Hello, Transfans
I grew up with G1 and know and love it best, but while going to college in Japan I got acquainted with some of the new toylines there like Beast Wars II, Beast Wars Neo, and Car Robot. Around the time of Car Robot the G1 reissues began, much to my enjoyment.
I used to contribute a lot to Wikipedia, but got disillusioned after having some articles removed by deletionists (as "non-notable") and experiencing some crazed Wiki-stalking by a few individuals. I hope that the fact we all have a common interest in Transformers will prevent that from happening here. If you really hate something I wrote, I'd rather you re-write it in a way you like or ask for me for sources/clarification than just deleting the whole thing.
Japanese Voice Actors (Seiyū)
This is something I know a lot about and have received some praise for my knowledge here. If anyone needs to know anything about this just post the question in my talk and I'll put the info in.
I've already put up a lot of seiyū info in places like Anime News Network and also the Internet Movie Database.
One confusing thing about the Japanese TF anime actors is that they didn't always keep the actors consistant within the various series. A popular example that irritates Japanese TF fans is Ultra Magnus (G1). He was originally played by Banjō Ginga in Scramble City. Then Show Hayami took over the role for the dub of the 3rd season (2010 series) and later for the dub of The Movie. Hōchū Ōtsuka played Magnus in The Headmasters. I don't know what to do in cases like this, so I listed all three in order (even though most English speakers wouldn't be familar with Show Hayami's Magnus.)
The Untranslatables
There are some Japanese Transformers whose names I still cannot translate to this day. I don't know what their creators were thinking!
- Gong - Brawn (G1)'s Japanese name
- Guren - Hook (G1)'s Japanese name. Glen?
- Jabiru - Sparkstalker
- Jaruguar - A Victory Decepticon. Name has something to do with a Jaguar, but he turns into a dunebuggy.
- Deszaras - I'm like 99.9% sure it's not supposed to be Deathsaurus. Maybe something to do with a Death Czar? One Japanese fan site went with the outrageous "Deaths R Us" romanization.
- Santon - Ironhide (BW). Three ton perhaps?
- Coraada - The only possible romanization I've found is Colada, which is Spanish for coconut. That doesn't seem right.
- Raatoraata, Elfaorfa, Dorankuron - The three Blendtrons.
- Geru-shark, Gusshaa, and Girudo
- I can probably answer some of these...
- Gong is Gong. There's a story behind that, I just don't know it.
- I've heard "Glen" came from confusion over "Crane".
- No clue. See Deszaras.
- It's a garbled version of "Jaguar". His chestplate transforms into one.
- Deszaras is Deszaras. It's like any one of the plethora of Godzilla monsters where the monster has a name that's just a name. He's basically a robo-kaiju, really.
- No clue.
- Probably a garbled translation of some form of "Cobra".
- The Blentrons names don't really have any sensical equivalents, although if you check their pages, there's a somewhat plausible theory that they're some kind of twisted H. P. Lovecraft nod.
- No clue on those, excepting that Slapper's Japanese name is probably more likely meant to Gusher. Maybe Dark Scream's equivalent is something related to "Glider", being a gliding squirrel and such.
- On a side note, I continually wonder if "Blud" is actually meant to be "Vlad", a la "Minerva" becoming the very incorrect "Minelba".--MCRG 07:17, 30 June 2007 (UTC)
Other things I'd love translated
Some of these at least seem to be real runes. I'm wondering if it says "Transformers" or some thing because the first two are T R and the next may very likely be A.