Jinpei

Jinpei
Kanji	甚平
Characteristics
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Age	10-11 (Gatchaman, estimated age, see Trivia), 10 (OVA)
Height	120cm
Weight	30kg
Hair Color	Brown
Eye Color	Black
Personal Status
Status	Active
Relatives	Jun (Adopted Sister), Ken (brother figure), Olga Riddenbacher (mother figure), Dr. Nambu (father figure)
Voice Actor	Yoku Shioya, Rica Matsumoto (OVA)
First Appearance
Anime Debut	Gatchaman Versus Turtle King

Jinpei, also known as G-4: Jinpei the Swallow, is the Science Ninja Team's youngest member and the reconnaissance expert. He is the adoptive brother of Jun.

Background

Jinpei never knew his parents or his earlier life, but claims to be the last 18th-generation descendant of the Iga Ninja clan. He was found by Jun as a toddler in the mountains, and taken back to the Shirayuki Orphanage. Eventually the two came under the wing of Dr. Nambu to undergo training for the Science Ninja Team. 

It was ultimately implied, but was never really explored, that he was the only surviving son of the Jupiter Ninja Clan's sensei; this child had disappeared from the clan around the same time that Jun had found Jinpei.

The Fantastic TV Collection vol.3 expands things more by stating that Jinpei loved to play pranks at the Shirayuki Orphanage, and was popular with the other kids due to his nimble and swift nature. He and Jun figure that Dr. Nambu must have heard about his feats, which led to him visiting the orphanage and recruiting Jinpei for the Science Ninja Team. Since Jun was bound to be too old for the orphanage soon enough, and she didn't want to be separated from Jinpei, she insisted on going too and left under the pretense that she would help Nambu with taking care of personal affairs.

OVA version

As with the original series, Jinpei's early life is unknown and there's even less of a possibility at having insight into it. He grew up receiving his education through the internet, allowing him to become adept at gaming as well as hacking into computers. It was this skill that proved him to be a useful recruit for Dr. Nambu.

Appearance

Jinpei in his Gatchaman costume.

Jinpei is average height for a child his age, and has wild brown hair and a rather gangly appearance. His civilian clothing usually consists of an orange-and-yellow T-shirt with the number 4 on it and a pair of blue-and-white striped bellbottom pants. By the time of the sequels, he wears a slightly different crew neck-styled "4" shirt, as well as a cap and blue jeans, which are held up by matching blue suspenders.

His swallow-themed Bird Style is mainly yellow with red gloves and boots. It is adorned with a dark blue cape that is teal on the inside. His helmet is colored blue with yellow eyes and a red outline, with the visor being clear yellow, although the visor is colored a light teal in the two sequel series.

OVA

Jinpei's civilian clothing was updated and modernized for the remake, with him wearing a beanie and sweatshirt. His hair is also a bit curlier.

His Swallow Bird Style was modified to be primarily red, with yellow accents and a purple cape. Rather than the "G" belt, he now has just the symbol worn at the center of the uniform.

Cancelled Imagi Film Project

Jinpei underwent a few possible looks for the film, the first teaser render being loosely based off his NTT appearance. Later concept art by Charlie Wen would envision him as having a uniform like the OVA, but with a primarily gold color scheme and red trim. By the time of the final teaser for the movie, the character design by Tohru Patrick Awa gave Jinpei a Bird Style more like his classic look, but with red contrasting elements to his bodysuit as well as visible seams and a raised 3D bird emblem.

His civilian design also changed over development of the movie, with him starting out as having choppy, neck-length dark blond hair. He would wear a navy blue, zip-up vest with straps and gold trim, a red undershirt, and a pair of blue jeans. Some storyboards also showed him wearing a pair of goggles or sunglasses in his hair. A later render would have him wearing a red vest over a pale yellow shirt, and gray jeans.

Personality

Jinpei is cheerful and excitable like most children his age, as well as being very mischievous. But he is also very responsible, helping Jun run her snack bar, and supporting his teammates to the best of his abilities when needed.

On the team, he is considered the "idea man", and often plays a comic relief role with Ryu. He likes playing cards and drawing, but doesn't like math or having to do a lot of homework, though Dr. Nambu is responsible for his studies and Ken and Joe have tried to teach him math.

Relationships

Jun

Jun found Jinpei in the Jupiter Mountains, after she fled there to escape the war that killed her parents. Jinpei was estimated to be a 3-year old toddler at the time, and she took him on as a sibling, treating him as she would an actual baby brother. The two grew up in the Shirayuki Orphanage together and both insisted to be taken by Dr. Nambu to be on the team.

When not battling Galactor, Jinpei keeps himself busy helping Jun run the Snack J. Jinpei also likes to tease Jun about her feelings for Ken.

Ken Washio

As Ken is his leader, Jinpei heeds Ken's every order and respects him. He is also close with Ken when not on the field calling him 'Aniki' (兄貴 lit. "big brother"). However, he tries to also get Ken to pay his tab at the bar, to no avail.

Weapons and Arsenal

Fighting Style

Jinpei's style of Science Ninja fighting focuses mainly on stealth and incapacitating enemies as Jinpei's small body puts him at a disadvantage against enemies that are full grown.

Weapons

American Clackers: Jinpei's primary weapon in the original series. They are a pair of bolas, usually used to restrain enemies.

Rebound Ball: Jinpei's primary weapon in Gatchaman II. A super-ball projectile that is thrown from a shovel-like mitt attached to his left hand.

Rebound Ball

Swallow Top: Jinpei's weapon in Fighter is a spinning top attached to a yo-yo like string.

Swallow Top

Unnamed hacking device: In the Gatchaman OVA, Jinpei had a device which he could use to hack into Galactor computers. The device had a collapsible screen,a gamepad-like button interface and transmitted data to Jinpei's helmet via a heads up display on his visor.

Jinpei: Hacker at Work.

G-4 Mecha

G-4

Swallow Helico: A small VTOL aircraft used for recon in areas that the New God Phoenix cannot enter.

Swallow Helico

Gatcha Four

Appearances in Other Media

Yatterman (2008)

Jinpei first appears as part of an extended cameo with the rest of the team in the hour-long TV special "Episode 12.5". They show up to stop the Doronbo Gang from stealing a ring.

He next appears in a crowd shot in episode 24, as people are lured in by the Doronbo Gang's scam. He is depicted sitting atop of Ryu's shoulders.

Time Bokan: Royal Revival (1994)

Jinpei, the rest of the Science Ninja Team, and Dr. Nambu all show up at Boyacky's restaurant in a flashback and eat without paying. He is depicted in his original series clothing, while the other men on the team have their Gatchaman II/Fighter designs.

He later briefly arrives with the rest of the team for the battle against Sailor Mun Mun, but leaves, Jun stating that he got bored and didn't like that he didn't get to have any lines.

Wonderful Tatsunoko Land (1999)

Jinpei and the rest of the team made a brief guest appearance in this special. While he did have a speaking line, his voice actress went uncredited.

Alterations in International Adaptations

This section below deals with various name changes, rewrites, or cases of censorship that Jinpei would undergo in foreign versions of Gatchaman.

South Korea

Eagle 5 Brothers

Jinpei was renamed Cheol in the initial dub of the first series, though a 1990s redub of it and the dubbing of the ensuing sequels would give him the name Ppyeong.

Compilation film of "Eagle 5 Brothers"

Cheol receives a decent amount of screen-time in this movie, as the Gatchaman II "Pyramid Power" plot is sourced for the first half of it and his playtime scene with Yukari is extended to have him imagining himself as Peter Pan.

USA

Battle of the Planets (1978)

This English reversioning significantly altered Jinpei, renaming him Keyop and describing him as being a genetically-engineered child grown from a single cell, causing him to be born with an unusual speech impediment. Keyop often stutters and makes whirring noises, only being able to stammer out a few words at a time. While he still appears to be watched over by Princess, one episode implies that the two don't live together, as Princess tells him "I brought you breakfast from my place!". However, the animation in other episodes shows that they seem to share the same apartment.

Earlier plans for the adaptation had Keyop intended to be an alien child, with his odd stutter explained away as an alien accent. It was long assumed and rumored by fans that the speech impediment was done to censor Jinpei having rude language, however, the truth is that the producers wanted the child character to have a funny type of voice and Alan Young had improvised the unusual speech pattern. In addition, the uncut ADV dub and subtitle track show that Jinpei did not swear as much as he had been rumored to.

One episode of the series has Chief Anderson saying Keyop is no mere child, but he is interrupted from finishing that. This may be a remnant of the concept of him being of alien origin. The Gold Key/Whitman comics of the 1970s opt to explain Keyop away as an android, to justify the unusual beeping and whirring noises he makes.

As with other members of G-Force, Keyop is stated to have "cerebonic implants" that are responsible for his high martial arts skill. These implants are not delved into much more, but it is said all members have had these since birth (though "cerebonic" would imply something to do with their brain,and the possible location of such devices).

The episode originally dealing with Jinpei trying to find out his origins wound up heavily rewritten and edited, to remove any indications of Keyop being upset about not knowing his true birthday or any intent of him traveling to find out who he was.

G-Force: Guardians of Space (1987)

This version has Peewee, who is closer to Jinpei in characterization and attitude. The opening describes him as "Bold as a Merlin", which is reflected in his Bird Style identification in the series, when he refers to himself as "The Mighty Merlin" (which may present confusion when his outfit's theme looks nothing like that of a hawk). He is referred to as being 14 years old in the adaptation of the Patogiller plot, or is assumed to be such by Galactor operatives; the fact that Maria is that age, as well as the episode being dubbed early on as a pilot may have lead to the assumption that Jinpei/Peewee would be that as well.

An earlier pitch for "G-Force" by the Media360 Group had him renamed "David", although little is known about what his characterization would have been beyond the pilot, other than being a youngster of human origin like his original basis.

Eagle Riders (1996)

This adaptation gives a rare full name for the Swallow in that of Mickey Dugan. He continues to act as a younger brother figure to Kelly the Dove, although his Bird Style is identified in advertising and outside materials for the series as being a Merlin. The Swallow Helico is renamed the "Bird of Paradise".

While other countries airing this version tended to keep these changes, the Italian dub reverts him to being "Jinpei the Swallow".

Italy

Gatchaman: Battaglia dei Pianeti, while sourcing from Battle of the Planets for most of its dub of the first series, refers to this character as Gimpy the Swallow, though pronounced much similar to "Jinpei".

It is likely that due to the re-use of the dub scripts, Gimpy was presented as a laboratory produced child with a strange speech impediment in most of the episodes, while the ones sourced straight from the Japanese Gatchaman masters presented him more in line with how Jinpei was.

France

La Bataille des Planetes, in being based off the first English version, has this character referred to as Kipo.

The compilation film of II produced in 1986, meanwhile, has him renamed Jippei.

Voice Actors

Yoku Shioya was Jinpei's actor in the original series, remaining even after he hit puberty and his voice began to change. Even as he was in his 20s, he stayed on for Jinpei in the sequels.

In the OVA remake, the role was given to Rica Matsumoto as part of the new generation of actors.

English Adaptations

• Battle of the Planets: Alan Young
• G-Force: Guardians of Space: Barbara Goodson (Sparklin Entertainment), John Ferguson (Media360 Group pilot)
• Eagle Riders: Mona Marshall
• OVA: Mona Marshall (Harmony Gold 1997 dub), Luci Christian (redub)
• ADV/Sentai dub of first series and movie: Luci Christian

Trivia

• Jinpei's name comes from the uncle of Gatchaman's screenwriter Jinzō Toriumi, although initially when he and Satoshi Suyama were collaborating on the character settings, Suyama had wanted to name the equivalent character Shohei after his own son. He was ultimately overruled by Toriumi's choice.
• While Jinpei's real birthday is unknown, it is always celebrated on the day Jun had found him.
• Jinpei's possible but ambiguous origin of being a Jupiter Ninja descendant was clearly a later-decided idea; some viewers will point out inconsistencies in earlier episodes such as episode 69 having his lines "My mother is already dead" and "Come to think of it, I haven't visited my mom's grave in a long time", implying Jinpei at least may have known his mother and what her fate was. There is also of course, his early claim of being an Iga ninja descendant which may be interpreted as his own belief and boast, but that can also be pointed out as another example of undecided settings for the character (the Iga ninja remark would also come up in the scenario version of "The Plan to Assassinate Dr. Nambu" until the plot was reworked).
• Jinpei continues the trend of younger boy characters that acted as sidekick types in early Tatsunoko anime series, with Kurio Mifune in Mach Go Go Go, Kenbo in Kurenai Sanshiro, Chinpei Kazemaki in the shelved Sky Fighter Z, and the scrapped little brother character of Ichiro/Choroichi in Time Bokan (though the character would be reworked as the robot Chorobou).
• There is debate and speculation over just how much time exactly may pass in the original Gatchaman franchise (when considering the out-of-universe airing of the show, or some events within the series itself seeming to reflecting time). This in turn would affect the interpretation of Jinpei's age in the sequels, which start two years after the original. No official age settings were given beyond the first series, where Jinpei's age is given as an estimated 11 years old in his profile or 10 in other official profiles and sources, which would make him 12 or 13 by the end.
  • In calculating his age vs. the sequels and their time passage, Jinpei would be 14 or 15 by Gatchaman II, and a year added through II and another through the events of Gatchaman Fighter would bring him to 16 or 17.
  • However, other than Jinpei celebrating his birthday (on the anniversary of Jun finding him) and some interpreting Yoku Shioya's voice change to be proof of the character aging, Tatsunoko did not give any updated age settings for the characters in the sequels and had not planned for the original show to last beyond a year. This leads to the idea that they opted to keep the team's further aging ambiguous or treating them as "ageless".
  • It is also important to note the script for episode 95 mentions that the Jupiter Ninja clan was massacred 8 years prior, and the leader's son (presumed to be Jinpei but left ambiguous) was only 3 at the time. Whether or not the real-time story flow would be kept in mind at this point, it would put Jinpei at his estimated age of 11 by the plot of that episode (if that wasn't his default age before, or he was "ageless"). Those wanting to adhere to the idea of time actually passing within the series could then see him as starting out as a 9-year old boy (as in earlier planning), only to be 11 by the end. Going with that timeline, Jinpei's estimated age by II would be 13, and he would be 15 by the end of Fighter. Either way, it does not go amiss from fans that Tatsunoko staff opted to keep him the same size and general appearance no matter what his age could have been, visually keeping him the "team kid" even as Shioya's voice kept changing. An alternative interpretation is that the line in 95 was not conscious of the time flow of the series, and that Hisayuki Toriumi's claim of the Jupiter Ninja clan's decimation being "10 years ago" (in a roundtable feature meant to take place late in the series) would be more accurate, putting Jinpei as 11 at the start of the first series but 13 by the end.
  • A popular fanon birthday for Jinpei picked out in the Japanese fandom as far back as the 1970s, but which is not official by Tatsunoko, is June 13th, making him a Gemini.
• Harmony Gold's original dubbing of the OVA continues the misidentification of G-4's Bird Style, although this time the character is referred to as Jimmy the Falcon (rather than the correct Swallow, or the Merlin as previous dubs had insisted upon).
• In a 1996 pitch for a more kid-friendly Gatchaman project, G-4 was re-imagined as the second girl on the team, though her details have not been publicly stated by Tatsunoko Pro.
• Jinpei's design was lifted for the character of Jjiang in the opening to the Korean mockbuster Iron Man 007, although the character in the actual film does not look much like him beyond being the kid team member.
• The live-action film continuity wound up being the first piece of media to give him a surname on-screen, it being that of "Ohtsuki", though he and Jun are biological siblings in that version as well.
• An early design for Jinpei for Gatchaman II depicted his shirt as being two shades of orange and him wearing plain blue jeans, as well as sporting a yellow and blue baseball cap. The cap was kept as part of the finalized design, although he received an entirely new numbered shirt as well as a pair of suspenders.

Development Period

• Jinpei does not ever have a surname in the original series, and "Jinpei" was only a name given to him by Jun. However, the earliest planning materials for the series as Science Ninja Squad Number 5 had him named Jinpei Tsubakurou (燕甚平), with his surname being directly patterned after the swallow. Like his final settings, this Jinpei was slated to be an orphan of unknown origin.
• These early materials also had Jinpei intended to be the fifth-in-command on the team, and gave him a "5" on his shirt in the model sheets. This was to put him last as the "child and mascot" type character, but he wound up bumped up to "4" over the course of production. He was considered to wear a baseball cap at points in the original Gatchaman planning stages, and such a design can be seen in some of Ippei Kuri's early pitch artwork and sketches collected in his artbook.
• Jinpei initially started out a bit younger in earlier drafts of setting materials, being 9 and an elementary school student when not working as a Science Ninja. He and Jun were still sibling figures from the start, though both lived at the Kanagawa Marine Club "Shell" instead of an apartment at a snack bar. Likely as to not complicate the settings, Jinpei's school life was excised from the final product. There are also isolated references to him being 9 in the Shadow planning stage, as well as a 10-year old fourth grade student in the Gatchaman Color Encyclopedia. This early iteration of Jinpei would hope to become a president of his own candy company, in a section noting the team's desired jobs for their future.
• An early character sketch of Jinpei by Ippei Kuri (shown in the PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE artbook) envisioned him as taller and somewhat resembling Sabu from Mach Go Go Go, until it was seemingly decided to make him shorter and more childish to have him stand out among the rest of the team.
• Satoshi Suyama noted Jinpei's model to be Ishimatsu of the Forest, an Edo-era figure that was a subordinate of Jirocho of Shimizu. An early scenario for episode 2 even has Joe outright compare Jinpei to Ishimatsu, and claiming that he'd stay a fool even if he'd die.