Gatchaman vs. Power Rangers

[Kevin Scrivner]

Another popular choice from our poll of preferred polls. Who's the best Japanese (or Japanese inspired) teen hero team?

Gatchaman -- aka G Force, Battle of the Planets. Five superbly trained youths don bird-themed costumes to thwart insidious alien invaders. Batman-esque martial arts and some gadgets. Advantages: Underwater base, good tech support, cool multipurpose vehicle, goofy chief villain.

The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers -- Americanized live-action teen team with lots of heavy equipment and a sophisticated database at their disposal. Battle various types of invaders, some alien, some mystical, all of whom specialize in giant monsters. Advantages: Cute female teammates, giant robots, they keep coming back in version after version after version after....

Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad -- Power Rangers rip-off. Their schtick was that the villain could pull an endless supply supply of goons out of a virtual reality.

Beetleborgs -- A trio of underage Power Ranger types whose powers derive from magic that makes comic book stuff come alive. Never quite "got" this one.

The Zen Team -- Hey! They're from the Champions Universe and made the cut into 5th Edition.

[JmOz]

G-Force, there vehicles were cool

[Pattern Ghost]

The Firey Phoenix would destroy anything the rest of the lineup could field, and the fat guy would sit on the competition in hand to hand, and I mean the whole other team! Easy win for G-Force!

[CrosshairCollie]

I've gotta give it to the Power Rangers. Why?

GIANT. FRICKIN'. ROBOTS.

The Fiery Phoenix is a nifty jet, but it's still just a jet. Which means it's not as cool as a giant combining transforming robot to me. Darn it, how I'm having the urge to write up a Megazord for Champions ...

IIRC, Beetleborgs and Syber Squad were both originally Japanese series like Power Rangers (Beetleborgs was something like 'Kabuto B-Fighter', not sure about S4) that Saban tried to port over, hoping it would be as popular as Power Rangers ... but that didn't quite pan out. Yes, I know far too much about this stuff.

Now, if you REALLY want to put a non-Japanese ripoff of PR on this list, you'd have to go with Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills (I swear, I did not make that up, it was a real show on the USA network). If you think Power Rangers is cheesy, you never saw TTAFFBH. *shudder*

[Pattern Ghost]

You should see the new live action Sailor Moon airing in Japan.

Wait a minute... cute young girls in sailor suits. Why am I complaining?

[Solomon]

I'd go with the Gatchamen. The Fire Phoenix was waaay cooler than any giant transformer robot... except of course the Daitarn 3, since it (he?) apparently even had facial muscles of sorts.

[death tribble]

Despite the wretched Robot in the control centre, I liked G-Force.

Thing is once they established the Fiery Phoenix, it was not used each episode which was good. And people actually died in Battle of the Planets. And the enemy used Giant Robots as well.

But like Dynamo I share a pathological hatred of the Power Rangers. It was poorly dubbed into English..... from English.
and some of it was just so poor as to be untrue like the comedy goons whether human or villainous henchthings.
What this program needed was the intervention of The Punisher or Scourge to kill everyone.

[JmOz]

One of my dirty little secrets is that I enjoy Power Rangers, in that this is so bad it is fun type of way.

Having said that, I thing G-Force is the best, and did any of you see the three episode remake from a while ago? I have it on DVD, cool, real cool.

[phydaux]

The Rangers have Yellow Ranger, but G-Force has the Sonic Boomerang.

You can find hot chicks in sexy clother anyware, but a Sonic Boomerang is cool.

[JmOz]

Originally posted by CrosshairCollie
I've gotta give it to the Power Rangers. Why?

GIANT. FRICKIN'. ROBOTS.

The Fiery Phoenix is a nifty jet, but it's still just a jet. Which means it's not as cool as a giant combining transforming robot to me. Darn it, how I'm having the urge to write up a Megazord for Champions ...
<<<SNIP>>>

Okay, I have to admit I have done this, or atleast something very similar.

IIRC:

I bought a Vehicle, split among the team

The vehicles first form was a jet fighter
Vehicle had 2 2xMultiforms (5 forms total)
Then Duplication x5 (6 total) , Can't Recombine
One multiform was that of a Big Robot, it had the same Duplication power
the other multiform of that power wasa Hybrid Jet/Robot, and again had the same Duplication Power
Then the other Multiform was an even BIGGER Robot, that only had ONE Duplication (2 total), again could not recombine
Then the last one was a HUGE robot, no Duplication.

The Six Vehicles

Fast Assault Multiform Fighter (Jet-Hybrid-Humanoid), Head
Ape Like Mech, Close Combat, Leg
Tank, Ranged, Leg
Enclosed Motorcycle, Speed, Arm
Needle Craft, Sensors, Arm
Superiority Multiform Fighter (Jet-Hybrid-Humanoid), Armor

The last vehicle is the one that does not have to combine with the other 5, it can be independent. Each ship had a specilty.

The two Fighters were the best ships, one was faster, the other tougher,

[Superskrull]

Originally posted by JmOz
One of my dirty little secrets is that I enjoy Power Rangers, in that this is so bad it is fun type of way.

Having said that, I thing G-Force is the best, and did any of you see the three episode remake from a while ago? I have it on DVD, cool, real cool.

Oh, yeah! That was a great chunk of nostaligia when I found that DVD. They definitely are cooler as Gatchaman rather than those weird translations by Sandy Frank and Haim Saban.
They seemed superhuman there, though, what with the kicking people into walls and leaving dents in steel and all.

[BishopofB&W]

Oh, yeah! That was a great chunk of nostaligia when I found that DVD. They definitely are cooler as Gatchaman rather than those weird translations by Sandy Frank and Haim Saban.
They seemed superhuman there, though, what with the kicking people into walls and leaving dents in steel and all.

IIRC, their strength and agility came from cybernetic implants. They were way cooler than MMPR. I submit that Princess, in her uniform(?, snort) was much easier on the eyes than any of the female Power Rangers in theirs. I mean, that 60s miniskirt that kept shifting back and forth six inches above the tops of her white thigh-high boots gaaahhhhh, drool....
Wait! Where was I? Oh yeah! Gatchaman was better.

[Brandi]

Originally posted by death tribble
Despite the wretched Robot in the control centre, I liked G-Force.

Blame the Americans, or at least Sandy Frank, for 7-Zark-7.

I loved Battle when I was a kid but I think I'd find it weird to listen to now, with Casey Kasem voicing one male lead (Mark/Ken) and Janet "Judy Jetson" Waldo voicing Princess (Jun)...

[Space Cadet]

You forgot to include V.R. Troopers in the poll.

Space Cadet

[Kevin Scrivner]

Originally posted by Space Cadet
You forgot to include V.R. Troopers in the poll.

Space Cadet

Oops! I think they were the ones I was actually thinking of when I listed the Syber Squad. Oh well, I guess if you've seen one nubile live-action teenie-bopper in powered armor, you've seen them all.

I confess that Power Rangers have been an occasional guilty pleasure. There are worse things I could have done with 30 minutes. I still have a soft spot for the original Yellow Ranger. She was cuuuute! Wonder what she looks like now that she's grown up?

I was impressed by the Gatchaman movies, the remakes, that came out a couple years ago. I didn't get to see all three, maybe the first one or two. But they were well done. They managed to stay true to the earlier series without including the silliness factor. I noticed that even the bad guys were wearing bird costumes -- they looked like green parrots. Not sure if there was any intended symbolism or not.