...starting with obscure '80s cartoons this time.
Silverhawks -- because no matter how silly the Warriors might think Third Earth is, it's mundane compared to the Limbo Galaxy.
Tigersharks -- because no one even -remembers- the third in the Rankin-Bass Silliness Trifecta.
Spiral Zone -- that one had some really good core concepts, executed very badly. One of those concepts was that good guys and bad guys had completely different tech bases, and neither understood the other's in the least; a little nudge from a wanderer just might tilt the balance and save humanity from blotchy zombiehood.
Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers -- now that one was downright ahead of its time. GOOSE!
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors -- "So this vine-thing has engulfed this star system?" "No, at this point it's spread across pretty much the entire galaxy." "...Bweh?"
Daria -- "I suppose I should have been expecting this after Holiday Island."
Samurai Cat -- and now I'm having Trigun flashbacks and want to see a gunfight between Meryl Strife and Miaowara Shimura. Not to mention Doug trying to deal with a world where you can catch a Greyhound from 1600s Japan to 1930s Chicago. And Shiro would be really annoyed when bullets flying near Doug didn't behave the way Buddha intended.
Gilbert & Sullivan. (Anybody here ever read Marvin Kaye's "The Incredible Umbrella"?)
IOU. (A friend and I are sending Ranma there on a moopsball scholarship. He thinks he's going to get away from the weirdness in his life. Muaha.)
Finally (and most seriously):
Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman.
They're a team of UN-sponsored superheroes...and they're five teenagers in bird suits that make Robin look muted. And they're the only force standing in the way of a worldwide terrorist organization that can afford to build an average of one daikaiju-class giant combat mecha per week. (Eat your heart out, Cobra Commander.)
These kids wrote the book on a lot of things. They were the PROTOTYPE for the Five-Hero Team--the Fearless Leader, the Brooding Loner, the Big Lug Techie, the Kid, and the Girl (and if you count Red Impulse you even get the original Mysterious Sixth Power Ranger). Berg Katse and the Galactors are personally responsible for something like sixty-five percent of the entries in the Evil Overlord List. (They -exceed- the List. Not only are face-concealing masked helmets the order of the day all the way up through the ranks, they ALL COME WITH LONG BROWN WIGS ATTACHED!!!)
It would be a shame and very nearly a crime for Doug NOT to meet the Science Ninja Team.
That said, there are certain difficulties--the foremost being that Gatchafanfic writers have practically *mythologized* the show to a degree rarely seen in the field. Katse especially. The more rabid fans might become obnoxious if characters weren't handled in time-honored fashion... *sigh*
The other one would be when in the series to drop the Loon. On the one hand, the first two seasons each have diabolical master villains who are also tragic figures desperately in need of a chance at redemption -- especially poor Gel Sadra. (And if nothing else, just hearing the stories of Katse and Sadra would give Doug the powerful urge to hunt down Soosai X and use Lightning's Hand to overwrite his OS with Pong *byte by byte* -- there may never have been anime deeds so vile as what was done to those children.)
(Hmm, did I forget to mention I AM one of those rabid fans? n.n; Ah well.)
Instead, and in keeping with the general DW theme of avoiding the cliched and the obvious, perhaps a third season appearance would work best of all -- with Count Egobossler, a self-made and easily despisable villain, running Galactor as a rather effective conventional army and just building kaijurobotto to keep Z (nee X) happy; and with the Ninja Team's personal problems getting nasty (what with Ken and Joe swapping personalities and all). It'd be... an abnormally *conventional* approach to Gatchafic.
--Sam Ashley
"They are sometimes five, sometimes one: the white shadow that moves unseen. The Scientific Ninja--Gatchaman!"
Silverhawks -- because no matter how silly the Warriors might think Third Earth is, it's mundane compared to the Limbo Galaxy.
Tigersharks -- because no one even -remembers- the third in the Rankin-Bass Silliness Trifecta.
Spiral Zone -- that one had some really good core concepts, executed very badly. One of those concepts was that good guys and bad guys had completely different tech bases, and neither understood the other's in the least; a little nudge from a wanderer just might tilt the balance and save humanity from blotchy zombiehood.
Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers -- now that one was downright ahead of its time. GOOSE!
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors -- "So this vine-thing has engulfed this star system?" "No, at this point it's spread across pretty much the entire galaxy." "...Bweh?"
Daria -- "I suppose I should have been expecting this after Holiday Island."
Samurai Cat -- and now I'm having Trigun flashbacks and want to see a gunfight between Meryl Strife and Miaowara Shimura. Not to mention Doug trying to deal with a world where you can catch a Greyhound from 1600s Japan to 1930s Chicago. And Shiro would be really annoyed when bullets flying near Doug didn't behave the way Buddha intended.
Gilbert & Sullivan. (Anybody here ever read Marvin Kaye's "The Incredible Umbrella"?)
IOU. (A friend and I are sending Ranma there on a moopsball scholarship. He thinks he's going to get away from the weirdness in his life. Muaha.)
Finally (and most seriously):
Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman.
They're a team of UN-sponsored superheroes...and they're five teenagers in bird suits that make Robin look muted. And they're the only force standing in the way of a worldwide terrorist organization that can afford to build an average of one daikaiju-class giant combat mecha per week. (Eat your heart out, Cobra Commander.)
These kids wrote the book on a lot of things. They were the PROTOTYPE for the Five-Hero Team--the Fearless Leader, the Brooding Loner, the Big Lug Techie, the Kid, and the Girl (and if you count Red Impulse you even get the original Mysterious Sixth Power Ranger). Berg Katse and the Galactors are personally responsible for something like sixty-five percent of the entries in the Evil Overlord List. (They -exceed- the List. Not only are face-concealing masked helmets the order of the day all the way up through the ranks, they ALL COME WITH LONG BROWN WIGS ATTACHED!!!)
It would be a shame and very nearly a crime for Doug NOT to meet the Science Ninja Team.
That said, there are certain difficulties--the foremost being that Gatchafanfic writers have practically *mythologized* the show to a degree rarely seen in the field. Katse especially. The more rabid fans might become obnoxious if characters weren't handled in time-honored fashion... *sigh*
The other one would be when in the series to drop the Loon. On the one hand, the first two seasons each have diabolical master villains who are also tragic figures desperately in need of a chance at redemption -- especially poor Gel Sadra. (And if nothing else, just hearing the stories of Katse and Sadra would give Doug the powerful urge to hunt down Soosai X and use Lightning's Hand to overwrite his OS with Pong *byte by byte* -- there may never have been anime deeds so vile as what was done to those children.)
(Hmm, did I forget to mention I AM one of those rabid fans? n.n; Ah well.)
Instead, and in keeping with the general DW theme of avoiding the cliched and the obvious, perhaps a third season appearance would work best of all -- with Count Egobossler, a self-made and easily despisable villain, running Galactor as a rather effective conventional army and just building kaijurobotto to keep Z (nee X) happy; and with the Ninja Team's personal problems getting nasty (what with Ken and Joe swapping personalities and all). It'd be... an abnormally *conventional* approach to Gatchafic.
--Sam Ashley
"They are sometimes five, sometimes one: the white shadow that moves unseen. The Scientific Ninja--Gatchaman!"