In the past Japans translated version of the Transformer's homeworld has been Seibertron. But have you noticed on GF boxes it says CYBERTRON as the plant name. Has anyone else noticed this?
It's a misprint, like how some other TF boxes to come out of Japan have "Cybertoron" and "Destoron" factions. I believe the specs still refer to Seibertron, someone more clued up on those will need to confirm that, though.
The TV-Nihon subs refer to Seibertron as the planet. Cybertron on the GF boxes refers to the faction. I agree, it's confusing to me too.
But I have Starscream and M. Galvatron, and it says Cybertron on that distinctive curve on their boxes.
seibertron = "say-bertron". The galaxy force boxes do have "cybertron" put on them for the planet, even for starscream, so its not a faction thing. faction is listed on the top right part of the box under the ID Number, planet name is on the left side of the box. where it should say "Seibertron" it clearly says "cybertron"
Official romanized spelling according to Takara is "Cybertron". To my knowledge, they have never used the spelling "Seibertron" in any official advertizing. "Seibertron", as well as "Sabertron" or "Sabretron", are fan-created spellings to point out the difference in pronunciation for the planet and the faction. Japanese name for the Autobots is サイバトロン ("Saibatoron") in Katakana. Japanese name for the planet is セイバートロン ("Seibaatoron") Katakana. SydneyY would probably be better suited to explain this, but essentially, both started out as the same word but were changed in order to avoid any confusion (you remember the old "in Japanese continuity, Cybertrons are from Cybertron whereas Destrons are invaders from a planet named Destron" rumor? The different Katakana spelling and thus different pronunciation was supposed to prevent such misconceptions). As for the romanized spelling, as said above, both are officially transliterated as "Cybertron" by Takara, but fans tend to call the planet "Seibertron" in order to distinguish it from the faction.
And there are 2 ways to say "Energon" among Japanese TF fans. That substance you can make a cube with is "エネルゴン" (e ne ru go n) And when they refer to the series after Armada, it's "エナージョン" (e na-a jon) I think it's because the series name is not familiar in Japan, so some fans try to follow the original pronounciation as close as possible. Though there are some who prefer to use エネルゴン for both. Nothing to do with faction names. Just to confuse you more
Reminds me of this guy at my comic shop that would try and fit in. He pronounced the comic "En-er-GONE" not "En-er-JOHN." Whatta putz.
I believe the kana for the Planet do actually come out more or less as 'Seibertron' when concerted to their Romanized letter forms, yes?
Yes, but then, the Kana spelling is supposed to represent an English word, not the other way round. There are more inconsistencies: An ordinary wheel is ウイール ("uii-ru") in Kana. The character Wheelie is spelled ウィーリー ("wii-rii"; note the smaller-case "i"). But Wheeljack... is ホイルジャック ("ho-i-ru-ja-kku"). If you were just blindly romanizing the Kana, his name would come out as "Hoiljack". G1 First Aid was spelled ファーストエイド ("faa-su-to-e-i-do"). However, Galaxy Force First Aid is ファストエイド ("fa-su-to-e-i-do"; lacking the vowel extender bar). Hence the spelling could alternatively also mean "Fast Aid", which explains the pun with his upgrade Speaking of, First Gunner is ファストガンナー ("fa-su-to-ga-n-naa"), which is supposed to be pronounced as "Fast Gunner". To make matters even more confusing, "fast food" is spelled ファーストフード ("faa-su-to-fuu-do"), which could also mean "first food"...
