Gatchaman II

Gatchaman II
Cover of the complete DVD box set
科学忍者隊ガッチャマンII (Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman Tsū)
Genre	Adventure, Science Fiction,
Anime television series
Directed by	Hisayuki Toriumi
Produced by	Ippei Kuri
Written by	Jinzo Toriumi
Studio	Tatsunoko Productions
Licensed by	NA Sentai Filmworks
Original network	Fuji TV
Original run	October 1, 1978 – September 23, 1979
Episodes	52 (List of episodes)

Gatchaman II (科学忍者隊ガッチャマンII, Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman Tsū^?, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II) is the direct sequel to Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, set two years after the first television series. After the defeat of Leader X, he exacts his revenge by mutating a young girl into Gel Sadra, making her the new leader of Galactor. While Galactor returns, Dr. Nambu and the International Science Organization bring the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman back into active duty. This series and Gatchaman F would be the basis of the English-language version named Eagle Riders. On December 20, 2016, Sentai Filmworks announced the North American release of the Gatchaman II Complete Series DVD set for April 18, 2017.

Two years after the defeat of Galactor and the apparent death of Condor Joe, a cruise ship is attacked by Leader X, killing nearly everyone on board. One of the survivors, a young girl, is captured by X and rapidly aged into the bizarre, masculine-voiced villainess Gel Sadra. Though she has the appearance of an adult, Gel Sadra is not immune to throwing childish tantrums and behaving immaturely.

In the midst of the revival of Galactor, the Science Ninja Team is called back into action, with a shady man known as Hawk Getz acting as the replacement for Joe. Getz is quickly revealed to be a Galactor agent in disguise (and had killed the actual Getz who was to join), and winds up killed by a mysterious feather shuriken. After hints spread in the first three episodes, Joe reappears in the fourth episode, having somehow survived his fatal injuries at the end of the first series, and rejoins the team. It is later revealed that he was rescued by an ex-Galactor scientist at the brink of his death, and was the subject of various cybernetic augmentations.

Later in the series, a female scientist known as Dr. Pandora is introduced, who had lost her husband and daughter in the cruise ship disaster. Unbeknown to her, her daughter Sammie survived and is in fact Gel Sadra.

With the new series, the characters were given new mecha and weapons, the space-worthy New GodPhoenix and individual mecha all given a noticeable bird motif. The New GodPhoenix is larger than the original, and equipped with "Pima" a robot pilot. There were also minor design changes to some characters, to go along with the new animation style (Jun's hair became shorter and straighter, in one example). The characters also advanced two years in age, Jinpei now approximately thirteen years old.