Gatcha-Movie Update

Imagi Update: It has been confirmed that Jun Falkenstein is no longer on the Gatchaman Movie project. According to her blog, she is back with Disney.

Live Action Gatchaman Move News: It has been a long while since we've gotten any news on Japan's planned live action Gatchaman film. Apparently, the concept is still alive: On June 19th, it was announced that Takara-Tomy (who now owns Tatsunoko Productions) has purchased 2.83% of the available stock in Nikkatsu, the studio that created the live action Yatterman movie and who has the rights for the live action Gatchaman movie. In turn, Nikkatsu will produce live action films based on Takara-Tomy products such as the Rika-chan fashion doll line, and adaptations of further Tatsunoko animated properties. The plan is to release one Takara-Tomy-based film a year.

There was no specific news about the live action Gatchaman film in the press releases. But, since the Yatterman live action movie was a major box office success, hopefully, this will stimulate work on the Gatchaman film.

Thanks Tatsunokofan!

Get Gatchaman T-shirts

GatchaCon T-Shirts

For the past twelve years, fans have held GatchaCon at the San Diego Comic Con. One of the highlights of GatchaCon was the cool t-shirt design released every year. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to GatchaCon this year, and I don't know the current status of this year's T-shirt designs. However, Jason H. managed to find a few designs printed for past years and want to make them available to fans again. There aren't many left and there are no plans for reprints, so get them before they're gone for good!

To see the available t-shirt designs and details, Visit this page at the Tatsunoko USA site. If you are interested in ordering any shirts, please write to Jason at: tatfanclub(at)aol.com (replace the (at) with @). (Thanks, Jason!)

Uniqlo Shirts in NYC

If you happen to be in New York City, the Uniqlo Gatchaman t-shirts have been spotted for sale in Uniqlo's New York Soho branch. Sizes and stock are extremely limited, so, like the GatchaCon shirts, get them before they're gone!

Audience Test Results for Gatchaman (2011)

Recently, Imagi held a small audience test at a Warner Brothers studio in Burbank CA to gauge the response to Gatchaman by their teenage target audience. The audience saw a brief trailer, some still scenes, image boards and production art. Then they were given a questionnaire. (One question asked about romance in the storyline and whether there should be a Ken-Jun-Joe love triangle.) A Japanese lady who went to the test wrote about it in her blog (link).

The highlights:

• The release schedule is being pushed back to 2011. (Not a big surprise considering Astro Boy is yet to be released.)
• It's confirmed that Nambu is now of African descent and sports the "Afro Samurai" look. His goal is to gather teenagers to fight the alien menace that is Katse and Gallactor.
• As you might have guessed, the selected teenagers don't get along at first. Joe, a bad-boy street fighter with a vendetta, refuses to join, and the others attempt to beat some sense into him at a construction site. Only after, through some fault of his, Nambu gets captured by Gallactor does Joe join the team. (Wolverine in a bird suit, anyone?)
• Imagi Joe more closely resembles OAV Joe than original Joe.
• Jun's action scenes are cool, but she's not as sexy. Her mini skirt birdstyle seemed to get high marks, though.
• Jinpei and Ryu seem more noticeable in the Imagi version.
• Katse loses both his mutant nature (appearing entirely male) and his sense of humor.
• The audience seemed unhappy with the quality of the CGI, claiming the movements were not very smooth.
• There seems to be a little bit of confusion about the title: "Gatchaman" vs. "Gatchamen."

Say this with me, fellow fans: We were afraid this would happen.

Thanks, Tatsunokofan!

Imagi News, Capcom News

Douglas Glen, CEO of Imagi, resigns. According to the press releases, Imagi's project such as Astro Boy and Gatchaman are not affected. Check this link at Anime News Network for details: http://tinyurl.com/ot7z3f

Thanks, Trudi!

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom game confirmed for US. Capcom has made their announcements for the upcoming 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June: the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom title will be released for the Nintendo Wii in America and Europe. Details here at Gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6209856.html

Video Parody: Gatchaman Abridged

Enjoy this Gatchaman parody dub by someone with an excellent sense of comedic timing. I'm not sure why he's using the "G-Force GoS" names, though. Not Safe For Work unless you have earphones (naughty words are only selectively bleeped out).



Thanks, Springie!

Catching Up: Cool Bits and Pieces

Here are some neat bits and pieces I've been meaning to post here:

Gatchaman Featured at Taipei Toys Exhibition

From Kena's blog: check out her photo album of the Gatchaman goodies exhibition in Taipei: http://photo.pchome.com.tw/kcc20051225/

Fighting Ken and Jun

And a video: Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom featuring Ken and Jun



Deviant Fanart

And some really nice fanart of Jun on DeviantArt. This piece made today's "Daily Deviations," which is somewhat of a big deal in deviantART Land.


swan by ~dangerousllama on deviantART


Ken Design Sketch

Last, but not least, Felix Ip's blog has a nice concept sketch of Ken.

New Gatchaman T-shirt Designs from Uniqlo

Japanese clothing manufacturer Uniqlo has released the first of at least two Gatchaman T-shirt designs. The first one, featuring clips of the characters' faces, is here: http://store.uniqlo.com/jp/CPaGoods/056653-09 The second design, due out by the end of this month, will be white with a small bird head symbol over the left breast. Both shirts will cost 1,500 yen each.

The site, of course, is in Japanese, and Uniqlo doesn't do overseas mail orders. However you may be able to order through Celga.com

There's even a video commercial for the latest line of shirts, including the Gatchaman design:



Many thanks to Tatsunokofan for the information!