| Dr. Henjinman | |
|---|---|
| |
| Kanji |
ヘンジンマン博士 |
| Race |
Human |
| Gender |
Male |
| Age |
Unknown |
| Hair Color |
White |
| Eye Color |
Brown |
| Status |
Deceased |
| Position |
Cyborg Horse Developer |
| Voice Actor |
Ryuji Sakaichi |
| Anime Debut | |
Dr. Henjinman (ヘンジンマン博士), Professor Henjinman in the ADV dub, was a minor character that appeared in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman episode 21.
In the plot, he is an eccentric scientist into cybernetics as well as a fanatic of horses. Galactor abducts him for their goals, but they find that he too has a great longing for power.
Background[]
While Dr. Nambu was a freshman student at university, Henjinman was a senior student and his upperclassman. While being very smart and dedicated to research on cybernetics, Henjinman was also described as antisocial and reclusive, disappearing after his graduation. He retreated into continuing his studies about cybernetics and applying it to his love of horses, entering a cyborg horse he had created into the World Famous Horse Grand Prix. Its victory would ensure he would be a target for Galactor.
Henjinman could be seen to live in a large, three-story mansion, but one that was rather derelict and entirely built from wood.
Appearance[]
Henjinman, in comparison to Dr. Nambu, had the appearance of a withered, rather elderly man and "mad scientist" type with wild white hair, very little teeth, and a goatee. Like Nambu though, he sported eyeglasses. He wore a shabby deep olive suit with lighter patches, a dark brown scarf, and an orange undershirt and black shoes. The single button on his suit doubled as a secret transmitter for his cyborg horse #8.
Personality[]
Henjinman was already shown to be set on cheating to get his way in the race with his cyborg horse, flooring Ryu and Jinpei who had seen him as crazy for bragging that such a horse would win. He openly gloated to himself how he'd love to turn all other living things into cyborgs next after his horse experiments, and having the idea that he could reign as a "King" over all cyborgs.
He was also unafraid when being brought before Berg Katse and Leader X, initially and boldly refusing to work for them until they promised to cover all his research costs. He was also bold enough to insist Katse be demoted, to the shock of both, as he professed he knew X's true identity and that all X was good for was giving orders.
Unfortunately, Henjinman became overconfident too fast and was unaware that Galactor wanted to use his cyborg horses to cause destruction in cities, absolutely refusing the idea and claiming "It may have looked like I was doing your bidding, but I was the one using you."
When he tried to ultimately expose X's identity, Katse retaliated and pushed a special button, causing X to vanish from his portal and Henjinman to be hit with a laser. Despite managing to be rescued by the Science Ninja Team, he was weakened from his injuries and died, but not before instructing them how to destroy the cyborg horses and managing to help destroy the horses from his end with the transmitter.
Relationships[]
Dr. Nambu[]
Dr. Nambu isn't surprised that #8 won, describing Henjinman as very passionate about his research to where he personally retreated from society to continue it, identifying the horse as a cyborg experiment of Henjinman's due to the discrepancies in its behavior compared to other horses. While Nambu found Henjinman to be unusual but harmless, he did not know that Henjinman had since become quite greedy and hoping for world domination. He enlisted the Science Ninja Team to protect Henjinman from falling to Galactor's path and having his technology used for evil, only for Galactor to beat them to his location.
Leader X[]
Leader X convinced Henjinman that his cyborg research could help make Galactor cyborgs "perfect". Henjinman was instantly curious about X though, seeing something deeper in his existence and agreed to work for him under the condition that he be sub-leader instead of Katse. X relented at the threat of his identity being exposed, and agreed to the scheme.
However, Henjinman was entirely willing to overthrow X and disobey him, not liking what X had wanted for his horses and insisting only he had the right to use them however he wanted. For as much he could claim to see through X, X revealed that he could read Henjinman's mind. Henjinman would then attempt to speak about who X truly was, for Katse to intervene.
Berg Katse[]
Katse was horrified at Henjinman threatening to reveal X's true identity, and had to begrudgingly let himself be demoted for the time so the old man could act as sub-leader. While Katse was demoted, Henjinman ordered Katse refer to him as X's second and not by his name.
Katse threatened to shoot Henjinman for his insubordination later, only to get laughed at and told that would mean the end of their cyborg project. Katse was the one who proved pivotal in stopping Henjinman from further disrupting their organization, pressing a button to cause X's portal to fell him with a blinding, gold laser.
Ryu[]
While Ryu had seen Henjinman as ridiculous and a fool earlier on, he was the one team member entrusted by the end to help Henjinman aboard the God Phoenix and assisted him with getting him to work his self-destruct transmitter. Ryu noticeably was shaken up by the man's death, while claiming he'd gone out smiling as he pressed the button.
Alterations in International Adaptations[]
Battle of the Planets[]
Henjinman was renamed Professor Hugo Doriarty, and considered to be one of Earth's greatest research scientists. He is abducted and taken to Planet Spectra, and similarly demands to be made the new ruler in place of Zoltar.
G-Force: Guardians of Space[]
His name in this adaptation was given as Professor Benjamin Riley.
Voice Actors[]
Ryuji Sakaichi provided the voice of Dr. Henjinman
English Adaptations[]
- Battle of the Planets: Edward Andrews
- G-Force: Guardians of Space: ?
- ADV dub: David Born
Trivia[]
- Henjinman finding out X's true identity was meant to be foreshadowing to the back setting at the time that X was actually a computer/AI created by Katse and controlled by him as the fictitious "true leader" of Galactor. This was meant to culminate in the reveal of that later on, as well as that X grew more and more sentient to the point of having his own true, sadistic personality and killing Katse before departing Earth in the original planned ending. Katse's shock at Henjinman figuring out X so fast was also meant to be him nervous at the very idea of his AI being exposed.
- When taking the existence of characters like Dr. Rafael in mind, it is to be wondered if he was in charge of some of Galactor's next cyborg experiments even if he would not have been a thought at the time of this production.