Gatchaman Returns... Again.

I got my first taste of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman in the late 1970s when Sandy Frank Entertainment imported the Japanese anime to the U.S. in a version known as Battle of the Planets (BOTP). The show, along with Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, was a staple of my childhood science fiction diet.

While Sandy Frank sapped the original 1972 anime of its edge, BOTP worked well for American audiences and was a huge overnight success. As an eleven-year old, I was fascinated by the show even though the storylines seemed choppy, confusing or contradictory. What I didn't know at the time was that the eighty-five BOTP episodes were cobbled together from 105 Gatchaman episodes... and nothing ran in the order in which it was created.

Since Gatchaman was a serial, with interlocking storylines and recurring characters, there were tremendous gaps in continuity when it became BOTP. To gloss over these plot holes, Sandy Frank inserted some crudely animated segments with a robotic character called 7-Zark-7, who looked a little like R2-D2's inbred cousin. 7-Zark-7 provided both connecting exposition and comedic relief as the original anime was very serious and sometimes downright grim. To be fair, I don't know that the original show would've have been shown in the U.S. in the late 70s without these alterations.

For example, the second episode of Gatchaman, entitled "Demonic Aircraft Carrier," was retooled into a BOTP episode called "Rescue the Astronauts." The story starts with an Apollo-era space module splashing down in the ocean. It is quickly captured by Galactor (in BOTP, these are the evil minions of the truly evil Zoltar from the planet Spectra) and taken to an underwater base. The Galactor commander is after the "Earth Compact System," which contains the locations of valuable natural resources including uranium. 

Uranium and nuclear power are a recurring theme in Gatchaman as they are in lots of Japanese science fiction. No one suffered more than the Japanese at the dawn of the nuclear age, and the atom is dually-represented as a source of unlimited energy and horrible destruction. This also underscores Gatchaman's emphasis on serious world issues such as dwindling natural resources, protecting the environment, loss, war, violence, and tyranny. In BOTP, almost all of these themes are either gone or heavily diluted.

For this particular episode, Sandy Frank's people altered the plot into a simple rescue mission where the astronauts have been abducted because they have telemetry about Zoltar's hidden bases. But there's a problem with the Gatchaman source material... The astronauts don't survive. In fact, their bodies are displayed before Ken (renamed Mark in BOTP), who thinks they are still alive and surrenders in order to secure their release. Once Ken is in custody, the Galactor thugs let the bodies fall to the floor.

"Even corpses are useful sometimes," the Galactor Commander chuckles.

Ken recoils and mutters, "How awful..."

You said it, Ken. But then again, later in this same episode, you savagely beat the Commander until his tells you the location of Earth Compact System... So, you know, don't be a total hypocrite. 

Can you imagine any of that running on a children's show in America in 1978?

Because BOTP had to be kid-friendly, the astronauts also had to survive. The dialogue is reworked. We never see any dead bodies. We never see an actual rescue but Mark later informs the team that the astronauts are recovering in sick bay.

Now the Science Ninja Team is back in comic book form from Mad Cave Studios. Gatchaman was reintroduced to American audiences during Free Comic Book Day this past May with an ongoing core series, a series of one-shots focusing on solo missions, and a miniseries focusing on villains.

Learn more about this series here.

OTHER GATCHAMAN GOODS:
Funko Pops: Ken Washio  |  Joe Asakura  |  Jun