A lot of our favorite properties are coming back to life lately. Â Berserk got a movie. Â Lupin the 3rd got a new show. Â And so it came that those plucky science ninjas Gatchaman were getting their own revival in the upcoming series Gatchaman Crowds…but at what cost…
1972 saw the release of one of the more influential animes to ever come out of Tatsunoko’s studios. Â Gatchaman was a show about five young superhero ninjas that tried to capture the new mystique of the “henshin” show genre popularized by Ishinomori’s new “Kamen Rider” series. Â A five person team, with colorful outfits, who transform with wrist devices and fight evil with the aid of a mentor figure. Â Sound familiar? Â Eventually a live-action show called “Gorenger” came along about three years later with a similar premise, and started the Super Sentai franchise in 1975.
Bottom line, Gatchaman might be responsible for this website. Â Gatchaman came overseas as “Battle of the Planets” and gained a cult following over the decades. Â Despite a few whispers of a movie being made, and one failed movie project, it still has cultural relevance thanks to it’s themes, mature overtones and plots and hard-hitting action. Â The legacy lived on in Jetman, another sentai series, in Power Rangers and in many more super hero shows in Japan and North America both. Â Now, Tatsunoko is reviving the franchise…and it looks like this.
The Mo~e revolution has come to Gatchaman, rendering Ken into a 16 year old girl named Hajime.  Here’s her character description from Anime News Network:  A powerful and energetic girl with an artistic spirit, she is a little bit strange in a good way.  Totally generic. And look at them.  There’s not a single heavy character in the group either, and there appears to be more than five of them.  Gone is the Science Ninja side of the show, replaced with a generic “life energy” called NOTE that they used to fight the villains of an organization called MESS.  All that’s left sciencewise seems to be the mech suits they use to fight, which haven’t been featured so far in the promotional material.
It seems to me that this Gatchaman was designed by committee; they took all the major tropes from popular anime of the past ten years or so and threw them together with the Gatchaman name on it. Â Maybe this show was meant to be something totally different, and got the name added to it to help sell it. Â Either way, the once distinctive and legacy forming look, feel, tone and story are all out the window in favor of cute, over-designed and poorly supported details. Â Hajime was created with her short skirts and cute poses for the hikikomori types, the figure collectors, the mo~e enthusiasts. Â She doesn’t inspire anything but physical attraction with her image at all, and even then, you have to reconcile that she’s 16 years old. Â The “young people are powerful” trope works great in Attack on Titan and Evangelion, even in the original Gatchaman. Â None of the designs featured in the above poster for Gatchaman Crowds have that atmosphere to them. It’s going to be another “everyone’s got powers” show with no heart, that drags a hastily exhumed property through the mud.
Legacy doesn’t have to exist forever. Â A good change, a stirring of the pot, will bring new life to old properties for sure. Â And there has been much good in the world from that. Â The remake of Double Dragon on Xbox (Double Dragon: Neon), awesome. Â The new Evangelion movies. Â Fantastic, all. Â But if Gatchaman Crowds does anything right going forwards it’ll be to surprise me with how good it is…since right now I don’t even want to watch a single minute of it. Â This new series looks schizophrenic and, based on the reading I’ve been able to do, poorly conceptualized. Â Was it a lack of love for the source material? Is it a push for profits from the otaku crowd? Â It feels like the answer may have been “Yes” to both, but without leaping into the heads of character designer Kimiko and director Kenji Nakamura it’s impossible to know. Â Will their gamble with the franchise take off? Â Will the proposed live-action movies stand up to the challenge of giving the world a “true” Gatchaman experience?
All we can do is wait, and hope. Â But I’d say it’s obvious Gatchaman Crowds is not classic in any way. Â And that’s no bueno.
[Sources: Anime News Network, io9.com, Japanator.com]
June 7, 2013 @ 4:35 pm
It’s really not enough to go on. I’m a bit concerned too because if not simply because of what looks like a little girl in a bikini but I like the style, it seems unique, and there really isn’t alot of information to go on. Could go either way really. The writer/director has worked on many unconventional and interesting series over the years so that makes me hopeful as well.
June 7, 2013 @ 6:18 pm
Why the fuck couldn’t they just make this remake like they did Casshern Sin? I guess that tower records ad they had like a million years ago doesn’t mean shit now, and I was looking forward to this remake.
June 7, 2013 @ 7:25 pm
Character design is at the bottom of the list things affecting how a show’s story goes. The show hasn’t even started yet. At least give it the benefit of a doubt, man.
Remember how some people complained about W’s suit design, the 2 people thing, and Phillip before the show started? Look how W turned out.
June 8, 2013 @ 1:01 pm
The difference being W is a Heisei-era Kamen Rider (surrounded by other “pretty” types) and not a revival of a franchise. I think that changes the overall tone of the project just a little bit. Still, it’s hard to tell.
June 8, 2013 @ 11:25 am
Color me illiterate, but the posters at my local mall say the live action film is being released the first week of August this year. Frankly, I don’t expect much from anime fan-boys this day and age other than wank bank crap and poor story-telling, so if they decide to have a Gatchaman inspired pile of cow pies air at 140 AM Wednesday morning, I will cede them their material and focus on legitimate media.
June 8, 2013 @ 12:21 pm
“Gatchaman
came overseas as “Battle of the Planets†and gained a cult following
over the decades.” Also was adapted as G-Force in the 70s AND Gatchaman II and Gatchaman Fighter were combined by Saban into Eagle Riders in the 90s.
June 12, 2013 @ 7:32 pm
Might be great, who knows? I watch the pilot episode of almost everything that comes from Japan, deserves the benefit of the doubt.
June 13, 2013 @ 10:21 pm
Lol who wants to bet as far as a “remake” goes this turns out as some remake/sequel type thing where it could be seen as either- rather open ended. I mean to me a new look and stuff would be perfect for a “sequel” of types. something after Gatchaman- new group forms due to new bad guys and thus we get a “new gatchaman” I mean if you look at stuff like Saint Seiya Omega- a sequel that redesigned the suits- and made it feel visually as if it was a reboot. I mean to me- i had seen knights of the zodiac, but i never watched every ep, and i was able to enjoy Omega without the “whats going on?” feeling that most sequels have. IT had itsown story seprate from the original- but it was a sequel.
September 8, 2013 @ 12:48 pm
i like gatchaman crowds because it’s animation is good, it has a unique style, and it has a variety of characters. I wouldn’t say it is anything like the original gatchaman, maybe a little since it is super heros but still it’s very different. the end.
November 11, 2013 @ 8:26 am
The story is nice and shows heart…