(Mostly written on the evening of August 17, 1998)

Right before I decided that I was going to turn on the VCR to write this, I was watching this TV program about one of the military research centers that the Japanese Army ran during WWII, and it was about how at the time, Japan had the most advanced biological warfare technology in the world, which is definitely not something to be very proud of, but given the lack of resources and the losing battle being fought, you can kind of see the desperation that created that kind of technology, but I think I will stop here about the ethics aspect, and just emphasize that I didn't say it was good, just that I could see the psychology behind it all.

So the episode begins with the Narrator from H*ll, and he tells us that the lake made by the International Science Organization is was supposed to be the first step in making the African Desert into a vast field of green, suddenly disappeared, and all of a sudden I remember what I read in 7th grade geography, (btw, for those of you who are wondering, this was in the US) about how building the Aswan Dam (for those of you who cut 7th grade geography, the Aswan High Dam is a dam built on the Nile River, and for those of you who cut 5th grade geography, the Nile River is in Egypt) provided water for irrigation, but the dam also provided a wonderful breeding ground for snails that played host to a virulent variety of parasite, and that many people suffered from the disease, so I suppose that one of the groups that got a kick out of the Aswan High Dam was the pharmaceutical companies that made anti-parasitic medication, and I suppose that what I am trying to say is that if you are going to change the environment, you had better darn well know what you are doing.

Anyway, we see the whirlpool in the lake, and the lake kind of being drained, and we see the tip of little pincher things, like if they are going to show stuff like that why don't they just go all the way and put up a neon sign that says "I am the Monster of the Week" already.

Cut to the Research Center of the Week, and we see a group of Tatsunoko scientists (Read: male, like thank you for that subtle remark that unless they are the Token Female of the show, females cannot be scientists; also read: Galactor Fritter Batter of the Week), and you kind of wonder if the reason this episode was not aired on BotP was because the scientists have the Nike Swoosh mark on their unitard things (like since when do these scientist types wear unitards, most researches I know wear white coats over street clothes) and Sandy Frank didn't want Nike to be howling about unlicensed use of the logo, and one of the scientists are yelling into the radio don't pull my leg, no way have you found the missing lake, we're in deep guano because the lake is gone, and the other scientist is like stop being such a spaz and tell us what they're saying on the other end, and Yeller is all apologetic, and says that the locals have reported seeing the lake 100 km to the northwest, and that they must be messed in their heads because of the heat, and I am thinking you are the ones that are messed in the head for wearing freaking UNITARDS in the middle of the desert, I mean, the desert nomads have learned over thousands of years what type of clothing is best for their climate, and that is loose fitting light colored clothing, and definitely has nothing to do with spandex, and the third scientist is like, a moving lake, that can't be, but maybe it can, let's go check, and you are hoping that for his family's sake, he has his will written before he leaves.

And we see the bootleg Nike unitard people riding a jeep in the desert, approaching the lake, and one of them says there it is, it really moved, and the other scientist says but how? And as they are saying this, we see the whirlpool that we remember from the opening scene, or maybe it is the same whirlpool from the opening scene, with the animation cels recycled.

And a pair of free bootleg Chibi-Katze earrings to the person who guesses what the next line is.

And I would really like to know what it is too, because I can see that it is some kind of arthropod, but it has more than six legs, so it is not an insect, but you know that it's not a centipede because they already did that in the episode where Ken "Wonder Boy (because we are wondering about him all the time)" Washio (come to think of it, his family name hasn't been established yet) hits Betty Boop, and you're wondering if it isn't one of those bugs that swims on its back on the water and has paddles on its legs, but then again it would look a bit pudgier if it were, and it is raising a sandstorm so it would have to be something with a sand reference, and speaking of centipedes the other day there was one crawling across my living room/ dining room/ bedroom, and it was at least 10cm (4 inches) long, and so after I'd stopped screaming, I got the insecticide spray, even though the thing wasn't an insect, I kind of figured that it should work, and so I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed the thing, but it was still sauntering across my floor as if nothing ever happened, so I began to wonder if the spray wasn't going to work after all, and if I had been incorrect in thinking that most commercially available insecticide sprays acted on arthropod neuromuscular junctions and would therefore probably work on centipedes (an arthropod) as well as ants (an arthropod), but after I'd been wondering for about a minute the, centipede started convulsing on my floor, and then spasmed and stopped moving, so I guessed that it had worked after all, and I flushed it down the toilet wrapped in many layers of Kleenex, but anyway, while I am trying to figure out by process of elimination what on earth the Monster of the Week is supposed to be, the thing fires beams from its antennae and fries the jeep, passengers and all, and you begin to wonder if Whatever-it-is had a contract with Nike or something.

NfH tells us that the incident was reported to Dr. Nambu, and that he dispatched the Science Ninja Team to Africa to search for the mysterious lake, and we get shots of the respective Team Vehicles, including the Godphoenix without the nose and the tailfin. Ken is talking to himself, and I begin to try and recite the symptoms of schizophrenia, which all begin with an "A" when said in German. The flashing sound (I can't believe I just wrote that..."flashing sound"...like, would that be the sound of an exhibitionist unbuttoning his trenchcoat or something...) tells us that Dr. N wants to talk to Ken, and sure enough, we hear Dr. N over Ken's wrist communicator asking if he has found the lake, which is kind of annoying, but when you think about it, is also kind of smart, what with Wonder Boy's record for pulling AWOLs, but Ken says that none of them have found it, but they will find it, and though you have to admire the determination, I tend to not make promises that I cannot keep, like the doctors from the other departments hate radiologists when we say that we "cannot rule out malignancy", but from our point of view, if there is a chance that something may be cancerous, we have to say that it may be cancerous, and we cannot promise that it isn't cancer, but Ken apparently is not able to face the possibility that the lake may have been absorbed into the desert sand or something, and Dr. N is like I'm counting on you, and I would like you to stay in the oldest village in the area, because if you want to know something about the desert, it is best to ask the local people, and although the second half of the line about the local people knowing best makes perfect sense, the first half seems a bit too contrived form my tastes, and all this time Ken is looking at his wrist instead of at the console or even forward, and I am hoping that he hits a mountain or something, but he says roger, and that's the end of that, and I kind of sigh in disappointment.

Night has fallen, and you see vehicles parked outside, all lined up in a row, which is like really, really smart, I mean, don't try to hide your vehicles in an area where the enemy probably is or anything, though then again at least they're not sleeping outside all at once without any of them keeping watch like in Episode 8 (The Secret of Crescent Coral Base, the one where Jinpei pulls an AWOL...the first of many), instead they are all sitting around a table, with this old man with a long white beard.

Joe is complaining that they don't have any leads about the location or the lake or the whereabouts of the surveillance team, and you wonder if they haven't found bits of human flesh lying around 100 km to the northwest of the Research Center of the Week. Jinpei says that he still can't believe that the lake moved, and Ken says that he hasn't been doing his homework, because there was a Swedish Explorer that discovered a moving lake in the Chinese Desert, like thank you for reminding us that Wonder Boy is the fearless intelligent capable leader, but I am about to protest that that lake moved over a period of hundreds of years and not seconds like the lake in this episode, and just then Jun points out that the lake moved over a period of hundreds of years and not seconds like the lake in this episode, and Ryu says that Africa sure is a mysterious place, and the Old Man, who must be the village elder takes a puff on his pipe, thank you, Tatsunoko, for telling us smoking is all right, and doesn't cause lung cancer or emphysema or coronary artery disease or anything, and you see that he is very fair skinned, and he has gray hair and a beard, and he's wearing this pillbox type hat, and you notice that the hut looks as if it is built of woven grass, and I'm trying to remember my 7th grade geography again, about what kind of materials that they use in the desert oasis to build homes, and the Village Elder says that the desert holds many secrets, and that he is now the only one who knows about them, and you kind of catch yourself thinking that he'd better tell someone fast then, because you can kind of see where this is headed, and if this were the G-force realm he'd stand a chance of seeing the end of this episode alive, (it is my understanding that this episode wasn't aired on BotP) but this is the Gatch realm, so you kind of doubt it, and he says "precisely, in this desert, there are many mysterious things, and lie many secrets. Now, I have become the only one who knows about them", and Ken is all please, tell us, and for a second there I am thinking if the Elder tells Ken all the Secrets and then dies, Ken can become the Elder and I won't have to wonder about him anymore, but then again, this is only the 13th episode, so that will probably not be.

And so the Elder tells them about this Story That Has Been Passed Down from Generation to Generation, and about how there used to be a Very Advanced Civilization in this area, and the reason that the civilization came to be was the Red Sand, and Ken says "The Red Sand?", like maybe he should be getting his hearing tested, and Elder is like, yes, the Red Sand, but fate moves in mysterious ways, the Red Sand would burn forever, and we you see this fair skinned man in a robe that a person in a Nativity play playing Joseph might wear, and he is walking down a hall with Ionic (or Greek-styled, at any rate) columns, and he is taking a scoop of Red Sand in his hands from a vessel that is decorated with Greek themed icons, like thank you, Tatsunoko, for reminding us of the superiority of the European culture, and then Joseph tosses the Red Sand into a nuclear incinerator type thing, and the incinerator burns red, and while the Elder is telling us how the Red Sand helped to make iron and bronze, but one day the Red Sand began to move, and we see the Parathenon explode, and the people explode, and the Elder tells us that the city burned for 300 days, and then the Red Sand disappeared into the desert sand, and we see the candle on the table that the Team and the Elder are sitting at is burning.

Jinpei asks if the Red Sand moves, just like the Lake, and the Elder says you got it, and it is still moving, somewhere under the desert, and Ken yells is that can't be, and would someone teach this kid some manners already, I mean, disrespectful, Americanized Barbarian that I am, I would never, never, never say "that can't be" if someone like the leader of a group bigger than my own told me something, I would do my best to limit myself to "are you sure", and I would never, never, never yell at an old person, because it does awful things to their hearing aids, unless it were a dirty old man who touched me in places I might like a Condor to touch me. Anyway, if I were the Elder, I would have given Ken a non-geographic location where he could place his nonexistent backside, but he is a much more patient person than I will ever be, so all he says is that it is true, and Ken says then you must know the secret of the Red Sand, and the Elder says, do I, I wouldn't tell you even if I did, because the Red Sand is the terrifying accomplice of the Devil, which kind of tells Ken where he can put that nonexistent backside, and we see that the Elder is wearing a skeleton shaped pendant, which we have a close-up of on our screen for like five whole minutes, and for a second there I am wondering if the Elder isn't going to become cannon fodder after all, but is actually the Purple Doberman on Speed (copyright Lori-sama) in disguise or something.

Then my index of suspicion becomes even higher, because we get a scene of nightfall in the desert, and the Elder is sitting cross legged, and you kind of wonder what kind of culture/ religion Tatsunoko is trying to depict here, I mean, since we saw Joseph, I thought that we were discussing some sort of Judeo-Christian culture, but those followers kneel when they pray, don't they? And the Elder is wildly bowing and praying muttering things about how he would like God to bring peace on earth and stop the rage of the Red Sand, and you see him surrounded by Green Legs, but then I realize I was wrong about the Elder being PDOS in disguise, because the Elder says "who are you", and the Green People point their rifles at him, and yell "shut up, you're coming with us", and Jinpei sees them, and doesn't like try to take the Green People down his bolo at them or anything, since there is a whopping grand total of TWO of them, which is about one tenth the number you would see Jinpei taking down in a fight sequence that would take place in the last five minutes of the episode, but since it is only like seven minutes into the episode, Jinpei hides behind a tree, and follows them in his buggy thing after the Green People have gotten the Elder in a jeep and started to drive away, which I thought was like a really brilliant move, but then again, this is Jinpei, so MacGuyver Effect will be in full swing here, so it doesn't really matter what he does or doesn't do, and the Elder is like where are you taking me, and there is rumbling, and the insect thing, which I still cannot figure out what it is, is emerging from the sand, which makes sense, but you also see that flames are coming out of the muzzle of the rifle one of the Green People are holding, which doesn't make sense, because it isn't like he is firing at the Elder, or even Jinpei, but just kind of has the thing in his hands, and Jinpei shouts it's a monster, and the Green Person shoves his rifle against the Elder and shouts get in, now, and the Elder yanks off his skeleton pendant and tosses it on the ground before getting in the Whatever-it-is, and it takes off, and Jinpei picks it up (of course).

Back in the village (though why on earth you never see any of the other villagers is a mystery, since it's not like it's a live action show and they can't afford to hire extras to play the villagers or anything), Wonder Boy Ken has the pendant in his hand, asking Jinpei if he thinks the Elder tried to give it to him, and Jinpei says that's right, and the pendant is spinning on its cord, and we hear a strange tinkling nose, like it is actually a bell or something, and Jun wonders what the Elder was trying to do by leaving the pendant with Jinpei, and then Ken...get this...crushes the pendant in his hands, like don't look to see if there was a map etched on the skull shape that told you the location of the treasure chest that held what remained of the so-called Red Sand or anything, but the MacGuyver Effect is in full swing for Wonder Boy too, and we see Red Sand in Ken's hand and Jun is like oh and Jinpei is like oh and Joe is like oh and Ryu is like oh and I am like whatever, and Ken says red sand, like there he goes talking to himself again.

In Crescent Coral, the ISO (all male) scientists are all sitting around a round table, and Chief Anderson tells us how they've tested samples of the Red Sand that Ken got from the pendant that he destroyed, and how the incident of the moving lake is heading in a completely unexpected direction, and how Dr. Nambu will now give us a report on the moving Red Sand, and Dr. N announces that what has been called the Red Sand is actually not a sand at all, and there is a general discussion among the Scientists of the Round Table, and one of them, who is wearing the kind of glasses that perch on the top of your nose and therefore don't have side frames, tells the others to shut up and for Dr. N to continue, and Dr. N, who wears glasses that don't perch on top of your nose but don't have side frames, announces that it is a completely new (standard Gatch phrase #1) bacteria, and the scientist that told the others to shut up comments that the bacteria are microorganism, so that if it is a life form, it makes sense for it to be able to move, and I am thinking, the tree outside my apartment room window is a life form, and it can't move, and Dr. Nambu continues to say but it is no ordinary (standard Gatch phrase #2) bacteria, because this bacteria has been found to contain an element which has 1000 times the energy of uranium, so now I am wondering if we are talking about radioactivity, I mean, being a non-physics major, that is the only type of energy that I can think of that would make sense here, though when you stop and think about it, what business do you have trying to make sense of Gatch science, and you begin to wonder if the Elder actually has skin cancer on the skin on his chest from wearing that skull pendant all the time, so it isn't so bad if he meets his demise anyway.

So the scientists are all so that's why Galactor is after the Red Sand, and I am wondering about what all this has to do with the moving lake, and one of the scientists asks what all this has to do with the moving lake, and Dr. N turns on a film projector, and says that this is film taken on special (standard Gatch phrase #3) cameras, and we see little ovals with even smaller red circles in them, and they have hair growing on them, and Dr. N tells us that this is the Red Sand magnified 3000 times, and I am thinking they look more like protozoa than bacteria, for starters they are awfully big to be bacteria, I mean, if they are magnified 3000 times, most bacteria, like the infamous E. coli, would definitely not be filling up a quarter of the field of view each. Dr. N also tells us that the red dots we see inside are the so-called new element with 1000 times the energy of uranium, and then Dr. N wants them to see what happens to them when they add water, and I am wondering if Dr. N used to play with Sea Monkeys when he was a kid, and the bacteria are moving, and they divide, and the scientists are like whatever, you told us they are bacteria, and Dr. N says that there is more, and we get footage of the bacteria poured around a candle (I can't believe I just wrote that, bacteria poured around a candle...) and then it starts hissing and popping, and there is a general commotion among the scientists, and I am still wondering what the Red Sand has to do with the disappearing lake, but Dr. N just tells us that from a scientific standpoint, it is not clear how this element explodes, and I am thinking well, what else is new, and Dr. N says that this is the terrifying reality, if Galactor gets their hands on this Red Sand...and Chief Anderson cuts in to say that just imagining it gives him the shivers, and I am thinking maybe he just needs to take a restroom break or something, and the Shut Up scientist says so that's why Galactor is so intent on getting the Red Sand through the moving lake, and Dr. N says that is why we must not let the Red Sand fall into Galactor's hands at any cost, and I STILL WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE DARNED MOVING LAKE HAS TO DO WITH THE FREAKING RED SAND!

And I suppose the next shot is inside the Galactor Base of the Week, because there is someone in a really strange costume consisting of a red cloak and a tight black hood that has long ears that look like pigtails, slanty, pale-blue almond shaped eyes, and a red mouth, and has big round gold hoop earrings, and who but a Galactor Base Commander would dress like that? And Pigtails is whipping the Elder, and yelling tell us all your secrets, which reminds me of this OB/ GYN that I used to work with while I was employed by the US Navy, and she was really tall and had short blond curly hair and blue eyes, and she was really strong and really beautiful, and she had a husband who was even taller than she was that had short blond curly hair and blue eyes and he was really strong and really beautiful, but anyway, she was (as he was), being a medical officer, a Lieutenant Commander, and she always joked that if the enemy ever captured her and looked at her officer's bars and things, they would say oh we have captured a Lieutenant Commander of the US Navy, tell us all your secrets, and she would be like, um, I can tell you how to do a Caesarian section and a hysterectomy.

And we get the PDOS on the monitor in the room, and he yells at Pigtails you fool, make him suffer more, and make him speak, and Pigtails whips some more, and yells tell us already, where is the Red Sand, if you don't tell me, I'll kill you, and the Elder says if you kill me, you'll never find the Red Sand, which is an excellent point, and Pigtails whips some more, and you wonder if he was bullied or something as a child and is taking out his frustrations from back then decades later, like one of those serial killers that blame their actions on a traumatic childhood.

Desert. Joe says oh, it's you Jun, like there are so many people in the African desert who go around in a yellow motorcycle wearing a pink dress, white boots, and white wings, and Jun says that she thought it looked suspicious, and Joe says that he thought the tower looked suspicious too, and we see it is an old abandoned oil field, and Jun says coming, and Joe is like of course, Galactor loves building secret bases in places like this, and I am trying to think of previous base locations, and so far they have either been on tropical islands, underwater, glaciers, inside mountains, but NEVER IN ABANDONED OIL FIELDS. But anyway they climb up the tower, only they don't really climb, they flip up the tower, then they dive into the oil well, and Joe comments that it must be at least 2000m deep, so now from this episode we have "1000 times the power of uranium", "2000m deep", and "magnified 3000 times", and Jun comments that it must have once been full of crude oil, and there is a sudden flash flood, and they leap up, and Jun says that is a lot of water, and wonders where it came from, and Joe says what is that, and we look down to see the Whatever-it-is swimming in the water, and Jun says it's the Ant Lion that kidnapped the Village Elder, and at last I find out that the Whatever-it-is was supposed to be an Ant Lion.

The Team is in the Godphoenix, and they are flying over the desert, and we see the Ant Lion's nest, and Ken is like there it is, and we see that it is spewing out water from its backside to make a lake, and I find myself thinking thoughts of the sort a ten-year-old amused with bathroom humor might think. And Ken says I've got it, that's the secret of the moving lake, and the NfH fills us in (as if we couldn't figure it out already) that the Ant Lion pumps out the water from the bottom of the lake, and sends the water to a different location, and makes a lake in another part of the desert in order to find the Red Sand, and 1) this "filling in by the Narrator" style is giving me flashbacks of the anime called, IIRC, Pizzacats in English, 2) I still cannot figure out what pumping water from one location to another has to do with finding the Red Sand, and NfH adds that Ken reported back to Dr. N immediately, and Dr. N is like good work, and Ken says that Galactor hasn't found the Red Sand yet, and that they have to penetrate the secret bas immediately and rescue the Elder, because he is the only person who knows the secret of the Red Sand, and I am thinking HOW ABOUT YOU GO RESCUE THE POOR OLD MAN BECAUSE, OH, I DON'T KNOW, HE'S AN INNOCENT MAN BEING TORTURED? And Dr. N wants to know how Ken intends to do that, and Ken answers that he wants the Special Forces to be sent, and also that he wants authorization to use the Bird Missiles when necessary, and Dr. N is like whatever. So as requested the Special Forces are here, and there are bombs being dropped from a helicopter, and they are all connected on a chain, which to me looks kind of strange, and I begin to wonder what would happen if they hit an accumulation of natural gas or something. Jinpei is impressed that they are all bombs, and Jun tells us that they are going to explode (duh) and make the entry big enough for them to get through.

Back in the base, Pigtails is still whipping the Elder, and you'd think that he'd try a different form of torture other than whipping, like, oh, I don't know, making him watch Ready Room Sequences from BotP or something, and Pigtails goes tell us tell us tell us and the Elder gives Pigtails a non-geographic location to place his pigtails, and Pigtails says that there's no fun in just killing an old man, so they'll just kill the people in the village instead, and the Elder freaks, and Pigtails says that he is just so evilly clever, he impresses even himself, and that the Elder had better tell or he'll send the Ant Lion to the village, and Pigtails's bare hands seem so out of place with the red cloak, and you wonder why they don't wear gloves if they are going to wear masks, but then again, why do they wear masks to begin with? And the Elder freaks some more, and finally gives away the secret location, which is sealed in an underground tunnel, under where the tip of the shadow of the Mountain of God falls on the night of a full moon, and Pigtails is all googly because with the Red Sand, world domination is no longer a dream, and I rewind the tape again to make sure I heard the Elder correctly, which I did, he did indeed say the tip of the shadow of the Mountain of God falls on the night of a full moon, and he did not say what time, I mean, I hate to break it to Pigtails but the moon rises and sets just like the sun, and the tip of the shadow is going to move.

And suddenly there is shaking, and Pigtails freaks, and the Green People around him freak, and a couple of them even embrace each other in terror, which I thought was just too cute, and cut to the Team in the control room of the GP, and Ken is like let's go, and Ryu is like whatever, and the GP flies through the tunnel that the bombs, which apparently in true MacGuyver Effect fashion, did not hit a pool of natural gas, I mean, I've heard an awful story about how natural gas leak filled a school building during the night while everyone had gone, and in the morning when the custodian flipped the light switch, the spark ignited the gas and it blew sky high, but maybe that is just one of those Urban Legend things.

Anyway, the GP flies through the Tunnel, and the nose of the GP pierces the wall of the base, and I am wondering if Joe is concerned for his car right about now, and Pigtails freaks that it's Gatchaman, and wants to know if the Ant Lion is here yet, and Jun squeals Mister, and Pigtails and Co. make a run for the Ant Lion, and Ken and Joe leap off the bubble thing on top of the GP, and Pigtails fires his rifle at the Elder saying he has no use for him anymore, and Ken is like oh my gosh, and Joe raises his fist in anger at Pigtails, and I am thinking, don't either of you, like, RUN AFTER THEM BEFORE THEY GET AWAY OR ANYTHING, and the Elder says the Red Sand is in the shadow of the peak of the Mountain of God, please...conquer evil with it, and dies, and Ken looks incredibly ugly in this shot.

And another thing I had been wondering about was when the next full moon was, or maybe someone had used their knowledge of the moon and topography to calculate where the shadow of the said mountain was going to fall, but there is a freaking FULL MOON in the sky, and the shadow is getting longer and longer, as if to prove my point about the Elder's directions not exactly being complete. NfH tells us that just like the Elder said, the Red Sand was lying under the desert sand, in an underground chamber without an exit, and that it couldn't escape, and then we see the Ant Lion appear out of the Red Sand, and it looks so much like lava, or would it be magma, since it is underground? And the Ant Lion spews out water, again from its backside, and I lapse into my bathroom humor mode, and Pigtails is all googly and does a little dance singing it's mine, it's all mine.

Cut to GP flying over the said mountain. Ken says oh and Jun says oh and Ryu says oh and Joe says oh and Jinpei says oh, and there is the Ant Lion sitting in a red pool, and the pool keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and it must be the heat because I keep lapsing into thoughts that would be categorized Junior High School Humor, but at the same time I am wondering 1) how they drained the lakes, I mean, the lake seemed a lot bigger than the Ant Lion, and there is no way they could fit that kind of water in some kind of internal tanks, unless they found a way to dehydrate water or something (I'm kidding about the dehydrated water, of course) 2) why they had to drain the lakes every time they move, I mean, couldn't they like muck around under the desert, and CALL for water when they found the Red Sand or something?

Green Person says that the GP is here, and Pigtails announces that he will settle this once and for all. Ken hollers Bird Missiles, but they don't work, like what else is new, and the Ant Lion fires beams from its antenna, and Joe says some bad words, and more Bird Missiles are fired, and they do no harm, like WHAT ELSE IS NEW, and Jinpei wants to know what they are going to do, and Ken says that they will use the Science Ninja Power Firebird, and asks if anyone is ready, and Ken hollers Science Ninja Power Firebird, like I would, for once, see Ken do something without announcing to the world what he is going to do. And then we get the endlessly recycled footage of the meter for goodness knows what, and the endlessly recycled footage of Jun sitting next to Jinpei with her fists clenched, and the endlessly recycled footage of Ken clenching his teeth, and the Firebird sets fire to the Red Protozoa, and it explodes, and you kind of see Pigtails and the Green People get burnt, but not quite, and then we get recycled footage of the Team coming to after the Firebird.

Jinpei is all happy that the Red Protozoa are all burnt up. Jun mentions that it seems like a loss because the Red Protozoa could have helped humanity if used properly, and you notice that she is incredibly ugly in this shot. Joe points out that if it were there, it could fall into the wrong (read: Galactor) hands at any given time, so it would be too much trouble. Ryu says that they have to be thankful for the Red Protozoa, because it got Galactor for them, and Ken says that they also have to be thankful for the Village Elder, who died for the Red Protozoa.

NfH has the last word, pretty much repeating the discussion the Team just had, about the Red Protozoa falling into the wrong hands, and how Gatchaman breathed a sigh of relief as he left the desert moon.

The Full Desert Moon, thank you very much.

After I posted the first batch of Production Diaries, I vowed that I would try and find something nice to say about each episode, but the only thing I can think of right now is the part where the two Green People hold each other in terror.