So I started watching Dairugger XV a little while ago, and just finished episode 6. The series seems like it could go somewhere, but it is really off to a slow start. First off, there are way too many characters to keep track off, and the only way to really know who belongs to what team is by the color of their suits. I do like the idea of having 15 vehicles creating one robot though, as that is pretty cool. Another beef with the series though is that so far, it seems to be on the Gundam effect. What I mean by that is that the heroes are just flying around in space for no appearant reason while the villians must be really bored and have to attack the heroes and follow them around for no reason whatsoever. The villians are boring. They seem to have no personality, no purpose, and their mecha monsters are pretty weak. Due to this, every episode feels like the previous one, which is not good. Hopefully it will pick up around episode 10, as a lot of Toei's series tend to do, because right now, the potential this show has is wasted.

On the positive side, I do find it better than Golion except for the villians aspect. I mean, in Golion, you got to know the villians right away, who they were, what they were up to, why they do what they do. Here, their just there. The soundtrack in this series is also a lot more enjoyable, if still a little bit on the cheesy side. My question is, did this series replace Golion after it finished, or did it air at the same time in Japan?

As for the Voltron aspect, well, right now, I can definitely see why the vehicle series was not as popular as the lion one. Kids probably got confused by all of the characters, which turned them off from it. Hell, I hardly remember the show myself, aside from the Voltron design, so I can't even discuss how I think it compares to VV.

Like I said, I hope this show improves as it goes along. What do you guys think? Lastly, is there a site similar to the Golion one that has images of what was cut from Voltron, along with the names of the characters and what not?

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My question is, did this series replace Golion after it finished, or did it air at the same time in Japan?

DXV aired after GoLion.

Furthermore, in Japan the two series weren't connected as far as I've heard. They were entirely seperate series originally but there were a bunch of space-opera, mecha type shows out in Japan at that time.

WEP was the one that brought the two (and one other series) to the US and called 'em all Voltron.

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Originally posted by Purrsia:
Furthermore, in Japan the two series weren't connected as far as I've heard.

Correct.

This is most evident by the fact that Earth is destroyed in GoLion, whereas Earth exists in DXV.

Yeah, that I already knew, as it is like Sentai. Same concept, but entirely different universe.

Anyway, I'm up to ep 24, and I'm bored as hell. Okay, as of ep 23 I was bored, but ep 24 was freaking awesome. Seeing the Drule's homeworld was kick ass, but I doubt those protesters were shown in the Voltron version. Who is the girl that seems to act like an emotionless android though?

No the protesters were there all right. One of them yells "Next time it won't be a tomato!" after hitting Hazar (whatever his DaiRugger name is) with a rock. I always get a good laugh out of that one.

Sounds like the girl might be Dorma, Hazar's 'sister' in the Voltron version (I get the impression she's actually mated to him though; I think someone mentioned her in another of your threads, but now I can't find it. Again, I don't know her Japanese name, but this would be the first time we see her).

This is actually one of the weakest episodes in Voltron, due to complete and total lack of story/continuity research on the part of the American writers. Hazar's reasons for being demoted, as well as his account of the disappearance of Mongo (his friend who died fighting the Alliance in the previous episode) are taken completely out of context from what's happened in the series to date. You could actually remove the episode (from Voltron) and you wouldn't lose anything. And yes, it is one of the episodes I'm most eager to see of the DaiRugger version.

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Who is the girl that seems to act like an emotionless android though?

That's Saku (Dorma in Voltron).

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Hazar (whatever his DaiRugger name is)

It's Telesu.

Well, I just finished Dairugger, and all I can think of is, "THAT"S IT!!?" I am pretty poed at the ending as none of the last battles with anyone felt epic like they did in Golion. Not to mention Teresu gets killed by 3 nobodies (does that actually happen in Voltron, or does he get sent to the "Medical Planet?"). The series had some really great potential, and it had some really fantastic episodes (the one with Teresu going home, the Teresu meeting with Asimov ep), but the pay off just felt like a really big let down.

Also, there were a few things that really hurt this series' enjoyability factor. First off, as I mentioned before, there were way too many characters, which made following the story very very difficult. Then about half way through, they seemed to have made only the 3 leaders the main characters while the other 12 members became nothing but background characters, which would have been fine had they actually gave the 3 leaders any development. Instead, they just stood on the bridge, then went out in their vehicles when needed, returned to the bridge, etc.

Another factor going against this show was that the villians barely had any development whatsoever (so why did Teresu decide to turn good all of a sudden??). The emperor seemed more like a figurehead than anything, as he did absolutely nothing. It was that dude with the white goatee that seemed to be doing most of the work. I'm still not clear on what exactly the Galbastian's purpose throughout the series were. Why did they want to destroy humans? Why were some revolting against the emperor? Oh, and let's not forget that it seemed like there was a new commander every 3 episodes.

And finally, the plot of the show hurt it as well. It just seemed like nothing was going on from episodes 5-20, and then again nothing from 26-42. Not to mention the mech battles were very repetitive and redundant.

Overall, I am very disassitified with this series, even moreso than I was with Golion. At least Golion's finale had some great battles with an ending much better than this one. As for it being compared to Voltron, I can understand why it was a failure, as kids would have had a hard time getting into this series and liking one dimensional characters, but I do still plan to get the Vehicle series when it hits DVD. After I watch that, perhaps I'll give this series another try as I will then have more of an idea of what is going on and being able to follow the story much easier.

Right now though, I give Dairugger XV a 2/5 stars.

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Originally posted by Gankutsuou:
Not to mention Teresu gets killed by 3 nobodies (does that actually happen in Voltron, or does he get sent to the "Medical Planet?").

His death was cut from Voltron, and it's said that he boarded the Explorer along with the rest of the Drules.

Gankutsuou, I apologize if I'm missing a huge chunk of context here, but how did you get your hands on Dairugger XV? I don't get to browse this forum much anymore, so I'm guessing I missed some earlier thread about acquiring this.

Great review, by the way. You have rekindled my interest in seeing the original Golion/Dairugger XV. I went and searched Google, but I didn't see any existing DVD release of either. However, I did find this interesting article: click here. If I read it correctly (it's in Japanese), Toei released Golion for streaming viewing this month! However, my attempt to access it on Yahoo! Japan proved futile, since a message popped up saying it was only for users in Japan (and they only supported IE browsers). At any rate, it wouldn't have been free; the article says 105 yen per episode, and I think it also says a 5-episode pack is 336 yen. They expire 7 days after purchase. Also, a pack of all the episodes with 45-day expiry is 3822 yen. The article discusses the super sentai show Liveman being available alongside Golion, but I was not particularly interested.

Oh, one last thing: the article described this release as a "DVD mihatsubai sakuhin," which I think translates as "pre-DVD-release product." So maybe they will actually be putting Golion out on DVD (in Japan).

Defiant NX-74205

Media Blasters is releasing DXV and Golion on dvd with subtitles next year. And a few select people have copies of Golion and DXV as we speak without subtitles like myself. I also have Albegas and several other Toei robot series on dvd.

I do have a few eps subtitles though of Golion and DXV and I have Voltes V english dubbed.

What subbed eps do you have?

I've got GoLion Eps 1-2 subbed, and DXV Eps 1-2, 38, 42-44 and 52 subbed.

This might be flamed upon or not, but shouldn't this be moved to the Vehicle Voltron section of the board?

Since certain people are so sensitive to opinions that are so outrageous, this might be one too. Who knows.

Moved.

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Originally posted by Defiant:
Gankutsuou, I apologize if I'm missing a huge chunk of context here, but how did you get your hands on Dairugger XV?

A couple years ago, some loser named OmegaZeroCustom on this board offered to buy the DVD-Rs of DXV and Golion that Henshin Video Heroes was releasing after Toei aired both series on their satellite channel. I, and many others, sent him $50, and everyone who did, was to receive a copy of the sets (actually, the first volume of Albegas was supposed to be part of that deal). Five months later, he disappeared from the boards, and never came back. In Jan, I got a message from a user here who PMed me, saying that he received a set from OZC, and was working on copies for everyone that paid for them back in 2004. Thus, that is where I got my set from.