Alara.net/Gatchaguru's Page

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Personal Fanfiction Website
Website: Gatchaguru's Page
Author: Alara Rogers aka "The Gatchaguru"
Dates: 1996 (no apparent updates after initial upload)
Fandom: Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets
URL: http://www.alara.net/gatch.html (via Wayback Oct 20/22)
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

A subpage on Alara.net focused on Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and Battle of the Planets. It includes a summary of Alara's history with the fandom and links to various fan pages; some containing works and fannish content and discussions by Alara and some by other fans.

In 1979 or thereabouts, I started watching a show called Battle of the Planets. At first, it confused the hell out of me-- I mixed up the name of the villain (Zoltar) and his planet (Spectra), I thought that Center Neptune (which is underwater) was actually on the planet Neptune (given that another robot is on the planet Pluto, this is understandable)-- but eventually I was hooked, and hooked for life.


In 1986, I read an article in Starlog Magazine about Japanese animation, and it included an article about Battle of the Planets, known in Japanese (it claimed) as Gatchaman, the Scientific Ninja Commando Squad. After cracking up hysterically over the name, I noticed an address I could write to for the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, to get more information. Being something of a procrastinator, it took me several months to get around to doing so. But once I did, I got back an information packet telling me about an APA called Bird Scramble!, dedicated to Gatchaman and Battle of the Planets. I immediately wrote to the editor, Pat Munson-Siter, and shortly afterward joined. My fate was sealed. I had become a Gatchamaniac.

...

Eventually my obsession bore fruit. I was able, with a fair degree of accuracy, to watch Gatchaman episodes and figure out what was going on. With the aid of my Japanese language partners, most especially Mari Fujimoto, I translated episode scripts. One summer I spent translating extensive articles about Gatchaman II. And thus, I became something of an expert on Gatchaman.

This page has links to the fruits of my obsession.

The Gatchaguru finallys gets a web page! - Introduction by Alara

Contents

(notes in italics are by Alara)

Cross Karakoram: Galactor Headquarters

A page dedicated to the villains of Gatchaman.

Alara's Gatchaman Fanfic

All the Gatchaman fan stories I have written

Long Works

  • Aite: In Love And War: Aite is a Japanese word meaning literally "the other hand", and can be translated as either "opponent" or "partner." While there have since been several stories pairing Joe and Katse, Aite was one of the first, originally published in Bird Scramble! APA in 1991-1993. The story does not contain graphic sex, but does contain an incredible amount of angst and pain, both physical and emotional. If you don't like to read such stuff, don't read this.
  • Gatchaman IV (The Alatan Saga): Note that all stories were originally published between 1987-1992, that most haven't been revised, and thus they don't represent my finest writing style. :-) However, I still like 'em. Constructive criticism is welcomed.

Drama

  • First Step On The Road To Hell Berg Katse's first meeting with Sosai X.
  • Marionette Katse learns the truth about hes past.
  • The Mother And Child Reunion Alternate universe where Gel Sadra chooses to "persuade" her mother to join her herself, rather than bringing her to X.
  • St. Helena Berg Katse plots hes escape from ISO prison. Dark humor.
  • Raison d'etre Crossover with X-Men. Berg Katse flings hirself into the lava, falls through a warp created by Sosai X's departure... and wakes up in the Marvel universe, having been rescued by Magneto.
  • Anderson Must Die A BOTP story, based on "The Galaxy Girls" episode. Mala, Zoltar's sister, has been assigned to assassinate Chief Anderson...
  • Mind Games A BOTP story. Teenagers and young adults have been mysteriously disappearing all over the world. Mark finds out the hard way why... Warning: violence.
  • Jun's Journal Warning: deals with mature themes. Jun tries to come to terms with what happened during her recent captivity by Galactor in "Jigokiller, the People-Eating Plant" (eps. 39-40.)
  • Unpublished Writings of Andre Sordonne The Black Hole Operation is over, and Andre, Katse's sometime lover, tries to deal with the aftermath. (Graphical browser version -- has e's with accents) (Text browser version)
  • Hell Hath No Fury Giuseppe Asakura makes a very bad mistake.
  • Target: Gatchaman Set in the Project: Phoenixfire universe, where Ken was born as a girl, Mari. Galactor is murdering female test pilots to get at Mari. Jun has a plan to save her, but who's going to save Jun? (1991)
  • Soliloquy: Sosai X speaks.
  • The Domino Effect 1: Unto the Second Generation: A chain of events begins with a small decision. In this story, the first in the series [that was not completed], Gatchaman #31 happens differently.
  • Musicians: Zoltar watches a Terran singer perform, and remembers... (Graphical browser version-- has funky characters)
  • Shatter a Diamond Knife: Unfinished. The Science Ninja Team find Berg Katse engaged in a mission to kidnap a little girl and threaten the lives of hundreds of innocent people... business as usual. Until they learn that the girl is his daughter and the threat is in order to rescue his ex-wife.

Humor

Poetry And Songs

  • Psychopomp (poem)
  • Katse's Manifesto (poem)
  • The Songs Page The Gatchaman songs here require a little bit of explanation, since they don't come with written music or anything :-). There are some fairly crappy wavs, zipped and absolutely freaking huge, accessible for some of the songs. These are recordings of me singing the things, stitched together by Lori McDonald because I have only the el primitivo Sound Recorder applet. Thanks, Lori! In future I hope to have Real Audio or MP3 versions up; hopefully these would be smaller than the WAVs.

Meta

  • Alara's Tape Trading Service - You too can have Gatchaman! Here's how
  • The Translated Scripts - These are all the script translations I have
  • The Synopses - Covers half of Gatch I and all of Gatch II
  • Alara's Gatchaman Overview - Parts of this article originally appeared in Animenominous magazine. Copyright Alara Rogers. Freely distribute but do not change a single word. This is an overview of the entire Gatchaman series.
  • Audiovisual Gatch - At the moment, this is an assemblage of pictures of Katse and zipped wavs of songs written and sung by me. At some point maybe I will add more to it.

Alara's Reviews

Sorry, my reviews aren't up yet. Here's the short version:

  • Gatchaman: It's great, get it.
  • Gatchaman II: It's also great, get it.
  • Gatchaman Fighter: Only the last ten episodes are worth anything.
  • BOTP: Unless you loved it as a kid, avoid it.
  • G-Force: Terrible names, terrible voice acting, terrible music, slightly decent scripts. Depends on what's more important to you: good story or good acting?
  • Eagle Riders: The first 13 episodes were not too bad. I hear horror stories about the rest of it, though.
  • Gatchaman OAV: Slick, modern, totally revamped character design (that except for Berg Katse is UGLY UGLY UGLY), sucky music and no characterization worth speaking of. If you love what's new or you lust after Berg Katse, get this. Otherwise, avoid.
    • Gatchaman OAV sub: If you must get the Gatch OAV in English, this is the one to get.
    • Gatch OAV dub: Avoid unless you hate subtitles or really can't afford the $10 price difference per OAV between a sub and a dub.

Other Fans' Pages

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