Reviewing Battle Of The Planets:

This is an old article pending revision.

I am actually too young to have watched this program when it first
aired. There are a lot of people that are literally going crazy over
their lost youth and whatnot because of this program.

It was made in 1972 by Tatsunoko as Gatchaman, or Kagaku Ninja Tai
(Science Ninja Team) Gatchaman. It made two more series and had
EXCELLENT animation/backgrounds, story (with morals, including
Captain-Planet-Like morals.), and music. It actually doesn't contain
anything that Star Trek, Law & Order, and almost everything these days
has. (Gatchaman F is much darker however) It was brought to U.S.A. by
Gallerie International Films and Sandy Frank Syndication. They liked
education but was much more concerned about exposure to violence and so
they censored it. (They still to this today, with Cookie Monsters new
diet) The title's style, words, and 7Zark7 are all Star Wars inspired.
Also, 7Zark7 looks similar to the AutoPilot in Gatchaman II. 7Zark7
hosts BotP. Tatsunoko also produced "Speed Racer", and was dubbed with
many words. This was the opposite with BotP and I have a mixed response
to this.

Even worse; Keyop (Jinpei) was born in a lab and his speech did not
develop correctly. WHAT?! and so he talks in almost gibberish. I was
NOT impressed when Keyop said "squawk squawk lovey dovey giggle!"
instead of "You just want to spend time alone with Ken, don't you sis?"
(Mark is Ken) Sorry but Keyop is NOT a talking dog like Scooby-Doo,
Astro, and Muttley. Tiny (Ryu) and Keyop were as goofy and cowardly
like Scooby and Shaggy but no, Jinpei could speak fluently!! This
speech that Keyop has is MORE annoying than the addition of 7Zark7.

but STILL I like this series. Gallerie/Sandy Frank did a great job by
turning it into a successful kids show. At the same time, Princess
(Jun) did backflips and they did not edit out the scenes when her
panties were visible. Some of the violence snuck by. Also, Zoltar
(Katse) kept saying Sosai/Leader X Commander or whatever they call him
in BotP ...he kept saying things like "Oh, Great One." This did not go
well with some religious people, and I will get to that later. But
about the opening and closing: They did GREAT music. This was easier to
do than translate the lyrics of the original theme songs "Destroy
Gallactor!" and "Gatchaman's Song". Bot the originals and the new theme
are great music. The end credits are great and had several people
(including a large writing staff lol) credited. They did not credit
anybody from Tatsunoko but they did credit Tatsunoko as a "Produced In
Association With" and they included the seahorse! The various clips are
excellent and go PERFECTLY with the music! As for the animation
altogether, they blended in perfectly with the original scenes. It is
not obvious by animation/backgrounds/colors that 7Zark7 was added by
Gallerie/Sandy Frank.

Only 85 episodes of a 105 episode series was dubbed; Some were made as
"BotP: The Movie". Sandy Frank brought it back again and co-produced it
with TBS. It was then "G-Force: Guardians Of Space". 85 episodes once
again, with more words in this dub (but still altered somewhat) but the
music was not orchestral anymore. (sad to see less of this these days,
NOWadays we only see clapping ukulele music UGH) It wasn't as bad as
clapping ukulele music, but it was still synthesized. The theme song is
not nearly as good, and they blasted the core of it throughout any
"empty" scene! (BotP added music, and remixed the original music to
fill musicless scenes and great job for doing so) TBS/Sandy Frank STUNK
at adding a soundtrack and it makes BotP shine on even more so. Other
things that they did was PeeWee (Keyop/Jinpei) became fluent again,
"Gallactor" (Zoltar/Katse) had this horrible monotonous voice now, and
X was called "Computor", and given less scenes to make him not look
like a God that Katse/Zolar seemed to worship by those religious
critics.

I don't remember TBS/Frank's G-Force THAT well and so I can't STAND
that droning music! I LOVE the original Gatchaman and I also enjoy
BotP.

Gatchaman II and Gatchaman F were brought to U.S.A. by Saban (known for
Super-Sentai-inspired Power Rangers) as "Eagle Riders" with a THIRD
round of name changes (this makes four counting the original names)
These were remixed episodes and that did not go well for most people.

Gatchaman is an uncut English dub with the OVA, and also Gatchaman I by
ADV films. This is a rare version as it has not aired to my knowledge
and only exists on an out of print DVD. What about II and F/Fighter?
The animated 1978 movie? It is WORTH IT to learn Japanese to watch!! I
don't have any major issue (except for Keyop) with BotP, but the fact
that Gatchaman took THIRTY-three years to dub uncut to English is just
plain SAD.