Enter! The Transformers
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| Enter! The Transformers 登場! トランスフォーマー
(Tōjō! Transformer) | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Comic Bun Bun | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | November 2008 | ||||||||||||
| Story | Naoto Tsushima | ||||||||||||
| Art | Naoto Tsushima | ||||||||||||
| Colorist | Sayuri (first two pages only) | ||||||||||||
| Editor | TakaraTomy | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Henkei! Henkei! | ||||||||||||
A kid meets the Transformers. Rinse and repeat.
Synopsis
A cube-shaped object heads towards Earth from space, heralding things which are to come...
As three students head to school, they gossip about the latest mystery, cars being driven without drivers, as reported to the local TV news station by a schoolmate from a different class. One of the kids is Wataru Hoshinoumi, a 5th grader at the town's elementary school who aspires to become famous. Wataru reminisces on a bit of the history of his hometown, Hoshinochō: Eleven years ago, almost on the day he was born, a large meteorite hit the Japanese town, which led to a cover-up of the impact site. Thus, Hoshinochō was nicknamed "Japan's Roswell", accumulating a gamut of rumors and conspiracies about UFOs, ghosts, and secret military bases.
After eavesdropping on various schoolmates grilling the interviewed kid, who reportedly saw a yellow driverless car near the Star Dome, Wataru practically rushes through his lunch before ditching school and shooting out into the street without checking traffic. (WARNING: Kids, ALWAYS look both ways before crossing.) Just as he's about to be run over by an oncoming car from cross-traffic, an arm pops out of the vehicle and the car transforms while flipping right over him. Amidst the dust kicked up from a destroyed wall, which provided him a not-so-comfortable cushion, Wataru barely makes out the figure and hears it mention a dome to someone else before it leaves. Buzzed by the sudden adrenaline rush on realizing that the very vehicle that nearly hit him was the same one he was looking for, he hurries on to the Star Dome. However, upon reaching the building...
...there's an inferno raging on inside the dome, much to his shock. Before Wataru can fully get his wits about him, he's buzzed by a fighter jet far too close for his comfort—no surprise, given that it's INDOORS. No one less than Starscream transforms into his full sneering glory and proceeds to say, "Hello, squishy. 'Bye, squishy," to the poor kid.
Just before Wataru's turned into carbon dust, Bumblebee introduces Starscream to his foot, executing a flying kick straight to the face out of nowhere. Both youngsters are naturally surprised to run into each other again (no pun intended), each demanding to know what the heck the other is doing in the Star Dome. In response to Wataru, Optimus Prime rolls in, slamming into Ramjet while Starscream leaps out of the way. Eventually, Mirage and Grimlock also join the fray. Despite getting of the shock of his lifetime, after all the rumors and conspiracy theories of ghosts, UFOs, and secret development bases, Wataru believes he is seeing the reality behind the town's mysteries.
Meanwhile, at an abandoned warehouse, Astrotrain reports to his leader that he's received a message from Ramjet about finding energon as well battling the Autobots. Megatron decides to move out.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
- On the intro before the title page, the cube drifting through space before falling onto Earth is reminiscent of another certain cube's introduction.
Real-world references
- While Roswell references the 1947 Roswell UFO Incident, three different panels depicting UFO decoration placement show department buildings resembling some of those in Akihabara.
Miscellaneous trivia
- The town's name, Hoshinochō (星野町), literally translates into "star field town". However, 野 can mean "hidden (structural) member", according to Jim Breen's online J-E dictionary, which can sorta fit with the "in disguise" concept. If you look at it sideways...
- While Wataru's going over his notebook during lunch the cover says "X file", amusingly referencing The X-Files and drawing a parallel between Wataru and the show's Agent Fox Mulder in terms of getting involved with extra-terrestrials.
