SUMMARY
Gatchaman
is back. With new vehicles, better technology, and fantastic techniques,
they are the ultimate ninja team.
In the future, the United Nations has brought peace to the world.
With the help of the International Science Organization, a plan to
solve the worlds energy problems is now underway.
It is because of this operation, called the Mantle Plan, the country
of Hontworl declares its withdrawal from the UN. At the same time,
a mysterious ship is destroying Mantle Plan bases.
Dr Nambu knows who
is behind these attacks, and why Hontworl left the UN. It is the Galactor,
a terrorist organization that has it's tentacles into all aspects of Earth
development. When the Galactor finally makes its move, Dr. Nambu calls upon
4 men and 1 woman to defend the Earth. Sometimes seen as a group, sometimes
only as one, This Science Ninja Team are the only ones who can stop this
threat.
DVD VISION TEST
VIDEO:For the most
part, Urban Vision has done a good job with the source material provided.
You only notice the pixliation when you are doing slow-motion. It looks
a lot better than the VHS release. The colors are better than the original.
There are a few specks but those are from the source. However, there is
a noticeable pause in episode two as it switches from one layer to another.
AUDIO: We have two audio tracks, the original Japanese and English. Both
are fine, with a little better sound coming from the Japanese track. No
real surround sound elements worth mentioning.
EDITS:
This was perhaps the biggest surprise. UV edited their own work. If
you compare the DVD to the original UV VHS subtitle release, you will
find that they replaced the Japanese titles with the English Dub titles.
So "Gatchaman VS. The Turtle King" became "The Dragon King", and so
forth. Also, any Japanese writing was covered up with poorly done
CG elements. "Pokemon" has done a
better job. Lastly, an improvement from the VHS release. The "To Be
Continued" statement at the end of each episode has been restored.
EXTRAS: Very skimpy,
worse than other UV releases. We get a music video at the end of episode
3 and trailers. That is it. Nothing more.
WIDESCREEN REVIEW
STORY: How to you
take a 102 episode classic television series and reduce it into three
45 minute episodes? You concentrate on the flash of Gatchaman, and eliminate
the substance. This is a slick and beautiful looking series, but not very
well written. The plot is cobbled from the first 10 episodes of Gatchaman,
and then given an unsatisfying, tacked on ending.
The crew at Art Mic obviously did not have anyone at Tatsunoko help to
write the series, and have come up with a pale version of the original.
ACTING: Well, we have a couple of things to say. First, the Japanese audio
track. Fantastic. Plenty of emotion and intensity, unlike some of the
later Japanese releases. The cast is mostly experienced voice actors,
with fan favorite Rika Matsumodo doing Junpei.
The English is another story. The dialogue was poorly written, and the
voice direction was pretty flat. We would like to see what Jun's American
voice looks like.
FAN SERVICE: For fan service, a twist on the old shower scene. For the
legion of female Joe fans, we have a great pan of his butt for you. For
the gentlemen, jiggling Jun and her independent suspension breasts. Also,
if you slow-mo her transformation, you get to see the babe naked.
CONCLUSION
Initially excited about this release, it slowly gave way to
disappointment. While still an important part for the "Gatcha-fan", it
is not the "Collection DVD" of your dreams.
The biggest problem is the writing for the dub. If the intention of the
writer was to bring up bad memories about the cruddy dialogue of "Battle
of the Planets" and "G-Force", it was done very well. Every bit of dialogue
makes me cringe. To add insult to injury, the voice acting stinks. The
voices are mismatched, and the delivery is flat. Never has a dub sounded
so bad since "Macross II". Frankly,
the dub on this one is the reason why there are so many militant "Sub
or Die" folks out there.
Another point
is the renaming of most of the characters. Junpei is now Jimmy,
Ryu is Rocky, Berg Katsu is Solaris, the Red Impulse is now the
Red Spector, and so forth. While this may not be a big deal for
the causal viewer, you anime purists will be royally ticked off.
Finally, where
are the extras? For a "Collection DVD", there aren't any. Character
sketches, comparisons between old and new Gatchaman, or even an
interview with English voice talent would have been nice. Since
when did trailersqualify as extras?
At least the animation is well
done, and in some cases, even beautiful. Yasuomi Umezu's character designs
are well done, for Gatchaman at least. The Glactor have updated their
threads, but still look as goofy as ever.
If you are a "Gatchaman"
purists, and you wound up buying it, I strongly recommend that you watch
this DVD in Japanese. If you have not, buy the sub VHS so that you have
the mostly uncut version. If you are the lucky few to have a region free
player, get the Japanese release and watch it uncut.
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