Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers (cartoon)

From MediaWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
Japanese Generation 1 continuity
« Beast Wars II »

Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers (ビーストウォーズII 超生命体トランスフォーマー Beast Wars II: Chō Seimeitai Transformer) is a Japanese-exclusive spin-off series to Beast Wars broadcast from April 1, 1998, to January 20, 1999, between Beast Wars (American season 1) and Beast Wars Metals (American seasons 2 and 3). Conventional 2D animation was used for Beast Wars II, as opposed to the 3D CGI of Beast Wars. While based on the Beast Wars series, the show had a more humorous tone which was aimed towards a younger audience.

"GET MY FUTURE" plays as the first opening song with "SUPER VOYAGER" as its second, and the ending song being "Yume no Iru Basho".

Overview

Beast Wars II: Electric Boogalecond

Beast Wars II follows the Maximal crew led by Lio Convoy who have pursued Galvatron and his Predacons to the planet Gaia. There, Galvatron seeks to mine and exploit the powerful but highly unstable energy source called Angolmois which rests beneath the planet's surface. As they war below, the androids Artemis and Moon watch from the moon orbiting Gaia, gathering data on all the characters and delivering factoids to the audience via an out-of-continuity segment called the "Artemis & Moon II Report".

For the first half of the series, no overarching plot is particularly evident, instead focusing on episodic adventures as the Maximals stop the Predacons from building new bases on Angolmois hot-spots. Short character arcs are focused on instead, as new groups of Maximals and Predacons are introduced in waves. The Insectrons, Autorollers, Jointrons, Seacons and Magnaboss team all receive multi-episode spotlights throughout the first half of Beast Wars II.

Once all the characters are established, a less episodic, ongoing conflict is introduced in the form of the Nemesis, an artificial planet built by Galvatron and slowly making its way toward Gaia. The objective of the Nemesis is to drain all the Angolmois from the planet and become an invincible dreadnought under Galvatron's command. With the help of their comrades, the Maximals invade the Nemesis, kill Galvatron, seal the Angolmois in capsules and destroy the artificial planet. The Maximals are left trapped in a wormhole at the show's conclusion, setting up the sequel series: Beast Wars Neo.

Beast Wars II is noticeably sub-par in much of its production values, no doubt due to the haste in which it had to be produced in order to fill the gap between Beast Wars and Beast Wars Metals. A number of animation studios (listed below) were utilized to produce the series and the quality very noticeably shifts from episode-to-episode, depending on the ability of each studio.

Though much more light-hearted and childish than the American Beast Wars series, Beast Wars II managed to dabble in some heavier material, especially in the back half of episodes when the actual plot began to kick in. One of the more ongoing dilemmas sees Lio Junior, the estranged "son" of Lio Convoy dealing with being rejected by his career-military father. Galvatron, who at first seems to be nothing more than a generic villain, shows a greater interest in molding Lio Junior into his successor than Lio Convoy, and expresses an honest yearning to bring peace to the universe (albeit by force via the Nemesis). In the conclusion, Lio Convoy and Lio Junior work together as comrades and family to stop Galvatron.

Continuity

This counts in the manga, but not the other manga, and it doesn't count in the cartoon, but it might count in the American comics. Who the hell knows...

Where Beast Wars II is situated relative to previous Transformers continuity, the first Beast Wars series, and any contemporary Earth calendar has been a source of confusion over the years. Part of the confusion stemmed merely from western audiences attempting to understand a series that was never officially translated into English, with years spent on the internet hearing reports from other people who spoke Japanese, observing visual media without the context of translated text, and so on.

Initial understanding was that Beast Wars II starred characters who were contemporaries to the Maximals and Predacons of the original Beast Era series. In other words, that they hailed from the same future Optimus Primal and Megatron were from before entering transwarp space and traveling back in time to start the Beast Wars. This was mostly a "default" assumption (as in, there was no reason NOT to think it), and it appeared to be confirmed at first by different Beast Wars II catalog images that showed Lio Convoy and Optimus Primal (and Megatron and Galvatron) interacting.

By the end of Beast Wars II, however, information surfaced that refuted this assumption. Like ancient Vok-occupied Earth of Beast Wars, the planet Gaia of Beast Wars II was only later identified as a future version of Earth. A long abandoned civilization was present on Gaia since the early episodes, but in episode 36, it was revealed that humanity left the planet behind tens of thousands of years ago. Compared to dialogue from episode 13 and episode 21 of Beast Wars, which indicated that THOSE Maximals and Predacons were from only a mere three centuries in the future of modern Earth. Beast Wars II therefore seemed to be taking place far in the future from the perspective of both the viewers of the show AND the crews belonging to Optimus Primal and Megatron. This was even further reinforced during the Beast Wars II movie special, where Optimus Primal was pulled out of space and time, and Lio Convoy's crew treated him as a legendary figure from the past.

The Beast Wars II manga series stuck to the back story as established in that early catalog, treating Lio Convoy and Optimus Primal as contemporaries in the third issue of the series. A one-off manga special, however, does not follow the serialized manga continuity and instead takes place in the timeline of the cartoon series. And where the sausage fits into all this, we don't rightly know.

And then there's the IDW Beast Wars comics, which framed a different take on the events of Beast Wars II (and its successor, Beast Wars Neo), establishing them as taking place almost three centuries before the original Beast Wars series. Beast Wars: The Gathering established Lio Convoy and Big Convoy and their crews as seasoned veterans by the time of the theft of the Golden Disk, who fought the last Predacon hold-outs at the time of the Pax Cybertronia's signing which ended the Great War.

And so, the question of where Beast Wars II takes place in Transformers continuity has the same answer as most such questions in the franchise:

Well, it depends.

Production

The animation was handled by Production Reed, although most of the in-betweening and some of the key animation/episode production was outsourced to studios throughout Asia. Some of the studios credited:[1][2][3][4]

South Korea
Park Young (博英), Echo, Hanil (韓一), Hee Won (喜元), JiWoo (知遇), K-Production, Kyoe Sung (桂成), Sei Young (世映), Sung San (星山), YABES (裕振), San-Ho Studios
China
Shanghai Hongqiao Animation (上海虹橋動画), FAI
Taiwan
Far Eastern Animation (遠東動画)
Indonesia
MARSA
Japan
Studio Zain (スタジオ・ザイン), Trans Arts Co. (トランスアーツ), J.C.F (ジェイ・シー・エフ), E&G Film (イージー・フィルム)

Cast

Maximals Predacons Others

Lio Convoy Unit (Main Cast)

Insectrons

Jointrons

Others

Main Cast

Autorollers

Space Pirate Seacons

Others

Gaian Androids

Maximal Computer

Evil Copies

Episodes

For further information, see: List of Beast Wars II episodes
  1. The New Forces Arrive!
  2. White Lion, Run!
  3. Bighorn's Rage
  4. The Lake Trap
  5. Galvatron Revived
  6. Mystery of the Ancient Ruins
  7. The Insect Corps Arrive
  8. Friend or Foe? The Insect Robos
  9. The Strongest Tag Team?
  10. Autorollers Roll Out!
  11. Danger! Scissor Boy
  12. Galvatron Rampages
  13. Predacon General Offensive!†
  14. The Combined Giant, Tripledacus
  15. The Festive Jointrons
  16. A Fearsome Combination Plan?
  17. Who Is the Leader!?
  18. The Black Lio Convoy
  19. The Space Pirate Seacons!
  20. Who Is the Strongest Warrior!?†
  21. The Tentacular Scuba
  22. Megastorm's Reckoning
  23. Showdown in the Sea
  24. Face the Setting Sun
  25. The Final Battle
  26. Enter Lio Junior
  27. Megastorm Reborn
  28. The New Weapon, Tako Tank
  29. The Artificial Planet Nemesis†
  30. Gigastorm's Treachery
  31. The End of Starscream
  32. The Lio Convoy Assassination Plot
  33. The Great Angolmois Freezing Tactic
  34. Knock Out Nemesis
  35. Lio Junior's Revolt!?
  36. Emissary of the Fourth Planet
  37. The Crisis of Planet Gaia
  38. Fly Out! Planet Gaia
  39. Assemble, Thirty-Nine Warriors†
  40. Revenge of the Space Pirates
  41. Breaking into Nemesis
  42. Legend! The Green Warrior
  43. Farewell! Lio Convoy

† Clip show

Beast Wars Special

An additional animated short, "Lio Convoy in Imminent Danger!", was produced for the Beast Wars Special Super Lifeform Transformers theatrical movie. Its events take place between episodes 32 and 33.

Home video releases

VHS

Main article: Geneon Universal Entertainment
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 1 (1998)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 2 (1998)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 3 (1998)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 4 (1998)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 5 (1998)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 6 (1998)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 7 (1998)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 8 (1998)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 9 (1998)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 10 (1999)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 11 (1999)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 12 (1999)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 13 (1999)
  • Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers — ACT. 14 (1999)

DVD

Main article: Video Maker
  • Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars II (Second) — DVD BOX (2011)

References

  1. ↑ テレビアニメ放映リスト
  2. ↑ MEGNA'S CO-PRODUCTIONS DATABASE
  3. ↑ 日本国外のアニメ制作会社
  4. ↑ Beast Wars II credits - Anime News Network
Retrieved from "https://tfwiki.duckdns.org/index.php?title=Beast_Wars_II:_Super_Lifeform_Transformers_(cartoon)&oldid=1250789"