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http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E6%88%A6%E3%81 ... 15&sr=8-10

If you've ever wanted to see what G1 was like in Japan, you're about to have a great chance. A five-disc set of "Fight! Super Robot Life: Transformers" will be released in Japan on January 25th, 2012. Unlike the previous release, this set is priced to own with an MSRP of less than 10,000 yen. Pre-orders on Amazon are an amazingly low (for Japan) 6,993 yen. So, yes, it's about triple what the US versions cost. But it's only a 3rd of what the originals retailed for!

Update: It looks like ALL of G1 will be released on January 25th. There are three boxed sets scheduled for that day:

Fight! Super Robot Life: Transformers DVD (set 1)
Fight! Super Robot Life: Transformers DVD (set 2)
Transformers: 2010 DVD

Can Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory, and Zone (all LONG out of print in Japan) be far behind?

Thanks to Seibertron.com member Professor Smooth we have news that the Transformers G1 cartoon series is going to be reissued in Japan. There will be three 5 DVD sets, each retail priced 9,450 Yen (appox $125.00), however Amazon Japan has them listed at 6,993 Yen (approx $92.00). More than we are accustomed to paying, but very affordable by Japanese standards. All three sets are scheduled to release January 25th, 2012. Links to their Amazon Japan listings below:

• Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers! DVD Set 1
• Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers! DVD set 2
• Transformers 2010

I just cant watch them like this. (without English voices) I have a copy of every series and they just seem so boring with sub-titles over non-charismatic Japanese dialogue. I wish there was a big enough market to justify english voice overs to the Japanese series. It was us "westerners" who kept the Transformers legacy alive for the last 25 years and made it what it is today. But in the Japanese defense, 20 year old cartoons dont bring in the big bucks that a CG animated series would. Sadly, the money just isnt there to pay voice actors, translators, technicians, and still turn a profit.

Nearly everything in the above post upsets me.

"Non-charismatic Japanese voice actors?" You mean not "talking in random, stereotypical accents and dialects," right?

It wasn't Westerners who contributed Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory, Zone, Battlestars, and Return of Convoy after G1 went off the air in the west in 1988. And it was the Japanese series "Car Robots" that brought the franchise back to its roots as vehicle-based robots. Weren't Armada, Energon, and Cybertron just (badly) translated version of Micron Densetsu, Super Link, and Galaxy Force?

How about all of those reissues of classic figures that Takara released? Picking up the expense of fixing/recasting the original molds to keep popular characters relevant to newer fans?

Not to leave the west out in the cold, of course. They definitely got the ball rolling...by buying up a bunch of different Japanese toys and sticking them together in the same line.

Thanks for Marvel G1 and Beast Wars, though.

Rated X wrote:I just cant watch them like this. (without English voices) I have a copy of every series and they just seem so boring with sub-titles over non-charismatic Japanese dialogue. I wish there was a big enough market to justify english voice overs to the Japanese series.

What on Earth are you talking about?! You've already seen this in English. This just G1 season 1-3 dubbed into Japanese. You don't need to have these dubbed into English since they already are!

Rated X wrote:It was us "westerners" who kept the Transformers legacy alive for the last 25 years and made it what it is today.

This is such a lie. In the U.S., the Transformers franchise DIED after 1990. It stayed dead for two long years, not returning to life until 1993 with Generation 2.

In Japan, however, the Transformers continued to LIVE all throughout 1990-1993 and has continued ever still. You say we Westerners kept it alive for all these years, yet it was us who KILLED it for two years, while Japan let it live on in great success.

Rated X wrote:But in the Japanese defense, 20 year old cartoons dont bring in the big bucks that a CG animated series would. Sadly, the money just isnt there to pay voice actors, translators, technicians, and still turn a profit.

There is just so much ignorance in all this it ain't funny.

The point of my post was plain and simple. I’m stressing 3 main points:

1. In my opinion, The American voice actors use more diversity in creating characters voices which makes the cartoon much more fun and enjoyable.
2. The people who did the English voice over of “The Headmasters” that I obtained did a crappy job.
3. The Japanese voice actors on the non translated cartoons sound like they are reading, not acting.

Let me just address all you guys at once.

I have search the internet to obtain the best quality copies of every Japanese TF cartoon. The only one I could find with voices in English was “The Headmasters”. In this fan dubbed version they chose to call Blaster as “Billy” before his battle with Soundwave where they kill each other and are later rebuilt. By the time I got to the episodes featuring “Battle Beasts” I couldn’t take anymore of the “Non-Charismatic” voice overs and hit eject on my DVD player. Yes I said Non-Charismatic.

And the ones with the subtitles and the voices in Japanese were even worse. Even if I understood Japanese, the voices had no individuality. They hay no flavor. They had no swag. They might have well have had one guy voice every character because that’s how it sounded.

Excuse me for being a “typical westerner” but I want diversity in their voices and personality. Examples of this are:

Outback’s Australian accent
Perceptor’s British accent
Blaster’s 1980’s hip hop DJ persona
Soundwave’s voice recorded through vocoder studio equipment
Wheelie sounding like a kid
Seaspray gargling as he spoke
Blurr speaking super fast
Kup sounding like an grouchy old man

I’m sorry you guys don’t appreciate diversity because it is one of America’s greatest attributes. We are a diverse society with cultures and influences from all over the world. So naturally our TF cartoon reflected that.

Sure some might say we are “stereotyping” by using certain accents and personas. But guess what? It sounds accurate to the diverse society we live in. So the voice actors in the American version got it right. At least they got it right in correctly representing America in the cartoon. It is what it is. Deal with it.

So if you prefer voice actors that sound like they are reading off a paper, go head and call me ignorant. Get some studio recording equipment and I’m sure you’re version will be just as energetic and exciting as a typical classroom lecture.

And as far as “Westerners” keeping Transformers alive for 25 years strong, just look at all the other 1980’s kids sensations that did not do as well:

Go-bots
G.I. Joe
Captain Power
Cabbage Patch Kids
Alf
He-Man
Smurfs
Jem and the Holograms
Speed Racer
Strawberry Shortcake
My Little Pony
Scooby Doo

Yes a few of the franchises I mentioned have had recent studio movies. But did any of these well known toy lines with corresponding cartoon series create a legacy in the past 25 years as transformers did? How many franchises continue to keep getting series after series? Toy line after toy line? Movie after movie? Batman came close but nothing beats Transformers. And it all happened right here in America.

Granted Japan has kept it alive all these years too. But they kept it alive on a smaller scale themed for collectors and adults. It was westerners who made Transformers a media sensation, not Japan. Now if you want to talk about Godzilla or Power Rangers, Japan gets all the credit because westerners jumped on the bandwagon for a few years and then abandoned the franchises. But not Transformers. 25 years strong in America. Even in the early 90’s at it lowest, there was always at least one line available in major retail toy stores. Can you say that about any other toy franchise?

Blurrz wrote:I'm sorry, but you're bloody ignorant in your assumptions with the Japanese language. There is individuality in each of their voices, you just have no idea simply because you can't understand the freaking language. We get it. You like to listen to your Transformers in English. No need to write a bible about how Ethnocentric and Xenophobic you are.

Fixed.

Rated X wrote:The only one I could find with voices in English was “The Headmasters”. In this fan dubbed version they chose to call Blaster as “Billy” before his battle with Soundwave where they kill each other and are later rebuilt.

That was no fan dub. That was the official English language dub release in Malaysia. And it's so terrible that it's not best to judge by that version.

Rated X wrote:Even in the early 90’s at it lowest, there was always at least one line available in major retail toy stores. Can you say that about any other toy franchise?

There were no Transformers toys sold in the U.S. during 1991-1992. That's two years during which the Transformers was DEAD in the U.S. Yet in Japan, the line never died.

Blurrz wrote:I'm sorry, but you're ignorant in your assumptions with the Japanese language. There is individuality in each of their voices, you just have no idea simply because you can't understand the language or know what they're saying. For example, Blurr doesn't speak fast, rather he repeats what he's saying. We get it. You like to listen to your Transformers in English. No need to write a bible about how pro-American you are. Your stance on this stuff has been the same for a very long time, so honestly. what's the point in you taking a dump on this stuff everytime a news story shows up?

And the America, America, America stuff? Get your facts straight before you start tooting your horn. Beast Wars? Oh yeah, developed and made completely in Canada, and aired in Canada first. Beast Machines.. oh sweet, also developed by Canadian company Mainframe Entertainment. Oh.. whoops Robots In Disguise, that was actually taken from JAPAN, after Japan spent a good 2-3 years with their expanded (and awesome) Beast Wars Neo series.

Armada? Oh, **** that was a joint venture between Japan and America. Energon cartoon = Japan. Transformers Cybertron.... oh yeah, again.. Japan.

America hasn't carried Transformers for the past 25 years. It's been a joint venture, and at many times, in fact up until about 6 years ago, it was all Japan, and America just went along with what they were dishing out back there.

Have you ever been to Japan or even Asia for that matter ???

I have been to Asia. I stayed in the Philippines for 2 weeks. To get there, I had to transfer through Hong Kong Airport. And returning home, I was bumped to a flight that landed in Tokyo, Japan. I spent 2 hours in Japan being processed through Japanese customs before being able to board my flight back to the states. During this time I heard constant conversation around me and towards me when my passport was processed. So I can testify first hand that Japanese people speaking in normal conversation sounds just like the voice actors in Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory, etc.

Needless to say I find you labeling me as “Pro American” a little offensive. I was just stating the facts about the Franchise success compared to other franchises that withered away.

G1 Blurr does repeat himself a lot, but he does it at a quick pace so he indeed talks quick. Similar to a rap verse by Twista.

As far as Beast wars being from Canada, isn’t Canada part of North America AKA the “western hemisphere ???

The Unicron trilogy may have been a joint venture, but pound for pound who was pushing the big bucks into the toy line ??? Hasbro or Takara ??? I would say Hasbro my friend.

I’m keeping count of the times you call me ignorant and I intend to buy you a beer for every time next Botcon.

Rated X wrote:

Have you ever been to Japan or even Asia for that matter ???

I have been to Asia. I stayed in the Philippines for 2 weeks. To get there, I had to transfer through Hong Kong Airport. And returning home, I was bumped to a flight that landed in Tokyo, Japan. I spent 2 hours in Japan being processed through Japanese customs before being able to board my flight back to the states. During this time I heard constant conversation around me and towards me when my passport was processed. So I can testify first hand that Japanese people speaking in normal conversation sounds just like the voice actors in Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory, etc.

Oh. Two hours in Tokyo. I guess that makes you an expert, doesn't it? Able to label talented Japanese voice actors as "uncharismatic."

Look, I like the Western/Hasbro stuff as much as the next guy. The Marvel G1/G2 stuff. Beast Wars. The movies. All fun parts of the hobby. But in your first post, you seemed to completely discredit the (significant) contributions to the franchise that came from over here.

There is a lot of diversity in the Japanese dubs. Listen to how Galvatron speaks like an old gangster. It's often hilarious.

Although, I guess if your only experience with Japanese is a couple of hours in an airport, a lot of the subtleties will go over your head.

Professor Smooth wrote:

Rated X wrote:

Have you ever been to Japan or even Asia for that matter ???

I have been to Asia. I stayed in the Philippines for 2 weeks. To get there, I had to transfer through Hong Kong Airport. And returning home, I was bumped to a flight that landed in Tokyo, Japan. I spent 2 hours in Japan being processed through Japanese customs before being able to board my flight back to the states. During this time I heard constant conversation around me and towards me when my passport was processed. So I can testify first hand that Japanese people speaking in normal conversation sounds just like the voice actors in Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory, etc.

Oh. Two hours in Tokyo. I guess that makes you an expert, doesn't it? Able to label talented Japanese voice actors as "uncharismatic."

Look, I like the Western/Hasbro stuff as much as the next guy. The Marvel G1/G2 stuff. Beast Wars. The movies. All fun parts of the hobby. But in your first post, you seemed to completely discredit the (significant) contributions to the franchise that came from over here.

I didnt even need two hours. All I needed was 10 minutes to tell that the Japanese were very calm, conservative, softspoken people. But in my opinion when you are doing voices for giant robots shooting and smashing each other, you gotta get a little more hyped up. And I would never discredit the Japanese in the Transformer world. They made the toys which came FIRST to inspire the cartoon series. My first figure was a Diaclone back in early 1984. But I think the American contributation to the franchise was definitally through media.

Rated X wrote:I didnt even need two hours. All I needed was 10 minutes to tell that the Japanese were very calm, conservative, softspoken people.

You can make a generalization of an entire race in TEN MINUTES?!?! Wanna try that with different groups? Go ahead. Fill in these blanks.

All I needed was 10 minutes to tell that blacks were very ___________.

All I needed was 10 minutes to tell that Jews were very ___________.

All I needed was 10 minutes to tell that Latinos were very ___________.

All I needed was 10 minutes to tell that whites were very ___________.

All I needed was 10 minutes to tell that Muslims were very ___________.

Rated X wrote:Needless to say I find you labeling me as “Pro American” a little offensive. I was just stating the facts about the Franchise success compared to other franchises that withered away.

G1 Blurr does repeat himself a lot, but he does it at a quick pace so he indeed talks quick. Similar to a rap verse by Twista.

As far as Beast wars being from Canada, isn’t Canada part of North America AKA the “western hemisphere ???

The Unicron trilogy may have been a joint venture, but pound for pound who was pushing the big bucks into the toy line ??? Hasbro or Takara ??? I would say Hasbro my friend.

If Transformers did less successful in Japan, then how come the Japanese got so much more TF media than the West for such a long time? Our G1 cartoons died, while theirs thrived and multiplied in success. We killed the G1 toyline with Action Masters, while Japan ignored our mistakes and created better innovations like the Powered Masters, the Battlestars, and the Micromaster Six-combiners.

Let's have a look at how many big things each side of the globe had going on throughout the years prior to 2007.

1980s
U.S.

• G1 cartoon (1984-1988)
• G1 toyline (1984-1990)
• G1 Marvel comics (1984-1991)
• G1 movie (1986)
• G1 movie soundtrack (1986)
• G1 Blackthorne comics (1987)

Japan

• FSRLTF toyline (1985)
• FSRLTF cartoon (1985-1986)
• FSRLTF manga (1985-1986)
• FSRLTF story pages (1986)
• Scramble City (1986)
• Full Throttle Scramble Power! manga (1986)
• 2010 toyline (1986)
• 2010 cartoon (1986-1987)
• The Transformers manga (1986-1987)
• 2010 story pages (1986-1987)
• Great Transformers War manga (1987)
• The Headmasters toyline (1987)
• The Headmasters cartoon (1987-1988)
• The Headmasters manga (1987-1988)
• The Headmasters story pages (1987-1988)
• Chōjin Masterforce toyline (1988)
• Chōjin Masterforce cartoon (1988-1989)
• Chōjin Masterforce manga (1988-1989)
• Chōjin Masterforce story pages (1988-1989)
• Victory toyline (1989)
• Victory cartoon (1989-1990)
• Victory manga (1989-1990)
• Victory story pages (1989-1990)
• Zone toyline (1990)
• Zone episode (1990)
• Zone manga chapter (1990)
• Zone story pages (1990-1991)
• Return of Convoy toyline (1990)
• The Battlestars manga (1991)
• The Battlestars story pages (1991-1992)
• Operation Combination toyline (1992)
• Operation Combination story pages (1992)
• Assorted TF CDs (1985-1992)

1990s
U.S.

• G2 toyline (1993-1995)
• G2 cartoon (1993-1994)
• G2 Marvel comics (1993-1994)
• Beast Wars toyline (1996-2001)
• Beast Wars cartoon (1996-1999)
• Beast Machines cartoon (1999-2000)
• Beast Machines toyline (2000-2001)

Japan

• G-2 manga chapter (1995)
• G-2 pack-in manga (1995)
• G-2 story pages (1995-1996)
• Japanese Beast Wars toyline (1997-1998)
• Japanese Beast Wars cartoon (1997)
• Beast Wars II toyline (1998)
• Beast Wars II cartoon (1998-1999)
• Beast Wars II manga (1998-1999)
• Beast Wars Special movie (1998)
• Beast Wars Neo toyline (1999)
• Beast Wars Neo cartoon (1999)
• Beast Wars Neo manga (1999)
• Beast Wars Metals toyline (1999)
• Beast Wars Metals cartoon (1999)
• Beast Wars Metals manga (1999-2000)
• Beast Wars Metals: Convoy Dai Henshin! (1999)
• Assorted BW CDs (1997-2000)

2000-2006
U.S.

• RiD toyline (2001-2003)
• RiD cartoon (2001-2002)
• Armada toyline (2002-2003)
• Armada cartoon (2002-2003)
• G1 Dreamwave comics (2002-2004)
• Armada/Energon Dreamwave comics (2002-2004)
• Alternators toyline (2003-2007)
• Energon toyline (2004-2005)
• Energon cartoon (2004-2005)
• Cybertron toyline (2005-2006)
• Cybertron cartoon (2005-2006)
• Classics toyline (2006-2007)

Japan

• Car Robots toyline (2000)
• Car Robots cartoon (2000)
• Micron Densetsu toyline (2002-2003)
• Micron Densetsu cartoon (2003)
• Binaltech toyline (2003-2008)
• Binaltech fiction (2003-2008)
• Super Link toyline (2004)
• Super Link cartoon (2004)
• Galaxy Force toyline (2005)
• Galaxy Force cartoon (2005)
• Galaxy Force manga (2005)
• Assorted TF CDs (2000-2005)

You can see a gradual progression of the U.S. and Japanese becoming more and more even over time, but the fact of the matter is that Transformers was NOT less successful in Japan than it was in the U.S.

Rated X wrote:I didnt even need two hours. All I needed was 10 minutes to tell that the Japanese were very calm, conservative, softspoken people.

That. Is. ABSURD! Ten minutes? Really?

We're talking about the Japanese here. The Japanese, who are famous for their heavily emotion-driven, loud action screaming, drama-filled, power mad hyper cartoons. Ever watch Dragon Ball Z in Japanese? It's WAY more loud and yelling-filled than any of its English dubs.

Rated X wrote:But in my opinion when you are doing voices for giant robots shooting and smashing each other, you gotta get a little more hyped up.

They do! Look at this scene from the G1 movie in Japanese. Listen to all the added emotion and passion put into it as Convoy (Optimus) just mauls through the Destrons (Decepticons) to get to Megatron. You can't tell me you get this same level of feeling from this scene in the English version.

Rated X wrote:And I would never discredit the Japanese in the Transformer world. They made the toys which came FIRST to inspire the cartoon series. My first figure was a Diaclone back in early 1984. But I think the American contributation to the franchise was definitally through media.

See above list.