Originally produced in 1972, Battle of the Planets was one of the many early Japanese animation imports to find its way to American shores. It was a westernized version of a popular Japanese television series called Gatchaman, and like many of its cartoon cohorts, it came to the new world with much of its graphic violence removed.

Battle of the Planets featured a squadron known as G-Force, who protected Earth and the surrounding planets. Leading G-Force was the brave and intelligent commander, Mark. At his side, was his impassioned and unrestrained assistant, Jason, who needed to have his eagerness muffled from time to time. The only woman on G-Force was Princess, a quick-witted and able team member who might have pursued a serious relationship with Mark if she could have just found the time in between adventures. Completing the four-man team was Keyop, the only member to have been created within a lab. His odd mannerisms and speaking patterns only managed to endear him to his brave crewmembers. Piloting their spacecraft “The Phoenix” was the rotund and ironically named pilot, Tiny.

The Phoenix was a ship to contend with. Technologically advanced, it possessed the ability to perform as a conventional spacecraft, or when necessary, convert itself into a fiery bird of prey, able to escape any danger put in its path. The team was headquartered at Center Neptune, where a robot named 7-Zark-7 (which was unique to the American version) oversaw the base and kept the team up to date on enemy movement, while providing them with mission information. His trusty (and hopefully not rusty) companions were a robotic canine named 1-Rover-1, and the object of his desire, his secretary Susan, who was never seen on camera but possessed a sexy voice that pushes his buttons and vibrated his antennae with lust. Offering up additional information and operational procedures to the G-Force team was Dr. Anderson, a security office.

The main nemesis of G-Force was Zoltar, ruler of the dying planet Spectra. With his tanks, planes, robotic troops and an array of mechanical monstrosities, he used everything in his power to try to invade and conquer Earth so he might steal its valuable natural resources. But Zoltar wasn’t the head cheese; he answered to an even higher power – known simply as “The Spirit,” or as Zoltar commonly referred to as “ Oh Luminous One.” All viewers ever saw of The Spirit were two ominous and menacing eyes on a computer monitor.

Battle of the Planets, even with all of the gratuitous violence stripped away, managed to find a loyal following in the United States and ran successfully for a total of 85 episodes. In the 80s, it would resurface as a remake on the TBS Superstation as G-Force (adapted from a sequel to Gatchaman called Gatchaman-F.) In recent years, Battle of the Planets has existed primarily (and popularly) in comic book form as well as in DVD releases, which have since been updated with more faithful English translations. The original North American license, held by Sandy Frank Productions expired in 2007, so the future of this futuristic series is anyone's guess.