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Voltron Legendary Defender: More Than An Impression
When another short chunk of episodes of Voltron Legendary Defender showed up on Netflix, I started watching them at a moderate one-a-week pace. I could have been more than a little conscious, though, of comments only overheard in passing (most of them in the context of Anime News Network's message board, which can seem to tend negative) about this revival of the concept always steering away from "giant robot combat." The constant impression North American series of all descriptions can outstay their welcome among fans quite quickly may be part of what shapes my viewing habits (although I suppose I could just not turn my TV on at all and reclaim certain blocks of time for yet more upstanding activities).
The last time around, in any case, I had gone so far as to mention "the impression of forward momentum." In these episodes, there seemed more than an impression. Pidge's other missing family member was rescued, and another family drama in the series took a dark turn when Lotor struck down Zarkon; the next episode went so far as to use words like "killed," a step well past my usual show of dismissal that "nobody ever dies in a cartoon." If, as I believe I've heard, there are plans for this series to run for a certain time and reach a conclusion, this might even hint at that. (At the same time, the main characters still seem to be on their own a fair bit even as we keep hearing about, and sometimes being shown, liberated forces gathering.)
The complaints about Voltron not getting to battle other robots of comparable stature could stick with me even so, although this block of episodes had something that might have begun to approach that, and the mighty robot keeps getting formed for other demanding tasks. That the bad guys aren't churning out new mechanical designs for the same futile fate every week can be something, anyway, and right now I do hope something of a cliffhanger being set up at the end of this block will draw me in to the next one.
The last time around, in any case, I had gone so far as to mention "the impression of forward momentum." In these episodes, there seemed more than an impression. Pidge's other missing family member was rescued, and another family drama in the series took a dark turn when Lotor struck down Zarkon; the next episode went so far as to use words like "killed," a step well past my usual show of dismissal that "nobody ever dies in a cartoon." If, as I believe I've heard, there are plans for this series to run for a certain time and reach a conclusion, this might even hint at that. (At the same time, the main characters still seem to be on their own a fair bit even as we keep hearing about, and sometimes being shown, liberated forces gathering.)
The complaints about Voltron not getting to battle other robots of comparable stature could stick with me even so, although this block of episodes had something that might have begun to approach that, and the mighty robot keeps getting formed for other demanding tasks. That the bad guys aren't churning out new mechanical designs for the same futile fate every week can be something, anyway, and right now I do hope something of a cliffhanger being set up at the end of this block will draw me in to the next one.