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Posted by Crescent_Moon on 07-02-2011 at 08:52:

Gatchaman II episode recaps - Episode 5

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

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

Episode 5:

We see a rainbow in the middle of a waterfall (It's so idyllic, I'm half expecting a Care Bear to jump out : )

The top of the waterfall is nestled within a verdant countryside. The narrator sets the scene as the camera pans down through the calm water. A small craft sits on the bottom, its roof glowing like a beacon.

Inside we see some globes filled with purple liquid. A voice wheezes and groans incoherently. We see a hand reaching up, then a man-shaped monkey-faced being collapses to the floor.

Cut to the team riding their bikes in their civvies(except Jinpei who is riding with Jun). The music is lullaby-ish, soft and happy (watch out team, things are about to go wrong!) Everyone's having a great time, including Joe who even smiles.

They round a bend and in the distance we see some kind of installation on the waterfront. We see a large boat (some kind of cruise ship?) and people throwing streamers (welcoming or farewelling, not sure).

The team sits on some grand-stand style seats and everyone, except Joe who seems pensive, is enjoying the festivities.

A little boy (Yep, looks like I got that wrong hey : ) crying his little heart out appears. Jun goes to him, picks him up and tries to comfort him. The boys are not helping, Jun tells them so.

Two people run by, the boy calls out and Jun returns him to his parents. There's an introduction, Ken and the father shake hands. The team watches the boat depart.

Purple liquid interlude. A gloved finger (Gel Sadra's I think) pushes a button and purple liquid rains down on a man who appears to be in some sort of machine room (the engine room of the ship I wonder?). He's not enjoying his purple shower. We see some trippy graphics and the man regresses into a monkey-beast with glowing red eyes (Reminds me of the movie Altered States with William Hurt in which he regresses into a primitive man)

Gel Sadra appears happy with her handiwork as she converses with a goon. In a long-shot we see that more than one man has been transformed.

Cut to Ken running, doing some parcour and transforming as he takes of in his plane and joins the God Phoenix (His plane came out of the side of a cliff, not sure how that fits in with G-Town) (The docking with the God Phoenix looks highly improbable, opening up at the front would surely hurt the God Phoenix's aerodynamics)

Nambu briefs the team. Ryu seems surprised and looks at Jinpei, who looks back with a similar expression. Joe mutters something to himself and Ken says "Galactor".

We see a brown patch of land surrounded by lush greenery. Zooming in, we see what look like clumps of wood and dirt (or maybe they're huts). There are ape-men wandering through the dead patch who look like they're destroying everything in sight. Nambu calls them Neandertals, Jun is incredulous. Nambu orders them to deploy.

We see wreckage spread all over the ground. We hear a familiar wailing. A little boy (in a basket!) looks to be the only survivor. Cut to a city with people panicking as dropships full of neandertals invade. (Wow, Gel Sadra's been busy!) The Neandertals fill the streets of the city.

Posted by Crescent_Moon on 07-02-2011 at 09:15:

The ISO big-wigs discuss the situation at their assembly hall. Nambu appeals to them, they don't seem to buy it. Ken calls. Whatever he says doesn't sound good. Nambu raises his fist, "Get 'em team!"

Gel Sadra's saucer (the craft from the start of the episode flies over a city. Gel Sadra seems happy as she launches three planes.

The team arrives and gives chase, Ken is in the G1. Ken shows what his plane's moustache can do, it cuts through the wings of the enemy ships causing them to crash.

Joe is in the G2. He grandstands by jumping from the G2 onto the enemy ship, takes out the pilot with a kick, and crashes the ship into a cliff (Did he manage to get out in time?) Out of the flames (like a phoenix) appears a slightly winded looking Joe.

Commercial break

An orange sun beats down relentlessly on the neandertal infested city as Gel Sadra gloats. A ray shoots out from the bottom of Gel Sadra's ship and the neandertals change colour from berocca orange to Hulk green. They also take on the Hulk's agression and begin to smash the city to bits with their clubs.

Gel Sadra is counting her chickens before they hatch. The God Phoenix appears to triumphant music. A missile is fired but it does no damage to Gel Sadra's ship. A powerful beam arcs out towards the God Phoenix causing the team much pain (it lookslike they're being split apart). The God Phoenix takes out part of the Golden Gate bridge before it crash lands in the middle of a park (Central park?)

The little boy from before (He's still crying!) runs down some stairs as the neandertals rampage. We see Joe struggling to move in the God Phoenix. The little boy (sniffling now, he must have run out of tears) is walking down an empty street. Somehow Jun becomes aware of him (is he on the viewscreen? Edit: Apparently he was on the God Phoenix, oh, and he's a she : )

The neandertals trash a flower cart on their way to the little boy. He runs, but his foot is caught in a metal storm-water grate.

The neandertals close in, the boy is scared. The lead neandertal moves to strike, but Ken's spinning top hits him and drops him to the ground. Ken races to grab the boy and Jun, Joe, Ryu and Jinpei (who is looking pretty buff) keep the rest of the monsters at bay.

The boy isn't safe yet, a neandertal makes a grab for him but Ken saves the day. The boy runs away from the fighting. Unfortunately, he runs straight into a lone neandertal. The neandertal is about to hit him, but the boy's cries make him pause. The neandertal appears to recognise the boy. The boy calls out "Papa.. Papa.."

Apparently this is enough to short-circuit Gel Sadra's nenadertal making machine (how?) Gel Sadra is incensed and calls her subordinates a bunch of idiots as she cranks the neandertal ray all the way up to 11.

It's no use though, the neandertal pulls some funny faces, but a well-placed "Papa" and a magical tear counteract the ray's effect. The boy hugs Neanderpapa and the neandertal-ray machinery on board Gel Sadra's ship explodes.

Neanderpapa hugs his little boy. Gel Sadra's ship crashlands and takes out a good chunk of the city. Gel Sadra escapes. We see both de-neandertaled parents as they thank the team. Jun looks like she'd like a little child of her own (help her out Ken : )

Preview:
We see Gel Sadra, a haggard looking dude, a Captain of the week in an Egyptian Pharaoh head-dress, and finally, Ken.

Posted by gatchamarie on 07-02-2011 at 09:54:

Thanks once again for another, great recap using Boeke's awesome screencaps, CM!! You're doing such a great job!

It's nice to see the team, Joe included, having some fun and serene time together at the beginning of the episode, isn't it?! And, there wasn't going to be any doubt that the child + parents at the same beginning would have had such an important role, interacting with the Team (even if IMHO, the plot wasn't so terrific!)! And, also so obviously, I even so liked, and agree with your nudging Ken to help Jun out with a child of her own!*grin* I love to see her so motherly!

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Posted by Crescent_Moon on 07-02-2011 at 10:08:

Thanks Gatchamarie : ) I really liked the shot of Joe smiling when they're riding their bikes. The artists have managed to get so much joy into his otherwise serious face, that's my favourite Joe shot so far.

I wonder why Jun and Jinpei share a bike though, surely it's not because it's too dangerous, he flies a plane : )

Posted by lborgia88 on 07-02-2011 at 13:49:

Great recap!

quote:

Originally posted by Crescent_Moon

I wonder why Jun and Jinpei share a bike though, surely it's not because it's too dangerous, he flies a plane : )

And openly drives a buggy-car around Utoland in the first series, despite only being 10 or 11.

Maybe the "special" ISO drivers license he mentions having in ep. 85 doesn't include being permitted to drive motorcycles?

quote:

Originally posted by Crescent_Moon
Everyone's having a great time, including Joe who even smiles.

I like that shot too. It's so rare to see Joe looking that happy!

quote:

Originally posted by Crescent_Moon
(His plane came out of the side of a cliff, not sure how that fits in with G-Town)

[/IMG]

If I recall, in some Gatch II ep it's revealed that the old God Phoenix is in a docking bay in the bottom of a cliff -and the cliff is directly underneath Dr. Nambu's villa (and presumably there's a secret passageway/elevator that leads from the villa down underground to the secret docking bay below.) Maybe that's where Ken is flying from in this scene, even if it isn't really shown that the villa is there?

quote:

Originally posted by Crescent_Moon
Joe is in the G2. He grandstands by jumping from the G2 onto the enemy ship, takes out the pilot with a kick, and crashes the ship into a cliff (Did he manage to get out in time?) Out of the flames (like a phoenix) appears a slightly winded looking Joe.

I've always thought that's a cool Condor action sequence! Also a second big hint (after him driving underground in ep.4) that this returned-from-the-dead Condor is more than a little inhumanly indestructible...

(Am I completely evil in that when the little boy is wailing "Papa!" over and over and over, some small part of me wants to see "Papa" bash him?)

Posted by Transmute Jun on 07-02-2011 at 15:32:

I also love that Condor action scene! I think it was my first attempt at a Gatch II animation, I thought it was so awesome! I know the second one I worked with was Jinpei's crash-landing in episode 6 (also known as the Pyramid Power episode).

I always thought those little moped things were pretty weeny. I mean, these people are used to something more adventurous! Could you at least make them dirt bikes (with appropriate bounces and thrills)?

LB, you're not alone. That standoff between the boy and his Papa went on waaaaay too long.

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 07-02-2011 at 23:14:

It's far too easy to get lost in that sort of thing. For some reason, scriptwriters find it necessary to overdo people calling out names or nicknames during the tense scenes. When it's filmed, audiences start mocking it. (Hellraiser II has a perfect example of this, as does the crapfest Night of the Lepus/)

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Posted by Crescent_Moon on 08-02-2011 at 08:07:

quote:

Originally posted by Transmute Jun
I always thought those little moped things were pretty weeny. I mean, these people are used to something more adventurous! Could you at least make them dirt bikes (with appropriate bounces and thrills)?

I thought that they looked like the kind of bikes that you'd hire, I can't see them owning those bikes either, especially not Joe.

quote:

Originally posted by Transmute Jun
LB, you're not alone. That standoff between the boy and his Papa went on waaaaay too long.

*puts hand up* I'd like to have seen some violence too, just a little.. : )

quote:

Originally posted by UnpublishedWriter
It's far too easy to get lost in that sort of thing. For some reason, scriptwriters find it necessary to overdo people calling out names or nicknames during the tense scenes.

My favourite example of this is in Akira between Kaneda and Testsuo. They spend most of the second half of the movie yelling each other's names : )