Gatchaman: The Series That Inspired Sentai (Updated Old Post)
Ah Gatchaman! Though this is not sentai, I feel like this series deserves to be placed in my blog. It's because Gatchaman is the series that inspired Super Sentai in many ways. Although Gatchaman was a series by Tatsunoko and NOT by Toei Ltd. - it did give Toei the inspiration for future installments. If you've noticed the 1970s Anime Gatchaman itself has the same team format as Toei's super robot five-team combiner series such as Combattler V, Voltes V, and Golion (template for Lion Voltron). Gatchaman was pretty much, technically speaking, a five-man Super Sentai team except that they were not color-coded. Rather, they were coded by their birds namely Eagle, Condor, Owl, Swan, and Swallow. Quite interesting
The Gatchaman Trilogy
The series itself was pretty much the seed of a lot of shows. The show presented a team of five heroes fighting the Gallactor Empire which was led by Sosai X and his right-hand man Berg Katse. Berg Katse is a comedic, catlike villain who was a fusion of two fraternal twins who frequently had a change of identity. The first show was known simply as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman which ran for mercilessy 105 episodes. I guess it's really the trend to overextend a show that's so good, right? Quite interestingly, the Gallactor organization would probably inspire the Black Cross terrorist group in Goranger too. I wonder how new-schoolers will ever react to series that long especially when they're too used to Super Sentai as a yearlong thing? The series also had them fly off in a flying fortress known as the God Phoenix. After 105-long episodes, the show finally ended or did it?
Gatchaman II or the second season was mercifully just the right episode count. The show featured new stuff that would soon inspire Super Sentai such as the more birdlike God Phoenix II. The second season also featured Dr. Nambu's female assistant Sylvie Pandora. Yup, Aya Chokan is not a gender flip of Dr. Nambu but she's more of what if Sylvie became Gatchaman's mentor for a long time. The story also involved a mother with a missing daughter. The very much alive Sosai X decided to take a baby girl and force-grow it into his new right hand in place of Berg Katse. The success of the second season led to the series cancellation known as Gatchaman Fighter.
Gatchaman Fighter would soon be a bit of a template for future Anime by Toei. This time the Gatchamen had their individual vehicles that combined into the Gatcha Spartan. Jetman did the same thing with the Ikarus Haken move. Super Robot Anime would get the idea of combining vehicles into a humanoid robot. It was also considerably more serious than its predecessors. One of its newer villains named Count Egobossler is a cold-blooded, blue-skinned freak. The show did have a rather dark ending where it was hinted that the Gatchamen did die. Talk about a dark way to finally end a long-overdue franchise!
Vyram though was obviously not Gallactor but had its own storyline. My only problem with the organization is the lack of backstory. The show itself had a live version of Count Egobossler namely Radiguet. Egobossler though had more backstory than Radiguet. Radiguet's past is never explored at all nor does the show tell us why he's evil. Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger the following year would eventually tell us why Bandora went evil. The show had the villains compete to whoever will win the dangerous game of defeating the Jetmen. Radiguet himself showed several signs of being a sociopathic sadist who only cared about himself. What Radiguet lacked in backstory - he did have his plot where he just disregards whatever humanity he had until he becomes so despicably irredeemable. Many Super Sentai fans think he's the biggest cold bastard ever and I still agree. Radiguet would just do anything to win even use and abuse other people - making him one of the most well-loved to hate villains ever.
The Gatchaman Trilogy
The series itself was pretty much the seed of a lot of shows. The show presented a team of five heroes fighting the Gallactor Empire which was led by Sosai X and his right-hand man Berg Katse. Berg Katse is a comedic, catlike villain who was a fusion of two fraternal twins who frequently had a change of identity. The first show was known simply as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman which ran for mercilessy 105 episodes. I guess it's really the trend to overextend a show that's so good, right? Quite interestingly, the Gallactor organization would probably inspire the Black Cross terrorist group in Goranger too. I wonder how new-schoolers will ever react to series that long especially when they're too used to Super Sentai as a yearlong thing? The series also had them fly off in a flying fortress known as the God Phoenix. After 105-long episodes, the show finally ended or did it?
Gatchaman II or the second season was mercifully just the right episode count. The show featured new stuff that would soon inspire Super Sentai such as the more birdlike God Phoenix II. The second season also featured Dr. Nambu's female assistant Sylvie Pandora. Yup, Aya Chokan is not a gender flip of Dr. Nambu but she's more of what if Sylvie became Gatchaman's mentor for a long time. The story also involved a mother with a missing daughter. The very much alive Sosai X decided to take a baby girl and force-grow it into his new right hand in place of Berg Katse. The success of the second season led to the series cancellation known as Gatchaman Fighter.
Gatchaman Fighter would soon be a bit of a template for future Anime by Toei. This time the Gatchamen had their individual vehicles that combined into the Gatcha Spartan. Jetman did the same thing with the Ikarus Haken move. Super Robot Anime would get the idea of combining vehicles into a humanoid robot. It was also considerably more serious than its predecessors. One of its newer villains named Count Egobossler is a cold-blooded, blue-skinned freak. The show did have a rather dark ending where it was hinted that the Gatchamen did die. Talk about a dark way to finally end a long-overdue franchise!
How I think Goranger was inspired by Gatchaman
Gatchaman's run from October 1, 1972 to September 29, 1974, was something. In 1975 another show would be aired for at least two years with Goranger. Goranger itself, like Gatchaman, was so popular that it went on for two years straight. Talk about trying to watch Goranger considering its length of 84 episodes. Thankfully, that's at least nearly a quarter of the long count of Gatchaman's first season and the show only lasted one season. Sometimes, I just end up thinking that some shows go for several lengths that rewatching them can be a task. Just think why I don't bother to rewatch Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z except for my favorite sagas!
What makes Gatchaman and Goranger more alike? Well, there's no bird motiff but the heroes themselves have the Birdies which they use to perform the Goranger high jump. Added are the monsters of the week from the Black Cross Organization. What's more interesting is that the employer of the Gorangers is known as EAGLE meaning Earth Guard League. Gonpachi Edogawa is effectively the show's version of Dr. Nambu. Also, we've got some similar characters such as the overweight Kiranger is similar to Ryu the Owl in Gatchaman. The Gorangers go against the evil activities of the Black Cross terrorists. They also ride a flying fortress known as the Variblune which was later replaced by the Varideene.
The Black Cross organization is headed by Black Cross Fuehrer. Both Black Cross Fuehrer and Sosai X are alien masterminds running their respective terrorist organizations. However, Black Cross Fuehrer didn't dispatch of giant mechanical monsters. Instead, the organization used human-sized monsters which were defeated by the Gorangers. No giant monsters existed until Battle Fever J.
Chojin Sentai Jetman as a Gatchaman tribute
Super Sentai was already nearly sinking with Chikyu Sentai Fiveman and it could've ended. Well, both Takeyuki Suzuki and Shinichiro Shirakura ended up having their task with Chojin Sentai Jetman. Jetman would be that Super Sentai series to have the bird motif. However, the references are Gatchaman are more widespread across the trilogy. They ended up naming the leader Ryu instead of Ken (and changed the Eagle to a Hawk) and Ryu the Owl's counterpart was renamed as Raita. Also, rather than have four boys and one girl in a team - the youngest member is a high school girl named Ako. Quite interestingly, Ako's concept was somewhat reused in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. This was also the only Super Sentai series with Toshiki Inoue was the head writer. For me, it was a shame really that Toei could've actually tried to use Inoue for Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters even as a major secondary writer.
I heard Jetman was like "This might be the last." but not really. The series was really probably having both Suzuki and Shirakura with their ideas. Shirakura is usually associated with darker and edgier Tokusatsu such as Kamen Rider Agito, Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Faiz, and the spin-off Kamen Rider Amazons. Jetman itself was a step-up of the seriousness from Fiveman. The series itself also had a departure from Gatchaman. Rather than five trained special soldiers - only Ryu was the trained one. The rest were just random civilians who got into the mess because of the Birdonic Wave eruption. Gai Yuki is obviously Joe the Condor.
Vyram though was obviously not Gallactor but had its own storyline. My only problem with the organization is the lack of backstory. The show itself had a live version of Count Egobossler namely Radiguet. Egobossler though had more backstory than Radiguet. Radiguet's past is never explored at all nor does the show tell us why he's evil. Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger the following year would eventually tell us why Bandora went evil. The show had the villains compete to whoever will win the dangerous game of defeating the Jetmen. Radiguet himself showed several signs of being a sociopathic sadist who only cared about himself. What Radiguet lacked in backstory - he did have his plot where he just disregards whatever humanity he had until he becomes so despicably irredeemable. Many Super Sentai fans think he's the biggest cold bastard ever and I still agree. Radiguet would just do anything to win even use and abuse other people - making him one of the most well-loved to hate villains ever.
Jetman as a Gatchaman tribute did what it did - it became Super Sentai's phoenix. From the ashes of Fiveman's fiasco came Jetman. Fiveman though would later inspire Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive so I'd give it that. Just that Fiveman had a lot of bad timing back then!
The Gatchaman movie by 2013
What was a complete circle was this. Tori Matsuzaka who became what he is today as Takeru in Shinkenger becomes Ken the Eagle in the Gatchaman movie. Gatchaman, a series that inspired Super Sentai ended up having a Super Sentai actor play in its live version. Though, I wish the movie was written by Toshiki Inoue even if he practically fell down during Kamen Rider Kiva. A sad fact that 2-2014 was the year Yasuko Kobayashi also burned out during Ressha Sentai ToQGer. Though both Kiva and ToQGer shouldn't be counted as fiascos. Kiva never threatened a near-end scenario for Kamen Rider and ToQGer won an award on railroad day. Just that I feel the writers were really worked out that time.
Just my thoughts on the Gatchaman movie. I really wanted to have Yasuka Saitoh play as Joe the Condor and Rin Takanashi play as Jun the Swan. Saitoh because he was Masumi in Gougou Sentai Boukenger and Takanashi did a good job as Mako in Shinkenger. Also, I felt Jun Yoshida who played as High Priest Poe (who was a guy with a gender identity crisis) should've played as Berg Katse too. The movie is probably nearly as bad as Power Rangers (2017) and should be regarded as such. 2013 just didn't feel like a good year for Tokusatsu IMHO. Also, I'd probably choose to disregard it as another abomination like the Kamen Rider reboot movies and the Super Hero Taisen film series too. All of them can just be considered as failures to learn from.
Just my thoughts on the Gatchaman movie. I really wanted to have Yasuka Saitoh play as Joe the Condor and Rin Takanashi play as Jun the Swan. Saitoh because he was Masumi in Gougou Sentai Boukenger and Takanashi did a good job as Mako in Shinkenger. Also, I felt Jun Yoshida who played as High Priest Poe (who was a guy with a gender identity crisis) should've played as Berg Katse too. The movie is probably nearly as bad as Power Rangers (2017) and should be regarded as such. 2013 just didn't feel like a good year for Tokusatsu IMHO. Also, I'd probably choose to disregard it as another abomination like the Kamen Rider reboot movies and the Super Hero Taisen film series too. All of them can just be considered as failures to learn from.
Comments
Post a Comment