The first thing I should say about Voltron: Legendary Defender is that it is not from Japan. It is produced by DreamWorks exclusively for Netflix. The production team sounds all American, though the animation and art are done in South Korea. Or at least I assume it to be South Korea. Those are Korean names in the Credits, and as far as I know the North does not create Korean anime. Though it probably be hilarious if they did.

But the Japanese influence is most certainly there. This is a mecha adventure with all the anime clichés, though unfortunately it gives us nothing new. There is also an obvious Disney influence in character design and personality. We have all the stereotypes.

The basic story is that the bad guys want to conquer and control the universe because they are bad guys. And five earthlings get sucked into a work hole, meet a princess, and are recruited as Paladins piloting different colored mecha tigers who can be combined to form the ultimate weapon, Voltron. And since Voltron has many colors, he looks pretty silly.

We have the seasoned fighter, the genius kid, the guy full of himself with nothing to back him up, the guy full of himself who can back it up, and the fat lazy guy. All stereotypes.

There are plenty of battle scenes which are well done, but this is where the Disney influence comes in. No blood. No mangled corpses. And no profanity. This is truly kid stuff.

Two seasons are available on Netflix streaming, apparently released simultaneously. I only watched one. Someday if my life loses all purpose, I will watch season 2.