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Rating: 
Summary: Good Show, Bad Layout
Review: "Kaguta Ninja Tai Gatchaman" ("Science Ninja Team Gatchaman") is an anime series that debuted in Japan in 1972. It was about a team of 5 kids (4 teenagers and a preteen) that fought the evil Galactor organization, which was bent on world conquest. Sandy Frank brought the series over to the U.S. in 1978. Due to Standards and Practices restrictions at the time, a lot of violence had to be cut before the series could be dubbed into English. To fill in the time and gaps left in the story, new footage was animated of an American-made character, 7-Zark-7, a robot (which looked a lot like R2D2 to capitalize on the "Star Wars" craze at the time) that watched over the team from Center Neptune (an underwater base; don't ask), and his robotic canine companion, 1-Rover-1. Zark's job was, through voice-overs, to assure the audience that nobody died, or, if a plane got blown up, a robot was at the controls. Oddly, for a character that was created to censor things, Zark had a lot of sezual conversations with Susan, his robotic love interest on Pluto, over space radio. The fact that Susan sounds like a phone sex operator, (...) makes this even more hilarious. Whereas Gatchaman was entirely Earth-based, BotP often had the kids going to another planet that looked exactly like Earth. I think you can see where this is going. In addition, the kids got name changes - even those that already had English names! Ken, Joe, Jun, Jimpei, and Ryu became Mark (as in Hammill), Jason, Princess (as in Leia), Keyop (WTF?), and Tiny Harper. The voice casting wasn't that great. Casey Kasem (Mark) sounded nothing like a teenager. In total, 85 of the 105 episodes got "the BotP treatment" (though not exactly the first 85 episodes). Personally, I think that this dub is so bad, it's unintentionally funny. Later, Turner did their own dub of Gatchaman, called "G-Force". The voices were better, more violence was retained, and there was no Zark. However, the characters were renamed again. This time, the names were extremely stupid: Ace Goodheart, Dirk Daring, Agatha Jun (Aggie to her friends; the only sensible name), PeeWee, and Hoot Owl (Hootie). Again, 85 of the 105 episodes were dubbed, but they weren't exactly the same 85 episodes that made it into BotP. One annoying (or hilarious, depending on the person) thing about "G-Force" is that they often added a repetitive, pulsing techno beat in the background. I crack up whenever it comes on, and it comes on multiple times per episode. It's so totally out of place, yet I enjoy it. Anyway, this DVD contains 2 episodes of "Battle of the Planets" as the main feature and the 2 corresponding episodes of "Kaguta Ninja Tai Gatchaman" and 1 episode of "G-Force" as special features. The BotP episodes have the original 2.0 mono track and a 5.1 remixed track. The Gatchaman episodes have the 2.0 mono track only and the option of English subtitles. The "G-Force" episode has the original English track as well as Spanish and Brazilian dialect Portuguese tracks. I think that Rhino was trying to offer a way for us to view all 3 versions of the show, but, by including only 1 episode of "G-Force", they totally messed it up. The format is 2, 2, and 1. So, Volume 1 contains Gatchaman and BotP episodes 1 & 2 and "G-Force" episode 1, Volume 2 contains Gatchaman and BotP episodes 3 & 4 and "G-Force" episode 2, etc. It makes no sense. We didn't need the Spanish and Portuguese tracks. This is America! They should have put those tracks on the foreign DVD releases. Without those extra tracks, there would be enough room for a second "G-Force" episode, and that would keep the right episodes paired together. Overall, I recommend this disc and the others in the series. For those of you that have never seen "Battle of the Planets", this will give you an idea of the censorship on American television in the late 1970s. For those of you that are buying this to relive your childhood, be warned: your love of "Battle of the Planets" is probably based on nostalgia only; you might find the series to be completely retarded now.
Rating: 
Summary: a must have for the fan
Review: Another quality DVD from RHINO. Just like 1-3, this is a nice transfer with wonderful sound. The disk includes Battle of the planets episodes, Gatchaman episodes(what started it all) and G-Force episodes (an abomination). I grew up on the planets episodes and they are still wonderful, looking just as I left them. The Gatchaman episodes are great,wonderful action but sometimes brutal. They show how much was left on the cutting room floor in order to turn this into kids tv. The G-force episodes are of good quality but the content....UGH! Most of the same scenes you will remember but with some of the worst voice overs I have EVER heard. I purchased this along with the other 3 and will buy the rest. Bring THEM ON RHINO>>WHOO
Rating: 
Summary: That creepy pilot sounds awfully familiar ...
Review: I'm slowly going through my BOTP DVDs from Rhino (don't want to go into withdrawal while waiting for next volumes to come out) and just finished watching "Ace From Outer Space" and its GATCHAMAN counterpart, "Galactor's Grand Airshow". Like most BOTP episodes, "Ace" has G-Force tracking down their enemy to an alien planet. In this case, that planet is Ergos, home of Captain Doom (the flying ace in the title).As I watched "Ace", I couldn't help but notice the similarity between the voice of Captain Doom and that of a recurring villain on the show. When I saw the GATCHAMAN episode and found out who the character really was, I was more than mildly amused by Sandy Frank Productions' nod to the original episode. (If you haven't already, buy this DVD to find out what I'm alluding to.) This and the previous volumes from Rhino have made me a fan all over again. In fact, I'm more rabid about the series now than when I first started watching the series as a anime-hungry eight year old. This is largely because of Rhino's wise decision to include the GATCHAMAN episodes on the same discs of the BOTP equivalents. I'm hoping that Rhino capitalizes on the chance to make more money by releasing not just the 85 BOTP episodes but the 20 GATCHAMAN episodes that Sandy Frank Productions never picked up. Twenty more episodes means more story, more DVDs, and more sales for Rhino. :) And I seriously doubt that I'm the only fan who wants to see the entire 105-episode run.
Rating:
Summary: We'll always have Gatchaman - we hope
Review: Much has been made about the complete lack of remastering of the Battle of the Planets episodes, but I believe a great many fans buying these DVDs are in agreement: the original Japanese Gatchaman episodes are the real gold of the Battle of the Planets DVDs. There's a definite story arc that can be followed, the characterizations are sharper, and - owing to a recent series of Gatchaman DVD releases in Japan - the original Japanese episodes ARE remastered quite nicely. As of volume 3, the "trading cards" disappeared from each disc's bonus material, so make sure to let Rhino Home Video know that you want to keep seeing the original Gatchaman episodes alongside those Battle of the Planets episodes we all grew up with.
Rating:
Summary: Slight technical difficulty
Review: Other reviews here do an excellent job covering the content of this DVD. I just wanted to mention that there is a slight technical problem with this DVD (and the rest of vols. 1-4). The English language track on the G-Force episode is virtually inaudible on some players, which is a real disappointment and knocked the DVD down a star. I tried on the two different players I have (Pioneer DV-626D and Playstation 2), and they both have the same trouble. I even wrote in to Rhino's technical support and they kindly exchanged the discs for me, but sadly, the replacement discs are the same way. I just wanted to put out the warning here. The rest of the disc is fine and has great content - it's just that one problematic audio track.
Rating:
Summary: Slight technical difficulty
Review: Other reviews here do an excellent job covering the content of this DVD. I just wanted to mention that there is a slight technical problem with this DVD (and the rest of vols. 1-4). The English language track on the G-Force episode is virtually inaudible on some players, which is a real disappointment and knocked the DVD down a star. I tried on the two different players I have (Pioneer DV-626D and Playstation 2), and they both have the same trouble. I even wrote in to Rhino's technical support and they kindly exchanged the discs for me, but sadly, the replacement discs are the same way. I just wanted to put out the warning here. The rest of the disc is fine and has great content - it's just that one problematic audio track.
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