Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Gatchaman -- a Cartoon for Adventure Era Fans?

Any Gatch (or Battle of the Plane, or G-Force) fans out there?

When I started this I was going to make comparisons between Gatchaman charaters and Legionnaires, but, strangely they don't have much in common. (Except that Ken and Cos are girl slapping twin seperated at birth.) The characters in both groups are quite distinctive.

There are a lot of other things in Gatch that would appeal to Adventure Era fans, though. Gatch has fairly straight forward plots, but lots of character development. The show is campy, but with a serious edge to it, or maybe it's serious with a campy edge to it. Overall this show is just plain fun. I mean, where else are you going to find a giant robotic cockroach that's stealing the worlds sugar supply?

The characters are great and very individual. The show also has a heroine, Jun, who, like Saturn Girl, is very advanced for the time. The newly dubbed version (2 volumes out now) adds to the fun by keeping the dialogue true to the 70's when the show was originally created.

The art deserves a special mention. This is not the kind of anime they release today. It has much more in common with 70's comic art. A lot of he scenes have a gorgeous, painted look that you just don't see today.

I loved watcing the Battle of the Planets growing up. It was fun stuff.

The mini series that was out was pretty good too. Loved the Alex Ross art.

We used to play "Battle of the Planets" at recess, and I was always Jason. So it was quite weird watching the new dubbed version with different voices and different character names. (Jason is now Joe.) And there's no 7-Zark-7!

Alex Ross does art for the box set of the first two volumes of this release and the DVD covers. Though on the box, at least, he gives his characters anime eyes, and it looks very unnatural to see realistic looking characters with exaggerated anime eyes.

There are some nice extras with this set, including a "karaoke" episode on each disc for which just the diaglogue has been removed, so you and your friends can make up your own or follow the subtitles.

You can find my review of the new release at The Detroit News website (end shameless self-plug ).

Nice to see it's geting some publicity.

I loved "Battle of the Planets" when I was a kid. Jason was the coolest, with the rebellious attitude, the temper, the cool car, even that feather thing. It's too bad we didn't get the rest of the show broadcast (when "Jason" (Joe/Ken?) dies and comes back as a robot or something, but from what I've read the show strayed in later seasons anyway). I saw some of the redubbed stuff later with "Dirk" etc, but that stuff was almost unwatchable (they even took away Cheops' clicks and whistles!)

Gatchaman Links List

The link to my fanart site doesn't work now, though. (Oh, the fun of changing ISP's.)

I liked Battle of the Planets as a kid, but like so many things it hasn't stood the test of time with me. Waaaaay too much 7-Zark-7 for my tastes. However, I have got a couple of the Gatchaman dvds, and enjoyed watching those. The original stories without the cutesy American elements added in.

I never saw it as a kid, but I have seen some of the original episodes and the OVA done more recently. Not bad.