Science Ninja Team Gatchaman 2 (科学忍者隊ガッチャマン2) was the earliest known iteration of a Gatchaman sequel pitch at Tatsunoko Production. While its exact date created and the planning staff are publicly unknown, its existence was alluded to in some Animage articles in 1979 and first unveiled in Pioneer's Gatchaman II laserdisc booklet[1]. The same text would later be reprinted in the book Gatchaman Graffiti.
Overview[]
Project Setting Document No. 70
"Science Ninja Team Gatchaman 2"
Planning: Tatsunoko Production Planning Headquarters
Original Work by: Tatsunoko Production Planning Department
Companies: Tatsunoko Production, Fuji TV, Yomiuri Advertising
Format: Color animation for TV once a week, a complete series of 30 minute episodes
Stage: Modern Earth
It has been two years since "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman" disappeared from cathode ray television. However, it seems that it is still deeply ingrained in the minds of children. We couldn't resist the voices of fans who wanted us to air a sequel to Gatchaman, so we have now planned "Gatchaman 2".
Did Joe really die? What kind of commander will the mysterious Leader X appoint to replace Berg Katse? And just who is Gatchaman's number G-6?
The activities of the new Gatchaman, formed to raise those expectations, will instill great love and courage in children more than ever before.
In this work, Joe the Condor was abducted by Leader X and taken away to space to be turned into a cyborg, and was converted into a member of Galactor. The drama progresses from the point of avoidance; even though he is a member of evil, Joe tries to save Gatchaman behind the scenes, while Joe's younger brother Jack is trying to succeed Joe. Through the conflicts of the Gatchaman team and the secretly hidden Joe, this is a story of the fierce and beautiful lives of these young patriots who seek peace and fight against Galactor, who aims to conquer the world.
As noted in the planning text, the first series had last aired over two years ago. This sometimes gets this project assumed to have been pitched in 1976, but there were also rebroadcasts of the first series that had happened due to its popularity and the only movements for a revival seem to have occurred after Tatsuo Yoshida's passing. Articles about the early stages of II also treat elements of this pitch as having been done as the first plan, which puts it at an earlier point in 1978 (and is backed up by a statement in Gatchaman Graffiti where it mentions sequel plans had only started "four years after" the original's end).
The amount of episodes was not yet decided in this stage, leaving it to be unknown how many cours it could have been envisioned to run if this pitch was greenlit. It is also possible that there may have been more to the pitch that wasn't reprinted in the laserdisc "Planning Sheet" section; the illustrations associated with it are already a notable omission.
Setting and Story Flow[]
Three years have already passed since Leader X left for space. The Mantle Project is progressing smoothly, and peace has come to the world. Gatchaman's existence is now becoming unnecessary. The Science Ninja Team is about to be disbanded by order of the ISO. However, Ken and his friends can't stand the attitude of the ISO, who say they are no longer needed because peace had been achieved.
Ken and his friends confront Dr. Nambu with what was on their minds: "It's because of this Ninja Team that Joe died!"
The doctor's response to them is cold, in telling them they can't overturn what has already been decided. They laid their lives on the line for the sake of the world to form the Science Ninja Team. Because of that, they even lost their precious friend Joe in the end. Gatchaman and his friends travel to Joe's grave to ask for forgiveness. But the person who came before them and apologizes to Joe first is none other than the doctor.
Dr. Nambu was in the most difficult position. What would Joe say if he were alive? Maybe he would be glad that the Earth was peaceful, since that's what they had been fighting for. As the team considers this, they see a ray of light passing through the sun that is about to set. Maybe that was Joe's answer.
Two days later, on the day of the dissolution ceremony, the team receive a report from the ISO Headquarters that somebody has destroyed an undersea dam. Just in time, a radio message from Berg Katse's successor Don Melder declaring war was delivered to the ISO. There is no room for doubt now. Leader X has returned to Earth to lead Galactor, and the people who disappeared due to the disaster were taken away by Leader X to the Andromeda Galaxy to become part of Galactor.
The ISO once more requests the dispatch of the Science Ninja Team. The Science Ninja Team is angered about these events, but if they can't do it, who will? The Science Ninja Team, now a group of four with Joe missing, board the God Phoenix. The evil hands of Don Melder await Gatchaman...the battle is brutal. Even so, Gatchaman corners Don Melder, leaving them also covered in injuries. But then it happens; a formidable enemy, the Space Joker, appears. A showdown between Gatchaman and the Space Joker occurs, but Gatchaman has no chance of winning against the talented Joker. Gatchaman falls into danger, but it's Jun and Jinpei that save the day and turn the battle in his favor.
Realizing the situation has changed, Space Joker throws a shuriken at Gatchaman and disappears into the darkness.
"Wait!"
When Gatchaman narrowly dodges the shuriken and grabs it to throw it back, he becomes shocked. The shuriken was a black Feather Shuriken. A white Feather Shuriken was the signature weapon used by the late Joe. And now, what Gatchaman holds here is a black Feather Shuriken. It's just like Joe...the nostalgic memories of Joe come back to life in the minds of Gatchaman and his friends.
A month later, a young man named Jack joins the Ninja Team as G-6. Joe the Condor's G-2 mark will be permanently retired in memory of Joe and Jack is given the long-awaited G-6 number. Jack is selected after a series of rigorous tests but even so, he is nowhere near as good as Joe. In order to deal with Galactor, the ISO is rushing to complete a new mecha, the God Peacock, to replace the God Phoenix. However, Galactor senses this and sends the Space Joker to try to stop it.
Together with Jack, the Science Ninja Team fights back with the Tornado Fighter, but they fail it due to Jack's inexperience which causes all the Gatchaman members to have a hard time. With that battle over, Jinpei and Ryu protest to Dr. Nambu "Why did you even let that guy in? He's not as good as Joe."
On the contrary, Dr. Nambu scolds the two: "Now that you recognize each other as members, you need to learn to cooperate with each other as comrades! Your attitude of blaming Jack and always comparing him to Joe is wrong! A true Ninja Team can only be achieved by complementing each others' weaknesses and gaining balance!".
At hearing this, Jack starts practicing with the white Feather Shuriken so as not to lose to Joe. The Ninja Team does not understand why Dr. Nambu even chose Jack. However, Jack is actually Joe's younger brother. Jack vows to take revenge on Galactor in Joe's place, and in order to become more than his older brother, Jack strongly requests that Dr. Nambu keep this a secret until he can truly take Joe's place.
The God Peacock is eventually completed, and the Atoll Submarine Base would also be completed in secret. But the scale of the returning Galactor is much greater than before. No matter how hard the team fights, the sacrifices only increase. However, through these battles, everyone in the Science Ninja Team gradually begin to hope that Joe is still alive.
One day, after a deadly battle with the Space Joker, Gatchaman realizes that the Joker is a cyborg. Due to the shock of that fierce battle, the Space Joker momentarily regains his forgotten past. What he now remembers is that he himself is the man that was called Joe...
Characters[]
International Science Organization[]
Science Ninja Team[]
- Ken Washio/Ken the Eagle
- Jun/Jun the Swan
- Jinpei/Jinpei the Swallow
- Ryu Nakanishi/Ryu the Owl
- Jack/Jack the Falcon (alt. Hawk, see Trivia)
Support[]
The Science Ninja Team would now operate out of a new underwater location, known as the Atoll Submarine Base. It would be a giant sea anemone-shaped base in the middle of an atoll, that would have the ability to recede to the ocean floor.
Concept illustrations of Jack in his civilian wear and his Bird Style were drawn by Ippei Kuri and would later be showcased in Animage and later publications like the DeAgostini Gatchaman mooks[2], though it is unknown if either mechanical designer Mitsuki Nakamura or Kunio Okawara had the chance to design the new base.
Galactor[]
After regaining his memories, the Space Joker would act as a Red Impulse-like ally to the Science Ninja Team, yet remaining hidden in Galactor. As the outline only covers the story beats up to this event, the final fate of Joe and the resolution of any mysteries involving Don Melder's identity are unknown.
A headshot of the Space Joker was devised by Ippei Kuri and shown through various later publications, though it is unknown if a full design ever existed or if Don Melder also had concept art that was unreleased.
It appears that the Planning Department staff had opted to take a euphemism for death that had appeared in the script by Hisayuki Toriumi for episode 105, yet had not made it into the final narration, as more of a literal story device for what happened to Joe. Rather than Joe "going to a faraway world" by his death, it was X that would facilitate his unwilling travel to another planet and a continued life, but one under the control of Galactor and with him having become a cyborg.
Other than the mention of X being behind Joe's transformation and the abduction of ISO workers in the plot, he is not given any further details in the planning, leaving it unknown what his ultimate idea to destroy the Earth would be this time around (as with the Solar Shift Plan and the Poison Apple in II and Fighter) or if the distant planet he'd remodel humans as Galactors on would become more focal to the events in the series.
Featured Mecha[]
The God Phoenix was slated to be a returning mecha at first, only for the team to inevitably receive new upgraded machines and a new combining mecha which would be as followed:
- G-1: An airplane called the Eagle Jet (イーグル・ジェット)
- G-3: A motorcycle called the Swan Rider (スワン・ライダー)
- G-4: A helicopter buggy called Swallow Buggy (スワロー・バギー)
- G-5: A hovercraft, serving as the body to the new mecha, inevitably leaving Ryu to stay behind as usual
- G-6: A car called the Falc/Hawk Mueller (フォーク・ミューラー)
It is unknown if Mitsuki Nakamura or Kunio Okawara had designed any of these mecha (or the ones below) for the physical pitch at the time; if either had, the illustrations remain unreleased or lost. There are no other details given in writing about the vehicles, other than their names, leaving the Mueller especially mysterious.
The God Peacock[]
(ゴッドピーコック)
With their five mecha put together, the Science Ninja Team would now pilot this combined plane, which would effectively serve as a "God Phoenix 2". But rather than its signature finishing move being a Firebird mode, this mecha's main point mentioned in the planning would be that it could create a blinding flash like an aurora in order to distract the enemy, and momentarily vanish.
Its existence is also gone over in the DeAgostini Gatchaman II DVD mook #43, under the subject "The Phoenix that was supposed to be a Peacock".[3]
The Condora[]
(コンドラー)
A condor-shaped, monster bird mecha that the Space Joker rides and uses to fly through the skies.
Lingering Mysteries Presented by the Pitch[]
As this planning establishment (or what was transcribed) only seemed to contain the outline and some rough settings, there are various points of interest and mystery to be had with the addition of Jack to the team as well as other ambiguities that would be left up to explanations by the writing staff and director had this pitch been approved.
As it stands, while some further ideas and explanations can be inferred, there is a lot left unsaid to be theorized about the new characters and story flow.
G-6[]
The very presence of this character, which would overturn the previously-established idea that Joe was an only child, would bring numerous questions up.
- What is the age difference between Jack and Joe? While Jack appears to be a young teenager and his design falls between "the team kid" Jinpei and the older Science Ninjas, no exact age is given for the character in the setting other than the descriptor of seinen; a young man/adolescent. It is also important to consider the timeline, and whether or not Tatsunoko would have already factored in the real-time passage of nearly two years within the original series' airing for the characters' ages. It is already a debate if that even applies to the finalized II, which already has its own timeskip added on (of two or three years depending on the source). The oldest team member like Ken, whether or not factoring in the flow of the first series, would already be in his early 20s while the youngest like Jinpei would be in his early to mid teens (although not appearing much different at all in the Ippei Kuri concept art).
- Where was Jack during his parents' assassination on BC Island? Was his presence unknown to Galactor at the time, or could it be possible that he was given away and raised separately from Joe before then? It is likely he would have had to have been a baby or toddler during that time, to take his current presumed age range into account.
- How long did Dr. Nambu know of Jack's existence, or was it a fact recently uncovered? Was he responsible for Jack having eluded Galactor all these years, or did Jack slip through the cracks some other way? It could be figured that Jack was specifically scouted by Dr. Nambu and brought into the ISO, but any specifics of their encounter may have been left to be decided through the series as the suspense unfolded.
- Would Jack even be his birth name, or a name taken after his parents' deaths to protect his identity (or a shortening as "Joe" was for "George")? There is no surname given for the character, as to not spoil he is Joe's brother, but it can be wondered if he would also have taken on a different one to hide that fact, if not in a situation like Jun and Jinpei.
- While Jack is the clear rookie trying to live up to his brother's image and causing tension and complaints from his teammates over wishing Joe was still there, it can be wondered what his specific dynamics would be with these other Science Ninjas. His position in being a presumed "middle child", appearance-wise, already changes the formula some along with him being the newcomer.
- Jack would know he has a brother and that this brother was part of the Science Ninja Team, the latter fact possibly told to him by Dr. Nambu. As suspicion would grow about Joe still being alive somewhere and the team would encounter the Space Joker, would there be special attention paid to a "brother vs. brother " encounter? Would Jack's mission be modified to trying to find his brother, even hoping to bring him back to the team?
- When it comes down to the endgame of the project, it could be wondered if Jack learns to prove his own worth rather than trying to specifically surpass his brother's image. Would this be accomplished in a more tragic vein, by Joe dying all over again in another sacrifice, or would the brothers be able to reunite even in their altered circumstances?
Space Joker[]
This character's ambiguities in the planning would also be something to be worked out, especially stemming from him being an alive but altered Joe.
- Just how extensive was the cybernetic remodeling by Leader X? There were characters deemed cyborgs in the first series which seemed to actually be more like robots (the mannequins in "Death Girls Unite!", and arguably Lucy in some interpretations) or at the least, were outright described as having an organic brain but mechanical body; the Cyborg horses, and Romina and Julia keeping their heads and brains intact. Would Joe still look humanoid beneath his mask and on the surface, or would he have a more obviously mechanical appearance?
- We know from the planning that while this cyborg surgery was necessary to keep Joe alive, it is what Joe deems makes it impossible for him to return to the Science Ninja Team. Is it from the shame of being a cyborg itself and the alterations that have robbed his humanity (which may or may not be physically obvious), or is there a more dangerous component to his remodeling when considering previous Galactor cyborgs would have bombs or other self-destruction mechanisms?
- How would the Space Joker hope to elude the detection of Leader X and that of Don Melder, when considering how deadly his superiors would be and how betraying Galactor is a life-ending offense? Once he regains his memory to start covertly assisting the heroes, it would seem to only be a matter of time before that development is uncovered by the enemy side (besides how long it would take for his identity to be exposed to the Science Ninja Team).
- What was X's motive in taking Joe and making him a random cyborg operative? It could be figured that perhaps X took Joe as a spoil of his war or souvenir from the Earth on the verge of destruction, as well as exercising a particular cruelty in bringing a "child of Galactor" back into the organization and having him bound to fight his former comrades. With X knowing many ways of sadism, it can be wondered whether or not there was a deeper meaning or him just happening to find this dying individual convenient.
- What is the significance of the distant planet that Joe was taken away to for the brainwashing? Selector was destroyed at the end of the first series, so we may figure X had taken over another planet to start building his new Galactor army. Was this planet's technology pivotal in transforming Joe, or did X's own mysterious powers play that role?
- Although Jack clearly remembers or knows his brother's existence in some way, there would now be a matter of retcon in explaining why Joe never brought up a brother before; were his memories of Jack wiped out with the rose bomb explosion (as his memories of his parents' affiliation with Galactor had been, if temporarily?), or did he believe his brother to have died and it was too painful to ever mention? Was Jack raised separately from Joe to start, if not lost and separated after the tragedy? Once Joe's memories would start to return, a reader would wonder if he would remember Jack then and it would play into his role as a protector, or if it would be a subconscious feeling until both siblings' identities would be exposed before one another.
- Since the Space Joker would take over a Red Impulse-like role, it would also be questioned if he would end in tragedy like Red Impulse; this paving the way for his brother to assume his role, with a dying blessing and to carry on his memory. Or, if in a more hopeful or still bittersweet outcome, Joe would survive any final events and be fully freed from Galactor, but have to contend with the Science Ninja Team knowing that he is a cyborg and whether or not he would rejoin their ranks.
Don Melder[]
- While the key mystery posed in Don Melder's setting would be if they are a man or a woman, it can also be wondered whether Don Melder is an ordinary human or mutated by X, or that they may potentially even be an alien associated with the mysterious planet that Leader X had brought Joe and other missing humans to for conversion.
- How was Don Melder chosen by X? They seem to have a great sadism, but it can be wondered whether or not Tatsunoko staff would opt to also include more tragic elements as the three existing sub-leaders wound up having in some way or another.
- What would be the dynamics between X and Don Melder? While it would appear the stakes have risen in Galactor to give the Science Ninja Team a harder time at succeeding, there would still have to be some amount of failures to keep the plot going and for the team to survive that long to keep fighting against the organization. Would Don Melder be in a role more like Berg Katse or Gel Sadra, or would they be more like Count Egobossler in being more assertive but still believing they could surpass their overlord?
- Galactor sub-leaders tend to meet their own unfortunate fates by the end, and it would seem to be a foregone conclusion that Don Melder would not go unpunished in some way. Would they be one to openly rebel against X, or would they go down as his subordinate to the very end?
- Although characters like Berg Katse, Gel Sadra, and Count Egobossler had their name etymology explained by Tatsunoko either within the planning establishments or interviews, Don Melder seems to have no explanation offered for their name. This leaves some questions as to if there was a significant meaning in the naming sense, or if it would even be reflected in the project.
- With the Space Joker acting as a secret ally to the Science Ninja Team, how long would such deception elude Don Melder when it comes to Galactor failing due to his intervention, or for the Space Joker failing to kill the ninjas as his commander would want? Seeing as Don Melder will effortlessly kill their subordinates for failure under a guise of understanding, there would be a challenge with the Space Joker having to avoid such a commander's deadly grasp.
- Would Don Melder have the same type of Galactor henchmen as before, or would there be new types of subordinates to be introduced? One key visual of the eventual Gatchaman II shows that there was consideration of giving Gel Sadra differently-designed henchmen, only for the same typical green-suited character designs to be used in other key visuals and the show itself. Still, both II and Fighter would eventually introduce other types of Galactor characters, leaving it to be wondered if Don Melder would have a different variety compared to before or if other concepts like the Blackbirds and Devil Stars could have even been reinvented.
Legacy[]
Ultimately, this pitch appeared to be rejected due to it lacking toyetic appeal, as well as the Tatsunoko Planning Department wanting to go in a more "Casshan"-like direction for Joe as a tragic hero.[4] There was still a brief consideration whether or not Jack would be reflected in the next pitch, as he was one of "many options" different staff members debated over and whether or not Joe should even come back to life at all.
Hiroshi Sasagawa would reflect on this in an Animage interview[5]:
"When I made the decision (to direct), we first debated whether we should go with 4 members or add one additional member. There's a child, a woman, a third man, and the main character, so in any case, someone like Joe, who is a bit delinquent and nihilistic, fits in. But Joe is dead. There were a lot of options, including Joe's younger brother, and a more nihilistic character as a new G-2. I was a fan of the younger brother, but we decided it would be best to include Joe. I also had a strong desire to see Joe again..."
The high fan popularity of Joe was also taken into account for such a decision, with it being best to re-introduce him as soon as possible and let the mysteries as to how he was alive be something to attract viewers.
While this pitch did not progress, it appears some elements were eventually carried through to the final sequel project anyway, which had started under the title New Science Ninja Team Gatchaman but carried the Gatchaman II branding in the end:
- Joe would be set as a cyborg (after an initial setting of him being an android with Joe's memories in the first New document), and would be trying to hide out from the team early on while helping them from the shadows, as the Space Joker would have after regaining his memories of his past.
- Gel Sadra would be present as an individual with an image and androgynous setting to evoke that of Katse, although portrayed more comically than Don Melder would have been. Unlike Don Melder not having a decided backstory this early on, Gel Sadra and their earlier iteration Sado Madonna (who was to be an outright woman) would have had elements of their origins included to start off the series.
- After the considerations whether or not to keep Jack or to introduce that "more nihilistic" new G-2 to take Joe's place, the character of Getz was introduced as a bait-and-switch element in the first episode of II. Getz, or rather the Galactor fake posing as him, would wear Joe's Bird Style in a possible homage to Jack having worn those colors in Ippei Kuri's concept art (although Jack would have had a different helmet). Jinpei even protests the idea of Getz being a new G-2, as the number was supposed to be retired.
It is possible that like with some other Tatsunoko shows that were the result of combined elements from different rejected pitches (eg: Time Dokkan + Yatter Dokan= Yatterman), elements from this "2" were influential to the further drafts of New/II and were put in to make for a stronger show. The mysterious "a family member is a villain" element would also make it into the eventual II, with Gel Sadra being revealed to be the child of Dr. Pandora in the later half of the show.
The image of Jack being introduced to the rest of the Science Ninja Team did wind up traced and redrawn by Yoshitaka Amano as a key visual for II, though Amano had forgotten to change the character's hairline and the resulting "Joe" remains a bit skinnier-looking than Ken. The original artwork by Ippei Kuri would also appear on the back of a childrens' book for Gatchaman II, with the clearly smaller Jack misidentified as Joe.
Concept Art[]
It is claimed briefly in Gatchaman Graffiti that Ippei Kuri was responsible for "several" setting illustrations that included the early elements like Jack and Space Joker. These are the illustrations that are currently known to have been created for that planning establishment, with any others that may have existed being officially unreleased, lost, or possibly having appeared in guides without association with the specific project.
Trivia[]
- While the original intent was for Gatchaman to only be Ken's codename and the team to be "The Science Ninja Team", this early planning draft shows the first tendency to refer to the team itself or its other members as Gatchaman as well, which would carry into both sequel series (it may also possibly indicate Jinzo Toriumi's involvement this early on, as his script for episode 1 of the eventual II would be first to invoke "Gatchaman" as a plural term; the first two episodes of Fighter written by him and Satoshi Suyama also furthered this treatment).
- There is confusion with later releases of the actual II having its setting described as "three years later" when the finalized planning and the Fuji TV New Program Announcement stated the stage would start about two years later. The three year timeskip may have been from this planning, or other drafts, and was referenced for more recent liner notes.
- The rationale for pitching a G-6 character would have related to trying to keep the young audience interested as the characters would be a little older, and some would no longer be teenagers. Due to the debates over whether or not the on-air broadcast time for the original series should be taken into account for the first Galactor war (with the conflicting references of time passing yet some characters' ages seeming to stay put, eg: Jun still 16 in ep.74), it can be questioned by some exactly how old the rest of the team would be as well; Ken would be about 21 if disregarding the "year and 10 months" time passage in the first series, and around 23 if it counted (with Joe being of a similar age). Ryu and Jun would have their ages respectively lower in relation to Ken's, while Jinpei would be a teenager at the very least and Dr. Nambu would be in his 50s. Unlike Berg Katse and later canon Galactor sub-leaders, there was no age for Don Melder supplied yet in this planning or what was reprinted of it; it is left ambiguous whether or not they would have been envisioned as being in their 20s as well, or even older like Katse being 30 in the compilation movie.
A Daikengo Connection?[]
Although the planning writers for this pitch were not credited individually (only being referred to as the "Tatsunoko Production Planning Department"), there is speculation that the Space Joker and his mecha Condora were recycled and reworked as the cyborg Bryman and his mecha Thoroughbreder for Tori Pro's anime Daikengo, had Jinzo Toriumi been involved in this planning as he was with the latter and with the eventual II. This anime would premiere mid-1978, but only last 26 episodes, predating the release of the finalized Gatchaman II but holding enough Tori Pro touch to form wondering if some rejected initial II elements provided inspiration for a whole other project.
There is also a further parallel between Daikengo and the approved and finalized II, where Bryman and Joe's transformations were made responsible by a scientist involved with the enemy faction (or formerly, in the II case) and that supports his endeavors, which draws further comparisons from Toriumi's involvement in both.
Was a Tekkaman plot point recycled?[]
Another point of speculation would be if the Space Joker element in this pitch, if it had come from Toriumi and Satoshi Suyama, was recycled from the planning establishment that they both had done for Tekkaman the Space Knight.
While that series had been intended to last at least four cours, it was cancelled at 26 episodes and left with no ending. The Tekkaman LD-BOX would reprint the text of their pitch, which provided outlines for what was intended to happen in each cour of the series. Starting with the third cour, Joji Minami's father would have been revealed to have actually survived by having been captured and converted by the Waldastar forces into being an evil Tekkaman made to fight his son. This would have provided more of a "villainous Red Impulse" sort of angle in the series that would predate this Gatchaman pitch.
It can be questioned that if Toriumi and possibly Suyama were involved here as they had been with all three finalized Gatchaman series' planning, if they had just decided to utilize that "brainwashed enemy warrior"/"Red Impulse as a villain" kind of setting in figuring out what to do with Joe. Had this been so, and factoring in the possible Daikengo connection, the evolution would follow along these lines:
Waldastar's Tekkaman (Kousei Minami) -> Space Joker (Joe) -> Bryman (Samson)
The tragic expressions and intent of the missing family member having to eventually fight the hero to the death wound up increasingly lessened through each of these stages, as the Space Joker's arc would change to have him be secretly assisting the team and Bryman would already be helping out his brother while nobody would know his identity.
G-6's Bird Style Dispute[]
It is important to note how there is a conflicted way in English fan translations of how to refer to Jack's Bird Style as either "The Hawk" or "The Falcon"; the kanji and name of hayabusa (隼) would suggest the Peregrine Falcon, a bird that such a name in Japanese was coined due to its fast wings. A hawk in Japanese would more commonly be represented by the kanji taka (鷹).
However, Jack's vehicle having the name of フォーク/fuooku in katakana is what gets him figured to be a "Hawk"; although the bird is ホーク/hooku in katakana, there are times that fuooku may be erroneously used since the first character can also be read as "hu" and there tended to be difficulties in converting some loanwords to katakana readings.
Fuooku has been commonly seen to represent words like "Fork", "Folk", "Volk", as well as "Falc"/"Falk"; the last could insinuate the vehicle could be the "Falc Mueller", possibly a misspelling of "Falco" (ファルコ) even. But there is also debate that the planning writer would've just referred to it outright as the "Falcon Mueller" (ファルコン) if that bird was intended. In either case, the spelling used for whichever bird would seem to not be the standardized one in katakana.
Although the specific term of hayabusa is used, there is also the belief of Hawk Getz being an homage to both Jack as well as that other discussed idea of a new nihilist on the team, which would favor the idea of G-6 being "The Hawk". As it stands, since Tatsunoko's planning room did not develop the Jack concept further, he is left as a footnote in Gatchaman history while a red herring "new team member" like Getz would be better remembered for his brief existence.
References[]
- ↑ Tatsunoko Hyper Collection Series: Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II LD-BOX booklet (January 25, 1994, Pioneer)
- ↑ Biweekly Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II DVD Collection No. 45 (DeAgostini Publishing, October 13, 2009)
- ↑ Biweekly Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II DVD Collection No. 43 (DeAgostini Publishing, September 15, 2009)
- ↑ Gatchaman Complete Works: Gatchaman Graffiti 1972-2000 (Asahi Sonorama)
- ↑ Animage, February 1979