Battle of the Planets Intro

Dedicated, Inseparable, Invincible!

The earlier Star Wars post got me thinking of this one.

Battle of the Planets was a great sci-fi cartoon from about 1978 that I adored as a little kid. I'm a huge Manga fan these days, and although I never realised it at the time, this was, despite the American voiceovers and influences (7Zark7=R2D2+C3PO) this was of course, a Japanese anime, and probably the first one I ever saw.

It wasn't just the Star Wars parallels that made this for me though. The cartoon had great boss enemies, (Darth Vader and the Emporer), giant flying zombie robots, underwater and outerspace adventure and a truly great cast of heroes. Mark was the dashing leader, Jason the sulky bad-tempered one, Tiny the token fatso, Princess the babe, and Keeyop who was a weird autistic kid who spoke a bit like Pete off of Big Brother 6.

Like all good superheroes these guys had dayjobs and civvies (well flares). Missions would come via their watches which doubled as beepers, mobile phones, and allowed them to TRANSMUTE into their powered-up alter-egos. Their costumes were, somewhat weirdly, based on wildfowl (as in birds), so Princess was a Swan, Tiny was an Owl, Jason a hawk, and I think Keeyop was one of those weird Chinese ducks you see from time to time.

As a kid I vividly remember thinking that if I had a cloak like theirs then I would be able to fly too. As you do, I set about drawing a huge cape of feathers on a large roll of pink sugar paper (you remember that stuff right?). I carefully cut it all out with scissors, sellotaped it round my neck, and proceeded to throw myself off the top of the stairs.

One broken collarbone later....

Battle of the Planets.

G-Force.

Five incredible young people with super powers, and watching over them from centre Neptune, Seven-Zark-Seven. Watching, warning against surprise attacks by alien galaxies, from beyond space.

G-Force, fearless young orphans, protecting earths entire galaxy, always five, acting as one.

Dedicated, Inseparable, Invincible!