The Owl's Baggage:
Ollie Keeawani's Family

Ollie Keeawani's family appears in Eagle Riders episode "Coward of the Cosmos". The reason I've referred to them as "baggage" is that in original Gatchaman, G-Force and Eagle Riders, the Owl's family seems to exist mainly to give the normally laid-back Owl something to worry about.

Ollie is of course based on Ryu Nakanishi, whose family was made up of his father, the captain of a fishing boat, and his younger brother Seiji. In Eagle Riders, this is changed so that he now has an older brother, John, and a nephew, Benjamin. Ollie is sworn to protect his secret identity so, as in original Gatchaman, his family have no idea that he wears a bird suit and saves the world on a regular basis.

Eagle Riders has changed the personalities of the family members so that they are less of a negative influence on Ollie. Instead of having an ignorant father who harps on about how his eldest son should do something useful, he gets an older brother who needs a pointer to get his life back in order. Eagle Riders isn't unique in this - BOTP also changed their relationship so that they were actually old friends of Tiny rather than his relatives, and their personalities changed accordingly to be more appreciative of him. The original familial relationship from Gatchaman remains intact in the G-Force version of episodes which feature them, and I don't envy Hooty one bit :-)

As an aside, I have been told by my japanese teacher that it is common for a japanese parent to be critical of their offspring (and property and general accomplishments), particularly to people outside the immediate family, or at least was so up until the early 1980s when he lived there. To do otherwise would make the parents appear proud and boastful in a society that prefers modesty. So the norm would be to criticise one's own home, possessions and children and to praise a peer's home, possessions and children instead (and of course that peer would reciprocate by stating that their own home/possessions/children were really not that good and praise the attributes of the speaker's). If this was actually true in the early 1970s when Gatchaman was made, then culturally Ryu's family is not so bad, they are simply an exaggerated version of a stereotypical father and brother with extremely poor observational skills.

The "look" of the family has changed slightly from original Gatchaman as part of the general move away from caricature in the art style of Gatch 2. John has a strong jawline, a moustache that looks like a shadow under his nose, round glasses and swept back hair, and wears a waistcoat and shirt. He looks old enough to be Ollie's father (of course, but he also looks considerably younger than in Gatch 1), so I assume there is quite an age difference between them. As a result of his latest fight he has a cast on one foot and walks with the aid of a crutch. Benjy looks to me to be maybe 10-12 years old and is quite the scaled down Ollie, although a little slimmer. He has dark hair that is shorter than Ollie's but shows signs that it may develop wayward tendencies as he grows older, and wears a yellow t-shirt with the letter "S" on it.

It's possible to see a lot of Ollie's personality from his interaction with his family. I think Ollie is one of the more sympathetic treatments of G5, he's landed a voice actor who plays him as a capable team member and a comedian specialising in self-depreciatory humour, rather than as someone with very little self confidence who allows himself to be belittled by his teammates.
Dr Keane sends Ollie to see his family because of a letter written to Ollie by his nephew. It's interesting that Dr Keane has evidently opened and read this letter before showing it to Ollie, but given that in this series the team lives full-time in their secret base it's fair to assume that they are very well protected from the outside world when not on missions. It shows that they probably don't get a lot of privacy though.

The letter tells Ollie that his brother has just lost another job because of fighting - Ollie knows this is his 4th job this year. His nephew is clearly worried, I imagine this is because his father has been injured (perhaps his age is creeping up on him and his son has become aware of his mortality or afraid of his fallibility) and also possibly because he's old enough to know there are only a limited number of jobs on their island and his father is making himself unemployable.

John and Benjy live in a small village set between pine covered mountains on a remote island. In the village is a building which looks very like a christian chapel, and the houses are western in design, two stories plus an attic with roof gables and georgian windows. In front of the house is a tree holding Benjy's tyre swing.

"That must be it, boy it'll be good to see them again", Ollie says as he looks over the village.

The words suggest to me that he may have never been to that village or that house before, or that perhaps he was much younger when he was last there and so cannot remember clearly what it looked like, or perhaps the village and scenery have just changed since last time.
The Keeawani family has a reputation of being physically the biggest and strongest thereabouts and they're proud of it. So proud, that they feel they have to defend themselves from any insult or disrespect.
Given that this is Eagle Riders, the Gatchaverse where if someone isn't Bad then they *must* be Good, it's unlikely that they see themselves as purposefully picking fights or causing trouble, or that there has been violence within the family. But it does suggest that the family (possibly several generations of it) has always been quick to defend themselves with their fists, even from attacks that are only verbal. Both John and Ollie were also well known as beachcombers when they were younger, so they can't have been fighting all the time.
It has clearly been several years since Ollie last saw his family because when he approaches the house, it takes him and Benjy a few moments to recognise each other. Once Benjy recognises him, he rushes to him for a hug and flattens him.

Ollie : "Oof. You sure have grown a lot."
Benjy : "Maybe I'll grow to be as big as you."

At this point John comes out of the house. He is unaware that Benjy has written to Ollie and so is rather surprised to see his brother. Benjy looks awkward, but Ollie doesn't mention his reason for visiting as he and his brother greet each other. At first there is a reticence to their greeting which fits with them not seeing each other for a long time, but they soon warm to each other and embrace before Ollie asks about his John's foot.

Ollie : "Hey, what happened? And don't tell me it's just an old football injury acting up."
Benjy : "Naah, it happened when some punk at work got too big for his britches."
John : "Benjy, you're making a mountain out of an anthill. Let's just say there was a disagreement."
Ollie : "Well, I hope it won't keep you off the job for too long."
John : "Well I quit that job but there's other jobs on the island. But you can bet the next job I get they'll hear about what happened and then everyone'll know they need to respect me."
Ollie : "John, I got it. You could beat eggs for a living."
Benjy : "Uncle Ollie, have you been bonked on the head by your surfboard too many times?"
Ollie : (to John) "Wait just a second, you're not my sister!"

The family laughs and any remaining awkwardness between them has been dissipated. The family goes for a walk on the beach.

Benjy : "Around here everybody knows about you Uncle Ollie."
Ollie : "Really? How would anyone know about me?" (He assumes Benjy is talking about him being an Eagle Rider)
Benjy :"It's cos I've told everyone on the island that you're a great surfer and how tough you are."
Ollie : "Thanks Benjy but you should know that being tough all the time can really wear a guy out."
Benjy : "Dad says learn to be tough because life's tough. That's why I lift weights so I'll grow up to be strong just like you guys."
Ollie : "I figure brains win over brawn every time but I never had the brains to prove it.

The family laughs again but they don't know that on a hill above them, one of Mallanox's men is aiming a gun at Ollie, albeit very badly. When Ollie made his journey to the island in his tank, he submarined under Mallanox's secret base (disguised as a large tanker) and was spotted. Mallanox of course sent some men after him to capture him.

Ollie : "Cos there's always somebody tougher than you are, and then whammo!" He moves just as the bullet whizzes past him. "Was that a mosquito?"

More bullets fly and the family duck for cover but are surrounded by green uniformed Vorak gunmen.

Goon : "You must be one of the Eagle Riders, let's see how tough you are."

He kicks Ollie in the stomach. Ollie hits the dirt.

Benjy : "My Uncle Ollie's no Eagle Rider, but he's still tough enough to whip all of you cowards."

Ollie rolls around holding his stomach and the goons decide he's not an Eagle Rider and leave. Ollie sits up smiling as they go, his plan worked and his identity is still secret. It's not easy to see what John and Benjy were doing before the goons left, but in the part of the scene where Benjy speaks there's a gun in front of him. Whether John and Benjy were being restrained or threatened with guns so they could not try to help Ollie, or whether the whole scene, where only one blow is struck before the Vorak leave, is over too quickly for them to try to help is a matter that I can't guess either way.

Benjy : "Hey... how could you do that? How could you act so cowardly?" He starts crying.
Ollie : "Benjy, there were too many of them."
Benjy : "You're not hurt, you should have stood up to them likea man."
John : "And to think you're my brother. I've never seen such a shameless display."
Ollie : "John... I was..."
John : "There's no excuse."
Benjy : "And to think you were my hero!" He howls, turns and walks away followed by John.
Ollie : "Hey I can explain, just give me a chance. John! Benjy!"

As they walk away in silence, John and Benjy meet uniformed Vorak troops and are taken away for a boat ride at gunpoint - they are quite sensibly alarmed about having guns pointed at them. Ollie follows them to the base by hanging on to the Vorak tri-maran. Once there, he has to wait until the Vorak have vanished with his family before he can get out of the water and search for them.
He eventually finds the control centre of the base, but Mallanox knows he's there.

"Greetings you owlish oaf, it's naughty of you to visit uninvited."
Ollie : "Oh, really?"
Mallanox : "No, O'Reilly. My mother was Irish and my father was an alien. I was an only child and I dress funny."
Ollie : "Oh cut it out. Where's my family anyway?"
Mallanox : "Is that what you're here for. Oh my, well you come out and we'll see that your hostage friends here don't get hurt."

John and Benjy are brought down on a platform with Mallanox's captains pointing guns at them.

"Oh my, you humans do like to amuse us with pathetic shows of caring and other useless human emotions."

Mallanox causes the platform to tip and the captains fall into the water a long way below while John and Benjy hang on to the opposite end of the platform.

"It's just as well, they were due for a raise and they don't do their jobs very well so I just had to let them go. As for you, [Eagle Rider] you have 30 seconds to show yourself or these hostages will have a similar fate."
John : "I've heard enough from you Melonhead or whatever your name is. Don't come out Eagle Rider. If this dolt were to capture you it might stop you from defending the earth, and that's certainly a lot more important than my son and I. Don't give in!"
Ollie : (Unheard by anyone in the base) "My only family. How can I rescue them without them finding out I'm an Eagle Rider. I just can't."
John : "Eagle Rider, get out while you still can. I'll give these guys a good fight. Don't worry. I can handle them."
Ollie : (Unheard again) "I can't. I just can't leave you both here knowing that to save the world this base will be targeted for total destruction."
Mallanox : "Time's up. Alright come out right now you bird-brain."
Ollie : "Alright" He comes out of his hiding place.
Mallanox : "Well you're certainly smarter than I thought you were. Be nice now and throw down your gun."
Ollie : "Now why should I?"
Mallanox : "Your little friends are important to you aren't they." Ollie drops his gun.

At this moment the rest of the Eagle Riders turn up and set the base well on the way to destruction and knock out the Vorak During the fight flames spread through the control room and the platform collapses, knocking John unconscious. Mallanox gets away. Ollie reaches down to grab his unconscious brother.

Benjy : "Hurry, he's waking up!"

John opens his eyes and recognises Ollie before Ollie pulls him out of the base and they leave.
Back on the beach, it is time to say goodbye to Ollie's family before he leaves with the Eagle Riders again.

Benjy : "It's still pretty hard to believe my uncle Ollie is an Eagle Rider."
Ollie : "Why's that so hard to believe?"
Benjy : "Because I've never heard you brag about how strong or smart you are uncle Ollie."
Ollie : "Then you'd better get your hearing checked."

They laugh, then he turns to his brother.

"Everything ok?"

John looks awkward and embarrassed as he answers, "Umm, yeah."
Ollie : "I think I'm gonna need some rest after this vacation."

Ollie's narration closes the episode.
"It sure was heartwarming visiting John and little Benjy after such a long time. And I felt like king of the world knowing they now understood that might isn't always right. It hit me that I was the luckiest guy on earth. I have two families. My family and the family I work with every day for the global good. My buddies, the Eagle Riders."
I really don't know how to follow that :-)

--Meridian's odds and bits
http://www.geocities.com/meridian_day/