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Posted by Crescent_Moon on 14-01-2011 at 16:02:

Gatchaman II episode 1 recap

So, since there is no proper English translation for Gatchaman II I've started watching it in Japanese (despite not knowing the language).

I decided to write down what I thought happened during the episode and then review Daniela's translated Gatchaman II scripts (thanks Transmute Jun!) to see how far off I was. Clearly, I'm not going to get all the scientific details, but since I'm mainly watching it for the character interactions that's not too big a deal. So far I'm not too far off, we'll see if that trend continues : )

Here's what I wrote for episode 1 (comments are in brackets), hope this is of interest/use to someone : )

Disclaimer: Gatchaman belongs to Tatsunoko, no infringement is intended.

Update: Reboekah has graciously given me access to Gatchaman II screencaps for inclusion in the recaps, thank you! : )

Episode 1:

(So, the intro music sounds a little like the theme from Danger Mouse to me.. "mah kay hee hoo" ... "He's the greatest..." Ken, Joe Jun, Jinpei, Ryuuu, lol : )

On board a swanky boat full of high-rollers chilling to inoffensive jazz. A little girl, looking for her mother, calling out to her. Sinister music (Uh-oh, this can't be good : | )

The ship's crew see a bright light coming towards the ship from the sky. The ship shakes and cats escape. The golden light hits and tears through the ship, it looks like Sosai X's saucer from the end of Gatchaman.

The little girl from before is being sucked down to the bottom of the ocean. A corny looking spaceship from a 50's B-movie grabs her. We see inside the spaceship and she grows into a fully grown woman. A graphically improved (but not as cool looking IMO) Sosai X says a few words in an ominous tone. He finishes with the words "Gelu Sadura".

Cut to a car driving along at night, the car screeches to a halt. A weirdly dressed captain of the week, looking a little like a harlequin with a banana on his head, is standing in the middle of the road.

A scientist type guy gets out of the car and they exchange some words. The clown captain has a weird non-masculine voice. The car is destroyed. The flying saucer thing from before comes down and sucks the scientiest guy up in some sort of beam.

The captain of the week type has really spiky shoulderpads.

We're in some kind of chamber with important looking people in it (ISO?), the speaker looks like Anderson. It's laid out a little like the council chamber from Star Wars 1. They show a picture of the scientist guy who was just abducted along with some other pictures, perhaps these are other people who've gone missing. There's some discussion. Nambu makes an entrance, he looks very serious, those brass instruments sound serious too!

Nambu has the floor, he shows us a big viewscreen with a meteor coming down (Sosai X returning I guess). There's a commotion, I guess he's just told them that Galactor is back. Yep, he mentions Sosai X. One of the delegates is having some view-screen problems, but he fixes it with an open-handed smack. There's some more discussion, and I hear "Gatchaman". (Ooh, Nambu is the man) He flicks a coin with a G on it. (Do they have their own money?)

Cue the team. (Oh, they have new machines, and they also seem to be using some kind of makeup to keep their skin looking really clean...) Ken's plane now looks like a cross between an Eagle and an X-wing, not sure if that works all that well.

I guess Joe's not here so we skip him and go straight to Jun who's riding a blocky version of her bike. (It looks like a downgrade, poor Jun!)

Oh, here comes Jinpei (wearing a creepy smile) in his.. contraption.

The G5 looks cool though, blocky, but I like it.

We cut to some sort of underwater metropolis. I guess this is their new secret base? (Wow, those fish outside are HUGE!)

Nambu talks to the team. Ryu plays with some weird green booger looking thing...

Jinpei looks sad, Jun comforts him and sighs "Joe.."

Flashback to Joe, I guess we're hearing about his sacrifice in Gatchaman. Nambu says something that shocks the team.

Ken-less commercial break.

Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 14-01-2011 at 23:39:

The paint jobs on the team vehicles are funky, aren't they? They have beaks. And Jinpei's looks like a toy (for good reason).

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Posted by lborgia88 on 15-01-2011 at 07:32:

RE: Gatchaman II episode recaps

quote:

Originally posted by Crescent_Moon

Replacement Joe makes a creepy entrance, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that he's probably evil.

Hee, yeah, not so subtle. They didn't exactly try to make him likeable, did they?

You've hit on a fun idea, I think, watching the Gatch II episodes solely in Japanese without knowing in advance all that happens. I like your impressions of their new (but not improved) vehicles and weapons -spot on!

Posted by Crescent_Moon on 15-01-2011 at 08:22:

Episode 1 - Part 2:

A new person enters in bird-style. It looks like Joe... Well, from a distance. The colours are Joe's. (I've read that Joe becomes a cyborg, maybe that's why his face is so long and thin and kinda superior looking?) I guess Nambu told them that this Joe-look-alike will be on the team.

Good God, the poor God Phoenix, what have they done, it looks like a chicken! A chicken with badly done makeup.. There's an old-style shot of the God-Phoenix v2 taking off out of the water, the original design is much better.

The team are on the bridge of the God Phoenix, their discussion sounds serious. Jinpei looks like he's lost his right hand and has a ball and catching implement on it. (I hope he's just playing a game and that's not his weapon...)

Replacement Joe makes a creepy entrance, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that he's probably evil.

He pats Jinpei on the head, they talk a little about Galactor. Jinpei is incensed by something Joe2 says. It sounds like Ken tells Jinpei off. Ooh, there's an alert sound. It's Nambu. He briefs them on a jungle type environment with some big statues and a crashed plane.

Joe2 says something condescending again, Jinpei "Harumphs". Nambu gives some kind of order. Jun holds Ken and he puts his hand on hers (what a guy : )

(Actually, in that pic it looks like they're in the middle of a dance : ) Ryu gets up and a robot comes out, it's called "Pima?" and it flies the plane. Guess Ryu's out of a job...

They're on the ground, walking through some sort of temple made out of big stone blocks. Ooh! There's a statue. Joe 2 says something to Jinpei, who doesn't like it and refuses. The team go to check out the statue. Joe2's not with them. Action music starts, laserbeams shoot out of the eyes of the statue, which turns out to be a robot.

We see Joe2's shadow and it looks like he's about to take a shot at someone, Ken? Joe2 is evil? (Who could have guessed lol) Jun cries out to warn Ken. Ken throws, oh god, some kind of spinning top, it goes around the corner and knocks the gun out of Joe2's hand.

Joe2 has a spike on his arm and he tries to stab Ken with it. Ken judos him. Some kind of exposition, Joe2 does a lot of evil laughing and eventually pulls off his birdstyle (how did he do that without transforming?)

Galactor goons surround the team. The banana harlequin captain of the week type with the weird voice makes an appearance. (Hmmm, those pants, they remind me of someone, is this the new Berg Katse?)

Fighting erupts, Ken knees Berg Katse2 in the face. Jun has a new weapon too, it's a string that she twirls like a gymnast to disarm a goon. Could be handy, looks cool.

Damn, Jinpei's weapon is that ball catching mitt thing, he must be good at trigonometry! Ryu has a snot glob weapon that he throws at people. (Does he have spares?)

All the blocks in the room retract until the room is made of four very high blank walls. Someone changes the light gels from yellow to green. OOh, the team all have guns too!

A mecha erupts from the ground. It has five eyeballs on stalks on top of its head.

The eyeballs are lasers, a little lizard that's walking by is burnt to a crisp to show us what they can do. Jinpei runs towards the mecha and the laser cuts him down. It's not attacking the other team members, so maybe it's motion activated? (Don't move team!)

Berg Katse2 says a few things and the giant eye in the middle of the mecha opens up and starts gleaming. Ken sounds worried.

End of episode 1

(The end titles look really strange, underdone somehow, the style seems different to what's in the rest of the show.)

Posted by gatchamarie on 15-01-2011 at 09:05:

You're doing such a great job, Crescent Moon, and I'm totally liking, and enjoying all the comments you're writing whilst viewing Gatch II from such a new angle!

We didn't have to wait long before confirming that Joe2 was really "evil", didn't we?!! And, I agree ... I prefer most, if not all, of the vehicles in the first series over these, not even mentioning the chicken!

Thanks for this idea ... you're helping a lot in refreshing my own memories, as it's such a long time since I've watched this second series, and the blanks in my mind have also since piled up!

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 15-01-2011 at 10:47:

That's Gel Sadra wearing the fashion failure outfit.

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Posted by clouddancer on 15-01-2011 at 13:47:

You are doing a good job CM. It is nice reading someone else's perspective on this series and seeing it through your eyes. Keep up the hard work.

And thank you Reboekah for allowing the use of your screenshots.

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Posted by Reboekah on 15-01-2011 at 18:37:

"Joe2"'s name is Getz... although we will find out later about this particular person....

Smile

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Posted by Crescent_Moon on 16-01-2011 at 08:04:

Thanks for the encouragement, it's looking like it'll be a fun project : )

quote:

Originally posted by UnpublishedWriter
The paint jobs on the team vehicles are funky, aren't they? They have beaks. And Jinpei's looks like a toy (for good reason).

I hadn't noticed the beaks on the other vehicles until I looked at the screencaps, Jun's looks a little like a crow, not a swan, again, poor Jun : ) I didn't figure out that banana outfit was Gel Sadra until I read the script.

quote:

Originally posted by Reboekah
"Joe2"'s name is Getz... although we will find out later about this particular person....

I also didn't pick up on this until reading the script. Missed something else about him in epsiode 2 too, but that'll have to wait for another time : )

Posted by Springie on 16-01-2011 at 12:25:

Great job on these, CM! Clap

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 16-01-2011 at 15:19:

Maybe this belongs in 'Episode of the Week'?

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Posted by Crescent_Moon on 18-01-2011 at 10:30:

I'm happy to put these up wherever people think is most appropriate. Initially I was just going to post them in one thread. Now that I think about it, that's going to get awfully long : ) I'm working on the next one which I'll put up as separate thread in this section for now.

Posted by Transmute Jun on 18-01-2011 at 14:22:

Crescent Moon, this is awesome! I commend you for taking on such a project. You've done a great job so far, and I love reading your insights!

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