Bronze Age Babies: Discuss: Battle of the Planets

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Discuss: Battle of the Planets

9 comments:

Anonymous said...: Probably my favorite show for a while as a kid. I only got tired of it after I'd seen every episodes three or four times and I realized there weren't gonna be anymore.

I didn't know at the time that there were butchered versions of another (and from what I hear) better show - Gatchaman!

I was fascinated by the transgendered nature of Zoltar - and of course I loved the idea of the Phoenix ship with its component smaller vehicles. It was just the kind of thing to set a kid's imagination on fire and I daydreamed and played pretend withing its themes many times - very memorably with my friend Bernice who could play Princess to my Mark. :)

One day I hope for the time and opportunity to watch the unedited episodes.; November 30, 2013 at 9:59 AM
J.A. Morris said...: Cool character designs, but as far as the English language version goes, it's not that great. I was more of a 'Starblazers' fan when I was a kid.

I rented a 'BOTP' dvd a few years ago and didn't finish watching all the episodes.; November 30, 2013 at 10:13 AM
Tony said...: I loved this show as a kid, and couldn't wait to get home to watch it. But it seems to me, that it's one of the type of shows that wouldn't hold up well over the passage of time. And I've heard as well that the original cartoons from which it based, are much better. I can safely say, it is not a high priority on my comics list. There are many other TPB's and old TV cartoons I would rather buy first.; November 30, 2013 at 10:27 AM
Doug said...: Happy Saturday, everyone!

I have only vague memories of this cartoon, although I do recall that it was "must-see TV" for me and a couple of friends when we were in junior high school. It was on after school, and as I remember it we called it "G-Force"; although I'm sure it was probably in the television listings as "Battle of the Planets".

I was pretty ignorant of Japanese animation in those days (Speed Racer included). So that this had had a life as "Gatchaman" would definitely have been news to me. But this was definitely a superhero/science fiction show, so it was fully in my wheelhouse in those early adolescent years!

Doug; November 30, 2013 at 11:10 AM
Anonymous said...: I loved it when I was a kid, but I suspect I'd probably hate it now. A recent episode of the new Ninja Turtles show had the turtles watching a (parody) version of Battle of the Planets.

Mike W.; November 30, 2013 at 12:59 PM
Garett said...: I looked up the show intro, and it does bring back memories! Pretty good animation, and a cool ship. Good enough to watch after school.; November 30, 2013 at 2:07 PM
Anonymous said...: Yeah I have a similar experience to Doug - I remember it being called G-force when I saw it in the late 70s.

- Mike 'skirmish of the moons' from Trinidad & Tobago.; November 30, 2013 at 8:44 PM
MattComix said...: As you can tell from my avatar I'm a fan of this show. It aired in syndication around the time we first got cable. It was a Washington DC affiliate station which also aired dubbed Spectreman, Space Giants (Magma Taishi), and of course Godzilla movies.

I much prefer the original version Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman which translates to Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. The original is much better than BOP which is really a bad dub with added footage (like the 7Zark7 stuff).

The creation of the show was very influenced by american comics and even the teams uniforms have a certain Dave Cockrum-esque vibe to them. Really If you liked BOP at all I very strongly encourage you to check the original on DVD (complete with Alex Ross box art no less.); November 30, 2013 at 8:51 PM
Greg said...: When I saw this post I was like "ooh Battle of the Planets", so it must have made an impression on me, but I find that I remember very little of it. So I don't really have much to add on this one. I must have liked it at the time...; November 30, 2013 at 10:54 PM

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