| Dr. Rafael | |
|---|---|
| Kanji |
Dr.ラッフェル |
| Race |
Human |
| Gender |
Male |
| Age |
45 |
| Hair Color |
Gray |
| Eye Color |
Brown |
| Occupation |
Scientist |
| Status |
Deceased (Gatchaman II episode 49) Killed by Galactor |
| Voice Actor |
Koichi Chiba |
Dr. Rafael is a recurring character appearing in Gatchaman II. He is an ex-Galactor scientist specializing in the creation of cyborgs, and was the one responsible for remodeling Joe the Condor into one after saving him from certain death at Cross Karakorum.
Background[]
Dr. Rafael belonged to Galactor for many years, until he managed to secretly defect during the end of their first war and was believed to be dead by Leader X, operating in his own secret lab from then on.
But even more astounding is the fact that Rafael was the very man responsible for X coming to Earth in the first place, having tried to make contact with space several years ago in an attempt to find if extraterrestrial beings existed. This alerted X to the existence of life on Earth, and set up his plan to travel there for domination.
Appearance[]
Dr. Rafael is a tall, middle-aged man who towers over even the tallest of the Science Ninjas like Joe. He has long, dark gray hair and a full mustache and beard, along with wildly tufted gray eyebrows. He can always be seen to be dressed in a long, black robe with a red collar and lining, under which he wears a navy blue dress shirt, a brown belt, and navy slacks.
Rafael can often be seen with his pet brown hawk perched on his shoulder.
Personality[]
Rafael is described as a fanatical man, with the ego of a scholar and a great skill in astronomy and cosmology. But his guilt for having inadvertently summoned X to Earth all those years ago cannot be extinguished, and this action as well as his involvement with Galactor made him a pariah among other humans for these sins. While having been a captive of Galactor, he was strong-minded enough to secretly formulate revenge against his overlord and withstand the evil influence of X's commands.
Because of him being the catalyst for Galactor's war crimes and having taken part as a cyborg scientist, Rafael opts to keep a secretive existence as well as to hide from X. He is a quick opportunist in finding a way to satisfy his counterattack on X, having found the dying Joe and immediately set upon remodeling him as a cyborg. Knowing that Joe hates Galactor as much as he does and that this young man was a powerful warrior, these facts are what Rafael deems him to be the only way he can carry out the destruction of X and why Joe is even alive: to sacrifice himself with the Micro Space Bomber that Rafael constructed.
Rafael sees this as a way to take responsibility and benefit the world, in taking out X, though it involves the manipulation and eventual death of another individual. He treats his other cyborgs as machines as well, with their ultimate purposes only being to test improvements he'd wish to upgrade Joe with, or to have them sacrifice themselves in place of Joe so that he would survive the longest to complete Rafael's mission. It appears that he is only focused on taking away X, and not necessarily thinking about stopping the rest of the organization.
Alterations in International Adaptations[]
USA[]
Eagle Riders (1996)[]
He is renamed Professor Andro in this adaptation, though he is still responsible for saving Joe Thax from his injuries at the end of the last Vorak war. He has modified Joe into a cyborg, although this is sometimes treated as Joe being a "half cyborg" for still being primarily human and further upgrades made to make him "more of a cyborg".
Andro's other cyborgs are adapted into being androids, as to lessen the impact of their demises (like Cathy) or to explain them away as being able to be rebuilt and reactivated later.
Eventually, Andro is tracked down by the Vorak and seriously injured (as a way to tone down Rafael's death via dialogue). He is last mentioned to be recovering in a hospital, but that this leaves him unable to be the one to repair Joe, and he is never mentioned again for the rest of the series.
Voice Actors[]
Koichi Chiba would be responsible for voicing Rafael in II, after having previously voiced King LuMan in episode 19 of the first series.
International Adaptations[]
USA[]
Michael McConnohie voiced Professor Andro in the Eagle Riders reversioning.
Gallery[]
Concept Art[]
Trivia[]
- An incredulous piece of Rafael's setting that is noted by some fans would be the timeline for his contact with X. If Rafael is meant to be 45 in the events of II, X had come to Earth at least 30 years prior to the start of the original series. This would actually make Rafael a young boy when he made contact with aliens, far before he'd be a scientist having invented the Leap Wave and much more than "a few years ago" as his profile would suggest (as the Galactor organization and X had already been well established more than just a few years ago). The incongruity with the original series and movie may have been unintentional and the result of staff not remembering that detail or not taking the movie in mind as canon, though it presents a dark humor when viewers try to reconcile that character setting with the timeline. The "45" age setting was also a provisional piece of information carried over from his Dr. Einstein iteration (see Development Period below) that may have not meant to be wholly reflected when the actual story unfolded in the program, especially when keeping in mind the settings for a proposed remake that had retained Rafael's role in converting Joe into a cyborg (and would necessitate the scientist to be much older).
- Although the official English spelling these days is "Rafael", it appears the character's name was derived from "Raphael". There are also associations drawn by fans of the archangel Raphael, who was the angel of healing, although Jinzo Toriumi offered no explanation in the planning revisions for the naming sense of the character (though considering the mythological inspiration for Dr. Pandora's name, it may have been influential). As rendered in the katakana though, "Raffel" would be a non-standard way of translating the name back to Japanese but may have been due to the difficulty with adapting Western names.
- It is possible that like how the character of Hawk Getz was meant to be a nod and bait-and-switch to the idea of a Hawk-related team member in a sequel (originally to be represented with Joe's brother), Dr. Rafael's hawk is another remnant of such a presence, with it being a close pet of Rafael and its feathers being able to be utilized like shuriken and providing initial doubt and a cover story for the Ninja Team wondering if Joe would still be alive.
Development Period[]
- Dr. Rafael was originally drafted as a scientist named Dr. Einstein, in the first planning establishment New Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (which would evolve to the present II). He would have found Joe's corpse in the valley after X left, and would transfer its residual thoughts and memories into a new, mechanical android body already outfitted with the Micro Space Bomber. This would leave the android Joe even more reliant on Einstein for his energy supply, which Einstein would use as a means of manipulating him and getting him to do tasks that he wanted, and why Joe would wind up summoned away and absent from the team in some crucial moments. Einstein was also said to control the bomb via a remote and a radar in Joe's body, rather than it activating in X's presence on its own. By the second draft of the planning document, Einstein's name was changed to Rafael and Joe's setting was changed from an android to a cyborg (though the manipulation aspect was still in play, yet not reflected this way in the final scripts). A preliminary design of Einstein showed him to be a man with wild hair, as with his real world namesake.
- Rafael was originally meant to play a more significant role in the series, due to it originally being meant to run only 26 episodes. This would involve him being the one to reveal Joe's cyborg state to the team (after Jun had already figured it out on her own but kept it secret), in the lead-up to the final encounter and defeat of X. As high ratings early on in II's run had Fuji TV extend it to be a full year series, this meant the original story outlines and plans for several later episodes including the idea of episodes 25 and 26 being the finale had to be thrown out and rethought. Dr. Pandora was created instead, to be a new supporting character to drive further mysteries in the extended run, and she would be the one to reveal Joe as a cyborg while the final battle against X would take much longer to happen. This resulted in Dr. Rafael's original role being redundant, and he was phased out of the story with only having two more appearances, though his death was pivotal in helping raise the stakes for the finale.
Apocryphal Sequel and Remake Plans[]
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1989, remake)[]
- In this proposal by Tatsunoko, Dr. Rafael had remodeled Joe as in the original Gatchaman II. His presence in the backstory to this work would be emphasized by the addition of the ISO's Director Drake, who is appointed as the new chief-in-command after the assassination of Kozaburo Nambu by Galactor. Director Drake, with her age set at "52 years old", is secretly the daughter of Dr. Rafael and aims to wipe out Galactor for having used her father for his scientific expertise to turn humans into their cyborg operatives. This would indicate that Dr. Rafael would be a much older man, at least for this remake's worldview.