The Great Turnabout of the Autobots
| |||||||||||||
 Mega and Giga find Cancer's suicide note. | |||||||||||||
| "The Great Turnabout of the Autobots" 大逆転! サイバトロン
(Dai Gyakuten! Cybertron) | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Kodansha | ||||||||||||
| Published in | TV Magazine | ||||||||||||
| First published | January 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | February 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Script | Masumi Kaneda | ||||||||||||
| Artist | Ban Magami | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | TV Magazine continuity | ||||||||||||
Cancer experiences a very unhappy New Year!
Synopsis
[edit]With the New Year approaching, Cancer sneaks out of Decepticon Base and runs away with Browning, leaving behind a letter that states he doesn't want to be a Decepticon any more. Furthermore, he says that Masterforce becoming the ruling family on Earth is nothing but a lie. Cancer's action shocks most of the Decepticon members, even making Mega cry. What Cancer is unaware of, however, is that his Decepticon family had prepared to celebrate the New Year with him, having spent all day making decorations, only to discover Cancer's tearful note.
Cancer is very happy to return to the city and saying he is a human after all. Unfortunately for Cancer, BlackZarak attacks the city with the Sparkdash in the middle of his trip, and it's not long before Grand Maximus arrives on the scene, carrying the Autobots into battle to stop the Decepticons.
As the Autobot Godmasters grapple with the Sparkdash, BlackZarak spots Cancer and, after getting over his initial surprise, seizes the boy with the intent of using him as a bargaining chip to keep the Autobots back. After unleashing his "Spear Hurricane", generating a cyclone blast with his spear which envelops Grand Maximus, BlackZarak spots Overlord approaching from the air. He is more than surprised when Overlord transforms to robot mode and brutally attacks him, outraged by his treatment of Cancer and dismissive attitude toward human life. With BlackZarak weakened, Grand seizes his chance, leaping out of his battleship and assuming his Pretender form—without shrinking! The giant-sized Pretender Grand crashes into Overlord and BlackZarak with a "Big Mode Pretender Shell Power Kick!", and the Godmasters follow it up by firing all their weapons on the Decepticons at once, creating a huge explosion and sending the two villains fleeing.
In the aftermath of the battle, a startled Ginrai wants to know the reason for Grand's excessive size, and Grand explains that in ancient times, the Pretenders did not shrink but remained enormous in their suit modes, spawning legends of giants among early man. Back then, Grand says, humanity learned and grew thanks to the teachings of the Transformers, but now, mankind and Transformers are truly equals. Back at the Decepticon base, Cancer is disappointed in himself for not trusting his family, but Mega forgives him, and as he works on a kagami mochi, Browning notes that running away never solves anything.
Aww!
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Quotes
[edit]"We robotic beings become human beings, while human beings like you become robotic beings. How strange it is."
- —Grand talks to Ginrai. Yep, quite interesting.
Notes
[edit]
- This issue is the only Masterforce fiction featuring Gran, Grand's smallest Headmaster component.
- Similarly, this issue features a brief appearance by robot-mode Grand outside of his Pretender shell. The only other time this occurs is for a few seconds in the anime episode "Crisis! The Day of Human Extinction".
- The idea that Pretender shells are able to grow to giant-size is exclusive to the manga. Presumably, it's an attempt to offer some sort of fictional justification for the size of the Pretender toys' shells. They're wildly out of scale with the rest of the toys in the line if one assumes the cartoon's position of them being human-sized, but with this idea that they can be giant-sized, it's all good! Of course, this was never a problem for the Western fictional representation of the Pretenders, since they remained giant-sized at all times.
- Overlord's vehicle mode is called "Battleship mode".
- Grand implies that those huge-stone cultures and the legend of giants in the ancient time are related to the Pretenders.
- See also "Gods? Demons? The Pretenders"
- The framework of this story (Cancer goes to city, attack happens) also occurred in the Masterforce anime episode "God Ginrai - Save Cancer!?", which aired the same month the issue was originally published.
- Special moves in this issue:
- Spear Hurricane (Black Zarak)
- Big Mode Pretender Shell Power Kick (Grand)
- Five Godmaster Shot (Autobot Godmasters)
