FIF#134-Transformers: The Headmasters

For millenia, a civil war has raged across the stars between a race of sentient machines known as The Transformers.  The battle between the good hearted Autobots and the sinister Decepticons was once thought to have been concluded.  But the Decepticons are on the move once more, with their sights set on something buried deep within the Transformers homeworld of Cybertron.  As old heroes return to battle, a new breed of Transformer joins the fray.  Armed with unique abilities and transformations of their own, these “Headmasters” will prove to be the ultimate key in the never ending struggle between good and evil. 

Welcome to a special 3-Part First Impression Friday Event.  Over the next three Fridays we’ll be looking at the debut episodes of the rarely spoken of Japanese Transformers Saga.  But first some background: the original Transformers Television Series ran from 1984-1987 with the theatrical Transformers: The Movie released in 1986, during its run.  When the 80s classic concluded in 1987, Toei Animation, who had helped animate the series, acquired the Transformers Japanese License and would continue the story in their own unique way.  The end result were three television Anime follow ups in Japan, each diverting further and further from the original source material.  The first of these shows, Transformers: The Headmasters, picks up directly where the fourth and final season of the American Transformers left off.  And, not gonna lie, this is probably the most nostalgia heavy of the three first episodes ill probably watch because im not certain how long some familiar faces will stick around for.

Much of The Headmasters debut isn’t focused on introducing the new titular class of Transformers, at least not for the Autobots side anyway.  What Headmasters we do see are over on the Decepticons side and while they do have their own unique abilities, like being able to put any Transformer to sleep with a special frequency, there isn’t a lot to make them stand out from any kind of Autobot or Decepticon we’ve seen before.  Same goes for the briefly spotted Autobot Headmasters, who look pretty bland imho.  The best aspect of the premiere is the fact that we get to see the original cast of The Transformers, anyone who was alive after Transformers: The Movie anyway, back in action once again in their never ending war.  It is such a blast to hear Optimus Prime and Galvatron speaking digitized Japanese while kicking ass and taking names.  Other fan favorites like Ultra Magnus, Kup, Blur and even long time hero Jazz make appearances, as do long time villains Soundwave and Tripticon on the Decepticons side.  I will say, it looks like Wheelie and Daniel, the next generation Bumblebee and Spike of the Transformers franchise, might be saddled with comic relief duty for The Headmasters and, to be honest, they were never that entertaining or beloved in the US so I can only see them doing more harm than good being around in this Anime.

The first episode of Trasnformers: The Headmasters is business as usual for the Autobots and Decepticons and if you’re a long time fan of the Generation 1 era of The Transformers, this Japanese take on those familiar battles is a treat you’ll enjoy.  I dare say that somehow the action and movements of the Transformers all look even better than they did in their US counterpart.  Everything looks smoother and grander and a tad more violent but that’s acceptable for the Japanese market since the US wasn’t even close to that level of maturity in the 1980s.  Whether or not the actual Headmasters make any impact and somehow steal some of the spotlight away from the already established living legends of Transformers lore remains to be seen.  For now, I’ll carry on with this one, if only for the very fun nostalgia trip of seeing not just The Transformers again but the Transformers in Japanese.

Our three part look at the Japanese Transformers Saga continues Next Friday with the most Japanese sounding title of the bunch-Transformers: Super God Masterforce, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.