Here's the thing, Voltron: Defender of the Universe has two seasons but only one of those was shown in Japan. Over there, or"Hyaku Juuoo Goraion" a.k.a. "Hundred Beast King GoLion" was a one and done in Japan. It didn't go over very well and that was pretty much it.
Then it was brought over to North America and it became a smash hit. So much so that they commissioned the Japanese company that made it to make a second season. And when that was done they found another show, that was kinda like it and turned that into another Voltron. There was actually a third and toys were made for it but they never did the localization for it and it never showed up on TV.
The show itself is your typical monster of the week Sentai show. You have colorful characters who pilot five mechanical lions and make up the typical five man band. You have the Leader, Keith who's brave and stalwart. You have the Lancer oddly named Lance who's the hothead. You have the Big Guy in Hunk. The Brain / Small Guy in Pidge. And the Chick in the Princess. And like a lot of cartoons of this type it follows the same theme every week. The baddies send a giant RoBeast to cause havok and destruction.Then they form Voltron and we can all remember the sequence as it's burned into our collective memory. They fight, can't get a clear advantage and must form the Blazing Sword which ultimately saves the day.
A lot of cuts and edits were made and in some cases episodes were chopped up and reassembled to try to make a coherent whole. For example one of the original members, Sven, was defeated and had to go recuperate on some other planet. Whereas in the original he straight up dies. So in this it's a lot like Battle of the Planets VS Gatchaman. The Japanese version showed a lot more violence and death whereas this version was cleaned up for our fragile little minds.
It's not great story telling but it was fun for the time. They have since tried to reboot the show three times to my knowledge with varying degrees of success. There was the terrible CGI abomination. Then there was another version where the original Voltron Force had been retired and some of the members were even in hiding due to reasons. There were new characters introduced to this but I never really got into it. And the new version which seems to be doing much better but it lacks a lot of the magic that the original had.
Then it was brought over to North America and it became a smash hit. So much so that they commissioned the Japanese company that made it to make a second season. And when that was done they found another show, that was kinda like it and turned that into another Voltron. There was actually a third and toys were made for it but they never did the localization for it and it never showed up on TV.
The show itself is your typical monster of the week Sentai show. You have colorful characters who pilot five mechanical lions and make up the typical five man band. You have the Leader, Keith who's brave and stalwart. You have the Lancer oddly named Lance who's the hothead. You have the Big Guy in Hunk. The Brain / Small Guy in Pidge. And the Chick in the Princess. And like a lot of cartoons of this type it follows the same theme every week. The baddies send a giant RoBeast to cause havok and destruction.Then they form Voltron and we can all remember the sequence as it's burned into our collective memory. They fight, can't get a clear advantage and must form the Blazing Sword which ultimately saves the day.
A lot of cuts and edits were made and in some cases episodes were chopped up and reassembled to try to make a coherent whole. For example one of the original members, Sven, was defeated and had to go recuperate on some other planet. Whereas in the original he straight up dies. So in this it's a lot like Battle of the Planets VS Gatchaman. The Japanese version showed a lot more violence and death whereas this version was cleaned up for our fragile little minds.
It's not great story telling but it was fun for the time. They have since tried to reboot the show three times to my knowledge with varying degrees of success. There was the terrible CGI abomination. Then there was another version where the original Voltron Force had been retired and some of the members were even in hiding due to reasons. There were new characters introduced to this but I never really got into it. And the new version which seems to be doing much better but it lacks a lot of the magic that the original had.