Gatchaman Crowds is a 2013 anime series from Tatsunoko, set in 2015. For the original Gatchaman series, use [gatchaman].
Gatchaman Crowds is set in Tachikawa City, Japan in 2015. "Gatchaman" are people with a supernatural power called NOTE, which comes from their soul. Initially, the Gatchaman team fights an enemy called MESS, but after a few episodes the focus shifts to the conflict with an alien named Berg-Katze.
An important part of the show is a mobile app called Galax. Galax is a chat app that has gamified good deeds; when something needs to be done, a call can go out on Galax and Galax users in the vicinity rush out to help. Several members of the Gatchaman team are Galax users, but the app is not without drawbacks.
A selected group of 100 Galax users has been granted a special ability called Crowds - the ability to project oneself elsewhere. When a Crowds user does this, the projection has the form of a four-legged creature with a head that resembles a speaker; this is a standard form that is identical for all Crowds users.
An underlying theme of the series is the question of individual superheroes versus action by the masses. This is expressed by the motto of Galax: "It won't be heroes who update the world, it's us."
The Gatchaman Crowds show shares it's name with an earlier Tatsunoko series, Gatchaman (see gatchaman), which dates from 1972. However, there are notable differences. Where the original Gatchaman was strictly SF, Gatchaman Crowds involves supernatural abilities. The Gatchaman team in Crowds does share the symbol of the original Gatchaman team, as well as some other imagery.
Several Gatchaman characters have counterparts in Gatchaman Crowds; however, both shows stand on their own and are set in different universes.
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