Gatchaman Episode 103 – G-2 Risks Death
A car races along a track. The driver appears grim and determined.
Joe gasps as the road starts blurring in front of him. He clenches and unclenches his hands from the steering wheel.
He speeds up, and his vision clears.
“The bouts of intense dizziness and headache that sometimes strike Joe have recently become more frequent.” the narrator explains. “But Joe still guarded against anyone else knowing about them. He was determined to keep fighting until he had brought about Galactor’s downfall. Joe put the pedal to the metal as if to outrun the fear of death closing in on him.”
Joe notices two helicopters in his side view mirror. It’s not long before they are directly overhead.
One flies right next to his car.
The goons start shooting, and Joe swerves.
You know, this screenshot reminds me a bit of that scene in the Imagi ’trailer’ where Joe watches a missile pass through his car.
Joe swerves away from the helicopters and increases his speed… so much so that he’s driving a little out of control, and hits one of the railings around the track.
The helicopters pursue, and continue shooting.
A helicopter appears in front of Joe, and he swerves.
Too late, he realizes he’s about to hit the rail.
He hits the rail and the car goes flying. Joe jumps… but it wasn’t a good move. The car ends up fine, while Joe crashes to the ground.
He is unconscious. The goons approach, and one of them, a bearded man in a lighter green uniform, kicks Joe in the face.
“What kind of hero is this?” smirks Bearded Goon. “He’s a lot weaker than I expected.” He twirls his gun around in a showy manner, before holstering it.
“I’m finally going to get that promotion I’ve wanted.” he gloats.
The helicopters airlift Joe to a nearby mecha in the shape of a butterfly… or perhaps a moth.
Joe is conscious again as he is brought to the see the current CotW.
“So sorry to have interrupted your day in the races.” the CotW says in a soft growl. “You’ll have to pardon me.” He’s wearing a strange aqua and gold hooded robe, with long red gloves and boots.
“What would Galactor want with a racer like me?” Joe smirks.
“Ah, well you see, I’ve received information that says you are G2 of the Science Ninja Team.” the CotW replies. “Is this true?”
“I don’t even know what the hell you mean by ‘G2’ or ‘Science Ninja Team’.” Joe bluffs. And he looks so convincing, standing there in his number 2 shirt.
“So you say!” the CotW growls. “That so-called ‘ally of justice’ has caused us a world of hurt.”
“So, you say the guy looks like me, or something?” Joe asks. “I’m honored.”
“Yeah, well I’d like to ask a little favor of you.” the CotW replies, and his voice is sounding more familiar with every word. “Tell me the identities of all the rest of your Team! What do you say…? Condor Joe!” He rips off his hooded robe and reveals…
Katse!
Joe gasps, apparently surprised by this.
“Huh, back to the purple rat suit again?” Joe taunts. “Your true identity’s already been revealed, so you might as well lose the stupid mask, freak.”
“You better apologize to him, real quick.” Bearded Goon shoves his gun at Joe.
But Joe glares at him, and he backs off.
“Back off, small fry.” Joe warns, and by his voice, you can tell he means it.
“Just what I’d expect of a Science Ninja!” Katse laughs, approaching Joe. And we can see in this shot, Katse is definitely the taller of the two.
“Aren’t you the one they call G2?” Katse asks. “Your audacity’s remarkable. But at my command, you could die right here! Does that worry you, tough guy?”
“Well I’m not worried about dying, like you are, Katse.” Joe smirks.
This isn’t the response Katse is expecting.
“Look, just tell me the identities of the other four, and I’ll let you live, okay?” Katse recovers. Clearly he doesn’t know Joe very well if he thinks that Joe would either believe his deal, or accept it if he did.
“Well, either way, I’ve already been unmasked, and I do value their lives, so…” Joe drawls. He gestures in a ‘come hither’ motion.
“Oh, that’s marvelous!” Katse practically jumps for joy.
“Well where do I start?” Joe says. “They’ve got a lot of courage…”
“Yeah, yeah yeah…” Katse eats it up.
“They hang around with the good crowd: worlds apart from the reprobates Galactor employs, and let’s see what else…. ‘nuff said!” He raises his fist…
And Katse gets it.
“Ahhhh…. my nose!” Katse moans as he falls to the ground.
Fight scene!
But not the usual one. Joe leaps into the air, and his vision blurs. The room spins in his mind.
He lands, clearly having problems.
But he recovers and breaks free, running away, narrowly avoiding another goon that charges at him.
Then he stumbles to the ground, screaming in pain. But he sees more goons approaching.
Yet he stands up, ready to fight!
He races through a group of goons, knocking them down as he goes.
He fights a few more, then swings on a chandelier, causing the goons to shoot it. The room is suddenly dark.
“Damn it, where the hell’s he hiding?” Bearded Goon asks. His companion somehow seems able to answer, despite the fact that his mouth has disappeared.
“I can’t see anything right now, Chief!”
The sound of footsteps echoes around the room, spooking the goons. One of them suddenly cries out in agony. He falls to the ground, blood coming out of his nose.
What, did this guy have a brain aneurysm or something?
“Everybody watch out, he’s close by!” Bearded Goon warns, even as a bare arm sneaks out of the darkness to grab a goon…
“There he is!” Bearded Goon shouts, and bullets fire into the darkness.
Unfortunately, they’ve just shot one of their own men.
“Have all the windows up, Damien!” Bearded Goon tells another goon beside him.
But as Damien opens a curtain, he’s punched out.
“Huh, what happened?” Bearded Goon is startled.
“Over there!” the goons shout, randomly shooting.
Katse (having that incredibly high IQ) turns on a spotlight.
This almost reminds me of those old Batman episodes…
Story Notes:
This is a Gatchamania Episode review. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
This episode review is image intensive.