Hee, great article, Springie -thanks for finding it!
I can see a few things that are a bit flawed...
"menacing interplanetary crime syndicate Galactor"
It's a bit of a stretch to call Galactor interplanetary -but I recall that in Gatch II, they have some sort of installation on Mars, run by Marstora, so not really inaccurate.
"so when the TV series got a sequel, Gatchaman F, a few years later, they had no choice but to bring Joe back - as a solar-powered living bomb!"
Gatchaman II was the sequel, not Gatchaman Fighter. And I don't think there was any indication that Joe was powered by solar energy.
"The queen of the tiny nation of Monarins is enraptured by the exploits of the famed science ninja team, and holds a fashion show to raise money for Gatchaman."
She's a patron/sponsor of the KNT, but I don't think it's ever said that the fashion show is being held specifically to raise money for them -it's just part of a big festival/celebration they have every year.
"Gatchaman is a series fraught with conflict, and no conflict is higher-stakes than the one that arises when the world's supply of sugar is about to be exhausted. The International Science Organization's successful development of an artificial sweetener, shugare (yep, it's pronounced "sugar ray"), seems like a peaceful solution - until Galactor swoops in and seizes the entire supply, the better to create a monopoly. Needless to say, the team has to fight hard to get that shugare back.
Something like seventy episodes later, when the supply dips again, the kid (Jinpei) and the fat guy (Ryu) on the team freak out, because no more sugar means no more candy and cake. Galactor then creates a flying, super-robotic sugar factory for the Gatcha-team to battle, and tubby ol' Ryu does the trick by using a variation on the "sugar in the gas tank" prank, only on a terrifyingly large scale."
I think the author confuses episode 12, the "Ibukron" episode with the cockroach mecha ("a flying, super-robotic sugar factory") that's stealing all the world's sugar cane, with episode 86, "Galactor's Monopoly Operation," which is the one where sugaré is first mentioned, and where the "sugar in the gas tank" prank is used.
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"The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing." -- Blaise Pascal 
