BlackZarak - Destroyer from Space
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 You might wanna get that checked out. | ||||||
| "BlackZarak - Destroyer from Space" (Black Zarack - Uchū Kara no Hakaisha) | ||||||
| Production company | Takara, Toei | |||||
| Airdate | 20 December 1988 | |||||
| Writer | Yoshihisa Araki | |||||
| Director | Atsutoshi Umezawa | |||||
| Animation studio | Toei | |||||
| Continuity | Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity | |||||
At last, BlackZarak arrives on Earth, and chaos follows in his wake, as Decepticon attacks spread thin the Autobot forces on Earth, and Ginrai and Grand Maximus fall victim to a deadly trap in space.
Synopsis
[edit]
Having hidden in deep space since his defeat at the hands of God Ginrai, BlackZarak has mastered localized gravity manipulation, enabling him to generate black holes that will allow him to teleport directly to Earth. Devil Z informs Mega and Giga of this development, and instructs them to begin "Operation M1" as BlackZarak appears in the skies above New York!
Meanwhile, with their headquarters having been destroyed, the Autobots have relocated to the Alps and radioed Grand Maximus out in space, with the intention of employing his battleship as a new base. Enough time passes that the Autobots begin to grow uneasy, and when Ginrai can't make contact with Grand, he chooses to head out into space himself to investigate.
Almost at the precise moment that Ginrai departs, however, the Decepticons' Operation M1 begins! Overlord descends out of the sky into the heart of Paris and cuts a swathe of destruction through the city, decimating military resistance and destroying the Arc de Triomphe, while BlackZarak rains chaos down on New York, teleporting a squadron of attacking jet fighters away through a black hole. The patrolling Metalhawk happens upon the ruined New York and is about to contact the other Autobots, when Diver radios him first, informing him of Overlord's attack on Paris, and the fact that Overlord is now moving east across Europe, while BlackZarak is moving west across the Pacific. Metalhawk alerts Lightfoot and the other Autobots to the situation, and they attempt to contact Ginrai, with no luck. Not wanting to imagine the worst, they put the thought from their minds and roll out for the disaster areas.
Out in space, the reason for the Autobots' failure to contact Ginrai becomes clear when the commander himself arrives at Grand Maximus's last confirmed location, and discovers a black hole which immediately captures him in its gravity. Pulled into the dark recesses of the black hole, he spots Grand Maximus in the darkness, also a victim of the black hole's pull. Grand Maximus explains that the black hole is the work of BlackZarak, and that he is expending all of his energy just to hold steady against its gravity.
While passing over China, Overlord sets down atop the Great Wall and delivers a message to the leaders of the world, telling them that they have three hours to surrender, or Overlord and BlackZarak will converge over Tokyo and reduce the city to a sea of fire. Within an hour, as he is flying across the sea towards Japan, he is confronted by Metalhawk, Phoenix and Diver, but dispatches them with ease and carries on his way.
Back in the grip of the black hole, Ginrai and Grand Maximus formulate an escape plan. Ginrai intends to blast the centre of the black hole with an even more powerful force—Chōkon Power! Drawing power from the electromagnetic waves of the black hole, they combine their energies and Ginrai funnels them through the Godcannon, blasting the heart of the black hole with one almighty beam. The black hole erupts in a massive explosion...
Meanwhile, off the coast of Japan, the Autobot Godmaster and Headmaster Juniors stand poised to repel the approach of BlackZarak. The massive Decepticons soon appears overhead and blasts the assembled Autobots with lasers and lightning, at which point Overlord explodes onto the scene, and directs BlackZarak to forget them and join him in attacking Tokyo. The Seacons, Buster, Hydra and the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors all emerge to occupy the Autobots while Tokyo is demolished by BlackZarak and Overlord, but as the two Decepticons march through the city, the sight of something moving against the sun catches Overlord's eye. As he watches, denying the possibility of what he sees with every breath, Grand Maximus and Ginrai swoop down from the skies, ready to bring the destruction to an end! Ginrai and BlackZarak square off as Grand Maximus and BlackZarak match firepower, but eventually, Ginrai manoeuvres himself between the two Decepticons and dodges at the last second, causing them to blast each other. Ginrai and Maximus merge their energies one more time and deliver the final blast to the two damaged villains, crippling them and causing Devil Z to order the abortion of Operation M1, and the commencement of Operation M2. The Decepticons pull out, and in the aftermath of the battle the Autobots all welcome Ginrai back to the fold. Ginrai remains uneasy, however, and can sense that worse things are on the horizon... but for now, there's rescue work to be done!
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
Human Autobots |
Human Decepticons |
|
Quotes
[edit]"The likes of you cannot hurt or even tickle me!"
- —Overlord, under attack from Hawk and Phoenix.
Notes
[edit]Animation and technical errors
[edit]- When Lightfoot asks if something could have happened to Grand Maximus, the cabling on Ranger's suit is red.
- As Hawk flies over New York, he flies over a building, and his wingspan is at least three times the building's width, making him look huge.
- The "stars" being pulled into the black hole Ginrai finds are, on the other hand, tiny and completely inaccurate in terms of scale. Additionally any shot of space in this episode will show planets improbably close together.
- As the Headmaster Juniors discuss why Ginrai's not communicating, when Cab raises his arm, the shadow on Shūta's right leg reverses.
- In the following shot of Lightfoot, the cabling on Ranger's suit is colored red again.
- As BlackZarak attacks the Autobots, Ranger's red parts are colored yellow.
- As Shūta announces that he'll defeat BlackZarak himself, the interior of his and Cab's mouths are white.
Continuity notes
[edit]- BlackZarak and Grand Maximus have both been fighting out in space since their last appearance in "God Ginrai - Showdown on the Surface of the Moon".
- The Autobot base was destroyed in the previous episode.
- This episode sees Ginrai's trailer transform to base mode for the first time in the series itself, but it did previously appear in a rather odd scene in the show's first opening sequence.
- This is the second time that the Arc de Triomphe has been destroyed in the series (the first being in the episode "Expose the Decepticons' Dark Trap!"). The Japanese must really hate the French...
Trivia
[edit]
- This episode features the debut of the insert song, "Super Ginrai no Theme". It's coming in a bit late, mind you, since things are all about God Ginrai at this point in the series, but it's still a song that makes you sit up and go "I say! What is this I'm hearing now?"
- A scene of Overlord launching a volley of missiles at Ginrai is re-used from the show's opening sequence.
- The preview for this episode features a scene cut from the episode itself, which involves BlackZarak attacking and destroying a castle, whilst a crowd point and gasp in horror. The crowd seem to be in a theme park, most likely meant to be a Disneyland knock-off, judging from the castle design and the Mickey Mouse style character on one of the children's shirts.
- A bit of footage from the Omni Productions dub version of this episode was included as part of some special features on the Kid Rhino DVD release of Generation 1 Season 1. Specifically, the title card (with the "Destroyers From Deep Space" narration) and a few seconds of the scene where God Ginrai and Grand Maximus almost get caught in the blast of the black hole exploding, which cuts right to a commercial bumper of Buster and Hydra combining (which was not the actual bumper used at that point in the episode; the BlackZarak underwater bumper was).
Foreign localization
[edit]English
- Title: "Destroyers from Deep Space" (Omni Productions dub)
- Original airdate: February 17, 1991
Russian
Home video releases
[edit]- DVD
2003 — Transformers: Super-God Masterforce — DVD Box 02 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — The Takara Collection Vol 2 — Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (Metrodome)
2007 — Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (Metrodome)
2008 — The Transformers: Super God Masterforce (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Japan Generation 1 — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2012 — Transformers: The Japanese Collection (Shout! Factory)
2012 — Transformers Japanese Collection: Super-God Masterforce (Shout! Factory)
