Energon (anime)

The Energon cartoon series, aired from 2003 to 2004, was a direct sequel to Armada, and forms the second part of the "Unicron Trilogy".

The show takes place ten years after the finale of Armada, opening in an age of peace on Cybertron and Earth which is destined not to last long. Energon pits the Autobots against an array of villains: the reborn Megatron, the barely functional Unicron, and the mysterious Alpha-Q and his Terrorcon minions.

Energon, like Armada, was written and animated in Japan and dubbed for US consumption. The series employed the popular technique of combining cel-shaded computer animation with 2D cel-animation, creating a fusion between the CGI of Beast Wars/Machines and traditionally animated series such as Robots in Disguise.

Criticisms
The Unicron Trilogy was a frachise that got off to a poor start, fictionally speaking, with Armada suffering from a beginning that, in the eyes of many, condemned the entire show from the outset. Although it improved as it went along, with the "Unicron Battles" arc generally being regarded fairly well in comparison to the rest of the series, the sub-part start series left the series laboring under a bad reputation that it was never truly able to escape.

It was perhaps quite the proverbial brick to the testicles, then, that Armada's sequel series, Energon, turned out to be just the oppositea series with a strong beginning, which slowly but surely degenerated into what is regarded as one of the worst Transformers cartoons broadcast on American television. In retrospect, even the strong reception the beginning of the series recieved was perhaps, in part, due simply to the fact that it "wasn't Armada."

Conceptual and storytelling flaws
It is generally held that the primary flaw of the Energon series is, put simply, that it does not have enough plot to sustain its 52-episode run. The first half of the series moves along at a respectable pace, and at the halfway point, the villains' objective - the restoration of Unicron - is achieved. However, for no reason other than the fact that there are another 26 episodes to fill, Unicron is promptly deactivated, and the basic storyline of the first half of the series is repeated, until Unicron is reactivated again, and then destroyed in episode 39. But even the destruction of the driving aspect of the plot could not bring the series to a close, as there were a further 13 episodes to go. These remaining episodes were filled with a virtually completely pointless storyline full of repaints and combiners which add nothing to what had already taken place.

The series takes a very dismissive attitude towards its characters and their development. With the exception of Ironhide, who is allowed to survive the series through to its conclusion and to have his long-running feud with Scorponok brought to a close, the series writers seemed unable to carry characters' personal sub-plots and conflicts through to any conclusion. Instead, the plots would either be quietly dropped forever, or - much more gallingly - the characters would be killed and/or have their minds wiped so the stories would not have to be resolved. Demolishor's uncertainity in the Decepticon cause? "Resolved" by having him killed, then resurrected with no memories. Inferno's struggle against Megatron's Decepticon programming? Brought to an end by having him kill himself, then be resurrected, only to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the series. Wing Saber's dedication to capturing Shockblast? Well, he captures him... but then he escapes again, and Wing Saber doesn't say a word. Rodimus and Optimus Prime's ideological feud over whether or not Unicron should be destroyed? Rodimus puts himself under Optimus's command for the mission to defeat Galvatron, and the argument never comes up again. Kicker's hatred of Transformers? Vanishes with no explanation after roughly two episodes. It just goes on like this...

In choosing to set most of its action in the void of space, Energon rather foolishly robbed the Transformers of any real reason to transform. They can all happily fly in robot mode (in space, on planets, anywhere), begging the question of why transformation is even necessary, but because this show is about Transformers, they would regularly transform anyway... and fly through space anyway. Cue an innumerable number of scenes of cars, snowmobiles and dump trucks driving through space, able to control their direction and movement with no problem, effectively completely invalidating the need for any variety in alternate mode at all.

Whereas the English version of the series takes its name from the central plot element - the collection of Energon for various purposes - the Japanese version, Super Link, takes its name from the main thematic concept - the powerlinxing of the Autobots together. Although the Japanese version of the show contained a lot of waffling about the symbolic nature of this ("Even when one heart is weak, together, we are strong!"), the fact remains that, almost without fail, these much-vaunted combinations are used in straight firefights, where combining two soldiers in to one means fewer guns to fire back at the enemy. The resulting combined soldier rarely if ever shows any sign of enhanced firepower.

Dubbing disasters
Although Armada was famous for its rushed production, Energon, seemed to be even more rushed - while it did not feature as many straight-up technical errors as Armada, generally getting characters names right (with some exceptions), its scripts featured virtually no re-writing to adapt them for Western sensibilities, or even checking to see if they make any logical sense. As a result, the show has moments of genuine nonsense, with arbitrary new dialogue (that seems to exist purely due to carelessness/stupidity on the part of the writers) which does not match what is occurring onscreen, or often bizarre non-sequiturs.

The voice acting, even when coming from respected talent like Gary Chalk and David Kaye, is frequently flat and uninspired. Although this can be a common result of the antiseptic ADR (automated dialog replacement) environment, where actors perform solo with no-one to play off of, Energon is bad even by those standards, with the actors clearly having no idea what their lines mean in the greater scheme of things, or any idea of what they're really talking about. And there's a pronounced amount of "filling dead air," with characters talking from offscreen simply to make noise where there was none originally.

Put an episode in and take a shot everyone someone goes "Uhh?" simply to break the silence.

You'll be hammered by the first commercial break.

Episodes
1. Cybertron City 2. Energon Stars 3. Scorpinok 4. Megatron's Sword 5. The New Cybertron City 6. Megatron Resurrected 7. Megatron Raid 8. Starscream the Mysterious Mercenary 9. Battle of the Asteroid Belt 10. Energon Tower 11. The Legend of Rodimus 12. Crisis in Jungle City 13. Kicker Beware 14. Energon Grid 15. Rodimus: Friend or Foe? 16. Go For Unicron 17. The Return of Demolishor 18. A Tale of Two Heroes 19. Battle Stations 20. Alpha Q: Identity 21. Shockblast: Rampage 22. Survival Instincts 23. Each One Fights . .. 24. Unicron Unleashed 25. Open Fire! 26. Ripped Up Space

27. Team Optimus Prime 28. Protection 29. Improsoned Inferno 30. Jungle Planet 31. Bulkhead 32. Farewell Inferno 33. Scorponok's Scars 34. Crash Course 35. Omega Supreme 36. A Heroic Battle 37. The Power 38. Optimus Supreme 39. Unicron Perishes 40. Ambition 41. Wishes 42. Galvatron 43. Breakthrough! 44. Distribution 45. The Omega Train 46. Decepticon Army 47. Ironhide Team 48. Formidable 49. Galvatron Terror 50. Destructive Power 51. Spark 52. The Sun