5:30 am. DVR or tape it.

It's also now on Comcast's OnDemand service until 12/31. Under "Cutting Edge > Anime Selects"

I watched the first four episodes last night. It's just full of plot-holes and bad storyline continuity. You could No-Prize some of this stuff, but check it out:

-The "Space Explorers" are sent to "bring back Voltron". At the end of the first episode, Keith, who had never been to Planet Arus before, recalls the story of how Voltron was defeated by Hagar.

-In the middle of the second episode, Curan tells the "Space Explorers" how Voltron was dispatched when Zarkon attacked (last episode). Huh? He then tells the same exact story Keith did. So how did Keith know this story, if it happened recently? It's also confusing, because the whole premise of the show was that Voltron had been missing for awhile.

-When they're captured by Zarkon, they're called "Space Explorers". Upon landing on Arus, Curan dubs them "the Voltron Force". Immediately, Zarkon, back on HIS planet also begins referring to them as "The Voltron Force". Huh?

-At the end of the first episode, the Explorers' ship is helped to the ground by a tractor beam from the Lion statue. Next episode, no mention of the tractor beam or Lion is made and the Explorers' ship crashes. Also, Yurac was pursuing the Explorers and said, "That's the end of them". But in the next episode he's still pursuing them.

-More first/second episode goofs. As the show opens, the Explorers approach Arus and see that it's being bombed by Zarkon. We're shown ruins of what looks like a modern day city, with skyscrapers, roads and everything. Later, Arus is depicted with Greek columns and appearing almost medieval.

-Yurac supposedly hates Hagar and her Ro-Beasts...but his ship supplies the energy beam that causes the Ro-Beast to grow.

-At the end of the third episode, the Lion robots are defeated by a Ro-Beast. We're then told that the Ro-Beast had to sleep...and the Lions were able to return to the castle. All good monsters need their nappy time.

-Quite a few inconsistencies when the team jumps into their Lion tunnels for the first time. For instance, Keith goes into "1", but ends up at the Green Lion's home.

Funny stuff:
-They make a point to call all of Zarkon's men "ROBOTS". They get zapped, crushed and shot down quite often. If it had been PEOPLE, there would've been a problem.

-They don't hide Sven's eventual departure well. Closing credits for all episodes clearly show the Princess as a member of the team, with Sven nowhere in sight. She's also quickly shown in the Lion tunnels, when all 5 guys land in their shuttles. I remember catching this the first time I saw the show as a wee lad.

-In the first episode's opening, Keith and Hunk are shown in their spaceship-- when it's actually recycled footage of Jeff and Rocky from the Vehicle Voltron episodes. It works, since those two pairs were identical. It also makes sense that the Space Explorers would originally have had the same uniforms as the vehicle team.

-I'm guessing that the opening bombing sequence might have been Earth, originally. An orbit shot of "Arus" looks suspiciously like Earth, with the Pacific Ocean and Japan clearly visible. That would make sense-- Earth gets bombed by Zarkon, so they send a crew to go get Voltron. It would also explain the difference between Arus's inconsistent appearance. But...then where do the Galaxy Garrison scenes take place? Probably some butchering/editting when the show was translated.

-Who pilotted Voltron before? Was Voltron sentient and his own robot, until getting zapped by Hagar? If so, then why did the King have five KEYS to Voltron? They obviously had the five tunnels in place.

-Along those lines, if Voltron was recently broken off into five pieces, why do they have five well-developed tunnels to each piece?


urrrgh...must...not....think...about....show... musn't....!!

Yeah, the dubbing kind of ruined it. Basically the destroyed city is an Earth city and in the Japanese version they come back to find out nuclear war had broken out.

Also in the Japanese version it wasn't Hagar that broke up Voltron. I guess there were hints of him being a living being and a goddess destroyed him due to his own arrogance.

You probably also guessed it but Sven was killed in the original series but they edited it out. The DVD has a lot of unedited footage during the documentary part. The gladiator scenes from the first episode are a lot more bloody, etc. I've heard rumors the uncensored Japanese version will be released with subtitles in a few months.

That's the thing that always bothers me about the American-ized anime (Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman, Star Blazers, Robotech and Voltron)-- there are enough hints leftover from the "real" version that it's confusing.

When I was a wee lad, I suspected that Sven was killed... but when he came back later in the series, that kinda' shot that theory. I'm guessing that the later Sven episodes were produced specifically for the American version.

Another thing I've always wondered-- were the guys always assigned to the same lions in the Japanese version? It always threw me off that Lance wore BLUE and pilotted the RED lion. Keith wore RED and pilotted the BLACK. Sven wore BLACK and pilotted the BLUE lion. You'd think those three would've worn uniforms to match their lion.

I should probably Wiki or Google this stuff. But I always find Voltron sites that feature basic bios, plus "fan fiction" and "fan-art". Oh boy.

The later episode was Sven's brother. They mention it on the DVD and how it was perfect for them. They also cut out other minor crap like eating with chop sticks and stuff like that. There was a second season that was American only though.

Sheesh..the ol' "Brother Who Looks Just Like the Dead Guy"! That's so General Hospital.

I also noticed that the Force did alot of praying in the early episodes. They're stuck in a vulture's nest on PLANET DOOM and begin praying-- or maybe they're simply focussing and meditating. Later on, they open the King's crypt and pray again.

Now if they can just get TRANZOR Z back on... nothing like hermaphroditic villains and titty missiles!

There were a lot of religious undertones in the Japanese version again. They got cut out for the U.S. version.

I watched the fifth episode last night and it has one of the greatest lines. Zarkon and Hagar are babbling about making another Ro-beast. Zarkon says to her: "when you use your magic, witch....make it EVIL!!". With the appropriate pause and emphasis on the word EVIL. I love that.

I downloaded a copy of the movie where lion Voltron and vehicle Voltron team up. I'll probably watch it sometime tomorrow.

I've never seen that. Could you make me a copy or USendIt?

Yeah, I'll try and work on it tonight. I'll have to break it up into smaller files to get it on a download service.

Much appreciated. Or if it's just easier to burn it on a CD as a ".wmv" file and mail it, that's cool. In exchange, I'll send ya' some old timey cartoons or some shit.

Ok, I'm uploading it to the megaupload site since I can do big files. It should be ready to go in a little bit. I'll PM you the link then. If anyone else is interested just drop me a line.