Force Five

Gaiking

Spaceketeers

Force Five is an American adaptation of five different anime television series. In the United States, this series was primarily shown only in New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia, though it did make brief appearances in other markets, such as Dallas, Texas and San Jose, California on KICU-TV 36. It was also shown in Toronto, Canada on CFMT channel 47. It was produced by Jim Terry and his company American Way, and consisted of five imported Japanese giant robot serials (originally produced in the mid-1970s by Toei Animation) in response to the popularity of the Shogun Warriors toy collection (in fact, Mattel was one of the sponsors).

In an anthology style, the five shows were broadcast simultaneously with one episode of each serial assigned a specific weekday. Additionally, all of the shows were edited into two-hour movies and marketed on video tape by Family Home Entertainment. In the UK the video company Krypton Force released several of these cartoons, but under different series titles.

Force Five consisted of the following five series:

• Force Five: Gaiking (26 episodes), adaptation of Divine Demon-Dragon Gaiking (44 episodes)
• Force Five: Dangard Ace (26 episodes), adaptation of Planetary Robot Danguard Ace (56 episodes)
• Force Five: Starvengers (26 episodes), adaptation of Getter Robo G (39 episodes)
• Force Five: Grandizer (26 episodes), adaptation of UFO Robot Grendizer (74 episodes)
• Force Five: Spaceketeers (26 episodes), adaptation of Sci-Fi West Saga Starzinger (73 episodes)

Great Mazinger was supposed to be among the five shows, but the deal to pick up the series fell through, so Starzinger (Spaceketeers) was picked up instead of this. Gaiking's instrumental version of its theme song was actually re-used to be the ending song for the series, rather than using an original song.

Airing dates

The regular airing dates for the different series were:

• Dangard Ace aired on Mondays
• The Starvengers aired on Tuesdays
• The Spaceketeers aired on Wednesdays
• Grandizer aired on Thursdays
• Gaiking aired on Fridays

However when the series was aired in the early nineties in India on the channel Star Plus (when it was still an English-language channel) the order was slightly different:

• Gaiking aired on Mondays
• Dangard Ace aired on Tuesdays
• The Starvengers aired on Wednesdays
• Grandizer aired on Thursdays
• The Spacekeeters aired on Fridays

In the Philippines on Star TV, the order was:

• Gaiking aired on Mondays
• Dangard Ace aired on Tuesdays
• The Starvengers aired on Wednesdays
• Grandizer aired on Thursdays
• The Spacekeeters aired on Fridays

References

• Internet Movie Database profile of Force Five
• Absolute Anime profile Force Five Television show