Voltron: Defender of the Universe
Absolute Anime; ANN; IMDb; official website; Retro Junk; Toonarific; TV.com; Voice Chasers; VoltronDVD; Wikipedia

This holds a fond place in my heart for being probably the first thing I ever saw which could be called anime. Although, back then, it was just a cartoon to me. I don't recall whether I was even aware that it was made in Japan. It would be many years later before I heard the word "Japanimation," and probably a few years after that before I learned the word "anime." But anyway, the old show about the lion Voltron, that's the one I know and care about, though there were at least a couple other series. In the original, there's this interstellar space force or whatever called Galaxy Garrison, and they sent out five pilots (Lance, Keith, Sven, Pidge, and Hunk) to planet Arus, which the evil King Zarkon had invaded, and they ended up finding and piloting these five robot lions which could combine to form the giant robot Voltron, and fight Zarkon's forces...

Zarkon had a son, Prince Lotor, who was usually in charge of the assaults against Arus. Also working for Zarkon was a witch named Haggar who had originally cast a spell that broke up Voltron into those five lions, temporarily defeating the robot and opening the way for invasion of Arus. Now she creates giant robeasts which invade along with Zarkon's more traditional forces, and which are Voltron's primary foes. Early in the series, Haggar wounded Sven, who then headed back to Galaxy Garrison to recuperate, and his lion was piloted through most of the series by Princess Allura of Arus (who we like, okay?)

Anyway... it was a cheap but fun show, and noticeably employed the time-honored tradition of reusing stock footage ad nauseam... and stuff. Now, as to the other series, there was another one back in the 80's called Voltron: Defender of the Near Universe (Absolute Anime; ANN; Retro Junk; Toonarific) which I hardly saw any of and don't really remember very well. It was set at Galaxy Garrison and featured a different Voltron which was made up of a whole bunch of vehicles, so many that they were in individual units which could combine to form their own bigger... things... in addition to all the units coming together to form Voltron. Anyway... in the late 90's, there was a sort of sequel to the original series, or something, Voltron: The Third Dimension which I never saw, and know nothing about and don't care about. It was like CG or something. And... I don't really know what else to say.