Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 23, 2013 in Anime, Cinema
Ever wanted to see a live-action version of Gatchaman, the popular Japanese anime (also known as G-Force, or Battle of the Planets here in the US). Gatchaman will finally gracing the big screen – but only in Japan for now. This live-action adaption from Japanese director Toya Sato (who previously did the Kaji live-action adaptions) looks to be taking itself pretty seriously here. While it has the typical lower-budget look of many Japanese anime adaptions, in many ways it’s kind of charming. The film will arrives in Japanese theaters August 24th. Perhaps it will make its way overseas eventually, but for now, check out the trailer below. Read more…
When I first heard about the upcoming Gatachman film back in 2008, I was excited. The series, known as G-Force here in the states, is in part responsible for my love of anime today. Alongside series like Robotech, Speed Racer and Voltron, it was one of the many anime that somehow managed to make its way to network television in the 80’s. Of course, the series was re-aired in the mid-90’s thanks to Cartoon Network’s Toonami, but was never shown unedited. The upcoming film should stay true to the original Japanese, though I have to admit this teaser has me a bit worried — not that the plot or visuals will be toned down for a younger audience, so much as that the animation itself might be a bit lacking. I guess we all have to understand that Imagi isn’t Pixar, and with their various financial issues — some of which are responsible for the film being delayed until 2011, instead of being released back in 2009 as planned — we should be happy the film is even happening. Until then, we’ll be left wanting a bit more. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 9, 2010 in Animation
So I’m looking at this coffee commercial from Japan and at first I think that there’s nothing too special about it, but for some reason there seemed to be something very familiar about it which was uncanny. And then it hits me — the theme song is a parody of Gatchaman, which is known to Americans as Battle of the Planets: Read more…
It’s amazing what you can discover on YouTube sometimes: The above commercial for NTT is from the year 2000 and features the J-Pop band SMAP as Gatchaman! Of course Gatchaman is known to use old school anime fans as Battle of the Planets which played a key role in introducing Americans to sci fi ninjas. There were four commercials in total and below is a fully animated spot which looks amazing: Read more…
