TMNT 2003 Japanese Dub Information & Discussion
 

Information for Japanese Version
-------------------------------
Changes -
1. The Opening and Ending have been modified.
2. Raphael is now Raphaello (Consistant change with 1987 japanese dub.).
3. Some scenes are slown down to reduce the chance of seizures.
4. Minor name changes and dialogue rewrites (as of now.)
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Opening Song #1 - "Jounetsu no Kaze" (The Wind of Passion) by The Inazuma Sentai (Eps 1 - 13)

Song Sampe

AVI Download - 1 minute 30 seconds, (Video: WMV9, Audio: MP3, Size: 36MB)

Opening Song #2 - "PERMANENT VACATION" by Under the Counter (Eps 14 - 26)

AVI Download - 1 minute 30 seconds, (Video: WMV9, Audio: MP3, Size: 25MB)

Opening Song #3 - "EVERYBODY" by Turtles4 (Eps 27 - 52)

AVI Download - 1 minute 30 seconds, (Video: WMV9, Audio: MP3, Size: 25.8MB)

Ending Song #1 - "Summer Fighter" by ??? (Eps 1 - 13)

AVI Download - 1 minute 30 seconds, (Video: WMV9, Audio: MP3, Size: 15MB)

Ending Song #2 - "Natsu no Owari ga, Mada Koko ni Aru" (Summer is Over, But I'm Still Here) by The Local Art (Eps 14 - 26)

AVI Download - 1 minute 30 seconds, (Video: WMV9, Audio: MP3, Size: 9MB)

Ending Song #3 - "Fighting Spirit" by Mirai Drive (Eps. 27 - Ep. 39)

AVI Download - 1 minute 30 seconds, (Video: WMV9, Audio: MP3, Size: 15.2MB)

Ending Song #4 - "Koishite KIMERU" by Kimeru (Eps. 40 - 52)

Sample Song Download

Avi Download - 1 minute 30 seconds (Video: WMV9 Audio: MP3 Size: 16MB)

*The title can mean two things. Whether or not it's a play on the name, I'm not quite sure. The title might be either: "I've Decided I Love You" or, "I Love you, Kimeru".

Download to be Added once aired.

AVI Download - (Will be Added When Aired)
------------------------------------------
Japanese Cast -

Leonardo - Tetsuya Kakihara
Raphael - Eiji Miyashita
Michelangelo - Anri Katsu
Donatello - Yuuji Ueda
Splinter - Shouto Kashii

April - Yuuko Katou
Shredder - Hidenari Ugaki

Angel - Tomato Akai
--------------------------

Japanese/English Episode Titles -

(Japanese Title first, then English Title)

Episode 01 -
Shock! The Ninja Turtles Appear / Things Change

Episode 02 -
The Conspiracy of Dr. Baxter / A Better Mousetrap

Episode 03 -
Destroy the Mouser Robots/ Attack of the Mousers

Episode 04 -
Have You Seen the Opponent? Casey Jones / Meet Casey Jones

Episode 05 -
Invincible!? The Nano Monster Attacks / Nano

Episode 06 -
Return the Tengu Sword / Darkness on the Edge of Town

Episode 07 -
An Invisible Foe / The Way of Invisibility

Episode 08 -
Save Casey Jones / Fallen Angel

Episode 09 -
Full Speed Towards that Garbage Bastard / Garbageman

Note: The title is a slight pun. The Japanese title is "Gomi yarou wo Buttobase". Buttobase can mean to "To Drive at Full Force". It could also mean to "Beat/Attack". Either case, the title could be translated several ways due to this.

Episode 10 -
Clash! The Henious Shredder, Part 1 / The Shredder Strikes, Part 1

Episode 11 -
Clash! The Henious Shredder, Part 1 / The Shredder Strikes, Part 2

Episode 12 -
Michelangelo is a Super Hero!? / The Unconvincing Turtle Titan

Episode 13 -
Chase the Mystery of the Crystal, Part 1 / Notes from the Underground, Part 1

Episode 14 -
Chase the Mystery of the Crystal, Part 2 / Notes from the Underground, Part 3

Episode 15 -
Chase the Mystery of the Crystal, Part 3 / Notes from the Underground, Part 3

Episode 16 -
Donatello and the Unusual Artist / The King

Episode 17 -
Shredder's Counter Attack, Part 1 / The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 1

Episode 18 -
Shredder's Counter Attack, Part 2 / The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 2

Episode 19 -
Live! Leonardo / Tales of Leo

Episode 20 -
The Turtles are a Monster!? / The Monster Hunt

Episode 21 -
Clash! An Old Enemy, Shredder. Part 1 / Return to New York, Part 1

Episode 22 -
Clash! An Old Enemy, Shredder. Part 2 / Return to New York, Part 2

Episode 23 -
Clash! An Old Enemy, Shredder. Part 3 / Return to New York, Part 3

Episode 24 -
Raphaello's Journey / Lone Raph and Cub

Episode 25 -
The Search for Master Splinter, Part 1

Episode 26 -
The Search for Master Splinter, Part 2

Episode 27 -
Mysterious Planet, D'Hoonnib/ Turtles in Space, Part 1: The Fugitoid

Episode 28 - 34 (To be added...)

Episode 35 -
Journey to the Past / Reflections (US Ep 36)

Episode 36 -
The Ultimate Ninja (US Ep 35)

Episode 37 -
Return of the Nano Monsters / Modern Love: The Return of Nano

Episode 38 -
Another Mutant / What a Croc.

Episode 39 -
Return to the Underground City / Return to the Underground

Episode 40 -
City at War, Part 1

Episode 41 -
City at War, Part 2

Episode 42 -
City at War, Part 3

Episode 43 -
Destroy Junklantis! / Junklantis

Episode 44 -
The Lost Golden Puck/The Golden Puck

Episode 45 -
Another Splinter?! / Rogue in the House, Part 1

Episode 46 -
Shredder Vs. Tricraton (sp?) / Rogue in the House, Part 2

Episode 47 -
Riddle of the Puzzle Cube / April's Artifact

Episode 48 -
The Legendary Hero! Justice Force / Return of the Justice Force

Episode 49 -
Battle Nexus Tournament, Part 1 / The Big Brawl, Part 1

Episode 50 -
Battle Nexus Tournament, Part 2 / The Big Brawl, Part 2

Episode 51 -
Battle Nexus Tournament, Part 3 / The Big Brawl, Part 3

Episode 52 -
Battle Nexus Tournament, Part 4 / The Big Brawl, Part 4
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Clips - N/A

I'll update this as more information becomes available.

That theme song sounds kinda neat. Any translation of the lyrics into English anywhere? I think it's so cool Japan will finally be getting 2k3. I mean, they send us the best of their anime (and sometimes even their worst). It's only fair we send them the best of what America has to offer in animation. And TMNT is a show that is rooted in the Janpnese tradition of ninja & stuff. I'd be really eager to know what the Japanese fans think of the show when it airs. I've always been eager to know what they think of Western animation in general. Do they think it's stupid or not that the West seems to target their animation mostly to kids? Will they think
2k3 is impressive for a western show or inferior to their anime? Is there any way we can even find out if we don't speak Japanese?

I like the song. It is diffrent and completely in japanese fashion to have a generic song to play in the start of a animated show instead of a theme song that directly refrences the show.

Why did it take so long for Japan to get ahold of the new ninja turtles toon? Other countries already have dubs of it already. Frankly I am psyched! I can not wait to hear what the japanese voice actors will sound like playing the turtles. Sieyuu are so good at their work and they will totally keep the feel for the original work alive.

I can't wait to see clips of this.

This sure is interesting... I really want to see clips as well.

Man, I am sure digging this song. I want it on my iPod now! :lol:

I can really imagine the opening of the new TMNT cartoon playing to this. It fits rediculously well from my point of view. Very upbeat with a rocking background. I might be able to get the opening of the cartoon to play with this song if I can download both of them soon. I'll see what I can come up with when I get them ;)

~EDIT~

Damn, I'm trying to find a copy of the song and/or a translation of the lyrics, but I can't find anything. Really unusual for a song, even if it is in another country. I search for Japanese music all the time and I never had this problem before. Very strange... *frowns*

I dunno about you guys, but to me, this sounds a million times better than "Turtles count it off"

I like it - upbeat and cheerful, fine for the fast-paced intro. Pretty awesome - and fits the opening very well. Just tested it.

I made not understand the lyrics, but I sure like the music. It sounds waaaaaaay better than any of the TMNT 2k3 themes we've heard. So basically, they get our stuff, only better. Did congress pass a law saying all American cartoons must have crappy theme songs?

The difference is the Japanese look at anime as a way to market music. All the most popular bands over there do themes to there shows and they get released with as much fanfare as hot singles from regular music do over here.

OP and ED themes to cartoons are not viewed that way in the US. In fact half the time CN cuts them out to run more commercials instead.

I love the opening theme. If anyone finds it in full please tell us! When I heard that Japan was getting the 4Kids shows I was most excited to hear what they should do with the music.

It wasn't so much like that in the old days of anime, but much more so recently. Artists promote their music through anime openings. UVERworld and YUI with Bleach, OLIVIA and Anna Tsuchiya with NANA, even Koharu Kusumi of Morning Musume with....I forget the name of the show. If you look at it on a business perspective, it's a great way to promote your music, especially if you aren't very well-known, it's a wonderful tactic to get your name out there and have people listen to your older or newer works.

About the TMNT song, it's catchy. Good vocals, too. The lyrics fit well with the show.

WOW this theme sounds much better than the 2k3 one.

By Mono's hammer, I must have the full song!:thyper:

I have a feeling that this song is yet to be released in May or something.

Hm, most likely, my dear sweet Bull. I just translated the site with the Google Translator and it said this -

I must be either very bright or very insane to make some sense of that. If what I understand is right, a full version of the song will be released either on the 2nd of April or the 9th of May. I just hope that my Japanese isn't rusting away on me...

it says the theme song is confirmed to release on May 9th. while the japanese dub of TMNT2k3 series will premiere on april 2nd on TV-Tokyo, the very same station that airs Naruto and Bleach.

Can't wait to see what kind of intro they have with this song :D

Also, I have a lot of anime DVDs with dual audio, so the thought just ran through my head that 4Kids should add the Japanese audio to the upcoming DVD sets...it won't happen, but would be entertaining if they did:tlol:

OOH!!! Me Likey!! I don't understand a fraking word of it but me Likey!!

Hm, looks like the guys singing this are pretty unknown. I have done 5 general Google searches on "The Inazuma Sentai", and nothing has come up other than their website. I'm going to try again a week or so after the song has offically been released. I have a feeling they will have a small cult following them by then... :evilgrin:

Actually, looking at DIC animations older series like Inspector Gadget, Heathcliff, and especially Super Mario Super Show, they did attempt end themes (though in the case of Gadget and Heathcliff, they were the same as the opening, but the music was just a little different) at least with some sort of animation to keep it interresting. Now with the cutting off half the screen during the credits, there's no way they'd ever ressurrect that.

I mean, Animes have sound tracks. Here, we're lucky to find themes on a compilation disk. Animaniacs being an exception, having 3 albums. Spongebob has them too, but there isn't much call for cartoon character based sound track stateside.

Huh.

I normally don't like J-pop, but that wasn't bad.

Not being a fan of the 2k3 theme, I'll take just about anything over what we've currently got.

Thanks for registering Mendinso just to share this info with us. A lot of us are very intrigued with how the Japanese intend to treat the 2k3 series so please keep us updated! :)

I am soooo buying this CD!!

But it's not released until May, so you're going to have a difficult, if not impossible, time of finding it before then. At best someone might encode the TV version and upload it to YouTube.

No problem. Hopefully I can get the opening video uploaded after it airs, so stay tuned. Also, I'll try and post the Episode 1 preview of TMNT2003 that aired on TV-Tokyo as soon as I can.

Also, please do not request from me full episodes, as I believe it's against this forum's policy. I'll be able to take requests on character voices or scene, though I'm going to limit to maybe 1 or 2 scenes per episode, and they cannot be over a minute long. So becareful what you ask from me.

One Additional Edit: I added the japanese voice cast information in the first post.

Thanks for all this info! I already pre-ordered the CD. :D

I don't need to see entire eps, but the OP and ED themes and clips should take care of curiosity.

They also used the Brilliant Green for the Powerpuff Girls opening over there. I believe Tommy heavenly had one of her songs used as an anime theme recently as well.

And Olivia's older stuff > The Nana stuff. Just needed to be said.

"Please don't die on me strawberry!"

This is stupid for me to ask, but these wouldn't be the same dub people from the first series or the voice actors from the OVA, would they? Be very odd if they made the new series to sound like the old one.

I also wonder, will they play a reverse 4kids and replace the original background music as well?

Here's a filmography of the voice actors:

Tetsuya Kakihara - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=28816
Anri Katsu - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=27068
Yuuji Ueda - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...ple.php?id=384
Shouto Kashii - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=10993

Yuuji Ueda seems the most accomplished of the bunch. You might recognize him better as Brock from Pokemon. :P

Not about the opening, but could someone please please please post clips of the turtle's talking in the Japanese dub version? I would pay to see this!

(South Park in Japanese is beyond cool, TNMT should be great too!)

I wish someone would put this song up on youtube with the intro. It rocks! :anime:

I found the first episode on Youtube. But since the rules are no linking to full episode, I ripped the section that had the intro and cut it out. The intro alone can now be found here. And here are some screencaps of stuff that's new (kind of):

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/641/introcb7.jpg
P.S. While editing this video, I accidentally turned it widescreen (which I use for AMVs), so the captions have a 16:9 aspect ratio when it should be 4:3. Sorry about that.

Sweeet! Thanks for posting this!!

Also, if you find the complete episode you can see the ending theme in part three. If my computer would type in Japanese like it's supposed to, I'd try to find single information for the song.

Ok, had to go to a different computer to get it to work, but the Ending Theme is サマーフャイター (Samaa Fyaitaa - I'm not sure on the translation, but it seems to be "Something Fighter"). I couldn't find any CD/single information, though.

I love this almost as much as the old toon theme!

OMG, it's so weird listening to the turtles in Japanese! Mikey's voice is... :lol:

I liked how the English version had the animation match the song, but I love the Japanese opening song itself. Thanks for posting the OP, Blade Rider! (And boy, do those Foot Ninja look slick in the new shot with Hun and Shredder.)

Wow, that was great. I watched the episode; pretty good voices, too. They sounded like close approximations of the English cast, for the most part. I mean, they're much closer than the Japanese dub of the old series, where Mikey had a terribly deep voice. I suppose my only gripeis Splinter. I dunno, he should at least sound a little rhaspy. Otherwise, good job.

I really love the opening sequence, though I felt they used episode footage a bit too much. I mean, there were lots of REALLY well-animated bits from the US opening they could've thrown in, like Casey Jones dropping out of the sky and swiping at the audience with his hockey stick.

Still, very fun. Thanks for showing it!

Blade Rider...you rock. Really, you do. I could just sqeeze the life out of you by hugging so much for this! *hugs you over and over again*

As for the full song...man, I can listen to this thing over and over and over and it STILL isn't getting old! I love it! :D Why can't we have something that cool over here? I would love to have this as a special feature in a DVD... *hopes some of the offical staff is reading this and smiles innocently*

*spits out the drink she is drinking* What?! When? ...WHERE?!!! :o

I didn't really like the song at all... But I was amused that certain parts of the intro looked similar to the Italian ending credits to Winx Club :lol: that was pretty cool.

i loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!! the opening theam song for ninja turtles in japan wow i like the song it rocked!!!!!!!!!.

Boy that was a bit strange to watch but also quite enjoyable. People think it's a new "anime" rather than a dub. Silly internet otaku... Well maybe that will lead to someone fansubbing it because it's easy to tell the dialogue isn't mostly the same because they had to match the lipflaps.

I like the opening and I don't mind the use of stock art though it is a bit strange to look at. What I don't like is some of the stock art is fugly. Raph and Mike's single images for instance don't blend well with the style of the show IMO.

They should have used more of the animated footage from the original opening though. Such as Shredder on the tower, Casey and April, etc.

The ending images are really dull and even hard to see and yes it's more stock images and a bit of season 1 footage. They picked some strange stuff to pull footage from. Notes from the Underground when the turtles are in tunnels for instance.

The voice acting is give or take. Leo and Don are good. Raph and Mike are awkward. Splinter doesn't feel right at all. But random thugs always sound better in Japan to me. I'm sure they're actually acting just as corny as they were in the original version but to me it seems a bit less cheezy. Though the show as a whole is still plenty cheezy even when you can't understand the dialogue.

And one thing that really cracked me up was when the Eastman officer said they left the money instead of saying something more akin to "rookie" all I heard the Laird officer say was "baka" which means stupid. :lol:

Well, just finished watching the first episode in Japanese and I have to say that I don't like Splinter's voice at all. It's too deep. Same with Raph. Although it's the Japanese equivelent to Raph's voice in English, it just doesn't sound right. Oh well. Mike sounded alright to me, even though it sounds a bit...whiney? I don't know... But Leo and Don were pretty much perfect in my eyes. Definately sounded good to me *nods happily* As for Oroku Saki...again, a bit to deep for my liking, but still good. I prefer the English version where he has this death whisper while he is saying "I know you won't fail me again", but that's just me.

The one thing that really got at me was Mike's "WACHOO! YEYA!" cries when he was using his nunchuku. It kinda sounded like something from a fighting game or something. Ah well...

As for the ending song, I liked it. Not as much as the opening, but it's still good. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Gonna let me best way!" Very upbeat. I like it :D

EDIT
I managed to type out the ending lyrics to near perfection. I couldn't see some characters clearly in the subtitles, but hopefully this might prove useful in the future when we want to translate it...

"Nagisa ni kokorahira keba
Nami ni sara wareru kako
Hikiai nagara hoshi no umi ni
Ai to sora o u kabete

YEAH YEAH YEAH
GONNA LET ME BEST WAY
OH minamikaba to tomo ni READY GO

YEAH YEAH YEAH
GONNA LET ME BEST WAY
OH WE ARE IN STAR RISE AND BEACH SIDE
OH IN THIS SUMMER NONSTOP HOLIDAY

OOH, OOH, OOH,
Mia geru yozora ni negai o
Kawaranai hitotsudake
Kono natsu ni mi ta keshiki no naka de
Kimi waitsu demo kaze ni nareru

YEAH YEAH YEAH
GONNA LET ME BEST WAY
OH minamikaba to tomo ni READY GO

YEAH YEAH YEAH
GONNA LET ME BEST WAY
OH WE ARE IN STAR RISE AND BEACH SIDE
OH IN THIS SUMMER NONSTOP HOLIDAY"

Holy crap, Donny's VA has some outstanding credits there. D: Gosh he's been in a million things that -I- watched and I'm pretty old school when it comes to japanese shows....the other guys seem fairly new to the VA scene....

Hey Blade raider, what words do I type at Youtube to find the episode in Japanese?