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GatchaFilm

Gatchaman is a live-action superhero film produced by Toho and Nikkatsu Corp., and loosely based on the 1972 anime of the same name. It was released in Japan on August 24, 2013.

The screenplay was written by Yusuke Watanabe, who was also responsible for the live-action film adaptations of GANTZ and 20th Century Boys. The film was directed by Toya Sato, and intended as a "Dark Hero" take on the franchise.

A live-action Gatchaman film had been announced on April 10, 2007 by Nikkatsu Corp., but had been held up in planning due to the Imagi CGI film being intended to release first in Tatsunoko's licensing deal. Due to the failure of Imagi to hold up their end of the contract, Tatsunoko sued to regain the full movie rights, allowing Nikkatsu's film to proceed in being made.

Plot[]

By the year 2050 AD, a mysterious organization called Galactor has occupied half of the Earth and threatens to exterminate the human race.  Around the same time, the International Science Organization had uncovered mysterious stones that bear unusual powers.

It is said that one person out of approximately eight million is able to harness the power of the stones; they are known as a "Receptor". Dr. Kozaburo Nambu gathers a team of these five lucky Receptors together. Known as the "Gatchaman" team, it is their mission to defeat Galactor.

Differences in the adaptation[]

Character and setting changes[]

  • Jun and Jinpei both have the surname "Ohtsuki"; their counterparts in the original anime lacked a surname. They also appear to be biological siblings in this adaptation. In the anime, Jun's parents also died when she was young to remember them. In this film adaptation, they were captured by Galactor when she was nine years old. It is uncertain if they are dead or alive, though she wishes to find them.
  • Dr. Nambu also had a wife and daughter who were abducted by Galactor, with their presence shown in a photograph.
  • Ryu only has an adoptive mother who he wishes to get in touch with again, and his personality is more serious compared to the original.
  • The team has been aged up somewhat compared to the original, with the older members being in their 20s while Jinpei is a young teenage boy.
  • There is no indication of Red Impulse existing, with Ken merely being an orphan that had trained to be Gatchaman since childhood alongside Joe.
  • Berg Katse's origin is considerably altered. Rather than being a being made from fusing a pair of fraternal twins, they are actually a young woman named Naomi who was a potential recruit for the Gatchaman team. Ken and Joe were childhood friends of Naomi, and both had feelings for her. Naomi was in fact going to be Joe's fiancee, but she was attacked shortly after he proposed to her. Naomi was believed to have been killed by Galactor, but in fact survived and became its commander; "Berg Katse" is more of a title, with Naomi being the third in line and attempting to transform Joe into the fourth Katse with Virus X. When the existing Katse dies, another takes over, with the male Katse before Naomi having perished. The post-credits teaser sets up a tease that Joe is going to re-awaken as the fourth Katse, but the failure of the movie dashed any follow-up on this.
  • X does not appear to exist; rather, the Galactors in the movie are humans affected and transformed by the mysterious Virus X.
  • Those who are "Receptors" have barcodes imprinted on the backs of the necks. Ken is given the number "0071", Joe has "0062", Jun and Jinpei are "0283" and "0284", and Ryu has the number "0135".
  • Rather than green hair, Jun has the brown hair natural to her actress. However, Ryu sports dyed red hair.
  • Dr. Nambu is shown to have had a wife and a daughter in a photo, contrasting against the original Nambu who was unmarried and had no kids.
  • In April 2013, Toya Sato was interviewed in the newspaper Daily Sports in the lead-up to the movie. He would dispense some plot information and differences that wound up not reflected in the final product, but gave more detail to the differences in the live-action world. One of these factors is that there are 28 Gatchaman agents located all over the world (to match with the 28 Stones uncovered), and that the team we follow in the movie is only Japan's unit. Due to the failure of the movie, his intent to expand on the story in sequels would not be realized.

Character name re-use[]

One element that Sato and Watanabe did put in the film, in perhaps a misguided attempt to deliver in-jokes to classic Gatchaman fans, would be the using of some character names from the original series on entirely different people in the plot:

  • Dr. Kirkland was a character in the OVA series whose name is sourced for an ISO character here
  • Naomi had her name taken from the Naomi of Revenge on the Iron Beast Mechadegon
  • Ilya's name was taken from the character Katse impersonated in The Romance Extinguished By Evil
  • The three Galactor agents at the start of the film are Captain Gilman, Mike Miller, and May. These character names came from character associated with Galactor in the series, but of course were entirely different. Gilman's name is sourced from Martin Gilman (Galactor's Buying Up Operation), Mike Miller was a character from The Evil White Sea, and May was Gilman's secretary that turned out to actually be one of Katse's many disguises.

Bird Style changes[]

  • The bird elements are toned down or outright removed from the uniforms, with the capes losing their feathered appearances and the visors no longer being beak-shaped. However, the soundtrack and supplementary materials do keep the Bird Style names: Ken is the "White Eagle", Joe the "Onyx Condor", Jun the "Velvet Swan", Jinpei the "Apricot Swallow", and Ryu the "Leafy Owl". The Bird Styles are also composed of armor, rather than spandex. Concept art showed that the wing element of the capes was to originally be retained, until it was decided to eliminate that feature.
  • As a result of the changes in the Bird Styles, Jun now has a black and violet color scheme (as opposed to white and pink, though concept art showed it to originally be white and violet), while Joe's uniform is black and deep blue (as opposed to burgundy and blue).

Staff[]

  • Original Work: Tatsunoko Production
  • Planning: Nippon Television Network, Nikkatsu Corp.
  • Director: Toya Sato
  • Screenplay: Yusuke Watanabe
  • Character Design: Shinji Aramaki
  • Costume Design: Daisuke Iga
  • Special Makeup: Kakusei Fujiwara
  • VFX: White Group
  • Music: Nima Fakhlallah
  • Sound Designer: Hironori Taniguchi
  • Music Producer: Hirohide Shiga
  • Stunt Coordinator: Tatsuro Koike
  • Car Stunts: Well Move
  • Production Direction: Tomoko Shiro, Naoki Sato
  • Production: Daisuke Kadoya, Keizo Yuri, Minami Ichikawa, Hiroyuki Fujimon, Noboru Kashiwagi, Kantaro Toyama , Shuichiro Tanaka
  • Executive Producer: Seiji Okuda
  • Producers: Naoto Fujimura, Tadashi Tanaka, Akira Yamamoto
  • Production Company: Django Film
  • Distribution: Toho
  • Production: The "Gatchaman" Movie Production Committee (Nippon Television Network, Nikkatsu, Toho, Yomiuri Television Broadcasting , VAP , Takara Tomy , Tatsunoko Production, Sapporo Television Broadcasting, Miyagi Television Broadcasting , Shizuoka Daiichi Television , Chukyo Television Broadcasting , Hiroshima Television Broadcasting , Fukuoka Broadcasting)

Cast[]

  • Ken Washio/0071 : Tori Matsuzaka (present day), Nagato Okui (childhood)
  • George "Joe" Asakura/0062: Go Ayano (present day), Kisho Omoto (childhood)
  • Jun Ohtsuki/0283: Ayame Goriki (present day), Kokoa Ishii (childhood)
  • Jinpei Ohtsuki/0284: Tatsuomi Hamada (present day), Haruka Iwata (childhood)
  • Ryu Nakanishi/0135: Ryohei Suzuki (present day), Sho Yoshida (childhood)
  • Dr. Kozaburo Nambu: Goro Kishitani
  • Dr. Kirkland: Ken Mitsuishi
  • Director Anderson: Gregory Packer
  • Naomi/Berg Katse: Eriko Hatsune (present day), Komi Raimu (childhood)
  • Ilya: Shido Nakamura
  • Captain Gilman: Hiromi Shinjo
  • Mike Miller: Koji Kawamoto
  • May: Yumiko
  • ISO Staff Members: Nahana, Kenichi Masuda, Jiro Matsuda, Arihiro Iwata
  • Embassy Staff Member: Alexander Clemens
  • Husband: Manoj Mantri
  • Wife: Dilara Islam Tina
  • Visitor 1: Lee David Carmichael
  • Visitor 2: Thad Gilbert
  • Stall Owner: Barney
  • Female Announcer: Noriko Baba
  • Male Announcer: Yoshiro Sato
  • Nambu's Wife (photo): Hiroko Yashiki
  • Nambu's Daughter (photo): Nako Yabuki

Music[]

Theme song:

Niji Wo Matsu Hito

Artist: Bump of Chicken

Trailers[]

Reception[]

The movie was critically panned by both Japanese and US film critics for its cliche usage of action movie tropes and dull storyline, but praised the fight scenes and hero costumes. The film peaked at #5 at the Japanese box office, but was pulled from theaters three weeks later due to the low ticket sales and audience turnout.

According to a survey conducted by the magazine Bunka Tsushin , the audience was mainly middle-aged and elderly viewers, with a small number of young people. The movie was highly panned among critics as well as fans due to its inconsistency and lack of reverence for the original, and made it into the Top 10 rankings of Worst Films of 2013 (#10 on Movie Art's list, and #6 on Movie Treasures).

While Toya Sato had intended to turn the film into a franchise with sequels set up, the poor reception to the costumes and changes early on plus the disastrous critical and commercial performance put a stop to the idea.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Links[]

Gatchaman media
TV animation Science Ninja Team Gatchaman · Gatchaman II · Gatchaman Fighter · New Gatchaman (unproduced)· Good Morning Ninja Team Gatchaman · Gatchaman Crowds · Battle of the Planets: Phoenix Ninjas (unproduced)
Movies Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie · Gatchaman (2011 - unproduced) · Gatchaman (2013)
Adaptations Battle of the Planets (movie) · Eagle 5 Brothers · G-Force: Guardians of Space · Eagle Riders· Battle of the Planets: The New Exploits of G-Force (unproduced)
Other Gatchaman (OVA) · NTT Gatchaman · Tachimals Theater · Infini-T Force · Time Bokan: Royal Revival
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