Japanese TFA opening

[BigPenney]

That was AWESOME!(even if half of it had no relevance to the Animated we saw.)

[5FDP]

I agree with Gutsman Heavy. It is a very typical anime intro which I am not a fan of.

The first 25 seconds or so is just confusing.

The rest of the intro is actually done quite well, and I would even say it's better than the US opening.

Good to see that Arcee features heavily in the intro as well.

What's with the 'Transformers Animated' title at the end? It's like they just wanted to come up with a crazy new font... weird.

[Paulbot]

It occurs to me that the reason we see so much of Arcee and Ironhide is to sell their toys: since they don't appear in many episodes they need the extra screentime.

I'm still hoping to learn Animated Japan is new stories in Animated style (fingers crossed). Afterall how can the opening credits leave out Sari given her importance. Fanzone, Sumdac, the villains... Sure leave them out but Sari and her AllSpark Key is an interesting exclusion. Has she been seen in any other Japanese promotions for the show or have the promotions just shown the Japanese versions of the toys?

Where are our Japanese speakers to tell us what they say at the start?

[Tober]

That was cool.

I also noted the lack of Sari and the weirdish inclusion of Omega, but the Japanese have a very different attitude towards 'spoilers' (eg The Japanese trailer for the '86 movie showed Unicron transforming).

Sari didn't feature in the US version of the opening either.

[Sky Shadow]

I also noted the lack of Sari and the weirdish inclusion of Omega, but the Japanese have a very different attitude towards 'spoilers' (eg The Japanese trailer for the '86 movie showed Unicron transforming).

I think it's funny that during the actual animated sequences, it looked like they went to the effort of subtly only showing Omega Supreme coming up from the bottom of the screen as if he's merely the Autobots' ship... and then they went and put him in the big group robot-mode shot at the end. <shakes head>

[GoktimusPrime]

Wow! That was a mighty impressive intro! Interesting to see that they show parts of Earth _other_ than Detroit -- anyone else notice Sydney Harbour at 1:06?

It was funny seeing that last split second of that TF Animated toy commercial at the very start.

Where are our Japanese speakers to tell us what they say at the start?

Masticating.

Anyway, here's what the opening dialogue epilogue intro beginning thingie:
「や！良い子の皆！元気かな？私はオートボットのリーダー、オプティマスプライムだ。へっ、覚えられない？ じゃ、もう一回言うぞ；私はオートボットのリーダー、オプティマスプライムだ。皆よろしくな。さあ、トラン スフォーマーアニメイテッドの始まりだ。トランスフォーム！」

Which means:
"Hey, all you good children! Feeling good? I am Autobot Leader Optimus Prime. Huh, can't remember that? Well, I'll say it again; I am Autobot Leader Optimus Prime. Nice you to meet you all. Right, now Transformers Animated will begin. TRANSFORM!"

Interesting... it's the first time a Japanese TF cartoon has ever used Anglophone Transformer names. Not too surprising considering that they used the Anglophone names for the Japanese translations for the live action movies and subsequent toys and merchandise - so Japanese kids would be familiar with them now. But I think they added this spiel in to help further acclimatise kids to the name "Optimus Prime," which doesn't roll off the Japanese pallette as well as "Convoy." I must admit it's really weird to hear Anglophone names being said in the middle of Japanese dialogue! (it would be equally strange hearing Japanese names being said during English language dialogue (like "Joe Convoy" - although that name was intentionally created as tongue in cheek ).

[Kyle]

Just saw it. Love it!

[G1Optimal]

anyone else notice Sydney Harbour at 1:06?

Yep...
I'm not entirely sure ( as, i might be interpreting something i saw that might not be ) but, from 0:59 it kind of looks familiar as well.


And that was a excellent intro.

[Saintly]

loved the intro!

agrees with PB that this might actually be a different dub compared to US released

[kup]

The intro matches the theme of the overall 'less kiddy' Japanese advertisement for Animated. The Japanese appear to be trying to promote Animated as a more mature (as in wider audience) and cooler show than something just for small kids.

It will be interesting to see what changes they do for the dub or if there will be a Japanese Season 4 in which they take the series where they want to go like in Headmasters.