September 12, 1978(1978-09-12)– May 12, 1980(1980-05-12)
Battle of the Planets is an American adaptation of the Japanese anime series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972).[2] Of the 105 original Gatchaman episodes, 85 were used in the Battle of the Planets adaptation, produced by Sandy Frank Entertainment.[3] The adaptation was generally faithful to the plot and character development of the original Gatchaman series, but significant additions and reductions were made in order to increase appeal to the North American television market of the late 1970s, as well as avoid controversy from parents; these included the removal of elements of graphic violence and profanity.[4]
It was the most successful anime series in the United States during the 1970s, airing on 100 network affiliates during after-school hours by 1979.[5] As of June 2013, Sentai Filmworks have licensed the Gatchaman franchise.[6] An oft-delayed CGI film based on the franchise, Gatchaman, last slated for a 2011 release from Warner Bros., was officially canceled in June 2011. However, a live-action Gatchaman feature film was released in Japan in August 2013. As of 2018, the series has been made available for streaming on Hidive.[7]
Battle of the Planets is the title of the American adaptation of this series created by Frank. New footage was authorized and Frank hired writers to add dialogue to fit the look of the animation, without reference to original scripts.[9] Of the 105 original Gatchaman episodes, the adaptation used 85.[10]
Plot
Battle of the Planets cast five young people as G-Force, consisting of Mark, Jason, Princess, Keyop, and Tiny. G-Force protects Earth from the planet Spectra and other attacks from beyond space. The most prominent field commander of the Spectra forces was a villainous, masked individual known as Zoltar. Zoltar would receive his orders directly from a being he would refer to as the "Luminous One". The Luminous One would appear as a ghost-like, disembodied, floating head. Who, or what, this being actually was, is never explained in any detail throughout the series.
The main ship of the G-Force team was called the Phoenix, which could carry, transport, and deploy four smaller vehicles, each operated by one team member. The four vehicles included a futuristic race car with various hidden weapons driven by Jason; this vehicle was concealed within the Phoenix's nosecone. The "galacti-cycle", a futuristic motorcycle Princess rode, was stored within the left-wing capsule of the Phoenix. Keyop's "Space Bubble", an all-terrain, tank-like vehicle capable of VTOL as well as being a submersible craft, was held in the right storage capsule of the Phoenix. And lastly, a futuristic jet fighter Mark pilots was stored in the top rear section of the Phoenix command island structure, and which used its tail fin to make up the center tail fin of the Phoenix. The fifth crew member, Tiny, was assigned to pilot the Phoenix rather than one of the detachable craft.
A regularly featured plot device was the transformation of the Phoenix into a flaming bird-shaped craft able to handle virtually any exceptional situation for a brief period by essentially turning itself into pure energy called the Fiery Phoenix. The Phoenix's primary weapon was a supply of rockets called "TBX missiles" in the series. It also occasionally flaunted a powerful solar-powered energy blaster, although the team had the misfortune of choosing very cloudy days to use it.
The G-Force team themselves would use a combination of martial arts skills, ninja-like weapons, and their "cerebonic" powers to dispatch hordes of enemy soldiers and overcome other obstacles. Their bird-like costumes include wing-like capes that could fan out and function nearly identically to parachutes and/or wingsuits, enabling the G-Force members to drift or glide down to safety from heights that would otherwise prove fatal.
The G-Force members stay in contact through a wrist-band communicator device which also serves as a way for them to change or "transmute" instantly from their civilian clothes into their G-Force uniforms, and back again. Other weapons seen displayed by various team members include Mark's sonic boomerang, a bird-shaped boomerang with razor-sharp wings; Jason's and Tiny's multi-purpose gadget guns, which can be outfitted with grappling hook and line, drill bits, etc.; and Keyop's and Princess's yo-yo bombs, which could be used as bolas, darts, and explosive devices. Other weapons include feathers with a sharpened steel quill that could be used as deadly throwing darts and mini-grenades shaped like ball bearings with spike studs.
Key changes in the adaptation
The Battle of the Planets adaptation differs significantly from Gatchaman.[11] The difference is due to heavy editing made to make the show appealing to the audience in the United States by removing controversial elements (i.e. graphic violence, profanity, and a gender changing mutant) while adding elements reminiscent of the feature film Star Wars, which was popular at the time. In fact, the name "Battle of the Planets" was an attempt to associate itself with the popularity of Star Wars. While the original Gatchaman was earthbound, dark-toned, and environmentally themed, the adaptation morphed it into a less violent outer space show with robot characters, although some environmental themes were kept, and this is also why the other planets to which G-Force traveled on missions looked very much like Earth. Setting, violence, objectionable language, and certain character fatalities were altered or eliminated by cutting scenes, dubbing, and explanatory voice-overs (for instance, claiming that the city had been evacuated before a battle scene that would show the incidental destruction of buildings and houses, as well as explaining away the destruction of the Earth armies and air forces as being robot tanks and fighter planes).[12][13]
One of the most notable changes in the BotP adaptation involves the character Keyop (Jinpei in Gatchaman), who picked up a bizarre verbal tic of stuttering, chirping, and burbling every time he started to speak. There was a longstanding fan rumor that this was done because the original character spoke using much profanity and that Keyop's excess mouth motion would cover up deleting the words. This was not true, as demonstrated by the existence of an unedited Gatchaman version released by ADV Films in the US, in which Jinpei rarely, if ever, used profanity. The in-story explanation for Keyop's unique manner of speech is that he is an artificial life form with a speech impediment because of slightly defective genetic engineering.[14]
The main villain, known as Zoltar in BotP, had an unusual background due to the gender changing mutant nature of the original Berg Katse character. In an episode where Katse's female half was featured (BotP title: "The Galaxy Girls"), she was introduced as a separate character, Zoltar's sister, for BotP. (A hint of her actual nature was retained in the name she used when masquerading as a human, Mala Latroz—"Latroz" is an anagram of "Zoltar".)[14]
To compensate for the other differences, a robot named 7-Zark-7—who watched over G-Force from their base, Center Neptune—performed explanatory voiceovers and light comic relief, which not only padded the time lost from editing but also filled in the gaps in the storyline. This device bears the influence of contemporary Star Wars film, with 7-Zark-7 having a visual appearance not dissimilar from R2-D2, and a somewhat camp personality in the style of C-3PO. Notionally, 7-Zark-7 ran the undersea monitoring station Center Neptune, from where he received information regarding incoming threats to Earth and relayed that information to G-Force. Zark and other added characters, such as 1-Rover-1, Zark's robotic dog (who could hover from one side of the control room to the other by spinning his tail like a propeller, Muttley-style) and Susan (the early-warning computer whose sultry feminine voice often sent Zark into ecstasy) added to the cartoon's youth appeal. Some additional footage was also animated showing G-Force members Mark and Princess (using their Gatchamanmodel sheets) interacting with Zark, as well putting an image of Mark on a video screen in the control room, helping his addition blend more smoothly into the existing Gatchaman footage (although there is a clear difference in quality between the Zark and the Gatchaman animation).
‡The original Japanese-language version of Gatchaman contains a small amount of English.
Other media
Subsequent variations
Left to right: Mark, Tiny, Keyop, Princess, and Jason
In 1986, Gatchaman was re-worked in the US as G-Force: Guardians of Space by Turner, with a good deal of the original content edited out of Battle of the Planets put back into the show. It followed the plot of the original Gatchaman much more faithfully than Battle of the Planets because of this. Missing was Hoyt Curtin's original score. New voice acting was used.
The two Japanese follow-up series, Gatchaman II and Gatchaman Fighter, were combined into 65 episodes and released as the Saban-produced show Eagle Riders. All 65 episodes aired in Australia, but in the United States, only 13 episodes were aired.
TV movie
A TV movie called Battle of the Planets: The Movie was made by Gallerie International Films and Sandy Frank Film Syndication. David Bret Egen was the voice of 7-Zark-7. Several episodes were compiled to create a new storyline that contained violence as well as deaths. It was considered for an uncut remake of Battle of the Planets, but was scrapped when plans changed, as Frank began focusing efforts on arranging an uncut dub of Gatchaman instead.
Battle of the Planets was also released in comic book form, originally by Gold Key Comics, but later revamped by Top Cow Productions.[15] Among the Top Cow comic books was Battle of the Planets: Princess, written by David Wohl with art by Wilson Tortosa, released in 2002.[16] A Battle of the Planets comic strip ran in the British TV Comic. The TV Comic issues which feature the Battle of the Planets strip run from #1530 (17 April 1981) to #1671 (30 December 1983). TV Comic also reprinted some of the Gold Key stories for two Battle of the Planets holiday specials and one TV Comic holiday special. There was also a Battle of the Planets Annual which reprinted some of the Gold Key stories.
Voice cast
Apart from the pilot episode, Battle of the Planets featured a generic end credits sequence which only credited the regular cast, Alan Young, Casey Kasem, Janet Waldo, Ronnie Schell, Keye Luke and Alan Dinehart. But in addition to the regulars, several uncredited 'guest' performers voiced secondary characters in many of the episodes. These included Takayo Fischer, William Woodson (who was also the announcer for the opening titles, episode previews and trailers), Frank Maxwell, Edward Andrews, Wendy Young (daughter of Alan Young), and David Jolliffe (who also voiced Jason in the pilot.) The pilot episode featured a different end credits sequence which also credited Jolliffe, William Woodson and Alan Oppenheimer. It is unclear which character Oppenheimer voiced in the episode (it may have been Gorok, the episode's villain; or it may have been Chief Anderson, who was cut from the final version of the episode), and he never worked on the series again.
In the United Kingdom, the show was voted #42 on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kids' TV Shows in 2001.[18]
The show was voted #62 on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons in 2004.
According to Wizard magazine, Battle of the Planets is considered to be one of the 100 greatest animated shows.[19]
In 2009, IGN ranked BotP as the 44th-greatest animated show of all time in their Top 100 list.[20]
Legacy
Scrapped reboot
An animated reboot, with the working subtitle Phoenix Ninjas, was planned to have been produced by Nelvana, d-rights and Tatsunoko.[21][22][23] Aimed at the 6-11 male demographic, the project was conceived when d-rights expressed interest in Nelvana rebooting the franchise following the success of the second generation of Beyblade.[24] No new information on the project has surfaced since 2016 and it appears to be scrapped as Nelvana's parent company Corus Entertainment removed the press release from their official website.
Live-action film
It was announced at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con that Joe and Anthony Russo are producing a live-action Battle of the Planets film through their production company, AGBO, with the possibility of directing.[25] On July 22, 2021, it was announced the duo have brought Daniel Casey to write the script.[26] In a video interview with AP Entertainment on July 1, 2022, Joe Russo said they are still working on the movie.[27]
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is a Japanese animated franchise about a five-member superhero ninja team created by Tatsuo Yoshida and produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The original anime series, which debuted in 1972, was eponymously entitled Kagaku Ninja-tai Gatchaman and is best known in the English-speaking world as the adaptation entitled Battle of the Planets (1978). The series had additional English adaptations with G-Force: Guardians of Space (1986) and 2005 ADV Films uncut release. Tatsunoko also uses the official translation Science Commando Gatchaman in related products and media.
Space Ghost Coast to Coast is an American adult animation created by Mike Lazzo for Cartoon Network and first broadcast in 1994. It takes the form of a surreal parody of talk shows, hosted by a reimagined version of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. It incorporates surrealism and non-sequitur humor.
Tatsuo Yoshida was a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, as well as anime pioneer who founded the animation studio Tatsunoko Production as a businessman and the original author of many anime works.
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Space Pirate Captain Harlock is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto. It was serialized in Akita Shoten's Play Comic from January 1977 to June 1979, with the chapters collected into five tankōbon volumes. The series follows the titular Captain, an outcast who has turned into a space pirate to rebel against Earth's government and humanity's general apathy.
G-Force: Guardians of Space (1986) is the second American animated television adaptation of the Japanese anime series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972), following Sandy Frank Entertainment's initial 1978 effort Battle of the Planets and preceding ADV Films' 2005 attempt, known merely as Gatchaman. With G-Force, Sandy Frank Entertainment collaborated with Turner Broadcasting to create a newer, more faithful translation of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman for a new audience, and such a translation was made possible with the relaxed television standards of the 1980s, a luxury that the more Star Wars-themed Battle of the Planets did not enjoy.
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Star Wars: The Clone Wars is an American animated television series created by George Lucas. It is part of the Star Wars multimedia franchise, and is set predominantly between the events of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). Lucas, who closely collaborated with supervising director Dave Filoni on the series, called it a continuation of the previous Genndy Tartakovsky-produced 2003 Clone Wars series. The series began with a theatrical feature film that was released on August 15, 2008, and debuted on Cartoon Network two months later on October 3, 2008.
Eagle Riders is an animated television adaptation of the Japanese anime series Gatchaman II and Gatchaman Fighter, which have been combined. It was produced by Saban Entertainment. 65 episodes aired in Australia on Network Ten from August 14, 1997, to December 4, 1997. In the United States, 13 episodes had previously aired in first-run syndication during the fall of 1996 and 1997.
Gatchaman (ガッチャマン) is a three-part original video animation based on the anime series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. It was released in Japan from 1994 to 1995. This version of Gatchaman is set in the year 2066, where the evil leader of the nation of Hontwall is threatening to take over the planet. Scientists from the International Science Organization are disappearing and only five teenage heroes, the Science Ninja team, can stop the disaster.
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is a Japanese animated franchise and 1972 TV series.
Gatchaman II is the direct sequel to Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, set two years after the first television series. After the defeat of Leader X, he exacts his revenge by capturing, brainwashing and mutating a young intersex child known as Sammy into Giersadora and making them the new leader of Galactor and successor to Berg Katze. While Galactor returns, Dr. Nambu and the International Science Organization bring the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman back into active duty. This series and Gatchaman F would be the basis of the English-language version named Eagle Riders. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series and released the complete series on DVD on April 18, 2017.
Battle of the Planets is a comic book series, based on the television series of the same name. As of 2024 two series have been produced - the first was published by Gold Key Comics between 1979 and 1981; the second was published by Top Cow Productions between 2002 and 2003.
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie is a 1978 Japanese anime superhero science fiction film and a version of the anime series of the same name.
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↑ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nded.). McFarland & Co. pp.122–124. ISBN978-1476665993.
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