Crisis! The Day of the Downfall of Humanity



With construction of a new Decepticon weapon occurring in the shadow of the moon, time is against the Autobots as they race into space in an attempt to stop the destruction of all life on Earth!


 * English/Malay dub name:  "Destruction of the Human Race"
 * Also known as: "The Day of Mankind's Destruction"

Detailed synopsis
After the failure of Operation M-1, Devil Z has initiated Operation M-2, and a massive platoon of Guardminders are already at work constructing a massive weapon in space, on the other side of the moon. As BlackZarak joins the Guardminders, down on Earth Devil Z explains to Mega and Giga that his approach has changed. Having now witnessed the power of Jinchokon that resides within all of mankind, he has determined to utterly wipe the species out with the weapon the Guardminders are building. Mega and Giga are both taken aback by this drastic change in plans, even though Devil Z assures them that they will not be forgotten. Soon, Mega and Giga (with their Transtectors merged together into a giant space-faring jet), together with Buster and Hydra merged as Darkwings, blast off to join BlackZarak in space.

At the same time, the Autobot Pretenders are busy scanning the globe for Decepticon activity, but it is the sensitive equipment of Grand Maximus's battleship that picks up the signature of the villains heading out into space. He immediately informs Ginrai, who is patrolling with the Headmaster Juniors. The three kids are especially excited at the thought of going into space, but Ginrai cautions them not to think of it as a pleasure trip.

Meanwhile, the Decepticon Juniors are getting a first-hand experience of space aboard Mega and Giga's jet, first being crushed by g-forces as they escape Earth's atmosphere, and then free-floating in zero gravity. Giga delivers a warning similar to Ginrai's, telling them to cast off their excitement, and prepare for execution of the plan, as they arrive at the site of the weapon's construction.

Down below, Ranger and Road King are the last to arrive at the Autobots' meeting point in the Alps, and everyone boards Grand Maximus so that they can all head into space. Detecting a strong among of magnetic radiation, Grand quickly tracks down the Decepticons and their weapon, and a battle immediately breaks out. As Ginrai focuses on holding the attention of Overlord and Darkwings, the Godmasters don jetpacks and attack the weapon, only to meet resistance from the Guardminders. A second wave of Guardminders breaks off to attack Grand and the Headmaster Juniors, while the Decepticon Juniors are left at something of a loose end without jetpacks to allow them to enter the fight.

The Autobot interference infuriates Devil Z, who ups the timetable and instructs BlackZarak to test the weaponthe "Death Para-Machine"by firing on Earth. BlackZarak channels his energy into the weapon, which sends a blast of continental size ripping into the Earth's atmosphere. Colossal ecological disasters ensue in the Northern Hemisphere, causing immediate and catastrophic melting of the polar ice caps and devastating flooding in the Himalayas. The staff at the observatory that Metalhawk is currently using to monitor the planet quickly deduce the cause of the disaster – sudden, complete obliteration of the ozone in the planet's stratosphere in that region. Deeming the test a success, Devil Z commands BlackZarak to double his energy output and deliver the final killing blow to the planet Earth. Now aware of the threat in front of him, Ginrai breaks off from his fight with Overlord and flies straight at the Death Para-Machine, weaving between blasts from the Decepticons. As BlackZarak reaches the end of his countdown, Ginrai charges his body with Chokon Power and dives, like a flaming arrow, into the barrel of the Death Para-Machine, crashing through the device and causing it to erupt in a huge fireball. The Decepticons retreat instantly, but in the last second before it explodes, a solitary blast escape the Death Para-Machine and strikes Grand's battleship, knocking its tachyon energon converter offline. The battleship is sent plummeting into Earth's atmosphere, where it begins to burn up, but Shūta saves the day by donning the remaining jetpack and flying around the ship to access the converter and bring it back online. As the battleship shudders back into life, however, Shūta is thrown from it and continues his scorching re-entry, until Ginrai swoops in at the last second to pluck his young comrade out of the air, saving his life.

Looking down on the Earth from Grand's battleship, the assembled Autobots survey the planet, and Grand comments that they were able to stop the Decepticons before too much damage was done. Earth's ozone will still be able to return to normal, but with Devil Z's new dedication to wiping out humanity, the planet is far from safe...

Stats
Written by:  Yoshihisa Araki

Original airdate: 10th January 1989

Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Transformers references

 * Devil Z ordered the commencement of Operation M-2 in the previous episode.
 * This episode marks the only time that Grand Maximus's robot mode appears outside of his Pretender shell in the anime, and it's only for a few seconds in the final scene. The only other time this even happens in fiction is in the manga chapter, "Great Turn-Around! Autobots".

Miscellaneous trivia

 * This episode introduces the Guardminders, who are based on the design of Fasttrack, the small robot who came with the Scorponok toy. The subordinate Guardminders share Fasttrack's black and orange coloration, while the lead Guardminder is based on the golden redeco of the figure that came packaged with BlackZarak.
 * Overlord's "space jet" mode makes it debut this episode, which consists of the Gigatank plugging into the rear end of the Megajet. Like Sixshot's "Wingwolf" mode before it, this mode was a creation of the anime's production staff, rather than a deliberate creation of the toy's designer, but you can transform the toy into this mode with ease.
 * There was a three-week break between the airing of this episode and the previous one, when the series took a brief hiatus for the Christmas/New Year holiday season.