Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972) Yoshida


Science Ninja Team Gatchaman  released in 1972 by Yoshida and the Americanized version Battle of the Planets is one of the first two Japanese anime series I remember watching as a kid (the other one being Star Blazers an Americanized version of Space Battleship Yamato). I identified with Gatchaman the most because one of the Americanized names of the lead characters was Jason.

So in episode 1 there's this guy who appears to get the team together (it was in Japanese without subtitles so I'm guessing) who looks a lot like Magnum P.I. Science Ninja Team Gatchaman defeat a guy who looks very effeminate (I think the villain was revealed to be a woman later in the series if I remember correctly) and the villain takes orders from a superior whose screen com image looks like a crow (very bird themed animation series).

Some of the more unique things I remember about the series was the bird theme, the ship was the Phoenix, could become the Fiery Phoenix and had a solar powered weapon that I don't ever remember seeing as they always seemed to want to use it on cloudy days, and that was apparently an issue for a solar powered weapon. The leader, Mark, looks a lot like Speed Racer would look in that later series.

They were apparently "ninjas" as the original title suggested but as a child I never linked that to the series, they were more like action super hero's wearing bird capes and jumping and throwing their weapons (just like ninjas). Overall I have many fond memories of rushing home from school to watch the series.

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