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For the last 25+ years I thought the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were copying Voltron. Today I learned it's actually not true.

Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

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Oct 28, 2017
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Probably old to you guys in the know but my dumb ass just got my mind blown. Even back then I knew Power Rangers was adapted from a show overseas (didn't know where) and I knew it was older than 1993 but I had NO IDEA it predated Voltron. My life is a lie and all my friends in high school were stupid (we called it the fake ass Voltron show)



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I am not built to handle this much change.


This is worst then when I found out that Robotech (Season 2 and 3) IS ALL A GOD DAMN LIE!!!
 
Wrexis

Wrexis

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Nov 4, 2017
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It's when you look up Megazord and realize the one on the left that you posted is not the first. That's when your mind blows.
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

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Trying to think of what could be the best thing to consider the point of origin for Volton's lineage. It's credited to Saburou Yatsude, which is not a real person, but I guess would put it in line with Toei's general mecha efforts. So Combattler V?



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I mean, obviously Getter Robo was a combining robot earlier, and from there we can go back to Mazinger Z, and from there we can go back to Tetsujin 28-gou, but I'm thinking more specifically here.
 
TheWooniestWoona

TheWooniestWoona

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And it's all thanks to Spider-Man!

No, really. A Japanese version of Spider-Man is what introduced the idea of giant robots to sentai.
Toei-Spider-Man-Leopardon.jpg
 
Slayven

Slayven

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Soapbox Killer said:
Probably old to you guys in the know but my dumb ass just got my mind blown. Even back then I knew Power Rangers was adapted from a show overseas (didn't know where) and I knew it was older than 1993 but I had NO IDEA it predated Voltron. My life is a lie and all my friends in high school were stupid (we called it the fake ass Voltron show)



maxresdefault.jpg




I am not built to handle this much change.


This is worst then when I found out that Robotech (Season 2 and 3) IS ALL A GOD DAMN LIE!!!
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View: https://youtu.be/f1GohinPjvM
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

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Wrexis said:
It's when you look up Megazord and realize the one on the left that you posted is not the first. That's when your mind blows.
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If you'd like, we can point out that Toei started adding mecha to their live action series with Spider-Man, before Super Sentai existed.

EDIT: Beaten!
 
Wrexis

Wrexis

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Nov 4, 2017
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Soapbox Killer said:
WAIT HUH?
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The first Megazord/combiner appeared in an older Sentai show a couple of years before the Sentai show that Power Rangers took most of the zord footage from.
powerrangers.fandom.com

Hikari Sentai Maskman

Hikari Sentai Maskman (光戦隊マスクマン, Hikari Sentai Masukuman), is the 11th entry of Toei's Super Sentai Series. It aired on TV Asahi from February 28, 1987 to February 20, 1988, with a total of 51 episodes. The show was also distributed internationally, where it achieved great popularity in...
powerrangers.fandom.com powerrangers.fandom.com

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And as already pointed out the one above wasn't the first mecha either.
 
OP
OP
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

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Oct 28, 2017
30,365
TheWooniestWoona said:
And it's all thanks to Spider-Man!

No, really. A Japanese version of Spider-Man is what introduced the idea of giant robots to sentai.
Toei-Spider-Man-Leopardon.jpg
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Slayven said:

View: https://youtu.be/f1GohinPjvM
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Wrexis said:
The first Megazord/combiner appeared in an older Sentai show a couple of years before the Sentai show that Power Rangers took most of the zord footage from.
powerrangers.fandom.com

Hikari Sentai Maskman

Hikari Sentai Maskman (光戦隊マスクマン, Hikari Sentai Masukuman), is the 11th entry of Toei's Super Sentai Series. It aired on TV Asahi from February 28, 1987 to February 20, 1988, with a total of 51 episodes. The show was also distributed internationally, where it achieved great popularity in...
powerrangers.fandom.com powerrangers.fandom.com

giphy.gif


And as already pointed out the one above wasn't the first mecha either.
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I'm Fucked up over here. This is way more than I knew or expected.
 
TheWooniestWoona

TheWooniestWoona

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Oct 27, 2017
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Let me throw another wrench into this. Sure Super Sentai came first, but the Daizyuzin (what would become the original Megazord) was directly inspired by Voltron, so in a way it kind of is still a copy.

Edit:
Also, there was some thought put into making custom zords just for Power Rangers instead of just using the Thunder Zords. It would have been a combination of the Dino and thunder themes.

Zyu3zords.jpg
 
Mandos

Mandos

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TheWooniestWoona said:
And it's all thanks to Spider-Man!

No, really. A Japanese version of Spider-Man is what introduced the idea of giant robots to sentai.
Toei-Spider-Man-Leopardon.jpg
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Wasn't Battle Fever J the first Sentai after this that they threw the robot into(for that matter the first super Sentai and the third Sentai show period)

Also yes Getter Robo was the first true combining robot, it was 3 jets ramming into each other and they didn't figure out an actual mechanically designed way to do it till Go in the 90's. I mean other shows did
 
lunarworks

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L Thammy

L Thammy

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Voltron's kind of a weird historical footnote, I think. While early mecha stuff like Gigantor and Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot did get localized, the Anglosphere largely shrugged off anime and similar Japanese media, for example deriding them as stupid, senseless violence. So in non-English territories like France, Italy, the Middle East and so on, anime took of earlier and they caught more of the '70s mecha wave.

Voltron is just some anomaly that slipped through, resulting in people like the OP that got confused and assumed that it was first, when it was really just some fairly forgettable part of a much larger wave.

Similarly, if you go to the Japanese Wikipedia article for MD Geist, a bunch of it is basically describing how this thing was weirdly big in America, because it was a favourite of that one guy who was working to change the narrative on anime by pushing it as a darker, sexier, adult alternative to cartoons. Meanwhile the people who worked on MD Geist have largely forgotten it.
 
Mandos

Mandos

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L Thammy said:
Voltron's kind of a weird historical footnote, I think. While early mecha stuff like Gigantor and Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot did get localized, the Anglosphere largely shrugged off anime and similar Japanese media, for example deriding them as stupid, senseless violence. So in non-English territories like France, Italy, the Middle East and so on, anime took of earlier and they caught more of the '70s mecha wave.

Voltron is just some anomaly that slipped through, resulting in people like the OP that got confused and assumed that it was first, when it was really just some fairly forgettable part of a much larger wave.

Similarly, if you go to the Japanese Wikipedia article for MD Geist, a bunch of it is basically describing how this thing was weirdly big in America, because it was a favourite of that one guy who was working to change the narrative on anime by pushing it as a darker, sexier, adult alternative to cartoons. Meanwhile the people who worked on MD Geist have largely forgotten it.
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A couple of the Dynamic Robo crossovers made it to the states like Starvengers, so Getter Robo G did have a presence albeit a small one
 
ContractHolder

ContractHolder

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Oct 25, 2017
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Paramount+ needs to pull a Showtime on PlutoTV content so more people can see Sentai, since most of the legal subs are there.

... Well it's also on Tubi. But it can't hurt to have it on more major services.

The point is, we need to blow more people's minds.
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

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Mandos said:
A couple of the Dynamic Robo crossovers made it to the states like Starvengers, so Getter Robo G did have a presence albeit a small one
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Which reminds me. In GR: Giant Robo, which was never localized, the ultimate villain and leader of the secret society turned out to be a guy named Johnny Sokko. Like Daisaku Kusama fights a guy named after his own name from the American localization of the '60s live action series.


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OP
OP
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

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Oct 28, 2017
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Android Sophia said:
I love the fact that this thread is just the OP getting their mind blown over and over.
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It keeps on coming too. Every other post is 2-3 days of backlog getting added to my watchlist.

L Thammy said:
Voltron is just some anomaly that slipped through, resulting in people like the OP that got confused and assumed that it was first, when it was really just some fairly forgettable part of a much larger wave.
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We had other giant robot stuff before Voltron but you mean in the style of that, I don't really remember. Maybe TranzorZ and Ultraman still no combiner still robots.
 
Slayven

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deimosmasque said:
Funny enough. This is the first actual Super Sentai I've ever watch.

I'm adapting it to Power Rangers RPG that Renegade Studios put out and calling it Power Rangers: Starlight Brigade.
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It was a great series, shame they didn't adapt it. But understandable with it cast of thousands
 
ss_lemonade

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L Thammy said:
Trying to think of what could be the best thing to consider the point of origin for Volton's lineage. It's credited to Saburou Yatsude, which is not a real person, but I guess would put it in line with Toei's general mecha efforts. So Combattler V?



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdLgwOAwBlY

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com


I mean, obviously Getter Robo was a combining robot earlier, and from there we can go back to Mazinger Z, and from there we can go back to Tetsujin 28-gou, but I'm thinking more specifically here.
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Huh, never knew about Combattler V. I used to watch Voltes V and Daimos though
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

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Soapbox Killer said:
We had other giant robot stuff before Voltron but you mean in the style of that, I don't really remember. Maybe TranzorZ and Ultraman still no combiner still robots.
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I mean more in the sense that Voltron was the one that really got attention, whereas some of the stuff that was big elsewhere either wasn't localized or didn't hit it off particularly well. I've heard coworkers from the Middle East spontaneously spark a conversation about Grendizer (localized in a lot of countries as some variation of "Goldorak") but I don't think that one caught on in English, for example.

JuicyPlayer said:
I always heard Go Lion flopped in Japan and was only popular in the US as Voltron.
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I don't think it flopped - there are things far more obscure than Golion - but I don't think it was considered anything particularly special either.
 
deimosmasque

deimosmasque

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Slayven said:
It was a great series, shame they didn't adapt it. But understandable with it cast of thousands
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I'm doing some merging of characters and funny enough. I have Zack as an NPC mentor with a Mega Morpher thank includes his comic Omega form and a new form adapted from Lucky's white form.
 
Slayven

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deimosmasque said:
I'm doing some merging of characters and funny enough. I have Zack as an NPC mentor with a Mega Morpher thank includes his comic Omega form and a new form adapted from Lucky's white form.
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Sounds amazing, going to use the Squid villian guy? I loved his power and style
 
Mugenhunt

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ZeroMaverick said:
Now I just want to see pics of cool mechs
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Gao Icarus, the secondary mecha from Hundred Beast Squadron Gaoranger. (Or Isis Megazord from Power Rangers Wildforce.)

3715748238843d36ba8449330fb09d87.jpg



GekiTouja , the primary mecha from Beast-Fist Squadron Gekiranger. (Or the Jungle Fury Megazord from Power Rangers Jungle Fury.)

Engine_Dai-Shogun.png


Engine Dai-Shogun from Engine Squadron Go-Onger: the Movie (Not used in the Power Rangers RPM adaptation)

Three of my favorites.
 
ZeroMaverick

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Mugenhunt said:
1000172216_5_1024x.jpg


Gao Icarus, the secondary mecha from Hundred Beast Squadron Gaoranger. (Or Isis Megazord from Power Rangers Wildforce.)

3715748238843d36ba8449330fb09d87.jpg



GekiTouja , the primary mecha from Beast-Fist Squadron Gekiranger. (Or the Jungle Fury Megazord from Power Rangers Jungle Fury.)

Engine_Dai-Shogun.png


Engine Dai-Shogun from Engine Squadron Go-Onger: the Movie (Not used in the Power Rangers RPM adaptation)

Three of my favorites.
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OH HELL YEAH!

Thanks
 
NeonZ

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lunarworks said:
The question this video makes me wonder is at what point did shonen anime transition from opening themes sung by an old man, a tradition dating back to puppet shows I think, to marketable pop music opening themes?
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It started during the 80s. Macross' success showed that promoting pop music alongside anime worked (its opening song was fairly traditional, but the show itself featured an idol character and insert songs through her) and so you started getting shows just throwing in pop songs for openings alongside the first few idol focused anime.

That said, during the 80s and 90s, it seemed to vary heavily depending on the studio or staff involved in the production. Many shows still continued with fairly traditional themes even during the 90s, like Dragonball Z, but others already blatantly used opening and endings to promote pop songs - these also had a large number of openings and endings (see Ranma 1/2 for example) compared to series sticking with more traditional songs.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5otwiw-Hzcc
 
Zan

Zan

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Confusing the web even more, MMPR was dubbed back into Japanese. Even up to Samurai. All 3 movies (OG, Turbo and 2017) were too.
 
SilentStorm

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Wrexis said:
The first Megazord/combiner appeared in an older Sentai show a couple of years before the Sentai show that Power Rangers took most of the zord footage from.
powerrangers.fandom.com

Hikari Sentai Maskman

Hikari Sentai Maskman (光戦隊マスクマン, Hikari Sentai Masukuman), is the 11th entry of Toei's Super Sentai Series. It aired on TV Asahi from February 28, 1987 to February 20, 1988, with a total of 51 episodes. The show was also distributed internationally, where it achieved great popularity in...
powerrangers.fandom.com powerrangers.fandom.com

giphy.gif


And as already pointed out the one above wasn't the first mecha either.
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Want to say, Maskman wasn't the first season with a mecha, that was Battle Fever J, nor the first one with various parts that combined, Maskman is noteworthy in that it was the first season where everyone had their individual mecha, but technically Sun Vulcan had the first:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgkC2qZapEs
Also, the first two Sentai seasons didn't have giant robots, to a point where the franchise started as just Sentai, Battle Fever J having a giant robot was what made it be Super Sentai and for quite a few years, Goranger and JAKQ weren't part of the franchise, to a point where a Turboranger special with all Super Sentai teams didn't have Goranger and JAKQ, but eventually Toei decided to just have everything be in the same franchise, the first two teams may not have robots, but they had specialized jets.
 
J75

J75

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Sep 29, 2018
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Yeah, real fascinating stuff. Despite my passion for Japanese Ent, Tokusatsu is a rabbit hole I've only stuck a toe or two into so far. I wonder when the time will come when I'll go real in deep.
 
NeonZ

NeonZ

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JuicyPlayer said:
I always heard Go Lion flopped in Japan and was only popular in the US as Voltron.
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It had higher ratings than God Sigma and Daltanius (6.5 vs 5.5 and 5.9), previous super robot shows that aired in the same timeslot, although out of those Daltanius apparently had by far the highest toy sales. Still, It didn't really flop, just didn't stand out.

It was just one more show in a rotating line of robot shows, with a new series starting the week after the previous one ended, and then the previous show being completely forgotten since all marketing went to push the new series. And at the time, on top of that, there was one different robot show every day of the week for that Tv Tokyo timeslot (6pm, well it didn't start in this timeslot, but most of its run was in it). Goshogun on Monday, Braiger on Tuesday, GoLion on Wednesday, Gold Lightan on Thursday, and Dougram on Friday.

It was just one among many, with nothing to make it be remembered strongly afterwards.
 

mrmoose

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Nov 13, 2017
22,085
Sun Vulcan was a combiner but barely one... I mean it's basically a jet that looks like a torso and legs that have crane attachments on them. So I think it's fair to say that Voltron and other combining robot shows helped influence super sentai as well. Like Super Sentai, Giant Robot shows went from non transforming robots to barely transforming robots (like Reideen) to combiners and out and out transformers. Getter Robo stands out but that's a weird one because that design isn't even feasible in toy form (at least until modern origami transforming techniques).

Like designs like Daltanious would fit right in with early Super Sentai robots.

It still amazes me that we were lucky enough to get a ton of these Japanese toys in the US under the Shogun Warriors line... no backstory, no cartoons, just super cool transforming toys.
 
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