Gatchaman Episode 7: Galactor’s Giant Airshow

With the super-metal Whisker in their possession, Galactor is unstoppable. The Science Ninja Team must destroy their Whisker production facility before it’s too late.

Episode Summary

Ken test pilots a non-polluting airplane for the International Science Organization at an air sho. The test runs smoothly until he encounters a ghastly-masked man riding atop a biplane! The masked man introduces himself as Katzenberg, the Steel Demon.

Segmented metal whips come out of the biplane and strike Ken’s test plane – he loses control and dives into the ocean, bailing out at the last minute before the plane explodes. With Ken out of the way, Katzenburg destroys the rest of the planes at the airshow and then flies away.

Nambu orders the launch of the God Phoenix, and the Science Ninja Team quickly catches up to Katzenburg’s biplane. The two aircraft have a quick skirmish; the bird missiles are ineffective, and the biplane damages the God Phoenix’s tailwing before speeding off into the distance.

Whisker, the Super-Metal

In Doctor Nambu’s lab, the good doctor peers through a microscope to look at the whip’s composition. It’s made of a unique super-metal known as Whisker. According to Nambu, there is no way to defeat Galactor as long as they have Whisker in their arsenal, so they need to find and destroy their supply.

Galactor’s Whisker Factory

After three days of searching, the Science Ninja Team finds Galactor’s Whisker factory. Ryu drops off his teammates, who split into two groups: Joe and Jinpei destroy the base’s reactor, while Ken and Jun destroy the base’s supercomputer (and have a run-in with Katzenberg).

The base is destroyed, Katzenberg gets away. The End.

Thoughts

A below-average, run-of-the-mill episode. The team sneaks into a base, fights a bunch of Galactor guards, destroys said base, then escapes. Nothing very memorable happens at all. Ken’s a dolt for throwing the whip away at the end. I’m sure Nambu and the ISO would have relished the opportunity to study such a rare and valuable metal, but whatevs.