Gatchaman
Set for debut on August 24th in Japan, the first full length trailer for the live action adaptation of the 70′s anime series Gatchaman has debuted. The show, which was released decades ago in the US as Battle of the Planets and got a solid DVD release a few years back uncut from ADV Films and is getting a Blu-ray release from Sentai Filmworks this fall, is one of those iconic works and while it is in essence a sentai team, it’s also one of the closer superhero shows that anime rarely does.
The film stars Tôri Matsuzaka as Ken aka Gatchaman, Gô Ayano as Condor No Joe, Ayame Gôriki as Jun The Swan, Tatsuomi Hamada as Junpei The Swallow,Ryohei Suzuki as Ryu The Owl, Gorô Kishitani as Dr. Nambu and Eriko Hatsune as Naomi. The film is directed by Toya Sato based on a script by Yusuke Watanabe for Nikkatsu and is being distributed by Toho in Japan.
Plot concept: Set in the near future, Gatchaman follows the story five special agents of the International Science Organization in Tokyo as they try to protect the world from the mysterious terrorist group who call themselves Galactor. With technology that far surpasses that of humans, Galactor has declared war on the entire world and has already subjugated half of it. Trained to draw out the power from the mysterious crystal-like object called a “stone,” our five heroes will be called “Gatchaman.”