Koji Gets His Wish
From Transformers Wiki
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 ... and that wish is for a lake full of Hi-C Ecto Cooler punch! | ||||||
| "Koji Gets His Wish" (JRX Tai Baldigus) "JRX versus Baldigus" | ||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop | |||||
| Airdate | 25 October 2000 (Japanese) November 3, 2001 (English) | |||||
| Written by | Junki Takegami (Japanese) Richard Epcar (English) | |||||
| Director | Yoshiaki Tsutsui | |||||
| Animation studio | Studio Gallop | |||||
Koji misses dad
Sky-Byte tries to find Fort Max
Autobots hide him
Contents |
Synopsis
With the Decepticons having retreated, Optimus orders his men to keep them away from Fortress Maximus for at least a day while he puts his plan into action.
Back at the Megastar, Megatron is overjoyed that Fortress Maximus has been located, and, on Scourge's suggestion, sends Sky-Byte to locate Cerebros, the key to Fortress Maximus' power. Mega-Octane asks Scourge why he let Sky-Byte go, to which the Decepticon replies that if they find Maximus first, they will no longer need Megatron and will be able to take the power for themselves. The pair are overheard by Sky-Byte, who thinks Scourge is trying to curry favour with Megatron, and resolves to find Cerebros first.
Meanwhile, Koji is missing his father, though T-AI points out that he must still be alive in order for the Decepticons to find out about the ruins. Koji returns home and remembers his father taking him on fishing trips.
Sky-Byte cunningly switches Doctor Onishi with a life-sized drawing, and takes the doctor with him in a pod, intending to extract information about the location of Cerebros.
The Decepticons encounter Team Bullet Train, and the Commandos form Ruination as a distraction while Scourge goes on. The fight is observed by Wedge, who's spoiling to join the fight as usual, but is stopped by Heavy Load.
Underground, Scourge spots Sky-Byte and hides from the shark, but soon runs into Optimus Prime. The pair fight, with Scourge transforming to truck mode and ramming Prime. Sky-Byte finally notices the two fighting and high-tails it out of the subway past an indignant Kelly. Once above ground, Sky-Byte encounters Koji, who tearfully asks him to give Dr. Onishi a fishing lure as a birthday present. While Sky-Byte agrees, the three Autobot Brothers arrive.
Scourge and Optimus reach the location of the ruins, and Scourge discovers Fortress Maximus is gone. He demands Prime tell him where Maximus is hidden. Fortunately at this point Ultra Magnus arrives and combines with Optimus. The result is as usual.
In the streets, Sky-Byte attempts to transform, but is prevented by the pod strapped to his back, which he removes and tosses to Koji. The Autobot Brothers power up and easily take the upper hand, until Koji discovers the pod contains his father, and thanks Sky-Byte for rescuing Dr. Onishi. Unfortunately for Sky-Byte, the fight between Omega Prime and Scourge reaches street level, and the Decepticon realises what Sky-Byte's done. He sets off for the Megastar, recalling Ruination on the way, and Sky-Byte flees after them. While Koji introduces his dad to the Autobots, the Build Team watch Ruination leave, musing that it was a great idea to hide Fortress Maximus in a building.
Having returned to the Megastar, Sky-Byte is surprised when Scourge covers for him and even suggests that the Decepticons and Predacons join forces to find Cerebros.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Predacons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
Who's the baddest shark around?
Who's the smartest shark in town?
Sky-Byte, that's me!
Who'll drive Scourge into the ground
And never let old Megatron down—
Sky-Byte, that's me!
- —Sky-Byte's song
Who gets too hungry for seafood at eight?
Who swims the ocean, and always looks great?
Cha-cha, cha-cha cha,
Who always bothers with robots he hates,
Sky-Byte, yes Sky-Byte, that's—me!
- —STILL Sky-Byte's song
"He should keep his day job."
- —Scourge crushes Sky-Byte's dreams of musical stardom.
"Did you really think I would let you have the secret of the ruins, Scourge?"
"You don't let me do anything; I take what I want!"
- —Optimus Prime is told by Scourge how things REALLY work.
Kelly: "Ah! What's the idea?! I put my money in already!"
Worker: "You didn't pay enough."
Kelly: "I paid the full fare!"
Sky-Byte: (singing) Sky-Byte! *passes through the gate*
Kelly: "What the...?! You let him through! What's going on around here? How come he didn't have to pay anything? That isn't fair!"
Worker: "Fine! ...You tell him he can't go through!"
- —Kelly can't catch a break, as usual.
(thinking) "I really feel bad for this kid, but what would Megatron think?"
Megatron (in thought bubble): "GRRRRR!!!!!!"
[Sky-Byte cringes]
- —Sky-Byte thinks about Megatron's reaction...not a pleasant thought.
"Koji, hold this!"
- —Sky-Byte inadvertently does what the Autobots have failed to do for the last 30 episodes.
Notes
Differences with Car Robots
- A "previously on Transformers" recap is added to the start of Robots in Disguise.
- In Robots in Disguise, the fortress that emerged is immediately recognized by all assembled as Fortress Maximus, of Cybertronian legend, and all know of his activation key, Cerebros. In Car Robots, on the other hand, nobody has any idea what it is, with the only recognizable feature they single out being its Autobot symbol. Consequently, obviously enough, it's never referred to by name in Japanese.
- A CGI POV overlay is added as Optimus looks over Maximus. This is the last time Robots in Disguise will add one of these effects to the show.
- The shot of Side Burn responding to Optimus's orders to keep the Decepticons away is lengthened slightly for Robots in Disguise.
- When Scourge explains why he would rather Sky Byte investigate the ruins, Robots in Disguise adds to his dialogue the claim that the hallucination-inducing protective shield doesn't appear to affect Sky-Byte. He might be lying outright, since we as an audience know from last episode that it does affect him, but in Car Robots, all he says is that he doesn't want to take a careless risk by going himself.
- When Scourge recalls his original mission, Robots in Disguise states that Fortress Maximus had been on Earth for some time prior to the pre-Decepticons' coming and that they were sent there to "reactivate" him, while Car Robots has Scourge believe they were sent to "install" him on the planet.
- Robots in Disguise shortens Scourge and Mega-Octane's conversation just the tiniest bit; the shot that precedes Mega-Octane asking "You mean we wouldn't have to follow orders any more?" is cut by a fraction of a second.
- In a larger cut, Robots in Disguise shortens the close-up shot of Sky Byte blubbering by about five seconds.
- Following Sky-Byte's blubbering, a Car Robots scene transition is replaced with the usual Robots in Disguise offering.
- The first front-facing shot of Koji is shortened by a few seconds in Robots in Disguise. In Car Robots, he uses that time to wonder if his father's interest in the ruins was why his father was captured in the first place, which T-AI then agrees must be the case; in Robots in Disguise, T-AI offers up that information without requiring Koji's feed-line.
- When T-AI explains that the Predacons must have acquired the information on Maximus's location from Doctor Onishi, the tone is different between versions to skirt the issue of death: in Robots in Disguise, Koji is concerned because this means they must have forced it from him, while in Car Robots, the scene is played as Koji being given hope because it serves as proof his father is actually still alive.
- Robots in Disguise shortens another of Koji's sad scenes, cutting down the shot that precedes his fishing flashback by about four seconds. Koji's dialogue isn't cut down, though; it's simply moved up to start as an off-screen voiceover as he looks at the picture of himself and his dad, which was a silent shot in Car Robots.
- While both versions of the show note that Koji and his dad went fishing on Doctor Onishi's birthday, Robots in Disguise omits from this scene the fact that it is actually his birthday today. It gets mentioned later in the episode, though.
- When Koji looks up at the shooting star, Car Robots actually has him say a prayer to God. Unsurprisingly, Robots in Disguise reworks this into a more general hope for his father to return soon.
- In-keeping with the Build Team's depiction in Car Robots as a young lord and his honorable retainers, Heavy Load's annoyance with Wedge's desire to go off and fight is played more as him being appalled that he would dishonor the very ethos of the team, rather the general frustration it is in Robots in Disguise. Where the English version has him sit down to act as a roadblock and prevent Wedge from getting away, in Car Robots, he's actually kneeling as part of an overblown threat to commit seppuku (ritual suicide!) in disgrace!
- In Car Robots, Optimus Prime thinks that Scourge was the one singing the song that caught his attention, rather than Sky-Byte. When Scourge splutters that it wasn't him, Optimus works him into a frenzy by wryly educating him on the song, which he says comes from his hometown, and has 128 verses (the song is a minyo, a kind of Japanese folk song that is often specific to a particular region, which is why Optimus knows it). Robots in Disguise replaces this with a bit of generic "I'll never let you have the power"/"Leave here now" pre-brawl dialogue.
- A little name joke that couldn't make it through to Robots in Disguise: when Koji tells Sky-Byte that his father used to love fishing for black bass, Sky-Byte tells him there are no black bass at the Predacon base, just a Black Convoy (Scourge's Japanese name).
- Robots in Disguise tries to be a bit more progressive by omitting a line from Sky-Byte that sees him tell Koji "boys don't cry".
- Before the scene switches from Ruination and Rail Racer beginning their shoot off to the focus on Optimus and Scourge descending into the cavern, Robots in Disguise inserts three shots of the two combiners firing on each other. In Car Robots, these three shots originally came later when the scene switches from Scourge and Prime in the cavern to the battle on the street, right before the fight between Sky-Byte and the Autobot Brothers. Since Robots in Disguise moved these three shots to come earlier, the underground scene with Scourge beginning to attack Optimus now jumps straight to Sky-Byte launching his shark missiles at the Autobot Brothers.
- In Car Robots, the shot of Side Burn speaking to Magnus with his hand outstretched is continuous, but Robots in Disguise extends the scene by inserting animation of Magnus speaking, from the next shot, into the middle of it.
- Though Magnus and Side Burn are perfectly civil to one another in Robots in Disguise, the English script continues to omit the deeper friendship that we've seen form between the two "younger brothers" over the last two Japanese-language episodes. In Car Robots, when Magnus goes to Prime's aid, he makes a point of telling him that he is only helping him because Side Burn asked him to.
- When Sky-Byte tosses Koji the capsule containing his father, in Car Robots, he says "This is for you!", which implies he's returning the boy's father deliberately. In Robots in Disguise, the line is changed to "Here, hold this!", making it seem he's distracted by the fight and doesn't realize what he's doing.
- Before hugging his father, Koji holds up the fishing lure he has bought him for his birthday, and in Car Robots wishes him a happy birthday. Apparently failing to spot the lure (which is easy to do, due to the distance of the scene), Robots in Disguise moves the birthday wishes to after they have hugged, which isn't terrible or anything, but just a bit of wonky timing.
- At the episode's end, as the Build Team congratulate themselves on a job well done, Car Robots sees Heavy Load paraphrase a Japanese proverb by saying "If you want to hide a tree, put it in the middle of a forest." While that seems like a universal concept that'd have translated fine to English, Robots in Disguise replaces it completely, with Heavy Load instead remarking that even Optimus didn't know where they had hidden it, meaning he didn't have to lie to the Decepticons.
- And lastly, in general terms, Robots in Disguise compensates for the multiple cuts described above by adding a lot of CGI scene transitions.
Animation and/or technical glitches
- When Wedge runs forward to ask Optimus if the Build Team can join the fight against the Decepticons, he appears to pass through Grimlock's arm.
- The low camera angle beneath Scourge's face as he confers with Mega-Octane over his plan makes his central head crest appear hugely distorted and off-centre.
- Before fighting Rail Racer, Ruination has Ro-Tor & Movor as arms and Rollbar & Armorhide as legs. In the next shot he has Armorhide and Rollbar as the arms while Ro-Tor & Movor as the legs without switching. Later on when we cut back to the battle, he's switched configuration again.
- When Team Bullet Train spots the newly-combined Ruination, Railspike says, "They're combining into Runation!" Not only does this statement of his come after Ruination has completed his combination, but Railspike mispronounces Ruination's name as "Runation" instead of "Ruination".
- When Scourge confronts Optimus in the tunnels, they are shown to be the same size. When Scourge changes to vehicle mode and tries to run Optimus over, Scourge's cab is now as tall as Optimus is. Not only is this wildly out of scale with his introductory episode, it would make Scourge's robot mode 2 or 3 times Prime's height.
Continuity errors
- Somewhat of a discontinuity exists between the previous episode and this one. As things stood, the Autobots and Decepticons were locked in battle as Fortress Maximus rose. As this episode starts, Omega Prime has already separated into Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons have retreated all the way back to the Megastar.
- The opening recap of the events of "Fortress Maximus" ends with Omega Prime calling out Fortress Maximus's name, which he never did in the episode itself.
- Koji's flashback to his family fishing trip features dialogue of Dr. Onishi congratulating his son on catching a big fish, even though the accompanying images clearly show the doctor himself making the catch. It seems harsh to nitpick a kid's recollections of his kidnapped father, though, so we'll let it slide.
Transformers references
- The ship used by the Decepticons to travel to Earth, as seen in Scourge's flashback, is similar in design to the Axalon from Beast Wars.
- Scourge threatens to slice up Optimus Prime into "so many scraplets".
Real-world references
- At one point, Sky-Byte imitates the famous pose from the movie Jaws.
- Sky-Byte's second song is a parody of the Broadway tune "The Lady Is a Tramp".
Trivia
- Scourge reveals to Mega-Octane some of the memories that were opened up to him when he entered the ruins in the previous episode. He remembers that his original mission as an Autobot was to reactivate a fortress that was hidden here.
- Koji's callout of "I'm home!" as he enters his house is the first reference made since the opening episode to the fact that Koji actually shares his home with another human being.
- Ruination tough-talks Rail Racer by citing their last fight as evidence of why the Bullet Train combiner doesn't stand a chance. Given that their last fight (and indeed every fight they've ever had) has ended with the Decepticons beating a humiliating retreat, this seems a pretty lame threat.
- When he first sees Sky-Byte, Koji is standing outside a Tecone Leather outlet. Other signage in the area includes "Namico", "Canadian", "Drey Fus", "Lep Hare", "Book.com", "Prima", and "Carma"
- After twenty-eight episodes in which the Autobots make no apparent effort to find and rescue Doctor Onishi, he's finally freed...by Sky-Byte. Yay?
- Scourge does indeed look very sharp in his blue-and-purple Cyclops shades.
Foreign localization
Italian
- Title: "Il desiderio di Koji si avvera" ("Koji's wish gets real")
- Unlike previous episodes, in this one Landfill is voiced by Wedge's actor like in both Japanese and English. Still, he talks just in the recap.
- Scourge's line: "While you keep them busy, I'll have time to infiltrate the base" is not dubbed, leaving some seconds of voice silence.
- While, in English, Railspike says that the Decepticons were combining into Ruination (or "Runation" as he says), despite already being combined, in Italian he, more correctly, says that they "combined into Ruination".
- Also, if you're wondering, Ruination's name is corrected.
Portuguese
- Title: "Koji Realiza Seu Desejo" ("Koji Gets His Wish")
Home video releases
- DVD
2001 — Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 8 (Pony Canyon) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 2 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season Two (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)
