Transformers: Cybertron
| Transformers: Cybertron | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| トランスフォーマー ギャラクシーフォース (Transformers: Galaxy Force) |
|
| Demographic | Shonen |
| Genre | Mecha, Science Fiction |
| TV anime | |
| Director | Hiroyuki Kakudou, Manabu Ono |
| Studio | GONZO |
| Network |  TV Aichi
Cartoon Network, Kids' WB
CITV, Toonami YTV ATV Happy
TV |
| Original run | July 2, 2005 – October 2, 2006 (US) |
| Episodes | 52 |
Transformers: Cybertron, known in Japan as Transformers: Galaxy Force (トランスフォーマー ギャラクシーフォース Toransufōmā: Garakushī Fōsu?), is the 2005-2006 Transformers toy line and animated series, another co-production between Hasbro and Takara. While the show is a stand-alone series in Japan, unrelated to previous Transformers cartoons, its English-language counterpart is a follow-up to Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Energon. In the anime, all of the Transformers are CG (computer-generated). The anime is probably going to be distributed on DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray by Warner Brothers.
Storyline
When the destruction of Unicron results in the formation of a massive black hole, the planet Cybertron, home world of the Transformers, is threatened, and its population is evacuated to Earth, taking the forms of local vehicles and machinery to hide from humanity. As this occurs, Optimus Prime's elite team of Autobot warriors are approached by the ancient Transformer Vector Prime, who has emerged from his resting place in the void outside of time to inform them of the legendary Cyber Planet Keys, ancient artifacts of power which can stop the black hole and save the universe. Lost due to an accident during an attempt to create a cross-universal space bridge network, the Cyber Planet Keys now reside on four worlds somewhere in the universe - unfortunately, Vector Prime's map showing their location is stolen by Decepticon leader Megatron, and both forces relocate to Earth as the race to find them begins.
On Earth, the Autobots befriend three human children named Coby, Bud and Lori, who aid them in locating the Omega Lock, the focusing device for the Cyber Planet Key's power. With new "Cyber Key Powers" awakened in them, the Transformers battle on many fronts, searching for the Lock on Earth while Hot Shot and Red Alert head for Velocitron, the Speed Planet, which is the resting place of the first key. As Hot Shot competes in the planet's grand racing championship to win the key from planet leader Override, the Lock is located on Earth in the bulk of the crashed Transformer spaceship the Atlantis, and Autobot Overhaul heads for the next world, Jungle Planet, where the power of its Cyber Planet Key reformats him into Leobreaker. Megatron ingratiates himself with Jungle Planet ruler Scourge, while at the same time, his scheming lieutenant Starscream teams up with the mysterious Sideways, working towards his own goals.
Ultimately, the Autobots succeed in acquiring the Keys of both Velocitron and Jungle Planet, at which point the existence of Earth's own Cyber Planet Key is revealed. Starscream makes his power play and overthrows Megatron, stealing the Omega Lock and all three keys from the Autobots and using them to grow in size and power. Their forces bolstered by the ancient Autobots from Earth and the arrival of Wing Saber, who combines with Optimus Prime, the Autobots fight their way through a vengeful Megatron and defeat Starscream - but the battle is not without casualties, as Hot Shot, Red Alert and Scattorshot are gravely wounded and rebuilt into the even more powerful "Cybertron Defense Team."
Returning to Cybertron, the Autobots use the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys, which awakens the spirit of Primus, the deity who is creator of the Transformers, and Cybertron itself actually transforms into the god's body. After a battle in which Starscream taps the power of Primus and grows to planetary size - only to be defeated by Primus himself - the location of the fourth and final key is determined as Gigantion, the Giant Planet. Gigantion, however, exists in another dimension, having fallen through a rift in space/time, and while the Autobots are able to reach the planet, the Decepticons are led there by the enigmatic Soundwave. Bested by the planet's leader Metroplex, Megatron taps the key's power to become Galvatron, and Sideways and Soundwave reveal themselves to be inhabitants of Planet X, a world destroyed by the Gigantions, upon whom they seek revenge. Galvatron blasts them and Starscream into another dimension and acquires the Lock and Keys for himself, intending to use their power to accelerate the universal degeneration caused by the black hole and remake the cosmos in his own image. Vector Prime sacrifices his life to allow the Autobots to return to their home universe, and the five planet leaders confront Galvatron within the black hole and defeat him. With all the Cyber Planet Keys now in his possession, Primus uses their power to finally seal the black hole, ending its threat.
As the planet's various civilizations attempt to return to life as normal, Galvatron attacks the Autobots for one final time. Without any troops to call his own, Galvatron engages Optimus Prime in a one-on-one duel, and is finally destroyed for good. Optimus says "We're like the two sides of a same coin, never leaving, so, I'll have to finish this on my own" With this final victory, Optimus Prime begins a new space bridge initiative, and the Transformers set sail for the four corners of the universe, and new adventures.
Characters
Transformers: Cybertron features a large cast of diverse characters; with each planet the Autobots and Decepticons visit offering civilizations with differing ideologies, mentalities and transformations. The vehicular inhabitants of Velocitron are obsessed with racing, which shapes the entire culture and commerce of the world. In contrast, those who dwell on the Jungle Planet settle their differences the old-fashioned way, through shows of unrelenting might in their feral animal modes. The industrious robots of Gigantion, on the other hand, would much rather work together than compete, and prefer to build instead of destroying. And traveling from world to world are Optimus Prime's Autobots, a team of loyal, trustworthy soldiers who work so well because they're all so different, and Megatron's Decepticons, a rag-tag band of troops plucked from different planets, forced into servitude by Megatron's fearsome power. The Cybertronians are religious zealots due to they worship Cybertron and Primus as in "For Primus!" or "For Cybertron!". At Episode End, a huge army of Autobots VS the 5 Space pirates/Gangsters Decepticons shown that the Decepticons use big size and brute force to defeat the Autobots while Autobots use higher speeds and swarm tactics due to alot of Autobots.
Continuity
Cybertron was conceived by Hasbro's Transformers Design Director Aaron Archer to be the third and final installment of the trilogy begun by the two previous series, Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Energon. Visually supporting this idea are certain character designs, such as those of Hot Shot, Red Alert and Jetfire, which are blatantly designed to resemble updated versions of the characters from Armada and Energon, and the new appearance for Megatron, which is based upon the fact that he has absorbed the power of Unicron after his encounters with him.
In producing the anime however, GONZO chose not to follow this idea. Although a special preview DVD for the series described scenes from Armada and Energon as past battles, and the biography included with the Japanese release of the Megatron toy[1] notes that he has indeed absorbed Unicron's power, the series created by GONZO began afresh, rebooting the continuity and telling a story unrelated to Armada, Energon or any previous Transformers shows.
With Hasbro's toy biographies consistently promoting the series as a continuation of Armada and Energon, there was some concern among fans over how the English dub of the series would handle the disconnect, if at all. Ultimately, the dubbed Cybertron series featured several alterations to confirm it as a continuation - for example, establishing that it was Unicron's destruction that created the black hole, repeatedly referring to Megatron's "Armor of Unicron", and most notably, inserting two new sequences of animation into the final episode, depicting the human characters from Armada and Energon to firmly tie the series together.
This procedure, however, was not perfect. Although the link was established in broad strokes, several specifics failed to line
up between the series. Characters had new voice actors (mostly with
Seeking to iron out the inconsistencies, Hasbro biography writer Forest Lee began to explain these glitches through the Official Transformers Collectors Club's exclusive magazine. Through longer, more detailed biographies and the newsletter's comic strip, Lee established greater and greater ties between the series; noting, for example, that the black hole was specifically created by the collapse of the new sun created at the end of Energon, which allowed Megatron and Starscream to escape it; and explained that the black hole was a multiversal threat that warped reality itself, creating the memory glitches, personality shifts and differing voices that disconnected Cybertron from its predecessors. Lee carried on this process through other media as well, explaining the connection between Unicron, Planet X and the two differing depictions of Sideways in the Armada and Cybertron cartoons through a summary on the packaging for Soundwave's toy.
With these actions, Cybertron is established as part of the Armada and Energon universe, collectively referred to as the Unicron Trilogy.
In a surprising move, the booklet included with the final Galaxy Force DVD joined in on this trend, presenting information to further tie Planet X and its survivors to Unicron; here, Planet X is revealed to be the deactivated body of Unicron from another dimension (though whether or not this holds true for the American continuity is unclear). Additionally, a timeline featured on Takara's site includes Galaxy Force as part of the same universe as Micron Legend and Superlink (though the timeline does feature some other suspect inclusions, so quite how literally this can be taken is unclear).
Cast
Japanese cast (Galaxy Force)
- Daisuke Hirakawa - Exillion/Exigeyser
- Eriko Hirata - Lori's Mother
- Hideo Ishikawa - Dreadrock
- Hiroaki Hirata - Gasket, Live Convoy
- Hisao Egawa Jackshot/Ligerjack
- Houko Kuwashima - Hop
- Jin Domon - Nitro Convoy
- Jouji Nakata - Master Megatron, Master Galvatron
- Junichi Suwabe - Tim
- Kazunari Tanaka - Thundercracker
- Kei Kobayashi - Coby's Mother
- Kenichi Mochizuki - Autolander, Coby's Father , Autovolt, Blender
- Machiko Toyoshima - Prof. Lucy Suzuki
- Masafumi Kimura - Dino Shout, Road Storm, Megalo Convoy
- Masahiko Tanaka - Saidos
- Masako Taki - President
- Nami Kurokawa - Bud
- Nanae Kato - Skids
- Natsuko Kuwatani - Chromia
- Norio Wakamoto - Flame Convoy
- Rika Morinaga - Lori
- Rintarou Nishi - Colonel Franklin
- Sho Hayami - Vector Prime, Narrator
- Susumu Chiba - Noisemaze
- Taiten Kusunoki - Galaxy Convoy
- Takaya Kuroda - Starscream
- Takayasu Usui - Inch Up, Sonic Bomber
- Taketora - Demolishor, Buzz Saw, Soundwave
- Tarusuke Shingaki - Backpack/Backgild
- Tesshō Genda - Primus
- Tomoyuki Shimura - Guardshell
- Toshihiko Nakajima - Landbullet/Armbullet
- Yasuyuki Kase - First Aid/First Gunner, Terashaver
- Yukiko Tamaki - Coby
- Yuto Kazama - Fang Wolf, Mole Dive
- Writers - Manabu Ishikawa, Hiro Masaki, Kazuhisa Sakaguchi, Kazuhiko Sôma, Akatsuki Yamatoya, Genki Yoshimura
English cast (Cybertron)
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Brian Drummond | Jetfire | Jolt |
| David Kaye | Megatron/Galvatron |
| Gary Chalk | Optimus Prime |
| Michael Dobson | Starscream | Brakedown |
| Paul Dobson | Overhaul | Landmine |
| Brian Dobson | Red Alert | Clocker |
| Kirby Morrow | Hot Shot |
| Richard Newman | Vector Prime |
| Richard Ian Cox | Scattorshot |
| Lisa Ann Beley | Override |
| Mark Acheson | Crumplezone |
| Dale Wilson | Mudflap |
| Louis Chirillo | Ransack |
| Mark Oliver | Thundercracker | Undermine |
| Sarah Edmondson | Lori |
| Sam Vincent | Coby|Menasor | Wing Saber |
| Ryan Hirakida | Bud |
| Scott McNeil | Backstop | Snarl |
| Tabitha St. Germain | Dr. Lucy Suzuki |
| Trevor Devall | Scourge | Megatron (fallen) |
| Terry Klassen | Brimstone | Stanton | Tim |
| Maryke Hendrikse | Thunderblast |
| Ron Halder | Metroplex |
| Alvin Sanders | Evac |
| Blu Mankuma | Leobreaker |
| Michael Daingerfield | Quickmix | Crosswise |
| Michael Donovan | Primus | Dirt Boss |
| Ted Cole | Sideways |
| Robert O. Smith | Soundwave |
- Writers - Joshua Izzo, Dave McDermott, James W. Bates, Marc Handler, Seth Walther, Charlotte Fullerton
- For several episodes, a different actor/actress replaced Ryan Hirakida as Bud. It is unknown who this was, but Hirakida returned in the episode "Ice."
- Lori is thought to have had had different actors temporarily as well - this is most noticeable in the 52nd episode, "Inferno." A good ear can identify that Tabitha St. Germain did the stand-in voice for Lori.
Theme songs
Japan (Galaxy Force)
- Openings
- "Call You - Kimi to Boku no Mirai [The Future of You and I]" by Shinji Kakijima (Eps 1-27)
- "Ignition!" by CHINO (Eps 28-52)
- Endings
- "Itsumo" by Tomoka Issei (Eps 1-27)
- "Growing Up" by Shinji Kakijima (Eps 28-52)
U. S. (Cybertron)
- "Transformers: Cybertron Theme" by Paul Oakenfold
Notes/Trivia
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under
Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The first two episodes of Galaxy Force are edited together to create the first Cybertron episode, entitled "Fallen." This reduced the overall episode count to only 51, so to restore it to 52, the second Galaxy Force episode was again dubbed in full as "Inferno," a "lost episode" for the series, and the final episode broadcast.
- For some unknown reason, the first two episodes of Transformers Cybertron - "Fallen" and "Haven" - were not shown when the series premiered on Toonami. In other countries such as Canada and the UK, only "Fallen" was skipped, but both eventually aired in America when the series debuted on Kids WB. YTV aired Fallen in 3 Hairy Thumbs Up and subsequent reruns.
- In "Fallen", Vector Prime's recounting of the scattering of the Cyber Planet keys features completely different animation from the Galaxy Force version of the episode. In addition, several brief shots also featured a differently colored model for Optimus Prime.
- This is the first series to feature Primus as a physical being. Transformers: Energon featured Primus as an energy being hidden deep within Cybertron, but never depicted him as having an actual body. His design is based on a hypothetical robot mode for Primus/Cybertron, which was in conjunction with the Dreamwave Productions Transformers: The War Within comic book mini-series.
- Cybertron is the first TV series since the 1980s to feature Soundwave, a new incarnation of the popular G1 character. The original Soundwave even received a sneaky cameo in the series, when a stereo cassette deck based on his alternate mode was used as a prop in two episodes.
- Ironically, Galvatron was the only Decepticon in this series who ended up dead, despite being generally considered by fans to be the most powerful villain/antagonist in Transformers: Cybertron. This is the only instance in a Transformers series where only the most formidable villain dies first, leaving his fellow Decepticons alive. As for protagonists, Vector Prime was the only Autobot who died. This is in contrast to Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Energon, where numerous characters were killed off by the end of the series.
- The Cybertron incarnations of Starscream and Brakedown are based on the redesigned versions of the original Starscream and Kup created for Dreamwave's War Within series.
- In the episode "Balance," when Primus is recounting his tale, a brief scene shows four Transformers around a layout of the space bridges. Identified only as "wise elders," the four robots are, in fact, the original Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Rodimus Prime and Jazz.
- A large number of famous quotes from past Transformers series (most notably The Transformers: The Movie) appear throughout Transformers: Cybertron, from "Till All Are One," to "Why throw away your life so recklessly?", to "Such heroic nonsense!" (note: The latter quote also (re)appeared near the very end, with a twist. With the wording changed to 'such villainous nonsense'.)
- In "Search" when Megatron talks to Scourge in the Jungle planet's throne room, there are three carvings on the wall -- a mammoth, a gorilla, and a lion. This is a tribute to the three Maximal leaders of the Beast Wars era -- Big Convoy, Optimus Primal, and Leo Prime (aka Lioconvoy).
- In the final episode, during the racing scene on speed planet, Override can be seen dropping her rear wheel into the gutter on the road to pass her opponents on the inside ala Initial D.
- In the episode "Sand", Sideways utters the line "Whoever loses, I win!" in possible reference to Alien vs. Predator.
- In the episode "End", Optimus Prime says "Come Together, right now, over me!" as he joins with the other Transformers to defeat Megatron. This is a quote from the Beatles song, Come Together
- After harnessing the power of the cyber planet keys, Starscream wears a crown that is nearly identicle to the one he wore during his elaborate coronation in "Transformers: The Movie" for the rest of the series.
References
- ^ This bio can be seen (in Japanese) at TV Aichi's website.
External links
- Transformers Cybertron on YTV, Saturdays at 1:30pm ET
- Takara's Transformers: Galaxy Force Site (Japanese)
- TV Tokyo's Transformers: Galaxy Force Site (Japanese)
- TV Aichi's Transformers: Galaxy Force Site (Japanese)
- Gonzino's Transformers: Galaxy Force Site (Japanese)
- Transformers: Galaxy Force @ m-serve
- Hasbro Action Transformers Page
- Transformers: Cybertron (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
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