History of Tatsunoko Animation and Gatchaman.

The story of “Battle of the Planets” started in Japan with a comic studio named Tatsunoko and an artistic visionary named Tatsuo Yoshida. It was 1933 when Tatsuo was born in Kyoto, Japan; the eldest of three tight-knit brothers who, from very early on had to fend for themselves to put food on the table. He quickly discovered that he had a gift in art and soon became known as an impeccable illustrator in his hometown. Yet he knew that if he were going to survive living as an artist, he would have to go Japan's biggest city of Tokyo in the hopes of being able to provide for his family.

It was in Tokyo where Tatsuo started to draw manga (Japanese comics), and rapidly rose to top of the comics scene with adventures like “Iron Arm Rikiya” and “Boy Ninja Squad Moonlight.” Work was steady and there was an ever-increasing demand for his talents. So Tatsuo asked his brothers, Kenji and Toyoharu (the latter better known by his pen name - Ippei Kuri) to come to Tokyo to help him with his workload. Very soon, all were enjoying great success. "My brother Tatsuo had a genius for drawing," remembers Ippei Kuri. "He moved to Tokyo and worked there for a publishing company, and I joined him shortly afterwards as an assistant. When I was seventeen I was already working on my own comics, and the same publisher even asked me to write some of them."

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A small tribute to one of founders of modern anime. I still remember Gatchaman with great fondness, no doubt it will look cheesy and tacky now but back then when I was a kid, I think it is one of the coolest cartoon. It have same place of childhood happy stuff in my life like Airwolf, Knight Rider, Saber Rider and many more.

This series is also the first who uses archtypes here, one pure hero, a rebellious hero, a gentle giant, a whizz kid and hot chick as team of superheroes, fighting masked villain for the sake of mankind to me. After that almost all other animea have same grouping concept,a meme that I keep looking out for whenever there is new series to watch.

I do wonder if Hollywood will pick this one up if Speed Racer is a commercial success.