Initially controversial, Beast Wars: Transformers revitalized the dying Transformers franchise and defined it for a new generation. The series showcased the battles of the heroic Maximals and the evil Predacons, the time-tossed descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons, waging war on prehistoric Earth. Pioneering computer-generated animation and featuring deeper writing than the Generation 1 cartoon, the series was known for its intense action scenes, well-developed cast, and expansion of existing franchise mythology.
The sequel Beast Machines was less well-received. Thankfully for fans, it was not the end of the Beast Era. Beast Wars had two additional Japanese sequels: Beast Wars Second and Beast Wars Neo. Never making it to the United States, these shows had an entirely different cast and a far different setting and tone. Here's what every Transformers fan should know about the relatively obscure Beast Wars anime.
Beast Wars Second
Between dubbing the second and third seasons of Beast Wars into Japanese, the country that birthed Transformers filled the gap with its own shows. The first of these was Beast Wars II/Beast Wars Second. Taking place during the future the Beast Wars protagonists came from, the cast was made up of the Maximals, led by Lio Convoy/Leo Prime, and the Predacons, led by a new Galvatron. The Maximals all transformed into animals, whereas the Predacons were mostly vehicles.
The groups fought on the alien planet Gaia for the mysterious Angolmois Energy in a series of sometimes hilarious battles. Whereas Beast Wars and especially Beast Machines had darker tones compared to the original series, Beast Wars Second was usually very lighthearted. This mainly manifested in its goofier characters, such as the seductive Scylla, the volatile Big Horn, and the racially offensive Jointron Brothers.
The casts' designs were almost all taken from Beast Wars toys which were not made into characters on the original show, with the faction leaders being some of the few exceptions. Many of the Predacons' toys/designs were actually from the failed Generation 2 toyline, which only saw a truncated release in Japan. The anime's traditional animation was closer to Generation 1 than the CGI designs of the American-Canadian series. Artemis and Moon, an alien woman and an unaligned Transformer with a strange, Pikachu-esque alternate mode, acted as a sort of Greek chorus to the series' events. Beast Wars Second also had a movie, Beast Wars II: Lio Convoy's Close Call!. This film was canon to the series, and featured an appearance by Optimus Primal in the climax. The show itself would last for 43 episodes, airing from 1998 to 1999.
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Beast Wars Neo
The series was followed by Beast Wars Neo. The Maximals were almost all cutesy mammals, including Break the Penguin Transformer and Stampy the Rabbit Transformer. Break was voiced by Naruto's Japanese voice actress Junko Takeuchi, with said voice having many of the same tics and annotations. Assigned to a team of young punks, the cruel taskmaster Big Convoy/Mammoth Prime was a far cry from the noble Optimus Prime. Their Predacon counterparts, on the other hand, were violent killers, armed to the teeth with weapons and ravenous dinosaur beast modes. Their leader was Magmatron, whose robot mode was the combined form of three different dinosaur robots.
The factions fought over the remaining Angolmois Energy, as the Maximals investigated what became of Lio Convoy's team. The architect behind the two series' events was revealed as none other than the Chaos Bringer Unicron, using Angolmois Energy to revive himself. Beginning in March 1999, the series concluded in September, making way for the first show's conclusion to be released in Japan as Beast Wars: Metals.
Both shows remain obscure compared to the 1996 series, with even hardcore Transformers fans having seen only bits and pieces of them due to the lack of any Western release. They have had an effect on the fandom by way of their unique designs, however, namely Lio Convoy and Big Convoy. The latter had his toy repainted into Transformers: Universe's Nemesis Prime, with his beast mode tusks now soaked in blood. Lio Convoy, on the other hand, has appeared several times in Western lines under the title Leo Prime, as well as having an upscale figure released in the collector oriented Masterpiece toyline. Though they may not have had the same impact as other shows in the franchise, the Beast Wars anime duology put a classic spin on what was at the time one of the franchise's most savage transformations.
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