FIF#205-Gatchaman Crowds

High School Girl Hajime Ichinose has been chosen by a high power to join an elite team of protectors.  Their mission: to safeguard Tachikawa city from a mysterious alien menace codenamed MESS.  Their weapons: NOTEs, magical notebooks with the power to change Hajime and her teammates into the next generation of powerful guardians known as Gatchaman.  It’s a dream come true for Hajime, even if she doesn’t seem the most qualified to be part of such a serious mission.  However, it could be her presence that turns the tide in Gatchaman’s favor as the MESS grow more powerful, manipulated from the shadows by a dangerous force hellbent on the conquest of their world.

 
Gatchaman.  If you were an Anime fan growing up in the 70s, 80s or 90s, you’ve seen these guys in action under various names: Battle of the Planets, G-Force: Guardians of Space (my first exposure) or Eagle Riders.  Since their debut in 1972, this five manned Power Rangers esque team has been defending the Earth as “Science Ninjas” complete with Bird like costumes that allow them to fly and perform other special feats.  Up until the launch of Gatahaman Crowds in 2013, not much had been seen of this influential super team since an OVA in the mid 90s (there was an attempt at a CGI movie from the same studio that did a similarly styled Ninja Turtles movie in 2007 but that project was eventually scrapped).  With super powered Japanese heroes like the Super Sentai, Kamen Rider and Ultraman still going strong, there should be more than enough room for more Gatchaman.  Like this though…yeah it’s not what I’d call a strong case.
 
For a long time, any preview or images I saw of Gatchaman Crowds lacked one vital detal: Gatchaman itself.  There were plenty of colorful character designs and artwork but I saw no hide or hair of any winged super suits.  Thankfully, there is actual Gatchaman in this Gatchaman reboot, in the form of CGI Armored Battle Suits.  Now the one that belongs to team member Sugane looks pretty cool inspite of the CGI.  The one that belongs to central protagonist Hajime…less so, it’s just a Battleoid Lolita suit…not Gatchaman at all.  Which brings us to Hajime herself.  She’s a ball of overhyperactive energy and weirdness who doesn’t know when to stop “Ooooing” and “Ahhhing” and generally just not knowing when to be quiet for more than  few seconds.  She’s even got a very…questionable fixation on day planners that’s borderline creepy.  She’s supposed to be our in to this new Gatchaman but she’s annoying at best, irritable at worst.  It’s not helped that Sugane is so uptight about his job and this Gatchaman team feels less like a traditional team and just a collection of various charicatures who may more may not get any proper screentime compared to Hajime. 
 
After a while, I wasn’t even paying attention to the plot or breakdown of Gatchaman operations because I couldn’t bother to care.  I feel like Crowds is trying to be needlessly complicated and deep, a new breed of Gatchaman when the traditional setup worked just fine.  Plus, Hajime being an attention hog who isn’t committing anything to memory isn’t helping either.  It’s a shame because one thing this show has going for it is the visuals.  This is a very pretty Anime from the character models to the MESS monsters the team faces.  It’s very vibrant and full of energy and I’d want to see a more traditional Gatchaman updated in this artstyle…just not with this story and the forgettable and annoying cast (seriously there’s even a tiny Panda guardian alien wound up so tight it’s about to curse Hajime out on principle).
 
Yeah, suffice to say I’m gonna pass on Gatchaman Crowds.  It might actually have Gatchaman in it unlike my previous assumptions and it looks pretty enough.  But the team doesn’t make a good first impression, least of all their newest teammate who is just a pain in the ass to listen to for more than a few seconds.  Maybe I should seek out the classic Gatchaman Anime and do First Impressions on them down the line.  They have to be better than this less than focused ball of energy that’s the equivalent of Dee Dee from Dexter’s Lab (basically a show trying to be serious with one character destined to blow everything up by asking “Ohhhhh…what does this button do?”).