Title: Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman F (Science Ninja Squad Gatchaman Fighter) Air Dates: October 1979 - August 1980 Number of Episodes: 48 Released By: Tatsunoko Productions and Fuji Television Current Commercial Availability: Japanese Region 2 DVD box sets XT-1614 (Part 1) and XT-1643 (Part 2) released in Fall 2004. English-subtitled bootleg DVDs may be available on web auction sites.

Count Egobossler, with and without mask. He dyed his skin blue shortly before he took over the Egobossler Family.

The Kagaku Ninjatai suffer through more changes. With the death of Chief Anderson, Dr. Nambu becomes head of the ISO, and has less contact with the Kagaku Ninjatai. The team, with their civilian covers mostly blown (at least Joe's and Ken's), are pretty much confined to their new base, and they now take their orders from the base's Chief Engineer Kamo. The New Godphoenix is destroyed in the first episode and replaced by the Gatchaspartan, a triangular ship comprised of the team's five different vehicles. The Gatchaspartan's ultimate weapon, the Hypershoot, is used in conjunction with Ken's new lightsaber-type sword, the Gatchafencer, to slice through enemy mecha: Ken leaps from the cockpit of his own vehicle, stands on the tail of the Gatchaspartan in flight, and splits apart the enemy mech with the Gatchafencer. The Hypershoot works only too well... until it begins to destroy its wielder. Events escalate when Egobossler discovers Ken's progressing illness and Zed unleashes his nastiest weapon yet: an antimatter cluster, code-named "Poison Apple," gathered from space and aimed directly at Earth.

The Kagaku Ninjatai abandon their undersea bases for a fortress deep within a mountain range.

The Gatchaspartan replaces the New Godphoenix.

The quality of Gatchaman Fighter's art, animation and music was an improvement over Gatchaman II, but there was no way to predict how good an episode would be from week to week. What crippled Gatchaman Fighter most was its singleminded focus on Ken and the Gatchafencer, which left the other characters with nothing to do but watch the fireworks. There was none of Gatchaman's trademark action and very little character interaction--the two things that had won the previous series so many fans. The villains and mechanics seemed better suited to a different series. Count Egobossler, with his blue skin, giant facial scar and ubiquitous brandy snifter full of wine, seemed like a cross between Captain Harlock and Desular from the Uchu Senkan Yamato series, but with none of those characters' charms. The dark storyline, where the deadly Hypershoot and the heroes' constant stalemates and losses steadily took their toll on Ken's health and sanity, had none of Gatchaman's traditional tongue-in-cheek adventure. Ken and Joe underwent a bizarre and uncomfortable personality switch: Joe, probably still exhausted from his adventures in Gatchaman II, became almost lethargic, unwilling to do much other than pull Ken out of harm's way. Ken, on the other hand, became more and more unbalanced, running off uncontrolled, raging ineffectively at a smirking Egobossler while the effects of the Hypershoot slowly destroyed his body. Nothing the other team members said or did could stop him, not that they tried all that hard. Overall, it was very grim.

However, there were some bright, if angst-filled, moments to the series. Viewer percentages jumped when the final episodes came around: Tatsunoko was notorious for spectacular finales, and they delivered. In an attempt to save Ken's life and stop the destruction of Gatchaman Base, Chief Nambu sacrificed himself to Gallactor, and put up a memorable final fight before Egobossler shot him, point blank, before Ken's eyes. Jun finally intensified her relationship with Ken, and said a few things to him that should have been said two series ago. In the next to final episode, someone restarted Joe's anger motor and unleashed all the rage he'd been holding back for the past 46 episodes. The final episode left fans wondering: the final scenes showed the team, either dead or dying, swallowed up by an enormous firebird which circles the Earth. Did the team survive, or were they turned into a great phoenix and left to guard the Earth from space? It's up to you to decide.

Sosai Zed is the Kagaku Ninjatai's most powerful nemesis.

Diinzumo's Comments: When the episodes were good, they were very, very good. When they were bad, look out. But overall, I found this series hard to watch. The battle sequences were improbable and, at times, just plain stupid. Some of the mech movements reminded me of two children waving toys around and making gun noises. Willing suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this is ridiculous.

I missed seeing the characters have private lives and personalities. I became more and more annoyed with Ken, who seemed to be pulling most of his stunts out of a fit of pique that Joe had gotten the limelight last series. Joe was initially slated by Nambu to use the Hypershoot (yes, that's what it's called, regardless of how silly it sounds), but Ken begged the Professor to let him take it instead--Joe had already died for the cause once. And I wished fervently that someone would take Joe off his Prozac and let him be himself. There wasn't much humor in Fighter, and most of the dramatic highlights focused on some tragedy: Ken's illness, Nambu's death, the destruction of their base, the political infighting within Egobossler's forces, etc. I suspect that the characters and even the production staff felt some sense of relief when Gatchaman Fighter reached its dramatic conclusion.

Gatchaman Fighter in English: Selected episodes from Gatchaman Fighter were released in English as "Saban's Eagle Riders." Currently, Saban, which is owned by Disney, holds the rights to Gatchaman Fighter outside of Japan, and those rights could be purchased by a company wishing to produce the show in English if there is sufficient consumer interest. At this time, ADV, who released the original Gatchaman series in English, has shown no interest in dubbing/subbing the sequel series. However, Media Blasters, which has dubbed other Tatsunoko series like Tekkaman Blade/Teknoman, might be a candidate if there's enough interest to justify the expense. You can send them an e-mail at info@media-blasters.com

• Count Egobossler: Koji Nakada
• Mekandol: Yoshito Miyamura
• Kempler: Kenichi Ogata
• Chief Engineer Kamo: Hiroo Oikawa
• Sosai Z: Seizo Kato