Misconceptions and Rumor Guide for Gatchaman

This page outlines different rumors, misconceptions, and lingering questions that have persisted since early fandom days for Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, due to mistranslations or unusual claims spread through Usenet or other sources through various languages. The truth behind such claims and any sources are noted where applicable.

Original Series

Setting-related rumors

The original Science Ninja Team Gatchaman series (1972-1974) takes place in the year of 2010

This is a mix-up due to the setting of Jinzo Toriumi's light novel "The Condor Flies!", which takes place in that year. However, the events of the novel do not align with the canon of the series, and would be its own more adult-oriented, updated retelling by Toriumi.

The actual year of the 1972 series' plot is not stated within the show, although director Hisayuki Toriumi had envisioned 2001 as a possible year due to it seeming futuristic enough and being inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, some dialogue in the show has had viewers theorize that some of the writers' room were working with the idea that the plot would take place in the "near future" of the 1990s; episode 94 has Katse state how the first atomic bomb was developed 50 years ago, which would bring the time axis to 1995. The scriptwriter, Takao Koyama, may have been going off his own idea of the 1990s being an acceptable 20 year look into the future, though other writers may not have necessarily been working with that sort of mindset.

Since the years of the plot are not clarified in the show, it winds up usually being free for interpretation among fans. When it comes to sequels and remakes, their time axis tends to be more concrete:

• The aforementioned "Condor Flies!" light novel: 2010
• Gatchaman OVA and its related light novels: 2066
• New Gatchaman: 2021
• NTT East ads: 2013
• Live-action movie: 2050
• Imagi movie: 21XX, at the point of Kevin Munroe's involvement
• Gatchaman Crowds: 2015

The series takes place after World War Three

Status: Debatable

The first mention of this possibility occurred in the Fantastic TV Collection volumes by Asahi Sonorama, in which a vague third but brutal war between countries was involved, as well as a character setting detail of Red Impulse having been a pilot in a large war. There is no official declaration of any WWIII in the series, though wars all over the world can be a common backdrop for specific plots in each installment (eg: the war between Bien and Ameria, the civil war of Franbel, the civil war of the Congol, etc.).

However, in Hisayuki Toriumi's SF Roman light novel, which seemed to further some of his writing from those volumes, a WWIII is said to have happened in the past although very little detail is given on it.

On the characters' aging/"How old are they at the start and end?"

The concept of whether or not the Science Ninja Team and other characters physically age or were left in an unspoken setting stasis by Tatsunoko tends to be up for interpretation. These initial ages, in the finalized planning, are meant to apply to the start of the series:

• Ken: 18
• Joe: 18
• Jun: 16
• Jinpei: 10 (though 11 is also given in other materials)
• Ryu: 17
• Dr. Nambu: 48
• Red Impulse: 45
• Berg Katse: 28 (changed to 30 in movie)

No birthdays were developed and the sequels did not have any ages given for the team or Nambu. Since the writing portion did make sure to set the series somewhat in "real time", fans will note how certain episodes will reflect a significant amount of time passing, particularly a reference to Galactor's war having taken a year and 10 months by the end. This may be compounded further by Gatchaman II starting a further two years after that end, while some sources by Tatsunoko also give it as a "three years later" case (when not counting another year that passes in-series, and another year that passes throughout Fighter).

The Infini-T Force continuity, as its own take, claims the war against Galactor has taken six years although it appears only characters like Katse from the original series are reflected and the sequels do not seem to be taken in mind (so Joe is not a cyborg, and there are no Gel Sadra or Count Egobossler). Ken's set age of 24, however, would still seem to reflect the age he may wind up by the end of Fighter if the writer's room had taken any aging in mind.

Ken and Jun are an official couple

While Jun is mentioned in her official settings to have feelings for Ken and try to get his attention, there is no open reciprocation or endgame between the two, although it can be left up to interpretation as to whether or not Ken is aware. By the time of Fighter, narration at the end of episode 46 does drop a hint that he may feel for her but confirms that they are constrained by their mission to defeat Galactor:

"Ken felt Joe's strong friendship. And towards Jun, he was feeling something more . However, the thick barrier of duty to save the world stood between the two."

The early proposals for the series might have leaned more this way had they advanced, as Jun was the second-in-command and the formula appeared to follow other Tatsunoko action series with similar leads: Go Mifune and Michi Shimura from Mach Go Go Go, and Bunta Oozora and Miki Kazemaki from Sky Fighter Z. There are also more overt romantic expressions from Jun witnessed in a few early scenario scripts, such as her meant to be staring at Ken passionately at the end of episode 3, and specific focus with her and Ken in some early plots.

Some adaptations such as the live-action movie carry forth the idea of Jun with a hopeless crush on Ken, to a much greater degree.

There is a love triangle between Ken, Jun, and Joe

While Jun shows concern for Joe in some episodes of Gatchaman II and gets some spotlight alongside him in episode 29, there is nothing spoken on-screen about an intended "love triangle" that carries to the final product. But some rumors persist about Jun being torn between the two men, before she finally "chooses Ken over Joe" when she is shown upset over Ken's worsening condition in Fighter.

When it comes to certain adaptations, however, some writers may give such an impression:

• Jinzo Toriumi in "The Condor Flies!" has Ken have feelings for Jun, though she is more interested in Joe and is his liaison to the team.
• The writers involved in the Eagle Riders adaptation of Gatchaman II added more chemistry between Joe and Kelly through dialogue, though her official profile mentions how relationships are important to her and that she has great bonds with both Joe and Hunter.
• The Imagi movie had a potential love triangle between Eagle, Swan, and Condor as one of the plot points that they wanted audience feedback for about developing, and Joe and Jun seemed to be the top-promoted characters to represent the movie in their company report.
• The Battle of the Planets comics by Top Cow, written by Munier Sharrieff and David Wohl, intentionally teased chemistry between Princess and both boys, as well as suggesting that Jason had his own hidden feelings for her and jealousy towards Mark over that as well.

The live-action movie would avert this kind of formula, as Joe considers himself to still be engaged to his lost lover Naomi while Jun repeatedly tries to pursue Ken (who also had feelings for Naomi).

The DeAgostini mooks for Gatchaman II would later clarify that the staff for the series did in fact intend a romantic relationship between Joe and Jun to develop,and explained the idea.

"At the beginning of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II, the reasons and secrets of Joe's resurrection were not explained to the team members and the audience. This is because the production team deliberately did not reveal Joe's true identity in order to attract the audience's interest. It was not until the 24th episode "A Suspicious G-2" and the subsequent 25th episode "The Sad Cyborg" that Joe's transformation into a cyborg was further clarified.

Although the Science Ninja Team learned this fact in episode 27 "Dr. Nambu Dies!", the idea during the original planning stage was that Joe's true identity should have been exposed much earlier. The original story was that Joe was worried by himself, and only the attentive Jun noticed that he had become a cyborg. However, Jun would not tell Ken and the others this secret, and would secretly help Joe while her sympathy turned to love.

In the main story, the Science Ninja Team who learned Joe's identity accepted his experience to face Galactor together. Later in the 29th episode "Life or Death! The Devilish Northern Cliff", Jun did not hesitate to catch up with Joe who was facing a dangerous mission alone, and the two appeared to have a very close relationship. This episode, in which the relationship heated up rapidly, was originally planned to describe the relationship between Joe and Jun."

A short statement from the planning was also given in newspapers of the time and in the new program announcement:

"By chance, she learns Joe's secret, but without telling anyone she secretly helps Joe and soon her sympathy turns into love..."

This was the reason for why Jun seemed closer to Joe in some episodes and it was meant to be a subplot, only for the idea to be gradually put aside when the series was extended from 26 episodes to 52 and other elements and characters like Dr. Pandora were introduced. What aired as episode 29 was also originally titled "The Northern Cliff of Love", outright showing another intended remnant of this particular story angle.

Jinpei uses a lot of profane words and that's why Keyop speaks weirdly in "Battle of the Planets"

This stems from long-held mailing list rumors that Keyop's strange verbal tic was a way to cover up for Jinpei constantly being rude and foul-mouthed. In actuality, the noises made by Keyop were a way to convey an "alien accent" and were ad-libbed by Alan Young between the coherent words seen in scripts.

Even as some had tried to debunk this claim as early as the 1990s, other fansites would still perpetuate the idea that Jinpei was saying bad words all the time and was consequently made into a gibberish-spouting being for American families' consumption.

Ken's mother is named Sayuri Washio

This is a setting only applicable to the OVA series, while it can't really be said what the mother's name would have been in the original as it does not come up. It is not known if any scenario drafts may have given a name for the mother, compared to a character like Joe where both his parents' names were mentioned in the plot (even if their faces were not necessarily visible).

Did Dr. Nambu really get the Bird Style technology from aliens? When is that said?

This is a "back setting" decided by the SF consultant Rei Kosumi, in devising the sci-fi elements for the series, and does not come up in the show itself. After trying to figure how Nambu would have developed such technology, he decided that there must have been another alien race that opposed X and decided to provide that to Nambu as a way to fight him.

This was carried over in a sense to the light novels for the OVA series, where Nambu was provided technology for the G-mechas and Bird Styles from an alien race who opposed X's intent to take over the Earth and hyper-evolve its people into being biological weapons. This is accomplished by him analyzing the mysterious radio waves he's been receiving from somewhere in the universe, which turn out to be data from this mysterious race and their technology.

The pendant shown by the ending of Fighter, and the strange deus ex machina it creates in that (as well as the OVA having a similar end with a strange "Phoenix" that talks to the team and then to Nambu) may be an on-screen remnant and indication of the idea of the technology coming from some sort of alien, higher power.

On "Gatchaman"

What is the true origin of the Gatchaman part of the title?

It is often assumed that the term Gatchaman came merely from the sound of clanging mecha, Gacchan, and some retrospectives may simplify it to such. The true meaning is a bit more grim, and may have been inappropriate to state around children at the time.

A Yomiuri executive, Kanshi Matsuyama, is attributed by various staff members as having been the one to suggest "Gatchaman" for Tatsunoko's hero series; candidate titles for it at the time included Science Ninja Team Torimekaman, Science Ninja Team Birdman, and Science Ninja Team Shadow (which made it far enough to appear on finalized settei and an episode planning chart).

Matsuyama suggested the title, remembering "Gatchaman" as a term for old-school railway workers who were responsible for physically coupling and uncoupling the train cars; the "gatcha" part would describe the sound of connecting such cars. The job of a Gatchaman was very dangerous, as there was a chance the worker could get caught between the train cars and die. Matsuyama figured with the series being such a dangerous proposal, as well as the concept of combining mecha for the Phoenix, it was only a fitting title to pitch to the staff.

Various other origins for the name were thought up after by different staff members:

1. Jinzo Toriumi claimed that when a child asked him what "Gatchaman" meant, he explained that it was merely a combination of the loanwords "Guts + Man", or that when two mecha combine they make the sound "Gatchaman"
2. Mecha designer Kunio Okawara would state that the sound of dragonflies connecting was described as "Gatcha"
3. Rei Kosumi, SF consultant, would note that the English slang "Gotcha!" was also very similar

In any case, the name proved to be appealing to Tatsunoko Production and was what would stick to the final planning. However, one point of mystery would be that even before the Gatchaman titling, the team members still had "G-(number) designations seen in the Shadow period. It is unknown what significance or meaning that the "G" held at that point.

Is the "Gatchaman" name only for Ken or the team?

The "Gatchaman" codename only belongs to Ken, as in the original intent, though there are times in II and Fighter when the word may be used to refer to other team members or the group as a whole. The redrawn settei of other Science Ninja Team members for II also state "Gatchaman G-2", "Gatchaman G-3", etc. (compared to the original settei which read "Shadow G-2" and similar, with the Shadow part stemming from the Science Ninja Team Shadow working title)

In the series proposal by Tatsunoko, the Gatchaman name is used to make Ken stand out from the rest of his team and the inclusion of it in the title is to highlight his importance. This has been compared to other popular team-related manga and anime of the time such as Cyborg 009, Skyers Five, Rainbow Sentai Robin, and Tatsunoko's own Boy Ninja Squad Moonlight. Each of these series were either named directly after the protagonist, or had the protagonist's name appended to the rest of the title (as with Robin and Moonlight).

Some adaptations blur this further, such as Imagi's scrapped movie considering the team to be "Gatchaman" and there being meant to have been past teams by the name. Gatchaman Crowds also considers "Gatchaman" to be the title for many transforming heroes, rather than the leader of them all.

Airing of the series

Why did the opening and ending themes switch during the run of the original series?

From episodes 1 to 22, "Destroy! Galactor" by the Columbia Cradle Club was displayed as the opening theme, while "Gatchaman's Song" by Masato Shimon was the ending theme. This was the reverse of Tatsunoko's original intent, though the true reason why they aired this way would wind up speculated and subject to various rumors.

1. One rumor would have it that due to Masato Shimon being popular at the time for the Kamen Rider theme, there was a worry of confusion and inconvenience to hear him singing the opening for the show.
2. Another was that the beginning of Toei's Devilman anime theme had a similar "Who is it? Who is it?" lyric, so it would be best to not confuse or infringe on that series.

The true reason, stated by Hisayuki Toriumi later on, was that Yomiuri Advertising did not like "Gatchaman's Song" as the opening theme, due to feeling the show was for kids and an executive preferring "Destroy! Galactor" to be representative of that. The staff for the show were not pleased with the suggestion, but switched the songs. When it came time for the show to change time slots, Toriumi would remember that the same executive admitted to not liking "Destroy! Galactor" as the opening after all, and that "Gatchaman's Song" would work better.

From episode 23 to the end of the show, the songs' placements were switched back to the original vision with "Song" coming first, and the opening theme was modified slightly to include clips from episodes. The "next episode preview" trailers would subsequently switch from using "Song" to "Destroy! Galactor" from episode 24.

Did the "next on Gatchaman" previews air before or after the ending theme? Which is correct?

Home media releases and current rebroadcasts will air the previews last, though the original broadcasts would air the previews before the ending theme.

Were there actually scenes removed from episodes?

Some fans may note that the previews for certain episodes, particularly towards the end, include footage that would not appear anywhere in the actual plot. The short answer would be that yes, there would have been deleted scenes, although the original footage in all likelihood no longer exists and was trimmed for time and space constraints.

Even after a script for an anime episode is already modified ahead of the storyboarding and animation stages, there may still be different sequences or frames (called "cuts" in the industry) that may be drawn up and fully animated yet still never make it to the recording stage and the final edit. There may also be cases where the next episode trailers are produced while the episode is still being worked on and may have unfinished animation or early takes used to represent it.

Footage trimming would tend to happen most often in the episodes directed by Hisayuki Toriumi, as he found that the scenes weren't flowing to his liking and that some shortening was needed for the plot. This would also occur due to disagreements with the screenwriters for the episodes, where they had come up with scenes that Toriumi had found unnecessary in the pacing, or conflicted with his own final vision.

Sometimes those who obtain copies of the original afureko (recording) scripts can find evidence of scenes that may have made it as far as animation, but that were deleted before the voice actors had the chance to record for them. This may either be marked by the scene being crossed out, or a reader will see extra dialogue and directions that appear nowhere in the actual corresponding episode.

The scenario scripts for Gatchaman can also show scenes that did not even make it that far, and sometimes the entire plot of the episode differing depending on how early the draft was made vs. revisions over time.

The text for the afureko script of ep.105, showcased in Fantastic TV Collection vol.1, shows some notable dialogue and cuts that were omitted from the episode as aired, explaining why Ken refused to take back his boomerang after Jinpei found it:

Ken: "Jinpei, leave that where it fell."

Jinpei, Ryu, and Jun look at Ken.

Ken: "I promised Joe. That I'd get that boomerang back from Joe himself..."

The three people hang their heads down as Ken, face stained with tears, speaks to himself.

Ken: "Joe is a man of his word, surely...he'll definitely come back"

The sun peeks over the top of the Himalayas, and Ken looks up.

Narrator: "Ken doesn't know that Joe's tenacity and his feathered shuriken saved the Earth from crisis. And Ken didn't try to find out. Joe has gone to a faraway world where Ken and his friends can't reach him..."

Jun, Jinpei and Ryu leave.

In this case, the "faraway world" would have seemingly been a euphemism for Joe's death, though the fact that there was a "Gatchaman Part 2" sequel being drafted in case Fuji TV approved a renewal may have indicated that being a plot thread that was intended to be resolved (as Joe was said to have been taken to outer space, and the writing side opting to leave him ambiguously alive due to anticipating that sequel as well as knowing fans would be upset). As Fuji TV rejected the extension proposal and the final broadcast script and cuts were simplified, viewers are left to interpret Ken's refusal to take back the boomerang on their own.

Beyond the little that is known of the "Part 2" proposal, the first publicly-published text of a later Gatchaman sequel planning (but still not yet the finalized II) continued the "faraway world" reference to explain why Joe's body was never found.

Inspirations and credit

The Gatchaman characters were based off Superman/Batman/etc.

While the Yoshida brothers were greatly inspired by American comics and opted to emulate the aesthetic in their art, there is no source of these heroes providing the motif for the Science Ninja team other than them being equated to being "Superman type protagonists" with their feats in the planning.

The motif of the team was inspired from the one in Boy Ninja Squad Moonlight, although simplified more to a five-member format. Another manga that Tatsuo Yoshida illustrated for, The World Boys' Team, was also influential for giving the characters less of a homogeneous image. Moonlight itself had characters that would roughly correspond to the archetypes used in this series: The leader (Moonlight), a secondary male character (Moonshadow), the strong guy (Crescent), the token girl (Eclipse), and a comic relief figure (Harvest Moon). A child character (Half Moon) would also be added for the live-action adaptation and later imported back into the manga.

It is to be noted that the early to mid '70s Tatsunoko hero works, due to the American influence, opted to go with an ambiguous and "stateless" sort of setting even if the characters were meant to be Japanese; The Science Ninja Team operates out of a city called Utoland, Hurricane Polymar takes place in a country named Amehon (America + Nihon, a fusion between the USA and Japan), and Casshan's setting includes rather European-esque locales.

Some of the character types for the Science Ninja Team can also be seen in other Tatsunoko series before it, most notably the "hero, love interest, and younger brother figure" formula that was carried over with Ken, Jun, and Jinpei, who were initially envisioned as being the characters to have the most focus.

Yoshitaka Amano created the design for Berg Katse

Amano's name has become attached to Katse over the years due to misunderstandings about his initial presence on the Tatsunoko art team, or perhaps due to mistakes in recollections and conflicting information in some guides.

Tatsuo Yoshida was responsible for the initial designs of Katse, which wound up mistakenly interpreted as the Turtle King Commander through the art end, leaving the design to be nixed as a new one had to be drafted up quickly for Katse's brief introduction instead. The new design was created by Ippei Kuri, and given a color scheme of purple and red to stand out better against the team.

Other designs rumored to be of Amano, but that were actually by Yoshida, include Dr. Nambu and Jun the Swan. Amano would however, wind up being an influential character design for series like Casshan, Tekkaman, and Gowapper 5 Godam, and other works.

When it comes to designs of minor characters in the original series, the "Character Room" (which included Amano) is given credit while more important designs were the work of Tatsuo Yoshida and Ippei Kuri. In the sequels, due to the passing of Yoshida, Ippei Kuri wound up as the chief character designer while Amano and Akemi Takada were responsible for other concepts.

Terminology

Ken's weapon is named the Birdrang/Bird Run

"Bird Run!" is only the shout used when Ken is using the boomerang, although some adaptations like Imagi would have christened the weapon officially as the Birdrang.

The "Bird Run" call was not something originally scripted as well, but ad-libbed by Katsuji Mori in the recording session.

The spelling of Berg Katse

The standardized spelling in English by Tatsunoko from the late 1970s to present would be "Berg Katse", though "Berg Katze" is also seen due to the origin of the name (berg katze, German for mountain cat).

Due to the way of rendering it in katakana as Beruku Kattse, with a "ku" sound rather than "gu", there do exist alternative spellings where Tatsunoko has put the name in English as "Beruck Katze" or "Berc Katze".

On the existence of "The Gutman"

This English adaptation's presence exists in programming guides as being offered by Tatsunoko Production and Yomiko Advertising, disproving a fan hoax, although its circumstances and clues to whether or not it aired anywhere remain scarce and neither company has offered an official statement.

While it can be proven that Gatchaman was at the very least proposed as an English dubbing under this title (and with 39 of its episodes sourced), and it seemed to have been directly marketed by Tatsunoko, any year of its creation and exact localization companies involved are unknown. This leaves it in a peculiar spot next to well-known adaptations like Battle of the Planets (which had been withdrawn from licensing by the mid-1980s) and G-Force: Guardians of Space, the latter of which was still being offered by Sandy Frank in the same time span that Gutman had appeared in later BiB catalogs.

The Sequels and Remakes

Gatchaman II

Tekkaman evolved from an early Gatchaman II-type sequel pitch called "Space Gatchaman"

Actually true to some extent. It seems to have been an idea killed and rejected fairly fast. Very few staff seem to remember it, but this rumor stems from talk of a possible broadcast extension on Fuji TV for 1974-1975. The name by the staff, perhaps informal, appears to have been stated as "Gatchaman Part 2" as early as 1977.

This confusing "Space Gatchaman" claim had gone around in Japanese social network systems like 2ch/5ch since the 2000s, but with no outright source book given, and had even come up unsourced on the Japanese wikipedia entry for Tekkaman the Space Knight. The claim is as follows:

It was originally planned as "Space Gatchaman,'' (宇宙ガッチャマン) a sequel to ``Science Ninja Team Gatchaman,'' which ended the previous year, but was abandoned because the key station changed from Fuji TV to NET, and a separate production was created.

No proof and sources were unearthed to show this "Space Gatchaman" to be so, leaving such a passage confusing. Sequels were also considered to be a rare concept at Tatsunoko at the time of 1974 (with only Hutch the Honeybee having received that) and the staff had fully wanted to move on from hits like Gatchaman to create more new ideas. Retrospective books like Gatchaman Graffiti also would state that any sequel plans only began in 1978, so if there were ever any concept of a follow-up before then, it would have been quickly squashed and nothing substantial would have unfolded.

It may be first thought that Tekkaman started with the general idea of being a "Space Gatchaman" or that being its nickname, but probably not a literal title. Those who would know the inner workings of Tekkaman's genesis would be the planners Jinzo Toriumi and Satoshi Suyama, who had worked on the Gatchaman franchise and other Tatsunoko series as the pitch writers. From the little that is known of Tekkaman's early stage, in a copy of the planning shared by Takao Koyama, it only had the "Tekkaman" part of its title and nothing about Space Knights yet. The Tekkaman name had also been derived from tetsu kamen; "iron mask", related to the character's appearance (and altering テツカメン in katakana to テッカマン), although the SF consultant Rei Kosumi had also given the idea that it would relate to the technology/"tech" he'd use.

The initial intended station being Fuji TV may have held truth, until it wound up having to be pitched for NET, since Fuji TV was where most Tatsunoko shows would air. There are cases where Tatsunoko titles were indeed meant for a specific station or time-slot, but then had to be adjusted to fit the needs of another when plans changed and the show was to air elsewhere (eg: Neo-Human Casshan originally being intended to take over Gatchaman's time-slot had that show only lasted for four cours, but having to be reworked to being more of a dark sci-fi "fairy tale" when Gatchaman was extended and it instead had to take over the time-slot of Tatsunoko's fairy tale programs like Pinocchio).

There are some ideas reminiscent of Gatchaman that can be seen with Tekkaman, although clearly different and reinvented for its universe; one is the "missing father" angle with Joji's father Kousei, which was intended to come back into play had the show not been cancelled and with him as a villainous Red Impulse type as Waldastar's very own Tekkaman. It was also an opportunity to re-use the rejected name of Joji Minami, which had originally been intended for the protagonist of Casshan, as well as the spaceship "The Blue Earth" which had also been an element of Casshan's original planning (as Androider Joji).

Other scattered claims of this alleged "Space Gatchaman" would involve statements like this which may seem more like fan wish-fulfillment in rumors, or if not, were only what-if ideas thrown around while trying to come up with the planning:

"It was supposed to feature Joe the Condor, who disappeared at the end of the previous work, as the main character in space."

"The original project for Tekkaman was Space Ninja Team Gatchaman, right? With Andro instead of Joe."

It is possible that Toriumi and Suyama had wanted to create a character with the feeling of Joe, due to his popularity, although not directly continuing him (what with sequels and the idea of continuity, beyond some cameos and in-jokes in more humorous shows, being unthinkable at the time). It is interesting to note though, that the "Tatsunoko Planning Department" that did an initial Gatchaman 2 pitch did opt to use the disappearance of Joe's body for an outer space angle.

But when it comes to concrete information and actual staff quotes that may offer origins to the "Space Gatchaman" rumors, or that could show some evidence of it being a brief thing, a specific quote did come from Jinzo Toriumi in Fantoche issue 7 in a Tatsunoko interview. He was briefly asked about if the staff had plans in the case that Gatchaman would have gone on for a third year of airing on Fuji TV. "The Big Tori" offered this answer, having not remembered all the fine details:

"What was that story about? I've forgotten a bit, but it is true that concepts were incorporated into Tekkaman. A character like Andro Umeda appeared, and I think the setting changed from Earth to outer space."

Satoshi Suyama would also speak briefly of it at the 2nd Tatsunoko screening festival in 1977, with his interview recorded in the pamphlet:

""There was a time when Tatsunoko was planning a Gatchaman Part 2. To be honest, it was a flop. Well, even if we could have made it to the scenario stage, we still would have had to sort out the finer details."

Katsuji Mori also corroborated this, stating that Tekkaman had indeed started as a "Gatchaman Part 2" for why Joji Minami and Ken Washio were similar as characters.

Those who may have held more information on such fine details would have likely been "The Big Tori" and Suyama, who evidently incorporated whatever elements they couldn't do in that Gatchaman Part 2 (or Neo-Human Casshan, naming-wise) into the new project. Sadly, as many Tatsunoko staff have passed away in the ensuing decades or may not engage much with retrospectives about their work, or may not remember some eras, such internal planning information and other anecdotes of what life was like at the studio and with pitches are bound to be lost with time.

Since Tatsunoko also discarded many important materials over the decades, including a purge of their assets upon the closure of their animation studio in 2007, it can also be wondered if anything of this sequel idea survived there but buried in archives or with any former employees. Maybe one day a Yahoo Auctions lot could show more evidence, as they have with other mysterious projects never officially acknowledged by Tatsunoko themselves.

Gel Sadra is a man/Gel Sadra is a woman

It's complicated. See the Trivia section on the character's page for more information on their confusing setting

While the final planning documents for New Gatchaman/Gatchaman II did specify Gel Sadra as a woman (due to keeping the last sentence relevant to the Sado Madonna iteration), the intent for the actual series is more blurred.

Articles in Animage specifically refer to the character as a 半陰半陽人間 (haninhanyou ningen), which at the time would have been used to describe intersexed (or in the outdated term, hermaphroditic) individuals, though sometimes they are also referred to specifically as a strange man. Their profile, which would also be backed up in the series, mentions them to have been a baby born with abnormal chromosomes. The series itself would also make sure to not specifically gender Sammie Pandora, only referring to them as "Pandora's child" and not anything like a son or daughter.

Though matters like sex and gender are expected to be treated as separate these days and "hermaphrodite" is an inaccurate and offensive term for intersex people, it is likely that Tatsunoko staff treated Gel Sadra as a case of "both or neither" in terms of being a man or a woman, but in a different situation than Katse (who could switch between a full-on presentation between man or woman). Foreign translations wind up confused as how to interpret the character and gender them, and will either set them as an outright man or woman; in the case of the French II compilation dub, the translation decides they are a being that is "neither" due to their unique composition. Tatsunoko staff also made it a specific point to state that unlike Katse and Sadra, Count Egobossler would be the first fully-male villain.

In the case of Sammie Pandora, it is common to see foreign dubs decide they are a young girl that was mutated, though the aforementioned French version only refers to them as "The Boy" (due to being based off the first four episodes and the child being intended to be nameless and unknown at such a point). The English dubbing of Eagle Riders, due to their confusion over how to gender Gel Sadra, creates a situation in which Nancy Aikens (Sammie's equivalent) winds up being a young girl forcibly aged and made to believe that she was a man. The character is referred to with male pronouns and is voiced by a man when masked, but then has a woman's voice when unmasked.

There is also the unique case of the Eagle 5 Brothers Korean compilation film, which treats its Gel Sadra as an unambiguously male character grown from a young boy. The eventual dub of the series itself would treat the child as a young girl, though the adult self would be treated in an ambiguous manner.

Joe was to originally stay dead in the sequel, and be replaced by his younger brother

Not exactly.

This may be assumed due to the fact that the first publicly-known sequel pitch (Gatchaman 2, note the lack of using a Roman numeral) had a "G-6" character originally slated to join the team at the start, with Joe's spot of G-2 being considered a permanently retired number in his memory.

G-6 would be a young teenage boy named Jack, who would eventually be revealed to viewers to have been Joe's long-lost brother. He would eventually believe his older brother was still alive somewhere through the events of the outline, but had requested that Dr. Nambu keep his familial relation a secret to the team so he could prove his own worth (which would become a pressure due to the others' comparison of him to Joe). There was no elaboration on where Jack was during the BC Island assassination or his age difference with Joe, presumably being left to have been points filled in had the pitch been greenlit, although he seemed to be depicted as taller and potentially older than Jinpei. There are other points left ambiguous, such as how long Dr. Nambu must have known of this brother and if he had a hand in hiding his identity all these years.

Joe would not be set as permanently dead in this pitch; he would have been abducted by a fleeing X, explaining why the team could never recover his body. In the time after the first defeat of Galactor, Joe would have been taken to a distant planet and rebuilt as a cyborg by X. He would have amnesia of who he was due to X's brainwashing, being instead given the codename of Space Joker (with the name including a pun on Jo/Joe in its katakana). The Space Joker would be a mysterious man who would interrupt or instigate fights with the Science Ninja Team , to cause diversions and give them a tough time with battle. At some point in the pitch, this subplot would culminate in Space Joker regaining his memories and being freed from X's conditioning. He would now instead act as an ally of the Ninja Team in secret, appearing in their times of need to rescue them in desperate situations while not wanting to reveal his presence to them. Still, it remains unknown what further plans there may have been or what could've been decided for the character as his final fate, as the outline ends with no ultimate conclusion.

In between this pitch and the next one for a sequel, there was consideration of continuing the Jack/G-6 concept as staff were split on whether or not reviving Joe would be a good idea. Hiroshi Sasagawa would admit that while he was a fan of the brother idea, he personally wanted to see Joe again and knew that the character had many fans. This resulted in some initial planning for Joe to be an android in the project (see below), but then deciding to revive the cyborg concept but in a different way. The first few episodes of II would also contain a remnant of the idea of Joe acting as a hidden ally to the team.

Gel Sadra was originally going to be Joe's long-lost sister

There is no evidence of this setting anywhere, probably some troll or memory mistake from a South Korean wiki editor.

This unusual rumor had originated in the South Korean Wikia equivalent Namu and its write-ups for Gatchaman, which include a mix of true information as well as more dubious to outright false claims. As no sources are provided, it makes it even more difficult to sort out the fact from fiction.

The allegation, translated, reads:

In the initial setting of Gatchaman Season 2, she almost appeared under the name Sado Madonna, but here she was Joe's lost younger sister and was kidnapped by Katse and brainwashed by Galactor, and grew up to be X's other subordinate and Katse's shadow, before X ran away. After going into hiding, as soon as X returned, she became the second leader of Galactor. Afterwards, she set up a confrontation between herself and Joe, and when she found out about her past, she secretly collaborated with Gatchaman to get revenge on X but was caught and killed.

Such a rumor conflates the original intended setting of Gatchaman 2, which included Joe's younger brother, with an early II treatment (under the title of New Science Ninja Team Gatchaman) where Gel Sadra's early equivalent was a woman with the codename Sado Madonna. However, Sado Madonna's full past was not stated in the pitch document and would have been something that would only be decided by the staff had that version made it to air. It appears that the discarding of Sado Madonna occurred quickly in the rewrite process, with her name being changed to Gel Sadra in the next draft, and then her settings being altered next.

From the little stated about Sado Madonna in the first New pitch, she was to be a mysterious guerrilla fighter slated for execution in an unknown country, until X would abduct her and choose her to be his new sub-leader of Galactor. Otherwise, she was only described as a woman of incomparable beauty and sadism. Going by Sado Madonna already being a 25-year old adult with no prior connections to Galactor, it would be highly unlikely for her to have a backstory involving abduction by Katse or a relation to Joe as a younger sibling (unless forcibly grown).

When it comes to the sequel that did come out, there was originally no intent of exploring Gel Sadra's past and just leaving their origin to be as simply as what was seen in the first episode. Once Fuji TV ordered an extension of the series from 26 to 52 airing slots, this provided Hiroshi Sasagawa and the staff the opportunity to flesh the character's past out more, as well as creating Dr. Pandora as another character and a device for that to play out.

The fact that the Namu wiki also has an editor note that there was a plan for "G-6, Jack" elsewhere indicates that there may have been confusion and a mistake with somebody adding information about the initial sequel treatments. It is to be noted that there was an entirely separate villain planned for the 2 iteration with Jack, however, with it not being Sado Madonna or Gel Sadra but a mysterious individual by the codename of Don Melder.

The Joe in the sequels is an android copy of the original Joe

That was a discarded setting early in the pre-production phases of II.

This rumor exists, and even made it into various anime guides of the time, due to the initial planning for New Science Ninja Team Gatchaman/II describing him as an android that carries the implanted memories and brain wave patterns of Joe Asakura. This setting appears to have been similar to that of Friender from Casshan, and even Casshan himself, in being a robotic shell with a living being's consciousness having been transferred and used to power it.

This would have been accomplished by a Dr. Einstein (prototypical Dr. Rafael) having discovered Joe having fallen into a ravine soon after X left and the ground became split by earthquakes, with the body still being fresh enough for him to perform such a procedure. In this setting, the android Joe would have also already been outfitted with his micro-space bomb that would be designed to take out X, but at the cost of erasing any "Joe Asakura" for good with his own sacrifice. The android was also more reliant on Dr. Einstein for energy, and the doctor would be able to control him via radar to activate the bomb.

In a revision document shortly after the first planning for II, one of the stated changes to the settings would be that "Joe is a cyborg", and no longer an android copy. This setting progressed further through the pitches, although some drafts still had isolated references to an "android" which may have provided more confusion.

Joe's cyborg state was inspired by The Six Million Dollar Man

It's possible he was more inspired by the Bionic Woman, but more off-the-record. "Gatchaman 2" also had a cyborg Joe, while it remains unknown if the Joe in the earliest "Part 2" had cybernetics or not.

This rumor and assumption often comes about because of Joe being set as a cyborg in the sequels, and speculation if the planning staff had taken the American sci-fi series The Six Million Dollar Man in mind due to its setting of a cyborg man (although the term "bionic" would be preferred). When keeping the above scrapped android setting in mind though, along with Tatsunoko having wanted to go with a Casshan-like angle, it would not be as simple.

There has never been any official statement made by anyone at Tatsunoko to connect Joe to this work, although it is possible it and other cyborg-themed media had been inspirational for him to be a relatively toned-down depiction of one, when compared to how the original Gatchaman utilized cyborgs. One doubt that comes to mind is that while The Six Million Dollar Man had been imported to Japan from 1974 to 1975, it would have been considered old by the time of the II planning (although a newer broadcast did happen to come shortly before II's airing, via TV Asahi).

An editorial comment in Asahi Sonorama's Gatchaman Graffiti, however, did opt to compare Joe to "Bionic Jamie"; Jaime Sommers, the protagonist of spinoff The Bionic Woman. This would show some consciousness of the franchise, whether or not there would be anything on-record confirming or denying any outright inspiration. The Japanese version of the series, Bionic Jamie, the Most Beautiful Woman on Earth, would be a more recent cyborg-themed work that had aired before II's genesis, broadcasting on Nippon Television from January to October 1977, followed by a dub of its third season from March to August 1978. With this in mind, it may be possible a cyborg had become more compelling for Joe's setting vs. having him be a retread of a "neoroider" type android like Casshan and Friender.

Hawk Getz' name: Is "Getz" his given name or surname? Is "Hawk" a given name or a codename?

Getz is probably the given name, but use your discretion and interpretation about the Hawk part.

In being more of a plot device than a character, there is nothing said on Getz in the planning establishment. With the all too brief existence of the Galactor fake as well as the very scant information given about the real Getz, he is left as one of many mysteries for those who would bother to wonder about the character.

Out of universe, it would seem Jinzo Toriumi had named this character "Hawk Getz" as a pun on the Japanese term for "replacement"; hoketsu/補欠. But one point of contention in and out of universe among some fans does seem to be if "Hawk Getz" should even be taken as his full name, or a more Westernized way of listing his name and Bird Style (despite the clear re-use of Condor uniform on the fake either way). This also leads to the debate of whether "Getz" is his first or last name, if the "Hawk" isn't his literal first name.

Dr. Nambu referring to him as the Earth Defense Force's "Hawk Getz" in the first episode, with confusion over whether or not the "Hawk" was pre-existing before the Ninja Team, can indeed get it assumed as his full name at first, or perhaps the "Hawk" being a title. Though he is only referred to as "Getz" by the others soon after (save for a line of Ken saying "Hawk Getz"), some wonder if the Ninja Team would have used a surname basis with an unfamiliar man.

It is to note that while Getz can certainly be a surname and that is the most common way that it is seen (in being an Ashkenazi cognate of Götz/Goetz), it is also indeed present as a given name, but more often under the Götz spelling which could even have been intended. The fact that his fiancee Mako would refer to him as merely "Getz" with no honorifics, and he was on a first name basis with her too, would add further weight to it being his first name and any surname being for viewers to decide. The discarded fact that he would essentially be from Tatsunoko's equivalent of Austria also backs up the idea of his name being either German or the Ashkenazi variant.

Furthermore, even though the re-used audio from episode 1 in episode 28 repeats Nambu's line of "Hawk Getz", Joe refers to Getz as Hooku no Gettsu; "Getz the Hawk", when recognizing his name. This may have been in error or oversight, though it presents another alternative to the name debate and a Gatchaman II retrospective in Monthly Out's December 1979 issue also uses "Getz the Hawk" to refer to the character by. Certain foreign dub situations, if opting to keep the Getz name, tend to refer to this character by their own translations of "Getz the Hawk", such as the Italian dub's "Getz il Falco". Tatsunoko's official settei in books like Gatchaman File also merely refer to him as "Getz" in the handwriting seen on the sheets, suggesting that the "Hawk" part was a codename addition or something put to strengthen the Hoketsu pun.

Despite this, there may be confusion caused from English-speaking fanfiction that would give this character a full name, often putting "Getz" as the surname and assigning more average names such as "Hank", "Eric", or "Herman" to him with no note of them being fanon. Due to the way of his codename being listed in katakana with a separator between "Hawk" and "Getz" as well, some may still even see "Hawk" as his literal given name. In some cases, like the book Gatchaman Graffiti, his name may even be rendered as the unusually one-word "Hawkgetz" in leaving out any separator.

Sometimes a name may also be assigned to the Galactor henchman that killed and replaced Getz, but it is also fanon; on the Japanese fan side, it is common to see the joking moniker of "Pork Bitz" (ポークビッツ) used to refer to the fake Getz by. In the English side of fandom in the late 1990s to early-mid 2000s, the fake Getz was often referred to as "Gant" as a way to differentiate him and to flesh him out in turn. This very specific name originated from the fanfic "Out of the Shadows" by Diinzuumo, cementing it as fanon as well as the detailed explanation for how Galactor had "Gant" replace Getz. In the early draft snippets for the episode, all Getz states is that Galactor had created a fake version of him and sent him to infiltrate the team, and such a vague replacement reference carried forth. Thus, while most fans assume Galactor created the fake Getz by surgical alteration of one of their operatives (if not a hi-tech rubber mask disguise as seen with Commander Gunda impersonating Rashid in Gatchaman Fighter), others may also assume a strange one-off cloning of Getz by Leader X. It is simply a plot point left so vague and brief, and up to quite the interpretation.

Gatchaman Fighter

Gatchaman Fighter was intended to be an unrelated animation project but was instead reworked to be a Gatchaman sequel

There is no proof by the staff to indicate this, although it is to be noted that some Tatsunoko project pitches would at times wind up heavily reworked and result in a completely different series. This would usually be facilitated by separate pitches being merged to create something combining their elements or rewritten to be something entirely new (eg: the case of Gatchaman Part 2 becoming Tekkaman the Space Knight, or the fusion of Excessive Transformer Jardeman and Roller Warrior Mr. Hero resulting in Muteking the Dashing Warrior). Still, there has never been any public indication given that this was the case for Fighter's development.

In Seitaro Hara's comments about the planning, it would seem this sequel was meant to be an incredibly different and simplified work for a younger audience in order to make things less complicated for both staff and viewers. He would even state regret that he couldn't do it as an all-new Gatchaman work, as he had to directly follow off the continuity of both series that came before.

One possible point of confusion that could have lead to the rumor is that there was another sci-fi project being planned around the time that Fighter was, with intent to take over its time slot on Fuji TV after its completion. This would be a series titled Divine Legend Sadamoebius, which would essentially be a successor to both Gatchaman and Tekkaman in its anti-war and environmentalism themes as well as involving heroes vs. a wicked space military. For whatever reasons, that work was not greenlit and Muteking the Dashing Warrior would instead take over Fighter's time slot.

Another earlier, sci-fi pitch, which the rumor could possibly stem from, was Space Science Challenge Team Challendar, announced by Ippei Kuri in the April 1979 issue of Animage as an anime project he hoped to get greenlit at Tatsunoko. It would involve a five-member team of heroes in outer space trying to fight the evil dicator Fascizer, who had killed the protagonist Cruz' father and enslaved his planet (exiling Cruz as a result). It is possible that if Challendar had failed to impress at the time, some elements like a fascist villain with a complicated family story may have been as appealing to put into Gatchaman Fighter in order to do something different and new compared to the previous works. However, the Science Ninja Team's activities would still remain on Earth, save for them having to go into space for the finale.

The Science Ninja Team definitively died at the end of Gatchaman Fighter/The Science Ninja Team are definitively alive after Fighter

Tatsunoko doesn't like to spell it out, but it's quite possible they survived.

Tatsunoko has given no official statement on the characters' fate, although it is said in the Fighter DVD commentary that after Hidehito Ueda completed the storyboards for the final episode, Ippei Kuri called him in and said the ending lacked a twist. This resulted in Dr. Nambu's pendant being utilized to cause the G-mecha to form together, and a Phoenix to be seen erupting from Z's pyramid.

It currently remains unknown how the original scenario script for episode #48 unfolded, and if there was a different or more concrete fate in mind for the team before revisions were made in the plot and storyboards. In some later books about the most controversial and shocking anime conclusions, the final episode is noted as a "traumatic shock" that caused many kids to fear and believe the Science Ninja Team had died. However, Tatsunoko staff would continue to remain vague and quiet when consulted as to what the ending meant, although the 11th issue of their Fan Club News had a story "Fly Forever!! Phoenix Warriors" suggesting the team lived and that perhaps the original ending in Yu Yamamoto's script was intended to be more straightforward, with the team regaining energy and leaving on their own from Nambu's words motivating them.

The key to the team's fate would appear to lie in that unusual pendant that was revealed in episode #47, with Chief Kamo having stated that Nambu entrusted it to him and for the team to have it in case of an emergency. Whether or not the team actually survived due to the pendant, or if it merged them into a Phoenix regardless of survival, is up for further debate and interpretation (along with a phoenix itself being representative of rebirth), although it seemed that it provided more of a twist for how they could have escaped Z when exhausted.

Dr. Nambu's dialogue of telling the team they must live, and an unusual twist involving the Phoenix and an uncertain survival, was later homaged in the final OVA via the team being visited by a strange Phoenix creature giving them the speech. The Phoenix can later being seen communicating with Nambu before taking its leave, and the Blu-Ray remastering includes Nambu fading away as the Phoenix departs, adding a further confusing layer and questions to the scene.

A curious early pitch document of the Gatchaman series, by the title of "Science Ninja Team", that was exhibited in Mandarake ZENBU presents a possible piece of foreshadowing to the idea of the team with a supernatural angle. In this document by Jinzo Toriumi and Satoshi Suyama, it is stated that when the five young people have their hearts unite as one, they can use telekinetic powers. Toriumi and Suyama had remained active through the sequels as part of their company Tori Pro, and had decided on certain key developments such as Dr. Nambu's death in Fighter. It could be theorized that Nambu's pendant and the unusual twist with the Gatcha Spartan vehicles merging into the phoenix (and the team being part of it, dead or alive), could be a way of conveying this "hearts uniting as one" concept.

It is also said that that final scene is "symbol of immortality and their very symbol (The Phoenix)", leaving more indication that they may have survived by way of the Phoenix in a book-end to how episode 1 of the original series ended (and the pendant having facilitated that). The Firebird mode was also used to escape explosions before, as this Phoenix would, but many questions are still left in such an open ending such as how Ken would survive on Earth with the level of cellular destruction he experienced.

Cancelled remake projects

"New Science Ninja Team Gatchaman" was discontinued due to the failure of Mach Go Go Go '97/A lawsuit between Tatsunoko and Speed Racer Enterprises

It's not connected to either.

While the remake of Mach Go Go Go did falter in the ratings and was cut short at 34 episodes, wrapping in September 1997, this did not seem to have much direct adverse effect on Tatsunoko planning other remakes.

A new project of Gatchaman, with the title "New Gatchaman" in its planning establishment, was created and pitched in the summer of 1998. However, the inability to find sponsors for the project killed it in this pre-production phase. It may be possible that the failure of the previous series or change in tastes with toys and models made it difficult to convince companies to sign on, compared to the ease that Gatchaman had in the 1970s.

There is also a false rumor, due to a YouTube video essayist mixing up facts about the history of Tatsunoko and Speed Racer Enterprises, that the latter company sued and bankrupted Tatsunoko for creating Mach Go Go Go '97, feeling entitled to be the only company making Speed Racer remakes and that this affected "New Gatchaman" as well. This would appear to conflate the cancellation of the '97 series with two other much later, separate incidents; the lawsuit between DiC and Speed Racer Enterprises, and Tatsunoko suing SRE for unauthorized marketing of the license after their contract expired.

To put it in short, the death of "New Gatchaman" had little to do with a previous Tatsunoko series' remake and its premature end, but much to do with the trouble in finding sponsors for the production. This same problem would also cause many other planned remakes (Dokachin, Hakushon Daimao, Space Ace, etc.) to never make it past the planning and concept art stages.

Gel Sadra and Count Egobossler are subordinates under Berg Katse in "New Gatchaman"

They are all X sub-leaders existing at once.

This claim, witnessed on the Namu wiki page, is likely due to a misunderstanding of the 1998 pitch and its intent of having all three classic villains co-existing in one series.

While the Science Ninja Team would indeed be fighting these three villains, they do not work together as a trio. Rather, they each head their own departments of Galactor, and distrust one another. Each of the three hope that they would be the most valued sub-leader by X, driving their competitive nature.

All three characters are sub-leaders of X, as they each were before in their classic incarnations, but the stakes have risen in Galactor having such high-ranking members that are at odds in the organization.

In "New Gatchaman", Red Impulse is Ken's mother instead of his father

False.

This rumor and assumption came about due to the sighting of a woman in a Red Impulse-like oufit, visible in the cel-colored model sheets that Roberto Ferrari posted on his website in 2006. These images were based off the watercolor concept artwork he had done for the New Gatchaman planning guide, but converted to a digital medium.

In truth, the Red Impulse commander we see was not intended to have any sort of relation to Ken, and the Red Impulse team were to have drastically different settings in the show and be a woman-only fighting unit (as opposed to the trio of men in the original series, or the larger troop of men in the second Gatchaman OVA episode).

The Red Impulse in "New Gatchaman" is actually Dr. Pandora

False.

This rumor originated on the Namu wiki in the South Korean fandom as well, alleging that the mysterious woman we see is actually a counterpart of Dr. Pandora, who wants to avenge her daughter who was stolen away by Galactor.

This may be conflated with somebody's fanfiction or assumption based off what her secret identity could be, if not Ken's mother, but this is not the case either.

Gatchaman Crowds

Gatchaman Crowds was meant to be just titled "Crowds" and only became Gatchaman related due to the movie promotion

This assumption sprung up among rumors in USA image boards. In truth, the Gatchaman Crowds series had come about due to an order for a new Gatchaman anime where the creative team was only tasked with making it about a "transforming hero" and otherwise being allowed to do whatever they wanted to re-imagine the concept.

From small details like Hajime's original designation of G-6 (putting her last on the six-member team) and appearing in a Bird Style, Paiman retaining a number of "G-3", and there being some form of Joe/Jo character, it can be figured that some settings were originally to be more of an homage until the lore was expanded to include many unseen "G-" members and numbers. Terms like "Bird Go!" and the names of antagonists remain carried over, along with the concept of an X being an AI system from the original Gatchaman planning.

There was to be a Crowds live-action movie

While Tatsunoko and NTV did discuss renewal of Crowds for a season 2 and a movie in a press release prior to the confirmation of Insight, there was nothing stating whether the movie plan would be live-action or animation, or if such a plan even got as far as being pitched and drafted up by any staff.