Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie
Film information
-	Directed by	Hisayuki Toriumi
Produced by	Toshio Suzuki
Written by	Jinzō Toriumi
Starring	{{{starred}}}
Music by	Koichi Sugiyama
Distributed by	Shochiku
Language	Japanese

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie (科学忍者隊ガッチャマン 劇場版, Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman: Gekijōban), translated on screen as "Science Ninja Team: Gatchaman" is a 1978 Japanese anime science fiction film that acts as a compilation of the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman television series.

The film contains new additional music called The Gatchaman Symphonic Suite Album. It was released in English for the first time by Sentai Filmworks in 2015. It features a dub produced by Seraphim Digital that is consistent with the earlier Gatchaman title released by the company and its predecessor.

Overview

The movie was officially announced by Tatsunoko in May 1978 in Animage, followed by a preview screening at the Tokyo Shinjuku Welfare Pension Hall on June 15th of the year, a month prior to the official theatrical release. This preview version is said to have had different editing and arrangements than the final cut, though little detail is known.

The summer would be dedicated to various promotions for the movie, followed by the release of Hisayuki Toriumi's light novel SF Roman Science Ninja Team Gatchaman as well as the announcement for the sequel series Gatchaman II; however, this would be under a new director due to Hisayuki Toriumi feeling the first series stood fine on its own.

The film is basically an abridged retelling of the 1972 - 1974 TV series, with the conclusion of the film ending at X still out there in outer space. In order to summarize the lengthy original series, it was decided to center the movie mainly around the stories of Ken and Joe, with the Red Impulse arc and the final portion of the series being the most highlighted.

Most of the audio from the original series was recycled (evident from there being clips before Yoku Shioya's voice change with puberty), although the narration by Kiyoshi Kobayashi and some character lines were newly-recorded. The new animation of X coming to Earth at the start to fuse Katse included the Scanimate technology that Tatsunoko had utilized in Tekkaman the Space Knight and Time Bokan.

Plot Summary

Leader X traveled millions of light years to reach the planet Earth and createda mutant Berg Katse. 30 years later, he is the leader of the terrorist organization known as Galactor that wants to conquer the world. Since Galactor controls the mechanical monster "Turtle King," the nations of the world live in fear.

Earth's only hope lies with five young people who can move like shadows. They are the Science Ninja Team, five superheroes who arrive in their spaceship "God Phoenix" to stop Galactor's Machiavellian plans of world domination.

Primary Episode Footage Utilized

• Gatchaman Versus Turtle King
• Cata-Roller, the Revolving Beast
• Red Impulse's Secret
• Farewell, Red Impulse
• G-2 Risks Death
• The Grand Black Hole Operation
• Earth's Destruction! 0002

Due to the compression of the plot, only some elements from the above episodes appear. Footage from Galactor's Challenge is also used when having Dr. Nambu assemble the team and order Ken to go to Hontwal with Red Impulse. A sequence from the beginning of The Plan to Assassinate Dr. Nambu with Joe and Dr. Nambu is recycled as well, after Katse gives orders to track down and assassinate Dr. Nambu and the Science Ninja Team.

Joe's brain damage is also clarified to have been caused by the explosion in his youth, when footage of the full flashback from Mortal Combat! 5,000 Fathoms Under the Sea is recycled in illustrating what the "old injury" was.

However, there are some narrative holes, such as the exposure of Katse's identity being referenced but not depicted, due to the way the footage and scenes have been re-arranged.

Cast

Character	Japanese	English
Ken the Eagle	Katsuji Mori	Leraldo Anzaldua
Joe the Condor	Isao Sasaki	Brian Jepson
Jun the Swan	Kazuko Sugiyama	Kim Prause
Jinpei the Swallow	Yoku Shioya	Luci Christian
Ryu the Owl	Shingo Kanemoto	Victor Casrud
Dr. Kozaburo Nambu	Toru Ohira	Andy McAvin
Red Impulse	Hisayoshi Yoshizawa	John Tyson
Berg Katse	Mikio Terashima	Edwin Neal
Leader X	Nobuo Tanaka	Charles C. Campbell
Director Anderson	Teiji Omiya	Marty Fleck
Sabu	Hiroya Ishimaru	Chris Patton
Narrator	Kiyoshi Kobayashi	George Manley

Further reading

• G-Force: Animated (TwoMorrows Publishing: ISBN 978-1-893905-18-4)

External links

• Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie at the Internet Movie Database
• Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia