Story is not bad actually, it's just the butchering the dubbers have put it through that make the shows kinda lame.

:clap :clap :clap Yes! I agree completely. If they would just translate the story instead of trying to change it, everything would be fine.

The dubbers play a big part in the show being good or bad.

Even with the poor translating, it's not the worst show ever.

Story is not bad actually, it's just the butchering the dubbers have put it through that make the shows kinda lame.

:clap :clap :clap Yes! I agree completely. If they would just translate the story instead of trying to change it, everything would be fine.

The dubbers play a big part in the show being good or bad.

Even with the poor translating, it's not the worst show ever.

Yeah, that's true. I still watch Energon even with the atrocious dubbing, and try to get the actual story from online sources.

 

BTW, does anyone know if the US edition Armada DVD's have an option for Japanese w/English Subtitles? I'm thinking about putting the Armada box set on my X-Mas list.

Hirofumi Ichkawa does a nifty job filling in the plot holes with Linkage

If you have ever cought yourself wondering,

*How the hell do the Minicon Panels work?

*Where the heck did Scavenger get his Minicon?

*Why the Minicons are loyal to the Decepticons?

*How did the Minicons get those nifty SSJ powers near the end

*Whats the deal with Nemisis Prime?

*where did the Minicons go after armada

then thismanga is for you

p.s. The Armadamatrix is in Energon Primes Chest!

If you have to look through an obscure Japanese manga, that the main audience (kids) wouldn't know about, just to understand some plotholes, then that means that the storytelling is piss-poor.

 

You can also make up excuses like "it's been ten years", or whatever crap just to bridge unexplained holes in the storyline, and not actually show it in the cartoon itself, it's not official canon and pointless. You can make up a load of BS about how to combine the two "origins" of the Constructicons back in G1, but since it was never explained in the cartoon itself, we could attribute it to the ineptitude of the writers.

 

If the writers of Superlink were any good, they would have at least gave a brief introductory clip of what happened in the end of Micron/Armada, so the viewers would not only understand what happened after ML and how it connects to SL, but also allow non-viewers of Armada to understand what is going on in the beginning of Energon/SL

Story is not bad actually, it's just the butchering the dubbers have put it through that make the shows kinda lame.

:clap :clap :clap Yes! I agree completely. If they would just translate the story instead of trying to change it, everything would be fine.

The dubbers play a big part in the show being good or bad.

Even with the poor translating, it's not the worst show ever.

Yeah, that's true. I still watch Energon even with the atrocious dubbing, and try to get the actual story from online sources.

 

BTW, does anyone know if the US edition Armada DVD's have an option for Japanese w/English Subtitles? I'm thinking about putting the Armada box set on my X-Mas list.

I have the Armada box set, and there are no subtitles. I was hoping for that

too. Also, this set does not have any bonus material such as interviews,

bonus footage etc.

Hirofumi Ichkawa does a nifty job filling in the plot holes with Linkage

If you have ever cought yourself wondering,

*How the hell do the Minicon Panels work?

*Where the heck did Scavenger get his Minicon?

*Why the Minicons are loyal to the Decepticons?

*How did the Minicons get those nifty SSJ powers near the end

*Whats the deal with Nemisis Prime?

*where did the Minicons go after armada

then thismanga is for you

p.s. The Armadamatrix is in Energon Primes Chest!

If you have to look through an obscure Japanese manga, that the main audience (kids) wouldn't know about, just to understand some plotholes, then that means that the storytelling is piss-poor.

 

You can also make up excuses like "it's been ten years", or whatever crap just to bridge unexplained holes in the storyline, and not actually show it in the cartoon itself, it's not official canon and pointless. You can make up a load of BS about how to combine the two "origins" of the Constructicons back in G1, but since it was never explained in the cartoon itself, we could attribute it to the ineptitude of the writers.

 

If the writers of Superlink were any good, they would have at least gave a brief introductory clip of what happened in the end of Micron/Armada, so the viewers would not only understand what happened after ML and how it connects to SL, but also allow non-viewers of Armada to understand what is going on in the beginning of Energon/SL

:clap

 

That's a very good explanation. All that really counts is what you see on the screen. :thumb

RID

 

 

 

*ITS THE STUFF THAT FLOTS IN YOUR TOILET*

I actually like RID better than both Armada and Energon combined. Go figure. That show didn't try to be serious, it was just fun to watch for me. Especially with Sky-Bite and his haikus(sp). And it had more action and better animation than Armada. I have a hard time taking Armada and Energon seriously, and it just feels like it drags on at times. RID had self contained eps for the most part, until Ultra Magnus and Fort Max hit the scene. I dunno, for some reason I just really enjoyed that show a lot better than both Armada and Energon. Can't wait for that DVD to come out.

Well, Armada/Energon are definitely NOT the worst show ever. Simply because some of G1 episodes sucks BIG TIME too! :clap

 

If you're going to fault Armada/Energon show because of poor dialogue, lack of continuation, involvement of humans, etc., I guess you should apply it to G1 as well. Can't comment on BW because I didn't watch it (simply because I don't like beasts).

 

In any case, the Energon show has got some of the best animation yet as far as TF show is concerned. :thumb

First off, credentials.

 

G1, then Masterforce, then Victory, then Headmasters, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and now, Energon.

 

I never got RiD or Armada, and I'm getting Energon from the net. Early eps from Direct Connect, and later eps from Cartoon Network.

 

Based on what I've seen... yeah, I'd say Energon's the worse of the bunch. It might not be the worse show out there, but of the Transformers I've seen, I'd say it's the worse. Which is surprising, never thought anything could beat Headmasters.

 

Alrighty, so here's my review of the series and why I think it's probably the worse of the lot.

 

Dubbing and questionable medium for art aside.

 

The early eps showed promise, but then... failed to cash in on the various potentials.

 

That's the review in a nutshell, now for more specific reasons.

 

Energon. You know, the Megatron in Energon ain't so bad. There's technically nothing wrong with him, aside from a tendency to downgrade his minions (Attack Chopper to Ski-thingy and Tank to Beavis & Butthead). He's ruthless (although I don't feel his voice actor quite manages the ruthless aspect), powerful, relatively clever if lacking in imagination, and has a decent mission statement.

 

Unfortunately, he has to deal with Energon.

 

Not energy that you can mold into energ(on)y cubes, but crytalized poison, the kind found in Beast Wars. In fact, the TFs in Energon seem to be vulnerable to just about any form of energon other than specialized energon stars. While it does open some story opportunities, at the same time, it limits the scope of plans that Megatron can pull off.

 

Deszaras from Victory for instance, could at least attack an oil plant and put human civilians in danger.

 

Megatron from Energon on the other hand, has no choice but to order his horde of Terrorcons to attack the one spot on entire planets that have energon, and because Energon (the series) is set across the galaxy/universe, he's forced to have them attack only planets where the Autobots are currenly occupying (for story purposes, can't fault a guy for doing things for story purposes).

 

While yes, dramatic and such to send a horde of cannon fodder to where your enemies are, you also gotta feel just a weeeee bit silly, considering you have an entire galaxy to steal from, yet sending your troops to the one planet you're most likely to fail in your plans. Especially since you know your foes are going to be waiting for you, because there's apparently only one source of energon per planet.

 

Second, Superlinking/Powerlinxing. In theory, good. In execution... totally wasted. The first ep of Energon I saw, was ep 1. And in that ep, a sky of Terrorcons appeared. The Autobots blast a bunch of them, then decide to up the ante by powerlinxing, which apparently, is an Autobot thing to do, 'cause, y'know, Autobots are the good guys, they have to 'fight fair', being outnumbered 1287 to 3 is unsportsmanlike, so to make things more even, they powerlinx so as to cut their firepower by half.

 

So, main problem with powerlinxing is of course, there's no 'power upping' from the process. Masterforce Optimus/Ginrai merged with his trailer so as to fight against a gestalt, then merged with Godbomber to fight the Decepticon heavy hitters. Star Saber and Victory Leo from Victory merged to become Victory Saber so that Star Saber can once again, Wesley Crusher/Mary Sue/God Mode over every other character in the series.

 

But in Energon... it looks like they simply powerlinx to give themselves a handicap. It only takes one shot to blow up a Terrorcon after all, heck, even Kicker can blow up Terrorcons, why cut down your firepower?

 

Third, characters. When you get down to it, except for being the leader (thus getting more dramatic lines), Optimus is pretty much interchangeable with Jetfire, Hotshot and Inferno (although Inferno gets a decent story later on... then dies... then becomes interchangeable again, only with a yellow color scheme). Okay, I can accept that maybe the Autobots were already fully explored in Armada. After all, Hotshot was a hotshot in Armada yes? And Jetfire had a pretty darn significant role from what I heard.

 

But then we have the Decepticons. Demolisher started as having a bit of a moral dilemma, Cyclonus was cool simply by being Cyclonus, Tidal Wave just had that charisma. Starscream had his history in Armada and such. And Scorponok played his role very well indeed. So, what happened to them? Demolisher became Beavis and Butthead. Cyclonus became a yodeller. Tidal Wave... stayed cool, even if he got shrunk down. Starscream became an essentially mindless slave. Ditto for Scorponok. True, we got Shockblast, and despite the cheap way he was ousted, at least now we have Sixshot, who is cool for being the first TF to have a "real" accent since G1. But by then, it's already too late. Unicron's been diminished to the point that his dialogue is "Arrrrrrrggggghhhhhh" and "Need more energon!", add in what happened to the Decepticons...

 

It's not to say Demolisher and Snowcat aren't good mind you, they're amusing for kids I guess, but, my feeling is, they were an experiment that failed 6 out of 10.

 

Fourth. Ironhide. Voice aside. I don't think he translates to english/western very well. Maybe in Japan, and other macho eastern type societies, telling a guy (Kicker) who just told you he was emotionally traumatized because his dad threw him into a crater without a light when he was a kid, AND told him to look for energon despite having his lifeline get cut off to "Grow up Kicker" is cool, but in English... it just makes you sound like a pr**k. Add in the fact that he's a sycophant (notice how he sucks up when the senior Autobots are around, but mistreats Kicker when they're gone), and you have a rather unlikeable character. Sure, he has his moments, but his truly bad moments stick out.

 

Optimus gets a ton of points for taking every opportunity he gets to punch Ironhide in the face. I think he's done it at least 3 times. Once around the beginning of the series, another time during the big race, then once more before the showdown with Unicron. With the last one, it was like he was getting his last lick in before he goes off to face his impending doom. He just walked up and punched Ironhide in the face, then made up an excuse on the spot. He might be a chicken legged fattimus, but you gotta hand it to Prime.

 

Soooooo.... yeah, it's not that the show doesn't have it's bright points but due to various factors, such as art (cg has its pros and cons, but I think they stuck to the toy design TOO much) and sparks (took away from the severity of death, which is not a bad thing for a kid's show, but it does detract from the overall drama), Energon just falls flat to me.

 

On the other hand, Headmasters was torture to watch (I still watched, because I'm a TF tool), so flat vs torture... depending on your perspective, Headmasters may still be king of the hill.

P.S. I wouldn't say Jayce and the Wheel Warriors was the worse show ever. Sure, Jayce himself was kinda generic and the vehicles (except for Battlebase) were uninspiring, but Herk was decent. Oon/Uun/whatever was cool. The wizard dude... not so much. Flora was... okay, I was too young to appreciate her pedo-baitiness, but Herk and Oon were coolness.