G-Force. Princess, Tiny, Keyop, Mark, Jason and, watching over them from Centre Neptune, their computerised co-ordinator 7-Zark-7! Watching, warning against surprise attacks by alien galaxies beyond space! Fearless young orphans, protecting Earth’s entire galaxy. Always five acting as one… dedicated, inseparable, invincible!” Words: Natalie Clubb

In October 1972, in a flurry of spandex, feathers, capes and visors, a colourful team of superheroes unlike any seen before burst onto television screens across Japan. Fighting to save the Earth from an evil syndicate and its space monsters, Team Gatchaman – better known to a generation of British and American kids as the G-Force team from Battle of the Planets – became household names. They went on to change the face of Japanese anime forever.

Produced by the now legendary anime studios Tatsunoko Production (often referred to as Japan’s answer to Hanna Barbera thanks to their whole range of animated shows that include The Adventures of Pinocchio and The Litl’bits), the show originally aired in Japan from 1972-74 as an anime entitled Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman – Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.

Although it’s now fondly remembered by a generation of children growing up in the 1970s and 1980s (let’s be honest, who didn’t secretly harbour a longing to be ‘Number 6’ of the team?), back then, little did anyone realise that over 30 years later this anime would still have a huge following, sparking comic-book series, DVD collections, numerous toys and action figures, clothing lines and even a new big screen movie.

The chequered history of Gatchaman and its subsequent incarnations is as complicated as any decent anime plotline. The original Gatchaman story had three separate instalments, and an amazing 205 episodes in all, consisting of Gatchaman (105 eps), Gatchaman II (52 eps) and Gatchaman Fighter (48 eps) – which made it one of the longest running drama series in anime history.

Gatchaman was the tale of five orphans – Eagle Ken, Condor Joe, Jun Swan, Ryu the Horned Owl and Jinpei the Swallow, who together made up the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. They worked for ISO, the Earth-based International Science Organization. With the help of prolific scientist Dr Nambu, their mentor and trainer, fought to protect the planet from Galactor – a group of advanced villains (headed by the Overlord Sosai X, but run on a day-to-day basis by the hermaphrodite Berg Katse) who wanted to control the Earth’s natural resources.

Team effort

Galactor would regularly deploy huge mechanical monsters to threaten Earth, but week after week, the team cleverly averted worldwide catastrophes by defeating them. Although each member had their own area of expertise, their own weapons and individual signature vehicles, the show was about how they came together to work as a team to save the world – usually by activating the ‘flame’ function on their mother ship, The Phoenix.

Gatchaman reached out to audiences young and old through a clever combination of amazing adventures and gritty human emotion storylines. In the tradition of any good soap opera, there was plenty of angst, misery and doom and gloom among the Gatchaman team, and the show never shied away from self-sacrifice, jealousy, pain, loss – and even love. Throughout the course of the show, both Ken and Joe fell in love with women, only to witness the deaths of both of them. Never had an animated series dealt with death quite so head-on – and Gatchaman even went so far as to give one of its main, and most popular characters an incurable brain tumour. When Joe (that’s Jason for Battle of the Planets fans) found out that he had only 10 days left to live, in an honourable display of self-sacrifice he infiltrated Galactor Headquarters in a final bid to bring about the demise of the villains once and for all, making for an emotional and poignant finale to the first season.

When Gatchaman returned for its second run, Gatchaman II, the team had a whole new range of problems to deal with. They had a new adversary in the form of the female Galactor commander, Gel Sadra, and following the demise of Joe, they were one member down. However, in a huge twist, Joe turned up – apparently alive and well. Fans everywhere cheered, but things weren’t as straightforward as they seemed. It was soon revealed that Joe was now a cyborg, taking care of much of the story arc for that season.

In the third and final instalment, Gatchaman Fighter, the focus of the story shifted back to Ken, the team’s intrepid leader. Facing yet another Galactor bad guy, Count Egobossler, it was the darkest of all the storylines. Team Gatchaman seemed to be losing the battle against Galactor, Ken’s health was declining rapidly and the final episode left fans uncertain of their heroes’ futures. The closing shot showed the team aboard The Phoenix, engulfed in flames, and true to the show’s ethos, ensured that it remained drama-filled to the very end.

Let Battle Commence…

In 1978, the Gatchaman phenomenon hit America, courtesy of Sandy Frank Syndication. Battle of the Planets was the first western adaptation of the hit show, and used 85 of the original 105 Gatchaman episodes in its run. Probably the most fondly remembered of the various incarnations, Battle of the Planets focused on a team of young people known as G-Force, which consisted of Mark, Jason, Princess, Tiny and Keyop. G-Force’s prime directive was to defend Earth from the threat of the evil Zoltar from the planet Spectra, and each week, in their ship The Phoenix, they battled against terrifying space enemies including the space terrapin, the space mummy, and, surprise surprise, the space serpent.

While the show was a hit with new audiences, fans of the original Gatchaman were quick to notice many differences between their original beloved anime and the 1978 interpretation. For a start, G-Force was now based in space, rather than on Earth, to better satisfy the US hunger for all things space-related at the time (consumers were still heavily under the influence of a little film that had just been released called Star Wars). Plus, there was the introduction of the robot 7-Zark-7, G-Force’s trusty ‘guide’, based in Centre Neptune, deep in the Pacific Ocean.

While anime fans were used to shocking storylines, often accepting the graphic violence, hardcore battle sequences and even the sexual ambiguity of the main villain, for unseasoned US audiences – and mostly child audiences at that – such things were not acceptable. Due to strict viewing regulations, much of the content from the original Gatchaman was deemed too graphic and violent to be broadcast, and the necessary cuts meant that each episode was suddenly a few minutes shorter than it should have been.

Enter 7-Zark-7. In the westernised version of the show, no deaths were allowed, and one of 7-Zark-7’s responsibilities was to reassure viewers of that. If a city was bombed, Zark would confirm that everyone had been safely evacuated, or if a villain suffered a nasty head wound thanks to Mark’s sonic boomerang, they’d simply been knocked out. While western fans (unless they’d been lucky enough to catch the original) embraced this somewhat watered-down version completely, for hardcore Gatchaman fans it was slightly disappointing.

In answer to this, the second western translation, G-Force: Guardians of Space, made its way onto our screens in the mid-1980s. Produced by Turner Broadcasting, Guardians of Space was generally believed to be more faithful to the original Japanese Gatchaman. Although it consisted largely of the same episodes as Battle of the Planets (with the notable addition of a few episodes that Sandy Frank had deemed too risky to broadcast), it was re-edited to contain a lot more of the violence that had previously been cut. It originally began broadcast in 1986, but then disappeared, only to finally make it onto the Cartoon Network during the 1990s. For fans of the original show, it was a confusing development. While the faces and outfits were the same, the members of G-Force now had different names; Ace Goodheart, Dirk Daring, Agatha June, Hootie and Pee Wee. Despite the enhanced battle sequences, fans complained that redubbing from Battle of the Planets changed the dynamics between the characters.

The G-Spot

By 1996, G-Force suffered another identity crisis. After Turner’s failure to recapture Battle of the Planets audiences with Guardians of Space, Saban Entertainment – responsible for Power Rangers – believed that the franchise still had potential and decided to launch a sequel, but under the new title of Eagle Riders.

Eagle Riders consisted of 65 20-minute episodes from a combination of the two original Gatchaman sequels (47 episodes from Gatchaman II and 18 from Gatchaman Fighter, to be exact). Although the animation was still the same, long gone were G-Force, now known as the Eagle Riders. Even the characters had undergone another round of name changes; this time comprising of Hunter Harris, Joe Thax, Kelly Jenar, Ollie Keeawani and Mickey Dougan, ably aided by Dr Keane and fighting the evil Mallanox. After only 12 episodes aired in the US during 1996-97 (although the full 65 aired in Australia), the show disappeared.

But that was not the end for G-Force. In 2002, to mark the 25th anniversary of Gatchaman, there was a resurgence in Battle of the Planets merchandise. Top Cow resurrected the comic series, a new complete DVD boxset was released, plus a whole new range of clothing, posters and action figures. Once again, Battle of the Planets was the anime on everyone’s lips.

The success of Gatchaman and its various translations has been credited for raising the worldwide profile of anime and now, over 30 years since the original, the production of a new big screen Gatchaman adventure shows that the public’s love affair with Japanese animation still remains strong. In 2006, Imagi Animation Studios, the company behind the new CG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, announced that it will be producing a new CG animation feature length movie based on the original Gatchaman series. Ken, Joe, Jun and co. will again take to the skies to defend the Earth from new enemies and captivate a new generation of fans.

“I think that there will always be an enduring appeal for the Gatchaman brand,” explains Kevin Munroe, writer/director of the upcoming Ninja Turtles film and the new Gatchaman movie. “Not only was it one of the first team-centric anime shows, but its formula inspired – directly or indirectly – properties such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Power Rangers to Teen Titans.

“When you watch a Gatchaman episode, it can’t help but feel very familiar,” he concludes. “The characters in the show are universal – a leader, a rebel, a trusted big brother – and they’re engaged in an epic battle that shows good triumph over evil. It doesn’t get more timeless and universal than that.”

Originally published in Dreamwatch 148, January 2007.