Ok, what the **** Japan? Watching DVDs of Japan's second continuation of the Transformers franchise from the 80s, Super-God Masterforce (no, seriously, that's the name. Perhaps the only good thing about this monstrosity is the hilariously awkward name. Second only to the fact that the sequel series to this one has a sub-group of Transformers called the Breastforce, which just makes me giggle inappropriately. :laugh:)
I'm having a hard time figuring out where they came up with this ridiculous concept. About the only thing I can think of is that one of the creators travelled ahead in time about 4 years, saw Sailor Moon and some of the earlier predecessors of the Power Rangers franchise and said "you know what? We've gotta get in on that ahead of the curve.". Or maybe he was just on acid and thought he could see through time. I dunno.
Transformers that turn into people (literally. Normal-sized humans), kids that turn into transformers that attach to larger bodies, Optimus Prime who totally isn't Optimus Prime (because he's dead in this continuity. Again.) but rather some skeevy trucker named Ginrai who happens to turn into a transformer who hooks into a giant body that looks like Optimus, then . For ****'s sake, one of the Autobots that turns into a human was on a date (in human form) in the pilot episode. With a human woman. Who totally didn't notice anything weird about the fact that her date's name is
Landmine (well, technically his name is "Lander", but the subs use the English names of the characters).
Another one looks like Wolverine in his human form.
And then there's swordfights. Swordfights between robots who turn into ****ing tanks and guns and ****. With normal ****ing swords with metal blades, not beam Sabres or laser swords or anything techy or futuristic or whatnot. Ghhhaaaahhh! :whaaa?:
Oh, and
Nightbeat is totally a
little girl in this continuity* because things just wouldn't be screwed up enough otherwise.
About the only damned things in the series that's actually legitimately Transformers are the autobot/decipticon sigils and the transformation sound effect. Although the latter is covered up by the fact that like any good anime series, the characters need to shout out their every action. "<character name>! Transform! <character name>! God on!" (again, not making this up)
So the next time anyone wants to lambaste Michael Bay for crushing our collective childhoods into dust beneath his heel, just think: We could've been subject to the lunacy from Japan.
*Alright, I'll level with you. It's not really Nightbeat. It is a separate character and the "real" Nightbeat never appears in the series. But it's based on the same damn toy, just with different paint.
And yes I know that nobody else will care about this. I just needed to rant. At least the fact that it's part of the franchise history and just the general oddity of it as a collector's item means that I don't feel bad having paid money for it.
