| Tatakae! Chō Robot Seimei Tai Transformer: Victory | |
| Genre | Adventure, Mecha, Science Fiction |
|---|---|
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Yoshikata Arata |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Licensed by | Shout! Factory |
| Network | NTV |
| English network | AnimeCentral |
| Original run | 1989-03-14 – 1989-12-19 |
| Episodes | 44 (Including 12 clip shows) |
Tatakae! Chō Robot Seimei Tai Transformer: Victory (戦え!超ロボット生命体 トランスフォーマーV), commonly shortened to simply Transformers: Victory, is an anime series produced by Toei Animation. It is a Japanese-produced spin-off of the well-known original Transformers cartoon, and the final complete animated series from the original "Generation 1" era.
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Following the conclusion of the American Transformers cartoon series in 1987, Takara, the Japanese producers of the Transformers toyline, opted to create unique anime for their shores to advertise their own version of the Transformers toyline, which began to grow further and further apart from its American progenitor. After Transformers: The Headmasters in 1987 and Transformers: Super-God Masterforce in 1988, Transformers: Victory was produced in 1989.
These Japanese-exclusive Transformers series had been moving further and further away from the stylistic roots of the American series, and Victory represents this divergence at its greatest. The visual style of Victory is derived heavily from the anime of the time, with the transformations of the robots being treated as more monumental, presented through more dynamic and lengthy stock footage. Still frame effects and re-used animation were used wherever possible to compensate for high levels of animation compared to previous series, possibly due to budget cuts at the time.
Despite his apparent death in The Transformers: The Movie, Wheeljack returned during the death of God Ginrai/Birth of Victory Leo saga, along with Perceptor from the original series, with God Ginrai and Minerva from Transformers: Super God Masterforce returning too.
Victory is the story of the new Cybertron Supreme Commander, Star Saber, defending the Earth against the forces of Deszaras, the Destrons' new Emperor of Destruction. Deszaras desires the planet's energy to reactivate his massive planet-destroying fortress, sealed away in the Dark Nebula long ago by Star Saber. The series eschews the story arc-based approach of Headmasters and Masterforce, returning to the American show's method of episodic adventures that did little to alter the status quo of the series, with a heavy emphasis on action, complemented by dynamic animation.[1] Its cast consists almost entirely of brand new characters (although there are some guest appearances from characters on earlier shows).
Victory's story is told over thirty-two original episodes. However, the broadcast series also includes six additional clip shows - bringing the total number of broadcast episodes to thirty-eight. Additionally, after the end of the series, another six additional clip shows were created by Masumi Kaneda, which were available only through home video and seldom-seen regional Japanese broadcasts, taking the total number of Victory episodes to forty-four.
Much like the two previous seasons of Transformers, The Headmasters and Super-God Masterforce, the series was dubbed into English and was aired on Malaysia's RTM-1 channel, but it was later aired on Singapore's Star TV, where it was taken notice by western viewers. The opening sequence for Victory was actually used for all three exclusive Japanese Transformers series under the umbrella title of Transformers Takara. Like the other dubs, it was soon purchased by Sunbow Productions. Most of the names in the dub were unchanged, as most of these characters are unique to Japan, with a few exceptions like the Micromasters had their American names, though Stake Out (Holi)'s name was accidentally changed to Fix It, who was another member of the same patrol. The Dinoforce had the names of the Monster Pretenders, as they were the same robot molds, just in different shells and Dezarus' name was pronounced in the dub as "Deathzanrus". Additionally, 26 out of the 38 episodes of the show were dubbed into English by Transformers fans at tfcog.com.
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