Series Review: Transformers War For Cybertron (Netflix) - SPOILERS

[GoktimusPrime]

Gawd... I assumed that that red Bumblebee was a whole new character based on red Bumblebee (as a reference to Bumblebee having been both yellow and red in G1). But learning that it was meant to be Cliffjumper makes it really disappointing. I thought that Hasbro had learnt to move away from the "red Bumblebee = Cliffjumper" fallacy (especially given that Earthrise Cliffy is a whole new mould, or at least a different tooling from ER Bumblebee)

P.S.: Just for poos and giggles I was rewatching Episode 1 dubbed in Japanese. Aside from laughing at some of the hilariously inaccurate translations...

* They used only Anglophone names for everything. Autobots and Decepticons instead of Cybertrons and Destrons, Cybertron instead of Sabretron, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Jetfire instead of Convoy, Bumble and Skyfire etc. I would've thought that the dub would've used the Japanese names if they wanted to hit the 80s nostalgia thing (as G1 MPs all use Japanese names like Convoy etc.). Although they still call Wheeljack "Hoiljack," although "hoil" is Japanese for "wheel" so I guess technically it's still Anglophone (just the Japanese approximation of - MP Wheeljack's box still spells it as "Wheeljack").

* The voice acting for Convomus Prime was a lot better than on Optimus Prime, though that's not hard.

* Guh... every voice sounds like they're in a tin can. I think it's to make it consistent with the Anglophone version, but there Optimus Prime and Jetfire sound super tinny whereas other characters have varying degrees of tinnyness, with some characters being rather minimal. In the Japanese dub they've maxed up the tinnyness for the sake of consistency, but not in a good way. Gawd I'd wish both sides would just stop making everyone sound like they're speaking into a tin can! If you can't make their voices sound robotic in a good way (as the G1 cartoon did with the slight electronic warble) then just don't do it at all (as Beast Wars did (or did not)).

* On the plus side for non-English speaking Japanese fans who want a proper translation, the Japanese subtitles are a much more accurate translation. I thought they would be "dubtitles," but they're not. Given the violence in this show I'd say the dubs are more for the benefit of the visually impaired rather than for little kids who aren't old enough to read yet. Although the dubs lack audio description, so in a lot of fights all you'd hear are loud noises and shouting.

P.S.: according to tfwiki, the showrunner for this Netflix series was also the showrunner for the Machinima Prime Wars series, and one of the writers also worked on said series. :/ I must admit that I never watched past Combiner Wars, but I'm still reeling in shock at how bad the English is in this Netflix series. From an apparent lack of understanding on how some plurals work (or exist) to misunderstanding the difference between past simple and past participles. There is no way that any of these writers can be native English speakers. I outright refuse to believe it. Remember, Bumblebee is the Chose One, not the Chosen One. <shudders> Unless I am mistook (but not mistaken! )