Gatchaman is a three-part original video animation based on the popular 1970s animeScience Ninja Team Gatchaman. It was released in Japan and the United States during the mid-1990s. This version of Gatchaman is set in the year 2066 where the evil leader of the nation of Hontwall is threatening to take over the planet. Scientists from the International Science Organization are disappearing and only five teenage heroes, the Science Ninja team, can stop the disaster. The OVAs were licensed by Urban Vision through Harmony Gold USA and were released on VHS and DVD. At Anime Boston 2013, Sentai Filmworks had announced that they have rescued the OVA series along with the original 1970's series for a DVD re-release in October. The series was made available for streaming through Crunchyroll. The series was originally dubbed by Harmony Gold and Urban Vision, however, Sentai Filmworks produced a new English dub in 2013 for their DVD and Blu-ray re-release to match the uncut TV series dub.
Plot
Character variations
Team variations in different versions
Other character variations across different versions
Other notable changes
‡The original Japanese-language version of Gatchaman contains a small number of words in English.
Cast
Design
In the OVA series, the characters' designs and ages were changed along with other elements as part of the process of "updating" the series for modern audiences. Ken, who had long hair in the original series, was given short hair. Joe was redesigned with more of a "bad boy" image, given a tattoo and made a smoker — His car was also updated to a Shelby Cobra. Jun originally had long green hair but has short brown hair in the OVA, has developed physically and has worked as a model in the past. Jinpei is renamed as Jimmy and given more of a "street kid" look while his position on the team becomes "hacker". Ryu is now the oldest at 25, he was originally 17, and his hairstyle is changed to a blonde and purple mohawk. The GodPhoenix was also redesigned and appears to be larger than the original. The Red Impulse squadron had only three members in the original series while in the OVA continuity there are more.
Music
The film's soundtrack was composed and produced by Maurice White and Bill Meyers, with additional music by Bob Sakuma from the original TV series. The ending theme "Let's Fly" was performed by Lance Matthew.
