G-2: The Condor - Kondoru no Jô

Joe Asakura

Joe is the only member of the Gatchaman team who is neither Japanese nor part-Japanese. (Never mind that, despite his Sicilian heritage, he has a Japanese surname.)

Joe's cover occupation is as a stock-car driver, which sometimes comes in handy out on missions as well. He's not only the crack shot on the team, he has enough electronics skills to wire the team out of some bad situations.

Joe is Ken's counterbalance—angry and impulsive when Ken is thinking straight and a rock when Ken is losing it. He can't seem to stand sitting still, and would rather act and deal with the consequences later than take the cautious approach.

Still, it wasn't until the creators realized how popular he was that he really began to develop as a character.

Love Life

Whereas Ken is oblivious to the women falling all over him, Joe finds tough, pretty girls here and there who appeal to him. Unfortunately, he has penchant for falling for cyborgs and women associated with Galactor, all of whom die by the ends of the episodes in which they appear. Though he's often been made out since (particularly by Top Cow) as a love-'em-and-leave-'em one-night-stand kind of guy, he actually seems to be a romantic. He chooses women he has something in common with—and he likes them. Tatsunoko took this a bit too far in the painful "Kashi episode" Gatchaman II, complete with mushy music and maudlin emotions.

Family

Joe's father, Guiseppe, was a high-level Galactor operative, but when he and his wife, Katarina decided to defect, they were assassinated by a Galactor Devil Star girl—right in front of their son, who was then named George. She nearly finished George as well, but the Asakuras were waiting for Dr. Nambu, and when he arrived and realized what had happened, he faked a death certificate, created an empty grave, and changed changed the boy's name to Joe. (George is pronounced Joji in Japanese, but many fans use it as an affectionate nickname for "Joe.")

Joe remembers only that Galactor killed his parents, not why, and his hatred and desire for revenge drives him whenever the team faces the syndicate. About two thirds of the way through Gatchaman I, he begins to have flashbacks and nightmares. Ken realizes what's going on and forces Joe to confront them, and both men assume Joe's problems will end. Those problems, though, just get worse—Joe begins to have migraines, numbness, blurred vision, vertigo, and strong reactions to bright light.

The Devil Star, the Puppy, and the Centrifuge

Fans speculate about the cause of brain damage that eventually kills Joe. The two most common theories are that it's been there since his childhood fight with the Devil Star. Others speculate that the shell remnants lodged in his skull in episode 20, during the infamous puppy rescue, is the culprit, not shrapnel from his childhood.

I think it's also possible that Nambu could have caused the problem when he used a centrifuge to try to remove the shrapnel from episode 20. A centrifuge isn't the most exacting surgical procedure, and bits of metal might either have done more damage coming out, or have been lodged more deeply. Joe's symptoms—dizziness, aversion to light, sudden and headaches—occur with subarachnoid hemorrhages (bleeding beneath one of the protective "sheaths" that covers the brain, which can be caused by nicking a blood vessel). Many of his symptoms could also be attributed to a delayed-onset Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, particularly since the symptoms started when he started to remember watching his parents murdered. (I'm a psychologist, so here's my just-for-fun clinical writeup for Joe's problems.)

When Joe accidentally overhears a doctor telling Nambu that he has severe brain damage and perhaps a week to live, he decides to go out fighting, and takes off for Galactor headquarters at Cross Karakorum—and instead gets himself captured by Katse. The final episode of the first series leaves us certain he is dead, his body lost.

Joe's Return (Gatchaman II)

Even as the ISO is positioning a fellow named Getz to replace the deceased G-2 at the beginning of Gatchaman II, the first four episodes are fraught with mysterious feather shuriken, Joe's weapon of choice. At that point he reveals himself to his friends, and a teary reunion is had by all. Though he tries to hide this information as long as possible, eventually he's outed by Dr. Sylvie Pandora, who is working alongside Dr. Nambu.

Joe was rescued at Cross Karakorum by Dr. Rafael, a gray-bearded man who always has a bird of prey on his shoulder. He rebuilt Joe using cybernetics, but simultaneously made Joe into a bomb that—he hoped—would eventually destroy Galactor. Joe is stronger and tougher as a cyborg, and he takes more risks in hopes of protecting the other members of the team.

Battle of the Planets

Jason, Joe's Battle of the Planets incarnation, constantly challenges Mark because, according to his specs, he would like "nothing more than to have a shot at permanently leading G-Force."¹ He and Mark have a much more antagonistic relationship than Ken and Joe (see image below right), but "his actions challenge his commander to be a better leader." The series got around his increasing problems at the end of the series by having Zark worry about him and say he was sure Jason would be all right—but rather than actually dealing with it, they didn't translate the last four episodes. (I remember thinking that I'd missed the end of the series, because I didn't know what happened to Jason! Twenty years later, I finally found out.)

Voices for G-2

Gatchaman Isao Sasaki
ADV Gatchaman dubs Brian Jepson
94 OAVs Ishii Koji
Battle of the Planets Ronnie Schnell
G-Force Cameron Clarke (aka Jimmy Flinders)
Eagle Riders Brian Cranston

Trivia

• Creators were originally going to replace Joe with his little brother at the beginning of Gatchaman II, but since Joe was so well-loved, they found a way to bring him back instead.
• In the first Battle of the Planets episode, an actor other than Ronnie Schnell does Jason's voice. Though apparently exactly who this first voice belongs to is uncertain, "it was likely either David Joliffe or Alan Oppenheimer," who later acted as supporting voices.
• Jason's "high-pitched reedy voice" couldn't be more different than Joe's deep growl.

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References & Works Cited: All quotes used in the BOTP sections from -

 ¹ Hofius, J. and Khoury, G. (2002). G-Force: Animated. The Official Battle of the Planets Guidebook. TwoMorrows:Canada.