Gatchaman (G-Force)
TRAAAANS-MUTE!
What would become known to American audiences as Battle of the Planets and G-Force began as the anime Science Ninja Team Gatchaman in 1972. Developed by the same team later responsible for the Robotech/Macross series (Tatsunoko Productions), Gatchaman was developed to take advantage of three trends of the early 1970s: big robots, superheroes, and environmentalism.
The Gatchaman team was formed by the International Science Organization to stop supervillains intent on controlling Earth's resources; the villains were run by an alien force and led by Galactor; the latter was one of the first instances of a transgender character in anime. The team consisted of Ken the Eagle, Joe the Condor, Jun the Swan, Ryu the Owl, and Jinpei the Swallow. When Galactor's forces attacked, Gatchaman would respond with their signature weapons (each team member had a different one), vehicles, and martial arts prowess. When they needed to haul out the big guns, they would call on their heavily armed main vehicle, the God Phoenix, which could transmute into a literal bird of flame--though doing so risked the lives of the Gatchaman team.
Gatchaman was hugely popular in Japan, and popularized a lot of anime tropes--Ken was the strong-jawed leader, Joe the rebel, Ryu the tough guy, Jinpei the annoying preteen, and Jun showed her underwear at least once an episode. The show dealt with environmental themes, at the time a real worry for Japanese citizens (Miyazaki's career was partially inspired by these same themes), though Gatchaman tended to solve these issues through violence.
The popularity of the series led Sandy Frank to buy the rights to Gatchaman and, in 1978, began broadcasting it in the US as Battle of the Planets. It was heavily edited to censor some of the more violent scenes, and the names were changed for American audiences (Ken became Mark, Joe became Jason, Jun became Princess, Ryu became Tiny, and Jinpei became Keyop--Keyop also became an android with a speech impediment, to match up the character's mouth movements with the English dub). The G-Force team went into space--Gatchaman never left Earth--and Galactor became Zoltar, with all references to his/her gender removed. Filler was put in by adding 7-Zark-7, a R2D2 knockoff that provided background. It was very much "kiddified," but to anime fans in the US, Battle of the Planets was a godsend: at least anime was out there in the mainstream, and the success of G-Force led to similar marketing of Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers) and Superdimensional Fortress Macross (Robotech).
Gatchaman would inspire several sequels and spinoffs in Japan, while Battle of the Planets would be rebroadcast as G-Force by TBS, and inspire several spinoffs of its own. Though not well known today, it was an inspiration to anime fans on both sides of the Pacific.
Given its relative obscurity, I was pleasantly surprised to see these two cosplayers as Tiny/Ryu and Mark/Ken at ACen 2013. (Tiny/Ryu was male in the original, so the cosplayer there is crossplaying.) They did a fantastic job on the uniforms, which are right on the money, and I got them doing the "Trans-Mute!" pose when the team would launch the God Phoenix. Battle of the Planets was the first anime I ever watched as a kid, back in Germany in 1978--it was the only decent cartoon on Armed Forces Network.
Gatchaman (G-Force)
TRAAAANS-MUTE!
What would become known to American audiences as Battle of the Planets and G-Force began as the anime Science Ninja Team Gatchaman in 1972. Developed by the same team later responsible for the Robotech/Macross series (Tatsunoko Productions), Gatchaman was developed to take advantage of three trends of the early 1970s: big robots, superheroes, and environmentalism.
The Gatchaman team was formed by the International Science Organization to stop supervillains intent on controlling Earth's resources; the villains were run by an alien force and led by Galactor; the latter was one of the first instances of a transgender character in anime. The team consisted of Ken the Eagle, Joe the Condor, Jun the Swan, Ryu the Owl, and Jinpei the Swallow. When Galactor's forces attacked, Gatchaman would respond with their signature weapons (each team member had a different one), vehicles, and martial arts prowess. When they needed to haul out the big guns, they would call on their heavily armed main vehicle, the God Phoenix, which could transmute into a literal bird of flame--though doing so risked the lives of the Gatchaman team.
Gatchaman was hugely popular in Japan, and popularized a lot of anime tropes--Ken was the strong-jawed leader, Joe the rebel, Ryu the tough guy, Jinpei the annoying preteen, and Jun showed her underwear at least once an episode. The show dealt with environmental themes, at the time a real worry for Japanese citizens (Miyazaki's career was partially inspired by these same themes), though Gatchaman tended to solve these issues through violence.
The popularity of the series led Sandy Frank to buy the rights to Gatchaman and, in 1978, began broadcasting it in the US as Battle of the Planets. It was heavily edited to censor some of the more violent scenes, and the names were changed for American audiences (Ken became Mark, Joe became Jason, Jun became Princess, Ryu became Tiny, and Jinpei became Keyop--Keyop also became an android with a speech impediment, to match up the character's mouth movements with the English dub). The G-Force team went into space--Gatchaman never left Earth--and Galactor became Zoltar, with all references to his/her gender removed. Filler was put in by adding 7-Zark-7, a R2D2 knockoff that provided background. It was very much "kiddified," but to anime fans in the US, Battle of the Planets was a godsend: at least anime was out there in the mainstream, and the success of G-Force led to similar marketing of Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers) and Superdimensional Fortress Macross (Robotech).
Gatchaman would inspire several sequels and spinoffs in Japan, while Battle of the Planets would be rebroadcast as G-Force by TBS, and inspire several spinoffs of its own. Though not well known today, it was an inspiration to anime fans on both sides of the Pacific.
Given its relative obscurity, I was pleasantly surprised to see these two cosplayers as Tiny/Ryu and Mark/Ken at ACen 2013. (Tiny/Ryu was male in the original, so the cosplayer there is crossplaying.) They did a fantastic job on the uniforms, which are right on the money, and I got them doing the "Trans-Mute!" pose when the team would launch the God Phoenix. Battle of the Planets was the first anime I ever watched as a kid, back in Germany in 1978--it was the only decent cartoon on Armed Forces Network.