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The Autobot Run

2025-05-21T16:43:50Z

Norrisjc761: /* Synopsis */

{{episode
|series=G1toon
|ep=23
|series2=SRLFtoon
|ep2=65
|prev2=A Plague of Insecticons
|next2=The Ultimate Doom, Part 1
|series3=''[[Transformers: Generation 2 (cartoon)|Transformers: Generation 2]]''
|ep3=6
|prev3=Heavy Metal War
|next3=The Core
|image=Autobotruncanttransform.jpg
|caption=Hey, look! ''Diaclone'' Sunstreaker!
|title="The Autobot Run"
|season=2
|season ep=7
|production code=#700-22
|airdate=[[October 31]], 1985
|written by=[[Donald F. Glut]]
|animation studio=[[AKOM]]
|production company=[[Sunbow Productions]]
|continuity=[[Generation 1 cartoon continuity]]
|video=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c2Hk7F2QHA
|videosite=YouTube
}}
'''When the Autobots perform a race for charity, the Decepticons take the opportunity to trap them in their vehicle modes.'''

==Synopsis==
[[File:Transfixatron.jpg|left|upright=1.1|thumb|A collection of character models gathers around the Decepticons' new weapon.]]
While watching a car race, [[Spike Witwicky (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Spike]] and [[Chip Chase|Chip]] comment on how cool it would be to see the Autobots perform in a race as well.

Meanwhile, in an old west ghost town, the [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicons]] have completed the [[Transfixatron]], a new device that will lock a [[Transformer]] in the mode they currently occupy (usually [[alternate mode|vehicle mode]]). [[Laserbeak (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Laserbeak]] arrives, informing the Decepticons about the Autobot race.

[[Starscream (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Starscream]] complains that [[Megatron (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Megatron]] is wasting time with the device instead of leading an attack. In response, Megatron tests the device on his whiny subordinate, and it's a success. Starscream is stuck in jet mode and begs to be released, saying he'll do whatever Megatron wants and he's too valuable to the Decepticon cause. Megatron gets bored of Starscream's pleas and frees him. Satisfied with the test, Megatron orders the Constructicons to start working on a second device whose purpose will be revealed later.

[[File:Autobotrunfinishline.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb|The guy at the finish line wonders where the Hell his car went.]]
Chip and Spike suggest their race idea to the Autobots, and [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Optimus Prime]] agrees, as long as it's for charity. [[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] complains that it's a waste of time and a bad idea (as usual), but the Autobots decide to do it. Huffer, [[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]], [[Ratchet (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Ratchet]], and [[Wheeljack (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Wheeljack]] remain to guard the [[Ark (G1)|base]].

The Autobots arrive at the track and wait at the starting line in [[robot mode]] before they compete "in the greatest automobile race in history." Some numbskull in the audience wonders aloud where their cars are. The Autobots transform, and the race is on with a whole lot of trash talk. [[Jazz (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Jazz]], [[Sunstreaker (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Sunstreaker]] and [[Mirage (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Mirage]] rush ahead of the slower vehicles like [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]] and [[Ironhide (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Ironhide]].

During the race, [[Skywarp (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Skywarp]] teleports to a position over the track and uses the Transfixatron on the Autobots, who don't notice. The Autobots near the finish line, but they're kicking up so much dust it's impossible to tell who won. "The real winners are us, folks!" says the announcer.

Next up, the Autobots line up to do some stunts and make "Evel Knievel look like a kiddie car driver", according to Spike. But Sunstreaker's attempt to jump the other Autobots falls short and he has to be saved by [[Windcharger (G1)|Windcharger]]'s magnetic powers.

Before they can do anything else, the Decepticons arrive. The Autobots attempt to [[Transformation|transform]], only to find that they are all stuck in vehicle mode. Optimus orders the Autobots to ram the Decepticons, but they simply shoot out the Autobots' tires, fire rays to make their engines overheat and disable their radios. Helpless, the Autobots are herded away by the 'Cons.

[[File:Autobotrunbyeironhide.jpg|left|upright=1.1|thumb|FEED ME!]]
[[Bumblebee (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Bumblebee]] takes Spike and Chip back to the base, hoping Ratchet and Wheeljack can figure a fix for the Transfixatron ray. As usual, Huffer complains, but a massive bearhug from Brawn gets him to shut up, while Ratchet and Wheeljack get to work.

At the ghost town, Megatron forces Optimus Prime to watch his soldiers die one by one in the Constructicons' second device, a horrific crushing machine, starting with Ironhide. The Autobot leader dispatches [[Roller (G1)|Roller]] to distract Megatron, allowing Prime to ram the crusher, which frees Ironhide. [[Hound (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Hound]] manages to send a signal to [[Teletraan I]], just as Ratchet and Wheeljack finish working on a device which will allow the Autobots to transform...a [[Anti-transfixation grenade|grenade]]. (Real good thinking there, guys.)

[[File:Autobotrunravageattackschip.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb|Unfortunately for Chip, he was five minutes late refilling Ravage's bowl.]]
Spike and the other Autobots arrive to save their comrades, but [[Soundwave (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Soundwave]] dispatches [[Ravage (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Ravage]] to deal with them. After a game of keep-away with the grenade, Chip manages to get it close enough to release its energy, allowing the Autobots to transform to robot mode.

The Constructicons form [[Devastator (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Devastator]], but [[Cliffjumper (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Cliffjumper]] and Wheeljack fire the Transfixatron at the giant Decepticon, causing the [[Combiner]] to separate. The Decepticons retreat, and the Autobots destroy the Transfixatron.
{{-}}

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Bumblebee (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Bumblebee]] (3)
*[[Prowl (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Prowl]]
*[[Bluestreak (G1)|Bluestreak]] (16)
*[[Gears (G1)|Gears]] (17)
*[[Ratchet (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Ratchet]] (18)
*[[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]] (19)
*[[Mirage (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Mirage]] (20)
*[[Sunstreaker (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Sunstreaker]] (21)
*[[Ironhide (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Ironhide]] (22)
*[[Huffer (G1)|Huffer]] (23)
*[[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Optimus Prime]] (24)
*[[Brawn (G1)|Brawn]] (25)
*[[Wheeljack (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Wheeljack]] (26)
*[[Sideswipe (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Sideswipe]] (27)
*[[Jazz (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Jazz]] (28)
*[[Hound (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Hound]] (29)
*[[Windcharger (G1)|Windcharger]] (30)
*[[Cliffjumper (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Cliffjumper]] (32)
*[[Roller (G1)|Roller]] (33)
|c2=
*[[Laserbeak (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Laserbeak]] (4)
*[[Megatron (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Megatron]] (5)
*[[Starscream (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Starscream]] (6)
*[[Soundwave (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Soundwave]] (7)
*[[Thundercracker (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Thundercracker]] (8)
*[[Scrapper (G1)|Scrapper]] (9)
*[[Hook (G1)|Hook]] (10)
*[[Scavenger (G1)|Scavenger]] (11)
*[[Mixmaster (G1)|Mixmaster]] (12)
*[[Long Haul (G1)|Long Haul]] (13)
*[[Bonecrusher (G1)|Bonecrusher]] (14)
*[[Shockwave (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Shockwave]] (15)
*[[Skywarp (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Skywarp]] (31)
*[[Ravage (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Ravage]] (34)
*[[Devastator (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Devastator]] (35)
|c3=
*[[Spike Witwicky (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Spike Witwicky]] (1)
*[[Chip Chase]] (2)
}}

==Quotes==
"Transform." 
"No, Megatron. You can't mean to—" 
"What's a test without a [[guinea pigatron]]? Transform, I say!"
:—'''Megatron''' selects '''Starscream''' as the test subject for his latest device.

"Hey! Where are their cars?!"
:—Someone who somehow hasn't heard of the Autobots, yet turned up to a race for them.

"Uh, probably just energy evaporation from all the speed, maybe... I hope..."
:—'''Bumblebee''' fails physics forever.

"If you're going to do what I think, Sunstreaker, you've got boom-glitches in your brain garage."
:—'''Mirage'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s colorful terms for Transformer anatomy.

"I'm gettin' a sunburn on the inside!"
:—'''Ironhide''' falls victim to Thundercracker's incendaries.

"I knew the racing bit was bad news, but would anyone listen to me? Oh, noooo!" 
"Stifle it, Huffer, or I'll put my footio in your audio!!"
:—'''Huffer''' being an aft and '''Brawn''' looking to kick some.

"Ironic, isn't it, Autobots, that after so many valiant battles, you will meet your end in the crushing jaws of this device so lovingly fashioned by my Constructicons."
:—'''Megatron'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s concept of irony is off.

[[File:Autobotrun ironhide carcrusher.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb]]
"Later, guys. It's been really great knowin' ya."
:—Headed for the crushing device, '''Ironhide''' accepts his fate.

"Hey, what's that?" 
"I'd call it a TARGET!"
:—'''Thundercracker''' and '''Starscream''' spotting Roller.

"I'm transforming! I see my true beauty emerging!"
:—'''Sunstreaker''', vain as always.

"We're outnumbered!" "Let me guess: we retreat?"
:—'''Starscream''' knows '''Megatron''' all too well.

==Notes==

===Production information===
* Dialogue recording: 8th January 1985

===Continuity notes===
[[File:AutobotRun madeup Transformer.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Pre-[[Prime (rank)|Prime]] {{w|Saint George's Cross|version}} pictured. The Prime version features {{w|Union Jack}} wings.]]
*This is Roller's third and final appearance.
*This is the first episode where the Transformers formally refer to themselves as ''Transformers''.
*Ironhide references [[Units of time|astro-seconds]].
*Megatron orders Devastator to extinguish the Autobots' [[laser core]]s forever.
*Wheeljack and Cliffjumper give Devastator a taste of the Decepticons' own "electro-medicine".
*Gadgets and powers:
**Jazz's speaker levels jump from seven to <s>eleven</s> ''eight hundred''. Or maybe he was just tuned in to an AM station.
**Megatron can shoot laser beams from his eyes, especially when he wants to scare away earth germs.
**This is the third and final episode where Skywarp uses his teleportation powers, after "[[More than Meets the Eye, Part 3]]" and "[[Divide and Conquer]]". Megatron had also taken advantage of them via Skywarp's power-chip rectifier in "[[Heavy Metal War]]".
**Thundercracker uses his incendiary guns to overheat the Autobots' engines; while the blasts are animated as simple purple lasers, Prime explicitly refers to them as "incendiary blasts." The simplified description of Thundercracker's weapons included in the series [[Production bible]] didn't explain exactly what these guns were supposed to do (per his bio, they shoot bullets containing highly-flammable material) which has resulted in them being depicted as flamethrowers in previous episodes.
**Skywarp uses his heat-seeking missiles.
**Devastator's eye beams can magnetically lift a robot into the air. He can also fire lasers from his fingertips.
**Wheeljack surveys the battlefield by using the rocket jets in his forearms, an ability mentioned in his [[bio]] appearing here for the first time in the cartoon; he previously flew ''without'' visibly using these jets in "[[S.O.S. Dinobots]]" and "[[A Plague of Insecticons]]".
*Where does the trailer go?
**When Optimus Prime transforms after the Autobots are fixed by Wheeljack's grenade, his trailer shrinks into his back rather than rolling away as usual.
*A bizarre robot of made-up design appears on the screen as Chip begins researching the Transfixatron's effects. It's loosely based on Optimus Prime, but has a yellow body, Prowl/Bluestreak's doors as wings, and parts of Starscream mixed in.
*When instructing Starscream to transform out of vehicle mode, Megatron tells him to return to his "root mode". This was almost certainly the result of a typo in the script that was ''supposed'' to say "ro'''b'''ot mode", but it makes a charming amount of sense as a term.
*Thundercracker actually displays his Bio's described antipathy to the ground-bound Autobots, calling them "earth-crawlers".
*The idea of a [[Transfixatron|device to keep a Transformer frozen in one mode]] would be revisited over the years in other fictions, with [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]]'s [[Transformation Lock Lens]], [[Megatron (BW)/Beast Wars cartoon continuity|Megatron]]'s [[Transformation virus|transformation lock virus]], the [[Protectobot (G1)|Protectobots]]' [[mode lock]] used on [[Blaster (G1)#Marvel Comics continuity|Blaster]], the various incarnations of the [[inhibitor claw]] and [[Spotlight: Soundwave|an experimental weapon]] created by Shockwave.
*The Autobots seem to learn from this experience; many future episodes such as "[[The Master Builders (episode)|The Master Builders]]" and "[[The Revenge of Bruticus]]" show them to be armed and dangerous in their automotive forms.

[[File:TheAutobotRun-Spideyshirt.jpg|thumb]]

===Real-world references===
*Spike references [[w:Evel Knievel|Evel Knievel]], a famous daredevil stuntman.
*[[Spider-Man]] makes a cameo on a kid's T-shirt.
*''[[Star Wars (franchise)|Star Wars]]'' sound effects:
**As Megatron orders the [[Seeker (body-type)|Seekers]] to attack the Autobots, they emit the [[TIE Fighter]] engine noise when they fly over a wooded area.

===Animation and technical errors===
[[File:AutobotRun Brawn picks up Huffer.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1]]
*Being one of the Season 2 [[AKOM]] episodes, "The Autobot Run" features several unusual animation models:
**Optimus Prime's "backpack" is white instead of red.
**Huffer has a white outline around his eyes.
**Gears' truck mode is mostly red instead of mostly blue.
**Megatron's gun barrel is dark gray instead of light gray.
**Laserbeak's beak is (sometimes) the same dark gray as the rest of his head.
**The "disk" on Bumblebee's back is dark gray instead of yellow. Bumblebee also has two random dark gray squares on the back of his [[alternate mode|vehicle mode]].
**Prowl is a medium gray instead of white.

Of course, AKOM found lots of less-excusable things to mess up, too:
*This episode's [[transformation]] sound effects are oddly applied, stopping and starting halfway through and even playing over the wrong transformation type (i.e., vehicle-to-robot vs. robot-to-vehicle) at times.
*Ignoring the big, paved driveway right next to him, Bumblebee arrives at the race track by ''driving across the grass''.
*That's okay, though, because as the race finishes, Chip nonchalantly turns his wheelchair and ''rolls across the grass''.
*Chip then rolls into Bumblebee, and sits in the driver seat, while still in his wheelchair. Huh?
*Appearing/disappearing Autobots:
**After a dialogue section where Huffer complains about the race idea and Optimus orders him to stay and guard the base, he is seen transforming and rolling out to the race. He is not at the race and is later back at the base. However, a number of other characters who do not roll out and are not shown at the base during the discussion turn up at the race.
*For the duration of this episode, actor [[Michael Bell]] performs Scrapper with a very different voice than normal, sounding...well, frankly, quite ''normal'', compared to Scrapper's usual hoarse rasp.
*Scrapper's faceplate doesn't move as he reports the Transfixatron's completion. In fact it doesn't move at all the whole episode.
*Coloring errors:
**Thundercracker's feet are blue instead of black, and Soundwave's eject button is blue instead of white, as they watch the completion of the Transfixatron.
**As Laserbeak enters Soundwave's chest to report, Soundwave's eyeband is colored white like his faceplate, while his forehead is colored red like his eyeband should be.
**A moment later, in jet mode, Starscream's right air intake is colored as if it extends way back into his fuselage, and has some black details that shouldn't be there; the left intake isn't colored to match. He also has extra stripes on his tail fins. In a wider-angle shot, both intakes are colored with the long length and the extra black parts.
**In the first shot of the Autobots, Ironhide's entire torso is red. In the next shot, the top of his chest is red instead of red/gray.
**The entirety of Trailbreaker's lower legs are white as he listens to Prime, instead of just the stripe down the middle. The error repeats as the Autobots stand at the race track.
**Prowl has no black detailing on his car mode as Jazz passes him. He's also his correct white color instead of the light gray that AKOM usually colors him.
**As Wheeljack flees, he fires at Starscream and Thundercracker. In the next shot, his target is a pair of Thundercrackers. One of them teleports away (indicating that it was supposed to be Skywarp.) When he re-materializes, he's colored like Starscream, but still speaks in Skywarp's voice.
**A second later, Skywarp has a yellow stripe down his back where there should be black.
**Thundercracker's "gloves" are white instead of black as he transforms above Ironhide.[[File:Autobotrungreenteletraan.jpg|thumb|Chip Chase always did have the luck of the Irish.]]
**When Chip is trying to locate the Autobots, Teletraan I is colored green instead of orange.
**Soundwave's head changes colors between shots as he destroys Hound's turret gun. (Hound manages to stay off-screen until he's in [[robot mode]] later in the episode, sidestepping the need for the animators to remember his gun is destroyed.)
**When Soundwave ejects Ravage, the inside of his chest is grey.
**When the Autobots are un-transfixed and transform into robot modes, Brawn is shown transforming with them.
**Long Haul's eyeband isn't colored red as we pan across the Constructicons prior to them combining.
**Windcharger's face is the same dark gray as his head as Ironhide threatens the Decepticons, and his mid-torso is red instead of gray. The same error repeats during the repair lineup at the end.
*In the first pan over it, the Old West "town" has no streets! Subsequent shots show it with many more buildings than the handful shown in this shot.
*Missing Seeker insigina:
**Starscream has no insignia as he watches Laserbeak report back to Megatron.
**One of Starscream's insignia disappears as he backs away from the Transfixatron. The other disappears as he transforms a second later.
**When Thundercracker turns from blasting Optimus to fire on Ironhide, he has no back wing insignias.
**He still has none as he walks off with the captive Autobots.
**Starscream's missing an insignia as he fires on Roller.
*Starscream is missing one of his wings prior to the Transfixatron test. The other wing is abnormally large. The same overlarge wing shape shows up on Thundercracker later in the episode.
*Even if Shockwave ''was'' supposed to be standing behind Megatron (see Continuity Errors below), he and Scavenger were not standing anywhere near Megatron just a shot or two earlier.
*AKOM reuses the same scrolling cloud background at least four times behind Starscream. To be fair, it would actually make sense for him to be flying in circles at this point.
*Instead of being provided by [[Neil Ross]] as usual, Bonecrusher's single line in this episode is supplied by Michael Bell, using the same nondescript "normal" voice as he uses for Scrapper. The temptation, of course, is to peg this on an animation error that mistakenly depicted Bonecrusher instead of Scrapper, but the script for the episode actually called for Bonecrusher to speak the line.
*Responding to Huffer's constant complaining back at the Ark, Ratchet's line "Tell ya what, Huffer!" cuts off at the very end - even if it's hard to notice at first.
*For whatever reason, the screen flickers when Optimus transforms for the first time in the episode.
*As Skywarp transforms to robot mode over the raceway, he pulls the Transfixatron out of [[subspace storage pocket|nowhere]], despite it being as large as he is.
*When Skywarp uses it on the Autobots, the Transfixatron beam effect is not properly animated to glow.
*Transfixed Sideswipe essentially becomes a red Sunstreaker (which would be ''[[Diaclone]]''-accurate) as he tries to transform - the [[Transformation|transformation scheme]] is Sunstreaker's, as are the details of his vehicle mode once he's in mid-transformation. He then morphs back to Sideswipe when he reverts fully back to vehicle mode.
*After the Autobots discover they're locked in vehicle mode, when Megatron laughs the other Decepticons just sort of... vibrate.
*Megatron's eye lasers are the slowest-moving lasers in the universe.
*The Seekers transform and start rolling across the race track. In the next shot, they're suddenly in the air.
*Wheeljack's ears do not flash in time with his speaking at first.
*The crusher's lights flash multiple colors as it first activates, but later they only flash white. While the lights ''could'' change colors, it really raises the question of why it needs bizarre flashing lights in the first place.
*Wheeljack and Ratchet gather around Chip at the computer two times in a row.
*As we pan across the captive Autobots at the ghost town, Wheeljack and Bumblebee are among the crowd, despite both being back at Autobot Headquarters at this point. In the same pan, two Starscreams are guarding them. Also, the ghost town has gained a couple of streets and several extra buildings.
*Maybe not an error, but definitely bizarre: Hound gets Optimus Prime's rifle sound effect as he "fires" his hologram.
*As Wheeljack explains the grenade, his ears flash, but aren't properly backlit to glow.
*As Spike and company arrive at the ghost town, Ironhide is shown arriving and transforming instead of Ratchet.
*Ironhide's tires aren't flat anymore when he falls out of the crusher's claw.
*Bumblebee has no headlights as the newly arrived Autobots transform.
*A series of shots shows the grenade's radiation as concentric circles radiating out. The center point stays in four successive shots, despite only one of them being the point where the grenade exploded.
*As the grenade does its work, a series of vehicle-mode Autobots flash into existence out of nowhere.
*Devastator's combining sequence is screwy. First Scrapper and Mixmaster are shown forming Long Haul's portion of the combiner robot in addition to their own. Long Haul then forms Devastator's upper torso, instead of the lower torso (the chest plate is green at first, then turns its correct purple.) Hook then forms a tiny part of the upper torso, including the head, and... Bonecrusher's bulldozer kibble.
*Devastator has two small eyes instead of an eyeband as he fires lasers from his hand.
*He has two large eyes as he looms over Wheeljack and Cliffjumper.
*As Cliffjumper zaps Devastator with the Transfixatron, the shot suddenly jumps to a slight close-up of Devastator from exactly the same angle as before. In the closer angle, the glowing animation effect is missing from the Transfixatron beam.
*Thundercracker is drawn with his cockpit on the bottom of his jet mode as he and the other Seekers retreat.
*The [[commercial bumper]]s for the second act break feature the [[theme song|theme music]] for ''[[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]]'', not ''The Transformers''.

===Continuity errors===
*Why the heck are Spike and Chip watching the race from next to the grand stands, instead of, y'know, ''inside'' them? Almost certainly because the stands aren't wheelchair-accessible. Besides being easier to animate, the show might have been very subtly making a point.
*[[Shockwave (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Shockwave]] appears twice in this episode: first when Megatron is gloating about the Transfixatron, then when the Decepticons arrive at the race. Of course, it's ''possible'' that Shockwave came to [[Earth]] during this episode, but the idea of him just popping up and hanging around in the background seriously goes against the established notion that he always stays on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] as its full-time guardian.
*Why does Megatron pick up the Transfixatron to aim it at Starscream, when a moment later he can just pivot it on its base?
*The race gets started VERY quickly. Chip and Spike come up with the idea, go back to the base, tell Prime, and apparently the Autobots just show up and demand to race for charity. Granted, some time could have elapsed in between, but ''still''. The Decepticons, meanwhile, are just hanging around in this Old West ghost town.
*How does the dust at the finish line get ''ahead'' of the Autobots?
*Ratchet stays behind to guard the Autobot base, but is later briefly seen at the race track driving alongside Sideswipe.
*Speaking of Ratchet staying behind, he earlier tells Huffer that he and Wheeljack will stay behind to keep him company. However, it was Brawn who delivered the line about "staying behind" and Ratchet leans in like he's addressing Brawn when he says they will also stay behind.
*When Chip gets Teletraan I to analyse the data on the transforming process, among the images which flash up is a picture of Megatron's crusher. What has that got to do with transforming?
*Hound can ''shoot'' a hologram? For miles? And have it land ''inside a volcano''? What the hell?
*Flying Autobots:
**Cliffjumper gets a rocket sound effect as he comes flying out of the debris.
*Is the elaborate claw/tentacle mechanism on the crusher really necessary?
*At the end of Act 2, Ironhide is a few feet away from the crusher's jaws, presumably mere seconds from being crushed. A minute or more elapses in Act 3 before Prime comes to his rescue.
*Wheeljack states that the [[Transfixatron]] will "cancel Devastator's robot mode", though one would really expect it to just transfix Devastator ''as'' Devastator. If the intention was that the Transfixatron traps Transformers in their vehicle mode rather than in their current mode, then that wasn't made clear (especially since Megatron ordered Starscream into his vehicle mode ''before'' testing it on him).
*So... did the Decepticons just leave the transfixed Constructicons sitting there in a pile? They aren't shown retreating.

===Trivia===
[[File:Chipchase.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1]]
*This was one of twelve episodes of [[The Transformers (cartoon)|the original cartoon]] released as audio adventures by the [[Germany|German]] company [[Karussell|Karussell Musik und Video]].
*To catch the grenade, Chip stands up from his wheelchair. It should be noted that Chip's precise medical condition is never explained, so we have no way of knowing why he uses a wheelchair or how much use of his legs he actually has. A close inspection of the animation shows him apparently ''pushing'' himself up with his arms, but it's really not conveyed very well.
*This is one of three episodes from Season Two which were animated by [[AKOM]] (the others being "[[The Core]]" and "[[City of Steel (episode)|City of Steel]]"). They share similar art and animation styles (lots of one-point perspective action shots, scrolling backgrounds, and random zoom-ins), prominent use of the Constructicons, slightly more juvenile plots than usual, and a set of character model oddities such as Megatron's dark gray gun barrel, Optimus Prime's white backpack, and Chip Chase's blue jacket.
*AKOM also has a strange habit of showing vehicle-mode close-ups with painted artwork instead of typical flat colored cel art. Witness Gears getting shot by Soundwave, and Sideswipe and Jazz's dashboards. The same thing can be seen in "The Core", as Chip leans out of a painted Wheeljack.
*Another unique trait of AKOM's animation in Season 2 is how often the animation models are directly traced onto the animation cels for crowd shots, instead of drawing original linework for each character.
*A one-time-only bit of Westernish background music, presumably culled from [[Robert J. Walsh]]'s enormous archives, plays across the opening scene in the Decepticons' ghost town.
*Stores in the ghost town: Liquor Saloon, Harrys Bakes, Sonata 3, Cows(?), Hotel, Saloon, Grain Feed, Livery, Glass (which in a visual gag is the only building in its row of three to survive the battle), and RC P&W(?).
*Signs at the race track: Grand Prix, Irel(and?), XAM, HO KY, New Year Tires, Dav-Mac, A&E O(il?), (Go?)od Year Tires, and Fenzoil Lubes. The "XAM" is very likely a reference to the animation company XAM! ("Ex-Ahern-Marshall"), who included their company initials in the background art of various 1980s animated series, ''The Transformers'' among them.<ref>[http://www.povonline.com/2003/News030103.htm#030503a] "NEWS from me: March 5, 2003"</ref>
*The synopsis for "The Autobot Run" included in the series [[production bible]] reveals that the Transfixatron was originally named the "Stasitron". On its model sheet, it is misspelled "Satsitron".
*In an unfortunate [[Sunstreaker (G1)/toys#Generation 1|foreshadowing]], Sunstreaker remarks that when they made him, they 'broke the [[mold]]'.
*Wheeljack uses his wrist rockets to fly, which is one of the few times it's shown correctly.

===Foreign localization===
'''French'''
:*''Title (European French broadcast):'' "'''Le neutralisateur'''" ("The Neutralizer")
:*''Title (European French DVD release):'' "'''La course des Autobots'''" ("The Autobots Run")
:*''Title (Canadian French broadcast):'' "'''La grande course'''" ("The Great Race")
:*''Original airdate:'' ?
::*The usual voice effect for the robots is absent from the episode, all the Transformers speak with the voice actors' raw voices.
::*[[Georges Atlas]] is back and takes back all his characters. However, he inverts the voices he did for Ratchet and Skywarp in all previous episodes.
::*Again, some dialogues happening in vehicle mode are not dubbed. Among those are the one between Ironhide and Trailbreaker at the beginning of the race, or the one just after, between Mirage and Jazz. However, Jazz still has his line "Okay Mirage, you wanna play fancy?".
::*Optimus Prime's line "Now, while Roller has his attention" is absent from the dub.
::*Ironhide's line "I knew you'd come through, Prime, and not an astrosecond too soon" is translated by "I knew you would make it, Optimus Prime, and you're not an astrosecond late, ''for once''". Rude.
::*To avoid pronouncing the name, Wheeljack's line "Cliffjumper, reply! Are you still functioning ?" is dubbed by "Watch out! Fall back!".

'''German'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Wer ist der schnellste Autobot?'''" ("Who Is the Fastest Autobot?")
:*''Title (Generation 2 dub):'' "'''Die Geheimwaffe'''" ("The Secret Weapon")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[June 9]], [[1989]]

'''Italian'''
:*''Title (dub 1):'' '''Corsa automobilistica''' ("Car Race")
:*''Original airdate:'' ?
::*Broadcasting-wise (considering this to be episode 42 of the series) this episode uses the second group of voice actors for the second time after ''[[Blaster Blues]]'' (not considering ''[[A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court (episode)|A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court]]'' and ''[[The Golden Lagoon (episode)|The Golden Lagoon]]'' since it's unknown if they even got a dub at the time). This group will remain until the end of the season.
::*In one scene, Spike clearly calls Soundwave "Memo", despite his Italian name being "Memo'''r'''".
:*''Title (dub 2):'' '''La corsa degli Autobots''' ("The Autobots Run")
:*''Original airdate:'' ?

'''Japanese'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Transform o Tomero!'''" (トランスフォームをとめろ!, "Stop the Transforming!")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[October 31]], [[1986]]

'''Mandarin'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Qìchērén Sǐ Lǐ Táoshēng'''" (汽车人死里逃生, "Autobots' Narrow Squeak ")
:*''Original airdate:'' ?

'''Brazilian Portuguese'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Fuga dos Autobots'''" ("Escape of the Autobots")
:*''Original airdate:'' ?
::*This episode did not air in the 1980s and was first released on DVD with a different dub from the rest of the show.

'''Russian'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Gran'pree "Avtobot"'''" (Гран-при "Автобот", "Grand-prix "Autobot"")
:*''Original airdate:'' ?

==Home video releases==
{{homevidnote}}
;{{w|LaserDisc}}
[[File:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] [[1995]] — ''Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers'' — Megatron Set ([[TakaraTomy|Takara]]) — Japanese audio only. 
[[File:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan Carly sucks, right?]] [[1999]] — ''The Transformers'' — Decepticon Edition ([[Geneon Universal Entertainment|Pioneer LDC]]) — Japanese audio only.
;DVD
[[File:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] [[2001]] — ''The Transformers'' — DVD Box 2 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only. 
[[File:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] [[2002]] — ''The Original Transformers'' — Season 2 Part 1 ([[The Original Transformers|Rhino Entertainment]]) 
[[File:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2002 — ''The Original Transformers'' — Season 2 Part 1: Vol. 1 (Rhino Entertainment) 
[[File:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] [[2003]] — ''Transformers'' — Season 2 Part 1 ([[Metrodome]]) 
[[File:Flag of France.png|20px|France]] 2003 — ''Transformers'' — La Course des Autobots ([[UFG Junior]]) — European French audio only. 
[[File:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] [[2004]] — ''Transformers'' — Bumper Collection Special (Metrodome) 
[[File:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2004 — ''Transformers'' — Collection 2: Series 2.1 ([[Madman Entertainment]]) 
[[File:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] [[2006]] — ''Transformers'' — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome) 
[[File:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] [[2007]] — ''The Transformers'' — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment) 
[[File:Flag of Germany.png|20px|Germany]] 2007 — ''Transformers'' — Box-Set (3DVDs) ([[Flex Media]]) — German audio only. 
[[File:Flag of Italy.png|20px|Italy]] [[2008]] — ''Transformers'' — Volume 03: Stagione Due Parte Prima ([[Medianetwork Communication]]) — English and Italian audio. 
[[File:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] [[2009]] — ''Transformers'' — Season Two: Part One (Metrodome) 
[[File:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2009 — ''The Transformers'' — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment) 
[[File:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2009 — ''The Transformers'' — Season Two, Volume One: 25th Anniversary Edition ([[Shout! Factory]]) 
[[File:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2009 — ''The Transformers'' — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory) 
[[File:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] [[2011]] — ''The Transformers'' — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory) 
[[File:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] [[2014]] — ''The Transformers'' — Season Two, Volume One: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory) 
[[File:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] 2014 — ''Transformers'' — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

==External links==
*[https://drive.google.com/open?id=10in8YheDM1M_DfcXq95HDDgrbkaGGOkg Episode dialogue script]
*[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dRhIlkci_uwu8LBSzs_tRpVVke9d7oNO/view?usp=drive_link Model sheets and background layouts]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Autobot Run}}
[[Category:The Transformers episodes]]
[[Category:Generation 2 episodes]]

Japanese language

2025-02-20T01:14:16Z

Norrisjc761: /* Pun problems */

[[Image:GenerationsJapaneseNames.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Modern-day Japanese ''Transformers'' packaging with properly romanized names alongside their katakana spelling, leaving nothing to interpretation.]]

Borne as it is from the partnership between the American [[Hasbro]] and the Japanese [[TakaraTomy]], ''Transformers'' has from its inception been a bilingual franchise, split cardinally between English, the language of this wiki, and the '''Japanese language''' (日本語 ''Nihongo''). The road between the two does not always run smoothly, and many quirks of the ''Transformers'' franchise can be ascribed to this friction.

==Japanese: a crash course==
===Kana===
"{{w|Kana}}" (仮名) is the colloquial term for the portion of the modern Japanese writing system correlating directly to mouth noises (read: letters, kinda sorta).
Kana can be written using two native systems: the "{{w|hiragana}}" (ひらがな) script used primarily for Japanese words, and the "{{w|katakana}}" (カタカナ) script used primarily for loanwords or foreign words, as well as for denoting emphasis. Kana is a primarily syllabic script; with the exception of six kana, each symbol represents a consonant-vowel pair, such as ど ''do'', は ''ha'', ぐ ''gu'', and け ''ke''.
{|
|- valign="top"
|
{| class="wikitable"
|+Hiragana (left) and Katakana (right)
|-
!
!title="single vowels"| –
!''k''
!''s''
!''t''
!''n''
!''h''
!''m''
!''y''
!''r''
!''w''
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''a''
|あア
|かカ
|さサ
|たタ
|なナ
|はハ
|まマ
|やヤ
|らラ
|わワ
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''i''
|いイ
|きキ
|しシ
|ちチ
|にニ
|ひヒ
|みミ
|*
|りリ
|ゐヰ
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''u''
|うウ
|くク
|すス
|つツ
|ぬヌ
|ふフ
|むム
|ゆユ
|るル
|*
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''e''
|えエ
|けケ
|せセ
|てテ
|ねネ
|へヘ
|めメ
|*
|れレ
|ゑヱ
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''o''
|おオ
|こコ
|そソ
|とト
|のノ
|ほホ
|もモ
|よヨ
|ろロ
|をヲ
|}
|

{| class="wikitable"
|+   
|-
| style="text-align:center" | んン '''(''n'')'''
|}
|}

These basic kana are in turn modified by the "{{w|dakuten}}" ( ﾞ), which resembles a quotation mark and transforms a voiceless kana such as "ka" into a voiced "ga" and changes the soft "f-" series into the "b-" series; and the "{{w|handakuten}}" ( ﾟ), which resembles a degree sign and modifies the soft "f-" series of kana into the hard "p-" series.

;Examples
*トランスフォーマー (''toransufōmā'', Transformer in katakana)
ト = ''To'' 
ラ = ''ra'' 
ン = ''n'' 
ス = ''su'' 
フォー = ''fō'' 
マー = ''mā''

===Kanji===
Due to the {{w|Chinese influence on Japanese culture#Language|influence of the Chinese language}}, Japanese also uses "{{w|kanji}}" (漢字), a kind of script where each character represents an entire concept and can function as a word unto itself. These kanji often have two pronunciations, one the Japanese word for the specific concept (訓読み ''kun'yomi'') and another based on the borrowed Chinese word (音読み ''on'yomi''), but can sometimes have additional pronunciations. Single kanji can then be compounded into more complex concepts; for example, the Japanese word for telephone, ''denwa'', is made up of the symbols "電話", which separately mean "electric" and "talk".

;Examples
'''Kanji'''
*生命体 ''sei mei tai'' ("lifeform")
::生 = "living" 
::命 = "life force", inochi as a kun'yomi 
::体 = "body, figure"

*司令官 ''shi rei kan'' ("[[Supreme Commander|Commander]]")
::司 = "official" or "director" 
::令 = "law" or "command" 
::官 = "governor/bureaucrat"

'''Kana and kanji'''
*超ロボット生命体トランスフォーマー ("[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (franchise)|Super Robot Lifeform Transformer]]")
::超 (''chō'', "super-") 
::ロボット (''robotto'', katakana) 
::生命体 (''seimeitai'', "lifeform", kanji with on'yomi) 
::トランスフォーマー (''toransufōmā'', Transformer in katakana)

===Furigana===
"{{w|Furigana}}" ({{ruby|振|ふ}}り{{ruby|仮名|がな}}) is a kind of Japanese reading aid that employs superscript, known as "{{w|ruby text}}" (ルビ), to provide a pronunciation guide for particularly difficult words. Now as you can probably guess from reading the above, it is usually used to provide the kana to sound out kanji in educational contexts. What does this have to do with ''Transformers''? In the wider world, furigana see another use: PUNS.<ref>''Advanced'' puns.</ref> In this context, furigana can be used to impart a sort of "side B" to a phrase in a manner that can be thought of as dimly analogous to comedy footnotes<ref>waka waka</ref> in English.

====Examples====
*ブルー{{ruby|偉大なる|ビッグ}}{{ruby|司令官|コンボイ}} ("[[Blue Big Convoy]]")
::ブルー = (''Burū'', "Blue", katakana) 
::偉大なる司令官 ("Grand Commander" - standard reading) 
:::偉大なる = (''Idainaru'', "Grand", kanji)
:::司令官 = (''Shireikan'', "Commander", kanji)
::ビッグコンボイ ("Big Convoy" - furigana pronunciation guide) 
:::ビッグ = (''Biggu'', "Big", katakana)
:::コンボイ = (''Konboi'', "Convoy", katakana)

==Romanization==
"{{w|Romanization}}" refers to the adaptation of languages or words that do not use Latin letters to the 26-character Latin [[alphabet]] used in English (among other, less important languages). Technically, the English-specific term would be "Anglicization".

Any writing system is, at best, an approximation of the sounds it represents. The modern Japanese writing system distinguishes between fewer {{w|phoneme}}s than most, but this does not mean the language ''lacks'' those phonemes, merely that different sounds can be represented by the same symbols. English has more than twenty-six sounds denoted by character-combinations (ex. "{{w|Voiceless postalveolar affricate|ch}}" makes a sound that is not the combination of the mouth-movements for "{{w|Voiceless velar plosive|c}}" and "{{w|Voiceless glottal fricative|h}}", but a close cousin), but even those combinations are imperfect; the "oo" letter sequence represents different sounds in "{{w|Near-close near-back rounded vowel|cook}}" and "{{w|Close back rounded vowel|spook}}". While Japanese does have official romanization systems, such as the {{w|Nihon-shiki romanization|Nihon-shiki}}, it can still be difficult to romanize a Japanese word to match its author's intent due to the sharing of phonemes and other artifacts of the differences between the English and Japanese languages.

==Lost in Translation==
Typical causes for friction between languages are mistakes in mechanical process of translation for perfectly straightforward material, wordplay that only makes sense to a native Japanese speaker, and, occasionally, terms with no coherent meaning to be had. In some rare cases, it even appears that mistranslation occurs on ''purpose''.

Recall that from the perspective of an audience that does not speak the language, whether the words fit together at all is usually of no consequence so long as they are pronounceable, catchy, and easy to remember [[To sell toys|when buying their products]].

===Causes of translation errors===
====Romanization difficulties====
[[Image:KojinOnoPhoto.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The man with many names, all of which are the same.]]Romanizing a name isn't always easy.

Actual Japanese people can often have their names romanized in several ways, all of which are, by default, equally valid: For example, the name of legendary ''Diaclone'' and Generation 1 toy designer [[Kōjin Ōno]] (大野光仁 ''Ōno Kōjin'') can also be Romanized as "Kojin Ohno" or "Kouzin Ono". Japanese people who frequently interact with the Western world may settle for an "official" version for simplicity's sake; in that case, insisting on using an alternate Romanization would be considered pedantic and ignorant.

Since the vast majority of Transformers names used for the Japanese market are English or English-derived, romanizing them isn't particularly difficult— for example, [[Megatron (disambiguation)|Megatron]]'s Japanese name (メガトロン ''Megatoron'') is simply a transliteration of his Western name; the same applies to [[Thundercracker (disambiguation)|Thundercracker]] (サンダークラッカー ''Sandākurakkā''). Many characters whose names were changed for the Japanese market are still easy to decipher; for example, [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] traditionally becomes "Meister" (マイスター ''Maisutā''), [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] becomes "Lambor" (ランボル ''Ranboru''), and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] becomes "Convoy" (コンボイ ''Konboi'').

One problem is posed by the Japanese use of the plural, which doesn't use an "s" suffix like it does in English. Thus, the Japanese name for the [[Transformers brand|overall brand]] is literally "Transformer" (トランスフォーマー ''Toransufōmā''). However, since Takara uses the spelling "Transformers" every time the name is rendered in English, the plural "s" can be assumed to materialize in the transition from katakana to the Latin spelling in much the same way Optimus Prime's [[Combat Deck (G1)|trailer]] appears and disappears every time he transforms. This doesn't always apply, however; some English-derived names with a plural in them may in fact keep the "s" suffix in their katakana spelling, such as ''[[Generations (disambiguation)|Generations]]'' (ジェネレーションズ ''Jenerēshonzu''), resulting in an inconsistent appearance in the combination "''Transformers: Generations''", where "Generations" uses the plural "s" but "Transformers" doesn't.

The Japanese writing system distinguishes between fewer {{w|phoneme}}s than most. Foreign words in Japan frequently acquire ''creative'' spellings as a result of being rendered "down" into the Japanese spelling system.

In some cases where Takara has put the Latin spelling of the characters' names on their [[packaging]], something was amiss: Whoever was responsible for the romanization screwed up, and the error was not caught in [[quality control]] either. The most common causes for bad romanization are a mix-up between {{w|Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants|/l/}} and /r/ (which are approximated by the same sound in Japanese) and {{w|Voiced labiodental fricative|/v/}} and {{w|Voiced bilabial plosive|/b/}} (the /v/ sound doesn't exist in Japanese and is usually substituted by /b/). Another common issue is that /n/, if followed by /m/, /b/, and /p/, becomes /m/ in Japanese phonology.

[[File:Romanization minelba.jpg|right|211px|thumb|{{w|Help:IPA/Latin|Oh like ''you're'' so certain you were pronouncing [mɪˈnɛrwa] correctly.}}]]
Examples:
*[[Minerva (human)|Minerva]] (ミネルバ) as "Minelba".
*[[Kraken]] (クラーケン) as "Clerken".
*[[Optimus Prime (G1)|Convoy]] (コンボイ) as "Comvoy", used on the packaging for ''[[Transformers: Mystery of Convoy]]''.
*Similarly, various characters from ''[[Transformers: Cybertron (franchise)|Galaxy Force]]'' with "Convoy" in their names as "Conboy" on Takara's website<ref name="galaxyforce">.[https://web.archive.org/web/20081019212742/https://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/galaxyforce/index2.html Archived version of TakaraTomy's Galaxy Force website]</ref>
*Variations of "[[Decepticon|Destron]]" (デストロン), including "Deathtron" and "Destoron".
*''[[The Transformers Collection|Transformers Collection]]'' [[Sideswipe (G1)|Lambor]] (ランボル) as "Rambol" on Takara's website<ref name="rambol">[https://web.archive.org/web/20091213050822/www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/TF/g1/tfc/tf07.html Archived version of TakaraTomy website listing for the TFC "Rambol" reissue]</ref> (unlike the "Rijie" case listed below, ''[[Transformers: Alternators|Binaltech]]'' Lambor, released a few months after the ''Transformers Collection'' [[Generation 1 reissues|reissue]], had his name spelled properly in English on his packaging, making this a definite error).
*''[[Transformers: Alternity|Alternity]]'' [[Ultra Magnus (G1)/toys#Alternity|Ultra Magnus]] (ウルトラマグナス) as "Ultla Magnus".
*''[[Transformers Legends (franchise)|Legends]]'' [[Misfire (G1)#Legends|Targetmaster Misfire]] as "Targetmaster Missfire".
*''[[Transformers: Generations (toyline)|Generations Selects]]'' [[Lobclaw#Generations|Lobclaw]] (ロブクロウ) as "Seacons Lobclow".

Also worth mentioning is the lack of spaces for compound names in some cases, such as with the entire ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (toyline)#1988 (Super-God Masterforce)|Super-God Masterforce]]'' line, which had [[Ginrai (human)#Toys|"Superginrai", "Godginrai"]] or "[[King Poseidon#Toys|Kingposeidon]]", the ''[[Transformers: Cybertron (toyline)#Takara Galaxy Force toyline|Galaxy Force]]'' line, which had "[[Optimus Prime (Armada)/toys#Cybertron|Galaxyconvoy]]", "[[Red Alert (Armada)#Cybertron|Firstaid]]" or "[[Megatron (Armada)/toys#Cybertron|Mastermegatron]]", or ''Legends'' "[[Blue Big Convoy#Legends|Blue Bigconvoy]]". This happens because the katakana spelling often does not have any separations between these name components (it ''is'' possible to use a "middle dot" ・, called a nakaguro, but its usage is not mandatory), and this structure may be carried over during the Romanization if the people in charge of the packaging design don't pay attention to it.

A particularly unusual case is that of the ''non''-Japanese Generation 1 [[Action Master Elite]] "[[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Spreem]]" toy, which came out at a time when the original ''Transformers'' toy line had been canceled for the United States market and was [[The Transformers (European toyline)|primarily released in European markets]]. Intended as the same [[character]] as the older ''Generation 1'' Omega '''Supreme''' toy, both "Supreme" and "Spreem" are possible transliterations of the katakana spelling スプリーム (though "Supreme" is obviously the only one that actually makes ''sense''). ''Why'' Hasbro UK would use a nonsensical transliteration of the Japanese spelling of the character's English name is lost in the mists of time; however, a ''partial'' explanation can be found in the ''[[Transformers Vault]]'' book: The design artwork for an unreleased standard (i.e. not Elite) [[Action Master]] version of Omega Supreme has his name (correctly spelled) written quite large on the top of the sheet in big black marker. However, there's also an illustrator's note written in very small pen/pencil next to the toy's design artwork, which misspells the character's name as "Omega Spreem", despite the correct spelling being in giant text directly above it (though to be fair, it's possible that the black marker text was added after the fact). When the toy was released, for ''some'' reason Hasbro used the nonsensical "Omega Spreem" spelling.

===="Double blind" translation====
[[File:MegaSCFEngrishTagline01.jpg|right|upright=1.8|thumb|★ There was an attempt.]]
Some times, the romanization is on point, the meaning of each word is more or less correct, and the sentence structure is ''technically'' acceptable, but no one in the room is fluent in the language and the wind just isn't at their backs, producing results that are... off.

On occasion, some popular English catchphrases for the brand have been translated into Japanese and then ''re-translated'' back into English, producing a particularly brutal contrast with the "correct answer." A prime example is when the tagline "More than meets the eye" was translated into Japanese and then re-translated back into English for the packaging of the Japanese release of the ''[[Heroes of Cybertron]]'' line, producing the trainwreck, "The truth who the eyes met before!"
{{--}}

===Translating the untranslatable===
====Pun problems====
Much like in English, many Japanese Transformer names are corny puns. This becomes problematic very quickly when puns that work in Japanese do not in English:
*The name for ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 franchise)|Robots in Disguise]]'' [[Ruination (RID)|Ruination]]'s ''Car Robots'' counterpart is derived from "[[Bruticus (G1)|Bruticus]]", whose toy he is redecoed from, by shifting some of the sounds that make up the name. Thus, ''Burūtikasu'' (ブルーティカス) became ''Barudigasu'' (バルディガス). For years, the correct Romanization of said name was up in the air, with "Baldigus" and "Valdigus" being the most popular fan spellings, until his ''[[Transformers Unite Warriors|Unite Warriors]]'' toy provided an official Romanized spelling, as "Baldigus".
*''[[Transformers: Kiss Players (toyline)|Kiss Players]]'' "[[Autorooper]]" (オートルーパー ''Ōtorūpā'') is a ''portmanteau'' of "auto" (オート ''ōto'') and "trooper" (トルーパー ''torūpā''), the latter roughly pronounced "torooper" in Japanese. Any Romanization of the name misses out on at least half of the pun.
*Similarly is the upgraded form of ''[[Transformers: Cybertron (franchise)|Galaxy Force]]'' [[Red Alert (Armada)|First Aid]] (ファストエイド ''Fasuto Eido'', ''Cybertron'' Red Alert), "First Gunner" (ファストガンナー ''Fasuto Gan'nā'', [[Cybertron Defense Team (Cybertron)|Cybertron Defense]] Red Alert for Hasbro). To Japanese ears, "First" and "Fast" sound almost the same, thus making the upgrade a "fast gunner". Takara decided to keep the spelling from "First Aid" consistent in the Romanization, thus ending up with the somewhat nonsensical name "First Gunner".
*''Galaxy Force'' [[Spiral|Gagenda]] (ガゼンダ ''Gazenda''), [[Oval|Cyaana]] (シアーナ ''Shiāna''), and [[Backtrack (Armada)|Sullow]] (スロー ''Surō'') are named with modifications of their primary colors: magenta (マゼンタ ''mazenta''), cyan (シアン ''shian''), and yellow (イェロー ''yerō''), the former two of which Japanese did not take from English but rather from Italian and Dutch, respectively. (An additional complication is Japanese adaptation of Italian and Dutch having evolved over time. Today, "magenta" would probably be rendered with greater sophistication as ''majenta'' (マジェンタ) and "cyaan" as ''shiān'' (シアーン).
*''[[Robotmasters (franchise)|Robotmasters]]'' "Reverse Convoy" (リバースコンボイ) becomes "Rebirth Megatron" (リバースメガトロン), with the English words "Reverse" and "Rebirth" using the same katakana spelling. This makes considerably less sense in English.

====Furigana frenzy====
[[File:Generations Selects Primus Vanguard.jpg|upright=2|right|thumb|Three cheers for the Pun Patrol!]]

As discussed above, the grammatical construction known as "[[Japanese language#Furigana|furigana]]" doesn't really have a clean analogue in English. Thankfully this particularly elaborate form of wordplay is pretty rare in ''Transformers'' media, perhaps due to the younger-skewing demographics of the franchise. Rare, that is, with one prominent exception: the saga of the technicolor warrior monks known as the [[Primus Vanguard]] utilizes a truly dizzying array of furigana puns in the names of its major characters, up to and including [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity#Generations Selects Special Comic (2)|Optimus Prime]] himself.
*Each officer of the Vanguard utilizes a classic ''Transformers'' title in their rank, with "Commander" ({{ruby|司令官|コンボイ}} ''shireikan'') being "pronounced" as "Convoy" (コンボイ ''Konboi'') while "Marshal" ({{ruby|元帥|プライム}} ''gensui'') becomes "Prime" (プライム ''Puraimu'').
*The puns go even further, as the officers' personal names (sandwiched between their assigned color and rank) are "spelled" as a highfalutin adjective, resulting in configurations such as "[[Blue Big Convoy]]" (ブルービッグコンボイ ''Buru Biggu Konboi'') being read "Blue Grand Commander" (ブルー{{ruby|偉大なる|ビッグ}}{{ruby|司令官|コンボイ}} ''Buru Idainaru Shireikan'').
*The [[New Primus Vanguard]], evil doppelgangers of the Primus Vanguard made out of Megatron clones, also got in on the pun action, with the classic "[[Emperor of Destruction]]"({{ruby|破壊大帝|メガトロン}} ''Hakai Taitei'') title, a stalwart of Japanese ''Transformers'' villains, being paired up with "Megatron"(メガトロン ''Megatoron'').
{{--}}

===="High concept" names====
[[File:ViolenJygar1.jpg|right|211px|thumb|Tragically not actually a juggler of violins.]]
And then there are the names that didn't mean much to begin with, or are so baroque that any Romanization would have to be either extremely liberal in order to make sense, or end up nonsensical either way. Accuracy is sometimes a low priority, as English-derived names are ''generally'' simply intended to sound "cool", not necessarily make sense to Japanese children. A familiar point of reference might be the atrocities we in the English market regularly inflict upon Latin.

Examples:
*''[[Transformers: Cybertron (franchise)|Cybertron]]'' [[Hot Shot (Armada)|Hot Shot]]'s Japanese ''Galaxy Force'' name (エクシリオン) is officially romanized as "Exillion". Hasbro later released a redeco as a separate character named [[Excellion (Cybertron)|Excellion]], which makes only slightly more sense.
*Probably the most hotly contested of Japanese ''Transformers'' names was that of [[Deathsaurus (G1)|Deathsaurus]] (デスザラス ''Desuzarasu''), the dragon-like Decepticon general of ''[[Transformers: Victory (franchise)|Transformers: Victory]]''. Originally Romanized on his toy packaging as "Deszaras," English-speaking fans furiously debated the "proper" Romanization of the name, interpreting it as Deszaras, Deathzaras, Deathsaurus, Death Czarus, Death Czaras, and many others.
**"Deathsaurus" had a tendency to be the most popular and well-known (on account of it actually ''meaning'' something in either language), which led to it being used on the character's first Western toy in 2005, making it his official English-language name. Although, two later toys would give him the English names of "Dessaras" and "Dezarus", respectively, muddying the waters further.
**At [[BotCon 2015]], after ''decades'' of such back-and-forths, the designer of the original toy, our friend from earlier Kōjin Ōno, confirmed that the name was indeed always supposed to have been "Deathsaurus" (in a presentation that spelled his name as "Dethzarasu". ''Oy vey!'').
*Perhaps the final boss of galaxy-brained Japanese Transformer names is, fittingly, the final boss of the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon. The name of [[Violengiguar]] (バイオレンジャイガー), the spooky space ghost antagonist of ''[[Transformers: Zone]]'', was the source of no small amount of bafflement and a wide variety of interpretations both fan and official including but not limited to "Violen Jiger", "Violen Jygar", and even "Bio Ranger Iga". We finally got an explanation after nearly thirty years in 2019, when cartoon lead writer and overall Generation 1 story architect [[Masumi Kaneda]] clarified:<ref>{{citesocial|quote=@tf__tf バイオレンスにジャイアント、ジャイガンティス、ジャガーなどを加えてアレンジしたと思います。それまでになく大きく強く破壊力があり凶暴でハッタリがきく。その一言で強大な悪の象徴であることを印象づける。あえて「トランスフォーマー」と並ぶような長いネーミングにしてみました。|link=https://twitter.com/KanedaMasumi/status/1101329144602718208|name=Masumi Kaneda|site=Twitter|year=2019|month=03|day=01|(defunct=)}}</ref>
** The name is a portmanteau of (deep breath):
***"'''Violen'''ce" ('''バイオレン'''ス) + "'''Gi'''ant" ('''ジャイ'''アント) / "[[Godzilla|'''Gi'''gantis]]" (ジャ'''イガ'''ンティス) + "Ja'''guar'''" (ジャ'''ガー''')
****Both "Giant" and "Gigantis" were cited as the origin for the same "gi" (ジャイ) part of the name.
** It was constructed to "match the length of" (read: vaguely rhyme with) the word "Transformer" (トランスフォーマー). The way this works is that "Transformer" picks up a couple more syllables in Japanese such that we have:
:::Transformer → (ト ''To'') - (ラ ''ra'') - (ン ''n'') - (ス ''su'') - (フォー ''fō'') - (マー ''mā'')
:::Violengiguar → (バ ''Ba'') - (イ ''i'') - (オ ''o'') - (レ ''re'') - (ン ''n'') - (ジャ ''ja'') - (イ ''i'') - (ガー ''gā'')
:The idea here was to create a powerful, violent name that presented a sort of "dark mirror" to the Transformers. Real out of the box thinker, that Kaneda.
{{--}}

===Frequent avenues of mistranslation===
====Because it looks cool====
We've [[Drift (G1)#Toys|all seen]] Japanese characters tacked onto English language goods to "look cool" on solely aesthetic grounds. Did you know that goes the other way too? Unsurprisingly this rarely produces intelligible results in either direction.
=====Cool Japanese=====
[[File:FuNaNa.jpg|thumb|300px|The one and only Mr. Funana.]]
*The personal website of the singular [[Dreamwave Productions]] president [[Pat Lee]] featured a header graphic that rendered his name, "Patrick Lee", in nigh-random kana as ミチヤメノテヒフナナ (''Michiyamenotehi Funana''). This "translation" very quickly became a sardonic nickname among [[Fandom|fans]].
**The source of this gibberish was almost certainly blindly pecking out symbols that "looked cool" with character-replacement font "WordPerfect TrueType Japanese."
**The correct translation would be パトリック・リー (''Patorikku Rī'').
*As befitting the brand mascot for {{w|Japanophile}} behavior, [[Drift (G1)|Drift]] has racked up an impressive count of soulful Japanese tattoos.
**Drift's original IDW character design sported ドリフト (''Dorifuto''), the katakana for ''his own name'' on the doors.
**The doors of [[Drift (G1)#Generations|Drift's ''Generations'' toy]] were [[tampograph]]ed with the more sensible kanji 侍 (''samurai'').
***These proved to become Drift's most iconic tats, reappearing on his ''[[Drift (G1)#Transformers: Earth Wars|Earth Wars]]'' character model and ''[[Drift (G1)#Adventure|Adventure]]'' toy.
**[[Drift (SG)#Timelines|''Shattered Glass'' Drift]]'s hood was adorned with 定 (''tei'', "decide") in [[Drift (SG)#Notes|a vague attempt to approximate "doom"]].
**The ''Generations'' toy's broadsword was also molded with the rather cocky engraving 天下無双 (''tenka musō'', "peerless under heaven"), which was naturally passed on to Drift's moldmates ''Shattered Glass'' Drift and [[Deadlock (Cloud)#Legends|''Legends'' Deadlock]].

=====Cool English=====
Snappy English catchphrases of questionable intelligibility are a frequent stalwart of "cool" characters' dialogue in Japanese children's media.
*[[Star Saber (G1)|Star Saber]] often shouts "Let's say go!" This is a pun on "Let's seigō", where Japanese word ''seigō'' (整合), means, broadly, "coordinate," making it more or less his version of Optimus Prime's iconic "Transform and roll out!"
*[[Cliffjumper (Energon)|''Energon'' Cliffjumper]] is known to pepper his dialogue with English phrases, most frequently "Check it out, yo."
Bits of English often creep their way into [[Japanese themes|Japanese theme songs]] as well, being something of a staple in Japanese pop music.
*The chorus of [[Satoko Shimonari]]'s theme for ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (franchise)|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers]]'', titled "[[Transformer (song)|TRANSFORMER]]", ends with the English phrase, "We hope the only world!"
*"[[Praise Be to Decepticon|PRAISE BE TO DECEPTICON]]", [[JAM Project]]'s absolute banger of an {{w|image song}} for the Decepticons of ''[[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Transformers Animated]]'', prominently features a refrain of, well, "Praise be to Decepticon".

====Bad dubs====
[[File:E45 titlecard.jpg|thumb|upright=1.67|[[Decepticon#2005 IDW continuity|You are being deceived.]]]]
Furthermore, on many occasions, when Japanese ''Transformers'' cartoons have been translated and dubbed into English, the translations and scripts have been rushed, resulting in mind-boggling dialogue.

When the [[Omni Productions]] dub was produced for ''[[Transformers: The Headmasters (cartoon)|The Headmasters]]'', ''[[Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (cartoon)|Masterforce]]'' and ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (cartoon)|Victory]]'' and when the [[Voicebox Productions|Voicebox]] dub was produced for ''[[Transformers: Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' and ''[[Transformers: Energon (cartoon)|Energon]]'', early, unpolished translations of the Japanese TV series were used for the final scripts. While these translations were (mostly) accurate, they were accurate in a tremendously ''literal'' sense, often not being adjusted to fit the English language properly. What resulted were incoherent lines of dialogue which sounded like a ''Babelfish'' translation of a web page.
{{--}}

====Deliberate mistranslation====
[[Image:RMBTRijie.jpg|thumb|170px|right|Most likely on purpose.]]
In some rare cases, an official instance of mistranslation is both so blatant and so persistent that it appears to be done on purpose, usually for trademark reasons.

=====TakaraTomy=====
The prime example is [[The Transformers (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]], who got renamed into "Ligier" (リジェ) for the Japanese market, based on the real life car manufacturer who produced the car the original Mirage toy's [[alternate mode]] was based on. While the [[The Transformers (toyline)|Generation 1]] toy only spelled the name in katakana, with no official Romanized spelling supplied, both the more recent ''[[Robotmasters (franchise)|Robotmasters]]'' and ''[[Transformers: Alternators|Binaltech]]'' toys have used the official Romanization "Rijie"... which is, as a Romanization of the katakana spelling, about the furthest possible from "Ligier". Curiously enough, the ''Robotmasters'' toy's [[instructions]] ''do'' spell the name "Ligier", thus suggesting legal reasons for the alternate spelling.

A different case is the [[The Transformers (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicon]] [[Hook (G1)|Hook]], who was renamed into "Gren" (グレン ''Guren'') for Japan. "Gren" is effectively a mangled version of the English word "crane" (クレーン ''Kurēn'') which didn't originate with Takara, but has been used at least in regional Japanese dialects (mostly in the Hiroshima area) since the Meiji period. So it's basically a reference to a traditional mutation of a loanword.

=====Hasbro=====
Around the onset of the ''[[Prime Wars Trilogy]]'', Hasbro evidently discovered the quick and easy trademarking joys of ''aggressively'' literal Romanization.
*''[[Titans Return (toyline)|Titans Return]]'' [[Doublecross#Generations|Twinferno]]'s [[Titan Master]] is named "[[Daburu (TR)|Daburu]]" after the Japanese rendition of the word "double" (ダブル), after Twinferno's original Generation 1 name, "Doublecross" (ダブルクロス).
*When the duo of Generation 1 dinosaur cassettes [[Dile]] (ダイル) and [[Zaur (G1)|Zaur]] (ザウル) (plays on "reptile" and "dinosaur", respectively) finally made their way across the Pacific after some 30 years, they were given the localized names [[Dairu]] and [[Zauru]].
**To add insult to injury, when the pair received evil recolors, they were given these names *backwards* in English spelling, producing the truly bizarre "[[Uriad]]" and "[[Uruaz]]".<ref>If you are wondering how authentic backwards spelling works in Japanese phonetic structure, ''Dairu'' (ダイル) would be reversed as "''Ruida''" (ルイダ) and ''Zauru'' would become "''Ruuza''" (ルウザ).</ref>
{{--}}

====Vendor mistranslation====
Sometimes mistranslations don't originate with Takara or other official parties, but with (mostly Western) online retailers and their vendors. Historically, these vendors often received solicitations of new toys via fax in the era before easy machine translation cross-checks. Depending on the quality of the fax, the legibility of the katakana spelling of the new toys' names, the Japanese and/or English skills of the vendors and their familiarity with the [[Transformers brand|''Transformers'' brand]], they may have just come up with very weird interpretations of the katakana spelling of the toys' names. The results can range from minor misspellings (such as "Conboy") to occasional random weirdness or complete gibberish.

Although these spellings aren't "official", they're often the first versions of these names fans read...and some of these names stick, even when the official Romanization is widely available.

Examples:

*''[[Transformers United|United]]'' Wheeljack's name got mangled as "Hoilgaru" (with the "garu" half possibly being misapplied from [[Wreck-Gar (G1)|Wreck-Gar's]] name, who would be listed directly above Wheeljack in a list based on their [[List of Japanese ID numbers|Japanese ID numbers]]).
*''Adventure'' [[Vehicon (Prime)#Adventure|Ground Vehicon General]] was called "Grand Vehicon" by quite a few online stores. The reason for this is that TakaraTomy used the rather uncommon katakana spelling グランド (''gurando'') for "ground", which also happens to be the katakana spelling for "grand", instead of the more common グラウンド (''guraundo''). The name ''is'' spelled "Ground Vehicon General" in English on the toy's packaging, however.
*Coincidentally or not, ''[[Transformers Unite Warriors|Unite Warriors]]'' [[Grand Scourge#Toys|Grand Scourge]], which also uses the katakana spelling グランド for the word "grand", was listed as "Ground Scourge" in some places.
*''Legends'' [[Convobat]], a portmanteau of "[[Convoy (disambiguation)|Convoy]]" and "bat", was listed as "Combo Bat" by several online retailers.

==Things that are not mistranslation==
===Spelling errors===
[[File:OnlyHuman Newtronium.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|right|Can newter your newrons.]]Mis-romanization should not be confused with honest spelling errors, as those can happen to both native and foreign speakers. For instance, the packaging for MP-01 [[The Transformers: Masterpiece|Masterpiece]] [[Optimus Prime (G1)/toys|Convoy]] reads "More than meets ''teh'' eye". This is less an example of bad translation and more an example of poor [[quality control]] on [[TakaraTomy|Takara]]'s part.

Mild misspellings frequently occur due to poor linguistic replacement, especially when multiple sounds may not be distinguished in other languages. For example, the letters c/s/z and b/v are linguistically indistinguishable in Latin American Spanish. Similarly, the English {{w|Alveolar approximant|ɹ}}, {{w|Alveolar lateral approximant|l}}, and {{w|Voiced labiodental fricative|v}} sounds do not exist in Japanese and are conflated with {{w|Alveolar lateral flap|ɺ}} and {{w|voiced bilabial plosive|b}}.

Conversely, a new spelling might be created to represent an otherwise rare sound in that language. For example, Japanese approximates an English rhotic vowel by extending the corresponding vowel sound,<ref>{{w|Rhoticity in English}} varies by dialect. The Japanese rendition of English vowels differs less from the accents of England compared to the accents of North America.</ref> resulting in "[[Zarak (G1)|Load Zarak]]". Using "ah" to facilitate the English "uh" results in ''[[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbaster]]''. (Both cited examples can be found in the 2001 ''[[Transformers Generations (guidebook)|Transformers Generations]]'' guidebook.)

====Examples====
=====Japanese=====
*''Generation 1'' [[Metroplex (G1)|Metroplex]] is named "Metroflex" (メトロフレックス) in Japan. That minimal difference ''could'' be due to a genuine human error, though: the only spelling difference between a Japanese "P" sound and a corresponding "F" sound is an additional small circle, called a {{w|diacritic|diacritical mark}} (in this case, the difference is プ ''pu'' versus フ ''fu''). A poorly-printed paper copy or a simple case of misreading could have been all it took for such a change.
*Similarly, ''Generation 1'' [[Blot (G1)|Blot's]] Japanese name (ブット) is "Boot" pronounced to rhyme with "foot" instead of "hoot". The structure of "Butto" suggests it derives from a typo of "Burotto" (ブロット), leaving out one katakana.
*The peculiarities of English spelling can also cause confusion in Japanese transliteration. In the English word "bomb", the final b is not pronounced. A Japanese person ignorant of that would spell it ''bonbu'', as happened to [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] (ボンブシェル ''Bonbusheru''). Compare to [[Snakebomb (Beastformers)|Snakebomb]] (スネークボム ''Sunēkubomu''), which properly transliterates the actual pronunciation of "bomb". (Although a trading card Romanizes it as "Snakebom". You can't win them all.)
*A related example to the one above is the differing transliterations for [[Rampage (G1)|Generation 1 Rampage]] (ラムページ ''Ramupēji'') and [[Rampage (BW)|''Beast Wars'' Rampage]] (ランページ ''Ranpēji''). N before {{w|bilabial stop}}s (b, p, and m; see {{w|n (kana)}} for more detail) ends up sounding like m in Japanese, but this was forgotten in the case of the first character, giving him the odd implication of "Ram Page".
*Different pronunciations (and the word itself sometimes) of non-English loanwords in both languages can also cause issues, especially in regards to Latin and Greek. Japanese usually sticks very closely to the original names and pronunciations of figures like {{w|Heracles|Herakles}} (ヘラクレス ''Herakuresu''), much more commonly known in English as {{w|Hercules}} (ハーキュリーズ ''Hākyurīzu'') thanks to Latin influence, and often sticks to Latinate pronunciation (i.e. "C" is always pronounced like "K", -us is transliterated as ''us'', not ''as'') as opposed to English pronunciation. Sometimes the two different pronunciation systems can even be mixed in the same work, leading to annoying confusion. The long and short of it is that English is not the only language Japanese is trying to transliterate. One example in ''Transformers'' is the character [[Gilthor]], a Romanization proposed by his creator. However, the Japanese pronunciation follows modern Nordic rules ("Tor" トール ''Tōru'') rather than English rules ("Thor" ソー ''Sō'').
*Related to the above is ''enerugī'' (エネルギー), uniformly always Romanized as "energy". However, this is actually based on the German "Energie"; English "energy" is rendered as ''enajī'' (エナジー), which is uncommon, but still sees use. This has also influenced the Japanese pronunciation of "[[energon]]".

=====English=====
There are also spelling errors in background lettering found in the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
*In "[[Heavy Metal War]]", [[Teletraan I]]'s files on the Decepticons (with the texts lifted directly from the show's [[production bible]]) have [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble's]] name misspelled "Ru'''n'''ble". (It's possible that this was an example of poor Romanization as well; the kana for "n" is ''pronounced'' as "m" when it's followed by a b, p, or m sound, so "runble" would have been the correct spelling in directly romanized kana.)
*Furthermore, in "[[The Burden Hardest to Bear]]", [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] opens an airlock aboard the Decepticon flagship, which has "AIR LO'''O'''K" written on it.
*Less certain is an instance in "[[Hoist Goes Hollywood (episode)|Hoist Goes Hollywood]]", where a chair with [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks's]] name written on it has it misspelled as "Tr'''u'''cks". This ''could'' either be an extension of the recurring joke where the [[Attack of the Alien Robots director|director]] constantly gets [[Hoist (G1)|Hoist]]'s name wrong, or a true translation error (presumably stemming from a misunderstanding on the part of Japanese animators, as the English short "a" and short "u" sounds are identical to the Japanese ear). The world may never know.
*Likewise, [[newtronium]] from "Only Human" could have very well just been meant to be {{w|neutronium}}.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*The {{w|Japanese writing system|Japanese written language}} at Wikipedia
*{{w|Romanization}} at Wikipedia

[[Category:Real languages]]

Japanese language

2025-02-20T00:49:28Z

Norrisjc761:

[[Image:GenerationsJapaneseNames.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Modern-day Japanese ''Transformers'' packaging with properly romanized names alongside their katakana spelling, leaving nothing to interpretation.]]

Borne as it is from the partnership between the American [[Hasbro]] and the Japanese [[TakaraTomy]], ''Transformers'' has from its inception been a bilingual franchise, split cardinally between English, the language of this wiki, and the '''Japanese language''' (日本語 ''Nihongo''). The road between the two does not always run smoothly, and many quirks of the ''Transformers'' franchise can be ascribed to this friction.

==Japanese: a crash course==
===Kana===
"{{w|Kana}}" (仮名) is the colloquial term for the portion of the modern Japanese writing system correlating directly to mouth noises (read: letters, kinda sorta).
Kana can be written using two native systems: the "{{w|hiragana}}" (ひらがな) script used primarily for Japanese words, and the "{{w|katakana}}" (カタカナ) script used primarily for loanwords or foreign words, as well as for denoting emphasis. Kana is a primarily syllabic script; with the exception of six kana, each symbol represents a consonant-vowel pair, such as ど ''do'', は ''ha'', ぐ ''gu'', and け ''ke''.
{|
|- valign="top"
|
{| class="wikitable"
|+Hiragana (left) and Katakana (right)
|-
!
!title="single vowels"| –
!''k''
!''s''
!''t''
!''n''
!''h''
!''m''
!''y''
!''r''
!''w''
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''a''
|あア
|かカ
|さサ
|たタ
|なナ
|はハ
|まマ
|やヤ
|らラ
|わワ
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''i''
|いイ
|きキ
|しシ
|ちチ
|にニ
|ひヒ
|みミ
|*
|りリ
|ゐヰ
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''u''
|うウ
|くク
|すス
|つツ
|ぬヌ
|ふフ
|むム
|ゆユ
|るル
|*
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''e''
|えエ
|けケ
|せセ
|てテ
|ねネ
|へヘ
|めメ
|*
|れレ
|ゑヱ
|- style="font-size:2em"
!style="font-size:0.5em"|''o''
|おオ
|こコ
|そソ
|とト
|のノ
|ほホ
|もモ
|よヨ
|ろロ
|をヲ
|}
|

{| class="wikitable"
|+   
|-
| style="text-align:center" | んン '''(''n'')'''
|}
|}

These basic kana are in turn modified by the "{{w|dakuten}}" ( ﾞ), which resembles a quotation mark and transforms a voiceless kana such as "ka" into a voiced "ga" and changes the soft "f-" series into the "b-" series; and the "{{w|handakuten}}" ( ﾟ), which resembles a degree sign and modifies the soft "f-" series of kana into the hard "p-" series.

;Examples
*トランスフォーマー (''toransufōmā'', Transformer in katakana)
ト = ''To'' 
ラ = ''ra'' 
ン = ''n'' 
ス = ''su'' 
フォー = ''fō'' 
マー = ''mā''

===Kanji===
Due to the {{w|Chinese influence on Japanese culture#Language|influence of the Chinese language}}, Japanese also uses "{{w|kanji}}" (漢字), a kind of script where each character represents an entire concept and can function as a word unto itself. These kanji often have two pronunciations, one the Japanese word for the specific concept (訓読み ''kun'yomi'') and another based on the borrowed Chinese word (音読み ''on'yomi''), but can sometimes have additional pronunciations. Single kanji can then be compounded into more complex concepts; for example, the Japanese word for telephone, ''denwa'', is made up of the symbols "電話", which separately mean "electric" and "talk".

;Examples
'''Kanji'''
*生命体 ''sei mei tai'' ("lifeform")
::生 = "living" 
::命 = "life force", inochi as a kun'yomi 
::体 = "body, figure"

*司令官 ''shi rei kan'' ("[[Supreme Commander|Commander]]")
::司 = "official" or "director" 
::令 = "law" or "command" 
::官 = "governor/bureaucrat"

'''Kana and kanji'''
*超ロボット生命体トランスフォーマー ("[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (franchise)|Super Robot Lifeform Transformer]]")
::超 (''chō'', "super-") 
::ロボット (''robotto'', katakana) 
::生命体 (''seimeitai'', "lifeform", kanji with on'yomi) 
::トランスフォーマー (''toransufōmā'', Transformer in katakana)

===Furigana===
"{{w|Furigana}}" ({{ruby|振|ふ}}り{{ruby|仮名|がな}}) is a kind of Japanese reading aid that employs superscript, known as "{{w|ruby text}}" (ルビ), to provide a pronunciation guide for particularly difficult words. Now as you can probably guess from reading the above, it is usually used to provide the kana to sound out kanji in educational contexts. What does this have to do with ''Transformers''? In the wider world, furigana see another use: PUNS.<ref>''Advanced'' puns.</ref> In this context, furigana can be used to impart a sort of "side B" to a phrase in a manner that can be thought of as dimly analogous to comedy footnotes<ref>waka waka</ref> in English.

====Examples====
*ブルー{{ruby|偉大なる|ビッグ}}{{ruby|司令官|コンボイ}} ("[[Blue Big Convoy]]")
::ブルー = (''Burū'', "Blue", katakana) 
::偉大なる司令官 ("Grand Commander" - standard reading) 
:::偉大なる = (''Idainaru'', "Grand", kanji)
:::司令官 = (''Shireikan'', "Commander", kanji)
::ビッグコンボイ ("Big Convoy" - furigana pronunciation guide) 
:::ビッグ = (''Biggu'', "Big", katakana)
:::コンボイ = (''Konboi'', "Convoy", katakana)

==Romanization==
"{{w|Romanization}}" refers to the adaptation of languages or words that do not use Latin letters to the 26-character Latin [[alphabet]] used in English (among other, less important languages). Technically, the English-specific term would be "Anglicization".

Any writing system is, at best, an approximation of the sounds it represents. The modern Japanese writing system distinguishes between fewer {{w|phoneme}}s than most, but this does not mean the language ''lacks'' those phonemes, merely that different sounds can be represented by the same symbols. English has more than twenty-six sounds denoted by character-combinations (ex. "{{w|Voiceless postalveolar affricate|ch}}" makes a sound that is not the combination of the mouth-movements for "{{w|Voiceless velar plosive|c}}" and "{{w|Voiceless glottal fricative|h}}", but a close cousin), but even those combinations are imperfect; the "oo" letter sequence represents different sounds in "{{w|Near-close near-back rounded vowel|cook}}" and "{{w|Close back rounded vowel|spook}}". While Japanese does have official romanization systems, such as the {{w|Nihon-shiki romanization|Nihon-shiki}}, it can still be difficult to romanize a Japanese word to match its author's intent due to the sharing of phonemes and other artifacts of the differences between the English and Japanese languages.

==Lost in Translation==
Typical causes for friction between languages are mistakes in mechanical process of translation for perfectly straightforward material, wordplay that only makes sense to a native Japanese speaker, and, occasionally, terms with no coherent meaning to be had. In some rare cases, it even appears that mistranslation occurs on ''purpose''.

Recall that from the perspective of an audience that does not speak the language, whether the words fit together at all is usually of no consequence so long as they are pronounceable, catchy, and easy to remember [[To sell toys|when buying their products]].

===Causes of translation errors===
====Romanization difficulties====
[[Image:KojinOnoPhoto.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The man with many names, all of which are the same.]]Romanizing a name isn't always easy.

Actual Japanese people can often have their names romanized in several ways, all of which are, by default, equally valid: For example, the name of legendary ''Diaclone'' and Generation 1 toy designer [[Kōjin Ōno]] (大野光仁 ''Ōno Kōjin'') can also be Romanized as "Kojin Ohno" or "Kouzin Ono". Japanese people who frequently interact with the Western world may settle for an "official" version for simplicity's sake; in that case, insisting on using an alternate Romanization would be considered pedantic and ignorant.

Since the vast majority of Transformers names used for the Japanese market are English or English-derived, romanizing them isn't particularly difficult— for example, [[Megatron (disambiguation)|Megatron]]'s Japanese name (メガトロン ''Megatoron'') is simply a transliteration of his Western name; the same applies to [[Thundercracker (disambiguation)|Thundercracker]] (サンダークラッカー ''Sandākurakkā''). Many characters whose names were changed for the Japanese market are still easy to decipher; for example, [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] traditionally becomes "Meister" (マイスター ''Maisutā''), [[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] becomes "Lambor" (ランボル ''Ranboru''), and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] becomes "Convoy" (コンボイ ''Konboi'').

One problem is posed by the Japanese use of the plural, which doesn't use an "s" suffix like it does in English. Thus, the Japanese name for the [[Transformers brand|overall brand]] is literally "Transformer" (トランスフォーマー ''Toransufōmā''). However, since Takara uses the spelling "Transformers" every time the name is rendered in English, the plural "s" can be assumed to materialize in the transition from katakana to the Latin spelling in much the same way Optimus Prime's [[Combat Deck (G1)|trailer]] appears and disappears every time he transforms. This doesn't always apply, however; some English-derived names with a plural in them may in fact keep the "s" suffix in their katakana spelling, such as ''[[Generations (disambiguation)|Generations]]'' (ジェネレーションズ ''Jenerēshonzu''), resulting in an inconsistent appearance in the combination "''Transformers: Generations''", where "Generations" uses the plural "s" but "Transformers" doesn't.

The Japanese writing system distinguishes between fewer {{w|phoneme}}s than most. Foreign words in Japan frequently acquire ''creative'' spellings as a result of being rendered "down" into the Japanese spelling system.

In some cases where Takara has put the Latin spelling of the characters' names on their [[packaging]], something was amiss: Whoever was responsible for the romanization screwed up, and the error was not caught in [[quality control]] either. The most common causes for bad romanization are a mix-up between {{w|Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants|/l/}} and /r/ (which are approximated by the same sound in Japanese) and {{w|Voiced labiodental fricative|/v/}} and {{w|Voiced bilabial plosive|/b/}} (the /v/ sound doesn't exist in Japanese and is usually substituted by /b/). Another common issue is that /n/, if followed by /m/, /b/, and /p/, becomes /m/ in Japanese phonology.

[[File:Romanization minelba.jpg|right|211px|thumb|{{w|Help:IPA/Latin|Oh like ''you're'' so certain you were pronouncing [mɪˈnɛrwa] correctly.}}]]
Examples:
*[[Minerva (human)|Minerva]] (ミネルバ) as "Minelba".
*[[Kraken]] (クラーケン) as "Clerken".
*[[Optimus Prime (G1)|Convoy]] (コンボイ) as "Comvoy", used on the packaging for ''[[Transformers: Mystery of Convoy]]''.
*Similarly, various characters from ''[[Transformers: Cybertron (franchise)|Galaxy Force]]'' with "Convoy" in their names as "Conboy" on Takara's website<ref name="galaxyforce">.[https://web.archive.org/web/20081019212742/https://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/galaxyforce/index2.html Archived version of TakaraTomy's Galaxy Force website]</ref>
*Variations of "[[Decepticon|Destron]]" (デストロン), including "Deathtron" and "Destoron".
*''[[The Transformers Collection|Transformers Collection]]'' [[Sideswipe (G1)|Lambor]] (ランボル) as "Rambol" on Takara's website<ref name="rambol">[https://web.archive.org/web/20091213050822/www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/TF/g1/tfc/tf07.html Archived version of TakaraTomy website listing for the TFC "Rambol" reissue]</ref> (unlike the "Rijie" case listed below, ''[[Transformers: Alternators|Binaltech]]'' Lambor, released a few months after the ''Transformers Collection'' [[Generation 1 reissues|reissue]], had his name spelled properly in English on his packaging, making this a definite error).
*''[[Transformers: Alternity|Alternity]]'' [[Ultra Magnus (G1)/toys#Alternity|Ultra Magnus]] (ウルトラマグナス) as "Ultla Magnus".
*''[[Transformers Legends (franchise)|Legends]]'' [[Misfire (G1)#Legends|Targetmaster Misfire]] as "Targetmaster Missfire".
*''[[Transformers: Generations (toyline)|Generations Selects]]'' [[Lobclaw#Generations|Lobclaw]] (ロブクロウ) as "Seacons Lobclow".

Also worth mentioning is the lack of spaces for compound names in some cases, such as with the entire ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (toyline)#1988 (Super-God Masterforce)|Super-God Masterforce]]'' line, which had [[Ginrai (human)#Toys|"Superginrai", "Godginrai"]] or "[[King Poseidon#Toys|Kingposeidon]]", the ''[[Transformers: Cybertron (toyline)#Takara Galaxy Force toyline|Galaxy Force]]'' line, which had "[[Optimus Prime (Armada)/toys#Cybertron|Galaxyconvoy]]", "[[Red Alert (Armada)#Cybertron|Firstaid]]" or "[[Megatron (Armada)/toys#Cybertron|Mastermegatron]]", or ''Legends'' "[[Blue Big Convoy#Legends|Blue Bigconvoy]]". This happens because the katakana spelling often does not have any separations between these name components (it ''is'' possible to use a "middle dot" ・, called a nakaguro, but its usage is not mandatory), and this structure may be carried over during the Romanization if the people in charge of the packaging design don't pay attention to it.

A particularly unusual case is that of the ''non''-Japanese Generation 1 [[Action Master Elite]] "[[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Spreem]]" toy, which came out at a time when the original ''Transformers'' toy line had been canceled for the United States market and was [[The Transformers (European toyline)|primarily released in European markets]]. Intended as the same [[character]] as the older ''Generation 1'' Omega '''Supreme''' toy, both "Supreme" and "Spreem" are possible transliterations of the katakana spelling スプリーム (though "Supreme" is obviously the only one that actually makes ''sense''). ''Why'' Hasbro UK would use a nonsensical transliteration of the Japanese spelling of the character's English name is lost in the mists of time; however, a ''partial'' explanation can be found in the ''[[Transformers Vault]]'' book: The design artwork for an unreleased standard (i.e. not Elite) [[Action Master]] version of Omega Supreme has his name (correctly spelled) written quite large on the top of the sheet in big black marker. However, there's also an illustrator's note written in very small pen/pencil next to the toy's design artwork, which misspells the character's name as "Omega Spreem", despite the correct spelling being in giant text directly above it (though to be fair, it's possible that the black marker text was added after the fact). When the toy was released, for ''some'' reason Hasbro used the nonsensical "Omega Spreem" spelling.

===="Double blind" translation====
[[File:MegaSCFEngrishTagline01.jpg|right|upright=1.8|thumb|★ There was an attempt.]]
Some times, the romanization is on point, the meaning of each word is more or less correct, and the sentence structure is ''technically'' acceptable, but no one in the room is fluent in the language and the wind just isn't at their backs, producing results that are... off.

On occasion, some popular English catchphrases for the brand have been translated into Japanese and then ''re-translated'' back into English, producing a particularly brutal contrast with the "correct answer." A prime example is when the tagline "More than meets the eye" was translated into Japanese and then re-translated back into English for the packaging of the Japanese release of the ''[[Heroes of Cybertron]]'' line, producing the trainwreck, "The truth who the eyes met before!"
{{--}}

===Translating the untranslatable===
====Pun problems====
Much like in English, many Japanese Transformer names are corny puns. This becomes problematic very quickly when puns that work in Japanese do not in English:
*The name for ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 franchise)|Robots in Disguise]]'' [[Ruination (RID)|Ruination]]'s ''Car Robots'' counterpart is derived from "[[Bruticus (G1)|Bruticus]]", whose toy he is redecoed from, by shifting some of the sounds that make up the name. Thus, ''Burūtikasu'' (ブルーティカス) became ''Barudigasu'' (バルディガス). For years, the correct Romanization of said name was up in the air, with "Baldigus" and "Valdigus" being the most popular fan spellings, until his ''[[Transformers Unite Warriors|Unite Warriors]]'' toy provided an official Romanized spelling, as "Baldigus".
*''[[Transformers: Kiss Players (toyline)|Kiss Players]]'' "[[Autorooper]]" (オートルーパー ''Ōtorūpā'') is a ''portmanteau'' of "auto" (オート ''ōto'') and "trooper" (トルーパー ''torūpā''), the latter roughly pronounced "torooper" in Japanese. Any Romanization of the name misses out on at least half of the pun.
*Similar is the upgraded form of ''[[Transformers: Cybertron (franchise)|Galaxy Force]]'' [[Red Alert (Armada)|First Aid]] (ファストエイド ''Fasuto Eido'', ''Cybertron'' Red Alert), "First Gunner" (ファストガンナー ''Fasuto Gan'nā'', [[Cybertron Defense Team (Cybertron)|Cybertron Defense]] Red Alert for Hasbro). To Japanese ears, "First" and "Fast" sound almost the same, thus making the upgrade a "fast gunner". Takara decided to keep the spelling from "First Aid" consistent in the Romanization, thus ending up with the somewhat nonsensical name "First Gunner".
*''Galaxy Force'' [[Spiral|Gagenda]] (ガゼンダ ''Gazenda''), [[Oval|Cyaana]] (シアーナ ''Shiāna''), and [[Backtrack (Armada)|Sullow]] (スロー ''Surō'') are named with modifications of their primary colors: magenta (マゼンタ ''mazenta''), cyan (シアン ''shian''), and yellow (イェロー ''yerō''), the former two of which Japanese did not take from English but rather from Italian and Dutch, respectively. (An additional complication is Japanese adaptation of Italian and Dutch having evolved over time. Today, "magenta" would probably be rendered with greater sophistication as ''majenta'' (マジェンタ) and "cyaan" as ''shiān'' (シアーン).
*''[[Robotmasters (franchise)|Robotmasters]]'' "Reverse Convoy" (リバースコンボイ) becomes "Rebirth Megatron" (リバースメガトロン), with the English words "Reverse" and "Rebirth" using the same katakana spelling. This makes considerably less sense in English.

====Furigana frenzy====
[[File:Generations Selects Primus Vanguard.jpg|upright=2|right|thumb|Three cheers for the Pun Patrol!]]

As discussed above, the grammatical construction known as "[[Japanese language#Furigana|furigana]]" doesn't really have a clean analogue in English. Thankfully this particularly elaborate form of wordplay is pretty rare in ''Transformers'' media, perhaps due to the younger-skewing demographics of the franchise. Rare, that is, with one prominent exception: the saga of the technicolor warrior monks known as the [[Primus Vanguard]] utilizes a truly dizzying array of furigana puns in the names of its major characters, up to and including [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity#Generations Selects Special Comic (2)|Optimus Prime]] himself.
*Each officer of the Vanguard utilizes a classic ''Transformers'' title in their rank, with "Commander" ({{ruby|司令官|コンボイ}} ''shireikan'') being "pronounced" as "Convoy" (コンボイ ''Konboi'') while "Marshal" ({{ruby|元帥|プライム}} ''gensui'') becomes "Prime" (プライム ''Puraimu'').
*The puns go even further, as the officers' personal names (sandwiched between their assigned color and rank) are "spelled" as a highfalutin adjective, resulting in configurations such as "[[Blue Big Convoy]]" (ブルービッグコンボイ ''Buru Biggu Konboi'') being read "Blue Grand Commander" (ブルー{{ruby|偉大なる|ビッグ}}{{ruby|司令官|コンボイ}} ''Buru Idainaru Shireikan'').
*The [[New Primus Vanguard]], evil doppelgangers of the Primus Vanguard made out of Megatron clones, also got in on the pun action, with the classic "[[Emperor of Destruction]]"({{ruby|破壊大帝|メガトロン}} ''Hakai Taitei'') title, a stalwart of Japanese ''Transformers'' villains, being paired up with "Megatron"(メガトロン ''Megatoron'').
{{--}}

===="High concept" names====
[[File:ViolenJygar1.jpg|right|211px|thumb|Tragically not actually a juggler of violins.]]
And then there are the names that didn't mean much to begin with, or are so baroque that any Romanization would have to be either extremely liberal in order to make sense, or end up nonsensical either way. Accuracy is sometimes a low priority, as English-derived names are ''generally'' simply intended to sound "cool", not necessarily make sense to Japanese children. A familiar point of reference might be the atrocities we in the English market regularly inflict upon Latin.

Examples:
*''[[Transformers: Cybertron (franchise)|Cybertron]]'' [[Hot Shot (Armada)|Hot Shot]]'s Japanese ''Galaxy Force'' name (エクシリオン) is officially romanized as "Exillion". Hasbro later released a redeco as a separate character named [[Excellion (Cybertron)|Excellion]], which makes only slightly more sense.
*Probably the most hotly contested of Japanese ''Transformers'' names was that of [[Deathsaurus (G1)|Deathsaurus]] (デスザラス ''Desuzarasu''), the dragon-like Decepticon general of ''[[Transformers: Victory (franchise)|Transformers: Victory]]''. Originally Romanized on his toy packaging as "Deszaras," English-speaking fans furiously debated the "proper" Romanization of the name, interpreting it as Deszaras, Deathzaras, Deathsaurus, Death Czarus, Death Czaras, and many others.
**"Deathsaurus" had a tendency to be the most popular and well-known (on account of it actually ''meaning'' something in either language), which led to it being used on the character's first Western toy in 2005, making it his official English-language name. Although, two later toys would give him the English names of "Dessaras" and "Dezarus", respectively, muddying the waters further.
**At [[BotCon 2015]], after ''decades'' of such back-and-forths, the designer of the original toy, our friend from earlier Kōjin Ōno, confirmed that the name was indeed always supposed to have been "Deathsaurus" (in a presentation that spelled his name as "Dethzarasu". ''Oy vey!'').
*Perhaps the final boss of galaxy-brained Japanese Transformer names is, fittingly, the final boss of the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon. The name of [[Violengiguar]] (バイオレンジャイガー), the spooky space ghost antagonist of ''[[Transformers: Zone]]'', was the source of no small amount of bafflement and a wide variety of interpretations both fan and official including but not limited to "Violen Jiger", "Violen Jygar", and even "Bio Ranger Iga". We finally got an explanation after nearly thirty years in 2019, when cartoon lead writer and overall Generation 1 story architect [[Masumi Kaneda]] clarified:<ref>{{citesocial|quote=@tf__tf バイオレンスにジャイアント、ジャイガンティス、ジャガーなどを加えてアレンジしたと思います。それまでになく大きく強く破壊力があり凶暴でハッタリがきく。その一言で強大な悪の象徴であることを印象づける。あえて「トランスフォーマー」と並ぶような長いネーミングにしてみました。|link=https://twitter.com/KanedaMasumi/status/1101329144602718208|name=Masumi Kaneda|site=Twitter|year=2019|month=03|day=01|(defunct=)}}</ref>
** The name is a portmanteau of (deep breath):
***"'''Violen'''ce" ('''バイオレン'''ス) + "'''Gi'''ant" ('''ジャイ'''アント) / "[[Godzilla|'''Gi'''gantis]]" (ジャ'''イガ'''ンティス) + "Ja'''guar'''" (ジャ'''ガー''')
****Both "Giant" and "Gigantis" were cited as the origin for the same "gi" (ジャイ) part of the name.
** It was constructed to "match the length of" (read: vaguely rhyme with) the word "Transformer" (トランスフォーマー). The way this works is that "Transformer" picks up a couple more syllables in Japanese such that we have:
:::Transformer → (ト ''To'') - (ラ ''ra'') - (ン ''n'') - (ス ''su'') - (フォー ''fō'') - (マー ''mā'')
:::Violengiguar → (バ ''Ba'') - (イ ''i'') - (オ ''o'') - (レ ''re'') - (ン ''n'') - (ジャ ''ja'') - (イ ''i'') - (ガー ''gā'')
:The idea here was to create a powerful, violent name that presented a sort of "dark mirror" to the Transformers. Real out of the box thinker, that Kaneda.
{{--}}

===Frequent avenues of mistranslation===
====Because it looks cool====
We've [[Drift (G1)#Toys|all seen]] Japanese characters tacked onto English language goods to "look cool" on solely aesthetic grounds. Did you know that goes the other way too? Unsurprisingly this rarely produces intelligible results in either direction.
=====Cool Japanese=====
[[File:FuNaNa.jpg|thumb|300px|The one and only Mr. Funana.]]
*The personal website of the singular [[Dreamwave Productions]] president [[Pat Lee]] featured a header graphic that rendered his name, "Patrick Lee", in nigh-random kana as ミチヤメノテヒフナナ (''Michiyamenotehi Funana''). This "translation" very quickly became a sardonic nickname among [[Fandom|fans]].
**The source of this gibberish was almost certainly blindly pecking out symbols that "looked cool" with character-replacement font "WordPerfect TrueType Japanese."
**The correct translation would be パトリック・リー (''Patorikku Rī'').
*As befitting the brand mascot for {{w|Japanophile}} behavior, [[Drift (G1)|Drift]] has racked up an impressive count of soulful Japanese tattoos.
**Drift's original IDW character design sported ドリフト (''Dorifuto''), the katakana for ''his own name'' on the doors.
**The doors of [[Drift (G1)#Generations|Drift's ''Generations'' toy]] were [[tampograph]]ed with the more sensible kanji 侍 (''samurai'').
***These proved to become Drift's most iconic tats, reappearing on his ''[[Drift (G1)#Transformers: Earth Wars|Earth Wars]]'' character model and ''[[Drift (G1)#Adventure|Adventure]]'' toy.
**[[Drift (SG)#Timelines|''Shattered Glass'' Drift]]'s hood was adorned with 定 (''tei'', "decide") in [[Drift (SG)#Notes|a vague attempt to approximate "doom"]].
**The ''Generations'' toy's broadsword was also molded with the rather cocky engraving 天下無双 (''tenka musō'', "peerless under heaven"), which was naturally passed on to Drift's moldmates ''Shattered Glass'' Drift and [[Deadlock (Cloud)#Legends|''Legends'' Deadlock]].

=====Cool English=====
Snappy English catchphrases of questionable intelligibility are a frequent stalwart of "cool" characters' dialogue in Japanese children's media.
*[[Star Saber (G1)|Star Saber]] often shouts "Let's say go!" This is a pun on "Let's seigō", where Japanese word ''seigō'' (整合), means, broadly, "coordinate," making it more or less his version of Optimus Prime's iconic "Transform and roll out!"
*[[Cliffjumper (Energon)|''Energon'' Cliffjumper]] is known to pepper his dialogue with English phrases, most frequently "Check it out, yo."
Bits of English often creep their way into [[Japanese themes|Japanese theme songs]] as well, being something of a staple in Japanese pop music.
*The chorus of [[Satoko Shimonari]]'s theme for ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (franchise)|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers]]'', titled "[[Transformer (song)|TRANSFORMER]]", ends with the English phrase, "We hope the only world!"
*"[[Praise Be to Decepticon|PRAISE BE TO DECEPTICON]]", [[JAM Project]]'s absolute banger of an {{w|image song}} for the Decepticons of ''[[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Transformers Animated]]'', prominently features a refrain of, well, "Praise be to Decepticon".

====Bad dubs====
[[File:E45 titlecard.jpg|thumb|upright=1.67|[[Decepticon#2005 IDW continuity|You are being deceived.]]]]
Furthermore, on many occasions, when Japanese ''Transformers'' cartoons have been translated and dubbed into English, the translations and scripts have been rushed, resulting in mind-boggling dialogue.

When the [[Omni Productions]] dub was produced for ''[[Transformers: The Headmasters (cartoon)|The Headmasters]]'', ''[[Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (cartoon)|Masterforce]]'' and ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (cartoon)|Victory]]'' and when the [[Voicebox Productions|Voicebox]] dub was produced for ''[[Transformers: Armada (cartoon)|Armada]]'' and ''[[Transformers: Energon (cartoon)|Energon]]'', early, unpolished translations of the Japanese TV series were used for the final scripts. While these translations were (mostly) accurate, they were accurate in a tremendously ''literal'' sense, often not being adjusted to fit the English language properly. What resulted were incoherent lines of dialogue which sounded like a ''Babelfish'' translation of a web page.
{{--}}

====Deliberate mistranslation====
[[Image:RMBTRijie.jpg|thumb|170px|right|Most likely on purpose.]]
In some rare cases, an official instance of mistranslation is both so blatant and so persistent that it appears to be done on purpose, usually for trademark reasons.

=====TakaraTomy=====
The prime example is [[The Transformers (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]], who got renamed into "Ligier" (リジェ) for the Japanese market, based on the real life car manufacturer who produced the car the original Mirage toy's [[alternate mode]] was based on. While the [[The Transformers (toyline)|Generation 1]] toy only spelled the name in katakana, with no official Romanized spelling supplied, both the more recent ''[[Robotmasters (franchise)|Robotmasters]]'' and ''[[Transformers: Alternators|Binaltech]]'' toys have used the official Romanization "Rijie"... which is, as a Romanization of the katakana spelling, about the furthest possible from "Ligier". Curiously enough, the ''Robotmasters'' toy's [[instructions]] ''do'' spell the name "Ligier", thus suggesting legal reasons for the alternate spelling.

A different case is the [[The Transformers (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicon]] [[Hook (G1)|Hook]], who was renamed into "Gren" (グレン ''Guren'') for Japan. "Gren" is effectively a mangled version of the English word "crane" (クレーン ''Kurēn'') which didn't originate with Takara, but has been used at least in regional Japanese dialects (mostly in the Hiroshima area) since the Meiji period. So it's basically a reference to a traditional mutation of a loanword.

=====Hasbro=====
Around the onset of the ''[[Prime Wars Trilogy]]'', Hasbro evidently discovered the quick and easy trademarking joys of ''aggressively'' literal Romanization.
*''[[Titans Return (toyline)|Titans Return]]'' [[Doublecross#Generations|Twinferno]]'s [[Titan Master]] is named "[[Daburu (TR)|Daburu]]" after the Japanese rendition of the word "double" (ダブル), after Twinferno's original Generation 1 name, "Doublecross" (ダブルクロス).
*When the duo of Generation 1 dinosaur cassettes [[Dile]] (ダイル) and [[Zaur (G1)|Zaur]] (ザウル) (plays on "reptile" and "dinosaur", respectively) finally made their way across the Pacific after some 30 years, they were given the localized names [[Dairu]] and [[Zauru]].
**To add insult to injury, when the pair received evil recolors, they were given these names *backwards* in English spelling, producing the truly bizarre "[[Uriad]]" and "[[Uruaz]]".<ref>If you are wondering how authentic backwards spelling works in Japanese phonetic structure, ''Dairu'' (ダイル) would be reversed as "''Ruida''" (ルイダ) and ''Zauru'' would become "''Ruuza''" (ルウザ).</ref>
{{--}}

====Vendor mistranslation====
Sometimes mistranslations don't originate with Takara or other official parties, but with (mostly Western) online retailers and their vendors. Historically, these vendors often received solicitations of new toys via fax in the era before easy machine translation cross-checks. Depending on the quality of the fax, the legibility of the katakana spelling of the new toys' names, the Japanese and/or English skills of the vendors and their familiarity with the [[Transformers brand|''Transformers'' brand]], they may have just come up with very weird interpretations of the katakana spelling of the toys' names. The results can range from minor misspellings (such as "Conboy") to occasional random weirdness or complete gibberish.

Although these spellings aren't "official", they're often the first versions of these names fans read...and some of these names stick, even when the official Romanization is widely available.

Examples:

*''[[Transformers United|United]]'' Wheeljack's name got mangled as "Hoilgaru" (with the "garu" half possibly being misapplied from [[Wreck-Gar (G1)|Wreck-Gar's]] name, who would be listed directly above Wheeljack in a list based on their [[List of Japanese ID numbers|Japanese ID numbers]]).
*''Adventure'' [[Vehicon (Prime)#Adventure|Ground Vehicon General]] was called "Grand Vehicon" by quite a few online stores. The reason for this is that TakaraTomy used the rather uncommon katakana spelling グランド (''gurando'') for "ground", which also happens to be the katakana spelling for "grand", instead of the more common グラウンド (''guraundo''). The name ''is'' spelled "Ground Vehicon General" in English on the toy's packaging, however.
*Coincidentally or not, ''[[Transformers Unite Warriors|Unite Warriors]]'' [[Grand Scourge#Toys|Grand Scourge]], which also uses the katakana spelling グランド for the word "grand", was listed as "Ground Scourge" in some places.
*''Legends'' [[Convobat]], a portmanteau of "[[Convoy (disambiguation)|Convoy]]" and "bat", was listed as "Combo Bat" by several online retailers.

==Things that are not mistranslation==
===Spelling errors===
[[File:OnlyHuman Newtronium.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|right|Can newter your newrons.]]Mis-romanization should not be confused with honest spelling errors, as those can happen to both native and foreign speakers. For instance, the packaging for MP-01 [[The Transformers: Masterpiece|Masterpiece]] [[Optimus Prime (G1)/toys|Convoy]] reads "More than meets ''teh'' eye". This is less an example of bad translation and more an example of poor [[quality control]] on [[TakaraTomy|Takara]]'s part.

Mild misspellings frequently occur due to poor linguistic replacement, especially when multiple sounds may not be distinguished in other languages. For example, the letters c/s/z and b/v are linguistically indistinguishable in Latin American Spanish. Similarly, the English {{w|Alveolar approximant|ɹ}}, {{w|Alveolar lateral approximant|l}}, and {{w|Voiced labiodental fricative|v}} sounds do not exist in Japanese and are conflated with {{w|Alveolar lateral flap|ɺ}} and {{w|voiced bilabial plosive|b}}.

Conversely, a new spelling might be created to represent an otherwise rare sound in that language. For example, Japanese approximates an English rhotic vowel by extending the corresponding vowel sound,<ref>{{w|Rhoticity in English}} varies by dialect. The Japanese rendition of English vowels differs less from the accents of England compared to the accents of North America.</ref> resulting in "[[Zarak (G1)|Load Zarak]]". Using "ah" to facilitate the English "uh" results in ''[[Roadbuster (G1)|Roadbaster]]''. (Both cited examples can be found in the 2001 ''[[Transformers Generations (guidebook)|Transformers Generations]]'' guidebook.)

====Examples====
=====Japanese=====
*''Generation 1'' [[Metroplex (G1)|Metroplex]] is named "Metroflex" (メトロフレックス) in Japan. That minimal difference ''could'' be due to a genuine human error, though: the only spelling difference between a Japanese "P" sound and a corresponding "F" sound is an additional small circle, called a {{w|diacritic|diacritical mark}} (in this case, the difference is プ ''pu'' versus フ ''fu''). A poorly-printed paper copy or a simple case of misreading could have been all it took for such a change.
*Similarly, ''Generation 1'' [[Blot (G1)|Blot's]] Japanese name (ブット) is "Boot" pronounced to rhyme with "foot" instead of "hoot". The structure of "Butto" suggests it derives from a typo of "Burotto" (ブロット), leaving out one katakana.
*The peculiarities of English spelling can also cause confusion in Japanese transliteration. In the English word "bomb", the final b is not pronounced. A Japanese person ignorant of that would spell it ''bonbu'', as happened to [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] (ボンブシェル ''Bonbusheru''). Compare to [[Snakebomb (Beastformers)|Snakebomb]] (スネークボム ''Sunēkubomu''), which properly transliterates the actual pronunciation of "bomb". (Although a trading card Romanizes it as "Snakebom". You can't win them all.)
*A related example to the one above is the differing transliterations for [[Rampage (G1)|Generation 1 Rampage]] (ラムページ ''Ramupēji'') and [[Rampage (BW)|''Beast Wars'' Rampage]] (ランページ ''Ranpēji''). N before {{w|bilabial stop}}s (b, p, and m; see {{w|n (kana)}} for more detail) ends up sounding like m in Japanese, but this was forgotten in the case of the first character, giving him the odd implication of "Ram Page".
*Different pronunciations (and the word itself sometimes) of non-English loanwords in both languages can also cause issues, especially in regards to Latin and Greek. Japanese usually sticks very closely to the original names and pronunciations of figures like {{w|Heracles|Herakles}} (ヘラクレス ''Herakuresu''), much more commonly known in English as {{w|Hercules}} (ハーキュリーズ ''Hākyurīzu'') thanks to Latin influence, and often sticks to Latinate pronunciation (i.e. "C" is always pronounced like "K", -us is transliterated as ''us'', not ''as'') as opposed to English pronunciation. Sometimes the two different pronunciation systems can even be mixed in the same work, leading to annoying confusion. The long and short of it is that English is not the only language Japanese is trying to transliterate. One example in ''Transformers'' is the character [[Gilthor]], a Romanization proposed by his creator. However, the Japanese pronunciation follows modern Nordic rules ("Tor" トール ''Tōru'') rather than English rules ("Thor" ソー ''Sō'').
*Related to the above is ''enerugī'' (エネルギー), uniformly always Romanized as "energy". However, this is actually based on the German "Energie"; English "energy" is rendered as ''enajī'' (エナジー), which is uncommon, but still sees use. This has also influenced the Japanese pronunciation of "[[energon]]".

=====English=====
There are also spelling errors in background lettering found in the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]]:
*In "[[Heavy Metal War]]", [[Teletraan I]]'s files on the Decepticons (with the texts lifted directly from the show's [[production bible]]) have [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble's]] name misspelled "Ru'''n'''ble". (It's possible that this was an example of poor Romanization as well; the kana for "n" is ''pronounced'' as "m" when it's followed by a b, p, or m sound, so "runble" would have been the correct spelling in directly romanized kana.)
*Furthermore, in "[[The Burden Hardest to Bear]]", [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] opens an airlock aboard the Decepticon flagship, which has "AIR LO'''O'''K" written on it.
*Less certain is an instance in "[[Hoist Goes Hollywood (episode)|Hoist Goes Hollywood]]", where a chair with [[Tracks (G1)|Tracks's]] name written on it has it misspelled as "Tr'''u'''cks". This ''could'' either be an extension of the recurring joke where the [[Attack of the Alien Robots director|director]] constantly gets [[Hoist (G1)|Hoist]]'s name wrong, or a true translation error (presumably stemming from a misunderstanding on the part of Japanese animators, as the English short "a" and short "u" sounds are identical to the Japanese ear). The world may never know.
*Likewise, [[newtronium]] from "Only Human" could have very well just been meant to be {{w|neutronium}}.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*The {{w|Japanese writing system|Japanese written language}} at Wikipedia
*{{w|Romanization}} at Wikipedia

[[Category:Real languages]]