i don't like the g1 cartoon, or beast wars, or prime. those are the one's i've seen. but is there one that's like a real, good japanese anime?

 

Yes. It's called Transformers: Masterforce and it's out on DVD right now.

 

Masterforce and Victory are the best Japanese-produced series, at least imo.

Masterforce is almost Transformers meets Sentai/Power Rangers, while Victory is Transformers plus your typical Super Robot anime.

 

No

 

Uh, can ROBOTS IN DISGUISE count?

 

You mean Car Robots?

 

I believe so. But I never really saw why it's presented as two series, are the two drastically different in more than dubs?

 

P:

You may also enjoy the various Brave series, such as GaoGaiGar. I mean GAAAAO GAAAAI GAAAAAA!

 

At least in my opinion, Car Robots was a rather average sort of series that only really got any life breathed into it by giving it a bit of a gag dub.

 

There was enough editing involved in the localization that I feel they changed it into something noticably different, but then again, I feel the Japanese localization of Beast Wars is also something of a different show.

Also, not to start the whole "WHAT IS ANIME" discussion again, but since the OP asked for anime, I figure it's better to draw a distinction between the original japanese production and the american adaptation.

 

I think the answer to the OP's question is actually "no."

Because I don't think anime fans are going to find the elements that traditionally draw them to anime in the Japanese TF shows, due to them being aimed at SUCH a young audience. Younger even than the US shows.

Technically, yes, they are animated series produced in Japan for a Japanese audience. But they are aimed at an audience only marginally older than that of Doraemon.

 

i grew up watching force five. i really like that show. it had the 3 spaceketeers, grandizer, star vengers, and gai king. one of them is super ghetta robo i think.

 

So, You don't like Transformers?

 

i liked the g1 cartoon as a kid, but when i watched it as an adult it was lame.

 

Masterforce, Victory and headmasters are all quite good but I'd say suffer from filler episodes.

Galaxy Force might be worth hunting down. Cyb had some crappy editing to force it into the AEC continuity while GF in Japan was a stand alone show. I will warn you that it does slow down pace wise once they hit Speedia.

Car Robots is ok but it can be very silly so just keep that in mind.

and now to piss some one off.... the Japanese Beastwars stuff.... not good or rather really generic.

 

Try watching any of the Japanese G1 series. You can start with Headmasters or Super God Masterforce, both are pretty good. Headmasters take place right after season 3 of G1. Masterforce can be watched separately if you don't want to watch Headmasters.

 

"Good" is subjective.

Headmasters is probably the closest thing to the American G1 in terms of style, but suffers pretty badly from "old characters are suddenly horribly incompetent to make the new guys look better". It also suffers from some very Japanese sensibilities, like Daniel is suddenly acting like a goddamn baby, making him even more annoying than in season 3, while a lot of season 3 characters just simply disappear after the first couple of episodes and Arcee is only kept around as a coffee girl.

Masterforce has the best writing of the Japanese G1 shows IMO, but it's a lot more like a traditional super robot series than Transformers due to it's emphasis on humans controlling giant robots than sentient robots themselves, although someone might find making humans defend their own planet for a change refreshing.

Victory is like a soulless copy of the American series. It's practically a parody of itself; unimaginative, repetitive, the protagonists have absolutely no personality whatsoever. To make an example, remember that one episode where Optimus Prime plays basketball with Spike & the Dinobots, and is later seen hanging around Teletraan-1 while still playing around with the ball? It's little touches that helped to humanize the characters...and there's absolutely none of that in Victory. The Autobots in Victory are stiff, militaristic and go on about "protecting the earth" every five seconds. Of all three Japanese G1 shows, Victory is easily the most childish - the closing theme sings about Star Saber wetting his bed for crying out loud!

I've never seen the Japanese Beast Wars shows, Car Robots or Micron Legend so I withhold judgement.

Superlink for example is marginally better than Energon, mostly on the benefit of not suffering from the terrible translation Energon did. It's still terrible, but at least it makes sense.

Galaxy Force is basically unrelated to Armada and Energon but I suppose you can pretend the black hole is caused by the death of Unicron in that other universe. I still don't think the story arc on Planet Speed was that stretched out but much like Armada, it just suffers from a slow start and really picks up after the characters leave that world.

Also this.

Of all the Japanese Transformers shows, I'd say Masterforce and Galaxy Force are my favourites.

 

Cybertron is fun if you just want a dub kind of like Digimon.

 

no i don't think so...the reason people even watch victory/masterforce/headmaster is because the of the tranformers brand attached, but judging on their own merits, they're not really good anime because of the really simplistic stories/characters aimed at younger audiences and fell into to the repetitive and stereotypical 'anime' formula. if you take away the tranformers brand and characters, all you have left are sub-par giant robot animes when you compared to other contemporary giant robot show like the eldran and brave series that are aimed at the same target audience and rely on the same monster of the week formula but just have more 'heart' to it. the japanese g1 transformers series are mostly just boring craps.


beast wars ii and neo at least didn't pretend to be anything but silly from start and i haven't seen the entire show in good quality so i'll reserve my judgement.


RID/car robots, for the most part surprisingly good


unicron 'trilogy' you probably seen it on tv, judge for yourself....

 

Ever heard of Victory?