 Take two Hardy Boys, add a pinch of fat guy and a dash of girl. Mix in two cups of truth and valour. Garnish with a wacky mascot and turn up the heat of evildoing and wrongmongering until you can smell them, burning with the fire of puberty and dressed as birds, united against a worldwide organization of terrorists. You know it's an unbeatable recipe for justice. In 1979, Sandy Frank Productions acquired the U.S. rights to distribute Gatchaman. Character names were changed and footage was edited to remove much of the violence, and Battle of the Planets was born. The show was released in various forms in the United States, as well as the UK, France, and other countries in the 1970s, where it gained a following of loyal fans – among them me, little four-year-old Ro. With a blue bike helmet, my mum's shawl and some imagination soup, I could be in G-force. My heart belonged to Mark – but I felt strangely drawn to Jason, the loose cannon. Years later, I managed to arrange an interview with my childhood heroes. Meet my friends! Hey, stop throwing crumbs! This is: Name: The Gatchaman/Eagle Ken Nationality: Japanese Age: 18 Eyes: Blue - Hair: Brown DOB: April 4, 1984 Height: 180cm (5.91 ft) Weight: 60kg (132.28lbs) Specialist Weapon: His fisticuffs! Cover Occupation: Test pilot and mail man. RZ: What do you see as your role in this team? K: I’m the pretty one. I'm the Gatchaman. RZ: Your voice sounds familiar. K: Yeah, well - Casey Kasem. He's my voice. RZ: Casey Kasem? K: Shaggy. Scooby Doo, Shaggy. Okay? Next question. RZ: ... Say it. K: No. RZ: Say it. Say, "Zoiks! Like, make like a statue, Scoob!" K: No. RZ: Go on, Ken! Kenny! K: Mark. Call me Mark. Ken - he's the lamest character in Streetfighter, next to that boxer dude. That's not me, doll. Yeah, I've been given a few names from one translation to another. Ace Goodheart - well, they nearly called me Cool Bravehead, so I was lucky. And Hunter Harris - he sounds like Dan Dare’s boyfriend. 
G-2: Kondoru no JoName: Condor Joe Nationality: Italian (Sicilian) Age: 18 (first series) Eyes: Blue - Hair: Brown DOB: November 15, 1984 Height: 185 cm (6.07ft) Weight: 60kg (132.28lbs) Specialist Weapon: Gun, throwing knives Cover Occupation: Joe drives a racing car! Zoom! RZ: You have something stuck between your teeth - looks like one of Ken’s feathers. J: Uh - how did that get there? Um - (shouts) 7-Zark-7, stop goofin' off and go get me a soda, you lousy tin can piece-a junk! RZ: So, wop boy, what's your role in this team? J: I’m a tragic, troubled loner. RZ: Really? So what's the story? J: Galactor killed my folks. Rebel Galactors. RZ: Really? That's so interesting. J: Yeah. There's actually a film based on my life story. Not many people know this, but I’m a robot. I died at the end of Gatchaman 1, and got turned into a cyborg. RZ: They made a film of your life? J: Yeah. Well, not exactly a film. More like an animated feature ... um, digital ... A digital - well, a computer game. RZ: What? J: You've heard of Mega Man, right? RZ: That's you? J: Loosely based on my life story. RZ: That's so interesting. So - what's it like being a Galactor? J: Gatchaman. I'm not, that's Ken. The little cockboy. RZ: Oh. Um ... are these real feathers? J: Hey, that tickles. RZ: ... do you want to come back to my place? 
G-3: Shiratori no JunName: Jun the Swan Nationality: Japanese/American Age: 16 Eyes: Green - Hair: Brownish DOB: May 2, 1986 Height: 160cm (5.25ft) Weight: 45kg (99.21lbs) Cover Occupation: Go-go dancer at her own cafe bar, the “Snack Jun”. As you can see, Jun is constantly worrying whether she left the oven on before she left in her Sonic Car. RZ: What do you see as your role in this team? J: Tee hee! RZ: Do you ever put 7-Zark-7 into spin cycle and lean up against him? J: ... tee hee! RZ: Who are your role models? J: The girl mouse out of Chip ‘N’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers, and Pretty Bomber. I learned everything I know about hacking, electronics and bombs from them. Oh, my cookies! I think I left the oven on. Sorry, bye bye! 
G-4: Tsubakurou no JinpeiName: Jinpei the Swallow Nationality: Japanese Age: 10 Eyes: Brown - Hair: Brown DOB: June 13, 1992 Height: 120cm (3.94ft) Weight: 30kg (66.14lbs) RZ: What do you see as your role in this team? J: Bleep bloop blip blip! RZ: What? J: Blip bloop bloop! RZ: Stop making that noise and answer the question! J: Blip bloo - don't hit me! don't hit me! I have to do that. You know how much we were edited for violence and interesting stuff before we came to Europe. Well, a lot of my dialogue didn't make narrative sense after that. So they dubbed over me with bullshit. Look, I'm sorry. 
G-5: Mimizuku no RyuName: Ryu the Horned Owl Nationality: Japanese Age: 17 Cover Occupation: Runs a marina (yacht harbor) Eyes: Green - Hair: Brownish DOB: March 20, 1985 Height: 170cm (5.58ft) Weight: 80kg (176.37lbs – or 3 Jinpeis) Notes: Has eaten all the pies. RZ: What do you see as your role in this team? R: I’m the pilot. I look after the ship while the others fight evil. Pretty boring. I’m the only member of G-Force with surviving family - the others use that as an excuse to leave me behind on missions, but I know it’s ‘cause I slow them down. I start wheezing after two minutes of running into battle. Yeah, that’s what comes of being the fat one. RZ: So what do you do back in the ship while everyone's away? Panthro type shit? R: I like to ask Susan, the computer, loads of stupid questions, and whack off to her voice. RZ: What’s your best-kept secret? R: It was me that broke 7-Zark-7’s hoover suck-tube attachment thing. RZ: How? R: That doesn’t matter. He doesn’t remember - I erased his memory bank so he wouldn’t blab. OTHER CHARACTERS  7-Zark-7 The camp robot - has an anal compulsion to clean the deep-space monitorslooks like R2D2, talks like C3P0, Star Wars craze began around the time BOTP was released - go figure. A character not in Gatchaman, Zark was added by Sandy Frank to pad episodes of BOTP due to the amount of material that was cut. Over time, he eventually gained the ability to "fly" by flapping his cape. This saved him about minus 30 seconds, flying like a drunk rubbish bin from one side of the monitoring station to the other, when he had perfectly good R2D2 style wheels. Spent most of his time obsessively cleaning the deep-space monitors, saying, “It just keeps coming back! It never goes away! Filth - filth - everywhere!” 1-Rover-1 Retarded version of K-9. 7-Zark-7's canine companion. Also learned to fly by twirling his "tail" in a helicopter-like manner. Most dogs haven’t worked out how to do this yet. Susan Another BOTP addition. Susan was a robot monitor on Pluto who warned Zark about strange things entering the solar system (as if his monitors weren't clean enough). Never seen, she sounded nearly as sexy as the computer from Ulysses. Ho ho! Here are some fun BOTP facts!!! 
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