Gatchaman Crowds

Hajime Ichinose's ordinary life is in for a change when a transcendent being named J.J Robinson hands her a small book called NOTE—a device which transforms her into one of the Gatchaman, the legendary protectors of Tachikawa City. Stressing that the existence of their group must remain a secret, fellow Gatchaman Sugane Tachibana takes Hajime to their base of operations, where Paiman, the panda-like alien leader of the Gatchaman, reveals their purpose: to eliminate aliens that pose a danger to humanity. These existential threats, called MESS, are becoming increasingly dangerous, destroying everything they touch. Now it's up to the Gatchaman and their new recruit to stop them before the world is engulfed in chaos.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ichinose, Hajime Main

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Ninomiya, Rui Main

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Miya, Utsutsu Main

Koiwai, Kotori Japanese

Katze, Berg Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

O.D Main

Hosomi, Daisuke Japanese

Hibiki, Joe Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Tachibana, Sugane Main

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Paiman Main

Hirano, Aya Japanese

Robinson, J.J. Supporting

Mori, Katsuji Japanese

Sousai X Supporting

Tange, Sakura Japanese

Tamura, Manabu Producer

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Fujio, Tsutomu Producer

Kirimoto, Atsushi Producer

Reviews

Oct 11, 2013

Stark700

Recommended

Where there's trouble, we need a hero, someone who we can depend on to ensure the public's safety. Who better than Gatchaman?

Don't be fooled by just the title. Gatchaman does exist and in the near future, they are legendary heroes who stands in with the crowds to protect the public. They're not just heroes but beings with supernatural abilities that allows them to fend off threats and criminals. In any city, there's crime. Luckily, Gatchaman is there to put it to end. They're not just wannabees but people who are capable of making a difference.

Gatchaman Crowds is an anime series produced by Tatsunoko Production. It ... is actually a reboot of the original series. Directed by Kenji Nakamura (C: Control, The Big O, Tsuritama) makes its hot summer debut as one series that can be stunningly entertaining. I'm not referring to just the action or its style of execution. Rather, Gatchaman Crowds takes on the hero theme and presents it in a way that is extravagant for viewers whom are into a distinctive series of recent years.

Adapting a series based on heroes isn't entirely new to the anime industry. At the same though, it's not a hugely popular trend. In recent years, series such as Tiger & Bunny and Star Driver have followed such a pattern. In these series, characters become heroes of justice and vows to protect what they treasure. The part where Gatchaman Crowds shine though is that the main action character happens to be a girl. Usually, we are more used to seeing a guy playing the knight in shining armor. However, here we have a girl named Hajime who is infused with hyperactive energy. Instead of being a helpless girl in distress who needs a knight in shining armor, she becomes the sword the knight holds itself. With her super outgoing personality, Hajime Ichinose is the mascot as well as the girl that can make a difference. There are many times though where we see her more of a normal girl with that hyperactive personality. She is like the professor of energy because the many things he does puts viewers at awe of her attentiveness. There's is also a puzzling factor regarding the way she speaks that sometimes comes out as riddles. In a way, viewers might not 100% understand her purpose or way of what she is trying to convey. But hey, that's the fun part.

Of course, Hajime isn't the only character in the show with all the power. If that was the case, her responsibility would be greater than anyone can imagine. Luckily, she does have allies as part of the Gatchaman Crew (aka the G-Crew). These include a variety of characters including Sugane Tachibana, Joe Hibiki, O.D., Utsu-tsu, and Pai-man. Despite his rather peculiar appearance, Pai-man acts as the leader although his appearances makes him a bit weak as compared to the others. Needless to say though, he is capable of leading and is able to unify the group together to take on dangerous criminals, beings with supernatural abilities that threatens the existence of others.

Out of all the characters, we can see that there are a lot of interactions between the various members of the G-Crew. In particular, Hajime and Utsu-tsu has a peculiar relationship as they exist on almost entirely opposite of each others' personalities. Hajime is the energetic girl while Utsu-tsu is the stoic one. She often murmurs the phrase, “I'm dreamy” as if she is setting herself away from reality. However, Hajime at many times brings her closer to reality itself through their relationship.

Other characters in the show also makes prominence, in particular Rui Ninomiya, a cross-dresser with beliefs of his own. In his mind, there's a need to improve and perhaps even change the world for the better. This in a way puts him on the opposite side of Gatchaman as his beliefs leads up the suggestion that Gatchaman would be nonexistent in a world of future. In many ways, he thinks that people would not solve problems on their own but rather become overreliant on Gatchaman. At the same time, there's no doubt that Rui needs help of his own especially when confronted with a dangerous criminal.

The criminals in Gatchaman are distinctive and looks peculiar. There's no surprise that some of these designs might be familiar for those who have seen Kenji's Nakamura's other directed works such as [C]. But besides that point, one particular villain in the show is shrouded in mystery not only by the way he kills but also his way to create a new world – destruction.

Because Gatchaman Crowds is set in a futuristic world (2015), expect some high level technology to come on the screen. Perhaps the most interesting of existing technology that exists in the Gatchaman world would be the GALAX. This interesting tool is a useful piece of technology for communication especially when trouble arises and there's a need for help. And who are you going to call help for in a city of dangerous criminals? Gatchaman of course!

The show also offers plentiful chances for action. Most often, this involves Gatchaman dealing with folks causing trouble and disturbing the peace of the public. Other times though, Gatchaman stands as a symbol of hope and peace. Rui does seem to agree with this but there are many who still looks up to Gatchaman. The action itself is solid with fast pacing moment and characters performing inhuman feats. More than ever though, we can tell that Gatchaman are not just your every day average superheroes. They are packed with explosiveness beyond just those catchy transformation sequences. Additionally, the team itself consists of a group that specializes in all sorts of skills when a trouble arises.

All entertainment factors aside, Gatchaman Crowds suffers somewhat in explaining itself through their origins. There's a certain lack of degree in character backgrounds with minimal flashbacks or character exploration. Additionally, there's confusion that arises occasionally regarding the purpose of our superheroes. Most of them seems to follow a moral of doing the right thing and helping the public. Then of course there's Hajime where some people will like her or others will find her a bit annoying for taking up most of the screen time. In many episodes, she explodes with energy and cheerfulness that contradicts the dangers of what the city faces. In fact, superheroes are supposed to take their jobs seriously and Hajime rarely has a serious expression on her face. In this perspective, viewers might not take her character or involvement in the plot itself very seriously. There's also a lack of diversity in terms of the villains that might lessen viewers' interests occasionally. Finally, the conclusion of this series might give some confusion to viewers with questions that needs legitimate answers. After watching this series, I had to scratch my head quite a few times asking myself various questions.

Gatchaman Crowds crafts its character artistically with their character designs. Hajime looks like a normal girl but her transformation can be described by more than just fascinating. There are the battles with CG elements added in that could have mixed results depending on your preferences. The futuristic setting also looks consistent where viewers can tell that its technology is beyond our times. Otherwise, Pai-man's character design makes him look less menacing as compared to the rest. Also, expect some a little of 'fan service' from Utsu-utu especially when she is wearing nothing but a bikini like outfit out in the open.

The soundtrack department makes sense. The OP song "Crowds" by White Ash plays on a heroic like orchestra with rock like beats. We get to see the majority of the characters in the opening sequences as well including a prominent villain of the show. Hajime herself sings the ED song and fits her style just right. Speaking of which, I give Maaya Uchida praise of her role as Hajime. Her voice mannerism fits Hajime's character quite well as a girl made of energy. OST wise, the show also makes sense through its insert with its action scenes, comedy sequences, and some of the more emotional small talks.

If science fiction is a genre you're into, Gatchaman Crowds should no doubt be on your PTW. I'm not talking about a science fiction where aliens drops from the sky and starts an invasion against humanity. Instead, I'm talking about a science fiction with heroes like you've never seen before. Hajime is one of those characters where you may end up liking or hating her. Other superheroes in the show or rather Gatchaman can also be fun to get used to. Superhero theme shows aren't very common to make it on the screen in recent years but for this show, it definitely is more than just uncommon. It's unique. It's explosive. And it's that damn awesome.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 27, 2013

AixDivadis

Mixed Feelings

Before you hate on me, I'd like to tell you that I actually go by the description of the rating and unlike many people, my rating system doesn't go from 7 to 10. This show is "Fair".

Gatchaman Crowds is more of a fun kind of series with bright and pretty colors to catch your eye, but otherwise it has few good traits. The story was mish-mashed though sometimes interesting, the characters were mostly shallow and unoriginal (with one of them blatantly ripped off) but made to appeal and it had a little bit of your usual humor that no longer makes me laugh put in. ... It also lacked the flash that something intending on simply being fun and amazing would have thus the series simply failed to deliver anything. The end was seriously unsatisfactory and anticlimactic.

Let's look at the art and animation first, the good part of the series. Like many others nowadays, the colors are bright and vibrant, the art is well-done and the animation is clean, smooth and up to standard. The jewels of the series are the showy Gatchaman themselves, their designs are amazing with Paiman's being especially cool in my opinion, though they are actually seldom shown off and when they are, their fight choreography is quite mediocre. The CROWDS and the MESS, both supernatural creature type of things, are weird in design and don’t look very appealing despite that the CROWDS are a very big part of the show. The human character designs are rather decent and suit their characters, I quite liked the effect of having stripes going through everyone's hair.

Next is the story, it takes several turns which can make it seem quite disconnected, but it did do a well-rounded presentation of people in general and the power of social media (shoot me for sounding like one of those boring activists). It started off like every single other shounen out there with the secret organization randomly recruiting our main character to fight bad guys, but, they spin off on a different route after the second episode, completely abandoning the original premise after the main character solving the problem the organization is trying to solve on her first outing. The MESS, the enemy they are supposed to be fighting, are completely removed from the show until the last episode where they make a random useless cameo appearance for a single scene. I don't actually mind the turn considering how generic the original plot was, but changing the focus of the story like this isn’t great for pacing. The story turns to our other main character, Rui, the crossdressing genius creator of the super-popular social networking site GALAX which promotes random acts of kindness and organises people (Though the AI that controls GALAX is extremely unrealistically powerful, I personally liked the idea of an app like GALAX), and our main villain, Katze, an alien with the motivation of having fun screwing around with people and making them destroy each other and the planet itself, a nice contrast as each tries to bring out polar opposite parts of human nature. We see a few episodes of GALAX and CROWDS, a power that the alien granted Rui, do good deeds and then it turns and focuses more on the main villain. I won’t spoil anything, but Katze causes serious havoc by manipulating people and the Gatchaman have to stop him. The story comes to an anticlimactic end as they simply rely on humanity being good and believing in humanity to solve the problems rather than any of the characters really doing anything.

The characters can be fun, but are quite shallow with unoriginal personalities and stories. Our main character, Hajime, can really get on the nerves of some people, like her or hate her, especially with her notebook fetish the moment you meet her, her jumping around as well as the typical protagonist “bad guys aren’t actually evil” moment in Episode 2, however for those who can somewhat stand her, her character becomes a bit more endearing as the series progresses when you familiarize yourself with her eccentricities and see her bright and carefree outlook on life. Another good point is that she isn’t completely stupid like her type of character usually are and the other characters end up looking up to her indomitable spirit. I cannot say I agree with a character that never shows fear and always sees the bright side of things, not even needing any sort of support, but Hajime was a fun character and even pulled off her silly poses quite well. Rui, our other main character, wasn’t too bad, he was a cross-dressing genius with no backstory, who was actually actively going out there to change the world, but the point is that he isn’t flawless despite his original outward impression, he’s naive but confident and thinks he can do things on her own, then actually fails and shows weakness, fortunately for the Gatchaman as they would’ve otherwise lost relevance. The rest of the Gatchaman or G-Team are disappointing, Sugane was there solely for contrasting with Hajime by being serious and making a fuss over her antics, Utsutsu is your fanservice character who is an emotionless loli meant to make you like her with a backstory that didn't really connect - it appeared that she felt alienated for having a special power that has no bad points and is very useful in helping people, Paiman was comedic relief and mascot who was comically put in the position of leader, Joe is a naive cool guy (think Mustang) who hopes to achieve world peace by never getting a promotion when working for the government and OD is an utter shameless rip off of Leeron from TTGL down to the make-up and hairstyle, though he is slightly more serious and less sexual. Though he is played off as being the Gatchaman's secret weapon who will destroy the world if he were to use his powers, it turns out that nothing really happens when he does and it was all talk to make things more dramatic and to keep him from instantly owning the antagonist, they simply needed a way to take care of the overpowered villain at the finale. Part of the dialogue gets somewhat annoying as OD, Hajime and the villain, Katze, speak in that happy-go-lucky tone all the time, but it really depends on your taste here.

Enjoyment-wise, the series didn’t have any impact and didn’t really have much going for it. Hajime can be sweet to those who don’t mind her, but otherwise, you may very well hate the characters. The show’s art is a big plus for it, but many shows nowadays can match that quality. Overall, Gatchaman Crowds really failed to anything amazing and is a mediocre show that can be used to kill time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 3, 2020

O_T_T

Not Recommended

In its hurry to do everything differently, it does almost nothing well.

Gatchaman Crowds is a horribly jumbled show. It's a Sentai, but also chooses to dismiss the concept of them. It praises human society in one scene then demonizes it the next. When it's all over, nothing really remains as a theme or meaning.

For what it's worth, the first two or so episodes were fairly good, and despite the steep decline in quality as it went on, it was always at least watchable. But after an incredibly underwhelming finale, and the pointlessness I mentioned above, Gatchaman Crowds is going to remain a very annoying series ... to me for quite a while.

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The story, as set up initially, is a regular Sentai plot. Bizarrely though, the opponents, the MESS, are retired almost immediately. Their non-threat is barely even addressed later, and the Gatchamen are left wandering aimlessly for most of the first half. The subplot takes precedence here, but that's its own can of worms, as I'll get to below. This in itself is annoying enough, but what's worse is that the new plot, the CROWDS, come barreling in with little to no connection. It feels almost like 2 different seasons jammed together and compacted to fit. I don't think this requires much explanation for why this doesn't work.

Next are the characters, and I'm going to have to use "that" term. Hajime Ichinose, the protagonist, is a Mary Sue, by practically any definition. If it's a terrible idea, it turns out it was actually a good one when she does it. If a character doesn't like her, their arc will be realising they should. I can't even say it's saved by her personality, since she's unbearable. The rest of the Gatchamen are much more interesting, but only in so far as for their stories to still revolve around Hajime, of course. I can't say I'm particularly drawn to any of them, but Joe, Paiman and O.D. have some decent moments on their own.

As for the antagonists, Rui is somewhat interesting for the bulk of the show, namely when they don't interact with Hajime. When they meet, a lot of the intrigue Rui had dissipates. Berg Katze, the final villain, isn't much better. Though they have an incredibly over-the-top performance, that really works actually, there's practically no story to them. It's alluded to briefly, but nothing comes of it. The side characters aren't too bad though, and I'd direct towards Prime Minister Suguyama and Kouichi Umeda, who are both neat in their sparse scenes.

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On the technical front, Gatchaman Crowds is a tad above average. The art and animation isn't too spectacular, but there are good designs amongst the characters, both in and out of their Henshin. The music is equally good, with the OP and main Insert being very memorable. The OP sequence itself is nice, and I do appreciate it updating as more and more Henshin are revealed, though this backfires on the final episode by revealing a form that hasn't yet shown up in the series, lessening the impact somewhat. The artstyle is a little bit different, but not too noticeable on most of the characters.

The set design, particularly at the Gatchaman Headquarters, is quite bizarre, and doesn't really land. While colourful and full of intricate details, these are never used in an interesting manner and come off as pointless. The MESS designs are great, the CROWDS are passable and the show does manage to hold a reasonable tone throughout, even through the falling quality.

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I normally try to give my thoughts on improvement, but Gatchaman Crowds would require a serious overhaul. The main character, opponents, story and themes would have to be altered into unrecognisability, by which point Gatchaman Crowds loses its identity, one of the few things it had going for it.

Altogether, Gatchaman Crowds was really disappointing, and if it had begun as bad as it ended I'd have walked away. I may still check the Director's Cut of the final episode, but I probably won't venture into the sequel until I've forgotten the series almost completely.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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