Beast Wars II (sometimes Beast Wars the Second) was the first Japanese-only Beast Wars franchise, consisting of the following components:
- A toyline.
- A manga series.
- A television series.
- A theatrical-release movie, Beast Wars Special.
- A (mostly unseen) backstory for the IDW Beast Wars comics.
The Beast Wars II toyline consisted almost entirely of redecoes (and the occasional retool) of Generation 1, Generation 2, Machine Wars, and American Beast Wars toys, although all new molds were created for the two faction leaders: Lio Convoy, a white lion, Galvatron, a purple dragon, and Moon an oft-abused robot space bunny anime mascot. Most of the Destrons are mechanical while the Cybertrons all have beast modes.
The cartoon series aired in Japan between season one of Beast Wars and seasons two and three, in order to fill the gap until the later seasons could be dubbed into Japanese. It was followed by Beast Wars Neo. The Cybertron (Maximal) team starts off with Lio Convoy, Apache, Bighorn, Tasmania Kid, Scuba, and Diver. The Destron (Predacon) side starts off with Galvatron, Megastorm, Starscream, BB, Dirge, and Thrust.
Years later, IDW worked the characters from Beast Wars II and at least some version of the events of the anime into their Beast Wars comic continuity.