Gatchaman Crowds

Gatchaman Crowds, adapted by the old classic Gatchaman, also known as G-Force in America. Gatchaman are a group of people who are recruited to protect the earth from alien criminals, such as MESS. Gatchaman are given a Note, which is the physical manifestation of their soul. Similar to Guilty Crown, where one's soul determines their power. Gatchaman Crowds takes place in a relatively modern society in Japan. The technology is notable with the plot revolving around the program GALAX.

Our story starts off with our main protagonist Hajime. She comes off with a very positive character and is recruited for the ... Gatchaman Crowds. Along side her new members Sugane, Jou, Utsutsu, OD and Paiman, they follow orders from JJ, who is refered to as "God" to fight off the MESS.

Story: (7/10)
Unlike what you would expect, this anime isn't just about 12 episodes of slaying aliens slowly revealing someone's power every episode. Instead this anime takes a different path which is more relate-able to the real world, with Gatchaman supporting the plot. The story takes a different direction with the GALAX, which is a program/phone-app which is designed by Rui and X, to help "update" the world. It is relate-able to the real world with the rising technology and smart phones; the GALAX seems applicable to real life scenarios. This is what I found most intriguing about this anime.
An Anime wouldn't be an anime without our main antagonist. Our main antagonist is a psychotic, sadistic alien, who also poses a note like the Gatchaman. With this, he utilizes it to cause terror and chaos from within, as his overall goal is to watch the planet burn.

There are various plotholes that I am irritated by from this anime, such as, does OD die? What happened to Utsutsu and Jou at the end? Was there any background information about where PanPan, OD and Rui? Where did they come from? Lastly, what about the MESS? They kinda started the story, but was never really explained. Fortunately, there will be a second seasons, so hopefully more will be explained.

Art Style: (8/10)
The art style seemed very unique. As an amateur digital drawer, I question if the coloring was supposed to be approached the way it was, or if the artists just got lazy. It's notable that everyeone's hair has two streaks of colors. I could only imagine the artists just going over their hair with one giant brush and calling it "contrasting". In addition, there is minimal blending of color invovled. Take note of their eyes, you can still see a lot lines to contrast dark from light. I personally like that style, as I draw in a similar style, but others may not be too fond of it. The animation is also quite nice, especially when going through the first transformation. If gives off a very majestic feel to it.Overall I enjoyed the animation, the bright colors giving off an exciting feel, and the overall aesthetics of all the characters.

Sound: (10/10)
I'm a huge fan of sound in animes, because it pretty much sets the overall mood. Picking a great piece of music, can change a scene from being great to awesome. The most notable OSTs are the "Gatchaman Theme", which pumps you up no matter what in the anime. The fulfulling feeling of "Unbeatable Network", or the silly, casual feel of "Tutu". I loved every piece of music, and they producers couldn't have gone wrong with the selection of music. The OP and ED, are now part of my favourite. Normally I don't watch openings every episode, but I just fell in love with it. I personally enjoy openings that discreetly reveal characters, but you don't take note of it until it happens in the anime. You get this feeling "Wow, it was there this whole time". The ending also just felt right. Any other piece of music probably wouldn't suit the ending, as it just summed up everything in the episode so well.

Character: (8/10)
Oh man, the variety of characters in this anime... You got your crazy, always energetic female, who is a combination of the Energetic and Reckless Luffy, with the BELIEVE IT Naruto, but in a female form. You also got your white knight, trying to contain this female. Your kuudere, loli, animeplot, fanservice girl. (Seriously, what anime doesn't have one of these). You got your badass, who smokes. An extremely flameboyant male, a cross dresser, a tsundere in the form of a panda, and a psychotic killer. This anime has the full house of characters, which makes it a great watch to see how this personalities blend. It's always nice to see a cast with multiple personalities, instead of your typical harem where every female plays the same role.
Though I feel there is little plot development with this anime being only 12 episodes, Hajime's character really shines throughout the anime. Like she litterally shines of happiness and joy, and it rubs onto the other characters. Although the cast didn't develop much (aside from the Hajime x Utsutsu), her personality was very prevalent in changing the way everyone looks at things.

Enjoyment: (9/10)
Although this anime is perfect, is missing information in the plot, the art could use a touch up, and the ending didn't feel satisfying, it was extremely enjoyable to watch. With Hajime's always happy-go-lucky personality, it's hard to stay down watching this anime. You can't go wrong if you want to kill some time and enjoy something with Gatchaman Crowds.

Final Thoughts:
I would probably give the overall anime a lower rating because of all the plotholes, and the ending was far from perfect, but after hearing about the second season, I'll keep my opinion until it is finished.

It's not heroes who will update the world. It's us. - GALAX

Hajime has taught us a huge big lesson on learning life, whether it be ignoring haters, being considerate for other's actions whether they be good or bad, or to just be yourself in any given situation.

BIRD, GO~

First off the main character(Ichinose, Hajime) is what makes this anime great. without her the show would be just another supernatural meh show. The characters are unique and fit their roles. With my favorite being a toss up between Ichinose, Hajime and Miya, Utsutsu. Each character has a unique look and personality, and as the story progresses so does the characters, with learning of their pasts, or just getting to know their daily lives.

The story is fairly unique as in I can't think of any similar story-lines.
And lastly the animation/art is good but not great.

That's all. Hope you give this anime a chance and enjoy ... it as much as i did. :)

I got into Gatchaman Crowds blindly, having little to no knowledge about anything besides the main character's design (:>) and flashy colors the show seems to deliver, and stayed not only because of that, literally everything else made me have a real good time in just 12 episodes plus a director's cut.

It is sold as a generic superheroes anime where you expect something but ultimately get something else in a good way because of how the script makes some twists here and there so the focus varies and it'll never feels repetitive.

The art-style and the animation are, as I've already mentioned, flashy and colorful, with ... lots of details put into the characters, their clothing and their expressions. It also features lots of CGI to represent the main cast transformations, which is pretty well done with creative designs.

Speaking of characters, each one of them have their own personalities, ideologies, fears and behaviors that contrast each other, so it doesn't feel unidimensional in the way they act as a team, even moved by their own ideals instead of what needs to be done, making the Gatchaman disfunctional though they are still a team that gets the job done (this is spoiler-free, every team of superheroes does stuff together). Aside from the main team, the other mains feel the same and give more meaning to the story. I personally like this because even though this is a heroes with superpowers show, they aren't the only ones that stay relevant during the conflicts of the series. Tatsunoko delivers the message clearly with a simple question: What makes a hero?
If I could describe the characters with something it would be colors, not only because those that represent their designs but because of how different and relatable they might feel for the spectator. Honorable mention to the villains, a total blast to watch and the main bad guy is one of the strongest points of the experience, so is the completely unexpected outcome of his acts.

The story varies a lot over the course of 12 episodes, it treats with different conflicts at the same time and does put aside what it's resolved at some point. It even gives the characters their respective development and resolves to the ones that need them, highly noticeable at the end too, which is a nice touch because, again, it doesn't feel unidimensional at all as it deals with themes I don't usually come up with in this kind of medium, which makes it outstanding mashing up together some creative ideas.

The soundtrack is also worth mentioning, even if I don't describe how it is, you'll notice at the very beginning how (amazing) is but that's entirely suggestive so judge for yourself if you find this review helpful and decide to watch it. Still for reference if you're into Taku Iwasaki's ost you'll for sure love this one (been listening to it while writing this review).

It's pretty obvious how much I enjoyed Crowds because of the rose colored painting I've been giving to everything. You may not feel the same because opinions, of course, but even if it doesn't hit you as much as it hit me, I'm pretty sure you'll find it entertaining enough, because it doesn't try to hard to be deep or setting high standards, it just delivers a fun and chill time with interesting ideas on the table that in the end are properly development with lots of room for more to enjoy.

Overall it's a masterpiece for me. I feel like I come up with a lot of series that become outstanding shows but having no expectations is the best way to enjoy things, and following that statement is probably what gave Gatchaman Crowds a fresh feeling for me. Loved the soundtrack, the animation and art style are eyecandys, the cast is interesting, emotionally-wise is not so impactful and that's why it's something you can chill and have fun with without any pressure and in the end just feel happy.

Taking aside my opinions and impressions on the show I think it's something entertaining enough for you to give it a try, hit or miss but objectively it's not a bad show.

Don't leave the director's cut behind, because it's an extended epilogue that explains much better what happens at the end so episode 12 may feel a bit odd (as a fun fact the staff couldn't finish the show in time so they leaved the complete finale for home media release).

GATCHA!

Let me be honest here.at first when the first episode of Gatchaman Crowd came out I didn’t like it so i decided to put it on hold and give it another shot after it ends.this time however I actually liked it better and marathoned the whole thing.the problem with Gatchaman is like many other stories it leaves many things unexplained and it is up to your imagination to come up with some sort of logical explanation and misunderstandings are bound to happen because of it.also not all of them can be really logically explained unless you write a complete fan-fiction by yourself which is the ... main problem here.(even in sci-fi and fantasy stories there are rules to explain things otherwise it becomes a mess and anything can be explained without any reason which is no fun).Gatchaman uses aliens as an excuse to talk about some serious issues like the problems with “chains of commands” or “extra expectations from heroes or superiors” and it’s huge ambition is its double-edge sword that caused more harm to it than good since it only deals with the surface of the problems and to be honest underestimates them.we all know that the show targets teenagers but that doesn’t mean the writing should be done like it is a work of teenagers as well !(sadly this is not limited only to this show)

Lets get it straight.most of the cast are all useless idiots that are waiting for the protagonist to guide them with her magical words.Gatchaman is a group of heroes that tries to protect the universe from aliens.the latest generation is leaded by Pai that throughout his battles lost his confidence and is drowning in doubt whenever a time for decision shows up and he relies on JJ the one that gave Gatchaman their powers while in his heart he knows he won’t answer,basically he runs away and because of that he becomes ashamed of himself and hurts his own self-esteem in the process and continue to run away and the circle goes on.characters on Gatchaman have problems like these that makes them real but at the same time they are not executed well which ruins it and by that I mean they act too stupid and slow sometimes while they get convinced with only words too easily after.the main problem here is Hajime-chan.she is trying to be this weird kid that knows everything while acting stupid and pretend she doesn’t know anything which could be cool if others weren’t so stupid.but that is not the main problem with her.she tries to confront everything head-on and in an honest manner while in reality only honesty won’t solve all your problems specially problems at that scale.she gets chosen by JJ as a Gatchaman probably because of her power to sense JJ (probably that is how everyone got chosen so far) and have to deal with a team of heroes that in reality are not a team nor heroes and later have to solve the problem with the Crowds.the interesting part is they really don’t know what they are up against at first either so they attack anything that looks like a threat until Hajime question this act and tries to break the rules by ignoring the chain of commands.then slowly she helps everyone to realize their mistakes with her magical words and again poor execution makes it more annoying than enjoyable even though without considering the stupidity of other characters she can be likeable.as for other members we have Joe that think of himself as someone special and coo at firstl,OD a half-human that is the second smart person in the team but can’t do much cause the consequences of his power are great,Sugane which is a Samurai-Soldier hybrid in personality and Utsu-tsu that can’t connect with others well.also there is Rui that joins them later,he is the admin of GALAX,a cool idea that allows people to be connected with each other and possibly help out each other all the time even though in reality government won't allow something as powerful as that to be run by a kid alone and at least they will consider it a serious threat and will always be on the hunt for its source but well things like that are not fleshed out at all in the story.

the good thing about the story is its villain and the main reason for it being good is its damn voice actor.Mamoru Miyano voiced Berg-Katze the antagonist of the story and really made it alive,although he is no stranger to these kinda roles which Is why he was picked in the first place probably.other than that the voice acting for others are nothing out of ordinary mostly because they are not as challenging as Katze.the music you hear most is the “Gatchman Music” in the background and the rest of the tracks are not memorable(if there is any more OST that is cause not sure all I can remember is that one track…) and not as catchy as that,although the OP is good.the animation&art are nothing impressive either not that they are bad but there is nothing special as for their gatchman form they use a 3d model something like in Tiger&Bunny.the whole anime has some sorta similarities to that anime as well but the difference is that the former doesn’t aim too big to screw it up and actually tries to make things better as it gets near to the end instead of making more questions and possible plotholes.

Anyway Gatchaman Crowd tries to talk about many subjects at the same time in its short time and while it fails because of that it has a fun weird atmosphere which is enjoyable if you are a fan of these sorta things and can surprise you at times.

Well to start off, I disliked this very much but it doesn't mean I hate it by any means necessary. This is more of a character review than a proper thing.

To be honest, I enjoyed the characters, sound and art! But Hajime was a plague to the rest of the characters, before she appeared, they were all serious hard working protectors of the planet but then became the same as her, they stopped caring as much as before. I liked them, specially OD because he already had a back story which ended in tragedy. This remake should've been focused on him but I've never ... watched the original show which might've went deeper into his story but again I don't know.
But again I like them, they were enjoyable but the thing that chained it down is that they are the worst superheroes! Seriously they never did anything at all! The panda didn't help, kudos to him for finally summoning the courage during the LAST 2 EPISODES! He is a pain throughout the whole show and he's probably the same reason why they didn't do anything. He's not okay with them fight katze but he's okay with them revealing themselves on the 'Gatchachanel'.

Overall all I'd give this season a 5/10 because it had potential but the superheroesim was particularly none existent except for the first and maybe last 3 episodes but I'd say give it a try, you might like it and how it shows superheroes and the world around them is in a different light. Hopefully the second season would be better but I might let it pass, this show pissed me off quite a bit haha.

I thought this season was a very enjoyable watch, defenitely compared to the second season.

The story was well thought out, there weren't any real plottwists. But the plot was good enough as to not drag the show down. It was servicable, but nothing spectacular.

Then again the show's art was purely sublime in my opinion. From the colorfull and happy feel of the characters and the world, to the badass looking Gatchaman suits and fighting scenes.

The soundtrack was fine, nothing really stood out for me while watching the show. But after having a listen to the OST afterwards it was pretty good.

Now the chracters ... are the absolute best part of this anime. Although they use quiet some chracter trope stereotypes, they use them quiet well and then you have Hajime. She is just absolutely amazing, from the way she thinks to the atmosphere she puts out. How she interacts with the rest of the characters has a huge impact on the other characters which is really interesting.

All in all the show is rather good overall but it shines in it's chracters and art which it depends on heavily.

This is my first review on this site, so i apologize for any english/grammatical errors.

Well, i can't explain how much i enjoyed this Gatchaman series (to the point that makes to write this review)

I've loved the social criticals about our world needing heros or not. I think the shock of idealisms between Rui and the Gatchaman crew, if people should just relies on heros instead of changing their own world by themselves is amazing and one of my favorite things about this show. Also the villain Katze-Berg is something amazing too, the autor made him, a example the most dark sides of
a ... human (because yeah, this kind of person exist in the real world)

Btw

Story(9): The story is very well written, but i wish we had something more about the Gatchaman's origins, OD, JJ and Katze origins also, how the Gatchaman's are chosen? What qualifies them to be Gatchamans?
Yeah i know this is a series based on the original Gatchaman series, but if i am not wrong, there is no need of watching the originals series to see this show, so i think it would be good, if they had given to us some lights about these points.

Art(8): The art is good, but i've saw some incosistences, and the use of cg was well used, but still prety visible.

Sound(10): the ost is amazing, well combined with the scenes also the OP and ED were so good that i didn't jump them in any episode.

Characters(9): I think Rui and Katze were my favorites in this one ( mostly because of their seyuus works in this series). All the characters were well writen. I think most of people liked Hajime, but to me she is to much perfect, and makes her kinda boring to me.

Enjoyment(9): I am in a time of my otaku life, were i am not so patient with animes... if the story or character starts to make me bored i immediatly drop the anime... but this one, when i realized i was on the last episode.

Overall(9): The ost, the story, the characters were amazingly done, and Gatchaman is now highly one of my favorite animes. Also i will check all the other works of Kenji Nakamura.

I really do not know what to say about this one. It never really blew my mind or made me want to dump it after a few episodes. For the most part, it was a pretty decent anime, but nothing great or crappy, it's just kind of in the middle.

Story wise it's pretty simple. There is really no twists or turns, etc, it's kind of your typical bad guy shows up, new hero is born and they try to stop them. In this case the new hero is Hajime, who is somewhat unique in some sense. She rarely tries to resort to violence, instead she ... like to talk it out or try to figure out why the villain, thing, etc is doing what it's doing. For most of the anime the group of "Gatchaman" try to stop the villain, Berg Katze, from causing mayhem. It's not really a terrible story line. Yes it is used often, but they somehow managed to make it enjoyable and watchable, even though it's not some kind of super great story we've never ever seen before. One thing I didn't like was the ending, It was just a big WTF moment and left me and probably lots of other people with a lot questions. I felt it left a lot of loose ends opened that probably should have been closed. Just felt rushed imho.5.

Art work was enjoyable. Reminded me some of Mawaru Penguindrum with it's bright and happy colors. It really helps create that relaxed mood that the show seems to perpetrate. The transformed Gatchaman are CGI I believe, but they look pretty darn cool if I say so myself. I give it a solid 7.

I love that ending theme. One of my favorite songs this past season next to the Rozen Maiden ED by Annabel. Music for the most part is moody. It's usually some kind of techno pop stuff. 7.

Characters were pretty enjoyable. The interactions of Hajime with Berg Katze are somewhat funny. Berg isn't really a pleasant guy and hates everyone. In fact several times he mentions he is disgusted by Hajime and wishes for her to die, but Hajime just completely ignores him. Some times I feel ike Berg Katze is just one moody fool who likes f*** people's s*** up for no particular reason..or maybe he enjoys destruction...either way the characters were pretty good especially these two. There were more characters, but they aren't that important other than Rui who is the one who runs Galax. She wink wink is pretty smart and wishes to use Galax as a system for people to help each other out, but Berg...like always ends up screwing that up...anyways if you watch it you'll understand. For the most part, I enjoyed the characters.

Overall I enjoyed it, but I wasn't really blown away by it, neither did I think it was terrible. I felt like somethings could've been better, but hey I'll give it a fair score. It was decent enough for me to watch 6.5 imho is what it deserves.

Gatchaman Crowds is something that could have been amazing. Unfortunately, it hit some complications. The show is a parody and or satire action, superhero (kamen rider) show.

First, what sells this show is the characters. They are great, just great. I love the main character. God, I love the villain. They all feel real yet also whimsical.

Now for bad. The story. Put simply, the story starts okay, but deteriorates into confusion and let downs. That wouldn't be too bad if was just a parody, but it's not. Gatchaman Crowds has elements of parody, reconstruction and even deconstruction. (That means it's a show about shows, kids!) ... All that's fascinating, but the meta elements are not done smoothly and intrude upon one another. For example, the "super-forms" of our heroes are build up as this eventful reveal when actual they happen randomly and without much importance.

Now for the weird. The art. Gatchaman Crowds' art is stylist and beautiful, but it came with cost.
In order to spread the creator vision, they made some cuts. The design of the Gatchaman (the super-forms) are disappointing. They lack a kick to them, like fast food joint pretending their better than McDonalds. Also, the fights are just as lack luster.

Overall, Gatchaman Crowds would be something to watch if you're looking for something keep your brain on. It's fun and smart, but got a few too many ideas in it's head to fit perfectly.

Well, this was one roller coaster of a show I watched in one day.

I guess I should start by saying Gatchaman Crowds is definitely not a superhero show. It spends about one episode toying with the idea before discarding it and moving on.

Crowds does this a lot. This show is extremely dense, theme and idea-wise. Be prepared to examine internet anonymity, collective thinking, society, human values, and more other things I could possibly explain in a short review. This show is insanely good at juggling all these ideas, too. They never let a ball drop right up to the very end.

Which brings me to ... my main reasons for loving this show. This show isn't so much about a good versus evil plot than it is a platform for playing with these ideas and the ideals the show presents to us. The protagonist and antagonist are vessels for these ideas, but I don't mind so much. There is some great characterization and an interesting storyline, though. It's just that the show wants you to take away some serious food for thought as well as enjoyment.

Not to mention the art is great, and some of the soundtrack nuances are just genius. Crowds is just a well-crafted show.

To summarize, if you like philosophizing, this is a great show. If you don't, you might want to look for something else.

This review contains minor spoilers for the first few episodes.

Before I further begin, I feel I should mention that Gatchaman Crowds, while an amazing anime, is not an amazing anime for any reason that one would normally expect an anime to be amazing. The art and sound and dialogue vary between being interestingly distinct and being so utterly bizarre that the idea of quality doesn't even seem like it applies to them. After some amount of time watching it, you either acclimate yourself to it or block those parts out. I think a large amount of whether you enjoy the show or not depends ... on how fast that happens. The other part is whether you're approaching it expecting a regular anime. (The term "regular anime" itself can't really be said to mean anything, but I need some term with which to refer to animes that are not Gatchaman Crowds.)

Once you block out or acclimate yourself to the more abnormal parts, the remaining content can be roughly categorized into disguised philosophical commentary, heroic anime cliches, disguised philosophical commentary on heroic anime cliches, and other things. (The other things are less prominent and not with individually listing.)

The heroic anime cliches are obvious from the first episode. The main character, Ichinose Hajime, has a wrinkly old man appear out of nowhere and give her magic bird powers. (This is not a spoiler. The mental image you just acquired is completely inaccurate.) She is then inducted into a group of superheroes named the Gatchaman. (This is also not a spoiler. If you didn't expect this the moment you saw the title I have no sympathy for you.) She's informed that their job is to protect the earth from aliens, and that they're currently in conflict with a species of alien that is always chaotic evil and eats people. (This is slightly a spoiler.) She brings this to a diplomatic resolution within two episodes. (This is extremely a spoiler.)

The series goes on in that fashion, shameless flowing down the paths provided by anime tropes and then making unexpected turns just when it'll have the most effect. The philosophical commentary takes the form of a plethora of characters with differing views acting very actively in accordance with them. It would be a bit of a spoiler to actually go into detail on this, but I found them very thought-provoking, so if you enjoy animes with that sort of subtheme going on, you'll probably like Gatchaman Crowds. Now let's talk about the protagonist, since apparently she's also a divisive point for liking or not liking Gatchaman Crowds.

Ichinose Hajime is one of the most unusual protagonists I have ever seen. Some of the reasons for this are very obvious. She acts very cheerful and very eccentric, rubbing notebooks on her face and calling them cute and other such acts. Other reasons are very easy to notice but very difficult to articulate. She's a very self-contained character. She doesn't explain her thoughts like some anime characters do, which makes it difficult to figure out why she does things. Despite that, it's very obvious that there are reasons that she does things, and she knows what they are. You don't catch her contemplating things much, or asking other characters for their opinions in anything but a rhetorical way. Whether you like her or not is going to depend on a combination of whether you can tolerate her superficial traits and whether or not you approve of the idiosyncratic moral code she gradually reveals through her actions.

When I started watching Gatchaman Crowds, I felt this anime; the characters and story-line had potential. I had high hopes that the characters would blossom into something amazing, although I can't say the same for Hajime as I disliked her from the start but I'll get to that in a moment.

As I continued to watch, my hopes started to wane. I had no problem with Joe, O.D and Utsu-tsu as they were continuously marvellous and I still thought of them as my favourite characters. However, I think Sugane (Hajime's mentor) and Pai-pai (their leader) could have been more confident with their actions and opinions especially ... with controlling Hajime.
They should have acted more like a leader and mentor, and should have stopped Hajime from doing unfixable things instead of letting her do what she wanted.
As a mentor, Sugane should have told Hajime how to transform, he should have trained her think about her actions before doing them and become the best at her ability physically and mentally. Pai-pai should have told her the dangers when meddling with crazy aliens. Both failed at doing that which resulted in possible life-threatening situations concerning lesser-enemies near the beginning and Hajime exposing identities unnecessarily.

The fact that Pai-pai, O.D and Utsu-tsu's Gatchaman transformations were hidden for the majority of the anime made me more and more excited about what they looked like and how strong they would be. I expected Utsu-tsu's transformation to look cool as she is adorable and my favourite character out of the three I mentioned earlier, it looked similar and had the same ability to her human-form - being able to give life and take it away.
I was very happy to see Pai-pai's for the first time because for a creature so small, his transformation was a colossal tank. My happiness ended abruptly as Pai-pai, after transforming, ended up fleeing from the fight due to his cowardliness. Once he got over his issue, this is shown in episode 10, he continued to be a badass fighting machine as I expected of him.

As enthusiastic and confident as Hajime is, I have disliked her from the start. I think she is irresponsible with her actions; she doesn't even think or care about possible outcomes and just goes along with whatever she's doing. She acts like the leader of the Gatchaman despite the fact Pai-pai is the leader, if anyone would be co-leader, O.D or Sugane should have the privilege.
I hoped she would grow on me and I'd start to appreciate her more throughout the series but instead I began to dislike her more and more. I admit she is a good friend to Utsu-tsu and O.D, and she tries to help Utsu-tsu feel comfortable with her powers and insecurities, I'll give her that, but overall I'd rather she just stopped talking or she would just stay in her Gatchaman transformation as that's when I actually liked her.

The aforementioned lesser-enemies should have appeared in the anime more and needed a clearer explanation of who they are and what they wanted. I felt they were just a filler before the arrival of the main enemy character; Berg Katze.

In the last three episodes of the series, all the characters finally blossomed and revealed their transformations and powers. Pai-pai and Sugane finally got over their fear of being weak and cowardly and showed their strength, power and leadership which was great, and O.D…well O.D's transformation looked like an unyielding god, he was absolutely the strongest and most badass Gatchaman…it was spectacular!

During the last episode, I really hoped O.D and Katze's "fight" would continue later on, as all we got was a small brawl. I had so much hope that O.D would destroy Katze but, again, I was disappointed, more so.
Rui's ideas to stop the Neo Hundred Crowds were lame but they worked very well, which I found...interesting, but it seemed like Berg Katze wasn't even an issue anymore.

I wish the whole series had as much action and excitement as it did in the 10th and 11th episodes, I found these two episodes more exciting and can easily say these lived up to my expectation. I still wish the identities of the Gatchaman were secret to the public but I'm happy they helped and worked together.

Despite the fact this review has more bad points than good, I did like this anime. It just had potential to be a whole lot more. The music was great, the "Gatchaman!" parts were used at the definitely more exciting action parts, and the colours of each Gatchaman suited them very well. I can only say that I won't be watching this series again, and I'm rating this anime 7 out of 10.

The story originally starts with the introduction of power rangers like hero fighting an evil Rubik's cube called "Mess". It also introduces a brand new Gatchaman who becomes the primary character in the story. However, forget about things like the Mess and such as it hardly matters at all. In fact, what the story is really about changes all the time and leaves a lot of things unresolved at the end. Maybe "Mess" was like a sign from the creators on what the story would be.

The cast really has two characters that receive a great deal of focus. Hajime is a super genki girl who ... seems like she is on a constant supply of red bull. She seems as innocent as she is hyper. She is pretty much a epitome of a good person. Rui is the creator of a system called GALAX a social networking type application which alerts the users of people who need help. He also has control of a special group when GALAX can't handle the situation called the Crowds.

Rui gets most of the real development in the show. Although a lot of it is dictated by the plot. Also, admittedly he is slightly more interesting due to cross dressing. The rest of the cast gets zero or very shallow development. A lot of them have back stories that are never fleshed out. This includes the primary antagonist, Katze.

The animation is rather good and is one of the strong points. The art style is similar to Mawaru Penguindrum and mixes a lot of seemingly "well produced sketch" elements with some more pastel type art work.

The sound is good. The music tracks that play in the show (especially the Gatchaman theme) is especially catchy, and it has one of the strongest OP/ED combos of the season.

Despite what is a good base for a nice anime and a nice level of technical achievement the characters and story are sold short. The show leaves too many unanswered questions and is overall an unsatisfying experience.

So, Gatchaman Crowds. It's teetering on the edge of being great, but a few things drag it down.

To wit:


STORY - Super hyper gal Hajime becomes the newest member of Earth's (or, at least, this Japanese town's) defenders: GATCHAMAN! She very quickly turns the status quo amongst the Gatchamen(?) on its head. Meanwhile, a strange alien named Berg-Katze begins to terrorize the town. Meanwhilewhile, Rui, the crossdressing creator of the GALAX network begins his issuing of the CROWDS system. This all converges (eventually).

It feels rather... odd? The initial conflict (Gatcha vs the aliens called MESS) is quickly sidelined for... nothing in the middle, and then Katze ... and his groupies in the last portion. The character of Rui is almost more of a protagonist than Hajime at points. Rather, much of the story is driven by him, and not the Gatcha gang.

In fact, Rui feels like he has more of a character arc than Hajime, who is somewhat flat (narratively). This is fine - protagonists who are instruments of change in other people's lives can be an excellent replacement for a protagonist who experiences personal change. Actually, Hajime acts as such an instrument in almost every character who matters in the storyline.

There are a few points I feel the story suffers. It at first posits a concept that really interested me - social media as a power to help others and the gameification of bad things happening. Not of tragedy per se, but just of bad things in general, from accidents to purposeful assault. It explores this concept for a good bit, and then the final stretch decides to forget about the parts where this stuff was portrayed somewhat negatively and went for "yeah it's fine to do that".

The flip feels strange- not unearned but definitely dissonant to the parts of the show where GALAX and CROWDS were used in a very negative manner. This is likely on purpose, to illustrate the wrong ideals of the antagonist, but it still feels kind of jarring to me.

Also! Props to Tatsunoko for not shoehorning pointless action in. Every action sequence feels like it has a purpose to the overall story.

ART - Love it. The artwork is gorgeous, the designs are great and full of character. The CG is there, yeah, but due to where its used it doesn't feel out of place or ugly. There's a kind of gradient the characters have on them that looks really pretty.


SOUND - Voice acting's good. The dub (which is how I watched it fully, the episodes i watched in JP were back at initial release so I can't comment on the original dub) has a few spotty moments, mostly the first few episodes. Joe's voice is too quiet for a few episodes, though after those episodes he's louder. Probably an actor decision as the mixing is good all around.

David Wald, in particular, has a superb performance as Berg-Katze. He chews the scenery in every scene Katze appears in and its great. The other actors are good but nobody seems to be having as much fun as him.

Musically its dope. Taku Iwasaki (Jojo Part 2, Gurren Lagann, Read or Die) is the composer, and he delivers tenfold. The main theme, appropriately named Gatchaman - In the Name of Love, is a kinda silly combination of disco and electronica with the refrain of "Gatchamaaaaan". There's some other good pieces like Music Goes On and so forth. Definitely recommend tracking down it on Youtube and giving a listen.

The OP is pretty good. Lyrically it's complete nonsense, but it's a fine jam and is very punkish. I don't remember much of the ED, though I do recall the singer for it is Hajime's seiyuu. Stuff like I always find cute.


CHARACTERS - They're pretty good. Everyone in the main Gatcha team minus J.J. and Hajime evolves over the course of the show. Although the changes they go through are forcefed to you late in the show via an episode that hybridizes plot progression and clip show... Stuff like the taciturn loner (Joe) get flipped around later on in fun ways. Even the PM of Japan gets character development and he's only in like the last 3 episodes.

I will say some characters get hard sidelined in exchange for more Rui, Hajime, and Katze. Others, like J.J., are not even a character. (J.J. still baffles me as he kind of stops being important at all after the first few episodes.)


ENJOYMENT - It's a fun ride. Until that last episode. It's kind of a bummer. Since we never got that OVA variant of the final episode, there's a certain plot point at the end that comes completely out of nowhere - unless I missed it entirely. As a result, the finale feels rushed and is not as coherent as I'd like.

It doesn't ruin the show, but it definitely drags it down a good bit.


It's closer to a 75/100 than a straight 7/10 (pedantry!!!) but that's still above average. Definitely worth a watch.

Also since I couldn't find a place in the review itself for this aside: Rui's penchant for crossdressing is most likely a nod to Berg-Katze in the original Gatchaman show, where Katze is capable of changing genders at a whim. A few other things feel like nods to o.g. Gatcha but none are as solid as that.

In a world where we're all becoming more and more connected, the darkness of the world and our own dark underbellies exposed more and more for the world to see.

Is there truly a place for heroes? Can anyone truly be a hero?

Along comes this colorful, true blue superhero show to bat those questions aside with a smile and an "of course, silly!~"

It has been a good long while since I've seen a superhero show, especially a superhero anime that has embraced the genre's built in optimism and positivity the way CROWDS has. The main character tailor made to infect the show like a reverse cancer, ... cleaning away any darkness or doubt that you may have about heroism.

This show is a stirring rebuilding of not only heroism but also that tiny spark of altruism we all have buried inside us, taking each moment it has to show that the world is not as dark a place as we like to think and perhaps, if we can all join together as heroes one and all, we may just have a bright future on this navy marble.

GATCHA!

Like you would expect. Just wanted to clarify that this anime is extremely bland and generic. Characters are ok, plot is ok, but this is one of those anime that makes you think "just another generic anime".

I feel like the target audience for this anime is very young. The story has a weird device that lets them become heroes and fight for justice because why not.

While I found nothing bad about Gatchaman, there is really no merit in watching this show. Save for the really good op/ed I couldn't find even a single reason to watch it.

edit: review shortened & ranting removed; trying ... to be more neutral

I have a really ton of things that I could metion for explain how great this anime is.
I, actually, came to know about this show because of the main theme that I heared on SoundCloud and I LOVED IT! And I reconized that was a work of Taku Iwasaki, one of my favorites composer, what make me even more interest on that show.
What made me so in love on the beginning was the main character, Hajime, who was the type of character that I most like: A weird, smiling, a little airhead but no a stupid character full of charisma. Of course, the others characters ... was also well writen and building: Sugane, a serious, conservative and stickler student, who becomes more flexible when Hajime show him that kind of behavior isn't always the best; Jou-san, a quiet and cool government employee, and also one of the strongest Gatchamans, but have a huge inferiority complex, becomes more confident, thanks for Sugane and Hajime; Utsutsu, a depressive and quiet girl (who, for some reason, wear a swimsuit) becomes more live and happy thanks Hajime being... well, Hajime; Paiman (or "Pai-san" or "Pai Pai", you decide) is an alien who looks like a yelling little panda, who is the lider of the current Gatchamans and he is... well, a coward little chicken who becomes... something decent in the end.
OD (probably my second favorite character and the whole show, besides Hajime) not change basically anything from beginning to the end, being this strange, funny, mysterious and sympathetic character, although he is very wise and interesting, beside be the most stronger character in the whole show.
Rui, the idealistic trap, who is the owner of the GALAX (a social network app were everybody can help everybody and ask for help) is the caracter who stay a long time in the villain's side, but soon becomes a Gatchaman's ally and, eventually, a Gatchaman himself.
The antagonist, Berg Katze, is also great, although simple. He's a crazy maniac who likes to singing and dancing in the air and to see the world drowned in the chaos for the simple pleasure to see the world drowned in the chaos. His relationship with the main character is so funny and unique that not looks like a protagonist and antagonist, but like two friends playing a game, and I actually like stuffs like that.
Even the characters who are not so really important, like the mayor Nobu, the fire chief Kuwabara (Baracchi), the policewoman, the army's woman and the prime minister Sugayama(our Sugayan), all of they are very sympathetic persons, the type you can like almost imediately.
The soundtrack is just amazing as I could expect from a work of Taku Iwasaki, a man who combines rap with classic with techno with japonese instruments, all of it with perfection and... well, it's wonderful. I really recomend for everyone to take a look on his works. Maybe I'm exaggerating and let my personal taste guide me, but I consider him as one of the greatest composer of the anime industry. The problem is the fact they have a pretty damn epic soundtrack but, 'cos they don't have much scenes "epics" where they could put, they just used on scenes where not much happens.
I am not a specialist on the visual art, so I just can say that the art on Gatchaman Crowds looks pretty good and the CGI is good as well.
Oh yeah! I forgot to say: They, actually, can arm themselves with CGI armors with their NOTEs, who they use to fight with aliens.
Yep. I forgot. Because this anime has really few fights and even less fights relevants. Fights are, clearly, not the focus of this show.
If I was to say what is the focus on this show, it must be some kind of social criticism (at least, I can surely say that was the focus on the second season, but we talk about this other time). A lot of other animes does it: Guilty Crown and Devilman Crybaby are the exemples I can think imediately (I still didn't watch the original Devilman, so I can't say surely if it is), although Gatchaman have a more positive message: "If everybody does your part for help each other, the world can be a good place to live" or something like that. It's a pretty good message, even if be a bit naive, but I think the world need some naivement sometimes.
However, even that I had loved, and believe on me, I REALLY loved this anime, I can't give him a perfect score, because... the end sucks. It doesn't make any sense and looks like the director and screenwriter didn't know how to end the anime (or didn't even had think about the end until it comes). I was hopeful for explainations on the season two but... they don't answer anything.
What a pity.
Well, I think nothing is perfect.

This anime is just a simple solid 8. There is a lot to like about Gatchaman, including its unique storyline which is what initially drew me towards this anime. At first I was skeptical about how great this anime would be, particularly with this idea of "updating the world", however I have to say at the end that it did a solid job.

Story: 8
The story follows the main protagonist Hajime Ichinose as she is chosen to become a part of this super secret protective force known as the Gatchaman. At the same time you have Rui Ninomiya who has created an application that links everyone ... together with the aid of artifical intelligence, and those who have the app on their smart phone can all interact with each other and in the case of trouble, assistance may be asked of you due to your skills. The main Protagonist is an alien by the name of Berg Katse and his role is basically to wreak havoc upon earth. Overall, a very cool setup and the action the ensues is actually quite good.

Art + Sound: 8
The artworks in this anime are very well done, particular the designs of the gatchaman themselves. Their bird suits are mechanical and very well animated with lots of colour, and the special effects used during battle are well done. The music in this anime is pretty good too, particularly in the opening song whose nonsensical lyrics aids that of the story as it works along the lines of communication and how we perceive words and communicate with each other. The theme word for the anime as well is "Gatcha!" and the transformation lyrics of "Gatchaman" are quite prominant in this anime as well.

Characters: 8
Where to begin with this one. The main character Hajime Ichinose has to be one of the most obnoxious girls every portrayed as a main character, or so I thought at first. Upon persevering through this, I learnt to like her more as you start to understand who she is and how she works. She is able to express herself freely and does not restrict herself in her life and society values. Her honesty is probably the best thing she's got going for her, however her eccentric take to life is quite good as well. The other mentionable character would be Berg Katse. His antagonist role is quite well done, inciting fear into all around him through the use of being able to mirror the image of someone. On the whole, a very solid character cast from everyone in the show.

Overall Enjoyment: 8
Again this would be an 8, as mentioned before. This show was quite fantastic to watch due to its themes of heroes and updating the world and how society should work together. It was an enjoyable watch and recommend it for those who are thinking about watching it.

Gatchaman Crowds was an odd gem for me. There are so many aspects of this series that I shouldn't like, the mech-design, the predictable story, the theme of "heroes" and so on...

Yet I immediately fell in love with the series and the reason was so obviously clear. The main character Hajime is absolutely fantastic - an upbeat energy, unbridled optimism and honesty, and still intelligently navigates the world.

Gatchaman Crowds starts with Hajime's introduction to a team of superpowered heroes that protect the earth from alien threars. The narrative drive of the story is partly driven forward by Hajime's bull-headed optimism that doesn't accept the conventions ... or taboos established by her team, and in the flux of her wake the team has to adapt to how their team is changing due to Hajime.

The characters in the series are what makes it really great, but I also love the art direction. Colour choices, character design and sets all look great and match the tone of the series perfectly.

The weak point was the story. THe character driven parts of the narrative are great, the dialogues and developments - but the main plot is just too predictable. And for an anime that seems to focus so much on political improvement through collective responsibility it really fails at doing any real political commentary - why dabble if politics if you don't want to dabble in politics? I found that "message" lukewarm at best.

So while the I think the central plot of this anime fails miserable at engaging, the characters are so good that the anime still is really enjoyable and special, so please - give it a try!

[ Cross-Posted on Hummingbird and Anime Amino]

The story of Gatchaman Crowds is in interesting one. The story includes many references to the original Gatchaman series including the main villain Berg Katse. The main characters are superheroes, or rather, world protectors that protect ordinary humans against aliens causing harm (or when there is any help that ordinary citizens need).

While the Gatchaman are invisibly protecting (for the most part) and helping citizens, a person by the name of Rui wishes to change the world thru a social network called Galax where people can help each other without having ... to rely on people like the Gatchaman. Berg Katse, an alien, gives Rui the power of Crowds to help her "update the world" for a while until Berg takes over.


There are two kinds of animation in Gatchaman Crowds, traditional 2D animation and 3D CGI. Most people would get put off with any kind of 3D CGI in anime but I find that Gatchaman Crowds balances those different methods quite well and reminds me of Karas; a great OVA (original video animation).

The original sound tracks for the anime are fantastic and are very varied (but in a great way). The music ranges from orchestra to dubstep and everywhere in between. The music tracks in Gatchaman Crowds are well composed and chosen including the OP (opening).

The character design is a bit diverse and different. Everyone who has seen this show knows of Hajime's almost permanent ":>" face and her personality. Hajime is optimistic and loves face-to-face conversations and would rather settle or figure out problems in this way. The character Utsutsu has a design almost copying Saya, a character from a visual novel but with long hair. Utsutsu's commonly used phrase "I'm gloomy" is a good representation of her character during the first parts of the series but as the series goes on, she says it less as she develops into a new character who just wants to help everyone she can.

I really find this show enjoyable and intriguing. I find it to be a contender, if not the winner, of the best anime of the Summer 2013 season.