This is Devilstar Week! I don't have many images of the Devilstars, so I am hoping that everyone will contribute. This is your chance to celebrate the blue-masked women of Onna Taicho.

Well, I used this one recently, so it's handy!

Wait, I just remembered that I drew a devil star once... I only wish I'd drawn Joe better in this one -I think I could do it better now.

You are welcome to redraw Joe...

Hi all! Good ol' Devil Stars, one of the many special squads within the Gallactor organization. I wrote about them in an article on those various groups for the 2005 GatchaCon fanzine. Here's what I said: Devil Stars (In Gatchaman episodes 31, 66, 78, and 81, the Gatchaman feature film, and Gatchaman II episodes 13, 16, and 3 Gallactor's all-female assassination team, they are also known as the Lady Ninjas. The Devil Stars work under orders from either Berg Katse of the Lady Captain. They are used to eliminate people considered dangerous to Gallactor, or Gallactor members who betray the organization. They normally dress in jumpsuits with face masks and wigs, but if their mission requires that they work at night, they have been known to wear dark bodysuits and full-head masks. Their loyalty to Gallactor is absolute, and they will readily sacrifice their lives to complete their mission. The Devil Stars are trained in infiltration and disguise, as well as in explosives and demolition. While they have training in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, they usually rely on weapons during combat. They regularly carry knives and rifles, as well as Ring Bombs, small but powerful explosives that they carry on their hands like rings. These bombs can be thrown in rapid succession at targets. The weapons they are most noted for are their Rose Bombs, which look like ordinary roses, but have an explosive at the end of their stem. The Devil Stars usually throw these rose bombs at their targets like darts. Despite their popularity among fans, the Devil Stars actually made very few appearances in the series. Only two of those times, in episode #'s 31 and 66, did they confront the Science Ninja Team. All their remaining appearances were relegated to flashbacks to the death of Joe's parents. Important, to be sure, but if it hadn't been for their connection to Joe, we'd have only seen them twice. It's probably no great surprise, but they were not a concept that was originally planned for the series, though they did come along not too long after production started. Looking back to the series Planning Establishment, there is mention that the third episode of the series was to be "Dr. Nambu Assassination Plan," in which Nambu's home is destroyed. When the series went into production, this story idea ended up as the 7th episode in the pipeline. In this scenario draft of the story, the Devil Stars are not referred to as such. Instead, they are referred to only as "Gallactor's beautiful ladies." The only descriptions the scenario has for them are that they are, "...five glamorous ladies wearing ultra-mini hot pants...," and that, "They are beautiful ladies with blond hair, red hair, chestnut hair, black hair, and silver hair." In that story, the "beautiful ladies," led by the "Blond Lady Captain," made several attempts to kill Nambu, including blowing up his car with a rocket (Which killed a Nambu stand-in instead), trying twice to shoot him with a rifle from a tree outside his home (Killing another stand-in in the first attempt, and being caught by Ken and Jinpei in the second), and planting a powerful explosive inside of Nambu's cat, Elizabeth (The explosion of which destroys Nambu's villa). In the end, all of the beautiful ladies are killed by the Firebird when they attack the God Pheonix. By the way, that scenario does include the Devil Star, but only as the name of a pair of different sized starfish-shaped mecha. The smaller vehicle, esentially the Devil Star vehicle we're used to seeing in the series, was called the Devil Star S. As a matter of fact, if you look at the model sheets for the Devil Star, you'll notice that they are all labeled "Devil Star S." In the scenario, the Devil Star S had a much, much larger cousin, described as a "gigantic starfish saucer," called the Devil Star K. The Devil Star K was supposed to be large enough to hold 9 of the Devil Star S, which is what the beautiful ladies were to have used in their fatal attack on the God Phoenix. As originally intended, the story was interesting, filled with a lot of action, but would have become simply another action story without the depth that came to it later. And using Nambu's cat as the delivery system for an explosive was, in a word, icky. Obviously the Tatsunoko staff felt the story needed some changes as well, since it got pushed back far enough to become the 31st episode of the series. In the meantime, the notion that Joe's parents had been killed by Gallactor had been added to the mix (Thanks to Joe mentioning this in episode #1, and they obviously decided to expand upon that throwaway line, giving us the connection between Joe and the Devil Stars. The story for episode #31 became much stronger because of it. James

Thanks James as always for you're great info!

Wow, James! That was very interesting! As always, I learn so much from you! Thanks so much!

Heehee, feels like a week for me Wonder if this image link will work?

Welcome back Meridian! You return at an appropriate time, as you can see.

Originally posted by meridianday Heehee, feels like a week for me Wonder if this image link will work?

[FONT=comic sans ms]My goons are going to be so happy....[/FONT]

Thanks for the information, James, and I too am glad they dropped the exploding cat idea! Episode 31 is one of the few BOTP episodes that I clearly remember watching in the 70s (though now I realize that many of the best parts had been cut out!) -this was no doubt due to Jason's large role, but also to the fact that the devil stars were so interesting to me.

James, thank you for all of the wonderfuk information. Episode 31 is one of my favourites, and it is great to see the background behind it. I am guessing the idea of a cat blowing up Nambu's home would be related to 'Katse'? Just a guess... One thing... I don't recall seeing any Devilstars in Gatchaman II, unless you mean the same flashbacks of Joe's parents dying? Can you explain more about how they appreared in that series? Meridian, that is a fabulous picture!!!!

Hi all!

One thing... I don't recall seeing any Devilstars in Gatchaman II, unless you mean the same flashbacks of Joe's parents dying? Can you explain more about how they appreared in that series?

As I said, "All their remaining appearances were relegated to flashbacks to the death of Joe's parents." When they were seen in Gatchaman II, it was when they used the 1st series footage from the death of Joe's parents in flashbacks. The only exception to that "Joe's parent's death" rule was the flashback to the death of Devil Star 2 in episode #81. The only time the Devil Stars did anything in the present was in episode #'s 31 and 66. James

Thank you for all that information James, most informative.

Excellent picture meridianday!!

Meesa with gun!

Great info again, James! Thanks so much for sharing!! Meridian and Amy - fabulous pics! You're both so talented at drawing "Galactor's Beautiful Ladies"!

Thanks for the clarification, James! ITA, Meridian and AMy have drawn great devilstars!

Great job Amy with the Devil Star! Your artistic talents are really coming together.

Originally posted by amyltrer Meesa with gun!

That's a serious gun -I don't think the Condor will pin that to you with a shuriken!

Originally posted by lborgia88

Originally posted by amyltrer Meesa with gun!

That's a serious gun -I don't think the Condor will pin that to you with a shuriken!

no, not with the shuriken, and it'll take him more time to do the job! That's the idea

Once again great pic amy!

Wow! Fabulous info and beautiful pics from Meridian and Amy! Thanks so much for sharing!

Originally posted by amyltrer

Originally posted by lborgia88

Originally posted by amyltrer Meesa with gun!

That's a serious gun -I don't think the Condor will pin that to you with a shuriken!

no, not with the shuriken, and it'll take him more time to do the job! That's the idea

Well, I know exactly what I would want him to "pin" me with...

Originally posted by lborgia88 Well, I know exactly what I would want him to "pin" me with...

Does it count as a 'pin' if you surrender voluntarily?

Heh, semantics... Well, we're assuming I'd be a devil star, so I there are two main "genre conventions" here: I make a token attempt to kill him but then give into my attraction, betray my cause etc. etc., but somehow die tragically in the end anyway because the hero must always stay single... Or, I seduce him up front, thereby (hopefully) causing him to let his guard down somewhat and then really try to kill him (albeit with a touch of regret) but he manages to kill me before I can kill him... Either way I'm doomed!

LB, you can try the Swan dress up! Not that this is killing-proof. Just look at poor Lucy!

Originally posted by amyltrer LB, you can try the Swan dress up! Not that this is killing-proof. Just look at poor Lucy!

Or Eva Douglas.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082290/Pictured-Worlds-truly-blue-roses-display-Japan.html

Ohhh, blue roses!!!! I'll get Ego plant some in the garden!