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Gatchamanf

Gatchaman Fighter aka Gatchaman F (科学忍者隊ガッチャマンF(ファイター) (Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman Faitā) is the third and final installment of the original Science Ninja Team Gatchaman series, airing from October 7, 1979 to August 31, 1980 and lasting 48 episodes. The story picks up where Gatchaman II left off, and takes a dark turn during the final episodes. A notable part of this series is the mecha lacking the bird motif of the previous two series, as well as an overall improvement in the animation and music quality.

After years of never seeing any kind of Region 1 release, Sentai Filmworks bought the rights to the final entry of the original series and released it on DVD on July 04, 2017.

Overview[]

Leader X was a space computer that was the terrifying will of the universe. Galactor's Solar Shift Plan was finally foiled by the desperate efforts of the Science Ninja Team and Leader X was completely destroyed. However, the aftereffects of the solar shift plan were greater than expected. Although the abnormal natural phenomena finally subsided, it still caused a great deal of damage in various parts of the world. The Mantle Project, ISO's resource development initiative for peace, has also been dragged back to its early stages. The world was now on its way to rebuilding itself. Amidst the ruins, people began to act with hope.

However, there is a group that is taking advantage of this crisis and aiming to conquer the world. A mysterious man who calls himself Count Egobossler and his gang. The rise of this syndicate plunges people into the depths of fear. He falls in love with robbery and kidnapping, and commits destruction and murder regardless of the means. This gang is intelligent and scientific. Count Egobossler is an extraordinary and learned man, and his leadership of the gang is genius.

Count Egobossler's gang attacks a certain country's armored forces and steals attack jets, large tanks, and even missile cannons. The gang plans to use this force to intimidate the militaries of each country and establish themselves as world conquerors all at once.

The crisis caused by Leader X ends up allowing them to do so, and people become embroiled in anxiety and fear. However, there are some youths who bravely stand up to the gang's evil deeds. As you know may know, this is Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Although Leader X was destroyed, the Science Ninja Team was not disbanded. After Director Anderson's death, Dr. Kozaburo Nambu, who was newly appointed as Director of the ISO (International Agency for Science and Technology), did not wholeheartedly believe that Leader X was done for. It was hard to believe that Leader X, who had brought the Earth into crisis twice, would just step back. The opponent is an omniscient and omnipotent space computer that he suspected was planning to attack Earth in some way.

For that reason, the Science Ninja Team was further strengthened.

- Excerpt of the official planning for the sequel, by the Tatsunoko Planning Department team responsible

The success of Gatchaman II on Fuji TV had led to not only an extension, but a request for an immediate sequel to follow its broadcast. The working title for this third installment would be Science Ninja Team Burning Gatchaman[1] (科学忍者隊 燃えろガッチャマン Kagaku Ninjatai Moeru Gatchaman) or "Burning Gatchaman III" as also mentioned in the planning itself[2], but would ultimately change over the production.

In an interview with director Seitaro Hara and producer Tomoyuki Miyata around the time of broadcast, Hara would state regret for how with trying to make Gatchaman II emulate the original series, it turned out more disappointing as a product. The objective with Fighter would, therefore, to create a simpler story that children under 12 could understand and include more action[3]:

However, since we can't fundamentally ignore everything that has existed up until now, a completely different "Gatchaman" will never be born. This is a very painful point for the production staff. No matter how much we work on it as a new work, there was definitely a Part I and Part II, and I'm very happy that there are fans of it. Anyway, no matter how many hesitations and worries I have, I think the only thing that I can do is stick to the basics and work hard to create something.

Hara would also emphasize how he wanted the series to be different from the previous two directors with these elements[4]:

If the old Toriumi version of Gatchaman depicts the relationship between Ken and his father, and the Sasagawa version in Gatchaman Part II depicts Joe's suffering as a cyborg, this time "Gatchaman Fighter" will depict the fighting Gatchaman. That is what I wrote. Now, in terms of human development, the Gatchaman series has finally become a young man. From now on, he must live his life as a full-fledged human being, filled with blood and tears. This is when the real battle begins. The expectations that fans of the previous work have for the new work may be incredible, but I want to break away from that and create a work that can be enjoyed by everyone, from young children to upper grades. Therefore, the iron beast mecha, the mecha corps, and even the Ninja Team's mecha have been updated, and more mecha will appear than ever before, and mecha vs. mecha action will be the focus. In the two previous works, Leader Z, who has a direct desire for revenge and has become a mechanical brain, will do everything in his power to annihilate the Earth. Now he emerges in the form of a mechanical iron beast. In response to this, the Ninja Team, who do not know how to survive, are angry from the bottom of their hearts. Their anger drives them to fight fiercely. Ken and his friends have also grown.

Since it was felt Ken and Joe's psychological drama was more adequately covered by the previous work, the producer Miyata recommended that Ken be in a more heroic role than Part II and to be given a sword as a weapon. Though Katsuji Mori would admit to questioning over whether or not he should continue voicing Ken, due to feeling the newer Tatsunoko works were subpar after Tatsuo Yoshida's death, he would be encouraged by Hara to craft a new performance.

Miyata had also felt that although Gatchaman II felt like a natural progression of the scientific aspects and psychological human drama, the result may have been too difficult for children, so Fighter would return to a younger demographic and be more focused on the action and the mecha involved in the battles. However, this would not be without criticism due to the focus on the action taking away from more character stories for the team, and with Ken having heavy solo battle focus.

In deciding the new villain of the series, Ippei Kuri would relate that a more "familiar" sort of character would be designed, compared to the mutant settings of previous Galactor sub-leaders. Count Egobossler would be designed with the charm of an ordinary person devoted to evil, with a nihilistic sense but the status of nobility.

Even with the intent to go with simpler stories for children to understand, the series would not be without any tragic elements and would continue the theme of self-sacrifice: Ken would have a powerful new weapon, but his life would be even more on the line than before, as this very weapon would be responsible for gradually killing him through the series.

There would also be another hard-hitting development in the last stretch, as Jinzo Toriumi and Satoshi Suyama made the decision to have Dr. Nambu die, as a way to have the Science Ninja Team suffer the loss of their mentor and have to go through the final battle on their own. A real-life funeral screening would be held for the character of Nambu by Tatsunoko after the end of the series, which would include showing the final batch of episodes.

Fighter had suffered a drop in ratings during its run, leading to Fuji TV wanting to cancel it early before its four planned cours were complete, though the high sales of the Gatcha Spartan toy had its manufacturer Popy insisting the show continue on longer. Ultimately, Fighter would have a nearly year-long run, but with a slightly shorter episode count (48 vs. the 52 of II) and the series would wrap up a month earlier than the previous ones had. The program to take over its timeslot would be Muteking the Dashing Warrior.

Characters[]

Chief Nambu's suspicions turned out to be true. The space computer Leader X was destroyed, but it was only his sub-brain. As such, only the mechanical component, which is another part of the brain of Leader X, survived as he'd thought. This mechanical brain is called Leader Z.

Leader Z is a huge mechanical factory and has the ability to create all kinds of iron beasts. Leader Z can be said to be a crazy evil mecha factory that uses science for evil and is a genius. Leader Z makes full use of this ability, burns with Leader X's desire for revenge, and uses Count Egobossler's gang as his arms and legs. Count Egobossler knows how terrifying Leader X was, and respects Berg Katse and Gel Sadra.

- Excerpt of the drama setting from the Burning Gatchaman/Fighter document

See also the List of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman Fighter characters for more episodic individuals.

International Science Organization[]

Science Ninja Team[]

Support members[]

Galactor[]

Episode List[]

  1. New Dark Clouds
  2. Here Comes the Gatcha Spartan!
  3. An Oasis Made Tainted
  4. The Iron Commando's Challenge
  5. Charge! The Unruly Warriors
  6. Burn! Gatchaman Fencer
  7. Steal the Giant Iron Beast!
  8. The Do-or-Die Desperado Squad
  9. Terror of the Matter Elimination Cannon
  10. In Danger! Gatchaman Base
  11. The Satan Limited Express Z-Press
  12. The Order to Destroy Mantle Base
  13. Violence?! The Decisive Battle of Agrica!
  14. In Flames! Egobossler's Palace
  15. Ambitions that Burn in Hell
  16. Murderous Butterflies Flitting in the Dark
  17. The Horrifying City of Devilish Fumes
  18. The G-1's Spectacular Crash!
  19. Don't Reach for the Hypermatter!
  20. The Terrifying Triple Iron Beast Appears
  21. Rage, Joe! The Horrifying Phoenix
  22. The Order to Blow Up the Satellite
  23. The Evil Mechaland
  24. Proud Warriors
  25. Sky Riders from Hell
  26. G-1 Enraged! A New Way to Kill
  27. The Mystery of Egobossler's Birth
  28. Mortal Combat! The Valley of Betrayal
  29. Heartless! Siblings Torn Apart
  30. The Creeping Alien
  31. Runaway! The Great Train Chase
  32. The Mystery of the Space Pulse
  33. A Promise Fulfilled
  34. Egobossler's Scheme
  35. The Shadow of Death Approaches the G-1
  36. Hyper Shot Crisis
  37. Revive, Gatchaman
  38. The Bracelet of Friendship
  39. Overthrown! Count Egobossler
  40. Assault of the Mecha Tornados!
  41. Collapse! Gatchaman Base
  42. The Final Moments of Chief Nambu
  43. Galatown's Destruction
  44. The Space Devil Draws Near
  45. The Threat of the Anti-Matter Planetoid
  46. G-1's Death-Defying High Power
  47. Earth's Annihilation! 3, 2, 1...
  48. Gatchaman Eternal

Staff[]

  • Original Work: Tatsuo Yoshida
  • Character Designs: Yoshitaka Amano, Akemi Takada
  • Producer: Kenji Yoshida
  • Planning: Ippei Kuri, Shigeru Yanagawa, Jinzo Toriumi (Tori Pro), Satoshi Suyama (Tori Pro)
  • SF Consultant: Rei Kosumi
  • General Director: Seitaro Hara
  • Screenwriters: Jinzo Toriumi, Satoshi Suyama, Akiyoshi Sakai, Kazuhiro Yoshida, Akira Nakahara, Katsuhiko Taguchi (as Shoichi Taguchi), Osamu Sekiguchi, Setsu Kumagai, Yu Yamamoto, Hirohisa Soda, Haruya Yamazaki, Masaaki Sakurai, Nobutaka Yamanaka
  • Episodic Directors: Koichi Mashita, Hidehito Ueda, Mizuho Nishikubo, Yoshizo Tsuda, Yukihiko Uchida, Kunihiko Okazaki, Kozo Takagaki, Hisatoshi Hiratani, Aritoki Sugiyama, Shohei Ishida, Masamune Ochiai, Yutaka Kagawa, Kazuyuki Hirokawa, Sadamitsu Shinya, Bonjin Nagaki, Futoshi Takano
  • Script Cooperation: Tori Pro
  • Music: Hiroshi Tsutsui
  • Effects: Shoji Kato (Anime Sound Production)
  • Art Design: Mitsuki Nakamura
  • Mechanical Design: Kunio Okawara
  • Animation Director: Shizuo Kawai
  • Drawing Supervision: Sadao Miyamoto
  • Recording Director: Kan Mizumoto
  • Recording: Yoshihiro Kaneko (Arasaka Recording)
  • Development: IMAGICA, cooperation with Sukianime
  • Producers: Ippei Kuri, Tomoyuki Miyata
  • Production Cooperation: Yomiko Advertising
  • Production: Tatsunoko Pro, Fuji TV

Voice Cast[]

  • Ken: Katsuji Mori
  • Joe: Isao Sasaki
  • Jun: Kazuko Sugiyama
  • Jinpei: Yoku Shioya
  • Ryu: Shingo Kanemoto
  • Chief Nambu: Toru Ohira
  • Engineer Kamo: Hiroo Oikawa
  • Leader Z: Seizou Kato
  • Count Egobossler: Koji Nakata
  • Kempeler: Kenichi Ogata
  • Mechandol: Yoshito Miyamura
  • Narrator: Rokuro Naya

International Adaptations[]

Taiwan[]

This series was localized as part of Tornado Youth Flying Knights, though on home video it is given the title Tornado Spartan.

Italy[]

Gatchaman Fighter aired here under the title of Gatchaman: Battaglia dei Pianeti, as with previous series.

Later on, Italy would wind up airing their own dub of Eagle Riders as well.

South Korea[]

Gatchaman Fighter was adapted in 1996 as Eagle 5 Brothers F.

United States of America[]

This series also utilized for Saban Entertainment's Eagle Riders, although most of the final episodes were not adapted, save for bits of their footage being spliced into other earlier stories. The furthest episode used in its entirety was Fighter #40, while Fighter #15 was adapted and aired as the series finale.

There were many other countries that would air dubs of this adaptation in turn (such as Italy above), allowing them to get Gatchaman Fighter, if in a heavily edited and incomplete format.

Manga Tie-Ins[]

  • Yoiko:
  • Kindergarten:
  • TV-kun:

Trivia[]

  • The Gatcha Spartan was initially conceptualized as the "Fortress Phoenix", as mentioned in the Burning Gatchaman planning, and resembled a mecha version of the hilt for Ken's sword. Due to Popy not approving of the mecha design, it was reworked into the "Phoenix Victory" and then renamed to the Gatcha Spartan.
  • The Hypershoot and Ken's cell destruction were not elements that existed in the original planning for the series, but were added to increase the stakes and emphasize Ken risking his very life in battle. The quick solution of Joe being restored as an "indestructible cyborg", in comparison, was to present him as a foil to Ken: while the previously-endangered Joe would now have no risk in battle and be more at ease with his state, Ken would be destroying his very body while his hot-blooded nature would increase.
  • Compared to the last project, in which elements of Gel Sadra's origin were already revealed in the show and planning, Count Egobossler's backstory and the situation with his half-brother were later decided plot points to be developed by the staff during the show's run to provide greater depth.
  • The Burning Gatchaman planning would also include an element of Count Egobossler being deceived that he would gain a "second Earth"-type planet all to himself named "Andaraas" for him helping Z destroy the Earth. Of course, this is a mere lie by Leader Z to exploit humanity's greed and foolishness, and Egobossler would eventually learn he was deceived by Z all too late when the Earth was on the way to being destroyed. More concrete elements, such as his fate and how the Science Ninja Team would defeat Z, would be left to be worked out when the program was greenlit and progressed through its airing.

References[]

  1. https://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/auction/item/itemInfoJa.html?index=277386 "Burning Gatchaman" new series program booklet, auctioned off of Mandarake on 06/08/2014
  2. Gatchaman Complete Works: Gatchaman Graffiti 1972-2000 (Asahi Sonorama)
  3. Animage, November 1979
  4. The Anime, December 1979
Gatchaman media
TV animation Science Ninja Team Gatchaman · Gatchaman II · Gatchaman Fighter · New Gatchaman (unproduced)· Good Morning Ninja Team Gatchaman · Gatchaman Crowds · Battle of the Planets: Phoenix Ninjas (unproduced)
Movies Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie · Gatchaman (2011 - unproduced) · Gatchaman (2013)
Adaptations Battle of the Planets (movie) · Eagle 5 Brothers · G-Force: Guardians of Space · Eagle Riders· Battle of the Planets: The New Exploits of G-Force (unproduced)
Other Gatchaman (OVA) · NTT Gatchaman · Tachimals Theater · Infini-T Force · Time Bokan: Royal Revival
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