The other day I found out that a fansub group had subbed Takara's 2000 "Car Robots" show and as a Transformers fan I rushed to see it. I downloaded the show and started watching, but around the third episode I started thinking that with a few added references to canon, it would make a pretty good Transformers show. I wondered if somebody ever thought of doing that.
Of course they did! They imported it to the West way back in 2001 and named it "Transformers: Robots in Disguise".
"Robots in Disguise", or RiD, is significant for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that for all intends and purposes, we'd never have seen it in the West. While the Generation 1 classic cartoon was technically an anime, animated in Japan and other parts of Asia, the mythology, names, characters, everything was made by Hasbro and Marvel in the United States.
As such, the franchise continued with many similarities, but also many differences between East and West. Not only did the G1 cartoon continue in Japan for long after it had ended in the West (and then into a manga that outlived the Marvel comic book), but the Japanese also got two exclusive Beast Wars shows to fill the time between importing our western-made Beast Wars.
Then, Takara commissioned "Car Robots", a standalone series that was a bit of a parody of the franchise.
Hasbro, on the other hand, had three seasons of the G1 cartoon, three seasons of Beast Wars and two seasons of Beast Machines. They had already been planning "Transformers: Armada", which was to be co-produced between them and Takara, but they also scrapped their plans for Transtech, which was meant to be a sequel to Beast Machines. As such, they needed something to fill the spot until Armada would be ready to air.
They took the Car Robots footage, handed over to Saban Entertainment of Power Rangers fame, who had experience in porting over shows from Japan and adapting them for American audiences and the show aired for 39 episodes in 2001 on Fox Kids, 18 months after it aired in Japan.
RiD also marks two firsts: it was the first (though not the last) time a Japanese Transformers cartoon was redubbed and aired for Western audiences. It was also the first Transformers reboot.
Everything up until RiD had been connected to the G1 continuity somehow, but RiD was an entirely new thing, which originally caused some headaches to the fandom that were trying to figure out where it fit within the original continuity. Transformers would be rebooted time and again with each new show marking its own separate continuity and universe, but RiD was the first to do so.
The show was one of those that I hated when I first saw it. When I got my first computer at the age of 15, I did what every sensible person with Internet access does, outside of looking for porn: I looked up on the things I grew up on. First Knight Rider, then Power Rangers and finally Transformers.
I found out about that new (at the time) show and strained my 56K dial-up to download an episode and give it a look. It felt alien to me, such a departure from the show I knew, the animation style, the way the characters telegraphed their transformation sequences and their attacks, the slapstick humour, it was all too much for me back then.
But years passed, I grew older and shed this pretense that all youngsters have that just because we become older, our childhood heroes should grow more mature-- especially when that sense of maturity is, in essence, extremely childish.
Having seen RiD now, I can say that it's a very enjoyable show. It's an immaterial show, insignificant in its simplicity, completely insubstantial. It doesn't have anything to say and doesn't even set out to leave a mark. It's your standard good vs. evil story; The Predacons try to take over Earth's energy for their own purposes and the Autobots set out to stop them time and again.
It's very episodic in nature. There is a relic-hunting-storyline in the later third part of the series (what's with Transformers and relic-hunting these days?), but for the most part, it's a standard procedural, which is fine; I don't understand the obsession with over-arching plots that started after 2000 and often-times backfires in the hands of insufficient show-runners. RiD is easy to swallow. It can be a trying experience if viewed back-to-back in one sitting, but it's great fun for killing time.
If there's one area RiD severely lacks in is mythology and world-building. Every other series in the franchise, down to the live-action movies and even the G1 cartoon with all its inconsistencies, all built their own mythology, however basic. Car Robots was simplistic in its approach and Robots in Disguise follows suit.
What salvages the American adaptation is the countless G1 references throughout the show. At first these seem just a call-out to classic fans, but they actually do help with the lack of mythology, because they build the illusion of a larger world beyond the show that opens up possibilities in one's imagination, even if they are never explored in the show.
For example, the added G1 reference that Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus are brothers built by an Autobot Elder named Alpha Trion (a mix of G1 cartoon and Dreamwave comics continuity) and that the Allspark, Vector Sigma, chose Optimus to carry the Matrix of Leadership, doesn't mean much for the show itself, but makes me believe that Cybertron is a living society with its own mythology and hierarchy, which gives the robots a lot more depth than just fighting machines that have no origin or background.
As mentioned, there is a lot of humour in the series, particularly theatrical and of the slapstick kind, as Car Robots was also very humour-oriented. Car Robots' humour included the aforementioned slapstick and a lot of jokes tailored to Japanese culture. This was Saban's biggest labour: between adapting dialogue and humour for American audiences and heavily editing most of the episodes to exclude scenes of mass destruction, following the terrorist attack of September 11 (something all shows dealt with at the time, including Saban's own Power Rangers, which would walk on eggshells for that reason for many years to come), the studio had its work cut-out for them.
The end result is a lot of slapstick with some pretty bad puns, but overall the humour does work, for two reasons: while it's definitely oriented at children and I can't say I even snickered once, it's not stupid and offensive. An adult of my age can ignore it without actively ignoring it, if that makes sense.
The other reason is that it's not tonally jarring. There is a fine line between the all-important juxtaposition and being tonally inconsistent and RiD walks it well. The entire series is filled with humour, but it's not intrusive, as the battle situations are presented as serious, but they don't carry the pretense of "darkness". One gets that X Plan may destroy the planet, but not once do they imagine death and gore should that happen. There is a lot of action and motion and activity in the show and everything revolves around the way the characters carry themselves, making the humour organic to the show's structure.
Characterization is an interesting aspect of RiD. Much like the first season of G1, there are no character-focus episodes, except a few that introduce new toys into the series. However, characterization is still strong enough, not in terms of development, but in terms of establishment. None of the characters gets developed and experiences much in terms of change in the show, but they're all well-defined, with distinct personalities and roles and they are all very likeable.
On the Autobot side, the show usually revolves around Optimus Prime and the Autobot Brothers: Prowl, Side Burn and X-Brawn. On occasion other characters will show up, especially Team Bullet Train and later the Build Team, while the Spychangers get an episode of their own as well, but most of the action is saved for the aforementioned four bots. Optimus isn't very interesting, in that it's the same Autobot hero we've always known. Neil Kaplan's acting gives him a bit of an edge, but otherwise, there's nothing new to see.
The Autobot Brothers have distinct character traits that get repeated throughout the entire series and it is through the episodic plot and the fights that they give off the feeling of development and that they become relatable with their small quirks.
On the bad guys' side, there are two groups: The Decepticons are introduced about 20 episodes in and they're not like the Decepticons we know. They are a team of six former Autobots-turned-evil when Megatron gets hold of their protoforms. They're repaints of older toys from the G1 and G2 toylines. They are led by the Optimus look-alike, Scourge and the main team is the original Combaticons redecos.
The Decepticons just aren't very interesting. They're hardcore Commandos that replace the Predacons as a valid threat, as the latter were never that big of a threat anyway. However they are barely explored as characters and their personalities don't seem distinct. Even Scourge, who gets the most attention has nothing interesting to offer. He schemes to take down Megatron and the Predacons, while pretending undying loyalty, but there's nothing more to him than this. The only significant thing about Scourge is that he was the first on-screen "Nemesis Prime", an Optimus Prime negative that became a fan-favourite concept and would make appearances in many series afterwards.
It's perhaps because of that that Scourge is frustrating in his lack of character, as his connection to Optimus could be further explored and create good drama with Optimus trying to reclaim a new brother back into the family.
The Predacons are undoubtedly the best part of the show. Megatron is made to be a King like from a fairytale; he's a dick, he's absolutely insane, he thinks way too much of himself and he expresses himself in way extremely theatrical. The three Predacon subordinates, Gaskank, Darkscream and Slapper lack distinct personalities, but they always work in unison as a team dedicated to slapstick comedy. Taken separately they are worthless to the show, but taken as a whole they work really well and provide most of the show's humour. They're not exactly Megatron's royal jesters, but they are the servants he sends to poke fun at the invading army's enemy king, if you understand what I mean.
Of course there was another Predacon and a pretty important one, too. Megatron's 2nd In Command, Sky Bite was without a doubt the show's breakout character. Sky Byte differs from his fellow Predacons in practically every way: he's more sophisticated, smarter, more compassionate, sensitive and he is tortured by his low self-esteem.
Unlike the other famous 2nd In Command, Starscream, Sky Byte has no interest in overthrowing Megatron. On the contrary, he yearns for his constant approval, which he never gets. The two are in an abusive relationship, but unlike the Megatron/Starscream relationship that is more sexual in nature (not kidding, no), RiD Megatron and Sky Byte have a dysfunctional father/son relationship. Sky Byte seems to consider Megatron as a father figure, swears undying loyalty to him, but not because he believes in the Predacon cause. On the contrary, he seems to care nothing for it and only seeks the affections of Megatron in the form of approval and recognition. When he fails, he tries time and again to earn it.
Later in the show, when a bunch of children inside a crumbling tower are in peril from a Decepticon attack, he tries his damnedest to save them, especially when they start cheering him, feeding his bruised self-confidence in a way he's been thirsting for.
Sadly, Sky Byte is still a victim to the show's focus and as such doesn't get much in terms of actual development. He is, however, the only character in the show that's truly multi-layered. His personality isn't just distinct, but it has depth. It pleased me to find out, recently, that he's moved on to the IDW comic book canon, where he may get his much-deserved dues.
When at the end of the show the Predacons and the Decepticons are imprisoned and the Autobots prepare to return to Cybertron, Sky Byte is the only one who stays behind, unbeknownst to everyone else. He doesn't want to take over Earth, he's not plotting anything, he just enjoys his freedom as a person of his own, having broken out of the need for acceptance from his disappointed "father", doing the things he loves without a care in the world.
The character I left for last is a rather insignificant one; Koji, your standard human conduit to relate to the story. Having been part of the hardcore fandom for the better part of the last decade, I had embraced the sentiment that humans in Transformers are terrible (a curse that started with Daniel Witwicky in the 3rd Season of the G1 cartoon) and that the best shows are the ones not featuring any of them (like Beast Wars or Beast Machines).
I don't quite agree with this any more, as a good human cast brings potential storytelling options to a show, especially if it takes place on Earth ( which isn't always the case). Koji isn't a good human character. He has absolutely no personality, his only shtick is that he's looking for his father (who Megatron abducted in the first episode) and for the most part he hangs around the base with TAI, the holographic AI of Autobot HQ.
Having said that, he's also quite inoffensive. He's not interfering constantly in the Autobots battles and he's not really annoying. He acts like a regular kid, but he doesn't throw hissy-fits and he doesn't quite steal the focus of the show from the Transformers, all of the above sins that the human characters of the Unicron Trilogy have partaken in.
Honestly, there's little reason to even mention Koji, as he really gets very little focus and he's usually just a carry-along even on the field. The reason I bring him up and saved him for last no-less, is that he's paramount to the finale of the series.
In the last third of the series, the Transformers hunt for the "O-parts", ancient Cybertronian artifacts that eventually awaken the terribly underutilized Fortress Maximus. Fortress Maximus isn't particularly impressive in this series, but he's treated like the most powerful thing ever. The problem is that he can only be controlled by humans. Even though he's obviously carrying an Autobot symbol, no Autobot, Predacon or Decepticon can control him; he will only listen to humans.
This leads to a series of questionable episodes where the Predacons and Decepticons attempt to capture Koji and other humans to take control of Maximus, but the interesting thing comes at the very final episode of the series, toward the end.
Galvatron, Megatron's repainted form, has absorbed so much energy he has become practically unbeatable. He has trapped all other Transformers and has left them for dead. Optimus Prime challenges him to a fight near the Earth's core, over smoldering magma, Revenge of the Sith style. There is no way Galvatron won't win the war.
Unless, of course, Koji IMs every child in the world to send their magic thoughts to Optimus.
No, seriously, that's exactly what happens and it works! The children reactivate Fortress Maximus, who then reroutes all his power to Optimus Prime, who then magically gets a giant buster sword, because the Japanese need to compensate for... stuff.
Naturally, as I'm watching this I'm thinking it's complete shit and to some extend it is. It's a moment that could've ruined my positive feelings toward the series as a whole. It's just such a stupid, corny, contrived solution, the type that shouldn't even be reserved for a young audience.
But then, it occurred to me that there is a reason for it. Before their final battle, Optimus and Galvatron argue over control of the next generation, which is exactly what the Predacon Commander seeks.
Thematically, it ties extremely well with the nature of the franchise in general and resonates well exactly because of the type of show RiD is for Transformers. This insubstantial filler show marked the first time in the history of the franchise that everything was rebooted. It's true that Beast Wars was the introduction of most '90s kids to the Transformers and it was successful, but it was still done by Generation 1 fans for Generation 1 fans.
Robots in Disguise, despite the many G1 references, wasn't directed at my generation. It was the beginning of the new era that the Transformers still crosses. It was the beginning of the multiverse for the franchise, despite Takara's later efforts to include Car Robots in their Transformers continuity, as well as Hasbro's more recent "aligned continuity". It was the first step toward trying out new things, new representations of characters and mythos and of making a triumphant return to public consciousness.
RiD in itself wasn't the most successful of the Transformers series, but it was received well enough by its age demographic. It was that age demographic that represented the new generation Galvatron was speaking of. In that sense, Fortress Maximus in the show wasn't so much a new character as he was a giant, transforming metaphor for the future. It was only the new generation that could decide what that powerful future would be, despite what Autobots and Predacons, who were waging an endless war across millions of years, old and rusty, wanted to shape it like.
It becomes even more interesting, because in Car Robots this point is somewhat different. Devil Gigatron, Car Robots' version of Galvatron, does mention controlling the next generation, but it's more existential; Devil Gigatron wants the next generation to shape a new future for himself, as a Transformer he's stuck in an endless existence of repetition. Car Robots also frames the children helping in the far more simplistic and typically Japanese "humans are the most important species" that saves the universe using positive emotions.
Robots in Disguise, probably the most insubstantial Transformers show in the history of the (western side of the) franchise, ends in probably the most self-aware realization of any other series and one that resonates great with the older audiences and long-time fans that realize how their favourite heroes need to change to welcome new fans.
The animation is one of the lower points of RiD as well, as both it and its source-material worked on low budget and it shows. There are also some very anime-specific visual gags that are occasionally off-putting (though a lot have been edited out by Saban), while I really had to scratch my head at the choice to "super-charge" the Autobot Brothers toward the last third of the show, a supposed upgrade that was merely a repaint, just so the toys could be sold. It wasn't needed, really, nobody owning the originals would buy a mere repaint with no extra tweaks or gimmicks, just because of the different colour.
Unless they were a collector.
What rescues the show visually, outside of some genuinely good robot designs, is that things get busy on screen. It's also where the humour helps a lot, because at any given moment, there's a lot of things happening on-screen, movement or dialogue never let up and as such create the illusion of the show being visually more lively and animated than it is.
I also really dig the voice cast. All of them are strong actors in their own right, but coupled with the better characters of the show, their voices become iconic.
Lastly, I have to give some mention to the toys. I'm not really a collector, because I can't afford it, but RiD was the line that got me back to collecting, even briefly. The Autobot Brothers (of who I own Side Burn and Prowl) are a little too peculiar in design for my tastes, but they are of quality build. There are a lot of repaints, but they are well-done (Spychangers, the Decepticons), while the Build Team makes for a nice little collection of gestalts as well. Lastly, this line's Optimus Prime is one of my favourite toys of all time, with good articulation and posability, as well as design, transformation, colouring and attention to detail.
I enjoyed the hell out of Robots in Disguise. It's a show I'll mostly forget about in T minus 3 seconds, but at the same time its few genuine victories will stay with me. I took a liking to its overall format, to characters like Sky Bite, to its thematically articulate conclusion, while I actually find the fact that it's a filler series a strength, as it's self-contained with no loose ends and major plot holes. Despite its low-quality animation, the transformation sequences sold me on the speed-line stock footage this time around, as I have experienced the similar sequences of latter shows and I find those far inferior for a number of reasons.
RiD stands at an odd place for fans: there is very little in the actual show of value to people new or old to the franchise, making this a series easy to skip, but its very existence is so important for the license that I'd argue people should have a look at it at least once.
For what it's worth, though far from perfect and definitely the most unique Transformers series in the West, I had fun with it and I hope you will too.
Of course they did! They imported it to the West way back in 2001 and named it "Transformers: Robots in Disguise".
History
"Robots in Disguise", or RiD, is significant for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that for all intends and purposes, we'd never have seen it in the West. While the Generation 1 classic cartoon was technically an anime, animated in Japan and other parts of Asia, the mythology, names, characters, everything was made by Hasbro and Marvel in the United States.
As such, the franchise continued with many similarities, but also many differences between East and West. Not only did the G1 cartoon continue in Japan for long after it had ended in the West (and then into a manga that outlived the Marvel comic book), but the Japanese also got two exclusive Beast Wars shows to fill the time between importing our western-made Beast Wars.
Then, Takara commissioned "Car Robots", a standalone series that was a bit of a parody of the franchise.
Hasbro, on the other hand, had three seasons of the G1 cartoon, three seasons of Beast Wars and two seasons of Beast Machines. They had already been planning "Transformers: Armada", which was to be co-produced between them and Takara, but they also scrapped their plans for Transtech, which was meant to be a sequel to Beast Machines. As such, they needed something to fill the spot until Armada would be ready to air.
They took the Car Robots footage, handed over to Saban Entertainment of Power Rangers fame, who had experience in porting over shows from Japan and adapting them for American audiences and the show aired for 39 episodes in 2001 on Fox Kids, 18 months after it aired in Japan.
RiD also marks two firsts: it was the first (though not the last) time a Japanese Transformers cartoon was redubbed and aired for Western audiences. It was also the first Transformers reboot.
Everything up until RiD had been connected to the G1 continuity somehow, but RiD was an entirely new thing, which originally caused some headaches to the fandom that were trying to figure out where it fit within the original continuity. Transformers would be rebooted time and again with each new show marking its own separate continuity and universe, but RiD was the first to do so.
The Show
The show was one of those that I hated when I first saw it. When I got my first computer at the age of 15, I did what every sensible person with Internet access does, outside of looking for porn: I looked up on the things I grew up on. First Knight Rider, then Power Rangers and finally Transformers.
I found out about that new (at the time) show and strained my 56K dial-up to download an episode and give it a look. It felt alien to me, such a departure from the show I knew, the animation style, the way the characters telegraphed their transformation sequences and their attacks, the slapstick humour, it was all too much for me back then.
But years passed, I grew older and shed this pretense that all youngsters have that just because we become older, our childhood heroes should grow more mature-- especially when that sense of maturity is, in essence, extremely childish.
Having seen RiD now, I can say that it's a very enjoyable show. It's an immaterial show, insignificant in its simplicity, completely insubstantial. It doesn't have anything to say and doesn't even set out to leave a mark. It's your standard good vs. evil story; The Predacons try to take over Earth's energy for their own purposes and the Autobots set out to stop them time and again.
It's very episodic in nature. There is a relic-hunting-storyline in the later third part of the series (what's with Transformers and relic-hunting these days?), but for the most part, it's a standard procedural, which is fine; I don't understand the obsession with over-arching plots that started after 2000 and often-times backfires in the hands of insufficient show-runners. RiD is easy to swallow. It can be a trying experience if viewed back-to-back in one sitting, but it's great fun for killing time.
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| One shall stand, one shall fall. |
Mythology
If there's one area RiD severely lacks in is mythology and world-building. Every other series in the franchise, down to the live-action movies and even the G1 cartoon with all its inconsistencies, all built their own mythology, however basic. Car Robots was simplistic in its approach and Robots in Disguise follows suit.
What salvages the American adaptation is the countless G1 references throughout the show. At first these seem just a call-out to classic fans, but they actually do help with the lack of mythology, because they build the illusion of a larger world beyond the show that opens up possibilities in one's imagination, even if they are never explored in the show.
For example, the added G1 reference that Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus are brothers built by an Autobot Elder named Alpha Trion (a mix of G1 cartoon and Dreamwave comics continuity) and that the Allspark, Vector Sigma, chose Optimus to carry the Matrix of Leadership, doesn't mean much for the show itself, but makes me believe that Cybertron is a living society with its own mythology and hierarchy, which gives the robots a lot more depth than just fighting machines that have no origin or background.
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| Saban added G1-style symbol-flips for scene-change. |
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| They also touched up the robot POV shots with CGI to add faction insignias. |
Tone & Style
As mentioned, there is a lot of humour in the series, particularly theatrical and of the slapstick kind, as Car Robots was also very humour-oriented. Car Robots' humour included the aforementioned slapstick and a lot of jokes tailored to Japanese culture. This was Saban's biggest labour: between adapting dialogue and humour for American audiences and heavily editing most of the episodes to exclude scenes of mass destruction, following the terrorist attack of September 11 (something all shows dealt with at the time, including Saban's own Power Rangers, which would walk on eggshells for that reason for many years to come), the studio had its work cut-out for them.
The end result is a lot of slapstick with some pretty bad puns, but overall the humour does work, for two reasons: while it's definitely oriented at children and I can't say I even snickered once, it's not stupid and offensive. An adult of my age can ignore it without actively ignoring it, if that makes sense.
The other reason is that it's not tonally jarring. There is a fine line between the all-important juxtaposition and being tonally inconsistent and RiD walks it well. The entire series is filled with humour, but it's not intrusive, as the battle situations are presented as serious, but they don't carry the pretense of "darkness". One gets that X Plan may destroy the planet, but not once do they imagine death and gore should that happen. There is a lot of action and motion and activity in the show and everything revolves around the way the characters carry themselves, making the humour organic to the show's structure.
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| This is Tactical Artificial Intelligence of Autobot HQ. She identifies as "the daughter of the Teletraan-1 program". |
Characters
Characterization is an interesting aspect of RiD. Much like the first season of G1, there are no character-focus episodes, except a few that introduce new toys into the series. However, characterization is still strong enough, not in terms of development, but in terms of establishment. None of the characters gets developed and experiences much in terms of change in the show, but they're all well-defined, with distinct personalities and roles and they are all very likeable.
On the Autobot side, the show usually revolves around Optimus Prime and the Autobot Brothers: Prowl, Side Burn and X-Brawn. On occasion other characters will show up, especially Team Bullet Train and later the Build Team, while the Spychangers get an episode of their own as well, but most of the action is saved for the aforementioned four bots. Optimus isn't very interesting, in that it's the same Autobot hero we've always known. Neil Kaplan's acting gives him a bit of an edge, but otherwise, there's nothing new to see.
The Autobot Brothers have distinct character traits that get repeated throughout the entire series and it is through the episodic plot and the fights that they give off the feeling of development and that they become relatable with their small quirks.
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| Spychangers to kids: "Gravity is for Go-Bots!" |
On the bad guys' side, there are two groups: The Decepticons are introduced about 20 episodes in and they're not like the Decepticons we know. They are a team of six former Autobots-turned-evil when Megatron gets hold of their protoforms. They're repaints of older toys from the G1 and G2 toylines. They are led by the Optimus look-alike, Scourge and the main team is the original Combaticons redecos.
The Decepticons just aren't very interesting. They're hardcore Commandos that replace the Predacons as a valid threat, as the latter were never that big of a threat anyway. However they are barely explored as characters and their personalities don't seem distinct. Even Scourge, who gets the most attention has nothing interesting to offer. He schemes to take down Megatron and the Predacons, while pretending undying loyalty, but there's nothing more to him than this. The only significant thing about Scourge is that he was the first on-screen "Nemesis Prime", an Optimus Prime negative that became a fan-favourite concept and would make appearances in many series afterwards.
It's perhaps because of that that Scourge is frustrating in his lack of character, as his connection to Optimus could be further explored and create good drama with Optimus trying to reclaim a new brother back into the family.
The Predacons are undoubtedly the best part of the show. Megatron is made to be a King like from a fairytale; he's a dick, he's absolutely insane, he thinks way too much of himself and he expresses himself in way extremely theatrical. The three Predacon subordinates, Gaskank, Darkscream and Slapper lack distinct personalities, but they always work in unison as a team dedicated to slapstick comedy. Taken separately they are worthless to the show, but taken as a whole they work really well and provide most of the show's humour. They're not exactly Megatron's royal jesters, but they are the servants he sends to poke fun at the invading army's enemy king, if you understand what I mean.
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| The Predacons: Cowardly, but oddly sympathetic |
Of course there was another Predacon and a pretty important one, too. Megatron's 2nd In Command, Sky Bite was without a doubt the show's breakout character. Sky Byte differs from his fellow Predacons in practically every way: he's more sophisticated, smarter, more compassionate, sensitive and he is tortured by his low self-esteem.
Unlike the other famous 2nd In Command, Starscream, Sky Byte has no interest in overthrowing Megatron. On the contrary, he yearns for his constant approval, which he never gets. The two are in an abusive relationship, but unlike the Megatron/Starscream relationship that is more sexual in nature (not kidding, no), RiD Megatron and Sky Byte have a dysfunctional father/son relationship. Sky Byte seems to consider Megatron as a father figure, swears undying loyalty to him, but not because he believes in the Predacon cause. On the contrary, he seems to care nothing for it and only seeks the affections of Megatron in the form of approval and recognition. When he fails, he tries time and again to earn it.
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| The main bulk of the Decepticon team, the former Combaticons form Ruination. |
Later in the show, when a bunch of children inside a crumbling tower are in peril from a Decepticon attack, he tries his damnedest to save them, especially when they start cheering him, feeding his bruised self-confidence in a way he's been thirsting for.
Sadly, Sky Byte is still a victim to the show's focus and as such doesn't get much in terms of actual development. He is, however, the only character in the show that's truly multi-layered. His personality isn't just distinct, but it has depth. It pleased me to find out, recently, that he's moved on to the IDW comic book canon, where he may get his much-deserved dues.
When at the end of the show the Predacons and the Decepticons are imprisoned and the Autobots prepare to return to Cybertron, Sky Byte is the only one who stays behind, unbeknownst to everyone else. He doesn't want to take over Earth, he's not plotting anything, he just enjoys his freedom as a person of his own, having broken out of the need for acceptance from his disappointed "father", doing the things he loves without a care in the world.
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| The Autobots have their own combiners. This is one of them, the Build Team's "Landfill" mode. |
The character I left for last is a rather insignificant one; Koji, your standard human conduit to relate to the story. Having been part of the hardcore fandom for the better part of the last decade, I had embraced the sentiment that humans in Transformers are terrible (a curse that started with Daniel Witwicky in the 3rd Season of the G1 cartoon) and that the best shows are the ones not featuring any of them (like Beast Wars or Beast Machines).
I don't quite agree with this any more, as a good human cast brings potential storytelling options to a show, especially if it takes place on Earth ( which isn't always the case). Koji isn't a good human character. He has absolutely no personality, his only shtick is that he's looking for his father (who Megatron abducted in the first episode) and for the most part he hangs around the base with TAI, the holographic AI of Autobot HQ.
Having said that, he's also quite inoffensive. He's not interfering constantly in the Autobots battles and he's not really annoying. He acts like a regular kid, but he doesn't throw hissy-fits and he doesn't quite steal the focus of the show from the Transformers, all of the above sins that the human characters of the Unicron Trilogy have partaken in.
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| Dance, my beauty, for this is your show. |
Subtext & Themes
Honestly, there's little reason to even mention Koji, as he really gets very little focus and he's usually just a carry-along even on the field. The reason I bring him up and saved him for last no-less, is that he's paramount to the finale of the series.
In the last third of the series, the Transformers hunt for the "O-parts", ancient Cybertronian artifacts that eventually awaken the terribly underutilized Fortress Maximus. Fortress Maximus isn't particularly impressive in this series, but he's treated like the most powerful thing ever. The problem is that he can only be controlled by humans. Even though he's obviously carrying an Autobot symbol, no Autobot, Predacon or Decepticon can control him; he will only listen to humans.
This leads to a series of questionable episodes where the Predacons and Decepticons attempt to capture Koji and other humans to take control of Maximus, but the interesting thing comes at the very final episode of the series, toward the end.
Galvatron, Megatron's repainted form, has absorbed so much energy he has become practically unbeatable. He has trapped all other Transformers and has left them for dead. Optimus Prime challenges him to a fight near the Earth's core, over smoldering magma, Revenge of the Sith style. There is no way Galvatron won't win the war.
Unless, of course, Koji IMs every child in the world to send their magic thoughts to Optimus.
No, seriously, that's exactly what happens and it works! The children reactivate Fortress Maximus, who then reroutes all his power to Optimus Prime, who then magically gets a giant buster sword, because the Japanese need to compensate for... stuff.
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| You will bow down before me, Jor-El! You and one day, your heeeeeeeirs! |
Naturally, as I'm watching this I'm thinking it's complete shit and to some extend it is. It's a moment that could've ruined my positive feelings toward the series as a whole. It's just such a stupid, corny, contrived solution, the type that shouldn't even be reserved for a young audience.
But then, it occurred to me that there is a reason for it. Before their final battle, Optimus and Galvatron argue over control of the next generation, which is exactly what the Predacon Commander seeks.
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| RT @Koji: "Autobots need help. Send happy thoughts" |
Thematically, it ties extremely well with the nature of the franchise in general and resonates well exactly because of the type of show RiD is for Transformers. This insubstantial filler show marked the first time in the history of the franchise that everything was rebooted. It's true that Beast Wars was the introduction of most '90s kids to the Transformers and it was successful, but it was still done by Generation 1 fans for Generation 1 fans.
Robots in Disguise, despite the many G1 references, wasn't directed at my generation. It was the beginning of the new era that the Transformers still crosses. It was the beginning of the multiverse for the franchise, despite Takara's later efforts to include Car Robots in their Transformers continuity, as well as Hasbro's more recent "aligned continuity". It was the first step toward trying out new things, new representations of characters and mythos and of making a triumphant return to public consciousness.
RiD in itself wasn't the most successful of the Transformers series, but it was received well enough by its age demographic. It was that age demographic that represented the new generation Galvatron was speaking of. In that sense, Fortress Maximus in the show wasn't so much a new character as he was a giant, transforming metaphor for the future. It was only the new generation that could decide what that powerful future would be, despite what Autobots and Predacons, who were waging an endless war across millions of years, old and rusty, wanted to shape it like.
It becomes even more interesting, because in Car Robots this point is somewhat different. Devil Gigatron, Car Robots' version of Galvatron, does mention controlling the next generation, but it's more existential; Devil Gigatron wants the next generation to shape a new future for himself, as a Transformer he's stuck in an endless existence of repetition. Car Robots also frames the children helping in the far more simplistic and typically Japanese "humans are the most important species" that saves the universe using positive emotions.
Robots in Disguise, probably the most insubstantial Transformers show in the history of the (western side of the) franchise, ends in probably the most self-aware realization of any other series and one that resonates great with the older audiences and long-time fans that realize how their favourite heroes need to change to welcome new fans.
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| Fortress Maximus: Giant Robot, subtle metaphor. |
Visuals & Sound
The animation is one of the lower points of RiD as well, as both it and its source-material worked on low budget and it shows. There are also some very anime-specific visual gags that are occasionally off-putting (though a lot have been edited out by Saban), while I really had to scratch my head at the choice to "super-charge" the Autobot Brothers toward the last third of the show, a supposed upgrade that was merely a repaint, just so the toys could be sold. It wasn't needed, really, nobody owning the originals would buy a mere repaint with no extra tweaks or gimmicks, just because of the different colour.
Unless they were a collector.
What rescues the show visually, outside of some genuinely good robot designs, is that things get busy on screen. It's also where the humour helps a lot, because at any given moment, there's a lot of things happening on-screen, movement or dialogue never let up and as such create the illusion of the show being visually more lively and animated than it is.
I also really dig the voice cast. All of them are strong actors in their own right, but coupled with the better characters of the show, their voices become iconic.
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| This is Kelly. She's a recurring comic relief. She's also one of the most endearing humans in Transformers, ever. |
The Toys
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed the hell out of Robots in Disguise. It's a show I'll mostly forget about in T minus 3 seconds, but at the same time its few genuine victories will stay with me. I took a liking to its overall format, to characters like Sky Bite, to its thematically articulate conclusion, while I actually find the fact that it's a filler series a strength, as it's self-contained with no loose ends and major plot holes. Despite its low-quality animation, the transformation sequences sold me on the speed-line stock footage this time around, as I have experienced the similar sequences of latter shows and I find those far inferior for a number of reasons.
RiD stands at an odd place for fans: there is very little in the actual show of value to people new or old to the franchise, making this a series easy to skip, but its very existence is so important for the license that I'd argue people should have a look at it at least once.
For what it's worth, though far from perfect and definitely the most unique Transformers series in the West, I had fun with it and I hope you will too.
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| A poetic ending indeed. |
I believe I mentioned that my friend is a big fan of this show. I believe he is also very fond of RiD Optimus Prime's toy too.
ReplyDeleteI like it, Ultra Magnus and the Bros enough, but I don't love them. All that chipping, flaking and wearing chrome makes me sad inside.
Ah yeah, such details are definitely problematic on occasion. I remember the old die-cast; great builds, but when the paint came off... defeating, to say the least. My RiD Optimus spends his time in the box.
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