-Princess-
"Fast ball!"
-Keyop-
Musings Of A Sci Fi-Fanatic has often gushed over the quality of sketch work utilized for Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972-1974) and thus Battle Of The Planets (1978-1980). And please excise from your mind the quality of the American made animation contributions to the adapted material from Japan. Strictly speaking to the quality of animation assembled by Tatsunoko Production, at times the art is nothing short of staggering in its beauty. As it turns out it was no easy task to find that caliber of artist for the series. Without them Science Ninja Team Gatchaman likely would not have been the enduring classic it is today. This was indeed a labor of love.
In an article called Inside Tatsunoko Production in Newtype USA (August 2004), president of the company Ippei Kuri discussed the difficulty of that mission.
As producer on Gatchaman Kuri had great difficulty locating animators that could manage the complex character designs of the series. Kuri recalled, "I really thought we were going to have to stop broadcasting it as a result."
Kuri referred to the big-eyed simpler character designs of Osamu Tezuka that were popular in the day and also much easier to draw and thus animate. Tatsunoko had no interest in making animation in this style. Kuri further expounded, "Tatsunoko was the only company to take on the challenge of producing realistic works. When we went to get staff and subcontractors, they didn't want to participate because Tatsunoko was making realistic things they wanted to watch, not make. For the most part, they couldn't draw realistically. So in the end we basically had to train them as we went. So getting staff for it was a big problem" (p.22).
Thankfully the company managed to get the staff required and thus Science Ninja Team Gatchaman continued for a total of 105 episodes.
In America, Sandy Frank edited from that complete series a total of 85 Battle Of The Planets episodes.
We continue our look at both amazing series in its adapted American form with Battle Of The Planets, Episode 20, Magnetic Attraction.
The focus of the episode is on a large black metal ball fixed with any number of destructive weapons.
Mark's leadership is put to the test when Jason challenges his decision-making. Mark wisely wants to sit tight and assess the ball's weaknesses whilst Jason is about attacking blindly with his hot head. The two would often be the center of tensions on the series.
At the end of the day Jason yields to Mark and assures him he was always in charge as Mark goes solo and enters the ball leading it to its destruction at the hands of a giant magnet inspired by one of Keyop's toys.
When Mark appears to be dead again in the fiery ball tears are shed by the rest of the team once again at his brief loss. Do tears prove Keyop was human after all?
But it isn't long before Mark flies out of the sky. His loss as ephemeral as it was in The Sea Dragon. In that aforementioned entry he was rescued from the ocean. Here he flies from the skies as thoughts of his deadly fate were premature and the team can rest at ease.
There are some moments of emotional subtext between Mark and the team when his leadership is put to the test which is important and rather moving in spots.
By and large Magnetic Attraction isn't all that magnetic to the memory apart from that silly (though interesting conceptually as an enemy and one that would be revisited in series like Neon Genesis Evangelion), black ball.
The tensions between Mark and Jason and the emotional complexity between team members is also notable. The animated realism of these heroic, fantastic adventures was stunning making the series truly something to behold and shining an artistic light on its human characters at the center of the animated drama.
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman Title: The Mecha-Ball Runs Wild.
Up Next: The Musical Mummy.
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