Gatchaman Episode 7 - Galactor's Giant Air Show

Gatchaman Episode 7  Galactor's Giant Air Show



Aviation has progressed far in the future. But Dr. Nambu has single-handedly caused it to progress further by inventing a non-polluting airplane. Today, the plane will be tested. At this very moment, the plane is taking off for its first flight.

The airport is full of people waiting for this momentous flight. Seems overly-confident of Nambu to not test out the plane first, before showing it to all of these people. Wouldn't he want to fly it at least once?

But never fear, our test pilot is none other than Eagle Ken himself!



Ken and Nambu hold hands for a long time, looking into each others' eyes as they have their conversation. Okay, it's not quite like it sounds, but they are shaking hands, and they hold them still for a reeeeeeally long time. It's a little strange, but I guess the animators were taking a coffee break or something.

"I'm counting on you!" Nambu tells Ken.



"You betcha, Doctor! I'll give it everything I've got!" Ken exclaims.

Is it just me or does he look like the Speed Racer guy here?



Dr. Nambu's pollution-free plane.



Ken requests clearance for takeoff.



Once told he's clear for takeoff, Ken winks at the men in the control tower.



Okay, I'm not into yaoi or anything, but seriously, there's a lot of fodder in this episode, and we're not even three minutes in!

Ken starts the plane, heads down the runway, retracts the landing gear, and takes off. Dr. Nambu, Jinpei and Jun are watching from the airport.

"He's outta sight!" Jinpei exclaims while watching Ken.

"He sure is." Jun adds dreamily.



"This is Ken in the test plane." Ken says.

Wait a minute. When did he become 'Ken-in-the-test-plane'? This is reminding me of the first Harry Potter book, when the Hogwarts acceptance letters are trying to reach him. Harry Potter-in-the-closet-under-the-stairs...

But I digress. Ken reports his altitude to the control tower. He's at 10,000 feet. Wait... I thought in the future they used the metric system?

But Ken gasps when he sees another airplane in the distance.



The airplane approaches Ken, and it looks like they are going to have a head-on collision.

"Watch out Ken!" Nambu cries, as if the Eagle could hear him.

"Oh, Big Brother, get out of there!" Jinpei shouts.

Do these guys actually think Ken can hear them?

Joe and Ryu have suddenly appeared, and they watch this imminent disaster in shock.



The other plane is shaped like an old-fashioned biplane, except the wings look like bat wings. Just like an old-time stuntman, the pilot is standing on the wings, behind the propeller. He's dressed like Thursten Howell III (from Gilligan's Island) but has a strange cow-skull face. Big horns protrude from his head. To top it all off, he's got blonde hair and sunglasses. He looks like a Mr. Howell cadaver wanting to be a surfer dude.



Um... the look doesn't do it for me. JMHO.

"I am Katzenberg, the Steel Demon!" the Mr. Howell Surfer Cadaver announces in a familiar villainous voice using a bad Germanic accent.

"Who is this Katzenberg?" Ken whispers in shock.



Gee, Ken, I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count!

Metallic whips grow out of the biplane, and they last out at Ken's jet as the two aircraft pass each other.



Ken's plane is damaged, and he finds himself plummeting from the sky.

Katzenberg looks on as his plane moves away.



Ken appears to be unable to do anything to save the plane, as he sits in the cockpit, frozen in fear.



Eventually, the plane crashes into the ocean.



Dr. Nambu is horrified when he witnesses this.



The others appear more angry than worried.



"What did they do to my Big Bro?" Jinpei shouts angrily.

"Ken..." whimpers Jun.

But above the ocean wreckage, no one has noticed a parachute coming down from the sky. Ken is safe!



But this isn't it for Katzenberg. He is moving on toward the airport, his plane's metal whips lashing out at any aircraft they can reach. People run and scream in fear as he approaches.



"Doctor!" Jinpei cries, pulling at Nambu's arm, "this is dangerous! We've got to get out of here, quick!"

Notice that Jun's pants have turned orange. They must be reflecting all of the flames from the exploding planes.



Everyone runs as a metal whip lashes the balcony they were standing on, destroying it.

The same group of spectators runs from the flames as Katzenberg pursues them.



More aircraft are destroyed. Katzenberg is having fun!

"I love this!" he cackles.

Meanwhile, Ken is floating calmly in the ocean.



He gets a frantic message from Nambu, asking if he's all right.



"Yeah." Ken replies casually. He goes on to tell Nambu the bad guy's name, and asks the Doctor if he knows who Katzenberg is.



Nambu is stumped. I thought this guy was supposed to be smart! The other Science Ninjas appear stumped as well.



But never fear! It turns out the Condor is the smartest of all! He easily deduces that Katzenberg must be none other than... dun dun dun... Berg Katse!

Oh, the shocker! Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?

"Yeah, it has to be him!" Jun agrees. "He's the only person who would do something so horrible!"

Notice that Jun's number three is hollowed out in this shot.



Nambu agrees. Obviously only Katse would want to destroy the powerful new plane the Doctor took such pains to build.

"Galactor!" Ken exclaims, still bobbing in the water. "Those guys again? When will they every stop?"

Um, in about 97 more episodes, Ken. And then they come back again a couple of years later.



But Ken isn't pondering these truths as he sits in the water. He insists that Nambu allow them to launch the God Phoenix as soon as possible. I guess they're going to drop him a lifesaver ring enroute?

Nambu agrees, and tells the others to launch the God Phoenix.

Meanwhile, a rocket is preparing for liftoff. It launches for space. but Katzenberg and his biplane arrive, using its whips to cut off the rocket's nose, destroying it.

"Auf wiedersehen!" cackles Katzenberg in his bad Germanic accent.



Even as this is happening, the G-1 is docking with the God Phoenix. I guess Ken had time to be rescued from the ocean, return to his Cessna and take off.

Cue standard docking footage.

The God Phoenix quickly catches up with Katzenberg's biplane.

"There he is! Galactor bastard!" Ryu exclaims.

Can anyone tell me if this is a blooper or not? Is Ryu supposed to have a line of bare skin between his helmet and his cowl?



"Do you think you can win against the scientific power of Galactor?" Katzenberg laughs as he turns to meet the God Phoenix head on.

This only angers Ryu, who starts calling Katzenberg names.



The two planes pass by, and the whips lash out at the God Phoenix.



Okay, maybe this is just me, but why aren't they just shooting a Bird Missile at this guy? Don't get close to the plane, just destroy it from afar! Seems like the best plan. Instead they're doing some kind of old West showdown. Sigh...

"I can't take it!" Joe exclaims, rushing for the Bird Missile launcher. The Condor really is showing his intelligence today.

Joe doesn't even ask for permission to fire the Bird Missile! Oh, be still my beating heart...



"Nein!" shouts Katzenberg, as he covers himself with a glass dome to protect himself from the missile coming his way.



Well, it seems as if that plan was no good. The missile hits dead on, but there's no damage to the plane.

"The Bird Missiles don't faze it!" Ken exclaims in horror. Hey, shouldn't that be Joes line?



The whips last out, cutting off a corner of the God Phoenix's tail wing. It is inconceivable that he has damaged the God Phoenix.

"What the hell is that whip made of?" Ken wants to know.



Seeing as he is winning the fight, Katzenberg leaves.

Yep, I'm not kidding. He just decides to go home for the day. Now I'm not an evil villain, but this seems like it would be the perfect time for him to keep lashing about at the God Phoenix. Just saying...

But no, Katzenberg is off with one last 'auf wiedersehen'.

The whips retract inside of the plane, the bat wings fold up, and the landing gear is pulled inside. Even the propeller goes away, replaced by a nose cone, as the plane is turned into a rocket. The God Phoenix chases the rocket, but it proves to be much too fast for them to keep up.

"Damn it!" screams Ken.



Jun suggests that they all go back and talk to Dr. Nambu.



Back at Nambu's villa, the Doctor is examining pieces of metal with a giant microscope. It's so big that he has to sit on a special platform, high above the floor.



He's examining pieces of the God Phoenix that were damaged in the encounter with Katzenberg.

"This is... interesting." he says in an unexcited tone.

Ken crows that he just knew this wasnt a normal metal alloy.



Nambu agrees. Galactor has come across something incredible: this is a unique supermetal named Whisker.

Jinpei thinks the Doctor said 'whiskey', but Jun corrects him.



Ryu asks calmly what Whisker is.



Whisker is the strongest metal; even stronger than steel. It's a thousand times stronger than any other metal. Ken makes the astounding leap of intuition to suggest that the biplane and the whips were made of Whisker.



"So that's why the Bird Missiles didn't work on it!" Ryu exclaims angrily.



Nambu had no idea that Galactor would be capable of this scientific development. He goes so far to say that there is no way they can win if this weapon is used against them.

Notice how all of the belt buckles are backward here.



Ken suggests that they make weapons out of Whisker too.

"Dynomite!" yells Jinpei. ADV seventies dialogue strikes again...



Nambu bursts their bubble. The ISO has been researching Whisker for many years, but they haven't made it yet. Galactor's science is far more advanced that theirs.

Ryu and Joe are upset at the thought that Galactor will just keep on 'clobbering' them.



Nambu declares that they must find Galactors Whisker-making factory and destroy it. So off goes the God Phoenix again, in search of this factory.

The Science Ninja Team immediately begins searching all of the world mines. They are now on their third day. Good thing Katzenberg didn't come back during all of that time!

The Team looks tired of searching.



Suddenly, the instruments light up! Ryu reports that 'the magnetic force is huge'. Ken looks at his map, guessing where a large mine might be. He orders Ryu to get closer to investigate.



But as they descend, rocks on the ground move aside, revealing a metal plate with spikes.

"No way! We've found it!" Ken is apparently shocked by their success.



The spikes turn out to be missiles, which shoot up at the God Phoenix.

Ryu avoids the missiles, but to do so he has to go down toward the ground. Ken tells Ryu to pretend they've been shot, and then they can infiltrate the secret factory.



Ryu quickly realizes that this means that he has to stay all by himself on the God Phoenix again.

"Keep on truckin'!" is Ken's pithy seventies response.



Ryu allows the God Phoenix to get close to two missiles which impact each other, making it look like they are hit. He purposely vents black smoke to make it look like they're hit.



Everyone except Ryu leaps out as the Owl fakes a crash-landing. Strangely, Jun's cowl has turned pink for this mission.



Joe's cowl has turned brown, but somehow my screenshot of that didn't come out.

"Wunderbar!" shouts Katzenberg, as he sees the God Phoenix smoking from inside the base.



The Science Ninja Team run up the hills, racing to get inside the base before the rock door closes.



Night falls, and the Team drop down from their place of concealment on the ceiling.



Ken is impressed by the factory, while Jinpei wants to plant explosives and blow them to bits.



Joe points out that if the furnace collapses, the melted Whisker will spill on them, and they'll be dead.



"Oh, Ken!" Jun asks in her best damsel-in-distress voice. "What should we do, then?"

Good thing Ken talked to Nambu before they left! The Eagle says that the Doctor told them to destroy the master computer.



They hear a noise, and everyone hides. A strange vehicle rolls in, and Ken and Jun smirk. Jun and Jinpei pull out their weapons, while Ken just steps out in front of the vehicle.



A confused guard emerges from the vehicle, just in time for Jun's Yo-Yo Strike!







Not to be deterred, another goon pops his head up, only to be taken out by Jinpei's bolas.



Joe leaps down from the ceiling to attack another goon.





Ken says that he and Jun will go find the computer, while Jinpei and Joe look for the nuclear reactor.



Jinpei salutes, suggesting that Jun is happy to be going off with Ken.



He gets a smack and a 'Spaz!' for his trouble.



Joe jumps into the now-empty vehicle.

Ken and Jun sneak through the base.



The computer turns out to be at the bottom of a long cylindrical hole. Jun thinks it's kind of creepy, but of course, they don't let that stop Ken from going down. He orders Jun to wait at the top.



Unfortunately, on the ladder, Ken doesn't see the guns aimed at his back. Jun is horrified.



She calls out a warning, and Ken is able to duck before his helmet gets melted.



Ken falls upside down on the ladder avoiding another blast. He pulls out his boomerang and throws it at the guns, slicing off the barrels.



He glides to the bottom of the cylinder, catching his weapon.



Ken twirls his boomerang around a few times in a showy manner before re-holstering it, then waves cockily at Jun.

"Yeah..." he says smugly.



Jun giggles and descends the ladder too.

Ken contacts Joe and Jinpei. They're at the reactor, ready to get started.



But not so fast!

"Actung!" cries a familiar bad German accent. Katzenberg has Joe and Jinpei surrounded! High above them, a ring of goons point their guns at the two ninjas.



Katzenberg demands that Joe and Jinpei drop their weapons.



"Don't make us hurt you!" Jinpei scowls and chatters in a creepy, horror movie kind of way. This reminds me a lot of those little pygmies from the jungles in Diablo II.

But strangely, Joe and Jinpei give in. What's going on? How can the Condor do this?

Oh wait, Joe's being smart today. He must have a plan up his sleeve.

Jinpei doesn't look too confident.



Back at the main computer, Ken and Jun are studying the device.



Ken says that if they disable the computer, the entire factory will be paralyzed.



Jun works on the computer, while Ken urges her to work faster.



He's so busy nagging her that he barely escapes a giant claw coming at him.



Ken and Jun are surrounded by weird grasshopper/claw mini-mecha!



The grasshopper strikes with its claws!



Despite how it looks for poor Jun, they avoid the swipes, and Ken moves protectively in front of Jun. Then they hold hands.



Okay, they're not really holding hands. Ken's helping Jun on his back to perform a mini Tornado Fighter!





The Tornado lifts them out of there, and the grasshopper mini-mecha end up destroying the computer with their own claw hits.

Ken and Jun get the heck out of there, just before everything explodes.



Katzenberg sees the explosions on his monitor, and gets angry.

"The computer is kaput!" he cries.



Jinpei cheers. Wait a minute. Are Joe and Jinpei still just standing there? Why hasn't Joe done anything yet?

Jinpei says that Ken is always a success. Joe tells him that 'this is no time to worship Ken'. Jinpei says that Joe is just jealous.



This spurs Joe into action. He leaps into the air, followed by Jinpei. Dodging gunfire and flipping in midair, Joe turns and lands on the upper deck of the room, socking goons left and right! It's a short and ugly Condor fight scene.





Jinpei follows Joe's lead. He throws his bolas at two goons, then lands on their heads.



Wait a minute... I thought Jinpei surrendered his bolas to Katzengberg?

Then he pushes them to the floor and bashes their heads together.



Meanwhile, Joe is taking out the last goons, and turns to face Katzenberg.



Of course, since Katzenberg is really Katse he... turns and runs away.

Joe pulls out his cablegun and fires. Guess he got his weapon back too.



Unfortunately, Katzenberg pulls a goon in front of him, and it is the goon who gets strangled by the gun's crescent-shaped blade.



Katzenberg gets away.

Meanwhile, Ken and Jun are climbing the big ladder out of the cylinder where the computer was located. Ken urges Jun to climb faster by holding her hand. Awwww...



But Katzenberg appears at the top of the ladder! He's mad that they destroyed his computer, and lashes his whip at the ladder.



Ken and Jun are barely hanging on!



Katzenberg lashes the other side of the ladder, and now it is completely gone!



Ken is holding onto what's left of the ladder with one hand, and Jun with the other.



They're trying to make this look precarious, but really, couldn't Ken and Jun just glide to the bottom floor again?

Jun pulls out her yo-yo and throws it at the upper railing. It latches on just as Ken is forced to let go of the ladder.



Ken and Jun fly up to the top, pulled up by the yo-yo. Ken gets a good view of Jun's panchira.



They are now facing Katzenberg down on equal footing. Undeterred, Katzenberg lashes his whip, but Ken and Jun are ready.



Meanwhile, Joe and Jinpei have picked up some discarded goon weapons and are having a good old time.



They shoot at the reactor, causing it to explode. As it starts to blow, they get the heck out of there.



An alarm sounds, causing Katzenberg to lower his whip in shock.

Ken takes advantage of this opportunity and leaps at Katzenberg, chopping Katzenberg's hand, which causes him to drop the whip.



But when Ken grabs for Katzenberg, he just ends up with an empty Thurston Howell III costume.



Ken moves to run after Katzenberg, but Jun calls him back, reminding him that the mission is over. She suggests that they just get out of there. Ken reluctantly agrees.



Ken calls for Ryu to pick them up.

Jinpei and Joe are still feeling from the reactor. They reach the hangar where they entered the base, and Joe pulls the lever to open the doors.



The God Phoenix lands on top of the open door, and a hatch in the bottom of the warship opens up. Joe and Jinpei leap up to the God Phoenix.

Inside the hatch, Ryu wonders where Ken and Jun are.



But then the Owl spots his missing teammates.



Ken begins to throw Katzenberg's Whisker Whip up to the ship.



But as he does this, a massive container of molten Whisker tips over. Molten metal spills across the floor.

Ken pulls Jun up to safety.



I'm not sure why they can't leap up like Joe and Jinpei did?

Joe worries that his teammates won't make it. If the molten metals reach the missiles, they might detonate!



Ken pulls Jun to the top of the missile-launching platform.



Then lashes out with the whip, grabbing the God Phoenix. Ken and Jun are pulled up to safety.



Back on the God Phoenix, Ken orders Ryu to get the heck out of there.



But Ryu seems to be having trouble getting the God Phoenix to go.



The magnetism is pulling them down, and those missiles are about to detonate!

But just as the missiles are about to explode, Ryu fires the jets, and the God Phoenix escapes.



As they leave, Katzenberg (dressed in another Mr. Howell Beach Cadaver costume... how many does he have, anyhow?) vows that he will get Gatchaman back.



But the Science Ninja Team don't hear him as they head home to the sounds of happy flute music.



Ken inexplicably drops the whip into the ocean on the way.



Couldn't the ISO have used it or something? This doesn't seem too bright to me.

The narrator bids Gatchaman to 'Go, for the sake of World Peace!'. And as they God Phoenix flies off in the moonlight, I guess that's just what they are doing.

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RE: Gatchaman Episode 7 - Galactor's Giant Air Show

Another great recap -I'm still laughing here!

Awesome recaps, TJ.

For some reason I always thought that this was the episode (Gatch) that Jun got hurt during the fight and that was why Ken held her hand and helped her up onto the Phoenix. (she got clipped on the ankle and fell)...

It must've been a different eppy, and now I want to know which one it was...

There was a lit of animation flubs in that one - especially with Princess/Jun. The visor shape, her dress no longer being sleeveless, and the hollow three (I'm ignoring the Zark picture because that's just horrid.... although it appears that her legs are as long as mine)

Awesome job, though, girl!! Thanks

SJ

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Sighhh

Why do men snore when lying on their backs?
Because their balls fall over their butt holes and they vapour lock.

Ok, this was fabulous, baybee! You gave me several new bloopers to add to the fan page...and your comments were hilarious! I especially loved "Thurston Howell the surfer dude cadaver" !

I'll be back later to add the link to my fan page...I gotta get to school quickly and do sub plans this morning...

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There is no problem that cannot be solved with time, patience, and a judicious amount of high explosives.

This was great, I had a great laugh this morning with all your comments.

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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

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Ok, it's Fan Page time...and this time I already added the extra bloopers you guys found!

Fan Page #7

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There is no problem that cannot be solved with time, patience, and a judicious amount of high explosives.

Thanks for the recaps TJ! I was

You pointed out one of the main gripes I have about BOTP is that the scenes didn't make sense like Jason and Keyop surrendering to Doom and then later they are blasting the goons. Inconsistencies like that drive me crazy!

Ken DOES look a lot like Speed Racer in this episode.

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Old age is a high price to pay for maturity.

What a great recap, TJ! Really enjoy reading it,

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