#dairugger spoilers
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nesonkin · 3 years ago
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"Izumo really changed"
A post about a subtle development of a side character in DaiRugger XV named Izumo Tatsuo.
In the very beginning Izumo is shown to have a very romantic side to him. His idealism painted his world views and his actions. Here are some examples of the dialogue I was able to find that support this.
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Here, we have Izumo responding negatively to Dr Search telling him their efforts fighting over a planet were worthless. And a little lower is him responding negatively to the food being spent on a PoW. At this point his black and white thinking influenced by Earth's encounters with the Galveston Empire have painted a picture in his brain where all Galveston soldiers are at fault for what happened. And to him he is justified in his distrust.
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When Izumo finally begins to understand the grey areas presented by the conflict and he makes up with Sim his drive doesn't go away. Moreover the newfound perspective gives him even more drive to pursue his dreams of an ideal future for everyone.
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And then Sim meets a terrible fate.
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And after this happens we get our first substantial Izumo moment in episode 20 where he tells Haruka off for being naive and optimistic. The change in the attitude is noted by Patty.
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ln the same episode we get another out of character dialogue bit from Izumo, now with Walter.
And here's the last (for this post) instance of Izumo being called out on his lack of romance.
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Can you really blame the guy when he watched his alien bf die right in front of him?
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tiredsp7 · 3 years ago
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Has anyone made a trigger warning list for zero escape? Because I want to recommend it to people. But don’t want people to be caught out by anything
Edit:
There is a list someone has made and I have permission to share it
Credits to dairugger!
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nomadicism · 5 years ago
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For someone wanting to get into the voltron franchise, would you suggest watching Golion (and Dairugger) first or DOTU?
Hi Anon! Thank you for the Ask!
This is a hard one! I think it would depend upon whether or not someone (you?) already enjoys anime with subtitles, and if one has a lot of patience and time. There are 124 episodes total for DotU, 72 for Lion Voltron, and 52 for Vehicle Voltron. Both Golion and Dairugger XV have 52 episodes, and good luck finding the final 16 of Dairugger XV in DVD quality with the official subs (more on that at the very end)†.
All together that’s 228 episodes plus the Fleet of Doom TV special. That’s A LOT of watching. Note, that Lion Voltron has 20 more episodes than Golion, this is because completely new episodes were made to create a second season after the show did so well. Alas, they couldn’t compete with all of the other toy-hustling cartoon shows, so the Lion Voltron story ends on an odd note with some un-resolved story, unless you count the Fleet of Doom TV special as the official ending of the story.
So what would I suggest?
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Option 1: If you love anime and have patience and time, then I’d recommend watching Golion, then all of Lion Voltron, then Dairugger XV, then Vehicle Voltron, and then Fleet of Doom.
Option 2: If what you really want to focus on is Voltron, then don’t bother with Golion. Watch Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron and Fleet of Doom, and then decide if you want to check Golion and Dairugger out.
Option 2 is kind of self-explanatory, so I’ll break down why you might want to go for option 1. Mostly, it’s that I think it would be really interesting—as a first time viewer—to watch them back-to-back so you can see what was changed, and hopefully appreciate the work that went into DotU, especially Lion Voltron. It also brings an extra meta-meta perspective if VLD and Tumblr memes were your first introduction to Voltron.
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Example above: The praying Keith meme comes from a scene that was partly cut for Lion Voltron due to religious connotations. In Golion, it’s a serious and—in my biased opinion—a very touching scene for Akira that reveals his spiritual nature. Being in touch with traditional Japanese beliefs, is part of his character (and arguably, an important team leader trait for the genre). It makes a lot of sense in context, but you’d never get that from DotU.
Speaking of work—a lot of work went into making Golion work for an American kid-friendly audience—from what I recall, they didn’t even have proper scripts of the original b/c they weren’t expecting to get Golion, they thought they were getting Mirai Robo Daltanius instead! I love DotU, but it’s campy and some parts don’t age well. I’m not sure what I would think if I were to watch it for the first time today as a teen or in my early 20s. You kind of have to go in expecting to laugh and cringe-cry at the weird stories that your oddball drunkle tells when he stops by once a year (not the whole thing, but there are some moments…)
It’s still a good story, but they don’t construct stories this way for animation anymore, and this was a time when broadcast rules were very strict for children’s TV. So if you’ve not watched a lot of 80s broadcast cartoons, then it’s gonna feel weird at first. Also, things were cut/censored (some obvious to cut, others less so): there’s a crucifixion scene, any-and-all references to religion, any time someone dies the dialog will mention something about robots, “Set your guns to maximum stun!”, “Wow! He sure escaped there fast!”, etc. You could play a very deadly drinking game with the obvious coverups.
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Above: Cossack the Terrible is more camp than menace.
It’s worth watching all of Lion Voltron just to get to the made-for-US episodes where they introduce Merla and Cossack. Their dialog gets real weird sometimes, and there’s a bit of “flies right over the kids heads” going on if you know what I mean. Lotor is incredibly hammy. If you are serious about getting into the Voltron franchise and continue into later series—including the DDP comics which I highly recommend—then you’ll want to know where Merla, Cossak, and Stride the Tiger Fighter come from.
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Above: Space Goddess appears to the Golion team in their hour of need. This scene is very different in DotU.
For Golion—relevant to Option 2, but also for comparing if you’re going with Option 1—I remember being super excited to track it down on IRC in the late 90s/early 2000s and then being very shocked when I first watched it. I was still new to older mecha anime at that time (was hard to find). I watched Golion with my childhood Voltron nostalgia goggles on, and they got ripped off in the first episode. This is why Option 2 works, b/c if you want to focus on Voltron, then Golion is totally skippable. It’s a different story, you’re not missing anything that will give you that sweet Voltron feeling.
If I were to watch Golion for the first time today, I’d still find it very dark, but also tame compared to some other shows. Two of my favorite things about Golion are, Sincline’s gradual descent into madness, and the way Princess Amue slap-shames some sense into Ryou—he’s a hot mess when they first meet—despite what she had just been through (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers). None of that is in DotU. In some ways, the story is deeper than DotU, while DotU is more fun and endearing.
Now onto Dairugger XV and Vehicle Voltron! 
If you’re new to my blog, then you might not have seen my posts giving the elevator pitch for this show. It’s my favorite part of DotU. I’m in that small minority of Voltron fans that prefers Vehicle Voltron to Lion Voltron.
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Above: Vehicle Voltron has three team leaders! The XV of Dairugger XV stands for 15, as in 15 pilots.
Dairugger XV and Vehicle Voltron hold up better over time (I’ll admit, that’s subjective). They have a very different feel from Golion and Lion Voltron, even though the writers did their best to tie Lion and Vehicle Voltron together. The story is more intact between the two, with the noticeable changes being the censorship of death, the nature of the relationship between Teles/Hazar and Sirk/Dorma (my Tumblr avatar is Sirk/Dorma), and the ending.
If you were going with Option 2, then I’d still recommend watching Dairugger XV, because it’s probably one of the more unique of the super robot/combining mecha monster-of-the-week shows and there will never be another like it.
Overall, Dairugger is less dark than Golion, but Golion has the funnier humor. This is true of Lion and Vehicle Voltron as well. At least Dairugger/Vehicle Voltron has Hazar’s shower scene, and the infamous scene where Krik puts his hand waaaaay too far down the back of Jeff’s pants for a simple slip of contraband. ;-)
Best way to look at them is that Lion Voltron/Golion is like Star Wars, while Vehicle Voltron/Dairugger is like Star Trek.
I hope that helps, and I hope you enjoy your deeper dive into Voltron!
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† Unless there’s been a recent change in streaming availability, it’s difficult to find all of Dairugger XV, especially those last episodes. I’ve only ever seen episodes 37–52 of Dairugger XV as low quality fansubs, and I’ll be damned if I pay $300+ for a used/second-hand final set of official DVDs. I have no qualms about paying for a good quality bootleg of the official release though, so if anyone knows where I can score that, then let me know. I sincerely hope that WEP re-releases them, perhaps they’ll do that if the new release of the DotU DVDs sells well. Check the Voltron store page for the new Lion and Vehicle Voltron DVD sets!
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elliepw · 6 years ago
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Voltron LD
Ok so I caught up on Voltron finally and I posted a nice warm non spoiler reaction to Facebook, but this is not Facebook so all the spoilers and salt will be here. 
YOU ARE WARNED
Ok so I loved LD’s ending. I loved the whole show. It is amazing and great greatmazing. So I am salty AF at all the hate the end gets. It like Harry Potter all over again. Just because the ships you want don’t sail or whatever chr doesn’t get the waffy ending you wanted does NOT mean an ending is bad.
Let me go over the most common complaints I’ve read and tell you each to fuck off.
A lot of the crap is over some ship or romance or pairing that didn’t happen or didn’t happen the right way enough for someone.
Fuck off!
I grew up on Voltron DotU and went into LD with the FIRM belief that without the unhealthy love triangle between Keith, Allura, and Lotor you can’t even have Voltron. Keith’s unidirectional crush on her, Lotor’s rapey obsession with her, the vaguely homoerotic hate boners Keith and Lotor have for each other, and her being too good for both of them, It is just essential to the plot! They didn’t do it I got over it get over your own ships or go write steamy fanfic, Fuck off.
Another thing I see is that so-and-so ship happened but did they earn it? we don’t get to see it!!
FUCK OFF!
LD it an action show not a soap opera. You don;t get to see Lance and Allura on dates. You don’t get to see Shiro fall for bridge crew guy. Even the show told yall to fuck off in that one episode where they are filming everything and you almost see Allura and Lance kiss and my dude covers the camera and says, “No that’s private.” THAT SHIT IS PRIVATE. LD is not that kind of show. It is up to us to imagine them kissing and banging and stuff, fuck off.
Some people feel that Lance gets a bad ending because he becomes a farmer.
FUCK OFF
Yes he wanted to go off and become a pilot and have adventure at the start. And then he FUCKING DID THAT and along the way grew as a person and came to value his family and the simple joy of surrounding himself with his family on their farm and things he loves. That is such a perfect chr arc how can this piss people off he is literally a better more mature person for all the shit he went through, fuck off.
Allura dies and it is sad and that makes it bad.
OMG FUCK OFF
Yes it is sad. very sad, that she sacrifices herself. That does not make it bad. It makes it moving and poignant. And it does not come out of left field Allura has been a self sacrificing person. I thought this was moving and beautiful, you can fuck off.
Lotor didn’t get a redemption arc!
just... just fuck off
Lotor is evil scum and he doesn’t deserve a redemption arc they already went soft on him, fuck you and fuck Lotor.
What happened to Pidge?
HOLY SHIT FUCK OFF YOU FUCKING FUCK FUCK
It said the Holts went on to fucking build vehicle Voltron or Dairugger or some shit. How are you going to be pissed off over a char WHO’S LAST NAME YOU DON’T EVEN FUCKING KNOW!? *pant* fuck off
If I have not told you specifically to fuck off you may assume your opinion is valid or that I will tell you to fuck off at a later date.
Was LD perfect? No but it was damn good. They took a show that was just GoLion painted over and shown out of order with gaping editing holes held together with sticky gobs of nostalgia (that I loved) and they made it a new real thing, its own thing. They made it Voltron. Something that others have tried and failed to do well.
I liked it. I really did. If you didn't that is ok you are entitled to your opinions too.(even though you’re wrong)
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aquaburst3 · 7 years ago
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Because I’m bored and need to straighten out my own headcanons, I’m gonna list off even more characters in my Reverse Voltron fic.    I’m not gonna list off every character and OC, since that’d take forever. I’m only gonna do the most notable secondary characters or other major characters I forgot to mention before, who are based on past Voltron characters. 
Also, if you don’t want to be spoiled for my fic, don’t read this. This will contain massive spoilers. 
Villains 
Merla:  She was once Lotor’s friends and even partner’s in crime with Lotor, being the one that broke him out of the pod when he was 15, being around the same age as him. She sided with him since they were both former Galra royalty, her being distantly related to a broken off section of the Galra royal family, who wanted to fort Emperor Alfor. That changed when Lotor left her behind on a mission, leaving her for dead, around a year before the events of the fic.  Feeling like she was betrayed and angry, she joins Alfor’s side, not only to infiltrate his empire and break it apart from the inside, but also to make Lotor pay. Because of this, she’s a huge thorn in Lotor’s side. In addition that, she also secretly hates Alteans and everything they stand for, wanting the empire to burn to a crisp for killing off the Galra on Daibazaal and after everything they did.  After all, nothing is more deadly than a woman’s scorn. 
Like Lotor, she uses tech, which she also made,  in her plans. She has a mental mind link with her pet vulture, Vicious, who tells her if someone has ill intentions towards her.  She also has her own team of generals, comprised of  the OC Ako (the yandere of the team, being kinda like Himiko from Hero Aca) and Kala (being more quiet and calculating along with the muscle of the group). Ironically, they are merely under her command and she’s prepared to toss them to the sharks, not mourning their loss, if she must. And she’s building a machine that can tap into other realities and send people into a reality to live out their worst nightmares.
 When she confronts the paladins for the first time, she makes Azora (Ezor) an offer to join her team for a short while and then she’d send her back to Earth to be with her family again. Ultimately, Azora turns down this offer and stays the Blue paladin.   When Lotor’s teammates figure about Lotor’s past betrayal, it does make them question on a small level whether something like that will happen again, especially for Azora  and Nasrin (Narti). 
Later on, she’s the only other villains who side with Go Lion outside of Allura and her squad, only because she deep down wants the empire to stop too, but more so reluctantly. She also helps out Lotor’s generals once in awhile out of similar goals, but will never admit it out of both pride and her scorn for Lotor.
Personality wise, she’s a scheming plotter, much like Lotor. Unlike Lotor in this version, she is more willingly to do ruthless tactics to get what she wants. She makes a lot of snappy remarks, mostly at Lotor’s expense. 
 The best way to describe her is that she’s like Missy from Doctor Who or Demona from Gargolyes.
(As a side note, she wears armour similar to Lotor’s ex generals and the other female Galra in VLD, not the weird armour she wore in DOTU or that dominatrices outfit she wore in the comics)
Avok: He’s a general under Alfor. He’s Allura’s distant cousin (since he’s born closer to the present while she was born 10 000 years ago and recently woke up from cyrosleep), but is still very closely linked to the Altean royal family, who is only siding with them in order to be in their good graces and gain more power, possibly the throne, for himself. 
He was almost engaged to be Allura’s husband, but this was changed when it was decided that Keith would be in a political arranged marriage with Allura to unite the last living Galra on Mamora and the Alteans in a false image of peace.  Because of this, he despises Keith for getting his way and wants him to pay for stopping his plans. 
He also is deadly because he’s Romelle’s brother and she’s the leader of the Guns of Gamora. Romelle has to be extra careful to avoid his gaze otherwise it would be game over for all of the rebels. 
Personality wise, he’s very ambitious and a deadly fighter, but lacks any sort of cunning and any sort of hard core planning to make his goals a reality, which is part of the reason why Romelle has been able to avoid him for all these years. Make no mistake, that ambition and willing to do anything to get ahead does make him a very powerful threat. 
Wade:  He’s the new leader of Galaxy Garrison, replacing Iverson, along with being a powerful player in world politics. There’s a lot more to him than that. He’s in league with Emperor Alfor, who has his sights on Earth as his next target to make it more peaceful and under his empire’s control along with turning the more rebellious humans into non-cogs. By teaming up with Alfor, he wants to be the new leader of Earth, proving his technology is superior and his philosophy of working to the top in the process. He also wants said power to protect his loved ones from Alfor as well. He’s also building another mecha on Earth by taking Go Lion’s blue prints and reverse engineering them in order to have a even more powerful weapon to combat it; this mecha’s called Robotech.
While he lacks psychical strength, he makes up with military cunning and being very cut throat, being even willing to kill teenagers to come out on top.  He is also very disciplined and honourable, believing that you have to earn in order to be at the top, which is another reason why he despises the paladins for inheriting Go Lion instead of creating it.
The best way to describe him is a mixture between Lex Luther and Wrath from FMAB.  He doesn’t show up until the 3rd “season” and is the main villain of that arc.
Heroes
Romelle:   Romelle is the leader and creator of the Guns of Gamora, being around the same age psychically as Allura, along with being Allura’s distant look-like cousin. Even when the paladins first meet her, they are thrown for a loop since she looks like Allura with shorter hair. 
Romelle is very direct in her leadership, being willing to get her hands dirty to get things done in the organisation. She is very compassionate and loving, but not a person to trifled with. She’s also very calm and level-headed when it comes to dealing with politics, being able to see both sides of a situation and set her own emotions aside to do the greater good.  She is willing to give people a chance before passing judgement, being brave, spirited and determined as well. Allura is just learning about what happened to her kingdom while she was in the cyropod and is still very unaware of some of the horrible things going on, Romelle, meanwhile, has a better grasps of politics and what’s really going on under the surface of the empire her uncle has created due to being in this world since she was born. She can be overbearing and over protective as well, being to safe with her plans before she loosens up more, along with not being good at thinking on her toes. The best way to describe her is that she’s like Suki from Avatar.
 Romelle and Lotor don’t get along very well. They set their ill will towards each other aside for the bigger picture, forming an alliance. 
Bandar:  He’s still a child, being around 10. He’s a kid, who wants to be an adult, having a bigger role in the rebel organisation and be a badass fighter. But due to Romelle’s over protective nature, he is kept from the fighting. He often rebels and disobeys orders to fight. He can be playful and carefree, but still tries to come off as more mature.  He’s sorta like Aang only with a more rebellious streak
Hys: The best way describe her is that she’s like Miss Beakly from the Ducktales reboot. She’s a member of the Guns of Gamora, who took on the position of being Bandar’s nanny. She’s a stern and strict woman, but is very loving and caring to those dear to her.   She’s also a deadly fighter when she needs to be. 
Cossack:  He starts off as a low ranking general, who only became one due to being a noble's son, being stationed on the planet that Green teleports Nasrin to after the paladin’s first battle with Alfor. After finding her knocked out in the middle of the woods in broken paladin armour, he takes her to a dissolute base in order to put her into a healing pod before she dies from her wounds. After awakening from the pod, Nasrin fights him at first, but calms down after realising that he was the one to help her and gave her a chance, his people needing of her help.  Over the course of time, she helps the people of Mamora rebel against the Alteans and Nasrin gives him the courage to fight back and join the rebels. She and Cossack get crushes on each other, starting to date as well later on.
He’s around the same age as Lotor.   (Tbh, I’m not sure about his age in the original series since he has wrinkles like Haggar and even seems to have a crush on her, but acts like he’s in his early 20s like Lotor. I’m screwing the rules and just saying he’s a teenager like the rest of them to make my life easier.)
Personality wise, he’s a bit more of a goof ball and tries to lighten up the mood when things get too tense, but can get serious when the situation calls for it, kinda like Lance in the canon. He has insecurity issues and wants to be a powerful warrior like his father, puffing himself up in order to sooth his ego. Over time, he learns that he can be a strong fighter in his own right. He also lies to cover his own ass, which bites him in said ass when dealing with his superiors. Despite this, he does have a brave and noble heart, being abrasive, passionate, can over explain his plans and sceptical as well.  The best way to describe him is being a mixture of canon!Lance and Sokka. 
Dorma: She’s Cossack’s sister.   (As a side note, yes; I know Hazar is Dorma’s brother according to Vehicle Voltron...despite her being Hazar’s slave in Dairugger from what I heard. But due to Hazar and Kolivan being pretty much the same character, it would be super redundant to add him in as well.) 
Due to growing up during the war, she is tries to be mature, nurturing and motherly to her younger brother, much to his dismay, because he’s only a year younger than her. She tends to be more logical about things, but is willing to give situations and people a chance, too. Like her brother, she joins the rebels later on after seeing the bigger picture of things. She’s compassionate and a good fighter as well. 
The best way to describe her is that she’s like Katara from Avatar personality wise, but fights like Korra. 
Commander Shinji Hawkins: He’s the Matt/Shiro parallel in the series. He was one of the members, who were abducted on the Kerboros Mission.  Like Matt, he was broken out of prison and moved up the ranks to be fairly high up in the rebel command. Personality wise, he is level headed, valuing to be more calm and diplomatic about things. Like Shiro, he can explode if you press his buttons enough. He has PTSD from his days of captivity. As you might imagine, he faced a fair amount of Shinji Iraki jokes back at the Garrisons. He doesn’t show up until later on, like Matt, and is unaware what happened to his teammates Graham and Marshall. 
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nesonkin · 6 years ago
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You can’t convince me that the Atlas from VLD isn’t a reference for a Space Explorer from Voltron Vehicle Force/Armored Fleet DaiRugger XV
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nomadicism · 7 years ago
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Top 10 mecha anime?
Thank you for the ask!I’ve included links to series openings or good scenes when possible.
10. Chōdenji Machine Voltes V [超電磁マシーン ボルテスV] Voltes V is the stronger of the “Robot Romance” trilogy and several concepts and themes later made their way into Golion (and thus Voltron). It’s a straight-forward super robot/combining mecha show with sentai theming and obligatory 80s ruined earth setting that later punches you in the face with a tragic antagonist/protagonist backstory reveal. VLD Keith owes a lot to his Voltes V counterpart, Ken'ichi Gō, and I don’t even think it was intentional, it just spilled out by virtue of genre tropes.
9. Space Runaway Ideon [伝説巨神イデオン] (TV/Movies)Japanese OP here. Don’t let the upbeat opening song fool you. This is Yoshiyuki “Death Count” Tomino at his best. More mind fuckery than Evangelion (which was influenced by Ideon). I love the character designs, the Ideon combiner, the concept, and that’s all I’m going to say about it.
8.Adventure! Iczer 3 [冒険!イクサー3] from the Iczer OVA seriesJapanese OP here.Not the best mecha anime, the Iczer-verse OVAs are more of a cross-genre of body horror, mecha, magical girl (arguably), and yuri. The series (beginning with Fight! Iczer One) introduced tentacle horror ahead of Urotsukidōji and—even though I’m an Ace—I will never turn down mecha-piloting lesbian space elves. What can I say, the 80s were weird. The mecha designs were really cool and influenced later series like Evangelion and Dangaioh.
7. Aim for the Top! / Gunbuster [トップをねらえ!] OVAsJapanese OP here.Incredible character and mecha design. Ambitious mecha concepts. Soviets. OMG moments. Jupiter!? Break out the tissues because [spoiler spoiler] space physics [spoiler spoiler].
6. Aoki Ryūsei SPT Layzner  [蒼き流星SPTレイズナー]Japanese OP 1 here.I have a soft-spot for hybrid alien protagonists, Cold War settings, AI ethics, and Painfully Obvious Anti-War Themes. Layzner is a great “real robot” action series with touches of survival thriller pacing, that left its mark on later mecha shows like Evangelion and MS Gundam 00. See also obligatory 80s ruined Earth scenario + late series weirdness. Alas, Layzner is very much dated in the gender role department and it runs afoul of one of the worst (IMO) tropes in storytelling in the very first episode. Breaks my heart b/c so much of the series is fantastic. The Skull-Gunners are Aliens-level creepy.
5. Super Dimensional Fortress Macross [超時空要塞マクロス] / Robotech: Macross SagaJapanese OP here.I’ll use the Robotech names here, b/c that’s a little easier for me.
Macross is the one mecha anime that—while I think that the SDF-1 and the 3-way transforming Valkyries/Veritechs are hella cool—I love it for the ambitious inclusion of relationship storylines rather than the mecha. Which says a lot b/c I’m ship agnostic and usually prefer not to see romantic storylines outside of rom-coms or romance-specific genres. Macross gives storylines for 3 couples: one is the quintessential love triangle, the second is the first time I ever saw a biracial couple in animation (OTP: Claudia and Roy), and the third is the absurdly-rushed-yet-compelling battle couple Miriya and Max. Claudia is one of my favorite anime characters b/c Reasons.
What does this have to do with mecha? Absolutely nothing but somehow Macross made it work while launching a franchise known just as much for its moe idol singers as its mecha.
Additionally, Macross (and Robotech) influences can be seen in many series (Japanese or Western), and the Roy Fokker easter egg in the first episode of Voltron Legendary Defender was my clue that I was going to love VLD (I also suspect that Rick, Miriya, and Max were snuck in as well). LM name-dropping Robotech as having influenced the way they wrote the conflict in VLD continuing beyond Zarkon’s death confirmed my hunch that there are other Robotech influences in VLD as well.
4. Beast King Golion [百獣王ゴライオン] / Voltron: Defender of the Universe (franchise as a whole)Probably not fair to combine Golion with Voltron, but I will anyway. I love Golion and the Voltron franchise for different reasons, but overall the super sentai team concept is stronger in Golion/Voltron than in other super robot/combining mecha shows, which when combined with the lion design and space-fantasy theming makes them stand out.
3. Armored Fleet Dairugger XV [機甲艦隊ダイラガーXV]  / Vehicle VoltronCombining mecha meets Star Trek. Ambitious with its 15 member team—“I’m a foot!”—and political themes. The original has quite the body count, so the Voltron DotU version is hella sanitized with dialogue like: “Set your stun guns to maximum stun!” or “We’ll come back for him later!” LOL okay Dorma (Sirik).
It’s hard to get characterization with so many characters, but, unlike a lot of other shows, there are 4 regularly occurring female characters with speaking lines and I never felt like they were terribly slighted in the gender role department. No damsels in distress here.
2. Genesis Climber MOSPEADA [機甲創世記モスピーダ ] / Robotech: The New GenerationWhile definitely a feather-weight of the real robot mecha genre, the Cyclones are a fun take on transforming mecha/real robot battle armor. Once again, obligatory 80s ruined earth setting. Also, I’ll take all the androgynous gender bending that I can get b/c—this one’s personal—as a tomboy child in the 80s (we didn’t have access to words/concepts like gender fluid back then), Yellow Dancer was a huge deal for me and still is.Clip of Yellow Dancer spoiler scene but I don’t care.Bonus: “Look Up The Sky Is Falling” holds up surprisingly well for an 80s cartoon song about environmental destruction.
1. Mobile Suit Gundam [機動戦士ガンダム] franchise (Universal Century preferred).This is a cop-out, but I love all Gundam UC timeline series for different reasons and it’s impossible for me to pick which one is “the best”. There’s a reason the franchise is still going strong after all these years, and his name is Char Aznable, the Red Comet, Yoshiyuki Tomino (even when he’s not involved, his initial concept was so strong that it lives on without him).Clip of Char in Zaku II from MS Gundam Origins here.
Runners-up: Six God Combination Godmars, Shin Getter Robo, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, Super Dimension Century Orguss, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Vision of Escaflowne, Aura Battler Dunbine, Heavy Metal L-Gaim, and Knights of Sidonia.
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