Gatchaman Collection (Vols. 1-3) | 
| Directors: Hiroyuki Fukushima, Shuichi Kaneko, Toyohiro Chujo
Actors: Masaya Onosaka, Koji Ishii, Michiko Neya, Rica Matsumoto, Fumihiko Tachiki
Studio: Urban Vision
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $16.25
You Save: $13.70 (46%)
New (2) Used (12) from $15.74
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 24810
Format: Animated, Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 135 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5 x 0.6
MPN: 1070
ISBN: 1890603708
UPC: 638652107008
EAN: 9781890603700
ASIN: B00005LIRQ
Theatrical Release Date: July 29, 1997
Release Date: July 17, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
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Description
Gatchaman has been revamped - stylish and more dynamic than ever! The new OVAs manage to modernize the characters without compromising the design of the original series. In volume 1, The Dragon King, an enormous warship blazes a path of destruction towards The Mantle Plan, a network unifying the World's energy resources. The only hope to stop this monster is the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman! In volume 2, The Red Specter the Gatchaman team discovers the secret undersea base of the Galactor. In a ferocious air and undersea battle, Gatchaman finds new enemies and allies. In volume 3, The Final Countdown, the Galactor forces initiate their plan for the ultimate subjugation of the human race. Will the Gatchaman be able to pull together and save the world? This surprising conclusion to the Gatchaman series entwines the lives and deeds of the Gatchaman and their mysterious ally, the Red Specter...with tragic revelations.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
Worthy Successor To Gatchaman Series March 25, 2008
E. David Swan (South Euclid, Ohio USA)
A new Gatchaman film is in production from Imagi Animation Studio's for a 2009 release so I thought I would revisit the last major Gatchaman project. It's hard to believe but it's been 15 years since the Gatchaman OVA was released with nothing significant since. This review is a little hard to write because there are so many different versions of Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) each with different character names for characters but I will try my best.
The Gatchaman OVA is a very good effort but far from flawless. It makes the same mistake as Battle of the Planets in making the Galactor (Spectra) aliens. In the original cartoon the Galactor troops including Berg Katse (Zoltar) were all human's making the events doubly tragic. Leader X (Lord Zortek) was the only true alien among them. The other unfortunate change was having Solaris loyal to Lord Zortek to the end. The death of Zoltar was never shown in Battle of the Planets but in the original Japanese version he discovers that Leader X has no intention of installing him as Earths leader. Having given up on ruling Earth, Leader X decides to simply destroy the planet. After discovering Leader X's betrayal, along with a dawning of how Leader X has manipulated him his entire life causes Katse to despair and eventually commit suicide. This was possibly the most powerful scene in the entire Gatchaman series and would have improved the OVA if it had remained. Speaking of Lord Zortek he looks absolutely horrible in the OVA. For whatever reason they chose to use a near static CGI image to represent Lord Zortek and it looks completely out of place and lousy.
The animation cuts a lot of corners. On the other hand the character and background designs are excellent. I love the new bird costumes. Dr. Nambu (Chief Anderson) looks bizarre with his colorful clothes, strange exploding turtleneck and odd facial hair. Still, I dug it, after all who knows what fashions the future might bring. I really enjoyed the bright cheeriness of the animation with a greatly improved God Phoenix flying through sunny, cloud speckled skies. It contrasts nicely with the darkness of Galactor.
In the end the Gatchaman OVA is far from perfect but it's a very acceptable extension of the original Gatchaman cartoon. It's the general upbeat tone of the OVA that I enjoyed the most. Even as Galactor was leveling entire cities there was always a feeling of hope and not just because you know that Gatchaman always wins in the end. Part of it may be the super catchy theme song, `Let's Fly'. The OVA also has a very vibrant style with sunny skies and colorful villains. I love the fact that one of the mecha commanders dresses like a fat rooster. The animators must have had a lot of confidence to pull that one off. I also appreciate the fact that the animators drew the Galactor troops with all sorts of different types of bodies including some who were rather out of shape. The OVA is a worthy successor to the original series. Now hopefully Imagi Animation won't mess up the movie.
 22 Years after it's TV Debut.... Gatchaman OVA! March 22, 2007
Eric (Massachusetts)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is all 3 episodes of the OVA (original video animation) series, too short to be a TV series and too long to be a movie (only with the comparable budget.) I got these 3 episodes (individually)on fansubs back in 1996 going completely on nostalgia and curiosity. It is an update of the original series known as Science Ninja Team: Gatchaman which ran 105 eps on Japanese TV from 1972-'74. I was pleasantly surprised in watching it that despite the ridiculous bird costumes there was an intelligent and compelling story. No "Battle of the Planets" here! No R2D2 clones, no robot dogs, and Jinpei-G4 is a normal speaking kid (unlike his Keeop counterpart from BOTP with the speech impediment). I learned through this OVA that there was more to the original Japanese version of the early 70's TV series. It was a story about intrigue, espionage, and hostile take overs while the BOTP version was dumbed down and turned into a space adventure to cash in on the Star Wars craze of the late 70's when Sandy frank bought the rights to the original series. There's still a place in my heart for BOTP as I used to watch it at 4:30 everyday after school (in 1978) when I was in 3rd grade.
Since I first saw this OVA on fansubs, it was in Japanese with the English subtitles. The subtitles were great as fans tend to get the names right and go with the better feel of how to spell out the katakana characters in English (ie. Berg Katse was the common way to spell out the villian's name as opposed to UV's translation; "Verk Katze.") But I'm just nitpicking... :) On this DVD release they fixed the timing problem they had with the subtitles corrosponding with the speaking character on the VHS release of Part 3. And, they added a Gatchaman '94 music video at the end of part 3 that used a techno version of the original Gatchaman theme. Pretty cool. For this American release the names of the episodes were changed. I don't know why because their original names would've worked just fine. The original episode titles are as follows:
1. Gatchaman vs. Turtle King
2. Secret Red Impulse
3. Final Count 0002
The English dub track is deplorable... Names were changed, the plot was dumbed down, and the acting was just lame. However, that's the good thing with the advent of DVD, I can watch it with the Japanese track.
In addition to this pet peeve, Condor Joe's character was downplayed considerably from the original TV series. Berg Katse's back story was very vague as there was much more behind his character in the original TV series.
The music was great as it was produced my Bill Meyers and "Earth Wind and Fire" legend Maurice White. At times some of the original BGM was used for the nostalgia effect. The updated animation (on an OVA budget) was incredible. However I did not like the CGI "eyeball" appearance of Galactar's ruler Sousai X. I prefer his eerie ghostly image from the original. And, the "roaring" Tie Fighter sound effect they used for the multiple Turtle Kings was kind of cheesy.
Over all this is an impressive remake. When I first saw it I couldn't get my hands on old copies of the original TV series (now available from ADV) fast enough to watch the NON-BOTP story unfold. It definitly recharged my enthusiasm for the Gatchaman franchise.
Gatch Collection 6--most of these reviews are for the OAV... June 18, 2006
Thomas D. Feeps (Virginia Beach, VA)
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
Gatchaman started out in 1972 as a 105 episode serial that tried to address the topics of family, technology, and responsibility. It was very successful in Japan, and spawned two sequel series (Gatch II and Gatch F), each with about 50 more episodes. In the late 70's, hoping to capitalize on the Star Wars craze, Sandy Frank bought the rights to the first series. He cut some of the more violent scenes, added an R2-D2 kind of robot, and redubbed 85 of the episodes to make them appear as if they take place in Space. Frank's target audience was kids, so the show became a collection of individual episodes rather than an overall arc of episodes. Most Americans are probably familiar with Frank's production as Battle of the Planets; here we have the original Japanese source material, which is better in *almost* every respect than BOTP.
-This set contains 2-dvd's of episodes, and one of extras.
The first disc contains episodes 61-66: We get some more info on Ken and the Red Impulse, and get to see an episode that was never translated in Battle of the Planets.
67-72 are on the second disc. Highlights include the first glimse of Berg Katse (why the long hair????), Gatchaman's discovery of Sosai X (the man behind Katse), and a general ramp up in the excitement of the show as it builds to a conclusion.
-I commend ADV on the extras: Each episode disc has one show with a commentary by one (or two) of the voice actors. This would be fascinating if they could get somebody involved with the original show, but it's disappointing that the actors make silly jokes, and barely talk about the show they're supposed to be commenting on. The extras disc is certainly worthwhile though. It's got audition footage, character profiles, actor interviews (again, a little silly at times), production galleries (this one shows a lot of the French stuff produced) and some sketch galleries.
I'm saving 5 stars for eps 93-105, so this one gets four.
The second disc contains episodes 67-72
The Best Way to Watch: February 16, 2004
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
AVOID THE CHEESY ENGLISH SCRIPT! The voice acting is okay, but the English dub dialog is awful! My viewing experience was enhanced by watching the Japanese track with English subtitles EVEN THOUGH SUBTITLES ANNOY ME! This way, you get the original character names and story nuances that are _completely_missing_ from the over-the-top english rewrite. I would also have preferred if they subtitled the Japanese titles and onscreen text rather than either replacing them or completely covering them up with the English text on distracting out-of-place computer generated boxes.For anime from 1994, it's excellent, but starting to show it's age 10 years later (if you've watched any anime produced since then). There are a few connecting scenes of inconsistent quality that were either rushed through or subcontracted to cheaper animation houses. Still, it's a vast improvement over "Battle of the Planets" (No 7-Zark-7!) even when I bought the 3-VHS English-only collection back in 1999. One last gripe: Amazon.CA (Canada) lists availability as "Out of Print", so I had to order this through Amazon.COM (USA) which "Usually ships within 24 hours" (as of Feb2004)! I find this strange, since both U.S. and Canadian customer service operate out of Seattle. On the upside, I ended up paying less than retail even with the exchange, shipping, and duty. As hassles go, I've had worse, but it's _still_a_hassle!_
... June 18, 2003
DESTRO ATTACKS (loDIE, new joisey)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
this is one of my all time favorite anime series..EVER!
i watched gatchaman since it's conception back in the day..even the horridly butchered abomination that was BATTLE OF THE PLANETS. Gatchaman(94) kicks ASS by condensing some of the plotlines from the old series and revamping it with new animation,cool character designs, vehicles and a new score to accompany the original soundtrack. the theme song "let's fly"(LYRICS BY EARTH WIND AND FIRE'S MAURICE WHITE) adds a touch of soul to the 3 parter.
a mix of the old and new. although the dub version is decent, at best..purists such as me would rather watch it subbed. the last 50 seconds of the OVA were sentimental and along with a mini video playing a more techno version of gatchaman pays a great homage to a great series thanks tatsunoko/urban vision.i give it 4 out of 5 stars because
i wouldv'e loved to have seen more..it was short but fun while it lasted.
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