More Gatchaman Movie Changes...

There was new mention of the Imagi Gatchaman movie from insider Charlie's Blog.

An excerpt:

"The original vision for the film was fun and a bit edgy---appealed to me. The project's been through lots of changes, rewrites (like any film), ended up with a different director recently. The vision's changed since I first joined, and seems to be going towards a younger Power Rangers audience---I wanted to see a Gatchaman that I would love to see, and didn't want to see it go this direction, so I departed from Imagi and took an Art Directing/Character Designing gig on Thundercats."

Now, looking back at the writing on the Battle of the Planets comic, the word "edgy" does not necessarily indicate a good thing. Nor does "Power Rangers audience" indicate a bad thing. I don't think Imagi's TMNT had been especially edgy and had maintained the general feel of the original comic. So again, this may not be horrible, awful news.

On the other hand, I really liked the preliminaries I had the opportunity to see at Imagi, and I liked the direction it was going under Kevin Munroe. I can't help but feel apprehensive about the replanning.

Read the entire posting: here

Thanks, Anonymous, for the link.

Bloody Disgusting Gatchaman Movie News

BloodyDisgusting.com has posted that Kevin Munroe has been signed on to direct the film adaptation of Dylan Dog, a horror comic. Apparently, this means he's no longer holding the reins of the Imagi Gatchaman film. Imagi hasn't posted any official news about this, but the Gatchaman portion of Imagi's web site has eliminated the "Staff" section that contained Munroe's name. Read the blogpost here:

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/11822

First, Paul Dini was slated to work on the project, but then the Gatchaman section disappeared from his forum. Now Kevin Munroe is leaving. I'd had high hopes after meeting him, hearing his plans and seeing his work with TMNT.

Could this mean that the Gatchaman project is being reimagined, or is it slated for cancellation? I've got a bad feeling about this.

Imagi launches marketing department

I was just commenting to a friend that we haven't heard any news on the upcoming Gatchaman movie at all. Is it being shelved? In this case, no news is not really good news.

This latest news release from Active Anime says that Imagi has just set up a full marketing department for its features, which will include Gatchaman and Astro Boy in 2009. The term, "slated for worldwide distribution," however, has me wondering if these features will be relegated to video instead of theatrical release.

The news article is here:
http://www.activeanime.com/html/content/view/2864/36/

Ken and Jun make a cameo in new Yatterman episode

Ken andJun make a quick cameo in Yatterman 2008, Episode 2. Possibly a reference to the upcoming films in Japan?



Here we see Ken and Jun in Osaka, enjoying some takoyaki at the 9:09 mark on the video. You can watch the entire program with fansubs at Crunchyroll.com.

Thanks to the BotP Mailing List for the news!

Original Gatchaman screenwriter, Jinzo Toriumi, succumbs to liver cancer

I just received the following release--not sure of the source, but confirmed the information on the links:

Jinzo Toriumi, a screenwriter who first began writing during the "revolutionary era" of Japanese television animation on Mach Go Go Go (Speed Racer), Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets/G-Force), and Yatterman, has died on Thursday. He was 78. He succumbed to liver cancer in a hospital in the Tokyo neighborhood of
Shinjuku. He leaves behind his wife, Kazuyo.

Toriumi was born in 1929 in the northern Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido. After trying his hand at writing scripts for live-action films at Nikkatsu, he began writing animation scripts at Mushi Productions for Mighty Atom (Astro Boy) in 1964. He then devoted himself fulltime to television animation at Tatsunoko Production in 1965. There, he contributed to Casshern, Tekkaman, and Time Bokan. He later began writing for such Sunrise works as Armored Trooper Votoms, Yoroiden Samurai Trooper (Ronin Warriors), and Mister Ajikko. He also wrote the novel versions of Gatchaman, Shin Heiyuden, and Dororo, as well as the Anime Scenario Nyumon (The Introduction to Anime
Scriptwriting).

He used the Anime Scenario Nyumon book as a vocational school teacher for future generations of scriptwriters. He also chaired Ohtori Koubou, a support group for scriptwriters. He received the (Scenario) Scriptwriting Award from the Japan Writers Guild on May 26, 2000.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun, animeanime.jp

Thanks for the information, Jane!

Surreal Gatchaman parody on classic variety TV

By nature, Japanese variety television is just plain weird. Therein lies its charm.

In these two videos, you'll see an attempt to recreate the Gatchaman opening credits in live action.



and...



I think these date back to 1995 or so because I remember seeing the first one on network TV. The poster of the video didn't provide any information.

From there, it gets weirder. In these videos, Gatchaman goes to Shinjuku to demonstrate two new Science Ninja techniques: Science Ninja Technique Park Clean...



...and Science Ninja Technique Pizza Wait for a Minute, where they use their Ninja Skillz (no bicycles or elevator to climb 13 floors) to deliver pizza within the 15-minute delivery time limit. I think the customers are probably too freaked out to complain.



What's kind of funny is near the end of the park video, there are people asking our heroes who they are. Haven't they heard of Gatchaman? No? Kids these days....

Thanks, Tatsunokofan!

Gatchapin now available on DVD

First post for the new year...

As of December 12, 2007, episodes of "Go Go! Gatchapin" are now commercially available. Released by a company named Liverpool, the DVD retails for 1,980 yen and is sold only through 7-11 convenience stores and through the online shop run
by BS Fuji, the satellite network that airs the series.

For your 1,980 yen and postage, you get 20 episodes featuring the battle between Gatchapin and Pierre Katse, plus two additional Gatchapin stories (Gatchapin goes shopping, and Gatchapin scopes out an amusement park). The episodes are entirely in Japanese, with no subtitles or dubs. It is a series aimed at young kids and comprises live action skits full of cartoon gags which are easy enough to understand in plain Japanese. The DVD is Region 2 encoded, so you'll need a code-free DVD player to watch it outside of Japan.

For more information:

Liverpool site

7-Dream site

BS Fuji Online Shop


Thanks, Tatsunokofan!