I'm Chris Hansen, from "Dateline NBC". Why don't you have a seat?
Kiss Players (キスぷれ, Kisu Pure) takes place in the year 2006, which in the Japanese continuity is one year after the movie and four years before the third season of the cartoon.
Its name comes from the controversial gimmick of the show, which involves Transformers getting "power-ups" when they are kissed by human girls, who fuse with the robots and share their adventures. Although this plotline may seem like a shift in demographics to little girls, it is said that this line was aimed at a much older (and creepier) adult male audience. Indeed, the toys bear an "ages 15 and up" warning, and the subject matter of the accompanying manga is far from child-friendly.
A short Kiss Players story drama segment began airing on the Japanese radio show "Lyrian Moe-tchao" on April 3, 2006 in Japan and ended the final week of September. Each week would feature a 1 to 3-minute story narrated by one of the three voice actresses. In a surprise announcement during the final installment, it was stated that the entire 30-minute radio show would become "Transformers Kiss Play: Transformers News Center" the following week, broadcasting at an earlier time and starring the same trio of voice actresses.
The new radio series started the first week of October, 2006. Highlights included a brief introduction explaining Transformers to new listeners, a "Tell Me Please! Transformers News Center" section during which Takaratomy employees or related professionals discussed Transformers news with the voice actresses, and a section in which the actresses ad-libbed dialogue based on reader-submitted scenarios. The story drama ended with a cliffhanger (and the first episode ever to feature all three voice actresses) in the third week of December, 2006 and was concluded in the drama CD included with the Autorooper X Atari toy set released to stores the following week.
A serialized Kiss Players manga by Yuki Ohshima began publication in August 2006 in the monthly Dengeki Daioh[1] magazine and ran in three 16-page installments. It is very creepy. Several story installments also appeared in the monthly 1-page Teletraan Go! Go! comic published in the Dengeki Hobby magazine.
This actually isn't the most demeaning thing they have to wear.
A new Kiss Players radio story began on December 26, 2006. Starring the same three voice actresses as Rosanna, Sundor and Glit as well as their previous characters, it follows on the events of the first year with the six main characters forming a singing group to entertain Humanity (in what currently appears to be a PG-rated way at most).
The second weekly installment of the new radio serial brought back the lead human characters from the first year and introduced three additional Transformers: the Sparkbots Angela, Stardust and Zangetsu.
The second-year radio series acted more as a refresher course on the history of Transformers fiction than as a serious drama, featuring a storyline that took the human characters and the Sparkbots on a whirlwind tour through time, space and parallel universes in a quest to save the timestream by recovering fragments of the "Allspark" from Autobot leaders of the past, present and future. Through kissing, naturally.
Along the way, it wove together several previously separate or only loosely connected Transformers continuities, including Generation 1, Robots in Disguise and Beast Wars Neo.
Fiction
"Kiss Player" is the title given to any one of a number of young female humans who abruptly gained the power to fuse with Transformers (and Transformer-like robots) in the Earth year 2005.
This fusion occurs when the human kisses the robot, physically combining (minus most clothing) and bestowing special abilities and enhanced regeneration upon the target mechanoid. The human gains some degree of control or influence over the robot's actions for the duration of the fusion. If the human remains fused for too long, she is involuntarily ejected from her robot partner. This can be a disorienting experience and often leaves the Kiss Player unconscious. And naked. And covered in goo.
Later, "Kiss Players" becomes the name of the singing group that includes Marissa, Atari, Shao-Shao, Rosanna, Sundor and Glit.
Major characters
- Marissa Faireborn (voiced by Lyrian) with Optimus Prime (v. Tesshō Genda) (Dodge Ram SRT 10)
- Shaoshao Li (v. Yui Kano) with Hot Rod (v. Ryōtarō Okiayu) (Ford GT)
- Atari Hitotonari (v. Satomi Akesaka) with Autrooper Ne-04 (v. Keiji Hirai) (Mazda RX-8 patrol car)
- Legion (v. Hirofumi Tanaka)
- Sundor (v. Satomi Akesaka)
- Star Dust (v. Satomi Akesaka)
Trivia
The official logo for the series says "Kiss Play" in Japanese text and "Kiss Players" beneath it in English. To avoid confusion, the English title is used here.
External links
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