Transformers: Takara Collection - Volume 1 - Headmasters [DVD]

This was my first experience with viewing a Transformers series in Japanese. I decided to buy this set after watching the first 5 or 6 episodes on youtube. The audio and subtitles took a little getting used to. If you're a diehard fan of the American Generation 1 series, this is for you! Whatever you do, forget about watching it with the English audio. Stick to the origial Japanese audio with the English subtitles. The show is much more enjoyable that way. I don't know a word of Japanese and I'd still rather hear that with the English than hear the TERRIBLE English audio in this set! The translation are not accurate at all! Every review I have read of this series has stated that the English audio is terrible and know I know why. If you've never watched a Transformers series in Japanese, here's a good place to start.

Good entertainment

He's always quoting the hilarious dialogue. (And it's not just the translation, it's the delivery.)Personally, I enjoyed the new live-action film, and can sit through an episode or two of this.It does strike me a bit bizarre, and perhaps a less than subtle jeer at the John Wayne-era of American cinema, but I assume fans of the original Transformers will have a ball with this DVD set.

I have so many average/positive reviews in my archives .... I decided to review something bad for a change ... lol ..In the past I have reviewed Metrodome's releases of digitally remastered transformer episodes, which sort of deserve a bad review themselves.But I couldn't give them bad reviews since the episodes themselves were decent enough ( well by 80s American cartoon show standards anyway ) even in the presence of sloppy digital remastering.But now I can review a transformers series that is quite appaling in it's own right.I saw these recently been broadcast on the anime central channel and decided to buy the box set, but not because it was any good.It's because this series will give you a good laugh it's so bad at times, mainly because of the way the English dub has been handled.First of all even though this series isn't that great ..... it's made much worse by the quality of the English dub on this disc.As you'd expect the voice cast of the English version of the original transformers titles in the west, weren't involved.Instead we have a bunch of voice actors who probably don't even number into the double digits and whose first language probably isn't English.So we end up with the characters saying sentences that don't make sense, awful lines and have horrible grammar .... hehe ....There are a lot of literal Japanese to English translations which sound hilarious and just general mistakes overall.Not only that the odd few characters and terminology have been changed. Sometimes with humorous results.You know something is wrong when a grown man goes by the name of Sparkle ...... or when a mighty robot who can transform into a military city / command center goes by the name of Phillip ..... lol ...As for variety in voices .... well to tell the truth it sounds like only half a dozen people are providing the voices for a cast of over a hundred ..... I know that in most animated shows people double up on characters to save costs ..... but in most shows when actors play more than one character .... they at least make an effort to an effort for them to sound different from one another , to give the impression they are different characters speaking ..... in this dub it sounds like the same people talking in every scene even when characters are different ....Plus it's funny to hear muffled voices too, because the it's cute to think the voice actors think they have to cover their mouths whenever speaking for a character with a mouth plate.... hehe ... unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any sign of voice alterations to make them sound mechanical either.Plus the voice performances are pretty wooden , but then again it's not surprising considering English obviously isn't their first language.There isn't too much of a plot to get excited about to tell the truth , but has the continuity and character focus you'd expect from your typical anime , unlike the format of original transformers show.Although saying that, a lot of the things established in previous american transformers shows have pretty much been ignored due to certain stories being skipped in the Japanese release schedule.Although this is the last transformers series that retain characters from the old cast, they won't be doing much.Many things won't seem that right in this series to transformers veterans.Alot of the show revolves around random fights which sort of get repetitive after a while , although there are a few good ones.A lot of the concepts for episodes are generally lame. ( But a lot of old transformers writing weren't exactly gold either )Most of the old cast ( post-movie ) have been either been demoted to nameless cannon fodder , administration team , comic relief or a shadow of their former selves .... to make way for yet another new generation.This will no doubt upset some fans , as they wanted to see old favourites in new adventures.Following the tradition killing off characters ..... lol ..... A certain someone dies for the 3rd time in this show ..... you wonder if he gets sick of being revived ....Also following the tradition of the movie it seems when characters die , the ones with the worst injuries are ones the only ones allowed to be revived .... lol .... yeah .. you're sometimes left wonder ..... why they are so selective with miracle revives ?Also in common with the movie ... lots of good people die ... but the villians don't seem to suffer any losses .....Another unwelcome addition are the childish and unfunny adventures of Danny and Wheelie .... which is somewhat strange ..... especially when considering the darker tone of this series.In the end this show ends in the same way alot of long running anime tv series end ... which is pretty horrible ...... with all the random violence in this series .... you'd think you'd be treated to the mother of all battles in the final episode ..... wrong ....It seems to be a common trend in many mainstream tv animes ( most of those that are geared towards merchandise anyway ) : the way to beat the last bad guy in the last episode ..... is to beat them in a care bears style fashion and for all the good characters to send the energy of their friendship to the lead character to empower him .... and this title doesn't even do that tired and cheesey cliche ending well .....Anyway even though series is pretty awful ... the original transformers series weren't that great anyway .... although they were probably among the most bearable incarnations .... everything after the movie wasn't that good ......are their any good points about this series ?Well I guess the art is generally a lot better and more consistent than the original transformers series. ( The quality of transformers art of the older series varied from very good to very bad because of the range of studios sharing the workload of the episodes )I guess there is more character focus and consistent cast regulars, which is more typical of anime than the old transformers series. And it has a lot more emotional/melodramatic moments than the original transformers shows. Although the English dub probably brings these points down even more.Plus a lot of characters don't seem to acting like themselves in this series and a lot of writing off characters seem to be poorly handled .....Also like many mediocre animated shows from Japan, the opening / intro is very nice and catchy .... probably even better than the original Transformers show. Unfortunately the opening credits of Headmaster is probably better than the entire show.Anyway that's enough good points , I want to get onto more bad points , because there are that many .... hehe....Also the whole head swapping gimmick of the series is pretty lame, not used very well and could have been expanded upon to make more interesting scenarios. Such as the strong character needs to swap heads with a smart character to solve a puzzle .... but even an obvious idea like this isn't even in the show.The subs are questionable too ..... but then again both the Japanese and English versions of transformers use different terminology ...... so yeah , the subtitled version is probably better than the lousy English dub available in this DVD , but it's still far from perfect.By far the worst crime is that there are a handle of episodes on this DVD that have the audio track " out of synch " with the video track ... meaning the sounds/voices don't match up with the actions/lips.Ironically this is quite fitting since the dubbing itself is poor anyway , so it all becomes quite like the bad dubbing of kung fu flick at times, heh ....But anyway bottom line , this is not only pretty bad as a transformers show and an anime show.It's just pretty bad as an animated show in general. This is easily the weakest Tranformers series due to the awful writing. ( Even if it was dubbed into English by decent people, it wouldn't be that great )Only buy this DVD if you want a good laugh at bad dubbing because it really does have comedic value, it's so bad. Also kids no sense of dubbing standards or recognising of bad writing will probably enjoy this too.

The animation and story is much more consistent then G1, there's an actual story arc and more focus of a few key characters. But G1 is more fun and creative, plus the English dubbing is far better. The English dubbing for Headmasters is hilarious, but can't be taken seriously.I'd recommend buying this box set if you love G1 but still happy to go in with an open mind. The whole feel of the series is very different, as it's Japanese and much more like anime then G1 was.

Couldn't have asked for anything better, Gen 1 will always be my fav. Yes, the English dub is awkward but still way better than contestantly trying to read and watch at the same time.

At first the English dub of this series seemed pretty silly but as you get into the series it proves to be at least on par to most transformers xpinn offs.

It even has the hilariously awful Singapore dub!

Das ist die erste der 3 Takara Serien von den Transformers. Die Handlung dieser Serie startet einige Jahre nach dem Ende der 3. Staffel. Jegliche Handlungen aus den 3 Folgen der 4. Staffel (USA) wurden verworfen und Transformers Headmasters erzählt eine völlig neue Story über die Headmaster Transformers. Im Jahre 2011 greifen die Decepticons Cybertron an um die Kontrolle über Vector Sigma zu erlangen. Der Anführer der Decepticons, Galvatron, hat ein Bündniss mit den Decpticon Headmasters geschlossen um endlich seine Rache an den Autobots durchführen zu können. Im laufe des Kampfes bekommen aber auch die Autobots unterstützung von den Autobot Headmasters. Im Laufe der Geschichte wird darauf eingegangen woher die Headmasters eigentlich stammen so das man sich eine Brücke zu den Handlungen der US Serie bauen kann. Um aber einen genaueren Einblick zu bieten in diese Serie aus Japan habe ich einige Kriterien genauer unter die Lupe genommen.Story:Wie bereits gesagt Knüpft diese Serie an die Handlungen der 3. US Staffel der Transformers an. Zwar trifft man in der Serie auf die neuen Charaktere der 4. US Staffel (Sixshot, Mindwipe, Chromedome, Hardhead ect.) Allerdings ist deren Hintergrund von den Storyschreibern völlig neu aufgebaut so das es nur wenige Parallelen zu der 4. US Staffel gibt. Beispielsweise wird Nebulos nie erwähnt da alle Headmasters 100% Transformers sind und nicht, wie in der US Serie erzählt, Fusionen von Transformers mit Nebulanern. Die Story ist auf den 4 DVD's aufgeteilt und bietet den GESAMTEN Umfang der Headmasters Serie von der ersten bis zur letzten Folge.Zeichnung:Die Zeichenart und die Animationen der Transformers gleichen der US Serie auf das genaueste. Fans der Serie werden keinen Unterschied erkennen. Jedes Detail der US Serie wurde übernommen. Die Animationen sind sehr gut gestaltet und versetzen den Zuschauer wieder in die 80er Jahre in denen die Transformers entstanden sind. Lediglich die neuen Charaktere wie Chromdome, Hardhead, Brainstorm, Highbrow ect. wurden von den Zeichnern verbessert. Wogegen sie in der US Serie mehr wie Statisten wirkten sind sie nun aufwändig gestaltet und viel detaillierter dargestellt.Sprache:Dazu gibt es nicht viel zu Sagen. Die DVD's erhalten den Japanischen Originalton sowie eine Englischsprachige Synchronisation. Das Englisch ist leicht zu verstehen und man muss absolut kein Profi sein um die Handlungen zu verstehen. (Es ist ja auch ne Serie für jüngeres Publikum, da kann man nicht mit Fremdwörtern um sich schmeissen ;-))Synchronisation:Das ist der Punkt der eine 5 Sterne Wertung bei dieser DVD Colletion leider nicht möglich macht. Fans der Serie werden von den US Synchros mehr als enttäuscht sein (so war es jedenfalls bei mir). KEINER der Transformers besitzt in der englischen Sprache die Typischen Charakteristika der US Serie. Alle Transformers klingen viel zu menschlich. Soundwave zum Beispiel spricht nicht mehr in seinem Robo Sound sowie auch Grimlock plötzlich wie ein ganz normaler Mensch spricht und auch klingt. Aber mal abgesehen von den lausig gewählten Stimmen sind auch die Leistungen der Synchronsprecher mies. In machen Szenen wird mehr als deutlich wie extrem gekünzelt die Emotionen rüber gebracht werden. Als ob das aber noch nicht genügt wird der Horro noch schlimmer wenn man hört was für einen Mist die Übersetzer sich geleistet haben. (Offenbar hat sich keiner die Mühe gemacht die Original Namen der US Serie nachzuschlagen). Die Matrix der Autobots wird zum Beispiel hier als Powerpack bezeichnet, oder Blaster heißt hier Billy, sowie Spike Witwicky sogar den japanischen Namen inne hat. Auch die Zusammenhänge mancher Geschichten und Dialoge werden durch sinnloses gerede völlig auseinander gerissen. Man kann sich das zwar antun aber es bremst den Spaß für echte Fans leider merklich. Viel erträglicher ist der Japanische Originalton. Hier sprechen alle Tranformers wieder mit ihren typischen Robo Stimmen und klingen VIEL authentischer. Ich verstehe zwar kein japanisch aber auf der DVD sind ja noch US Subs erhalten in denen sogar die Original US Namen wieder erhalten sind. So heißt Blaster wieder Blaster und nicht Billy und Spike ist auch wieder Spike. Schade nur das sich die US Synchronsprecher nicht die gleiche Mühe gegeben haben wie die Schriftsteller der US Untertitel.Charaktere:Fast alle bekannten Charaktere sind in dieser Serie enthalten. Von Optimus Prime über Rodimus den Technobots, Terrorcons, Stunticons und Constructicons bishin zu Galvatron und Cyclonus. Sogar Charaktere aus den ersten 2 US Staffeln, von denen man nie mehr was gehört hat, wie Hound oder Sideswipe sind wieder dabei. Und es werden natürlich auch die "neuen" Headmaster alle vorgestellt. Später kommen sogar noch die Targetmaster hinzu. Einziger Wehmutstropfen ist die Tatsache das die Transformers (wie in japanischen Serien üblich) manchmal leider ZU menschlich wirken. (Decepticons die lieber Poker spielen anstatt zu kämpfen oder Autobots die sich streiten wie Kleinkinder und dabei mit den Armen wedeln als hätten ihre Servomotoren nen Kurzschluss :-) Auch sind die Charaktere manchmal extrem tollpatschig. Zwar ist man das nicht von Transformers gewohnt aber es sorgt für Erheiterung wenn man sich erst mal an den japanischen Touch der Serie gewöhnt hat.Fazit:Hat man erst einmal verinnelicht das diese Serie aus Japan stammt und die typischen Anime Charakteristika beinhaltet kann man sich entspannt zurücklehnen um die Takara Collection Vol.1 zu genießen. Wem die Fehler in der Übersetzung ins Englische nichts ausmachen und wer keinen Wert auf Robostimmen legt der ist mit der Englischen Fassung gut beraten aber für echte Fans der Serie empfehle ich den japanischen Original Ton mit den US Untertieteln. Ich kann diese recht gelungene Serie jedenfalls weiterempfehlen. Egal ob Fans der Serie oder Neuling, beide werden ihren Spass mit der packenden Story haben die sehr tiefgehend und mitreißend ist. Alles in allem 4 Sterne, trotz dem starken Punkteabzug für die englische Sprachversion.