Transformers: Energon

When I heard about this show, I was rather skeptical. I was sorely disappointed with "Transformers: Armada" (or "Micron Densetsu," depending upon your language preference) and I really had very little hope for the following series. Called "Transformers: Energon" in the English-language version, "Superlink" had been airing for four weeks in Japan before the first Energon episode aired in the States. That being said, there are four episodes by which to judge this series, and I think that's a fair sampling for a preliminary evaluation.

Thus far, Superlink/Energon is superior to Micron Densetsu/Armada in every conceivable way. The animation is just that -- animated. Armada had a very distinct lack of motion that really detracted from it. Armada was more or less a comic book on television with mouths that occasionally opened and closed. Superlink is just the opposite. It looks like an actual cartoon (what a concept!). On top of that, the cel-shaded CGI technique makes it all look quite incredible.

Of course, it would be easy to disregard the inadequate animation of Armada if the writing was worth talking about. I suppose it goes without saying that it was not. Now, however, Superlink seems to have given us Transformers fans something to actually look forward to. Whereas the dialogue and plot of Armada was incredibly stale and not at all engaging, Superlink is very in your face and quick.

The biggest improvement, however, would be the voice acting. Although I have yet to see or hear the English version of this show (Energon), the Japanese version is much better than its predecessor Micron Densetsu and I can only assume that since this major problem has been cleared up at the source, it will be like that when it gets here. The dialogue isn't flat and there aren't awkward silences for no reason. The actors actually sound like they're -- gasp -- acting. Overall, this is a very worthy successor to the holy trilogy of Transformers series (the original, Beast Wars, Beast Machines). Great stuff all around and I can't wait to see what else develops.

As said already, Energon is a little better than Armada, which was a mess. However it could have been much better, nowhere near as good as the original show or Beast Wars. Some of the battles/action(more than Armada and much better quality-wise) are epic status- the highlights of the show by some distance-, the rise of Megatron was a good idea and is the best idea the show had, Megatron is still a cool villain and the voice acting from Garry Chalk, David Kaye and Scott McNeill is decent(though all three were better in Beast Wars, where all give some of their best ever voice acting. The animation is not as bad it is in Armada, but it is rather flat and scrappily put together with some overly-saturated CGI. The character designs take some getting used to, never really dug them personally. The music lacks urgency and atmosphere and the theme tune is at best forgettable. The writing is rather stilted and isn't that involving, not giving the voice actors much to do. Pretty much the same with the stories, which are both juvenile and dull, the best ideas they have read of too much of drawn-out-retreads and that is including the rise of Megatron. Not much characterisation to write home about either, the human characters are over-used and annoying, the lead human character is every bit as obnoxious as any of Armada's human characters combined, while with the exception of Megatron the robots lack personality. The voice acting on the whole- Kaye, Challk and McNeill excepted- is not great, as dry, emotionless and stilted as the writing, they also sound like they're recorded in a helium balloon. All in all, a marginal improvement but could have been so much better. 4/10 Bethany Cox

When I first saw Energon on TV, I thought it was pretty bad. I found a lot of the main characters to be annoying, poor voice acting, you name it.

Then I was convinced by someone to watch the original Japanese version with subtitles.

Wow! What a difference! Characters who are annoying in Energon are actually very well fleshed out and much more tolerable. The two characters in Energon who I liked least (Ironhide and Kicker), became my two favorites (although Ironhide is called Roadbuster) in Superlink! This makes all the difference, as these two are core members of the cast, and probably the closest things to being main characters.

I also really enjoyed the portrayals of Alpha-Q and Megazarak (Scorponok in Energon). David Kaye is always a treat when he does English voices for Megatron, but I found the Japanese voice actor to be very good as well.

It's a very high-energy show with plenty of action, and a surprising amount of character development.

Also, I hear that the Japanese version has a better quality CGI animation. The version sent to the US for dubbing was about not quite complete, as it had to be sent well ahead of time to get the dubbing process started. The Japanese had plenty of time to clean up the animation and still beat the English dub to TV. I stopped watching Energon, so I can't quite confirm, but I've read this on many sources. I also found no reason to complain about the animation in Superlink, while one of the biggest complaints about Energon was in the animation.

I highly recommend tracking down the Japanese version, if you can tolerate subtitles. It's certainly a different animal than Beast Wars, but I found myself enjoying it just as much in the end.

I Know Transformers: Energon/Superlink Is A Mess Because Of Crude CGI, Messy English Dub, Calling Characters Names Wrong, Autobots Downshift And Cliffjumper Switching Their Names Around, Stiff Facial Expressions, Error Laying Dialog, Animation Errors, Music Playing At Inappropriate Moments And Many More. But It's Not All That Bad. I Only Watched The Show For The Action And Humor. Transitioning Transformers From 2D Animation To CGI Is Actually A Good Idea. If You Hate The Show That's Fine. Everyone Has Their Opinions. Is This Show Worth Watching? To Me, Yes. Others No.

If Transformers Armada was a painfully slow climbing theme park ride that came with a satisfyingly good payoff once it picked up momentum, Transformers Energon/Superlink(i watched both English and Japanese versions) would be like a rocket launch disaster; starting off really strong but blowing up halfway and getting reduced to one of the worse Transformers shows in recent years.

Taking place 10 years after Armada, Transformers Energon's opening episodes are extremely well written with many character subplots thrown in and for the first time, the human characters are actually likable.

Kicker has to handle his "coming of age" angst, the added responsibilities that come with growing up and to step out of the shadows of his father and the Autobots. Demolishor has a decent character arc regarding his wavering sense of purpose with the Autobots and his uncertain loyalty to the decepticon cause that he believed no longer existed. Even Ironhide is set up as an impulsive young rookie who grows up learns the true meaning of being a soldier over the course of the episodes.

Great, all the themes and subplots are in place. Then what happens? They all get conveniently forgotten over time, leading to subsequent episodes that have little to no character development or advancement of the subplots. The main plot itself, involving the decepticon's plan to revive unicron seems stretched to breaking point over the course of the 52 episodes. I feels like only 20+ episodes of actual story material sprinkled into 52 episodes. The episodes themselves never actually contain 20+ minutes of story material since A lot of time is wasted on necessary reiteration of plot points via dialogue, rambling monologues, stock footage of battles or transformations and senseless action.

The animation is actually a step up from the final episodes of Transformers Armada. It utilities a mixture of 2D for human characters and Cel shaded 3D animation for the robots. The 2D animation is superb. Vibrant and sharp colors with attractive character designs and a better attention to detail make the humans quite appealing to the eye.

The robots on the other hand do not warrant the same level of praise. Though done in 3D with least 8 years worth of better animation software than what Mainframe had to work with on Beast Wars, the animation here is actually a lot worse that the 1996 Beast Wars. Though character designs are nice to look at due to their insane level of art detail, their movements are extremely stiff, sometimes even stiffer than the 2D animated robots from Transformers Armada. "Body Gestures" just involve the 3D models "snapping" into different positions like still photographs in a slide show and "movement" is just the 3D models pulled across the screen. The 3D characters have no feel of "mass" in the way they move. Other CGI effects like explosions and laser fire look very primitive and are sometimes off model. The action scenes are exciting at first, with large scale yet fully animated fights involving many characters are made do-able with the CGI. But after a while, the uninspired directing and unprofessionally storyboarded battles get real boring, real fast.

Having watched both Japanese and English versions, i must say that both had its good and bad points. The voice acting in the Japanese version seemed a little too "flat". Many of the characters sound alike and the human characters tend to over do a lot of their lines, giving a very "high school stage play" feel to the whole thing. The English version was by far better acted with the voices having very distinct personalities and nuances to them. Basically Lines were more realistically delivered by the actors than the Japanese version. However good acting does not save a horrible script and by golly, the script was a complete mess. The dialogue, once boring or irritating, devolved to the point of senseless babbling and even turned illogical and contradictory. Some characters have up to three different names that interchange between different episodes and sometimes a line is spoken by the wrong voice actor for the wrong character. A terrible, stilted and cliché ridden excuse for a script that sounds worse that the most horrible episodes of Power Rangers. THe Japanese script fares slightly better but is filled to the brim with cheesiness and misplaced humour.

This series is a huge pity. It started off so strong and totally went on a downward spiral into the absurd. Even the Energon comic series which showed so much potential got cut down in its prime and is now left incomplete and open-ended.

This show may make an entertaining watch for anyone below the age of 6, and maybe for the "completist" who MUST watch every single transformers series ever made.

Other than that, Transformers Energon is not worth your money, or your hard drive space.