Transformers Prime has made its Japanese debut! The show is accompanied in Japan by an intro made up of clips from the series, accompanied by a wonderfully out of place theme song. According to 2005 Boards member Sprocket the Arms Micron theatre segments are low budget CGI, with basically the three weapons floating around for the whole sequence, so probably your typical omake segment. In terms of voices, Starscream is less Steve Blum menacing and more flamboyant, Bumblebee is the same as ever, and Arcee likes to say “this is / you are the worst” a whole lot.
All the characters also say “Arms Up” when deploying their weapons, and “TRANSFORMMMM!” when transforming, even the Vehicons, which you might arguably have expected from previous Japanese Transformers dubs.
Check out the intro and ending credits videos below – notice also the ending credits show a “next time” segment in the credits themselves, a nice touch but not as seamlessly integrated as other examples of the style, such as the Tales of the Abyss anime.
Takao
Episode 2 is airing now.
Kin
i gotta admit, i think the ending credits idea was kinda cool. it makes it hard to read the credits, but still cool
Livingdeaddan
what channel and day is this on?! Transformers have lost some ground to power rangers with my son recently! This could get it back on track!
Also, I don`t think Japanese people put english into their songs to please people like staryoshi, i think they do it to make their songs standout to their home audience, and they do it in a way they most japanese people can pronounce! Most kids won`t understand the english, but they`ll have a go at singing along, so why would the makers make it unpronounceable?!
It can be funny, or even cute, the whole L and R thing, but I stopped laughing after I found out how hard it was to pronounce the japanese ら り る れ ろ (ra ri ru re ro) which is kinda halfway between L and R. Japanese people laugh when I get it wrong, or sometimes don`t understand me. But they never get angry, or FACEPALM me!
SouthtownKid
I take it you haven't noticed all the words from other languages that have been incorporated into English over the years.
Kostya
Certain segments of the Japanese population are as fascinated with American culture as Americans are with theirs. It's probably nothing more than trying to be cool.
Rodimus
I still haven't figured out why there is so much english lyrics in Japanese music. Or is that just Anime because they know the show is going to reach audiences of both languages?
It even brings me back to the Headmasters theme. They speak English (although very poorly) during the theme there saying "Head On! Head On!" and "Transform Headmaster", or in more blunt terms, "Transfoam! Headumasatah!" Similarily they use Jap-English for Cerebros's Master Sword, saying "MASTAH SWORDOH!"
Is it because Japan was capitulated in WWII that the English language has made it's way into main stream Japan? I'm just trying to figure out where the English injection into their native language comes from.
vektsilver
Still a horrible intro song.
It just makes you feel all bad inside like the original animators right now watching the reworked intro and have slipped into a deep depression where the negative energy is so great it sends shuddering nausea to all those who share their pain.
[Wing_Saber-X]
Think girls in bunny ears and costume and other weird/ really improper fan-service types of segments and we've pretty much got the reason for them doing it.
Kostya
I figured as much after a while. I was initially wondering if they explained it somehow and I didn't pick up on it because I don't know Japanese that well.
edit: Didn't Animated Optimus shout Ultra __ a lot?
SouthtownKid
I've learned to live with it in the Japanese TF shows, but it's really irritating and obtrusive when they add it to the western TF shows.
Bountyan
I watched part of the first episode. Yeah, that opening is pretty weird. Also figures that they'd make every character yell "transform" every time they transform. The Japanese seem to be obsessed with calling your attacks.
Ultra Magnotron
Seriously, is there a Japanese transcript anywhere on the Internet? I'd very much like an English translation of this show.
PrimusVsUnicron
or this
PrimusVsUnicron
*cough* fanservice *cough*
HoneyPrime
That's just……terrible. Ugh.
Kostya
Of course they were awkward. They're eye candy used to promote the toys. They have no clue about TFs nor do they care to know anything about them. I really feel sorry for them.
The weapons being alive thing definitely doesn't make any sense.
Joalro
Those girls in blue dresses looked so awkward. They seemed genuinely confused as to where they were. Plus that one girl holding optimus just looked uncomfortable holding him.
Also, I don't see how it's possible the weapons are alive. They are a PART of the autobots/decepticons. That's like my hand having an entire segment where it talks to other hands about how I don't know they are alive… (and honestly, I would not like how that conversation would go)
crewboy7
I think this would be the equivalent to the English Prime's opening theme being Justin Beiber's "Baby".
Zafirolys
"Watashi" is a gender-neutral pronun, you misunderstood with "Atashi" (feminine). Although I don't recall any part in first episode where he uses "Watashi" . Starscream uses 'Ore', which is masculine, but not appropriate in front of person with higher rank than you. Starscream may use "Watashi" when speaking with Megatron, like in G1
More about pronuns here :Japanese pronouns – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
rxlthunder
It doesn't really fit the tone of Prime, but the song's are growing on me.