Since its creation in the early 70's, various episodes of Tatsunoko's Gatchaman I (1972-74) series have been translated into English.

First there was Battle of the Planets: most often called "G-Force" by fans; it ran from 1978-79 and thereafter in syndication. Second, Turner Entertainment's Cartoon Network created G-Force: Guardians of Space (1987, 1995). The Cartoon Network's translation of Gatchaman was truer to the original dialogue, and required new voice actors and a different kind of episode editing. In 1994, Tatsunoko re-created and re-released the Gatchaman story in three parts in an Original Animated Video (OAV), which is comparable to a direct-to-video release in other parts of the world. Though the retelling had the flashiness of modern anime, the story and characters were both lost. Finally, Saban Entertainment (creators of the Power Rangers) bought the rights to Gatchaman II and Gatchaman Fighter, merged them into a single show, and called the resultant disaster Eagle Riders (1996-1997). Twelve episodes were shown in the US; over 60 were aired in Australia. Neither version of Eagle Riders offered satisfactory closure. More recently, in September of 2000, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) East released a series of animated and live action commercials featuring the Japanese boy-band SMAP dressed up as the Kagaku Ninjatai, all in the name of promoting NTT's ISDN service.

New York-based Sandy Frank Entertainment and Canada's Ocean Productions announced that they would be creating "a series of eight new 2D animated movies and a 24x30' television series" using the original Gatchaman footage. The most recent rumors suggest that Sandy Frank is talking to major studios, including Warner and Disney, about a brand new series, which is tentatively slated for Fall of 2005. Ex magazine's editor penned an ironic but hilarious note regarding all of these transformations, and how each one is even worse than the previous.

Though the Gatchaman story is over 30 years old, it is one that has a staunch following, and fans are often referred to (or refer to themselves!) as Gatchamaniacs.

There are three installments to the original Gatchaman storyline: Gatchaman I (105 episodes), Gatchaman II (52 episodes), and Gatchaman Fighter (48 episodes). The original Gatchaman plot had thus 205 episodes, "making Gatchaman one of the longest-running drama series in anime history." According to a Japanese source, it is also "one of the most important anime in the history of Japanese animation." It set the standards for the team show, wherein a group of characters must work together against a greater evil. Many later anime movies and series adopted the idea of compiling the individuals' vehicles or bodies into a larger weapon or machine. In addition, the adult nature of Gatchaman changed the face of animation. The heroes of Gatchaman swear, are witness to (and are sometimes perpetrators of) extreme violence, and one member of the team even dies at the end of the first season. Perhaps due in part to these elements, Gatchaman was Tatsunoko's most successful superhero anime.

Gatchaman follows the adventures of five young heroes: Eagle Ken (Washio), Condor Joe (Asakura), Swan Jun, Swallow Jinpei, and Owl Ryu (Nakanishi). The team takes its instructions from Dr. Kozaburo Nambu, director of the International Science Organization. Together, they fight the forces of Galactor, headed by the alien being Sosai (often translated as "Overlord") X and his various commanders: Berg Katse (Gatchaman I), Gel Sadra (Gatchaman II), and Count Egobossler (Gatchaman F).

On October 1, 1972, Tokyo's Fuji Television premiered the very first episode. Originally dubbed "Birdman," the show's creators renamed it "Gatchaman" at the last minute. The title is onomatopoetic and is meant to be echoic of mecha crashing into one another. According to another source, Ken, the titular hero, was the "reason a team was formed. He was so good that he didn't really need a team;" rather, the team was an arena "for the leader to do all his things. He was sort of the 'teacher' to his team, and made use of the special talents they all possessed." Furthermore, "Ken was almost always right, and when he wasn't, it was because of outside circumstances. The others were 'humanized' characters that dealt with their problems. Jun's affection for Ken...Jinpei and his overzealousness...Joe and his foolishness...and Ryu for being the most 'human' of them all...he actually had a normal life. Ken and Joe were opposite sides of the same coin: Joe was the impatient, foolhardy side to Ken's quick, decisive leadership qualities.

"With the shock from what fans referred to as The Death of Joe, Gatchaman broke ground. [The show] had taken a character and shown his steady decline and eventually his demise. 'We knew it would be shocking....but not that   shocking.' Melodramatic though it was, it would cause fans to rejoice for the interesting twist, and saddened by the loss of what was quickly becoming a popular character. 'From the beginning, we decided that Ken would be [everything] a hero should be -brave, cunning, etc- but as we entered into this, we saw that the fans were really for Joe and   Ken. And then Joe (as the series ended) had become a fan favorite."

My Thoughts

Though there are those who feel much differently, I despise Red Impulse. He's the deux ex machina, he's a rotten father and husband (he abandons his wife and children, and frankly, I find his behavior with the child Ken abusive), he's selfish, and I think all in all he is at heart a much crueler character than Katse. I rejoice every time he blows up in Gatch I.

Everybody suffers in this show, and people die, often. The team members often do not get along, and the battles among them are very human. And yes, Joe dies. In one of the final episodes, never translated into English, he learns that he has irrevocable brain damage and has a week to live, at most ten days. At that point, Joe being Joe, he goes on a kamikaze mission to Galactor HQ and is captured and tortured by Katse. We never actually see him die, but he is too weak to even crawl when we see him last, and when the team return to search for him, he is gone.