Science Ninja Team Gatchaman

Did You Know?

• Ken, Jun and Berg appear as playable characters in Tatsunoko Fight.
• The Italian cartoon Winx Club parodied Gatchaman in the episode "Battle on Planet Eraklyon" with the superhero quintet "Patchamen."
• In 2000, NTT East produced television commercials for their ISDN service featuring an updated version of Gatchaman with members of the J-Pop boy group SMAP.

Original series

The series follows five young superhero ninja employed by Kōzaburō Nambu of the International Science Organization. They oppose Galactor, an international terrorist organization of technologically advanced villains trying to control Earth's natural resources such as water, oil, sugar and uranium. The second-in-command of Galactor is Berg Katse, an androgynous masked antagonist later revealed to be a gender-shifting genetically engineered mutant acting on orders of Leader X, an alien artificial intelligence bent on destroying humanity. Galactor's mechas are often animal-based. Most team members are in their late teens, except Jinpei who is about ten or eleven. The team includes Ken Washio (leader and tactical expert), Jō Asakura (second-in-command marksman), Jun (electronics and demolitions expert), Jinpei (reconnaissance expert and Jun's adopted brother), and Ryū Nakanishi (ship's pilot). They wear T-shirts numbered by rank or birdlike battle uniforms. They are aided by a squadron of combat pilots led by Red Impulse, later revealed as Ken's father. The team uses Science Ninja Technique, a martial art developed by Dr. Nambu enabling high-speed running, flight, high jumping, and silent attacks. Each member has a wrist device enabling mode change with the command "Bird, go!"

Adaptations

After its Japanese broadcast, Gatchaman was exported to other countries. In Taiwan from 1977 it was known as Ke Xue Xiao Fei Xia (Scientific Flying Fantasy Warriors). The original series saw several English adaptations with varying modifications. Sandy Frank and Jameson Brewer syndicated the series in 1978 as Battle of the Planets, heavily edited. The team was called G-Force and protected Earth from threats from planet Spectra. New segments by Gallerie International Films added characters: robot 7-Zark-7, robot dog 1-Rover-1, and sentient computer Susan at Centre Neptune. New music by Hoyt Curtin was blended with the original soundtrack. Only 85 episodes of Battle of the Planets were produced from all 105 Gatchaman episodes. An animated TV movie combined several episodes. Battle of the Planets was released on VHS and DVD from 2001 to 2003 by Rhino Entertainment. G-Force: Guardians of Space (1986) is the second American adaptation, featuring five teenagers—Ace Goodheart, Dirk Daring, Agatha June, Pee Wee, and Hoot Owl—battling Galactor and Computor. ADV Films released an uncut English dub in 2005 under the name Gatchaman.

Other series

Four years after the original, a sequel arrived with a different color process. The God Phoenix grew larger and gained a bird-like face, while the team's personal mecha received bird-themed paint jobs. Ryu now piloted a tank-like mecha and a Pilot Machine. In this story, Sosai X turned a young shipwreck survivor into his new commander, Gel Sadra, and continued his plan to destroy Earth. The team was reunited with Joe, who had become a cyborg, after Galactor sent a spy to replace him. Dr. Pandora helped them, later revealed to be Gel Sadra's mother. Joe destroyed Sosai X, and Gel Sadra died after betraying him, following his murder of her mother. The next series, airing in 1979, featured mecha with no bird designs. Earth faced the mad tyrant Egoblauser and a reborn Sosai X, now called Sosai Z. This series was darker, especially in its final episodes, with casualties and deaths of longtime characters. The ending saw the team presumed dead after sacrificing themselves to destroy Sosai X. Episodes from both sequels were combined into the English version Eagle Riders in 1996 by Saban Entertainment. A 1994 OVA remake updated character designs and backgrounds, released on VHS in 1997 and DVD in 2001 by Urban Vision.