Transformers Go! Go!

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Transformers Go! Go! (トランスフォーマーごー!ごー!) is a 2020 manga for young readers written and drawn by Haruka Oda published in TV Magazine, on the TV Magazine website, and on publisher Kodansha's comics reader Comic-Days.

Overview

Transformers Go! Go! chronicles the light-hearted misadventures of the Autobots and Decepticons in a setting strongly resembling the original Generation 1 cartoon for a young audience while somewhat bafflingly promoting various collector-aimed exclusives.

The comic started out in print form in the pages of TV Magazine, typically published on the last Saturday of the month. Beginning with the August/September 2021 issue, the periodical went bi-monthly, before going tri-monthly with the April/May/June 2023 issue, with the exact publication date increasingly varying (confusingly, but typical of this kind of publication, the issue is actually released a month or two before the cover date). Separately from the magazine, exclusive stories have also been published in the "Transformers Fan Book" activity books (kind of like annuals published in the United Kingdom).

A year into its run, the TV Magazine website began serialising the manga digitally, with a webcomic usually being released on the 15th of each month. As the first two issues of the comic in the magazine had been published in black-and-white, they were replaced with a single new full-color volume to match the rest of the run. This put the numbering between the print and web editions out of sync: print issue #3 was republished as web issue #2, print issue #4 as web issue #3, and so forth. The webcomic additionally inserts character profiles calling out the specific toy being advertised in each story.

After ten installments, the webcomic switched to publishing exclusive new strips separately from the magazine, with issue #11 being the first non-rerelease. For whatever reason—perhaps just to give Oda some time off—it would still occasionally dip back into the magazine's material for reruns. Unfortunately, coinciding with the release of web issue #26 to promote the collected edition of Transformers Go! Go!, the preceding twenty-five webcomics were all taken down, simply redirecting to this advertisement—nevermind that many of these strips weren't actually included in the volume!

At the start of 2023, beginning with web issue #19, the comic entered an arc Oda termed "Beast Promo Season"- wherein it switched gears to integrate an iteration of Beast Wars cartoon cast (now contemporaneous with their G1 counterparts a la Kingdom) in the interests of prepping kids for the then-upcoming feature film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, climaxing that fall with a giant-sized special in web issues #28 and #29 featuring many of the film's cast members (though still drawn with more influence from their original G1 or Beast Wars designs, in a fun bit of dissonance with the actual products being advertised!).^[1]

With the magazine and website now publishing in tandem, under two separate numbering schemes, with the collected edition picking and choosing from both, and not to mention the Fan Book stories, the whole thing generally becomes a bit of a headache to document—but we can't stay mad at a comic this cute. Oh Go! Go!, you scamp.

Toys

In a surprising display of attention to detail for a title skewing so young, Go! Go! carries on the grand TakaraTomy comic tradition of aggressive toy accuracy, with each character matching one of their real toys all the way down to their kibble and transformation schemes. As the comic isn't bound to any particular toyline, the combination of advertised toy-of-the-week plus the occasional dip into older toys to paper over the gaps produces a cast cobbled together from disparate Generations toylines resembling a modern Generation 1 (and Beast Wars) fan's real life collection!

...and Long Haul.

War for Cybertron Trilogy Bumblebee Optimus Prime Wheeljack Megatron Soundwave Laserbeak Ravage Elita One		Studio Series '86 Jazz Grimlock Hot Rod Perceptor		War for Cybertron: Earthrise Starscream Ratchet Ironhide Prowl Sunstreaker Bluestreak		TV Magazine exclusive Powerful Long Haul Optimus Prime (Red Clear Ver.) Bumblebee Shining Thunder Ver.		War for Cybertron Trilogy Bumblebee TV Magazine Powerful Long Haul
War for Cybertron: Kingdom Ultra Magnus Blaster Eject Optimus Primal Beast Megatron Rattrap Cheetor Rhinox		Dinobot Tigatron Airazor Inferno Autobot Ark Predacon Scorponok Sideswipe		War for Cybertron: Siege Shockwave Mirage Ironhide		MPG Trainbot Shouki Trainbot Getsuei Trainbot Yukikaze Trainbot Suiken Trainbot Seizan Trainbot Kaen Trainbot Raiden
Legacy Maximal Leo Prime Cyberverse Universe Windblade Autobot Cosmos Beachcomber Cyberverse Universe Chromia		Missing Link C-01 Convoy		Generations Selects Autobot Hound		The Transformers Seaspray
Masterpiece Skyfire

Collections

In light of its overwhelming positive reception, Transformers Go! Go! became the first TV Magazine manga since Masumi Kaneda and Ban Magami's original 1985 run to receive a collected release!^[2]

• Transformers Go! Go! (July 26, 2023) ISBN 4065320852 / ISBN 978-4065320853
  • Collects 19 select issues of Transformers Go! Go!
  • Bonus material includes character profiles and new 4-koma backup strips.
  • Tankōbon format.

• 

  Transformers Go! Go! - cover art by Haruka Oda

Notes

• The comic's soft, friendly aesthetic creates one prominent exception to the aforementioned toy accuracy: the aspiring Go! Go! superfan is free to swap out the advertised exclusives bearing gritty War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon inspired battle damage for their barer standard retail versions with arguably increased resemblance to Oda's art.

References

External links

• Transformers Go! Go! at the TV Magazine website
• Transformers Go! Go! on Comic-Days