(AUG-2013) Energon Era Cartoon - Reviews and Favourites

Following on from the massive surge in momentum of Armada, Hasbro (with Takara) had the second chapter of the "Unicron Trilogy" released right at the end of 2003, just as the 20th Anniversary of Transformers was about to begin.

Details of this series can be read up here.

The Energon cartoon saw a blending of CGI and Cell animation colouring, creating a cartoon that took a bit to get use to.
Developed in Japan first, it was as rushed as the Armada cartoon was in its dubbing and airing in America, so had a lot of errors, including obvious spelling errors - even in several titles.
The one unfortunate side-effect of this rushed conversion of the Energon cartoon from the Japanese Superlink Cartoon, was the loss of a whole episode, which was one of the few important plot episodes as well, dealing with Scorponok's purpose in Energon.
As such, even on the DVD release, there are only 51 episodes in the English version, compared to 52 episodes in the Japanese version.


Did you watch any of the Energon cartoon?
If so, what did you think of it?

Here's your chance to re-watch and review the series.

Any Episodes you want to review?

Are any of the episodes recommended viewing for others?

Probably the worst English dubbed Transformers cartoon. It was a nightmare and felt very tedious to watching it from beginning til end (the beginning actually wasn't too bad but it went downhill fast). The animation was very hard to get used to and wasn't done that well. The story was terrible, and didn't even make sense. I cannot find a single redeeming quality about this series. They also used a lot of stock footage which got really annoying (I remember in one episode they used like eight transformation stock footage back to back).

I might love the toys but that doesn't mean I loved the show. The last time I saw it was when it was aired on TV but from memory I'd say it was......boring. Not really as memorable as the Armada. The show lacked classic feal to it, seems there was very little fighting of Optimus and Megatron. And oh god were the voices bad, especially Bulkheads. I have the whole series on VHS so I might have to go back to see what else was bad. Something good though.....I did like all the little combining and transforming segments but that might have to be it.

Did you watch any of the Energon cartoon?
If so, what did you think of it?
*Much like Armada and RID before it, t'was not my cup of tea. Got them all downloaded, never watch them. Saw quite a lot of them on TV when bored at my in-laws place on cable many years ago.


Any Episodes you want to review?
*Pretty much all the same to me, can't remember any specific ones.

Are any of the episodes recommended viewing for others?
*Like Armada, there were some cool fights near the end of the series. I remember in particular a very nice fight in 2D between Optimus and Megatron/Galvatron near the end of the series.

I only ever saw Super Link -- couldn't bring myself to watch the awful dubbing on Energon. But even so... it's not a terribly memorable series.

The only part that I liked was a scene in one episode, and I can't remember the name of the ep, but it had Roadbuster (Ironhide) and Kicker Jones isolated in some dark cave or something, and Roadbuster asks Kicker why humans keep on fighting when their lives are so fragile. Kicker's reply is essentially in the same spirit as what Gandalf told Frodo in Fellowship of the Ring, "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." It was one of the most deep and meaningful moments in Transformers.

I really like the Super Link theme songs though. Animation was disappointing but. :(

I watched it on tha telly and it was pretty awful. Far too much snazzy Transforming times and a few too many recap episodes.

Remember folks this is the show that had the 500th Transformers (Japanese) episode and it was a total WASTE OF 25 MINUTES.

I don't think I could make myself watch it again.