Anime Rebirth

Review - Tatakae! Chou Robot Seimeitai Transformers

Review by Roriconfan

Prologue
Does this series really count as anime? Transformers are Japanese in appearance but American in plot. I was raised to consider the original series as a cartoon, not an anime. Oh, well, might as well bitch at the flaws of it and leave you to decide the rest…

Value: 10
When I was a kid, Transformers were the best in terms of graphics, battles, music, and story. They were way better than Thundercats, Silverhawks, J.I. Joe and the rest. And why shouldn’t they be?

-No other series had characters that transformed into vehicles with an apparent reasonable way (as were not in Wheeled Warriors).
-No other series had over a 100 characters in it (J.I. Joe had less, I counted them).
-No other series had an ongoing scenario and story continuity (Story continuity in a cartoon? HAHAHAHA!).
-No other series had settings that evolved Earth, space, alien planets, time travels, alternative dimensions and more (Silverhawks, eat dirt!).

So, in general, Transformers were the best action cartoon ever. It is one of the best things I and many others ever got to watch as kids and it deserves a good 10 just for that.

But if we judge it as an anime, there is a lot of spiting to be made. WARNING ! The following text is inappropriate for the fans of the show.

Animation & Sound: 6
If you have seen any of the later remakes, alternative settings and spin-offs, you don’t need much thought to consider graphics and sound to be obsolete. There are hundreds of mistakes in movement, coloring, and scene continuity. The transformations, laser and explosion sound effects are repeating 100 times per episode and get irritating at some point (although, they did became memorable this way). Voice acting is mediocre and the dialogue is too childish for such super advanced robots.

Story & Characters: 6
Most robots have a distinctive voice and demeanor. The story is evolving many times over the series and new robots constantly appear, with new transformations and weapons to keep us occupied. BUT!…

No robots have any form of character development. And constantly adding more stale robots and transformations IS NOT REALLY AN EVOLVING STORY. For example, just because you level-up a character in some MMORPG, it doesn’t mean he becomes better as a character. He gets stronger but is otherwise the same drone as he was before. In the same way, the robots of the series don’t get better by becoming stronger or increasing in numbers.

Plus, all robots are either too good (Autobots) or too bad in their behavior (Decepticons), thus becoming superficial and unrealistic.

As for the setting variety, most places the robots go are used-up in stand-alone episodes. Plus, the general story, although perplex and realistic at first, crumbles if you try to reason it (although I admit that you shouldn’t try to reason TOO MUCH the story of ANY series).

Enjoyment: 6
I would give it a 10, if I hadn’t dig too deep below the smooth and beautiful surface of it. But since it did, the shallow characters and the childish dialogues and plots really damaged the whole… COME ON, we are supposed to look at this as if it is an anime. It DESERVES a 6. It’s better than Thundercats, Silverhawks, J.I. Joe and the rest, but not Gundam, Macross or Patlabor.