First thing to know is that this show had an unusual production where it was written, produced, and animated in Japan, but it was released with English voices first. If you watch the English dub, you're literally watching the inferior version. A lot of animation errors were corrected for its Japanese dub release. For some reason, the English version renamed all of the characters. Some of the names feel totally incorrect for the character while others make more sense. For example, if you find yourself wondering why Red Alert doesn't seem like the Transformer named Red Alert that you're familiar with, that's because he's actually called "Ratchet" in the Japanese version of the show. But I personally don't think either name fits this character. So who is he supposed to be? I have no idea. It's a mess. I don't know what they were thinking. If you aren't familiar with ANY Transformers, you probably won't be bothered by this, but it WILL probably confuse you later when you try to engage with any other Transformers media.
I feel bad for the minicons in this show. They're treated like literal robots without personality. None of them speak and they're just used as weapons and accessories by both sides. They're one of the weakest parts of the show, which is extremely unfortunate because they're supposed to be the central focus of the story. I can appreciate what they were going for in THEORY, but the execution is just uninteresting and passionless, and it makes it feel kind of perplexing as a decision overall. It really feels like it must've been a "We don't have enough time, so we just have to go with whatever we come up with first and make it work" kind of situation. (Apparently production was being rushed by the network, so that feeling doesn't seem to be unfounded.) People complain about the Transformers cartoons feeling like toy commercials (because they are), but this is definitely one of the most blatant examples. This show exists as an excuse to flash robots on the screen to make you buy them. Quality be damned.
The human characters are what I expect from this era of low-effort anime for children - especially from the shows that were trying to make you buy something. Which is to say, they aren't interesting. There's the girl, the boy, and the other boy. They occupy more screentime than they deserve because they effectively do nothing. Their relationship with the Transformers is paper-thin. At best, they're in the way. At worst, they're annoying. I feel a little mean, but there's nothing substantial enough about these characters to make them worth defending.
Most of the episodes take place in a vague field or canyon where the two sides fight in boring, poorly animated battle sequences. Once you've seen one fight, you've seen them all. They don't get more interesting. I found myself zoning out through 70% of most episodes.
I've seen fans say that the designs of the Transformers is what they like most about Armada. As toys, they look too blocky and cluttered. In animation, they look stiff as hell. I don't know what possessed them to make designs that would be that difficult to animate.
You know it's dire when even the out-of-context compilations on YouTube can't make this show seem funny or interesting. It's just boring, and that's one of the worst things a show can be. If you're easily hypnotized by Optimus Prime, I guess this show is for you.
