3/5 Most Anime is Not Meant for Kids
  by S. Briggs (Dallas, TX)
When I came across these episodes in my public library, I was excited to relive my childhood. I loved BotP and had a big crush on Jason when I was a kid (it didn't matter that he was a cartoon character). I watched the BotP episodes and then watched the Gatchaman episodes. Wow, there was a difference! But most anime produced then and now weren't created for kids, but for young adults and adults. Robotech and Sailor Moon were both sanitized for their violent and sexual content as well before making their US debut. I loved the Gatchaman episodes better and I was glad to view them before, now I will end up buying those episodes. I also had a problem with the English audio track for the G-Force episode. Don't people check these things before packaging them? What happened to quality control? I would have scored it higher, if I hadn't seen the original and the G-Force audio wasn't bad. I couldn't give it 2 stars because I've seen Eagle Riders.

3/5 Slight technical difficulty
  by Amy Lin (Houston, TX United States)
Lots of other reviews here do an excellent job covering the content of this DVD. I just wanted to mention that there is a slight technical problem with this DVD (and the rest of vols. 1-4). The English language track on the G-Force episode is virtually inaudible, which is a real disappointment and knocked the DVD down a star. I tried on two different players (Pioneer DV-626D and Playstation 2), and they both have the same trouble. I even wrote in to Rhino's technical support and they kindly exchanged the discs for me, but sadly, the replacement discs are the same way. I just wanted to put out the warning here. The rest of the disc is fine and has great content - it's just that one problematic audio track.

3/5 Be careful, for nostalgia's sake!!!
  by D. Knouse (vancouver, washington United States)
When I first saw this for sale I was absolutely giddy with excitement. One of the greatest shows of my childhood was now available on DVD! I got it home and popped it in and..."I don't remember it being this lame?" For what it's worth, there were some nostalgic moments. One, was finally seeing my heroes in their colorful costumes saving the day and another was hearing Key-op talk in his very funny way, "Brrrrrr-toot-toot!" But after that I thought everything else was fairly second-rate. It's amazing what glorious images I can conjure in my memory of this show, and how the reality of my adult perspective shatters all the charm it once held. However, there are the "Gatchaman" episodes, which is the only feature of this DVD that saves it from being a complete failure. While "Battle of the Planets" is broken up with freeze-framing and the intensely annoying 7-Zark-7 filling in plot holes with voice-over narration, not to mention his equally annoying companion 1-Rover-1 doing his side-show antics, the "Gatchaman" episodes flow more fluidly with more action and acceptable violence. If I had known better I would have bought only the "Gatchaman" episodes. It just fits the ideas better that they speak in Japanese. I've seen enough Japanese animation to know that more things are possible in the hyper-reality of their highly creative shows than in the saccharin-based shows of America where the violence is tempered, if shown at all. Something that I recently noticed about world-wide animation is that virtualy all the characters are caucasian. Being white, I guess I just never noticed. Most Japanese animation, in particular, has a tendency toward white Americanized heroes. It might be because we are the largest consumer nation in the world, but this is not a new trend. Just like the cutting-edge animation from Japan like "Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within," the show "Battle of the Planets" has an all-white cast. It's just an interesting, cultural note, one that makes more sense these days than in days past. Anyway, get the "Gatchaman" series on DVD if you must insist on purchasing anything for nostalgia's sake. I got this out of a deep-seeded feeling of nostalgia, and I was disappointed overall. Be careful.

5/5 Great DVD especially for a classic show.
  by S. Granger (Los Angeles, California United States)
If you like the classic anime then these are the DVDs to get. Ydo not just get Battle of the Planets version but also the Gatchaman & G-Force. ALL THREE SERIES!!!! I can't understand how anyone can complain. Definitely one of the few classic series done right the first time.

I tried to be more brief than the other long winded brief guy below. ;)

5/5 BUY IT ONLY FOR THE ORIGINAL GATCHAMAN EPS. BOTP [STINKS]!
  by DESTRO ATTACKS (loDIE, new joisey)
as an avid fan of anime, i watched the original epidsodes of captian harlock,cyborg 009, space cruiser yamato (star blazers for the uninitiatied!) and gatchaman back in the day.

i was disgusted how american distribitors like sandy frank and saban (who aired gatchaman f1 as the kiddified eagle riders several years back) would butcher gatchaman from it's original content. at least carl macek allowed as much depth and violence in robotech as possibly allowed. same goes forsunbow's star blazers.

back to gatchaman or "battle of the scammers" this was not meant to be aired as some kiddy show but i guess frank tried to capatilize on the popularity of star wars at the time.
with goofy names like princess and the original jar-jar binks of
animation 7 zark 7 some poorly drawn r2 d2 ripoff. HA HA!

you must purchase this disc just to see what was left on the cutting room floor, contrasting of the three series; BOTP,G-FORCE AND GATCHAMAN.

there's one scene where mark/ken tries to rescue the captured astronauts, in the botp version; they weren't shown at the end but zark narrates; "the astronauts have been rescued and are safe thanks to g-force, on the g force version; they were "put to sleep/unconscious....and in gatchaman, they were killed by galctor/spectra but they're corpses were used to trap the unsuspecting leader of gatchaman.

casey kasem and keye luke are very talented no doubt, but i wasn't happy with this shoody repoduction of one of the best classic anime series since mach go-go (speed racer).

thank god for rhino realeasing the original version for a very low price courtesy of amazon.com

enjoy! (0=