Hello, all!

I’m going to have to turn in my keys soon, so I wanted to end on a humorous note.

Fandom: Battle of The Planets
Characters: G-Force, Chief Anderson, others.
Pairing: None
Length: 3000 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Jane Lebak on the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive
Why this must be read: Mark, Jason, and Tiny can’t agree on pizza toppings. So they decide to settle it with a contest: whoever can get Anderson to say “I have never been so mortified in my life!” gets to choose the toppings. Hilarity ensues!

( Eventually, the Chief had to keep the door to his office shut. )

Monstermech Pizza $9.95!!

Enjoy! :D

Hello, all!

I bring you another memo. This time, the maintenance people have a few things to say to Chief Anderson re: the team’s handling of the Phoenix.

Fandom: Battle of The Planets
Pairing: None
Length: 665
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Virginia on the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive
Why this must be read: Like other memo fics, you really don’t need the whole story. You just read the memo, and your imagination fills in the rest.

( Your G-Force crew has trashed the Phoenix so much that the union is talking about striking. )

Memo To: Security Chief Anderson

Enjoy! :D

Here’s a really interesting fic about sanity… or the lack thereof. Gatchaman has triumphed, and Berg Katse is being held in ISO prison. But who has really taken whom prisoner?

Fandom: Gatchaman
Pairing: None
Characters: Berg Katse, Dr. Nambu, various minor characters.
Length: 2895 words
Author on LJ: alara_r
Author Website: Alara Rogers on the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive, Alara Rogers’ Happy Happy Mostly Text Website.
Why this must be read: This is another dark!fic. Sanity is a tenuous thing.

( St Helena was where Napoleon died in exile. )

St. Helena

Enjoy! :D

Vidder: Hayabusa449
Pairing: None.
Vidder on LJ: Unknown.
Vidder's Website: Hayabusa449's YouTube Channel.
Why this vid kicks ass:

This is fan parody at its finest. Though I have to admit I'm not sure why the vidder chose to use the character names from G-Force rather than Gatchaman or even Battle Of The Planets.

Anyway, thrill as G-Force faces the deadliest threat to Galactic peace yet: The Rickroll Mecha!

(Warning: Naughty language, NSFW!)

Hello, all!

This one is dark. Very, very dark. I don’t want to say too much and spoil it. Instead, I’ll give you the author’s summary:

Princess awakens, secured in an ISO holding cell, unable to remember what happened, other than she's sure she realized Keyop is Spectran.

Fandom: Battle of The Planets
Characters: G-Force, various Spectrans, Chief Anderson, various other characters
Pairing: None
Length: 11701 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Jane Lebak on the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive
Why this must be read: This one’s dark and twisty and it keeps you guessing right up to the very end and the devastating conclusion.

(  I don't remember a thing about the way it turned out, and maybe I'm glad. I think that's the way I would have wanted it. )

Interruptions

Enjoy! :D

It’s time for Crack Van Collision!

This story is part of Unpublished Writer’s Spectra Series (it follows the last one recced in that post), but it can be read and enjoyed all on its own.

Fandom: Battle of The Planets/Law And Order: Special Victims Unit
Characters: Chief Anderson, the G-Force team, Zoltar, Mala, Dr. George Huang, Olivia Benson, various other characters.
Pairing: None
Length: 36809 words.
Warnings: Adult situations, explicit material, Mature Content, Sexual Situations, Strong Language, Torture.
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Unpublished Writer on the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive
Why this must be read: Chief Anderson has been captured by Mala, who chains him to a bed and publically rapes/tortures/humiliates him. After his rescue by G-Force, Dr. Huang and Olivia Benson are sent to help the team and the Chief pick up the pieces. It’s a harrowing fic, and the Law And Order: SVU characters fit into it perfectly, much to my surprise.

Due to the adult nature of this story, registration at that site is required before you can read it. Sorry for the inconvenience!

If you cannot register, you can download the entire story as a .zip archive here. I saved each chapter as a .pdf file. Please let me know if you have any problems!

Mala’s Game

There is a prequel fic to this, but it’s not really necessary to read it in order to enjoy the story: Condor In Love Word Count: 1348 Rating: PG-13 (Slash)

Enjoy! :D

Today I bring you a series of fics. The Gatchaman/G-Force teams don’t really figure very heavily in these; they are mostly about the Spectrans, and Zoltar and his family.

In posting these stories, I’m gearing up for one heck of a Crack Van Collision tomorrow… believe me, you won’t want to miss it! ;)

Fandom: Gatchaman/Battle of The Planets
Characters: Dr. Nambu, Berg Katse, Leader X, Chief Anderson, Zoltar, The Great Spirit, G-Force, various Spectrans.
Pairing: None
Length: Various.
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Unpublished Writer on the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive
Why this must be read: This series begins with Berg Katse’s defeat at the hands of Gatchman and Leader X’s flight from Earth. The first story is the tale of how Gatchaman’s Leader X became The Great Spirit, aka The Luminous One in Battle of the Planets. The rest deal with the Spectran Royal Family, most specifically Zoltar, his parents, and his sister Mala.

Origin of the Luminous One Word Count: 7297 Rating: PG

Among the Servants Word Count: 1477. Rating: PG-13

Presentation Day Word Count: 1279 Rating: PG

Three-Day Word Count: 7272 Rating: PG

Saving Spectra Word Count: 1845 Rating: PG-13

Enjoy! :D

Hello, all!

Eavesdropping is fun! Especially when most of the people you’re listening to are incompetent idiots! This is a very cute, funny story about what Zoltar’s life must be like.

Fandom: Battle of The Planets
Characters: Princess, Zoltar, Mala, assorted Spectra goons.
Pairing: None
Length: 3256 words.
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Ennien on the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive
Why this must be read: Princess is sent to spy on/record Zoltar for an upcoming mission... and learns a whole more than she ever thought she would!

( In which Zoltar is surrounded by idiots. )

Listen In

Enjoy! :D

Hello, all!

For my second rec, I bring you some memos. Yes, memos. Memos re: 7-Zark-7 and that unit's expected (and sometimes unexpected!) performance.

Fandom: Battle of The Planets
Pairing: None
Length: 508 words, 388 words.
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Ghost Owl on the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive
Why this must be read: Zark is annoying enough on the television screen. But can you imagine what it would be like if you actually had to work with him?

( Dear Dr. Anderson. )

Correspondence Received I

Correspondence Received II

Enjoy! :D

Hello, I’m kittenmommy, and I’ll be driving the Gatchaman/Battle of The Planets van this month!

There’s a fandom overview post here.

My first rec is a crossover between Gatchaman and Battle of The Planets… and it’s hilarious!

Fandom: Gatchaman/Battle of The Planets
Pairing: Hints of Mark/Princess.
Length: 6,446 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Evangelina on the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive
Why this must be read: Gatchaman and Battle of The Planets were two very different shows. Gatchaman included swearing and violence, whereas Battle of The Planets went out of the way to protect children from the harsh realities of life… like death, or even swearing. This fic is what happens when Joe (from Gatchman) somehow accidentally trades places with Jason, his Battle of The Planets counterpart. Hilarity very much ensues!

( An excerpt. )

No Swearing Allowed.

Enjoy! :D

Five weeks in September, and I am posting all my Gatch fic recs on two days in it because I suck. Mea culpa, but I would rather get the recs out than avoid double or triple posting in a day.

Fandom: Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets
Pairing: Anderson/f, Mark/Princess
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Gatchfanfic: Nancy Tang
Why this must be read:

I agonized over choosing this. It's another Battle of the Planets fic, and I feel as if I'm shortchanging Gatchaman-- yes, there *is* quite a lot of excellent Gatchaman fanfic out there! It just sort of worked out that I wanted to highlight authors, and most of the most prolific authors on the Web are best known for their BOTP work. (This is a fandom that existed mostly in print up until 1997 or so.) The reasons I choose this particular story to rec as my last Gatch/BOTP rec of the month is that it hits my personal hotbuttons. Anderson is treated as a person, not just a mentor or commander figure. Mala and Zoltar are sympathetic characters, but the team and Anderson aren't blackwashed. It's a story about hunting Zoltar, which is a theme I enjoyed greatly when it cropped up in the show; it's an intelligently written mystery; and it uses my favorite bit of fanon about Zoltar (that Zoltar is a shapeshifter), something that is *not* true of Berg Katse in Gatchaman and is not precisely made clear in the show.

The story is broken out into 8 html files and they aren't linked to each other, so you have to go to Nancy Tang's author page on Gatchfanfic and scroll down to the story.

( Excerpt )

Gatchfanfic: Nancy Tang: The Enemy Among Us

Fandom: Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Gatchfanfic: Naa-Dei Nikoi
Why this must be read:

Again, I had some difficulty choosing a particular story; Naa-Dei is another author who's almost always worth reading. I chose this particular story because it focuses on a minor character, a character who works for the Spectrans, and because it outlines Naa-Dei's strengths-- a willingness to apply science and logic to her fanfic, a willingness to work out the implications, and sympathy for the villains. This is Lucy the cyborg's story. (Lucy appeared with the same name in both Gatchaman and BOTP; this is the BOTP version.)

Fui. Sum.

Fandom: Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Jane's fanfiction archive
Why this must be read:

I actually recommend absolutely everything written by Jane Lebak, but this is the jumping-off point for her BOTP universe fic, and an excellent story for fans of Jason or for people who sympathize with the kids that society doesn't. The team are still kids, and Jason, fifteen, is screwing up at school and feels like a failure in comparison to his "perfect" siblings, especially Mark, and believes his father figure Anderson doesn't love him. He attempts suicide, and the entire family needs to pull together to help him and to cope themselves.

( Excerpt... )
Scavengers

Started a new job, and so I'm off schedule-- I should have reviewed three stories by now in Gatchaman fandom. So I've got two for you today, and two next week.

Fandom: Battle of the Planets
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Jacque's Waste of Time... Waste of Space... Sanity Control Centre
Why this must be read:

Most BOTP writers either ignore Zark entirely, revamp him into something new, or make fun of him. Jacque was, if I recall, the first person to speculate that the real world reason Zark was inserted into BOTP -- that is, to sanitize the violence and protect the kiddies from trauma -- might be his reason for existence in the fictional world as well. This is a dark fic, but extraordinarily plausible. The scariest part of it is that it explains the behavior of the BOTP characters as if it were not a kids' show, but a violent, savage war that's been rendered into a kiddie hero adventure through mind control, and thus allows you to watch the actual *show* with cold chills rather than suppressed snickers.

( Excerpt... )

Watching Over You

Fandom: Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: x_expat
Author Website: Home of the White Shadow
Why this must be read:

This is a cartoon series, done by the funniest and most talented cartoonist working in Gatch/BOTP fandom. It takes the premise that Galactor has come up with a new ray gun weapon, which they use on the Science Ninja Team, turning them into... anthropomorphic cats. If you have ever had a cat or known a cat, this is the funniest Gatch parody I have ever read.

By the way, the title translates as "Science Cat Team Gatchameow".

Excerpts will occur after the LJ cut, to avoid filling up people's friendslists with cartoons.

Kagaku Nekotai Gatchanyan!

( See an excerpt... )

Hi, I'm alara_r and I'm dealing the Gatchaman crack this month.

Edited Sept 17 to add the images directly to the page! Also wrote more about the second banana characters.

Most of you probably have never heard of Kagaku Ninja Tai (Science Ninja Team) Gatchaman. However, if I refer to it as "G-Force", it might possibly spark some childhood memories. Remember, the two hot guys in bird suits? And the token girl, that we never wanted to play because she never did anything cool? And the villain in the purple and the lipstick?

As an anime, Gatchaman has always enjoyed a weird status, not really part of the mainstream of anime interests. Partly this is because its visual style is more similar to American comic books than most anime. Eyes are big, but not too big; facial features are distinctly drawn; guys have long hair but are very much guys, not particularly bishonen; and mecha have a simple, cleanly drawn style which allows you to look at them and figure out what the hell they are, unlike modern anime where you need to have a master's in mechanical drawing or something to understand how the giant robots work. And partly, this is because the series was butchered beyond all imagining of butchery, not once, not twice, but *three times*.

The first version of Gatchaman which hit the States was called "Battle of the Planets", but many people remember it as "G-Force" because that was the name of the good guys. This was heavily cut to remove the violence, the continuity, radically alter the personality of hothead second-in-command hottie Joe into sarcastic, anti-authoritarian still hot Jason, and make it look as if the action was taking place on multiple planets. Oh, and they added a stupid robot.

The second version was called-- wait for it-- "G-Force". Although significantly less of the plot was cut from this version of the series, the characters were saddled with terrible voice actors and even worse names (such as "Ace Goodheart" and "Dirk Daring".)

The third version-- "Eagle Riders"-- took the second and third series and translated them. Neither saddled with truly awful names ("Hunter Harris" isn't quite as good as "Mark", but infinitely better than "Ace Goodheart") nor truly terrible translation, Eagle Riders was well on its way to becoming my favorite of the three. Then they took the redeemed child-villain of the second series, Gel Sadra (who they'd called Mallanox) and betrayed the entire point of her redemption arc by having her turn into the villain of the third series, Egobossler. Who they called "Happy Boy." At this point I feel all sanity fled the building.

This overview will talk about the plots of both "Gatchaman" and "Battle of the Planets", and I'll review fanfic set in both versions. I can't, however, talk about "G-Force" or "Eagle Riders" without losing my lunch, so I'm afraid I'll take a pass on that.

( Science Ninja Team Gatchaman )

( Battle of the Planets )

For more information I highly recommend the following sites:

( Links! )