Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman (科学忍者隊ガッチャマン, literally Scientific Ninja Troop Gatchaman, commonly translated as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman), is a 5-member superhero team who were the main characters in several anime originally produced in Japan by Tatsunoko Productions and later adapted into several English-language versions. It is also known as the abbreviated name Gatchaman or the English-language name G-Force. The original series, produced in 1972, was eponymously named Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman and is most well-known to the English-speaking world as the adaptation entitled Battle of the Planets.

The original 1972 Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman series was followed by two sequel series, Gatchaman II (1978) and Gatchaman F (1979). In 1994, the original series was remade as a condensed OAV series. Additionally, the original and sequel series were adapted and translated into several English-language versions, with the most well-known being Battle of the Planets. Because the English-language versions are notoriously inconsistent not only with one another but also with the original Japanese series, viewers most familiar with the English versions often experience some confusion upon re-examining the series after a long hiatus.

Created in the wake of the hugely successful Henshin Boom started by Shotaro Ishinomori's Kamen Rider in 1971, this series was notable as being one of the most successful anime attempts to emulate the American superhero genre with many of its conventions such as colorful costumes, powers and secret identities. It also established the convention of the five member hero team that has been emulated in later series, most notably the successful tokusatsu Super Sentai series (which was adapted into English as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers many years later), in fact, the Sentai series Choujin Sentai Jetman was in many ways a homage to Gatchaman. (Wikipedia)