Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
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Template:Infobox animanga/Header Template:Infobox animanga/Anime Template:Infobox animanga/Footer Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman (科学忍者隊ガッチャマン, literally Scientific Ninja Troop Gatchaman, commonly translated as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman), is a 5-member superhero team who were the main characters in several anime originally produced in Japan by Tatsunoko Productions and later adapted into several English-language versions. It is also known as the abbreviated name Gatchaman or the English-language name G-Force. The original series, produced in 1972, was eponymously named Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman and is most well-known to the English-speaking world as the adaptation entitled Battle of the Planets.
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Description
The original 1972 Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman series was followed by two sequel series, Gatchaman II (1978) and Gatchaman F (1979). In 1994, the original series was remade as a condensed OAV series. Additionally, the original and sequel series were adapted and translated into several English-language versions, with the most well-known being Battle of the Planets. Because the English-language versions are notoriously inconsistent not only with one another but also with the original Japanese series, viewers most familiar with the English versions often experience some confusion upon re-examining the series after a long hiatus.
Created in the wake of the hugely successful Henshin Boom started by Shotaro Ishinomori's Kamen Rider in 1971, this series was notable as being one of the most successful anime attempts to emulate the American superhero genre with many of its conventions such as colorful costumes, powers and secret identities. It also established the convention of the five member hero team that has been emulated in later series, most notably the successful tokusatsu Super Sentai series (which was adapted into English as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers many years later), in fact, the Sentai series Choujin Sentai Jetman was in many ways a homage to Gatchaman.
Plot and character summary
Best described as a sci-fi action anime, recurring themes of Gatchaman involve conservation of nature, environmentalism, and responsible use of technology for progress and advancement. The series is centered around five young superhero ninja in the employ of the fictitious "International Science Organization" to oppose a group of technologically advanced villains, known as Galactor, from trying to take control of the earth's natural resources. The operational leader of Galactor is an androgynous masked villain, Berg Katse, who is later revealed to be a shape-shifting hermaphroditic mutant acting on the orders of an alien superior. The most common recurring plot involved Gatchaman opposing giant monster mecha dispatched by Galactor to steal or control various natural resources (water, oil, sugar, uranium, etc). These Mechas were always animal based.
The main characters featured always wore either teen fashions with numbered T-shirts showing their rank in the team, or caped battle uniforms styled after various birds - The Eagle, Condor, Swan, Swallow and Owl, in order of numbers shown on the front of the civilian shirts, within the team. They also used various signature weapons and mecha style vehicles which each had a more mundane looking disguised form. To change modes, each member is equipped with a special wrist device that, aside from being a communicator and tracking device, enabled the change when the proper gesture and voice command - Bird Go! - is given. Their vehicles are docked in the team's main vehicle, the GodPhoenix, a supersonic plane capable of underwater minor spaceflight as necessary. The GodPhoenix is primary armed with an unspecified but large (roughly 30+) number of BirdMissiles that are fired from a rack system mounted atop the centre section. After the original GodPhoenix was destroyed by an octupus based mecha, an improved version carried a pair of Super BirdMissiles in twin drop down pods from the bottom centre section. In addition, when necessary, the plane can temporarily transform into a massive bird of flame like the legendary Phoenix to escape danger although the process is highly taxing to the team.
Adaptations and changes
Image:Gatchaman screen capture.JPG The original series was shown on American television in 1978, in heavily edited form, as Battle of the Planets. The series was shown again on American television in 1986 in translated form as G-Force; while this version cut out much less of the original, and had a much more faithful translation, the voice acting and the background music (not to mention the Americanized names chosen for the characters) were widely panned. The two sequel series, Gatchaman II and Gatchaman F were combined into one and translated as Eagle Riders in 1996, with yet more changes to audio and character names.
ADV Films released the uncut version of the series with an all-new English 5.1 dub, on DVD starting June 14 2005. This release includes all 105 episodes, with all footage left in. The dub aims to be a faithful translation, without attempts to sanitize the show for younger viewers (meaning there is profanity and utterances of the word "kill"). All violent scenes have been left in as they were in the original Japanese broadcast.
Team variations across different versions
| Gatchaman | Battle of the Planets | G-Force | Eagle Riders | Rank | Bird Uniform | Weapon | Mecha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ken Washio | Mark | Ace Goodheart | Hunter Harris | G1 | Eagle | Razor boomerang | Airplane |
| Joe Asakura | Jason | Dirk Daring | Joe Thax | G2 | Condor | Pistol | Race Car |
| Jun | Princess | Agatha June | Kelly Jennar | G3 | Swan | Yo-yo | Motorcycle |
| Jinpei | Keyop | PeeWee | Mickey Dugan | G4 | Swallow | Bolo | Dune Buggy |
| Ryu Nakanishi | Tiny Harper | Hoot Owl | Ollie Keeawani | G5 | Owl | Piloted the team Mecha, "GodPhoenix" | |
Other character variations across different versions
| Gatchaman | Battle of the Planets | G-Force | Eagle Riders |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Kozaburo Nambu | Chief Anderson | Dr. Benjamin Brighthead | Dr. Thaddeus Keane |
| ISO Director Anderson | President Kane | Cmdr. Todd | Anderson |
| Red Impulse/Kentaro Washio | Col. Cronos | Red Impulse | Harley Harris |
| Berg Katse | Zoltar | Galactor | Lukan |
| Sosai (Leader) X | O Luminous One/The Great Spirit | Computor | Cybercom |
| Galactor | Planet Spectra | Vorak | |
| Gel Sadra(Gatchaman 2) | Mallanox |
Other notable changes
| Gatchaman Identity change command | Battle of the Planets Identity change command | G-Force Identity change command | Eagle Riders change command | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bird, Go! | Transmute! | Transform! | Eagle Mode, NOW! |
Gatchaman 94 OVA
Image:Gatchaova.jpg It should be noted that Dr. Nambu's name is the same in both versions.
| Japanese | English dub |
|---|---|
| Ken Washio | Ken |
| Joe Asakura | Joe |
| Jun | June |
| Jinpei | Jimmy |
| Ryu Nakanishi | Rocky |
| Berg Katse | Solaris |
| Sosai X | Lord Zortek |
| Red Impulse | Red Spectre |
Trivia
- It is agreed among both anime and tokusatsu fandoms that Gatchaman was the originator of the Sentai concept and set the bar for all transforming hero teams; from Super Sentai to Magic Girls and beyond.
- In 2000, NTT East produced two animated and two live-action television commercials for their ISDN service featuring a more updated version of Gatchaman, featuring members of the J-Pop boy group SMAP.