Best Episode Featuring Tatsumaki Fighter? Hinotori?

Hey guys need your all knowing advice and opinion.

Pretty much as the title says, is there a definitive episode you find to be the best representation of the trademark Hinotori/Firebird and Tatsumaki/Tornado Fighter?

I came across a video on Youtube comparing Karas' Moonlight Execution from his titular Anime series with the In-Game version from TvC. I did a Yatterman one already, and thought it'd be cool to do a Gatchaman one.

Hi all!

Well, episode #1 would be an obvious choice, since it includes both, as does episode #65. Both are used in episode #12 as well, but the Tornado Fighter is made up of only Ken, Joe, and Ryu.

Assuming they don't need to be from the same episode, just the best looking examples, that changes things.

For the Firebird, I'd guess that you want an example where it is being used as on offensive weapon attacking and defeating an enemy. Surprisingly, there aren't as many of those as you might think. Many times, the Firebird was used as a defense against Gallactor attacks (Such as in episode #'s 34, 60, and 62), in a failed attack (#'s 22 and 67), or for something other than attacking a Gallactor mecha (#'s 1, 12, 22, 35, and 72). So, if you want it being used to attack a Gallactor mecha, your choices are few. You can choose from episode #'s 2, 13, 15, and 65. If you don't mind using the Firebird Shadow Separation, you can add in episode #'s 58 and 84. Of those, the Firebirds from episode #2 (Against the Turtle King head), 15 (Against Ice Kandar), 58 (Against Mecha Buttha), and 84 (Against Kanikiller and Archaeo) are probably the best bets for what you're after.

Sadly, the most visually spectacular use of the Firebird I can think of isn't from Gatchaman, but rather from Gatchaman II, specifically Gatchaman II #42 (Against Mecha-Flasher), but I'm guessing you want to stick with the first series.

For the Tornado Fighter, I'm going to guess that you want the version of it where all five members of the Ninja Team are present, not one of the ones where they used just a few of them (Like in episode #'s 6, 7, 12, and 29). For your 5 person Tornado Fighters, you can choose from episode #'s 1, 51, 54, 65, 70, 95, and 99. Of those, I would probably pass on the ones in episode #'s 54 and 99 -- #54 because of the weird lighting during the scene and #99 because it includes scenes of Joe in pain. Your best bets are probably the ones from episode #'s 1 (Against Gallctor troops inside Turtle King), 51 (Against Gallactor troops outside of Cateroller), or 95 (Against the Jupiter Ninjas). I'd lean toward the one from episode #95, just because it's the more visually superior of the three.

I'd avoid the Tornado Fighter from the second and third series, since it does not have the same team-standing-on-each-others-shoulders visual look to it.

I hope this helps!

James

Since James pointed out that there is a truly spectacular Firebird sequence in Gatchaman II, I'll add that in Gatchaman II there is also a 'two Firebirds' episode, when both the old and new God Phoenixes are using the maneuver at the same time.

I'll also point out that the Tornado Fighter in Gatchaman II and F was lame... lame lame lame lame lame... Did I say lame? But it was there, and different from the one in the original series.

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Well I pretty much only have the original Gatchaman DVDs at my disposal anyway, so no trouble there. ^^

Was there any done with Joe in the lead? I know there's one later on with Joe in pain, but that's all I can recall. Just curious since he's the one that does it in TvC with either Jun or Ken. If not I'll probably just do the one with the whole team.