By Graceland Geek

Transformers Cybertron
The Ultimate Collection
Directed by Manabu Ono
Starring Ryan Hirakida, Brian Drummond, Paul Dobson, Richard Ian Cox, Michael Dobson
Paramount Home Video
Release Date: July 22, 2008

Transformers Cybertron: the Ultimate Collection is a great follow-up sequel series to the Hasbro/Takara co-productions of Transformers: Energon and Transformers: Armada.

The series main characters, the Transformers, are done in computer-generated format while the human characters are in traditional “japanimation” format.

The series revolves around the Transformers arriving to Earth after the Unicron’s (an immense robot that is neither Autobot nor Decepticon that transforms into a mechanical planet) destruction creates a massive black hole forcing the Transformers to flee to Earth while trying to figure a way to save their planet of Cybertron. The major human characters are Coby, Bud and Lori, all three of whom are voiced by actress Sarah Edmonson.

The show is better than its predecessors because I think it is the original idea they had in mind for the Transformers. By that I mean if you watch the two previous shows, Armada and Energon, you can see its evolution in the animation but also the story its universe. Perhaps the thing I was most interested in was how the show continued the story from the Energon series and after watching just one episode of show you could see that this was what they had planned and perhaps the best episode was the pilot episode which is titled “Fallen.” I extremely enjoyed this episode the most because as a fan of the series I found it interesting and can’t help wonder if this episode and others influenced Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman’s script for Transformer’s 2: Revenge of the Fallen.

Some other things I enjoyed about the series were the animation. I am usually not a major fan of cgi mixed with “japanimation” neither am I usually a fan of many “japanimation” type shows like Digi-mon, Dragon Ball Z, and others but it didn’t bother me at all on this show because the transformations were really cool and you definitely see how that they influenced the ILM animators on the Transformers film. Perhaps the greatest part of the animation was not just the transformations, which I mention earlier, but also the environments and how the battles took you through almost every environment you can imagine. The shows mythos was also something I really liked seeing develop and now I have a greater knowledge of the Transformers and its universe.

Some other episodes that I think stand out in the series are “Fallen,” “End,” “Unfinished,” and “Guardian.” Also, it is important to note that the DVD does not include any commentaries or special features of any kind and I was a little disappointed in that but these sets are about the episodes and that’s ok.

Ultimately, Transformers Cybertron: The Ultimate Collection is a wonderful carryover from Japan with well-crafted and flowing story-arcs and awesome animation. This is a good fit to your other Transformers collections and while this series does not follow canon of the original Gen 1 series we loved as children, it is a great take on one of the most nostalgic series ever.