• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Chicken Dynasty

  • Home
  • Web Series
    • Safety First
    • Scientific Method
    • Redeemers
  • Blog

Gatchaman Episode 6: The Great Mini-Robot Operation

July 20, 2013 Leave a Comment

Galactor uses mini-robots to rob a bunch of gold bars from a bank; the Science Ninja Team must sneak into Galactor’s base to get them back.

Gatchaman Episode 6 Micro

One of the titular mini-robots

Episode Summary

It’s night at the World Bank. Not a creature was stirring, not even a…wait a minute! A giant drill breaks out of the floor, and out come two mini-robots. One fires a laser from its forehead and melts the door to a very large vault; they pilfer the sparkling gold bars within.

On board the God Phoenix, Dr. Nambu briefs the Science Ninja Team about the bank robbery. Naturally, he believes Galactor is responsible. Gatchaman’s mission is to find Galactor’s base, which is on one of the many islands in the Barelli Sea, and recover the gold bars.

Gatchaman Episode 6 ambush

The base is here, all right

The Search Begins

Ken, Jun, and Jinpei ditch the bird costumes and check out one of the islands, where they’re ambushed by Galactor henchmen and taken prisoner. Ken and Jun wink at each other. Looks like everything’s going according to plan.

The God Phoenix sits on the ocean floor. Somehow on the monitors, Joe and Ryu are able to see Ken, Jun, and Jinpei being led by the guards inside the Galactor base. Dr. Nambu orders Joe and Ryu to recover the gold bars while Galactor is distracted by the other three.

In the base, we see the Galactor commander is none other than Piccolo, who managed to survive the previous episode. He casually interrogates the captured Gatchaman; they aren’t tied up, in a cell, or surrounded by guards.

Gatchaman Episode 6 Piccolo

Piccolo’s casual interrogation technique

“We don’t have to tell you jack,” says Ken. Piccolo orders one of his officers to activate the island’s surveillance cameras, one of which picks up the God Phoenix. Neither Piccolo nor his men are able to identify it – he must not remember the last episode.

Outside, Joe tries to find an entrance to the base. A piece of the rock face slides out revealing a missile aimed at the sea. In the God Phoenix, Ryu is sound asleep and can’t hear Joe’s attempts to warn him.

Gatchaman Episode 6 Ryu nap

Ryu, sleeping on the job

The missile is launched, but Ryu wakes up at the last second and moves the God Phoenix out of the way just in time.

In the base, Piccolo deploys the micro-robots, called Micros, to take Ken and the other two to a gas chamber to be executed. Yet, Piccolo makes a point to say the robots are equipped with “powerful, man-killing lasers.” Why not just have the prisoners executed on the spot? Having the robots escort them to another part of the base will give them an opportunity to escape.

Sure enough, at the gas chamber, Ken and the others transform into their bird styles and destroy the robots. Piccolo and his guards rush in – I guess it wasn’t a long walk from the control room. The three ninjas dispatch the guards as easily as the Micros, and they run through the base.

This causes enough commotion for Joe to sneak around unhindered. He finds the gold bars, then rushes back to the God Phoenix to get his car to transport them out.

Gatchaman Episode 6 Joe finds gold

Joe finds the gold bars

Berg Katse is unhappy with Piccolo and orders him to transport the gold bars to headquarters. The God Phoenix detects Piccolo’s submarine, and Joe predictably prepares a Bird Missile. Ken stops him, “Joe, what are you doing? We can’t fire those without Dr. Nambu’s permission.” Please? Just this once? Joe, you fired thirty four last time! Joe fires a missile, but it misses.

Piccolo orders the Micros to surface the submarine. Their angle of surfacing is so steep, that the containers containing the gold bars break loose, spilling them everywhere. Piccolo discovers that the gold bars he has are all fake, thanks to Joe.

Fake? Was this always the plan? Otherwise, what was Joe doing with crates full of fake gold bars? Berg Katse comes on the monitor to see Piccolo’s failure and orders the Micros to self destruct. Piccolo’s submarine, along with the base, is destroyed.

Gatchaman Episode 6 Piccolo failure

“You’ve failed for the last time, Piccolo!”

Thoughts

This episode wasn’t bad. It has a lot of things going for it: all the main characters have something to do, there’s plenty of drama (Ryu being asleep when the missile gets fired, for example), and most importantly, like the last episode, we get a unique, non-giant monster enemy in the form of the Micros.

My only complaints, really, are Piccolo’s stupidity (which is understandable, since if he was a capable commander, 3/5 of the Science Ninja Team would be dead in just the sixth episode) and the contrived ending with the fake gold bars that Joe happened to have. Were they really necessary? The ending would have been the same without the switch. It actually led to confusion when we see the crates full of gold bars on Piccolo’s submarine, when just a few scenes earlier we saw Joe take the crates to the God Phoenix.

Rating

3 out of 5 eggs rating

This episode has a couple good moments, but nothing really important happens.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Series: Gatchaman Decade: 1970s Filed Under: TV Show Reviews Tagged: animated, anime, sci-fi, superheroes

Related Posts

  • Gatchaman Episode 10: The Great Underground Monster War
  • Gatchaman Episode 1: transformation
    Gatchaman Episode 1: Gatchaman Versus Turtle King
  • Gatchaman13c
    Gatchaman Episode 13: The Mysterious Red Sand
  • Gatchaman Episode 12: The Gluttonous Monster Ibukron

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe

Sign up to receive notifications of new posts by email.

Connect

Find me on RSSFind me on TwitterFind me on YouTubeFind me on IMDbFind me on Newgrounds

Reviews by Category

  • TV Shows
  • Movies
  • Comics

Reviews by Series

  • Andromeda
  • Doctor Who
  • Dragon Ball
  • Gatchaman
  • Gundam
  • Metal Hero
  • NFL SuperPro
  • Power Rangers
  • Saint Seiya
  • Scooby-Doo
  • Star Trek
  • Tales from the Darkside
  • TekWar
  • Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic
  • Twilight Zone
  • X-Men

Recent TV Show Reviews

  • The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
  • Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest
  • Doctor Who Story 18: Galaxy 4

Rating Key

5 Egg

Above and beyond, a true pleasure; re-watchable.

4 Egg

Very good, quality work.

3 Egg

Average, nothing special but inoffensive.

2 Egg

Weak, but may have one or two redeeming qualities.

1 Egg

Horrible, causes pain. Get it away from me!

Spoiler Alert

I spoil (near) everything in my reviews. If you want to remain spoiler-free, I advise you to close your eyes. But did you know that spoilers are actually good for you?

RSS iconTwitter iconYouTube iconIMDb iconFind me on Newgrounds
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact Me

Copyright © 2021 Chicken Dynasty | Site Design by Spica Creative

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.