A group of young superheroes known as G Force protect the galaxy from the forces of Spectra. They are aided in this endevour by a monitor robot known as 7-Zark-7 and their own space ship, the Phoenix. Each episode deals with them battling a monsterous robot, a part of a robot, or a group of robots.
Early in my little rant on anime, I rattled off several titles that I watched as a kid. I thought I'd spend the next set of posts talking about each one in turn. Nothing major, just some thoughts I had on viewing these beloved friends as an adult.
Using alphabetical order, we start with Battle of the Planets (BotP), or, in its original form, Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman (or simply Gatchaman). We do this to prevent Cullen from starting with Speed Racer and then just sort of mysteriously stopping. Because it hurts me to think about this one. Really, really bad.
I loved this show as a kid. I even had a coloring book. I remembered that the episode where Princess seems to have been killed seriously moved me. Of all of the titles we're going to talk about, this was probably the one I wanted to be good the most.
God is it awful. I suppose in a different frame of mind, I could MS3TK the show... But how to get to that frame of mind?
In fairness, I don't think the show is quite as bad as my non-anime childhood favorite, Hanna-Barbera's Godzilla. There are moments in that show that just don't make a lick of sense. You need to be five to seven years old, up too early, high on sugary cereal to really appreciate it. (A blind love of all things Godzilla wouldn't hurt, either.)
There are moments in BotP, though, that really, really hurt the brain. For instance, early in the episode “The Space Mummy”, R2-D2 clone 7-Zark-7 discovers a new planet he names Zarkadia. Not only is this planet inhabited, and thus is no doubt has its own name, but it is also apparently located... ah... located...
Um.
It's located behind Venus.
Left unexplained is just how “Zarkadia” could hide behind a planet. Or how a space fairing people could be so bloody ignorant of their own galaxy!
No sense. What so ever.
I have four episodes of BotP on DVD (which is why this is a partial and not a full review.) The particular collection I have also has the original version of the episodes, the aformentioned Gatchman. I watched them back to back, which only furthers the pain. Gatchaman is far superior. It has its flaws, don't get me wrong. But I'd watch it over BotP in a heartbeat.
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