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40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gatchaman Collection 1 (Vol. 1 & 2) !, May 21, 2005
This review is from: Gatchaman Collector's Box 1: Vols. 1-2 (DVD)
Thanks to the Battle of the Planets DVDs (Volumes 1-6 and Ultimate Boxed Set) released thru Rhino Home Video, I finally got to see some uncut Gatchaman episodes. But not all of them, with Rhino no longer having rights to the series. Enter ADV Films, which will release the entire Gatchaman series (on 7 collector's boxes) for the first time ever in North America. Collectively, the seven-volume collector's edition will contain all 105 episodes of the original uncut Japanese series, including 20 episodes never before seen in the U.S. Each set features stunning original artwork by Alex Ross. This Gatchaman Collector's Box Volume 1 is a three-disc release containing two sub-volumes (The Legend Begins and Meteors and Monsters, each available separately) with 12 episodes presented in English 2.0 and Japanese 2.0 with English subtitles. Extras include: clean opening and closing animation, episode commentary, Gatchaman Karaoke, and previews. The bonus extras DVD includes: Ken, the Eagle profile, character sketches: Ken, episode sketches, interviews with the English staff and cast, and audition footage. Episodes: "Gatchaman VS. Turtle King" "The Evil Ghostly Aircraft Carrier" "The Giant Mummy That Calls Storms" "Revenge of the Iron Monster Mechadegon" "The Ghost Fleet from Hell" "The Grand Mini-Robot Operation" "Galactor's Grand Airshow" "The Secret of the Crescent Coral Reef Operations" "A Demon From The Moon" "The Big Battle of the Underground" "The Mysterious Red Impulse" "The Greedy Monster Ibukuron"
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
good stuff, July 15, 2005
This review is from: Gatchaman Collector's Box 1: Vols. 1-2 (DVD)
This is something I thought I'd never see, the planned release of every Gatchaman episode unedited. I watched the first few episodes in Japanese but I decided to get lazy and switch to the dubbed version, which isn't that bad. I think the worst voiceover is for Berg Katse, the main bad guy. They make him sound almost like Paul Lynde. I think the idea was to riff on his sexual ambiguity or something but it comes off sounding too 60s Batman style campy. But I will always remember Keye Luke's vocal performance in Battle of the Planets as definitive. The extras on these DVDs focus around the english voiceacting. More thought and effort went into that than I thought. The translation seems okay, but they throw in some slang every now and then "dynomite!!". At one point Ken says "I'm going to take it to the next level" which is a little too hip-hop for a 70s show. If they play around with that stuff too much it edges it closer to MST3K level. There really are only a few truly good shows on this collection for an adult audience. The rest are formulaic. There are a couple shows that explore the aftermath of the death that Galactor causes which I thought was well done. And there are some elements here and there that hint at an overall "arc" like Red Impulse. If you dissect the plots, they are full of holes because the story wants to somehow get the characters into an infiltration scenario (to allow them to do Ninja type stuff) so the godphoenix usually just creeps up into the enemy ship and leaves it sitting there unprotected. The enemy does a lot of "monologuing" as it is called in The Incredibles, or insisting on capturing the team first instead of just offing them directly. If you look at it more as a comic book and not hold it up to a realistic standard then it's okay. I think Yamato (Starblazers) is the king of 70s Anime, so Gatchaman has to come second. I've really forgotten a lot of the old Battle of the Planets shows so that, plus watching it unedited with a new voice cast makes it feel almost like a new show. Since there are over 100 episodes it will be costly to collect the entire set but I'm going to do it. There are a lot of episodes that were never even shown on Battle of the Planets so I'm eager to see the story unfold in order to its completion.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you watched Battle of the Planets, you'll LOVE Gatchaman!, May 30, 2005
This review is from: Gatchaman Collector's Box 1: Vols. 1-2 (DVD)
I can remember catching the odd episode of Battle of the Planets (BOTP) as a very young kid and thinking it was great. At the time, I was oblivious to the abrupt, heavy handed editing that put 7-Zark-7 and a poorly animated Jason and Princess in place of the original action. Over the years, I'd catch an odd episode here and there, often times the characters would have different names. I won't go into detail here (do an interenet search if interested), but the original series Gatchaman has been translated by Sandy Frank into Battle of the Planets, Ted Turner into G-Force, and Saban Entertainment into Eagle Riders--each with it's own pros and cons. Eventually, I came upon some fan-produced subtitled episodes of the original Gatchaman series. I was really amazed! The original series was a complex, deep, action-packed serial. There are things that happen and people we meet early in the series that seem trivial at first, but end up having a gigantic effect on the series. The characters care for each other and act with an honest plend of passion and loyalty. Unfortuneately, I personally don't feel the series really gets going until perhaps episode 30 or so--where Jun (Princess) is presumed dead and we see how the rest of the team reacts. The early episodes are much more episodic, introducing the team, Gallactor, Dr. Nambu, and are fairly formulaic in the sense that 1) Gallactor attacks a city, 2) Gatchaman investigates, 3) the Team fights the monster and wins. This first volume gets four stars, because I have to save five stars for the rest of the series. If you buy it however, you WILL NOT be disappointed!
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