Gatchaman II episode recaps - Episode 4

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 4:

We open to a view of an unruined city. The narrator mentions Sosai X. He mentions something about Ameria. We see a monorail car moving through what looks like a massive underground Galactor base



Jaunty 70's music plays as we see a river of red and black sludge pour through some kind of machine. There's a massive drill digging into the ground (perhaps the liquid is some kind of oil to keep it from seizing up?)



Sosai X speaks to Gel Sadra, who mentions "Mantle energy" (are they trying to repeat the doomsday plot at the end of Gatchaman?)



Oops. The top of the drill explodes.



The drill disintegrates, taking with it a bunch of goons standing around its base. Gel Sadra receives a briefing from an excited goon. It seems that Sosai X is saying "What's going on?". Gel Sadra seems a little abashed.



A big container of the black and red liquid tips over, flooding the base and destroying everything in its path. It ruptures the Earth's surface with a massive vertical explosion.



We catch a glimpse of Gel Sadra's UFO escaping the scene.



The explosion is in the desert, but appears to be near the city we saw at the start of the episode (I should've remembered that seemingly innocent images at the start of an episode are invariably involved in destruction later) Skyscraper glass breaks, the ground swallows people, all this is being watched by the team and Nambu at (I guess) the underwater base.



The team looks aghast, Jun is visibly moved.



We see that Nambu takes care of his hair. Nambu mentions something about the videotape and Ameria. A serious discussion ensues, serious enough for Nambu to press a purple button that raises some sort of model from below the ground. A monopoly house faces a highrise some distance away, both are on colour-coded rollers that appear to represent the earth's crust. Nambu mentions the mantle project (I suspect that these two buildings are about to become intimately acquainted : )




(I was right!) Nambu presses a switch and the two buildings are thrown into each other by their respective conveyor belts (I think a diagram would bave worked just as well and saved the ISO some money). Nambu continues his lecture.



It seems that Galactor's latest plot involves making the red parts of the Earth's mantle move towards each other. The team takes off on their mission (not sure what it is though) and we see stock footage of the God Phoenix leaving the underwater base. Cut to Gel Sadra's saucer in the mountains of Ameris. Sosai X (always very formal, never just says "So, Sadra.." or "Hey, Gel") seems unimpressed with something. In response, Gel Sadra appears to make a convincing case.



There's a cool dissolve from Gel Sadra's eye to the eye of the God Phoenix. (I just noticed the expression on the God Phoenix, it looks pretty unimpressed, you'd better get out of its way!)



Wow, Nambu is on the God Phoenix! (Where does he sit, and does he have a seatbelt?) It flies across the Grand Canyons of Ameris and we see an overhead view of a long deep canyon that seems to be filled with lava.



Ken (seemingly) overreacts and pulls a Joe by pressing a button that starts a missile launch(he also uses a purple button like Nambu's, wouldn't want to get those two confused!) Nope, got that wrong, the missile just came out into the control room of the God Phoenix (that really doesn't seem safe) and is hanging there.



Nambu mentions New York (or is that my misinterpretation of two Japanese words? I thought they didn't use real place names in this series) There's some discussion about what the missile is for.

We hear a Gatchaman-esque whistle. Over the hill, backed by a blazing sun, we see a figure approach.



Commercial break

The figure approaches... Could it be? The camera shifts to show us legs and feet from behind. Jun's eyes widen in surprise she whispers "Joe.."



The feet stop. Jun says "Joe!" with a bit more force. Now we see what looks like Joe, standing with his hips thrust forward in a skintight suit and aviator sunglasses. He doesn't smile.



Tears roll down Jun's face. Jinpei finally believes that it's Joe. Ryu is surpised. Ken doesn't seem sure, maybe he thinks it's a trick.



The team rushes towards him. Jinpei first, Jun second, and Ryu third. Ryu's weight seems wrong when he's running. Ken and Nambu follow more slowly. Jinpei trips and the beak of his helmet gets stuck in the ground like an ostrich.



The team finally reach Joe, who casually takes off his sunglasses and says something cool. Jinpei hugs Joe, Ryu pats him on the head like a puppy (I'm thinking the old Joe wouldn't have stood for that!)


Joe sees Jun, and he moves towards her, she towards him. They extend their arms and hold hands. Joe has an intense expression on his face.



Jun hugs him and cries into his chest. Tears well up in Joe's eyes too, and he does a little man-cry.



Ken (perhaps remembering Joe's healing fists) raises his fist and punches Joe so hard that he goes flying (what happend to Jun here?)



Jun, Ryu and Jinpei look on in shock.



Joe raises his head, ruefully rubs his chin and says something that shows he's not angry at Ken (Probably something like "You still hit like a girl" : )



Ken extends his hand (open this time) and Joe extends his. Ken attempts to pull Joe up, but Joe throws him over his shoulder. Ken does a couple of flips and lands on his feet.



Joe stands. He and Ken face each other, Ken says something like "It's good to have you back". Their bodies remain cool and calm, their eyes betray the deep emotion they both feel at their reunion. They rush towards each other and hold each other's shoulders as they burst into laughter.



Ryu, Jinpei and Jun watch on. Ryu sounds like he expresses his happines and some surprise and it looks like Jinpei either makes fun of him or tells Joe what Ryu said.



Joe looks surprised, he turns his head away with downcast eyes and looks like he has a burden to bear that he can't share with the others.



Nambu puts a hand on Joe's shoulder, says some serious words (maybe a welcome back?) and then extends his hand for a handshake.



We hear some rumbling and Jun cries a warning as a sea of skyscrapers rises above the horizon.



Joe thinks it's Galactor (I do too : ) A gigantic snake-like mecha erupts from the ground, it's head appears to be a ball a with a hat (or a flying saucer) and it has a forked tail.



Joe gets in his car (handy how it just happened to be here for him!) and says something encouraging to the team before he drives off.



Nambu says "Joe.." like he still can't believe Joe's back (or, as I'd like to think, he's miffed that now he won't get to drive the car ; )



The mecha is on the move, it looks pretty cool! Twin lasers form in place of its eyes and searing beams cause explosions on the ground.



Joe dodges. The mecha is on his tail. Ken shoots some missiles at the snake-mecha, but they do no damage. The snake alerted to Ken's presence by the missiles rotates its eyes to face Ken's G1.

FYI, the 'planet of the apes monkey' is a primitive man. You've reached the caveman episode! Enjoy!

So Joe finally made it back! They certainly gave him a hero's welcome, didn't the! And I love Jun's emotional reaction. If you're interested in Condor/Swan, these first few episodes of Gatchaman II certainly make for interesting fodder... the way she screams his name, refuses to believe he's dead and runs after him... and this episode caps it all. Jun screaming Joe's name in that ruined city on her knees just gets to me... and then she cries when they find him... and he cries too! How many times do you see Joe cry? Really?

And of course, Ken's so jealous he has to slug Joe while he's hugging Jun.

I have to admit, they had some good tension going for these first four episodes. Too bad the next two are so lame...

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Doctor Nambu brings a vehicle for Joe to the very place he'll show up. Another case of 'What does he know, and when did he know it?'

Amazing vehicles the team has: they can withstand molten lava with not so much as a sticky tire.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

Missed that. But what was Nambu doing with a 'Condor Tracker' before they knew Joe was back?

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

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-Boeke
Bird Scramble OE
155 issues - 36.5Years! - and flying high!

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To be or not to be a gatchamaniac - that's the dilemma!

Dinzumo came up with a pretty good explanation for that in her Out of the Shadows series. She postulated that Nambu knew Getz was a Galactor and so did not give him the uniform that had been developed for him. Instead, Nambu game him an old uniform of Joe's knowing that the technology was outdated, and if it got analyzed by the Galactors it wouldn't be much of a security risk.

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It would be a way of covering the civilian identities. No, Joe Asakura wasn't the Condor: that psycho bird is still around.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features