The Kiss Players run afoul of the Quintessons.

Synopsis

Aboard Brave Maximus on their time-travelling mission from the Sparkbots, Shaoshao cooks the Kiss Players a meal, but Atari Hitotonari isn't particularly impressed by Shaoshao just boiling some eggs. Marissa Faireborn's thoughts are elsewhere, with wishing to be back with Optimus Prime, to Shaoshao's annoyance. Their discussion is interrupted by their vessel coming to an sudden stop. The girls leave outside with the Sparkbots to investigate, finding that Brave Maximus has been trapped on a strange planet along with other spaceships in the year 2011. They're immediately surrounded by Sharkticons. Shaoshao attempts to use the universal greeting she's picked up from Hot Rod on the beasts, but it doesn't work and the three are taken captive.

Restrained, the Kiss Players are brought before Quintesson Judges, who promise to punish them for travelling through time. The girls are disgusted by the squid-like aliens, but Atari hits upon the idea of using the power of moe—using the power of kissing the Sparkbots to change into cute outfits—and requesting mercy from the Quintessons. Unfortunately, all three change into embarrassing animal-themed outfits. Nevertheless, Atari tries to play up the cuteness factor, managing to convince the Quintessons to declare the trio innocent. However, innocence still carries the penalty of death, and so the Sharkticons are sicced on the humans. Just as they about to be eaten, Optimus Prime and Goldbug burst into the scene! Their ship freed by Optimus, the Kiss Players are carried by the Sparkbots back to Brave Maximus despite Marissa's desire to reunite with Optimus.

The Kiss Players make it back in time before Brave Maximus is completely swallowed by the spacetime vortex, but the Quintessons, who scream that they're the last of their race, are sucked into it with no way of escaping. Shaoshao is surprised that Optimus is alive in the future, and encourages the other two to continue their mission in gathering the Allspark fragments so that they can return to their original time. The three decide to mark their respective Sparkbots with their own unique designs and promise to try their best in the future.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• This kamishibai (essentially a narrated series of pictures shown to an audience) was performed live at Tokyo Toy Festival 2007, and was accompanied by 30 pieces of art drawn by Yuki Ohshima. A full script of the story was included in the Kiss Players/15 Go! Go! compilation.
• A recording of this show was used as part of the "final" airing of Kiss Players that included episode 51.
• Taking place in 2011, this story aims to explain why the Quintessons did not appear beyond 2010 (the Japanese dub of the third season of The Transformers). Indeed, they do not chronologically appear again till 2050, as detailed in Generations Selects Special Comic, published in 2020.
• Marissa's "moe" transformation into wearing a sailor suit with bunny ears is a reference to Sailor Moon, as the title character is named "Usagi", the Japanese word for "rabbit".