The five members of Gatchaman, (left to right) Jinpei, Ken, Jun, Ryu and Joe
| “ | Sometimes we are one, sometimes we are five... The white shadow that moves unseen.... Science Ninja Team Gatchaman! | ” |
The Science Ninja Team are a group of ninjas dressed like birds that are assigned by Dr. Kozaburo Nambu to defeat Galactor. The team is led by Ken Washio, with Joe Asakura as second in command.
Overview[]
The science name theme of the team held strong in early drafts for the series, along with bird imagery and names that would unify the team. Their leader would also bear a specialized codename compared to the rest, showcasing him as the protagonist of the work; "Birdman", "Torimekaman", or the "Shadow Leader" before "Gatchaman" was the finalized choice.
While only Ken has the "Gatchaman" name, the other codenames beginning with "G-" could be seen to be present in the Shadow stage, leading to mystery as to what Jinzo Toriumi and Satoshi Suyama may have intended (and if there were any similar preceding codenames in earlier stages). The sequel series blur this somewhat more, by referring to the team itself as "Gatchaman" at times and some II model sheets referring to the others as "Gatchaman G-2" (rather than "Science Ninja Team G-2") and so on.
The planning for the series delves into the team's mission intent some, although it would be changed by the actual show to have them be more active in the battle:
The Science Ninja Team are a group of righteous youths, and the cell tissues of Galactor are scattered all over the country. Their purpose is to discover them. Although they do not possess any attack machines, they use the performance of their machines to avoid and defend themselves from enemy attacks. However, in order to protect themselves, they sometimes fight using physical techniques (such as the "Ninja Tornado Fighter" and "Ninja Lightning Kick" which are created by forming a combination of the five people) and props. This is another highlight of the action. When the Science Ninja Team reach their goal, they will contact the headquarters. As a general rule, the rest of the process is left to the adult United Nations Forces.
The five members of the Science Ninja Team are usually modern children who live ordinary lives and serve as the viewers' older brothers and sister. However, once an order is received from headquarters, they transform into a Bird Style that is convenient for mission activities, and go to the destination in their machines. They fly together. The public knows about the existence of the Science Ninja Team and are huge fans of them, and respect them as ambassadors of justice. However, there is no way to know who they are. Of course, they cannot reveal their identity. It's absolutely taboo. If a member were to reveal their identity, there is a danger of being eliminated by the Galactor gang. Therein lies the significance of the Science Ninja Team.
All members who transform into Bird Style are able to descend from high places with their cloaked wings, and can jump up to about 10 meters above the ground.[1]
Members[]
The origins and meeting of the five were initially considered to be part of the story, although Satoshi Suyama had found it tedious to do so and Jinzo Toriumi pointed out that they could tell that detail whenever they wanted. Indeed, adaptations like the original TV series and OVA opt to leave such a detail in the past and to ambiguity, although some outside materials may drop hints and some stories (if apocryphal) on how they came together.
Apocryphal Members[]
These characters were either associated with or intended to be on the team at one point in or outside of the series' universe, or exist only in alternate spin-off material and reboot attempts.
The Nameless Young Man, aka "G-6"[]
A young pilot that is rescued by Ken, but who bears amnesia as to who he is and his purpose. He has excellent skill at throwing Jinpei's bolas and with Ken's boomerang, leading to Jinpei to believe he could make a great new team member. To illustrate his potential connection to the team, his civilian clothing resembles theirs (minus any T-shirt number, of course, and his pants lacking a belt).
It turns out to be that the pilot was part of Galactor, but was being targeted by them due to his survival in the crashed observation plane as he would know the secrets about the Sky Squealer. He is convinced by Ken to go with them to the Sky Squealer to take revenge on Galactor, and is dubbed "G-6" by Jinpei (to Joe's aggravation).
"G-6" winds up caught in a stand-off between Ken and the Sky Squealer Captain, being ordered by the Captain to shoot Ken at the same time Ken is ready to fire his boomerang. G-6 kills the Captain instead, but this causes Ken's boomerang to hit him in the Captain's place, ensuring his own death. Ken is horrified at the outcome, while G-6 insists he'd wanted to die as a member of the Ninja Team, and not as part of Galactor. In his last breaths, he demonstrates to Ken where the secret energy weapon is inside the mecha.
Although not an official member of the team and having not lived to take up a costume and bird codename, he is still referred to by the narrator and Ken as "Science Ninja Team's G-6" in the closing lines.
Jack[]
(隼のジャック Hayabusa no Jyakku)
This character, appearing in an early Roman numeral-less pitch for a "Gatchaman 2", is a young boy named Jack who volunteered to join the Science Ninja Team. He resembles a younger, smaller Joe, and wears a Bird Style that's nearly identical to the Condor one. This is due to the secret that both he and Dr. Nambu hide from the team, in that he is the younger brother of Joe. He vows to continue his brother's revenge on Galactor, although it can be questioned whether or not his older brother is truly dead.
As Joe is believed to be deceased at the time but with his "G-2" number retired, Jack takes the codename of G-6 and keeps his familial connection on the down-low in order to prove his worth and that he can truly take Joe's place. Although he is great at sports and has good skill in battle, he is far from being as experienced as Joe was and has difficulty performing the Tornado Fighter technique. As a result, other Ninja Team members openly regret that they wish Joe was still alive (particularly Ryu and Jinpei), though Dr. Nambu scolds them for this and insists they must work as a team and find a way to balance out Jack's shortcomings.
With this, Jack trains in using Feather Shuriken as his brother had, vowing that he can't lose to the memory of his older brother.
Someday, he'll become a better person than his brother. No, if he doesn't, he will definitely tarnish his brother's name. Until then, Jack won't want to reveal his true identity...[2]
Prior to the concept of Jack, an earlier Gatchaman sequel pitch that very little is still known about would have Joe's spot on the team taken over by an extraterrestrial man, developed into Andro Umeda when the concept was retooled as Tekkaman the Space Knight.
Getz (aka Hawk Getz, or Getz the Hawk)[]
(ホーク・ゲッツ Hooku Gettsu, or ホークのゲッツ Hooku no Gettsu)
This character appears in the first two episodes of Gatchaman II as a bait and switch element. The ISO has hired a foreign man known as Hawk Getz from the Earth Defense Force to join the team as a new G-2. This upsets the Science Ninja Team when they see Nambu has intended him to wear Joe's very Bird Style, and Jinpei protests that G-2 was meant to be a permanently retired number.
Getz's rude and off-putting nature quickly gets the team suspicious, and he later leads them into a trap, revealing himself to be a Galactor agent. It is then also revealed that the real Hawk Getz had been murdered and replaced by this agent, cutting short the life and career of what would have been an actual new team member.
Getz appears to have been developed from another consideration among staff for a new character in II, vaguely described by Sasagawa as "a more nihilistic character" to replace Joe as G-2. In the end, it would seem the idea was utilized for the villainous Getz double who couldn't even last an episode into the series.
The full name of Getz is never revealed in the program; "Hawk Getz" could possibly even be such by some interpretations, but it would seemingly be a more Westernized way of listing off his name and Bird Style in comparison to the others (eg: Owashi no Ken, Tsubakurou no Jinpei, etc.) if taking into account how he's merely referred to as "Getz" later on by even Mako (although the story of The Phantom Hawk Getz also seems to suggest the "Hawk Getz" codename also predated the ISO and Ninja Team as his motorcycle racer name). He is later referred to as "Getz the Hawk" by Joe, although that naming pattern still stands out due to the usage of "hawk" as a loanword in katakana.
Getz' country of origin is also never clarified in the program itself, although the bits of the scenario showcased in The Phantom Hawk Getz suggest an association with an Austria-like country due to the references of the song "Edelweiss" from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music.
Joseph[]
A young tennis player, witnessed at the end of the third light novel for the Gatchaman OVA series (titled "Farewell! Condor"). Joseph is tracked down by Ken, and given a dangerous but fulfilling job offer to work with him at the ISO.
Ken intends for Joseph to be a new teammate, as well as a replacement for the deceased Joe (who was killed by Katse, in a divergence from the actual OVA). The fact that Joseph is a clone of Joe that was made at some point by the ISO makes him a perfect candidate. Though Joseph does not have any of his genetic basis' memories, he finds the idea of the new job to be interesting and departs with Ken.
An Alternative G-4[]
A 1996 pitch for a younger-geared Gatchaman series is said to have restructured the team so that there would be two girls, with the second girl serving in place of where Jinpei would usually be. Unfortunately, the character's name and Bird Style designation remain publicly unrevealed, though her image color was blue to contrast G-3 being pink.
Tatsuya the Shrike[]
(モズの達也 Mozu no Tatsuya)
A 2001 one-shot serialized in Young Jump, authored by Kazuhiro Kumagai, gives us an extended Gatchaman universe in which we're introduced to a young man named Tatsuya Narumi (鳴海達也). He is the 15th young person in line to be trained by Dr. Nambu, and takes on the identity of G-15/The Shrike. This gives indication that other agents in Bird Style have or had existed between the original team and this character, though they are not elaborated on.
Tatsuya wears an all-black version of a Bird Style, and true to the motif of a Shrike, has a gruesome way in dispatching his enemies by stabbing them.
"The Lost Team" (Top Cow Battle of the Planets comic)[]
In this amalgam of Gatchaman and its English adaptation done in comic form, the creative team intended to explore a much more extended group of characters; one rather rogue one is a mysterious man in Bird Style that was seen at the end of issue #12, and would have come into play in further installments had they not been scrapped.
Alex Ross would allude to these people in an interview about his involvement with the series, having designed each of them, but would only identify one as having the Bird Style of The Raven. This would have involved some generational betrayal-type of story with G-Force, where the first team was believed dead due to a mole and then the current team was also ready to be fodder for mass-produced Spectran Blackbird clones of themselves. After this would be resolved, the G-Force team would have been expanded to be ten members total, taking the title in a completely new direction.
Unfortunately, Ross would also state that there were conflicts over Sandy Frank wanting Top Cow to completely retire the Gatchaman references as part of this new direction, and him being required to redesign everyone and create an entirely new G-Force to avoid paying royalties to Tatsunoko; he would have to do away with the additional bird-themed costumes he'd planned for the "first G-Force team", and Sandy Frank wanted one drastically re-imagined group of characters instead (doing away with the five G-Force members most readers would know, in favor of these newly-created people). Sandy Frank would also want these characters to be utilized in other media, as his own royalty-free G-Force as the long-term plan.
Due to the above and other various circumstances, Ross parted ways with Top Cow; the intended G-Force miniseries that would contain this storyline was then re-imagined as the double-shot finale "Endgame" but was also axed due to low pre-orders. Consequently, the Top Cow Battle of the Planets universe was never revisited or resolved due to the licensing contract ending, and any of these other characters wound up never seeing the light of day in print or animated form.
The idea of previous generations of the team existing was something that would also be considered in an iteration of the Imagi Gatchaman film, with Science Ninjas spanning all the way back to the Edo period and it being a "legend as old as the samurai", but this did not come to pass either.
Worldwide "Gatchaman" agents (Live action film continuity)[]
Although not elaborated in the movie itself, it is said that there are other agents across the world that were able to be "Receptors" of the mysterious stones and trained by the ISO. Toya Sato would indicate that there are 28 people total, including the usual team that we follow in Japan.
This marks the first time that an iteration of Gatchaman would have the concept of multiple, separate teams operating (even if they never cross paths).
In the actual movie's plot, Joe's fiancee Naomi was intended to be part of the team as she was a fellow Receptor, but was instead infected with Virus X and became the third Berg Katse.
Beta Team (Mad Cave Gatchaman comic)[]
A group of five more young people that are being trained by Dr. Nambu as backup, in the event that the usual Ninja Team members fail their mission or possibly die. This team do not yet wear the traditional Bird Styles when we see them, instead dressed in training bodysuits that are later accentuated by bird-like helmets. Unlike the usual Ninja Team, this one has two women and no young boy in the mix, as well as appearing more ethnically diverse. The five consist of:
- Mara (counterpart of Ken)
- Sharo (counterpart of Joe)
- Keiko (counterpart of Jun)
- Haruto (counterpart of Jinpei)
- Jace (counterpart of Ryu)
The five seem eager to prove themselves, in what the main team finds to be a concerning degree as if they'd be waiting for them to die or get in trouble. It is stated that these trainees would basically take over the exact roles of the usual five in such a crisis, with Mara having the "Gatchaman" title and acting as leader. Berg Katse finds out about their existence at the end of issue #5, after they were sent to help Jun on a mission, and plots his revenge.
Gamma Team (Mad Cave Gatchaman comic)[]
An additional group of five ninja trainees. They are first vaguely seen as having failed in their training exercises in issue #1, but are later fully seen and name-dropped in #7. Like the Beta Team, they consist of three young men and two young women. Their names are revealed to be Sophia, Marcus, Kosuke, Mei, and Jase.
Delta Team (Mad Cave Gatchaman comic)[]
Dr. Nambu's third backup squad, alluded to in issue #1 but introduced in #7 alongside the Gamma Team. They have a gender ratio like the original team, consisting of four young men and one young woman. Their names are Juro, Natsuko, Cho, Chris, and Dean.
Science Ninja Techniques[]
Bird Go![]
The transformation phrase for the team members. At the sound of the Science Ninja's voice print, the bracelet emits a 3,600 full megahertz frequency and will transform their clothing and vehicle.
Bird Out![]
The detransformation phrase, as uttered in Gatchaman II. The first series would instead use "Bird Go" for this command as well.
Bird Fly[]
The gliding maneuver, as stated by Ken and Jun in the first episode.
Bird Run[]
The attack name used when Ken throws his boomerang.
Tornado Fighter[]
A technique that involves all five members, but can also work with smaller groupings. They stand on each others' shoulders and spin around fast to create a strong tornado. In the sequels, this is changed to have the group stand in a circle and their belt buckles being what activates the tornado.
5 Member Version[]
This common form of the Tornado Fighter is seen in episodes 1, 51, 54, 65, 70, 95, and 99 of the original series. Joe and Ryu stand on the bottom row, Ken and Jun in the middle, and Jinpei takes up the top position.
3 Member Version[]
Ken, Jun, and Jinpei first utilize this version in episode 6, with Jinpei standing on top of Ken and Jun's shoulders.
An entirely vertical variant occurs in episode 12, with Ryu, Joe, and Ken on the respective tiers.
2 Member Version[]
Ken and Jun use this form in episode 7, with Jun taking up the top. Another version occurs in episode 29, with Ken and Jinpei being the duo and the latter being on top.
Cross Fighter[]
A variation of the Tornado Fighter technique.
3 Member Version[]
Jun holds up Ken and Joe, acting as the axis to swing them around like blades of a propeller.
4 Member Version[]
Ken, Joe, Jinpei, and Ryu join hands and form a circle in the air, spinning and creating a tornado.
Ken, Joe, Jun, and Jinpei later use a similar technique in episode 96, although it is called "Bird Cross" instead.
Bird Roller[]
A technique invented and utilized in episode 66, with the Science Ninja Team incorporating roller skates above their boots to perform it.
Bird Whip[]
Another technique utilizing roller skates, where the team utilize a "whip" formation in skating to avoid the Devil Stars' ring bombs.
Lightning Kick[]
A special technique mentioned only in the opening lyrics, as well as the scenario for what became episode 7. It is a high kick performed by a Science Ninja, and seems to be considered Jun's specialty in the Color Encyclopedia. This is the kick that she can be seen using in the ending sequence.
Spinning Jump[]
Another technique mentioned in the full lyrics for the opening. It is not seen utilized in the show, and no special call in episodes. It is unknown if it is a general technique that all team members use, or if it may be more of a specific team member's trademark.
Meteor Throw[]
The name of the Feather Shuriken throwing technique, as revealed in the Color Encyclopedia. While it is Joe's specialty, Jun can also be seen using one of these shuriken briefly in episode 91.
Alternate names for the technique, as published in TV Hero Encyclopedia 2 and the All Monsters and Villains Encyclopedia, include "Meteor Wing" and "Meteor Feather" which also seem to be specific names for the shuriken themselves.
Hurricane Throw[]
The name for Ryu's super-strength throwing technique used on Galactors, as revealed in TV Hero Encyclopedia 2 .
Firebird[]
A strong attack used by the God Phoenix, heating the mecha up to 3,000 degrees and transforming it into an actual phoenix apparition that can strike and melt through Galactor mecha. It is also very effective as an escape tool, though the high temperatures mean that the God Phoenix could risk being torn apart and the ninjas dying.
Firebird Shadow Clones[]
A technique where the God Phoenix can split back into its individual components, creating five miniature Phoenixes to attack with.
Minus Firebird[]
A cold version of the Firebird technique used in episode 22 as a counter to the King Dragon.
Names in Foreign Adaptations[]
USA Localizations[]
It is common for the Science Ninja Team to be referred to as G-Force (derived from the G Buckles), a name which is used in both Battle of the Planets and G-Force: Guardians of Space. Due to Sandy Frank's license for the series covering many countries, these dubs were also used as a base for others' airings of the series and the characters would also be known as "G-Force" or some language variant thereof (Fuerza G, Comando G, etc.)
Less commonly, the name Eagle Riders may also be seen due to that being used for Saban's adaptation of both sequel series. Other countries that would adapt those sequels while Saban held worldwide rights would also use their own variation of that name.
South Korea[]
The team are commonly known as the Eagle 5 Brothers in this country, although some fans will like to joke and point out how not all of them are "Eagles" nor "brothers".
The first bootleg manhwa adaptation of the original series was titled Eagle Commandos, although the characters were greatly redesigned to avoid any resemblance to the Science Ninja Team. Tatsunoko would point out that it had to have been created without their endorsement, as a Toei robot Daimos was also visible on its cover. This team would have "S" symbols on their chest in place of the bird symbol, and their belt buckles would be of the Korean taegeuk. Between those differences and the lack of visors and their capes changed to be more standard, this team looked like a cross between the Science Ninjas and more Westernized comic heroes.
Tatsunoko would highlight the manhwa (along with a Korean version of Casshan) in their "Tatsunoko World Heritage" articles in the 2000s.[3] There would also be an Eagle 5 Brothers-branded manhwa adaptation of Gatchaman II, with similar "off-brand" versions of the characters.[4]
References[]
- ↑ Gatchaman Complete Works: Gatchaman Graffiti 1972-2000 (Asahi Sonorama)
- ↑ Gatchaman II LD-BOX booklet (January 25, 1994, Pioneer)
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20060706111439/http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/tatsunocomm/Legacy/200411.html "Eagle Commandos", November 2004, Tatsunoko World Heritage article.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20071109071140/http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/tatsunocomm/Legacy/200603.html "Eagle 5 Brothers" manhwa, March 2006.