Star Saber, Warrior of Love!
From Transformers Wiki
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| "Star Saber, Warrior of Love!" 愛の戦士スターセイバー!
(Ai no Senshi Star Saber!) | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Kodansha | ||||||||||||
| Published in | TV Magazine | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | July 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Script | Masumi Kaneda | ||||||||||||
| Artist | Ban Magami | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | 2025 | ||||||||||||
Kakuryu goes mano a mano with Star Saber. The results are predictable.
Contents |
Synopsis
Down on Earth, Star Saber is facing off against Breastforce members Killbison, Guyhawk, Jallguar, Hellbat, and Drillhorn. With little to no effort, Star Saber defeats the Decepticons and drives them away.
Not far away, Jan teases his rival, Solon over the Autobot victory, claiming that his pop, Star Saber, is the strongest Transformer ever. Jan's statement is immediately shot down by two mysterious shadowy figures. These hauntingly familiar silhouettes turn out to be Cab and Shūta.
Shūta and Cab register their utter disappointment in the new Supreme Commander, Star Saber, claiming that the previous one, God Ginrai, was much stronger due to his human heart. As Jan becomes enraged, Solon snickers and claims Deathsaurus could rival them both.
As the children argue over which toy is cooler, Kakuryu bursts out of the mountainside, taking Star Saber by surprise. As it turns out, Kakuryu has been hiding underground for three days, waiting for Star Saber to wander by. Kakuryu quickly grabs the Autobot from behind, leaving him open to attacks from his Triceratops shell. Kakuryu's Triceratops quickly initiates "Lord Kakuryu's Second Level Attack" which consists of ramming its horns into the helpless Star Saber over and over again.
As Star Saber gets trounced, Solon explains that Kakuryu isn't one of the strongest Decepticons, but trains himself into the ground in an attempt to earn Deathsaurus's approval.
Unfortunately for Kakuryu, today just isn't his day. Star Saber decides he's had enough and hoists Kakuryu up over his head (causing his Triceratops shell to cry and scratch at Star Saber on its hindlegs like a whimpering puppy). Star Saber tells Kakuryu to "Go to Hell" and then flings him over a cliff with his "Saber Vacuum Tornado Pacifier" (damn, dude).
Kakuryu manages to just barely cling to the ledge, only to find Star Saber looming menacingly over him. Kakuryu asks Star Saber to kill him quickly. Jan begs Star Saber not to do it while Solon cries silently to himself over Kakuryu's imminent demise. Star Saber sends his fist hurtling toward the helpless Kakuryu, only to grab his hand and lift him from certain doom instead of, well, punching him to death.
Star Saber tells Kakuryu to give his injuries time to heal and sends him on his way, while the sniffling Decepticon can't believe he's being shown such compassion. Cab and Shūta are overjoyed at the sight of Star Saber's humanity and are instantly swayed into being his loyal fanboys.
Kakuryu rides off into the sunset, thanking everyone, as Solon wipes his nose, wondering what the big deal about Star Saber is. The audience is informed that true strength comes not only from the body, but from respecting life, too. Jan, Cab and Shūta pile their hands together and decide to become Best Friends Forever.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
- The opening image of a nearly naked Jan taking a bath with his surrogate father, Star Saber, accompanied by the eyebrow-raising title...well, it conjures up all the wrong feelings.
- Leozack's absence from the rest of the Breastforce is due to the injuries he received in "Leozack's Rampage!". You don't rebound from impalement overnight, people. Well, except maybe this guy.
- In the Victory cartoon, Kakuryu was shown to be a complete idiot, to put it mildly. While he's still no intellectual giant (his cunning plan consisted of hiding underground for days and days on the off-chance Star Saber might stumble by), he's certainly shown to be more intelligent and hard-working here than in the cartoon.
- Assuming this series follows on from the Super-God Masterforce manga, Cab and Shūta were last seen in "The Birth of the Super Life-Forms", where their transtectors gained sentience and ditched them to have awesome space adventures.
- Hey, where's Minerva!? Author Masumi Kaneda explained that he omitted Minerva because he felt the series would have had too many female characters if she was included. A blonde female character almost identical in personality to Minerva, Patty, will show up in "The Strongest Pair, the Combination of Victory!".
- The "Second Level" part of "Lord Kakuryu's Second Level Attack" is written as "Ni-Dan" (二段). "-Dan" (段) is the counter for belt levels in martial arts. Exactly how that should or could be coherently translated into English is uncertain.
- Kakuryu is shown building strength via push-ups. He's a robot. He has no muscles.
- The events of this issue would be slyly referenced in the Transformers United EX story "The Dragon Pays His Dues". United EX is part of the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity, which is a distinct continuity from this manga series. Though really just a wink and a nod, it does mean that a version of this issue happened at some point during the Victory animated series.