Some interesting news has surfaced for the Japanese dub of Transformers Animated, courtesy of Livejournal user toriaki. First of all, we have news on the Japanese dub’s theme song, which will be sung by the one and only JAM Project! JAM Project is made up of several well-known vocalists including Masaaki Endoh and Hironobu Kageyama, the latter of whom has previously provided the opening, ending and insert songs to Japanese Transformers series The Headmasters and Beast Wars Metals.
On the side of voice actors, toriaki’s post also confirms who will be voicing Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Sari and Megatron in the Japanese dub of Transformers Animated. Optimus Prime will be voiced by Hiroki Takahashi, whose previous Transformers voice credits include Hellscream and Mantis in Beast Wars Second, plus Gildo and Build Hurricane in Car Robots (Japanese Robots in Disguise). Mr Takahashi is also known for providing the Japanese voice of Street Fighter’s Ryu in Street Fighter IV and Tatsunako VS Capcom. Bumblebee meanwhile will be voiced by Daisuke Kishio, who previously voiced Kicker in Transformers Super Link (Japanese Transformers Energon), while Sari will be voiced by Satomi Akesaka. Saving the best for last, we have the legendary Norio Wakamoto playing Megatron. Mr Wakamoto has previously provided the voice of Flame Convoy in Transformers Galaxy Force (Japanese Transformers Cybertron) and is recognizable as the voice of anime villains everywhere. His most notable credits include Cell in the Japanese dub of Dragonball Z, and providing the Japanese voice of Vega (M Bison) in many of Capcom’s Street Fighter titles.
Also mentioned in the livejournal posting is that the DVD / Blu Ray of Transformers Animated will be released in Japan starting in Fall 2010.
ILoveDinobot
Awesome!! I like Jamproject, they do one of the songs I have on my iPod for my favorite anime.
Spiderus Prime
I hope that the Japaness voice actor of Spongebob can play as Starscream.
Primus00
So far, what I'm seeing is that the fact that the current chosen seiyuu (Japanese voices) had something to do w/ Transformers in the past. ex: Norio Wakamoto-Flame Convoy I'm hoping "new" seiyuu will follow.
DrillBIT
I don't want to start a new thread on this.
Lantis website news on TFAJ songs info (song titles are not available yet)
Opening theme by JAM Project (CD available on 4/21)
Ending theme by Rey (CD available on 5/12)
Link:Lantis News
Ace Convoy
I want that New theme song on my Blackberry like yesterday!!!!
matsuri
Jam Project! AWESOME!!
Caterwaul
Norio Wakamoto is gonna be Megatron? Awesome! I'm gonna have to listen to a few Japanese dubbed versions of this, just to see how he sounds in the role.
Zipdisk
Norio Wakamoto, the Japanese VA for Animated Megatron also does the dubbed voice for Vince McMahon in the Japanese WWE presentations…
I wonder if he'll hit Optimus with a folding chair sometime?
Nerroth
But would be refer to each human he meets as a zasshu?
Oh, and the handy thing about Wakamoto-san being on the team – if needs be, he makes for a fine narrator!
Maniaxe
Ah Jam Project, one of the reasons Super Robot Wars is so good.
I for one especially love this song.
YouTube – [????MAD] ??????????? – VICTORY (JAM Project)
Transformed
My thoughts exactly! The longer the delay the more I keep thinking they're actually making bonus episodes for the home release! Which I wouldn't mind, mind you
Lord Of Tetris
Well, to be honest, I don't plan to watch the Japanese dub. Animated is one of my favorite series, and I think the English acting is top-notch. I'm not even jealous of some famous people making the Japanese theme music, because I enjoy variations of the classic 80s Transformer theme.
It would be interesting to see an episode here and there, just to hear Megatron. If you think about it, Corey Burton's Megatron voice even sounds a lot like Norio Wakamoto's voice. Add the voice processing, and Megatron's Japanese dub should sound exactly like Corey Burton suddenly learned Japanese.
And I'm surprised it's been 2 pages and nobody's mentioned that Norio Wakamoto is the voice of Vicious from Cowboy Bebop. Humorously, he's also the voice of one of the White Base operators in Mobile Suit Gundam. His character had at least 1 scene very episode, but this might have been his most non-evil role ever. He had lines like, "Zeon mobile suits attacking us, Bright!" and "Yes sir!"
Zipdisk
Good news! I cannot wait to hear the theme at least.
One small nitpick, it's not really a Japanese dub of Dragonball Z when the Japanese version is the original. Dubbing usually implies that you are taking it from one language and altering the original voicework to change it to another. He was the voice of the original Cell in Dragonball Z.
Ok, nitpicky anime fan mini-rant over.
Ricochet
Epic.
Waverider
I only hope that this will lead Animated to other spin off series like they did to Beast Wars.
That means new toys. ream:
LightningZERO
Norio Wakamoto is awesome!!!!
Feralstorm
Come back to me when it's "JaAM! Project", amirite?
… right?
where ya going?
grimlockams prime
Norio Wakamoto as Megatron… If I was filled wit any more joy I wold explode!
Rider Strike
Damn, JAM Project + Animated = A Recipe for Win
Oh, Tomokazu Seki for Sentinal
Primus00
Thanks. Feel free to voice your opinions on which seiyuu should be used.