* AwesomeMusic: The main theme. '''WHOAAA! GATCHAMAAAAAAN! GATCHAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!'''
** ''Lets Fly'' from the OVA. '''LETS FLYYY!!!!'''
* HilariousInHindsight: In the upcoming movie, [[SamuraiSentaiShinkenger Shinken Red]]'s actor will be playing as Ken the Eagle, whom [[ChoujinSentaiJetman Red Hawk]] is based on.
* {{Macekre}}: The franchise has been dubbed five times, and ''only'' the Creator/{{ADV Films}} release of the original series ''didn't'' had [[DubNameChange character names]] and [[DubInducedPlotHole plot points]] rewritten wholesale.
* MomentOfAwesome ([[spoiler:Joe's suicide run and heroic sacrifice at the end of the first series. At the edge of the death, with just a week of life, Joe goes on a suicide mission to bring down Galactor once. He survives a horrific torture at the hands of Berg Katse and ends up, before dying, throwing his feather knife into the doomsday machine Berg is using to use to destroy the Earth, stopping it right when the countdown reaches his number "2".]]
** Creator/{{ADV Films}} announcing AND releasing ALL 105 episodes also counts, given the fact that countless fans were fearful that the company would abort the project before it reached the final 20 episodes, which had never ever been dubbed before.
* {{Sequelitis}}: The two follow up series, Gatchaman II and Gatchaman Fighter are generally regarded as inferior to the original for various reasons.
* TheScrappy: Kentaro Washio's treatment of his son Ken makes him rather unpopular among fans. See ValuesDissonance for the reason why.
* ValuesDissonance: Kentaro Washio is seen as a callous, cold and selfish father who abandons his son Ken aka G-1 to work [[spoiler: as Red Impulse]] for the peace in the whole world. In Japan, however, he's seen as an heroic figure who loves his son so deeply that he sacrificed their time together to to protect the world so Ken will have a future.
** Ken punching a young girl in the stomach in an early episode did not earn him too many favors in Western fandom. Neither did him slapping the same girl later in the episode, or him slapping Jun in episode 40. These can definitely be chalked up to different standards of the era and culture, though it can still be jarring to see.
* WhatMeasureIsANonBadass: Many people think Jun is just a useless Chick and not as "strong" as modern heroines. Thing is, considering that the series was written in TheSeventies, Jun's character was actually ''[[FairForItsDay revolutionary]]'' by that time's standards, kicking ass with the best and blowing up stuff real good as the team's demolitions expert. She and other girls like [[{{Cyborg 009}} Francoise/003]] and [[MazingerZ Sayaka Yumi]] were among the first {{Action Girl}}s of oldschool anime, setting the precedent for many other more action-oriented ladies in anime/manga as a whole. Not to mention her all-male TrueCompanions treated her with respect and care (with the exception of [[BrattyHalfpint Junpei]], and he still didn't go '''that''' far) and they stuck by her side whenever she needed it.