Let's face it....

Originally Posted by Zipdisk

Let me just stick my two cents worth in here.

The hate for Animated reminds me of the hate for anything anime I get every now and then. The way I see it, if you don't like the style of something, that's your right and your opinion so just don't consume that product, don't bash it all over the place and declare it a failure.

The original Gundam was a miserable failure, ratings-wise, and was rushing into a finish earlier than the creator wanted. It was saved by the sales of toys and model kits and by the theatrical version that aired in the early 80s, prompting a revival and a new series in 1985. Why was it a miserable failure? Because it was too different from the norm for an anime robot show at the time. Where other shows had one all powerful robot facing off against villain of the week (like MazingerZ , Combattler V, Raideen etc.) Gundam was a "serious" war story with more of a hard SF feel than those others. It was not what the market or fans wanted at the time. But it grew on them and became pretty much the unstoppable juggernaut of the Japanese robot market.

Now, look at TF: Animated. It's VERY different from the approach we're used to in Transformers. It's smaller, more character-based (like Beast Wars) and done in a very different style from previous series. Give it time to really catch it's stride. The two seasons we've had so far have gone from good to really good and I feel greatness isn't far away at this point.

A lot of the complaints I am hearing here I heard back when Beast Wars premeired. People didn't like the changes (Trukk not Munky), they didn't like the animation. They didn't like the stories. Well, fast forward a decade and BW is considered one of the pinnacles of the franchise. It's amazing how time and distance changes the opinion, isn't it?

Now, there really is no direct corollation between Gundam and Transformers. Different times, different markets, different cultures. My point is, given time the perception of various things can change.

And for my money, I still like Masterforce and Victory as far as TF Anime go. I watched Cybertron and found it rather plodding at parts (the Velocitron arc) and too sparse at others but overall, I watched the whole thing from start to finish. It wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst, but I could appreciate parts of it. I won't watch it again though. I will watch animated again. The writing is clever, the characters likable (for the most part, I think Animated Bumblebee is a little sociopath).

I go back to my Gundam comparison for a moment. There are fans of Gundam who compare every new series to the original. That's not exactly fair to the new series. Can you compare G Gundam to the original? Not favorably. Does that make it a bad series? Not really. Just different.

It's these differences that drive a franchise, this progress and attempts at new things. Without that, things stagnate and fail. Things either change, or die. And really, isn't that was TRANSFORMers is all about, change?

And that's my ramble for today.

Originally Posted by AutobotMarine

Now I know I've been negative about TF Animated in the past, but this has gone a bit too far....

After watching that puke-like abomination they made Jetfire into, I'm convinced that Transformers Animated is going to suck around at season 3 or so. For starters, I never thought Animated was worthy enough to be as good or better than Beast Wars, Galaxy Force, or Generation 1. Animated just dosen't have the soul or heart or even the exhilaration-feel that the previous series had, or that Beast Wars had. I really don't care what some fanboys think, but Galaxy Force was probably one of the best series since Beast Wars. Animated isn't as good, not at all.

I bought Animated Jazz around a month ago, and I think it's about time that Animated will reach it's "crap" point. I'm a huge fan of Transformers, always has, always will. Us as people also need to face the reality about the franchise in itself as another indication or prediction that Animated will get screwed over by Cartoon Network. One of friends, who can see the future... no really, 90% of the things he has said happen to be true, and many things that have happened turned out to be true (not all of them). He predicts that Animated will reach its crap tenure at around season 3, and may become almost as bad as Energon, until the very last episode.

Since those rumors of Galvatron, Hot Shot, and Rodimus may not be true, I'm kinda dissapointed with Animated... with that and some of the toys. I do research in detail, people are not buying the toys. The toys are a product of the TV series in itself, if the TV show dosen't do well, neither will the toys. Fan and kida alike are more interested in purchasing stuff from the TF1 or Universe 2.0 than of Animated, look at the sales. A few days ago, I actually walked to Wal-Mart (since I live less than 1 block away from my local Wal-Mart). It's literally overstocked with all stuff Animated, from Grimlock, to Soundwave, to Oilslick, to Lockdown. THEY'RE NOT SELLING!!! Now I've never been huge on "predictions", but this does seem to be coming true.

I've seen it. Hasbro are putting out stuff just to try to save this series, 2.2 to 2.4 million people watch Animated. That is not what I considered a "high" rating. A "high" rating is around 15 to 20 million people, people are not buying much from this series simply there isn't enough exposure. Many people just like cause it's like "G1". No, it's a carbon copy of G1. It's not Generation 1 in its whole self, it's not better than G1. And DEFINTELY not better than Beast Wars. Besides, why must everything must be just like G1 for some people to accept it? Why can't it be like Beast Wars, Armada, or Cybertron? I didn't care for Armada, but that's not the point. Even Takara dosen't seem to be interested in doing Animated, they probably laughed their asses off at the drawings and the toys this series had produced. Yet another sign.

My mom even saw this show for the first time, she likes Transformers. She personally thought TF Animated was pure garbage, I can't honestly object to this. She's always told me to believe your inner and first intuition. My first intuition told me the first time I saw this, I thought it was crap. There isn't enough "accurate" info about Animated to keep me on my toes about it, I'm more interested in TF2 and any other future TF projects and series. Perhaps if Primus was mentioned a few times, if Jetfire didn't look so bad, and it Prime wasn't such a wimp. I'd be more interested in Animated. The only way I can see another good series is through creative fans (myself included), another anime, a series that is completely CGI or live action.

Until then, I'll be watching Revenge of the Fallen.

Originally Posted by Tash

Although CGI is only leading to the death of theatrical animation. It isn't a problem for television.

Originally Posted by NemesisBruticus

Animated is jawesome.