Transformers: Energon is the explosive second series in the Transformers Unicron Trilogy. The Unicron Trilogy is a series of Transformers animes produced in Japan and redubbed for American audiences. Now you can have the complete Transformers: Energon series in a massive DVD box set thanks to Hasbro and Shout! Factory.
Energon picks up where Transformers: Armada left off: The giant planet-consuming Unicron has been destroyed and the Autobots and Decepticons are working together in an uneasy truce to harvest a new source of energy called Energon. Things get complicated when a mysterious alien Transformer called Alpha Q invades Earth with an army of bad guys called Terrorcons.
The result is an all-out war in which every episode of the series is filled with epic battles as alliances are broken and old enemies return to claim Energon for themselves.
PROS
- Every episode is jam-packed with some kind of epic battle involving hundreds of Transformers. This series truly is, as they say, “All Killer No Filler”.
- The Transformer design is considerably better this time around. All of the Transformers look bigger and badder.
- The human characters are more mature and less annoying. This was a big distraction in Armada. The writing for Energon‘s human characters is much, much better.
- The scale of the series is much more epic. Forget about Earth; the Autobots and Decepticons take their battles to several planets, including the Transformers home planet of Cybertron.
DECEPTI-CONS
- All of the Transformers, with the exception of one part of one episode, are CG animated. The look and feel of a straight-up anime “style” are lost, unlike in Armada.
- There’s so much explosive action and very little downtime during episodes. This can make the constant battling somewhat monotonous (my suggestion is to not watch 6 episodes at a time like I did)
- The cast is so huge that there is very little room for character development. Several humans / Transformers from Armada appear in Energon, but their personalities are noticeably flat. I found it hard to keep track of (much less care about) the characters. I especially missed the love-hate relationship between Megatron and Starscream.
- Besides a marathon-style “Play All” option, the DVDs have no special features.
Bottom line is, it’s not the best, but still a cool Transformers anime. I like to skip around the episodes on box sets like this, but there were times when I found it hard to stop watching during a particular season.
DEPLOYMENT YEAR: 2004
ARMAMENT: 51 EPISODES
PAYLOAD: 7 DISCS
RUNTIME: APPROX. 19 HOURS
FINAL EVALUATION: 3.5 ENERGON STARS
Purchase
Transformers: Energon: Amazon
Check out my Transformers: Armada review
