Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (科学忍者隊ガッチャマン Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman) is a Japanese animated series created by Tatsuo Yoshida and produced by Tatsunoko Productions.
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Dubbing History[]
Battle of the Planets[]
Battle of the Planets intro (high DVD quality)
Opening to Battle of the Planets, with narration by William Woodson
Gatchaman was first adapted for English audiences in 1978, after the international license was acquired by Television producer Sandy Frank. The acquisition was partly to capitalize on the success of Star Wars, which was released the prior year. Battle of the Planets differed significantly from its original source material. The adaptation was heavily edited to remove violence and character fatalities, usually through cutting or dubbing explanatory voice-overs. Animation of outer-space was added to give the impression that the Phoenix was flying through space, and that many of the episodes took place on Earth-like planets - another attempt to associate itself with Star Wars. The voice cast consisted mainly of Hanna-Barbera regulars, such as Casey Kasem (Shaggy Rogers in Scooby-Doo) and Janet Waldo (Judy Jetson in The Jetsons). The episodes kept the original score by Bob Sakuma, though new music by American composer Hoyt Curtin was blended in to either fill in gaps where cuts were made or fill in silent moments.
One change, likely to put emphasis on the sci-fi nature of the show, Keyop (Jinpei) became a genetically engineered lifeform rather than a child. Due to slightly defective engineering, he picked up a bizarre verbal tic of stuttering. The character of Zoltar (Berg Katse) was altered to avoid controversy, as Kattse was originally a hermaphroditic character who had a male and female-half. The episodes where his female half appeared were all written off as separate characters.
In order to explain away a lot of the cuts as well as pad the episode length, new animation of a robot character named "7-Zark-7" was animated by Gallerie International Films. Zark would primarily provide narration, as well as light comic relief. As another Star Wars influence, Zark highly resembles R2-D2 while having a somewhat campy personality similar to 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. In addition to Zark, was his robotic pet 1-Rover-1 who would occasionally appear.
The episodes were wildly out of order, (for instance, the 3rd episode aired was actually the 65th in Gatchaman) this is due to Tatsunoko Productions sending them the film reels in that order, and the dubbing team proceeding to translate as they received them. References to previous episodes that had yet to be dubbed had to be written out. In all, 85 sporadic episodes were covered, with the latest being Episode 101. Although it was at one point considered to cover all 105 episodes (by Jameson Brewer's account), Sandy Frank had decided that 85 episodes were adequate for syndication.
G-Force: Guardians of Space[]
During the 1980's, Television standards had relaxed significantly. Sandy Frank, wanting to take advantage of this, partnered up with Turner Broadcasting to create a new more faithful adaptation of Gatchaman, this time titled G-Force: Guardians of Space. Despite this, Sandy Frank was not directly involved with this adaptation, instead opting to leave Turner Program Services to hire people to adapt the series.
Originally, a pilot dub of Episode 26 was produced for Turner by the Media360 group, and dubbed in Atlanta, Georgia using local actors (including future Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actress Faith Salie). Turner rejected the pilot as it was deemed too expensive to utilize their facilities. Turner would then turn to Fred Ladd, a pioneer in translating and distributing Japanese animation in the U.S., having previously worked on famous titles such as Astro Boy, Gigantor and Kimba, the White Lion. Ladd, through his production company Sparklin' Entertainment, put together two "test" pilot episodes chosen by Turner (Episodes 18 & 87), and sent them in for approval. Within days, Ladd and his company were given the greenlight to produce the adaptation, and work on G-Force began in the fall of 1986. Ladd, along with composer Dean Andre, had only three months to get through dubbing the series and some lapses in continuity with script work occurred in the rushed schedule; The Director Anderson character would usually keep his name, but inexplicably switch to being called "Commander Todd" along with other anomalies noted by viewers.
G-Force stuck significantly closer to the original script, but was still watered down significantly. Though none of Battle of the Planets original elements were retained, many of the plots, backstories, violence and deaths were edited or softened. Many silent moments were filled in with a sole repetitive synthesized backbeat, which clashed with the music of the original series. Originally it was intended to create a new score, though this was scrapped due to the cost and time constraints. Although this version was less heavily edited and had a relatively faithful translation, the voice acting, background music and the Americanized character names were all criticized.
Only 85 of 87 episodes were dubbed, skipping Episode 81 due to not receiving Tatsunoko's simple English script for it and Episode 86 due to Fred Ladd already fulfilling the 85-episode quota. Only 85 episodes were able to be sub-licensed through Sandy Frank to match their BotP amount, though some sources including Ladd himself had wondered if lack of interest from Turner executives in adapting further episodes cut it short. Unlike BotP, the episodes were mostly received and adapted in order, outside of those two pilots.
The show initially aired for a week in the summer of 1987 as a "test run" on WTBS in America, used to fulfill a contractual obligation so it could be exported overseas. It would later be used as timeslot filler for Cartoon Network in their Super Adventures block through 1995-1997, where it received a larger audience, along with having international dubs based off of it in other countries. It was briefly re-run on the Toonami block in 2000, as part of their Midnight Run, but proceeded to disappear afterwards.
ADV Dub[]
At Anime Central 2004, ADV Films announced that they had sub-licensed the rights from Sandy Frank to do an uncut dub of the series. Between 2005 and 2006, 18 volumes were released on DVD containing all 105 episodes uncut and redubbed by ADV's Houston, Texas based voice cast. The dub was a more faithful translation than G-Force with no attempts to modify it for a younger audience, retaining all swearing, deaths and violence. Though the dub did contain some creative changes such as 70's slang and profanity.
Sandy Frank's International license expired in early 2007, thus forcing ADV's sets out of print (along with Rhino Entertainment's Battle of the Planets DVD's). ADV itself would go bankrupt a year later. However, in 2013 ADV's successor, Sentai Filmworks would license the series from Tatsunoko Productions and re-release the ADV dub on Blu-Ray, along with a new dub of the 1990's OVA. In addition, Sentai also owns the streaming rights to Battle of the Planets, available to stream on The Anime Network.
Cast[]
| Image | Character | Seiyū | BOTP[1] | G-Force | ADV Dub |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Ken Washio | Katsuji Mori | Casey Kasem | Sam Fontana | Leraldo Anzaldua |
|
Joe Asakura | Isao Sasaki | David Jolliffe (ep. 1) | Cam Clarke | Brian Jepson |
| Ronnie Schell | |||||
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Jun | Kazuko Sugiyama | Janet Waldo | Barbara Goodson | Kim Prause |
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Jinpei | Yoku Shioya | Alan Young | Luci Christian | |
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Ryu Nakanishi | Shingo Kanemoto | Ronnie Schell (ep. 1) |
Gregg Berger (eps. 1-60, 85 / test pilot #2) |
Victor Carsrud |
| Alan Dinehart | Jan Rabson (eps. 61-84) | ||||
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Dr. Nambu | Tōru Ōhira | Gregg Berger (eps. 1-60, 85) |
Andy McAvin | |
| Jan Rabson (eps. 61-84) | |||||
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Director Anderson | Teiji Ōmiya | Edward Andrews | Bill Capizzi | Marty Fleck |
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Red Impulse | Hisayoshi Yoshizawa | Keye Luke | Cam Clarke | John Tyson |
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Berg Katse | Mikio Terashima | Bill Capizzi | Edwin Neal | |
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Leader X | Nobuo Tanaka | Charles Campbell | ||
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7-Zark-7 | Alan Young | |||
| Narration | Hideo Kinoshita | William Woodson | Norm Prescott | George Manley | |
Additional Voices[]
G-Force Pilot[]
G-FORCE Guardians of Space - Pilot Program
Fragment of the test dub by the Media360 Group
- Don Spalding as Lucas (Ken)
- Barry Stoltze as Jason (Joe) & Professor Nicholas (Dr. Nambu)
- Faith Salie as Rachel (Jun)
- John Ferguson as David (Jinpei) & Commander Tiros (Leader X)
- Doug Paul as Quintin (Ryu), Commander Zol (Berg Katse) & Narrator
Character Names[]
Each respective adaptation of the dub would rename the characters, excluding ADV which retained the original Japanese names. This was done so as to differentiate Battle of the Planets from G-Force.
| Original Name | BOTP Name | G-Force Name |
|---|---|---|
| Ken Washio | Mark | Ace Goodheart |
| Joe Asakura | Jason | Dirk Daring |
| Jun | Princess | Agatha June |
| Jinpei | Keyop | Pee-Wee |
| Ryu Nakanishi | Tiny Harper | Hoot Owl |
| Dr. Nambu | Chief Anderson | Dr. Brighthead |
| Director Anderson | President Kane | Director Anderson Commander Todd |
| Red Impulse | Colonel Cronus | Red Impulse |
| Berg Katse | Zoltar | Galactor |
| Leader X | Luminous One | Computor |
Notes[]
- According to Australian anime historian Kelly Patrick Lannan, an early alternative English dub titled The Gutman was said to have been produced as early as the late '70s, although little is known about this version except that it had 39 episodes.[2] According to his summary, Lannan himself had no clue of its origins, and its existence was first brought to light in BiB TV Programming catalogs listing it as a license from Tatsunoko Productions and Yomiko Advertising. The most common theory for its existence is that it was an early English-language test dub that was directly commissioned by Tatsunoko-Yomiko themselves, before the sale to Sandy Frank. However, outside of the the program catalogs, it cannot be determined if this dub ever aired.
- In 2002, Frank created a 70-minute compilation film editing several different episodes of Battle of the Planets together. Surprisingly, scenes of civilian violence and death were included in this edit. Although most of the original voice cast was left intact, 7-Zark-7 was redubbed by David Brent Egan.
- The voice actors other than Casey Kasem, Ronnie Schell, Janet Waldo, Alan Young, Alan Dinehart, and Keye Luke were only ever listed in the credits for Battle of the Planets. The knowledge of the other actors comes from records at Sandy Frank Entertainment.
- Due to Sandy Frank owning the International Rights to the show outside of Japan until 2007, most foreign dubs were based on Battle of the Planets, so in other-words are dubs of a dub.
- Fred Ladd was previously offered to produce Battle of the Planets by Sandy Frank, though he declined citing location conflicts (Ladd was based in New York, while the show was dubbed in California), as well as a lack of confidence in the initial lip-synch writer Frank had hired before Jameson Brewer's involvement.
- The Dineharts are often mixed up on fan sites, as the elder Alan Dinehart was actually the second in line in the family, while Mason Alan Dinehart was actually the third but usually credited as "Jr."
- Frank was looking to doing a new redub of Battle of the Planets in 2003, with voices provided by Ocean Productions's Vancouver-based talent pool. The series would have compacted the 85 episodes and 20 unadapted episodes into 52 episodes, as well as having 7-Zark-7 rendered in CGI. These plans were scrapped due to cost concerns.
Transmission[]
G-Force: Guardians of Space
| Date(s) | Channel | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | TBS | United States | 
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| 1995-1997; 2000 | Cartoon Network | ||
Video Releases[]
Battle of the Planets
| Distributor | Year | Format | Contents | Region | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhino Entertainment | 2001-2003 | 
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Eps 1-38 | 1 NTSC |
United States |
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| 6 Volumes 2 Special Editions | ||||||
| Playback | 2004 | The Complete Series | 2 PAL |
United Kingdom | 
| |
| 15 Discs | ||||||
G-Force: Guardians of Space
| Distributor | Year | Format | Contents | Region | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhino Entertainment | 2004 |
|
The Best of G-Force | 1 NTSC |
United States |
|
Gatchaman
| Distributor | Year | Format | Contents | Region | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADV Films | 2005-2006 |
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The Complete Series | 1 NTSC |
United States |
|
| 18 Volumes | ||||||
| Section23 Films | 2013 | 
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The Complete Series | A DVB-T | ||
| 14 Discs | ||||||
See Also[]
References[]
- ↑ Staff / Cast. battleoftheplanets.info. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
- ↑ Gatchaman Archive-English Dubbed (archived 23-Feb-2002)
External Links[]
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman at the Internet Movie Database
- Battle of the Planets at the Internet Movie Database
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia