History of Re-Animation

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 weap...

Abandoned Little Cat Tora released in 1947 by Kenzo Masaoka is a wonderfully cute animation that foreshadows and potentially inspired Hello Kitty. I've never quite understood the Japanese fascination with cats, but I've always liked it. I'm sure there is a reason for it, I'm just not aware of what it is. This animation is very much like the chibi (small body) style and very much kawaii (cute). Although there are parts that are a little disturbing like when the mother cat person pulls the canteen off the child almost breaking it's need until the canteen come free and the cat child drops to the ground. The singing is some what operatic in quality and the animation as whole has a stylistic component very much like the musical movies of Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. The version was not in English but the story is easy enough to follow through the actions of the various cats, an abandoned cat is found by a mother cat with three kittens, taking home, where one of the ...