Voltron
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Wikipedia-Article "Voltron"
Voltron is a shape-changing giant robot first featured in the 1980s animated television series Voltron, Defender of the Universe. There has since been a second series, made in the 1990s using CGI techniques. The 1980s Voltron series was based on two vaguely-related Japanese anime series (both originally produced by Toei Animation & Bandai, the masterminds behind the popular Super Sentai Series in Japan), dubbed and strung together by American TV production and distribution company World Events. The series was not a straight dub, however, as much of the violence of the original Japanese series was removed (among other things).
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Animated Series
Lion Voltron (Voltron of the Far Universe)
The first episodes, usually the best remembered, were based on the 1981 series Hundred Beast King GoLion (百獣王ゴライオン - Hyakujūō Goraion), and featured a team of five young pilots commanding five robot lions, which could be combined to form Voltron. In this era, the Voltron force was in charge of protecting the planet Arus (ruled by Princess Allura) from the evil King Zarkon, his son Lotor, and the witch Hagar, who would create huge Robeasts to terrorise the people of Arus. (This storyline is similar to those of the Toei Super Sentai shows, which formed the basis for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.)
Vehicle Voltron (Voltron of the Near Universe)
Later episodes were based on the 1982 series Armored Fleet Dairugger XV (機甲艦隊 ダイラガーXV - Kikō Kantai Dairagā XV), and changed the storyline considerably. In this iteration of Voltron, the Galaxy Alliance's home planets have been overcrowded, and a fleet of Explorers have been sent to look for new planets to colonise. Along the way, they attract the attention of the evil Drule, who proceed to interfere with the explorers and the colonists. Since the Voltron of Planet Arus was too far away to help the explorers, a new Voltron is constructed using three teams (Land, Sea and Air) composed of 5 vehicles each, to battle the Drule threat.
Gladiator Voltron (Voltron of the Middle Universe)
There were plans for yet another Voltron, which would have been based on the series Light Speed Electric God Albegas (光速電神アルベガス - Kōsoku Denjin Arubegasu). This one would have been three smaller humanoid robots that combined to form one larger robot. Due to the strong popularity of the Lion Voltron, the unenthusiastic response to the Vehicle Voltron and Albegas' being a flop in Japan, World Events Productions, the St. Louis, Missouri-based company who owns the rights for both Voltron series, ultimately decided against another alternate Voltron series. Matchbox released a toy of Gladiator Voltron labeled Voltron II, in addition to Voltron I (Vehicle Voltron) and Voltron III (Lion Voltron).
To appease fans who wanted to see something spawned from the Voltron II toy, Gladiator Voltron made a brief, one-panel appearance in the Devil's Due comic in 2004.
New Projects
- Voltron: The Fleet of Doom - In 1986, World Events had Toei Animation produce some additional footage to create this crossover television special which was otherwise mainly composed of recycled GoLion and Dairugger footage. Made for the international markets, this special has not been released in Japan, as of this writing.
- Voltron in the 3rd Dimension - After some initial interest, a computer-generated series was released in 1998 to a mixed response because of its departure from the original Lion Voltron's anime look. World Events Productions went back to the drawing board to develop a more traditionally animated series in an attempt to recapture the spirit of the original. It served as a sequel to the Lion Voltron series.
- Producer Mark Gordon (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) is developing a yet unnamed Voltron movie for release in 2007.
Comic Books
In the early 80's Modern Comics produced a series based on the TV show.
Lion Voltron recently was revived in print through a hit comic-book series from Image Comics. After a six issue run, Devils Due Publishing began to self publish Voltron. The series lasted another eleven issues, as well as two trade paperbacks collecting Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 Issues 1-5. The line was ended in 2004.
Characters
Note: Full names taken from Devils Due Comic Series
Based on the American version of Voltron: Defender of the Universe:
- Commander Keith (Japanese name : Akira Kogane)- Commander and leader of the Voltron Force who pilots the Black Lion and wears a red uniform. He is approximately 21-23 years of age. Keith is a quiet individual who spends much of his time pondering his decisions, thinking up new strategies, and just being a leader. He also has this hobby of reading a lot of books -- he can often be found doing so either in the pilot's lounge or in his room.
- Lance Charles McClain (Japanese Name : Isamu Kurogane)- Second in command of Voltron who pilots the Red Lion and wears a blue uniform. He is a tall man, both wiry and wiley, about 21-23 years of age. Lance is always cracking jokes and teasing others whenever he gets the chance. He is the only one in the group who has the guts to contest any of Keith's commands. He is also a ladies' man, a great pilot, though a bit too daring at times.
- Sven Holgersson (Japanese Name : Takashi Shirogane)- Sven was the second in command who piloted the Blue Lion and wore a black uniform in the very beginning of the series. In episode 6, he was badly injured during an attack by Haggar and was sent away to be healed. Allura replaced him as the Blue Lion's pilot. His age is about the same as Keith's. Sven now resides on the Planet Pollux with Princess Romelle and Prince Bandor, both cousins of Allura. Sven was always very quiet and spoke only when he had something important to say. Though he may not look it, he is a very emotional person, and his heart is always leading his mind in any decision.
- "Hunk" Garett (Japanese Name : Tsuyoshi Seido)- Hunk is the strong-man of the group, piloting the Yellow Lion and wearing a yellow uniform. He is about 22-24 years old. He may look tough and mean, but he has a soft heart, especially when it comes to children. He is never late for a meal. Though his friends tease him about his appetite, most of Hunk's bulk is muscle.
- Darrell "Pidge" Stoker (Japanese Name : Hiroshi "Chibi" Suzuishi)- Pidge is the youngest and smallest of the group; he pilots the Green Lion and wears a green uniform. He is approximately 16-18 years old. Pidge graduated from the academy at a young age, and his specialty is science. Like the others, he is well-trained in martial arts and uses his size and agility to his advantage. Pidge is not afraid to speak his mind, especially to the bad guys, and his heart is often in his words.
- Princess Allura' (Japanese Name : Princess Farla)- Princess Allura of the planet Arus is the ruler of the Kingdom of Altaire (as well as the entire planet for the most part). She takes over for Sven as the pilot of the Blue Lion and wears a pink uniform. Her age is about 18-20. Though a bit naive, especially with matters of romance, Allura is a strong-willed person and is very capable of ruling her planet, though some like Coran and Nanny tend to disagree.
- Princess Romelle (Japanese Name : Princess Omuvei)- Princess Romelle is Allura's cousin who lives on the planet Pollux, where she co-rules with her brother, Prince Bandor. She is a dead ringer to Princess Allura. Though once a slave of Lotor, Sven came to her rescue and together they fight for her people against the Drule empire. She is also in love with Sven, who returns her feelings.
- Coran (Japanese Name : Raible)- Coran is Allura's royal advisor, and is in charge of the Castle Control. He also advises the Voltron Force and is very wise, though he can be very overprotective and opinionated sometimes.
- Nanny (Japanese Name : Hisu)- Nanny is Allura's over-protective caregiver who always wants to make all of Allura's decisions for her. Like Coran, Nanny fusses over the Princess and is bent on keeping her away from all harm.
- Prince Lotor (Japanese Name : Prince Sincline)- Prince Lotor is the evil son of the Drule King Zarkon. He dislikes his father greatly and wishes to rule in his place along with Princess Allura, to whom he's developed a strong and obsessive attraction. Lotor is a very sly, smart, smooth, powerful man who exudes force and emanates pure evil. In Go Lion, Sincline's obssession with Fahra is due to the fact that she resembles his mother, whom Emperor Daibazar (aka King Zarkon) had killed. In other words, this is basically an Oedipus complex.
- King Zarkon (Japanese Name : Emperor Daibazar)- King Zarkon of the Planet Doom is one of the rulers of the Drule empire, though by no means the absolute ruler. He is constantly using others as scapegoats for his own failures, more often his son Lotor.
- Haggar (Japanese Name : Honerva)- Haggar the witch is the one responsible for creating all of the Robeasts Voltron must go up against. She is also notorious for using her dark magic to cast hypnotizing spells over people. Though she was once good and beautiful, she is now evil and ugly.
- King Alfor (Japanese Name : King Raimon)- King Alfor is Allura's deceased father and previous ruler of planet Arus. He returns to the world of the living every so often in a ghostly form to give advice to his daughter to help her in her struggles to maintain peace on Arus and the surrounding galaxy.
Differences between the Japanese and American Versions
Besides the name changes, and to conform to the stricter standards of American children's television, some modifications were made to both series.
General Modifications
- Shots of shooting/explicit torture (e.g. whipping) prisoners/civilians/slaves, shots of corpses removed.
- Grunts being shot (as infantry) or being blown up (when in ships/fighters) were referred to as "robots", as are spacefleets.
- In the case of special characters, they ejected/were rescued and taken to treat their injuries, even though they died in the Japanese series.
Series specific changes:
Golion:
- Takashi's (Sven) character died when he battled Honerva (Hagar). His younger brother Sho was the one who fought Sincline (Lotor) at the siege of Planet Garla(Doom). Sho and Sincline fell to their deaths whereas in Voltron they fell into a pool and survived.
- It was a goddess not Honerva that split up Golion due to his arrogance (Golion is supposedly sentient, although this was subtly discarded in the series)
- The Merla arc never existed; World Events requested Toei for more episodes. The original series ended with the destruction of the giant Daibarzaal(Zarkon) robot which killed him.
Dairugger
- Manabu(Jeff) has a serious relationship with Haruka (Lisa)
- Chip was never Pidge's brother.
- All the Galaxy Alliance officers the episode focused on were killed, unless it was explicitly shown they survived (i.e. they are in succeeding episodes), likewise, this is also the condition for Drule officers and leaders.
- The series started with the Drules and the Galaxy Alliance having tense relations with the Drules attacking the Explorer on the grounds it violates their space. In the Japanese series, both powers were unaware of each other and there was no overcrowding for the Alliance, the Explorer is merely an exploratory vessel and the Drules are stretching their power, not looking for a new world.
References
As Voltron was a popular and distinctive cartoon in the United States during the 1980s, many artists who grew up watching the show have recently started referencing the show in more modern works.
- Voltron was featured in the satirical web-based cartoon strip Get Your War On.
- Voltron was referred to often by the eccentric rap group, Wu-Tang Clan.
- Voltron was also mentioned in episode three of the webcomic series Red vs Blue, comparing them to women, in that "the more you hook up, the better it gets".
- In an sketch of Robot Chicken, "You got Robo-Served", Voltron is forced into a dance competition against a Robeast and loses. Voltron proceeds to kill the Robeast with his sword.
- In one story arc of the webcomic Okashina Okashi, five pilots manuver robots to form a Voltron-esque giant robot...only to screw it up and make an origami crane instead.
- In an episode of Sealab 2021, 5 mice are placed inside the empty bodies of five Sealab crewmembers, who were now robots. The mice are all wearing Lion Voltron flight suits and shout "GO VOLTRON" after they are all placed inside.
- In a Sprite commercial, Voltron was controlled by five rappers instead of the cartoon version.
- Voltron was referenced in the VH1 anthology series I Love the 80s 3-D
- Voltron is name-checked in the song 'Funky Voltron' from Edan's 2005 album 'The Beauty and the Beat'
- There is a grindcore band named Voltron whose lyrics are based around the show.
External links
- Rhapsody in Blue Voltron/Prince Lotor fansite
- World Events Productions homepage
- The Official Voltron Force Homepage
- Purrsia's Voltron Central - Voltron fansite with images, information, episode guides and fan listings for both classic Lion and Vehicle Voltron.
- Hyakuu Ju Oh Goraion - Japanese version of Voltron
- Anime Secrets Review of Voltron Fleet of Doom
- Cossack the Terrible - Humorous and fun fan page done from Cossack's point of view