Timeline of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman

This article goes over the timeline of events in the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman series, as well as its two sequels.

There may be some incongruity with certain points though, due to different writers or oversights that occurred in the franchise installments, so great care must be taken in mind in how to convey the fictional timeline. Sources include the anime series themselves, along with materials such as the SF Roman light novel and the Fantastic TV Collection magazines.

There is also the fact that by the time of the Tatsunoko Fan Club News issues, different staff members from Tatsunoko such as Hidehito Ueda are quoted on record as claiming the timeline from the original series to Fighter takes place in the span of 4 years in-universe, which may mean the first series' events have wound up compressed (despite the acknowledgment of time originally passing within it).

Pre-Original Series

35 Years Ago

The criminal Mike Miller is arrested and imprisoned.

30 Years Ago (Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie)

Leader X arrives on Earth, landing somewhere in the Himalayas. His presence and powers cause the fusion of two embryos while still in their mother's womb, creating his future sub-leader Berg Katse.

• This is complicated somewhat by the claims of Gatchaman II later on, in which we're told Dr. Rafael made contact with X "a few years ago" and brought him to Earth, which would contradict not only the movie but several events in the first series in which X had clearly been on Earth for a long time (as well as making Dr. Rafael a child here and not already a scientist, if one were to keep with his age of 45 for II).

14 Years Ago

Kentaro Washio fakes his death in a plane crash in the South Seas, in order to investigate criminal activity on his friend Kozaburo Nambu's orders.

His son Ken is left behind and entrusted to Nambu, although not initially raised in his care.

• In episode 3 and the first Fantastic TV Collection volume, Ken's father is said to have gone missing 10 years ago, putting him at 8 years old when Kentaro left. Other early instances may say "11 years ago" or "more than 10 years" until "14" was ultimately decided.

10 Years Ago

Giuseppe Asakura, a boss of Galactor on BC Island, is discovered to be intending to defect from the organization. Berg Katse orders a Devil Star to assassinate him and his family.

By chance, Dr. Nambu had been on the way home from an academic conference, and would rescue the Asakuras' injured child George. He would fake this child's death in order to take him off the island. Nambu claims this is when he learned of the organization Galactor.

In this time, a certain city was also destroyed by pollution, leading to it to be called "Ghost City".

8 Years Ago

The Jupiter Ninja Clan is wiped out, and the leader's 3-year old son goes missing. This may or may not be Jinpei, who was discovered by a younger Jun shortly after in the mountains.

• The decimation of the Jupiter Ninja Clan is given as "10 years ago" in Fantastic TV Collection vol.3, published several years after the original run of the series. But for Jinpei to have been 3 "10 years ago", it would put his later age as 13 (depending on whether or not time would be reflected in-series; it is given as "8 years ago" in the episode which would make Jinpei 11 in the present time of that plot), while his default age is meant to be 10 or 11 for the beginning of the series.

7 Years Ago

Ken's mother passes away of a long-term illness. It is said that for some time after this, he was raised in an orphanage until Nambu would take him in.

• The SF Roman light novel opts to place her death when Ken was 8, which would bump it to "10 years ago", although Fantastic TV Collection vol.3 and the show itself directly say Ken was 11.

5 Years Ago

Ken's training for what would become the Science Ninja Team begins, when he is contacted by Nambu after a long time and taken into his care. If taking developments in II in mind, he would have also been in junior high school during this time.

Joe and Lucy also originally met in this time span.

4 Years Ago

Dr. Nambu goes to investigate the ocean floor at an island near a fishing village, but is caught in a whirlpool. Thanks to the quick thinking of the young boat captain Ryu, he is rescued and taken back to his home to recover. Ryu decides to go to Utoland, taking the opportunity that Nambu presented as gratitude, and he winds up scouted for the Science Ninja Team due to his expertise of the ocean.

3 Years Ago

Dr. Nambu hears of an incredibly talented young boy at the Shirayuki Orphanage and travels there to see Jinpei for himself. Although he plans to only take Jinpei with him to be part of the Science Ninja Team, Jun insists on coming along as well and leaves under the idea that she'll help handle the doctor's business.

• Fantastic TV Collection vol.3 presents some oddness with the timeline in the team's interview if taken literally; Jun states she and Jinpei were at the orphanage for three years until she was 13, although she was around 8 or 9 when she met Jinpei. For hers and Jinpei's ages to properly align, this would have to be at least three years to the start of the show.

2 Years Ago

Jun's childhood friend Koji Yabane suddenly vanishes, having joined Galactor out of the need for money.

Prince Ali leaves the Doria Kingdom behind to go study abroad in Japan, unaware that his father will be killed and replaced by the time he returns home.

Indeterminate Events Referenced by Sequels

Ken attended flight school for some time prior to the start of the Science Ninja Team, but disappeared from it when he was called to action.

If taking this later development from II in mind, Riza states it's been 4 years since she's seen Ken which could indicate the 2 years of the original series being reflected along with the 2 of the sequel (or if going with the "3 years later" claims for II seen in some other sources, the events of the original series may be boiled down to one year with Ken having vanished shortly before). Or rather, if the original series was compressed down to 1 year, Ken quit flight school a year before its events.

Milly is also referenced as being a childhood friend of Jun in II, although it is unclear when they must have originally met.

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman

Time axis: If taken literally with some events in the show reflecting the real-time broadcast, nearly 2 years pass in and out of universe. However, by Tatsunoko staff statements in 1980, this may have been compressed down to a single year.

• Galactor's Challenge (44) states that at least 10 months have passed since the start, although some dialogue oddity occurs with Leader X claiming that this has been the amount of time since Katse has become the leader of Galactor. Later episodes will suggest Katse was involved for a longer period, as well Galactor having been active for at least over a decade.
• Gatchaman Burns with Rage (54) has Ryu reference that it's already been a year since Galactor began targeting Earth, at least with the activity that the Ninja Team is aware of. This line appropriately reflects that the series has already been on a year, with the episode having originally aired October 7th, 1973.
• A Christmas Present of Death (64) states that it's been a year since the defeat of the dictator General Somure, who seems to have been in power before Galactor's official start of war on Earth and now wants to take his position back.
• Even with the above references of real-time passage though, Secret of the Birdstyles (74) still references Jun and the other young women captured by Galactor as being 16, leading to debates of whether or not the characters' aging would be reflected in the work.
• Angler, the Electric Devil Beast (94) has Katse state the atomic bomb as having been created 50 years ago, which leads some to theorize that this first series takes place in the mid-1990s (when leaving aside Hisayuki Toriumi's back setting of 2001). However, this also appears to be an isolated oddity by the screenwriter Takao Koyama, while other writers seemed to have paid close mind to keeping the exact period and passage of time since events like WW2 ambiguous.
• The Combined Ninjas, Giant Demon Man (95) affirms it's been 8 years since the Jupiter Ninja Clan was wiped out by Galactor, although it is not certain if Keiji Kubota had written the plot with consciousness of the real-time flow occurring in series or not; Jinpei would be treated as 11 here either way, while Hisayuki Toriumi may have later decided to add 2 years on the Fantastic TV Collection volume to bring him to being a teenage boy in the present (and also reflecting Yoku Shioya having been a teenager going through puberty at the time of broadcast).
• By The Wounded G-2 (99), Katse states it's been "a year and 10 months" since Galactor set out to conquer the Earth, reflecting the real-time broadcast length so far but not taking into account the activities Galactor had to be up to in-universe before the start of the show.

The final episode's broadcast date of September 29th, 1974, closes the series just shy of its 2 year anniversary and if taking real-time flow in mind, would position the first Science Ninja Team battle against Galactor to have taken "a year and 11 months".

Gatchaman II

Time axis: 2 years (alternatively 3) after the end of the first series, with another year passing in and out of universe for its broadcast. The "3 years" claims may or may not be hold-over from the rejected Gatchaman 2 plan.

• The anniversary of the Queen Margaret/Elizabeth Moore disaster is given in episode 50, marking a year that has passed in-universe. Gel Sadra also realizes they should be at least 4 years old, further affirming the time passage (although the next episode notice for this plot confused English-speaking fans for years, with the narrator claiming Gel Sadra should have been 6, which could possibly refer to an earlier script setting).

Gatchaman Fighter

Time axis: Picks up immediately where II left off, nearly a year passes in and out of universe with its broadcast. If taking out of universe broadcast time in mind (and references to such time passing before), the team's fight against Galactor has taken about 5 years. But if going by the newsletter statements, the war has gone on for only 4 years.