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Gatchaman II

Gatchaman II (科学忍者隊ガッチャマンII Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman Tsū, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II) is the direct sequel to Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, set at least two to three years after the events of the first television series. It ran from October 1, 1978 to September 30, 1979 on Fuji TV.

It was directed by Hiroshi Sasagawa, with Ippei Kuri taking over as main character designer due to the death of Tatsuo Yoshida.

In this sequel, Leader X exacts his revenge by abducting and mutating a young child with special chromosomes to become the new sub-leader of Galactor, Gel Sadra. When Galactor re-emerges, Dr. Nambu and the International Science Organization bring the Science Ninja Team back into active duty.

Overview[]

The mystery of the universe, Leader X's ambitions to conquer the Earth were foiled by the heart-wrenching defeat caused by the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. This led to X fleeing to space and Berg Katse's death, while the Galactor organization completely collapsed. However, Gatchaman lost Joe and Ken lost his father, the captain of Red Impulse. The cost to the Earth was also great. The ISO (International Agency for Science and Technology) Mantle Project was then promoted. The Science Ninja Team was to be disbanded, and each of them lived their lives with dreams for tomorrow. But what haunts them is the sad memory of the late Joe. And now, more than two years have passed.

Leader X has come to Earth once again. His home planet, Select, was annihilated in a war with a Proxima planet, and he has come back to Earth to build a base to to destroy Proxima and to get his revenge for his ambitions being crushed by Gatchaman and his friends. Nobody knows the horror of the mysterious leader of the universe, X. He is the greatest almighty, possessing cosmic ruthlessness. Nothing is impossible for Leader X. Once he has a plan, he must carry it out until it is a success. He failed before, so he can't forgive that.

There was only one Earthling who saw this crisis coming. His name is Dr. Rafael. Although his name may be new to your ears, he is a scientist that had been held captive at Galactor's headquarters for a long time. He was a scientist who secretly communicated with space and accidentally brought Leader X to Earth. Earthlings would never forgive this action, but for a space scientist, it was an experiment of great interest. Dr. Rafael would miraculously survive X's clutches. In response to Leader X's second challenge, he created the only weapon to defeat Leader X out of responsibility and a reward to the entire world: The Micro Space Bomber.

There is one more thing worth mentioning here: Joe the Condor is alive. It was a well-known fact that Joe died a tragic death at the end of the previous series while Leader X left for space. Immediately after, Dr. Rafael escaped from his long captivity and discovered Joe's body in the valley. Dr. Rafael transported a mecha from Galactor's headquarters to a secret location and in addition to building his own research institute, he revived Joe who had inherited a strong hate for Galactor. It can be said that Dr. Rafael believed in Joe's hatred and ability to take action, and was convinced there was no other warrior who would leap for the chance to defeat Leader X, so he took advantage of him. But it is Dr. Rafael's only means to save the Earth and and it is also Joe's revived will. Joe is alive. However, a fateful mission awaits. What is his destiny? Joe does not cry for his fate, he even feels joy that he can live again to fight Galactor.

To take over for Berg Katse, the ruthless Gel Sadra was appointed the new commander of Galactor. Machines will appear with super performances that surpass the previous work. The Science Ninja Team are summoned by Dr. Nambu's orders. However, when they discover Joe, the Gatchaman are surprised and delighted and a strong sense of friendship and unity are born. But nobody knows Joe's hidden secret.

- Excerpts from the program planning for Gatchaman II

Due to the success of the Gatchaman compilation movie and requests for reruns of the original series, a sequel finally came to pass, although Ippei Kuri and other staff had been reluctant to produce another work as they felt the original didn't need any continuation.

To be honest, I didn't want to do a new version because I wanted to keep the original image of Gatchaman intact. However, there were so many requests from fans and the station... So, we introduced new mechas without changing the main characters.[1]

A pitch titled "Gatchaman 2"[2] (科学忍者隊ガッチャマン2, note the lack of Roman numerals) was first made at Tatsunoko at an unspecified date in early 1978[3], but did not progress; this pitch had it revealed that X appointed a new androgynous sub-leader of Galactor known as Don Melder. X had also been revealed to have saved Joe from his certain death at Cross Karakorum but of course, not under any good faith; X had rebuilt him as a cyborg, and brainwashed him to be another Galactor operative called the Space Joker. Meanwhile, Joe's long-lost younger brother named Jack would join the Science Ninja Team as G-6 (with G-2 being retired in Joe's memory), and the team would wind up having to fight against the Space Joker, not knowing his true identity. After one hard battle, the Space Joker would begin to regain his memories, and secretly assist the team, but the outline ended there with no indication how long the series would be intended to be, or a rough cour structure.

That pitch was then discarded, with the reasoning being that the staff wanted to create dramaturgy that would give a sense of sadness from Joe having an immortal body like Casshan (and evidently being more of the focus character)[4]. With a sequel also being made for merchandising purposes and needing to attract the appropriate sponsors, the weapons and vehicles had to be appropriate and impressive enough to catch their eyes and to be something that could easily be made into childrens' toys.

For the next pitch that received the greenlight, initially titled "New Science Ninja Team Gatchaman" (新科学忍者隊ガッチャマン), there were some similarities yet differences that would pave the way for the series to come; X's sub-leader would be a woman named Sado Madonna this time. An ex-Galactor scientist named Dr. Einstein was also revealed to have salvaged Joe's body from Cross Karakorum and transferred his memories into an android copy, who would rejoin the team but would be Einstein's weapon against X with the intent to sacrifice himself. This would bring Joe in line to being like that "neoroider" that Casshan was, in having a mechanical body and only his consciousness being that of a human.

Over time and with the eventual renaming of the new work to "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II", the story elements were further altered; Sado Madonna became Gel Sadra, who would be aged up from a young girl (before this instance was later changed to a more gender neutral "baby"). The ex-Galactor scientist would be named Dr. Rafael, while Joe would have been remodeled into a cyborg. The overall plan was for a 26 episode/two cour storyline, with Jun finding out Joe's secret before Dr. Rafael would reveal to the team the intent of Joe being a cyborg and living weapon against X.

For the appointment of staff, Hisayuki Toriumi had felt the original series had stood fine on its own and he had planned to leave Tatsunoko, so he declined the position of directing the sequel. Hiroshi Sasagawa stepped up in his place, alternating between directing this work and the Time Bokan franchise. The demand for more anime productions in the industry during this time also meant that there would be a shortage of animators and a tight schedule for the series; there were times when the recording sessions lacked animation for the actors to have as reference, which would anger Katsuji Mori. The budget constraints and deadlines would also mean there would be episodes that would contain extensive flashbacks to the original series.

Even with the above faults in mind, the series would hit ratings as high as 25.9% in the first episode alone, and the quick success ensured that Fuji TV would extend its time-slot to be a full year/four cour run. This necessitated changes to be made before the 26 episode mark, with the creation of Dr. Pandora and a new angle to explore the mystery of Gel Sadra's past.

The success in the series' run would also ensure a quick greenlight of another sequel, which would be produced as Gatchaman Fighter and start its broadcast a week after II wrapped up.

Some episodes of II were showcased ahead of time in an early, audio-only format as part of the 1978 Gatchaman radio drama; this series would wrap with a roundtable discussion between the cast of what they expected of the upcoming sequel and its broadcast.

Characters[]

See List of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II characters for more episodic and minor characters appearing in the show.

International Science Organization[]

Science Ninja Team

Support members

Galactor[]

Cyborg Colony[]

Episode List[]

As with the first series, some episodes may have been written or originally intended to air in a different placement than others. See Original script production line of Gatchaman II for more information.

  1. Leader X Strikes Back
  2. The Mysterious Feather Shuriken
  3. Hell’s Black Knights
  4. The Return of Joe?!
  5. Invasion of the Mysterious Cavemen
  6. Explosive Pyramid Power
  7. The Terrifying Mutant Mission
  8. Firebird of the Lunar World
  9. The Destructive Berg Katze
  10. Snowstorm at the Equator
  11. Fight! The Struggle for Hypernium 600
  12. The Secret of Dr. Rafael
  13. G-2 in the Bloom of Youth
  14. The Red Impulse from Space
  15. The Pure Heart of G-5
  16. Joe the Blank Slate
  17. The Devil's Equation
  18. No Response from the Spaceship
  19. The Trap of Another Dimension
  20. G-Town on the Brink
  21. The Broken Wings of Youth
  22. The Mystery of Stonehenge
  23. The Love that Disappeared in the Arctic
  24. A Suspicious G-2
  25. The Sad Cyborg
  26. Pandora the Mysterious Assistant
  27. Dr. Nambu Dies!
  28. The Feather Shuriken that Stole Love
  29. Life or Death! The Devilish Northern Cliff
  30. Ryu Has Returned to His Hometown
  31. The Great Eagle that was Shot Down
  32. G-1, Love in the Andes
  33. Angry G-1
  34. Evil Iron Mecha from the Amazon
  35. The Legacy of Berg Katze
  36. The Sad Underground City
  37. Burn, Iron Wings!
  38. The Electromagnetic Mecha Iron Devil Dragon
  39. The Crimson Condor
  40. Fight Hard! The Devilish Animal Operation
  41. Gatchaman vs. Gel Sadra
  42. The Observatory that Moves in Darkness
  43. Invaders from Mars
  44. Strike! Evil Mars Base
  45. The Devilish Solar Shifter Plan
  46. Gatchaman Revealed
  47. Lethal! The Two Firebirds
  48. The Biggest Tsunami in History
  49. Burn, Condor!
  50. Mystery! Mystery? Gel Sadra’s Mother
  51. Sad Gel Sadra
  52. The Downfall of Leader X

Staff[]

  • Original Work: Tatsuo Yoshida
  • Character Designs: Ippei Kuri, Akemi Takada, Yoshitaka Amano
  • Planning: Kenji Yoshida, Jinzo Toriumi (Tori Production)
  • Literary Supervisor: Satoshi Suyama (Tori Production)
  • SF Consultant: Rei Kosumi
  • General Director: Hiroshi Sasagawa
  • Assistant Director: Seitaro Hara
  • Screenwriters: Jinzo Toriumi, Satoshi Suyama, Keiji Kubota, Yu Yamamoto, Hirohisa Soda, Kazuo Sato, Akiyoshi Sakai, Saburo Ebinuma
  • Episodic Directors: Seitaro Hara, Mizuho Nishikubo, Kazunori Tanahashi, Koichi Mashita, Mamoru Oshii, Yuji Nunokawa, Hidehito Ueda, Masami Anno, Hideyoshi Oga, Motosuke Takahashi, Hideo Nishimaki, Yoshiyuki Tomino (credited as Minoru Yokitani), Yoshizo Tsuda, Naoki Yamaguchi, Jin Takaido, Yukihiko Uchida, Hisatoshi Hiratani, Masahisa Ishida,
  • Music: Hiroshi Tsutsui, Koichi Sugiyama, Reijiro Konishi (ep.1 only)
  • Effects: Shoji Kato (Anime Sound Production)
  • Mechanical Design: Mitsuki Nakamura, Kunio Okawara
  • Animation Director: Hayao Nobe
  • Drawing Supervision: Sadao Miyamoto
  • Opening Animation: Masami Suda
  • Recording Director: Kan Mizumoto
  • Recording: Yoshihiro Kaneko (Arasaka Recording)
  • Development: IMAGICA, cooperation with Sukianime
  • Producers: Ippei Kuri, Masanori Nakano, Masaru Shibata
  • Production Cooperation: Yomiko Advertising
  • Production: Tatsunoko Pro, Fuji TV

Voice Cast[]

  • Ken the Eagle: Katsuji Mori
  • Joe the Condor: Isao Sasaki
  • Jun the Swan: Kazuko Sugiyama
  • Jinpei the Swallow: Yoku Shioya
  • Ryu the Owl: Shingo Kanemoto
  • Dr. Nambu: Toru Ohira
  • Dr. Pandora: Miyuki Ueda
  • PiMa: Kazue Kamiya (episode 1), Yo Inoue (rest of series)
  • Director Anderson: Teiji Omiya
  • Gel Sadra: Masaru Ikeda
  • Leader X: Nobuo Tanaka
  • Narrator: Hideo Nakamura

International Adaptations[]

South Korea[]

A Korean compilation movie titled Eagle 5 Brothers (독수리 5 형제, Dokksuri Hyeongje) was released in 1980, and is infamous for rotoscoping and plagiarizing the Gatchaman II animation, splicing together various bits of the series to create a 70 minute plot. This movie received an Italian dub in turn, titled "Five Stars", which was later sourced for a Spanish dub.

The actual Gatchaman II series itself would later be localized in Korean in the 1990s as Eagle 5 Brothers II.

Hong Kong[]

A Cantonese dub appeared on Rei's TV under the title The New Brave Eagle Man.

Taiwan[]

This work was aired on Taiwan's CTV under the title Tornado Youth Flying Knights.

Italy[]

This series would air as a sequel to the first Gatchaman: Battaglia dei Pianeti series, though no longer beholden to any Sandy Frank masters as that one had been.

France[]

The first four episodes were merged into a French compilation film on VHS in 1986, with the title Gatchaman, le Combat des Galaxies. It would be an early exposure the country would have to an uncensored version of Gatchaman, as the original series was only available under the Battle of the Planets reversioning.

Spain[]

Briefly in 1991, a dubbed version of this series would broadcast on the channel Antena 3 under the title Gatchman (minus an "a"). This was made possible due to Antena 3 having acquired the rights to various Tatsunoko Production series, most of which were dubbed into European Spanish and based from the Italian masters.

United States of America[]

This series and Gatchaman Fighter would be the basis of an English adaptation titled Eagle Riders, which was produced by Saban Entertainment and aired in 1996. Only thirteen episodes were broadcast in the USA as a contractual agreement, though the entirety managed to air overseas.

As Saban's contract covered many countries, those like France and Italy would also issue dubs of this specific version.

Manga Tie-Ins[]

Different manga adapting II ran in these magazines, published through Shogakukan.

  • Manga-kun: issue #19 to #24 for 1978, issues #1 to 5 for 1979 by Mitsushige Hayata. Due to the first chapter being completed before the first episode was broadcast, there are some differences such as Leader X having his original design.
  • Yoiko:
  • Kindergarten: September 1978 to October 1979
  • Elementary School 2nd Grade: November 1978 to March 1979 by Noboru Sakaoka
  • TV-kun: October 1978 to September 1979 by Yukio Shinohara. This serialization was reprinted in a 2 volume eBook release by the publisher Group Zero on December 21, 2018, but the volumes were discontinued after March 3, 2022, and taken off all eBook sites. Before the regular feature, a one-shot adapting the original series had been published in the April 1978 issue, with the story and art by Shinohara as well as a frontispiece drawn by Ippei Kuri.

Trivia[]

  • Although the series ran for 52 original episodes, an airing slot between episodes 46 and 47 was dedicated to a rebroadcast of episode 28, making for 53 slots total.
  • Though Yo Inoue is credited as a regular for the New God Phoenix's robot PiMa, she was often not utilized due to the character's limited or non-existent dialogue in episodes. This led to her being used in other guest character roles for those stories, although these other roles were not listed in the ending credits. The ones that can be confirmed outside of them are Benny Borg (#14), RF3 (#25), Mako (#28), Michi (#31), and Mark Horin (#36), in addition to Inoue being the later voice for Sammie Pandora (a role that was also initially Kamiya's).
  • Upon Hiroshi Sasagawa's involvement in the New/II planning, there still was consideration of using the Jack character as a replacement for Joe, or alternatively coming up with an "even more nihilistic" character to take his place. As Sasagawa had a strong desire to see Joe again, he opted to have Joe rejoin the team early on with the twist about his survival to be something that would unfold.[5] An earlier interview in Animage would also quote Sasagawa as being conscious of the high fan popularity of Joe, and letting that be a factor in revealing Joe's survival and return to the team so early on. [6]
  • Possibly due to revisions over time in the planning, Tatsunoko's official sources are at odds whether to consider II as taking place two years after the original series, or three. The New Programming Announcement by Fuji TV specifically states that a little over two years have passed, while books like Gatchaman Graffiti and the liner notes on the DVD release describe it as taking place three years later. The "three years" may even be an orphaned reference as far back as the initial pitch with G-6, as that was said to be the amount of time that had passed since the end of the first Galactor war.
  • While the name of X's planet in the original series was Selector (also given as Selectro in some later sources), its name was shortened to Select. The program planning by Fuji TV also makes indication of X's original destruction plan, which would be a second Black Hole Operation, until it was changed to the Solar Shift Plan during the run of the series.

Visual Development[]

  • Preliminary but unused character designs of the team's new civilian uniforms, designed by Akemi Takada, were to have the guys wearing jackets and/or hats as accessories, while Jun would have her hair tied into a ponytail and wear a "3" hoodie with leggings and boots. In the end, the five all had redesigned number shirts to wear (and only Jinpei would gain a cap), while Jun would have straighter hair.
  • One early pitch illustration of the finalized II shows the team battling very different Galactor goons, in comparison to the standard designs that would receive re-use. These goons would have white painted faces like Gel Sadra and similar mask pieces like the one covering their nose and eyes, and have blond hair coming out the back of their helmets. They would still have green as a major uniform color, but now have red markings on the tops and would have white gloves and boots.

References[]

  1. Animage, September 1978.
  2. Gatchaman II LD-BOX manual; "Series proposal"
  3. There is sometimes the assumption that the pitch could've been made in 1976 due to a reference to the original series airing "two years ago", but it has never been confirmed and all contemporary accounts referencing points from this pitch allude to it being an earlier rejected planning from around the time of the sequel's pre-production stages.
  4. Gatchaman Complete Works: Gatchaman Graffiti 1972-2000 (Asahi Sonorama)
  5. Animage, February 1979
  6. Animage, November 1978.
Gatchaman media
TV animation Science Ninja Team Gatchaman · Gatchaman II · Gatchaman Fighter · New Gatchaman (unproduced)· Good Morning Ninja Team Gatchaman · Gatchaman Crowds · Battle of the Planets: Phoenix Ninjas (unproduced)
Movies Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie · Gatchaman (2011 - unproduced) · Gatchaman (2013)
Adaptations Battle of the Planets (movie) · Eagle 5 Brothers · G-Force: Guardians of Space · Eagle Riders· Battle of the Planets: The New Exploits of G-Force (unproduced)
Other Gatchaman (OVA) · NTT Gatchaman · Tachimals Theater · Infini-T Force · Time Bokan: Royal Revival
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