Galactor
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Galactor (ギャラクター Gyarakutā?) is a group of fictional characters in the popular anime franchise, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Notable personnel
- Sosai X (later Sosai Z)
- Gel Sadra
- Count Egobossler
[edit] Berg Katse
Berg Katse was created by the alien Sosai X to lead the terrorist organisation Galactor in its attempts to conquer the galaxy. 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. 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 was able to control his sex shifts and became a master of disguise taking advantage of it.
Katse was also called Zoltar in Battle of the Planets, Galactor in G-Force 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 opposite genders are separate people, him and his sister.
After he committed suicide at the end of the first series, Katse's position was filled by Gel Sadra (aka Mallanox in English language versions)
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 G-Force: Guardians of Space, 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.
