WARNING: POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
So, I'm going to start off with my favorite anime of all time. My favorite anime is Beast King GoLion. The story starts out with showing people captured by the Galra empire. The Galra empire is cruel and this anime is not afraid to show it. From whipping and beating the slaves to having them fight and die in the arena for their own amusement, there are no limits to how cruel the people of the Galra empire can be. In a cell there are five space explorers from Earth (Kogane, Kurogane, Shirogane, Seidou, and Suzuishi). The pilots have a flashback about when they returned to Earth. When they returned, it was completely destroyed due to WWIII happening while they were gone. In the process, they are captured Galra empire. They're forced to be slaves and fight in the arena (you don't actually see them fight, but they do talk about it). They come up with a plan to escape, and end up landing on the planet Altea thanks to a lion statue. The planet has already been attacked and basically subdued by the Galra empire. The five space pilots enter a mostly destroyed castle to find the 16-year-old princess Fala and her savior/adviser, Raible. They are told about a giant robot called GoLion, which is formed by combining five robot lions (black, blue, red, green, and yellow). When they go to get the keys to awaken the lions they find that one of them is missing. While searching for the missing key, the Galra empire attacks, putting them in a tight situation. However, they eventually find the key, which was taken by a family of mice that were living in the castle, and are able to form GoLion. With GoLion, they are able to fight and defeat the Galra Empire.
Now it's time for some character introductions. I'm going to start with the GoLion team. First, I present the leader, Akira Kogane. He pilots the black lion and his nickname is Chief (which is what most of them are addressed by in the anime). As the leader, he is the one calling most of the shots and pretty levelheaded. There is an "implied" romance between him and the princess, but that it also subject to opinion. The second is Takashi Shirogane. The teams call him Quiet, mostly because the guy doesn't say much and probably the most mellow out of everyone on the team. He pilots the blue lion. Third is Isamu Kurogane. They call him Moody and is the opposite of Quiet. He is your arrogant hotshot. He's the one taking risks, but surprisingly, not the one causing the most problems. He pilots the red lion. Fourth is Tsuyoshi Seidou. He's called Hothead due to his short temper. He's basically the strong man of of the group. He pilots the yellow lion. Fifth is Hiroshi Suzuishi. He is called Chibi because he is the shortest one. Kind of hard to really explain his personality. Possibly atheletic due to the fact that he is of ninja lineage, and no I'm not kidding, he actually says this. Maybe also a genius, considering he is like twelve and already knows how to pilot space crafts, graduated from the academy, and knows martial arts. He pilots the green lion. The last one is Princess Fala. She is the only survivor of the Altea royal line (until they introduce her long lost aunt in a future episode). Her entire family was killed by the Galra empire. Raible hid and raised her after her family's death. She ends up piloting the blue lion after Shirogane's death in episode 6. She's the weak link of the group, but you can't really blame her considering she didn't do years of pilot training or any combat training either.
The allies of the GoLion team are Raible, the princess' adviser, who also watches over the castle when the lions are dispatched. There is also Hys, so is the princess' nanny and arguably the most hated character in the entire show. Most people who have commented on her death near the end of the series expressed joy that she was dead. I'm not a fan of the woman myself, but she died honorably, jumping in front of gunfire in order to save Raible. Then there King Raimon, Fala's deceased father, who speaks to Fala as a ghost giving her advise during her most magikarp flail moments (magikarp flail moments are those moments where you have now idea what to do, so you just flail around, which does nothing to help the situation). Then you have Ryou Shirogane, who is Quiet's little brother. He looks a lot like Quiet, which is probably because a lot of people like him, so it's like: "Couldn't bring him back, so let's just have his little brother who looks a lot like him come in." Then there is Prince Alor and Princess Amue, Fala's "cousins." They're not really her cousins, more like distant relatives because they share a common ancestry. Amue looks exactly like Fala, except her hair is straight, while Fala's hair is curly. Last but not least, the mice. There is a family of mice that helps the team out, and were Fala's only friends growing up. Only she can talk with them and understand them. They are actually quite useful at times.
For the Galra empire, there aren't that many important ones. There is Daibazaal, the emperor. Honerva, the witch who is always by Daibazaal's side, giving him advice and creating a lot of the evil plans and monsters with her magic. It is actually revealed in the last episode that she is Daibazaal's mother, which could explain why he never gets rid of her even though her plans have failed. Sincline is Daibazaal's son and heir. He constantly plots behind his father's back to become emperor (*gasp*). Last is Jaga, Honerva's evil cat. We had to have a rival for the mice right? Jaga and Honerva kind of share a magical/telepathic connection.
Now to start my review. I really do enjoy this series, it wouldn't be my favorite if I didn't.This series was made in 1981 and is like the grandfather of giant robot anime. The plot is very interesting and some of the characters are actually pretty complex. In addition, one of my favorite things about his series is the fact that it is not afraid to include things that are controversial. For example, is has cannibalism in it. You actually see people eating the flesh and drinking the blood of their people. It also has rape, but you actually don't see that. I especially like that series was not afraid to kill off the major characters and actually show the other characters mourning the death of those characters. For example, the deaths of Shirogane, his brother Ryou, and Hys. It's not like, they die, and then next scene everybody is talking like nothing happened. No, you actually get to see their graves and see the other characters crying that they died.
This anime is pretty violent as well. In my opinion, I don't think it's over the top either. This series is about a war between planets. There is going to be violence. There is going to be blood and cruelty. There is going to be people stabbed, shot, whipped, and even torn apart. Most of the things shown in this series is no different that what humans have done to other humans beings.
I also liked that the creators even went as far as BLOWING UP the Earth. Yes, the Earth actually does get blown up due the nuclear war causing it to be unstable. Oh, and guess what? All the surviving earthlings that are shown are all male! There was like one female from earth that was introduced and she ended up committing suicide by jumping off a cliff. It's no wonder that when it was dubbed into English it that part was edited out. Just like all the other controversial things like the cannibalism, the blood and gore, and rape.
Now, I did mention that there are complex characters in this show, and there is. The most complex in my opinion is Sincline, the Imperial Prince of the Galra empire (he appears in episode 14). He ends up falling in love with Princess Fala. He believes that she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and tries to do whatever he can to make her his wife. Even to go as far as to kidnap her lookalike cousin, Princess Amue, and use her as "substitute" until he can get his hands on the real deal. Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking, "How does this make him a complex character? I've seen this happen a million time." What makes him complex is the fact that is obsession with Fala is tied to a psychological complex that isn't revealed until about halfway through the series. Turns out that Sincline has a thing for his mommy, but doesn't know it. No, Princess Fala is not his mother, but she does look like his mother. Anybody who knows Freud, knows that this is called an Oedipus complex, which is a complex where the child is sexually attracted to the parent of the opposite sex. The name stems from the play
Oedipus Rex, which was a play about a guy who killed his father and married his mother, which he didn't find out about until near the end of the play. His response to the discovery was that he gouged out his own eyes. Now, back to Sincline. The reason his complex is so interesting and adds depth to his character is the fact that he doesn't know his mother. His mother was killed when he was a baby by his father. His mother had begged for Daibazaal to spare the lives of some captives. When Daibazaal refused, she told him he might as well dispose of her too. Well, wish granted. They told Sincline she died while giving birth to him. Now, I see Sincline's obsession for Fala as an attempt to gain the love of the mother he never knew. In the Galra empire, "love" doesn't really exist. Also to add fuel to the fire, Sincline is biracial. His mother was Altean, meaning that the planet he is constantly trying to destroy is half of who he is. So Oedipus complex, destroying half of one's own heritage, and constantly plotting to take the thrown, I would definitely say Sincline is a complex character. And doesn't help that he has a really short temper (like killing a servant woman just because she spilled his wine) and he's basically insane.
Now, it's time to talk about the flaws. Just like everything else, this series does have flaws. One of the biggest I would say is the fact that in almost every episode they use the same move to kill whatever monster they are up against. They always form GoLion and use the one sword to kill it. Granted, they do use their other attacks to weaken the monster, as well as kill it differently (such as decapitation, slicing them in half, etc). And there were also a couple of episodes where they didn't use GoLion to kill the monster, but found another way to destroy it. There are also some goofs. For example, when the pilots are falling into the vehicles taking them to their lions, you will notice the Princess is fall into the one for the blue lion even though Shirogane was still alive. There's also things that don't make a lot of sense. For example, there are times when you know that GoLion could easily be destroyed, yet, the bad guys seem to somehow mess it up enough that GoLion wins. This is a cliche always slightly bothers me. Why can't they make an episode, just an episode, where the bad guys win? In real life, you don't always win your battles, so why make it where they always when their battles in anime? There are plot holes, but every story has those.
Now, I'm going to quickly address the art. Because this was made in 1981, the anime is old school. I once read a review that said, "The animation was good for it's time, but today it is considered crude." You CANNOT compare the animation from this far back to the animation of today. There is a pretty big difference between the two styles. That's like comparing Old English (Beowulf and Chaucer English. Shakespeare spoke Early-Modern English) and Modern Day English. There's just too big of a difference. But I will admit, the animation at times does get on my nerves. For example, they will constantly change Sincline's face. Here are pics to compare:
There are also other goofs when it comes to the art. However, I actually do like the art. Maybe it's because I have an appreciation for old art. Don't know.
I'm sure by the time you guys get to the pictures you know the American equivalent of Beast King GoLion. If you guessed Voltron, then you deserve a cookie. Yes, Beast King GoLion is the unedited Voltron in its purest form. Untouched by WEP and edited to the point where it can be considered an alternate story, which is what I consider it as. Don't get me wrong, I love Voltron because it was the first anime I watched as a kid (I was born in 1991, but they showed it on Toonami). Despite all the editing, I still love it. Anyone who is a fan of Voltron know about its two American sequels: Voltron The Third Dimension and Voltron Force. Both were pretty terrible. I also know about the live action movie that they are going to make, which makes me both nervous and excited.
So, this is my first reviewt. It's quite long I know, but eh. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. I would say more, but I could basically write an essay about this anime. See you next time. ^^
