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Since debuting in the early ‘80s, there have been at least ten different Transformers animated series broadcast in the U.S.—some connected, some simply featuring the same character names and basic formats. The mid-2000s saw the Unicron Trilogy—three separate but interconnected series: Transformers: Armada, Transformers: Energon, and Transformers: Cybertron. After getting off to a shaky start with Armada, Energon attempts to repair some of its problems while only exacerbating others.
Energon picks up ten years after the events of Armada. The Decepticon leader, Megatron, and the world-devouring super-transformer, Unicron, have been deactivated and are drifting through space. Optimus Prime and the Autobots have joined with humanity in creating new cities on several planets, including Earth and Cybertron. The peace doesn’t last long, however, as a mysterious new transformer begins rebuilding the Decepticons and sending out drones to gather energon, the fuel that keeps transformers going and could even bring long-dead enemies back to life.
As it did with Armada, Hasbro commissioned a Japanese animation studio to create the series before producing an English translation for broadcast in the U.S. While Armada relied on traditional hand-drawn cel animation, Energon utilizes a computer-drawn technique called cel-shading for the transformers while preserving the traditional approach for backgrounds and human characters. The updated graphics do allow for more detail in the transformers’ designs, but it does so at the expense of presenting a cohesive visual flow. The English vocal dub fares equally poorly, with many of the same mistakes that plagued Armada returning here.
Technical details like this probably shouldn’t matter much to a cartoon that’s designed primarily to appeal to young kids and to sell toys—with the emphasis, of course, on the latter. Unfortunately, Energon squanders its resources in terms of plot and character as well. It gets off to a fairly strong start, adding some new characters and fleshing out the mythology behind these particular series. But that promise begins to fade about a third of the way in, as the story begins to settle into a series of narrative loops and stalls that seem to be killing time until the series can finally reach a conclusion.
Things are even more problematic on the character side of things. The big gimmick this time around is that the transformers can combine. It’s a technique that must have been fun to play with in the toys, but it results in confusion in the cartoon, as some characters seem to exist solely to become somebody else’s legs once the battles start up. Meanwhile, the trio of human teenagers from Armada is shifted to the background in Energon in favor of new teen rebel Kicker—one-third the animation cost and three times as irritating.
Armada didn’t reboot the animated Transformers universe particularly well, and Energon just reinforces that slide. The upgraded animation techniques show some promise, especially with better integration, and there’s always the draw of some giant robot brawling action. But unless you were a fan of Armada—and the laws of probability suggest that there should be at least one out there—there’s not much in Energon to merit a second look.
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