The Bird Missile of Bitterness is the 56th episode of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
Plot Summary[]
Jun is attacked by a group of Blackbird bikers, but a young man named Koji saves her. He is a former race champion and Jun's friend she last saw three years ago.
Now he has become the commander of a Blackbird squad and is on the way to blow up the missile base of a certain country. When he wants to install the time bomb, a memory of Jun crosses his mind. Without installing the time bomb, he runs away from the base. Jun sees his figure and reports to Dr. Nambu. She disagrees vehemently however, when her comrades voice the opinion that Koji is a Galactor, but must get to her senses and treat him as the enemy.
Koji, who didn't fulfill his task, is ordered by Katse to assassinate the president during a bike race which the president will be watching. Jun goes to that race, in which Koji participates, only very reluctantly. But she agrees when Ken says that they will try to save him if possible. Koji's attempt to assassinate the president is foiled by Joe's sharpshooting and ends up in failure.
Koji seeks refuge in the officers' mansion. Jun follows him and sees how Koji gets orders from Katse, while Koji notices Jun as well.
The bikes of the Blackbird squad transform and unite into a snake-shaped mecha which starts to attack the God Phoenix. In order to defeat the mecha, Jun presses the launch button for the missiles. When Koji is defeated by the Science Ninja Team, he decides that this is the punishment for his own crimes. Jun is sad at the loss of Koji, but must continue on.
Staff[]
- Screenplay: Masahiko Tokumasu
- Director: Hideo Nishimaki
- Mecha Design: Kunio Okawara
- Animation: Tomonori Kogawa, Shigeru Kato, Yoshihisa Okuno
Voice Cast[]
- Ken: Katsuji Mori
- Joe: Isao Sasaki
- Jun: Kazuko Sugiyama
- Jinpei: Yoku Shioya
- Ryu: Shingo Kanemoto
- Dr. Nambu: Toru Ohira
- Berg Katse: Mikio Terashima
- Koji Yabane: Ryoichi Tanaka
- Officer: Tatsuyuki Ishimori
- Narrator: Hideo Kinoshita
Trivia[]
- According to the scenario period, Koji was originally intended as being Jun's former boyfriend. Perhaps due to general director Hisayuki Toriumi's distaste for love plots, this element was removed by the final broadcasting script although some fans pick up on the possible romantic subtext to their past as childhood friends (though due to the elimination of outright stating they were lovers, Koji being a boyfriend is only printed as "a theory" in the canon, similar to how Romina and Julia's specific countries were intended in their early script but not identified in the actual broadcast episode). The intent of the two being lovers did wind up making it into the G-Force: Guardians of Space dub of the episode, where Tony Seville is outright stated to be Aggie's ex-boyfriend by the other members of the team.
Animation Errors[]
- When Jun first recalls a past memory of Koji, his undershirt is miscolored as being yellow in the center. In the flasback of them riding their motorcycles, his undershirt is fully miscolored as yellow for a frame as well as his hair being depicted blond.