Battle Of The Planets/G-Force

[SlaverTickler]

When I was alot younger, I used to watch this Anima show called Battle of the Planets. It featured a team of enhanced orphane teens, called G-Force, deffending earth against Zoltar and his hords of the planet Spectra. Today I was able to get four epasodes (2/video) at my comic shop, and it was so cool to relive my childhood. I was wondering if anyone elts (around 30 or so) remebers this old toon, and if so would you please coment on it. Just so you know the new Battle Of The Planets comic comes out next year, TopCow Comics will be producing it.

 

[Darkknight]

That be me!

Loved the show, in whatever name they choose to go by.
Don't have any of the videos but I do have the Alex Ross drawing of
the G-force crew. Verry nice!

Let's see.... Mark, Jason, Princess, Tiny and...hmmm... can't remember the kid's name. The ship was the Phoenix.

That's about all I remember... oh yeah... I did want to tickle Princess bad as a kid. Sorry, a fragment off topic. 🙂

DK

 

[mykal]

Boy did you just bring back some memories. I remember that series so fondly that I tried looking it up. There's a cool site about the show in all of it's incarnations, Gatchaman, the original Japanese version of the series, and the others, including Battle of the Planets. The URL is http://www.chronicsite.com/gatchaman/index.html.

I tell ya, Battle of the Planets was is reminiscent of the Voltron and the Power Rangers, only I think that Battle of the Planets did a much better job than either of the other shows. Then again, that may just be the way I'm remembering it.

Mykal

 

[mykal]

Darkknight, the one you couldn't remember was Keyop. I didn't like him that much because he always spoke with clicks and whistles. I only just found out that the clicks and whistles were used as filler because in the original series he had a lot to say and most of it wasn't child friendly.

 

[Darkknight]

Really Mykal?????

Wow, I never knew that, I always wondered why he spoke that way.
Love to know if I could get the versions of him without the clicks and whistles.

Looks like I have to go internet surfing again!
Thanks for the 411.

DK

 

[Dave2112]

I'm not really terribly into anime, but I sure remember this one. It was on after school everyday, and I never missed one. I always remembered thinking...how come only one of them even has a gun?

Thanks for bringing that back!

 

[SlaverTickler]

Jason

I think Jason was the one with the gun. Thats because he had more violent tendabcies, where as the other's tried to refrain from nonleathel forc.

 

[Dave2112]

That's what I remember about that show that made it better than most anime. It was kind of like what drew me to Spider-Man. The fact that the heroes are real people, and act like it. A lot of infighting in that show if I remember, and this was way before Gen-13 or CyberForce made it acceptable. You had, like, the Justice League where they were all shiny, happy people...and then you had G-Force, where they were about ready to rip each others friggin' heads off half the time.

Speaking of Gen-13, am I the only one who thinks the one in the green outfit is hot?

(I soooooo need a life )

 

[MadKalnod]

My brother works at Electronics Boutique and recently signed out a couple DVDs that may be relevant to the thread.

Apparently, Rhino Home Video is re-releasing Battle of the Planets on DVD. I didn't get a chance to see how many episodes are each disc, but it would appear that for each episode there's the original Gatchaman version in Japanese with subtitles, the brutally edited 70s Battle of the Planets version with filler animation that sticks out like a sore thumb, and the 90s G-Force version that aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami that is a much closer English version of the original.

Meanwhile, a Japanese company (I think A.D. Vision, but I could be wrong) is releasing the new updated Gatchaman on DVD as well. This is a remake shown in Japan relatively recently, much like the Bubblegum Crisis 2040 series that revamps the original with modern animation designs and techniques. For example: the "Great Spirit" that Zoltar took his orders from is 3-D CGI in this version, Jason (named Joe in the original Japanese) is a tattooed gunslinger with a serious temper problem, and Princess (AKA Jun) has the obligatory flash of gratuitous nudity when her superhero costume materializes in place of her street clothes.

My brother signed them back in today, so regrettably I have no further info, but if anybody knows Rhino Video's home page it might be a good place to start.

And yes Dave, Caitlin Fairchild is rather scrumptious. (Or would be if a live 6-foot 5-inch redhead could be found to don the costume.

 

[Myriads]

Thoughts I had on this show when I first saw it many moons ago:

Ah Keyop. An early toon sufferer of turrets syndrome. Poor guy.

And Zoltar and his 'sister' An edit for the American market that covered the fact that he liked to cross dress and was a hermphridite if I remember right.

And if his planet was so damn short of minerals and such, how did it keep turning out all those cool ships every day.

Lines we wish we heard: "Let me get this straight, you want us to fly all of our ships into each other and cause a giant explosion? Right......"

🙂

Myriads

 

[MadKalnod]

IIRC, Spectra was so resource-depleted precisely because they had used it all up in the process of becoming a militaristic conquering empire.

 

[Oddjob0226]

Zoltar was a hermaphodite? As a kid I saw the "famous" episode where he's unmaksed and all you see is long hair as he (?) covers his face. Then the group is flying home, saying things like "Could it be - Zoltar is a woman?" In the edit I saw, this was shocking enough to a kid... there was no sister reference, and certainly no hermaphrodite reference. This is the first I've heard of either one!

Also, when I was in Jr. High Keyops had that little stuttery "tourrette" voice... later, when I was in college I saw the series on some cable superstation. His voice had been recast and was normal! No gibberish stutter....

Did the versions you all saw have 7 Zark 7 and 1 Rover 1? Those were added for the U.S. audience.....but were they in all markets?

 

[Shem the Penman]

A few random thoughts

Yeah, the 7-Zark-7 stuff was added to cover edits made in the American edition -- provide linking narration in place of scenes that had been cut out, that style of thing.

As for Keyop's changing voice -- there are two American versions out there. The original, Battle of the Planets, was the one that featured Tourette's Keyop. TBS bought up the rights, reedited the episodes, renamed it G-Force, and did new voices for it.

I never saw the episode where Zoltar takes "his" mask off, but I do remember as a kid wondering why, if he was a guy, his lips looked so much like a woman's.

From what I read, adventure series with five-person teams are common in anime, and most of them share the same team dynamic as Battle of the Planets (leader, leader's rival, big friendly dope, girl, comedy relief kid). That holds true for Voltron, at least.

But while BotP was cool when I was a kid, nothing beat watching Cyborg 009 on the local Japanese cable channel.

 

[SlaverTickler]

Zoltar's unmasking.

When they pulled off Zoltar's mask didn't it turn out that he was infact the "All Powerful One" that he was always talking too. I'm sure he at least showed up in that epasode to save his LT.'s ass. I also remeber another guy who flew a jet something like Mark's. He wasn't a member of the team, but they said he may have been Mark's dad. I can't remeber his name but I know he was in the show.

 

[Darkknight]

I think you're right Slaver! Man it's been a long time but I also remember him having lipstick when the mask was off.

Ya know I had enough issues with tickling as a kid to then be confused with this show! 🙂

DK