A journey through the JP Gen1 cartoon.

[griffin]

As far as Masterforce is concerned, the human characters ARE Transformers. You may personally only count robots as Transformers, but that's not what the premise of this series is. To continue denying this would be like watching Beast Wars and insisting that they're not Transformers because they don't transform into vehicles. For the purposes of the Masterforce story, they have encompassed binary-bonded humans as being Transformers too.

Transformers are, and have always been, 'borne of Cybertron' as Autobots and Decepticons (and Maximals & Predacons in BW), as in given life through Cybertronian means, not through Human or alien bonding. Humans using robot bodies may have joined the Autobot & Decepticon causes, but they weren't born as Autobots & Decepticons. Same with the Godmasters - they don't appear to be of the Transformers Race, as they seem to be some other type of lifeform/race that is effectively gatecrashing the Autobot/Decepticon war.
So far the only pure (Cybertronian) Transformers in this series are the Pretenders and Seacons. And we don't get to see much of either now.


Ep 9 - A Fierce Battle!! The Autobots Are in Trouble

Under the new leadership of Giga and Mega, the Decepticons start to renew their conquest of earth by attacking an energy facility. The Decepticon Pretenders resent being forced to make way for the new recruits. Despite being outmatched, the Autobots still manage to fight off the Decepticons.


Seems that the Godmasters have a lot of special powers, and should be able to easily defeat the Autobots, but still don't manage it.
And one of those special powers appears to be regeneration when they get damaged.

It doesn't surprise me to have the Decepticon Pretenders, the real Decepticons, not liking being treated as inferior to all these people and humans now joining the Decepticons. After all, those three are real sentient robots from the race of Decepticons... all the rest are merely Decepticon wannabees.


Ep 10 - A Hero Is Chosen - His Name Is Ginrai

Buster and Hydra are sent out by Giga and Mega to search for other Godmasters, but Diver finds one first. Or at least, finds a human who has already bonded with one, but doesn't know it until he touches his two bracelets together.


So after a couple episodes with Godmasters, we're kinda told what they really are. It seems that Giga and Mega are some sort of strange lifeform, and their offspring have disappeared around the Earth. And they have the ability to inhabit vehicles (or become them), waiting for a compatible human to then bond with, through special bracelets. Which coincidentally are similar to the Headmaster Bracelets that the off-world Autobots created. Plus, for some reason the offspring don't know who or what they are, so will align themselves to Autobots if they end up bonding with someone who is against the Decepticons.
What this means, the Godmaster Transtectors are actually alive, and the purpose of the human partner is only to combine the 3 energies that the Decepticons mentioned earlier in the series.

The regenerating of the truck bumper wasn't shown, and the damage was even significant enough to be something others would have noticed regenerating. So I don't see how the Decepticons would have heard about a 'rumour of a regenerating truck' within hours of it happening.

It'll be interesting to see if they try to explain why a Decepticon offspring looks so much like Convoy (Optimus Prime). The explanation given so far doesn't say why it would choose that particular truck and robot form.

[griffin]

Ep 11 - Ginrai: God On of Rage!!

The Autobots are trying to convince Ginrai to join with them permanently, while the Decepticons try to destroy him and his Transtector for siding with the enemy.


Ginrai doesn't know the activation word for the bracelets, but some how activated them in the last episode just by touching them together.

Hydra is destroying red trucks with a giant truck of his own, instead of just destroying them with his Jet like Buster does.

Giga is off playing golf, and destroys a passing plane with a special golfball. Actually, we see a lot of human death in this episode to traumatise the kiddies.


Ep 12 - A Strange Friendship: Cancer and Minerva

Suddenly finding another 3 sets of Godmaster bracelets in his truck, Ginrai is called to Japan to negotiate directly with Hawk to join the Autobots. On the way, they cross paths with the Decepticon Headmasters and capture Cancer (the youngest one who uses 'Squeezeplay'). Ginrai and Hawk interrogate Cancer to find out more about the Godmasters, while Minerva tries to attend to his injuries.



Either the translations of the subtitles aren't accurate, or we have a new version of the Godmaster concept from a couple episodes ago. This time there are 7 individual lifeforms (not 2 parents and offspring), who have entered Transtectors and are 'finding' humans to bond with. Mega and Giga are apparently not humans (because they refer to Humans as if they weren't), so the Godmaster entities aren't just bonding with Humans.

They also mention that there are only 7 Godmaster entities, but that doesn't add up as we have Mega and Giga claiming one between them (which we haven't seen revealed yet), Buster and Hydra have one each (their 2 Jets), Ginrai has one (the truck), plus 3 more Autobot Godmasters (3 cars), and the Spy Clouder (Doubledealer). That should make 8, but there might be an explanation later as to why it is only considered 7.

Minerva nursing Cancer has him seeing her differently now - not just as an enemy out of principle.

And Mega hugging Cancer when he returned, like she is a loving Mother. Actually, Giga and Mega tried to act like the caring parents of their Godmaster children a few episodes back (when they were telling the first version of the story), which is not very Decepticon like at all. Decepticon philosophy has always been that everything is an asset to be used and discarded without attachment when no longer needed.

We also get a very brief cameo of a single 'pure bred' Decepticon with Blood (Bombburst) on screen for a few seconds... Everyone else in this episode were humans and the human-operated robots.

[griffin]

Held off posting up these four episodes individually, because a number of questions in episode 13 are kinda answered in episode 17.

Ep 13 - Friend or Foe!? The True Form of the Monster!!

The Decepticon Headmasters are out looking for Ginrai and the Autobot base. Ginrai is still being courted by the Autobots to join their team permanently, when his Transtector kidnaps him and starts driving him towards a mysterious object found in tunnel a construction site. The mysterious object turns into a trailer for Ginrai.


Without any explanation, a strange rock/crystal object turns into a trailer that's just right for Ginrai, and as seen in two episodes time, is designed to merge with his Transtector. Plus it already has an Autobot symbol on it, which means it isn't a Godmaster, as they are supposed to be 'born' as Decepticons. Hopefully it is explained later, and in a way that makes sense. It makes me think of a cocoon.
Okay... in episode 17 we are shown that the Godmasters have become these black lumps of rock, buried in the Earth, and when activated, they can form a human vehicle. Since we are only supposed to have 7 Godmasters, and with the Overlord toy being 2 vehicles that merge, I'm thinking that Ginrai's Truck Transtector was only half of the Godmaster entity/rock, and now that the Trailer half has just been uncovered, it is able to merge back with it's other half (the Truck).
But it is sporting an Autobot symbol... for something that is supposed to be Decepticon by default.
Very confusing.

Minerva, being a girl in a Japanese cartoon, is all apologetic to Ginrai, despite him being the one who was doing something wrong (torturing Cancer).

Humanising the Decepticons (the Headmasters) at the beginning makes them seem less evil, which kinda defeats the purpose of 'evil Decepticons' intent on chaos and destructive mayhem.

It must have been a slow news day in Japan to have the mysterious object being mentioned, and just at the right time for the Decepticon Headmasters to see it...

(I keep thinking of Lion Voltron whenever the Decepticon Headmasters hop into their Beast Transtectors and run off)



Ep 14 - Eliminate the Godmaster Ginrai

Another episode about the Decepticons targeting Ginrai's Transtector/Godmaster for his 'betrayal' to his Decepticon heritage. The Autobots try to understand the meaning of the new trailer, while Ginrai tries to find the other 3 Humans and Transtectors for his extra bracelets. His method of showing off his Transtector on TV attracts Decepticons instead. The Decepticons decide to attack him in a crowded city, to cause resentment of both sides by the Humans.


The Decepticon Emperor speaks for the first time, as the glowing alien object in the Decepticon base, but is not named until Episode 17.
A third explanation is given as to the existence of the Godmasters. This time, the 'Decepticon Emperor' claims that all the Godmasters are HIS children, not Giga and Mega's. And that they had Decepticon Souls before they became Transtectors/vehicles, as opposed to the earlier claim by Mega that the Godmasters were 'a completely different lifeform'.
Very confusing, to contradict itself so much in just the early episodes. That, and the lack of actual robots in a *Transformers* cartoon, makes this one of my least favourite series.

It's been while since we last saw Seacons... with Lobclaw (Nautilator) clones showing up.
And as an epilogue, Turtler (Snaptrap) is introduced (called up by Giga), who merges with one of each Seacon clone to form King Poseidon (Piranacon).

Gilmer (Submarauder) expresses misery at being forced to follow the command of Humans... and I agree. Megatron would never follow a Human, so why should any other (real) Decepticon?

Not a huge fan of the magical powers these Godmasters use all the time. They are indestructible, and are able to channel great power through themselves to fire at others. The Headmasters series had a bit of a medieval theme with the swords and ninja skills, while this series has a more magical/mystical theme... both of which conflict with *Science* Fiction - which I'm more a fan of, and get more of in other TFs series.



Ep 15 - Heroism!! The Birth of Super Ginrai

In yet another attempt to draw out and destroy Ginrai and his Transtector, the Decepticons this time capture a group of children, and hold them hostage. The Autobots arrive, but are outmatched with the appearance of King Poseidon (Piranacon). While trying to fight him off, Ginrai's Transtector suddenly merges with his trailer, and destroys King Poseidon... or at least, the Clones attached to Turtler (Snaptrap), who survives and retreats with the rest of the Decepticons. Super Ginrai is born.


The whole Dolphin-Ultrasonic plot device as a way of letting the Autobots know where Diver and the kids were... very improbable and unnecessary. It would have made more sense to have Diver's watch be a communicator for the kid to talk to the other Autobots, than having a long-winded Ultrasonic plot device being used that required a lot of explaining to the audience by the Autobots.

The Decepticon Pretenders capture children and kill police in front of the parents... and these are the sort of creatures that the Humans like the Decepticon Headmasters want to be associated with? And yet Minerva keeps trying to reach out to Cancer as if he can be 'saved from the dark side'.

The Autobots have their own transport ship for the four vehicles to get to the island, but don't seem to mind it being sunk as if it was an easy resource to just create and replace. The Autobots have to start flying around more.

The logo on Ginrai's bracelet was glowing as a Decepticon symbol, but then became an Autobot symbol while talking to Diver through it. Likely just an animation error.



Ep 16 - Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter

Ginrai searches for a person (Lightfoot) who sent in a letter to the TV station he featured on, who claims to have dreamt a robot. As he tracks him down in Canada, the Decepticon Pretenders have followed him to see what he is up to. Learning that Lightfoot's car is a Godmaster Transtector, he gives Lightfoot a pair of bracelets and tells him how to use them. As the Pretenders attack, and call on Turtler, Lightfoot helps Super Ginrai to defeat them, and asks to join him so he can teach him more.


So it seems that the Godmaster entities inhabit a human vehicle, not form one, as Lightfoot's car (Getaway) was built by his father, and 'came to life' 15 years ago with the Godmaster. I guess it means that the Godmaster entities have the power to convert a human vehicle into a transformable Transtector. I guess if they have all these other magical powers, converting a non-transformable vehicle into a Transformer like Vector Sigma did in the original series, is possible. Even though Ginrai mentions that the car is not made from Earth materials, it was indeed built by Lightfoot's father into a car.

The opening scene was probably unnecessary, and a little disturbing. Cab is trying to perve on Minerva while she's in a swimsuit, and even though Shuta is trying to stop him, the boys are caught in a rather embarrassing position. And all three are certainly well built for kids of about 12.

According to the scene with Lightfoot trying to transform, transformations are definitely voice-activated in the Japanese series (for dramatic effect), and not thought-activated like in the original Gen1 series.

Gilmer is hit in the groin by Lightfoot's car, grabs his groin as if in pain like a human male and his 'balls' are mentioned... plus Ginrai says Lightfoot should disinfect the hood of the car... Michael Bay would be so proud of this episode's writer.

Seacon clones really do blow up quite easily. Ginrai throws one to the ground, and it just explodes. And just like the Constructicons in the 2009 Movie, more Seacons appear to unite with Turtler (Snaptrap).

Lightfoot is a teenager... which means yet another kid in this cartoon. But I suppose that's what makes it more interesting for the kiddies watching, to wish they could 'have the power' too.



Ep 17 - An Enemy? The Third Godmaster, Ranger

Searching for the next Godmaster/Transtector and Human, the Autobots head for the site of the alien ore used in Lightfoot's car, while the Decepticons tap into memories within Hydra and Buster's own Transtectors. They come across Ranger in Canada, who has a large lump of the ore in his barn. When the Decepticons attack, Ranger is given a pair of bracelets and instructed on how to use them. He then asks to join the Autobots.


The voice of the Decepticons' master is finally given a name - Devil Z.

In this episode we have a Transtector/Godmaster entity changing from a lump of black rock into a car, suggesting that when the Godmaster entities crashed to Earth, they took on this solid form, buried in the ground, waiting for someone to dig them up. So far we have seen 3 that have bonded with Humans sympathetic to the Autobots, and as such have become Autobots as if they were mindless souls waiting for host. We've also had 2 bonded to Humans that are loyal to the Decepticons, but for some reason took a while for Giga and Mega to perfect the process... suggesting that the Godmasters are actually more Autobot by default than Decepticon. Especially since the Trailer half of Ginrai's Godmaster first appeared with an Autobot logo on it.
Devil Z also says that he wants his troops to find the remaining Godmasters and turn them into Decepticons... despite saying a few episodes back, that the Godmasters are supposed to be Decepticons because they have Decepticon souls. So finding them before they bond to a human shouldn't require turning them into Decepticons.

The 'great Devil Z' is suddenly revered/worshipped when he starts speaking in this episode, but wasn't shown the same respect when he spoke a couple episodes back.

Minerva sees Bullhorn and doesn't tell anyone about it until hours later when it is too late. I'm guessing this is just another case of a stereotypical Japanese Cartoon female character not being able to do anything without someone telling her first.

[griffin]

Ep 18 - A Powerful Foe!! Sixknight the Wanderer

Sixknight, a six-changer, arrives on Earth and starts destroying things and killing people. He joins up with the Decepticons so that he can draw out and defeat Super Ginrai, a worthy opponent. He underestimates the Human element and retreats when defeated.


Since Sixknight (Quickswitch) is an Autobot toy, it didn't make much sense for him to arrive and kill humans, even if he is supposed to eventually turn good like his toy. And even if he does become an Autobot later, it won't make much sense, as redemption by Decepticons who change sides, is usually only possible if they haven't killed anyone, or have always had doubts about their allegiance. Sixknight has killed hundreds, possibly thousands, and is quite arrogantly evil, like a true Decepticon.
And he looks down on Autobots as inferior beings.

I still can't understand, if after years of having the iconic hero, Convoy/Optimus Prime on their world, why doesn't anyone immediately assume it is Optimus when they first see Ginrai's Transtector transform to robot mode? Or even question why he looks like the legendary Convoy/Optimus. I know it would be due to the plot of this series, but surely something should have been mentioned ages ago when he was first introduced, so that the kids watching the cartoon aren't confused at seeing the 'return' of a character they had been watching for the last few years, including his death only a year before (in Headmasters).


Ep 19 - At Full Strength! The Four Godmaster Gunmen

The fourth Godmaster is suspected to be a race car, as both sides find out it survives crashes undamaged. The driver of the car, Road King' is told about the Godmaster and Master-braces, and joins the Autobots when his mentor/father is threatened by the Decepticons.


The origin of this Godmaster is unknown (at this stage) but could have been built at the same factory as Lightfoot's.

Road King is quite accepting of his fate, and willingly joins the Autobots as if intergalactic warfare is such an easy thing to sign up for.

The battle at the end of the episode was very quick. The Seacons show up and within seconds are all destroyed, and the Decepticons are retreating. Admittedly, the battle was not the point of the episode, but the introduction and fleshing out of the Road King character.


Ep 20 - The Autobot Warrior, Sixknight?!

Sixknight returns, but only to try to find out how he could have been beaten by a human (in a powerful exosuit). He ends up abandoning his evil destructive ways and heads back off into space. Meanwhile, Cancer is given a small Decepticon 'pet' by Mega, called Browning.


Talk about product placement, with Browning showing up, without any need for it in the story. And I wonder if it will appear much in the future, or at all.
And Mega shows concern for Cancer, and tells him to love his new pet... not a very Decepticon trait.

Browning reminds me of Laserbeak from Armada... a cutesy little creature, that doesn't change size when transforming, like Megatron or Soundwave.

Ginrai is asked by Hawk to be the new Autobot leader... a human they've only recently met while being on Earth thousands of years, to lead *their* Autobot mission there. That scene almost felt like the Pretenders were going to announce their departure, so I was glad they didn't.


Ep 21 - Save the Little Girl! The Chojin Warriors, the Godmasters

The Decepticons start capturing doctors so that the Humans start suffering from lack of medical help. When one of Cab's friend's life is in danger, he leads a rescue of the doctors.


Not sure how effective the plan to capture all doctors will be, as there would be millions of them all around the world. With just a handful of Decepticons, it would take years to capture them all, and by then, more would have been trained up. And why not just kill them? Why keep them alive if they want to prevent humans from ever getting medical help? It's not like there hasn't been human carnage in this cartoon already.

We get to see another fancy Cybertron/Autobot vessel, with a giant submersable Hovercraft. Where do they get the time to build all these things?

When Ginrai enters the cave with all the doctors, it's almost looks like he's only interested in rescuing the one doctor who can help Cab's friend... and the rest of the doctors don't seem to care if they don't get rescued, as long as the girl is saved.

Buster is definitely not a dude... in this episode you can see she's got a rack under that jumper.

This show has a lot of english used in it, and I was wondering if it does confuse Japanese viewers, especially if any of our words sound like a JP word with a different meaning. It may be a novelty to have a little english thrown in, but having quite a bit could make it a confusing blending of the two languages.


Ep 22 - Life? Death? The Desperate Lightfoot

The Decepticons again try to target the 'traitor' Godmasters, by focussing first on Lightfoot. They capture his father and demand Lightfoot surrender to them. The rest of the Autobot Godmasters help him rescue his father. Meanwhile, Grand arrives on Earth to give the Earth Cybertrons/Autobots schematics to build Godbomber, an armour attachment for Super Ginrai.


Just on halfway through the series and we get a new intro sequence, to the same music. It looks nice seeing some new action scenes, but spoils it a little seeing Overlord before it's been introduced in the show. Well, it's only supposed to be a couple episodes away until that happens. The new intro only shows Godmasters and King Poseidon, with no sign of Pretenders or any real Transformers/Cybertronians.
I'm hoping this isn't a sign of things to come with the Pretenders, as we are seeing less of them in action now.

The first mention of Grand Maximus, and the appearance of Grand (Cerebros), plus a tiny portion of the Spaceship Maximus is seen before it cloaks. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be Fortress from Headmasters, but if it is, it is one of the few links to the existing Gen1 & Headmasters series.

Lightfoot's father is called Leftfoot... I wonder if his mother was called Rightfoot...

Ranger/Joyride tickles Hydra/Darkwing... oookay.

I just noticed something. In the US (comic) series Dreadwind/Buster seemed to be the senior one, but in the JP (cartoon) series Darkwing/Hydra is the senior one.

[Skullcruncher]

Yesterday I finally sat down and watched the first 13 episodes, I actually quite liked them especially the pretenders, the weird noises the seacons made cracked me up as did Shuta and his kicking of the armadill - tentakil is actually quite good at being a bad guy!

Going to watch the rest during the week, so far I rate it above the headmasters.

[jimoinj]

I’ve gotta disagree with Gok on the Headmasters Japanese Transformers series.

As far as Japanese culture and females goes, the Arcee as secretary explanation is wanting. What about Evangelion? Look at all of those fighting girl manga. Look at even Astroboy! All of these Japanese written and animated series feature strong, assertive and intelligent women who take up action roles. Well ok, maybe not intelligent for the soft-porn style fighting girl manga. Actually discount anything I mentioned about fighting girl manga, they are demeaning to women in other ways! But for Astroboy and Evangelion, they are not as demeaning to women as this series is. Evangelion is empowering if anything.

As Griff has mentioned, there are numerous continuity errors and nonsensical illogical and thoroughly implausible happenings. I mean, it makes the worst parts of the English language series look thoroughly realistic. Again these can’t be explained culturally, since there are logical and mature Japanese anime series such as Evangelion. It’s just lazy and poor writing, regardless of whether it’s written for kids or adults. The sudden introduction of unnecessary nonsensical plot devices like Maximus’ sword needed for his transformation, him not knowing about the sword, the care bears like group hug to get power. To use a sentence usually used to describe Michael Bay, this version of Transformers G1 is a raping of my childhood.

Gok, I realise you are a Japanese language speaker and perhaps feel closer culturally to this series than you do the American version. But it just comes across as you being an apologist for this series and to be grasping for negative comparisons from the English language G1 series or from other Western popular science-fiction/fantasy shows as a means of defence. I understand you prefer this series (which you admit is weak, at least compared to other Japanese series) to Rebirth. So I would really love to see your review of Rebirth, in a level of detail similar to this one by Griffin, to see where you can even begin to prefer this series over it.

[GoktimusPrime]

The thing with Arcee though is that in Transformers The Movie and Season 3 (or TF 2010 as it was called in Japan) Arcee was shown to be an active warrior and not a submissive female "OL" (office lady). So even putting aside any cultural bias, it's just an INCONSISTENT portrayal of that character. If the G1 cartoon were a role playing game and, the dungeon master would deduct experience points off the person playing Arcee in the Headmasters for making her act out of character!

This is different from say other female TFs in Japanese G1 like Esmeral and Lyzak who are arguably even MORE stereotypically submissive females (they're literally stay-at-home mums nursing juvenile Decepticons -- at least Arcee still serves aboard a battleship in The Headmasters even if she's not an active combatant); because regardless of whether people think these Transformers have been portrayed in a sexist way or not, at least they've been consistent.

The same thing happened with Carly in The Headmasters too -- when she was younger she was a pro-active risk taker, showing just as much courage as Spike... but then in The Headmaster she just dotes over Daniel. Heck, when it came down to a choice between sending Carly or Daniel to save the day -- they chose Daniel. They chose a child over an adult with experience in fighting Decepticons and what not... most likely because she's "only" a woman.

I know there are plenty of implausible things in The Headmasters... I do consider it the weakest of the Japanese G1 series -- but there are plenty of implausible things in the Rebirth too. The main problem I have with the Rebirth is that everything was too rushed. I know that it's because David Wise originally wrote it as a 5 episode story then at the last minute Hasbro told him to wittle it down to a 3 episode story and he HAD to showcase virtually that entire year's worth of toys in it ... I don't blame Wise for it really - even HE didn't like having to cut his story down. But unfortunately the end result was that yeah -- a lot of things are just rushed and we see a lot of "hi then bye" appearances of characters. Sixshot is a good example of this - I quite like him in The Headmasters where he did get more character development. Was it the best character development ever? Probably not, but at least he got some development! How much character development did Sixshot get in The Rebirth? Sweet bugger all.

Now I'm not saying that I love everything about The Headmasters or that I hate everything about The Rebirth - there are things that I like and dislike in both.
e.g.:
Some things I dislike about The Headmasters:
+ Death of Ultra Magnus: one of the single most crappiest fight scenes I've ever seen. Magnus totally deserved a better death than that.
+ Inconsistent characterisation of Arcee.
+ Too much Daniel and Wheelie (but at least Wheelie doesn't talk in stupid rhymes and Daniel never became a Headmaster)
...etc.

And there are some things I like about The Rebirth, e.g.:
+ I like how they gave the Nebulans green skin and some different facial characteristics to distinguish them from humans. In the G1 comics they all looked human - almost all (except one) like Caucasian humans too. Erm... right. At least the cartoon made them look more alien. Although Zarak is awfully buff for a cripple who supposedly has no use of his body... (do they take steroids just to look hot?)
+ Cerebros' pacifism was interesting. The fact that they even made him a sentient Autobot was interesting (since in the comics he was nothing more than a drone to help Galen/Spike bond with Fortress Maximus Mark II).
+ Showing us the duality of the Transformers and their Nebulan/human partners - talking and working with (and sometimes against) each other. Even in the comics it was often one or the other personality who dominated, and in The Headmasters the Transtectors have no independent will. In The Rebirth it actually feels like a partnership.

So yeah, there are things I like and dislike with both series, but on the whole I much prefer The Headmasters.

P.S.: I first saw The Rebirth in late 1987 or early 1988... and I first saw Japanese G1 around 1990-91 (albeit in the horrific English dub - I first saw The Headmasters in Japanese in 1998) -- so at the time that I first saw these series I young enough to not be scrutinising either series as much as I do now as an adult. And I remember after watching Japanese G1 thinking to myself that it looked a lot better than The Rebirth.