Video Backlog: "Gatchaman (OVA)"

Publisher: Urban Vision (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 3 Episodes x 45 minutes
Production Date: 1994 – 1995
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

In the early 1990’s, Tatsunoko Productions remade most of their 1970’s output (arguably the 1970’s was when they were at their creative peak) mostly as a series of OVAs. While the “Tekkaman Blade” TV series was the most successful and best of the remakes, I think the three part “Gatchaman” OVA comes a very close second. I think it’s a really underrated series. Artmic, who co-produced the series, along with Tatsunoko has been very clever in how they chose to adapt the material. They’ve taken three key episodes from the original 105 episode TV series; the first episode with the Turtle King, the 11th episode with the first appearance of Red Impulse and the final episode. The character designs are by Yasuomi Umetsu. (of “Kite” and “Mezzo” infamy), who seems to have done the designs for nearly all the Tatsunoko OVA remakes. Everything has been modernised but the designs still retain the elements from the original mecha and characters.

The basic storyline remains from the three episodes they’ve used, however they’ve expanded all three stories and changed a few of the elements around. The biggest change is the final episode. It’s really hard to explain what the changes are as I’ll give away what happens in the original 1974 final TV episode. I will say the coda to this OVA is a little surreal and doesn’t quite make much sense. Apart from the redesigned mecha, which look great, but is still almost as crazy as the 1970’s originals, the characters are brilliant. The Gatchaman team is pretty much prefect (essentially it’s the template for sentai shows up to the present), however I think there is a lack of development for most of the time. Most of the time the focus is on either Joe or Ken. I think the writers assumed the audience would have knowledge of the characters and series. In particular I liked Joe in this version of the show. His obsession of using violence over strategy was quite amusing. His only solution is to use the Bird Missiles. The Galactor henchmen were also nutty as their original counterparts. There were also additions of special ninja soldiers which didn’t appear in the original series. Also of note is that Berg Katse’s (or Verg Kaste as he’s titled in this English adaptation) morphing gender is revealed a whole lot sooner than in the TV series. Galactor’s origins in this OVA are almost identical to the new animated section in the 1978 Gatchaman compilation movie.

Sometime in the mid 1990’s, Harmony Gold bought and dubbed this show. But it took until 1997 to see any sort of commercial release when they finally flogged it off to Urban Vision. The dub changes almost all the names to “more acceptable” western ones and the episode titles and supers are also changed slightly. Even back in the 1990’s the majority of anime companies where no longer doing this shit. Some of the titles clash with the subtitles (like changing the Turtle King to a Dragon King, and even more stupidly changing the Red Impulse to the Red Spectre), as well as errors such dates changing from 2006 to 2066. It’s hard to believe a 60 year jump had taken place in the story. Urban vision has also cut some of the end credits, which while retaining Bill Meyers and Maurice White’s (of Earth, Wind & Fire fame) theme song, removes the visuals that go along with the song.

In closing, I think this is a fantastic OVA series. Sure it’s not perfect, but it is well animated, has a great story and brilliant designs and manages to almost equal the original in a lot of departments. Urban Vision’s DVD is pretty good (the video is quite decent for something released in 2001), except for the hangovers from the name changed dub, and includes the music video with the updated original Gatchaman theme song. The cover artwork is boring as hell. I don’t know why just didn’t use the Japanese volume one cover. Strangely enough, this DVD came out five years before the Japanese DVD. Really must have been a bomb in Japan maybe. For me personally, I think it’s a real fun show and really wish fandom had taken more notice of it. I really wish Tatsunoko would do a TV series remake of the original series. 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).