SOOOO apologies for the roughly two year break here, I got distracted by a lot of other things. But it’d be a shame if I left the series unfinished, especially so far in. I also met a friend who’s really into Gatchaman so the interest got reignited. The first bullet point I wrote back then, but the rest of the bullet points are after my break
-Holy fucking shit it’s unfair that they’re giving Joe all the coolest episodes but like, ep 81 went so hard. I can’t even point to a specific moment, it just kept ramping up in intensity until the end. Joe collapsing after being shot in the church, the blood red sun behind Ken, Alan dying right in the center of the cross…
-Ok initially I was gonna keep this headcanon to myself but ep 81 totally solidified it for me… Joe is like, really REALLY trans coded to me. Obviously I don’t think the writers were intentional with this, but as a trans dude there’s a ton of details that parallel the experience. The old name, new identity, there’s his friendship with Lucy back in ep 27 where she says her “face, my voice, my body, even my mannerisms have changed since I’ve been at Galactor”. I’m not entirely sure how to describe it, there’s just something about the way Joe acts that feels like that very deliberate, artfully developed manhood a lot of trans men have. Maybe this sounds like a bunch of nonsense, but I think if you know, you just know.
-Man, add Dr. Demon’s death to the sheer fatalism of Gatchaman. Not sure how much I’m retreading here since it’s been a bit, but I'm still always struck by how death is so matter of fact in this series. Ken telling Demon “Why don’t you at least end your life like a proud scientist?” and his response being “Nambu sure has good people working for him.”... The lack of any other options, that Demon’s fate is sealed from the beginning, i think it shows just how far everyone in this world has been pushed to. I remember older episodes where the team seemed staunchly for peace, even when they were punching down baddies, then it was just Nambu, and now no one is bothering to keep that impossible dream up. I feel like the only possible victory in this series is a pyrrhic one.
-Is it just me or does the world seem to be ending just a little? Again it’s been a while but I feel like we were hearing about all these scientific advances at the start of the series, even when there was clearly a huge pollution event in the past, but now we’re seeing shortages of food and with ep 86 sugar.
Looks like a big Katse episode next! Hopefully I’ll have the time now to finally finish this series
