Now we're talking.
Gatchaman, in form of the Sandy Frank-butchered version known as Battle Of The Planets, is probably one of the main influences on my formative years. When I was a kid, I LOVED THIS SHOW. I can still recall avidly reading it's comic adaptation in TV Comic and a journey to London for various medical tests when I was a kid, where I got a Battle Of The Planets transfer kit (and a Spider-Man comic with Ghost Rider in it – another formative influence…) as a present to off set the disruption.
And then once it stopped airing it was out of my mind, only to reappear on the horizon around 1990, when someone in my class had bought a copy of a magazine like Fangoria or Cinefantasia in to school. It had an article on violent Japanese cartoons, and mentioned that Battle of the Planets was really a show called Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, and had been excised of lots of violent scenes.
THIS BLEW OUR COLLECTIVE MINDS
At this time we were becoming fairly fascinated by Japanese pop culture, through the grey import of PC Engine, Megadrive and Super Nintendo games. But it was this article that drove a friend to purchase an un-subbed copy of one of these “violent japanese cartoons” from the pages of the PC Engine Fanatics fanzine.
Which we were then, bizarrely, allowed to watch at school over lunch.
The “violent Japanese cartoon” in question? Crying Freeman…. And I pretty much turned on anime at that point for the next 5 years, until I saw another show on the Top 100.
But still, without seeing Gatchaman as a little kid, it's highly unlikely all that would have been set in motion.
Oh, and I suppose it's also notable for originating the Sentai concept too.
Here's the Second Opening of the show (which began as the Ending, but they were wisely swapped over as the original opening is dull as dishwater):