Brought to us once again by Roosterteeth and Netflix, Transformers War For Cybertron returns with the next chapter, Earthrise. The conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons picks up right after the events of Siege. The Autobots are separated, with Elita-1 continuing to fight on the dying Cyberton, and Optimus Prime with his crew aboard the Ark in space in pursuit of the lost All-Spark.
Megatron and his Decepticons attempt to pursue the All-Spark as well, and crush what remains of the Autobots for good. But soon both the Autobots and Decepticons discover threats much larger than their civil war are at stake as they meet mysterious new figures who have their own agendas.
It was surprising to see the series return so soon after the first season was released months ago. Regardless, I was excited to see this next chapter after a truly great first entry that really took the Transformers in a new direction, one that was seriously needed. Earthrise manages deliver a thrilling and surprising continuation of the Transformers, proving this new series is a truly strong one.
The voice performances are once again excellent, with the stand outs being Megatron, Optimus, Elita-1, and some of the new characters that appear. All of them delivered some impactful scenes that really made these characters feel alive, relatable, but also driven in their missions. This season continues the dark and mature tone of its predecessor, with its narrative even going as far as to add more horror elements.
The themes, ideals and ideologies that were explored in Siege are further explored here, leading to some interesting developments with characters both old and new. There is also a certain amount of fan service with the appearances of characters like the Quintessons, Predacons, and other familiar faces from Transformers media, who add a lot to this new story. References to G1 events are also littered throughout which will certainly please fans of that era.
The animation is once again gorgeous, and feels a bit more fluid and improved this time around, especially for the action. The action didn’t feel as clunky as it did in Siege, and the battles felt larger in terms of scale. The characters look great, the visuals are beautiful, and the environments look amazing, offering excellent cinematography and shots. The music is as great as before, and an interesting detail they added is that it changes based upon the location, fitting in with the environment, which I liked.
In my review for Siege I mentioned how one of the issues I had was with Shockwave’s voice, but in Earthrise I kinda got more used to it, and it sounded a bit better to me. He was a bit more fleshed out this time around and was really unnerving, almost like an untrustworthy psychotic scientist, and I was liking it.
I wish the season didn’t have short episodes, but the tension-filled finale ends with a huge cliffhanger that sets up the final chapter of this series, and I am eager to see what happens next after all that has occurred. There’s a lot of open-ended threads to wrap up, so I hope the next and final season will deliver. But based on the quality of this season and the previous season, I think we will be in for something satisfying. I’m going to give Transformers WFC Earthrise an A.
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