Transformers 40th Anniversary Special Movie
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Row, row, fight the power!
The Transformers 40th Anniversary Special Movie is a short 3-minute animated "promotional video" (or "PV", as it's usually abbreviated) created to, as the title suggests, celebrate the Transformers franchise's 40th anniversary. It was produced by Studio Trigger (with assistance from Production I.G., Production +h., Studio Colorido, Studio KAI, and Madhouse) for TakaraTomy and features the song "Mayday" by Bump of Chicken.
As it's essentially an animated music video, there is no plot to the Special Movie — instead, the main draw is that it features characters and concepts from the live-action film series and basically every major animated Transformers production to ever see screen time in Japan. It's as rad as it is indicative of Trigger's love for the franchise... which is to say, it's rad as hell.
Following a teaser on August 28, 2024, the Transformers 40th Anniversary Special Movie was officially uploaded to TakaraTomy's YouTube channel on September 12.
Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Notes
Hoo boy. Settle in, because in case that ridiculous character list up there didn't tip you off, there's a lot to unpack here:
Continuity notes
- As we mentioned up top, this video features both the live-action iteration of the franchise and basically every major animated Transformers production to ever be screened or released on video in Japan, up through and including Transformers: EarthSpark. Yes, even the Q-Transformers shorts.
- From a more western-centric perspective, this means there are some notable absences, prominent among them Rescue Bots and its sequel, the BotBots cartoon, and the two webseries produced by Rooster Teeth. This also means that characters from other mediums aren't included, most notably the many Transformers comics, manga, prose stories, and story pages. If you were looking forward to seeing Star Convoy, Super Megatron, the Primus Vanguard, and so on, we're sorry to disappoint you.
- Also of note is how the Unicron Trilogy is implemented. In keeping with how those series were treated in Japan, Armada and Energon are considered to be part of the same universe, while Cybertron is its own distinct universe.
- Nearly all of the Beast Era characters are depicted as being considerably smaller than most of the other Transformers, in keeping with the scale established by Beast Wars. The only notable exceptions are acceptable outliers, like Car Robots Gigatron, who's about as tall as his Autobot rival.
Transformers references
- Befitting this crossing of multiple time periods and universes, the opening seconds depict various methods of traveling across time and space that've been shown throughout the franchise: Vector Prime, the Kronosphere from "War Dawn", the time portal from "Forever Is a Long Time Coming", the teleport gate from "Lio Convoy in Imminent Danger!", the Quintesson banishment chamber from "Madman's Paradise", and the Dragon Mound from "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court".
- We get what appear to be two sides in an ongoing battle, with an army of Prime Vehicons on one side and a group of various Autobot helicopters on the other, including the likes of Springer, Energon Bulkhead, and both versions of the Unicron Trilogy Mini-Con Jolt.
- The following scene shows both the Decepticon Nemesis and the Predacon Nemesis crashed into each other and sinking into the ocean. Among the survivors are Generation 1 Scourge, Cybertron Thunderblast, Robots in Disguise '01 Sky-Byte, as well as Oceanglide, Stormcloud, and Waterlog of the Armada Sea Mini-Con Team.
- Standing among some urban wreckage are a group of animal-themed robots, including Aerobolt, White Leo, Lio Junior, and Generation 1 Steeljaw. This is followed by a group of "tanky" villains, including the likes of Animated Blitzwing, Generation 1 Swindle, Beast Machines Tankor, and Kakuryu of the Dinoforce. Hilariously, this latter group also includes Cybertron Thundercracker, notable for being that series' regular punching bag.
- There's a battle that appears to be taking place on Junkion, with Junkyard and Wasteoid Gamma (or two Junkions who look a lot like them) taking cover.
- We get a shot of an Autobot/Maximal naval fleet consisting of Generation 1 Metroplex, Fortress' Maximus, Grand's Maximus, Generation 1 Broadside, and the Yukikaze, joined by the Generation 1 Aerialbots. A later scene provides us with a villainous counterpart, featuring Gigastorm, Generation 1 Trypticon, Armada Tidal Wave, Generation 1 Scorponok, the Prime version of the Nemesis, the Thunder Arrow, Beast Machines Obsidian, some Prime Air Vehicons and Insecticons, a number of Seekers (including a trio clearly intended to be the Rainmakers), Generation 1 Blitzwing, and Animated Lugnut.
- Taking off from the villains' naval fleet is Generation 1 Starscream, observed from the runway by the Godmasters Hydra and Buster. In the air, he's joined by fellow year one Seekers Thundercracker and Skywarp, his Armada counterpart, and Animated Waspinator. Waspinator's inclusion is almost certainly meant to nod to when Starscream's ghost possessed the Beast Wars version in "Possession". Also, blink and you'll miss it, but Starscream's cockpit is playing host to a Kremzeek!
- The Rescue Patrol Team are walking past some offlined Decepticons — specifically the generic "warriors" seen in "War Dawn" — as they approach the colossal form of Cyberverse Croaton.
- Wilder appears forlornly looking over poor little Pis, who he savagely kicked in the episode "Rage!! Little Devils with No Need for Rules".
- The following two panning shots are big ones: the many different Autobot and Maximal leaders standing in front of the Ark on one side, and the various major villains standing in front of Decepticon Headquarters and the Decepticon Nemesis on the other.
- Of note regarding the heroic side, Big Convoy is wielding his Matrix Cannon alongside his NAVI, Jan Minakaze can be seen standing on Star Saber's chest, Robots in Disguise '15 Bumblebee is wielding a Decepticon Hunter, and Dai Atlas is holding the Zodiac. Both Moonbase One and Moonbase Two can also be seen in the background. In the scene following the villains' gathering, Lio Convoy appears in his Flash Lio Convoy form, bizarrely wielding Magmatron's Magma Blade.
- On the villains' side, Prime Megatron is wielding the Dark Star Saber, Animated Megatron has Isaac Sumdac tied to his chest, and Armada Megatron is wielding the Star Saber, Requiem Blaster, and Skyboom Shield all at once; the following scene also sees Cybertron Megatron combine with Nemesis Breaker on Velocitron. Also of note are who was chosen to represent certain series: Dragotron represents Transformers: Go!, Megatronus represents RID '15, and Overlord supplants Devil Z as the Super-God Masterforce representative.
- Five sword-wielding Autobot leaders gather in another scene, including Star Saber, God Ginrai, RiD '15 Optimus, Cybertron Optimus, and Fortress Maximus. They're followed by a quintet of more blaster-centric Autobot leaders, including Cyberverse Optimus using his Matrix, Fire Convoy and Armada Optimus in their respective "super" modes, Big Convoy using his Big Cannon, and Energon Optimus Supreme.
- There are four scenes in the video dedicated to the Autobots' human allies, all grouped by the nature of their relationships:
- The first scene depicts "close friends", in this case the kid/teen casts of Prime and Armada. They're joined by the Prime incarnations of Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Arcee, the Street Action Mini-Con Team, and Armada Laserbeak.
- The second scene pairs two "mech teams", with Jan Minakaze and Illumina in the Illumina II traveling alongside Coby Hansen and Lori Jiménez in the Cobybot.
- The third scene is a group of "fighters", including the Autobot Headmaster Juniors, Kicker Jones (who's joined by Energon Ironhide), and Sari Sumdac, who imitates Kicker's signature kick from the opening of Superlink.
- The fourth scene is of families, including Denny Clay and his son Russell, the adult version of Spike Witwicky with his wife Carly and his son Daniel, the Malto family from EarthSpark, and Koji Onishi and his parents Kenneth and Kiko.
- On Gaia's Moon, Artemis and Moon are joined by Ai and a trio of surprise guests in the form of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Lockdown from Q-Transformers. In keeping with the Flash-animated nature of their series, the Q-Transformers trio have incredibly simple animation.
- While the close-up shot of some red flowers might seem like just a random transition scene, it's actually a sly reference to the end of "Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!", where Akira Serikawa presents Cain and Emusa with some. This scene transitions into a showcase of all three of the main animated incarnations of "Aligned" Optimus featured in Japan: RiD '15 Optimus returns with his sword, joined by Prime Optimus holding the Forge of Solus Prime and Optimus Exprime from Transformers Go!.
- The next two scenes continue the Transformers Go! train: the first depicts Optimus combining with Gekisoumaru and Kenzan into DaiGekisou, while the second is a group shot of the series' human cast staring into the horizon atop DaiKenzan.
- After a brief scene of Bud Hansen and Safeguard looking up at Vector Prime, we get a grim montage of some of the franchise's tragic deaths intercut with scenes of Generation 1 Optimus falling through a mysterious void, his appearance shifting between his regular look, his corpse (complete with aggressive depigmentation), and the... unique color scheme of "Bass Prime", the figure whose deco was chosen by Bump of Chicken bassist Yoshifumi "Chama" Naoi. In order, we can see Optimus on his deathbed from The Transformers: The Movie, Dinobot II's honorable sacrifice from "Nemesis Part 2", Prime Cliffjumper getting stabbed in "Darkness Rising, Part 1", Armada Starscream's last stand from "Cramp" (complete with Swindle being ejected), Animated Prowl in his samurai armor relinquishing his spark in "Endgame, Part II", and Jan mourning the loss of Ginrai from "Ginrai Dies!!".
- The following sequence sees the Transmetal versions of Optimus Primal and Megatron merge with their Generation 1 counterparts to form their respective upgraded forms, a more literal interpretation of how Optimal Optimus and Transmetal II Megatron came into being in the third season of Beast Wars. When the two clash fists, echoes of their future selves from Beast Machines appear.
- Overlord is seen battling Animated Optimus Prime, who's equipped with the Magnus Hammer and the "Wingblade" jet pack, as was the case in "Endgame, Part II".
- The man Marissa Faireborn is kissing is the swinder Dirk Manus from the episode "Money is Everything". With how obscure he is, though, you'd be forgiven for mistaking him for Spike!
- Rodimus Prime opening the Matrix is made to parallel Armada Sparkplug using that series' Matrix to resurrect his Optimus in "Miracle" and Dai Atlas raising the Zodiac above his head, presumably meant to nod to Optimus' resurrection as Star Convoy in the Battlestars story pages.
- The live-action films finally get some representation in the form of the first film's Autobot and Decepticon teams charging their opposites down on a barren highway. Rise of the Beasts gets some love too, with its versions of Bumblebee, Optimus Primal, Mirage, Cheetor, Arcee, Airazor, Wheeljack, Rhinox, and Stratosphere staring off into the distance.
- The final scene sees the Generation 1 versions of Optimus and Megatron stare each other down. After the scene with the human families, the video cuts back, only now Optimus and Megatron have been replaced with their EarthSpark counterparts — the series' more black-and-white roots have thematically given way to its more nuanced present.
Trivia
- Notable among the Studio Trigger staff that worked on this video are key animators Masaru Sakamoto and Hiroki Mutaguchi and director Akira Amemiya. Sakamoto previously helped design Flame Toys' Furai Model Lio Convoy kit and was one of a few guest artists on the Generations Selects Special Comic Finale, Mutaguchi drew the cover for the Transformers Generations 2022 book, and Amemiya is a huge fan of the franchise that's done multiple official illustrations and designed various other Furai Model kits.
- Longtime Japanese Transformers artist Hayato Sakamoto also contributed to the Special Movie as another key animator. As confirmed by Sakamoto himself on Twitter/X, this video marks his debut as an animator.
- For whatever reason, TakaraTomy's official upload of the Special Movie to YouTube has been marked as unavailable to watch in most regions outside of Japan. Reuploads and mirrors of the video aren't too hard to find... but for the sake of not poking the bear, we're just gonna trust that you'll be able to find them on your own.
...PHEW!
