Megatron and Galvatron probably did that all the time back in the day. "N-no! It was really a hundred Autobot combiners that stopped my plans for galactic conquest!"

Well, it's been a while since any energy raids. They were probably a bit nostalgic for that.  

Hmm, at least it's not all giys in hard hats and work suits.

And now we've all learned something!  

It's good to see all three kids cutting loose and acting like kids.

XTREM 90'S INTENSIFIES!

Man, they're even doing traveling at the speed of plot! They are being nostalgic!

Hell, good on them for using ranged weapon!

Oh, dammit, show!

'Oh, dammit, show!' intensifies.

EXTREME ACTION!

God, I haven't even thought of that movie in years. I mostly remember a CGI cow floating by and a Category Five tornado being described as something godlike. Oh, and the 'villain' not really being all that villainous.

They're running out of cool titles. Well, 'ran' out.

When all you have is a hammer...

Fictional volcanoes should really be called something else, since more often than not they don't resemble real-life volcanoes.

As a fanfic writer for nearly 25 years... yeah. The English language is evil and a Mobius Strip of rules.

Hey, I legit appreciated this.  

It's cool to see some depth and nuance with the bad guys.

You sure about that...

And there'd be people who would buy it, guaranteed.

Holy shit, the drones did something effective!

That looks insane and now I'm wondering if my own CHUG Godbomber can do that...

Man, Poseidon is seriously making up for lost effectiveness earlier!

New hotness, Liege.  

I gotta be honest. The sheer absurdity of Giga and Mega standing ther ein their costumes with the monstrous Pretender standing behind them...  

Hmm, that's some positive character development, Good.

 

Diver getting left behind on this one because apparently 'Mazda RX' is a more suitable alt mode for an underwater escapade than 'submarine' is reminds me so much of that L'il Formers sketch from years ago, of Aquaman comforting Seaspray for being left behind in the base:

Lil Formers #7: Seaspray – Matt Moylan

One day, all the overlooked aquatic mode bots will get their revenge, when Diver, Seaspray, Broadside, Seawatch, Finback, Flattop, and Splashdown ride out of the sunset along with the Gobot Man-O-War and backed up by Piranacon, King Poseidon, God Neptune, and a whole shoal of additional Seacons, and begin their vengeance with the immortal words: "Hey, Primus, you know how to water-ski? Me neither!"

 

That seems more like a Starscream thing to do. "It's not my fault, Megatron! I had the Autobots cornered but then Optimus Prime started glowing and shot a giant beam of energy out of his fists that knocked every other Decepticon but me out cold!"

Yeah, the moments like that are rare. And perhaps not entirely unreasonably so since the HM Jrs are supposed to be 13-15 (and thus old enough to not necessarily want to act too immaturely.) but it is refreshing since most of their screentime is spent desperately trying to act mature but doing so in the most immature way possible (ie being normal teenagers)

I started imagining Paxton and Hunt playing Giga and Mega in a live action Masterforce movie, but sadly that can't happen anymore.

The sad thing is that Ginrai doesn't just have a hammer. He has a whole bag of vaguely defined and mildly differentiated Chokon powers and mode-based abilities that should give him plenty of opportunity to do something unique or interesting. It's actually amusing that the one time it would've paid off for him to dip into his random bag of new-powers-as-the-plot-demands bag of tricks, he doesn't.

True. Except making fictional volcanoes behave like real life ones would be boring. Kind of like how real life space battles would be slow and silent.

I think sometimes we take for granted how crazy messed up English is from a structural standpoint. Like how most languages have a consistent and rigid structure for making conjugation or tense-based alterations, and English is all like "Ha! Whatever! I do what I want!"

It was interesting to read up about and it made me think about how earlier titles were written. Like I said, most character names and Transformer-based nouns are written in Katakana (like, Lightfoot's name is ライトフット, or "raitofutto" the closest approximation of "lightfoot" that the Japanese phoneme set can make given its limitations), so I imagine that's why most titles that I can remember haven't seemed so cluttered. But I remember enough anime and manga scenes mocking excessive furigana use as something childish or immature that it makes me wonder if the fact that this show leans so heavily on using furigana in its title is because of the target demographic, or if perhaps I simply don't watch enough Japanese television to recognize that maybe heavy furigana usage is just standard practice in things like television/episode titles (for what it's worth, I'm pretty sure that even the series' title, including "Super Robot Lifeform Transformers" contains copious furigana)

Very true. They don't get enough screen time to be fully fleshed out, but it's nice to see them remember such a small detail about their characters that could be easily overlooked in the service of making them generically evil.

I might be tempted. I really really like Earthrise Wheeljack, but am disappointed that his ear lights are just painted silver.


[qoute]I gotta be honest. The sheer absurdity of Giga and Mega standing ther ein their costumes with the monstrous Pretender standing behind them...  [/quote]

The whole scene is absurd. The fact that Gilmer magically appears in two places at once is just the capper.

 

The film editor may have found Chromedome's secret hiding place for all his most secret bottles of Super Space Chokon Gin, before editing this episode together.

 

Maybe the appearance of that strangely on-model Gordon's Gin bottle earlier in the show got them a sponsorship deal and the staff was busy sampling the merchandise before they realized "dammit, we have to finish producing this batch of episodes!"

 

I suspect that the real answer is probably a far more mundane 'they forgot that amongst a whole shoal of aquatic Decepticon character models who can be repeated ad nauseum', Gilmer was one of the two (and Turtlar) that could not', but, I think we can do better than that. We better had, because if we can't explain it ourselves, it increases the horrible odds that Takara will release a tangled update to their official timeline at some stage, which goes to great and ludicrous pains to explain the presence of the second Gilmer via tortuous abuse of Occam's Razor and the Space/Time Continuum, and probably weaves in some distasteful connection to Kiss Players at the same time. Binaltech Cthulhu with Daniel Witwicky Kiss Player Figurine?

 

Oh, no you don't! There will be no 'all animation errorsa re canon!' crap like what Ask Vector Sigma said! The animators messed up and that is that, thank you very much!

 

The Gilmer at the base isn't Gilmer. It's his twin brother, Gilmark. He's the intern for the Decepticons' undersea base. He also has chuuniboyu or however it's spelled. 8th grader syndrome. So he fancies himself the dark lord of the forgotten depths and loves engaging in maniacal laughter with Giga and Mega.

Because anything is better than an attempt to tie Kiss Players into canon.

 

EPISODE 30: Destroy Godbomber!!

THE SHORT VERSION
Whenever Sixknight isn't on screen, the other characters should be asking "Where's Sixknight?" (I feel like I've used this joke before. But whatever)

REVIEW
I mock because everyone's favorite edgelord Poochie-wannabe is going to be showing up later, but until then this episode is actually quite entertaining. The Decepticon plot is reasonably sensible and handled well, the Autobots show up and behave in ways that doesn't make me want to tear my hair out or scream at them (with a few exceptions). And there isn't an overriding sense that the animation in this one is being cheaped out on or cut corners.

Plus there's a bit of evolution in Godbomber and its usage that helps move things along and potentially gives the Headmaster Jrs more to do when they would otherwise be so heavily outclassed by every other Godmaster and newer character in the shw.

So for the most part things proceed quite well. And then.... *sigh* and then the hero of the hour shows up to save the day and try and pretend he's all cool and whatnot. I'm sorry, Sixknight is just a crap character and it's hard to care about stuff when he appears because he sucks the joy out of whatever he's part of.

So for the most part this would probably be a B+ episode but it has to get knocked down to a B for the unfortunate Siknight usage.

THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS

Spoiler

-The episode opens with Ginrai relaxing on a hillside while he waits for the Headmaster Jrs to drive up. While seeing Transformers behave casually is always fun and helps to (for lack of a better term) humanize them, it's kind of funny seeing Ginrai do it since there's little reason he shouldn't be relaxing out of his transtector in his normal human form.

All he needs is a hat to drape over his face.​

-I know, I know, scale in Transformers is, well, scale in Transformers. But suddenly the Headmaster Jrs are driving their vehicles into the trailer mode of Godbomber and the size difference is massive. In prior episodes when Godbomber was loaded up there was just enough room to fit the 3 vehicles if they parked Cab's fire engine on one side and Shuta and Minerva's cars lined up in front of one another on the other. Here though they drive in and the trailer is so spacious that there's plenty of room for them to fit in however they wish and still have space for additional vehicles if any were present.

-Also Ginrai takes off with the Headmaster Jrs in a rather reckless way. Previously he disconnected the flying components off Godbomber, attached them to himself, then picked up the remaining Godbomber trailer and took off. Here he instead has Godbomber take off flying itself (which I didn't even know it could do), then recalls the flying components from it to himself, then he takes off and catches the now falling Godbomber. So basically Ginrai needlessly endangers Godbomber and the Headmaster Jrs so he can perform a more flashy transformation. What a leader!

-The reason for the casual endangerment is that the Decepticons are apparently destroying storehouses in farmlands in America. Alright, I suppose. I feel like though the Decepticons' intentions are focused (to spread fear and terrorize humans and all that), but their actions are scattershot and seemingly random, launching small offensives all over the planet and then changing their approach and focus as quickly as they started. I like that it's not all focused on, say, just attacking Japan or Canada or whatever, but you'd think they could keep up their efforts in one area for at least a little while to see if it would bear fruit instead of just poking here and there indiscriminately.

-Ginrai learned of these attacks from Hawk. Concidentally, not appearing in this episode is Hawk. Or any of the Pretenders. We won't see any of the Pretenders again until next episode, and Hawk won't reappear until episode 32.

-But hey, we do get the first appearance of the Decepticon Headmaster Jrs in quite some time. Since episode 24.

We still exist!​

-Cancer starts having second thoughts about their mission to torch a bunch of food and cause people to starve. He tries to dress it up as selfish interest in missing out on hamburgers for himself, but it seems clear that his time with the Autobots and Minerva has had an effect on him. It's nice to see that level of story consistency and throughput.

-The Autobots arrive and welp, I guess we're back to Cab being how he used to be. When Ginrai orders the Headmasters to put out the fires, Cab whines that the Decepticons will get away if he doesn't help chase them down. Atta boy, Cab. Screw helping the people.Then Shuta whinges just the same.

-What's more is that Ginrai also helps out, ripping open the side of a storehouse so the Headmaster Jrs can get in easier and evacuating food on his own. For once it's points in the favor of Ginrai for acting like a responsible leader and practicing what he preaches instead of just leaving the Headmsaster Jrs to do the grunt work while he goes off and gets to do the hero work.

-As Ginrai pulls more food out of a burning warehouse, he gets shot by a mysterious gun peeking out of the warehouse across from him. The single shot takes him down and I was about to claim that we've got some serious power-scale nonsense going on if the Decepticon Headmaster Jrs are suddenly able to do damage to him in his super form, but it turns out that it's Giga's tank. That actually makes sense since we've seen Overlord go toe-to-toe with Super Ginrai before.

-As Overlord has Ginrai distracted, and the Autobot HMjrs are off getting food out of the burning warehouses, Hydra and Buster enact the next phase of the Giga's plan: destroying Godbomber. Only they do kind of a crap job of it, as both shoot it in the side and it shows NO damage, instead just sliding sideways from the force of impact

-Cab sees what's happening, and interestingly refers to them as "the Hydra brothers". So is this like a Mario Bros situation in the (ugh) Super Mario Bros. movie where it turns out their names are Buster Hydra and Hydra Hydra?

-Cab and Minerva open fire on the two Decepticons to protect Godbomber. Yes, Minerva opens fire. Willingly. And without direct provocation. It's the most action Minerva's had in quite some time if you don't count her racing Shut and Cab through the BMC compound and factory.

Sadly far too infrequent in this series​

-Just as Overlord looks ready to execute a downed Ginrai, Shuta appears and fires one shot at the Decepticon leader, taking him down. For a show that seems to have made a point of establishing some level of scale in terms of how strong/weak characters are and whether or not they are ineffectual against others in combat, it's jarring to see Overlord take the hit that hard. I would've accepted if the shot surprised him and gave Ginrai the chance to get away from his predicament, but having Overlord end up flat on his back when he's shrugged off lesser blasts before looks awkward.

-Shuta returns to the other Headmaster Jrs and tells them their new orders: to take Godbomber somewhere safe, away from the fight, so that the Decepticons can't destroy it.

-The kids do a lot of swearing in this episode. I know that "kuso" isn't really a strong explitive, but it's funny to see how liberal they are with saying even an equivalent of "damn" (which the subtitles render as "scrap" as part of Shout's ongoing desire to add Transformers-y touches to the series in the interest of making more fanservice.)

-Cab and Minerva run out of energy for their weapons, one of the first times I can ever remember that happening in the course of the series, so it now looks like the Autobots are done for, cornered by Buster and Hydra (Shuta had crashed the Godbomber into a tree earlier and is knocked unconscious) But just then the Decepticon advance is halted and the trio is saved by that most heroic of Autobots... Sixknight.

Ugh.

-Sixknight enters the frame by sliding down from above (as if he was flying), but does so without moving. It's a stunningly cheap bit of animation and looks like a reverse version of the "poochie has to return to his planet" bit in the Simpsons. And I know it's not the first time I've made that joke in this series.

Note: Sixknight died on the way to his home planet​

-Minerva and Cab are apparently totally cool with leaving the fight to Sixknight, even though they have a history of nearly being killed by him.

-And Sixknight doesn't exactly make a strong case for his trustworthiness. When the Decepticons question his switching sides his response is "I side with whoever I feel most comfortable with. Now I'm going to kill you." Yep, the guy will just flippantly change his mind when he feels like it and have no scruples about killing his former comrades in cold blood along with it. Sounds like a guy you can trust.

-As Minerva nurses Shuta back to consciousness and fills him in on what's happened since he crashed, Cab tries to get them moving but finds that Godbomber isn't responding. Good job, Shuta. You managed to break Godbomber in the first 10 minutes you had control of it. Ginrai's going to love that.

-Cab also angrily says "nothing's working" when all he's done is wiggle the steering wheel and pump the accelerator pedal. Then he throws a tantrum and starts smashing the control panel.

-But never fear, the narrator is here to give us an explanation fo what's going on! Apparently because of Giga and Mega's attacks, the link between Ginrai and Godbomber that is necessary to provide it with a stream of Chokon power is weakened and because of that Godbomber has no power left to move. Careful, that's suspiciously close to an explanation that makes sense.

-Hydra totally shoots Sixknight right in the crotch.

Sadly, this didn't net him the $10,000 on Cybertron's Funniest Home Videos (in no small part because Cybertron was destroyed last series)​

-Meanwhile Buster closes in on Godbomber and when Minerva and Shuta look suitably fearful of what might happen, Cab just continue to jiggle the steering wheel fruitlessly.

He also makes this stupid face of frustration.​

-Suddenly out of nowhere Shuta and Minerva spontaneously decide to all put their hands on the steering wheel and suddenly Godbomber is able to move. Apparently this provides it with the energy necessary to move and transform or whatever.

-The trio also seems flabbergasted by the transformation, and refers to the last time it transformed (while overlooking the ocean during the previous episode) in an odd sort of way as if that robot and this one were different. It also ignores that they saw Godbomber transform 2 episodes ago as well.

-It's all a very clumsy explanation and discussion. It almost makes it seem like they think the audience is stupid and requires these reminders while not realizing that said reminders are entirely incorrect.

-But suddenly Godbomber won't move anymore. AT least until Shuta places his hands on a specific panel and it lights up, showing Godbomber's energy level refilling. But if that's how it works, how did they recharge it to drive eralier when the ywere grabbing the steering wheel?

-A bunch of flashy effects later and magically Godbomber is fully powered up and erupting with light as it turns and easily dispatches Buster (who, coincidentally also had his gun run out of power)

-Lest we forget about Sixknight, he's in an odd standoff with Hydra, who one would think shouldn't be any trouble with him.

-And Lest we also forget, Ginrai is at the mercy of Overlord somehow again. And when Godbomber shows up with the HMjrs, Ginrai isn't angry about being disobeyed, he simply happily merges with Godbomber and takes out Overlord in like 10 seconds. So why didn't he do that 10 minutes ago when he was worried about Godbomber being destroyed while it was alone nd defenceless? Shut up, that's why.

-Sixknight takes off after the battle, choosing once again not to stay with the Autobots. Cab then says "I like how Sixknight is so unique!". That's one way to put it...

-And it ends with "comedy" as Shuta and Cab whine that it takes the 3 of the HMjrs together to power Godbomber when Ginrai can do it on his own. Stop being whiny jerks, you two. You're kids.

Final Grade: B

 

And now back to my Godzilla marathon for a bit.

I'll make sure to post at least one more recap later tonight. I've also got the 3rd of this week's episodes done and awaiting final formatting and posting. It might not be up until tomorrow though.

 

EPISODE 31: Appearance!! The Final Godmaster

THE SHORT VERSION
Why did they leave potentially the most interesting Godmaster until last? Yeah, OK, he's a potential story-breaker...

REVIEW
Clouder, the last Godmaster the series introduces, is a really cool idea that brings with him a lot of story potential. At the risk of spoiling everything the episode reveals during this preliminary review bit, the idea of a Godmaster with the power to be a double agent is intriguing and could've been used to create dissension in the ranks of a faction, play both sides to his own ends, sow mistrust about which side he's truly on, or just be a standard spy the way Punch was.

This episode doesn't get into all that detail, but we at least see some of the potential in his reveal and the subsequent fight. And for the most part, a lot of what is done in this episode is really cool. There are a few cringey bits with Minerva getting treated poorly, some silliness in how Ginrai trains at the beginning of the episode, and some bad bits of the fight scenes featuring lazily re-used animation and incredibly cheap shortcuts in attack depictions, but that doesn't stop this episode from setting us up with the potential for some really interesting payoffs moving forward.

But do those things pay off? Time will tell.

THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS

Spoiler

-Apparently footage of the battle on the moon and the Godmasters fighting at the British Motors compound has made its way into the hands of the CIA. Those CIA cameramen sure do a great job working in multiple angles and cuts into their surveillance footage.

-Also the footage appears to be on VHS tapes. In 2020.

-And they're being watched by a guy that's a bunch of anime nerd stereotypes (big glasses, crazy hair, short). All he's missing are the opaque, round, swirly lenses in his glasses.

-Nerd boy owns a dirt bike and does some sweet jumps off a cliff and through a waterfall into the cave behind it. He'd be best friends with Shuta for sure.

-In his secret waterfall cave he has... a secret. A transtector. Which the on-screen prompt helpfully tells us is "Doubleclouder" and the Shout subs then confusingly inform us is "Doubledealer". At least this name translation makes more sense than Getaway = Lightfoot

-Oddly, the Master Bracelets are found inside the transtector, unlike how Ginrai found 4 sets for him and other Godmasters in his own glovebox. And weirder still, it's one bracelet bearing an Autobot logo and one bearing a Decepticon one. Obviously the meta reason is that he has to set up to function properly as Doubleclouder/Doubledealer and his dual-faction alt modes, but it's weirdly nonsensical to have one bracelet for each faction when they're supposed to function as a pair.

-Man, the budget must be drying up as the title card doesn't even get a background image, just a black screen with the title written over it.

-Also it's been so long since we've seen the Decepticon Headmaster Jrs out of their transtectors that it's like the artists forgot how to draw them.

Dull surprise?​

-I've noticed for the last couple of episodes that the audio levels in my files are uneven, going loud and quiet at odd intervals. As with the visual weirdness, I can't tell for sure if that's the result of me doing a piss-poor job of ripping the files or something inherent in the DVDs themselves.

-Overlord can transform into a base, not unlike Fort Max or Scorponok or whatnot. This is actually a feature of the G1 Overlord toy, so that's cool. Titans Return Overlord can sort of approximate the mode too, just in a far less intricate way because they prioritiezed having a robot mode that wasn't a total brick.

-Meanwhile, in the Rockies, Ginrai is off training his body. This somehow includes being able to punch a boulder that's bigger than he is off the top of the cliff and leap easily a few dozen feet down the cliffside and land safely. And did I mention he's doing all this in his normal form with no Godmaster armor or Transtector on?

-But his training is interrupted as someone steals his truck.

-Ginrai somehow manages to run after the truck and keep up with it, then flip over the cab and land in front of it (re-using the same flipping animation from like 30 seconds prior when he jumped off the cliff)

-Unfortunately, it turns out that the "Decepticon thieves" that Ginrai was chasing were just Shuta, Cab, and Minerva.

-Meanwhile, as the Decepticon Headmasters search for the last Godmaster in the wilds of wherever the heck they are, a giant bird bot with a Decepticon brand on its forehead. So what's Fangry's first response to seeing it?

"Are you an Autobot?"

-Cancer, on the other hand, is smart enough to spot the logo and identify him as a Decpeticon. And once again the on-screen prompts show up to tell us this is "Doubledealer - Eagle Mode"

-Now back at the Decepticon camp, Giga begins to explain the reason and nature of Clouder having two sets of bracelets (which is odd considering it didn't look like two sets, but rather one set with each faction represented). But just as soon as he does and Clouder indicates that he knows how to use the bracelets already, King Poseidon appears and goes berserk, attacking the new Decepticon for unknown reasons.

-By the way, the last Godmaster kid's name is Clouder, just in case that wasn't clear already.

-Somehow, in spite of apparently never using the transtector before, Clouder knows all about how to use chokon power and do all sorts of stuff that should take education and practice.

-Also once again it's time for King Poseidon to be taken out like a punk, as Clouder is able to sever his arm with eye lasers.

-Unfortunately, as he does so the bits of broken Seacon fall onto a passing crusie ship and damage it.

-What makes this important though is that the Autobot response involves Diver. Finally, a Pretender might get to do something!

-Ginrai says he'll contact the other Godmasters, but we only see Lightfoot and Road King respond to the summons. Where's Ranger? Who cares!

-You'd think by now they would have figured out a better way for Godbomber to travel with passengers in flight than to have Ginrai have to literally clutch it underneath him as he flies.

The Headmaster Jrs learned to stop making "what's the deal with airline food?" jokes once Ginrai threatened to drop them into the ocean.​

-Apparently Hydra made King Poseidon attack Clouder because "that's how we welcome new recruits". Sure, I guess. I mean we haven't seen it happen, but the Decepticons also haven't had any new recruits since the Godmaster brothers themselves.

-Evidence item #230 in the "pre-Godmasters characters don't matter": Clouder has been found and Giga, Mega, Buster, and Hydra have put him through his paces and inducted him into the Decepticons. But in spite of this the Decepticon Pretenders are left out in the wilderness somewhere, still searching for the last Godmaster. Nobody bothers to tell them that they can stop and return to base. It's not worth even a short radio communique.

-They do briefly think they've found something, but apparently it's "just a bear". I think this is supposed to be "what a bunch of useless losers" gag? If it was it turned out to be strangely restrained compared to the usually over-the-top slapstick we get when the show intends to make an idiot out of a character or group of characters.

-I'm a little suprised that we're 11 episodes from the series end and they haven't made any new commercial bumpers since Super Ginrai. I expected one for some of the newer Godmasters, or for God Ginrai. But this break still uses the same Shuta bumper we've had since the debut of the Headmaster Jrs in episode 5.

-We must be running short in this episode, as 2 of the 3 Headmaster Jrs (sorry, Cab) and Ginrai transforming to God Ginrai get full length stock transformation sequences leading into them facing off with the Decepticons.

-This battle also gets a weird bit of musical accompaniment, being teamed with a piece of backgroud music from Headmasters that has never before been heard in this series. It caught me off guard when it started playing becuase I thought perhaps there was some sort of audio error with the episode. But I don't think that's the case at all.

-Ugh. For as much as I've complained about the Headmasters not getting anything to do, at least when they're not fighting it also means we don't have to put up with some of the less-endearing traits of how the show treats Minerva. The two teams of Headmaster Jrs face each other on the battlefield, making for an even fight. But Shuta immediately says "Minerva, leave this to us! Get to the ship!" and tries to shoo her away. I realize that in part it's an attempt to be responsible since the trio's stated orders were to help the crippled cruise ship nearby and fighting the Headmaster Jrs is merely a distraction, but it comes across as a bit of a "this fight is no place for a woman" type of moment. And it's amde worse when she argues that fighting 3-on-2 puts Shuta and Cab at a disadvantage and is cut off by Cab curtly telling her "don't be insulting, just go!" Maybe the intent is just that Cab in particular is especially sexist owing to his coming from a different society, but we never really see much to indicate that the Karin Islands are especially regressive or imbalanced, so it's also not safe to make that assumption. Regardless, this whole thing could've been phrased better to avoid the unfortunate implications. Especially Cab's line.

-Minerva tries to make a break for the ship, but is caught in a barrage of missiles from Overlord and is struck down. Ok, that's actually kind of a positive since it's one of the rare times that Minerva is in a combat situation and is attacked directly and suffers damage, treating her like a regular character and not a fragile doll that must be shielded at all costs. Downside is that the missle strikes her in the heel of her foot, basically making it so that the injury she suffers is the giant robot equivalent of a twisted ankle (the only injury that "proper" women are allowed to receive in some settings.) Again I feel a little bad picking on this as I can't help but think that perhaps I'm projecting my own bias onto how I view the scene, but it it still strikes me as kind of unseemly. As much as I've enjoyed having this series' unique female characters, it almost makes me long for a time where ther weren't any girl transformers just so we can go back to snarking about silly giant robot tropes and not having to deal with potentially uncomfortable gender politics.

-It turns out that some of this was a setup. Minerva being hurt was a chance for Clouder to sneak over and rescue her, setting up for him to ingratiate himself to the autobots in his Autobot-branded robot mode and work as a spy.

-Ginrai turns his attention to Overlord and attempts to deal with the Deception base and.. wow, it's a battle of a lot of repetitive animation. Attacks and dodges and counterattacks are repeated several times in a slightly different order in an attempt to try and disguse that the whole fight is really just the same group of scenes watched twice over.

-The biggest difference comes in Ginrai launching his God Fire Guts attack. Except that they've cheaped out on the impressive visual from its first use. No longer is it Ginrai flying at the enemy while wreathed in flickering orange flames. Now he literally turns into a little glowy sphere of radiating energy that is a lot easier to animate.

at least he didn't give it a different name. Though really it probably couldn't get any more disappointing.​

-So all that bluster before about how Giga was willing to die to achieve his goals and all the Decepticons had to be prepared to do the same was complete bunk. They all retreat just like normal when confronted with defeat.

-After the battle Clouder explains why he just showed up now (he didn't know where the Autobot base was to be able to meet anyone) and I think we're supposed to catch on that Ginrai doesn't trust him but it's hard to tell when his Optimus-style face can't really emote all that much. Also Cab's contribution to the conversation is to say "thanks for saving our useless big sister." What a tool.

-And as a final sign off, the narrator asks what the Decepticons' plot means and "Does disaster loom at the Autobot base?". Coincidentally, I'm sure, the next episode is "Secret Orders! Destroy the Autobot Base!!"

Final Grade: B

 

Checked episodes 30 and 31.

Man, two mixed bags in one.

30 starts very well. I noticed there weren't any human workers at the storehouses, and even though it was odd, it didn't distract me since the story already had quite a bit of suspense in it. I also liked the use of Minerva in this one, finally getting to show once again that she can hold herself in battle. However, it all falls apart with the confusing explanation of Godbomber being able to transform to robot mode (didn't we establish that already?) and... *sigh* Sixknight. Fuckin' Sixknight. Why couldn't it be someone I care about like Lander? No, it had to be the worst character in the show.

31... well, aspects of it are kind of the opposite of last episode. Doubleclouder is actually a vastly superior character than Sixknight and his introduction was nicely handled. However, I felt that whereas the previous episode had lots of great suspenseful moments, this one had just one in the form of Minerva being damaged. So yeah, I really felt it was lacking in the suspense department and it doesn't help that King Poseidon gets treated like a friggin' chump once again.

So yeah, for me, these episodes could have been much, much better.

 

It's just bizarre since Godbomber isn't sapient. It's a big mech suit. Why is he in it and relaxing?

Sometimes I wonder if the animators/writers do this kind of stuff intentionally to mess with the audience.  

Bah! Ginrai has BURNING CHOKON MEGA-HYPER POWER! He doesn't need the kids!

Hey, kids! Welcome back!

It's always nice to see this, no matter the medium. Good on the show for following through more on this.

Again, kudos for the show doing this. Keeping the kids relevant but not stretching suspension of disbelief, and having Ginrai be smart.

Go, Minerva! Kick some ass!

And Shout fucks up again here. Stop changing the translations like that!

And Poochie arrives! Also, I'm not sure if this counts, but the Autobots and Decepticons ran out of power during 'A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court'.

God. At least with the Simpsons it was a clever parody! This is the definition of pathetic!

That takes special skills!  

Has he tried turning it off, then on again?

Hydra is the hero we need!

it's magic! No, really. That's the best answer.

So... an actually good reason. hmm, interesting.

So that's where Laserbeak and Buzzsaw went off to!

So... why does he need the transtector again?

He's been watching earlier episodes and taking notes.  

To be fair, it's usually, 'girl trips on the fucking air and her ankle shatters'. Here it takes a direct missile strike. So a bit more mitigating.

 

Is Sixknight a very poor reaction against the issues Sixshot's last minute redemption had in Headmasters, I wonder.

Sixshot suddenly transformed in the last episodes from unrepentant evil bastard to noble demon, and then to hero. With Sixknight, there seems to have been more of an effort to seed - not his 'better nature', but the things which motivate him to do good things sometimes and increasingly over time, in from the start, which would argue that they were trying to learn from the lack of apparent planning last time- but it's done so badly that he just ends up a total mess of a character.

In a lot of ways, despite being promoted by the plot as an awesome warrior of burning justice/injustice/indigestion/as applicable, he's almost a parody of Sixshot; arrives showing off his super-mega-ninja skills in his opening episode only to be made to look a total prat, but I imagine that wasn't the intention.

Ginrai lounging around in his full Super-Duper-God-Uber-Ginrai form kicking his heels in the air seems odd at first sight, but actually in retrospect I kind of like it; since the Battle on the Moon we've been seeing Ginrai getting steadily more Serious and ResponsibleTM in all his dialogue and interactions with others. So it's nice to see that when he's alone and doesn't have any responsibilities for once, he'll still do something off-beat like dress up in all his power ups... and then lay back on the hillside being bone idle.

I'm slightly ambivalent how I feel about the whole Doubleclouder thing.
I've always considered Doubledealer to be a fantastic character- and a superb toy, back in the day- with a lot of potential, so it's very good to see him actually used at all. On the other hand, they do go and do the very same thing that Simon Furman did, both in Marvel and IDW, and treat him as 'Evil Punch' (no, not Counterpunch, I mean, as 'Decepticon masquerading as Autobot rather than the other way around', rather than the independent mercenary soldier his biography paints hm as being; it would actually have been nice to see that. On the other hand, he's well-handled here, and his loyalties will actually develop the main story arc.

His rationale for choosing the Decepticons; that they're more cool, kind of makes him the ultimate 90s Transformers fan. He does look ridiculous though, and, bluntly, his Decepticon Godmaster get up... well, I can see that adapting Skar's non-humanoid form into a Godmaster exo-suit for someone of the same build as Nok's exo-suit, for the needs of the plot, was always going to look odd, but to be perfectly honest, Adam West's Batman is now no longer the campest Caped Bat Crusader.

 

This made me wonder: Would Sixknight have worked better if he was Sixshot? This takes place 10 years or so after Headmasters, so what if Sixknight was Sixshot, still patrolling Earth and trying to find his way and live up to the promise and potential evolution he vaguely talked about at the end of Headmsters (becoming more human, being more of a redeemed good guy like what Daniel saw in him, that sort of thing)

So it's 10 years later and he's had no luck figuring out how to be what he promised. He's grown frustrated by it and become distant, once again reveling in the thrill of combat and little more than finding himself worthy opponents because it's the only thing he seems to be able to accomplish without issue or backlash (because people are rightly afraid of him). So his personality has backslid into being brooding, a bit maniacal, and self-centered, and he cares little for anyone who can't provide him with a thrilling fight. Especially humans since nobody after Daniel was willing to trust him or show the same kind of empathy. So all that's left for him is to be bitter and resentful and all edgelordy. So he re-cements himself with the Decepticons to begin with because they're willing to indulge his need for violence and indiscriminate combat. And it's not until he learns that the various Autobots he interacts with are humans are are willing to give him a chance that he begins to recover the nobility he showed at the end of Headmasters and it tracks all the way through his plot thread in this series realizing once again how out-of-place he felt with the Decpeticons and re-establishing himself to more closely align to the Autobots as he was leaning at the end of last show.

I dunno. Feels like that would make more sense than just "here's a new guy and he's so cool because he's edgy and brooding and full of angst

 

EPISODE 32: Secret Orders! Destroy the Autobot Base!!

THE SHORT VERSION
At long last, Clouder's double-agent status pays off!!! What? It's only been one episode? Well, son of a bi- *mic cuts out*

REVIEW
Gonna keep this one short because this episode is, more or less "part 1" of the story that concludes with the next episode and it's a little unfair to evaluate it entirely on the basis of being half a story.

The positives here are several:

• Clouder's allegiance bears fruit for the Decepticons, giving them the information they need to launch an assault on the Autobot base (as the title suggests)
• The attack on the base is a big step forward, story wise
• For the most part it looks cool too, if you can forgive a bit of repetitive footage re-use.
• Hawk is back!
• I can actually appreciate this being a two-part story rather than rush to cram everything into one episode.

But... It's undermined by a couple of big issues

• First and foremost, the accelerated timeline. Clouder was just introduced and instead of using his double-agent potential for a little while, he blows it and is discovered in the very first episode. That's disappointing as it robs us of more interesting long-term storytelling potential.
• And secondarily, a lot of the Decepticons' plan, both on the side of Clouder's espionage and the assault, requires the Autobots to behave incredibly stupidly for it to succeed. It requires that anyone with decision-making power be profoundly gullible or naive, anyone with sense be easily brushed off, Ginrai to be ferociously hot-blooded and short-sighted, and basically everyone be unwilling to stand up to any of the stupidity they do see to any significant degree. And of course, this is all what happens so that things can go of without much of a hitch.

So what is otherwise a very very interesting and exciting episode is hurt by the fact that it suffers from some bad writing in order to happen on the schedule that it does and with the limited resistance that it does. So while I'm not knocking it down to an average or poor grade, I have to penalize it for failing to fully live up to its potential.


THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS

Spoiler

-Just as a follow-up on my earlier language discussion about furigana and how the show uses them: This episode's title does not have furigana over every single character in the title. For a moment I thought this meant that more common characters didn't have them added, but it turns out that the characters in the title that don't have any (aside from the obvious katakana for "Cybertron", as in the Autobot's Japanese faction name) are not kanji, but hiragana. aka the other character set that doesn't require furigana because they are straight phonetic characters with only one pronunciation.

So is a single exclamation mark equivalent to a colon? The subtitles seem to think so.​

-Minerva cheerfully gives Clouder a tour if the Autobot base as the episode opens. It's good to know they're not checking the backstory of this mysterious stranger and feel free to just let him into the secret base with no security measures or safeguards in place at all.

-Even when they find him in a closed, off-limits area of the base that controls security features that are vital to keeping the base safe, nobody bats an eye.

-After finding him in the security room, Shuta and Cab drag Clouder back to the lounge area to have cookies that Minerva baked and watch cartoons and it leads, as most instances of cookies and cartoons do I assume, to a deep philosophical discussion on the nature of the transtectors. What's odd here is that the transtectors are stated to be alive and that they're "like friends" in the words of Cab. While that would certainly help explain some of what happens with them after this series, it brings up some uncomfortable questions about how these apparently living beings react to being put under the total control of a bunch of immature kids like both factions' Headmaster Jrs and the nature of a partnership of sorts where the transtector seems to have so little say or control in the relationship that it gets treated like a machine rather than another being.

-Also Minerva tells Clouder that these thoughts are all what Ginrai told them. Because it certainly wasn't Hawk that was around for when the kids got their transtectors, nor that Ginrai is every bit as green with Transformers tech as any of them are. Nope, Ginrai's the commander so he now gets credit for everything. Man, I remember it like it was yesterday when Ginrai told Shuta how to win his soccer game and then was introduced to Shuta by Professor Go as an alien robot from a far off world. Or what about the time that Ginrai, leader of the Headmasters, teamed up with Chromedome to save the universe from MegaZarak, who totally isn't related at all to the new scorpion bot we've just seen in this series. That Ginrai...

I wish there was a gif compilation of all the "what a guy" references in this episode. But I'll make due with just this for a quasi-obscure reference.​

-Clouder then uses this discussion as a super easy way to get out of the base to report back to the Decepticons. Which he does by dead-dropping a container with his information in it. Unfortunately, he seems to have forgotten that part of the point of a dead drop is to be inconspicuous, and that might be violated by the fact that his container has a giant blinky Decepticon logo on the side of it.

Perfect, now nobody will suspect it's a secred Decepticon intelligence exchange.​

-Or that after the dead drop, he meets up with Bullhorn for some reason.

-And of course in doing this he gets spotted leaving the area by Hawk.

-Bigger news: Hawk is in this episode and is doing something useful and significant!

-Now back at base, Hawk attempts to look something up on his computer only to find that he's been locked out of the databanks. So he turns around and chews out the Headmaster Jrs for tampering with the computer. Because logically I guess only one of the kids could be at fault, even though it seems like it wouldn't be too out of the ordinary for an over-eager try-hard like Ginrai to do something like that.

-Credit where credit is due, the scene of Hawk confronting the kids is blocked as the camera watching the reflection of this happening in the side of Hawk's helmet. It's totally unnecessary but that doesn't stop it from looking super cool at the same time. I also just want to feel like I'm not only commenting in this section of my recaps when I have something snarky or critical to say.

It almost makes up for all the times that animation is replaced with single still frames.​

-Shuta and Cab profess their innocence, but when Cab begins to mention that he found Clouder in the computer room (Which was strangely called the "Barrier system room" before) Minerva silences him and takes the blame. I know it's meant to make her look compassionate and caring, but it also makes her look super dumb to stick up for the new guy to no real benefit.

-Shuta then joins in on Minerva's lie. But it seems that Hawk doesn't entirely buy it and suspects they're covering. God I miss having competent Autobot leadership.

I forgot that I've gotten this far without showing what Clouder even looks like even though I mentioned him being a stereotypical anime nerd in his debut.

NNNNNNEEERRRRRRRDDD!!!!​

-I almost forgot a bit of voice actor trivia related to our newest character: Clouder is performed by Takeshi Kusao, most famous as the Japanese voice of Trunks in various Dragonball series

-Minerva thinks she sees Clouder skulking around the base, but then he suddenly appears behind her, scaring her by tapping her on the shoulder and holding a flashlight under his face like all those campfire horror story scenes. Because... reasons I guess? Also Minerva totally freaks out. Like screaming as if she's being murdered.

-Then there's a montage of what I assume is a countdown timer for a bunch of bombs we see planted around the base as all the various Autobots go about their day. Except at 1 second on the counter is a color-tinted slow-mo shot of Minerva turning around to look behind her, her hair shimmering in the light (it was a re-use of a shot from earlier in the episode where she tried to figure out where Clouder disappeared to in their initial tour) with some weird violin accompaniment. I'm not sure what they're getting at here. Clouder appears to have had no real connection with Minerva the way that Cancer did. Nor has he had any hints of having second thoughts about what he's doing spying on the Autobots or that the Autobots are nice and kind and all that.

-The bombs go off and it turns out that this is what Clouder decided to use as a distraction to sneak into the control room to get the base layout specs that he's been after. This is a pretty ba plan, honestly. Certainly he could've figured out a less conspicuous way to get in, like wait until Hawk went home for the day or had to go on a mission (although we know that never happens anymore) or whatnot. Because nothing says "there's certainly something fishy going on in the base" like a bunch of sudden and intentionally set explosions.

-With the Godmasters back from Canada, Hawk and Ginrai talk about the sabotage and Ginrai demonstrates just about the worst possible leadership in the face of this crisis. His two major gaffes are: 1) his first reaction is "without proof, we shouldn't be suspicious of anyone." Uhhh, what? That makes no sense. Without proof you shouldn't outright accuse anyone, but you can be damn sure that you should be suspicious of EVERYONE because it could theoretically be any person or bot on the base that's responsible (like the mysterious newcomer with no background who vanishes for lengthy periods of time with no explanation) and 2) Hawk takes Ginrai aside and shares his suspicions about Clouder. Ginrai then furiously says "how can you say that? Clouder is our comrade! Whatever you say, I trust him!" First off for this, if it's true that he trusts him, what was with that weird look I pointed out near the end of the last episode's thoughts? It sure looked like Ginrai was concerned about Clouder, but now he's all best buddies with him. And secondly, what a knob Ginrai is being, dismissing the counsel of the guy who was the leader of this troop of Autobots for thousands of years before they forked over the title to Ginrai undeservedly. Even if you think it's a stretch to hone in on Clouder exclusively, dismissing his potential to be a spy outright is gallingly stupid.

The dumb part is that, again, I get the sense that even if we're supposed to recognize that Ginrai is being stupid, I also believe that we're supposed to respect his willingness to trust his comrades implicitly as a noble trait.

-Away from this conversation, the Headmaster Jrs also talk about the accusation (Shuta had overheard Hawk and Ginrai talking, even though it was supposed to be in private) and Minerva angrily rejects the notion of Clouder being responsible, saying that she trusts him and it can't be true. And when Cab says something is suspicious about Clouder, Minerva shoves him aside and runs away. Like the inverse of the Ginrai scene, even though Cab's approach is coarse and rude, he's right to be suspicious. But the impression is that we're supposed to look down on him for that rudeness instead of going "yeah, but the little jerk's got a point"

-Every time we get an outside shot of the Autobot base, it focuses on crows perched on a high roof. Is this supposed to be symbolism or something because of Clouder's Decepticon bird mode?

-Hawk goes to investigate a mysterious signal from the nearby forest (which was caused by the Decepticon HM jrs setting off a jamming signal too early) and in response Ginrai looks at him suspiciously (and kind of rudely) before letting him go with Ranger's accompaniment.

-And oddly, the subtitles refer to him as "Ranger" and not "Joyride"

-Then we see that Clouder is leaving the base alongside Ranger. But when Ranger tells him he can't leave without permission, Clouder says "Ginrai said I should go with you" and Ranger takes it at face value. It's a miracle the Autobots don't have a dozen other spies in the base given how unfoundedly trusting they are.

-Hawk, however, sees Clouder leaving and is suspicious. Why couldn't Hawk have stayed as leader?

-As soon as he can, Clouder slips away from Ranger and turns to Decepticon mode. He's easily spotted by Hawk and followed to the Decepticon rendezvous point, where they get into a fight. And of course being a Godmaster means that Hawk is easily overpowered until Lightfoot and Ranger show up for backup.

-And once again Ranger keeps being called by his japanese name in the subtitles. But Lightfoot is written as "Getaway"

-Tied up in the Autobot base, Shuta and Cab are angry while Minerva... cries that "This can't be happening" and "it can't be true" Ugh.

-And Hawk totally lets Ginrai off the hook for being a too-trusting dope.

-Oh my god, Ginrai is a terrible leader. Hydra and Buster are attacking a nearby city (we've already seen from the Decepticon perspective that this is a diversion to keep Ginrai away from the base) and Ginrai decides that in order to protect the people from these two Decepticon Godmasters, he needs to lead a team of all 4 Autobot Godmasters to fight them. And specifically he brushes off Shuta being the responsible one and saying that'll only leave the 3 HMjrs and Hawk to guard the base. Maybe I'm just naive, but since this is in part a rescue mission, shouldn't it be sufficient to send a pair of Autobot Godmasters (say, Lightfoot and Ranger) and the Headmaster Jrs to the city while leaving Ginrai and Road King to help protect the base with Hawk? Nah, that can't be right. Ginrai is always correct, after all.

Yep. Always correct.​

-I've noticed in the last few episodes that Giga and Mega spend a lot more time in their Godmaster armor than their usual clothes.

-In spite of being tied up in the base, nobody searched Clouder, because he is able to press a button on the hand of his godmaster suit and activate another bomb. I'm not even surprised anymore...

Aaand they're dead. And it's all Ginrai's fault. It's not the fault of anyone because Ginrai is a strong and righteous leader who always has an eye on Autobot Victory​

-The Decepticon forces approach the base with Overlord and the 3 Decepticon HM jrs. If only someone had the sense not to leave them so shorthanded.

-Switching back to the fight between Ginrai and Buster/Hydra, it has some smaller moments of cheap, cheaty animation, but for the most part it looks really cool and dynamic. But notice that I said "Ginrai and Buster/Hydra" That's because the other godmasters, who were necessary to accompany Ginrai into battle and not be left at the base, are doing absolutely nothing.

-Buster and Hydra, easily beaten down by Ginrai, unleash a new ultimate attack: Chokon Scramble. It's... a thing...

This might the "we're not even trying anymore" white flag.​

-More than just the silly pose, it also shoots a giant kaleidoscope beam at Ginrai which... does basically nothing especially after Godbomber jumps in and blocks it.

-Meanwhile, back at the base, Giga rolls slowly through the forest around it, burning the whole palce to the ground, including a dramatic shot of him rolling over a lone lily growing amongst some trees.

-And Mega single-handedly manages to avoid all the Autobot defences and take out several of their gun emplacements and exposed viewing areas. She's by far the most impactful fighter the Decepticons have in this stage of the fight.

-With the base in shambles, all 4 remaining Autobots head to a window and see that Overlord has set up his base mode at the foot of the hill, ready for a more prolonged assault.

-And that's the end of the episode. What's odd here is that there's no narrator interjection or any on-screen Japanese text, but the subtitles see fit to add a "to be continued" notice for some reason over the ghostly shot of Giga and Mega cackling maniacally.

Dr. Evil would approve of this frame.​

Final Grade: B-

 

EPISODE 33: Disaster! The Autobot Base Explodes

THE SHORT VERSION


REVIEW
The resolution of last episode's plot is at hand an it wraps up the ongoing major story arc of Overlord's attempt to deal with the Autobots and the status of the Godmasters and everything we've been building at for the last 8-10 episodes or so (I think. I'm honestly not checking the episode list to recall exactly when the last major story arc transition occurred)

And like last episode it's action packed and high stakes, but at the same time it suffers from repetitive animation (more than the prior episode did) and the requirement that the Autobots (and especially Ginrai) be a dope. Of course, Ginrai seems famous for being willing and able to be a dope when the plot demands so it's not really any surprise the tradition continues.

The most entertaining bits of this episode tend to be watching Giga and Mega react with glee as their plan unfurls, cackling and celebrating like the grandest James Bond villains they possibly can be.

And like the last episode, this is an exciting battle with significant stakes and a lot of impact on the series, but it suffers from the frustrating idiocy of the characters and poor pacing of some of the plot threads as a whole. Still, it's an entertaining and reasonably well done conclusion for this leg of the story as we move into the final story arc over the next 9 episodes to wrap things up.

THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS

Spoiler

-Our opening after the cliffhanger of last episode is watching Giga and Mega plan their next move in the attack on the Autobot base. This prompts Giga to announce that they have to start the next phase, which will be called... "The Dark Base of the Lighthouse!", complete with crazy over-dramatic pose. I think the theatrics of the other characters are rubbing off on him.

"Finally that journal I kept during my emo phase has paid off! Muahahahahahaha!"​

-And now after that little introductory bit, the title card gives way to a recap of what happened in the last couple episodes.

-The recap is slightly odd though as it lacks any and all dialogue, but does feature the original sound effects being played underneath the dramatic music added as the narrator explains events leading up until now.

-The Autobot base is surrounded by some very strong trees. Multiple rockets strike the forested hillside the base is nestled into, but fail to do any damage to them.

-Also a lot of explosions are replaced by single frame pastels of explosions. I presume this is a cost-saving measure, though it is inconsistently applied.

-The Decepticon Headmaster Jrs lead the ground assault on the base and I kept watching them and noticing that besides the 3 kids, there was a tiny bot in the background. I couldn't figure out the identity of this character, and kept thinking it was one of the Headmaster or Godmaster characters out of their transtector. It took a while to realize that it's Browning. I honestly forgot all about him.

-This whole time during the attack Clouder has been chained up in the detention area of the base, smugly smirking about the Decepticon assault and how the Autobots are going to be defeated. But it seems like he didn't consider that being in the base when it gets attacked is incredibly dangerous. It's not until the room he's in bursts into flames that he starts panicking. Of course you should panic, buddy. You're tied up in a combat zone. What'd you think was going to happen?

-Minerva recognizes the fire breaking out when monitoring the base's status, and then totally ignores Hawk's warnings to seal off the fire from spreading around the base so she can rush off and rescue him. I'm not entirely sure if the implication was supposed to be "sealing the fire off would've condemned Clouder to death" or not. (Minerva's reaction says it would've, but the matter-of-fact way that Hawk discusses the act doesn't seem like he's weighing a difficult moral choice at all) but it's actually a little refreshing to see Minerva act of her own accord rather than deferring to everyone else all the time.

-Man, the animators are going to milk the footage of a bank of rocket launchers firing for all it's worth. They've re-used it at least 3 times so far this episode.

-Welp, Hawk's dead. His command console blew up just like what happens in every Star Trek series ever and the HMjrs are left to stand over him as he lays on the floor. Of course he's not really going to be dead, but it would've made for a great shock twist given how infrequently he gets to do anything anymore.

"Children, hear my final words: I shouldn't have put Ginrai in command....."​

-Meanwhile, you could be forgiven for having forgotten that Ginrai and the Godmasters are off fighting an unnecessary diversion battle with Buster and Hydra instead of protecting their base. Also suddenly Ginrai has some odd color differences in his super mode character model.

"Yeah, I could've spent more time thinking this plan through. But instead I painted my knuckles blue. Awesome, aren't they?"​

-Ginrai is also really easily baited into this fight. All it takes is the Decepticons insulting him and he flies into a violent rage.

-A violent rage capped off by him naming a "Ginrai Kick" that somehow allows him to move in mid-air and dodge incoming laser blasts in the process.

-Back at the base, Minerva suggests abandoning it now that it's broken and destroyed and Hawk is hurt. But Shuta refuses because he says the base was his father's. This has to be the first reference to Professor Go since... I guess since the debut of the base? Shuta has certainly moved past the fact that his dad was brutally killed.

-The accompanying profile view of Minerva is also kind of interesting as it seems much "harder" than the usual way she's portrayed, making her look older, more serious, and more fitting of a character in the middle of a combat series. It actually kind of clashes with the normal (for this series) looking Cab in the background.

It was in this moment that Minerva realized she had matured past the boys on her team.​

-Not-Dead Hawk is laying unconscious in some sort of medical bay or whatever, but even as he ignores all the other conversation going on, at least he finds the strength to mutter "we must not abandon the base" while the kids argue over whether or not to flee in light of their being woefully underequipped to fight off all 3 Decepticon Headmaster Jrs and Overlord (and Browning too, I suppose)

-Back at the Ginrai battle, he uses his Star Chokon Power to suddenly defeat Buster and Hydra in one shot apiece. So what the hell was he doing the whole rest of this battle when he could've been wrapping it up earlier to get back to the base?

-And then Giga contacts him to taunt the Autobot about how his base is in ruins. The odd thing is that the sound effect of this contact (an extreme echo) almost suggests this is Headmasters-y magic telepathy rather than a radio signal or over-the-air broadcast.

-Man, Mega is really getting into this. She has a great evil laugh.

-Ginrai and Lightfoot head back to the Autobot base to check on everyone, leaving Road King and Ranger to continue rescue operations in the destroyed city. Once again: None of the other Godmasters contributed to the fight at all. It was all Ginrai. And the Autobots have a trio of dedicated rescue forces in the Headmaster Jrs. So why didn't he take them to the battle and leave the more combat-capable Godmasters behind to defend the place? Because that would make too much sense, I suppose.

-It's fun that in spite of the general lack of respect that the sides have for each other, Overlord is always technically correct in the name he addresses Ginrai as relative to what form Ginrai has taken on. What I mean is that he's fighting Super Ginrai, so he makes sure to call him "Super Ginrai" and not just "Ginrai"

-Overlord launches the next phase of their attack and we get some rare animation: King Poseidon disassembling into his component Seacon parts. Yes, it's just his combining sequence in reverse, bit it's funny that we usually don't see the combiners intentionally separating.

-Suddenly the individual Seacons burrow into the Autobot base. Lightfoot is shocked and distraught. Quite odd considering every character in the show has slaughtered Seacons left and right with basically no resistance whatsoever. You can practically breathe on a Seacon and it'll explode in a fiery hail of spare parts.

-The Seacons' role? To get Turtler to the power core of the base so he can destroy it and finish the compound off from the inside. I almost wish I could've seen what would've happened if they had sent just the drones without Turtler in to accomplish the mission. Would they even be able to?

-More repeating animation of both the Seacons advancing up a hill and burrowing into the base. So either they're running out of funds in their animation budget as we approach the finale or they're scrimping and saving as much as they can for the big, flashy, climactic battle. I hope it's the latter.

-Ginrai sees this second wave of Seacons that doesn't look anything like the first wave and exclaims "Seacons? Damn, I've fallen for their trap." Well... Technically you've fallen for two of their traps, but who's counting? Besides me, I mean.

-And through all of this Clouder is still tied up and now begging for his life. At least until he finally gets free thanks to the indiscriminate destruction caused by one of the Seacon drones.

-His freedom is short-lived though, as less than 5 seconds after he's freed and celebrating with a silly dance in place he gets buried by the ceiling collapsing down on him.

"My only regret is that I didn't keep my helmet on"​

-Clouder being buried comes right at a commercial break and leads me to an odd bit of trivia I discovered via the wiki: A couple episodes ago I comented that there should be updated bumpers to replace the ones that have been in place since early in the show featuring Super Ginrai, Buster/Hydra, Hawk, and Shuta. It turns out that allegedly right around this episode there should've been new bumpers that have Overlord, God Ginrai, and other newer characters. But for whatever reason the version I'm watching doesn't use them. I have no idea why, especially since you'd think that the bumpers/eyecatches should be part of whatever master footage they used to release these episodes. The fact that they would purposely go in and insert the older bumpers suggests that either the newer ones were not available or that there was some reason not to use them at all. Strange.

-Coming back from the break, Turtler has succeeded in destroying the base's power core and in doing so has sealed off the remaining rubble and everyone trapped inside.

-Outside, Overlord taunts Ginrai by telling him that he was never the target of this attack. That's right, The surest way to get under Ginrai's skin is to imply that he's not the most important thing and that dealing with him is almost an afterthought.

-We then get the next round of Ginrai/Overlord. And it's... a thing that happens. There's some solid moves that are animated, but they are rendered somewhat stiffly and interspersed with the two of them simply standing toe to toe and trading gunshots. It's actually impressive that it manages to be both a cool fight and a disappointing one at hte same time.

-Lightfoot then radios him from the inside and tells him the base is going to explode, leaving Ginrai conflicted about having to tear himself away from the fight with Overlord to save his comrades. He does choose to help as soon as Lightfoot says nobody can escape on their own, but he seemed tempted to leave them. Almost in a "Your sacrifices won't be forgotten. I'll be sure to avenge you properly!" sort of way.  

-Lightfoot, in response to Ginrai telling him to gather everyone at the top level of the base: "What are you planning?"

Ginrai: "Never mind, just do as I say!"

What a leader.

-Strangely, it seems as Ginrai prepares to free his comrades from the base, Overlord doesn't press the attack. Instead he just backs up. In fact, until Ginrai launched his God Punch fists at the Decepticon, I actually assumed they were just going to let him slink away at that very moment.

-Ginrai points his rocket launcher at the base and all the Autobots freak out. But their choice is to let Ginrai try something or stay in the base and be vaporized for sure when the whole thing explodes.

-Wait.... what? Ok. I assumed that Ginrai had to free everyone from the base because they were trapped. But Ginrai shoots his rocket at the lower portion of the mountain to apparently try and bleed off the energy from the explosion. At the same time all the Autobots are gathered in an observation deck at the very peak of hte mountain. A room with a big glass-looking window. Then Godbomber swoops down next to them and... the window just vanishes and they climb aboard the unmanned trailer and fly away. There's no sign that Godbomber took out the window at all. It just blinked out of existence. So then why did everyone act trapped? Why not just blow out that window and escape down the side of the mountain on their own? The hell is going on?

-  I was wrong. They didn't climb into the trailer. They're all just clinging to its sides.

"You know, Ginrai, you could've opened the back and let us in."
"Shut up. When you're leader, then you can save everyone however you want."​

-Overlord then gets pissed because Ginrai "planned this" (which doesn't make sense) and then Super Ginrai is somehow able to overpower the Decepticon and throw him into the side of the mountain, embedding his head in the hole that Ginrai created with his rocket launcher. This leads to him getting ejected by the explosion and doing the full "Team rocket is blasting off again!" ending where he flies off into the sky and disappears as a twinkle of light in the distance.

We couldn't escape this battle without at least one parting shot at Overlord's credibility.​

-And so the Autobot base is destroyed as the mountain its in erupts like a volcano and then crumbles to dust, leaving a crater in its wake.

-and this is punctuated by a sappy, melodramatic insert song featuring the line "we believe tomorrow, some day"

-On the hillside Clouder now feels guilty about his role in what happened and that the Decepticons used him. What was he expecting? He knowingly chose the Decepticons as the faction to join because they look cooler and would allow him to do whatever he wanted with his power. But anyway, he apologizes to Ginrai and asks to join the Autobots. And Ginrai accepts it readily. No hesitation whatsoever. Man he's trusting.

-And then in spite of being allowed to join, Clouder walks off literally into the sunset, saying they'll meet again. Since picking up the 3 Godmasters the Autobots now have 3 more allies who all subscribe to the "I'm on your team but I only show up when I feel like it" theory (Poochie... I mean Sixknight, Grand Maximus, and now Clouder) in order to keep the Autobots from getting an even more overwhelming army size.

You'd think if Clouder was switching sides that he'd have made a point of switching to his Autobot Godmaster armor too...​

-We then get a dramatic look at all the remaining assembled Autobots as the song concludes. And that's it. No narrator to wrap things up.

Final Grade: B-

 

A little early, but I don't want to forget to put this up now that I'm finally back on track on a proper week turnover:


WATCH PERIOD: Tuesday, May 26 through Monday, June 1 @ 11:59:59pm Pacific Standard Time

Episodes
1) BlackZarak - Destroyer from Space
2) Crisis! The Day of Human Extinction
3) God Ginrai - Save Cancer!?
4) God Ginrai: Showdown at the Decepticon Base

 

Well, we know Lightfoot is quite fond of Ginrai, given how bizarrely eager he was to commit suicide in order to impress him, a few episodes back. He probably realises that, if just one Season made it to where Hawk was, then Hawk would realise:

"Actually, I did a stupid thing. Ginrai; you're fired. Lobclaw, how do you fancy leading the Autobots?"

I'm not sure if it's wonderful or tragic that the Decepticon plan this story actually explicitly depends upon Ginrai being an incompetent leader. It certainly suggests more awareness of their ow characters than the show tends to demonstrate.

Ah! This is why Hawk did this dumb thing and resigned. Now it all makes sense. He can see the future, and thought: "... To hell with that."

 

Brilliant long-term planning! [/s]

This kind of story needs room to breathe. A shame season three of G1 hadn't learned it.

"And here's our weapons lockers, and there's the generators. And in there Shuta is inputting the top-secret code for the laser turrets!"

Okay, yeah. That definitely adds a bad twist to the relationship between the kids and the transtectors.Or at the least weird. I mean if they were slowly gaining sapience, then all right. but being under their control like this? *Shudders*

And... that flushes that theory down the toilet.

The boys from the Dwarf!

Will wonders never cease?! :O

Oh, wow. That's a legit artistic and well-done shot. Massive kudos for that.

Super dumb, pretty much. And naive.

Ooh, wow. Clouder is such a dork! I shouldn't talk... but yeah.

So they're trying to force a connection, even though there's no real way. It's been way too soon and they haven't interacted nearly enough.

All-around this is dumb and dismissive of Ginrai. This is their leader? He's not thinking... at all!

Well, this is stupid on a whole 'nother level.

because the days of Optimus Prime or even Rodimus Prime are sadly behind us.  

God, that's so damned embarrassing and cringey.

Okay, that's it! We're making you the leader, Liege!

Ginrai, you magnificent moron!

At this point they've run out of anything even remotely resembling a cool catch-phrase. This is why they didn't do attack names in G1, Ginrai!

Okay, that's actually pretty cool. It actually sells the magnitude of what's happening.

Awesome pool, awesome barbecue!

It's too early for Team Rocket!  

The trees are lucky they don't have the budget to animate them being destroyed.

So did I.

He'd wait out the attack and emerge unscathed.

Our hero and leader, ladies and gentlemen!

Okay, no. This is when they ran out of cool or even semi-decent attack name.

Or the writers just remembered about him.  

Oh, wow. Minerva looks like she came out of Bubblegum Crisis or something! :O  

Having lunch?

Well, to be fair, in that underwater episode the drones were actually pretty effective!

A damned shame that didn't kill his traitorous ass.

"There's no time to explain, even though I could while flying over there!"

Is this kid related to Shawn Berger in any way?