Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I've pretty much decided that '60s and '70s anime are my jam.

The snazziest superhero team costumes ever, the God Phoenix, the awesomest theme song... it's got a lot going for it. Ten episodes in, so far. Just starting to get episodes that focus on the other team members, the earliest episodes focus on Ken.

btw, am I right in my understanding that Ken is Gatchaman, but when the team is assembled the team is also called Gatchaman? "They're sometimes one, sometimes five..." I think that's how it works? So Ken is Ken, the Eagle; G-1; and Gatchaman?

The recent Gatchaman blu-ray set has been on my "Want to Get" list when it was announced last year. I've seen parts of the various dubs over the years but not the whole thing.

I'd love to see more of the 60s & 70s (and into the early 80s) anime to at least see home video releases here in the US. For example, the original Casshern series (done by the same company that did Gatchaman) -- there are bits of it on Youtube and from what I can tell it would have easily been a popular and fondly remembered series if someone had brought it to the US in the 70s & 80s anime wave.

There's also a few Cyborg 009 series, but only the 2002 series was aired in the US. I'd like to see some of the 1968 series and a 1979 series that were never aired in the US. It's really odd that someone didn't at least pick up the 1979 series to run considering just how hugely popular The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman were in the 70s.

^Sentai Filmworks, the same company that did the Gatchaman set, just put out Casshan a few months ago:

http://www.amazon.com/Casshan-Blu-ray-I ... ds=casshan

Between them, Discotek Media (with their Go Nagai shows, Lupin shows and movies, Leiji Matsumoto shows and movies, and general relationship with Toei), and Shout Factory's release of compilation films we're getting way more vintage anime then ever before.

Awesome, that's definitely going onto my "To Get" list. I didn't realize that more and more of the older/classic anime series were seeing releases in North America, that's great to hear. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for more news of older series getting home video release.

I wonder if we'll see Toei's Robot Romance Trilogy (Combattler V, Voltes V, and Battle Commander Daimos) eventually? Hopefully the latest news for Pacific Rim will get companies to considering the super robot shows.

So I was elated to see the news this morning that Section23 films is releasing Gatchaman II Finally! ...on DVD only...that has me a bit disappointed. I normally will not double-dip up scaling from DVD to Blu Ray but I did for Gatchaman because...ADV films version was spread across 27 DVD's! (9 box sets, though only 18 were the series and 9 were bonus content). When I saw that Seciton 23 had everything the ADV films version had (English dub, all bonus content AND the 1994 3 part OVA...all compacted into only 3 Blu Ray cases on 14 BRD) this was a no brainer. It saved me a ton of space!

However with GMII...I don't know why they don't just start out with the Blu Ray? I've e-mailed them to ask if it is on their slate for the future, if so I will hold off especially since I have a nice fan-subbed version on my computer already, but I want to support an official release.

Also...I'd love for there to be a complete release of Battle of the Planets. I have all the mish-mash DVD's Rhino released way back when, but it only ends up being about half the episodes, and not even all in order. A Complete set was released in the UK quite some time ago. Hopefully we will see a complete set stateside someday.