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After a bunch of rumours as to whether Japanese fans of the comics fiction that IDW Publishing has been releasing in English (and distributing in mostly Anglophone countries) will ever see the same books in Japanese, we have an official update!

Via Yama3sp on Twitter, we can report confirmation that as of 23rd March, the first official translation of All Hail Megatron will be released on the comics market via ShoPro Books, who are offering a free bookmark with purchase of the book. Check out the website for more details of participating stores, and the two sides of the bookmark below!

Writing: Shane McCarthy et al
Art: Guido Guidi et al
Translator: Nakazawa Shunsuke
Details: B5 size Heng Namisei, 500 pages, text 4C
Price listing: 3,800 yen + tax
Release Date: March 23, 2015
ISBN: 9784796875141

Boy is Japan going to be disappointed.

but then they get better.

Didn't realize this was news, it's been on Japanese web shops for a while now. AmiAmi/HLJ/Amazon Japan

Emerje

That's a weird place to start. I guess they just want to get the bad stuff out of the way. I wonder if they are getting the earlier IDW stuff.

I know that it is incredibly unlikely, but I would be absolutely jazzed if this led to an eventual anime adaptation of the IDWverse Neo-G1 Transformers stuff.

Sweet mercy, is Japan really that self-loathing?

NuclearConvoy wrote:I know that it is incredibly unlikely, but I would be absolutely jazzed if this led to an eventual anime adaptation of the IDWverse Neo-G1 Transformers stuff.

That be pretty cool, but I have almost no hope for that happening.

I would actually be interested in getting some collections of TF manga and/or story pages if IDW ever wanted to do this in reverse.

A Gundan-tier Transformers show...bah gawd.

Is is bad that the first thing i thought when i saw this thread was we should apologize for giving them AHM?
I think I echo some other commenters that if at least they start here, it should be easy going after that.
Too bad LSoTW wasn't included to balance things out a bit.

Given all the negative reaction this news is getting, I think we're forgetting how big it actually is for IDW to be officially available in another language, especially with the Japanese readership!

Was AHM not as successful? Maybe. I liked it. I still do. Slow pacing? Sure. But as a one-volume read, to me, it works. And it sets the scene for everything that comes after it, Costa, Roberts, Barber, RID/MTMTE, Dark Cybertron, Drift, Scott, Windblade and Combiner Wars. It's a good place to start, without having to delve back into the -ations.

Va'al wrote:Given all the negative reaction this news is getting, I think we're forgetting how big it actually is for IDW to be officially available in another language, especially with the Japanese readership!

Was AHM not as successful? Maybe. I liked it. I still do. Slow pacing? Sure. But as a one-volume read, to me, it works. And it sets the scene for everything that comes after it, Costa, Roberts, Barber, RID/MTMTE, Dark Cybertron, Drift, Scott, Windblade and Combiner Wars. It's a good place to start, without having to delve back into the -ations.

But the -ations were great. And Stormbringer deserves translation as well.

NuclearConvoy wrote:

Va'al wrote:Given all the negative reaction this news is getting, I think we're forgetting how big it actually is for IDW to be officially available in another language, especially with the Japanese readership!

Was AHM not as successful? Maybe. I liked it. I still do. Slow pacing? Sure. But as a one-volume read, to me, it works. And it sets the scene for everything that comes after it, Costa, Roberts, Barber, RID/MTMTE, Dark Cybertron, Drift, Scott, Windblade and Combiner Wars. It's a good place to start, without having to delve back into the -ations.

But the -ations were great. And Stormbringer deserves translation as well.

I am not saying they're not! I adore Stormbringer with a passion.
What I'm trying to say is that, for a coherent, continuing market of translation, the story might want to take precedence - with Combiner Wars currently about to take place, AHM is a good place to start. Heck, they could even skip the 2009-11 ongoing, and re-start from Death of Optimus Prime (maybe with a summary of sorts).

We'll see how it develops, of course. All I'm really trying to claim here is that I more or less agree with AHM as a starting point for a new readership.

Va'al wrote:

NuclearConvoy wrote:

Va'al wrote:Given all the negative reaction this news is getting, I think we're forgetting how big it actually is for IDW to be officially available in another language, especially with the Japanese readership!

Was AHM not as successful? Maybe. I liked it. I still do. Slow pacing? Sure. But as a one-volume read, to me, it works. And it sets the scene for everything that comes after it, Costa, Roberts, Barber, RID/MTMTE, Dark Cybertron, Drift, Scott, Windblade and Combiner Wars. It's a good place to start, without having to delve back into the -ations.

But the -ations were great. And Stormbringer deserves translation as well.

I am not saying they're not! I adore Stormbringer with a passion.
What I'm trying to say is that, for a coherent, continuing market of translation, the story might want to take precedence - with Combiner Wars currently about to take place, AHM is a good place to start. Heck, they could even skip the 2009-11 ongoing, and re-start from Death of Optimus Prime (maybe with a summary of sorts).

We'll see how it develops, of course. All I'm really trying to claim here is that I more or less agree with AHM as a starting point for a new readership.

Considering I sank my money into buying all of AHM monthly and then felt so displeased with my purchases that I didn't buy any Transformers comics until I started picking up the MTMTE trades, I don't know if I would agree. It actually killed my interest in Transformers fiction for years. I'll give it some credit in that there were a few scenes and a few characterizations I enjoyed during the run, but overall I found it to be worse than the live-action movies.

I'm just going to offer a friendly shrug at that, I don't want to argue on tastes.

I do think that as a monthly it did not work, and your example helps reinforce that point, as well as echoing many others. As I said though, encountering it a collected story did not give me the same reaction, at all.

Maybe Japan just has a taste for poorly-received American TF comics. The last G1-based comics they got translated into Japanese over there were the two Pat Lee-drawn Dreamwave G1 mini-series. (*shudders*)

Sabrblade wrote:Maybe Japan just has a taste for poorly-received American TF comics. The last G1-based comics they got translated into Japanese over there were the two Pat Lee-drawn Dreamwave G1 mini-series. (*shudders*)

Well it's Japan, if there's one thing they love it's stories on a slow boil. This will probably suit their tastes in story telling pretty well.

Remember what happened after they got those Dreamwave comics? EVERYTHING was Pat Lee insprired from reissue packaging to Revoltech figures. If history repeats itself with IDW we might be better off for it.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Maybe Japan just has a taste for poorly-received American TF comics. The last G1-based comics they got translated into Japanese over there were the two Pat Lee-drawn Dreamwave G1 mini-series. (*shudders*)

Well it's Japan, if there's one thing they love it's stories on a slow boil. This will probably suit their tastes in story telling pretty well.

Remember what happened after they got those Dreamwave comics? EVERYTHING was Pat Lee insprired from reissue packaging to Revoltech figures. If history repeats itself with IDW we might be better off for it.

Emerje

But only if the post-AHM stuff comes out will it be truly beneficial. AHM was the least exciting set of IDW Transformers designs, IMO.

Well, Takara (in association with Hasbro and IDW) did already give us some IDW-based toys back at the beginning of the Thrilling 30 subline imprint of the Generations line, as well as the comic-accurate TF: Legends Windblade figure.

Va'al wrote:Given all the negative reaction this news is getting, I think we're forgetting how big it actually is for IDW to be officially available in another language, especially with the Japanese readership!

Was AHM not as successful? Maybe. I liked it. I still do. Slow pacing? Sure. But as a one-volume read, to me, it works. And it sets the scene for everything that comes after it, Costa, Roberts, Barber, RID/MTMTE, Dark Cybertron, Drift, Scott, Windblade and Combiner Wars. It's a good place to start, without having to delve back into the -ations.

WW2 also set the scene for everything to come after it, it's still not a good thing though. Or a good jumping on point

Eh, this story is right up the alley for the Manga audience, big stupid overblown action scenes, massive city destroying action, pointless side characters and stories that only serve to pad the story out to it's 12 chapters. The only thing that's missing is everyone announcing their attacks (Fusion Canon Blast of DEATH, Prime Fist of Justice, Insecticon Planet Crush), little girls in skimpy outfits, unnecessary panty shots, and nose bleed. Oh and recounting the previous events for 5 pages every 30 pages.

I can see why they chose AHM to start with, it's the easiest jumping on point for them, one it's as I said already pretty Shonen, but the previous -tion stuff has a completely different structure and feel to this and the Ongoing after it.
While the tion stuff is a bit slow, it's also too "quiet" for Japan, most of the stuff is just infiltrating and trying to outsmart the enemy with just very few actual robot fights, while mostly focusing on moving the story forward. AHM and the Ongoing are the right kind of slow for Japanese readers, since they spread out the story and extend it with long pretty pointless dialogue that goes practically nowhere, while pretending that it does, with plenty of action in between.

It would be too big a jump for Japanese readers to get used to tion, then get used to AHM tonal shift which pretty much stays the norm for the following material until RID and MTMTE shows up. It's just kinda the problem idw has now due to first caring so much about their continuity, then not caring at all, just to now care a whole lot again.
Hell, they might not even have to print the old spotlights or tion series, since MTMTE and RID bring up the stuff that's important post AHM, and explains it all while expanding on it to better fit the current status quo.

But yeah, this is the first foreign language printing of idw's TF comics, I know German comic fans have been petitioning Panini to start releasing idw's TF stuff, having the idw licence and all, but as of yet nothing has come of that.

You make some great points, particularly regarding story pace. I like all kinds of pacing having grown up on both western and eastern style storytelling. But I can see why the earlier stuff might not jive with a casual Japanese audience.

Those are the points I was trying to raise too, yes, thank you for articulating them!

Your idea about skipping the whole Costa stuff might very well work, too.
(Though a decision about Chaos Theory may have to be made, in light of MTMTE.)

After the first Japanese translation of IDW Transformers comics, two years ago, with All Hail Megatron, we have more news of the next book in the series: the Mike Costa run starting with For All Mankind is now available for purchase via sellers on Amazon.co.jp - translated by Ishikawa Yuto, and with a new cover by artist Eiji Yoshioka.

Refresh your memory on the original English release in our database, and check out the new cover art below!

wait, why did the japanese begin with all hail Megatron? why not start with a better story, like Spotlight Shockwave or Infiltration?

SG Roadbuster wrote:wait, why did the japanese begin with all hail Megatron? why not start with a better story, like Spotlight Shockwave or Infiltration?

Reasons.