Gatchaman Episode 15: The Fearsome Jellyfish Lens

The Science Ninja Team fights Galactor’s latest creation – a giant blob covered with eyes.

Episode Summary

The episode begins with the International Science Organization sending a helicopter to a super polluted abandoned city. Inside the helicopter are a bunch of guys in weird outfits, who are transmitting their findings to Dr. Nambu and Director Anderson, that the city is still too polluted for human occupancy.

The helicopter ventures further through the city, where it’s suddenly destroyed by a mysterious object…

Ghost City

The Science Ninja Team is called to investigate the polluted city, and they launch in the God Phoenix (now covered in pollution-protective gold paint).

Elsewhere, Leader X reveals to Berg Katse that he has engineered a new life form in the depths of the city’s polluted waters – the Jellyfish Lens. It’s a blob covered with eyes that absorb the sun’s light to shoot destructive energy beams.

The Jellyfish Lens

The God Phoenix faces off against the Lens, which emits a highly toxic gas that starts dissolving the God Phoenix’s protective coating. A combination of the God Phoenix’s Firebird and a pressurized gas canister (brought by Red Impulse) causes a massive explosion that destroys the Jellyfish Lens for good.

Nambu rings the Science Ninja Team giving them the good news that the abandoned city will be restored to a green city, no matter how long it takes.

Thoughts

Although this episode had pretty much nonstop action, with little character moments or interactions, it was still entertaining – especially when compared to the last few episodes, which overused the whole “sneaking into Galactor’s base and destroying it from within” formula.

The backdrop of the polluted city fit with the show’s environmental message, and it was cool seeing a slightly modified God Phoenix; the gold paint peeling off during some of the action scenes helped add a bit of tension.

For once, Galactor’s monster-of-the-day wasn’t a mech, but an organic creature. A uniquely-designed organic creature, might I add, with interesting abilities. I remember an episode of the Powerpuff Girls having a similar eye-covered monster. Was it inspired by the Jellyfish Lens?