The Road to Borrowing Popularity from Sengoku Basara
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| "The Road to Borrowing Popularity from Sengoku Basara" (Sengoku Basara ni Ayakatte Ninkimono e no Michi) | ||||||
| Airdate | July 27, 2015 | |||||
| Writer | Kotaro Ishidate | |||||
| Director | Kotaro Ishidate | |||||
| Animation studio | DLE | |||||
To learn more about popularity, Optimus and the rest bring in a guest from another franchise.
Synopsis
[edit]Seated in a recording studio, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee announce the introduction of a new segment: Q-Transformers Radio! Lockdown questions why this is necessary, and when the Autobots explain that podcast-like "anime radio" is very popular lately, he protests that the format is normally a bonus on the side of a series, not part of the main content! Plus they're not animated at all! The Autobots happily tell him that their recent sales issues have led to budget cuts, but as long as they call it a radio segment, nobody will mind a lack of animation! (Lockdown does mind.)
In their search for popularity, they've invited an expert on being popular, Tracks, who in turn has brought a friend: Yukimura Sanada, protagonist of the Sengoku Basara franchise. Their hot-blooded guest yells an introduction before being asked to tell the listeners about the Sengoku Basara games, but his description sounds so practiced that it reminds the others of when Tracks read his lines from a cue card during their last encounter. While insisting that it was all ad-libbed, Tracks accidentally slips into Yukimura's speech pattern and tries to pass it off as his friend rubbing off on him. Bumblebee's next question is what the biggest difference between Sengoku Basara and Q-Transformers is, and Yukimura responds with "bushido". The Transformers agree that as robots, they lack bushido, and when their feudal-era guest asks what robots are, Lockdown compares them to Sengoku Basara's Tadakatsu Honda. When Yukimura responds that Honda is human, Lockdown argues that his in-game "voice" samples are all mechanical noises, but Yukimura doesn't understand what voice samples are either.
As the discussion leads to finding ways to make Q-Transformers as popular as Sengoku Basara, Bumblebee suggests that if there's already a robot in the games, why not just let Transformers appear as guest characters? Lockdown brings up that if they were to appear, they'd need super moves that take out dozens of enemy soldiers in one hit. Optimus's idea that as cars they'd just run enemy soldiers over and therefore their ability is traction. His assertion that it would make soldiers move out of his way like Moses parting the Red Sea is met with complete silence, and when Tracks is asked next, he accidentally responds as Yukimura again.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
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Notes
[edit]Continuity notes
[edit]- It was noted back in "The Road to Winning a New Fanbase" that the show's budget had been cut.
- The Autobots recall Tracks's cue card from his last appearance in "Mystery of Game Balance".
Real-world references
[edit]- Yukimura is present to promote the release of Capcom's Sengoku Basara 4: Sumeragi, which was released around the same time as this episode, and appears as an unmoving promotional render from that game.
- The jokes about Tracks's friendship with Yukimura and taking on his speech patterns refer to the fact that they have the same voice actor, Sōichirō Hoshi.
Trivia
[edit]- Because of the change in format, this episode does not feature end credits.
