Gatchaman

Like many people in the 20-30 yr old range, I grew up watching Battle of the Planets. The show had incredible action sequences and realistic portrayls of the main characters. Years later I learned the show had been dubbed and judiciously eddited from the Japanese show Gatchaman. In the last few years I have been able to see most of the original episode of Gatchaman and have a much greater appreciation of the show. From Power Rangers to Voltron...this show started the team genre.

I remember being 10 and seeing the first episode of "Battle of the Planets" on TV. The very next day at school it was all kids could talk about. This was something new and exciting and never before seen. We accepted the fact that nobody ever died. That all the explosions and people getting blown up were just robots. And that the bad guys were polite enough to warn of their attack so everybody could evacuate the city. And nobody really minded the shoddy animation that had been added to the show to pad out the run time after all the cuts. We were kids. It happens.

And then, years later, I discovered it had been cobbled together from this show "Gatchaman" and I was interested in seeing how the show differed. And let me tell you it was like night and day. Here there were consequences. People died. Bad guys were killed as well as innocent civilians. And best of all, no 7-Zark-7 and forcing a space opera theme on it. And yes while I loved Keyop when I was 10, I seriously have a problem with him now. What were they thinking?

This is a much more mature story. Instead of them being five orphans raised from birth to fight baddies with their "cerebonic implants", they're five highly trained and capable individuals who fight for freedom against a group of terrorists. These people have actual lives outside of being the Science Ninja Team and don't just chill in their underwater base while waiting for the next attack. They have real lives and real issues.

There are several English versions of this out there from the original "Battle of the Planets" which is a decent dub even with the inclusion of Keyop to the bad G-Force which added a lot of unnecessary dialogue and focused on them being able to fly for some reason. There was another one called "Eagle Riders" out there but I've never actually seen it but I've heard it's the worst of the bunch.

If you can find it I would recommend the ADV dub which is the closest to the original Japanese in terms of dialogue. Or just stick the Japanese audio in and watch the subtitles.

How could you not like this cool as hell show ? Martial arts, giant monsters, and the unforgetable fiery phoneix.Gatchaman had everything forget the horrible Battle of the Planets, and watch this show uncut. Episode after episode these kids rack up a body count the size of Europe. And Ken and Joe are always arguing, usually over who to kill and who not. The last two episodes were my favorites.

Gatchaman a.k.a. Battle of the Planets (1972) was one of my favorite childhood cartoons. I recently bought the D.V.D. that featured the original un-edited version of Gatchaman. That show's awesome. The writing, voice acting and violence is way better than the "Battle of the Planets" version. Unlike the re-edited and re-dubbed version, Gatchaman is real dark and realistic. The "re-edit" is too hokey and not as fun. When I was younger I was a huge "Battle of the Planets" mark. But Gatchaman is something else. Long life the Space Ninja team Gatchaman!

Fun stuff. Miles difference between the Japanese version and the prepared American version. Not only is the storyline and mood of the cartoon different but the violence is over the top in the original. Great stuff!

A

"Gatchaman! Gatchaman! Gatchaman!"

Gatchaman is a classic 1970s anime you will really enjoy, it has lots of action and great character designs. I really liked this series.

8/10 stars.