Star Saber, Warrior of Love!
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| "Warrior of Love, Star Saber!" 愛の戦士スターセイバー!
(Ai no Senshi Star Saber!) | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Kodansha | ||||||||||||
| Published in | TV Magazine | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | July 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Script | Masumi Kaneda | ||||||||||||
| Artist | Ban Magami | ||||||||||||
Kakuryū goes mano a mano with Star Saber. The results are predictable.
Synopsis
Down on Earth, Star Saber is facing off against Breastforce members Killbison, Guyhawk, Jallguar, Hellbat and Drillhorn. With little to no effort, Star Saber defeats the Decepticons and drives them away.
Not far away, Jean teases his rival, Solon over the Autobot victory, claiming that his pop, Star Saber, is the strongest Transformer ever. Jean's statement is immediately shot down by two mysterious shadowy figures. These hauntingly familiar silhouettes turn out to be Cab and Shūta.
Shūta and Cab register their utter disappointment in the new Supreme Commander, Star Saber, claiming that the previous one, God Ginrai, was much stronger due to his human heart. As Jean becomes enraged, Solon snickers and claims Deathsaurus could rival them both.
As the children argue over which toy is cooler, Kakuryū bursts out of the mountainside, taking Star Saber by surprise. As it turns out, Kakuryū has been hiding underground for three days, waiting for Star Saber to wander by. Kakuryū quickly grabs the Autobot from behind, leaving him open to attacks from his triceratops Pretender shell. Kakuryū's triceratops quickly initiates "Lord Kakuryū's Second Level Attack" which consists of ramming its horns into the helpless Star Saber over and over again.
As Star Saber gets trounced, Solon explains that Kakuryū isn't one of the strongest Decepticons, but trains himself into the ground in an attempt to earn Deathsaurus's approval.
Unfortunately for Kakuryū, today just isn't his day. Star Saber decides he's had enough and hoists Kakuryū up over his head (causing his triceratops Pretender shell to cry and scratch at Star Saber on its hindlegs like a whimpering puppy). Star Saber tells Kakuryū to "Go to Hell" and then flings him over a cliff with his "Saber Vacuum Tornado Pacifier" (damn, dude).
Kakuryū manages to just barely cling to the ledge, only to find Star Saber looming menacingly over him. Kakuryū asks Star Saber to kill him quickly. Jean begs Star Saber not to do it while Solon cries silently to himself over Kakuryū's imminent demise. Star Saber sends his fist hurtling toward the helpless Kakuryū, only to grab his hand and lift him from certain doom instead of, well, punching him to death.
Star Saber tells Kakuryū to give his injuries time to heal and sends him on his way, while the sniffling Decepticon can't believe he's being shown such compassion. Cab and Shūta are overjoyed at the sight of Star Saber's humanity and are instantly swayed into being his loyal fanboys.
Kakuryū rides off into the sunset, thanking everyone, as Solon wipes his nose, wondering what the big deal about Star Saber is. The audience is informed that true strength comes not only from the body, but from respecting life, too. Jean, Cab and Shūta pile their hands together and decide to become Best Friends Forever.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
- The opening image of a nearly naked Jean taking a bath with his surrogate father, Star Saber, accompanied by the eyebrow-raising title...well, it conjures up all the wrong feelings.
- Leozack's absence from the rest of the Breastforce is due to the injuries he received in "Leozack Rumbles Violently!". You don't rebound from impalement overnight, people. Well, except maybe this guy.
- In the Victory cartoon, Kakuryū was shown to be borderline retarded, to put it mildly. While he's still no intellectual giant (his cunning plan consisted of hiding underground for days and days on the off-chance Star Saber might stumble by), he's certainly shown to be more intelligent and hard-working here than in the cartoon.
- Assuming this series follows on from the Masterforce manga, Cab and Shūta were last seen in "The Birth of the Super Lifeforms", where their transtectors gained sentience and ditched them to have awesome space adventures.
- Hey, where's Minerva!? Author Masumi Kaneda explained that he omitted Minerva because he felt the series would have had too many female characters if she was included. A blonde female character almost identical in personality to Minerva, Patty, will show up in "The Strongest Partners, the Combination of Victory!".
- The "Second Level" part of "Lord Kakuryū's Second Level Attack" is written as "Ni-Dan" (二段). "-Dan" (段) is the counter for belt levels in martial arts. Exactly how that should or could be coherently transalted into English is uncertain.
- Kakuryū is shown building strength via push-ups. He's a robot. He has no muscles.
