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For the character from Gatchaman Crowds see Gel Sadra (Crowds)

Gel Sadra
Gel Sadora (GII) 0
Characteristics
Race

Genetically modified Human

Gender

Ambiguous, intersex condition (see Trivia)

Age

3-4 years old (as a child); 25 (after being artificially aged by Sosai X)

Hair Color

Blond

Eye Color

Brown

Occupation

Galactor Commander

Personal Status
Status

Deceased (Killed by Sosai X)

Relatives

Sylvie Pandora (Mother), Domenico Pandora (Father)

Voice Actor

Kazue Komiya (as a child, episode 1); Yo Inoue (later childhood appearances); Masaru Ikeda[1]; Kenjiro Tsuda (Pandora and Akubi)

First Appearance
Anime Debut

Sosai X's Counterattack


Gel Sadra (ゲルサドラ, gerusadora) was the Galactor leader during the events of Gatchaman II. Sadra was one of the two major antagonists during this series.

Background[]

Gel Sadra is the new Galactor commander, replacing the former commander Berg Katse, though they are a manipulated mutant like their predecessor. The abnormal growth they were subjected to by X leaves Gel Sadra with what could be assumed to be a womanly form, but a flamboyant falsetto voice that may give a masculine impression and that of a Kabuki style. Their way of laughter, however, is that of the classic ojou type.

Appearance[]

Gel Sadra's body remains covered up for most of the series, giving them an androgynous, clownish appearance, although by the end of the show we can see that they can present in fashions that could either be taken as traditionally "masculine" (in a suit when in disguise) or "feminine" (a long dress when meeting Pandora).

They can usually be seen to wear a baggy, purple top with oversized bell sleeves and a large, protruding blue collar and contrasting blue parts to their shoulders with black stitching holding them together. A black turtleneck piece (initially colored white) is another part of this top. The rest of their outfit consists of tight blue pants, a gold belt, long white gloves, and high black boots. Their headdress is primarily purple, white, and black, with a pointed nose and a more clownish appearance. Their eyes are obscured by a pair of lenses, which make them out to be white and pink, and the exposed skin on their face and neck is colored a pale white.

Like Katse, they can be seen to wear pink lipstick. Unlike Katse, another feature of their costumed appearance (though not always consistent due to coloring errors) would be their teeth being painted black to give off the old-fashioned appearance of ohaguro.

As a child, they were seen to have short hair and they dressed in a white sailor-style top with red pants.

Personality[]

They are a character that strongly inherit the image of Katse, but can escape faster and more comically. They hate Katse though, insisting that they are "different from that fool". In episode 13, they described their room at a base made by Katse as "a stupid room with bad taste", saying such right at a portrait of Katse hanging on the wall before knocking it over and stomping on it.

Due to having been forcibly aged up from a young child, Gel Sadra can act out more immaturely than Katse had, easily becoming prone to tantrum upon defeat. They also show a lack of knowing how to swim, stemming from their circumstances of their childhood. Still, due to the manipulation of X, they were skilled enough to be able to abduct several scientists and soldiers within a month to rebuild the struggling Galactor organization.

They also have a habit of saying these various things: "Failure is the mother of success", "Albatross flying into the fire", "You fool!", and calling out "Remember, Gel Sadra is immortal!" when defeated. Their phrase about failure winds up being popular enough to wind up being quoted by other Galactor operatives, which gets them angered at their line being stolen. Like Katse, they will abandon their henchmen to doom when they lose.

One particular catchphrase, even mistakenly attributed to Katse himself by some viewers, would also be their infamous Onore, onore, Gatchaman!, with "onore" being a derogatory form of "you".

History[]

Gatchaman II

Gel Sadora Pandora (GII) 1

Originally the child of Dr. Sylvie Pandora, Sammie Pandora, they were separated from their mother after the cruise ship the Queen Margaret (alternatively, the Elizabeth Moore) was sunk by a meteor. They were then abducted by X and mutated and aged into an adult, brainwashed by him into being his loyal servant.

In the few last episodes of the series, Gel Sadra's drama ushers in the mystery surrounding their origins and the Solar Shift plan promoted by X. Remembering their past in episode 50, they abduct their mother to have a reunion. Despite Gel Sadra's aged and manipulated body, Dr. Pandora can feel a sense of familiarity through their psychic connection.

Gel Sadora (GII) 1

Gel Sadra's final moments

However, Pandora is horrified and unable to accept Gel Sadra as her child, even as X showed her imagery of Sammie's growth process. The attempted reunion of the mother and child was further cut short by X trapping Pandora in a rocket, firing her off into space with an explosion she had no way of escaping from. Witnessing their mother's death had Gel Sadra undergo a change of heart, and they rebelled, helping the Science Ninja Team find the whereabouts of X in episode 52.

When Gel Sadra and Ken found X's main computer core, they were seriously injured due to the attack of Galactor Troops and, after X was defeated, they walked alone past the ruins of Galactor's lab and reached a hill where flowers spread all over the place. Impressed by the Earth's beauty, Gel Sadra regretted trying to destroy it and repented from the sins they had committed so far, wishing that they could be reborn again. Overcome by injuries, they passed away while witnessing a vision their mother telling her it was time to rest and to leave the Earth's safety to Gatchaman. Their body shrunk back, reverting to Sammie as their spirit followed after their mother and their remaining clothes were blown away by the wind.

Alterations in International Adaptations[]

It is common to see both Sammie and Gel Sadra gendered differently through adaptations; this may be due to the final product not offering a conclusive answer to any intended sex or gender presentation of the character, as outlined in Trivia.

As mentioned for the different countries below, it is common to see Sammie considered a young girl, while their adult self is treated as a figure beyond a mere man or woman.

Hong Kong (The New Brave Eagle Man)[]

Gel Sadra is referred to as Léiwá, and treated as a female character from childhood to adulthood, with a woman providing her voice.

Taiwan (Tornado Youth Flying Knights)[]

This adaptation referred to Sammie as a boy, Jiāmíng. Gel Sadra's name was localized as Dùlánshā with them being treated as a figure of ambiguous gender, but voiced by a man.

France[]

The compilation film of Gatchaman II (which consisted of the first four episodes) had Sammie Pandora referred to as a boy, and described Gel Sadra as being "neither man nor woman".

Italy (Gatchaman: Battaglia dei Pianeti)[]

This country's dub of Gatchaman II refers to the character as Ghelsadra, and her secret identity is given as Debbie Pandra.

South Korea (Eagle 5 Brothers)[]

Gel Sadra is referred to as Gelshya, and still treated as a strange, ambiguous figure. However, Sammie Pandora is renamed Sally Pandora and is treated as a young girl.

Compilation film of "Eagle 5 Brothers"[]

In this preceding compilation film released in 1980, Gel Sadra's origin was changed so that they were an unambiguous male character and forcibly grown from a young boy named Marco. He winds up dying in a mecha explosion caused by X, after he tries but fails to avenge his dead mother.

The character design for Marco also happened to be recycled from a young boy named Benny that appeared in Gatchaman II episode 14, only with his hair recolored brown. The unmasked Gel Sadra in this version has what could be considered a more traditionally masculine-looking face compared to the design by Akemi Takada, with a large, strong jaw and no lipstick to be seen. His hair is also much shorter.

USA (Eagle Riders)[]

Gel Sadra was renamed Mallanox, and underwent a series of confusing rewrites in the process; the character was initially stated to have been created by scratch by Cybercon (X), and was also referred to as a man. However, sometime later in the series, Mallanox was then stated to be the son of Lukan (Katse), an alien that had previously tried to conquer Earth. Mallanox also claims "My father was an alien and my mother was Irish" in a quip in one episode, which if taken literally, still upholds the Lukan setting.

However, much later in the dub, Mallanox is revealed to actually be the daughter of Dr. Francine Aikens and her husband Herb. It is said that the young Nancy Aikens was kidnapped by Cybercon when he attacked the cruise ship Ambrose, and that he forcibly aged her and made her believe that she was a man for her own protection. When in her unmasked state, Mallanox speaks in a woman's voice, but continues to speak in a masculine voice when in costume and is still referred to by the Eagle Riders with male pronouns.

After being attacked by Cybercon towards the end of the first half of the series, Mallanox expresses regret for wanting to destroy the Earth and swears to do better. Rather than dying and hearing her mother's voice, the voice she hears is changed to Cybercon punishing her for her failure and telling her that he'll transform her into a new form: Happy Boy. Mallanox's body de-ages, though we do not see any spirit of Nancy leaving, and it cuts to her clothing blowing away.

Foreign dubs of this reversioning, in turn, would carry over these inconsistent lines and settings about Mallanox's gender and origins; curiously, the Italian dubbing reverts their name to Ghelsadra for consistency with previous Italian iterations (while their new form is dubbed as "Funny Boy").

Voice Actors[]

Masaru Ikeda voiced Gel Sadra[1], while Sammie Pandora was initially voiced by Kazue Komiya (who doubled as the voice for PiMa in the same episode). Later apparitions of Sammie were voiced by Yo Inoue.

Gel Sadra would later appear in Pandora and Akubi, where they were voiced by Kenjiro Tsuda.

English Adaptation

R.Martin Klein voiced the masked Mallanox in "Eagle Riders". However, the voice actress for the unmasked Mallanox and that of young Nancy Aikens was left uncredited.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • The character's codename derives from the German word "Gier" ("greed") and sado ("sadism")[2]
  • While Ippei Kuri devised the costumed appearance for Gel Sadra, Akemi Takada and Yoshitaka Amano also participated in designing the character, developing their unmasked appearance and growth stages that they go through from being a child to adult.
  • The vocal delivery of Gel Sadra's lines was inspired by that of Mikio Narita's portrayal of Fumimaro in the film "The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy", adding to the old-fashioned kabuki vibe in their character.
  • Sammie Pandora is initially shown to be a blond, blue-eyed child when abducted by X, providing some visual parallel to a character like Katse along with Gel Sadra being a tall blond that dresses in purple. However, one flashback later in the series shows Sammie to have brown hair and eyes like their father, while others continue the blond coloration. Gel Sadra's eyes at both the start and the end of the series are shown to be brown, affirming at least that color as correct (aside from an error in episode 51 depicting them purple), and the spirit of Sammie in the final episode retains their fair hair yet has dark eyes.
  • There is also a form of continuity error with the cruise ship; in episode 1 it is called the Queen Margaret, but this detail seemed forgotten by episode 50 as Gel Sadra goes to investigate the ship's sinking and it is called "The Elizabeth Moore". This is also affirmed with Pandora's telling. The Eagle Riders dubbing opted to use neither name when referencing the accident later, instead calling it "The Ambrose".
  • Concept designs of Gel Sadra, shown in Ippei Kuri's sketches and imagery sent to TV stations as part of the press package, depict their eyes visible through the headdress although this was changed for the actual animation (to only show the stylized eyes as being pink pupils/irises). They were also shown to have a white top beneath the purple portion of their uniform, which is reflected in early appearances before the white was changed to black.
  • The age of Sammie, while given as 3 and them having intended to be 4 later in the series (if not for their forced growth), is sometimes the subject of confusion among fans and some older English zines had given their age as 6. This is due to the narration for the "next on" preview for episode 50, which states "Gel Sadra was a modified human who was made to grow instantly, and they were supposed to only be six years old", though this conflicts with lines presented in the series itself.

Development Period[]

  • Early planning sheets for Gatchaman II, titled "New Science Ninja Team Gatchaman", had an equivalent character named Sado Madonna (サドマドンナ). Sado Madonna was described as a beautiful but mysterious 25-year old guerrilla warrior, rescued by X from her execution and made into his new captain of Galactor. For some reason or another, it was then decided to rename the character to Gel Sadra and subsequently do away with the guerrilla setting, opting to make her a 3-year old girl forcibly aged up into a 25-year old woman (likely to give a parallel to Katse in being a child whose fate was altered and manipulated by X). The final planning, as outlined below, would give more gender-neutral identifiers except for a final line still referring to Sadra as a woman.
  • As the sequel series was originally planned for only 26 episodes, there were no plans to ever revisit Gel Sadra's origin or explore if they had any family left behind, as it was assumed that they all would have perished in the disaster. However, when the series was approved for a year-long extension by Fuji TV, this gave the staff the idea to create Dr. Pandora and to delve into a familial connection between her and Gel Sadra.

The Case of Gel Sadra, Gender Identity, and Viewer Confusion[]

Gel Sadra's intended presentation and whether or not they are a man or a woman (or both or neither) is often a matter of confusion among fans and even modern retrospectives, owing to changes over the planning period and decisions made in casting. Foreign translations of the material are often at odds in how to gender them as well.

The final planning establishment for Gatchaman II refers to Gel Sadra as a woman, and outright states this character differs from a mutant like Katse who had both attributes of a man and woman. However, as with the original series, changes could and would happen as the writer's room and director found different ideas that they liked instead. It is also to be noted that despite the reference to Gel Sadra as a woman in the finalized bio, there were some more gender-neutral edits noting the child X abducted as a baby (赤ん坊 akanbo) being transformed into an incredible human (vs. earlier iterations being unambiguous about her being intended as a female character).

It is likely that these matters below, besides Saban's pre-existing censorship, did not provide the easiest point of reference for dub writers in Eagle Riders or in other countries' translations. The pronoun confusion would even continue for the Gatchaman Crowds counterpart of Sadra, who was initially referred to as a girl in Sentai Filmworks' subs, until the translators realized that particular version was outright intended as a boy and referred to by Tsubasa as her "little brother".

In-Series Points of Confusion[]

In the casting period, Gel Sadra was given a male voice, providing a similar effect to that of Berg Katse and taking a kabuki inspiration.

While the adult body seen growing in the first episode was also given breasts and a more traditionally feminine-looking appearance, a settei of this same design shown in Animage around the broadcast period also showed an option where Gel Sadra was envisioned entirely flat-chested (or with such breasts not included for possible censorship reasons). The physical appearance of Sammie, while considered to be more feminine next to other Tatsunoko boys, may have also been designed with a gender-neutral intent in owing to how they look next to other usual young girls in the series.

When it comes to pronoun usage and in translations outside Japan, subtitles often have Gel Sadra as "he" and "sir" when referred to by other characters. While this could be seen as part of Sadra's guise, Sammie being referred to as "Pandora's child" (terms 子 ko and 子供 kodomo) rather than son or daughter adds to the confusion and a sense of possible intended ambiguity. The at-the-time-unnamed Sammie is also only referred to in the credits for episode 1 as "The Child" (子供). Sentai Filmworks' official description for the sequel, conversely, refers to Sammie as a young girl captured by X.

In episode 51, Ken states that Sammie probably carried both gender genes which enabled X to make them grow at an unthinkable range. We also know that X had sought out Sammie in particular due to them bearing such unique chromosomes. Despite the initial intent to differ Gel Sadra from Katse in having her be an outright woman rather than being able to switch forms, it would appear that a similar but different kind of situation to Katse developed, making Gel Sadra an effectively androgynous figure with their own gender identification left up in the air (versus Katse's more binary presentations between "Berg Katse" and "The Lady Commander").

Unlike Katse, it can be said the presence of unusual chromosomes is a comparatively realistic factor and does occur within individuals, giving them an intersex condition although these physical and hormonal characteristics would be separate altogether from gender identity; many may identify as a man or a woman regardless of sex characteristics and chromosomes that would other them, or indeed opt for a non-binary identity. Some viewers may interpret how Gel Sadra opts to appear more like a fancy young woman to Dr. Pandora as bearing weight to using female pronouns, although the lack of a term like daughter/musume can muddle this and continue the uncertainty of the staff's intent.

Outside Materials' Clarification[]

However, the introduction for Gel Sadra's profile in the September 1978 issue of Animage would further the evidence of the character having been changed from merely a woman to a figure representing both like Katse (minus any transforming ability); they are introduced as 半陰半陽人間 (haninhanyou ningen), "half-yin, half-yang human", a term that can be translated to describe someone with intersex/androgynous characteristics, or the outdated term of hermaphrodite (and that in turn was used for Katse). They are thusly described this way[3]:

Gel Sadra is an intersex human newly sent to Earth by Leader X, who lost Berg Katse in the previous series due to Gatchaman's counterattack. A baby was born with abnormal chromosomes, was exposed to radiation, and was born as a "synthetic human" type mutant by means of a human conversion machine.

Jinzo Toriumi would also briefly explain that it was Katse's popularity that influenced the creation of Gel Sadra, and how their design was intended to evoke a similar presence. It can be then inferred that the special chromosomes setting was a parallel way of creating a character that would be ambiguous, and not repeating the exact circumstances that created Katse in-universe. Ippei Kuri, in comparing Gel Sadra to the successor villain Count Egobossler, would reiterate them as having been made with that motif of "half-yin, half-yang", denoting a combination of feminine and masculine characteristics[4].

The New Program Announcement for Gatchaman II backs the androgyny and mutation settings up in referring to the new villain as "the half-yin, half-yang mutant Gel Sadra".[5] Another page contradicts this somewhat though, by utilizing the profile from the final II planning which states that Gel Sadra is a woman and not a mutant like Katse.

When it comes to any usage of gendered pronouns in Japanese, there happen to be occasional Animage write-ups through 1979, previewing episode summaries of the series where Gel Sadra is referred to with the pronoun kare[6], indicating a male character, as well as describing Dr. Pandora as being curious about the strange man[7]/otoko. Tatsunoko's English write-up for II would also use he/him pronouns to refer to Gel Sadra by when first published in 1999, and remains as such to this day on their website.

On the other hand, there exists a TV-kun manga adaptation from the time of Gatchaman II's airing that identifies Sammie as a girl (onnanoko), which was theorized as possibly making it simpler for children to understand or continuing to refer back to settings that existed prior to the staff deciding the "half-yin, half-yang" direction for the character. An "All Monsters Encyclopedia" book released at the end of 1978 also referred to Sammie as a young girl (using the term shojo) who was mutated by X into such a half-yin, half-yang mutant[8]. On the other hand, in the write-up for Dr. Pandora in the book Gatchaman Graffiti, Sammie is referred to as her son (musuko), while Gel Sadra's own bio describes Sammie as having been a "three-year old mutant".[9]

With having to weigh the different types of information presented to viewers during and after the broadcast of II, neutral pronouns may be the easiest way of referring to Sammie/Gel Sadra in English text.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 As stated in Anime News Network
  2. Animage, October 1978
  3. Animage, September 1978
  4. Animage, November 1979.
  5. New Programming Announcement: Gatchaman II (Fuji Television, September 6, 1978)
  6. Animage, October 1979.
  7. Animage, August 1979.
  8. All Monsters Encyclopedia 54th Edition (December 25, 1978)
  9. Gatchaman Complete Works: Gatchaman Graffiti 1972-2000 (Asahi Sonorama)
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