I was wondering if anyone knew of any good Japanese TF 1980s Manga sites? Does anyone know how accurate the manga is to the cartoon? I've tried searching on other sites and even Yahoo Japan and I've come up empty. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
The manga depending on the series is very loose. G1 is a very loose and can be considered cannon except for certain issues, such as location and use of Japanese only humans who show up out of no where to give the series a child to identify with. This includes G1, 2010, and Headmasters. They all follow closely and either retell or give essentially "new episodes". The retellings though can at times go against cannon though because they condense too much. Some though give fascinating ideas and characters espeically 2010's Optimus/Megatron combination that Starscream created. Great stuff. Actually found the link to this story translated into English: http://www.tfarchive.com/comics/japanese/trans143.php Great stuff! Masterforce actually took a more serious tone toward the end and gave more details then the series. The changes though make it its own cannon. Same for Victory in the cannon department except it took a silly turn and the reason Deathsauras and the Destrons came to Earth was to protect the Destron women and children. Silly is an understatement. With Zone, Battlestars, and Operation: Combination we only have manga to go off. Of course you have to consider that in this case manga includes full color spreds in TV Magazine. Beast Wars is a different story with the manga being retellings almost entirely but offering up really interesting and important info. I'll post more on this tommorow and if you have any more questions please ask. This is one of my favorite areas to talk on, particuarly since there is little info available. Victory Leo Glad to be back posting
Thanks for the info, guys. When I was in Japan two years ago, I went to one of their big toy cons in Tokyo; saw a lot of sweet stuff, but one thing surprised me and taught me never to complain about back issue prices here in the States. A few vendors had the original 1980's manga "Fight! Super Robot Life" and "The Headmasters", but the prices on them were insane. If I remember correctly, they were about $200 a piece. Until then, I had no idea they were sooo rare. Maybe it was beacause they were con prices, but still...I'm sure some Japanese twenty-somethings are banging their head against a wall for throwing those away...
There was a BIG reprint volume of all the Japanese TF manga a while back, from Fight! right through to Victory. Chris McFeely also did some nice summaries of the early Manga which he posted up here last week, good stuff. I wouldn't mind trying to find that big volume myself someday, if nothing else to have a look at the Headmasters manga where Stepper and Artfire turn up.
I've actually looked at the manga you're talking about. It is a VERY nice volume and VERY reasonably priced (about $32) . However, I don't know where you can get it online....I looked for it on ebay and came up empty...I think it's hard to find because it's simply titled "Transformers The Comic". Anyways, Artfire and Stepper do appear like you say. Albeit, their appearance is very brief, but it's nice to FINALLY see them.
Artfire and Stepper's appearance at least is a story based appearance and actually establishes them in the Japanese continuity. Also the prices for the Japanese books are so expensive because 1) they are rare, 2) fans in Japan always seem to, and are willing, to pay more (look at DVD and CD prices), 3) the Japanese rarely keep old stuff around, which is where the rarity comes from, 4) the books were not highly printed, and 5) it depends on what you mean and which books you were looking at. Before this Transformers comic collection there was never a collection done of the Japanese manga in any one source. If you were a fan you had to find old issues of TV Magazine to ge the core manga. Even the current collection does not contain all the manga ever done for Transformers! There are the few manga done in Comic Bon Bon (a large tokuban sized magazine that comes out monthly) for G1 and there were some mail aways. Most of those were collected in the manga collection but not all because not all of them were send aways from TV Magazine. In the end we should probably refer to the Transformers The Comics collection as the TV Magazine collection. Next, the manga from Tanoshi Youchien are almost always overlooked. A sister magazine of TV Magazine this magazine focuses on stuff for boys and girls and ran throughout the 80's a feature on Transformers which was either a full color manga (as in it was done comics style not with animation pictures) or a summary of what was currently happening in the series. (Best God Ginrai picture ever came from this magazine which I will try to post.) Also TV Magazine had the manga as well as full color spreads with animation like pictures (many can be seen in Tranformers Generations but not all). These were often summaries but as Zone through Operation Combination were done all the story was told through these types of spreads. In fact Operation Combination had no manga at all so spreads were it. These spreads have never been reprinted in one book but many books have used parts of them or all of them. In fact the Japanese G1 encloypedias used them alot. Those are probably the books you found Blaster2001. They tend to be very pricy but they are very good! Victory Leo
I do have one of their encloypedias. It came out in April, 2004. I picked it up at a bookstore chain, not a convention, for 1300 yen or about $15. It was part of Takara's 20th Aniversary Celebration. It's called "Transformers G1 Character daizenshuu", which a rough translation is "Transformers G1 Character Mega Album". Does anyone know which one I'm talking about? I've tried searching for a pic of the cover to post, but haven't found any. The cover is imo one of the BEST pics of Optimus Prime and Hot Rod (Rodimus Prime?) shaking hands. I'll see if I can figure out the name of the artist who did the cover work.
The encylopedia's I'm referring to are series specific. There is one for G1, Headmasters, Victory, and Masterforce. I assume there is one for 2010 but I have never seen one, although there is a similiar book which is smaller (as in squat) but does not fit with the series. Those are usually what are refered to as the Transformers Encloypedias and go for at least $75 if not higher. Victory Leo
Here are two links to the items I was talking about from Japan's Amazon: Here's the collection of manga : http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/4813000932.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg Here's a pic of the encylopedia I was talking about: http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/4796640150.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg ....gotta love that pic with Prime and Hot Rod/Rodimus...
The first book is "Fight! Super Robot Lifeforms Transformers The Comics". This is the super collection that collects almost every manga that TV Magazine was involved with. The other book you already explained what it is but it is not part of the classic encloypedia series and is a new collection focusing on characters. The origin of the picture though is the interesting part. It is a shot originally from TV Magazine around the time Headmasters started. It was also used in the Headmasters TV Magazine album so it is a pretty old pictures (almost 20 years old). It is a classic though isn't it? Fantastic!
Wow, I didn't know the pic was so old. I must admit, the small scan doesn't do the pic justice. Can you tell if it's supposed to be Hot Rod or Rodimus Prime? I want to say Rodimus Prime because of how his size compares with Prime's. Plus, I think the bot's calm look of confidence goes more with Rodimus than Hot Rod. The detail work on both Prime is also great. I like the artist's different take on Prime's head, with the two antennas sticking out and how the wheel folds at his hip. If only all TF illustrations could be so detailed...IDW should hire that guy to illustrate a TF comic...
I'll see if I can figure out who the artist is but I know he did alot of TF pics. I'm pretty sure it is Rodimus but in a period where the movie events and Optimus Prime's death were not known or well known. I'll check. As for IDW hiring him ... uh I'm pretty sure the guy is in his 40's or 50's and has a steady gig at a Japanese animation studio. At least that's my guess. As for the confidence the Japanese really gave Rodimus and Hot Rod more confidence whenever they drew him. They were more open to the idea of a new leader then the US ... the story editors that is. Japanese fans cried like babies too when they found out Convoy was dead. (The commerical for that is chilling. Hundreds of people chanting "Convoy! Convoy!" (most looking like Americans) and then a small, very white kid screams: "CONVOY!" Then the screen fades to a shadowed Rodimus. Chilling stuff.
