Episode 19

Revenge! Operation Whale!

(Insert standard Production Diaries disclaimer regarding copyright infringement, the author's feelings toward the show, and where to send dead cats and mail bombs.)

My next door neighbor is a cardiologist at the same hospital. I can hear him talking on the phone when I'm in my bathroom, and I can hear when he gets home (which I don't mind, if anything, it gives me a guilt trip because I'm a radiologist, and am pretty much useless when it comes to real live patients ^.~).

So I suppose it is only logical to assume that he can hear me when I am watching my Gatch tapes, especially since it was late Sunday night, when everything else was pretty much quiet...

Mostly written weeknights the week of Nov. 16th.

Cue the flute music, please.

Harbor at night. Aboard an oil tanker, which has a large neon sign that says "I am Galactor cannon fodder of the week" on its port side, and a bull's-eye target with a sign that says "shoot me" on the starboard side, the captain notices that the deck seems a bit lively, and his first mate (or whoever he is, I have no idea about how ships are run) comments that likely the crew is just a bit excited because they haven't been on land for so long, and this coming weekend, one of the US Naval vessels based in Yokosuka is going to dock in Shimizu port, to, of course, see if Shimizu can be used for such purposes, and the ship is going to be there for the 3-day weekend, which I will miss because I'm going on a trip with my friends from school to Hakone, but anyway, when I heard on the news that the ship was going to come here (all right, a city about 20 km away, close enough), my first thought was, what on earth are they going to do here, I mean, if they were in Yokosuka, there are things to do in Yokosuka, and there are even a special variety of local females that gather around the main gate outside the base so that they can get picked up by no one in particular, or they could go to Tokyo where there are more than enough things to do, but Shizuoka? What are they going to do, go tea shopping? Even though the yen rate is pretty good (or bad, depending on which side of the pond you're on, or which type of currency constitutes the bulk of your savings), the prices in Japan are generally high, and enlisted seamen (which make up the bulk of the crew of any given ship) are not exactly known for their big fat wallets, and, I might add, there are no gate girls in Shimizu. (Note: I am not poking fun at the US Navy, I'm poking fun at the Gate Girls in Yokosuka. Then again, it may be smart of them to choose from the Navy, being how they routinely test for HIV...never mind.)

Okay, I've written two paragraphs and we are about eight seconds into the episode. Ahem. The crew on the deck are all pointing at the sea, saying...guess what? And there's a big wave approaching, and they say what is that, it's coming this way, and the captain hollers it's going to hit us, and the Galactor Menace of the Week proves the captain right by hitting the oil tanker in question...well, it looks like an oil tanker, and considering that pretty much every ship in this show is either a) an oil tanker or b) a research boat, I think it's safe to call it an oil tanker.

As the background music sings "Whaddump, Whaddump, I am a Galactor Mecha, I am a Galactor Mecha", we see a suspension bridge with cars travelling across it, and the mecha, which doesn't look anything like a whale, but I suppose it has to be a whale, because the title of this episode is "Operation Whale", it has fangs that stick out menacingly from its mouth, and spikes along its vertebrae, and it lashes at the bridge with its tail, and it breaks the bridge and sends the cars flying into the ocean, and then destroys another tanker and a few oil refineries and causes lots and lots of explosions before disappearing into the sea.

Ken's plane. The Narrator from H*ll tells us that G-1 of the Science Ninja Team had just finished his real job as a test pilot and was heading home, so we are supposed to believe that in spite of the fact that he spends the bulk of his time dressed up as a bird fighting the in-house Evil Terrorist Organization, his real job is supposedly a test pilot, I mean, really, and Ken sees the explosions caused by the whale mecha, and the general panic among the people, and Ken mutters that this is awful, and Ken's bracelet goes off, and he is like this is G-1, and it's Dr. Nambu, and he tells Ken that the suspension bridge and the oil refinery on the Eff strait have been attacked and destroyed, and Ken says that he's flying above the burning refinery just now, and Dr. Nambu says that according to witness reports, a giant whale attacked the bridge and refinery, and Ken wants to know if Galactor is behind this, like, what anime does Ken think he's in, Sailor Moon? (though that would explain a lot of things...) And Dr. Nambu says I don't know, just launch the Godphoenix, and Ken is like whatever.

The team are assembled inside the GP, and Jinpei wants to know if a whale destroyed the oil refinery, and for a so-called zoology expert, Jinpei is sure asking a stupid question, and Ken says probably not, more likely that it was a submarine or something made to look like a whale, and Joe is all, it has to be Galactor, and Jun is like who else would it be, and I am like it's Gatchaman for crying out loud, of course it is Galactor, though it could be Spectra or Vorak, and by the way, thank you, everyone, for the input you've given me for my Japanese web page about the non-Japanese dubs of Gatchaman, I've already gotten some responses about it, and it seems that there are some people who, in spite of the more wonderful, more comprehensive, and just plain better Gatch web pages out there, they were never sure about what people meant when they were referring to 1-Rover-1, and they needed my measly little 30KB of an excuse for Japanese HTML to understand the concept of 7-Zark-7 and the 10 second oil break, and I hope that people will forgive my excuse of a web page, since it helps them to enjoy the really good web pages and stimulate Gatch fandom, and while I am talking about Gatch fandom in Japan, I would like to mention that there is a really nice Japanese Gatch fan art gallery which seems to be updated on a regular basis. And we see a herd of whales, and I suppose they are sperm whales, since they have such large heads, and they are swimming very fast, and Jinpei says look whales, and Jun says these whales are real, and Ken says something's not right, they're all headed for something, and Ryu says oh yeah, a whale's brain can act as a radar, and 1) I think Ryu means sonar and not radar, 2) that still doesn't explain why they're all swimming above water, and Joe comments that the whales must have found something, and Ken says that they're going to follow the whales, and I begin to think about how funny it would be if Ken "Wonder Boy (because we wonder about him all the time)" Washio ended up leading his team into a cloud of plankton. But this is not real life, so the NfH tells us that just like Ryu said, a whale's brain is very sensitive to certain sounds, for example high sounds, and that this is how a whale can find food, even though its eyesight isn't very good, thank you for the educational information.

Joe hollers that there is a giant whale over there, and it looks about ten times the size of the sperm whales, which would make it bigger than even a blue whale, and Ken says the herd of whales is headed for the giant whale, and you'd think that if the thing were that big, Ken would get a clue that the thing weren't a whale at all, this being the Gatch realm which means an unbelievably high likelihood of encountering a seriously strange mecha with a zoological theme and all, not to mention the spikes on its back, but all Ken says is to proceed with caution, and sure enough, the whale mecha raises its periscope to observe the GP, and fires missiles at the GP, and by now even Ken and Jinpei have a clue, and the real whales are all jumping, and Jinpei says that it's a submarine disguised as a whale.

The real whales are still swimming at top speed toward the sub, and the mecha flips whales over, and they all land belly up, and there is a whale calf poking at its (I suppose) mother, and I clearly remember seeing this scene where the whales flip belly up in Battle of the Planets and wondering why the whales didn't just flip themselves back up, and Ken says that it looks like that whale's calf, and Jinpei has a tear in his eye as he tells us that he's been orphaned, and Joe says that this is no time for sympathy, and Ken says Joe's right, we're going to follow that submarine, and Jinpei says that he's going to get revenge for the sake of the whale calf, and Jun says oh, and we see killer whales, and Ryu shouts they're killer whales, the Gang of the sea, as I snort my Orange Blossom Oolong Tea, I mean, they're carnivores, but GANG OF THE SEA? PUH-LEASE. Then Jun comments that they must have smelled the blood, and I begin to wonder if the writers had killer whales confused with sharks, and Jinpei says oh no, they're going to eat the baby, and I am not going to mention that I am not going to buy the argument that commercial whaling should stay banned because whales are beautiful animals, nor will I mention that I will buy the argument that commercial whaling should stay banned because whales are endangered, but I will mention that when I saw killer whales in Sea World, San Diego, I thought they were so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes, so it bothers me a great deal when killer whales get bad publicity like this just because they are doing what their instincts tell them to do, which is find food, I mean, lions and tigers don't get bad publicity like this because they go around attacking zebra foals, but then again this show was made in the 70s, and attitudes have changed since then.

Jinpei wants to save the whale calf. Joe says are you out of your mind, you're in the middle of a mission, and Jinpei says don't you feel sorry for him, he survived the sub attack, and now he's going to be killed, and Joe says that we have to fight Galactor first, and I have to agree with Joe, but Jinpei says that the whale is a living creature, and that Joe's a dummy that doesn't understand, and turns and runs toward the door, and you notice his cape has tails like a swallow, which is kind of cute, and Ken yells Jinpei, and we see the G-4 machine leave the GP, as it flies toward the whales, and Joe says what does he expect to accomplish in that midget tank, and then he says Ken? And Ken says I know Joe, which reminds me of something someone posted on a Japanese Gatch internet bulletin board I've found recently, which said something that contemporary Gatch fans considered Joe the lady killer and Ken the guy killer, and I AM NOT EVEN GOING TO COMMENT ON THAT ONE.

The whale calf senses danger and swims away from its mother, and the killer whales are diving around in a supposed feeding frenzy, I guess, but 1) I'm not sure if killer whales feed on carrion 2) I am not sure how much larger a sperm whale is compared to a killer whale, but I am pretty sure that it isn't like 1: 100 the way it looks in this scene 3) if I remember that display in Sea World properly, killer whales travel in much, much smaller groups than the feeding frenzy we are being shown here. And some of them are chasing the calf, and Jinpei's pac-man machine is swatting killer whales with its lower lip, and Jinpei throws a fish net on the killer whales, but one of them jumps out of the water toward Jinpei, and just as you think that this annoying little kid is finally going to get what he deserves, there's a shot, and we see Joe on the bubble thing of the GP with his rifle in his hand and the wind flapping his cape around him, and Jinpei is like Joe, and Joe just smiles.

NfH tells us that the poor whale had lost its mother, and Gatchaman and his friends headed back to the undersea base to release the whale in the undersea fish farm, and Jinpei is in the bubble contraption of the GP riding on the back of the whale, as happy as can be.

But he's not so happy for long, because in the next scene, Dr. N is going ballistic at the Team because they lost sight of the enemy while protecting a freaking whale calf, and while they were waging war against a so-called battalion of killer whales, he has been receiving news that giant whales have been showing up and wreaking havoc in ports all over the world, and this scene is particularly amusing (in a good way), because the Team is standing in front of Dr. Nambu as he yells at them, and Ken is looking down, and Jinpei is looking down with this really, seriously uglier-than-usual (which is saying a lot) face, and Jun is looking straight ahead in this neutral "I-didn't-do-anything-so-he's-not-yelling-at-me" expression, and Ryu is also looking straight ahead in this neutral expression, but Joe is looking sideways away from Dr. Nambu with a look on his face that screams I AM NOT LISTENING TO THIS, and I almost forgive the people at Tatsunoko for giving killer whales bad publicity because of this single scene that so appropriately depicts the personality traits of the characters in a two-second time span.

And when Dr. N takes a breath so he can yell some more, Ken says then, are the whales, and Dr. N says yes, they're probably submarines disguised as whales, and if an unidentified submarine were approaching, the nations of the world would be suspicious, but a whale wouldn't attract much attention, and Galactor has taken advantage of this, but I'd be kind of suspicious if a whale as large as the ones in this episode, with fangs and spikes like the ones in this episode were closing in on me, and Ken says then the submarines serve only to attack the ports and ships, right, and Dr. N says I have no idea, thanks to you, we've lost our only lead, and the team looks down, except, of course, for Joe, and I am thinking GO DR. NAMBU!

Dr. N announces that he has set the whale they brought back free, and Jinpei is all disappointed that Dr. N has let it go, and you begin to wonder if Jinpei wanted to keep the thing as a pet or something, which reminds me of this new, really cute commercial for houses that has been airing in Japan, where there is a little girl of about 8 years old saying can I keep it, please, please, please, and the mother says no you are taking it back where you found it, and the little girl throws a temper tantrum, and you see that the thing that she wanted to keep was a baby elephant. Dr. N says that he attached a transmitter to the whale before letting it go, and that the whale might find something if we take full advantage of the whale's abilities, and that it may be even more useful than you, and as I think GO DR. NAMBU some more, I begin to wonder if Dr. N has considered the possibility that the calf might just lead them to a mass of whatever it is sperm whales eat. Jinpei and Ken look angry, Jun has the it's-not-my-fault look on her face, and Joe is still looking sideways, and the whale has a transmitter on its forehead, only the head of the whale is awfully large even for a whale, and you begin to wonder if a whale can get hydrocephalus.

And so they are all standing around a radar, and Ken says that there's something on radar, and Dr. N says that this is strange, the whale has left the ocean and is heading upstream toward a river, and Jinpei chuckles that he must have gotten tired of the sea and decided to go play in the river, how cute, and Dr. N yells at Jinpei this is no time for jokes, and I wonder if he has his thong caught in his...never mind. (virtual wave to Kat Ross-sama.)

Ken comments that the rivers in this area are tens of kilometers wide, and there are glaciers, some on which people have never been, and I am thinking "rivers"? Dr. N says Ken's right, and that it's places like this that are most convenient for Galactor bases, and Uncle Sam says "I want you to join the US Army", oops, me bad, Dr. N points forward with his arm and finger extended, and says Go, Science Ninja Team, good luck.

Standard sequence recycled for the 100th time...wait, it's only episode 19, so it's only the 19th time this sequence of the Team jumping up in the bubble thing and the water closing in around the GP, and the GP flies through the water and then breaks through the surface of the water has been recycled, and we get a shot of the cockpit, and a shot of the GP flying, and NfH tells us that under orders from Dr. N, Gatchaman and his friends flew toward the glaciers in the arctic, and we get a glimpse of the calf, and then we get a glimpse of the GP, and we break for a commercial.

Joe is looking at the radar blip, and says this is strange, the whale calf is just going around in circles under the icebergs, and then Joe says Ken, look at that, and Ken says yes, we need to investigate, and there is all this shading on Ken's face, and Ken says Joe come with me, the rest of you stay here, which I am not even going to comment on, and Jinpei is unhappy that he gets left back here again, and I am thinking what are you complaining about, I mean, look at Ryu.

Ken and Joe leap off the pod thing on the top of the GP, and they glide onto the snow below, and they run across the snow, and hide behind a snowbank which is right in front of a building which looks like a lodge of some sort, and Joe says that this place is awful, too many puddles, and excuse me as I go wash my mind under running water for ten minutes...too many puddles to do what, Joe?

Ken comments that the radar is supposed to be out of use, but it's moving. Joe has this lunatic grin that he does so well on his face, as he says this is starting to get just a little interesting, and Ken tells Joe let's go.

Next shot is from the window of the building in question, and we see two men in parkas cocking a pistol as they watch Ken and Joe run toward their front door.

Ken and Joe open the door, and see the two men in parkas, and Joe reaches into his side were we all know he keeps his feather shurkiens, and one of the parkas says that we're not suspicious characters or anything, and the other cuts in saying we are the forest patrol, we got lost and wandered here, we were trying to turn on the radio to call for help, and we accidentally turned on the radar, and Ken says that they'll call help for you, and says Joe, and he turns his back on them, and one of the parkas pulls out a pistol, but Joe whirls around and throws his feather shuriken at him, and the tip of the feather shuriken, with the trigger of the pistol threaded through it, jams itself into the wall, and Joe kicks one of the parkas into said wall, into the pistol, and the pistol goes off, killing the parka, and as he collapses, a Galactor Green Person mask falls to the floor, and what I want to know is 1) Did Ken really think that the forest patrol was lost this far north of the tree line 2) how on earth did the pistol go off like that 3) HOW ON EARTH COULD KEN JUST STAND THERE WITH HIS MOUTH HANGING OPEN WHILE JOE TAKES THE TWO OF THEM ALONE?

Joe tells Ken that he's too soft, and that he has to be more suspicious, and I am thinking Ken doesn't need to be more suspicious, he needs to be more intelligent, and Ken looks at Joe hard...um...forget I said that. Joe continues, don't worry about it too much, that's their style, they attack from behind, just like the way they killed my mother and father, they're dirty bastards, and he spits on them, and Ken says, I see, Joe, which makes no sense to me, but just then, the phone rings, and Ken picks it up after hesitating, and I kind of know how he feels because I hate answering phones at the workplace, because it means that I have to stop whatever I am doing, and sometimes it is like the tenth number the person on the other end has been told to call, and they end up venting on me saying well where am I supposed to call, and all I can say is I HAVE NO IDEA. Anyway, Ken answers the phone, which is probably actually a radio, come to think of it, and whoever it is on the other side of the line wants to know what happened to the hourly report, and Ken says situation normal and hangs up, and Joe points out that if they trace the radio signal, they can find the base, so Ken calls Jun and tells her to come with Jinpei, and to bring along a tracer and charges, and Jun tells Ryu to keep an eye on things here, and Ryu is dismayed that he has to stay again, and Jinpei is all gloating to Ryu that Ken needs him, like would someone punt this kid's backside into a different episode already?

In the next scene, the calf surfaces and finds itself in the Galactor secret base, where, over the intercom, someone tells us that it is 20 minutes until attack, and to load the missiles in the submarines, and these little pumpkin carriages that look like something out of Cinderella, or maybe they are going with the marine biology theme this episode, which would make them crabs, I suppose, carry missiles into the subs, and the phone...I mean, radio...oh, what the heck, the phone rings, and the Galactor Green answers it, saying "Hello, secret base, how may I help you?" like, um, was it my imagination, or did you really just answer the phone SECRET BASE?? And Ken hangs up, and tells us that they can now trace the location even though they are disconnected.

Galactor commander of the week has a turquoise colored mask shaped like a skull, and a burgundy beret with a snow white feather and a plum coat with a white collar, and you can tell that I've been looking at Land's End mail order catalog's turtleneck page WAY too long, and the Green Person says that they hung up without saying anything, and turquoise skull is like whatever, I am going to report to Katze, and Green Person is like whatever.

Back in the lodge, Jun is fiddling with a tracing device, and Ken yells at her to hurry, and instead of punting his backside into a different episode, like, say, the Puppy Episode, she says I know, I've got it, Joe, it's right under you, 40 meters down, and Joe says I'm on to it, and he attaches a drill bit to his rifle and drills a circular panel out of the floorboard, and I want to know how that rifle works, and Jinpei says that now it's time for our latest weapon, the Mogura Machine, and I kind of choke on what I said about punting Ken's (albeit nonexistent) backside into the Puppy Episode, because, if you have seen the Puppy Episode, or if you have heard someone talking about the Puppy Episode (and believe me, a lot of people talk about the Puppy Episode) the Evil Galactor Mecha of the Week in the Puppy Episode is the Iron Beast Moguratank, and here Jinpei is bringing out what looks like a torpedo, and he sets it into the hole Joe cut out of the floor, and Joe comments that fortunately the ground underneath is soft, and it should be done pretty quickly, and I almost make nothing of the comment, only I suddenly remember what I saw on TV last week about how in Siberia, everything further underground than 2 meters has essentially been frozen since the last ice age, so if this is the so-called arctic, it would probably be frozen solid like 10 cm below the ground. But that's not the case, as the comic relief portion of the episode begins, and Jinpei is covered with mud from his own so-called latest weapon.

The Mogura Machine hits the bottom and detonates. Ken says let's go, and they jump through the hole, and they see all the Giant Whale Subs, which are in dock, and Ken comments that it looks like a large maneuver is about to begin, and what I want to know is how they built an underground secret base covered with (according to Joe) soft earth that has a passage to the Arctic ocean.

Turquoise Skull tells Purple Doberman on Speed (copyright Lori-sama) over the monitor that preparations for the attack are complete, and these two kind of clash in terms of color when shown on the same screen. PDOS is like whatever, smash every single port there is.

Ken says there's no time to lose, and tells Jun to give everyone the time bombs, and you wonder when Jun picked up the box of charges that she suddenly opens to distribute to everyone. Ken tells them to plant the charges where they'll do the most damage, and they all say roger in unison, and Jun tells everyone that the charges are set to go off in ten minutes, and Ken tells everyone to finish the job in five so that they will have time to escape, and they all head off in different directions, and they all set the charges in different places.

Jinpei sets one on a control console in the base. Over the intercom, it's announced that it will be ten minutes until attack, and we see that the clock is on the hour. A Galactor Green person turns around to approach the console, and Jinpei hides around the corner, but drops one of his charges as he does so. The Green Person bends down to pick it up, but he hears a splash of water and goes to investigate, and it's the whale with hydrocephalus, and Jinpei says oh, it's the whale with hydrocephalus, and the Green Person notices Dr. N's transmitter on the whale's head (I think it's the head, but of course, this whale is all head except for his tail) says that's a strange whale, and he's right, it is a strange whale, it's all head except for its tail, but anyway, the Green Person pulls his rifle, and Jinpei gets up out of his hiding place and screams don't shoot and he twirls his bolos, only the cords look like they are about 5 meters long each, like are the cords made of elastic or something? And the bolos wrap themselves around the Green Person's neck, and as he writhes in understandable discomfort, his rifle goes off, and you really begin to wonder about these Galactor firearms that go off so easily, even when the owner doesn't really intend them to.

Ken freaks. Jun freaks. Joe freaks. PDOS freaks. Green People freak.

Fight sequence with obligatory multiple views of Jun's white underpants.

Jinpei tells the calf to get out, and when that doesn't work, he gets down on his hands and knees and begs him to get out. Calf splashes water on Jinpei's face. I suppose I'm to think "Aawwh, how cute", but I'm just kind of annoyed. Ken tells Jinpei to get out of here. Jinpei says that he knows he's supposed to get out, but he can't leave the calf. Joe yells you idiot, just leave him. More fight scenes with cartwheels, and a shot of the clock to tell us that it is five minutes after the hour.

Turquoise Skull wants PDOS to tell him what to do about the Team having infiltrated the base, and I almost feel sorry for PDOS for having such subordinates. PDOS tells him to launch the Giant Whale Subs immediately.

The clock reminds us that it is 7 minutes after the hour, and I have to say that those were awfully short 2 minutes, and Ken agrees with me as he freaks that they're out of time, and Jinpei tells Ken to leave him and get everyone out of the base, and Ken balks, and Jinpei dives into the water with the whale, and we see Jinpei hanging on the whale as they swim underwater together, and Ken yells Jinpei, and then he grimaces and yells retreat, and Jun is like what about Jinpei, and Ken yells this is an order, retreat, so Ken and Jun and Joe jump onto a ledge of some kind on the base, and leap out of the hole, which, IIRC, was at least 40 meters deep, so I really want to see how that worked.

Turquoise Skull gives the order for launch, and he tells the other subs to find the GP so that they can smash it to bits. The Team is on the GP, and Jun tells Ken that it is one more minute to detonation. Ken says to Jinpei, please have escaped, but Jinpei's not on board with them, so it doesn't do much good. Ryu tells Ken that the Giant Whale Submarines have surfaced, and Joe is like get away from them because they are going to blow and Ken tells Ryu to bring the GP closer to them, and Joe is like are you an idiot, if we're near them when the charges detonate, we'll be fried chicken (oops, that's not till Gatch 2 when their plane is the Gatchachicken),and Ken says that since Jinpei may still be in that base, the only thing they can do right now is to get the subs as far away from the base as we can, but since the where's-my-color-coordinator-commander-of-the-week is pretty much TRYING TO TURN THEM INTO FRIED CHICKEN ALREADY, WHAT IS THE POINT? But Ryu is all leave it to me, and a Green Person freaks that the GP is about to attack, and Turquoise Skull hollers full speed ahead, we're going to ram the Godphoenix head on, and oh, if he only knew how much damage he would succeed in causing IF HE MANAGED TO DO JUST THAT, but this is the world of Gatch, where everything Ken does turns out fine, even if it is, as we are told by the clock, exactly 10 minutes after the hour, and Ken freaks, and Jun freaks, and Joe freaks, and Ryu pulls up, and the whales dive (which makes no sense, I could have sworn TS said that they were going to ram the GP) and there is a great big explosion that rattles everything, and the base is destroyed.

And so the GP has landed on a glacier (well, it looks like a glacier) and Ken, Joe, Jun and Ryu are standing outside the GP, and Jun is like I wonder if Jinpei is alive, and I am thinking she sure is calm as she discusses the survival of her SO-CALLED LITTLE BROTHER, and Ryu says the question is how long Jinpei can stand being under the cold water, LIKE UM, THANKS FOR THE COMFORTING THOUGHT, but then again, what does it matter, I mean, this is JINPEI, EVERYTHING turns out fine for him, and sure enough, we see bubbles in the seawater as the whale surfaces, and Jinpei, who has been riding on the back of the whale, jumps off on to an iceberg, or glacier, and he thanks the whale, and takes off the transmitter, and in the final (thank goodness) comic relief portion of this episode, the whale splashes water on Jinpei, and he sneezes, and Jinpei is all you're on your own now, but don't give up, goodbye, and waves at the whale, who finally leaves, and then he makes contact with the others through his bracelet, and announces that the whale saved him, and Jun wipes her tears with the back of her gloved hand, and NfH tells us that Jinpei and the rest of the Team got a big kick out of Jinpei having been saved by a whale, even more so than having blown up a Galactor secret base and a bunch of subs pretending to be whales.

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O.K. All in all, it wasn't a bad episode as Gatch, especially the early episodes, goes. As I have already mentioned, I found the scene with Dr. N yelling at the Team, and the different expressions on each of them depicting their personalities very amusing.

Also, I almost felt sorry for Ken in this episode. His subordinate runs off on some Emily Dickinson delusion, and when he covers for him, he gets chewed out by his mentor. Then, for the second time, his subordinate disobeys him because of a sentimentality issue, and he is forced against his will to have to give the order for retreat, for the sake of the safety of the rest of his team. The expression he has on his face before he yells "retreat" for the second time almost makes me want to take back everything bad I have ever said about him.

Almost.

(^-^)/)