Science Ninja Team GATCHAMAN Video World

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.

1. Gatchaman Versus Turtle King 2. The Evil Ghostly Aircraft Carrier Appears 3.The Giant Mummy That Summons Storms 4.Return of the Iron Beast Mecchadegon 5.Ghost Fleet From Hell 6.The Grand Mini-Robot Operation 7.Galactor's Giant Airshow 8.The Secret of the Crescent Coral Reef 9.A Demon From the Moon 10.The Massive Underground Monster War 11.The Riddle of Red Impulse 12.The Giant Eating Monster Ibukron 13.The Riddle of the Red Sand 14.The Fearful Ice-Kandar 15.The Fearful Jellyfish Lens 16.Mechanica, The Indestructible Machine 17.The Grand Insect Operation 18.Revenge! The Whale Operation 19.Hell's Speed Race 20.A Critical Moment for the Science Ninja Team 21.Who is Governor X? 22.The Firebird Versus The Fire Eating Dragon 23.Massive Violence of the MechaBall 24.The Neon Giant Laughing in the Dark 25.The Magma Giant, Emperor of Hell 26.The God Phoenix Reborn 27.Galactor's Witch Racer 28.The Invisible Demon 29.Galack X the Devil Man 30.Kamisorar, The Guillotine Iron Beast 31.The Plan to Assassinate Dr. Nambu 32.The Grand Gezora Operation (1st Part) 33.The Grand Gezora Operation (2nd Part) 34.The Evil Aurora Operation 35.The Angry Blazing Desert 36.Little Gatchaman 37.Renjira, the Electron Iron Beast 38.The Riddle of the Mechanic Jungle 39.Jigokiller, the People-Eating Flowers (1st Part) 40.Jigokiller, the People-Eating Flowers (2nd Part) 41.Killer Music 42.The Great Breakout Trick Operation 43.A Romance, Destroyed by Evil 44.Galactor's Challenge 45.The Sea Lion Ninja Team of the Night Fog 46.Gatchaman in the Valley of Death 47.The Devil's Airline 48.The Camera Iron Beast, Shutterkiller 49.The Fearful Mechadokuga 50.Trachadon, the Dinosaur Skeleton 51.The Revolving Cateroller Beast 52.Red Impulse's Secret 53.Farewell Red Impulse 54.Gatchaman's Blazing Rage 55.Desperation of the Mini-Submarine 56.The Hated Bird Missile 57.The Evil White Sea 58.Hell's Mecha-Buttha 59.The Secret Monster Mecha Factory 60.Science Ninja Team, G-6 61.The Phantom of Red Impulse 62.The Snow Devil, Blizzarder 63.Massacre of the Mecha Curve Ball 64.A Christmas Present of Death 65.Super Bem, the Synthetic Iron Beast 66.The Devil's Fashion Show 67.Certain Death! The Gatchaman Fire 68.Particle Iron Beast, Micro-Saturn 69.A Cemetery in the Moonlight 70.United! Death Girls 71.Governor X, the Immortal 72.A Swarm! Invasion of the Mini Iron Beasts 73.Pursueing Katse! 74.Secret of the Birdstyles 75.Jumbo Shakora, the Ocean Devil King 76.The Bracelets Exposed 77.The Successful Berg Katse 78.Mortal Combat! 10,000 Meters Under the Sea 79.Stealing the Gatchaman Information 80.Revive! Boomerang 81.Duel on Galactor Island 82.Aim for the Crescent Coral Reef! 83.A Desperate Ring of Fire 84.Smog Fiber, the Spiderweb Iron Beast 85.That's G-4 86.Galactor's Plan to Corner the Market 87.Patogiller, the Triple United Iron Beast 88.Iron Beast Snake 828 89.A Trap Sprung in the Crescent Base 90.Matangar, the Armored Iron Beast 91.The Plan to Destroy Crescent Base, Complete 92.The End of the Crescent Base 93.Counterattack! The Underground Torpedo Operation 94.Electric Devil Beast Angura 95.Giant Devil Men, United Ninjas 96.Now, the Invasion of Gallactor's Headquarters 97.Leona 3, the Spaceship With No Tomorrow, 98.Grape Bomber, the Spherical Iron Beast 99.The Wounded G-2 100.Gatchaman, 20 Years Later 101.The Sniper Group Hebi-Cobra 102.Countermove! Checkmate X 103.G-2's Death Wager 104.The Evil Grand Black Hole Operation 105.Earth's Destruction! 0002

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. In 2003 this anime series was aired in Taiwan which the opening song was performed by famous hip pop boyband ENERGY. Gatchaman is one of many anime series in which its five main heroes have different features wherein two of its members, one of them the leader are both thin and of the same height, another one being the most overweight, one being the shortest and youngest and another one being the only female member. Other anime featuring the same line-up are Golion, Voltes V, Combattler v, Digimon Frontier, Voltron and Flame of Recca. Gatchaman became the inspiration of Choujin Sentai Jetman in the order, except the swallow is a girl in the later years. Before that, it seemed to have inspired the idea of Goranger. Gatchaman receives an homage from the animé-inspired Teen Titans series. In one episode, Robin dons a "flight suit" resembling the Science Ninja team's bird-like uniforms after ejecting from his R-cycle. In another episode Robin is seen throwing a red and gold "Razor boomerang" at the leader of the "Hive Academy" while trying to save Cyborg from an undercover mission. The opening credits of Gatchaman began with the five heroes' silhouettes flying across the screen at high speed. At the beginning of each episode of The Powerpuff Girls the three titular heroines dart across the screen in a similar manner before that episode's title card. The D.O.C. titled the ninth track of his 1989 release, No One Can Do It Better, "Whirlwind Pyramid" in an homage to Gatchaman. He even shouts "Transform" (a-la the G-Force dub) during a break-down section midway through the track. The original Character Designer for the Gatchaman characters is Yoshitaka Amano, who later went on to create designs for Vampire Hunter D, and Final Fantasy, among other projects. In the webcomic Sluggy Freelance, the main characters, Torg and Riff, accidentally teleport to a dimension filled with anime characters filled with parodies of the main characters from "Battle of the Planets" as well as "Voltron" and other anime of the same genre.

The original series was shown on American television in 1978, in heavily edited form, as Battle of the Planets (BOTP for short). The series was shown again on American television in 1986 and 1995 in translated form as G-Force: Guardians of Space; 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.

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman, literally Scientific Ninja Troop Gatchaman), often shortened to Gatchaman, is a 5-member superhero team which comprises 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 by 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.

A feature film version of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (film) will be produced by Imagi Animation Studios for release in 2008.

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 often 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.

From left to right: Ken, Ryu, Jinpei, Jun and Joe.Most of the team were in their late-teens, apart from Jinpei who was about eleven. They included: Ken Washio, the team leader; Joe Asakura, his second-in-command; Jun, the team's electronics and demolitions expert; Jinpei, the youngest and reconnaissance expert; and Ryu Nakanishi, the ship's pilot.

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 travel and minor spaceflight as necessary. The GodPhoenix is armed with an unspecified but large (roughly 30+) number of BirdMissiles that are fired from a rack system mounted atop the center section. After the original GodPhoenix was destroyed by an octopus-based mecha, an improved version carried a pair of Super BirdMissiles in twin drop down pods from the bottom center 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.