The Story of Joe, the Condor was a short story written by Hisayuki Toriumi for Asahi Sonorama's Fantastic TV Collection vol.1, featuring Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. It would be an early sample of his novel work, ahead of the following year's SF Roman Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, where he got to expand on retelling the first series his own personal way, focusing on Ken and Joe in particular.
The story retells the events of the final episode of the first series, and includes a flashback to the death of Joe's parents while explaining some more insight into his rescue by Dr. Nambu.
Chapter 1[]
Deep in the Himalayas, in the untrodden Cross Karakorum, Joe the Condor was swimming beneath the thick mist rising from beneath his feet.
Where is the God Phoenix? Ken, where are you?
Here, beneath the silvery white plains surrounded by the roof of the world and forested with bizarre stone statues, lay the entrance to the Galactor headquarters they had been searching for. He had to tell Ken, or rather his fellow members of the Science Ninja Team, about the location of the entrance. This would probably be Joe the Condor's final job.
That's fine. That's why I'm still alive on this Earth...
He had given up on life many times, and had been on the brink of death many times. He had been attacked by Galactor members, taken to their underground headquarters, and shot by their hateful gunfire. He was also beaten up by Berg Katse, someone he hated so much he could never get enough of doing so. It was no use. How many times had he thought it would be happier if he just went into an eternal sleep? In the midst of such despair, Joe still had an attachment to life.
"It's the God Phoenix! The Science Ninja Team has arrived!"
That was the voice of a panicked member of the unit, reporting to Katse. Shouts came from beyond the thick, stagnant mist and footsteps stomped on the ground.
Are the Galactors chasing me after I escaped from underground? Or...
Or had a fierce battle to the death between the Science Ninja Team and Galactor already begun in this fog? Could that be it?
Joe's right hand unconsciously grabbed his left wrist. The bracelet that should have been there was gone. It had been smashed to pieces by Katse. He searched his waist. His air gun was gone too. He reached into his pocket.
Only one Feather Shuriken remained. Could he really fight with this? What if the first figure to emerge from the fog was a member of the Ninja Team, but what if it was a Galactor soldier? Joe knew that he no longer had the strength to throw shuriken. If that hadn't been the case, Katse would never have dodged the feather shuriken he'd thrown with all his might in that basement so easily.
But even so, I must survive. Until I meet Ken. Even if my heart is blown apart by their lead bullets, I must live.
Joe sat down under the statue, feather shuriken in his mouth. All he could do now was wait. But who would come? The Science Ninja Team? Galactor?
The screams died down and the footsteps faded. It was quiet. In the silence, Joe then heard another sound. A sound that began quietly and slowly, then gradually grew louder, the sound of waves rushing in and breaking.
Where was that? With my father, my mother, and I...just the three of us, a retreat at the end of summer. It was a beach with a hot climate. The sea was really beautiful. I was building a sandcastle and playing, and then I looked up.
Chapter 2[]
One gunshot, then another, changed the life of young George Asakura.
His father and mother were having a pleasant conversation just a moment ago. But now they were dead, embracing one another.
A masked woman assassin. The sound of waves. Sunshine. The wind blew, creeping across the sand. George Asakura took the gun his father had held. He picked up the gun, held it in both hands, and faced the murderer. The gun was much heavier than he had imagined. The more he tried to aim, the more the muzzle shook.
The woman laughed beneath the mask. Slowly, she moved her hand and tossed a rose. It stuck in the sand in front of George and emitted a puff of purple smoke.
He realized it was a bomb because there was a flash and a loud noise, and the beach was blown away as if it had been torn up. His young body was slammed hard into the ground, but George tried to get up anyway. He heard the voice of the lady murderer come up, but as his consciousness faded, they were cursed words he neither wanted to ever hear or know about.
How much time had passed since he heard that voice? When George woke up, he found himself in the arms of a scholarly gentlemen with thin eyeglasses and a mustache. The gentleman smiled, with it reaching his two eyes.
Immediately after a female Galactor assassin shot Giuseppe Asakura and his family on the beach, Dr. Kozaburo Nambu of the International Science and Technology Agency rushed to the scene with the islanders. Giuseppe and his wife were dead, but miraculously, their child had survived. Knowing that it would be dangerous to leave the boy on the island, Nambu, pretending to be a passing doctor, reported George Asakura's death and secretly took him off the island.
"Don't worry, you'll forget everything. No, you have been reborn. Nothing happened on this island. Nothing happened." the scholar said, as if to enlighten him.
This was the first time that Dr. Nambu of the International Science and Technology Agency and George Asakura, or rather Joe the Condor, met. Neither Dr. Nambu or Joe would have imagined that when Joe, as an adult, visited this place BC Island again someday, that a second act of tragedy would be waiting for him there.
Joe, who was taken in by Dr. Nambu, one day met a boy about his age who wanted to be a test pilot. It was Ken the Eagle.
Ken was a cheerful boy. His father went missing during a test pilot mission in the south seas, and his mother had recently died of an illness. But Ken lived a carefree life. Seeing Ken like that only made Joe feel envy. At least Ken had hope that he would meet his missing father again someday.
Eventually, Jun, Jinpei, and Ryu were gathered by Dr. Nambu, and the five of them began to receive special education and training.
"One day, a great evil organization called Galactor will boldly challenge the world. On that day, you must..."
The Science Ninja Team was born.
Dr. Nambu had visited many parts of the world to promote the Mantle Project, which was the work of the Science and Technology Agency. As time went by, in every corner of the countries, he noticed that an organization named "Galactor" was starting to take shape.
The place with the largest organization of Galactor was BC Island. However, even Nambu did not know that Joe's parents were Galactor and that their blood flowed through his veins. Joe too, had unknowingly locked away the horrible memories he had heard from the masked female assassin in that curtain of light and had forgotten them. All that Joe had burned into his mind was an intense hatred for the Galactor that had killed his parents.
This was his fight for revenge.
On a stormy night, the emergence of the monster robot Turtle King from deep under the sea marked a battle between the Science Ninja Team and Galactor. The God Phoenix flew through the sky and dived into the sea, destroying each monster mecha sent by Berg Katse after the other as well as Galactor's frontline bases.
But fighting had always been a frustrating experience for Joe. Both the Science Ninja Team and Nambu focused on a constant defensive strategy. When the enemy attacked, they would return fire. Once they had defeated the monster mecha, they would retreat.
They've got to be kidding. This is a see-saw game. What is the Science Ninja Team for? What are warriors for? Unless we destroy the enemy's headquarters, unless we pursue and corner that evil leader Berg Katse and put an end to his life, Galactor will just keep repeating the same thing over and over again. Every time that happens, a child of destiny like me gets thrown away.
Joe's irritation grew day by day. Because of that, he would sometimes act independently, which would cause a conflict with Ken and a rift between him and his friends. In Joe's eyes, Ken was almost too kind.
He has no hatred. He lives only for the cause of peace.
However, Joe believed that a fight was only a fight if you could let your grudge burn. Could they really defeat Galactor in a war game in the name of justice?
Call me a berserker if you want. Among those warriors who fight against evil and shout about justice, there can be a bad guy who'll try to destroy evil out of his own personal grudge.
Joe found Ken's honest personality both beautiful and annoying. As a leader, he always tried to make calm decisions. At one point, he even tried to put aside his personal feelings and follow the seemingly cruel orders of Dr. Nambu. When Jun was taken away by the Jigo-Killer flowers, Ken thought that Jun might be among those eerie flowers that filled the reservoir, but he burned all those plants with his own two hands.
That was the first time Joe hit Ken. Jun had a secret love for Ken, and he must have known too. But Ken still abandoned himself for the sake of the lives of 10 million citizens. He abandoned Jun.
After that, Ken became violent and refused to respond to calls from Dr. Nambu. However, once that incident was resolved and Jun was saved, he returned to being the good student he was before.
Why would Ken try to put aside his personal feelings? Why did he try to put himself in an objective position? If he didn't like something, then he should just say so. If he liked something, then he should say so. Shouldn't everyone just act like that?
Was that his personality? Or was it because he was a Science Ninja? Was it because he was the leader of the team?
However, Joe saw Ken's true nature, and at the same time it was an incident that made him feel he was seeing his own image in a mirror.
During that time of a great crisis on Earth, when Galactor took control of the country of Hontwal, detonated a large missile outside the atmosphere and caused the Van Allen Belt to descend towards the Earth, Ken went to visit his father and disobeyed Nambu's orders for the first time.
Can a child's heart longing for his family make him lose himself to such an extent? With the descent of the Van Allen Belt, abnormal phenomena occurred all over the world and the International Science and Technology Agency was finally pushed to the brink of surrendering to Galactor. Even so, Ken was alone like a madman, searching for his father, wandering around the country of Hontwal to find him.
Whenever the Science Ninja Team had encountered danger up to that point, the captain of the Red Impulse team would appear out of nowhere to save them. When Ken found out the captain was his father, it was also the day that father and son had to part ways.
In order to blow the Van Allen Belt out of the atmosphere again, Ken's father, the captain of Red Impulse, boarded a giant manned missile left behind by Galactor and its explosion scattered far through the sky.
Although this was a result of his own reckless actions, or perhaps all the more so because of them, what must have gone through Ken's mind as he suddenly had to bid an eternal farewell to the father he had missed so much?
His family member was killed right before his very eyes. It can be said that he was very similar to Joe. Ken changed after that. He now openly hated and chased after Galactor. Even if his opponent was a low-rung Galactor subordinate, Ken would lash out in anger with his iron fist and throw his boomerang.
Seeing Ken like that was like seeing Joe's true self. Ken's violent, emotional actions were, in other words, Joe's ugly side. But what made Ken different from Joe is that he soon regained his composure. In fact, he showed even more leadership skills than before. Ken was still Ken.
Joe, who used to dislike Ken for his honest personality, eventually came to see him as a leader. People began to look at him with respect. In fact, Joe believed Ken was his best friend in the world. Perhaps it was the Marine Satan incident that prompted that.
At that time, Joe continued to live a life of extreme fear. A sense of rejection, like not wanting to see what was behind that light, manifested itself as nausea and dizziness. When Joe and Ken dived into the deep sea and were taken into Galactor's undersea aircraft carrier, Joe's body was even afraid of the interior lights and he went numb. After Joe was unable to move in the fight, fire spread in the ship as the aircraft carrier self-destructed.
Ken held Joe in his arms as they escaped.
"Remember, Joe! The source of your illness lies in those flames. Your memories are hidden there. I'll wait until you remember."
If the undersea aircraft carrier had exploded before Joe's memory had returned, the two of them would have been reduced to ashes in the sea.
Joe remembered. He was a child of Galactor. He was alone in distress aboard the Marine Satan, which had narrowly escaped the undersea aircraft carrier.
What would Dr. Nambu say if he found out he was a child of Galactor? And Jun, Jinpei, and Ryu, who were fighting Galactor?
"Don't think of anything stupid. You're G-2 of the Science Ninja Team, Joe the Condor."
Joe was happy to hear Ken say that.
As promised, Ken didn't say anything to Dr. Nambu or the others but it didn't make Joe feel any better. Joe's plan to return to BC Island was done to likely confirm his past and also erase it.
Father Alan was a friend of Joe, when he was still called George and his parents were still alive. The two formed a gang of delinquents and played on the island's streets. But now he had grown up to a fine man, a priest, and was devoting his life to educating the children of the island. He had taken a path entirely opposite to Joe.
Joe had never come back for revenge, but circumstances drove him to a bloody action. Joe's hands chopped and his bullets killed the Galactors one by one. Alan tried to calm Joe down by sacrificing his own life. He appealed to the Science Ninja Team, who came to his aid, whether violence in the name of justice is acceptable.
Because of that, Joe began to look at himself for while. He thought he would try to become like Ken, or like Alan. However, it seemed fate had a desire to turn Joe into a bloodthirsty wolf. Joe became anxious. While he was still alive, he thought he would try to live like Ken, or like Alan, but in the end Joe and those people were too different. Just as Alan showed Joe how to live, Joe had his own way of living.
Terrified by the fear of death and as if to drive away the shadow of death, Joe began running again.
"This is who I am. This is who I am..." he said.
Ken was the first to notice Joe's strange behavior. Jun, Jinpei, and Ryu all became worried.
It's nothing, I'm just tired.
Joe's fear was that if people found out about his physical condition, he would definitely be removed from the Ninja Team. He was sure that would happen. He had strong feelings about not wanting to be separated from Ken, Jun, Jinpei, and Ryu. Everyone would be going out to a battlefield where they didn't know if they'd die. Ken, Jun, and the rest could be hurt if he was busy recovering in a hospital. The God Phoenix could be blown up.
Everyone was in a situation where they didn't know what tomorrow would bring. Wouldn't it be a coward's move to stay behind alone, using an illness as an excuse? If they lived together, they'd die together. Joe didn't want to be separated from his friends and comrades.
However, the day finally came when Joe's illness became known to Nambu and the Science Ninja Team. A doctor that by chance helped the injured Joe had reported the incident to Nambu, who informed Ken and the others.
Galactor had begun its final strategy, Operation Black Hole. This was an unprecedented plan to drop a molecular bomb into the magma inside the Earth, detonating the neutrons contained in the magma, and by rapidly strengthening the flow of the magma, increase the gravity inside the Earth, condensing the crust toward the core, and finally erasing the Earth from the universe.
The Science Ninja Team departed, leaving Joe behind. All Joe had left as he saw them off was the fact he had been told he had about ten days or a week to live. If he was going to sit and wait for death, he wanted to at least use what little he had left of his life to fight Galactor and to show his friendship for Ken and the others.
Joe went alone to Galactor's headquarters, out in Cross Karakorum.
Chapter 3[]
A strange stone statue appeared in the still, motionless clouds.
Joe waited, leaning back on his feet with a single feather shuriken in his mouth. A number of events flashed before his eyes like a slideshow. Sad things, happy things, painful things...
I have faced death many times. Each time, I have prepared myself for the end. But this time, it might really be the end. I'm a tongue-tied man, and I've always been misunderstood by those around me. Sometimes I was hated, sometimes I was feared. He was the only one who understood me. The leader of the Science Ninja Team, Ken the Eagle. I want to meet him again! I want to meet and talk to him. Ken, the kind Jun, the cute Jinpei, and Ryu the Horned Owl who's just fun to see...
The wind howled. The mist shifted. He heard footsteps, and someone running.
Who is that?!
A white shadow ran past, followed by a Galactor member! The member aimed his gun at the running white shadow. Without hesitation, Joe's feather shuriken flew and the Galactor member collapsed with a groan.
The white shadow turned around at the sound.
"Joe!"
In the distance, Joe heard a sharp voice that sounded like a scream of surprise. It was Jun the Swan.
"It's okay. You're not dead yet."
Joe tried to say something but no sound came out, and his body collapsed with a thud. A faint smile was on his face.