A Hero Is Chosen - His Name Is Ginrai
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 猿じゃなくて、トラックだぞ! | ||||||
| "A Hero Is Chosen—His Name Is Ginrai" (Erabareta Hīrō—Sono Na wa Ginrai) | ||||||
| Production company | Takara, Toei | |||||
| Airdate | 14 June 1988 | |||||
| Writer | Hiroyuki Hoshiyama | |||||
| Director | Takao Yoshizawa | |||||
| Animation studio | Toei | |||||
| Continuity | Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity | |||||
On the day that he discovers a mysterious truck, a young man named Ginrai suddenly finds himself caught up in the war between the Autobots and Decepticons.
Synopsis
In the Decepticon base, Giga and Mega reveal a secret that they have hidden from Hydra and Buster—they are not the only Godmasters on Earth. The other Godmasters, however, are incomplete beings, lacking a human component, and Giga fears that they could wind up bonded to human beings that would sympathize with the Autobots. He and Mega enigmatically refer to the other Godmasters as their "children", and refuse to permit such a fate to befall them, so Hydra and Buster are dispatched to begin searching the world for the remaining Godmasters.
At the Ocean Research Institute of California, Diver is on the telephone with the director of Baney Aquarium, who has arranged for a sick dolphin to be delivered to the institute so that Diver can take care of it. The dolphin has not yet arrived, however, and Diver soon receives a call from the trucker making the delivery—a young Japanese man named Ginrai—who explains that his truck broke down along the way. He has stopped at a rental shop, where the owner informs him that it will take two or three days to replace his cab, but Ginrai explains that he needs it right away. Cautiously, the owner explains that he does have one cab that will do the job, but that previous owners have reported strange, vaguely supernatural phenomena while driving it. Ginrai is unfazed, and the owner offers to sell it to him; Ginrai decides to complete his delivery as a test drive to see if it's worth the purchase.
Ginrai soon arrives at the Ocean Research Institute, and busies himself washing the cab as the dolphin is unloaded. Lost in thought, he is unable to stop a forklift from pranging the truck, denting its fender. Soon, he moves on to cleaning out the interior, and discovers a metal sphere in the glove box, which splits open to reveal a pair of golden bracelets. He slips the bracelets on his wrists, but, looking at his reflection in the rear view mirror, decides they don't suit him... only to discover that he is unable to remove them. As he struggles with them, Diver approaches the cab, and is shocked to see the Autobot insignia glowing on the bracelets. Diver demands to know where he got them from, and Ginrai explains; Diver requests that he take him to the rental shop. As the two talk on the drive, Ginrai reveals that he has no idea what Decepticons are, and relates the notion of trying to stand up to such powerful beings to the time that he saw an escaped buffalo raging in a city and kept his distance. When Diver explains that his bracelets will allow him to become just as powerful, however, Ginrai nearly runs over another driver in shock.
Meanwhile, Hydra and Buster's search has brought them to America, the continent where they were merged with their Transtectors. They meet with the Headmaster Juniors, who tell them about a strange rumor going around about a dented truck which fixed itself, and are able to identify the rental shop which loaned the truck out. The two Godmasters immediately head out on the truck's trail...
Ginrai and Diver continue their discussion about the bracelets and the strange phenomena, until suddenly, the truck begins to surge with energy, and begins veering across the road. The dent in the fender slowly begins to disappear, but the truck itself goes crashing off a cliff; Diver leaps free in mid-air and transforms into robot mode, but Ginrai is trapped inside the cab as it lands at the foot of the cliff with the trailer crashing on top of it. As Diver hauls the trailer off, Hydra and Buster appear in the sky overhead and transform to robot mode, intending to take the truck for themselves. Diver tries to fend off the two Godmasters while, inside the cab, the injured, bloodied Ginrai struggles to reach for the door handle. He collapses halfway, and his arms drop, allowing the two bracelets to touch—and in an explosion of light, Ginrai is instantly healed when a suit of armor materializes around his body.
The Transformers outside react in shock as the truck itself begins to heal, its crippled and buckled frame springing back into shape perfectly. But the shocks are not over yet—Ginrai bursts through the roof in a flare of energy, and with a cry of "God On", combines with the truck, which transforms into a battle-primed robot! Ginrai himself is suitably shocked by the experience, not to mention the realisation that the robot trying to help him is Diver, and when he learns that Buster and Hydra are Decepticons, his anger activates his Chōkon Power, which he uses to send the two brothers fleeing.
Diver and Ginrai return to their human forms as the sun sets, and Ginrai explains that he left Japan because of the country's stifling atmosphere and came to America as a freelance trucker to enjoy the freedom of the open road, but now he is not sure who he is. Whatever questions Ginrai may have about his identity, though, Diver is sure of one thing—he is the first Autobot Godmaster!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
Human Autobots
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Human Decepticons |
|
Quotes
"The only thing you've been granted is power, but you haven't been given hearts. As long as you are heartless, you cannot surpass humans!"
- —Diver on the Godmaster brothers.
Note
Animation and technical errors
- This episode corrects the error from the previous two, in which the parts of Hydra's robot mode which should be red were colored grey-white.
- In a wide shot right after his first connection with his transtector, Ginrai's head is red where it should be blue.
Continuity notes
- The explanation behind Mega and Giga's strange reference to the Godmasters as their children is... a bit on the complicated side. The story behind this unusual claim is expanded on in "A Strange Friendship: Cancer and Minerva"—see that article for more details.
- When Ginrai first put on his Master-Braces, it didn't automatically trigger his Master Suit. Instead, his Master Suit was triggered when he accidentally touched the braces together. This is different than how the Master Braces initially worked for the other three Autobot Godmasters, which are all different from each other.
- Boy, Ginrai sure does look a lot like Optimus Prime, doesn't he? Not once during all of Super-God Masterforce's broadcast run is this strange similarity addressed—it was eventually explained in "Shūta and Grand's Masterforce Super-Secrets!" that he looks that way because his Transtector was originally intended for use by Prime.
Foreign dubbing
English
- Title: "The Appointed Hero" (Omni Productions dub)
- Original airdate: ?
Real-world references
- The rental shop is an Esso store. However, it is an anachronism, as the "Esso" brand name in the United States was replaced by "Exxon" in 1972.
Trivia
- It's not immediately clear, but since the dent that the truck receives when it's under Ginrai's care doesn't heal until after the Headmaster Juniors tell Buster and Hydra about the rumor, presumably the rumor resulted from the same thing happening when it was being driven by someone else—that being one of the "mysterious phenomena" said to surround the truck.
- A segment of this episode was included on the Kid Rhino release of season 1 of the Sunbow cartoon as "Japanese scene clip". It featured the Omni Productions dub soundtrack and covered the truck breaking through the railing, Diver's transformation, and the truck's impact.
Home video releases
- DVD
2003 — Transformers: Super-God Masterforce — DVD Box 01 (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)
