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Oh boy! The Japanese dub of "The Burden Hardest to Bear".



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When Kup complements Sky Lynx on his shooting, Sky Lynx's original "Yes, Kup, I know," is made a bit more modest: "Not at all, it was an easy task." While this could still be read as vain, his tone kinda sounds like he's downplaying the feat rather than boasting.

The Japanese Prime Minister is given a very nasally voice in contrast to the very deep voice he original had in the English version.

When the Prime Minister complains to Rodimus, Rodimus's original retort of "Yeah, then maybe you oughta try protecting yourselves!" is made less rude by having him instead reiterate that the Autobots are fighting to protect the humans.

Kup's answer to Marissa's question about what's wrong with Rodimus was originally just "Giri", which he explained is a Japanese word meaning "The burden hardest to bear." In the dub, his answer is changed to say "He's tired", and then says "He's unable to bear the weight of his duties and responsibilities." The spirit of intent is there, and you can hear Kup mention "giri" in the dialogue, but the overt Japanese-ness of the answer is, ironically, toned down in the Japanese version.

Kup saying that Optimus Prime learned to live with and respect his "giri" is changed to Kup musing about the many hardships that both Optimus and Rodimus have (or had, in Optimus's case), which Kup and the others don't understand having not been Matrix-bearing leaders.

Marissa's original "If I could turn into a car, this is where I'd blow off steam," is completely changed entirely: "I can't just leave it like this. We have to help our Leader with his problems together with everyone else."

Dead End and Wildrider are misidentified by the narrator as Runabout and Runamuck, which is especially weird since their toys were never sold in Japan.

Something to note that is not a typo of the subtitles is their spelling Marissa's name as "Melissa". That is actually her name in the Japanese version, probably due to a misunderstanding of her English name and assuming it was supposed to be "Melissa" instead of "Marissa".

Wildrider loves to shout "Yahoo!" in the Japanese version as much as he shouted such in the English version.

Galvatron's original "At last all will be one... under Galvatron's rule!" is genericized into "With this, I have nothing to fear anymore. The entire universe will be mine."

Galvatron's fear of the ancient Autobots' chanting is changed to mere begrudging annoyance.

Scourge calling the Matrix the "key to the universe" is amended slightly to him saying it holds the "essence of the universe."

Spinger also misidentifies Wildrider and Dead End as Runabout and Runamuck. Someone on the dub team must have really slipped up.

Ultra Magnus calling the Matrix the "essence of the Autobots" is likewise slightly amended to being a "symbol of the Cybertrons."

Hot Rod's big speech to everyone about how he's sick of being leader and responsible for peace in the universe and doesn't want the Matrix anymore, is given an extra mention of the Quintessons in the Japanese version.

When Cyclonus attacks Scourge in an attempt to stop his rampage, he now calls Scourge a traitor and attacks with the outright intent to kill Scourge.

It seems the Japanese misinterpreted Cyclonus's original statement about the Matrix having "poisoned" Scourge's body and mind, as it seems he really does think that there was a literal poison in the Matrix that affected Scourge.

Ha! The sound effect of Galvatron punching Cyclonus is changed to sound even more "punchy" in the Japanese version, like a "pop" sound, making the punch look and sound funnier. Likewise, the impact of Cyclonus hitting the ground sounds less mechanical and more like a "thud".

Ozu saying he was trying to be as forceful as possible because he felt he wasn't aggressive enough is changed to him wanting to become stronger quickly because he sees himself as weak and lacking in training.

The sensei's tendency to refer to Roddy as "Autoboto-san" in the English version is not carried over in any fashion in the dub. Here, the sensei just addresses him by name.

The sensei's speech to Hot Rod that was originally very "stereotypically Japanese" in the English version is basically the same in the dub, but is rephrased to sound SO much more natural. He doesn't mention "giri" (but does at least mention "gimu", which is "duty"), and even seems to use a bit of clever wit to really make Hot Rod think in this version. It's a lot more intelligently-written here.

Warp Gate 09A is slightly renamed to just "Warp Gate 9A".

Broadside gets to speak in the Japanese version when he was mostly silent in the English version.

The woman that Scourge frightens when he lands near her doesn't scream when she does in the English version, but instead yells for help when she runs away from him.

Scourge goading Ozu into trying to stop him ("Make me!") is changed to him telling Ozu to leave ("Stand back, kid!").

The old woman that Ozu protects from Scourge is given a voice that sounds more like a man trying to sound like an old woman instead of sounding like an actual woman's voice.

Because of the amount of lip-flaps to match, Ultra Magnus accidentally calling Rodimus "Hot Rodimus" is cut short to just "Hot Rod-", making this a rare case where it sounds, to the untrained ear, like the Japanese dub used Hot Rod's English name instead of his Japanese name, when Magnus actually just cut himself off before correcting himself to say "Rodimus Convoy".

Kup's final line of "And that's the point, son. No matter who carries the Matrix, that part's what you'll never lose," is slightly reworked into "That's why you are our Leader. When the Matrix becomes a part of you, you can be called the true Convoy."


Ooh, this episode ends with a segment similar to those "Secret Files of Teletraan II" segments from the English version, but this one's different. It's a recap of the first battle fought between Menasor and Superion back in "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2".

Interesting changes. I guess it gives the episode a different vibe from the original and I can see why they decided the sub this one, as opposed to any other.

Just started to watch Energon. Just two episodes in. Reserving my notes until after 10.

YEEEEEEEHAAAAAAWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!! "Call of the Primitives" in Japanese! This is the big one. The very foundation of the JG1 Primus retcon!



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At the beginning of this episode, not only does the narrator outright give Primacron's identity away to the audience immediately (instead of letting it be revealed by the Oracle much later in the episode per the original English version), but the narrator also describes him as "the creator of the super robot lifeforms".

Primacron's name is pronounced like "Pry-ma-kron" in English, but like "Pree-ma-kron" in Japanese.

Instead of alluding to "the other" (meaning Unicron) who was made of matter instead of energy and who "forgot who ruled him", Primacron now just describes how everything in the universe, "plants, animals, humans, robot lifeforms, even stars", are all just food for Tornedron to eat and get fat on.

During the firefight on the moon, the banter exchanged between Rodimus and Springer is changed to words of encouragement.

Rodimus's "One down, millions to go," is changed to "Strange, it suddenly got quiet." Originally, it was Magnus and Springer who pointed out this curiosity in the next shot, so now Magnus advises caution while Springer now wonders if the Decepticons have suddenly gotten cold feet.

Instead of ordering a counterattack because Galvatron won't expect it, Rodimus orders a counterattack because he himself expected the Decepticons would try their big sneak attack.

Wheelie's Japanese voice sounds suitably young and similar to his English voice. Having watched The Headmasters first, his voice here also sounds younger than his voice in The Headmasters even though it's the same voice actress, which gives the impression that he grows from a kid to a teenager between the two series.

Once Tornedron absorbs all of Planet Cybertron's energy, while Primacron does still mention that Tornedron's power has now surpassed that of Unicron, Primacron neglects to mention that Unicron was Tornedron's predecessor. It seems this dub is trying to keep Primacron's creation of Unicron a secret for now.

Grimlock calling himself "stealthy fighter" (an originally ridiculous notion that was obviously meant for comedic effect) is changed to the more sensible notion of him calling himself "the strong".

The dub corrects a dialogue mistake from the English version: "Come, Snarl, Sweep, Swoop, and Slag," becomes "Come, Snarl, Swoop, Sludge, and Slag."

Springer's famous line to Sky Lynx of "Well well, Commander Modesty's here!" is changed to "I wish you'd come sooner!" This is because Sky Lynx no longer boasts about "superior forces are taking over"; instead, he jokingly calls himself "Sky Lynx Airlines", but does still tell the others to relax now that he's arrived.

Instead of Galvatron pointing out Sky Lynx succumbing to the strange behavior exhibited by the other animal-based Transformers, he now says it's Trypticon who's acting strange.

The Primitives are referred to as "yajū senshi" (野獣戦士, "beast soldier" or "beast warrior") or as just "yajū robots" (野獣ロボット).

Sky Lynx again refers to himself a "Sky Lynx Airlines". This might be something he does in general rather than just this episode, but we'll need to see more of him in other episodes before we can make that call.

There is a small typo in these subtitles. After returning from the first commercial break, "Seibertron" is spelled as "Cybertron", when it was spelled "Seibertron" earlier in the episode, while the "Cybertron" spelling is reserved for the Autobot faction.

Okay, here it is. The big change to the episode that formed the basis for JG1 Primus retcon: Sky Lynx's original line of "And unless I'm wrong, which is, of course, extremely unlikely, we are being called to a very ancient and sacred place," has been completely changed to "Moreover, it feels like we are being called by a voice from the past, as if we're traveling to a hidden world from the past." This is it. This is what led to the Japanese reinterpreting this sequence as a form of time travel, which was not the case in the original English version. Though, strangely, his following line of "I believe we're coming home!" was also changed, to "We seem to have reached our destination." Had the "coming home" part been kept intact, that would have likewise made it feel even more like they were traveling back in time to a primordial version of Cybertron, their home planet. But instead, it's only the earlier line that was used to indicate time travel in this version.

Where the Oracle says Primacron "built some of the Primitives" in the English version, in Japanese he says Primacron "created several primitive robots." This is not the same "yajū" term that was used to refer to the bestial Primitives, but rather "genshi-teki" (原始的), which is the actual Japanese word for something primitive or primeval.

The Oracle saying "Unicron decided to rule himself, and tried to dispose of Primacron," is changed to "Unicron had an evil will and tried to erase Primacron and become ruler of the universe himself." Wait! So, JG1 Unicron was always wanting to rule the universe, not eat it like Marvel Unicron and all his influenced versions. Suddenly, Unicron's later claims of wanting to become a god and rule the universe in Beast Wars Neo now make sense!

Like in the English version, the Oracle/Primacron's assistant identifies himself in the flashback as the object fleeing from Primacron's lab, the object that very much resembles the Matrix of Leadership. Also like in the English version, no attention is drawn to that resemblance.

When Sky Lynx tells everyone to flee from Trypticon's collapse, someone's line of "Us, Primitives, are not stupid!" is omitted from the Japanese dub. No dialogue is spoken when the line was spoken in the English version. Just general screams of terror/urgency.

When Tornedron rebels against Primacron, he makes his intent to devour Primacron and his ship very explicit in the English version, whereas the Japanese version initially has Tornedron just declare his freedom from Primacron's control and only threatens to kill him if he gets in Tornedron's way. But then Tornedron suddenly gets starving and only then decides that he will eat Primacron after all since he can no longer stand the hunger. This makes Tornedron seem less overtly malicious in the Japanese version.

Primacron's technobabble rambling in the English version is changed to him frantically declaring that creating Tornedron was a mistake and futily orders Tornedron to die.

I was saving this last bit for after the end of the episode, but it feels like Sky Lynx has been made less arrogant and vain in the Japanese dub. While he does still speak with a lot of confidence, his tone isn't as cocky or flamboyant as he is in the English version, so he comes off as less conceited and more just matter-of-factly.


This episode also ends with a "Secret Files of Teletraan II" type segment, but it's also a different one from the Cassette-focused one found in the English version of this episode. This segment, titled "Transformers 2010 Information Scramble Great Operation", reviews the five Combaticons and their combined form, recycling footage from the Season 2 episode "The Revenge of Bruticus".

Huh. So that one innocuous little change really paved the way for them to give themselves Primus! Which is good because I sometimes like Unicron to have a nemesis of his own.

Although, I don't see how nomming up Cybertron fits in with ruling the universe ... I guess nobody accused Unicron of being very well thought out, lol.

I wonder how they interpreted that scene as outright time travel?

Having just come off Armada I don't see that Unicron wanting to rule. I recall a few moments where Sideways thinks about how everything's just going to be devoured after a few convos with Thrust. I don't think I'm misremembering this. Can't speak to Superlink yet.

Just musing on the influence of "wanting to rule" VS "wanting to eat." I kind of prefer Unicron being a being motivated by hunger. Being a ruler makes his motivations on part with Megatron's.

Superlink - 10 episodes down! First impressions?

So far it's alright. I'm glad I watched that promo because I think the lack of mini-cons would have bothered me even more than it does now. Because even after watching it it still kinda bugs me.

Micron Legend was all about the Micons. Everyone was after them. Their awakening was the inciting incident to humans getting involved in the entire TF war. And here they just don't matter. Nobody powerlinks, nobody's after them. They're just off in another planet. And the mini cons that are present seem to be content to be just .... objects. Kicker's bike, or his hoverboard, or his other hoverboard. They have even less agency than before. Narratively speaking, I kinda wish they weren't here at all.

Superlink is so different from Legend. There the Autobots were hiding all the time and here they're completely in the open and working with humans. It's such a weird acceleration of the timeline. But I guess I'm here for it. It reminds me of G1 S3 and Headmasters, but I'm enjoying the more serious tone.

This is a nice take on my boy Galvatron. I miss the purple, although I know it's coming back. So far he does seem more unhinged than his Megatron persona, prone to fits of range and beating on his own men.

But my fav is Ironhide right now. I like his torn loyalties. They took a fairly simplistic character from ML and made him complicated by putting him in a very nuanced situation. I wonder where they'll go with that?

As for the Autobots ... none of them yet? lol, they're all kinda bland. Roadbuster is a less likeable Hot Shot from ML, Hot Shot himself is made a bit more generic, as is Jetfire, and Prime's just fine as himself, but he hasn't done anything outstanding yet.

Kicker's hard to like right now.

Edit:
Finished episode 17 right now and finished getting introduced to Irontread.

Did they seriously just take the best Decepticon and ruin him? First they rob Starscream of the past and personality he had in Armada and not Ironhide too? are they going anywhere with this or did they just want a quasi-new character?

It's also weird that Alpha-Q was able to revive Starscream without his body and in an entirely different location than where he died, but whatever.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Speaking of weirdness, the time travel stuff. I don't think it was necessary. At all. Just weird for the sake of weird. You could have easily cut it out of the series - had the Minicons land on Earth due to coincidence - and it would be stronger. Because now we don't have a do-over power! It's kind of like the Time Turner in Harry Potter. They use it for this one thing in this one instance? Why not any other time it could have come in handy? It makes the kids a bit more relevant to the plot, but also is unnecessary and complicates a plot that doesn't need to be complicated.

This slipped past me before. Are you referring to the strange bit in Episode 46 where Rad, Carlos, and Alexis are sent to a weird place where Hot Shot lies dying and they seemingly awaken a sense of free will in the Mini-Cons? If so, that actually wasn't time travel. The subtitles made a translation mistake with that scene, misinterpreting it as time travel when what actually happened was that Rad, Carlos, and Alexis were sent to a parallel alternate reality set in the present, one where the kids never met the Mini-Cons and so Unicron won by taking over the Mini-Cons and having them turn on the Autobots and Decepticons, all so they could all be consumed by Unicron. I got confirmation of this mistranslation by one of the Wiki's Japanese-language experts, who pointed out what the dialogue really said.

Funnily enough, this same misinterpretation of the scene was actually made by the English dub as well.

Sabrblade wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Speaking of weirdness, the time travel stuff. I don't think it was necessary. At all. Just weird for the sake of weird. You could have easily cut it out of the series - had the Minicons land on Earth due to coincidence - and it would be stronger. Because now we don't have a do-over power! It's kind of like the Time Turner in Harry Potter. They use it for this one thing in this one instance? Why not any other time it could have come in handy? It makes the kids a bit more relevant to the plot, but also is unnecessary and complicates a plot that doesn't need to be complicated.

This slipped past me before. Are you referring to the strange bit in Episode 46 where Rad, Carlos, and Alexis are sent to a weird place where Hot Shot lies dying and they seemingly awaken a sense of free will in the Mini-Cons? If so, that actually wasn't time travel. The subtitles made a translation mistake with that scene, misinterpreting it as time travel when what actually happened was that Rad, Carlos, and Alexis were sent to a parallel alternate reality set in the present, one where the kids never met the Mini-Cons and so Unicron won by taking over the Mini-Cons and having them turn on the Autobots and Decepticons, all so they could all be consumed by Unicron. I got confirmation of this mistranslation by one of the Wiki's Japanese-language experts, who pointed out what the dialogue really said.

Funnily enough, this same misinterpretation of the scene was actually made by the English dub as well.

But then the kids interact with the Minicons of the past. It makes High Wire's eyes turn on and that seems to cause them to go to Earth to meet the kids in the first place.

But all of that - the alternate reality, meeting the Minicons in the past, the whole predestined bit - is unnecessary to what's going on. You could have it be a complete coincidence like in ever other Transformers property. And the kids could just go with them to Cybertron. It just makes this wierd wrinkle in the plot that I dislike because it gives High Wire a power he uses a grand total of ONE time.

It was fun to see what Unicron's plot could have turned out had things gone fully his way, but the Minicons could have just turned on them due to their own free will and not due to the kid's interference. They were already important.

Oh, mercy. Karyuudo has subbed the big one.

The Transformers: The Movie (1986) in Japanese with English subs.

*cracks knuckles* This is gonna be long.

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The sounds of laughter coming from the Lithone children playing is unchanged audio from the English version.

New small talk dialogue is added between Kranix and his colleagues before Unicron shows up and they spot him.

Distant screams of agony and horror from the inhabitants of Lithone are added to the shots of Unicron consuming the planet and its people.

An extra dialogue line from Kranix is added as he boards his escape ship, making sure that everyone is aboard their ships before he shuts his ship's door closed.

The English-language theme song performed by Lion is kept in the Japanese version. In fact, all of the songs from the English version are kept as well.

The English "The Transformers" and "THE MOVIE" logos are also unchanged.

The Star Wars-styled opening English text scroll from the UK release of the movie is used here, and is verbally translated into Japanese by the narrator. The only notable differences between the English text scroll and what the narrator says are that the text describes the war as ongoing while the narrator says it "could end at any moment," and that the text says the war has gone from Cybertron to Earth and back again while the narrator describes a grander scope of from Cybertron to Earth and "to the vastness of intergalactic space."

While Season 3 of the cartoon was dubbed as taking place in the year 2010, the movie is kept as being in 2005, creating a five-year time gap in Japanese continuity that does not exist in the English version.

All the English name credits that play over the initial Moonbase scenes are neither removed nor translated in the Japanese version.

In the English version, Spike sounds pretty confident that Megatron will soon be defeated and that he, Spike, will be coming home soon to reunite with Daniel. Here, he's still hopeful, but instead speaks in a less certain, more realistic tone about coming home "if" Megatron is defeated.

Laserbeak's squawks are unchanged from the English version's squawks provided by Chris Latta.

Starscream makes some small verbal responses to Megatron's initial insult of him when Laserbeak returns.

There's a lot more talking added to the attack on the Autobot shuttle, making the scene feel even more traumatizing as each Autobot screams and groans their final lines as they fall one by one to their agonized deaths.

When Starscream points out to Megatron the real threat of the Autobots' Moonbases, he adds a little remark of "Maybe you're afraid of Convoy" that makes Megatron calling him a fool feel more valid in this version. Megatron also lays out his plan to attack Autobot City with an extra detail here, pointing out that destroying the Autobot City will leave the Moonbases isolated.

Heh. Megatron's original "Such heroic nonsense!" line is rewritten to a more aggravated line of "Ugh, you Cybertrons just won't die!" Ironhide also gets a new response of "Fat chance that'll...!" before he too screams in pain one final time.

Daniel's excitement to see the shuttle land is now because he thinks his "Papa" is aboard it.

Daniel is given little lines of laughter and excitement when riding his hoverboard and inside Hot Rod.

Hot Rod telling Daniel to "ride in style" is changed to him telling Daniel he still need more practice, in reference to Daniel colliding with the boulder accidentally.

Lookout Mountain is renamed more simply to "the lookout tower".

When crashing through the sign, Hot Rod yells "Sorry, old man!" In response, Kup's famous line of "Turbo-revving young punk! I'll straighten ya out yet!" is amended to "It says stop, for crying out loud! You crazy street racer!"

As Hot Rod and the screaming Daniel fall from the mountain, Hot Rod now comforts Daniel on the way down, reassuring him that everything will be okay.

Additional banter from Blitzwing and Kup is added during the mountain battle, with Shrapnel also now screaming when he gets shot by Blitzwing.

Instead of helping to spread the word, Blurr is tasked to provide cover for Ultra Magnus.

Little bits of dialogue are given to Springer and Arcee as they work to transform Autobot City. Same for Starscream when he gets his foot stuck, now saying "I won't let you sandwich me!" But, in a reversal of all the added scream, Starscream now says nothing after shooting his foot free (he originally shouted "OW, MY FOOT!" in the English version).

Ew. Shrapnel's original comment about Autobot City's doors being "a little heavy on the electrons, electrons," is changed to "But this is a lot to eat. I've been diarrheic since last night."

The Insecticons get little bits of dialogue and groans as Hot Rod and Kup plow through them.

Since Blaster doesn't talk like a radio DJ in the Japanese version, his dialogue is more generic. He also shows a greater sense of urgency regarding the situation.

"First we crack the shell, then we crack the nuts inside!" is changed to "Then take Frenzy's special attack... the Hammer Arm!"

Springer says that they need to push the rocket launcher to block the entrance so Megatron can't get inside the city. I guess the write misunderstood that it was a rocket launcher that they were trying to move into firing position.

Instead of Arcee saying she was worried Hot Rod would be trapped outside the city, she rather apologizes for closing the door with him outside.

When Devastator is formed, Starscream is given a new line of "We're counting on you, big guy!"

During the big fire fight montage, Megatron can now be heard shouting "Keep shooting!"

Instead of telling the Dinobots to "Destroy Devastator!", Optimus's order is made less ruthless: "All right, Dinobots. Take care of Devastor."

The fight between the Dinobots and Devastator now has banter, growling, and screaming added to it.

"Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost," is now "Even if it means sacrificing myself, I must defeat Megatron!"

As Optimus mows down and guns down the Decepticons on his way to Megatron, they all now scream in pain.

"One shall stand, one shall fall," is now "Either you die, or I die, Megatron."

Little bits of dialogue, grunts, and groans are added to the Optimus/Megatron fight.

"You, who are without mercy, now plead for it? I thought you were made of sterner stuff..." is now "Mercy? How many Cybertrons have died because of you? Begging for your life at this point is pitiful."

After Megatron now screams on his way down after being struck by Optimus, Soundwave now yells "Megatron-sama!" once Megatron hits the ground.

As the Decepticons retreat, Starscream gives more rally calls for them to get out of here.

Arcee is now confused as to why the Decepticons are retreat, with Kup now having to explain to her that it's because Optimus won his duel with Megatron.

Before Perceptor says how severe Optimus's wounds are, Daniel asks if Optimus is going to be okay, making Perceptor's line now a response to Daniel's inquiry.

After Prime tells Magnus that he, Prime, was also originally unworthy of the Matrix upon receiving it, but before he then tells Magnus about the prophecy of an Autobot one day using the Matrix to "light out darkest hour", a new line is added of Optimus saying "But now... You are the only one I can entrust with the Matrix."

Said prophecy is translated here as "One day, with the power of the Matrix... A light will shine through this darkness."

"Until that day... 'Til all are one..." becomes "Until the day peace returns to the universe... Take this..."

Daniel's crying over Optimus's death is now loudly audible.

Unicron still screams with Bob Holt's Incredible Hulk roar.

Astrotrain telling the others jettison some weight is now given the explanation of "We don't have enough energy to make it!" His Japanese voice also makes him sound way younger than how his English voice sounds.

The Decepticons tossed out of Astrotrain now all scream as they fall out into space.

"Wait! I still function!" and "Wanna bet?" are now "Wait, I can still move just fine!" and "Then move on!"

"Soundwave superior, Constructicons inferior," is now "Soundwave is smart, Buildrons are all stupid."

Hook calling Soundwave an "uncharismatic bore" is changed to calling him "sycophantic scum", which kinda runs deeper as an insult considering how much of a Yes Man Soundwave has been to Megatron up to this point. Likewise, Rumble and Frenzy's responses to said insult ("Hey, nobody calls Soundwave uncrazmatic." "Yeah! Let's kick tailgate.") becomes "Anyone who insults Soundwave has to deal with us!" "Bring it on you rusty junk!"

The fight aboard Astrotrain is made to sound much louder and rowdier.

Unicron's Japanese voice is nowhere near as heavily modulated as Orson Welles's voice was in the English version.

Megatron doesn't sound nearly as sickly or as injured in his first meeting with Unicron.

Huh? Megatron saying he accepts Unicron's terms is changed to "Name your terms! Name your terms and I'll help you!", when Unicron already did so beforehand.

"Scourge, the tracker, and his huntmen, the Sweeps" becomes "The merciless trackers, the Sweeps, and their leader, Scourge."

"Cyclonus, the warrior, and his armada," becomes "The space marauder, Air Commander Cyclonus, and his armada." The visuals accompanying that last bit almost kinda look like "and his armada" refers to Scourge and the Sweeps themselves in this version, ignoring the second Cyclonus in the background.

Seizō Katō doesn't really differ his voice between Megatron and Galvatron.

"Get on with the ceremony!" is now made funnier as "You're all out of sync, amateurs!" And now the Constructicons say "Is it true?" when they all look at each other in confusion. Ha!

Starscream's death is now punctuated by a loud, horrified scream.

Rumble (or "Frenzy" in this version) originally asking the other "What'd he say is name was?" is changed to him asking Galvatron directly "What should we call you?" despite the animation still showing him looking at Soundwave and Scavenger.

Ultra Magnus calling out "Jazz! Cliffjumper!" is changed to him ordering "Get out quickly!"

Jazz and Cliffjumper sound way more scared of getting eaten in the Japanese version.

Spike's infamous swear is faithfully translated, with only the "What do we do now?" part now changed to "What a nightmare!"

The term "monster planet" (monsutā wakusei) is consistently used multiple times to refer to Unicron in this version.

"I, Galvatron, will crush you just as Megatron crushed Prime!" becomes "I am the New Emperor of Destruction, Galvatron! Ultra Magnus, I'll send you to the other world like Convoy!"

"And you'll die trying just like Megatron!" is now "Shut up, you zombie Megatron!", making Galvatron's identity far less ambiguous in this version.

Cyclonus's line of "You want me to gut Ultra Magnus?" is changed to Scourge now saying "Leave him to Scourge!" (it's spoken in the same voice as Scourge's earlier line of "Have you forgotten? Our master is Unicron-sama," making it far less ambiguous who said the line in this version).

The Sweep that Grimlock shoots down with his fire breath screams as it crashes down before exploding.

Ultra Magnus ordering Kup and Hot Rod to get the Dinobots aboard the shuttle is changed to him telling everyone to help get the Dinobots aboard, when only Kup and Hot Rod are actually shown doing so while everyone else heads to a different shuttle.

Kup still mentions Alpha Nine and petro-rabbits in this version.

Springer's line about Daniel having to walk back home if he gets space sick is also kept in this version.

Springer's sarcastic line of "Believe it or not, this is the fun part!" is changed to a more gentlemanly line of "Leaving you behind was a mistake on my part."

Kup's story about Beta 4, wipers, and an Ick-Yak is all kept mostly intact. Though, the Dinobots' demand for "good part" is changed to them wanting to hear "battle stories".

When the Auto-combatant strikes Hot Rod when he's not paying attention, Hot Rod now yells back at it "Attacking form behind is cowardly!"

Kup still mentions Dromedon in this version, but his mentioning the shrikebats is omitted.

"I can't deal with that now!" is changed into the less harsh and more practical "There's nothing we can do now."

Cyclonus's other line in the movie "The Autobots have been terminated!", is also given to Scourge in this version, as "We did it, the Cybertrons are wiped out!" This is because Scourge is seen on the bridge next to Galvatron, so the dubbers likely assumed he was the one who said it to Galvatron, despite it being Roger C. Carmel's voice who said it in the English version.

"Remind me to give the autopilot a raise," is changed to "This autopilot system needs some improvement." Considering it was Ultra Magnus who piloted the ship down to its crash-landing, it seems the dubbers missed that it was a supposed to be a sarcastic jab at Magnus's piloting skills.

Springer telling Daniel "It's rough out there, kid," is changed to "There might be monsters outside." Coupled with the animation, he now seems like he's teasing Daniel.

Ultra Magnus's line about "Showtime" being over is kept.

It seems the dubbers struggled to translate and make sense of Wreck-Gar's TV-talk, as his dialogue now comes across as less reference-heavy and more comprehensible than in the English version. He still occasionally says a few phrases that sound like they're meant to be references, but since he entire way of speaking is no longer TV-speak, these bit instead come across as just random nonsense spouted during what is otherwise ordinary dialogue.

The universal greeting is mostly the same. Just a couple of syllables altered to fit the lip flaps in the Japanese language. Namely, the "wheep ni ni bong" part is changed to "whee pi ni bong".

The energon goodies are instead called energon cubes, even though they look more like sticks of gun and definitely not like cubes.

Wheelie gets a couple of small lines in his early cameo. And he does not speak in rhyme in this version, due to the difficulty of making his lines make sense while rhyming in Japanese.

Kup's mentioning the slave mines on Golgonath Seven is kept, though he does not mention that they were niter mines.

The Quintesson Imperial Magistrate is instead referred to more simply as "the jury". Each one of his heads is given its own very distinct voice, with the "Suspicious"/"Doubt"/"Judgement face given what sounds like a female laugh.

Kranix has a much higher-pitched voice than his English voice.

Kranix refers to his people as "Kranix-jin" ("Kranix people"). The subtitles opted to translate this as "Kranixian". In the original English version, he said "I am the last survivor of Lithone!"

"Spare me this mockery of justice!" becomings "Enough of this charade."

Kranix and the other doomed victim that preceded him both scream on their way down into the Sharkticon pit. Kranix even cries out "Help me!" when he briefly surfaces from the pit's yellow waters before being eaten alive.

The "beryllium baloney" and "cesium salami" argument between Grimlock and Slag is rewritten to be about Slag calling Grimlock's nose unreliable (after Grimlock says he can smell Hot Rod and Kup nearby), Grimlock getting angry at Slag for the insult, and Slag getting defensive and calling Grimlock a dumb-dumb.

Wheelie is given a very young-sounding voice, as opposed to how Frank Welker just made him sound squeaky. And since he doesn't rhyme in this version, his dialogue makes him come across more clearly as a mischievous little smart aleck.

After Wheelie shoots Grimlock in the nose with his slingshot, Grimlock sounds hurt and in pain for the remainder of the scene.

Instead of calling it "the Planet of Junk", Unicron says "Junkion" in this version.

Galvatron receives a new line of "Destron army, attack!" when he pilots Cyclonus on Junkion and destroys the Autobot shuttle.

When they corner Daniel on Junkion, both Shrapnel and Scavenger speak lines of their own, making it unambiguous that it's Shrapnel despite his having been seen being turned into a Sweep earlier.

The "'Til all are one!" spoken by the Autobots on Junkion is rendered in Japanese as "Unite the universe as one!" But since Optimus Prime did not say that in this version, it comes out of nowhere as some very random rally cry in this version.

Unlike Spike's swear, Ultra Magnus's swear is not retained in this version.

"I have nothing but contempt for this court!" becomes "I can't believe this is supposed to be a court!"

Some of the Sharkticons actually speak little phrases in this version! Wasn't expecting that.

Kup compares the Sharkticons to cockroaches in this version, in how they just keep on coming.

Because there's more banter added to the Sharkticon fight, the lyrics to the second verse of "Hunger" are turned down and made less audible in this version, to let the new dialogue be heard easier.

"Me, Grimlock, want to much metal!" becomes "Me, Grimlock, take you all down!"

"Me, Grimlock, no bozo, me king!" becomes "Me, Grimlock, am no troublemaker, me warrior of justice!"

Amazingly, the entire fight sequence with "Dare to Be Stupid" is barely given any new dialogue sounds. It's really only during the duel between Wreck-Gar and Springer that the usual grunts and yells are added in. The rest of the action before that fight is just as silent as it was in the English version.

Likewise, the entire dance sequence is also given no extra dialogue or noises.

"Me, Grimlock, not kisser, me king!" becomes "Me, Grimlock, hate kissing! Me, Grimlock, warrior!"

Wreck-Gar still claims to "talk TV", but like I said before, it's really not as frequent throughout his dialogue in this version.

"Destroy Unicron! Kill the Grand Poobah! Eliminate even the toughest stains!" is changed to the less-TV-talky "Let's go defeat Unicron, together! Our world is one, the always peaceful Junkion! Let's go defeat Unicron, let's go!"

Unicron's third Bob Holt-voiced Incredible Hulk roar is actually dubbed over, whereas his previous first two roars were unchanged from the English version. Though, you can faintly hear the beginning of Bob Holt's roar for just a split second before Mizuho Suzuki's new roar is heard.

To my surprise, Unicron's elaborate transformation sequence does not have him shouting "Transform!" at any point, when many of the other characters' transformations in this movie had them all shouting that.

"For a time, I considered sparring your wretched planet, Cybertron. But now you shall witness... it's dismemberment!" becomes "You fool. I wasn't planning to touch you planet, Seibertron. But... An eye for an eye... and destruction for betrayal!"

Unicron now screams in pain when Hot Rod pilots the Quintesson corkscrew ship into his eye. But, he does not scream at all when shown grasping his broken eye right afterward, even though he was animated with his mouth hanging open, which the dub could have easily used to insert another scream.

After he orders Galvatron to destroy Hot Rod, Unicron threatening to obliterate Galvatron if he doesn't destroy Hot Rod is changed to Unicron demanding Galvatron not
let Hot Rod get the Matrix, as if Unicron senses that Hot Rod is the one destined to bear it.

Galvatron's line of "Puny Autobot! You lack even Prime's courage!" becomes "Where'd you go? Come out, Cybertron! Are you too afraid to fight? Coward!"

"Me, Grimlock, kick butt!" becomes "Me, Grimlock, will kick attack!"

Sludge calls whacking Unicron with his tail a "tail attack!"

Grimlock saying he needs "new strategy" is slightly amended to him needing "a bit of strategy time."

Springer, Arcee, and Kup all scream when they get swept away by the ocean water inside Unicron.

Unicron now growls and howls when he crushes and throws the Junkion ship with his hand.

"Arise, Rodimus Prime," becomes "I leave the rest to you, Rodimus Convoy."

Likewise, Rodimus's original "Optimus!" line becomes "That voice... Commander Convoy!"

Rodimus's voice is much deeper than when he was Hot Rod.

Galvatron now screams as he is thrown out of Unicron into deep space.

"Now, light our darkest hour!" becomes "Matrix, now, shine a light in the darkness!"

Unicron now groans and howls in agony as his body is being destroyed from within.

Rodimus's first official command of "Autobots, transform and roll out!" becomes "Cybertron warriors, transform and escape! Quick, get in, Spike and Daniel!"

When everyone transforms and rolls out of Unicron, since Springer's transformation is shown last, he is given a cheeky new line of "Hey, wait for me!"

Unicron groans in pain when the Autobots drive out through his other eye, and he continues to groan until speaking his final line.

Said final line is changed from "Destiny! You cannot... destroy... my... destiny!" to "This is impossible! for me to be destroyed? This can't be happening."

"Let this mark the end of the Cybertronian wars as we march forward to a new age of peace and happiness. 'Til all are one!" becomes "Let this day be the end of the Seibertron Wars, and the first day of peace and happiness for our future. Unite the universe as one!"

Despite opening with the UK-original text scroll and a Japanese translation of it, a translation of the UK-only ending narration ("The battle is over. But the galaxy-spanning adventures of the Transformers will continue, and the greatest Autobot of them all, Optimus Prime, will return.") is not provided in this version.

The English-language end credits are all retained and not translated into Japanese. Despite this being the Japanese dub of the movie, no credits for the Japanese dub production crew or voice cast are provided at all.



Phew!

Huh. Some of these are kinda interesting. I guess they wanted absolutely no ambiguity, meta or otherwise, that Megatron is Galvatron.

Of course they also had a version of Scramble City which had Megatron and Galvatron co exist so maybe that had something to do with it. In case some kid saw that and was confused they could then see this and see that, no they really are the same guy and they should forget that whole bit of confusion with the toy commercial.

Some of the real iconic lines really lose a lot of their flavor in translation. I wonder if there are iconic Japanese lines that where the reverse is true.

I enjoyed watching this significantly. However, having watched the film hundreds of times, it gave me a new appreciation for the art that I never had before. I wouldn't say the added dialogue was "distracting", but it did make me appreciate the whole "less is more" approach. Never realized until watching in another language, how little dialogue there really is in the original English language production, and they really do more showing than explaining (aside from the narrators brief opening explanation). They really expect you to already know these characters & this world, which is understandably why it fell flat with critics and parents initially, but was loved by the kids back then (adults now).

Also as I stated on another thread, it was amazing how close the Japanese VA for Unicron in this movie sounds close to Unicron in BW Neo (Galvatron from BWII VA), they aren't the same person, but using the same vocoding (different form Soundwaves) definitely helps. Makes me wonder what they could have done with Roger C Carmel's Unicron voice in S3 to make him sound a little more like Orson Welles...

o.supreme wrote:I enjoyed watching this significantly. However, having watched the film hundreds of times, it gave me a new appreciation for the art that I never had before. I wouldn't say the added dialogue was "distracting", but it did make me appreciate the whole "less is more" approach. Never realized until watching in another language, how little dialogue there really is in the original English language production, and they really do more showing than explaining (aside from the narrators brief opening explanation). They really expect you to already know these characters & this world, which is understandably why it fell flat with critics and parents initially, but was loved by the kids back then (adults now).

I dunno, all the extra screaming made it feel more "real" to me. Like, this is war and war is painful, so it made sense that these characters would feel pain and fear and react to it accordingly. Seeing the Optimus and Megatron fight with the two grunting and groaning made me realize just how awkward it was in the English version that the two are clearly visually enduring pain but don't so much as ever go "Oof!" or "Ugh!" at any point.

Same with Devastator fighting the Dinobots. Sludge makes his famous Looney Tunes reaction when Devastator slams down on him, but never lets out even a whimper?



His mouth clearly opens in reaction to the pain but no sound of any kind comes out? Why not?

I agree with that. The screaming and grunts etc... did bring a another level of realism. I was just talking specifically about the additional spoken word dialogue. Maybe Japanese culture is just more word-driven?

o.supreme wrote:I agree with that. The screaming and grunts etc... did bring a another level of realism. I was just talking specifically about the additional spoken word dialogue. Maybe Japanese culture is just more word-driven?

Oh, that. That's just an aspect of dubbing children's shows in general. 4Kids and Saban both used to do that all the time back when they dubbed children's anime into English in the 90s and 2000s, filling any and all moments of silence with random added dialogue due to the belief that children have bad attention spans and need to be constantly stimulated by noise in order for them to pay attention to the shows.

Likewise, Transformers is aimed at much younger audiences in Japan than in the West, so Japanese dubs of American TF cartoons have always had extra lines added in (especially since Beast Wars since nearly all Japanese TF dubs have been handled by Yoshikazu Iwanami). You can hear the same happen in the Japanese dubs of the other G1 episodes posted earlier in this thread.

Yeah, I know it happens in English language dubs of Anime (one of the worst parts of watching Cybertron was all the long Transformation sequences filled with asinine dialogue). But I wasn't aware that Japanese dubs would do the same to an English produced series.... Interesting...

Ive seen a few Original Series episodes dubbed in Japanese (without subs). But I've never watched any BW dubbed in Japanese, other than the opening sequences, I heard it was pretty bad.

o.supreme wrote:Yeah, I know it happens in English language dubs of Anime (one of the worst parts of watching Cybertron was all the long Transformation sequences filled with asinine dialogue). But I wasn't aware that Japanese dubs would do the same to an English produced series.... Interesting...

I guess it depends on the dubbing company and/or the audience they're aiming for, even in Japan.

o.supreme wrote:Ive seen a few Original Series episodes dubbed in Japanese (without subs).

Well, so far, Karyuudo has subbed the first three episodes, "Kremzeek!", "The Burden Hardest to Bear", and "Call of the Primitives". Check 'em out and see what they're like.

o.supreme wrote:But I've never watched any BW dubbed in Japanese, other than the opening sequences, I heard it was pretty bad.

"Bad" is pretty subjective. The early online fandom of the 90s and 2000s had a very negative opinion of the Japanese dub of Beast Wars because they treated Beast Wars as sacrosanct, and because making fun of dubs that deviated from the scripts of the original language was the norm back then.

Having gotten to see some of it, myself, "silly" is a better descriptor for the Japanese dub of Beast Wars. Even with all the jokes and adlibs added in, the scripts were still mostly pretty faithful to the English version, and the voice acting was all very competent.

You can get a taste of what the dub was like by watching all three Beast Wars theatrical specials subtitled in English:

Clash! Beast Warriors
(a "compilation movie" summarizing events of the first season but with new dialogue created just for this presentation)


Beast Wars Metals ("the movie")
(the Season 2 episode "Bad Spark", with a new prologue recapping the first three episodes of Season 2)


Beast Wars Metals: Convoy's Great Transformation
(the season 3 episode "Cutting Edge", with an extensive prologue explaining events of "The Agenda" and "Optimal Situation")

Ok, watched this in it's entirety now (as opposed to just reading the summ up).

It comes across as ... low-effort.

I know the movie was translated late in the TF game. Hell, after Victory was well underway! If it were done earlier I can't help but feel that they would have done their own versions of the English songs at least and definitely the end credits. I wonder how it played in Japan. No kids crying in theaters there for sure. By this point OP had been killed in a summ up, brought back, and re-killed! If it were me and seeing things left untranslated with a rock version of a theme song that didn't resonate with me it would have just kind of cemented the "other-ness" of this product. Especially with several season being produced by Japan for a Japanese audience.

The dialogue ... I found it, for the most part, stilted. Yes, most of it's translated faithfully, but it also lacks a great deal of the personality that made these characters who they are. Is that a result of a translation of a translation? Is there a flair in the spoken Japanese word that I'm missing? But there does seem to be a difference in

"I'll tear out your optics"
and
"Do you want me to tear out your eyes?"

"What'd he say is name was?"
has a bit more personality than
"What should we call you?"

or the classic
"Soundwave superior, Constructicons inferior,"
to
"Soundwave is smart, Buildrons are all stupid."

Literally all of Blaster's dialgoue is stripped of flair. Oof. Maybe this version really does listen to classical music.

And the direct translation of the year 2005 without remembering the entire season called 2010. To me, these lines all show a certain lack of care. And maybe I'm wrong. I guess I'd need a native speaker to let me know.

I did enjoy Galvatron saying it's too late to bemoan being born a Cybertronian. It's wordier than the original, but I like the menacing flavor it has.

Dang, I wish I could rate the dub higher. It certainly is interesting to see the translation. But, and I hate to say it, the dub doesn't seem to add personality. It seems to take it away. Knowing that it comes well after the movie was relevant explains this. And maybe I'm well off my mark. Maybe the Japanese lines are delivered extremely well and I'm just missing the nuances. But I dunno. I'll take the original in this case.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Ok, watched this in it's entirety now (as opposed to just reading the summ up).

It comes across as ... low-effort.

I know the movie was translated late in the TF game. Hell, after Victory was well underway! If it were done earlier I can't help but feel that they would have done their own versions of the English songs at least and definitely the end credits.

I wouldn't say that. Unless it's a musical where the songs are actually sung by the characters themselves, most Hollywood films have all pop songs played in the background left intact and unchanged for foreign-language releases, even for animated films. This is par for the course.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I wonder how it played in Japan.

Per TFWiki:

TFWiki wrote:The Japanese dub was an official translation by Katsushige Hirata. Although Transformers: The Movie (トランスフォーマー ザ・ムービー) was advertised during 1987, and was even originally scheduled for a theatrical release in the summer of that year, unknown circumstances resulted in a delay of the Japanese release. It was not released in Japan until August 9th 1989,[3] first through limited charity screenings for UNICEF in Tokyo and Osaka (where a man in a Super Ginrai costume greeted guests), followed immediately by a LaserDisc and VHS release. According to one attendee of the charity screening in Tokyo,[4] some tickets to the event were offered to S.T.A.R.S. members via lottery, the version screened was in English with Japanese subtitles, and Tessho Genda (Japanese voice of Optimus Prime) was present to speak with fans; according to a different fan, leftover mail-away Landers from Masterforce were available as point-of-sale items at the screening.[5] Footage taken during the charity screenings was included in the straight-to-video promotional film, "Transformers Theatrical Version!! Video Finally Here" (トランスフォーマー劇場公開バージョン!!ビデオついに登場). This was the second promotional VHS relating to the film, as The Transformers: The Movie - Apocalypse: Be Eternal, Matrix was produced to promote the movie prior to its Japanese release.

And when the movie was first released on VHS on Japan, there were two versions. One with the original English audio any Japanese subtitles, and one with the Japanese dub audio.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:The dialogue ... I found it, for the most part, stilted. Yes, most of it's translated faithfully, but it also lacks a great deal of the personality that made these characters who they are. Is that a result of a translation of a translation? Is there a flair in the spoken Japanese word that I'm missing? But there does seem to be a difference in

"I'll tear out your optics"
and
"Do you want me to tear out your eyes?"

"What'd he say is name was?"
has a bit more personality than
"What should we call you?"

or the classic
"Soundwave superior, Constructicons inferior,"
to
"Soundwave is smart, Buildrons are all stupid."

Literally all of Blaster's dialgoue is stripped of flair. Oof. Maybe this version really does listen to classical music.

All that basically boils down to a combination of how different English and Japanese are as languages, and to how Japan decided to recharacterize certain characters differently from the original English versions. Blaster, for example, instead of acting like an 80s radio DJ in English, is recharacterized as a younger, yet more formal character. Though, to be fair, the situation of his scene was a serious one in this movie, so his characterization was likely rewritten to better fit that tone.

Having not seen it yet, Blaster is likely more lively and upbeat in the Japanese dub of more fun episodes like "Blaster Blues" and "Auto-Bop", where the animation presents him as such and thus the Japanese audio would have to adhere to that accordingly. Here, the tone is more dire and urgent, so Blaster is written as less playful and more like a soldier (though, he does get in an excited "Alright!" when the animation shows him smiling while shooting down a Constructicon, so they did have to keep that brief fun-loving moment for him).

The general formality of the cast is a trait of how Japanese media tends to portray members of a military organization, with a greater sense of respect for superior officers and command structure, especially in the cases of older Japanese media from several decades ago to this day. Japan is a much more old-fashioned country with more traditional values and reverence for conformity and politeness than the Western World, and was even moreso back in the 1980s.

As for the differences in language, what sounds normal and natural to our English-speaking ears can sound awkward and unusual when translated into Japanese on a literal level. Take, for instance, the "Soundwave superior" line. It rolls off the tongue quite nicely in English with its alliterative quality. But the Japanese language has multiple adjectives that mean "superior" or "better", and none of them begin with an S-sound. Likewise, him calling the Constructicons "inferior" works in English because "inferior" is not only the direct opposite of "superior" but also rhymes with it.

The word "superior" even has a noun meaning referring to a person of higher rank, allowing one to interpret Soundwave saying that he's either higher ranked than the Constructicons or simply better than them, or both. So the whole phrase has both a sort of musicality to it and a double wordplay in English, which make it sound both snarky and clever to us as an insult. But in Japanese, like how there are multiple adjective for "superior", the same is true of "inferior", and none of them rhyme either.

Rhyming sounds pleasant to our ears because we're so used to songs and poems using them in our language. But in Japan, songs and poems aren't about rhyming schemes but instead about words that sound good with the beat of each note, and words that speak in metaphors and symbolism rather than the more literalist quality of English song lyrics. So since rhyming was out of the question for Soundwave's line in Japanese, they went with something that was true to the spirit of the line (Soundwave calling himself better than the Constructicons while also insulting them) if not the letter of it.

They also went with an insult that would hit harder in Japanese, with Soundwave calling them "stupid idiots" (calling them "baka" twice over, even) while calling himself intelligent. In a sense, this insult would strike a nerve with the Constructicons considering how simple-minded and dumb they become when combined as Devastator, a form the Constructicons just said made them the to most qualified be the new leaders.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:And the direct translation of the year 2005 without remembering the entire season called 2010. To me, these lines all show a certain lack of care. And maybe I'm wrong. I guess I'd need a native speaker to let me know.

Keeping the year as 2005 was actually a conscious decision. Back in 1986-1987, in lieu of the movie's release, TV Magazine summarized its events in story pages that kept Japanese viewers apprised of the status quo changes that happened in it, such as the death of Optimus, the rise of Rodimus, the rebirth of Megatron as Galvatron, and the arrival and defeat of Unicron, all of which were dubbed the "Unicron War". In these recaps, the year 2005 was kept intact.

Certain chapters of the Japanese manga written to tie-in to the 2010 dub of the cartoon even referred to the five-year gap between the Unicron War and the present-day events of 2010. One chapter that dealt with Galvatron creating clones of Megatron to attack the Autobots even had the surprised Autobots saying things like "Didn't Megatron disappear five years ago?" and such. So that five-year gap was always in the plan.

When I ask how it played, I refer to it's reception among fans, though. The article is helpful, but it doesn't tell me at all about how it hit home for them. Here it became rather infamous, but in many respects well regarded. But OP was well dead and gone by the time it was released over there. Over here it's often referred to as very Star Wars influenced. Hell, very 80s influenced in general. But all these 80s influences are American. From Star Wars to the Road Warrior, to Weird Al. How does this play? Especially after the hype is gone?

Cybertrons are more formal

Yeah, it's something I've noticed. But it does take away. But, okay. You have a point. I suppose I can credit the seriousness of the situation and overall formality to Blaster's lack of slang.

I suppose it's fair enough on the Soundwave line. But are there any iconic movie lines for Japan? We have the soundwave one "till all are one" and "one shall stand, one shall fall."

Keeping the year as 2005 was actually a conscious decision.

Hm. But how does that account for Daniel's age from the movie until Headmasters?

By the time the film reached Japan, the movie may not have been seen as all that iconic over there at all, since Transformers was already on its way out over there as animated media by 1989, just limping along until 1992 through the toyline and magazine media only.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Keeping the year as 2005 was actually a conscious decision.

Hm. But how does that account for Daniel's age from the movie until Headmasters?

Interior packaging material that came inside the box of the Kiss Players Autotrooper toy provided some additional story material for that 5-year gap (which Kiss Players was set during), which explained that Daniel had gotten injured in an accident and was put into "cold sleep" in order to recover, which also halted his aging from 2005-2010.

I wish there was a blog or a video or something - that'd be interesting.

No iconic movie lines. That's rough since there's so many over here.
But I guess I can't think of any iconic Japanese lines at all. Still. It'd be interested to know their own perspective.

And that explanation on Daniel ... oof. I guess that gotta paper mache over the cracks somehow. But, alright. Fine. Contemporary materials say there's a 5 year gap from the unaired movie to 2010.

Buuuuuut, I still can't help buy regard this as low-effort. A more high effort affair would bee the elimination of the English crawl. I heard that bits of English dialogue seeped in if you listen closely, so they aren't working with the working files of the movie either. Just the finished version.

On the one hand, okay foreign movies don't get new music. But on the other they've had a G1 soundtrack now. To me it does seem weird that even that is left undubbed.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:On the one hand, okay foreign movies don't get new music. But on the other they've had a G1 soundtrack now. To me it does seem weird that even that is left undubbed.

Truth be told, the real reason a lot of English anime dubs replaced the Japanese music with American music back in the day is because dubbing companies like 4Kids, Saban, DiC, Nelvana, and Funimation (in their early years before Funimation strive to make accurate dubs) were all just trying to save money.

The original Japanese music scores all required an additional licensing fee on top of the dubbing rights licenses, since a lot of anime music scores are owned by professional record labels (to give a Transformers-related example, a majority of Japanese-original Transformers animation music is owned and distributed by Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc.).

Saban, 4Kids, and the like were all unwilling to pay the extra licensing fee for the original Japanese music of the various anime series that they dubbed back in those days, as it was cheaper for them to just make their own new music scores in-house with the American composers they already had in their employ. This is why the Bruce Faulconer-scored version of Dragon Ball Z exists (well, that and to originally match the original Ocean dub episodes that were previously restored by Saban's own Shuki Levy). It was less of a creative choice and more just capitalism at play.

One more thing I just remembered is that I think the Japanese equivalent of "'Til all are one", that being "Uchū o hitotsu ni" (宇宙を一つに, "Unite the universe as one"), seems to have gained some degree of iconography in Japan, as I've seen it repeated in a few other Japanese TF media, such as the Galaxy Force DVD booklets, the Kiss Players radio drama, and the Generations Selects manga.

It's nice to know that "Unite the universe as one" has iconography over there. You gotta have that brand consistency!

But I can't let go of the music issue. I suppose this is where it becomes my opinion, but I truly feel as if it was a cheapness route. That they kind of lacked masters that didn't have the US music so they had no choice to use it, as opposed to a conscious choice to keep it in. I feel this way because they use the opening crawl and, especially, the end credits of the original movie. TJOmega also says he can hear the English voices sometimes before they lower the volume, but I didn't notice.

Of course it does make me wonder what the Japanese fans think of the soundtrack. Even as a kid I loved it. Sure, they killed my hero and all the main cast of a show I loved, but I had to admit I liked the music, lol.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I wish there was a blog or a video or something - that'd be interesting.

There is this, a recounting of the movie from someone who saw the Japanese charity screening of it, albeit the English version with Japanese subtitles. Apparently, the charity screenings were the only real screenings the movie ever received in Japan, as this blogger says it was never screened in theaters over there. So its VHS and LaserDisc releases would have been the most widespread viewings of the movie in Japan in 1989.

Reading over their thoughts with Google Translate and DeepL, they're very "matter-of-factly" about the movie, mostly describing its plot but without going too much into detail about their opinions on it. Of the few personal impressions given...

• They were shocked at how "squeaky" Starscream's English voice was.
• They were impressed by the dramatic increase in animation quality compared the TV series, and by Hot Rod's onscreen transformations at times matching that of the 1986 toy.
• They lightly joke about the few animation errors found in the movie, the fact that the characters who were practically immortal and invulnerable in the TV series suddenly all die from single shots in the movie, the fact that they were killed off for corporate reasons, the wacky Junkion dance party, and the fact that Galvatron obviously couldn't open the Matrix.
• The onscreen characters deaths apparently didn't effect this person emotionally since they were already familiar with the status quo changes previously established by the 2010 series. Their words read as if, to them, it was more like, "Ah, so that's what all happened right before 2010."
• They were very excited by the fact that Unicron was voiced by Orson Welles in the English version, having been familiar with Welles from something called "English Adventure". Looking it up on Japanese Wikipedia, it was a 12-volume set of English-speaking learning materials released in Japan that featured works voiced by famous Hollywood movie actors, such as Orson Welles, Jerry Lewis, Helen Hayes, and Phoebe Cates. That's pretty cool that this Japanese viewer was already familiar with and a fan of Orson Welles back when they saw this movie screening.
• Their overall impression of the movie itself is "I personally think it is one of the best movies I have ever seen since I was born, including regular movies." They even went and bought the movie's English soundtrack on CD, which included Japanese translations of the English lyrics, complete with a typo spelling Unicron's name as "Unicorn" (a fact they were disappointed to find is already mentioned on the wiki ).

Thinking more about it, the warm reception this Japanese viewer gave to the English version makes sense when one considers how about 50% of all movies released in Japan are American movies, released in both English with Japanese subtitles and dubbed into Japanese. American movies are rather popular over there, as is American culture in general, music and celebrities included. Lots of Japanese songs have gratuitous English words and phrases inserted into them, even when they don't make any sense (the original Japanese Transformers theme song famously has the phrases "WE HOPE THE ONLY WORLD" and "STAY IN POWER" sung at various points throughout it). English classes are regularly taught in Japanese schools, even. To the Japanese, the United States is a very fascinating country.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:But I can't let go of the music issue. I suppose this is where it becomes my opinion, but I truly feel as if it was a cheapness route. That they kind of lacked masters that didn't have the US music so they had no choice to use it, as opposed to a conscious choice to keep it in.

Is it really any different from how they kept the American music for both FSRLTF and 2010? And Beast Wars? And Beast Machines? And Animated? And Prime? And Robots in Disguise 2015? And Cyberverse? And EarthSpark? And the live-action movies? And pretty much every TV show and movie originating from other countries?

The Japanese-original OVA Scramble City even used the American G1 cartoon music.

The only things they do change, if at all, are theme songs.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I feel this way because they use the opening crawl

The crawl originated from the UK release of the movie. They likely used it instead of the American opening with the celebrity starring credits simply because it didn't make sense for them to use that version for the Japanese dub, since it wouldn't be starring the voices of Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack, Lionel Stander, Orson Welles, or John Moschitta.

Though, the VHS release of the English version with Japanese subtitles did actually use that U.S. version of the opening instead of the UK text crawl version, so Japan got both versions of the opening on separate contemporary releases.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:and, especially, the end credits of the original movie.

That I did find odd, but, then again, even in this day and age, whenever English anime dub movies get released theatrically in the U.S. (like the last four Dragon Ball movies, the redubbed Sailor Moon movies, or the Digimon Adventure tri. movies), it's the original Japanese end credits that play over the (Japanese) ending themes, while voice and production credits for the English dub play silently after the ending theme and Japanese credits are over.

We're also talking about credits for a Japanese release of a foreign (to them) film from four decades ago. We have no idea how they credited the Japanese dub voice cast and production crew. Maybe they were listed on the VHS/LaserDisc/DVD packaging itself, or in a packed-in pamphlet included with those physical releases. Or maybe they really were listed at the end of the movie itself after the English end credits, and that the fansub upload simply left that last little bit cut off from the video. I can ask around to hopefully find out.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Of course it does make me wonder what the Japanese fans think of the soundtrack. Even as a kid I loved it. Sure, they killed my hero and all the main cast of a show I loved, but I had to admit I liked the music, lol.

See the beginning part of this post above.