Settle the Debate: The Chicken or the Egg? Voltron or Power Rangers?

This has been an ongoing debate between non-Power Ranger fans and Power Ranger fans. Even with PR fans themselves! For those who did not grew up in the 1980's, Voltron was a show that aired in the United States and some other countries from 1984-1985 on syndication and then on cable in the 1990's. It even spun off spin-offs but I will discuss those later. Since Americans knew of Voltron in the 1980's and then saw Power Rangers in 1993, they went through the natural conclusion that they were similar and hence the creators of Power Rangers were inspired by Voltron and hence 'rip-off.'

SIMILARITIES

 (Fan drawing above by Andrew Leta)

Big Robos

The original Voltron robo (known as GoLion in Japan) was made of five different colored lion-like robots (Red, Black, Green, Blue and Yellow) to form one big robot. The original Megazord (Daizyujin in Japan) was made of five robots modeled after pre-historic beasts. Both big robos wielded swords. So it can be seen why they are similar.

 Color Uniforms

The original pilots of 'Voltron' wore the colors (or similar) to their lions. Keith wore red and piloted the Black Lion, Lance wore blue and piloted the Red Lion, small Pidge piloted Green Lion in his green uniform, Sven wore black and piloted Blue Lion, Hunk wore orange and piloted the Yellow Lion. Princess Alura later takes over for Sven and piloted the Blue Lion in a pink uniform. The Power Rangers always have colored uniforms and always piloted zords of their same color (while most Pink Rangers had white zords with some sort of pink trim). 

CLARIFICATIONS

Beast King GoLion

The original Voltron series was created by Peter Keefe in 1984 using material he had licensed from the Japanese cartoons Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. The producers had no means of translating the Japanese series into English, so they surmised the plots and created all-new dialogue, editing out the more violent scenes, and remixing the audio into a stereo format. Beast King GoLion was made by Toei Animation from 1981-1982. 

Goranger and Super Sentai

Super Sentai as we PR fans know started in 1975 with Himitsu Sentai Goranger. For those who do not know, 'Sentai' is Japanese for Team. The creator of Power Rangers, Haim Saban, much like Peter Keefe wanted to use the Japanese series and adapt it for US audiences. Unlike animation, that can be re-dubbed in English and excused as American, live-action had to be done in the fashion we now know as Power Rangers. Filming American actors and using some of the fighting footage, 'localizing' the series. Saban had been trying to adapt Super Sentai for years. For one, Bioman (1984) -- which never got developed and Jetman (1991) but ultimately settled with Zyuranger (1992). With a pilot to Fox Kids, they were finally able to launch the franchise.

Since I have your attention, I'll go through the different incarnations of Voltrons because they are just a few:

Armored Fleet Dairugger XV 

Armored Fleet Dairugger XV aired from 1982-1983 and was chosen to be the second season of Voltron. with the storyline considerably changed. In this iteration of Voltron, the Galaxy Alliance's home planets have become overcrowded, and a fleet of explorers has been sent to search for new planets to colonize. My best friend Cyn doesn't consider this as Voltron, she says the lion one is the only Voltron. Understandably the Go-Lion part was more popular. Lightspeed Electroid Albegas was planned for the third season but because the lion was more popular, they aborted the idea even though toys were still released under the name Voltron.

Voltron: The Fleet of Doom

Voltron: The Fleet of Doom was a television special involving both Vehicle Force Voltron and Lion Force working together to defeat King Zarkon, who aligns with Viceroy Throk of the Drule High Command to create a new army the Fleet of Doom.  This movie was released later on DVD by the company originally responsible for taking the Japanese source material and bringing it to American audiences, World Events Productions (WEP).

Voltron: The Third Dimension

Voltron: The Third Dimension is an American computer-animated television series. It departed from the original Lion Voltron's animated look, as well as some character changes, such as the physical appearance of Prince Lotor. It served as a sequel to the Lion Voltron series, set three years after the end of that program. It aired from 1998-2000. Lance wore red in this series, Allura wears blue and Hunk wears yellow. 

Voltron Force

Voltron Force is a new version of the 1980s animated series, Voltron, that was originally scheduled for a release in autumn of 2010. Eventually, the show premiered on June 16, 2011 on Nicktoons. On April 4, 2010, it was announced that the show's title had been changed from "Voltron Panthera Force" to "Voltron Force."the characters are five to seven years older than those in the original series, and the general concept of the original series is mostly accepted as backstory. A live-action movie is still in the works.

CONFUSION 

A 2009 web parody called 'Megabot' had concepts of both Voltron and Power Rangers. In it they have five pilots of five robots that become one robot. In parody of the first season of MMPR, Yellow is asian and Black is an African-American. Also Red is a Jock and Blue is a nerd. But the suits are clearly parodying Voltron.




CONCLUSION
 So if GoLion was made in 1981 and Super Sentai concept in 1975, then Super Sentai came first. Now you can say that Power Rangers DID come after Voltron. But both GoLion and Voltron came after Super Sentai, if anyone want to talk about 'Rip-offs,' then Voltron can be taken as a rip-off of Sentai. Also, my pal Joe Rovang says if it is from the same company (Toei) then he doesn't consider it a 'rip-off.' Like how VR Troopers, Beetleborgs, Masked Rider and Mystic Knights shouldn't be considered rip-offs from Power Rangers.

Related: http://spanengrish.blogspot.com/2007/08/voltron-what-we-all-fear.html | Voltron and Power Rangers Spoofs