Gatchaman '94

Title:Gatchaman '94
Gatchaman, "G-Force"
Overall:Rent
Keywords:
Notables: Original Concept - YOSHIDA Tatsuo
TACHIKI Fumihiko
UMETSU Yasuomi
The science ninja team Gatchaman must stop the alien Galactor from ravaging earth to make it pure again and enslaving the remainder of humanity.


[OVA, 1994, 3 episodes, 41-47 min; a sequel of the 1972-74 TV series "Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman" with 105 episodes (which is available from ADV). See also: Gatchaman Crowds.]
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 9 8 8 4 7 Gaby [series:342#278]
Definitely one of my all-time favorite anime series. The story isn't that great, but the vehicles design are very cool, high tech ships, outer space invaders, all of the teams special attacks,spylike-boring music,etc. Hey, its 2066 you know!
If you had a chance to watch it in cartoon network in 94 and you liked it, you should get this.

Last updated Monday, March 25 2002. Created Monday, March 25 2002.
Avoid 8 7 7 2 2 Midnighter [series:342#94]
Gatchaman is truly one of the worst animes that I have been unfortunate enough to see.
Gatchaman 94 is a revamp of the 1970's TV show known in the US as Battle of the Planets and G-Force. I have not seen the origional series, and hence cannot compare the origional and the new one.
Character redesigns by Yasuomi Umezu of Kite and Mezzo Forte fame are nice to look at, but there are no personalities to go with them. Ken is your typical square team leader, noble, heroic, if a bit wet behind the ears. Joe is the team's token badass (Batman, anyone?) Add a girl for sex appeal (read: fan service), a big tech-guy, and an obnoxious little kid for "humor" and you round out this cookie-cutter cast that could be taken from a bad Marvel superhero comic book.
Even the spandex costumes look more "American Comic Book" than "Japanese Animation."
The cast are walking stereotypes, pure cardboard cut-outs, and the voice cast must know it because it sounds as if they don't care, both in English and in Japanese. The English voice work is the inferior of the 2 audio tracks, with the Science Ninja Team sounding anaemic and bored. Even bad-ass Batma...uh...Joe sounds like a panicked 15 year old kid.
The music seems to consist of a single, grating pop song sung in English that repeats whenever the Team gets heroic, and the sound effects have apparrently been ripped out of Star Wars.
The animation is the strong point here. It is quite beautiful when not utilizing stock shots over and over. It's fairly smooth and well done, particularly during a couple of the fight scenes, though others seem to be hit and miss. The backgrounds are generic, hardly noticable, though.
Overall, perhaps it's worth seeing if one is a fan of the origional G-Force. However, I don't recommend this one, because of its many flaws and abismal story. Gatchaman 94 is, sadly, strictly by the numbers.

Last updated Friday, March 22 2002. Created Sunday, November 18 2001.
Buy 9 10 9 4 6 Lord Folken [series:342#202]
If you want a plain and simple action story with great animation, than this is a good series to watch. I really like the design of the Gatchaman team. The only annoying thing is this bad CG thing as the main bad guy. Luckily he doesn't show up much.

Last updated Saturday, October 20 2001. Created Saturday, October 20 2001.

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