Ginrai: God On of Rage!!



While Ginrai debates over whether or not to join the Autobots, the Decepticons begin a series of fatal attacks on his trucker friends in an effort to draw him out.


 * English/Malay dub name:  “Turn the Anger to Power”
 * Also known as: “Ginrai’s Angry God On”

Detailed synopsis
When a military jet investigates the appearance of a mysterious “island” in the middle of the ocean, its flight through storm-riddled skies is soon brought to an abrupt end when the object of their investigation turns out to be the Decepticon base. Perched atop the base are Giga, Mega Hydra and Buster, in a bizarre scene – Giga stands poised with a golf club, a large purple sphere resting on a tee by his feet. He drives the ball high into the sky, and it suddenly bursts into flame, smashing through the windshield of the plane, and destroying the aircraft in a massive fireball. This is the Decepticons’ newest invention, the Deathball, which Hydra and Buster are ordered to put to use in destroying the new Autobot Godmaster, Ginrai.

At the Ocean Research Institute of California, Ginrai and Diver await the arrival of Lander, who soon arrives to educate Ginrai on the Decepticons. Showing him various newspaper clippings detailing Decepticon attacks, Lander, like Diver before him, tries to convince Ginrai to join the Autobots. Ginrai jokes that he’d rather appear on television, and Lander asks him to do it for the sake of the world – an argument that strikes a chord with Ginrai, who says that he will not become part of the Autobot army and command structure, but promises to fight the Decepticons when they appear. Ginrai departs to complete a delivery job, and Diver relays their progress to Hawk, who in turn reveals Ginrai’s existence to the Headmaster Juniors, telling them that he is sure the trucker will soon join their forces.

Elsewhere in America, Buster and Hydra’s search for Ginrai has begun, as they launch Deathball attacks on numerous tractor trailers in an attempt to locate him. A pair of truckers named Cougar and Dan meet their end in a blaze of fire when their truck is destroyed... but this is totally unknown to Ginrai, who has with met with fellow trucker Billy Husky at a gas station, and arranges to meet him for a drink that evening at the Barr Nellison, a favorite haunt of his fellow Union Transportation drivers. Unbeknownst to either man, it’s a drink that will never be had, as Billy, on his last delivery of the day, finds himself pursued by a massive big rig that ultimately forces him off the road. Billy’s truck fishtails and explodes; and from within the big rig’s cab, Hydra watches Billy burn...

At the Barr Nellison that evening, Ginrai is distraught to hear of Billy’s death on the news, and learns of the attacks on truckers from others at the bar. Diver and Lander also see the report, and quickly deduce that the Decepticons are involved; after informing Hawk of the situation, they go searching for Ginrai, but he too has realised that the Decepticons are to blame and has taken his truck out on the road to try and lure them out. Hydra’s big rig soon appears alongside Ginrai on a treacherous mountain road, and Ginrai is sent toppling off the cliff. As he crawls from the wreckage clutching a picture of his deceased friends, Diver and Lander arrive on the scene, but Buster holds them off while Hydra attempts to finish Ginrai, who has forgotten the code-phrase to trigger his transformation. With a little prompting from Diver, he gets his words right and combines with his Transtector, but Hydra is ready for him and parries his every blow, until a ray of sunlight glints off of Ginrai’s photograph and hits Hydra right in the optics, dazzling him long enough for Ginrai to tackle him and drive him to the ground. At that point, Metalhawk and Phoenix arrive, and the outnumbered Decepticons pull out, covering their retreat with a hail of Deathballs. At the dust settles, the Headmaster Juniors arrive to introduce themselves to Ginrai, who swears over the photograph of his friends that he will avenge them. Hawk extends the hand of friendship to Ginrai, asking him if the Autobots could replace the friends he has lost, and Ginrai says that he will think it over.

Stats
Written by:  Yoshihisa Araki

Original airdate: 21st June 1988

Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Animation and/or technical glitches

 * Although all the trucks attacked by Hydra and Buster are said in dialogue to be red (since the brothers remember that Ginrai’s Transtector is that color) Cougar and Dan’s rig is colored blue.

Continuity errors

 * The Headmaster Juniors are asked to guard the Autobot base while Metalhawk goes to the aid of the other Autobots, but they disobey him and drive up in their Transtectors to greet Ginrai at the battle’s end. Problem is... the battle was in AMERICA, and the Autobot base is in JAPAN. Masterforce is never averse to having characters cover great distances in disproportionately short periods of time, but c’mon, the Juniors can’t even fly over the ocean.

Real-world references



 * When Lander pulls out his "for the sake of the world" line, he and Diver are a bit taken aback when Ginrai unleashes a massively over-dramatic bit of pose-striking as he loudly and repeatedly insists that Lander "wait just a minute, please!" He is, in fact, talking and moving as if he were in a Kabuki play, a traditional form of Japanese theatre, as emphasised by the ornate background he is superimposed against.

Transformers references

 * This being a Japanese cartoon, it’s not a surprise to see the word “Destron” (the Japanese name for the Decepticons) in the headline of one of the newspaper clippings that Lander shows Ginrai. What is amusing, though, is that on the opposite page, there’s a headline that uses the word “Decepticons!”