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Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is a franchise that has expanded greatly since the original TV series debuted in 1972. It’s had a complicated history reaching out from Japan onto U S. shores. Some of you who’ve clicked on this article have likely only seen it as Battle of the Planets when you were kids. Others of you might’ve seen these characters in bird outfits while playing one of the Tatsunoko Vs Capcom fighting games on the Nintendo Wii. Others still might be wondering why we’re talking about an anime called Gatchaman that doesn’t have the word ‘Crowds’ in the title.
So in light of the Gatchaman theatrical movie being released recently by Sentai Filmworks, I decided to write this article to help explain the various roads these shows have taken. In talking fellow fans of anime and American cartoons over the years, it’s clear these characters’ adventures have had an appeal that doesn’t leave fans minds. But sometimes folks have gotten confused as to which version(s) they might’ve seen. I must warn you there are spoilers for some of these shows’ resolutions. If you wish to know nothing prior to having your own chance to view them someday, turn back now.
During the 70s Tatsunoko Productions under producer / show creator Tatsuo Yoshida began to have a reputation for creating superhero anime, where characters would change from one for to another magically and gain super powers, weapons and fighting skills in the process. They had later successes with Neo-Human Cashaan (which led to several reboots later on, most recently Casshern Sins), Hurricane Polymar, and Tekkaman The Space Knight (re-booted as Tekkaman Blade and brought to the U.S. later as Teknoman in the mid-90s). However, their biggest success in this line was Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
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Originally entitled “Shadow Knights” prior to finally being aired, the TV series focused on five highly trained teens, who could push a button on their wrist communicator and change into bird-themed fighters with superior weapons and skills. They included lead ninja Ken the Eagle, 2nd in command Joe The Condor, Jun the Swan, Jinpei The Swallow, and Ryuu the Owl. (You could tell who was in charge by the numbered t-shirts they wore in civilian life. Yay for 70s fashion!) Whenever called into action, they would jump aboard their special ship the Godphoenix and head into danger. Sometimes, each of the team had their own special smaller vehicle disguised as a single engine plane or race car or motorcycle, which would transform along with their outfits. The group received their gear and assignments from the head of the International Science Organization, Dr. Nanbu, a genius who treated the team like his own children to a degree. Sometimes they are five… sometimes they are one. The team would work in secret like American superheroes somewhat, which creator Yoshida wanted to emulate.
Directed by Hisayuki Toriumi (Lily C.A.T, Area 88) and written by Jinzō Toriumi (Votoms, Yoriden Samurai Troopers), Gatchaman quickly became a very popular show among adults and kids alike, with folks enjoying the closing theme so much it was switched out to become the opening theme. Japanese audiences would tune in every week to see this team battle Galactor, an evil force of would-be world conquerors who used a new weapon or monster every week for the episode. The soldiers were led by the mysterious Berg Katse, an androgynous being clad in purple with ruthless and sometimes goofy tendencies. At times, he could appear as a man or woman when desired. Katse represented the interests of his leader Soosai X, an alien computer who came to Earth millions of years before. Soosai X waited until the time was right and mutated Katse to carry out his orders while giving Galactor advanced technology to take over Earth. Unfortunately for them, Dr. Nanbu discovered this group’s existence and created Gatchaman as one of various options to stop them.
The show was a big hit in Japan focusing on intense situations for the team, based on several character designs by Yoshida himself and Yoshitaka Amano of Vampire Hunter D fame. Usually, viewers would be treated to musical montages showing Gatchaman’s assembly and transformation (handy for saving on animation budgets) and episodes where they’d show their powers in action, using jet age-styled, futuristic sleek designs by Mitsui Nakamura (Time Bokan, and the awful car-combining Gattiger). Some menaces could be super serious and emotionally charged as the missions became increasingly dangerous. Others were downright silly such as the one focusing on a set of hapless Galactor agents trying to do their job before their inevitable demise, or the habits of one of Katse’s colorful sub commanders. There were a couple of overreaching subplots which more or less dominated each year of the show.
The first centered on Ken’s father, a mysterious secret agent who vanished entirely after his wife / Ken’s mother passed away. The boy was subsequently left in Dr. Nanbu’s care, to be raised and groomed to eventually lead Gatchaman. Several episodes into the TV series, a small group of secret agents called The Red Impulse began to appear periodically to help Gatchaman out of tight spots against Galactor. Their leader would occasionally chastise Gatchaman to do better against the enemy. Nearing the end of the first year, Ken and Red Impulse would work to defeat a major Galactor plot which ends with Ken coming face to face with his father, Kentaro Washio, for the first time in years. This reunion is all too brief as Kentaro / Red Impulse has to save the Earth by sacrificing himself in one of the most powerful moments of the show.
The second focused on Joe who had his own reasons for being part of the Science Ninja Team. Joe’s parents had been former Galactor agents who were subsequently assassinated by a colorful operative. When Joe (a little boy at the time) tried to shoot this operative, he became the victim of an explosive device, which hadn’t killed him….. yet. During the second season, though, Joe’s performance become increasingly off. Near the end of the second season, he hears a doctors discussion saying that Joe’s condition was terminal and the Gatchaman member didn’t have long to live. Nanbu tries to see about solving this, but Joe runs off to take on Galactor alone and winds up targeted. This turns out to be a good thing as he eventually discovers Galactor’s headquarters, leading to an epic battle for Gatchaman and a crazy series climax.
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These two arcs were the focus of the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman theatrical feature, which was released in ’78 to re-tell the story while leaving out many of the team’s other adventures. This is the film Sentai Filmworks has just released on DVD / Blu-ray recently. Comparatively speaking, it’s a decent re-telling of events, though the one biggest change is the snazzy background music by Bob Sakuma from the TV show being replaced with orchestral themes and the overall feel changes as a result. Sentai’s release is decent enough though it was a little odd in the HD era to see the picture in 4:3 and not stretch in 16:9 automatically. This is not necessarily bad as I can handle the original proportions I grew up seeing this in (More on that below). The English voice acting goes for a somewhat 7s cadence, which is ok for the lead characters, but really goofy for the older backgrounds, similar to the bad English dubs of the 80s. It’s a bit of a mixed bag to listen to say the least. While I do wish some extras like a trailer or two could’ve been added to it, the movie is a decent release worth purchasing if you want a quick-and-dirty rundown of Gatchaman’s first two years.
Japanese moviegoers apparently decided they liked the film enough and so a sequel TV series, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II, began broadcasting in later ‘78, and presented new adventures for the team, who still have the same outfits but have brand new weapons and vehicles, even one for Ryuu, who normally would have to stay behind to pilot the ship originally. For this one. Soosai X returns to Earth, deciding to try and conquer it again after his initial years failed leading to his need to escape. He grabs a child and forcibly accelerates her growth / mutation into his newest human leader, Gel Sadra. Using her to lead an endless new group of human soldiers, Soosai seemingly has made Galactor stronger than ever.
Although the Gatchaman team has new weaponry, they still miss their friend Joe The Condor, who supposedly died, even though his body is never recovered. This turns out to be a temporary thing as Joe eventually turns up to fight beside them, having been resurrected by a scientist with his own potentially deadly agenda. The series lasted about one year and showed the group on various new kinds of adventures (including a couple in space) before defeating Soosai X seemingly for good…. as everyone misses a piece of him that still remains at the show’s conclusion.
This led to the final show for the original crew, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman F (Fighter). The surviving remnant of Soosai X, now known as Z, returns and grabs a paramilitary organization led by Count Egoboosler, which is remade into the new Galactor. They attack the Science Ninja Team and brutally destroy their vehicles, handing the team a crushing defeat. Dr. Nanbu debuts another set of vehicles, which look like a giant Lego assembly set. When combined, they look like a flying spear tip, or upside down metallic paper airplane. Nevertheless, it’s called the Gatcha Spartan, and like the two capital ships before it, it can fly incredibly (and dangerously) fast with incredible energies to destroy whatever giant menace might be in front of it. Unlike the two previous shows, though, this one had a different caveat. Ken would take his newly acquired sword, the Gatchaman Fencer and stand on top of the ship to give the Gatcha Spartan maximum power when it went into its “Hyper-Shoot” mode. Eventually, though, it turned out this mode was killing Ken each time it was used.
The show itself had decent action (outside of the vehicles, which seemed… lazily designed) but began to feel like Voltron in that every episode was just a build up for the Hyper Shoot or Blazing sword. There are some tense moments of drama though with a lot more casualties, including the demise of Dr. Nanbu just as he found out critical information on Galactor. Gatchaman battles their way to a final confrontation with Z, who slings a dark matter asteroid known as the Poison Apple toward the Earth, leading to… well… a decisively final outing for the team but with a somewhat ambiguous / symbolic ending
That’s how the franchise was being handled up through the early 80s in Japan. Meanwhile, though, in the U.S., a producer named Sandy Frank (of Sandy Frank Film Syndication Inc.) decided to acquire Gatchaman for the American markets and retitled it Battle of the Planets. Other anime such as Astro Boy (Mighty Atom), Gigantor (Tetsujin No. 28) and Speed Racer (Mach Go Go Go, also from Tatsunoko Productions) had been imported with success and he convinced distributors this show would bring equal results. Strangely, though, either to buck parental standards or for whatever other personal reasons, he edited any footage of lethal actions out of the show entirely.
This was strange since Speer Racer had an episode where Racer X grabbed a machine gun and aired out bad guys left and right. Also, Hanna Barberra shows such as Space Ghost and Johnny Quest showed villains meeting their final end on a regular basis years before. However, this decade was seeing a time when parental groups were pressuring stations for more wholesome programming, and there’s a listing in the BotP credits for an overseer of “Standards and Practices” so it’s entirely possible Sandy Frank just did what was needed to get the show shown. It’s rumored distributors were shown unedited episodes from the show and not the 7-Zark-7 kid-friendly footage, leading to stations and producers not wanting to import anime after their English pilots were recorded for TV a good while after this until Star Blazers debuted.
Still, kids like myself were tuning in to one of those local syndication stations in the pre-cable 5-6 channel era (when people hoped like hell their antenna or foil-laden rabbit ears would stay attached to the TV and catch whatever good cartoons were on UHF) and got hooked on to these strange-looking superheroes who kind of looked like the Superfriends but not really. Anyone alive during this time probably still smiles at the mention of the Whirlwind Pyramid and the Fiery Phoenix and still can hum some of the snazzy background music from the show. The characters names weren’t too strange as the Gatchaman team were re-christened G-Force, including righteous leader Mark, trigger happy Jason, Princess the demolition expert, Keyop (little guy with a speech impediment, here) and Tiny (the spaceburger addict), working for Chief Anderson. Berg Katse became Zoltar and was given bad dubbing dialogue such as “Next time we’ll use LIVE ammo!” after firing a set of missiles. (Thanks for the memory, Corn Pone Flicks!) Scenes were re-done to make it appear The Phoenix went into space (even though really, they never left Earth).
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Tons of scenes were cut (reducing the episode count from 105 to 85) and a robotic character named 7-Zark-7 was added (designed similarly to R2-D2). He would narrate the episodes with his robotic doggy sidekick 1-Rover-1, as well as a mysterious, sultry-voiced woman named Susan, whom we never saw. (Dr. Claw’s descendant? Could be… *shrug*) I still enjoy watching this version for the nostalgia and for performances from famed distinctive DJ Casey Kasem (AKA Shaggy on Scooby Doo) and actor Ronnie Schell, despite the goofiness. Sandy Frank was looking heavily to capitalize the sci-fi craze that had recently addicted America to Star Wars (so much so that the opening masthead did the pyramid scroll) and lots of kids bought the local merchandise as a result. There was even an International Gatchaman Fan Club newsletter (from one of the first American anime fan groups) that started being published in 1979 as a result.
In 1986, Gatchaman was again brought to U.S. television as” G-Force: Guardians of Space.” Sandy Frank still had the rights but this time, he hired producer Fred Ladd (who had imported Tetsujin No. 28 and adapted it into “Gigantor”) to oversee the project. The violent scenes were restored, but the music and quiet scenes were replaced with some upbeat recycling synthesizer stuff that made listening to things a bit of a chore. By this time, Robotech had come on and was presenting sci-fi anime more seriously than any other animated show at the time, with quiet nuances that let dramatic scenes have resonance. It didn’t help that the G-Force characters were all lamely acted and given terrible names such as Ace Goodhart, Dirk Daring, Agatha June, Pee Wee, and Hoot Owl (Hootie to his friends), commanded by Dr. Benjamin Brighthead.
Under the auspices of production partner Ted Turner, G-Force was shown Saturday mornings on the cable Superstation WTBS (when Turner was trying to color classic movies and promote the Atlanta Braves as America’s team.) There was rather little promotion for this show though and I only found out when a friend told me about it during a local anime meeting I was at during high school. Even with the restored scenes, this was a lackluster effort to say the least.
The 90s saw Gatchaman given a new spark of life with a bit of international flavor. Director Yasuomi Umetsu (Megazone 23 Pt. II, Kite) was brought in to do a 3-part OAV (original animated video) series which told an extremely condensed rendition of the Gatchaman story with updated character and weapon designs. The first volume, ‘Gatchaman Vs. The Turtle King,’ was a pretty cool revamp of the original series’ premiere episode. The series was done in the standard quality of OAVs of that era: medium detail, fast action movements, and shiny effects. It’s a decent collection for its time, but compared to the overall breadth of the TV show it’s based on, ultimately not entirely memorable.
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Still I remember watching this at a local Atlanta convention in a room full of about 400 people and everyone enjoyed seeing and hearing the callbacks to the earlier version. Combined with the newer designs and the music created by Bill Meyers and Maurice White, two members of the legendary soul group Earth Wind & Fire (which would explain the high Pitch Phillip Bailey styled vocal “Let’s Fly), it made for a good time.
The American licensing of Gatchaman went in interesting directions during this decade. The OAVs went to Urban Vision, who had Harmony Gold (of Robotech fame) handle he dub. The subtitles were handled in-house and so the scripts were very divergent. The subs were white black with boxing, more like closed captions. The dialogue also changed the characters’ names for some odd reason. The only thing I liked about this release was that they kept the techno-styled Gatchaman AMV from the Japanese releases.
Also in this decade, Haim Saban decided to throw his hat into the ring of Gatchaman licensors. The original TV series was still under Sandy Frank at the time, but Saban Entertainment was able to take some funds from the cash cow known as Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and purchase the rights to Gatchaman II and Gatchaman F. He edited out a substantial amount of episodes to create the 65-episode show Eagle Riders. This only aired 13 episodes however on Saturday mornings before being canceled, going longer than the English versions of Escaflowne and Cardcaptors, but with about the same amount of connection (or lack thereof) with the American audience. It’s said however that Eagle Riders got a longer run in Australia. Unfortunately, though, neither Gatchaman II nor Gatchaman F was ever released unedited in North America.
The late 90s and early 2000s saw a trend that would become the standard of home entertainment eventually: the transition from VHS tapes to DVDs. During this period, a media company called Rhino Entertainment had begun selling classic action cartoons such as G.I. Joe and The Transformers on both formats. Rhino got the license to distribute Gatchaman on DVD and they took an interesting route with this release. They would release two episodes of Battle of the Planets on each DVD, and include the corresponding episodes of Gatchaman in Japanese with removable subtitles, and one episode of G-Force in the package. So technically, you could be getting 5 episodes or two episodes, depending how you looked at things. This style worked out in short term for people wanting their nostalgia fix for a few DVDs, but for the long term…. Recall that I mentioned the original Gatchaman series went on continuously for 2 years and 105 episodes?
Yeah, financially that would feel like the 90s VHS era when people would buy 2 episodes of Ranma1/2 (out of 161) for $30 a tape, or if they wanted to collect Urusei Yatsura (195 episodes) or Dragon Ball Z (291 episodes ) or other longer shows. In any case, this would be hard for even the most hardcore fan. So eventually, the decision was made to package all of G-Force into a single DVD set and all of Battle of the Planets into another single DVD set and the show was now available on U.S. markets more readily.
The 2000s were an interesting time for the Gatchaman franchise both directly and indirectly. In Japan, there was a set of animated and live commercials promoting the ISDN network for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, in which the Gatchaman team battled Galactor in front of Tower Records stores. These were high-quality shorts done in the style of the 90s OAVs to a degree, leading people to believe Tatsunoko Productions had some new animated movie or series coming up… a belief that would ultimately prove false in Japan. In the U.S. though, a company called IMAGI had been working on new animated projects, including a new CG rendition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles called TMNT , as well as a new Astro Boy movie.
TMNT had done okay, giving animation fans hope the latter two would do decently as well. IMAGI had hired Batman The Animated Series writer Paul Dini to create a script which was ultimately used in part for their promo reel shown at Anime Expo among other places, where they handed out free watches done up like Gatchaman communicators. However, the Astro Boy movie bombed horribly (partially because it bore no resemblance to the Japanese Astro Boy, partially because…. well, it was just badly done all around) and the financially imperiled company closed its doors before finishing their Gatchaman movie.
In addition, Top Cow Productions released a Battle of the Planets comic series which used the characters’ names from the Sandy Frank adaptation but retained the violence and edginess of the original show. It was an honestly decent effort to emulate anime and manga styles, but this didn’t catch on with comic buyers and was ultimately canceled on a cliffhanger after 12 issues. The series was released though in a set of trade collections.
By far, the most interesting fate awaited the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman TV series in the 2000s, as ADV Films got home release rights. This led to a series of 3-disc box sets. Two discs would contain approximately 10 episodes while the third disc of the box contained whatever extras material was available at the time. Each set was packaged with artwork by famed illustrator Alex Ross, who had made an impact on the comics scene with Marvels and Kingdom Come. Ross was known to be a big Battle of the Planets fan and it was evident in the pieces he produced, some of which were part of the Top Cow Comics.
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Also in this period, ADV Films would succumb to financial hardships, with many of its licenses going to a new company called Sentai Filmworks, among others. Sentai would in turn sign a new contract to bring over Tatsunoko titles directly while Sandy Frank’s rights expired in 2007. In the meantime, a newer video format called Blu-ray disc would emerge and become the dominant companion piece for the TV industry (beating out the competing HD-DVD format), which had gone entirely high definition during this decade. As a result, more companies were beginning to release Blu-ray box sets of TV shows, particularly anime.
In 2013, a pair of new box sets were released containing all the TV episodes as well as the ’94 OAV series with a new dub and cleaned up subtitles. The DVD set has 24 discs, the Blu-ray has 14. I grabbed the Blu-ray set myself and it’s really nice. Many of the extras from the ADV releases are present and so are some of Ross’s art pieces. The picture is generally brighter and more saturated than previous releases, making for very pretty results. The dub style is similar to what I described for the compilation movie, though. But if you can get past that and you’re a fan of old school animation techniques, this collection is one I strongly recommend getting.
Also in 2013, a live-action movie was released in Japan depicting the adventures of the Science Ninja Team. By this time though I’d seen strong anime adapted as live films like Space Battleship Yamato and Ruroni Kenshin. Gatchaman…. didn’t entirely measure up. There are a bits and flashes that help one remember what made the anime so cool, but on the whole, the movie was missing much of the action and heroic feel that had become the cartoon’s benchmark. Meanwhile, folks who owned the Nintendo Wii were given different chances to play as Ken, Jun and Joe in the Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom fighting games series in which many of the aforementioned Tatsunoko hero characters could fight the Street Fighter icons from Capcom’s popular franchises.
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Between the late 200s and current times, fans flocked toward the method of computer streaming to see newly broadcast anime translated or older ones hosted on external websites such as Hulu, FUNimation and Crunchyroll. Hulu has been hosting Battle of the Planets for a while now. Crunchyroll though got a newer series from Tatsunoko entitled Gatchaman Crowds, which…. has been baffling to review.
The story focuses on young Hajime, a teenage girl who gets super excited by various forms of stationery. She is recruited to join this world’s version of a Gatchaman team, who can call upon powered uniforms with mystical notebooks called NOTEs to help fight creatures called The Mess that absorb humans. She has a habit of not obeying orders, but strangely her methods get better results than anyone would usually imagine. The team (though mostly Hajime herself) must face off the plans of this world’s Berg Katse, an alien who has destroyed worlds already and has a formidable presence among the population.
I grabbed the Blu-ray collection by Sentai Filmworks and half the time, it feels like I’m watching a J-pop version of Ghost In The Shell with its tremendous story on how technology takes over humanity, but with sprinkled in callbacks to the original version at times. It had team dynamics and decent action scenes, but after my first viewing I’d honestly no idea what I’d watched. A second series has been broadcast in more recent times entitled Gatchaman Crowds Insight. If I get the opportunity I’ll try to write about that one sometime.
So this is how the franchise has progressed currently, and it’s had a hell of an international legacy. Sadly, Tatsuo Yoshida died in 1977 of a liver illness so he never got to truly see the impact his creation had on animation fandom. Still, Gatchaman laid much of the foundation for Japanese super-team dynamics in having 5 distinct personalities try to save the world around them, likely influencing (lion team) Voltron, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya, Power Rangers and similar fare. Likely to be Tatsunoko’s greatest export (outside of some Super Dimensional mecha shows), the exploits of the Science Ninja Team have entertained many people in various countries (even more than I could get to in this article to be honest) and they are definitely worth experiencing or reliving at every anime fan’s earliest opportunity.
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What They Say:
Meanwhile, on the villain side, Ultron displays a snarky malevolence at all times that feel a bit strange coming from an evil robot. If you’ve seen actor James Spader in The Blacklist, just pretty much imagine that personality in a mechanical body and you get Ultron. As both a tactician and combatant, he’s one of the better villains the Marvel live action universe has had in this respect, right along with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. (Vincent D’onofrio’s Kingpin is my favorite, but that’s another review.) Wanda and Pietro are both up and comers so we get little insight into their motivations outside of a single conversation. Hopefully this will be explored in a future film. They do have non-American accents which help with their screen presence a bit.
