Voltron (Beast King GoLion)

[TigerRaptor]

I've been rewatching old shows I haven't seen in a very long time, like Voltron and such. I even watched the original Japanese version, and now I see why Voltron was "very" edited. This show is rather messed up.

Remember Sven? He dies.



More violence. No robots here.

[vision]

...and now I see why Voltron was "very" edited.

I think some of the edits to these shows make sense considering animation in Japan wasn't just for kids like it was for us, especially in the 80s when every show was basically a toy advertisement. However, my favorite show back in the day was Battle of the Planets / Gatchman and the US version is terrible. You probably remember the show and how they added a robot character to narrate new content in place of the cuts. Even as a kid I hated that robot. It totally ruined the pace of the show. Also, I find even the Japanese versions of most of these shows unwatchable. I remember trying to get through Mazinger Z a few years ago and couldn't make it a third of the way through. That said, I still love super robots!

[Vander]

I loved the first season of Robotech when I was a kid, but found it really hard to follow the subsequent seasons. I later learned that each of the seasons were completely unrelated shows rewritten (and translated to english) to fit an overall storyline.

I ended up watching an english dub of Macross SDF-1 (the show that first season of Robotech was based on) and it was much better than I remembered. Really good science fiction.

[TigerRaptor]

I think some of the edits to these shows make sense considering animation in Japan wasn't just for kids like it was for us, especially in the 80s when every show was basically a toy advertisement. However, my favorite show back in the day was Battle of the Planets / Gatchman and the US version is terrible. You probably remember the show and how they added a robot character to narrate new content in place of the cuts. Even as a kid I hated that robot. It totally ruined the pace of the show. Also, I find even the Japanese versions of most of these shows unwatchable. I remember trying to get through Mazinger Z a few years ago and couldn't make it a third of the way through. That said, I still love super robots!

Good old 80's, the plethora of great cartoons and toy lines. Even the cereal companies cashed in on it, like MR.T, Nintendo, Jem, Gremlins, and so on. Most of those cericals were just a rebrand of something else. But hey, we have many great memories from them.

I do remember Battle of the Planets; I wasn't that big into it, so my memory is fragmented. Mazinger Z/Tranzor Z on the other hand, I remember very well, and I loved that show as a kid. Speak of Japanese subs, One Piece is one of those shows I have to watch in Japanese. The dub version of One Piece is downright horrible.

I loved the first season of Robotech when I was a kid, but found it really hard to follow the subsequent seasons. I later learned that each of the seasons were completely unrelated shows rewritten (and translated to english) to fit an overall storyline.

I ended up watching an english dub of Macross SDF-1 (the show that first season of Robotech was based on) and it was much better than I remembered. Really good science fiction.

That was another good one. Did you ever watch Robotech: The Movie - The Untold Story? It's pretty bad.

[vision]

I ended up watching an english dub of Macross SDF-1 (the show that first season of Robotech was based on) and it was much better than I remembered.

Not only is Macross an incredible story, I've long argued the scene in the last episode where Rick leaves to fight the Zentradi is one of the best moments in cinema history (11:25):

The dub version of One Piece is downright horrible.

There is almost nothing I can watch dubbed. It kills the immersion for me.

[Top Gun]

Speak of Japanese subs, One Piece is one of those shows I have to watch in Japanese. The dub version of One Piece is downright horrible.

The original 4Kids localization was an absolute butcher job full of horrific editing and dialog changes. However, back in 2007 Funimation (now Crunchyroll) took over the license and has been producing a fully-uncut dub ever since. At long last they've essentially caught up with the Japanese broadcast.

[Vander]

Did you ever watch Robotech: The Movie - The Untold Story? It's pretty bad.

I hadn't heard of it until just now. I found it on Youtube and, yeah, I'll pass. I really only liked the Macross bit of Robotech, and it was only after I got the internet in the 90's that I found out about the original Macross. Around that time I saw the Macross Plus DVD and bought it out of curiosity. I ended up really liking it but there was a disconnect with what I remembered from Robotech, so I searched out the original Macross series and found background story so much more compelling than Robotech. (which, to be honest, I don't even remember anymore) I've sampled most of the Macross releases since then. Some I really enjoyed, like Macross Zero, Do You Remember Love, and Frontier. Some I didn't care much for, though.

Other than Cowboy Bebop, it's really the only anime that held my interest for more than an episode or two. Probably because I was traumatized in the 2nd grade by main characters dying in that first season of Robotech.