Episode 20

Science Ninja Team Narrowly Escapes Danger

(but everyone probably knows this one as the Infamous Puppy Episode.)

Disclaimer: If you read this entry of the Production Diaries, you will find out what happens in episode 20 of the TV animation series "Gatchaman". If you do not want to see what happens, please do not read this entry. If you worship the stated television series and are offended by any and all criticism directed at it, please do not read the Diary. The author is not associated with or related to Tatsunoko or Sandy Frank or Saban or Turner or any other of those places. The views stated in the Diaries are those of the author, unless otherwise stated. I do this for fun and not profit. All input including flames and death threats are welcome at ayakorad@sb.gunma-u.ac.jp but please no viruses or hacking as I use the laptop for work at the hospital and you may be endangering lives if you do so.

And most important, do not take me too seriously. What's a 26-year old doing venting about a 25-year old show made to sell toys to 8-year-olds, anyway? (^.~)

(mostly written on September 20, 1998)

Ever since I started writing Production Diaries over half a year ago, I had been debating whether or not I should write one for this episode, because Jane Lebek-sama had already written an MST3K of the G-Force version of it, and it is archived in Wendy-sama's site, so there was a good chance that I would only be repeating what she had said, but then I re-read the work and noticed that one of the themes of the debate between the characters was whether subs or dubs were better. So after a debate of my own, I decided that I would write one of this infamous Puppy Episode after all, because 1) that was G-Force and this is Gatchaman 2) hopefully if I end up repeating Jane-sama, she will either a) never find out that I repeated her, or b) understand that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

The episode does not begin with the Narrator from Hell, which makes me like it a great deal, and it doesn't start with Sosai "Giant Blue Chicken" X, which makes me like it even more, I mean, the main reason I am skipping ahead from the Beetle Episode when Jinpei is collecting insects, and he finds a stag beetle and takes it home, only to have it suddenly increase in size like a hundredfold (as if) and swallow (no pun intended) him (as if) and feed off his brain waves to destroy (as if) was because I got tired of trying to decipher what the GBC was telling me in that voice that sounds like he is shouting into a metal garbage can.

Instead, the episode begins with shots of an urban metropolis, complete with highways, and subways, and we are in a subway tunnel, and then we see claws emerge from the bottom of the tunnel, and the conductor of the subway freaks (not that I blame him, even in the world of anime, metal claws in the middle of the subway tracks are not exactly a daily occurrence), and pulls the brakes, but the claws grab the subway anyway, and slam one car into another, and they explode, and I would like to remind everyone about the laws of anime that vehicles in the hands of the bad guys are the most volatile forms of matter known to the universe.

Then the claws emerge in the middle of a city street, and you notice that the claws are a little longer than the height of a sedan-size automobile, which looks about right, since they were about the height of a subway car, and the people in the city were freaking, and I don't really blame them. And then the claws are grabbing at the surrounding buildings, and now the claws ARE AS LONG AS THE WIDTH OF A CITY BUILDING, but then again, if the beetles in episode 17 could grow from stag beetle size to VW beetle size, then I suppose I shouldn't be going ballistic that claws grew a bit. And then the mole is sitting on the street, and you notice that the forelimbs are AWFULLY long to be those of a mole, I mean, I remember seeing moles in our yard, and they had really short forelimbs, but what am I doing hoping for zoological accuracy in this show?

Cut to the inside of the Mole mecha, and the Galactor Commander in Stupid Costume of the Week doesn't look at all stupid in this green top and mask of a mole that covers his entire head up to his shoulders, and even has whiskers, and he is talking into a hand held CB radio device like thingamajig, and he is telling PDOS that everything is going as schedule, and wants to know if PDOS thinks the Science Ninja Team will appear, and I am thinking of course they will appear, what TV series does the Commander of the Week think he's in, Pocket Monsters? And then we see PDOS on the monitor, and PDOS looks incredibly ugly at all in this shot, and the Mole Commander turns around to face the monitor, and PDOS tells the Mole Commander that of course they will, what TV series does the commander think he's in, Pocket Monsters, and when they appear, destroy as much as you can to lure them out, and the Mole Commander says yes sir, and I am not at all trying to figure out why the Mole Commander was using a hand held CB when he's got an audio/ visual communication console.

And now the Mole is standing OVER the buildings, so I decide to accept that it can not only make its claws grow but also change its overall size like the stag/ VW beetles, and it slams buildings and breaks towers, and there is a large plane flying, and it grabs at the plane, and it throws it at a train and it explodes (review law of anime regarding flammability) and its eyes are lasers, and it fires on cars making them explode, and you begin to wonder about the Galactor obsession with eyes that fire lasers.

We see Dr. "Where's my Ducolax" Nambu watching this growing/ shrinking Mole mecha from his monitor, and he presses a button, and we see Ken's Cessna on the monitor, and he tells Ken that Gatchaman has emergency orders because Mole Monster has appeared in the center of the Capitol, and that has to be Galactor's doing, and that they are to launch the Godphoenix, and Ken says roger, and we get the obligatory transformation sequence with the swirling dashes of color and Ken in Birdstyle in a standing position, like that makes a lot of sense when he is sitting in a single-seat Cessna.

More shots of the Mole thing breaking more things, and a shot of the Godphoenix flying over Joe's G-2 vehicle, right behind the Mole, and the Mole doesn't even so much as twitch, I mean, for all the Stupid Costume of the Week was worried whether the SNT would show, he's NOT VERY OBSERVANT. And Joe is like sorry I'm late, Ken, are you ready for me, and Ken is like whatever, and then we see this animal thing that is nuzzling this stationary lump, and if I didn't know that this were the infamous Puppy Episode, I would never, never, ever have known that the small animal nuzzling the lump was a puppy and that the lump was its mother, I mean, the animal looks ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE A PUPPY, but more like a cat that got its whiskers cut off by a cruel eight-year-old, and in addition, is NOT CUTE AT ALL, and Joe stops, and his eye flashes, like maybe if he is going to wear contacts he should wear lenses in both eyes, and Joe changes course, and Ken wants to know what Joe is doing, and Joe says that he's going to save the puppy, and that they should go on without him, and Jun says that he should come back because it is too dangerous, and I would like to add that he also has a job to do, but this is the world of anime, and the life of an orphaned puppy is just so much more important than stopping the actions of an Evil Terrorist Organization decimating an entire Capitol, but Ken, so called commanding officer, hollers that they are going to, excuse me, COVER JOE WHILE HE GOES AFTER THE PUPPY??

And the mole is firing laser beams from its eyes again, and Joe is still driving, and you begin to wonder just how far away that puppy was. And Joe stops the car and gets out of it, and runs toward the puppy like forever, and you REALLY wonder just how far away that puppy was, or maybe Joe is one of those people who park on the far end of the parking lot when they go to the shopping mall, because they don't want to get their paint jobs scratched.

And the Mole Commander says that's G-2 of the SNT, get him, and the mole fires its laser eyes at Joe, and Joe dodges, and he snatches the puppy up in his arms, and the eyes fire again, and the GP flies by, and the Commander says to sic em, and the Mole fires missiles from its collar, like since when do moles wear collars, but there I go again wanting Galactor to make sense, and the missile detonates, and Joe hits the deck, and he winces and arches his back, so we know that something has hit him, and he starts to roll around on the ground hollering my head, so we know that something has hit his head, but you notice that when he stops moving and lies there on the ground face down, the back of his helmet is still intact, not even a single dent, not even a single scratch.

Ryu hollers that Joe seems to have been hit, and Ken freaks and tells Ryu to turn around, and we see Joe on the monitor and I suppose someone must have cued them to say "JOE!" in unison. Ken tells Ryu to land, and Ryu is like whatever, and the Mole emerges again, and it fires its eye lasers at the GP, and the wing is hit, and Ken hollers at Ryu to watch where he is going, like a really good leader Ken is, taking out his aggression on his subordinate, and more lasers are fired, and one beam grazes the exhaust of the GP, and Jinpei freaks, and the Mole Commander is all googly, but a Green Person says look, and the Commander is like what, and the Green Person says it's the light of day, and the Commander says that this Moguratank is extremely vulnerable to sunlight, those lucky brats, so we know that 1) the name of the Monster of the Week is Moguratank, 2) the Monster of the Week has a COMPLETELY IDIOTIC fatal flaw, in true Monster of the Week tradition. So the Moguratank, which cannot stay above ground after sunrise, of course, dives underground, and then we get a shot of the empty G-2 Mecha, and then we get a shot of the team standing around Joe in an open grassy field, only I could have sworn that there were lots of buildings and stuff where Joe fell, and that there was no grass growing in the vicinity, but what am I doing hankering after continuity while watching this show? And Joe is not moving, and the puppy is barking, and everyone is crying, and Jinpei is all Joe, you're not dead, are you, and Jun says Joe in that voice of hers that never ever reminds me of nails grating on a chalkboard, not in the least, like would it be too much to ask these so-called brilliant Science Ninjas to check to see if their so-called teammate is STILL BREATHING? Then, Jinpei says that it's all the puppy's fault, and grabs a stick and starts at the puppy, which seems rather silly because 1) if Joe had assembled with the team like he was supposed to and not gone off, none of this would have happened, I mean, projection of anger in the wrong direction, much? 2) the puppy was the only one who was doing what it was supposed to do from the standpoint of CPR, having been barking at Joe, which is probably the canine equivalent of saying "Annie, Annie, are you O.K.?"

Ken grabs Jinpei's stick from behind, and Jinpei is all let me go, come on, let me go, and Ryu is like it's all the puppy's fault, and I am like NO IT ISN'T, even if the puppy isn't as cute as the Monster of the Week, and Ken is like no it isn't, look, and the puppy is on Joe's back and licking Joe's wings, but is it just me that friendly dogs usually jump all over you and try to lick your face and not your clothes, but the puppy actually looks cute in this shot, and Ken says that he can understand how Joe feels, and we get a shot of Ryu and Jinpei, and all I can think of is that he's probably not feeling much of anything right now, since he's unconscious, and Ken starts off on his paperback psychology about how Joe's parents were killed by Galactor, just like this puppy and that this puppy is a picture of what Joe used to be, and I kind of look at the puppy, who looks incredibly ugly again, and think I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT, and I begin to think of some anatomical locations, mostly below the waist, where Ken can put his paperback psychology already.

And Jun suddenly starts wailing Joe, please be all right, and please excuse me as I go find my other glasses because her shrill voice just shattered my usual pair.

And Joe moves, and Jinpei says oh he moved, and Ken says all right, let's all carry Joe, and they have two of them on either side of Joe, like don't C-spine him or anything, like don't use a stretcher or anything, and goodness forbid don't support his head or anything, and after all this Ken finally starts to do the "Annie, Annie are you O.K?" thing, which anyone who has been to a Basic Life Support course knows is the first thing you do when you think a person might be unconscious and not breathing, and Jinpei asks Ken what to do with the puppy, and Ken is like leave it, and Joe mutters "the puppy..." and the puppy is wagging its tail, and Ken says to the puppy "so, you're an orphan, too," and pats the puppy, and the puppy looks just so absolutely NOT CUTE, and Ken's eyes do that spastic alternate large/ small thing that they are fond of doing when he is emotionally overwhelmed.

And then we are in the room in the base where Dr. N was when he first alerted Ken that the city was being attacked by a large mole (no comment). And Joe is in the control room, and I am not going to go ballistic about how Joe is not in a hospital ward or anything, and how he's not in a hospital bed or anything, and how his head isn't bandaged or anything, and he isn't wearing a hospital gown or pajamas but his numbered jersey, and he doesn't have a single i.v. or monitor line on his body. And Ken is all you've gotta save him Dr. Nambu, and the other three are all you gotta save him Dr. Nambu, and Dr. N points to the picture and tells them that the fragment of steel is touching the most dangerous part of the brain and that it is impossible to remove it surgically, and I am not even going to mention that the phrase "most dangerous part of the brain" makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, nor am I going to mention that if Dr. N means "the part of the brain that is most important in keeping a person alive", he would be talking about the brainstem, which would be further down and near the center, but I will mention that if I asked one of my radiology techs to take a picture of the head of a head trauma patient, and they 1) took a picture of the head, cervical spine, and upper half of the chest, I mean, does it take a four digit I.Q. to differentiate between "head" and "head, neck, and upper chest" 2) took only one view and not two, I mean, how can you assess the location of a fracture or a foreign body unless you take pictures from at least two, sometimes three directions, 3) brought me a film as brown and wrinkled as the one Dr. N has up 4) taped the film on a chalkboard instead of the lighted viewbox, I would hang them by their toes from the 5th floor restaurant after dousing them with silver nitrate solution.

Ken is like isn't there anything you can do, and Dr. Nambu says that there is just one way, and that it is to put him in the high power centrifuge in the Space Research Center and extract the fragment from his head, but that if anything goes wrong, there is a high possibility that the body itself will separate, and Jun says that if they do nothing, he'll die, and Ken says that he trusts Dr. Nambu, and that the Science Ninja Team is very fit physically, and that it will take a lot of force to kill him, and that if Joe dies, they can't bring out the full power of the Godphoenix, and so please put him in the centrifuge, and it amazes me that Wonder Boy (because we wonder about him all the time) Washio can talk about violating the Helsinki Accord (the international accord signed in 1972 that basically says that human subjects are not to be used as guinea pigs), like since when are you speaking for Joe? I mean, for someone who nearly got himself killed by wandering into a centrifuge inside a cockroach shaped mecha named "Ibukuron", you sure are quick to get your so-called teammate into a very similar situation again, aren't you?

And Dr. Nambu is like whatever, and so the next shot is of the Space Research Center, and the Narrator from Hell speaks, and I remind myself that an entire episode without the Narrator from Hell would have been too good to be true, and he tells us that the high power centrifuge is a machine built to train astronauts to stand the force of lifting off out of the atmosphere, and that since Ken kicked and screamed that he wanted Dr. Nambu to use Joe as a guinea pig for a procedure that makes ABSOLUTELY NO MEDICAL SENSE, like I cannot see how cracking a skull open for neurosurgery could possibly be more dangerous than to use a device that was never intended to be used for medical purposes to let that freaking fragment of shrapnel or whatever rip right through Joe's cerebrum and meninges and skull and scalp, but anyway, since Ken wanted Dr. N to do this, and of course everyone always has to do what Ken says, because Ken is always right, Dr. Nambu was going to use this device to extract the fragment of missile from Joe's head, and these construction worker types wearing overalls have Joe on a stretcher, and they carry him into the room, and you notice that Joe has a bandage around his head, which he didn't have in the previous scene when he was not lying in a hospital bed, and they put him in the centrifuge, and Dr. N tells a technologist to begin, and the Team is standing around the centrifuge, which is a really bad idea, I mean, if there were any loose parts or anything, one of them could be hit in the head by it (all right, so maybe it is not such a bad idea for them to be standing around it), and the centrifuge starts spinning, and Dr. N is watching some kind of waves that are probably supposed to be telling us about one of Joe's bodily functions, only they don't look like his EKG, but they don't really look like brain waves either, unless Joe is having a grand mal epileptic seizure while he is being spun around. Dr. N tells the tech to increase the force to 6 times, and then he wants it up to 10 times, and the tech says that if you do that the body itself will separate, like we get the point already about the danger of the body itself separating if spun around too fast, and Dr. N is like just do it, and you begin to wonder if Dr. Nambu was in cahoots with the Swoosh Mark scientists from the Red Sand episode, and Joe is being turned around and around, and we see that Joe's hair is being blown, which is strange because Joe is in some kind of compartment, and the compartment is spinning with Joe in it, and the light on the control panel of the centrifuge flashes red and green, and Dr. N pulls the lever, and the Team is all like "Dr. Nambu!" not quite looking as worried as I would be if my so-called teammate were in dire condition. And they stand around in silence like forever until Dr. N announces it didn't work. the fragment will not come out, and they all look disappointed, and just then a tech comes running and says it's an emergency, we just received word from the International Science Organization that the Iron Beast Moguratank has appeared again, and Dr. N says to the Team to go, and Jinpei is all I don't want to go. I'm not leaving Joe here, and he sits on the floor with his arms and legs crossed, like some help you would be sticking around, if an orphaned puppy knows more about Basic Life Support than you, and Jun says she doesn't want to go either if Joe might die, like some help you would be if all you can do is shatter glass with your voice, and Ryu says that's right (not about Jun's voice shattering glass, but about how they should stick around and do nothing because Joe might die and not stop the Evil Terrorist Organization that Wants to Destroy the World), and Ken starts to leave, and Ryu is like hey and Jun says Ken, and Ken says that he's going and asks them if they think Joe would be happy to have them stay there, and I almost have a heart attack because for once he actually says something remotely intelligent, and Ryu and Jun look down, and Jinpei is still sitting with his arms and legs crossed, and Dr. N turns away from them and asks the wall or something, I suppose, if they weren't supposed to be the Science Ninja Team, and cue the two-year old to slam his hand down on the piano, and Ken runs out, and Jun and Ryu follow at a walk, and Jinpei is all passive/ aggressive, like I'm going, I'm going, and Dr. N says aside that he promises to save Joe, and we see that Joe's head moves, and you wonder what the purpose of the bandages covering his eyes are.

And the Mole, which is about a million times cuter than the puppy (not that that would take much), is making a general nuisance of itself, making oil tanks explode and stuff, and conventional jet fighters fire at it, but they do no harm, so what else is new, and the mole slams planes down, and it fires its eye lasers again, and tanks are firing at the mole, and the mole throws a tank at the planes, and more planes explode, and we see the Godphoenix on the Mole Commander's monitor, and you notice that the GP has a nose where the G-2 Mecha is supposed to be, and you also notice that for some reason the Mole has spikes on his spine like a stegosaurus, and although I can think of a mammal that has scale-like things on its back (armadillos, a.k.a. Texas speed bumps), I can't think of any mammals that has spikes on its spine, but there I go again, hankering after zoological accuracy from Galactor, and the Mole Commander says that he's going to destroy the SNT today, and you begin to wonder if the Mole Commander wore his mask to bed, and we get another shot of the GP, only the artists must have remembered all of a sudden that Joe isn't supposed to be there, because the GP doesn't have its nose this time.

Cut to control room in the GP, and Ryu is looking all apathetic because they haven't a chance without Joe, and you notice that in the picture of the Moguratank on the monitor, Moguratank doesn't have feet, and Ken is doing all this pep talk about how they can't give up just because Joe isn't here, and that the SNT will win, and what he says about how they have to work with what they have actually makes sense (which is, again, really scary). Jinpei points out that they can't do the Firebird, and that they can't fire the Bird Missiles, and I am thinking this flaw about all five of them having to be there to use the Firebird is probably as bad as the Mole that can't stand sunlight, and Jun is like that's right, how are we supposed to fight, and Ken breaks out into a sweat, but the beads of sweat on his face do not fall.

And Joe, who was still in the Centrifuge, I mean, I suppose it would have been too much to ask Dr. Nambu to get him to a real hospital or even back in the command center in the secret base, and not LEAVE HIM UNATTENDED IN A FREAKING CENTRIFUGE, staggers out of the said centrifuge, and then he staggers out of the building, and you notice that he has driving gloves on all of a sudden, though how and when he put them on while staggering out is anyone's guess, and he is crawling toward the G-2, which is just SO CONVENIENTLY parked outside the Space Research Center, or maybe the G-2 is like that car K.I.T.T in the 80's TV series Knight Rider, and comes to you when you call it, which, when you think about it, would be rather appropriate, because Sasaki Isao did the voice of the main character in the Japanese translation of the series, and the Japanese voice for the David Hasselhoff character in Baywatch is a different voice actor, and on the rare occasion that I watch Baywatch in Japanese, I keep on thinking "that voice is just WRONG!"

Moguratank gives GP a hard time. Mole Commander all googly that Moguratank is giving the GP a hard time. Ken saying that they're not going to lose. A Compartment under Moguratank's chin opens up and missiles are fired. Ken hollers full speed ahead. Ryu hollers we can't, and Jun says Ken, look, and we see the G-2 machine on a monitor in from t of Jun's seat, and Ken says oh, Joe, and tells Ryu to turn on the TV screen, and Dr. N tells them that Joe is missing, and that if he is alive, he will be using his last ounce of strength to head in your direction, and if you find him, you know what to do, and Ken says that he understands, and he hollers for Ryu to pick Joe up, and we see Joe is leaning forward and using a really bizarre grip to hold his steering wheel, like we get the point about his not being in exactly the best of shape right now, and Joe staggers in the control room with his hand on his head, and you wonder if he is in such bad shape, how was he able to pull himself up to the cockpit?

And Ken is like Joe, and Jun shrieks if we don't do something, Joe is going to die, and Joe is all heroic like don't worry about me, use the Firebird to get the Moguratank, and Ken is all you won't be able to stand it in your condition, and no explanation on WHY they need Joe to do the firebird is offered, but of course that would be asking way too much, and Joe is all tragically heroic about how there's no way to remove the piece of metal from his head anyway, and that he's going to die anyway, so he might as well die doing something useful, and I kind of do a double take, because I could have sworn that less than twenty minutes ago Joe was saying that he was going to save the puppy and that they should go on without him, so why the sudden change in attitude about teamwork, I mean, you were running off to leave your Team short staffed to fight Monster of the Week to save a puppy that wasn't even cute, remember? And Ken gets all emotional, and Jun gets all emotional, and we see a drop of clear liquid land on Joe's face, and I can't decide if it was Ken or Jun that drooled on Joe, and all of a sudden Joe says that he feels awful, and starts to cringe and writhe, so I guess having been drooled on by either Jun or Ken just totally grossed him out, and Ken is all when we die, we die together, and you begin to wonder if Joe dies in this episode, Ken is going to slit his wrists or something, only you can't die by slitting your wrists, unless you cut in the right place, which I am not going to go into right now.

Ryu hollers that he can't find the Moguratank anywhere, and Ken tells Ryu to descend, only suddenly they are being held by the mole, and Ryu freaks that they are going to be crushed. And the mole has grasped the GP, and Ryu says that they are going to be crushed, and Ken freaks, and Ryu and Ken have the lever in their hands, and they are pulling it together, which doesn't make sense because the so-called pinnacle of technology Godphoenix would surely have something as primitive as hydraulics, for crying out loud, my 10-year old now discontinued orange-crate-on-wheels Honda City (that's a 1200cc engine car that looks like a Honda Civic that shrunk in the wash, for those of you who care but didn't know) has power steering. And the Mole Commander is all googly again, and Ryu says we have to fire the Bird Missiles, and Jinpei says that they are too close, and we see Joe crawling again, like would someone put this kid in restraints already, and Ken is muttering to himself about whether or not Joe will be able to stand the impact when the Bird Missiles detonate at such close range, and it takes forever for Ken and everyone else to notice that Joe is crawling, and Joe is still wearing his driving gloves, and then Joe presses the button for the Bird Missile, which today has no cover and is round, and then there is a blast, and the GP goes into a tailspin, only it is spinning upward, and I have never heard of an upward tailspin, but what but what do I know about planes? And Ken pulls a lever, and everything is fine, and he runs toward Joe, and while he is running in that direction, he kicks a fragment of metal, and he picks it up, and it has no blood or hair or bits of brain on it, but he says oh, Joe, it's out, it's out, and Jinpei is dancing on the control panel, and the pose he is in looks so much like the opening dance sequence in West Side Story as choreographed by Jerome Robbins, with the arms outstretched on either side and the right leg raised up high to the side, and Ken is all Joe we did it, we won, and Joe wants to know what happened to the puppy, and you notice that Joe's hair is kind of frizzy all of a sudden. Then, Dr. N is on the monitor, and he has the puppy in his arms, and Dr. N must have performed plastic surgery on the puppy or something because it is halfway cute in this scene, and Dr. N must have been eavesdropping on them because he cuts in that the puppy is fine, and now that the fragment is out, he can help Joe, and that the SNT is at full power only when there are five of them, and that they should never forget that, and the NfH tells us that Galactor's beast tactics were becoming more intense day by day, and I am thinking that they are becoming more stupid day by day, and that as long as there is the SNT, the era of Galactor will never come.

That's right, friendship, hard work, victory, whatever.

---

Well.

I would like to thank all ten of you who read my rants to the end. I would like to thank Dr. K, who lent a patient ear when I freaked that I could not turn my 'puter off, even though he is not currently working with me, and what's more, did not laugh at me when I sheepishly told him that when I removed the battery and power source, counted to ten and put it back in, I was able to get it to work as if nothing ever happened. I would like to thank Yoshi-san, the Tokyo hairdresser who was my diving buddy during my PADI Open Water Diver license course.

I was so sure that this one was going to be the by far the longest one I ever wrote, but when I look at it, although it is long, it isn't that long, and I wondered why, until I realized that because there was so much to say about the episode itself, I didn't get into the personal regressions as much as I usually do.

As Sarah M-sama said to me once, when you think about this episode, this seems to be like a parody of anime in general. We have 1) a hero who, at first glance, looks cold and indifferent but 2) upon further inspection has a soft spot for cuddly creatures 3) and risks his life to save said cuddly creature in spite of the fact that it's the world and not the said cuddly creature that he is supposed to be saving, and while he is risking his life to save the cuddly creature he is 4) badly injured, and is put in the care of the 5) in-house medical expert (who knows nothing about medicine), but not before his pal goes into 6) this very long spiel of paperback psychology about how the said hero 7) lost his parents at an early age. While 8) danger approaches, he 9) stoically leaves the medical facility (all right, it wasn't much of a medical facility for Joe, but you get the point) in spite of his injuries, and 10) saves the day while 11) everything turns out fine, against all logic.

I think I will stop here, but I would like to remind everyone...

I do not hate Gatchaman!

(Actually, I have mixed feelings toward Ken, but I know I don't hate the series.)

(^-^)/))