Let's Fighting Love, or I Heart YouTube.

On Friday of last week, the producer and the director of next year's Transformers movie gave a live internet chat about which robots would make appearances. It was pretty nifty, and it gave me a chance to think back on how excellent the original series was. Later in the day, i found myself on YouTube, and i'm now hopelessly addicted and fascinated with the site. I found the original opening sequence for the original show in Japan, even before it crossed the Pacific. It looks pretty similar, but the theme song is all in Japanese. Watch it here. I understand most of what the singer is saying, but the song is thoroughly out of place. The US version got it right, talking about waging battles, destroying evil forces, and, well... transforming ("more than meets the eye"). This is what the Japanese do - they'll insert English into every song just because it sounds cool, not necessarily because it fits or because it makes sense. Some people get used to it, but it was one of those things that always bugged me. Their culture utilizes much more of the English language than ours does of the Japanese language and English is taught in every school, but they certainly come up with some fascinating skewerings. I'm sure that there are plenty of instances where the reverse is true, but have you ever been in a Japanese school staff meeting and a kid walks in wearing a "Big Apple Megafucker" T-shirt? I have. I had to leave because I was laughing uncontrollably.

Anyway, this inevitably got me thinking about South Park. Fast forward twenty years or so and there's a great anime parody in one of the more recent episodes, and it contains one of the best Engrish songs I've ever heard... and hats off to Stone and Parker for pulling this one off. If you've watched the inane Japanese Transformers theme song, you'll have a much better appreciation for the ninja episode.

And then while I was having so much fun on YouTube, I thought about Kikkoman. The makers of this video have no relationship with the soy sauce company at all - but they really should. It's Mister Sparkle-quality stuff. Watch the English version first for the subtitles, then watch the Japanese version and see how truly weird the clip is. Aside from the language, not much is different... except for the cat's punishment after Kikkoman gets angry. If you like cats, don't watch the Japanese version.