(FEB-2013) JP Exclusive Gen1 Cartoon - Comments and episode reviews

[griffin]

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010
Headmasters
Masterforce
Victory
Zone
Return of Convoy
Operation Combination

Watched any of the Japanese Transformers cartoons?
If so, what did you think of it?

When did you first see it?

Is it recommended viewing for others?

If you haven't watched it yet, or in a while, now is the time to re-watch it and review it as you go.

[KalEl]

Watched any of the Japanese Transformers cartoons?
If so, what did you think of it?
Fantastic stuff.

When did you first see it?
Couple years back, when the Madman Boxset was released.

Is it recommended viewing for others?
Highly, If you can happily read sups i would go that route.
Or for a laugh watch the dubs :P

[Bidoofdude]

I really loved the Japanese cartoon, as it didn't have as much of a ridiculous feel as some of the earlier versions of the G1 cartoon(US cartoon).
It had a slightly darker tone which I really liked.

I started watching a bit on youtube and DVDs and I am quite impressed. Especially liked the Scramble City bonus episode.

I would definitely recommend watching it or rewatching it if you have already, because it feels quite unique, special and quite a significant part of the Japanese transformers timeline, IMO.

[griffin]

For those interested in reading upon some reviews of Headmasters and Masterforce, check out this review topic.
Not sure why I didn't post up the rest of Masterforce... I might have to rewatch them to post them up. I watched Victory soon after that, but wasn't impressed enough to comment about it at that time.

[Paulbot]

I got the Madmen box sets as they came out. I started watching Headmasters but got maybe 10 or 12 episodes in before I just took the DVD out and never went back. I think the problem with the series was that it was too close in appearance to the US series. The animation I think suffered by trying to emulate the US series, and having unfamiliar voices of familiar characters (in a foreign language) and music made it quite jarring to watch.

Masterforce on the other hand I loved and it's because the characters were all new (although Ginrai's transtector sure looked familiar), the animation was more anime and the story was a lot more solid and interesting. I liked that the series started being about Transformers pretending to be humans, and transitioned to being about humans who "became" Transformers. It's a very different take but I could see it being off putting to people who want to watch a show about Transformers not humans. Worked for me though and I would recommend giving it a go over the other three core series.

I watched the first episode of Victory and haven't gone back yet. I'll get to it, but the opening episode really didn't sell me on the series.

[1orion2many]

Headmasters put me to sleep and I'm not joking about that, I watched all of it but it was hard work to say the least. Masterforce on the other hand was thoroughly enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone that is a TF fan

[GoktimusPrime]

Watched any of the Japanese Transformers cartoons?
If so, what did you think of it?

Yes.
+ Headmasters: IMHO a lot better than The Rebirth (Yes, the Rebirth had potential and was good in concept, but poorly executed - JMO). Admittedly it is certainly the weakest of the JP G1 anime series.
+ Masterforce: love it. Great animation, good story with a unique premise (that admittedly can take a bit to get used to, but once you accept it the story is pretty good)
+ Victory: Also great, though Dino Force kinda bug me as a team of comic relief Decepticons (still, way better than Wheelie). Epic battles.

When did you first see it?

1991 -- saw Masterforce, albeit in those horrible StarTV dubs. *shudder*

Is it recommended viewing for others?

Yarp!

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Headmaster was bore-tastic. Such a rubbish show. The famous start dubs are the only way I could get through them.

luckily I found the other series much more engaging.

MOst of them I watched as they were coming out on DVD box set released from th UK.

Personally I'd recommend all of them after Headmasters. Masterforce was good as was Victory and as for Zone, well it was only 1 episode, so you're not really losing anything by watching it

The thing I really liked about Masterforce was that they justified the Pretenders rather well, especially the Decepticons which were the horrid beast of mythology. That really gave the monster modes of the deceps some grounding. After all, a giant reptile skin isn't a good disguise. Unless you're hanging out with Godzilla

There wasn't a cartoon for return of Convoy and Operation Combination was there?

[1orion2many]

Yes.
+ Headmasters: IMHO a lot better than The Rebirth (Yes, the Rebirth had potential and was good in concept, but poorly executed - JMO).

Your joking aren't you Headmasters was an Insomniacs dream, No way known you were going to stay awake through that I could at least stay awake for Rebirth

[GoktimusPrime]

I never said the show was great, I just prefer it over The Rebirth which I find even more tiresome. I recognise that Rebirth had more potential - and it's a shame that Hasbro forced David Wise to butcher the story up to squeeze what was originally a 5 parter into a 3 parter... but the end result is that Rebirth is, to me, just a showcase of the toys and not much more. And to top it off, the animation quality was so appalling that it's not even visually appealing either. I know that all G1 cartoons are fundamentally toy adverts, but Rebirth to me is not much more than that. e.g. Sixshot appears briefly ONCE, transforming to each mode to shoot down Autobots and then we never see him again! In an effort to feature the entire 1987 cast in only 3 eps we had lots of "Hi then Bye!" characters, which I wasn't fond of. Yeah alright, Zone was also just a one episode big toy advert too with not much of a story to boast about either - with a lot of the Micromasters just making similar "Hi then Bye!" appearances... but at least it was pretty well animated! (and the fan debates over Akira's ambiguous gender amuses me (not the idea, but the fact that fans bother to have arguments over this )) Sixshot in The Headmasters was much better developed character - someone who became morally conflicted and went through character change. Yeah alright, it was pretty cheesy and contrived, but it had more characterisation than Rebirth IMO. I also found Daniel to be slightly less annoying than in the Rebirth... I've never been fond of the idea of Arcee becoming a Headmasters being binary bonded to Daniel (even at the time I first saw it I thought it was incredibly lame) -- and Arcee's head just happens to transform into Daniel's Exo-Suit with no alt mode kibble?!? And sometimes Daniel's the same size as Arcee... right. The Hive are supposed to be complete cripples, yet Zarak is buff as! Shouldn't his body be wasted away like Davros in Doctor Who? Although I do like how they made the Nebulans look more alien (with the green wrinkly skin and hair) instead of just making them all look conveniently human like in the comics. But Headmasters Arcee and Daniel were both lame in another way (but for me not quite as lame as the binary bonding in Rebirth) -- Arcee somehow became the Autobot's secretary who'd sooner serve tea than see combat, and Daniel wasn't as annoying as in the US series, but there was that one episode where Spike needs rescuing, and instead of sending Carly (who has survived previous encounters with Decepticons before, including Shockwave), they send Daniel. Yes, send the boy to rescue his father instead of the next available adult... what?!? These moments of chauvinism where women are portrayed as being incapable of heroic action and even a boy is preferable over a woman was something I find objectionable... but not surprising given the more chauvinistic nature of Japanese society.

One thing I do like about both series is how they made arguably the most uninteresting figure in the 1987 line the most interesting characters in the series -- Cerebros and Fortress. Cerebros the staunch pacifist, and Fortress the principle leader of the Autobots (with Maximus essentially being an extension of his will and body). In this case Cerebros is the more interesting character from an adult's POV, but from a kid's POV Fortress is more exciting. I first saw the Rebirth in 1988 (I don't recall seeing it aired here in 1987, got it on VHS a year later) and as a kid I didn't find him that interesting. Another thing that kinda spoiled Rebirth for me was that, for some odd reason, on the VHS copy of Parts 2 and 3 the music and sound effects track was way louder than the vocal track. So I'd hear all this loud music and laser blasts, rockets, explosions etc., but the Transformers sounded like they were whispering in the background! (and it's hard to understand/appreciate a story when you can't properly hear what the characters are saying) It wasn't until I got the DVD copy that I was finally able to watch those eps with the vocal track in the foreground, and the background track in the background! Whereas I first saw The Headmasters in 2000, and it was on VHS that was recorded off Laser Disc, so the quality was as good as you could possibly get on video.

I'm not saying that Headmasters was good -- as I said it's definitely the weakest of the Takara series. And the Rebirth had potential that was unfortunately unrealised due to Hasbro swinging the axe around. It'd be neat if say IDW did a comic mini series based on Wise's original script for The Rebirth and we can finally see how that story was meant to be. But I can see how The Headmasters wouldn't be everyone's Cube of Energon.

The thing I really liked about Masterforce was that they justified the Pretenders rather well, especially the Decepticons which were the horrid beast of mythology. That really gave the monster modes of the deceps some grounding. After all, a giant reptile skin isn't a good disguise. Unless you're hanging out with Godzilla

+1 -- very well done indeed. I also like how they can mass-shrink when inside their Pretender modes, whereas in Anglophone continuity the Pretenders were either giant humans and monsters, or they had to go off-Earth to places where giant humans didn't seem out of place (like planet Snoo-Snoo ).

There wasn't a cartoon for return of Convoy and Operation Combination was there?

No, there wasn't. Those story are only told in the manga... which aren't very exciting to read at all, and the quality of the artwork took a massive nosedive.