Eagle Riders

Eagle Riders is an Australian/American animated television adaptation of the Japanese anime series Gatchaman II and Gatchaman Fighter, which have been combined together. The rights to the English-language version of Eagle Riders is owned by Saban Entertainment.^[1][2] All 65 episodes aired in Australia; but in the United States, only 13 episodes were aired.^[3]

Premise

Earth is under siege from the alien menace known only by the name Cybercon and its legion of android forces, the Vorak. The Global Security Council convenes to address this problem, and calls upon Dr. Thaddeus Keane for assistance. They remember the aid they had received from Keane's special force, the Eagle Riders, in years past. Keane assures them that the Eagle Riders are still together, still strong, and armed with brand new weapons.

Adaptations and changes

Both series were heavily edited when it came to the adaptation process, with controversial elements removed, as well as the entire soundtrack being replaced. As with previous English adaptations of Gatchaman, character names and terms were also changed in the localization.

One notable example of the changes made to the series is the removal of Mallanox (Gel Sadra)'s origin and transformation, which happened in the premiere episode of the original Gatchaman II. The character was also changed from female to male, though her correct gender and origin were reinstated in later dub episodes.

Another change, made to segue the two series together, involved the finale of Gatchaman II and the first episode of Gatchaman Fighter being merged, as well as the death of Gel Sadra being cut. Instead, Mallanox is said to have been transformed into a new form, named Happy Boy (originally, the Gatchaman Fighter villain Count Egobossler).

The final eight episodes of Gatchaman Fighter were never translated, due to the objectionable content involved. Instead, the 15th episode of Gatchaman Fighter served as the series finale.

Team variations across different versions

The renaming of the various characters and terms in Eagle Riders are highlighted as follows (in correspondence to their Gatchaman equivalents, among others):

• Although he was obviously the Swallow, Jimmy called himself the Falcon.
• The Eagle Riders adaptation used different terms for some of the uniforms: Hunter Harris was referred to as a Hawk rather than Eagle, Joe Thax was a Falcon, and Kelly Jenar became a Dove (as opposed to Swan). The remaining two members, however, kept their original bird themes.

Other character variations

Other notable changes

‡The original Japanese-language version of Gatchaman contains a small amount of words in English.

References

Further reading

• G-Force: Animated (TwoMorrows Publishing: ISBN 978-1-893905-18-4)

External links

• Eagle Riders Episode Guide
• Eagle Riders at the Internet Movie Database
• Eagle Riders at TV.com
• Eagle Riders (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia