God Ginrai - Showdown on the Surface of the Moon
From Transformers Wiki
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 "We can breathe here then?" "I guess those candy-butt astronauts didn't have the stones to try it." "I could never say that about an astronaut." | ||||||
| "God Ginrai - Showdown on the Surface of the Moon" (God Ginrai - Getsumen no Taiketsu) | ||||||
| Production company | Takara, Toei | |||||
| Airdate | 1 November 1988 | |||||
| Writer | Hiroyuki Hoshiyama | |||||
| Director | Jōhei Matsūra | |||||
| Animation studio | Toei | |||||
| Continuity | Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity | |||||
On the lunar surface, God Ginrai fights a desperate battle against Overlord and BlackZarak, with the fate of the world at stake!
Contents |
Synopsis
On the surface of the Moon, God Ginrai has been badly wounded by BlackZarak and Overlord. BlackZarak continues to pummel the crippled Autobot, but Overlord requests that be allowed to take over, for fear of BlackZarak being injured. The battle rages on, and Ginrai is able to dispatch Overlord with his Godcannon, only for BlackZarak to strike back, toppling Ginrai into a crater and pouncing on him in scorpion mode. Ginrai hurls his foe off of him, but his respite is short lived when Overlord appears again and separates into his component parts for a two-pronged attack. Again, the Godcannon saves his bacon when he blasts the Megajet out of the air with it, but BlackZarak then shoots Ginrai in the back, knocking the Godcannon off his body and out of his reach.
Down on Earth, the Autobots find that a magnetic storm is cutting off communications with Ginrai. Lander attempts to defuse the tense mood in the room by joking that Ginrai doesn't realize that they're trying to contact him because they're calling him "commander", but the Headmaster Juniors don't take the joke well, and he and the Pretenders retire for a drink. Lightfoot and the Juniors attempt to relax with tea, and Cab and Shūta try relaxing with a Rubik's Cube, but it only frustrates them more. At the instant the communications console starts to beep, everyone rushes over, but it is only Grand Maximus on the other end of the line, who reports that he is heading for the moon at that very moment.
Back on the moon, the injured Ginrai has managed to escape his foes for a few moments and reclaim the Godcannon, but before long, he finds himself trapped, with a Decepticon on either side. Suddenly, Ginrai evens the odds by splitting off from Godbomber, who circles around behind Overlord while Ginrai draws his fire and blasts him in the back. Overlord loses his grip on his blaster and Ginrai seizes it, opening fire on BlackZarak, but the monstrous Decepticon dodges and sends Ginrai rolling across the lunar surface with an unrelenting volley of blasts. Just as BlackZarak seems poised to deliver the killing blow, a hail of laser fire rakes the moon's surface, forcing him back—Grand Maximus has arrived! Grand transforms into his giant robot mode and engages BlackZarak in hand-to-hand combat, giving Ginrai the time he needs to make contact with the Autobots on Earth. As he updates them on the situation, he looks down on the Earth, at last truly recognizing the beauty of the planet compared to the rocky wasteland of the moon, and vows to be its protector. Emotionally charged, he turns and dives into the fray, knocking BlackZarak back.
With the numbers between the two sides now even, Overlord encourages BlackZarak to pull out and head for Earth in accordance with Devil Z's wishes, but Ginrai recombines with Godbomber and he and Grand give chase. The battle continues in space, with Ginrai blasting Overlord back down to the moon's surface as Grand Maximus and BlackZarak trade blaster fire in their ship modes. Ginrai boards Grand and delivers a massive blast of Chōkon Power, sending BlackZarak tumbling down to the moon as well. There, BlackZarak finds Overlord and instructs him to return to Earth and inform Devil Z of the situation, but Overlord is indignant at being given orders, and insists that BlackZarak must accompany him to Earth. BlackZarak refuses, and Overlord only acquiesces because of his injuries. In seconds, Ginrai and Grand Maximus are upon them again, and Overlord flees while BlackZarak tackles Ginrai head on. A "Godpunch" attack from Ginrai forces BlackZarak back, and he follows it up with his "God Fire Guts" attack, wreathing himself in flaming Chōkon Power and crashing like a meteor into BlackZarak. BlackZarak's body tumbles back to the ground, having been decapitated by the sheer force of the blast... but as his disembodied head lies burning on the ground, his headless body rises unsteadily, and flees into space, heading away from the Earth! Although Ginrai is concerned that the threat of BlackZarak is not over, Grand Maximus assures him that the rest can be left in his hands. He parts ways with Ginrai and heads after BlackZarak, and Ginrai then heads back down to Earth to reunite with the other Autobots, who are busy celebrating his victory, with Lander once again in favor of a drink to do the job.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
|
Human Autobots |
Human Decepticons |
Quotes
"I can see the Earth from here... It's a beautiful planet, the Earth. But there's nothing here. It's a rocky, dead world. If even one of the Decepticons from space reaches the Earth, it will become a dead world like the moon. The Earth must be protected by its people! Like how you fought against the Decepticons for us unknowing humans, Hawk... Now it's my turn to do the same!"
- —Ginrai gives a speech before charging into battle.
Notes
Animation and technical errors
- In the opening shot of Overlord standing over a fallen God Ginrai, the latter is missing the boosters on the bottom of his right foot.
- When Overlord gets hit by the Godcannon shot for the first time, there is a shot of him flying back. His eyes are gray instead of red in this shot.
- When Ginrai gives his "Bomber Off" command for the first time, his mouthplate moves but no speech is heard.
- After performing the "Godpunch" on BlackZarak, God Ginrai's left forearm turns from red to blue a moment before his gauntlets reattach.
- When BlackZarak is pushing God Ginrai, he backs him up a wall. In the next shot, he tosses him off a cliff.
Continuity errors
- At the end of the previous episode, BlackZarak appeared in robot mode and impaled God Ginrai through the shoulder with his spear. And yet, at the start of this episode, he's in scorpion mode, goes through a super-dramatic showy-offy transform sequence as if this was the first time we were seeing his robot mode, and—in what can only be described as a moment of utter bizarreness—Overlord isn't sure who he is! And throughout all of this, Ginrai's still got the puncture wound in his shoulder! This is bad enough on its own, but it's compounded by the fact that the episode is preceded by a "last time" segment that shows clips of all this happening!!
- The ignorance even carries over to the Autobots, who all claim never to have heard BlackZarak's name before!
Continuity notes
- This episode brings to a close the current story arc of the series—centred on the looming threat of BlackZarak, the creation of Godbomber and the formation of God Ginrai—which has been running since "Life? Death? The Desperate Lightfoot".
- Ginrai recalls the Decepticons' asteroid bombardment of Earth from "Expose the Decepticons' Dark Trap!", realizing that BlackZarak was responsible for it.
- In the course of the battle, Ginrai discovers that Overlord is not, as he had previously thought, the leader of the Decepticons. It's easy to forget as a member of the audience, but the Autobots are thus far unaware of the existence of Devil Z, and this is the first hint they receive.
- Ginrai was appointed Autobot commander back in "The Autobot Warrior, Sixknight?!", but this has not really been touched on since then, and he has been seen taking orders from Metalhawk. It is this episode in which he truly embraces his role as protector of Earth and leader of the Autobots.
- Previously seen in "Save the Little Girl! The Chojin Warriors, the Godmasters" (as the "Atomic Fire Guts") and in "Expose the Decepticons' Dark Trap!" (as the "Super Fire Guts"), Ginrai unleashes the third—and most famous—form of his "Fire Guts" attack for the first time in this episode: the "God Fire Guts."
Trivia
- This episode features the second appearance of the insert song, "Kiseki no Transformer".
- Okay, so, you're probably wondering how the heck BlackZarak is able to function perfectly when his head's been blasted off his body. It's not the last time it happens in the series, either, but like so many other things, no explanation is ever actually offered, either in the broadcast series, or in any of the direct-to-video clip episodes. The answer to this conundrum is actually given in the Masterforce manga, of all places, but even then, to understand it, one must understand that BlackZarak is, in fact, the original Scorponok from The Headmasters—a fact which is also not revealed in the broadcast series, but which was explained in "Shūta and Grand's Masterforce Super-Secrets!". Issue #9 of the manga explains that Scorponok does not connect to this new Transtector as a head, but is, in fact, wired into the chest compartment. This, then, is how he is able to survive having his noggin blasted off—because that's not where his brains are.
- BlackZarak employs the age-old tactic of choking a robot, electing to do so in the airless vacuum of space.
- It's hardly the first time, nor will it be the last, but fire can't burn in an airless vacuum. Nor does sound travel.
Foreign localization
English
- Title: "Battle in Space" (Omni Productions dub)
- Original airdate: December 23, 1990
Spanish
- Title: "Duelo de Titanes" ("Duel of Titans")
- Original airdate: ?
Home video releases
- DVD
2003 — Transformers: Super-God Masterforce — DVD Box 02 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — The Takara Collection Vol 2 — Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (Metrodome) — Optional commentary by Chris McFeely.
2007 — Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (Metrodome) — Optional commentary by Chris McFeely.
2008 — The Transformers: Super God Masterforce (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Japan Generation 1 — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2012 — Transformers: The Japanese Collection (Shout! Factory)
2012 — Transformers Japanese Collection: Super-God Masterforce (Shout! Factory)
