is a Japanese

3DCG 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series featuring a crossover between characters from ''

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is a Japanese animated franchise about a five-member superhero ninja team created by Tatsuo Yoshida and produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The original anime series, which debuted in 1972, was eponymously entitled ''Kagaku Ninja-tai Gatchaman ...

'', ''

Casshan ''Casshan'', also known in Japan as , is an anime series created by Tatsunoko Productions founder Tatsuo Yoshida in 1973. The ''Casshern'' franchise also includes a 1993 original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV ...

'', ''

Hurricane Polymar is a Japanese anime and OVA series produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The show was created by Tatsuo Yoshida, who had produced many of Tatsunoko's series. Other romanizations of the name include ''Hurricane Polymer'', and ''Hariken Polymar' ...

'' and '' Tekkaman: The Space Knight'', all series produced by

Tatsunoko Production and often shortened to , is a Japanese animation company. The studio's name has a double meaning in Japanese: "Tatsu's child" (Tatsu is a nickname for Tatsuo) and " sea dragon", the inspiration for its seahorse logo. Tatsunoko's headquarters are ...

in the 1970s. The new series is a co-production between Tatsunoko and

Digital Frontier , also called as is a motion picture production company in Japan with a distinguished large scale CG production department. The company is equipped with motion capture studio called "OPAKIS" in Odaiba, Tokyo. The company started producing CG wo ...

and aired from October 3 to December 26, 2017.

Plot

Emi is a seventeen-year-old girl living in

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Her father is always away with work and she's grown listless. Suddenly, a twist of fate involving a certain magical item changes everything. A mysterious pencil, of all things, is linked to the appearance of heroes from another world! Could this be the start to the excitement she's so desperately craving, or is there something more?

Characters

; : : The main protagonist. Emi is an aloof 17-year-old girl who lives alone in her house since her father has left for unexplained reasons. When meeting the four heroes, she comes across an artifact known as "Case", that has the power of making wishes come true. In her hands, the Case takes the form of a large pencil, reflecting her desire to draw. She is later revealed to be Z's daughter. ; : :Twenty four year old Ken is the oldest of the four heroes and acts as their leader. He usually reprimands Emi when she misbehaves and is determined to save her, while restoring the worlds Z destroyed. He has the power of transforming into Gatchaman G-01. During his first encounter with Z, he manages to make him drop the Case, which ends up in Emi's hands. ; : :Twenty two year old Jouji is an astronaut looking for a new planet for his people to settle in his original world. He fights as Tekkaman using the "Tekset" armor armed with a double-bladed lance. ; : :Twenty year old Takeshi is a former agent with the ability to transform himself into

using a special polymer that gives him special powers. After his world is destroyed by Z, he lives for one year as a detective in Shibuya until he meets Emi and the other heroes. ; : :Seventeen year old Tetsuya is the youngest of the four heroes. In his world, Tetsuya was transformed into an android called "

" by his father to fight other androids who threaten human race, after his world is destroyed, he meets the other heroes and Emi, joining them with his pet companion, the robotic dog . ; : : Emi's father and the main antagonist, Kazumichi Kaido is a man who takes possession of the Case and under the alias of Z, destroys other worlds to fulfill his wish of protecting Emi. His research leads him to discover that in all parallel worlds, Emi is destined to have a tragic death in front of his eyes, so he sealed her in a closed world to protect her. In his hands, the Case takes the form of a small sun, reflecting a memory of his past when he watched the sunset with his daughter. ; : : Damian Grey is a mysterious, flamboyant man who approaches Takeshi and hires his services to track down the Case. He then reveals himself the be a dangerous monster who intends to take the Case for himself in order to become the perfect evil. ; : : A woman from a dying race of inhumans who seeks strong genes to revive her people. She joins forces with Z, intending to take his genes, until she discovers that he is not human anymore, and attacks Emi instead. ; :

Media

Anime

The anime was announced on March 26, 2016. It was inspired by the manga of the same name, but follows an original story.

Kiyotaka Suzuki is a Japanese anime director. He starting working in 2008 and directed his first series in 2014 with ''Psycho-Pass 2''. He later directed ''Infini-T Force'' and '' Babylon''. Biography Kiyotaka Suzuki was born in Bunkyō, Tokyo, in 1971. In elem ...

directed the series, while Toshiya Ono supervised scripts.

Oh! great , known professionally as Oh! great, is a Japanese manga artist best known for his manga series ''Tenjho Tenge'' (1997–2010) and ''Air Gear'' (2002–2012). In 2006, ''Air Gear'' earned him the Kodansha Manga Award in the '' shōnen'' category. ...

designed the original character concepts, Koji Nakakita handled the suit and mechanical designs, and

Keiichi Sato is a mecha and character designer born in the Kagawa Prefecture of Japan on December 18, 1965. In 1996, Sato met with Kazuyoshi Katayama to begin work on ''The Big O''. Until then, Sato's work consisted mainly of designing characters and supervis ...

designed the original hero concepts. The anime aired as part of

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Television) ...

's AnichU one-hour programming block. The opening theme is "To be continued ... " performed by

Flumpool Flumpool (stylized as flumpool) are a Japanese rock band. The band, originally from Osaka Prefecture, was formed in January 2007. The band's name is a portmanteau of the words ''four'' (from the number of members in the band), ''lump'', and ''p ...

and the ending theme is "Tick-Tock" performed by Edda.

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

announced during

Anime Weekend Atlanta Anime Weekend Atlanta (AWA) is an annual four-day anime convention held during September/October at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel, Cobb Galleria Centre, and Sheraton Suites Galleria in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. The convention is the largest South ...

that they have licensed both the anime series and the film. It is being streamed on

Tubi TV Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...

Manga

The manga was serialized in Hero's Inc.'s ''Monthly Hero's'' magazine from October 31, 2015 to December 25, 2020. It was written by

Ukyō Kodachi is a Japanese novelist, manga artist, and screenwriter. He started out writing tabletop role-playing games, before debuting as a novelist in 2008 and a screenwriter in 2013. From 2016 to 2020, he worked on the '' Boruto: Naruto Next Generations'' ...

and illustrated by

Tatsuma Ejiri is a Japanese manga artist from Kyoto Prefecture. After graduating from Kanazawa University he worked as a manga assistant for, among others, Eiichiro Oda and Jin Kobayashi. His first professionally published work was ''CHILDS'' published i ...

Udon Entertainment Udon Entertainment Corp. is a Canadian art studio and publisher. The company publishes original and translated comic books, graphic novels, manga and art books related to anime and video games. It was founded in 2000 and is named after udon, a ...

announced during their

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

2017 panel that they have licensed the manga.

Film

A theatrical film, , was released on February 24, 2018. It is distributed by

Shochiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all ...

and

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

. The cast of the TV series reprises their roles, with the addition of Kazuma Suzuki as Joe Asakura / Gatchaman G-02 of ''Science Ninja Team Gatchaman''. Viz Media released the film on Blu-ray in the U.S. on January 5, 2021.

References

External links

Official anime and film website
* {{Gatchaman 2017 anime television series debuts 2015 manga Anime and manga about parallel universes Casshern Crossover anime and manga Crossover tokusatsu television series Gatchaman Fiction about government Japanese computer-animated television series Mecha Medialink Nippon TV original programming Fiction about robots Robots in television Seinen manga Shogakukan manga Tatsunoko Production Television series set in the future Television shows set in Asia Television shows set in Japan Television shows set in Tokyo Transforming heroes Viz Media anime Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation original programming