Gatchaman CGI Film Scrapped

The CGI animation movie adaptation of Tatsunoko Productions classic anime, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman by IMAGI Holdings confirmed that they will not continue with this project.

After the 2009 Astro Boy film earned less than US$40 million on a US$65 million production budget, IMAGI Animation Studio closed down. Even if that is the case, they can still outsource animation adaptations from Gatchaman and Astro Boy. Instead, early this year Imagi decided to bet on Chinese characters Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, along with their related consumer goods.


"We choose to buy the copyright of Pleasant Goat because of its influence as a national brand, like Mickey Mouse in the United States and the Japan's Hello Kitty," said Leung Pak To, director and chairman of the company. With the purchase of copyright manager Toon Express, Imagi began as relaunch as a character brand company. The company's 2011 financial results reported a loss of 82.2 million Hong Kong dollars (about US$10.5 million) related to Gatchaman and Astro Boy.

Source: Crunchyroll via Anime News Network

Tachumaru Zukan SD TV Anime Announced!

Tatsunoko Production's official website has announced that a television anime adaptation of its Tachumaru Zukan Project has been green-lit for this October. Tachumaru Zukan re-imagines some of Tatsunoko's most popular anime franchises as a newly evolved species of super-deformed animals known as "Tachū-rui." These mysterious "Tachumaru" (Tachumals) are "small and cute," but have special fighting moves.

In particular, Gatchapen (center in image) combines the 1972 Science Ninja Team Gatchaman's Ken the Eagle with a penguin, Nyasshan (left) combines the 1973 Casshern anime with a cat, and Piyotan (right) combines the 1981 The Gold Lightan anime with a chick. The website posted a sample Flash-animated movie earlier this year, and the website is slated for future updates with more movies.

Source: ANN

As a fan of Casshern Sins, I find it weird that Casshern is a cat... with a dog as a pet. Ken the Eagle as a penguin, it fits considering that Gatchaman is a team which theme is birds.

Gatchaman (2011) Latest Teaser!

Here's the latest trailer of the upcoming Gatchaman CGI Animation remake produced by Imagi Studios, the guys behind the CGI Astro Boy film last year. It is based on the anime series of the same name and an original story by Jinzo Toriumi.

To those who don't know what is Gatchaman, it is an anime produced by Tatsunoko Productions which is about five guys in bird costumes and one of the first few shows that involve five men fighting an evil organization. It is said it inspired Goranger back in '75. A Super Sentai show called Chojin Sentai Jetman made a tribute on this show by having its theme costume related to birds.

It aired in the US as Battle of the Planets and later, G-Force.

I watched a couple of eps and clips of this show, and for its day, the animation is really great. Hope this adaptation will still have the Tatsunoko spirit which makes the original really good. Hope this would not end up like Speed Racer, another Tatsunoko title which was remade.

Yatterman Special Aired on TV5... Bummer.

Someone posted this pic on TV5 Animega's Facebook Page.

Yes folks, TV5 was able to air the Yatterman Special that I want to watch... badly. If someone knows where I can watch either the Filipino dub OR the English sub of this special, tell me! A reason why I wasn't able to watch this, it is because of my summer classes.

The Doronbo Gang Vs... Gatchaman!

I am currently loving the 2008 remake of Yatterman and look what I found!

This is seriously awesome!