FIF#135-Transformers: Super God Masterforce

Centuries ago, two races of Transformers crashed to Earth and resumed their long and grueling war.  These “Pretenders” battled until the Decepticons were sealed away, seemingly for all eternity.  But now they have been freed from their prison and are dead set on concurring the Earth.  The Autobots have been preparing.  Disguised as Humans, they’ve sought allies to add to their arsenal and make a new breed of weapons capable of giving Humanity a fighting chance against the Decepticons.  The battle for Earth will now be fought side by side as Humans and Autobots defend their home from their oldest and most frightening enemt.

Previously on First Impression Friday:

When the original Transformers series ended in 1987 in the US, Toei Animation, who helped animated the 80’s classic, acquired full rights in order to continue the story in their own way.  This resulted in 3 Anime psudeo sequels over the next 3 years in Japan.  The first of these was Transformers: The Headmasters, which continued the Transformers story where the original Generation 1 series ended.  Now we skip ahead to the next chapter of the Japanese Transformers Saga: Super God Masterforce (God that’s such an 80s Anime title).

Ok so this…is where Transformers starts veering very, VERY far away from its humble mid 80’s beginnings and enters more of a straight up traditional Anime phase.  IN fact, were it not for the “Transformers” logo attached to it, you could easily just swap out a few terminologies and make this another of the dozens of Mecha Anime that dominated the decade.  There doesn’t seem to be much connection between this iteration of the Transformers and the ones that preceded it, including Headmasters. 

The new breed of Autobots and Decepticons, the Pretenders, are the most complex Transformers to date.  The Autobot Pretenders have the ability to change into Humans and then to slightly larger mecha suit versions before jumping to normal Transformer height and even then having a standard transformation into a more familiar Earth based vehicle.  The Decepticon Pretenders look more like discarded Voltron Robeasts in their Pretender form before throwing that off for the more traditional evil Decepticon look and vehicle forms.  It’s a far cry from triple changers or even the eventual Trans Metals from Beast Wars.  As I said above, there’s little connecting these guys to their previous Transformer brethren, though we do glimpse a very Optimus Prime looking Pretender in the intro and during one of the eye catches.  So I’d have to assume Super God Masterforce takes place in an alternate universe, right?  Otherwise where the hell were these guys during the Great War and why is Prime possible a Pretender?

The action feels mostly unchanged from other 80s Transformers fare.  We do get to see Kaiju sized Decepticon Pretenders rampaging their way through a city and leaving tons of carnage in their wake, clearly they aren’t worried about human civilians getting caught in the crossfire.  Other than that, none of the action felt really special…but then again I was also still trying to sort out the complex transformation sequences of both sides now and the history that brought them to Earth as well.  Oh and because it’s a Transformers series, of course there’s an annoying kid running around where he really shouldn’t be before getting captured and used by the enemy as a human shield…guess somethings never change though no Human in Transformers will ever be as reliable as Spike, his father Sparkplug or his best friend, Chip, from the original series.

Transformers: Super God Masterforce is…strange…bizarre…Anime, it’s very Anime.  Robots who look like humans who can change into Giant Robots to save the day, feels very Ultraman in a way.  Honestly, this could just be your regular, run of the mill mecha monster Anime you’d find in the 70’s or 80’s and only grabbed my attention because it is billed as a Transformers Anime.  And yeah, there are Transformers.  They’re just…a bit much for me.

Next Friday we see if the final chapter of the Japanese Transformers Saga can out weird Super God Masterforce, though it has a simpler title so…that could go either way.  It’s the first episode of Transformers: Victory right here on First Impression Friday only at the Gundam Anime Corner.