G-Force: Guardians of Space

When I first saw G-Force on Cartoon Network when I was a kid, I immediately liked this show. I even pretended to be characters such as Ace, Hoot Owl, and Pee-Wee.Years later, I discovered that this is an Americanized version of Science Ninja Team Gacchaman, a popular anime show, made for U.S. audiences by Sandy Frank and Ted Turner.

This show was done in Japan by the award winning studio Tatsunoko Productions, which also produced Robotech and Speed Racer, two other great animes. I also found out that before G-Force, Sandy Frank heavily edited the violence and hired some of the best voice actors (Casey Kasem, Keye Luke, Alan Young, Janet Waldo, etc.) and added their mascot, 7-Zark-7, in a version which he called "Battle of the Planets," made in 1978. But when BOTP's copyright expired in '86, Frank teamed up with Ted Turner to re-dub Gacchaman and restore most of the violence that he previously edited in BOTP.

The result was a more faithful show to the original Gacchaman story called "G-Force." The only two flaws it had were some poor dubbing and an often annoying synthesized disco soundtrack by Dean Andre. Bob Sakuma's original music is far superior to Andre's, but I also like Andre's music. I remember the music from childhood, when I first watched this show. Despite these flaws, it is the best dub of Gacchaman yet. Forget BOTP. Stay with the original Gacchaman, which is still the best, and G-Force!!! (If you want.)

8/10

This was the second attempt at westernizing Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman, aka Gatchaman. The first was the fun, but toned down Battle of the Planets. This time, Ted Turner's people got Fred Wolf to do it, with some improvements, but even more detriments.

The series was more faithful to the original Gatchaman storylines; everything takes place on Earth, Galactor (Berg Katse/Zoltar) was androgynous, Dirk's (Joe/Jason) family were killed by Galctor's men, and Pee-Wee (Jinpei/Keeyop) was human. Most of the original action was shown, with only the most extreme violence edited. The Hoyt Curtain music was replaced with a repetitive and headache-inducing mix. The names were made even more childish: Ace Goodheart, Dirk Daring, Pee-Wee, Hooty; at least Agatha June was close to the original (Jun).

While the stories were better and the translation more faithful, the voice work was sub-standard. The compression needed to match the Japanese lip movements made everything seemed rushed and the voice artists brought little to the production.

Ultimately, the series was a failure, as it was removed after only airing 13 of 85 episodes. It later reappeared on the Cartoon Netwok, where it was run at least twice, with all 85 episodes broadcast. Most fans, including this one, generally deem it to be worse than Battle of the Planets. If the more faithful story could have been combined with the Battle of the Planets voice work and music, then Gatchaman would have made a much better transition to America. Either way, the ending was still missing.

I actually remember seeing this dub of Gatchaman on Cartoon Network as a kid. G-Force: Guardians of Space is the second English dub of the first Gatchaman series, the first dub being Battle of the Planets, which, while having some good VAs like Casey Kasem, was heavily censored. Sandy Frank Productions and Turner Corporation teamed up for this (the former responsible for Battle of the Planets) with the aim of making a more faithful dub (albeit with some edits to keep the violence from getting too intense, as Gatchaman does has moments like this).

While I did like this as a kid, as an adult who now has the ADV dub of Gatchaman, I can see why this is usually bashed (even though I still like this). The characters are given names like Ace Goodheart, Dirk Daring, and Dr. Benjamin Brighthead, which will remind people of the silly dub names from 60's anime like Astro Boy and Gigantor (which had names like Dick Strong and Dr. Elefun). Also, the dub only does 85 episodes, and has no ending (although from what I heard, the ending for Gatchaman was dark to the point where no editing can make it kid-friendly, so it's for the best).

However, despite these shortcomings, this dub is good for being a near-accurate dub of the original Japanese source material, and despite having that song that sounds like techno, most of the Japanese soundtrack is intact. Plus, the voice acting is good, if not flawed (as sometimes, the voice does match the characters' lip movements).

I remember being about 11 and talking with my friends about about our favorite cartoons during the recess, and like I said before some loved it some hated it, obviously I was one of the followers. Even though it was an 80s cartoon it seemed like it tried to represent the 70s, when our heroes were not in action. My favorite character was Dirk, but they were all great, always fighting against Gallactor's lieutenants, and their soldiers, the costumes were great! One thing that I have to admit was pretty annoying was the background music, it didnt changed in romantic scenes, nor action, nor drama nor any, but besides that everything was more than O.K. Since I didnt saw the cartoon in English some names may not be the original ones, but we had Ace, the leather, Dirk, Agi, Pee Wee, and Auti (the Phoenix's pilot) Gallactor a super villain and of course Dr. Brilliant Mind (at least that was the translation).

I only saw the final episode once and sadly all I can remember is... (you may not want to keep reading since I will reveal the same of the real hero and Gallactor's identity) ...that Dirk was the one who unmasked Gallactor and it was like pretty weird he explodes and becomes one with Computor (the prime evil one).

Dont you just hate when you happen to find a re-run on t.v. and it is ALWAYS the same one? I've seen the first episode like 15 times.

Why cant we see again cartoons like this one, or Defenders of the Earth, He-Man, Bravestarr, Thundarr the Barbarian, Kidd Video, and all of those 80s cartoons lots of us grew up with...