Released By: Animatsu Entertainment
Rating: 12
Running Time: 300 Mins
Audio: English DD 2.0 & Japanese DD 5.1
Release Date: 27/4/2015
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
Many moons ago Gatchaman was a Japanese anime based on the Science Ninja Team (Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman) of five heroes lead by Ken with Jo, Jun, Ryu and Jinpei. The series is far more familiar to Western viewers as "Battle of the Planets." Fast forward to 2015 and Gatchaman Crowds is an updated version of the same idea. As in the original series Berg Katze is the villain who uses Rui to his advantage while trying to act the good guy.
In Tachikawa City its citizens are under threat daily and only the Gatchaman team can save them. A sentai team, they are looking out for Hajime Ichinose. They have alien technology no one else can understand plus they are all geeks in one way or another. The idea of team Gatchaman is they protect and serve, but nobody must find out, let alone their true identities. While GALAX is taking over eager users, Rin is fast being recruited by the evil Berg Katze and new recruit to Gatchaman's ranks, Hajime has to find to Berg's evil plan before he destroys Japan. This mean his having to decide the previous team Gatchaman's problem. As a futuristic version, the Crowds here are a reference to the strange beings used by GALAX users and can be used to destroy or practically do anything desired by the bad guys.
Here the main team members are Hajime, a girl who becomes a new member purely by JJ who drags a notebook out of her body and makes her one of the G-Crew. She is already into notebooks and keeps a load with her at school, much to her friends bafflement. Joe Hibiki, who acts as though he is perpetually depressed, yet is of use to the G-Crew, Sugane, who takes a while to get to know Hajime as she is so strange, he is a guy who relates to all things samurai and takes some getting used to as well, OD who is one of the most insane and OTT male types on the show is a man who uses his gay mannerisms to good effect when he talks, walks and generally acts up around his fellow crew. His absence from the missions betrays the real reason he can't go on any. JJ Robinson is the guy who wants to choose people to be a part of their crew rather than let them merely stumble into their group. Paiman is one of the strangest of G-Crew as he is a panda who doesn't like to be known as one, and hates it when he is made fun of and not treated with the respect he feels he deserves.
Directed by Kenji Nakamura who was responsible for Princess Mononoke, Control and Tsyritama. There is a second series planned called Gatchaman Crowds Insight and will air in Japan later in the year. Gatchaman Crowds is a fantastic reboot where the emphasis is put on the futuristic setting and high technological development that has happened in Japan since. Technology however has two sides; creating progress for the benefit of humankind and the dangers of new technology that can be used to kill off those who are seen as useless pawns to Berg Katze.
As this is rated 12 for a younger audience, this and other differences from the original series make it a one-off, but not for those who remember the original series fondly (European viewers who are 40+ will recall rushing home from school to see The Battle of the Planets while 40+ Japanese viewers will remember Gatchaman before Sandy Frank's syndication took place.) Gatchaman Crowds premièred on July 2013 on NTV and just like the original Gatchaman was produced by Tatsunoko.
With scenes of the characters pouting and getting on each others nerves, it is a series for a much younger and wider audience. Although, that is not to say the series falls flat in any way. The animation is sound, colourful and crisp with the characters rendered well, though the fight scenes are a little chaotic with huge cubes flying around and characters in full battle armour firing at will. Gatchaman Crowds is also full of nods to the original series with one character having a white bird in her hair (which goes back to their original bird flight costumes) and one of the characters having a blonde wig that could have been worn by Berg Katze, while X is a more amiable alien advisor to her subordinates (was originally called Sosai X). Other interesting additions to the discs is when viewers get to the menu screen they will notice the logo from the original Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets series at the top right as a reminder of where this anime originates. Interestingly, the same logo appears on their hand-held devices and even their notepads.
Bonus Material:Clean Opening Animation, Clean Closing Animation and Trailers for Medaka Box, Ground Control to Psychelectric Girl, Majestic Prince and Devil Survivor 2.
Verdict: Gatchaman Crowds is a modern, tech version that is impressive to a younger generation of Gatchaman fans.
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