Just checked episodes 23.

Megatron's Master Plan was a weird episode, but it did give us a rather interesting character in Shawn Berger (one that I wish could have been used to his full potential, since I could see him becoming the J. Jonah Jameson to the collective Spider-Men that are the Autobots).

This episode is even weirder. Mega disguises as a fortuneteller and convinces everyone that the Autobots are evil. Right at the start.

I'll give this episode something, though, the Headmaster Juniors at least got a chance to be in the limelight, and some of the battles were pretty great (seeing Minerva kicking Blood in the gut just made me smile).

But yeah, I wouldn't call it a bad episode, just average (almost mediocre, but the animation and battles are enough to save it from that).

 

There are some nice parts of the episode. Minerva gets some action. The parts I tagged as *FORESHADOWING* are (for once) a nice, subtle tease for what's to come in the next couple of episodes (a very nice change of pace from how most of the time they blow all their chances at surprise twists and well-built reveals by just having the narrator info-dump an explanation on us). The meteor crashes and attacks are actually an interesting plot in terms of the damage and chaos they cause. Even the idea that perhaps people turn on the Autobots because they are party to the fallout from clashes, in a "you brought your war to our planet!" sort of way rather than "the Autobots don't care about the Earth and are happy to trash it in their fight because they're actually evil" are all interesting ideas that could've carried this to a better score. But it all ends up so basic and paint-by-numbers in that Mega tries to convince everyone the Autobots are evil, the Autobots play so hard into the Decepticons' hands that it's no wonder they earn scorn from the humans, and then it all gets resolved at the end because the Decepticon plan is so paper thin that it doesn't stand up to any sort of scrutiny once the Autobots have an opportunity to start showing that they aren't the bad guys (mostly because Ginrai isn't the one that shows the true nature of the Autobots).

At least Megatron's Master Plan had the Decepticons specifically try and frame the Autobots. Starscream put on that Optimus costume and acted like a cackling supervillain for the cameras. This time the whole plot basically hinges on a) people being gullible enough to believe some "fortune teller" playing up the schlocky nature of that trope for all it's worth and b) Ginrai being such an impulsive, act-first, think-never mode that he manages to play fully into everything that's being said about him and validate the accusations. And the plot suffers for it.

 

Yeah, good points all'around there.

There is something else I'll give the episode full props for. That they had the Arc de Triumphe destroyed instead of the Eiffel Tower. Usually it's the Tower that gets blown up to show 'shit just got real!' so to have that get destroyed instead? Odd thing to praise, but I'll give them points for not taking the easy way.

 

EPISODE 24: Super Ginrai Gets Blown Away in the Desert!?

THE SHORT VERSION
A transformers movie shoot involving a lot of explosions. And yet Michael Bay is nowhere to be found.

REVIEW
There's not a lot to say about this episode. The basic idea of the plot (the Decepticons try to trick Ginrai into a trap to defeat him before the Godbomber project can be completed) is nothing new, but at least the approach is. Surprisingly, much of the episode is taken up by the fake/real movie shoot plot and Ginrai cooperating with it, stalling for time for the big fight scene. And for the most part, that big fight scene is worth it, as it shows off some very stylized looking animation and interesting combat right up to the debut of the Decepticons' biggest weapon (and the subject of the sig image I've had for this leg of the project): Overlord.

For the first time Ginrai doesn't just handily trounce every enemy put in front of him and we even end the episode on a potentially downbeat note compared to usual fight results. It makes for a solid if a little shallow watch that handles its story unfolding in a sensible and entertaining way that doesn't ruin the suspense too much with unnecessary early reveals and narrator interruptions. The quality of the fight carries this episode to a fairly decent grade

THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS

Spoiler

-We're back in Canada again! They're really racking up the trips north of the border. The only thing that could make this series more Canadian would be if they passed by a Tim Hortons with a family of moose standing beside it while Nickelback played generic, corporate-approved rock music in the background.

-Apparently British Motor Company has a gigantic hidden factory underneath their actual factory. A gigantic one. I look forward to their explanation of how they managed to hide all the necessary funding and work permits for such a facility when it came to reporting on their operations to the appropriate authorities.

-Right away Hawk spills to the Headmaster Jrs that they're going to build an upgrade for Ginrai using "Super-God Unification." Never underestimate shonen/henshin series ability to just stick words together to make things sound fancy and interesting.

Apparently Godbomber also gives Ginrai some serious Dreamwave proportions.​

-My god, is the parroted questioning thing getting out of hand. After the whole godbomber conversation included at least 3 instances of that "it's a project we call Godbomber." ... "Godbomber?" type stuff, we switch to the Decepticons as Devil-Z notes that their plans have been leaked to the Autobots. Giga responds by parroting the entire statement back at him. Literally the conversation is:

Devil-Z: "The plan we have been carrying out in secret has been leaked to the Autobots."
Giga: "The plan we have been carrying out in secret has been leaked to the Autobots!? How?"

Argh.

-Apparently the Depeticons' off-Earth ally (who looks very distictly like a character we've seen before in Headmasters) caught wind of what was going on when he found that Grand Maximus informed the Autobots of what he knew.

-Devil-Z is somehow shocked that the Autobots found out about their plans, but in the same breath reveals that he knows exactly what the Autobots' secret Godbomber plan is, right down to the detail of it creating a power up for Super Ginrai.

-Oh my god, this episode is the worst for the parroting questions. Every second line is a character repeating a line as a question.

-Mega's eyebrows are in peak form this episode.

They're practically a character unto themselves by now.​

-Meanwhile, as the Autobots build this big upgrade to Ginrai that apparently isn't a secret at all, Ginrai is off doing usual trucker things, stopping at a diner in the desert. Where he's immediately approached by a mysterious man who knows his name and is revealed to be a producer for company called "Z Production" that almost certainly isn't a Decepticon front.

-Also the logo on Z Production's business card is an unfortunate blackface charicature. I get that Japan doesn't know any better, but still, it was like 1988 at this point. It's not a good look.

-Man, Canada is really rubbing off on this show. "Z Productions" is pronounced "Zed" and not "Zee"

-The man tells Ginrai that he needs someone who is a skilled driver to do stunt work for his movie. We'll just ignore that Ginrai's whole body of amazing work has only come with him behind the wheel of an alien super-weapon.

-Also apparently "driving technique" in Japanese is the English words "driving technique." Good to know.

-And on cue, as soon as Ginrai agrees to participate, the producer guy gives us an ominous look. Way to spoil the surprise early.

-One commerical break later, Ginrai is introduced to the director, an obvious not do a real American movie director in name and appearance. So, it being 1988 when this show was produced, which notable director did they go for? Steven Spielberg? Oliver Stone? George Lucas? James Cameron (I know, he is technically Canadian)? Robert Zemeckis? John Hughes? Tim Burton? Ridley Scott (also not American)?

How about Sam Peckinpah. A director defined by his grim, gritty, nihilistic, bloody and violent western-inspired movies. Becuase what better to pair with a show for kids about giant transforming robots from space?

Unrelated trivia: Sam Peckinpah died in December 1984.​

-Oddly, the director's spoken name sounds like "pah-KEEN-pah" but the written name on the back of his chair is "Packinper" for some reason.

-Mr. Packinper is also goofy and sociable, joking around with Ginrai as he explains his scene. From everything I've read, the real Sam Peckinpah was notoriously difficult to work with and almost always either totally hammered or high as a kite.

-So now, instead of a proper run-through, Ginrai is handed a map of where effects are going to be triggered (explosions) and basically just told to go do it. I know it's all a Decepticon plot, but certainly Ginrai should've clued in that something was seriously wrong here.

Oh wait, I forgot that he's kind of a dense idiot.

-Our mystery producer pulls off his latex mask and reveals that he's been Hydra in disguise. Oddly, the latex mask also managed to add like 50 pounds onto his frame in order to make him look like a portly middle-aged guy.

-It's worth noting now that according to supplemental material Hydra was supposed to be an actor by trade before the Deceptions recruited him. I don't think that ever actually came up.

-Ok, now I'm slightly confused. This is a trap, and the producer was Hydra in disguise. But apparently the movie shoot itself is real and it's only Hydra that's a Decepticon? So how did he manage to get a job and be a trusted producer in order to rig all of this?

-Ginrai then completes the entire stunt shot without taking any damage. The Decepticons are at least considerate enough to wait until after the shot was complete to spring their trap.

-What is also odd is that the blast takes out his trick and trailer and this is apparently a big win even though we've seen before that one of the powers of the Godmaster transtectors is that they can instantaneously heal from damage.

-The trap sprung, Buster and Hydra fly into action as the film crew scatter to avoid being caught in the crossfire. And that's likely the last we'll see of them.

-The sound effects for the Decepticon Godmasters' plane weapons remain disappointingly weak sounding. Because who needs sharp, punctuating laser blast sounds when you can just have them go "sshhhhhhew shhhhhhew shhhhhhheeeeeew."

-Buster lands and transforms and begins attacking the trailer by... punching it repeatedly with alternating lefts and rights. Now I know why we do the "bully formation" fights so much where one guy pins another while a partner wails on him: It's the only hand-to-hand fight choreography the animators know that doesn't involve weapons.

-Meanwhile, everyone who isn't one of the Decepticon Godmasters sits in their base and watches what's going on. Because why wouldn't you ensure that this plan works out when you can trust two guys who have failed multiple times already to get the job done this time becuase reasons?

"Hey, you guys need us to do anything? No? Cool. Then we're just gonna order some pizza and watch the fight."​

-I haven't mentioned it yet, but this fight is incredibly well animated and full of really sharp and stylized character models with altered proportions and a slightly different design. The models themselves are a little odd because of how different they look, with lots of more slender limbs and more obviously "robotic" joints, but also visible cables and tubes running through joints such as Ginrai's wrists and underarms.

The extra details balance out the fact that Ginrai looks massively underweight.​

-Still watching the fight, Giga announces that it's time for he and Mega to enter the fray. They both activate their godmaster armor, which apparently comes as a gigantic surprise to the assembled other Decepticons even though they clearly used the armor in the prior episode and everyone was there to watch. They then enter into the black jet and blue/purple tank that they'd used in that prior episode and take off for the battlefield.

-Ginrai unleashes his "chokon power" as a blast from his hands, knocking the two Decepticons down. It's kind of sad that the show keeps tacking on new powers for Ginrai and the other Godmasters when they can't even be bothered to consistently portray their existing powers in an interesting light. If they gave Ginrai a solid and repeatable use of his Chokon energy blast that he could break out in tight spots, they wouldn't need to keep giving him new and increasingly "special" abilities to provide for interesting battles.

-Buster and Hydra resort to "Wing Cross", their merged form which always looks incredibly disappointing. For what it's worth, the toy form of it also tends to suck. I've never even bothered to try assembling the version for the Power of the Primes releases of these bots (or rather Dreadwind and Blackwing). It's quite possibly the most disappointing PotP combination gimmick aside from the colossaly disappointing wait to be able to assemble Orthia (the all-fembot combiner)

-Predictably, Ginrai summons his trailer to combine with him to Super Ginrai mode and like all Godmasters, the trailer is miraculously able to heal all the damage it suffered in the prior attacks. The fact that this happens should surprise no one and makes me wonder why the Decpeticons are so shocked it comes to pass.

-In his super mode, Ginrai somehow combines 3 types of Chokon Energy (star, earth, and spark) and fires the "special fire guts" blast at the two opposing Godmasters. I think they've done this before, but not exactly in this way. It's also a rather visually disappointing looking attack.

-Buster and Hydra take the brunt of the blast and are severely damaged, but Giga and Mega arrive just in time to provide reinforcement, easily putting Super Ginrai on the defensive while in their vehicle modes, dealing surprising amounts of damage to the Autobot.

-And then they look to seal the deal by transforming and debuting the robot mode of Overlord. The model is a little messy, but Overlord does cut an imposing figure in robot mode and is a suitable counterpart to Super Ginrai.

Apparently crotch insignia were just what was hip and trendy for Decepticons in 2020​

Ginrai goes right for the groin attack. Even though Overlord is technically half female. So does that make this more awkward or less?​

-In one volley of missles, Overlord melts Ginrai's rifle and leaves him defenceless. Another volley does significant damage to Ginrai's body as well. It's nice to see Ginrai actually being challenged for once.

-As Ginrai fights back, it becomes apparent that even in his super mode, he's quite a bit smaller than Overlord. That's nice too given that Super Ginrai has towered over pretty much everyone else.

-Back at the BMC base where the Godbomber is being built, the Autobot Headmaster Jrs all wonder what's keeping Ginrai, unaware of the fight he's in or how badly he's losing. They also seem to be unaware of how long it takes to get from somewhere desert-like in the US to wherever in British Columbia the BMC HQ is.

-With a final flurry, Overlord downs Ginrai and pronounces his victory over the Autobot, with Giga surmising that the death of their leader will have a profound effect on the rest of the Autobots. But as he and Mega retreat, Ginrai stirs because (shockingly) he's not actually dead yet! His transtector is shattered, but as he ejects from its chest, battered and bruised, he proclaims that he won't die here.

The face reminds me a lot of happy Cliffjumper from that one G1 episode

Although now that I do that, it makes me realize how washed out the colors are on these Japanese series. But meanwhile, back in relevant images from this episode:


Is this the end of Ginrai? *looks at episode count remaining* Probably not...​

Final Grade: B

 

EPISODE 25: Will the Bomber Project Be Destroyed?

THE SHORT VERSION
Introducing Black Zarak. He's here to get name-dropped, do nothing, and never reveal the shocking truth of his origins. Because that would take away precious screentime from the human characters.

REVIEW
A good batch of fights and Ginrai nowhere to be found (thus preventing him from soaking up all the screentime and importance in said fights) make for a unique and interesting episode that has broken somewhat with the usual theme of the show of "just let Ginrai do all the heavy lifting because he's awesome"

But I have to dock some points for a couple of really notable storytelling flubs in the form of:

1) The reveal of Black Zarak, the newest Decepticon, who has a legitimately intriguing backstory that we hear nothing about. Instead he's just shown to us by the narrator at the start of the episode and then goes on to do absolutely nothing of note in this one. Again they blow what could've been a cool twist to an episode for no good reason, and compound that issue by doing it with a character that we will never learn the interesting aspects of becuase he's just here to be a generic weapon/lackey.

and

2) At the end of the episode a throwaway line by Phoenix brings up some serious questions about the timeframe and universe of this show that conflict with how it's otherwise tried to divorce itself from the explicitly futuristic setting that late G1 and Headmasters employed. It's a line that didn't need to be there, but because it is all that ends up happening is that it draws attention to how wonky this show is when you really sit down and think about it.

Also it loses some points for questionable animation and character design at times, an unfortunate downgrade from last episode's much more interesting stylistic choices.

THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS

Spoiler

-Right as the episode opens, the narrator helpfully tells us "Planning to conquer the Earth, the Decepticons have summoned Black Zarak, a Transformer with unknown fighting capability." Black Zarak is the mysterious off-world secret weapon that the Decepticons have hinted about having for several episodes now. And so they just blow that surprise for nothing to start the episode. Just like with Grand Maximus and... well, just about every big reveal the series has had to this point. Except maybe Overlord. That one was actually handled reasonably well. But otherwise, up to and including this reveal, it just feels like such a waste. This could've been a big reveal in the middle of a battle, but instead it's just another narrative infodump.

-Secondarily, just like Grand Maximus, we get a character who is basically a repaint/remold of a Headmasters character. But what's the point of him being a duplicate? There isn't one! He's just a thinly veiled excuse to shoehorn in a remolded/retooled toy into the narrative of the show to sell the Black Zarak figure.

The one significant difference is that unlike Grand Maximus, who is merely related to Fortress Maximus, Black Zarak actually IS Scorponok from Headmasters, and thus represents another one of the small handful of explicit canonical ties to its predecessor series. The issue is that none of this is explained or discussed within the series as far as I know.

Based on some wiki research, his background is only revealed in a set of promotional booklets that were mailed to members of Japan's Transformers fan club, explaining that after the events of Headmasters Scorponok fled into space to continue the fight against the Autobots. But before he could complete his new armored body to replace the lost Transtector destroyed at the end of Headmasters, Devil-Z found him, kidnapped him, and brainwashed him into becoming a servent of his (Devil-Z's) new Decepticon cause. This is how Devil-Z becomes the Decepticon commander for this series, basically by usurping Scorponok's status and claiming the Decepticon army as his own once he had installed himself as leader. It's good to know the series made a point of NEVER EXPLAINING ANY OF THIS EXCEPT TO A HANDFUL OF KIDS WHO WERE PART OF THE FANCLUB IN 1988.

-Back on Earth, remember how last episode ended with Ginrai near death and nobody the wiser that he was severely beaten and bleeding in the desert? Well without even getting a narrator info-dump we now skip ahead to Ginrai sitting in Minerva's car as they drive him to receive medical treatment. And the only physical signs that he's even hurt are a simple sling around his right arm. Last time we saw him he was bleeding from his head and now he doesn't even have so much as a cut.

-Out of nowhere as they all drive (the 3 Headmaster Jrs and I think Lightfoot and Ranger), an attractive woman in a convertible passes in the opposite direction, causing Ginrai to lean out of the window to comment at her, except he somehow hurts himself and gives the single worst reading of being in pain that I've ever heard. It's a meek, listless, "uuuu uuuu uuuu uuuu uuu" sort of noise. It doesn't sound painful. It doesn't even sound weak and unable to sufficiently voice any actual pain. It sounds like a bad line reading that you'd expect out of a high school drama class.

-In the Decepticon base, Devil-Z relays orders to Black Zarak. And Zarak himself doesn't say a word. But they sure d use exactly the same sequence of images of him flying through space and destroying asteroids .

-For some reason, Road King has shown up at the hospital for Ginrai and he uses the opportunity to creepily leer at the nurses.

-He and Ranger also look oddly off-model to their earlier appearances. Road King gets an exggeratedly wider and flatter face and broader but more chiseled jawline to go with a shorter haircut, while Ranger has a rounder face, wider spaced eyes (or eye slits), a broader nose, and a tighter crew-cut looking hairdo. Lightfoot looks pretty much the same though.

This is what happens when you don't appear prominently for a couple of episodes. Everyone forgets what you look like.​

-Ginrai's actor really sucks at emoting pain. Road King teases him and elbows him and he again makes this lame, flat groaning noise.

-We also get a throwaway line about how "it's a good thing you (Ginrai) weren't as seriously hurt as we thought."

-The fact that Ginrai is in hospital and the Bomber project is in danger is a perfect example of why it was stupid just to give an upgrade to the one guy and not spread out among the other Godmasters.

-Before we leave the hospital, we've gotta have another chance for a cute nurse to show up so Road King can swoon over her in a kinda sleazy way. We get it, he's a cad. I guess we should be grateful that he's getting this much characterization compared to what the Headmasters got.

-Switching back to the Decepticons, we see Blood and Gilmer running like idiots to report something. It appears that the gradual reducing of them to total bumbling oafs is proceeding on schedule.

Cyclonus and Scourge are watching and thinking "We've been there, man. We know what you're going through." And then they started the "degraded Decepticon" support group.

-Seriously, they could not look stupider if they tried. They get interrupted by Buster and Hydra who basically bully them into sharing whatever it is they intend to report to Giga and Mega, telling them that they will give the Pretenders something to bring them glory in exchnge for the info.

Remember episode 1 when Blood straight up murdered a bunch of people on a cruise ship? If he could see his future self now.​

-And then we cut to the two Godmasters talking to Giga and Mega relaying the info to Giga and Mega: It's the location of the Godbomber project factory. They're ordered to take the Pretenders with them to the factory and lay waste to it, but there's no indication that the Pretenders got any credit for the scoop. So, predictably, they got suckered into giving up the valuable information in exchange for nothing. Because they're idiots.

-Really though, the scoop isn't that huge. One look at the exterior of this apparently nondescript British Motors Company factory reveals the presence of a large number of highly armed guards standing around the premesis. Because nothing is this heavily guarded in Canada except maybe Rogers Arena in Vancouver during the Stanley Cup Final. But that's less about invaders and more about Canucks fans burning the city down (again) if they lose (again).

Nobody thinks twice about this being the world's most heavily guarded commercial automobile factory.​

-One thing I notice is that the artists are somewhat inconsistent with how tall the Headmaster Jrs are relative to one another. In particular Minerva seems to waffle between being taller than the boys and noticably shorter. Here it's the latter.

-But enough about heights, check out the dead eyes on all 3 of them.

Whenever Ginrai isn't on screen, all the other characters should be asking "Where's Ginrai?" (Ginrai should also be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine)

-Cab also takes a moment to be a bit of a jerk to Minerva, remarking that she can't help the Pretenders build Godbomber because she would only get in the way. Shuta then makes him apologize. But not for insulting Minerva. Nope. Instead it's for being loud and maybe distracting the workers.

-Suddenly alarms in the facility start to sound and everyone looks concerned. Except (I guess) the hilariously off-model Phoenix?

Phoenix cut his hair and it turned him into a disaffected jerk.​

-All 3 Headmaster Jrs agree to go outside and repel the enemies, to which Hawk tells them "not to underestimate the enemy." If Hawk was smart he would've sent at least a couple of the other Pretenders to send out given how easily the Decepticon Godmasters trounced the non-Godmaster Autobots in previous fights. But nope. The only backup they get is Lightfoot arriving on scene and promising that Ranger and Raod King are on their way.

-Predictably the human soldiers outside are completely ineffective and the Godmasters have free reign to bomb the facility while the Pretenders clash with the Autobot Jrs.

-Lightfoot leaps into action! Literally! he jumps up into the air and grabs onto the back of Hydra's plane and starts karate chopping the engine.

-On the ground Shuta surprises Blood by bashing him over the head with a steel girder. Only to then let go of it so that Blood can grab it and whack him back with it. I'd scoff at him being a Warrior, but in his defence he's only like 13 or whatever.

-Inside the facility Diver asks if they should go help. Glad someone has their head on straight.

-Hawk's response though is that the "project must not be delayed." The project is automated though. They've just been sitting around watching screens and automatic welding machines work. It's not like they've done anything specific. His follow up is "if the worst should happen, Lightfoot will contact us." So basically he's banking on not intervening until the Headmaster Jrs are dead. Maybe it was a good thing that he relinquished leadership.

-While all of this is going on, Mega and Giga merge their transtectors into Overlord and take off for the moon. Why not go help ensure the autobots are defeated once and for all? Shut up, that's why!

-For as much combat as is happening between the Headmaster Jrs and the Pretenders, Minerva is by far doing the least fighting of the trio. Shuta and Cab are getting easily beaten up, but she's mostly staying out of things. It'd sure be nice if she remembered that she has a stun gun.

-And speaking of Headmaster Jrs, where the hell are the Decepticon ones in all of this?

-Once again in teh base Diver asks if it would not be quicker if the Autobot Pretenders helped out. But Hawk shoots him down by saying that Lightfoot hasn't contacted them yet. Seriously, Hawk. You're just trying to let those kids get killed.

-Then unannounced, Road King shows up with "a plan" that he needs help with from the PRetenders.

-Flashing over to the Hospital, it's time for more bad acting from Ginrai's voice actor in terms of portraying pain.

-Road King's plan takes shape as it appears he is creating a decoy truck that is trying to escape the plant in order to draw Decepticon attention. This gives Lightfoot the opening he needs to.. holy crap! he attacks each Decepticon Pretender once and in doing so severs one of each of their limbs. So why didn't he do this from the beginning and prevent the Headmaster Jrs from getting smacked around so much?

It's all fun and games until someone loses an arm. But at least this time Blood doesn't have that dumb look on his face.


Yeah, that's the one...​

-The pretenders retreat with one of them sounding like he's braying like a sheep.... what is it with this episode and actors sucking at being able to voice inflections of pain?

-Meanwhile Buster and Hydra have chaced the truck out of range of the factory only to find that it's Road King driving and that Lightfoot and Ranger followed behind, trapping them out away from the Godbomber.

-The Deceptions resort to their silly looking "Wing Cross" mode, which leads to the Autobots resorting to an equally silly tactic of all jumping onto the combined plane and hanging off it.

I'd ask if they even remember that they have guns, but they're 2 Canadians and a Brit, so the answer is obviously "no"​

-Eventually each Godmaster manages to tear a piece of the Godmasters' plane modes off and force them to retreat.

-And with the battle over Ginrai shows up just in time to do nothing.

-Ginrai makes an offhand comment praising the AUtobots for holding the fort without him, noting that they're strong even without him. But apparently Road King is having none of this positive reinforcement crap, as he scolds Ginrai for not accepting that he (Ginrai) is the most powerful one and that they need him. That's right, Ginrai is apparently in the wrong because he's not an overconfident, arrogant jackass. He could certainly learn a thing or two from Chromedome.

-And just to add a bit of insanity, Phoenix interrupts this bit of character shilling to inform that "a contact of his at the observatory on the moon has detected an unidentified object landing on the lunar surface."

That's right, the show just casually drops that there's a human presence ON THE FLIPPING MOON. In hindsight and with thought to the timeline of the franchise that shouldn't be terribly surprising. The show is supposed to take place sometime in 2020 (yep, these reviews are actually current to when the series is happening!  ) And given what we've seen of tech advancement from 2010/2011 through G1 and Headmasters, there is obviously an EDC and space travel and intergalactic communication and ambassadorial work and all that. But Masterforce has largely seemed to dispense with all of that, seemingly mostly portraying the Earth as 1980s equivalent (so as to appear to be present-day-setting for the time the show was broadcast) and has never hinted at any grander scope or scale for what's going on beyond the human characters being confined to Earth and alternatingly aware and unaware of the mere existence of Transformers.

But suddenly there's a moon base? Ok then.

-Ginrai realizes that the moon sighting must be the new Decepticon reinforcement (aka Black Zarak) and that they need to finish the Godbomber project now. But strangely the last thing we see is Overlord on the moon with Zarak nowhere to be found. So was it Overlord that was detected landing on the moon? It's inconsequential, but kind of weird.

Final Grade: C+

 

Maybe this inspired him?

Okay, massive points for all that. It's good to see the bad guys be dangerous and remind the audience of that. Keep the tension up, you know?

Leftfoot is just an alias. His real name is Bruce Wayne. ;p

No wonder everyone knows about everything! And no wonder Hawk's not the leader, you dumbass

Oh, that fucking hurts. I think I wrote better dialog in 1995 when I started writing fanfic.

See above. Art this point they should just take each other on tours of their bases!

Good lord. Those rival Peter Capaldi's! Those are 'Attack Eyebrows'!

No sirree! No 'Con plot, here! Now get into the nice van and get the candy.

I don't know what you're talking aboot, eh?

Hmm, with the Z Productions earlier, I can kinda forgive them for this.

Congratulations, Liege. You're getting it with Ginrai!  

They wanna see the movie made.

Holy crap, yeah. That one screengrab with the cables exposed in the wrist and other stuff? That is some really well-done work.

That's one of the bigger things I hate about shonen anime. The increasingly-nonsensical power-ups and abilities. It gets repetitive and boring.

Stay tuned for next week's episode! Same Ginrai-time, same Ginrai-channel!

then how-

...

Mother fu-

It is... difficult for me to put into words just how much I fucking LOATHE it when anything does that, putting vital information into supplementary material than the majority of the audience won't know about. It is fucking lazy and bad and frustrating. And feels like the people behind the scenes covering their asses. Just... yeah. No.

Another thing about shonen anime I hate.

Oh, that's a painful image of them. They look chibi and cute and they shouldn't look like that!

What about the Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve?  

Oh, that's an image that'll haunt my dreams!

What the fuck are you gonna do to help, Cab? Asshole.

Because they need to toughen up... or Lightfoot's an asshole. Could be both.

So all the hyper-future stuff's been happening what, offscreen or something? That's nuts!

 

I've never seen Masterforce. I've wanted to for some time but I'm only able to find poorly dubbed fan adaptions of the first 1 or 2 episodes.Any sites I can watch them on?

 

Checked episodes 24 and 25.

Honestly, I liked the tension in these episodes. It really was pretty well handled and Overlord actually gets one of the better introductions in the series. He isn't a brilliant character on its own (in fact, all of the personality comes from Giga and Mega), but boy, does he make for a formidable opponent.

And once again, I find myself liking the barbs between the Godmasters a lot more enjoyable than the Headmasters' mean-spirited bickering. Road King makes for a surprisingly fun quipper in this after basically being shown as the stoic one. This is certainly a case where it adds another dimension to the character.

And having Ginrai wounded in these two episodes was good to see and really made him less of a Deus-Ex Machina (which gives him another point against the Headmasters). And seeing the three Godmasters get a bit more of an active role here really is a pleasure.

Also, the fights in these episodes are pretty brutal. Ginrai is pretty badly wounded in the first one, and the Decepticon Pretenders got quite mangled in the second one.

Overall, great pair of episodes that really amped up the tension.

 

I'm hoping to have an episode up tonight. But today I'm washing the outside of the house, so for the next several hours it's just going to be me, a sprayer full of cleaning solution, a hose, a brush on a pole, and an ipod full of pulpy radio programs from the 40s. We'll see what time I get done and how much energy I have left as to whether I can manage to watch and write-up something before the end of the day.

 

As someone who's used a pressure washer in such a manner, it's fine if you don't.  

 

The pressure washer was going to he too much fuss carting it around. And most of what needed cleaning was just algae on the side that doesn't get sun exposure, so it came off with a bit of cleaning solution and a soft bristled brush.

But just in case I don't get to an episode tonight, I do have a tangential bit of Transformers trivia from my efforts:

Among the programs I listened o while I worked was The Adventures of Phillip Marlowe based on the old Raymond Chandler detective novels. One episode featured a supporting turn by John Stephenson (the voice of Kup in The Movie), though I'm unsure of which role he played.

 

You a Philip Marlowe fan too, Liege?

 

I'm a fan of a bunch of classic radio programs that I've taken to listening to on commutes or when I'm doing any sort of easy task where I don't have to concentrate too hard. Philip Marlowe, Barrie Craig: Confidential Investigator, The Saint, The Shadow, Nero Wolfe, etc. Even a handful of vintage baseball games like an MLB All-Star game from 1934 with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Gomez, and a bunch of other iconic pre-war players.

I like that the radio dramas make for good listening in a sort of podcast-like fashion because they're usually 23-25 minutes in length and just the right duration to be useful for half-hour or hour-long blocks of doing stuff or going somewhere.

Admittedly I haven't read the original Chandler novels, but maybe some day.

 

Cool. I actually am a big fan of the old radio stuff and I absolutely love Marlowe (and it was kinda how I was introduced to the books, 'cause I first listened to the radio shows, so I immediately imagined Gerald Mohr's Marlowe while reading).

Along with Philip Marlowe, I also listen to the Superman radio show, the Jack Benny Program, Our Miss Brooks, The Shadow and Jack Armstrong.

Also, yes, John Stephenson was in that episode you linked. He was Leo, the character that appears at 7:49 in the episode. I can just hear that typical John Stephenson sound there.

 

I hear it in his voice now that you pointed it out.

I have a huge backlog of stuff I haven't listened to yet including Jack Benny, George Burns & Gracie Allen, the Mercury Theater Group Presents (Orson Welles' troupe, who made up much of the cast of Welles' run on The Shadow. Including Agnes Moorhead), Superman, Dick Tracy, and The Green Hornet. I have a short run series called The Six Shooter, but I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with it because it's super weird hearing Jimmy Stewart playing a cowboy and still sounding like that same sort of jittery, nervous Jimmy Stewart sort of character that he usually was in movies.

The Saint is a lot of fun too. Sometimes it feels a little bit like an attempt to make the character into something of a knockoff noir hero like Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade, but damn if Vincent Price isn't super suave and charming in the role.

 

Yeah. I can literally hear all of his characters in one when I hear him speak. He had a very distinctive voice.

Superman and Dick Tracy are pretty fun. They were actually recorded in New York (along with the Mercury Theater plays), so the actors aren't the ones you would get in an LA radio show.

LOL, I personally didn't mind hearing Jimmy Stewart as a cowboy since actually, the first movie I saw him in was Winchester '73, so I thought it was kind of similar to that role.

Yeah, Vincent Price as the Saint was pretty awesome. I just enjoy hearing him in the role. It's different from the kind of roles he is known for, but he still keeps that somewhat mysterious aura about him.

 

I got an episode watched tonight but didn't have time to set and upload my images or finish the review. It'll go up tomorrow at some point.

 

EPISODE 26: God Ginrai - Into the Sky!!

THE SHORT VERSION
Our only hope is the guy who both knows he can't do this by himself and refuses to admit that he's unprepared or needs help. No, I'm pretty sure I'm not talking about Chromedome.

REVIEW
The Godbomber project is finally finished and the Decepticons move on to the next phase of their plan in an episode that contains a lot of really cool fighting and nice visuals. As much as I have a problem with it from a narrative sense, the battle between Ginrai and the combo of Overlord and Black Zarak is interesting and well done from a technical standpoint. There are some great dynamic visuals in the episode as well, with moody rain, fun camera angles, and unique sets and staging that really make parts of it a treat to watch.

It's just a shame that the way the story is told is so jam-packed with nonsense and frustration. Ginrai acts like a complete idiot, prioritizing his ego and his selfish need to be the hero and shoulder the burdens of facing the Decepticons alone (which is a shocking 180 from where he started, as the "I want to live my life how I choose and not be tied down by being beholden to other people" guy) while also angrily lashing out at his comrades over their very legitimate concerns that he's more hurt than he's letting on and that it could be dangerous for both him and for everyone he's supposed to protect. And yet through all this, I get the constant sense that the writers expect us to sympathise with Ginrai and side with him over everyone else because it's terrible how the others show no concern for his honor as a leader and the designated protector of the Autobots and Earth.

And then this is all magnified by the fact that he picks his climactic fight with Overlord and Black Zarak and while he holds his own for a while, he ends up outclassed and backed into a corner and things look grim and I can't help but think "This is exactly what he should've been worried about if he wasn't so busy whining about the shallow personal slight of Hawk and Lightfoot not kissing his ass and believing in him."

I have granted through this series that the major characters are, for the most part, better than Headmasters becuase at least they have real personalities. Ginrai is Chromedome if he was more than just a stuck-up jerk. Hawk is Fortress if he was more than just an unsure waffler. Shuta is Daniel if he wasn't just an immature whiny baby. But at the same time, being deeper characters isn't necessarily making them more likable ones. Ginrai is still the designated hero, immune from criticism as he struts around and acts like an asshole more concerned about his image than the safety of his comrades or the success of his mission. And to make things worse, because I guess this sort of "the weight of the world has to be on my shoulders becuase I'm the hero" attitude is a shonen action hero standard, we have to constantly have it pushed on us as the audience that this is apparently correct behaviour to be applauded rather than a sign of emotional shortcomings.

I guess the continuous nature of these issues are why I can't knock the grade any more than I did. Lots of episodes have Ginrai being a tool. But he's going to be a tool no matter what. And at least he's not necessarily quite as much of a tool as Chromedome was, who spent time blaming others for his failures and shortcomings and pretending that his choices are infallable and always correct. So I can't necssarily crush this episode too much on the grading scale because while he's being a dick like always, he's not necessarily a signficantly worse dick than normal and it doesn't necessarily lead to significantly worse consequences. So ultimately the episode stands up reasonably well for its visual aspects and for the completion of the Godbomber (finally) and how much it potentially pushes the plot forward into the next phase of the story.

THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS

Spoiler

-Last episode we learned in a rather casual way about how it turns out Earth has a base on the moon in a series that's otherwise avoided any sort of significant future tech. Here as the episode opens we watch Overlord attack said base and are told what it is: It's an observatory for Earth weather patterns. That seems like a bad use of resources considering that a moonbase would only be able to observe part of the planet at any given time and that we already have weather observation satellites and have for years.

-But it doesn't matter. Those people are dead now.

"I've defeated several small, unarmed humans. This is the greatest victory in Decepticon history!"​

-"Meanwhile, Black Zarak is also drawing close to the moon." *TITLE CARD!*

It's a weird transition.

-And then after the title card we go back to the BMC plant to watch everyone continue to work on the Godbomber project. This includes Hawk on a headset microphone.

"Yes, this is technical support... uh huh... uh huh... I see... Have you tried turning it off and then on again?"​

-Hawk informs everyone that they've lost contact with the moon. Ginrai then asks "what could've happened up there?"

Remember: Phoenix specifically told everyone that they were tracking the Decepticons heading for the moon.

So what could've happened on the moon? The same moon that the Decepticons are headed for. The Decepticons known for attacking people to achieve their goals. What could've happened indeed.

This man is their leader.

-Apparently Overlord didn't kill everyone on the moon. Instead they were captured and confined to a small portion of the base instead.

-Not addressed is why these men who are part of a weather observation station are wearing what look like modified exo-suits. Expecting a lot of danger in the process of tracking weather patterns?

-For some reason in this episode's subtitles, whenever Black Zarak's name is mentioned it's spelled in all caps. So we see a lot about how BLACK ZARAK is headed for Earth.

-As Giga and Mega talk, the moonbase guys stage a jailbreak, looking like a bunch of space marines.

Cataloging weather patterns is serious business.​

-Giga confronts the escaping prisoners and shoots them with some sort of freeze ray or something.

It appears they're in for an unseasonable cold snap.​

-Some of the other Moonbase guys get a distress message out, saying they've been attacked by "unknown enemies". Apparently they don't recognize a giant robot or the distinctive purple Decepticon logo even after three decades of the Decepticons being on Earth.

-And then the console explodes for some reason. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be random or Giga/Mega causing it to blow up to dissuade their plan.

-Again back on Earth Phoenix receives the message and relays it to Hawk. For no reason whatsoever, Hawk sneezes in the middle of the conversation. I have no idea why. It's certainly not that old Japanese folk tale of "if you sneeze it means people are talking about you somewhere." It happens out of nowhere and then is not brought up again.

-Phoenix tells everyone that Black Zarak is headed for hte moon. This shocks Hawk. Because who would've guessed that the new Decepticon who was already known to be on the way to Earth would meet up with his leader.

-Also the all-caps BLACK ZARAK naming has stopped just as suddenly as it appeared.

-When informed that Zarak is on his way, Shuta imagines what this means. His imagination runs wild as he fantasizes about Zarak completely obliterating all the Autobots in his path, tearing Hawk's arm off, cutting Diver in half, and blowing some limbs off of... I think that's Lander? We dont' see the robot mode Pretenders enough for me to memorize what they all look like.

Maybe we should be concerned about how graphic Shuta's imagination is?​

-But of course to keep the new Godmaster guys strong and not cut their legs out from under them (literally), Road King and Ranger are taken out in a less grisly way, getting smashed together by Zarak and then falling to the ground damaged and unconscious, but in one piece.

-Did I mention that this features our first look at Black Zarak in robot mode? Even though they could've saved that for a big dramatic reveal in a fight and not only has Shuta not seen Zarak's robot mode, he's not even seen a visual of Black Zarak at all.

Or should we be concerned that he's also either psychic or a Decepticon spy?​

-After snapping out of his daydream, Hawk announces that Ginrai alone is going to stop Overlord and Black Zarak. That's where we're at, folks. He makes it sound like this isn't Ginrai leading the troops into battle. No, it's just Ginrai. By himself.

-Lightfoot then explains Godbomber. His dramatic conclusion is that it will merge with Super Ginrai to form "God Ginrai" That's his entire explanation after talking about Godbomber's individual capabilites. Nothing specific about what these upgrades do to Ginrai. Just slaps a fancy name on it and everyone goes "wow that's so cool!"

-Lightfoot also suddenly looks a lot younger. He almost looks as young as Shuta.

He probably gets carded all the time. Which is probably for the best because I'm pretty sure he's under 18.​

-Lightfoot also tells Ginrai that he'll have a difficult battle if he has to take on Overlord and Black Zarak at the same time. But it never occurs to him to suggest that anyone else should help out.

-And then after everyone else has left the room, Ginrai has a flashback to being trounced by Overlord and he starts punching the wall repeatedly until he hurts himself. This is the person who has the fate of the Autobots adn all of Earth in his hands.

-Minerva comes back to find Ginrai hurting from his outburst, immediately recoginzing that he's not well enough to head into battle. But of course she doesn't do anything because her most important duty at this point appears to be making coffee. I guess someone has to pick up the slack on those jobs since Carly and Arcee aren't around anymore.

-Hawk watches a progress readout full of random nonsense.

Aren't 'burner' and 'booster' kind of the same thing? And what the heck is 'lancer'?​

-And outside the HMjrs confront Ginrai about his injuries and he says he's fine and everyone's overreacting. But of course he also tells them not to breathe a word of this to Hawk or Lightfoot. Yeah, he's fine...

-He suggests it's just "fear" or "a slump." Because that would totally make his arm hurt.

-We then transition into a training sequence of Ginrai sparring with Cab and Shuta. Except they attack his arms and he goes down from the blwos as if he's injured. As if the transtector is injured. That doesn't even make any sense. He's literally folded up into a little packet attached to his robot mode's back. It's not like his arms are in the arms of the transtector.

-One brief diversion over to the factory later, Ginrai has suddenly found enough strength to wipe the floor with both HMjrs. Because reasons.

I don't have a gag line for this one. It just looks funny​

-For what it's worth, this whole little training brawl is really well animated and a lot of fun to watch even if Ginrai doesn't make any sense.

-And then as soon as it looks like he has the upper hand, the HMjrs go right back to beating him. But the fight is interrupted by Lightfoot pronouncing the Godbomber project finished.

-Which segues right into Ginrai (who has spent the whole episode being nervous about the upcoming fight) boldly announcing that he's just going to rocket off into space alone and take on Overlord right now. The hell?

-Hawk stops him, causing Ginrai to throw a bit of a hissy fit and give Hawk a hell of a glare.

"You're not my dad! You can't tell me not to take this high-tech robot death machine to the moon to fight an even bigger bot made up of two married people as well as a giant scorpion robot! *Linkin Park intensifies*"

-After a commercial break, the narrator butts in and says "but before God Ginrai could launch, something happened at the test site." Yeah "something" happened. Hawk said "don't be an idiot"

-Also suddenly everyone's outside, including the Godbomber. And it's raining. And Hawk and Ginrai have exactly the same conversation as they had before the break, with Ginrai having a fit and Hawk being prudent.

-And Ginrai continues to show his lack of fitness to be a leader by being angry and selfish and whiny about being told what to do. He pronounces himself "the leader of the Godmasters" and storms past Hawk, until the Pretender grabs him by the wrist and exposes his injury. I think we're supposed to side with Ginrai here, and his noble burning desire for justice and willingness to do the right thing, but it's hard to take him with any credibility when he behaves like a spoiled child while Hawk tells him that the Godbomber hasn't been tested and they have no idea if it works. And that he can't fight the Decepticons alone.

-So what does Ginrai do in the face of a well-reasoned argument? He very angrily says that he's not being ruled by his emotions and that Hawk just needs to trust him. Yeah, he's not making this decision out of arrogance and pride at all.

-And the HMjrs cheer him on. Even Minerva.

-Lander and Diver also take his side. So yeah, we're definitely supposed to side with him because apparently Hawk is being an unreasonable coward.

-Ginrai gets a big flashy set of transformation sequences up to God Ginrai as everyone else cheers like idiots. But I'll admit that the final shot of the fully assembled God Ginrai is actually pretty cool, with the rain and the glowing optics and everything.

This isn't Ginrai announcing he's about to fly. It's Ranger insulting Ginrai with a standard Canadianism.
​

-Devil-Z somehow knows that the new super-mode Ginrai is named "God Ginrai"

-Giga and Mega are tipped off to Ginrai's appraoch and transform to Overlord to wait for his arrival.

-And somehow, Ginrai looks even smaller as God Ginrai when compared to OVerlord than he did before.

-So what does he do with his new power? He lets Overlord shoot at him and he noblely just takes all the shots directly instead of using his superior agility to dodge them. What a warrior.

-But it works becuase he rather handily stands up to Overlord and even seems to be gaining the upper hand.

-This is short-lived though, becuase no sooner does the battle relocate to the surface of the moon that Black Zarak arrives and now Ginrai is in trouble because he has to fight both Overlord and the gigantic Black Zarak at hte same time.

-Zarak's arrival is just in time to stop Ginrai from firing his new apparent super mega ultra final chokon power death beam at Ooverlord, toppling the Autobot with an incredibly weak looking laser attack that resembles bad real life special effects superimposed over the scene.

-It's funny to see how this show handles a bit of a cultural difference between Japan and the west. Spike and Daniel would often watch the fights the Autobots would get into and be confident, but also express concern that things might not always go perfectly to plan. But here Shuta and Cab do nothing but blindly cheer that Ginrai is invincible and he's going to win. I like their moxie, but it's somewhat childish sounding.

-Hawk, however, is more concerned than his young allies.

-Overlord launches an attack now that Ginrai has to defend against 2 Decepticons, producing his rifle and also utilizing one of his more powerful attacks: stock footage of the aircraft nose detatching from his upper arm and firing at Ginrai from the air.

-Black Zarak also throws his spear (becuase this version gets a spear instead of just the wussy shield Scorponok had) and punctures clean through Ginrai's right shoulder. I sure hope Ginrai is a lefty.

-Just like that the battle turns and Ginrai is being easily put down by the two Decepticons. Ginrai steels his resolve and stands up, beckoning the Decpeticons to attack him as the episode ends and the Narrator reminds us that Ginrai's gotten himself backed into a corner in his first battle as God Ginrai. What a fantastic leader he is.

-What's funnier is that the next episode preview admits that "God Ginrai is no match for them" when compared to the pair of Decepticons. But these previews are always narrated by Shuta, who not 5 minutes was cheering like a bleating sheep at Ginrai's supposed invincibility. It's a funny juxtiposition.

Final Grade: B-

 

Quick aside before I start watching the next episode:

1) I see @Swerve is back online (in other threads) after a month+ away. Good to see you're OK.

2) I got volume 2 of the Transformers Manga the other day, and it apparently includes material from the start of Headmasters all the way up to the end of the Masterforce story. At some point I'm going to have to sit down and read it to see how it compares to what we've watched, and what plot holes it fills in with material not covered in the tv series.

 

Been a rough few weeks, but yeah, I'm ok. Had completely forgotten that this thread was a "thing", amid all the various other "things", but I shall endeavour to catch up. I will just put in the observation now, that I think Hawk's worst decision in an otherwise fairly decent performance as leader was "I'm going to hand over command to the rookie, just because he turns into the right sort of red lorry."