Tatsunoko was pretty good wasn't it?
>>23553897Didn't watch Polimar, but watched Cashan and the first Gatchaman season a few months ago and they were both great.
>>23553946The funniest way someone described it out of context I heard was that it’s a toku hero show but a combination of the style of 60s Adam West Batman and the violence of devilman
>>23554032I'd throw in Scooby Doo and Bruce Lee too. Either way, the show is a good time.
>>23554032I'd argue it even goes past Devilman; it's just not as gory.https://youtu.be/WPkqWThCEQw?si=UWACu3XaTbtJHREA
>>23553897This is ghetto gatchaman.
>>23553897Kind of thinking that this is where Yoshitaka Amano got his start. Very unique studio while Tatsuo Yoshida was still alive.
>>23554722"Kind of wild thinking that" woops. Seems that working in anime production in your early years is super formative. Suffering builds character after all.
>>23554722His illustrations for Gatchaman are insane, and he was only like 20.
>>23554634>ghetto gatchamanWhat!?
>nice yearly series ya got there. be a shame if bad ratings would end it for a decade.
>>23554609I don't think I've ever seen a superhero just... run over a man before.
>>23557354what I've seen of Polymar is basically Brock Samson fights but totally played straight
>>23554609I initially thought he was going to save the woman at 2:05 but then I realized she's a scantily clad older woman in a Tatsunoko show.
>>23554577I'd say a large portion of their classic works have a Hanna Barbera aspect to them. An unusually holistic take on Hanna Barbera, where you have the Scooby Doo aspect, plus the superhero aspect of shows like Birdman and the Superfriends, then some Johnny Quest adventure, and then at least in the Time Bokan series you have some really weird robots taking the role of HB's more cartoony characters. And they combine most or all of these concepts and design ideas into a single show.>>23554722Huh, I didn't realize he was the main character designer for most of the Time Bokan series. That does explain the very distinctive look to the franchise.
>>23560969>I'd say a large portion of their classic works have a Hanna Barbera aspect to them.yeah they're def informed by what HB was up to, similar formula plots, snickering dogsif anything that's what makes things like >>23557354a bit more jarring for westerners, you're used to this leading to "and he transforms into a car and" then something non-violent like driving around them or going to rescue others. NOPE. RUN YOU THE FUCK OVER.
>>23555634Many conflate Amano's art with the Yoshida brothers' designs though, it's important to distinguish them. Amano was in charge of guest characters but he later did draw team members in his own illustrations.>>23554032Apparently they did Polymar as a way to blow off some steam from having to do serious hero shows. A lot of animators were fed up with working on Gatchaman by the end from having to constantly draw in realism, so there was probably a silver lining to Fuji TV turning down extending it for another year.
>>23561432This Tatsunoko article series mentions Tatsuo Yoshida actually visited HB in the 70s to propose they collab together or to let him create some new characters for them, but Hanna and Barbera turned him down.The Yoshidas were pretty big westaboos, and Tatsuo even wanted to make his own Disneyland-like theme park that never got anywhere.https://j-animedb.com/?p=6162
>>23553897Casshan and Tekkaman were their best works.
>>23557087A bunch of Tatsunoko works seemed to be unlucky like that due to bad ratings or their sponsors pulling out, especially into the 1980s.>Casshan: Meant to be 52 episodes, cut short at 35 when the oil crisis happened.>Tekkaman: Meant for 52, cut off at 26's cliffhanger in a similar mood to what Toei did with Guyslugger's ending later.>Godam: 52 episodes, cut to 36.>Machine Hiryuu: Cancelled at 21 episodes, unknown if they had it slated for 26 or 52.>Itadakiman: 26 episodes, canned at 20 with the 19th episode originally unaired in many places.>Starzan S: 52 episodes, ended at 34.>Fire of Alpen Rose: 52 episodes, ended at 20.>Akanuke Ichiban: 52 episodes, ended at 22.>Legend of Hikari: 52 episodes, ended at 19.>Doteraman: 26 episodes, ended at 20.>Mach Go 97: 52 episodes, ended at 34.Banking on a whole year or even half a year got to be risky.
>>23561808The extra irony is that Itadakiman had its name changed during production because they thought the original name it had was bad luck.
>>23561808Wait, forgot the Macross components Tatsunoko was more responsible for and the Hutch sequel:>New Honeybee Hutch: 52 to 26>Mospeada: 39 to 25>Southern Cross: 39 to 23Then you had luckier works that got extensions but Time Bokan's hit nature just wasn't to continue by Itadakiman:>Inakappe Taisho: 52 episodes to 108>Gatchaman: 52 to 105>Time Bokan: 26 to 52 to 61>Yatterman: 52 to 108>Gatchaman II: 26 to 52>Gordian: 52 to 73, thanks to toy sales>Muteking: 52 to 56, gained some extra slots since Gatchaman Fighter was cut from 52 to 48>Ippatsuman: 52 to 58
>>23561820Maybe they should've kept the trio as all ladies...
>>23561808I think it's natural, some things air at the right time in the right place, other's aren't so lucky.
>>23561808>>Tekkaman: Meant for 52, cut off at 26's cliffhangerTekkaman Blade sure got lucky on having 49 eps instead of having a cut second half compared to the original.
>>23561828Yeah, sometimes it's all about the time-slot you get and whether or not it's pre-empted for baseball or if it's got the right sponsors, toys, and so on.
>>23561832The og Tekkaman was even going to have an evil family member twist with Joji's dad being revealed to have been saved by Warudastar and made an bad Tekkaman for their side.
HURRICANE!HURRICANE!ORE WO POLYMER!
Has anyone ever found any interviews with the Polymar OAV staff?There's a longstanding rumor that there were to be 3 episodes but Tatsunoko went over budget, but apparently their own site denied that. It definitely has no ending compared to Casshan or Gatchaman.
>>23561808Didn't realize Casshan was cut short, being one of their more iconic series. But the oil crisis was certainly a major upheaval for animation considering that all of the key materials needed were petroleum-based.
>>23561808Is Starzan S good? That OP is a banger.
>>23563294Yeah, there were supposedly even some other scripts already completed when the staff got the order it had to be cut down.The writers had to scramble to come up with a conclusion they felt could be adequate enough for the last two episodes,and Sasagawa said part of the reason they ended things bittersweet with Casshan stuck the way he was would be in hope for a sequel some day.With Tekkaman it felt like they left things off as kind of a middle finger to being axed, while Godam managed to reach its end despite its own shortening.
>Shows you didn't know were Tatsunoko productions
>>23563370Tatsunoko did try to use D-Rights and Nelvana to help get some USA co-production of Gatchaman going on too, but Beyblade proved more fruitful for investors.
>>23563391Don't blame them. Beyblade as an anime is insane as fuck, but entertaining for some reason.
>>23563370
>>23563394>>23563391
>>23563566Tatsunoko was only an outsourcer there but yeah. Also Irresponsible Captain Tylor.
>>23563370 The Soultaker
>>23562041Even back then they already had a tekkaman evil on their minds, incredible
>Game actually has a fair mechanic that counters infinites>Never used again
>>23563767Maybe if it wasn't stuck on the Wii then it would've been more well-known to use such mechanics.
>>23563784I assume it hasn't been ported to other consoles due to legal shit.
>>23563790A missed opportunity for Gatchaman II was for them to make their cyborg Joe into a transformer like Friender or Polymar. Could've had their very own proto Turbo Teen.
>>23563914That and iirc the game was built from the ground up in mind to be played on Nintendo hardware so it's a little harder to port.
>>23553897This is the only classic Tatsunoko show that I watched but it was fun.Polymar absolutely murdering the fuck out of guys in incredibly brutal ways only for the end of the episode to imply that they were arrested off-screen almost every time was always funny.
>>23563790No fucking way
>>23564341He actually is wrong. It was Toei.
>>23564426At least it's not a certain TMSposter spreading misinfo
>>23563689It's actually very on brand for their type of weirdness.
>>23563689>>23566739It starts with a buttrock jam project song, then it's about a guy with family issues, then a girl in panties gaslights the protagonist, then psychos appear, then he henshin heroes, and then it ends with a soothing ballad. Talk about an schizophrenic show. love ithttps://youtu.be/EQYwqE3VI20?si=OdwC0o8ek117Ff9w
>>23566775Don't forget the best part.
>>23566775It also gave us Komugichan
>>23554609i still refuse to believe all the mooks on these fights actually survive. after seeing some of polimar's attacks, at least ONE of them should be fucking dead.
What's anyone's most wished-for Tatsunoko media to be uncovered? Hoping someone one day digs up more on M-Thunder, the 80s version of Mach Go.
>>23567724Dunno if there is necessarily anything more to uncover, but Sadamöbius was a mixed media project that was apparently supposed to have a light novel serialized in My Anime magazine, an album, and an anime. And well, that last one never happened but the serialization did still have a bunch of Ippei Kuri illustrations.https://youtu.be/G70xTMRjlhk?si=UfEC_7mDyR3X4ZkG
>>23568182That one Retro anime mags guy has a bunch of MyAnime issues but I guess it'd take a lot of requests or his own interests to scan the stories.If someone could dig up the series proposal that might be able to shed more light too.
I fucking love all the Time Bokan shows so much
>>23561808This happened to several of the Time Bokan shows, to the degree where they made a gag in Itadakiman about the unknown nature of being cut short."Yes, I can safely say that there may be 52 or even as few as 26 pieces of [the macguffin of the year].">>23561822>>23568285I'm gonna mention the one that dare not speak its name. I actually liked it.Kiramekiman.Kiramekiman got cut short too. They tried to do a revival of Time Bokan with the original villain trio, but the roles flipflopped, where they are well meaning but incompetent police and the heroes are dashing phantom thief rogues. It got cut to 26 episodes. It didn't do well. Old school fans hated it because network TV had to play it safe now. They couldn't be lewd anymore, no more naughty wordplay unless it were very hidden, no more of this incarnation of Doronjo getting her clothes blown off (they teased it a few times.)Kids didn't pay attention to it because Team Rocket had eclipsed Doronbo as the go-to incompetent yet lovable villain trio.They did much better with the 2008 Yatterman where they'd have her get her clothes blown off but then cover it up like the Austin Powers nudity gag and have Boyacky comment, "Wow, if this had been the 70s, we'd have just shown it."
>>23568367The proposal for Kiramekiman only has 26 from the start, but they seemed to consider the unlikely possibility of a second half in that same document.After Mach 97, it looks like they didn't want to be so gung-ho about full year orders.
>>23568189I imagine it's already a pain in the butt to find specific issues from defunct magazines, but you'd have to get every issue from April 1981 to July 1982 to scan every Sadamobius chapter.
>>23568547Funny how some kind of space team show was something Tatsunoko kept trying to make happen and sell, but kept getting deferred.>Pitch an extension for Gatchaman where they go to space, gets rejected>Rewrite as different show, pitch to another network as Tekkaman, gets cancelled>Come up with Sadamoebius and Challendar as space shows, try to sell Fuji TV on them>Fuji TV wants third Gatchaman instead>Continue trying to push Sadamoebius and hype it up with a full fanclub>Nobody wants to sponsor it for merch, so give up
That time takahashi came out of retirement just direct disco hero.
>>23568807Unfortunate that after this and Daimao 2020, they might have not produced the profits to justify more sequels or re-imaginings. Infini T Force movie was also a huge flop.
>>23568838>Urashiman sequel never>actually would be kinda awkward since it's less than 25 years until 2050
>>23568859A sequel or reimagining was supposedly one of the many 1990s revival projects Tatsunoko wanted to get off ground, but sponsors and other parties were impossible to get to agree to those things.You have to wonder if there'd ever be one of those company leaks where we'd get all the scoop one day.
>>23568579Kinda funny in hindsight since everyone and their mom was making some kind of space show around that time. Maybe if they had a cool robot it would have also gotten greenlit and then cancelled like Tekkaman.
>>23568859I'd settle for a physical blu-ray release of the show where I live.
>>23569269Yeah Sentai Filmworks kind of screwed some people over in hyping up their big deal with Tatsunoko, then taking so many years to put the licenses out and some were streaming only.
>>23569266One of Tatsunoko's mecha designers, trying to remember if it was Nakamura or Okawara, once drew a rejected Gatchaman II mecha that looked like a giant upright bird in Gundam colors.Imagine if we'd basically gotten a Bird Gundam.
Anyone remember this game?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLezQFmkaE
>>23569281Still turbomad that only Gatchaman and Casshern had blu-rays.
>>23569549The subs for the Gatcha sequels were pretty shitty too, it seems Sentai also cut corners with not translating the song lyrics. Someone asked if Tatsunoko had mandated that or something, but it seems no they just didn't bother.Feel if they'd put out things like Sanshiro, Gold Lightan, and Urashiman on BD we'd have the most barebones releases but at least they'd be something to show for it.
>>23569601I know to a degree it's my own fault for falling for the streaming service trap, but those fuckers removing a bunch of Tatsunoko shows while I was watching them was such bullshit. I'm glad pirates rip their shit.
>>23570139Trying to even calculate what their 12 Tatsunoko licenses in the 2013 home video and streaming deal were. Uh let's see.>Mechadock>Urashiman>Sanshiro>Casshan>Gold Lightan>Time Bokan Royal Revival OVA>og Gatchaman>Gatchaman II>Gatchaman Fighter>Gatchaman 94 OVA>Gatchaman compilation movieMaybe like that? But maybe there were others unreleased.
>>23569503just played it for a bit a couple days ago mostly to test the power of a used phone i bought for purposes of using it as a handheld console. the fact that theres not a modern console release and that 8ing is busy working on CrippleXCripple instead of anything else, is a crime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwMOG-3RPHAhttps://twitter.com/tatsunoko_pro/status/1892771727354061234Honestly can't believe Tatsunoko used cel animation for the new Pizza Cats/Teyandee game in the current era.
>>23570747Maybe it's a rights thing. I'm sure nobody even expected the game to coume out overseas, but it did. Hakushon Daimao was the only one that didn't make the cut but at least we got Zero, Frank West, Joe the Condor, Tekkaman Blade, and Yatterman-2. I think the Pizza Cats and Speed Racer were planned as well but didn't make the cut.
>>23571225You'd think by now we could get an all new Tatsunoko game. Too bad whatever they were cooking with Marvel back in 2009 died off before we could see if it would be good or bad.
>>23571225I am retroactively forever angry that Komugi got cut. I wish I had never learned about that.
>>23571368>Komugi got cutdid it?
>>23571386She was supposed to be part of the Tatsunoko vs Capcom roster but got dropped early on in development.
>>23571221From what I read in an interview I think the crazier part is that it's Blast Zero doing the cel animation, not Tatsunoko. They literally learned how to do this game right.
>>23568859For the show that saved Tatsunoko from a string of bad failures and near bankruptcy, they sure don't like to give Urashiman the time of day. I think they show more love for Zillion.
>>23571456The English dubs of it (Harmony Gold pilot, Saban Rock'n Cop) are particularly elusive lost media too.
>>23553897I always like those over the top beatdown
>>23571456Was this and the Claude one ever released?Hell, does BU Toys even exist anymore? IIRC, those were also the ones that wanted to release that Armageddon Shin Dragon gokin ages ago.
>>23571789>over the topMost of them were well deserved.
>>23571456Urashiman was a manga adaptation, wasn't it? I can see why they would prefer revivals of their original properties over licensed works.
>>23572084It was a media mix, the manga was based off some discarded ideas like the Fuhrer being Ryo's future self.
>>23561587>Didn't Tatsuo also make Japanese Superman comics in the 50s? i remember hearing it years ago.
>>23568859>>23568875>>23571456>>23572148In 2022 Takashi Nakamura made a short Urashiman manga that seems to focus on Ryu and Fuhrer for the Tatsunoko 60th Anthology book. Could only find this short preview of the manga and picrel, but there's digital copies of the book available if anyone's interested. Looks like a pretty cool book overall so it'd be great if it got ripped and shared at some pointhttps://viewer.heros-web.com/episode/3270375685377583768
>>23572300He did, in fact. One of his early manga before he hit it big.
>>23572324We really do need more people into hunting down Tatsunoko memorabilia and sharing the findings, Yahoo Auctions and Mandarake sometimes can have surprises but the prices are killer.Apparently the reason the Ryu -> Fuhrer plot was nixed was because Koichi Mashimo hated it and thought they looked nothing alike in design for Fuhrer to be a middle-aged Ryu. Didn't stop Soda from doing as he pleased at the end of the manga.
>>23572341Glad to hear that it wasn't some bullshit.Did DC ever bring it over? i know they brought Jiro Kuwata's Batman years ago..
>>23572356Sadly no, but a lot of people seem to be wanting that. Would complement the Kuwata Batmanga well.https://tombrevoort.com/2022/02/19/forgotten-masterpiece-the-superman-manga-of-tatsuo-yoshida/
>>23572345Gonna upload some "making of" scans for Urashiman later.
>>23574310Thank you! Hopefully there might be some other finds that come along or I can figure what to put up here too.
>>23574409>>23574310Sorry, took a while since my scanner didn't want to cooperate.
>that Jew-tanda
Apparently the original working title, Stinger Wolf, was deemed too cool to go to waste.
and the last one
>>23574492Amazing!Wish other Tatsunoko works had research this in-depth, but probably has to do with how they'd junked some materials. They really changed that one, but did keep Stinger Wolf's name for that squad.
>>23572345Maybe one more page, regarding Führer:The early design looked way different and not at all like the lanky one they ended up using in the show.That one actually "could" have passed as an old Ryu.
>>23574510Thank you so much again for the scans. I wonder if any remake would ever go with that twist, or if it'd be so known now they'd have to pull something else out of a hat.
They're coming out with a Samurai Pizza Cats graphic novel next year. What do you want to see Mad Cave adapt next?So far we have that, and the Speed Racer and Gatchaman comics.
>>23572324The full roster of sequel/remake stories sounds especially coolhttps://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2022/10/14/ultraman-and-atom-the-beginning-manga-creators-join-tatsunoko-anniversary-anthologyNice to see Godam get represented
>>23576697Tetsuro Kasahara drew some Gatchaman ocs on his Instagram years ago but never said if they were just him having fun or if they were for a pitch that died off. He turned the team into a gender balance system where there were the four canon guys but then Jun had three extra fellow girls with her.
>>23579482Bump as I found some. They were drawn in May 2021 but posted in October 2022 for the 60th anniversary. No need to get wild with speculation, but it's peculiar he added a G-6 through G-8, and even labeled the OCs to tell us who they'd be.
>>23579863OCs after Ryu:>Mei the Kingfisher>Lili the Siberian Blue Robin>Karen the Grey Heron
>>23574493Thanks.
>>23574516It was honsestly the twist I was expecting as soom as it was revealed Ryu and the Fuher had some sort of mysterious connection. I was surprised when that didnft turn out to be the case.
>>23583402They both have the shoulder scar too. Apparently the Urashiman proposal and manga are where you get to even learn Ryu's true name, and that's the Fuhrer's name as well due to him being the future self.
>>23579867>>23579863Very cool.
There's a number of Tatsunoko light novels that haven't been archived, saw a Time Bokan one recently was though. Think there are these for anyone curious to be on the lookout, trying to see if I can hunt down Shurato myself.>Shurato novels 1-7, Dark Genesis 1-2 by Satoru Akahori (Enix)>Casshan OVA novels 1-2 by Hideki Kakinuma (Kadokawa Sneaker)>SF Roman Science Ninja Team Gatchaman by Hisayuki Toriumi (Asahi Sonorama)>Novel Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: Condor Soars by Jinzo Toriumi (Enix)>Gatchaman OVA novels 1-3 by Hideki Kakinuma (Asahi Sonorama)Sadly it looks like the Polymar OVAs were that unpopular that they didn't even get any novel media mix to resolve or explain anything more. Think it or Tekkaman could've used some kind of novelization.
>>23584606>the Polymar OVAs were that unpopulardamn
>>23586190It seems to be a whole rabbit hole with no real answers if there was going to really be a conclusion. Tatsunoko claimed it was always two episodes, but you see a lot of talk in fan reviews how the poor sales obviously doomed it. Maybe an interview with Kakinuma could shed light or not.
