Transformers Armada is the first of the Unicron Trilogy, a series plagued by animation errors and dubbing errors, among other things. Although not as badly hit as Energon, Armada still suffers a lot of these and it prevents fans from watching or enjoying the show.
But is this show any good? Let's find out.
Story: At first the story starts slow, I'll admit that. A small team of Autobots and Decepticons land on Earth, in a race to capture Minicons, small transformers that can enhance the power of a large transformer and turn the tide in a battle. However once new characters are introduced-especially the enigmatic Sideways-it becomes clear that there is more at stake in this war than just control over the Minicons. Midway the story becomes better, and the 3rd part of the series is definitely the best part.
Animation/Dubbing: Oh dear... where do we start. Frankly, animation is bad. Armada is animated by Actas, and you can tell what a rush job this is. Animation errors abound in this series, including a scene where jet-mode Starscream is represented by a flying black dot. Yeah. There are also lots of mistakes in the dubbing. Calling characters by their Japanese names (for example, calling Tidal Wave Shockwave) or giving the wrong name to a character (Sparkplug, Optimus's Minicon, is almost always called Leader-1). Animation and dubbing is clearly the low point of this series.
Characters: First of all, the human characters. Yes, they're annoying, and for the most part, useless. But I hope that you learn to tolerate them, since they're here to stay. The Autobot and Decepticon teams are better; they all have different personalities, from the battle-crazy Cyclonus to the loner, Blurr. However special mention must be given here to Starscream. This version of Starscream breaks away from the traditional mold of Starscream characters and is not a backstabbing second in command. His character arc is very interesting to watch, and this makes him the best character in the show.
Enjoyment: At first I was forcing myself to watch, especially at the first few eps. But once the hunt for the Miinicon weapons begins, the story takes a more interesting turn, and I found myself very excited to watch the next episode.
Overall: Don't let the bad animation and dubbing stop you from enjoying this series. It's actually good, and I'd recommend it.
