SPOILER FREE PROS: *Unique art style: Loved Golion's horror/gothic vibes with witches, black magic, space ships with skulls, flying coffins, organic architecture. *Action: dynamic fights ranging from hand to hand, Lion mech to peon soldier/tanks, Golion to giant monster. There's a variety of weapons that evolve with time. The finishing blows are all uniquely animated *Characters: I was surprised by how well certain characters are fleshed out and their dramatic stories. Significant recurring characters, episodic characters, and more. Admittedly, the central male protagonists felt less developed by comparison, but I still found myself getting invested in characters that I wasn't expecting *Mature themes & imagery: You probably know about Voltron,but these aren't the same. Golion really wasn't suitable for being edited into a kids cartoon. They removed apocalyptic wars, slavery, death, blood, lots of violence, SA, and more.

*Plot: it's probably going to feel slow for the first half, but it really picks up towards the end. If I were to rate each quarter, I'd say it's 6,5,6,8. It comes off like an episodic super rorobt anime, and many of its episodes truly are episodic, but there's also characters, technology, history, etc gradually revealed through these episodes, so it kinda snowballs towards the end.

*Conclusion: Golion had a really solid final quarter. Conclusive and enjoyable ending I felt somewhat emotionally attached to.

CONS:
*Characters: Central male protagonists could have been fleshed out more in comparison to the other characters

*Opening scene: Each episode starts with an opening scene set in the distant past, I felt this gave me false expectations and felt like the anime was poorly planned. I suggest not putting much stock in it, and just watching the episodes for what they provide.

*Plot: First half does feel slow and a little boring at times, but I think it's worth finishing

*Action: Although there's a variety of weapons, it seems like the lions were supposed to have specific elements, and they do explain this to some extent, but I felt it was poorly implemented as the water lion would be seen shooting fire out its mouth, the fire lion shooting air attacks, etc. They do some cool elemental combination attacks like fire tornado, but they don't really experiment with the elements as much as i'd like. Most of the weapons are generally rockets, lasers, swords, etc.

Overall: I know this is a little barebones, but I have a full video review on my youtube and I'm honestly tired of talking about it by now. I just wanted to leave something positive for Golion since there were 0 recommended reviews at the time of posting. I think it's a good anime that often gets overlooked because of Voltron and its slow start. I was a little bored at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it, and I think It's one of those anime that I'd appreciate more with time, as I venture through 70s and 80s super robot anime.

Other recommendations: If you like fun SR, check Daitarn 3 and 1980s Tetsujin 28. If you like the dark/mature elements of this, check Space Runaway Ideon.