Transformers 40th Anniversary Special Movie
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Row, row, fight the power!
"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 "Special Movie"—instead, the main draw is that it features characters and concepts from basically every major animated Transformers production to ever see screen time in Japan, plus the live-action film series. 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
Hooooo boy, it's a lot! This short features over two hundred characters from across forty years of Transformers media!
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Production
Credits
- For further information, see: Transformers 40th Anniversary Special Movie/credits
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 is a tribute to just about 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) along with the live-action films. A notable exception is the War for Cybertron Trilogy, which did receive a full Japanese dub, but is otherwise absent from the proceedings.
- Other missing shows include Rescue Bots and its sequel, the BotBots cartoon, and the Prime Wars Trilogy web shorts, all of which were never dubbed for Japanese release. This also means that characters from other mediums aren't included, most notably the many Transformers comics, games, 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 originally treated in Japan, Cybertron's cast is largely composed of discrete characters separate from the cast of Armada and Energon, leading to the absence of Optimus Prime and Megatron in their Energon bodies for the crowd shots of each faction's leaders.
- 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 (surrounded by imagery of swinging pendulums and clockwork gears, recreating a scene from the Cybetron episode "Guardian"), the Kronosphere from "War Dawn", the Time Window 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, Armada Jolt, and Cybertron Jolt.
- The following scene shows the wreck of the Galvaburg II 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, with Energon Mirage coming to their rescue in the background.
- 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: Animated Blitzwing, Generation 1 Swindle, Beast Machines Tankor, and Armada Demolishor (in his Powerlinx colors), all perched on Beast Wars II Megastorm in alternate mode. Flanking the group are Cybertron Thundercracker and, from Victory, Kakuryu of the Dinoforce, both the comic relief punching bags of their respective series.
- There's a battle that appears to be taking place on Junkion, with various Junkions in action. Two in the background are indistinct, but in the foreground are the body-types associated with the characters Junkyard and Ashtray; Junkyard is carrying a wounded Junkion who appears to be Greasestain over his shoulder.
- A shot of the aftermath of a battle in a demolished city, with Ratchet in vehicle mode on his side leaking copious amounts of energon, his front in flames. Jazz is also just barely visible in vehicle mode as well, turned completely on his roof.
- We get a shot of an Autobot/Maximal naval fleet consisting of Generation 1 Metroplex, Fortress's Maximus, Grand's Maximus, Generation 1 Broadside, and the Yukikaze. The Generation 1 Aerialbots are present as well, but there's some oddities: Slingshot rests on Broadside's deck but is miscolored gray, while next to him is what appears to be a sixth white Aerialbot, a twin-tailfin jet that's kind of Air Raid-shaped (but Air Raid is flying in the upper-right corner of the shot, so it ain't him!).
- Victory's Rescue Patrol Team walk past a line of offline Decepticons along a beach—specifically the generic "warriors" and "Dropkicks" seen in "War Dawn"—as they approach the colossal form of Cyberverse Croaton.
- Godmasters Hydra and Buster from Super-God Masterforce stand by their Transtectors.
- Next is a villainous counterpart to the earlier Autobot naval fleet shot, featuring Gigastorm, Generation 1 Trypticon (based on his Titans Return toy), Armada Tidal Wave, Generation 1 Scorponok, the Prime version of the Nemesis. Flying above them are the Rainmakers (Acid Storm, Ion Storm, and Nova Storm); the Thunder Arrow; the three flying members of the Breastforce (Hellbat, Leozack, and Guyhawk); Generation 1 Thundercracker and Skywarp; Animated Blitzwing, Blackout, and Lugnut; what appears to be Prime Predaking (or maybe Go Dragotron?) and two Prime Insecticons, and some Prime Air Vehicons.
- Generation 1 Starscream takes off from Tidal Wave's deck, with Kremzeek in his cockpit. He is joined in the air by Armada Starscream and Beast Wars II Starscream, as well as Victory Leozack and Animated Waspinator. Leozack's a thematically similar Starscream-like scheming second-in-command character, while Waspinator's inclusion is almost certainly meant to nod to when Starscream's ghost possessed the Beast Wars version in "Possession".
- Wilder appears forlornly looking over poor little Pis, who he savagely kicked in the Masterforce 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 on the heroic side: Big Convoy is wielding his Matrix Cannon alongside his NAVI; Jan Minakaze can be seen standing on Star Saber's shoulder, wearing his spacesuit from the final episode of Victory; 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, as can Kicker Jones from Energon, riding that series version of Grindor.
- On the villains' side, Cybertron Megatron is shown holding Vector Prime's Planet Map; Armada Megatron is wielding the Star Saber, Requiem Blaster, and Skyboom Shield all at once; Animated Megatron has Isaac Sumdac tied to his chest, as he did in the Animated episode "A Bridge Too Close, Part I"; and Prime Megatron is depicted as he appeared in the late stages of Prime season 2, with the dead Prime's right arm in place of his, allowing him to wield the Dark Star Saber. Also of note are who was chosen to represent certain series: Dragotron (in his larger, red, "Guren" form) represents Transformers: Go!, Megatronus represents Robots in Disguise '15, and Overlord supplants Devil Z as the Super-God Masterforce representative. Generation 1 Galvatron is not included, as his previous self is already present.
- Next, we see Cybertron Megatron combine with Nemesis Breaker on Velocitron, and clash with Lio Convoy in his "Legendary Green Lion" form, featured in the final episodes of both Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo. Lio is wielding Magmatron's Magma Blade, as he did in the Neo episode "The Final Battle".
- Five sword-wielding Autobot leaders gather: Star Saber; God Ginrai (wielding the sword he used only once, in the Victory episode "A Deadly Battle"); Robots in Disguise '15 Optimus Prime, armed with the Prime Decepticon Hunter; Cybertron Optimus Prime, brandishing Vector Prime's sword Rhisling, as he did in the Cybertron episode "Unfinished"; and Fortress Maximus, with his mighty Master Sword. They all strike the "Obari pose" (a dynamic perspective shot made famous by the Brave series of anime), as Cybertron Optimus did in the aforementioned episode.
- Next comes a quintet of Autobot leaders using more blaster-based powers, all unleashing their "final attacks": Cyberverse Optimus Prime fires an energy blast from his Matrix, as he did in the Cyberverse episode "I Am The Allspark"; Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime uses his "Blizzard Storm" water blast; Big Convoy opens fire with his Big Cannon; Armada Optimus Prime uses his "Max Fire" super move; and Energon Optimus Prime (combined with Omega Supreme as "Optimus Supreme") completes the group.
- Next follow three scenes 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. Look close, and you'll see that Alexis is wearing the necklace prominently featured in the Armada episodes "Portent" and "Cramp", which symbolizes her friendship with Starscream, while Fred is eating a bag of chips of the same brand as he munched on in "Confrontation".
- The second scene pairs two "mech teams", with Jan Minakaze and Illumina (visible only in silhouette through the cockpit canopy) 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, riding on Energon Ironhide (in his green "Energon" power-up colors), Kicker Jones (riding the Energon Saber like a hoverboard, as he often did in the show), and Sari Sumdac, who imitates Kicker's signature kick from the opening of Super Link, with Ocean City in the background.
- Between the mech teams and the fighters, we get a scene set in Gaia's Moon; Artemis and Moon are joined by T-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 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 "Aligned" Optimus Prime's bodies as featured in Japan's run of Prime and Go!: Optimus appears in his "Beast Hunters" body with Prima's Star Saber, joined by Prime Optimus holding the Forge of Solus Prime and Optimus Exprime from Transformers Go! in the background.
- Notably, Prime's third season was never redubbed and aired in Japan, but instead was replaced with Transformers Go!, where Optimus appears in his "Beast Hunters" body for part of the episode "Triple Combination! Swordbot - Samurai!".
- 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.
- Next follows a recreation of the scene of Vector Prime giving Bud Hansen and Safeguard his planet map, as seen in the aforementioned episode "Guardian".
- After this, we get a montage of some of the franchise's tragic deaths intercut with scenes of Generation 1 Optimus Prime traversing through "the other side of the Matrix" (as seen in the "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)"), his appearance shifting between his regular look, his corpse (complete with aggressive depigmentation), and the... distinctive color scheme designed by Bump of Chicken bassist Yoshifumi "Chama" Naoi for the exclusive "Bass Prime" figure produced as a tie-in with this video. 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 God 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 dragon 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 battle takes place in Earth orbit, with the moon visible in the background, referencing Overlord's lunar battle with God Ginrai in the Masterforce episode "God Ginrai - Into the Sky!!".
- The man Marissa Faireborn is kissing is the swindler Dirk Manus from the episode "Money Is Everything". He only appeared in that one episode of the original cartoon, but expansions to Japanese Transformers lore have since established that he and Marissa got back together and had a daughter.
- 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 Prime's resurrection as Star Convoy in the Battlestars story pages.
- The live-action films 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 Optimus Primal, Stratosphere, Cheetor, Mirage, Bumblebee, Rhinox, Airazor, Arcee, and Wheeljack staring off into the distance. As it was in the film, Airazor is the only one without a robot mode.
- The final scene sees the Generation 1 versions of Optimus and Megatron stare each other down, as several human families from across the franchise's history look on: 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 (notably, Kiko's only prior animated appearance having been a single scene in the first episode of Robots in Disguise). The angle then cuts back to Prime and Megatron, only now, they have been replaced with their EarthSpark counterparts shaking hands—the series' more black-and-white roots have thematically given way to its more nuanced present. We then pan up to see Unicron's head orbiting Cybertron as the credits roll.
Real-world 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.
- Outside of Studio Trigger's staff, multiple animators veteran to previous Transformers series were brought on as guest animators, these include lead animators for the Japanese produced Transformers shows and Unicron Trilogy Munetaka Abe and Masahiro Yamane, and even Studio OX artists Tsuyoshi Nonaka and Morifumi Naka.
- Longtime Japanese Transformers artist Hayato Sakamoto also contributed to the Special Movie as another key animator. As confirmed by Sakamoto himself, this video marks his debut as an animator.[1]
- For whatever reason, TakaraTomy's initial upload of the Special Movie to YouTube has been marked as unavailable to watch in most regions outside of Japan. It was reuploaded to Twitter without region locking around 12 hours later.
- One reason for the lack of the human cast from the live-action film series can be chalked up to actor-likeness licensing issues on both sides of the Pacific (Japan is more stricter than America).
...PHEW!
References
- ↑ "構成協力及び原画で参加しました！TF40周年記念作品に関われてとても嬉しかったです！そしてアニメーターデビュー！それもトランスフォーマーのアニメ！更にスタジオtriggerのアニメに！やった！超豪華スタッフと一緒にお仕事出来て信じられない感じです。是非見てくださいーーー！！"—Hayato Sakamoto, Twitter, 2024/09/12
