Galactor

nihongo|Galactor|ギャラクター|Gyarakutā is a group of fictional characters in the popular anime franchise, "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman".

History

The organization's exact origins are unknown except for that the organization apparently worked conventionally for years and kept such a low profile that they escaped the notice of any intelligence agency.

That changed dramatically with Galactor suddenly using their war machines, beginning with the Turtle King mecha, to stage spectacular open attacks and more secretive ones. Although conventional defences proved ineffective, Galactor found itself continually frustrated by the Science Ninja Team, a superhero ninja team who is typically sent in to investigate and combat the menace.

Organization

The leader of the organization is an alien named Sosai (Leader or Overlord) X who regenerated as Sosai Zed in "Gatchaman F". He always has a human subordinate, designated as "Leader," who carries out his orders and is the only member who interacts with Sosai X directly. His first two were children he manipulated into his adult minions such as Berg Katse in the original series and Gel Sadra in "Gatchaman II". In "Gatchaman F", he chose to deal with an establish human leader, Egoblosser, in a much more tenuous relationship. Typically, all members are masked as part of their standard uniforms.

Below are the captains who typically wore individual costumes and are responsible overall for individual schemes that the leader prefers not to handle personally. The captains are supported by minions in cat-like costumes with sergeants whose costumes are yellow who in turn to are served by troopers who wear green colored uniforms.

In addition, they have special forces available, such as ninja units who are similarly themed bird like units like the Science Ninja Team with roughly equivalent fighting skills. However, they are apparently inferior to their enemy counterpart considering that Gatchaman faces such a unit at least once alone and still more than holds his own in battle.

All personnel below the Sosai, including the highest subordinate to a lesser degree, are considered strictly expendable and controlled with ruthless discipline with failure being punished with death. As such, only the Leader typically has access to the war machines' escape vehicles.

It's been estimated the organization has about one million personnel around the world. Furthermore, the organization has apparently limitless resources to attempt dozens of schemes with massive war machines that are a match for any conventional force on Earth, although the Science Ninja Team is able to destroy or capture almost all of them. Furthermore, the organization eventually learned to develop more sophisticated plots in which conventional countermeasures by the enemy would often further the plans' objectives, although again the Science Ninja Team is able to thwart the vast majority of them.

Notable personnel

osai X

The alien mastermind being Galactor, Sosai X turned it from a mafia into a world-wide terrorist group in its attempts to conquer Earth for his race. However, learning that his homeworld was destoryed prior to his reawakening, Sosai decides to destory Earth instead by create a Black Hole in the center of the planet. But the Gatchamans' interference forces Sosai to retreat and return to Earth two years later to execute a new plan to destroy humanity. But this time, Sosai is destoryed by the Gatchaman when his master plan failed. However, a fragment of his body remained and regenerated into Sosai Z, a more sinister version of the original who recruits Egobossler to rebuilt his army while setting up "Poison Apple", where an antimatter asteroid would decimate the planet. But in the end, the Gatchaman sacrifice themselves to destroy Sousai for good. [ [http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/works/gatchaman/chara.html] ] . [ [http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/works/gatchaman_f/chara.html] ]

Berg Katse

Berg Katse was created by the alien Sosai X to lead the terrorist organisation Galactor to take over the world. He is a gestalt entity created through the fusion of fraternal twins whilst still in the womb. Because his component parts were male and female, Berg Katse was prone to switch sexes numerous times in his life, forcing him to hide his identity until he can control it in his adulthood, becoming a master of disguise as a result. This bizarre burden led to him to be easily recruited and manipulated by Sosai X when he contacted Katse and convinced him that he was a superior being. Eventually, Katse learned that Sosai X was only using him and has no more need for him or the Earth, he commits suicide rather than live with the knowledge that he was just a freak of nature. [ [http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/works/gatchaman/chara.html] ]

Katse was also called Zoltar in "Battle of the Planets", Galactor in and Lukan in "Eagle Riders". In the English dub of the "Gatchaman '94" OVA, he was called Solaris.

It is interesting to note that in English language versions of the series, Katse's frequent changing of sex was explained that his female gender was a separate figure, his sister.

Gel Sadora

Gel Sadora was originally a little girl named Sammie Pandora until the ocean liner she was in was sunken by Sosai X, who force grows her into adult to replace Katse in leading Galactor. Though she pulls the act of pretending to be a man to conceal her true identity, Sadora was prone to childish fits and being in the presence of her mother, who is supporting the Gatchaman. But when Sadora learn that she was a pawn in Sosai X's new doomsday scheme, she betrayed it out of spite. Mortally wounded as a result, Sadora eventually dies and reunites with her mother in the afterlife. [ [http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/works/gatchaman_2/chara.html] ] [ [http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/works/gatchaman_2/digest.html] ]

Sadora/Sammie Aikens was also called Mallanox/Nancy Aikens in "Eagle Riders".

Count Egobossler

Recruited by the revived Sosai Z, Egobossler is dictator, ruling with a iron fist. Originally the illegitimate son of the previous count, who murdered his mother, Egobossler kills his father before usurping his brother's place as heir to the throne. Unlike his predecessors, Egobossler has no trust in Sosai Z's intentions in spite of it offering his aid. [ [http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/works/gatchaman_f/chara.html] ]

Egobossler was also called Happy Boy in "Eagle Riders", rewritten as a new form of Mallanox.

Technology

Galactor boasts some of the highest technology on Earth. They can with seeming ease create gigantic mecha. These mecha are often based on animals and are always gigantic. Inside the mecha are weapons systems and enough room to very comfortably house an army. Often the mecha is commanded by a senior officer though seldom the leader.

Differences in Battle of the Planets & G-Force

In the series Battle of the Planets, Galactor is re-explained as invaders from the planet Spectra. Their intention is the plundering of all planets that have any kind of valuable or useful resource. Spectra's ruler known mostly as "The Luminous One" (Sosai X) directs operations from offworld by communication with Zoltar (Berg Katse). Any failure of Spectra is seen by the Luminous One as a failure of Zoltar. As such, Zoltar's frequent failures are the cause for many barbed comments and warnings of dire consequences of further failures.

In , Galactor is both the name of the organization and Berg Katse himself, and his origin was re-imagined as an alien from space who has come to conquer the earth. Most notably, the relationship between Katse and Sosai X (now known as "Computor") was altered in "G-Force", as X/Computor was relegated to more of a consultant or wise sage while Katse/Galactor became the leader of the organization. Also of note, both Computor and Galactor's voices were digitally altered to make them seem as alien and outworldly as possible (especially in the case of Katse/Galactor). As for the organization itself, it was rarely referred to as "Galactor" or as an entity overall and rather as "Galactor's men" or in the case of the mechs "Galactor's robots". Lastly, Katse's hermaphrodite nature was never addressed or alluded to in "G-Force", but was worked around (rather cleverly) whenever his two halves made appearances throughout the show as two entirely unrelated characters, with Katse's female half usually becoming an unnamed Galactor captain or high-ranking subordinate depending on the episode. The last "Gatchaman" episodes which delve into and revealed Katse's true identity and nature were never adapted for "G-Force", as the dub stopped at Episode 87 (Episode 85 for G-Force) out of 105. The reasons why these important episodes were not adapted for "G-Force" are still unknown, but it is assumed that the strong content and violence in them (compared to the rest of the series) would have made it difficult and/or impossible to dub for 1980's television. Neither "Battle of the Planets" or "G-Force" adapted the original Gatchaman's ending and were left at cliffhangers, and as a result neither adaptation featured the final fate of Berg Katse.

References