The New Cybertron City

« Transformers: Energon ep 5 »
For the last time, we're not calling it Destron City!
"The New Cybertron City" 新たなサイバトロンシティ () (Arata na Cybertron City)
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	6 February 2004 (Japanese) February 28, 2004 (English)
Writer	Shōji Tonoike
Director	Masayuki Ōseki
Animation studio	Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D)
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

An energon scout team on a frozen mountain is the target of the latest Terrorcon attack.

Synopsis

He is not pining! He has passed on! He is no more! He has ceased to be! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! He has kicked the bucket, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! He is an ex-Decepticon!

Kicker wanders lost through a snow-blown wasteland, finding an energon beam coming down from the sky and having no recollection of how he got there. He sees a familiar mountain... then wakes up in his own bed.

He looks up the mountain on his computer, confident that it's an energon point.

Kicker, a Strongarm, and Grindor scout the mountain for energon, ahead of a main team including Ironhide, Hot Shot, and Demolishor. Ironhide's not happy about the unhelpful Demolishor coming along, while Demolishor is still stunned by the possibility of Megatron being alive.

Cyclonus and Tidal Wave arrive at Unicron with more energon and find Megatron's corpse. Cyclonus beats on him a bit, trying to wake him up. They go question Scorponok about it, only to get sent off by Alpha Q for—you guessed it—more energon.

Rad and Dr. Jones have restored and improved the Prime Force drones, and they send them back to Optimus Prime on Earth. Prime gets an update on the scout team and orders the energon point's coordinates relayed to Dr. Jones as soon as they find it. Jetfire voices concern over Demolishor's loyalty, but Prime won't hear it.

Demolishor refuses to help carry supplies, leading to a childish argument between him and Ironhide that nearly comes to blows. Hot Shot stifles it, but Demolishor stomps off in a huff.

"Quit being such a poopy-head"
"You're the poopy-head!"

Fog and snow cancel the search mission, and soon Kicker is caught in a whiteout and falls into a crevasse. Hot Shot sends Demolishor and Ironhide off together to look for Kicker.

In a daze at the bottom of a ravine, Kicker recalls drifting weightless as a child, aboard a starship as he and his family head home. They make a stop to find energon, and young Kicker feels nervous...

Kicker wakes up and realizes his predicament. Hot Shot makes radio contact with him and notifies the others.

In Ocean City, Inferno detects an enemy force headed directly for Kicker's position. Cyclonus and Tidal Wave arrive and attack, causing an avalanche that sweeps away Hot Shot. Terrorcons attack Ironhide and Demolishor.

That's no moon!

Kicker tries to fly out with Grindor, but the walls are too steep. An avalanche deposits enough snow to get them closer to the top, where Kicker detects the energon seam, though he still can't reach it.

Hot Shot meets up with Ironhide and Demolishor, who are battling the Terrorcons. Cyclonus arrives, and he and Hot Shot spar verbally for Demolishor's loyalty. Cyclonus leaves after seeing the Strongarm, assuming that's where the energon will be. Demolishor continues to fight alongside the Autobots.

Strongarm retrieves Kicker and Grindor, and he transmits their coordinates to Dr. Jones on Cybertron. Optimus and Inferno arrive and lead the recon team away as the Terrorcons start digging for energon. Dr. Jones activates "a present", and something huge descends from the sky: Cybertron City! The Terrorcons flee, but many are crushed by the descending city. The city lands and seals the energon point.

Scorponok arrives and leads a new attack, but the city's defenses make mincemeat of his troops. A Signal Flare scans Scorponok for "cloning purposes", explaining that he's "planning for the future". Overmatched, Scorponok retreats with no energon.

Demolishor reasons that if Megatron was alive, he'd have been out on the front lines of the battle. Kicker reflects that even now, his dad is still looking after him.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Strongarms (3) Ironhide (4) Hot Shot (5) Prime Force (11) Optimus Prime (14) Inferno (15) Jetfire (16) Signal Flare (19) Skyblast (20)	Demolishor (6) Cyclonus (8) Tidal Wave (9)	Kicker Jones (1) Rad White (12) Brian Jones (13)	Grindor (2) Scorponok (10) Divebombs (7) Battle Ravages (18)

Quotes

"Talk to me, your evilness! I'm here for ya! Yoo-hoo! Anybody in there?" [beats on Megatron]
"Stop that!"

—Cyclonus and Tidal Wave

"Hey, why don't you carry some stuff?"
"No. I'm not some kind of pack animal. That's a job for rookies like you!"

—Ironhide and Demolishor start to squabble.

"Ironhide, apologize to Demolishor."
"Why should I have to apologize?! He started it!"

—Hot Shot and Ironhide

"I sent Strongarm to the ravine to help him get out of there, Ironhide."
"So you know where he is?!"
"Yeah. And it's a real deep one."

—Hot Shot and Ironhide are awkward conversationalists.

Hot Shot: "Demolishor, you're our friend! You know you can trust us!"
Demolishor: "I'm your friend?"
Cyclonus: "Sheesh, don't be such a sap! He's only saying that!"

–Cyclonus is not one for sentiments.

"Optimus Prime! Super mode! Powerlinx! Optimus Prime! Super mode!"

—Optimus Prime, going to his Super Mode via Powerlinx.

He can't be alive. Cause if he were, he would have been out on that front line for sure. At least... that's the Megatron I remember.

—Demolishor continues to wonder.

Notes

Differences with Super Link

This episode is remarkably faithful to Super Link, with very little changed or lost.

• Demolishor insists on looking for Kicker, considering it part of his job as guard.
• The sensing rod that young Kicker plants in the ground glows red in Super Link. This bit of animation is missing in Energon.
• Energon adds a soft white border to Kicker's flashback scenes, an admittedly nice touch.
• Kicker's eye makes a very loud *whump* noise when he awakes from his first dream.

Pain count

• "Uh?": 10
• "We need/want energon": 5
• "We're a team": 2
• "Let's do it": 1

Animation and technical errors

• As with the first episode, this episode's title fails to localize the faction name "Cybertron" to "Autobot".
• When Strongarm is talking to Kicker at the beginning the episode, his mouth stops moving after the first line of dialogue.
• After Strongarm says that he's going to head back to get his equipment and says he'd feel bad making the Autobots lug his equipment around, Kicker responds to himself/Grindor with "Those Omnicons are real team players." While not necessarily an error per se, the line just comes off as a rather sarcastic remark instead of genuine. It is likely just a poor line for the scene—though given Kicker's attitude towards Transformers, it's just as easy to write this off as a backhanded compliment.
• As Cyclonus and Tidal Wave enter Unicron in search of Megatron/Galvatron, Tidal Wave is once again over-exaggerated in size. Cyclonus is shown to be about two or three of Tidal wave's heads tall, when he should roughly be the height of Tidal Wave's lower leg (from foot to lower knee).
  • Coming face to face with the corpse of the Decepticon leader, the scale is corrected—including Megatron's corpse.
• When Hot Shot loses contact with Kicker, Demolishor responds with the deeper Strongarm voice—which also happens to be a different voice to the Strongarm in this episode.
• Rad calls the Prime Force by its Japanese name, Grand Force.
• Hilariously, when Optimus and his men run outside of the city to fight Scorponok and the Terrorcons again, they aren't animated, meaning their character models slide into view without any movement whatsoever.

Continuity notes

• The Decepticons arrive delivering the energon that was raided last episode, to Unicron.
• The Prime Force were damaged last episode.
• This is the second time the Terrorcons are shown to speak. The last episode was the first of these rare instances.
• Kicker's bratty and anti-authority attitude is revealed to stem from childhood trauma caused by his father treating him as a human Energon detector instead of his son.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Demolishor has a red energon star on his left shoulder, right where his Mini-Con Powerlinx point is. Unfortunately, this can't be replicated with the toy.
  • Signal Flare uses his Energy Cutter blade/radar dish to scan Megatron's Sword.
• Powerlinx forms:
  • Optimus Prime Super Mode

Foreign localization

French

• Title: ?

• Due to the two only released DVDs having only episodes 1 to 4 and 6 to 9, the French dub of this episode is one of the lost ones.

Italian

• Title: "Trappola di ghiaccio" ("Ice Trap")

• Ironhide's first two lines aren't voiced by his actor.
• Unlike in English, Rad doesn't call Prime Force by its Japanese name.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

DVD

2004 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 002 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — Volume One (Shout! Factory)