Review: Gatchaman Vol. 1 -The Legend Begins

Released: Jun 14, 2005

Buy it here More Buys

Created by: Tatsuo Yoshida

Other shows you might enjoy: Transformers Armada Voltron: Defender of the Universe Gatchaman Collector’s Box

“Sometimes they are five, and sometimes they are one…The white shadow that steals close without showing its true form…They are called the Science Ninja Team.” -Dr. Nambu

Gatchaman, known as G-Force in America, was originally shown on the Sci-Fi channel’s Saturday Morning Amine in the late 90’s. It gained a bit of a following, but wasn’t as popular as other hit shows as Funimation’s Dragonball Z.

Now several years later ADV brings us G-Force in its original form, complete with amazingly catchy Japanese theme songs for a treat that fans of the series will truly love.

Newcomers to the series will find that Gatchaman is easy to enjoy. The story centers around Gatchaman, Ken, the eagle and the Science Ninja Team who consists of June, the swan, Ryu, the owl, Jinpei, the swallow, and Joe, the condor. Their mission is to thwart Galactor’s plans of world domination under the guidance of doctor Nambu. The team completes their missions using various gadgets provided by the doctor, as well as 5 vehicles that form the God Phoenix.

Most of Galactor’s plans center around stealing uranium from the world’s largest uranium sources and using it for world domination. That’s reflected in the all of the episodes on the disc except for the first. The first episode introduces you to the characters and the general plot.

Although the DVD is really enjoyable and gives great insight to the series it has a few small shortcomings, most of which are common in anime, so it’s not as big of a deal. The team’s finishing technique, the Firebird, is supposedly the deadliest technique in their arsenal with the potential to kill the team with each use. However they use it quite it a bit.

The other thing that sort of gets to me is the accuracy of Galactor’s men. I don’t know if this bothers me or if I just find it plain amusing, but for some reason scores of men seem to have their guns set to miss and never seem to hit anyone.

All in all, Gatchaman is a good series and the first DVD shows that well. Even though there are a few interesting misses here and there, it’s a solid series that everyone can enjoy.