m

This is a fan site for images and information I've collected. You'll also find my screensavers, wallpapers, animations, and mp3 downloads by following the links on the left. I'll be adding pages and screenshots as time permits, so check back, and be sure to click your browser's refresh button to see new additions. Thanks for stopping by. I fell in love with Battle of the Planets as a teenager when it originally aired in the U.S. in the late 1970s. Like so many of the kids at school, I was fascinated by the concept. BotP was one of the first shows to format a team whose "uniforms" were variations of the same design. From that stemmed Power Rangers and others. It was also the beginning of the American love affair with Japanese anime, now a standard of the industry. A unique aspect of Battle of the Planets, the American version of Japan's popular Gatchaman series, was that it was geared toward a slightly more mature audience than other afternoon animated series. BotP addressed issues such as the weight of responsibility, self-doubt, and inter-team friction. The shows weren't simply good guy wins over bad guy, but wove in personal sacrifice to duty, dissatisfaction within the group, and increasing frustration and disillusionment over the constant struggle with Spectra; all in teen-sensitive doses, of course. The original Gatchaman series is even more bare-knuckles gritty than the U.S. version. Edits removed much of the death and destruction and replaced it with robot 7-Zark-7. As Japanese viewers witnessed people and buildings being crushed or blown apart in fiery explosions, Americans were getting filled in on the team's mission by Zark. He also gave us clues about the personality of team members, in case we missed something ourselves. As an adult I look back on both versions of the series with a sense of nostalgia and admiration. It's wonderful to watch the faded, sometimes grainy animation, hear the cheesy 1970s action music, and relive the excitement of something that was truly original. I hope you enjoy your visit.