THE 1977
Yatterman is an anime series first aired from January 1, 1977 to January 27, 1979 totalling 108 episodes. It is the second show in the Time Bokan series by Tatsunoko Productions. It was preceded by Time Bokan and followed by Zenderman. A remake of Yatterman is currently airing on NTV and Yomiuri TV from January 2008, with the voices of the Dorombo gang from the original returning to reprise their roles. A live-action movie is also in production (see below).

THE REMAKE
In January 2008, almost 31 years after the beginning of the original series, a remake has started airing on Yomiuri TV. It's basically a retelling of the original story updated to fit the tastes of a more modern public. However, for a comedic effect, the "Dorombo Gang" is able to breach the fourth wall, making passing references to the original series. Albeit the "Dorombo Gang" has stayed the same, the main characters and the plot was tweaked a little bit. Since the first episode, the Dokuro Stone was replaced with the "Dokuro Rings", able to grant every wishes to the being able to collect them. Ganchan, still a young genius, is now a slacker, easily distracted (he is shown being able to rebuild Yatterwan almost effortlessly, but preferring to play with the toys in the shop and slacking off), and a foil for the the more serious, reliable and responsible Ai-chan. Ai-chan itself is now mellowed in a cuter, childlike personality, at least in her flirtatious relationship with Ganchan: in this reloading of the myth, Yatterwan was meant as a birthday gift for her, to ease her desire to go driving with her boyfriend (being underage they couldn't get a driver's licence). As a gift for Ai-chan, and displaying some degree of preference for her instead of his creator, Yatterwan (still a sentient mecha) appears now more incline to follow every whim and order of her mistress instead of the ones given by Ganchan himself. Aside from this quirk, Yatterwan is still the same, acting in battle as his former incarnation. The plot has stayed largely the same, sporting an episodical structure in which the Doronbo Gang plots a scam, that usually backfires in a spectacular way; they're engaged by Dokurobee to get the Dokuro Ring hidden elsewhere with a new mecha of their own making, they're stopped by Yatterwan, with the surplus energy given by the "Mecha Food" supplied by Ai-chan, and they're left tattered and in rags to be punished by Dokurobee himself.

...and THE MOVIE
On April 10th, 2007, Anime News Network released an announcement from Nikkatsu Corporation that they had agreed the production of two live-action movies based on two popular 1970's anime series: Yatterman and Ninja Science Team Gatchaman.

Filming for the film is set to begin in March 2008, while release is scheduled for spring 2009. It will be directed by Takashi Miike, known for more gory films such as Ichi the Killer and MPD Psycho. Along with Ichi Miike has directed several other anime to live film adaptions. Character and mechanical designs will be handled by Katsuya Terada who has worked on Blood: The Last Vampire and the live-action Cutey Honey series.

In November 2007, it was announced that Sakurai Sho of the J-pop group Arashi will be playing Gan-chan3, and in December 2007, it was announced that Japanese actress Saki Fukuda will be playing Ai-chan. In January 2008, it was announced that Kyoko Fukada will be playing the Dorombo Gang leader, Doronjo, with Kendo Kobayashi playing Tonzura, and Katsuhisa Namase rounding out the trio as, Boyakki.

There is a website promoting the movie, Yatterman Movie.com, but it currently only has a placeholder image using Flash to display it. More will most likely be loaded to it as new information is released.

Official Anime Site: http://www.ytv.co.jp/yatterman/
Official Movie Site: http://www.yatterman-movie.com/