Title: Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman II (Science Ninja Squad Gatchaman II) Air Dates: October 1978 - October 1979 Number of Episodes: 52 Released By: Tatsunoko Productions and Fuji Television Current Commercial Availability: Commercial copies available on laser disk. Pioneer Video PILA-1183; released on DVD in June, 2003. JAPANESE LANGUAGE ONLY. English-subtitled bootlegs may be available on web auction sites.

Sosai X returns with a new look, a new subgeneral to torture, and a new plan to destroy the Earth.

The treacherous Hawk Getz, once meant to be Joe's replacement, meets a mysterious and fitting end.

But with Condor Joe missing and presumed dead, things aren't quite the same, and even with new weapons and vehicles (including the now-spaceworthy New Godphoenix), the team is at a loss. Dr. Nambu compounds the problem by bringing in a new G-2, Getz the Hawk. Even without the awkwardness associated with the fact this man is a replacement for Joe, there's something not quite right about Getz. On their first mission, investigating an "abandoned" temple on Easton Island, the Kagaku Ninjatai discover exactly what. After leading the team into a Gallactor trap, Getz escapes, but is later found dead, a feather shuriken buried in his throat. The feather shuriken was Joe's trademark weapon, but Joe is dead. Right?

The next three episodes offer brief sightings of a mysterious benefactor to the team until, finally, Joe steps into the open. Reluctantly, he rejoins the team, and though glad to be back with his teammates, he's hiding something from them. He has also returned with some new abilities: the ability to live through explosions without being burned; the ability to channel electric current through his body; the ability to rip holes in armored plating with his bare hands. Although his teammates notice or suspect some of these things, surprisingly, they don't investigate.

The original Godphoenix is retired and replaced by the more powerful and spaceworthy New Godphoenix. All of the team's original vehicles changed as well.

To lighten his ever increasing workload, Dr. Nambu hires a new assistant: the beautiful, intelligent and capable Dr. Sylvie Pandora. Pandora makes her debut under suspicious circumstances, made worse by a plan to simulate Dr. Nambu's murder to draw out a Gallactor attacker. Right after this plan is carried out, Dr. Pandora offhandedly mentions to the team that Joe is a cyborg. His secret is out. As he lay dying in the Himalayas (end of the first series), Joe was rescued by an ex-Gallactor scientist named Dr. Rafael, who repaired Joe's battered body and added cybernetic augmentation. Later, he called Joe back for a second rebuild: one that would make him the ultimate weapon against Sosai X. In this second rebuild, Joe lost more of his humanity, and a "micro space bomb," set to detonate in Sosai X's presence, is placed inside his body, near his still-human heart. Joe finds his perceived loss of humanity harder to accept than his teammates, and considering himself already a dead man, he often steps into harm's way to prevent his friends from risking their own lives.

Pandora (right) reunites with her daughter in what has to be a mother's worst nightmare.

Pandora has another dark secret: she is one of the few survivors of the wreck of the Queen Margaret, and even now mourns the deaths of her husband Domingo and daughter Sammie. She does not realize that her daughter is alive and in charge of the enemy, though she does notice an odd, "psychic" link between herself and GelSadora. As the series progresses, Gelsadora also begins to wonder about her past, and since Sosai X refuses to tell her where he found her, does a little research of her own. The truth leads to Dr. Pandora's death and the loss of GelSadora's sanity. She turns traitor against X, sabotaging his final plan to destroy Earth: the Solar Shift Plan. The final episode becomes a race: Will X plunge the Earth into the sun? Will Joe, aided by GelSadora, reach X first and destroy him, killing himself in the process? Or will Ken, who now realizes what kind of weapon Joe carries within his own body, reach X first?

A Different Vision

According to Animation Director, Sadao Miyamoto, these problems were attributed to two things: One was the loss of Tatsuo Yoshida, founder of Tatsunoko Productions and the main driving force behind Gatchaman and Tatsunoko's "classic" hero series. When Yoshida passed away in 1974, the strength of his vision went with him. The second problem involved a shift in power between the production staff at Tatsunoko and the show's sponsors. In the late 1970s, the balance of power shifted to the sponsors (whose motivation, of course, was to sell merchandise and pull viewers). This left the production staff frustrated, and many talented key people left as a result. In addition, most of the animation work was farmed off to a Korean production house, and this shift changed the color scheme and general look of the series... sadly, not for the better.

One of Ken's female fans makes her feelings known. From episode #13.

Diinzumo's Comments: Gatchaman II had its interesting moments. I only wish the music and art quality were better. The best art was in the first and final two episodes, and it's a shame that the entire series couldn't have been this way. I thought that Joe's resentment of his cybernetic body was a bit out of character--I'd always thought he wouldn't care, just as long as he was better able to destroy Gallactor. Once he found that his friends accepted him anyway, that should have been the end of his concern. I liked that some of the episodes focused on a specific character, and that each character got his or her turn in the spotlight, but I also thought many of the character treatments were overly gratuitous. I wonder what the show's original creator would have thought.

Gatchaman II in English: Most of Gatchaman II was 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

Production Notes

• GelSadora: Masaru Ikeda
  
• Dr. Pandora: Miyuki Iyeda
  
• Dr. Rafael: TBD