Gatchaman Crowds

Lore & Background

The series is set in early summer of 2015 in Tachikawa, Japan, a 'second metropolis' of Tokyo. The Gatchaman are warriors who fight in special transformation suits called NOTE, powered by spiritual energy. They battle mysterious entities known as MESS, which are manifestations of negative human emotions, and deal with Berg Katze, an alien creature that has destroyed several planets and turned its attention to Earth. The newest member, Hajime Ichinose, is a 17-year-old high school girl who brings an energetic and inventive perspective to the team.

Reader's Guide

Gatchaman Crowds is significant as a modern reboot of the classic Gatchaman franchise, introducing new themes such as the power of crowds and individuality. The second season, Insight, explores the consequences of the CROWDS system, which turns human mentality into physical form, and the conflict between unity and personal identity. The series is noted for its unique character designs, particularly Hajime's pink-pigtailed Gatchaman form wielding large scissors, and its exploration of complex social issues through science fiction.

Did You Know?

• The first season aired between July 12 and September 27, 2013.
• The second season, Gatchaman Crowds Insight, had a prologue episode streamed on Hulu on June 20, 2015.
• Hajime Ichinose possesses the white Designer's NOTE and temporarily merges with Berg Katze, but the Schadenfreude NOTE remains Berg Katze's own.
• O.D. is a half-alien who runs the Gatchaman base called CAGE and cannot transform because his powers could destroy the world.

Production & Release Timeline

Tatsunoko Production brought the long-running Gatchaman franchise into the modern era with Gatchaman Crowds, a television anime helmed by director Kenji Nakamura. The first season ran for a compact twelve-episode stretch from July 12 to September 27, 2013, establishing the team and its enemies in a tight narrative window. After a two-year gap, the sequel season, Gatchaman Crowds Insight, arrived with a slightly different release strategy: a prologue episode premiered on the streaming platform Hulu on June 20, 2015, before the main broadcast began on July 4 and concluded on September 26. This split between digital-first and traditional television distribution marked a notable shift in how the series reached its audience. The two-season structure also allowed the story to evolve from a contained summer conflict in Tachikawa into a broader political and philosophical drama set a full year later, giving the characters room to grow while the world around them changed dramatically.

The Gatchaman Team & Their Dynamic

At the heart of the series sits a small but deeply individualized team of warriors stationed in Tachikawa, a secondary metropolis of Tokyo. Each member fights in a reinforced suit called a NOTE, powered by the manifestation of their own spiritual energy, and each NOTE reflects the personality of its wielder. Hajime Ichinose, a sixteen-year-old high school student with a passion for stationery and an irrepressible energy, wields the white Designer's NOTE and fights with oversized scissors. Sugane Tachibana, a five-year veteran with a samurai's gravity, commands the black Infinite Reach NOTE and relies on iaijutsu, his swan-inspired form capable of standing on walls and ceilings. Joe Hibiki, a Tokyo University graduate and ten-year veteran, brings a cynical, low-self-esteem counterweight to the group. Their dynamic is defined by friction: Sugane initially finds Hajime's rule-breaking infuriating, yet her unconventional approaches repeatedly produce results no one else could achieve. Joe's past act of saving a young Sugane from the MESS as a child forms a quiet emotional anchor between them, and it is this bond that later drives Sugane to tell J.J. the team no longer needs his predictions to handle their crises.

The CROWDS System & Thematic Conflict

The central conceit of Gatchaman Crowds is the CROWDS system, a technology that translates the collective mentality of humans into tangible physical form. Originally a gift from the alien Berg Katze to Rui Ninomiya after it extracted his NOTE, the system was initially an instrument of alien design. By the time of the second season, however, CROWDS has been adopted by the general public and even backed by Prime Minister Sugayama as a matter of national policy, though not all citizens agree with its implementation. This creates a rich political landscape in which the Gatchaman must navigate not just alien threats but the consequences of their own society's choices. The philosophical core of the series emerges through Hajime's interactions with Tsubasa and Gelsadra in Insight, whose plan to merge all minds into one to eliminate conflict forces her to argue that individuality and the conflicts it produces are what make people human. The climax of this arc, where Hajime stages a fake execution broadcast to shock the public out of their destructive desires, demonstrates the series' conviction that democracy, however messy, is preferable to enforced unity.

Berg Katze & the Alien Threat

Berg Katze is the enigmatic alien force that drives the narrative of both seasons. Having already destroyed several planets, it turns its attention to Earth, and its relationship with the Gatchaman is neither purely antagonistic nor friendly. In the first season, it gifts the CROWDS system to Rui Ninomiya and ultimately merges with Hajime Ichinose in a climactic moment that the director's cut later clarifies: Hajime catches the alien off guard by realizing it has been inside everyone all along, cuts its long hair with her scissors, then drives its NOTE into her chest following a kiss. This fusion permanently alters her Gatchaman form, adding red coloration, granting her the Schadenfreude NOTE, and causing her expression to shift from blue eyes to a grinning red mouth when Katze seizes command. In Insight, Berg Katze's powers become a tool Hajime uses to create a disguise for her rescue plan, showing that the alien's influence persists as both a threat and a resource. The character embodies the series' recurring question: can something fundamentally other be understood, integrated, and ultimately made part of the human story?