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Leader X
Sosai x hd
Kanji

総裁X

Rōmaji

sōsai X

Characteristics
Race

Alien

Gender

Male

Occupation

Leader of Galactor

Personal Status
Status

Deceased

Voice Actor

Seiyuu:
Nobuo Tanaka
Seizou Katou (Gatchaman F)

Sosai x and katse episode 1

Leader X (総裁X) is the alien mastermind behind Galactor, turning it from a smaller mafia into a worldwide terrorist group in its attempts to conquer Earth for his race.

Background[]

X came from the planet Selector, located somewhere in the Andromeda Nebula 2 million light years away. He was sent to Earth under instructions from his superiors and sought to conquer the planet by using a small mafia group to his advantage. This mafia group grew in power due to incorporating various wicked organizations from all of the world, and eventually became Galactor.

Over the years, X manipulated more events that would build up his power, recruiting Berg Katse from one such event when he caused a pair of fraternal twins to fuse into a single being while still in their mother's womb.

Appearance[]

X is a vague figure who we see for most of the series as a strange, purple shadow with a blue, beak-like detail and red marking on his "head", as well as a wicked pair of yellow eyes. He can often be seen floating in the middle of a yellow, circular screen with orange, cloudy substance inside.

The overall appearance of X's viewing chamber can be likened to that of a giant eye, with the multitude of white glowing screens representing the sclera, while X is the pupil in the middle of an iris (although not always perfectly centered).

X's screen and appearance are changed for Gatchaman II, where he operates from a smaller device and has a different, colorful look.

Although it would initially appear that X is a mere alien force, further developments in II and Fighter unveil that X is actually a biological super-computer made by Selector, composed of machinery and various energy tubes. Even when he is thought destroyed, he is able to reconstruct himself as the bigger, greater Leader Z just from a single remaining fragment.

Personality[]

X is a cruel and manipulative alien who is only interested in serving his own needs. He is highly arrogant, taking pride in his intelligence and believing no one on Earth can defeat him until the Science Ninja Team start to interfere. X does not hesitate to manipulate and throw away people he no longer has use for, such as when he decides to destroy Earth and abandon Katse.

Because X had a very specific hatred for the ISO's Mantle Project, he would set out to simultaneously destroy the Mantle Project's equipment in his aims at world conquest.

Although usually acting in his arrogant and cryptic alien manner, there will be times that X's anger can come off more human, especially when he will abruptly shut off his own screen or disappear as a way to avoid further speaking to Katse.

History[]

X usually did not take direct action in the plans of Galactor and only revealed himself to anyone else (in this case, Dr. Henjinman) in episode 21. At most, X provided equipment for Galactor in his plan to conquer Earth, designing the mechas while remaining in his base to communicate with Katse. He would formulate plans to capture and/or destroy the Science Ninja Team, which would end in failures and enrage him.

However, in learning that his homeworld was destroyed prior to his reawakening, X instead decided to destroy Earth by creating a black hole in the center of the planet while fleeing to investigate the cause of Selector's destruction.

He would return two years later to execute a new plan to destroy humanity with the Solar Shift Plan. This would also eventually fail and he was destroyed by Gatchaman, but a fragment of his body remained and regenerated into Leader Z, a more sinister version of the original.

Z would recruit Count Egobossler to rebuild his army while setting up Poison Apple, where an antimatter asteroid would decimate the planet. In the end, the Science Ninja Team would face off against Z inside his pyramid form, with Ken destroying him. However, the exact fate of the Science Ninja Team after this remains ambiguous, as they were left unconscious from the battle with Ken only waking up when the mysterious pendant Dr. Nambu gave him activated, and fused their mecha back into the Gatcha Spartan one more time. Z's pyramid would be racked by a series of explosions and disappear into a black hole, though a mysterious Phoenix could be seen fleeing it and flying through space.

Alterations in International Adaptations[]

USA[]

X usually is changed in some form through dubbing, be it through his name or very type of his existence. Even when he may remain closer to the source material, he can still undergo a renaming, such as in Harmony Gold's dub of the OVA, where he was called Lord Zortek.

Battle of the Planets (1978)[]

X was referred to as The Great Spirit or Luminous One (among many other nicknames), and is a highly intelligent alien life form that rules the planet Spectra. As Spectra is said to be a dying wasteland, The Spirit wants to conquer other planets in the galaxy to steal their natural resources for Spectra's benefit.

G-Force: Guardians of Space (1987)[]

This adaptation had the character named Computor, and implied him to only be a mere alien consultant to Galactor, rather than the true leader. Computor was given a deep, computerized effect to his voice.

The reversal of positions had to do with wanting to avoid an occult/religious sort of controversy that Battle of the Planets sometimes had over the character being thought of as a "Spirit".

Eagle Riders (1996)[]

The equivalent of this character was named Cybercon. After the failure of his last Vorak subject named Lukan, he kidnapped the young Nancy Aikens and transformed her into Mallanox. But when Mallanox attempted to regain empathy for the world and swear to do right, he deemed her a failure and transformed her into a newer form, which he named "Happy Boy" in mockery of her annoying laughter (and apparently changing her to a blue-skinned man in the process).

Voice Actors[]

X was voiced by Nobuo Tanaka in the original series and Gatchaman II, while Seizou Katou voiced him as "Z" in Gatchaman Fighter. Tanaka reprised his role of X in the OVA remake.

English Adaptations[]

  • Battle of the Planets: Keye Luke
  • G-Force: Guardians of Space: Gregg Berger, Jan Rabson
  • Eagle Riders: Peter Spellos
  • OVA: Ralph Vortrian (Harmony Gold dub), Charles Campbell (Sentai redub)
  • ADV/Sentai dub of series and movie: Charles Campbell (credited as "Winston Parish")

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • The term used as part of X's name in Japanese, Sosai, is often translated into such terms as President, Governor, or Generalissimo, with the last even appearing once in an old Tatsunoko English translation. However, the most standardized translation used in English these days would be Leader X.
  • Settei and concept artwork by Tatsuo Yoshida and Ippei Kuri show that X was meant to have spider-like legs as part of his vague design. A "spider" theme did carry over into his counterpart Baltic Fox in the bootleg film Iron Man 007 though, which was made in South Korea two years after the end of the first series.
  • When it comes to the ADV Films dub of the series and the compilation movie's later dub by Sentai Filmworks, there is a misconception that X was recast; in actuality, Charles Campbell (who was ADR director for both) was simply using an alias for the series. He would show up in other voice roles in different episodes, using other punny aliases as well ("Whispers Johnson" for Onishi, and "Markus Twain" for a character who was renamed Professor Twain in the dub).

Development Period[]

  • X was originally intended to be an artificial intelligence created by Katse to be a false figure above him in Galactor, with this being the intent when Dr. Henjinman saw him and realized his "true identity" (that of a computer). This would also be a detail that was meant to carry through to the original outlined ending for the series, where the X AI would gain actual sentience and dispose of Katse, before fleeing off into outer space. However, this setting became disliked by both Hisayuki Toriumi and Rei Kosumi, and a different plan came in mind when it was time to write and rethink the final episodes. "There is no such thing as X... The initial setting is that Katse himself is X, and that he has created a fictitious character to manipulate people. But in the case of an anime, it's difficult to express things like that, so we started from that point, trying to do something that we could convey with just images. Also, things started to get more and more complicated. It's not like I decided from the beginning that X would be like a pencil. When I happened to be drawing the storyboard, I would look at the pencil and think, ``Oh, this is fine,'' or, ``Maybe I should do it this way.'' That's why I'm saying that as it's expanding to film, and since it's not something that comes from logic, it doesn't matter what it is. Depending on how you look at it, anything is possible. However, I don't mind if his shape is something like a pencil or a computer. I'll let Dr. Nambu say that as well. He said, ``We don't know.''"[1]. Kosumi would also point out that if X were a computer, he would need a much larger computer system to be powering him, which would be hard to convey in an age where analog reigned supreme and digital media was at the time unthinkable. Even with the elimination of the computer/AI setting, it would be worked back in some way for the sequels.
  • Another simpler account would also offer that 2001: A Space Odyssey was influential in X's departure: " At first, I didn't intend to show that much. I'd leave out the existence of X, but he was actually Katse himself. To begin with, the idea I had when I first participated in the project was to have Katse lie and say that there was someone superior above him in order to convince his henchmen. But as I gradually started to feel less comfortable with that, I started thinking about what would be the best way to end the story, and when I looked at the pencil in my hand, I thought, ``2001: A Space Odyssey,'' which I also liked. The true identity of Leader X was made into that form."

References[]

  1. Tatsunoko Pro Insiders (2002, Kodansha)
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