Reboot or Rewriting Yatterman History?

On the heels of the success of Tatsunoko’s reboot of its 1972 Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman franchise as Gatchaman Crowds, the studio is evidently now producing a reboot of its 1977 Yatterman franchise as “Yoru no Yatterman.” Criticizing the show before it airs may be unfair, and I’ll concede that I don’t know yet exactly how the reboot will develop. But the advance promotion bothers me a bit because it feels like an attempt to whitewash and rewrite the established Yatterman concept and history. Gatchaman Crowds certainly rewrote continuity, but at least it remained faithful to the core concept and thematic focus of the Gatchaman franchise. I’m not certain that Yoru no Yatterman is doing the same.

Yoru no Yatterman appears to depict Dorombos as second-class citizens discriminated against by privileged and inflexible Yattermen. One of the new series’ protagonists is a teen boy who aligns himself with the Dorombos and has a “strong sense of justice.” Certainly the forces of authority and righteousness may seem discriminatory and unfair in the eyes of villains and criminals. After all, the function of heroes is to oppose villains. But Yoru no Yatterman feels as if it’s taking that opposition to an extreme degree and depicting the heroes that defend justice as dictators. Traditionally the Doronjo gang has been more popular among viewers than the Yatterman duo Gan & Ai, but only because the Doronjo gang has a multi-faceted personality compared to the perpetually cheerful Yatterman couple. Throughout the 108-episode 1977 television series, the 60-episode 2008 television series, the 2009 anime movie, and the 2009 live-action movie, the Doronjo gang are villains. They’re self-absorbed criminals with no hesitation to take advantage of and victimize innocent bystanders and do anything they think they can get away with. The Doronjo gang is anime’s equivalent to Dick Dastardly and Muttley; they’re beloved because they’re unrepentant bumbling evildoers. They’re not misunderstood, persecuted innocents.

Anime has a tradition of transforming villains into heroes. Dragon Ball characters including Piccolo and Vegeta started out as antagonists. Fairy Tail’s Juvia & Gajeel were initially enemies. Pretty Cure’s Cure Passion and Cure Beat both started out as villains. But characters changing their principles and abandoning their villainous mindsets is different from the perspective of the entire series overturning and becoming sympathetic to the villains in opposition to the forces of good. Last year’s Sekai Seifuku ~ Bouryaku no Zvezda seemingly sympathized with the villains, but the show eventually revealed that the “villains” were actually fair and independent within a corrupt status quo. I suppose I’ll have to wait until next month to see whether Yoru no Yatterman actually inverts its traditional allegiances and turns the Yattermen into an overbearing dictatorial regime or whether the series is surreptitiously trying to suggest that self-serving evil is actually just misunderstood personal pride.