My Introduction to Gacchaman
17 November 2004
When I first saw G-Force on Cartoon Network when I was a kid, I immediately liked this show. I even pretended to be characters such as Ace, Hoot Owl, and Pee-Wee.Years later, I discovered that this is an Americanized version of Science Ninja Team Gacchaman, a popular anime show, made for U.S. audiences by Sandy Frank and Ted Turner.

This show was done in Japan by the award winning studio Tatsunoko Productions, which also produced Robotech and Speed Racer, two other great animes. I also found out that before G-Force, Sandy Frank heavily edited the violence and hired some of the best voice actors (Casey Kasem, Keye Luke, Alan Young, Janet Waldo, etc.) and added their mascot, 7-Zark-7, in a version which he called "Battle of the Planets," made in 1978. But when BOTP's copyright expired in '86, Frank teamed up with Ted Turner to re-dub Gacchaman and restore most of the violence that he previously edited in BOTP.

The result was a more faithful show to the original Gacchaman story called "G-Force." The only two flaws it had were some poor dubbing and an often annoying synthesized disco soundtrack by Dean Andre. Bob Sakuma's original music is far superior to Andre's, but I also like Andre's music. I remember the music from childhood, when I first watched this show. Despite these flaws, it is the best dub of Gacchaman yet. Forget BOTP. Stay with the original Gacchaman, which is still the best, and G-Force!!! (If you want.)

8/10
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