Customer Reviews

Transformers Headmasters

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One of the great things about the Transformers franchise is that it crosses generations. I grew up on the original cartoon over 20 years ago and still right now there are kids that are getting their weekly dose of all things Cybertronian via the newest series, Transformers: Prime. And while I do think that most of the franchise can cross the generational gap and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend, for example, the complete original series (which I'll call G1 from here on out for the sake of simplicity) or Beast Wars, I don't think that this particular DVD is a good buy for younger fans of the franchise.

First up, if you're reading the review and are not a long-time fan of the Transformers then you might wonder what exactly the series is. Transformers is actually a joint operation between Japanese toy manufacturer Takara and the US-based toy company Hasbro. And back in the 80s when the first ever toys were released, Hasbro commissioned a cartoon based on the series and Takara then followed along by having the G1 cartoon dubbed into Japanese for their market as well. Fast forward 3 years to 1987 and Hasbro is finding that the brand's popularity is waning and it's not worth them paying for another full season of the G1 show, so they have a small 3-episode 4th season/de facto series finale made and leave it at that. Takara meanwhile doesn't believe they need to abandon the cartoon just yet, so they ignore the 4th season/finale episodes that Hasbro had made (called "The Rebirth") and instead get original Transformers animation company Toei (yes, Toei animation of Dragonball and Sailor Moon fame, among others) to create for them the first of what would be three new Japan-only Transformers series. As a result, the Headmasters takes place directly after season 3 of the G1 cartoon and carries on all the continuity established beforehand. Well, mostly.

In terms of the DVDs themselves, you get 4 discs comprising all 35 episodes of the series (the series was actually 38 episodes, but 3 of them were clip shows which offer nothing new for the story) all played with their original Japanese audio and newly made English subtitles. and you get art gallaries of things relevant to the series, such as character sheets and the like. That's it. Rumor has it that this spartan release is due to two significant factors: 1) Hasbro, who has to clear all Transformers-related product releases in the west, is not terribly keen on the Japanese-only shows and has no real desire or benefit to promoting them or loading them up with extra features, and 2) Toei Animation has gained a reputation for being extremely difficult when it comes to licensing its material for release in english speaking markets. Prior releases of this series for other markets (the UK and Australia) had them getting terrible master copies of the episodes that were stripped down to no longer feature episode recaps or previews (and they aren't here either) and outright refusing to release some supplementary material. Still, the picture looks similarly crisp and clear here as it does in the Shout Factory G1 series release and the audio seems good insofar as I can tell while only having the most limited Japanese vocabulary. The subtitle track is, from what I can tell of the story based on summaries written from the original Japanese dialogue, pretty much spot-on accurate and a far cry from the messy, goofy, terribly wrong english dub done in the 80s by Omni Productions in Hong Kong. I am a bit disappointed that they didn't include that on here as an English audio option just because it's so bad and has some comedy value, but perhaps that was part of the deal for getting the content from Toei. One interesting note about the subtitles is that they use western naming conventions whenever the English and Japanese names for characters and settings differ. So while the spoken dialogue says "Seibatoron", "Cybertrons & Destrons", "Convoy", "Cha", and "Fortress", the subtitles read "Cyberton", "Autobots & Decepticons", "Optimus Prime", "Kup" and "Cerebros" since those are the names we are all familiar with (and to avoid pesky confusions like the fact that the Japanese name for the Autobot faction is the same as the English name for the Transformer homeworld.

It is, however, the show itself that is my primary reason for recommending this as a collector piece and not for newer fans. It's really cheesy. Cheesier than the G1 cartoon was. And it's very Japanese in its attitudes and approach to storytelling, which makes it quite jarring for fans who don't necessarily watch a lot of anime or who are expecting a seamless transition between the US-produced cartoon and this one. That innate silliness and awkward tonal shift, combined with the fact that to watch it you have to read subtitles makes it a tough sell for kids looking for entertainment. They're better off watching G1 and seeing where it all began for their favorite characters while also getting the benefit of the familiar voice of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime in his first experience with the role.

But if you're an avid, long-time fan and you want to see how the G1 continuity continued after the show stopped airing on our side of the pacific, then it's $20 well spent even without any bells and whistles on the release. I hold out hope that the two later expected releases in the Japanese Collection (Super-God Masterforce and Victory, and I guess the single-episode Zone that failed to become a series) get slightly better extras or content because by all accounts those franchises are when the TF brand got kind of weird in Japan and we ended up with a show that was more like a cross between Gundam and Sailor Moon than regular Transformers.

EDIT: After a couple more days with the DVDs, I have noticed two small errors/inconsistencies in the them. First, the inside of the front cover has a listing of how the episodes are distributed on the 4 discs. Those lists are wrong, and you'll find that each disc actually ends with the episode that shows as being first on the next disc (eg disc 1 ends with "Cybertron is in Grave Danger - Part 1", Disc 2 ends with "Daniel Faces his Biggest Crisis Ever", etc.). The second inconsistency is that the episode titles given on the menus don't always match the titles given in the subtitles for the episode title card. It's not a big deal, but it is noticeable.

It's been months since I started to watch it. At first, I was geared up to watch some Gen 1 Transformers. Sure, subtitles can be a little less enjoyable than audio in English (partly because you are missing some of the action) but after a while, I just got tired of Daniel and the Headmasters (and those terrible Autobot trains, Scorponok, etc.). It felt very repeatitive. I suppose the same complaint could be made about the original series (i.e., the Decepticons were always searching for Energon) but at least you got exposed to a variety of characters. I think I got through about 75% of the set before moving on to something else. I must not be fan-enough to truly appreciate this series (it happens).

Really good and very interesting. I was very eager to see how the Japanese would handle the writing of stories for these well-known characters and I must say, it was quite unique and quite good. If you watch alot of Japanese story lines you see certain trends, like a baddie turn to good or goodies finding new power within to defeat the baddies. It was good to see them put a twist on the characters too like Rodimus leaving so Fortress becoming new Autobot leader. I won't spoil anymore but it is all definitely worth checking out as long as sub-titles aren't a problem for you. I will re-watch it later to see it more for the action now that I know where the plot is going so "Head On" out and get it before Sixshot gets ya!!!!