Hell's Speed Race

Ken, Joe, Jun, Jinpei, Ryu, Dr. Nambu, Katse, Sosai X, Berg Katse

The story of five teenagers, four of whom are orphans, who must defeat an environmental terrorist organization called Galactor.

This was the first series of the "Gatchaman" cartoon series. The first season ran 53 episodes, and the second- which began in 1974- ran the remaining shows.

Episodes 22 and 37, "The Fiery Phoenix vs. the Fire-Eating Dragon" and "Electron Beast Renzilla," were shown in theaters in 1973 as part of Toho's summer and winter holiday film anthologies.

Kihachi Okamoto, noted for directing live-action movies, made a 110-minute anime movie version in 1978.

The Sandy Frank English-language version, broadcast in the United States in 1978, adapted 85 of the original 105 episodes.

In 1986, Frank's rights lapsed, and Turner Broadcasting redubbed the whole series as "G-Force." It included many episodes from the original run that had not been seen outside Japan. The new show suffered from low ratings and was seen in its entirety only in Australia. However, it did return to TV in the U.S. when the Cartoon Network was founded in 1995.

"Gatchaman II," a 1979 Japanese sequel, added 52 episodes. That year, another 48 episodes were released as "Gatchaman F(ighter)." Saban Entertainment bought both series in 1996, reduced them to 65 episodes, and released the result as "Eagle Riders."

A direct-to-video series, consisting of three 45-minute episodes, was released in 1994 in Japan as "Gatchaman." It was directed by Hiroyuki Fukushima, with character designs by Yasuomi Umezu. The series was soon dubbed for the American anime market.