How to read Japanese Transformers names

Okay, you clicked the link, so I guess that means you want to learn how to read Japanese names of Transformers characters.

First of all: I do not speak Japanese myself, therefore this guide is mostly limited to the "easy" part, i.e. Katakana. Thankfully, the vast majority of Transformers characters' names are written in Katakana, since Takara prefers foreign (or at least foreign-sounding) names for characters rather than "real" Japanese names. All they do is spell these names in Katakana rather than in an "English" alphabet.

Now we move on to the guide.

Note that in order for this guide to display properly, you need to have Japanese language support for your computer installed. If you haven't installed it yet and your computer doesn't automatically ask you whether you want to download Japanese language support for your PC either, you might download it from here or here.

If for some reason you can't display Japanese characters even though you have installed the language pack, there's alternatively also a version of this guide which displays Japanese characters as graphics.

Can your computer display Japanese characters? How does the following look for you?

カタカナ


Does it look like this?



If the answer is yes: Click here for lesson 1.



If the answer is no, and it looks similar to this:



If that's the case: Click here for lesson 1.


- Nevermore

Very special thanks to Doug Dlin and a native Japanese speaker who wishes to remain anonymous for proofreading the guide and making many helpful suggestions!