Takashi Shirogane

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Takashi Shirogane (known as Shiro for short and in Voltron: Defender of the Universe as Sven Holgersson) is a character from the Beast King GoLion anime and its American adaptation Voltron, as well as various spinoff media. He was originally depicted as the pilot of the Blue Lion of Lion Voltron, but Voltron: Legendary Defender establishes him instead as the pilot of the Black Lion.

Beast King GoLion

Takashi's role in GoLion was much more limited than his American counterparts; he was killed in the sixth episode of the series, with his twin brother going on to share the role of piloting the Blue Lion with Princess Farla.

Defender of the Universe

Animated series

In the Voltron series, Sven Holgersson is a Norwegian pilot, and he is grievously injured and then abducted by the evil Drule Empire early in the series, and ends up trapped on Planet Doom. There he meets and eventually falls in love with Princess Romelle a cousin of Allura's, and suffered greatly in his continued clashes with the Drule Empire. He was entirely absent from Voltron: The Third Dimension but returns in Voltron Force, where he steals the Blue Lion in an effort to rescue his infant son, who had been abducted by his old foe Lotor and the evil scientist Maahox. He eventually succeeds with the help of his old teammates, but chooses to go into exile due to being infected by the evil of Haggar, the Drule mystic.

Legendary Defender

Animated series

In Legendary Defender Takashi Shirogane, known better as Shiro, was a Galaxy Garrison pilot who was assigned to an expedition to Kerberos, one of the moons of Pluto. He and his comrades were abducted by the Galra Empire and held prisoner at least for a time aboard the ship of Commander Sendak; Shiro and Matt Holt were also forced into gladitorial competition. Seeking to protect the younger and less able Matt, Shiro feigned a bloodthirsty attitude and injured his friend to insure that he wouldn't be forced to fight. After facing a formidable Galra warrior and defeating him, Shiro became known far and wide as "the Champion," and was eventually delivered to Haggar and her Druids for experimentation; the experience left Shiro with some memory loss and his right arm replaced with a Galra cybernetic. However, Shiro retained his identity and antagonism of the Galra, and was eventually able to steal a ship and make his way back to Earth, where he was briefly sedated by Galaxy Garrison forces during his manic attempts to warn them of the Galra.

Shiro received unexpected aid from his old friend Keith and his future teammates Lance, Pidge (whose father and brother had been his comrades on the Kerberos mission), and Hunk, and together they were able to locate the Blue Lion. The mecha took them to Arus where they found the Castle of Lions and Allura and Coran, the last survivors of the destroyed world of Altea. Allura called upon them to pilot the Voltron lions and help her take the universe back from her ancient enemy Zarkon, which Shiro and his comrades agreed to with varying degrees of readiness. They soon assembled the lions, with Shiro becoming pilot of the Black Lion, Voltron's central component, and were able to bring down the ship which proved to belong to Sendak. The group then set about training to master their lions and teamwork, with Shiro demonstrating the greatest prowess with his mechanized partner; his Galra arm also proved to be a formidable weapon in place of the Bayards used by his teammates, the Black Bayard having been lost millennia previously.

Working together, Shiro and Pidge uncovered information about Shiro's time among the Galra, including the disturbing-when taken out of context-attack he had made on Pidge's brother. Shiro's memories of the experience were reawakened by a confrontation with a Robeast born from the very gladiator he had once defeated, and he revealed the true course of events and his knowledge that Pidge-who had been posing as a boy-was in fact a girl. He promised to keep her secret, but was later disappointed when she announced her decision to leave the team and search for her family, whom he felt would prefer for her to aid them. Pidge later chose to remain with her team, and proved a crucial member when the team were forced to deal with the return of Sendak, who overpowered Shiro and briefly occupied the Castle of Lions; shortly thereafter Pidge chose to reveal her secret to the rest of the team. Shiro's past would continue to haunt him, particularly when a confrontation with an unconscious Sendak caused him to hallucinate the villain's taunts, and a shaken Shiro inadvertently jettisoned the Galra officer into space.

Shiro and his team would prove to be a formidable force, liberating a Balmera from the Galra forces and besting another Robeast before setting their sights on a target they learned of from memories they had extracted from Sendak: a Galra transportation hub. They infiltrated the facility in search of information, but upon finding nothing of real value Allura suggested that they board a docking ship; Shiro accompanied her as she boarded it in disguise, only for her to be captured during their attempt to escape. Shiro thus led his team in a desperate mission to Zarkon's space fortress in an effort to rescue her, only to have control of the Black Lion rested away from him by the Emperor, who was revealed to possess the Black Bayard. After confronting Haggar and her taunts about his time in her custody, Shiro and his teammates managed to escape with Allura and their lions. Unfortunately Haggar disrupted the wormhole that they used to depart the area, scattering Shiro and his comrades.