THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

JAPANESE TRANSFORMERS MANGA AND INFORMATION

Super Robot Life #1 (1986)

The story begins in Tokyo, Japan. In the middle of the day three gigantic fireballs come crashing down from the sky as pedestrians watch in confusion. The fireballs turn out to be Destrons (Decepticons), invading Tokyo for energy. Megatron commands the Jetrons (Seekers) to wreak havoc in the city and cause as much chaos as possible. Starscream and the Jetrons do so and begin to blow up cars and rain ammunition down on the helpless humans in their search for energy. Before the Destrons have the chance to cause any casualties a team of Cybertron (Autobot) cars (Trailbreaker, Lambor AKA Sideswipe, Wheeljack and Smokescreen) arrive on the scene. Starscream notices a small boy running for his life and decides to target him. Starscream swoops down and prepares to blow the child to pieces. All of a sudden Convoy (Optimus Prime)arrives to the rescue. He transforms to robot mode and grabs the child. He leans to the side, narrowly avoided a pass from Starscream.

Convoy asks the kid if he’s okay and explains that he is a Transformer who has traveled from America chasing after the Destrons. The boy recognizes him as a Cybertron and thanks him for the rescue. The kid offers to help in any way he can. Smokescreen tells the boy to hop in and transforms to racecar mode. Convoy instructs the Cybertron warrior to move in for battle. Just then Starscream arrives with a raging Menasor and taunts the Cybertrons from the sky. Smokescreen rolls by and lets out a cloud of black smoke. The smoke is enough to confuse the three Jetrons but Menasor’s height protects him from the cloud and he begins to smash Cybertrons (Trailbreaker and Lambor, respectively). From inside Smokescreen the boy notices that the smoke cloud has risen high enough to blind Menasor. The boy radios Convoy and tells him that now is his chance to strike. Convoy says “Okay!” and transforms to truck mode. Along with Smokescreen and Wheeljack the Cybertrons drive toward the cloud and up a ramp formed by a broken overpass. All three transform to robot mode in midair and attack. Convoy administers a jaw-breaking uppercut to Menasor while Wheeljack and Smokescreen dispose of the Jetrons with their fists. Defeated, the Destrons flee the city injured and smoking.

With the battle won Convoy and the other Cybertrons are pleased with the boy’s work. They ask him for his name and he tells them he is called Kenji. Convoy then tosses him a helmet (the force is enough to send Kenji to the ground) which resembles his own and tells Kenji that it is a communication device. If the Destrons ever attack Tokyo he should use it to contact them in America. Now considered an official member of the Cybertron team Kenji shouts “Thank you Cybertrons!” and waves goodbye as they fly off.

Review:

For a first try this comic wasn’t half-bad. Being published in Japan the bulk of the TV Magazine adventures will take place there. At least they made note that the Cybertrons were situated in America and didn’t change anything for the Japanese audience. There were a few really cool images in this issue. The part where Optimus transforms and grabs Kenji was done in a “negative” art style (where the background is all black and the characters are drawn with white outlines sort of making it look like a photograph negative). The end scene is over done a little too much in a way too Japanese fashion. As Kenji waves goodbye to the Cybertrons they fly across the Tokyo skyline with cherry blossoms fluttering everywhere. A little too melodramatic for my tastes. However, the scene where Convoy and the Cybertrons transform and waste the Jetrons and Menasor is done in an awesome two page spread which just looks great.

On a bad note, we get stuck with a kid. This kid isn’t as annoying as say…Daniel, but is much more annoying than Spike. He also looks really young too, maybe 10 at the most. So the Cybertrons decide to let elementary schoolers fight in their war? Where are this kid’s parents?! Well, whatever the case the manga gets off to a very cool start, even if Megatron is only in one panel.

► Super Robot Life #1 (1986)
► Super Robot Life #2 (1986)
► Super Robot Life #3 (1986)
► Super Robot Life #4 (1986)
► Super Robot Life #5 (1986)
► Super Robot Life #6 (1986)
► Battlestars: Return of Convoy #1 (1991)

Reviews by DrSpengler

◄ Return to the Japanese Transformers manga index