A journey through the JP Gen1 cartoon.

[canofwhoopass_87]

Looks like sitting through these eps is becoming more strenuous than you had initially hoped Griff

I gave up after about 10 mins skipping through one episode. Found it too irritating and difficult to watch. I suppose the japanese series wasn't made for a US G1 worshipping audience though?

[Paulbot]

I think I got up to ep 11 (but I may have seen 12 too. I never saw Fort Max transform though) before I jumped ahead to Masterforce. I need to go back someday and watch the rest of Headmasters.

[GoktimusPrime]

The Japanese just can't write humans well in this cartoon. The ones in this episode are really annoying and painful to watch.

Kaneda Masumi is hardly representative of all Japanese animation writers. Criticise Kaneda all you want, but I think it's a tad unfair to blanketly blame all Japanese anime writers based on just his work. :/

Fortress Maximus is finally revealed in robot form, but a plot device of a 'Master Sword' is suddenly mentioned as if it just materialised (on the bridge of the battleship, which even surprises Fortress), and is necessary for him to activate the transformation. That is just so Japanese... having a mysterious *sword* appear, that has super, mystical powers, for a race of mechanical, technological beings.

Magical swords are a staple of mythology as they're a more personal and romantic weapon compared to range weapons (e.g. guns) - Excalibur, Kusanagi, Hrunting, He-Man's Power Sword, Narsil/Andúril - one may argue that it seems strange in a "science fiction" setting, but even light sabres in Star Wars were portrayed as 'magical' weapons, like the scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi gives Luke Skywalker his father's light sabre.

I suppose swords are more revered in Japanese pop culture, possibly because Bushido revered swords above guns as a more noble and honourable weapon (at least in theory - in reality the Samurai did use guns, particularly during the Sengoku and even early Tokugawa periods, although firearms were forbidden during most of the Bakumatsu and saw a revival toward the end of that period as the Meiji Revolution came in).

"Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilised age." - Obi-Wan Kenobi

But in reality guns totally pwn swords, as wonderfully demonstrated in this scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

So if Fortress (Cerebros) is the same size as the other four Autobot Headmasters, who are really their heads piloting the larger bodies (which they built on Planet Master), why don't we see the head of Fortress (Cerebros) ever detach and exist independently?

We do see the smaller head of Fortress ("Spike") detach independently, but not often (spoiler pic)

Zarak sits in a fully lit room, and yet is still shown as a shadow. I can see the need for the dramatic mystery, but at least give a reason as to why he's in permanent shadow.

He's a ninj--yeah okay, that is definitely just ridiculous. He should at least remain in a dark corner.

Looks like sitting through these eps is becoming more strenuous than you had initially hoped Griff

I gave up after about 10 mins skipping through one episode. Found it too irritating and difficult to watch. I suppose the japanese series wasn't made for a US G1 worshipping audience though?

Also you guys are looking at it as adults whereas the show was intended for children who wouldn't have necessarily picked up on all these things at the time. If we plowed through the US cartoon we'd easily find all kinds of flaws there too... if nothing else, at least the continuity within Headmasters itself is relatively more consistent than that of the US series. Kaneda Masumi may not be a prolific anime writer (like say, Miyazaki Hayao), but at least having a single lead writer helps to ensure relatively more consistent continuity within the series itself (I know the continuity does conflict with G1 continuity elements written outside of the series, e.g. TFTM).

Having said that, The Headmasters is widely considered even by Japanese fans to be the weakest of the JP G1 series. Masterforce and Victory are much better written and are more widely favoured by fans. Zone, even as a single episode OVA is not widely liked amongst Japanese fans. It does suffer from the "Rebirth" effect of shoving in a whole bunch of toys in a short span to advertise them, but Dai Atlas just really rubbed Japanese G1 fans the wrong way (similar to how a lot of fans have criticised ROTF Optimus Prime of just being too ruthless for an Autobot leader).

I think I got up to ep 11 (but I may have seen 12 too. I never saw Fort Max transform though) before I jumped ahead to Masterforce. I need to go back someday and watch the rest of Headmasters.

I personally think The Headmasters is worth watching to completion as I quite like its ending despite its lacklustre beginning. I find it a far more endurable watch than say, Beast Wars Neo - which I found utterly brain-numbingly dull, but I pushed on - and the final Angolmois quest and Unicron arc at the end was pretty good, but having to watch the rest of the series to get up to that point was just painful.

But then again, it's probably relatively easier for me to sit through these series compared to non-Japanese speakers... <vague.shrug>

[Hursticon]

Magical swords are a staple of mythology as they're a more personal and romantic weapon compared to range weapons (e.g. guns) - Excalibur, Kusanagi, Hrunting, He-Man's Power Sword, Narsil/Andúril - one may argue that it seems strange in a "science fiction" setting, but even light sabres in Star Wars were portrayed as 'magical' weapons, like the scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi gives Luke Skywalker his father's light sabre.

I 100% agree with this Goki - Swords are well and above better weapons than guns, IMO for this reason predominantly: There is no honour in killing a person with a gun, an infant can kill with a gun, but it takes true skill and technique to properly use a Sword/Kitana or their derivatives.

Besides, who's ever heard of someone raising aloft their magic gun?
(Alucard of Hellsing Excluded )

[griffin]

I don't regret watching this series, but it can look like I'm not enjoying it. On the contrary, all the bizarre and annoying stuff is making me watch it more, to comment on it.

As for swords - I don't have a problem with them, and like the genres that heavily use them. I just find it difficult to blend the 'Fantasy' genre with the 'Science Fiction' genre, and make it believable. Even in He Man... where most of the power of the show comes from magic, with the swords either being for show or are able to shoot like guns anyway. When you have guns in a story universe, swords just can't compete (unless you have some sort of super-ninja warriors, like in GIJoe).

But aside from that (because it is fiction after all, so anything is possible if it is explained in a plausible way), the sudden appearance of a sword on the bridge of a battleship that Fortress designed and constructed, shouldn't have been written as being a surprise to him. It's his ship/body... who else put the sword there? And why should his robot body (Transtector, as they are suddenly called in the next story) need a magic sword to transform, when everyone else does it by thought.

Kaneda Masumi is hardly representative of all Japanese animation writers. Criticise Kaneda all you want, but I think it's a tad unfair to blanketly blame all Japanese anime writers based on just his work. :/

I only said this cartoon, not all JP cartoons.

[kup]

Looks like sitting through these eps is becoming more strenuous than you had initially hoped Griff

I gave up after about 10 mins skipping through one episode. Found it too irritating and difficult to watch. I suppose the japanese series wasn't made for a US G1 worshipping audience though?

I personally feel that the problem with Headmasters is that the Japanese tried to make it too 'American' without a proper understanding on how to do it and this caused it to become really odd and nonsensical with hybrid elements that don't go well together.

Masterforce and Victory have characters and stories more in line with Japanese Anime without trying to be 'Sunbow G1' and although to an American audience they may seem odd, the story works much better as it's largely consistent with the Japanese style of animation and story telling and therefore more coherent even if somewhat distanced from 'Marvel style' Transformers.

[GoktimusPrime]

I 100% agree with this Goki - Swords are well and above better weapons than guns, IMO for this reason predominantly: There is no honour in killing a person with a gun, an infant can kill with a gun, but it takes true skill and technique to properly use a Sword/Kitana or their derivatives.

For me, as far as romantic fantasy action is concerned, I prefer swords. As far as reality is concerned, I prefer guns!

And yeah, when it comes to fantasy, it does become kinda silly when people use melee weapons like swords when everyone else are using range weapons like guns. That's part of the reason why George Lucas had to invent the Force for Star Wars, cos otherwise Jedi and Sith would easily get cut down by blaster shots. Likewise only Force-users can use light sabres, because a non Force-user would lack the ability to effectively use it to deflect blaster shots (they'd most likely just get shot and die). Basically light sabres only work because Jedi/Sith are "magical" warriors. But IMO The Headmasters portrays Fort Max's sword in a somewhat mystical light, ya know, with the whole song and dance sequence that happens every time he summons it.

Besides, who's ever heard of someone raising aloft their magic gun?
(Alucard of Hellsing Excluded )

And Bruce Campbell (^O^)

I personally feel that the problem with Headmasters is that the Japanese tried to make it too 'American' without a proper understanding on how to do it and this caused it to become really odd and nonsensical with hybrid elements that don't go well together.

Masterforce and Victory have characters and stories more in line with Japanese Anime without trying to be 'Sunbow G1' and although to an American audience they may seem odd, the story works much better as it's largely consistent with the Japanese style of animation and story telling and therefore more coherent even if somewhat distanced from 'Marvel style' Transformers.

That's a very common viewpoint about The Headmasters compared with the other Japanese G1 series. It's kinda like "weening" Japanese audiences off the US series, then by time we get to Masterforce things get a lot better because all ties with the US series have been severed and thus the stories in Masterforce and Victory are notably better (note: Masterforce and Victory were also principally written by Kaneda Masumi). Some fans (like Chris McFeeley (re: audio commentary) have described the final climactic battle between Star Sabre and Death Zaras as being of comparable awesomeness to the final fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron in Transformers The Movie. On the last day of school last year, I showed the final battle to my Year 8 class and despite the fact that (presumably) none of them had ever seen Transformers Victory before and probably had next to no knowledge of G1 (let alone Japanese G1), all the boys in the class (and some of the girls ) really enjoyed watching it.

[Hursticon]

And Bruce Campbell (^O^)

OMG, 1AZRAEL1 is going to kill me for forgetting "The Boom Stick" - Well, Hara-kiri it is then...

[griffin]

Ep 14 - Explosion on Mars! Maximus is in Danger!
Ep 15 - Explosion on Mars! Scorponok Appears!

Mars is rigged with explosives so that Zarak can capture the energy released, and power up his new 'weapon'. The Autobots fail to prevent it, and the new weapon appears in the form of Scorponok.


Size consistency is a problem with Zarak/Scorponok. We have a whole planet (Planet Zarak) with the new Scorponok body filling the entire interior when it breaks away like an eggshell, but then when he arrives on Mars he's about the size of Fortress Maximus. And when Zarak is the head, he's huge (the size of a regular bot), but then shrinks when transforms back to Zarak. I guess odd size shifting isn't new to Transformers.

The larger bodies of the Headmasters are suddenly given a name - Transtectors. And everyone suddenly starts using it as if it was common knowledge.

Zarak has been quite successful as a leader, destroying 2 whole planets... 3 if you include his own Planet Zarak.

And does this mean all those Beastformers slaves were all killed in the destruction of the planet? Nobody cared about them.

Destruction of Mars has upset the balance of the (whole) Universe. One small insignificant planet is destablilising the entire universe???


Ep 16 - Return of the Immortal Emperor

Zarak attempts to draw the Autobots into a trap by hosting his own coronation as Decepticon Emperor, but Galvatron arrives and instead of finishing them off, he lets them leave so he can take back his leadership.

Introduction of Punch (Spacepunch in this series), as the Autobot doublespy.
Although, his first scene has him drawn as Decepticon and then Autobot while in the room with Zarak... I guess his cover would be blown.

Return of Galvatron... huge dramatic build up throughout the episode, but was spoilt by the title.

The Autobots wonder if the UFO are aliens... um, that just didn't make sense, as everyone are aliens to them, including the Humans.

Zarak is having a coronation... I was half hoping Galvatron would say 'coronation Zarak, this is bad comedy' and shoot him.

Nice to see all six of Soundwave/Soundblaster's cassettes in one shot again, and having Ravage and Laserbeak (Jaguar and Condor) speaking. When they all transformed and went into Soundblaster's chest, I was laughing at the thought of him falling over backwards from the sheer weight of them all landing in there at once... but the scene changed.

Again Fortress can't transform without the Master Sword being fully charged. At least it wasn't a problem in the US cartoon.

The one thing that does bug me most about this series is the amount of wrestling and close quarter combat that occurs. They have weapons... use them and defeat the enemy quickly, or even at all. But I guess the episodes would only be about 4 minutes long if that happened.

Daniel tries to contact the UFO with his keyboard (like the movie 'Close Encounters'), and later he has a cry like a little girl when the UFO turns out to be Galvatron.

[Bartrim]

The one thing that does bug me most about this series is the amount of wrestling and close quarter combat that occurs. They have weapons... use them and defeat the enemy quickly, or even at all. But I guess the episodes would only be about 4 minutes long if that happened.

That totally annoyed me too!!! It's almost as bad as energon when Megatron would just shoot and shoot and shoot Optimus and he would just stand there and talk about teamwork.