Triple Combination: Transformers Go! (franchise)

Aligned continuity family « Triple Combination: Transformers Go! » Toyline Cartoon Diorama Story

Triple Combination: Transformers Go! (参乗合体 トランスフォーマーGo (ゴウ)! Sanjō Gattai Toransufōmā Gō!) is a TakaraTomy franchise launched in 2013.

It is a sequel to Transformers: Prime, with the story set after the events of the second season of the Prime cartoon, willfully ignoring the events of the third season (which, to date, has not been released in Japan), stemming instead from a truncated cliffhanger created specifically for the final episode of the Japanese dub of Prime, which left everyone's fate ambiguous instead of ending on the Decepticons' victory from the English version. Go! primarily follows two new Japanese-exclusive teams of Autobot combiners called Swordbots, three bots per team, who can each combine into three different forms of super-robot. These six warriors are tasked with hunting down the remaining Predacons on Earth after Optimus Prime and company have headed off into deep space.

Overview

The backstory for the series was set up in a prologue described in the Triple Combination: Transformers Go! Visual Story Book, as well as in a video advert that introduced the first wave of Go! toys. Prior to the series' beginning, the Autobots and Decepticons had shifted their battles away from Earth into outer space. The Decepticon Shockwave had created an army of a new faction called Predacons, who then broke away from the Decepticons and scattered across the universe by the hundreds. In response to this, the Autobots and Decepticons both used Preda-Armor to upgrade their bodies into a new form called Hunter Mode. Then, a group of Predacons led by the Demon Emperor Dragotron began invading various planets until finally reaching Earth. The Autobots and Decepticons followed them back to Earth and, after a fierce battle, they worked together to successfully seal away Dragotron deep underground, using the power of a Legendisc. Afterwards, Optimus Prime and his Autobots departed Earth once more to hunt down the remaining Predacons throughout the universe. But if any Predacons were ever to resurface on Earth, Optimus had entrusted two teams of Autobot combiners called Swordbots to deal with them. By the series' beginning, that day has come, as the Predacons reawaken with the goal of reviving their master, Dragotron. In response, the Swordbot Samurai and Shinobi teams leap into action.

Franchise elements

• A cartoon series
• A toyline
• Toy bio story tie-ins
• A "diorama story" relating a simple narrative via videos cut together from toy photography.
• Bits and pieces sprinkled throughout the Unite Warriors, Legends and Generations Selects comics.

Notes

• This series is very, very, very Japanese, moreso than any prior Transformers series. The story takes place in Japan. Virtually all of the characters introduced in it have Japanese names. The six Swordbots are split between being designed as samurai and ninja (as are their two human kid sidekicks), and the major Predacons they face have been given new head designs patterned after Japanese oni demons. The protagonists travel through time, meeting heroes from Japanese history and folklore. This, coupled with a heavy focus on combination and the aforementioned kid sidekicks, makes it rather reminiscent of Takara's Brave franchise.
• Go! was written well before the Prime show had finished production, so its "Autobots go out into space to hunt the Predacons imprisoned on Earth" backstory diverges significantly from the events of Beast Hunters, to the point that, combined with the Japanese broadcast of Prime ending on its unique cliffhanger, ultimately creates another Headmasters contra Rebirth deal.
• Go!'s modular, combination-focused play pattern, together with the extensive use of soundboxes on the toys, would be replicated in Takara's subsequent (non-Transformers) toylines Shinkalion and Earth Granner, to great success.
• The Cybertronian characters do not move their mouths when they speak.

Translation notes

TFWIKI's English translation for Sanjō Gattai Toransufōmā Gō! is purposefully simple and utilitarian, as the title is full of that kind of mostly-untranslatable wordplay Japan loves, largely centered around the series's "feudal Japan" theme.

• Sanjō, using different kanji (参上), is also a phrase meaning roughly "I am here!", a dramatic pronouncement often used in samurai-period pieces.
• The 参 "san" used is a more formal kanji for "three", typically used in legal documents, than the commonplace "三". Think of it as writing with an accent.
• "Sanjō" can also mean "to the third power" 三乗, but within the specific context of the series's "gattai" ("combination"), that's a bit... obtuse, as the three-bot teams can only combine three ways. But it does invoke power, doesn't it?
• While "GO!" is presented in English lettering because it's a powerful, positive-sounding English word that sounds cool and actiony, "gō" has quite a few meanings in Japanese depending on the kanji used. "合" can mean "merge/unite/combine", while "剛" can mean "strong/hard/manly".