In the 1970’s animation was very different than it is today. That’s no surprise. Things always change and evolve no matter what industry we are talking about. Yet Japanimation in particular was significant because this was back in the days when Manga books did not have their own section in bookstores. Days when Pokemon was not a household word. An era when Japanimation was a rather new thing. . . and a promising thing too.
One of the animated Japanese shows out of Japan was called Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. This action cartoon pitted five powerful youths against the villainous Zoltar and his strange master known simply as “The Luminous One.”
The resident heroine in this group was called Princess and like her name she had a magical simplicity about her. Looking back one could easily connect her with some of the gentle Manga girls found in modern graphic novels out of the country of Princess’s origin. I guess that makes her their ancestor in a way. Along with Keyop, Tiny, Jason and Mark, who each wielded a special weapon and drove a special vehicle, Princess had some unique features of her own.
The original Japanese version of the show was fully violent. Like their horror, the Japanese movie makers are not partial to watering anything down. When Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (more colloquially known as Gatchamen) came to America though, it was subject to American sensibilities and in the U.S. violently graphic cartoons were, as they are now, forbidden programming. The network powers that existed cut out the blood and maintained America’s protected sensibilities in a re-worked version called Battle of The Planets. The characters were all there again sans the oozing red stuff, along with a robot named 7-Zark-7 to fill in the minutes that were cut.
Princess and her friends still were entertaining youths in America as they flew in the their spaceship the Phoenix protecting the universe. During it all, whether it was in her street clothes or her altered pink outfit, Princess caught our eye.
The chosen color of her outfit could not have been a more obvious detail to make her very much the fairer sex in the group. Her alter ego Susan was just as delicate among the group but viewers could get a special thrill when Susan morphed into her costume and rode her galacti-cycle into a new mission to save a planet. The blandness of her alter ego provided an excitement to the contrast when she transformed herself.
Japanimation has advanced and evolved and Princess may be a simplistic pink-garbed heroine barely noticeable among the Manga-focused work of today or at least now one of many like her. Yet the truth is there is no one really like her. She inspired a generation of viewers, especially young girls to believe in something beyond their limited scope, to believe in their power to become princesses themselves. While other girl characters may have come along to dominate popular culture, Princess will always be a significant part of what started it all. Who else but a princess could claim such a royal place?
[James Parducci]James Parducci is the creator of the comic series Nighthunter. He has been published in multiple periodicals and runs his own freelance writing business in San Diego.
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