Joe’s clearly not happy with Dr. Nambu’s decision and the prospect of “Spending the afternoon staring at these walls again,” but he grudgingly sits down on the couch beside Ryu.

Dr. Nambu, still trying to make his case, points out that lately Galactor has been focusing specifically on trying to destroy the Science Ninja Team. “So why should you walk right into their trap?” he demands.

Well, according to Ken, they should because “Somebody has to stand up to them! Isn’t that why the Team was formed?”

Dr. Nambu turns his back on Ken and folds his arms. “I refuse to let you throw your lives away,” he says.

“But, Doctor!” protests Ken, moving towards him.







But Dr. Nambu turns quickly to face him. “Ken, I said no!” he declares sternly, making a blocking gesture with his arm and hand for emphasis.

“But, Doctor…” says Ken again, yet this time he seems to finally accept that Dr. Nambu isn’t going to change his mind.

So now it’s the next day, and Archaeo is flying through the sky. On screen, Katse wants to know if the Science Ninja Team has shown up yet.







We’re able to finally get a good look at the Captain of the Week, as he replies “No, we’re almost to the Usoda Peninsula but there’s no sign.” He’s got an interesting helmet –it swoops back and tapers to a point, as if its wearer were moving at extremely high speed.

Katse concludes that the Team has “chickened out” (ADV’s Katse is keeping up the bird theme) but he doesn’t seem too disappointed, and orders the Archaeo to attack the Usoda Peninsula at once. We see Archaeo closing in on it, and then we cut to Ken and the others.

“Meanwhile, the Team sat helpless, locked inside the Crescent Coral Reef,” says the narrator, “Dr. Nambu had made up his mind, and time passed idly by.” Okay, I really don’t think they’re literally “locked” in (although Dr. Nambu, after episode 22 with the dragon mecha, ought to know that Ken’s not likely to stay put…) but you’d think that they could be doing something more diverting than just sitting there (or staring at fish). Maybe they’re too depressed and frustrated to bother.








Jinpei, however, is getting stir crazy. He pounds the wall with his fists, and demands “Are we really going to sit around staring at each other and let Galactor push us around like this?”

Joe is sitting very still, like one who’s inwardly seething. Without even turning his to look at Jinpei, he says “Look, Jinpei, there’s nothing we can do about the Doctor’s permission. You might as well just sit back and relax. In the meantime, thousands of people are going to die, just like my mother and father did…”

“Joe, stop talking like that!” cries Jun, clutching her head in frustration and despair.

“Fine, then I’ll shut up,” Joe retorts, looking her way. Or is he looking past her, at Ken?

“Ryu,” says Ken now, still staring out the window at the fish, “How far is it to the Usoda Peninsula?”

“Ken?” says Joe, instantly on his feet. I think this is just what he was hoping to provoke.







“Ken, are you disobeying orders?” asks Jun, looking a bit nervous.

Ken turns around now, fist clenched. “You know what? If the Science Ninja Team can’t protect the Earth from Galactor, I might as well quit!”

“I’ve been waiting for you to come around, my man,” drawls Joe, who is never too concerned about obeying orders, and Ryu is also ready to “take down those bastards or die trying.” Jinpei chimes in with an enthusiastic “Yeah!”

That just leaves Jun.

“Are you picking up what I’m putting down?” Ken asks, pointing a finger at her.








“Well I’m not staying here and missing all the fun,” she replies.

“Of course I’ll go, Ken,” coos Ryu mockingly, “I’ll put my life on the line just to-”







He’s silenced with an “Oof!” as Jun elbows him hard in the ribs.







Really, Ryu was pretty much just mimicking what she told Ken back in episode 22, in a nearly identical situation, but it’s nice to see that she won’t stand for being teased!

“I never knew you were so strong,” gasps Ryu weakly.

“As leader of the Science Ninja Team, I order you to launch the God Phoenix immediately!” declares Ken now, and the rest of them all go “Roger!”

Next, we see all five Ninjas, in birdstyle, running down a corridor of the Base past an open door.








Dr. Nambu comes rushing out of that room and calls angrily after them “Wait! Where are you going? Don’t be foolish, Ken! Don’t disobey me!” but they keeping on running.







Why is this all reminding me of “The Breakfast Club”?

Now we see the stock footage God Phoenix leaving the Crescent Coral Base underwater and then surfacing to fly through the sky. On the bridge, Vice Principal Nambu is demanding they return to detention… No, really he’s warning them that Archaeo is more powerful than any mecha they’ve faced before, and telling them “You’ll all be killed! Get back here now!”

(It also looks like they’ve tossed out everything on the bridge except Ken and Ryu’s chairs, at least in this screencap!)









Ken calmly informs him that they have made up their minds and asks him not to interfere. “This is an order, return to base!” continues Dr. Nambu, but Ken turns off the screen and we briefly see Dr. Nambu, back at the Base, staring helplessly at a blank screen.







Now the God Phoenix is approaching the Usoda Peninsula. On board Archaeo, the God Phoenix is detected on a radar screen and the Captain eagerly informs Katse (who’s on screen) that “the Science Ninja Team is here!”







“This time make sure you give them all a one way ticket to oblivion,” instructs Katse, smiling.

The Captain insists that they’re ready, and attempts his own evil laugh.







So now the Science Ninjas are all watching Archaeo’s approach on the main view screen.







Ken warns Ryu to watch out for its shock wave (and Ryu replies he’s “already on it”) and tells Joe to fire some bird missiles at it.

Joe, naturally, likes this plan and heads right for the red button.







However, Archaeo gets the jump on them. Several missiles now come shooting out of the beak of Archaeo’s head, heading for the God Phoenix. Ryu dodges them, and now Joe smashes the glass cover over the bird missile button (why do they even bother replacing that cover?) and shoots off some of his own.







However, Archaeo is still firing more missiles, and these collide with the bird missiles.

“Damn, they intercepted our missiles with its own!” says Joe. He fires more bird missiles and this time Archaeo catches them with its claws and beak before they can impact and explode, and then hurls them back at the God Phoenix.

Now, a whole swarm of small jets emerge from Archaeo and head for the God Phoenix.







“It’s an aircraft carrier!” says Ken, very surprised.

The jets swoop and fly closely all around the God Phoenix now, emitting trails of smoke.








Soon the God Phoenix is enveloped in smoke and Ryu can’t see where he’s flying.









Ken orders him to take the God Phoenix up, full power, but now Archaeo has begun emitting its shock wave.

The shock wave floods the bridge. Everyone cries out in agony.












The God Phoenix’s intake flaps are blown off, and instruments’ needles go haywire. All the Ninjas are losing consciousness. Katse laughs in triumph at the image of a damaged God Phoenix, trailing flames from its engines, headed for impact with the ocean’s surface.







The God Phoenix lands on the surface, but on the bridge, everyone is sprawled about, still unconscious, and water is flooding in where the flaps are missing.

Now, cracks appear on the walls of the bridge, and water bursts in. Lying on the floor, Ken’s face is soon covered by water.

Katse now orders his Captain to finish off the God Phoenix and its now-helpless Ninjas, and he fires a barrage of missiles at it.









Katse now demonstrates to his Captain how a real villain does evil laughter…

Commercial Break!

The missiles are closing in on the God Phoenix, but suddenly they all explode in a ball of flame before reaching it. Katse demands an explanation, and now we see the three jets of the Red Impulse Team in the sky.








Red Impulse himself orders an attack on Archaeo now, and the RI jets begin firing their missiles at it.







Archaeo dodges them, but the Captain now explains to Katse that the Red Impulse Team is attacking and asks for instructions.

“Damn it, we were so close too,” growls Katse, lip curled, “We have no choice, hurry and call off the attack.”







What? No choice? What makes the RI Team’s missiles so special that Archaeo is afraid of them, but easily dealt with the Science Ninjas’ bird missiles? And why isn’t Archaeo attacking the RI Team with its shock wave now?

At any rate, Archaeo flies away, and Red Impulse orders his Team to cease their attack on it, and go rescue the Science Ninjas.

(And hurry up, too, because Ken’s about to drown!)

“You stupid kids!” yells Dr. Nambu, back at the Crescent Coral Base, banging his fist on his desk, “The only reason Galactor sent you that challenge was because they knew they would defeat you!”








The Science Ninjas are all present, in their civvies, but Ken’s in the fore, closest to Dr. Nambu’s desk. “Attacking an enemy without knowing its abilities isn’t courageous, it’s dumb!” continues Dr. Nambu. If it’s Employee Performance Evaluation time at the Crescent Coral Base, then they aren’t faring well. But, it’s not like they get paid anything anyway.

Ken points out that they were able to save the Usoda Peninsula “from being totally destroyed” –which is a very good point, but Dr. Nambu is having none of it.

“I’ve had enough of your foolish pride,” he growls and demands to know what Ken thinks would have happened if Red Impulse hadn’t shown up to save them.

Ken doesn’t like that question one bit, and glares at him.

“You’re right, Sir, Red Impulse has always been better than us! We just can’t seem to do anything right!” With that, he takes off his bracelet and puts it on Dr. Nambu’s desk.








You’ve just explained, Ken, why Red Impulse and his Team so often annoy me whenever they show up. That, and the fact that whenever RI himself is around, your own behaviour seems to deteriorate. Taking off your bracelet here just seems like the act of a petulant kid.

“What the hell are you doing?” demands Dr. Nambu. I don’t really blame him.

“Why don’t you just let Red Impulse wear this stupid bracelet!” yells Ken, “You don’t need our help anymore, do you?” I must admit I don’t really blame him either.

I guess I can only try to blame the writers, for creating this situation in the first place.

Now Ken turns his back on Dr. Nambu, facing the others. Jinpei is nervously saying “Um, Big Bro…”







Dr. Nambu now says “I’ve had enough of your attitude. You’re not leaving this room until I give you permission!” and he stalks out the door.

Yup, you know that Red Impulse is around when Gatchaman, the “White Shadow” and “Champion of Justice” is being dismissed with lines that any parent might deliver to a sullen teenager. Sigh…

With Dr. Nambu gone, Jun wonders if Ken took things too far, saying “I’ve never seen the Doctor that angry.” Ryu says that Dr. Nambu’s only acting that way “Because he cares about us.”

“What’s up with you, Ken?” asks Joe, cutting to the heart of the matter, “I mean, you always get so bent out of shape when the Doctor brings up Red Impulse.”

“That’s not it,” retorts Ken, “I just hate being constantly compared to that guy!” Staring up at the ceiling he adds, “It just pisses me off!”

Now we see Dr. Nambu showing a photograph of Archaeo to Red Impulse, explaining that it emits shock waves “which destroys everything in its path. The only way we can defeat it is to stop them somehow.”








But Red Impulse has his mind on Ken more than Archaeo.

Red Impulse says “I can’t believe that Ken went up against it without a thought for his safety. Irresponsible punk.”








But now Dr. Nambu says that RI was equally irresponsible at Ken’s age and adds “I guess it’s in his blood.”

“Maybe so, but you raised him well for me,” replies the senior Washio.

Yes, it’s finally being openly stated that Red Impulse really is Ken’s father! I wonder if there was anyone who was surprised by this when the episode first aired. I doubt it, as there were so many hints along the way…

“Honestly, it’s kind of sad,” adds RI, turning away from Dr. Nambu now, “He’s grown up without ever knowing the love of his father or his mother.” Coming from the guy who beat the crap out of his son just four episodes ago, I’m not sure it’s all that sad! And I think Ken’s mother was alive until he was eleven –eleven years isn’t “never.”

Dr. Nambu doesn’t say anything in response, though he could well be thinking “Sad? What am I? Chopped liver?”

But now Red Impulse tells Dr. Nambu that he wants to take the Science Ninja Team away with him for awhile. He’ll only say that he has an idea, but that the Team will need “intensive training” first. Dr. Nambu agrees to this, saying that “It will be good for father and son to get the chance to fly together for once.” Yes, just like those pigeons Ken was watching in the park.

So now both Dr. Nambu and Red Impulse enter the room where the Science Ninjas are. Joe and Jun look like they’re having a little conversation –probably about Ken.








Jinpei snarks that they’re probably about to receive another lecture, as Dr. Nambu says “Listen up, everyone.”

He and Red Impulse then announce that the Ninjas will be undergoing some intensive training at the hands of the Red Impulse Team. This doesn’t go over well.

“What are you talking about,” says Ryu, “We never needed training before so why now?”

But Dr. Nambu merely instructs them to prepare for immediate departure and then he and Red Impulse both leave the room.

Joe scowls, clenches a fist, and declares “You’ve got to be shitting me! We don’t need no stinking training!”








I still remember watching this episode for the first time with my nephew, and the look of unholy glee that crossed his face when he heard Joe using a “bad word” like that. In the subbed version, though, he says “You’ve got to be kidding! We don’t need any more training! I don’t like this.”

“Cool your jets, Joe,” say Ken now, pleased (and seemingly forgetting that he was the one really losing his cool not that long ago), “This will give us a chance to check out Red Impulse and see what makes them tick.” And then Ken runs excitedly out of the room, presumably to go pack, I guess.

In his wake, Ryu is bewildered, wondering why Ken suddenly seems happy now.

We now see Red Impulse’s secret base, hidden (the narrator informs us) on an island in the South Seas.







Near a beach, Joe, Jun, Jinpei and Ryu (in civvies) are lined up and facing the other two men in the Red Impulse Team.







One of them orders them all to run three laps around the island, causing Ryu to groan “Again?’ and complain “We’ve been running for a whole week already!”








So, some time has passed since their arrival.

But soon all four of them are running, and Ryu is gasping that he’ll never complain about being left behind on the God Phoenix again.







As for Ken, the narrator informs us that he’s been receiving training from the Red Impulse commander himself, as we see a RI jet and Ken’s G-1 flying around the island.








“Let’s go,” says RI, and he swoops his jet towards a tall, steep point of rock on the island. But, just before colliding with it, he pulls his jet up, hard, and flies straight up in the air.







Next, it’s Ken’s turn to try this maneuver. “I’ll stick with you, no matter what,” he says, looking determined. Ken struggles a bit with his jet’s controls when it’s time to pull up hard.

Ken tells Ryu to pull harder and grasps the lever himself to aid Ryu’s efforts. Together, they succeed.









Ken now stands on the open dome of the God Phoenix, while it’s still rushing along the top of Archaeo. If this were Gatch F, he’d have a big, mecha-slicing sword. But it’s Gatch I so instead he hurls his birdrang such that it hits and sticks into Archaeo. They depart Archaeo’s back now, swooping in front of it. Inside Archaeo’s control room, a goon cries “It’s the God Phoenix!” while the Captain stares, bewildered. “What did they do up there?” he demands.

Well, now we see Ken’s birdrang, still stuck in Archaeo’s back, and it explodes.









The explosion tears through Archaeo. Inside the control room, an on-screen Katse is yelling “What is happening? What’s going on?” but a chunk of flying rubble smashes the screen and Katse’s image is gone.








Now more explosions obliterate Archaeo completely, and hunks of flaming debris go flying past the God Phoenix as it flies away from the destruction. As we see all the Ninjas on the bridge of the God Phoenix, looking very relieved, the narrator proclaims their victory but also says “Too bad that Ken has no idea that Red Impulse himself is really the father he’s always dreamed of.”


And, of course, no one's going to tell him... yet.








“You did well, Gatchaman,” says Red Impulse as he flies along in his jet, “You deserve this victory after all this hard training. Give my regards to the Doc. See you around…”







I must say, I like the Red Impulse Team much better when they stay in the background, like this, and merely provide support to the Science Ninja Team and its able leader, Ken, while the Ninjas carry out the mission’s goal!

Ken’s now staring into the sunset from the God Phoenix’s bridge, watching the Red Impulse Team fly away, and he thinks “Thanks, man.”







The final shot is the God Phoenix flying across the sun-streaked sky.


The End.

Hi all!

The rest of the recap was great too, LB! And you raised a lot of good questions about interesting plot holes... which is why I had fun writing this episode up for my fic.

And James, thank you for posting those pictures of the 'deleted scenes'. I agree having the Team train on the island makes a lot more sense, but I still agree with LB's comment that if Red Impulse knew how to defeat Archaeo all along, why didn't he just do it? My theory is that he didn't know, and was just lookinbg to spend some time flying with Ken, potentially to work Ken's anger out, and that's why he left the other 4 ninja with Masaki and Onishii.

JMHO...

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Red Impulse

From the moment Cronus turned up on BOTP, I suspected that Big Red was supposed to be like Racer X on 'Speed Racer': an enigmatic hero who turns up to save the day or impart advice. Naturally, he would be related to Mark/Ken in some way. Shoot, both characters wear red!

In the commentary, the voice actor says he was trying for a swashbuckling sort of voice. It plainly didn't always match what was happening on the screen.

I WANT to like this character, but it's hard to like him the way he's written. My own fanfic efforts aren't very good, from lack of confidence. I was trying to show that Kentaro Washio was a good man who gave up his comfortable, happy life for the good of his homeland (and, by extension, his family and the planet). At the time, Nambu had only crumbs to work with, not enough to set Interpol or any other agency on the trail, so Kentaro volunteered.

(Spoiler on my fanfics: When I get to deploying the team, Kentaro will embark on his most difficult mission yet --- telling Ken who he is. Yes, Ken will know his father is alive and well before the Turtle King even attacks. And Oniishi will hit on everyone.)

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

Oniishi will not yet be mute when they meet him. So he gets to tell Jun that he may one day steal her feather cloak (a reference to the Swan Maiden myth).

I just figured the team could use a Captain Jack (yes, a 'Torchwood/Dr. Who' reference).

I could have sworn Racer X wore red. But I was running on memory.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features