Transformers: Energon

I can't fathom how terrible this is stay away! Probably rock bottom for the transformers franchise

Since the fantastic Beast Wars, and the decent Beast Machines, Transformers fans have not been very lucky. We've gotten Robots in Disguise, which I never really got into, due to lack of interest. Then, came along, Armada. The action was sparse, the jokes were horrible and I couldn't stand the kids they partnered the "Minicons" with. They had Pokemon'D Transformers.

Now, here comes the light at the end of the tunnel. I was skeptical about Energon, since it was a direct sequel to Armada, but when I started watching I was quite relieved. The fighting and explosions are quite fun to watch, and this time its in a new 3D cell shading form, which at times, can feel awkward, but still is a great addition to the show. Plus, while Armada tired me out with its boring storyline, Energon had me hooked.

And finally, my favorite enhancement, the characters. It seems like they really upped personalities in Energon. A perfect example would be Cyclonus, not so much of an interesting character in the predecessor, but here, he's a Quickstrike-like madman.

While this series isn't the best, its still a nice little candy for us Transformers fans, who have suffered for so, so long.

8/10. Recommended.

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 have enjoyed this cartoon a lot and I think that it's basically the same cartoon only it's dubbed into english. It's not a bad little cartoon actually. I think all of you nitpickers need to lighten up. Energon or Super Link, or whatever the hell you want to call it, is just a new degree of Transformers. They have a rough and tumble female character instead of a female character who relies solely on her male counterparts to get her out of whatever jam she's in. Transformers:Energon is a welcomed change from all of the other series of Transformers shows from Japan that I've seen so far. More than marginal thumbs up from me.

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