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Description
A request from a friend, and a childhood favorite of mine.

This was an odd little show. In it's native Japan, the main character wasn't the titular Saber Rider, but instead the character of Fireball (Hikari in Japan). This is pretty evident in retrospect given how much of the story revolves around Fireball's character, and the role he plays in the plot. When it was imported over to North America, Saber was made into the main character and there were even new episodes of the series made to promote Saber as the main star. I'm not sure why, but I'd guess that it might have to do with the fact that the producers probably thought the blonde haired guy with the laser sword and the cool flying robot horse might be more appealing to the US and Canadian Audience.

The series also benefited from the fact that in the original series, the bad guys disappeared in a flash of light when they were killed (Japan having more a more liberal take on what could be featured in a kid's cartoon- rampant death and destruction apparently being alright). When it was imported, this was simply changed to the bad guys being "sent back to their own dimension." It was a clever bit of explanation that allowed the show to keep all the action from the original series without having to nerf it or come up with some stupid rational that the bad guys were robots or something like that.

Also- and this is my favorite bit- this was a giant robot show. But NOWHERE in the intro is that EVER promoted. And not just any giant robot. This was a giant robot COWBOY, voiced by PETER CULLEN! I'm not really sure why this never took off, but I still have fond memories of this series from when I was little.

Description
A request from a friend, and a childhood favorite of mine.

This was an odd little show. In it's native Japan, the main character wasn't the titular Saber Rider, but instead the character of Fireball (Hikari in Japan). This is pretty evident in retrospect given how much of the story revolves around Fireball's character, and the role he plays in the plot. When it was imported over to North America, Saber was made into the main character and there were even new episodes of the series made to promote Saber as the main star. I'm not sure why, but I'd guess that it might have to do with the fact that the producers probably thought the blonde haired guy with the laser sword and the cool flying robot horse might be more appealing to the US and Canadian Audience.

The series also benefited from the fact that in the original series, the bad guys disappeared in a flash of light when they were killed (Japan having more a more liberal take on what could be featured in a kid's cartoon- rampant death and destruction apparently being alright). When it was imported, this was simply changed to the bad guys being "sent back to their own dimension." It was a clever bit of explanation that allowed the show to keep all the action from the original series without having to nerf it or come up with some stupid rational that the bad guys were robots or something like that.

Also- and this is my favorite bit- this was a giant robot show. But NOWHERE in the intro is that EVER promoted. And not just any giant robot. This was a giant robot COWBOY, voiced by PETER CULLEN! I'm not really sure why this never took off, but I still have fond memories of this series from when I was little.