By the time Science Ninja Team Gatchaman was created by the literary staff at Tatsunoko Production, the series presented the opportunity to revisit and refine concepts that had been introduced in earlier works by the company. This article will get into some of the very examples that are known of.
The Hero, the Heroine, and a Younger Brother Figure[]
The characters originally intended to have most focus, as also indicated by some descriptions in early episode scenarios, were Ken, Jun, and Jinpei. The three were to form a dynamic similar to ones in previous Tatsunoko anime productions, although this concept was downplayed as the series went into production and the characters that would be most focused on in stories would change with the staff's preferences.
- Ken, as the hero whose codename would be in the title, would take the spot previously held by those like Go Mifune (Mach Go Go Go), the eponymous Sanshiro Kurenai, and Bunta Oozora (Sky Fighter Z). He was even originally intended to look similar to these boys, until the long-haired design was developed and created a new popular sort of character design to use for young men in further Tatsunoko series.
- Jun, originally meant to be the secondary heroine character who'd be carrying an interest in Ken, would follow the girlfriend characters of Michi Shimura (Mach Go Go Go) and Miki Kazemaki (Sky Fighter Z). While the Sanshiro Kurenai series did not have a regular heroine, there were many attractive guest girls that would hold interest in Sanshiro, including Kenbo's older sister Mayumi in the first episode. Of the later girls, the princess Olga can be seen to coincidentally have a design with features and colors identical to the eventual finalized design for Jun, in being pale-skinned with green hair and eyes.
- Jinpei, being the younger brother figure for Jun and also treated as such by Ken, would occupy the spot held by Kurio Mifune (Mach Go Go Go), Kenbo (Sanshiro Kurenai), and Chinpei Kazemaki (Sky Fighter Z). Some could also point to the rhyming similarity between "Jinpei" and "Chinpei", or both names ending in the "pei" character, although this was more coincidental as his name was chosen by Jinzo Toriumi to honor his own uncle. All of these young boys' character designs happened to also fall along similar cartoony, eccentric themes to convey a goofy young child. Jinpei could also be seen as standing in for Sabu from Mach Go Go Go to some extent, who was often accompanying Go and Michi, and an early draft design by Ippei Kuri corroborates this.
After Gatchaman's success, perhaps to vary things up more and trends changing, some subsequent Tatsunoko productions that were initially to have this sort of formula wound up progressively altered from their first drafts to final products; the Androider Joji project that became Neo-Human Casshan discarded Joji/Tetsuya's younger brother Noboru, who was to serve as a Jinpei-like figure and be shrunk by their father to hide inside the robot dog Friender that he'd operate. Instead, Friender would now be powered by the brainwaves of Tetsuya's dead dog Lucky. Luna would remain as the heroine figure, but the removal of the sci-fi/space aspects now also made her default outfit look unusual for the classic European-inspired cityscapes.
The proposed gag anime Quick and Simple Tanmar had already ditched a younger brother figure by the time it was rethought and reworked; Choroichi was to be another child protagonist and be the younger brother of the heroine Mari, but was swapped out for a robot Chorobo. Chorobo would then carry forth to the resulting Time Bokan, while Mari and Goro were renamed Junko and Tanpei.
By the time of Tekkaman the Space Knight, as well as scrapped productions like Divine Legend Sadamoebius, a different trio format came into more popularity with "hero", "his foil", and "the heroine". This sort of trio would also be seen in Go! Falcon Light with the Go Mifune-esque Hikaru, his girlfriend Ai, and the strange foreign-looking man Gonsan.
A Transforming Plane for the Hero[]
Ken would carry on the test pilot profession that was intended to debut with Bunta in his series, but which never came to pass due to it being shelved after its first three episodes were completed. He would also get a transforming plane designed by Mitsuki Nakamura, who had already designed Bunta's plane Light-Go. The basic color scheme of red, white, and a blue canopy would also be carried over.
Besides the Sky Fighter Z influence, the Yoshida brothers had also been behind different manga with pilots as the theme; Big Sky Sanshiro and Heaven's Oath being two notable examples. With one anime with a test pilot hero and a special plane failing to take off, this series would be a way that type of motif could be tried out once again.
In early concepts for the Science Ninja Squad Number 5 iteration, the protagonist figure would also alternatively be envisioned as a motorcycle rider like Sanshiro Kurenai, and some scenario script drafts that had to have been originally written in the Birdman/Shadow stages would even contain evidence of Ken at least using a motorcycle when not in his transformed mode.
The Presence and Speed of a Falcon[]
The peregrine falcon (hayabusa) is valued for being one of the speediest birds, which would lead to it receiving its name in Japanese as a shortening of hayatobi tsubasa; "fast flight wings". This would result in the name getting use in the Imperial Japanese Navy's torpedo boats and type 1 fighter aircraft. In the modern day, it is still used for brands of high-speed trains and ferries, and a Suzuki motorcycle model.
The Yoshida brothers also had liked this term to describe engines of high-speed, which could be seen in some of their early racing manga. When it came to the planning of what would become Gatchaman, all five young characters originally had their surnames being terminology related to birds. In Ken's case, he would be Hayabusa, denoting him as a falcon-themed team member but also indicative of his test pilot job with his incredible speed. He would be yet another instance of this word getting visibility in one of their works, but this time with the accompanying bird theme to emphasize it.
For whatever reasons, the "Hayabusa" surname and it being Ken's intended Bird Style did not carry forth to later planning, where a character design sheet produced during the Shadow era has Ken's Bird Style identified as "The Big Hawk" in katakana, while scenario scripts going with further updated terminology already have him as the Eagle.
In an early Gatchaman sequel pitch rejected for another planning (see the "Masked Man" section), it would seem those in charge were keen on re-using the Peregrine Falcon in the team in some way. This would be utilized with a character G-6, identified in katakana as Hayabusa no Jack. Ultimately, he would not make it into any project, but the pieces of concept art and known information exhibited about him can confirm his proposed role for the series.
When it comes to Hawks, on the other hand (due to Jack's Bird Style being disputed), that made it into canon? There would be Hawk Getz, as well as Galactor's "Chicilian Hawk", Heirich.
A Nihilistic Young Man[]
Joe was not initially conceptualized as being as prominent of a character as he would become in the series, though he may have become more interesting for writers to explore due to him providing a sort of foil to Ken's character (hence why he was promoted to G-2 of the team rather than the initially planned G-3). Tatsunoko would note that Joe's characterization and themes would actually have some precedence in at least two one-shot characters in their older works:
- Vanni, a vengeful young man who appears in the second episode of Sanshiro Kurenai. Vanni and his younger sister Milly were left traumatized by their father's murder in their youth, and he will stop at nothing to track down and kill the one-eyed man responsible. This mirrors Sanshiro's quest, but with Vanni being more willing to use a weapon like a gun and wanting to be the first one to take out the one-eyed man featured in the episode. Vanni himself would meet a tragic end by the wrap-up of the plot. Tatsunoko's character section for the Sanshiro series on their older website would even state: In terms of his appearance and circumstances, it can be said that he is a character that could be considered the prototype for Joe the Condor later.[1]
- Sky Fighter Z would have a nihilistic rival pilot appear in its second episode, who would go as far as to attempt to steal the Light-Go but would be foiled by Bunta. He can be seen briefly in the presentation trailer as a blond young man with a deep tan, to contrast Bunta's lighter skin and brown hair. Due to this episode and the others being unreleased, it is unknown whether this character had a name or not.
Much like that "heroic trio" formula explained above, this character archetype preference can be most likely be attributed to Jinzo Toriumi, who was the planner for both series, and who had also written the series bible for Mach Go Go Go. Within that very work, a fore-runner to both and Gatchaman in Tatsunoko's dramatic "ame-comi" style, there were two characters that could even be said to be predecessors to Vanni and that rival, that were adapted from existing characters that the Yoshida brothers had created in the Pilot Ace manga:
- Genzo Sakai was a rival racer to Go in the first four episodes who resorted to dirty tricks in racing, riding the #2 car Inazuma before being defeated by Go in a race. He was a retooling of the Genzo Onimura character in Pilot Ace, with his name now inspired by Toriumi's own "Jinzo Sakai" alias.
- Shiro Yamanaka, the sickly but ruthless older brother of Yuri Yamanaka in ep.12 and 13 (Melange's Revenge). He is in charge of the remote-controlled killer sports car, Melange, in revenge for the group The Three Roses killing their father years ago. As with Vanni, he meets a tragic fate at the end by dying in a helicopter crash, leaving his sister to carry on their family legacy and to try to atone for her brother's acts.
When looking at both Shiro and then Vanni, while Toriumi evidently decided to carry forth the basic idea of a nihilistic, aloof young man seeking revenge for his parents' death and set that for Joe (while the other Toriumi would elaborate on that setting much more), it was deemed to have him be a total loner with no pretty, sympathetic younger sister figure in play. Although, by the time of a certain rejected Gatchaman sequel plan around early 1978, it would seem like the planning staff weren't averse to at least giving Joe a sudden younger brother nobody had heard about before.
After Joe's success, Andro Umeda in Tekkaman the Space Knight (who evolved from a character in a 1974 rejected Gatchaman sequel plan) would appear to have continued that very "breakout character" fame along with his own backstory of wanting vengeance for his species' genocide. Andro's popularity with viewers extended to where he would even be the secondary fighter representing the series in the game Tatsunoko Fight, while other secondary characters were the heroines from their respective works.
David Atlas of Divine Legend Sadamoebius was also to further follow in that secondary male character and foil vein popularized by Joe and Andro, along with Paltas from Space Science Challenge Team Challendar. Unfortunately for those two, they would never make it out and have been relegated to deep cut Tatsunoko trivia for those who followed Animage, MyAnime, and Tatsunoko newsletter articles from 1979 though the early 1980s.
The Team of Five[]
While Gatchaman can't necessarily be said to be the first anime to feature a five-member super-team, with Eiken's series Skyers Five having predated it, it did set the foundations for early Super Sentai teams and did also have precedence in early works by Tatsuo Yoshida. Ippei Kuri would recall Boy Ninja Squad Moonlight being pivotal to the planning, as well as an earlier picture story-type manga Yoshida illustrated titled World Boys' Team.
World Boys' Team would be inspirational for its large international cast, especially for Tatsunoko's intent of making "stateless" series. Moonlight would contain some archetypes that could be seen as roughly influential to the Science Ninja Team itself; this team initially started out as a group of eight young people, until it was simplified to a five-member grouping with the deaths of the three extraneous characters (Third-Day Crescent, Moon Ring, and Full Moon) through battles. It would then undergo further lineup alterations due to the influence of the tokusatsu adaptation; ironically, while the manga opted to simplify the cast, the live-action version would depict Moonlight's team as a much larger group of people.
As with the Science Ninja Team having a unified theme of birds, the Moonlight team are all named after different phases or aspects of the moon.
- Ken would correspond to Moonlight (Kouhei Tsukita), the traditional hot-blooded Tatsunoko hero and leader of the team.
- Joe, as the eventual secondary male character, could be seen as corresponding to Moonshadow (Kageya Tsukino), who held that role in the team although he was not necessarily a nihilist and more in the vein of a "pretty boy" type. While Moonshadow would last through the manga, the tokusatsu series would pull a shocking swerve in having him be a character to die early on in a heroic sacrifice; this was supposedly due to behind the scenes issues with his actor having an inappropriate relationship with another member of the cast. Similar "adult circumstances" would also doom the girl of the team in the tokusatsu series, as related further below.
- Jun, the only girl on the team, would correspond to Eclipse (first introduced under the alias of Shokuichi Tsukikami), a team member who was initially portrayed as a creepy-looking young man until the sixth chapter would reveal that Eclipse was actually a beautiful young woman who had cross-dressed to join the war, and that her teammates had simply forgotten due to being so busy with the battles. Her character design would gradually become more cuter and feminine through the art evolution, and she would be portrayed as the heroine figure alongside Moonlight. Later, to tie in with the tokusatsu series assigning the codename of Third-Day Crescent to its token team girl, Eclipse would change her codename when the original Third-Day Crescent died to save her life.
- Jinpei, as a lighter-hearted comic relief figure, could partially reflect the character of Harvest Moon (Tsukinosuke Yamana). However, when the tokusatsu series added the child character of Half Moon to the cast, Half Moon was imported back into the manga as an extra junior team member and "Sixth Ranger" and he may be seen as more of an appropriate prototype to Tatsunoko's young boy hero characters. Half Moon in the manga was also stated to be the deceased Moon Ring's younger brother, and initially took on his codename but the nickname of "Half Moon" the others would give him would stick.
- Ryu, as the strongest team member, would seem to have some basis in Crescent Moon (Ryutaro Tsukigata), the bulkier and stronger figure of the Moonlight team. However, "fat boy comic relief" characters existed early on in the forms of Moon Ring and Full Moon, as well as Harvest Moon continuing to partake in that role.
The tokusatsu series would further influence later Moonlight manga tie-ins when the lead female character of Third-Day Crescent was written out due to a behind-the-scenes scandal involving the actress being caught in an affair; a new actress was hired for a replacement girl on the team, Silver Moon, to take over for Third-Day Crescent as she was re-assigned to another branch. Silver Moon would then be sighted in later merchandise, being depicted as a reverse imported team member like Half Moon.
Although there would be manga-style merchandise produced to tie in with the tokusatsu, an anime adaptation of Moonlight had seemingly never been in the cards at Tatsunoko in the time after; Gatchaman was instead produced with that loose inspiration. But eventually in 1997, Tatsunoko would develop a planning establishment for an animated remake titled Ninja GEKKO, with character designs provided by Roberto Ferrari. While the manga took place in WWII and the tokusatsu shifted the action to 1960s Japan, this anime would take place in a cyberpunk sort of future and have the team as futuristic military ninjas battling the forces of the terroristic Pierrots, led by Pierrot Garuda.
A short pitch trailer was developed to showcase Moonlight's re-imagined design, as well as his team and the Pierrots, though a lack of willing sponsors pulled the plug on the anime series and it was never revisited. The lineup of the team in this iteration is publicly unknown, but they were to be a group of five without any seeming junior member, taking them back to the pre-Half Moon dynamic and to perhaps lessen any outright comparisons to the Science Ninja Team.
Tekkaman the Space Knight had a five-member team in a way, with the back two spots filled by Mutan and Pegas, and Gowapper 5 Godam had a play on the formula with the girl being the leader of the five. Still, between the pivotal human characters of Tekkaman and some later pitches inspired from it like Sadamoebius, Tatsunoko staff were sometimes keen on downsizing a quintet of heroes to more of a trio dynamic.
Another space-themed hero team pitch, the scrapped Space Science Challenge Team Challendar still focused on a quintet of characters, but continuing to vary up the 5-person formula: Cruz (hero), Jeanne (the heroine), Paltas (nihilistic foil), Giant (the big guy), and Controbo (a changing robot).
An Enemy Organization Named "Galactor"[]
Space Ace[]
An evil organization specifically named Galactor debuted late in the manga, and were used as recurring villains in the anime series, starting in episode 23, "Galactor's Challenge". The boss of Galactor was an attractive blonde woman, and her soldiers' uniforms bore a slight resemblance to the masks and fashion later worn by the Blackbirds.
This organization would be among the various villains from Orion battled by Ace, and would be the few that escape the series uncaptured. The Galactor boss can be seen as a prototype to the Gatchaman Galactor's sub-leader Berg Katse, who was originally planned to be a beautiful woman that was a master of disguise (and in fact, the true leader who created Leader X as an AI until he gained too much sentience). This kind of "sexy wicked lady" archetype would later be played straighter, but in a humorous vein, in the Time Bokan series villainesses like Marjo, Doronjo, and later iterations. The discarded idea of X as an AI would also wind up re-purposed for Time Bokan as well.
The concept of a beautiful woman being a Galactor sub-leader was considered again for Gatchaman II with Gel Sadra, but changes in the character's settings by the time of production would have the series staff treating this villain as more of an androgynous mutant due to the setting of a chromosomal abnormality.
Sky Fighter Z[]
In one of the episodes previewed in the pitch trailer for this series, Bunta Oozora was slated to fight against a criminal sniper from an organization named Galactor. However, it is unknown how much they would have figured into the series if at all beyond that plot.
A Mysterious Masked Man[]
The concept of Red Impulse being Ken's missing and estranged father was present all the way from early planning, and would be comparable to the Masked Racer in Mach Go Go Go being Go's older brother Kenichi. While this would wind up being no huge mystery for viewers in that series, with the suspense coming from whether the two would ever meet and the identity would be found out, the repetition of the "masked man who's secretly related" concept may have been a bit too much for Gatchaman director Hisayuki Toriumi.
Although Red Impulse was originally to be present in more episode plots, and he was conceptualized as being treated as an equally important figure as the Science Ninja Team, Toriumi's distaste for the character and the repetition of the "missing family member" formula was something he would make clear to other staff quickly, stating he wanted to kill Red Impulse when he would get the chance. This would eventually come true when episode 53 was produced.
The absence of a parent in a child's life and their search was also a theme that was strong in Hutch the Honeybee; Hutch would have a happier ending with his mother than what Ken would have in searching for his father, though this would eventually be undone in its sequel. The Hutch series itself would get a shout-out in Tatsunoko's Gatchaman Color Encyclopedia when a passage would claim that the Science Ninja Team enjoyed the show, since they could relate to Hutch being an orphan (this providing a cute joke from staff that had been consulted for the book, in referencing one of their previous works).
Later Attempts at Use[]
The first publicly known and released pitch text for a "Gatchaman 2" (with no Roman numeral notation) had Joe present, but brainwashed and on the side of the enemy as a masked cyborg The Space Joker. He was intended to be a Masked Racer/Red Impulse-like individual in the show but one that'd assist Galactor in their dire moments, providing mystery while eventually being revealed to have a familial connection to the new member of the Science Ninja Team; after his memories would return, he would then act as a secretive ally, assisting the team in their own times of danger and being equated to allies like Red Impulse before (especially in the team believing that Joe still could be alive out there, as Ken believed of his father). No writing staff members were individually credited, but it would be more likely than not for this to have been a sign of Jinzo Toriumi and Tori Pro having a hand there.
While that planning did not get greenlit, the extension of the actual Gatchaman II still incorporated the angle of a masked character being related to somebody in the cast in the form of Gel Sadra being the aged-up child of Dr. Pandora. In this case, both characters would end the series dead.
The "Space Joker" may even have been a possible re-use of a character and story element that was intended to be in play for Tekkaman the Space Knight, where Joji Minami's father would have been remodeled into an enemy Tekkaman after his supposed death at the start of the series, with Waldastar wanting father and son to have a deadly showdown.
But then, when taking that actual earliest scrapped and unreleased Gatchaman sequel proposal Gatchaman Part 2 in mind, it is said elements from it were repurposed for Tekkaman in the first place. Therefore, the Red Impulse/masked warrior formula was to potentially still continue forth in that pitch long before Gatchaman 2, whether it would be for the missing Joe (as a rumored "Space Gatchaman") or if the writers would have bowed to Tatsuo Yoshida's requests to eventually reveal that Red Impulse was still secretly alive after the explosion.
Tori Pro Invests in Recycling?[]
There has been speculation, though nothing outright confirmed, that the writers that would later make up Tori Pro and that had previously been associated with Gatchaman planning were indeed involved with the "2" pitch (even if the lack of any outright credits makes such a theory hard to prove), as they had also been with Tekkaman.
In this line of thought, it is speculated that if Jinzo Toriumi and Satoshi Suyama had been behind the rejected "2" establishment, that they decided to re-invent and re-use elements of the Waldastar Tekkaman/Space Joker angle for their mecha anime Space Genie Daikengo, which would wind up airing from July 28, 1978 to February 15, 1979 on TV Asahi. While Toei Animation was involved as the studio, the presence of Toriumi, Suyama, and Akiyoshi Sakai being the heads of this project led to a perceived "Tatsunoko Touch" in the anime, down to the missing masked family member situation.
In this case, the masked man is the older brother of the protagonist Ryger and was believed deceased, but was rebuilt as a cyborg and now calls himself "The Masked Knight Bryman". While Ryger tries to live up to his older brother's legacy, he isn't aware that his brother is that very mysterious warrior assisting him in battle.
After Tatsuo Yoshida's death on September 5, 1977, Jinzo Toriumi and Satoshi Suyama opted to go independent from Tatsunoko to form Tori Pro, and offered for Akiyoshi Sakai to come along with them. While Toriumi, Suyama, and Sakai would still have involvement in scripts for the Gatchaman radio show and sequels (Toriumi being involved in the planning for both series, while Suyama rejoined the planning for Fighter), it was through their own company collaborating with Tatsunoko.
While there have been viewers that point out the coincidences of Toriumi developing a cyborg hero in both Daikengo and Gatchaman II, there has also been doubt as to whether or not one directly influenced the other; Daikengo pre-dated II's airing in a short span in 1978, and the cyborg characters were also different along with the finalized II lacking any younger brother angle (and Bryman, rather than an initial brainwashed villain like the earlier sequel pitch's Space Joker, already fights to help his brother as the Masked Racer/Red Impulse figure).
Those aware of the earlier pitch for a Gatchaman sequel, planning date and other specific details which are not printed or known, will note that technically a cyborg variation on the masked man formula could have originated within Tatsunoko from possibly those same minds, meaning "Gatchaman did that mysterious cyborg first".
It is then possible that the "missing brother who's actually a masked protector" idea that didn't prove useful for the greenlit II was re-thought for the planning of Daikengo, with the setting and everything else changed. Daikengo would both be the first and last work produced independently by Tori Pro, with the anime unfortunately not doing well enough in ratings to justify a further year-long extension and it wrapping up with its two cours.
A Masked Woman?[]
As time and trends moved along at Tatsunoko, the concept of a "mysterious masked man" was considered to be flipped around to give a female character the opportunity to have that role instead. This appears to have nearly happened at least twice, and in one case with a Gatchaman property.
A failed 1984 revival of Mach Go Go Go, M-Thunder, would put forward the idea of a Masked Racer counterpart that seemed to also carry Doronjo vibes in being a beautiful blonde woman whose face was hidden by her helmet. While it does not appear that she would've been the Go counterpart's sister, her identity is unknown due to the planning being unavailable and if it wasn't revealed there, it may have been something to work out during the series itself.
In 1998, Tatsunoko would attempt to present a re-imagined Red Impulse in their New Gatchaman planning, but this time around it would not be Ken's father under the mask. Instead, unbeknownst to Jun, this Red Impulse was her long-lost younger sister leading her own fighter troop for the ISO and the two would be at odds due to the Science Ninja Team being an independent vigilante group.
Although the staff for these two series pitches are publicly unstated, Ippei Kuri was involved in both though it can't necessarily be said whether it was his specific idea to re-imagine a mysterious male character as a woman instead. It would simply provide an interesting coincidence, either way, and another case where Gatchaman would follow Mach Go Go Go's path.