as the hints of a romance between Kogane and Fala get, reams and reams of fanfiction be damned).

Daibazal doesn't think too much of the Golion team, since they're prone to internal dissent.  'Cuz, y'know Galra just kills everyone before they get to the point of dissension.

When they arrive at Earth, they see that entire oceans have been replaced by magma--at least the oceans the animators remembered to draw as magma.  They fly over a shelter near their old Fuji Space School.  And where their families all used to live.  They enter the shelter to see a skeletal hand that scribbled on the wall in blood.  Then a tremor shatters the skeleton and it's all reduced to dust.  And Galra attacks.

Weapons used: Black bazooka, red laser, green gun, (yellow) gatling missiles.  And the beastman is named Batolda.  That's right, Batolda.  I sorta like his design.  He's kinda back to the Deathhell and Galcia realm of beasstman designs.

Suzuishi says he'd be happy to die on Earth.  Seidou calls him a dumbass.  Fala, in her room, is looking at Earth out a window (!?).  And she hears the voices of the team in her head.  She decides she must go after them.  And she is able to reason with Hys and Raible.  It seems as though she simply doesn't want them to be on an obviously dying planet like Earth, not that she knows they're under attack.  But then again, she's not surprised to see Sincline's forces.

When they form Golion, it's again Formation V.  With an instrumental part toward the end.

Heh.  Batolda.  And he talks!  He tells Golion to die, just before the volcano erupts.  They form Jyuoken and use the "Great Whirlwind" attack.  Apparently that's the Golion verson of the Tachikaze or sword wind.

As they leave, Kurogane seems to think making mount Fuji erupt is what destroyed the Earth, but Kogane assures him that it was the "abnormality" they saw back on castle control's monitors.  And Fala offers Altean citizenship (more or less) to all of them.