Gatchaman Episode 38: “The Mysterious Mechanized Jungle”

[Thank you, Saturn, for the screencaps!]

Gatchaman Episode 38: “The Mysterious Mechanized Jungle”

BOTP Episode: N/A





The episode begins with a cow skeleton lying in a windswept desert. Hmm, not the most cheerful sight. But soon we’re shown a city in the distance, in the midst of the desert, as the narrator tells us “As part of the ISO’s Mantle Project, a pollution-free City called Utopia was created in the middle of a desert.”

Now we’re shown this spiffy, high-tech city up close, as cheerful, carnival-like music plays.





“On the outskirts of the city, a power plant was built that uses terrestrial heat to produce electricity,” says the narrator as we’re shown large pipes that come out of the ground and extend to the city and he explains that this city uses no pollution-creating petroleum.





We’re also shown numerous vehicles zooming around the city on elevated tracks, and a control room where multiple screens display the traffic in various areas of the city to personnel, as the narrator explains that “a new, fully computerized transportation system was established and quiet-running super-fast trains connect the model to other cities.”

The next bit cracks me up every time. The narrator tells us “Each home is fully automated and designed for a comfortable lifestyle for its inhabitants,” as we see a sleeping man get flipped upright by his automated bed (as the bedroom curtains open automatically to let in light) and conveyed to his shower where mechanical arms wash his hair and scrub him clean as he stands there passively.







The narrator next explains that “in order to conserve water, dirty water is cycled through a water treatment facility where water reductors convert dirty water into clean water and send it back to the citizens’ homes,” as we’re shown water coursing through large pipes to the water facility, and then some of the newly cleaned water being automatically poured into a glass and conveyed automatically to one of the mechanical arms in the shower.







The mechanical arm then holds the glass up to the man’s mouth so that he can swish out his mouth (as the other mechanical arm has just finished brushing his teeth for him). Ooh, the man actually had to tilt his head all by himself there –what a great effort on his part!





Next, the mechanical arms dry and comb his hair for him, and he is automatically conveyed to another chamber where mechanical arms put all his clothes on him, though he does have to lift his arms up without any mechanical assistance –somehow the man endures this.







Then, he even has to take a few steps all on his own into the main area of his home, as we briefly see his wife and son eating at a table (he ignores them completely), and pause as one mechanical arm polishes his shoes, another hands him his briefcase, and yet another puts his hat on his head.





Finally, he steps out the door and gets into his car. But, of course, he doesn’t actually have to drive it –that would be work!





No, he pushes a button and a map on a little screen shows a planned route that his car will now automatically take to get him to his place of work (if this lazy creature is actually capable of any work!). It doesn’t look like the most direct route, though, but maybe there are one-way streets in Utopia.





“Today, the city of Utopia is having its inauguration,” the narrator tells us, as we see a parade that consists of large dinosaur statues being conveyed along one of Utopia’s principal streets as crowds on either side watch.





The parade also features majorettes, whose uniforms actually look rather similar to Jun’s birdstyle. Coincidence? You decide…





Dr. Nambu is watching the parade too, but he’s not down on street level. Rather, he’s up in a special glassed-in VIP viewing area and accompanied by a rather peeved-looking Joe (annoyed perhaps, that he didn’t get a chair?).







Now we see the truck down in the street below that’s pulling the platform on which all the dinosaur statues are standing, and a little hole opens up in its roof. Out comes a somewhat odd-looking man who spreads his arms and declaims “Hello boys and girls! In celebration of the inauguration of the pollution-free city of Utopia, I’d like to invite you all to the world dinosaur show that begins tomorrow!”





As he’s talking, we can see that Ken, Jun and Jinpei are in the crowd of (mostly) children watching from the street.






“Please join us,” continues the man, “I am archaeologist, Dr. Mukashiski, and I’m very pleased to meet all of you!” Here he takes off his hat and bows.

Up in the VIP loge, Dr. Nambu says to himself “Dr. Mukashiski… I’ve never heard of him,” while holding his chin and looking puzzled, like one trying to place an unfamiliar name. Joe’s not impressed, and thinks that he doesn’t look much like an archaeologist.

Down in the street, Dr. Mukashiski is inviting children to come and take a closer look at his dinosaurs, and Jinpei says “Hey, Big Brother, that looks cool –I’m going to go check it out!” and dashes forward. “What’s so groovy about a big fake dinosaur?” asks Ken, after Jinpei’s out of earshot. Jun shrugs and replies “Sometimes we forget that Jinpei’s still a kid.”






Ken gets that, but reminds Jun that they’re on duty to watch for Galactor. With that, he starts walking away. With a “Ken, wait for me!” Jun follows him.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mukashiski is telling the crowd of children to come to his exhibit tomorrow, “and see it all!” He then opens up a box at his feet and announces that he’s going to give away fireworks to all the kids that are watching him. Eager hands reach out from all sides, as kids rush forward to get fireworks.





With a “Me too!” Jinpei pushes his way through the crowd, right up to the box. A genial Dr. Mukashiski tells him to take some, but as Jinpei reaches out to do so, Dr. Mukashiski suddenly grabs Jinpei’s left wrist –where Jinpei’s bracelet is concealed by a wrapping of white bandage.

“What on Earth happened to your wrist, little boy?” he asks, frowning in a sinister manner.





“Huh? Um… nothing,” says a slightly nervous Jinpei, “I just hurt myself in a fight.” Dr. Mukashiski seems to find this a plausible response. “Well, boys will be boys, I suppose,” he says, smiling again. He then gives Jinpei an extra bunch of fireworks, so Jinpei thanks him and says he’ll see him at the exhibit, before heading off back into the crowd again (and pausing to turn back and pick up some fireworks he dropped).





Up in the VIP loge, Joe is now laughing (about Jinpei, as usual) and says “Man, Jinpei, what a goofy kid,” but Dr. Nambu is looking a bit preoccupied.





It’s nighttime now in Utopia. High atop a tall building, Dr. Nambu and the team are relaxing in a room with large windows that provide a view of city around them.





Leaning on a windowsill, Jun sighs dreamily, “From here, the stars look so beautiful.” “Think how great it would be if every city in the world were like Utopia,” says Ken. Dr. Nambu concurs, and says that if the Mantle Project goes well, it could one day be a reality. “However,” adds Dr. Nambu, “As long as Galactor continues their quest for world domination, a city of dreams won’t be allowed to exist.”

At this, Jun turns from the window and says “Doctor, we will destroy Galactor. It’s just a matter of time,” in a firm voice. Perhaps a lot of time –just at that moment, a massive explosion erupts outside in the city.





More explosions follow rapidly, as everyone reacts with alarm. Ken immediately requests Dr. Nambu’s permission to go out and help Utopia’s citizens, and he tells them to “go out there and get to the bottom of this!” Pausing briefly for a group “Roger!” they all head out.

We only see feet and tails, but it sure looks like it’s dinosaurs that are responsible for the explosions, as they’re smashing up buildings, trains and cars, and flames are burning everywhere and panicked people are running in terror.

As he says this, light glints off the eyes of the dinosaurs in the exhibit, and now they’re moving forward on tracks that run along the ground. We see the dinosaur pavilion from the outside now, and both sides of its large glass dome are retracting upwards.

Soon, the dinosaurs from the exhibit are gliding forth from the pavilion.





Dr. Mukashiski stands inside some sort of control room with a guy whose costume screams “Captain of the Week.” “I’ll have the dinosaurs run amok at the geothermal power plant. That should lure them out into the open,” says Dr. Mukashiski. The Captain thinks that’s a good idea, as “no one will ever suspect that the CVS control is operating the dinosaurs.” As he says this, we can see various Galactor goons in the room –it’s the control room for Utopia’s transportation system, but its true personnel are now gagged and tied up on the floor (quite humane for Galactor –I’m surprised they aren’t dead).





The traffic that’s being shown now on the multiple screens is all of the dinosaurs using the city’s tracks to move about Utopia.





As we hear the Captain yell “Annihilate the city!” we can see the various dinosaurs wreaking havoc by smashing stuff up and causing fires as they head towards the geothermal plant.





Commercial break!


“Dinosaurs are on the rampage again?” demands Dr. Nambu, as an anxious voice over some kind of communications system (it doesn’t look much like a telephone but maybe it is) tells him that they’re heading for the power plant. It seems that Dr. Nambu’s still in that room with the big windows atop the tall building. He opens a blind to view the destruction outside in the city as the Science Ninjas gather behind him.





“See, it’s just like I said. The dinosaurs have gone wacko!” declares Jinpei.

Dr. Nambu wants “the four of you” (Ken is silent and miserable-looking as he hears this) to attack Galactor’s base at the dinosaur exhibit and he says he’ll get the Red Impulse team to go after the dinosaurs. He orders Ken to stay behind. “But let me at least try to get my bracelet back, Doctor,” says Ken, not yelling but still clearly feeling strongly about it. But Dr. Nambu still says no, as he’s sure that Ken is the one that Galactor is waiting for. “I don’t care what happens to me. I’ve got to get it back!” says Ken, more vehemently now, hands clenched in the air before him.

“I’m afraid you’re not in the right state of mind,” replies Dr. Nambu (while looking out the window, his back to the room). Ken reacts with a gasp. “As the leader of the Science Ninja Team, you are supposed to remain calm. You’ve lost your cool, Ken.”

I guess you really shouldn’t have yelled at him before, Ken.

“I’m sorry,” says Dr. Nambu, turning now, “But I can’t let you go.”






He walks over to the communications device (telephone?) and requests to be connected to the Red Impulse base, and then orders the others (minus Ken) to head out. With a “Roger!” they all run out of the room. Now Red Impulse is on the line, and Dr. Nambu tells him “dinosaurs have gone berserk and are destroying Utopia,” so Red Impulse agrees to help. With that done, Dr. Nambu starts speaking quietly to Ken, saying “I hope you can understand, Ken. I know that you feel it’s your duty but I cannot send you into danger without any way of protecting yourself.” He doesn’t hear any reply, so he turns and then sees that the room is empty. Ken is gone.

“Ken, you didn’t…” he whispers.

Ken sure did! He’s zooming along the street on his motorcycle, thinking “Please forgive me, Doctor.”





Meanwhile, Joe, Jun and Ryu (all in birdstyle) are on top of the dome of the dinosaur pavilion. They open a circular door in its roof and jump down inside, landing on the ground far below, surrounded by the jungle. (Ryu does land on his feet, albeit a bit clumsily.) Almost instantly, the same vines that ensnared Ken before come lunging at the three of them. They fare better than Ken did, though –maybe because they were expecting to be attacked. A vine manages to grab Jun’s foot and another one gets Ryu’s wrist, but none of them get Joe.





Leaping up in the air, Joe pulls out his gun and fires the cable at the vine around Jun’s foot, severing the vine.







She and Joe are then able to perch on top of a nearby volcano, out of the vines’ reach, but down below, Ryu’s got a vine around his wrist and his foot now. With a “yoyo strike!” Jun severs both of the vines ensnaring Ryu.







Using the cord of her yoyo, she and Joe pull Ryu up to the top of the volcano, even as the vines below try to grab him again. But, now that all three of them are perched on the top of the volcano, cloudy fumes suddenly come out of it, enveloping them. Coughing and choking, they all fall into the volcano’s cone, and it’s a long way down.





At the cone’s bottom, they tumble through a chute and then end up on the floor of a room, surrounded by armed Galactor goons. On a higher level of the room, Dr. Mukashiski and the Captain of the Week stand, gloating.





After a laugh of triumph, though, Dr. Mukashiski is disappointed to realize that he’s only captured three, not five, Science Ninjas. He demands to know where the other two are, but gets no reply.





I’m not even sure why Joe, Jun and Ryu are just sitting there on the floor –surely they could attack the goons surrounding them. I will assume they are merely waiting for the most opportune moment.

Now we cut to Ken. He’s on foot, and running through one of the large underground water conduits.

He pauses, as several armed goons running in his direction. By the time the goons get to where they think they saw a shadow, Ken’s not in sight. The goons are about to start searching around for him, but Ken leaps out from behind a spout of water pouring in from a smaller pipe and attacks all the goons. With kicks and puches, he takes down all but one goon. The remaining goon has his machine gun pointed straight at Ken, so Ken stops and puts his hands up as the goon laughs nastily. However, a loud noise from behind causes the goon to turn his head away from Ken and in that instant, Ken punches him in the head. As the goon falls, we and Ken see that Jinpei’s helico buggy is now in the conduit.





Inside it, Jinpei has set off a bunch of the little fireworks that Dr. Mukashiski had been handing out to children at the parade –that was the noise that had distracted the goon. “I rule,” thinks Jinpei to himself.





Ken is grateful for the rescue, and joins Jinpei inside his buggy. Ken wants to know how Jinpei knew to look for him, and Jinpei says “I knew you weren’t going to just hang out at the base. But you should be a little more careful without your bracelet, Big Bro!” “Oh really?” says Ken, rapping the top of Jinpei’s helmet as Jinpei smirks (clearly enjoying the opportunity to chastise rather than be chastised).






They continue down the conduit in Jinpei’s buggy, as Ken surmises that the water conduit connects to Galactor’s secret base. Now, they can see wires and tracks running along the top of the conduit. Jinpei wonders what they are, but Ken remembers seeing the automatic cars on the tracks in Utopia, and then the dinosaurs moving about the city, and he realizes that the wires are “remote control wiring for a CVS car. That means they’re using them to operate the dinosaurs!” So, he and Jinpei now know that if they cut the wiring, the dinosaurs will stop moving, but Ken says they have to find Galactor’s base first. “Yeah, we’ve got to find your bracelet,” says Jinpei, “Joe and the others should already be there.”

Well, yes, they are there, but they’re still sitting on the floor, surrounded by goons with machine guns trained on them.





Dr. Mukashiski is getting impatient waiting for the remaining two Ninjas to show up, and decides to execute the three that he has got. But first, he approaches them and says that if they tell him where the other two are, he might consider sparing them. Joe, Jun and Ryu don’t say a word, and just continue to sit still. “Tell me now, or do you want to die?” he demands, grabbing Jun’s chin.

Once he’s back inside the buggy, Ken thanks Jinpei for saving his life –again! (Jinpei’s doing well in this episode).








Jinpei can’t take all the credit though; he explains to Ken that it must have been Joe and the others who were able to destroy the remote control operation. Staring down at the flaming wreckage of the mechas, Jinpei is worried about the rest of the Team. Ken quickly contacts Joe on his bracelet, asking if he, Jun and Ryu are okay. Joe responds and we see him, Jun and Ryu all standing near the burning remains of the dinosaur pavilion.







“Of course we are,” replies Joe, “We’re a team, after all. Ken, if one of us bites the dust, then we’re all dead.” Interesting words…

Ken looks abashed. “Yeah, you’re right about that, Joe,” says Ken, “I disobeyed Dr. Nambu’s orders and I’m certain I’ll be duly punished for my actions.”







But Jun says “Ken, I think the Doctor will be proud of all that you’ve accomplished today,” and Ryu adds “Yeah, and if the Doctor tries to yell at you for that, I’ll never forgive him!” Ken looks quite touched by this show of support, and thanks them. “If I didn’t know better,” smirks Jinpei, “I’d say that you’re about to get all weepy!”







Ken responds with “Why you!” and shoves Jinpei’s helmet in a joking way as Jinpei smiles.







On that lighter note, Jinpei’s buggy flies off, past the still-burning wreckage from the mechas below.


This is another episode that never got used in Battle of the Planets, though I’m really not sure why, as there’s nothing really violent in it that couldn’t have been edited out fairly easily. Unless maybe they were uncomfortable about all those bondage scenes…

The End.

Another great job LB and Saturn--Thank You!

I know its funny but the part where the bed flips up and puts the guy in the shower, does his hair, brushes his teeth, dresses him and then drives his car sounds like something that would be useful nowadays. Some mornings I really wish I could live in a house like that. I need the bed to push me out of it!

Seriously though, Ken really loses it this episode about his bracelet almost like he's about to fly into a rage. If I remember I think he was the same when Jun lost her shoe (a little foreshadowing here).

__________________
Old age is a high price to pay for maturity.

I always remember this episode when I watch Secret of the Birdstyles (where Jun lost her shoe). Here, Jun is really trying to sympathize with Ken, but he doesn't return the favor later on. In both cases, they lost their 'items' whiel doing their duty: in Ken's case investigating the Dinosaur Pavilion and in Jun's case while saving civilian lives during a mecha attack. No one wants to cut anyone any slack... yeah they have to get the item back and it's a terrible thing... but you don't need to beat them up over it! In both cases, Ken and Jun get reckless to recover their lost items.

ITA, too much bondage in this ep. Makes you wonder what those Tatsunoko animators were into....

The chess thing was werid at the end... the dinosaurs are all over the city at first and now they're confined to a giant chess set? That doesn't make any sense, other than to use that setting for the mecha. Personally, I think it would have been freakier if underneath their skins the dinosaurs had been some kind of 'bone' mechas... like in the Trachodon ep, but that's a few episodes off.

And that automated house is terrible! If machines really did all of that for people, we'd all be fat tubs just rolling around! Think Wall-E...

__________________

Bad guys behaving like children. Anybody notice that?

__________________
Benefits, not features; benefits, not features