Line #21 YMMV/TransformersSuperGodMasterforce


1	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Every song in this series. Including the intro, [[GratuitousEnglish WE BELIEVE TOMORROW]], the ending, etc. It helps that it's sung by Toshiya Igarashi, who did songs in the earlier ''Franchise/KamenRider'' series.
2	* BrokenBase: The general increase of human aspects in the show, like Transformers who turn into humans and humans who become Transformers. Some fans (especially those who hate human characters in any ''Transformers'' media) don't like this concept for putting extra focus on humans in a franchise about giant robots or feeling that it's too different from the norm. Others enjoy how it reinforces the HumansAreSpecial theme and adds a twist to the usual ''Transformers'' formula.
3	* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Devil Z]] is the Decepticon Emperor. Stealing 8 Transtectors to create an army of humans merged with the power of Transformers, Devil Z later intended to cast aside the Godmasters as tools. Straight up DesecratingTheDead and later torturing his minions, Devil Z happily resorts to blaming his minions when he makes an error or miscalculation. Later when humanity proves themselves to be unpredictable, Devil Z decides that humanity is an existential threat and that he must KillAllHumans. When [[EvenEvilHasStandards his own subordinates think he is going too far]], he kills them without hardly a second thought, and [[TheUnapologetic displays absolutely no remorse for his actions]]. After his defeat, Devil Z returns in ''[[Webcomic/TransformersLegends Legends]]'', where he would try to kill every living thing in the Legends World so he can use all of their Shinchōkon energy to become powerful enough to [[MultiversalConqueror conquer other universes]].
4	* EnsembleDarkHorse:
5	** Transformers fans seem to have the liking of the Godmasters God Ginrai and Overlord. The former because his transector looks like Optimus Prime, and his toy is often imported, not to mention having an American reissue (although as Optimus Prime). Overlord is also one of the popular villains, with his toy also imported by fans since his appearance in the anime, primarily due to his honorable nature and genuinely caring for his subordinates, which has warranted him new appearances in media outside Japan and his own figure in the ''Titans Return'' line.
6	** [=BlackZarak=] is also a fan-favorite among the fans of the series. His toy, not so much, since he is a victim of GPS, or "Gold Plastic Syndrome". Though this was alleviated decades later with a new toy of his in the ''Toys/TransformersLegacy'' line.
7	** Cancer is well liked among the fans similarly because of his strong struggle with who he is, having a deeply sympathetic backstory and being one of the few Decepticons aside from Overlord and Devil Z to get a considerable side plot. The fact he is one of the few Chinese characters in Japanese media to avert the EthnicScrappy trope similarly contributes to his popularity. He even has the honor of receiving a figure in the aforementioned ''Legacy'' line[[note]]While said figure is marketed as his American counterpart Squeezeplay and his Headmaster partner Lokos, he has molded details inspired by Cancer's appearance in the series, and includes Browning as an accessory[[/note]].
8	* EvilIsCool: Devil Z, the Decepticon Emperor, is a pulsating globe who can devastate a planet on his own and has proven to be strong enough to kill Transformers by himself. Add in his terrifying voice, he definetly is seen as this.
9	* FairForItsDay: When Shūta and Cab are caught spying on the female swimming competition, they are clearly portrayed in the wrong (mainly Cab, since Shūta [[ChivalrousPervert actually wanted nothing to do with it]], and Cab merely dragged him along). While the fact the whole scene is played for comedy and it merely takes them saying sorry for Minerva to forgive them would likely make Western audiences cringe, in Japanese anime, sexual harassment is either downplayed or the women don't protest because in Japan, it is seen as impure, so the fact that the whole incident is painted by the writers as bad, and Minerva's disgust being portrayed as sympathetic, is an enormous leap forward.
10	* {{Fanon}}: Overlord being a Duocon is something that never came up in the series but many fans jumped on the idea. Overlord had two different alt modes that combined together for a vehicle mode (a jet and tank just like Flywheels) even though his gimmick was a being Godmaster and Duocons had their own instant transforming gimmick. Decades later this would become AscendedFanon and Overlord was retroactively called a Duocon.
11	* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments:
12	** Many of the crazy gags that occur, along with the sometimes odd antics are hilarious.
13	** Shūta playing soccer with an armadillo.
14	** Overlord breaking the fourth wall revealing he is letting himself be defeated is a rare moment of comedy from an otherwise incredibly serious villain.
15	** Gilmer's Rolling Bomber technique, where he just dives at Lightfoot in a straight line., immune to blasts. Lightfoot simply moves out of the way, then shoots him in the back when he crashes.
16	** During the battle in outer space, Wilder tells the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors to provide backup, and decides to move forward. Unfortunately for him, he promptly floats off and has to grab [=BlackZarak=]'s leg. Cancer and Bullhorn promptly tell him he needed a rocket booster, and Wilder proceeds to berate them for not telling him beforehand, despite the fact that when they cleared the atmosphere, he was the first to state so.
17	* HarsherInHindsight:
18	** Cab refusing to go to a boarding school in Japan, especially given that he sees it as a foreign school, is played completely for comedy. While Cab is a small child, and it was likely written that way, Canadian viewers can find the scene a lot less funny after the revelations about the abuse First Nations children, which Cab is by definition, suffered in residential schools.
19	** When Ginrai compares the moon to the Earth, he declares that the Earth must be protected and must not become a dead and lifeless world like the moon. ''Anime/BeastWarsII'', which is part of the Japanese G1 timeline, reveals that humans were responsible by drawing out the Angolmois Energy, the lifeforce of ''Unicron'', and Earth was renamed to Gaia. In other words, the humans were responsible for Earth's destruction, not Decepticon leaders no matter how hard they tried. In fact, humanity had to leave Earth because of this according to the Generations Selects manga.
20	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Dozens of them
21	** The emotional scene of Shūta putting the baby ahead of fighting the Decepticons. Given he had just lost his father, this is very powerful.
22	** Ginrai telling Sixknight he is a human which causes the latter to ultimately decide the Autobots are better than the Decepticons.
23	** Minerva's kindness towards Cancer, which causes him to question his faction several times.
24	** The Decepticon Headmaster Juniors protesting against the kidnapping of children, and its only when the Pretenders become aggressive that they comply. Given that Wilder and Bullhorn were previously shown as jerks, this lets the audience to the fact that there is good in them.
25	** Mega's care towards Cancer, treating him as her own son. When Cancer is buried under rubble, it is implied that Mega takes control of Overlord and forces him to stand down. And when Cancer was having doubts about the Decepticon cause, Mega gifted him with a small Transformer named Browning.
26	*** Its an equally heartwarming moment for Giga as it is shown both of them can usually control Overlord, since he is a multi component Transformer. He allowed his wife to stop fighting, even though he lost as a result of that decision.
27	** Overlord trying to persuade Devil Z not to abandon Wilder and Bullhorn, showing that although Overlord can be vicious and brutal, he isn't evil to the core.
28	* HilariousInHindsight:
29	** This wasn't the only production in which Creator/KeiichiNanba and Creator/KatsujiMori were [[Manga/SailorMoon enemies]]…
30	** As is naturally the case for a series set in the future, there will be some things that become incredibly funny to look at. A good example is a bar that Cancer is visiting has a title of one of Madonna's songs that was released and popular in 1988, except it was set in the 2020's.
31	** Computers being large complex machines in the 2020's and only used by high profile people would strike people as hilarious given the creation of small portable computers that are accessible to the public.
32	* IAmNotShazam: Toy reviewers will, more often than not, call Ginrai Optimus Prime. This doesn't help that his Commemorative Series figure doesn't even attempt to distinguish who Ginrai is, other than being another name for Hi-Q, Prime's Powermaster partner. The only attempt to distinguish both Ginrai and Optimus is the paranoid Wings Universe version of the character in his "Fire Guts" colors.
33	* MoralEventHorizon: See [[MoralEventHorizon/{{Transformers}} here]].
34	* NightmareFuel: Given that this is the darkest of the three Japanese G1 shows, there is a lot of moments that will terrify you.
35	** Devil Z, the emperor of the Decepticons, is utterly terrifying. He is a pulsating globe, with a deep voice and whose the power can devastate an entire planet simply on his own power. The fact that Giga and Mega, who have been shown to be in complete control, beg for forgiveness the second he speaks, is a testament to his own power. He also succeeded in brainwashing Scorponok, a Transformer who survived the horrors of Planet Master and managed to undermine Galvatron as leader of the Decepticons. He is probably one of the most evil Decepticon leaders ever, and certainly the darkest Japanese leader.
36	** The series opening is straight out of a horror movie. Its a nice cruise ship, the captain is singing, and a guy is filming the honeymoon. All of a sudden, Blood in his vampire form comes out of nowhere and kills the captain, while Gilmer jumps out of the sea and appears behind the wife and throws her overboard while she dies via a ScreamDiscretionShot. Gilmer then proceeds to start throwing random humans overboard, while the Seacons destroy the engines and destroy the entire ship, and until Blood summons them, the only thing the Pretenders do is laugh. The Decepticon Pretenders do become your average named mook who is there for comic relief, but the opening shows that this series will not be shy about human casualties.
37	** The Destroids. The Decepticon Pretenders kidnap corpses and resurrect them in order to make them their soldiers, and when that fails, they decide to turn live humans into undead monsters.
38	*** Similarly, Professor Go's death. Blood takes advantage of the unmanned laboratory and launches an attack. Lander tries to get Professor Go out safely, but Blood knocks a pillar on top of the professor before proceeding to knock Lander unconscious. Shūta can return only just as his father dies.
39	** The Decepticons try to incite animals into violence against humans, and the Autobots can only try to restrain them or redirect them.
40	** Hydra and Buster. Both are close to irredeemable sociopaths with links to the criminal underworld with their only saving grace being their care for each other. Every time they appear in the first half of the show, they are deathly serious.
41	** King Poseidon. Much like the Decepticon Pretenders, he quickly becomes a walking punchline who can be easily beaten, but his initial appearances, and his final appearances, are utterly terrifying.
42	* SoBadItsGood: The series received an English dub from the same people behind the ''Headmasters'' dub. It's just as hilariously bad with corny voice acting and fumbled dialogue that makes for a good laugh.
43	* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Compared to ''The Headmasters'', the cast for ''Super-God Masterforce'' is smaller and hence there is more time to focus on the individual characters, making them more engaging/interesting (heroes in the first half, villains in the second half). In particular, for many Transformers series, fans are often annoyed by human kids being shoehorned into the episodes, but Masterforce for the most part avoided the shoehorn feel by its own premise of humans becoming Transformers. The individual episodes and especially the series' various overarching plots are better written too, with surprisingly more mature themes alluded to (For a kids series). Across the western fandom, it is generally regarded as the best Transformers anime that Japan has offered to date, despite the atypical premise for a Transformers series.
44	* TearJerker:
45	** Shūta losing his father.
46	** Ginrai mourning his friends since the Decepticons killed them by mistake.
47	** Ginrai's speech before attacking [=BlackZarak=] on the moon.
48	** Cancer when he learns his sensei died and then getting blamed for everything, along with acknowledging that his only home is with the Decepticons.
49	** God Ginrai telling Overlord that the reason he saved him is because Overlord is human, the look on Overlord's face suggest he is about to weep. Since this is Overlord, this is really something.
50	** Sixknight's death at Devil Z's hands, being overcharged with his power.
51	* ToyShip: Shūta and Minerva got a few moments. As did Minerva and Cancer. Though there's more fans who ship Shūta and Minerva than Cancer and Minerva (and Cab and Minerva, for that matter).
52	* ValuesDissonance: Quite a bit given that it is from the late 80's.
53	** In one episode, Ginrai buys a beer. While the credits state his age to be 19, which means what he did was perfectly legal, having or promoting real alcohol on a kid's show would be unacceptable today. Similarly, the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors are apparently all able to enter bars, despite all of them being well underage. Such a thing happening on modern TV would definitely not happen.
54	** In one episode, Gilmer calls Minerva a cute Madonna. In its Italian origin, it refers to a woman who is important, so that doesn't sound so bad, but the problem is Japan adapted the word to refer to cute girls, and Minerva is 15. That type of comment would not be getting on a kid's show in the contemporary era.
55	** Before the birth of the Headmaster Juniors in that titular episode, Metalhawk tells Minerva that becoming a Headmaster Junior is too dangerous, and explicitly cites her gender as to why it is too dangerous. While such a comment is already sexist, using gender as an excuse to forbid a woman from fighting would be completely unacceptable today, especially in a kid's show.
56	* ValuesResonance: This show has quite a lot of it.
57	** The natives of Karin Island are portrayed as completely ordinary people, their culture and religion is not depicted as inferior, and Cab, while disliking travelling overseas to study, agrees, but it has more to do with childhood arrogance and the fact that as the heir to the kingdom, he will need the skills, and he ultimately goes of his own choice. Similarly, when Shūta says in one episode that the island will become a civilized nation, Cab's seething DeathGlare has the show portray the comment as a deeply offensive comment, that Shūta wisely backs down on, which very few shows set in the time period would portray it as. This is a show in the 80's, when such stereotypes about Indigenous peoples around the world were held up as true, and where the harsh stereotypes still very much haunt Indigenous peoples in the contemporary era, and it is very rare for such an ordinary or sympathetic depiction to be seen even in modern times.
58	** Cancer's entire depiction is very progressive. He is not an EthnicScrappy, as many characters who are Chinese are in Japanese media, but a deeply complex character who has a deep internal struggle, and later turns on his faction and becomes heroic, with his character arc being deeply portrayed as sympathetic and of his own choice. While many Western audiences would find this character journey normal, in Japan, Cancer is a very rare portrayal of a Chinese person portrayed positively in media.
59	** The characterization of Minerva and Mega is very progressive by Japanese standards. Minerva, while disliking a fight, is shown to be an incredibly capable combatant and has been able to take down and hold her own against much stronger adversaries. Similarly, she can easily out argue an older male character quite skillfully. Mega is shown as a very competent leader and a very skillful leader whose orders are obeyed without question. Given that Japanese anime traditionally portray women as StayInTheKitchen, their depictions are very much ahead of the time.
60	** Similarly, when Mega asks Cancer to talk to him about his problems, the incident is portrayed incredibly positively. In Japan, talking about personal issues is seen as a sin, so this moral also is well ahead of its time.
61	* VindicatedByHistory: While there still is a considerable BrokenBase, the series is a lot more well liked in North America than it was initially, in large part because the belief that the humans were piloting the Transformers was swiftly disproven in that the humans were the Transformers, along with having interesting and complex characters, along with a much darker tone.

Context YMMV / TransformersSuperGodMasterforce