Transformers: The Headmasters (cartoon)
| The name or term "Headmaster" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Headmaster (disambiguation). |
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Transformers: The Headmasters (トランスフォーマー ザ☆ヘッドマスターズ) is a Japanese animated series that aired from July 3, 1987 to March 28, 1988 for 35 episodes, in support of the toyline of the same name. It shares its name with its opening song, "The Headmasters", and the ending song is titled "Kimi wa Transformer".
Overview
The Headmasters was the first Japanese-exclusive Transformers franchise, and as such, marks the departure of the Japanese animated continuity from that of the US. Planned out by TV Magazine writer Masumi Kaneda, who had previously worked on the Transformers manga, the series follows on from the events of "The Return of Optimus Prime", ignoring "The Rebirth" and introducing the Headmaster characters in a distinctly different way than their American counterparts. Emphasizing the difference between east and west, the series (and its accompanying manga) employed different character models designed by Ban Magami, illustrator of numerous Transformers manga.
The "-master" concept was entirely re-imagined for the series, discarding the Western idea of Nebulans, and establishing the Headmasters not as Transformers who bonded with organic beings, but as diminutive Transformers who connected to and controlled large, lifeless bodies named "Transtectors". Drawing on a plot point established in American episodes such as "Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2" and "Fight or Flee", the Headmasters were introduced as refugees who fled Cybertron millions of years ago and settled on the planet Master, where they developed this new technology and trained hard in order to survive the harsh environment. Kaneda notes that he chose to give the Headmasters non-combatant origins in order to add an extra layer of meaning to the concept of "transformation," as the young 'bots grew from civilians into fully-fledged warriors. Consequently, it was Chromedome—a character essentially overlooked in the West—who was chosen as the lead of the series and cast as a "fiery youth" in order to emphasize this "personal transformation" theme, as well as to carry on the pattern of leaders with automotive vehicle modes. His opposite number, and perhaps the true breakout character of The Headmasters, was Decepticon Six Changer Sixshot, a powerful ninja character who also embodied the “personal transformation” concept with his shifting allegiance.
The booklet included with the Pioneer DVD release of the series claims that earliest episodes of the series were based on unmade scripts for the American series. The specifics of this have never been clairifed and no such American scripts have ever come to light; however, the early episodes The Headmasters do have several similarities with "The Rebirth", including appearances by Vector Sigma and the ghost of Alpha Trion, and the involvement of plasma energy, suggesting that perhaps both the American and Japanese shows were based on the same original premise and went in two different directions with it. Very much unlike the American cartoon, as The Headmasters progresses it, develops an ongoing story and style that Kaneda openly admits is steeped in Toei's history of sci-fi robot anime—likely due in no small part to the involvement of production staff who had a history of work in the genre, including writers Keisuke Fujikawa, Toyohiro Ando and Yoshihisa Araki, and producer Kenji Yokoyama.
Storyline
When Optimus Prime released the energy of the Matrix of Leadership to cure the Hate Plague, he could not have predicted the consequences of his actions. In 2011, without the energy of the Matrix to regulate it, the mega-computer Vector Sigma begins to destabilize, opening the planet up to an invasion by the Decepticons and their new Headmaster warriors. Although the Autobot Headmasters, led by Fortress, arrive to help turn the tide of the battle, the day will not be won without the Matrix, and so Hot Rod and the Headmasters scour the Earth in order to recover the talisman and stabilize Vector Sigma once more. During the course of the conflict, Optimus Prime dies once again, and Hot Rod again becomes Rodimus Prime.
The status quo of the renewed war sees Rodimus Prime in command across Cybertron and the Autobots' secondary command post on Athenia, with Ultra Magnus leading his own individual squad on Earth and operating out of Autobot City. In contrast, the Decepticons are based out of their old base on Chaar, with Sixshot leading the Decepticons' Earth forces, operating out of Trypticon. Operating in the shadows is Galvatron's secret ally, the Decepticon Headmaster leader Scorponok, who has a vendetta against Fortress for exiling him from Master. The first major shift in the direction of the series occurs when Vector Sigma develops a new alloy named Cybertonuron, and Scorponok arranges for the destruction of Cybertron itself in order to keep the alloy from falling into the hands of either the Autobots or Galvatron. Galvatron is caught in the planet-destroying blast and believed dead, while Rodimus Prime decides to venture into space and search for a new homeworld for the Transformers, leaving Scorponok and Fortress in control of their respective factions.
Scorponok immediately begins a plan to harness the power of plasma energy, destroying Mars in pursuit of his evil scheme. However, Galvatron soon reveals that he has survived and returns to take control of the Decepticons, leading them on a series of interplanetary raids for the purpose of gathering up enough energon to enact his master plan. In battle in Alaska, the Autobot Headmasters collapse a glacier on the villain, removing this threat, but allowing Scorponok to take leadership once more.
The Decepticons withdraw to planet Master, leading several refugees to escape to Earth to alert the Autobots to their plight, where a plasma energy explosion fuses the refugees and a group of Autobots and Decepticons together, creating the Targetmasters. The Autobots head for Master, where Scorponok is attempting to construct a weapon that can counter Fortress' mighty Master Sword, and engage the Decepticons in a series of battles. When Scorponok's weapon, the Zarak Shield, lays Fortress low, the Decepticons return to Earth in order to destroy the planet and gather its plasma energy. In a final battle at the South Pole, Fortress is super-charged with the combined energy of the entire Autobot army, and is finally able to defeat Scorponok and foil his plans.
Main cast
- Characters from The Transformers that do not play a critical role in the series are not listed.
Episodes
- For further information, see: List of The Headmasters episodes
- Four Warriors Come out of the Sky
- The Mystery of Planet Master
- Birth of the Fantastic Double Prime
- The Great Cassette Operation
- Rebellion on Planet Beast
- Approach of the Demon Meteorite
- The Four-Million-Year-Old Veil of Mystery
- Terror! The Six Shadows
- Cybertron Is in Grave Danger, Part 1
- Cybertron Is in Grave Danger, Part 2
- The Shadow Emperor, Scorponok
- The Dormant Volcano Mysteriously Erupts
- Head On!! Fortress Maximus
- Explosion on Mars!! Maximus Is in Danger
- Explosion on Mars!! MegaZarak Appears
- Return of the Immortal Emperor
- SOS from Planet Sandra
- Daniel Faces His Biggest Crisis Ever!!
- Fight to the Death on Planet Hive!!
- Battle for Defense of the False Planet
- Find MegaZarak's Weak Spot!!
- Head Formation of Friendship
- Mystery of the Space Pirate Ship
- Ultra Magnus Dies!!
- The Emperor of Destruction Vanishes on an Iceberg
- I Risk My Life for Earth
- Miraculous Warriors, Targetmasters (Part 1)
- Miraculous Warriors, Targetmasters (Part 2)
- The Master Sword Is in Danger!!
- The Zarak Shield Turns the Tide
- Operation: Destroy the Decepticons
- My Friend Sixshot!
- Duel on the Asteroid
- The Final Showdown on Earth (Part 1)
- The Final Showdown on Earth (Part 2)
- Heroic Legend: Optimus Prime vs Megatron!!†
- Heroic Legend: 2010 Wars†
- Heroic Legend: Head On, Master Warriors!†
Criticisms
Transformers: The Headmasters is sadly considered one of the least beloved Transformers cartoons, and frequently cited alongside 2004's Transformers: Energon as the contender for the worst Japanese Transformers series. The show is mostly remembered for its hilariously mangled English dub courtesy of the Hong Kong-based Omni Productions, which spawned several memetic quotes in the Transformers community.
On the other hand, some people who were unsatisfied by the American 3 parter say that this is a more than worthy replacement, as it leads to a whole new storyline instead of a rushed ending.
Pacing and action scenes
The Headmasters is notorious for its glacially-paced storyline; with long exposition scenes throughout the entire series and slow, repetitive action scenes. Roughly half of the show's runtime is spent with characters standing around and talking for minutes on end. The Headmasters's action scenes typically consist of Autobot and Decepticon teams firing volleys of laser fire at each other, and generic punching and tackling. Aside from the occasional combiner or city-bot battle, there objectively isn't anything interesting to find here.
From a storytelling perspective, The Headmasters makes several objectively poor decisions: Galvatron is half-heartedly "defeated" two-thirds through the show by having an avalanche cover him (spoilers: that didn't actually kill him, as Galvatron would later be upgraded into Super Megatron via a comic released years later). While getting covered in ice incapacitates Galvatron, he survived a planet exploding with him on it earlier on in the tenth episode.
The main characters Chromedome, Hardhead, Brainstorm, and Highbrow are introduced out of nowhere at the end of the first episode, and Blaster and Soundwave are quickly killed off in the second episode—an excuse to have them anticlimactically "reborn" a couple episodes later in new bodies. Both of these examples are instances of Takara encouraging kids to buy their new toys in the accompanying toyline.
Characters
Numerous characters that played crucial roles in the American cartoon got shafted in The Headmasters, most notably Rodimus Prime vanishing in the tenth episode of the series, Goldbug making trivial appearances in a whopping four episodes, and Optimus Prime getting anticlimactically killed off in the first episode—and then getting resurrected and killed off a second time! Cyclonus and Scourge's roles were similarly reduced, with Cyclonus in particular being portrayed as an incompetent comic relief, as opposed to his stoic and calculating personality from the American cartoon.
On a more positive note, many of the characters who made a rushed debut in The Rebirth trilogy of the American cartoon made a much more significant appearance in The Headmasters; the most famous example is Sixshot going from a minute-long scene in The Rebirth, Part 1 to being the most prolific antagonist in The Headmasters. While the Japanese show isn't known for having strong characterization (most characters just stand in the background shooting things), it also gave screentime to some of the more obscure "Generation 1" characters.
Animation quality
Much like the American cartoon and Transformers: Armada, The Headmasters was riddled with blatant animation errors ranging from poorly-drawn artwork to coloring errors, and occasionally featured characters present in inappropriate situations. One particularly incredible error featured Superion charging into battle alongside his own components! As mentioned previously, the "Generation 1" cartoon had these kinds of errors as well, but that was generally seen as a beloved show in spite of its countless errors.
Dubbing
The English dub for The Headmasters is considered to be one of the worst anime translations of all time (comparable to the "Big Green" dub of Dragon Ball Z, or 4Kids' legendarily awful localization of One Piece), featuring abysmal voice acting, mangled translations featuring infrequent grammar issues, and giving characters bizarre renames (such as Metroplex into "Phillip"). However....
Omni Productions' English dub is near universally considered to be "so bad it's good", to the point where you could say that the unintentionally hilarious translations are more entertaining than the actual show itself. Sadly, numerous DVDs of The Headmasters have excluded the Omni Productions audio tracks.
Home video releases
- For further information, see: Omni Productions
Japan
- Transformers: The Headmasters — DVD Box (August 23, 2002)
United Kingdom
- The Takara Collection Vol 1 — Transformers: Headmasters (2005)
- Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (2007)
Australia
- The Transformers: Headmasters (2007)
- The Transformers: Japan Generation 1 — Complete Collection (2009)
United States
- The Japanese Collection — Transformers: Headmasters (2011)
- Transformers — The Japanese Collection (includes Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory) (2012)
Notes
- From episode 14 ("Explosion on Mars!! Maximus Is in Danger") onwards, the Decepticons in the title sequence began flashing, making them active targets for the tie in Video Challenger game. Viewers with a Challenge Blaster could score points by "shooting" the Decepticons onscreen. The Challenge Blaster itself even appeared in the show as a toy gun used by Daniel Witwicky.
- Starting here and carrying through the remainder of the Japan-originated animated series, characters are strangely far less inclined to use their guns than they are to just punch or tackle each other. This even goes for characters with body-mounted weaponry such as Hardhead.
